Homebrew Dreamcast Emulation May Be Coming Soon

[MarioKartFan]

To the N3DS at least.

@Rinnegatamante

That's the RetroDream core running on a Ryzen 5 2600x with x86 DynaRec that's currently getting ported to Vita. As can be seen, CPU usage stands around the 3-4% over such a CPU and the RAM usage is under 200 MB. Fairly sure we can get this to work decently on Vita/New3DS.

 

[Moon164]

It's a shame that the possibility is real only on the New version of the 3DS, but still, it's unimaginable to see games like Sonic Adventure 2, Soul Calibur, Le Mans 24 Hour, Sega GT or Shenmue 2 running on a New 3DS, I really want to see where this is going.

 

[Mikitok]

Fake cant emulate decent psx cant run a 128 system

 

[Deleted User]

Really cool! This goes far and beyond my expectations of what the N3DS could do!

 

[ChibiMofo]

Fake cant emulate decent psx cant run a 128 system

It's hard to decipher your post but I assume you mean that the first post is fake because 3DS's can't even run PS1 games well. Well, the New 3DS XL does run decent PSX, and is getting better all the time. The Vita, however, is still much more powerful than a N3DS XL, so I am not hopeful at all that Dreamcast will come to the N3DSXL. And it certainly won't be "coming soon." Alas, there is not a single shred of evidence that a Dreamcast emulator for N3DSXL will ever be made. In that sense, the first post is pure speculation at best. Don't get your hopes up folks. But especially if you don't have a "New" model of 3DS, which can run at up to four times the clock speed of previous 3DS models.

 

[Deleted User]

That's the RetroDream core running on a Ryzen 5 2600x with x86 DynaRec that's currently getting ported to Vita. As can be seen, CPU usage stands around the 3-4% over such a CPU and the RAM usage is under 200 MB. Fairly sure we can get this to work decently on Vita/New3DS. pic.twitter.com/oTvMLXJZ4x

— Rinnegatamante (@Rinnegatamante) May 31, 2020

Looks decent for me.

 

[DSoryu]

Wew, and many still dare to say that the (new)3DS scene is dead already. This tiny portable console is becoming the ultimate on-the-go retro experience, you can play tons of retro games at full speed or even natively without too much hazle.

It's hard to decipher your post but I assume you mean that the first post is fake because 3DS's can't even run PS1 games well. Well, the New 3DS XL does run decent PSX, and is getting better all the time. The Vita, however, is still much more powerful than a N3DS XL, so I am not hopeful at all that Dreamcast will come to the N3DSXL. And it certainly won't be "coming soon." Alas, there is not a single shred of evidence that a Dreamcast emulator for N3DSXL will ever be made. In that sense, the first post is pure speculation at best. Don't get your hopes up folks. But especially if you don't have a "New" model of 3DS, which can run at up to four times the clock speed of previous 3DS models.

The only advantage the new3DS has abobe the vita are the clockspeeds, the architechture is nearly the same, and that is what it takes for emulation (dynarecs) to make them bearable for some emulators.

 

[Deleted User]

There is a reason I haven't released a new version yet. For those who are not aware, there is a collaboration between the 3DS and Vita port. I don't have as much time as they do to work on this, so expect larger and less frequent commits to the 3DS. As far as conker goes, it doesn't require a "cached interpreter"; it just needs some instructions to not be compiled by the dynarec. Performance is pretty similar between the N3DS and the Vita, with each platform performing better in some scenarios.

MasterFeizz confirmes that N3DS and PS Vita are close in performance.

 

[peteruk]

Has there been any further news or public statements made regarding the N/3DS port of this ?

 

[Pickle_Rick]

MasterFeizz confirmes that N3DS and PS Vita are close in performance.

(CPU wise anyway.)

 

[Rahkeesh]

Did you really want to play Dreamcast in 240p anyway?

Maybe if the 800px wide mode was used at least.

 

[MarioKartFan]

Has there been any further news or public statements made regarding the N/3DS port of this ?

Yes. They found many errors when porting the dynarec and gave up on the endeavor.

 

[Pickle_Rick]

Yes. They found many errors when porting the dynarec and gave up on the endeavor.

Sauce?

 

[Mr_Start]

Is this "soon" soon in 2023?

 

[duwen]

Is this "soon" soon in 2023?

No, it's "soon" as in "never".

 

[XRTerra]

No, it's "soon" as in "never".

Or.. maybe.. its the year 2024/2025(I'm hoping 2024) a mysterious github page pops up for RetroDream0_1.cia. It says it can run Sonic Adventure at 80% speed.

You download it and legally obtain a rom of Sonic Adventure. Thinking to yourself, "This has to be a joke, right?"..

You install the CIA from FBI, open the RetroDream app, and another thought appears in your head "Come on, this HAS to be Waluigi Simulator or something".

Then, you load Sonic Adventure.chd...

And it boots. You pick Sonic and just start enjoying SA at a stuttery 25 fps.

Then you wake up because while the Vita has a port(despite the Vita having a worse CPU, but more ram and a better gpu)there has literally been NOTHING regarding a Dreamcast emulator for the n3ds aside from them giving up Dynarec for n3ds due to several errors(which I think they should've kept going but it's whatever, everybody is human after all).

I am of the opinion that the only reason why n64 and ps1 emulation isn't great on the n3ds is because it's pretty new for an emulator. SNES and Genesis emulation was a thing on Arm devices(specifically the ds/i) for years. N64 and PS1 wasn't even a thought as you can just get a PSP and have perfect ps1 and really good n64 thanks to the PSP using a mips processor. Now that the 3ds/n3ds is skyrocketing in homebrew popularity for... multiple reasons, it's reasonable that people want a Dreamcast emulator. Wanna know what the psp can also emulate? Dreamcast. But because it uses the same architecture(mips/risc, even though ARM stands for Advanced Risc Machine, but I think it's specifically the mips part as mips and arm are different companies, but we're not gonna get into that... don't believe me?)

But if the Vita can do it with it's slower CPU, surely the n3ds could too despite the lower amount of ram and worse gpu.

 

[jujuba]

To the N3DS at least.

@Rinnegatamante

That's the RetroDream core running on a Ryzen 5 2600x with x86 DynaRec that's currently getting ported to Vita. As can be seen, CPU usage stands around the 3-4% over such a CPU and the RAM usage is under 200 MB. Fairly sure we can get this to work decently on Vita/New3DS.

crazy that 3ds can run dreamcast games lol

 

[Kwyjor]

you can just get a PSP and have perfect ps1 and really good n64 thanks to the PSP using a mips processor.

I very much doubt the emulation is simplified at all due to any similarities there – much like how mGBA on a 3DS runs very poorly compared to open_agb_firm.

 

[XRTerra]

I very much doubt the emulation is simplified at all due to any similarities there – much like how mGBA on a 3DS runs very poorly compared to open_agb_firm.

Optimization then?

Because overall the PSP should NOT be able to run n64 as well as it does, and the o3ds should be able to emulate gba near perfectly. mGBA isn't well optimized for the 3ds. Infact it has issues with gbc games on o3ds.

 

[Kwyjor]

Because overall the PSP should NOT be able to run n64 as well as it does

And UltraHLE should "NOT" have been able to run n64 on the PCs of 1999 either. As I understand it, Daedalus is so high-level that it barely qualifies as "emulation" at all, which is why one probably shouldn't expect the compatibility to get any better.

and the o3ds should be able to emulate gba near perfectly.

The o3DS runs GBA games "near perfectly" with open_agb_firm because the code is running natively that way. As I understand it, mGBA, being an emulator, recompiles the code and there is no particular way around this.