Homebrew WIP melonDS for Switch

[Hydr8gon]

Okie dokie~
Here's 0.8.3, download on GitHub or on the GBAtemp download center. Again, don't expect too much. As I said before, we're just getting a few bug fixes; most of the improvements for 0.8.3 were for the desktop UI. Oh, and I wasn't able to test this build because I updated my Switch to play Smash online. There shouldn't be any problems, but let me know if there is.

And on a somewhat unrelated note, I might as well give another update on NooDS for anyone that's interested. I know @catlover007 is working on a lovely ARM64 JIT for melonDS, but I'm still chipping away on my own project as well! Games are booting, saving works, and the 2D engine is getting closer to completion. Speed is still worse than melonDS, but there's still a lot of potential for optimization. Unfortunately progress hasn't been as fast as I'd like it to be, due to a variety of factors in my life right now. But anyways, here are some screenshots from my most recent progress update to give you a bit of an idea:


I do feel a bit bad for neglecting melonDS though... for example, I had planned on spending more time trying to find a solution/workaround for the OpenGL renderer's polygon bug, but that never ended up happening. I've learned a hell of a lot about how the DS works though, and hopefully one day NooDS will become a worthy competitor for melonDS! Well, one way or another, we'll definitely get a full speed DS experience on the Switch eventually. Either from melonDS or NooDS, or both!

 

[yyoossk]

Thanks a lot.

 

[Arisotura]

hey hey hey

at this point Hydr8gon you might want to open a separate thread for NooDS, dunno

anyway you're making good progress there, can't wait to see what you have in store

 

[tman708]

Any updates?

 

[catlover007]

Any updates?

on the switch/performance side yes and no. It's mostly still the same as I detailed in my last post. There have been some improvements here and there, but we're still not completely there.

The x64 JIT source already publicly available, while the ARM64 JIT still sleeps on my computer. I forked the ARM64 JIT code base of the x64 JIT code base, so it makes more sense to do developements which affect both there. That's what I've done over the last time, idk how much of a difference they make on Switch, I've yet to integrate these changes there.

In theory you could already play most 2d games, but I currently don't want to share binaries or source (plus it's GPL licensed so I'm not even allowed to only publish binaries) until everything's tidied up.

 

[hallo23]

In theory you could already play most 2d games

Are the Pokemon games considered 2D or 3D games?

 

[catlover007]

Are the Pokemon games considered 2D or 3D games?

Well you're right Pokemon games are gameplay wise 2d, but from a technical standpoint they use 3d graphics, that was what I meant.

There are also games like Pokemon Ranger, which look like completely 2d games but which are rendered using the 3d gpu, those fall into the same category.

 

[catlover007]

so I already wanted to do a release last week, but then I didn't. I don't know why now, but I think this is a good point in time.

So behold, the first public (pre alpha) release of melonDS with ARM64 JIT and Neon GPU optimisations. The source code is available here: https://github.com/RSDuck/melonDS/tree/switch

You need to put your bios files and romlist.bin (which is shipped with regular melonds releases) into sdcard root/melonds

It currently uses my own not so great for end user interface, but this also isn't a release for general audiences.

Press ZL to hide the gui overlay while playing.

Most 2d games run well without overclocking. For 3d games it depends on the load. E.g. Pokemon HG runs fullspeed with full overclock. Saving is always slow, because it's done synchronous in melonDS, so it's bound by your sd card speed.

The jit max block size is by default set to max 32. The dynarec of melonDS seems to be more robust than the one of desmume, I haven't found a game, which breaks at this high block size. If you do experience crashes or bugs, please try to first to disable branch optimisations and then to lower the block size. Note that the fast 2d renderer currently dosen't support background mosaic, which should rarely be noticeable.

The future is currently unclear. My homebrewed profiler turned out to provide inaccurate results, there are so many things I could try, but I don't know how much impact they would make.

EDIT: I noticed that the screen layout isn't applied on load, the attached file is replaced with one where this was fixed.

EDIT 2: I noticed a second bug, when the screens are rotated the touchscreen doesn't work properly

EDIT 3: The bug above is now fixed too, the attachment has been updated

EDIT 4: Overclocking on fw versions >=8.0.0. has (hopefully, I can't test it) been fixed

EDIT 5: you can find the new version here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/melonds-for-switch.518300/page-35#post-8829940

 

[minomore]

where do you put the rom files now?

 

[catlover007]

where do you put the rom files now?

I thought I had written that, but I haven't

sdcard root/roms/ds

 

[minomore]

thanks

 

[minomore]

just out of curiousity, this new version works amazing i am just wondering if and when a version with a decent gui will be coming and once again many thanks for the hard work,

 

[hallo23]

Damn thanks for this update @catlover007
Always nice to see improvements of the DS emulation on the Switch

 

[ploggy]

Hmm, all I see is this?

Controller doesnt seem to work either.

EDIT: Ok figured out i have to use the touch screen to use and adjust the ui postion/size
now I can select a rom, but now it crashes when I select load?

 

[hallo23]

Hmm, all I see is this?

This is the current UI

It currently uses my own not so great for end user interface, but this also isn't a release for general audiences.

And yes atm only touch controls work for the UI

 

[ploggy]

This is the current UI

And yes atm only touch controls work for the UI

read my edit

 

[catlover007]

just out of curiousity, this new version works amazing i am just wondering if and when a version with a decent gui will be coming and once again many thanks for the hard work,

this version is a bit dirty, but once the new additions mature they can be intergrated into the main developement branch, from where out it'll be easy to integrate them into the existing frontend.

now I can select a rom, but now it crashes when I select load?

that's odd. Do you have all the files(bios and romlist.bin) in place?

 

[ploggy]

that's odd. Do you have all the files(bios and romlist.bin) in place?

Yes, romlist.bin and bios files are in root/melonds bios files are named bios7.bin and bios9.bin.

EDIT: shit.. I forgot Firmware.bin its working now.. thanks

 

[mattyxarope]

Nice

 

[catlover007]

Yes, romlist.bin and bios files are in root/melonds bios files are named bios7.bin and bios9.bin.

firmware.bin too? Does it happen with all games?