Homebrew Unofficial 3DS RetroArch builds

[CaptainHIT]

can anyone tell me which rom format is better to use in your experience and what program is best to convert my roms to it? thanks in advance

What sort of roms do you mean? Which system? All rom versions are supported by the approperiate emulators. So you really don't need to convert anything.

 

[plug313]

What sort of roms do you mean? Which system? All rom versions are supported by the approperiate emulators. So you really don't need to convert anything.

oops! I meant for the PSX emulator. wrong thread. I'm subscribed to both and I just got a new laptop so I wanted to ask. sorry!

 

[Carlotta_Monroe]

Try using the cia version. It'll not be 60fps, but better than the 3dsx version.

Already using cia but thanks for the input.

You're likely at the limit of what is possible.

That's disappointing but thank you.

 

[matt!]

That's disappointing but thank you.

Yeah. On such a low powered device as 3DS/2DS you'll get varying performance between games and emulators.

Always keep an eye on emulator improvements (there was a big push for PSX performance increase this year, which helps 3DS/2DS a little).

Switch has much, much better performance for emulators. Therefore, I now mostly use my Switch.

 

[placez]

does anyone have the saturn download

 

[FateForWindows]

does anyone have the saturn download

Saturn emulation hasn't gotten to the point where it's even remotely playable, even on N3DS.

 

[ArkhamK27]

Hello guys
I´ve been trying to launch Jojo HFTF on the retroarch cps3 newest build, but it just gives me an error when loading the file? What can I do? Also, is Symphony OTN now playable? Thanks
I´m using a N3DS XL

 

[Zense]

Hello guys
I´ve been trying to launch Jojo HFTF on the retroarch cps3 newest build, but it just gives me an error when loading the file? What can I do? Also, is Symphony OTN now playable? Thanks
I´m using a N3DS XL

Symphony of the Night is playable. Might be better to run the Pal version. Disable lighting and it should be good.

 

[ArkhamK27]

where is the lighting option?

 

[Zense]

where is the lighting option?

Gotta enable advanced settings under the cores options in th quick menu when running any game with the pcsx core.

 

[ArkhamK27]

well, it runs at 22 fps
Anything I´m forgetting?

 

[Zense]

well, it runs at 22 fps
Anything I´m forgetting?

Turn of vsync in video settings and enable audio sync in settings. They're in main retroarch settings. Did you remember to convert it to a .pbp or .chd? This is important for any ps1 game in n3ds.

 

[ArkhamK27]

It worked
Thank you so much Zense
As for the cps3 emulation, JOJO HFTF plays around 40 fps
Heard it works better if the file is transformed from zip to fba
Anyone knows how to do it?

 

[justinweiss]

One of the reasons pcsx-rearmed stutters on 3DS is because reading from the SD card is incredibly slow. That's why chd / pbp run a lot faster than bin/cue. But even chd can be laggy when reading a bunch of stuff.

I borrowed an idea from Beetle PSX and added an option to do CD reads in the background. It also keeps around a limited amount of old data, so if the game keeps reading the same data, it'll come from memory instead of disk. So far this has helped in the games I've tried, especially RPGs, after playing for a while.

It makes Diablo playable with frameskip 1, at least the limited amount I've tried. And it'll make .bin/cue almost as fast as chd/pbp, in case you hate saving disk space.

I attached an unofficial core build with the patch in it, the source is here if you'd rather build it yourself: https://github.com/justinweiss/pcsx_rearmed/tree/async-cd-reads

When you use the core, make sure you go to Core Settings, set the "CD Access Method" to "Asynchronous", and restart RetroArch. Otherwise the new setting won't take effect. The setting is close to the bottom, near XA Decoding / CD Audio.

Games do weird enough stuff that I'm sure this breaks some of them, so give this a try and let me know what you run into. If this is stable enough, I'll try to get the patch into the official builds.

This also includes the dynarec crash fix from yesterday, so also let me know if that keeps happening.

 

[MarioKartFan]

Thanks @justinweiss!!! Any chance you could post a cia version?

 

[justinweiss]

Thanks @justinweiss!!! Any chance you could post a cia version?

Unfortunately no, I have never been able to successfully get that working on my machine. I think there are other people around here that have been able to make those builds, though!

 

[Zense]

One of the reasons pcsx-rearmed stutters on 3DS is because reading from the SD card is incredibly slow. That's why chd / pbp run a lot faster than bin/cue. But even chd can be laggy when reading a bunch of stuff.

I borrowed an idea from Beetle PSX and added an option to do CD reads in the background. It also keeps around a limited amount of old data, so if the game keeps reading the same data, it'll come from memory instead of disk. So far this has helped in the games I've tried, especially RPGs, after playing for a while.

It makes Diablo playable with frameskip 1, at least the limited amount I've tried. And it'll make .bin/cue almost as fast as chd/pbp, in case you hate saving disk space.

I attached an unofficial core build with the patch in it, the source is here if you'd rather build it yourself: https://github.com/justinweiss/pcsx_rearmed/tree/async-cd-reads

When you use the core, make sure you go to Quick Settings, set the "CD Access Method" to "Asynchronous", and restart RetroArch. Otherwise the new setting won't take effect.

Games do weird enough stuff that I'm sure this breaks some of them, so give this a try and let me know what you run into. If this is stable enough, I'll try to get the patch into the official builds.

This also includes the dynarec crash fix from yesterday, so also let me know if that keeps happening.

Thanks! I did not expect this!

I'm curious if there's any way at all to improve the 3ds's sd card reading speed? What is quicker between the sd card reader and the 3ds's gamecard reader? I guess the 3ds's internal memory would be the quickest but a retroarch install to that is probably not possible?

 

[justinweiss]

Thanks! I did not expect this!

I'm curious if there's any way at all to improve the 3ds's sd card reading speed? What is quicker between the sd card reader and the 3ds's gamecard reader? I guess the 3ds's internal memory would be the quickest but a retroarch install to that is probably not possible?

I don't know. Async CD reads seems to make it not the bottleneck anymore, to the point where time would be better spent speeding up other parts of the emulator.

 

[Zense]

I don't know. Async CD reads seems to make it not the bottleneck anymore, to the point where time would be better spent speeding up other parts of the emulator.

I see. I tested several games in which I had no crashes with async on:
Castlevania SOTN - Still struggles to stay at 60 fps on 0 frameskip. Fps drops during voice overs.
Disney's Hercules - Does not seem to crash anymore. It used to do very frequently when loading. NTSC still drops frames during Voice overs in game.
Disney's Dalmatians Puppies...- Did not change much in terms of performance. Still 30-40fps. Drops during voice overs.
Final Fantasy IX PAL - I did not observe a big difference. Fps tanks in effects in battle. Rest of game is still smooth.
Megaman X3 PAL - Runs at a stable 50fps.

I realised that I should test "In the Hunt" since that one suffers from constant audio stuttering no matter what sync (video/audio) you set it to.
I guess I might've noticed games having less drop in framerate and a shorter lasting drop in framerate during loading? Haven't really compared this to the latest stable release, though. All roms were .chd.

 

[justinweiss]

I see. I tested several games in which I had no crashes with async on:
Castlevania SOTN - Still struggles to stay at 60 fps on 0 frameskip. Fps drops during voice overs.

Interesting. SOTN is the only one of that set I've been playing with, and the intro battle stays locked at 60fps for me, except for one hiccup (1-2 frames) right during the transformation to the second form, and another small one (maybe half a second?) when doing the photo snapshot. There was a dip to ~45fps when running through the forest, but entryway and encounter with death were 59-60fps. Both Death and Dracula's conversations went through without any slowdown or choppy sound.

Maybe it's a setting thing? I have vsync off, audio sync on, resampler nearest / lowest. Frameskip 0, dithering off, frame duping on, reverb on, interpolation simple cd read async. Everything else is default, I think.

I'd be interested in how things go after a few battles in FFIX. In Chrono Cross, I notice an improvement in battles after things start to get stored in memory. It's not huge, but noticeable. Screen transitions don't stall the music anymore, which is very nice.

Really happy to hear you haven't had any crashes!