Homebrew Retroarch Emulation Thread (Nightly Builds Included)

[Kurt91]

Okay, so I'm still on 1.8.9 and I haven't touched anything. I mean, I did move all of the unnecessary cores into a separate folder to speed up loading times, but I still had things working after doing that. I didn't touch any settings or anything that would have broken things. At absolute worst, I don't remember exactly but the 3DS may have had the battery die while I had RetroArch running and the system in Sleep Mode. (Meaning the 3DS was closed, but still running and RetroArch may have been on.)

As things are right now, I can launch RetroArch, but whenever I try to actually start a game, regardless of what type of game or what core I try to use, the entire 3DS crashes to the point where I get a Luma crash-handling screen and I have to restart the system. It first happened when trying to launch Mother 3 for the first time. I tried the games I had played before and gotten working, using the Genesis Plus GX core and the SNES9x 2002 core. (For some reason, it works more smoothly than the 2010 version. No idea why, though) Still crashes regardless of what content/core combination I try.

I'm not entirely sure why this is happening now, and have no idea what to do to fix it. Would deleting the retroarch.cfg file do anything in this case? If so, is there a way to do so within RetroArch, or do I have to go through the whole process of removing the SD card and doing so through my PC?

On a different note, is it worth updating to 1.9.0, and is there an easy process to do so, or do I delete all components of 1.8.9 and install 1.9.0 from scratch.

 

[kenseiden]

SNES9x 2002 core. (For some reason, it works more smoothly than the 2010 version.

SNES9x 2002 is based on an earlier version of SNES9x that’s not as accurate as the 2010 version, but also runs faster because of that. 2010 core won’t ever run fullspeed on a New 3DS as far as I know.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

-snip-

Old settings can interfere with RetroArch's stability. Delete these files from the (micro)SD card.

• sdmc:/retroarch/
  • content_history.lpl
  • retroarch.cfg
  • retroarch-core-options.cfg

• sdmc:/retroarch/config/<core>/
  • <core>.opt
  • <name of the game>.opt

 

[the_randomizer]

SNES9x 2002 is based on an earlier version of SNES9x that’s not as accurate as the 2010 version, but also runs faster because of that. 2010 core won’t ever run fullspeed on a New 3DS as far as I know.

Yeah, even at 800 MHz, it's still too slow for Snes9x 2010.

 

[Kurt91]

Any advice on how to squeeze just a tiny bit better performance out of the PlayStation emulator? I'm playing Guardian's Crusade, and it runs pretty well except for a couple minor visual glitches regarding shadows, and the occasional frame-rate drops from time to time.

It's weird. I'll be going across a field and suddenly get slowdown in an area that looks no different than anywhere else where I'm getting full speed. I've looked through the settings and I didn't notice a difference in turning off audio sync. Should I turn on frame skip to 1 or something? I thought I remember reading that was a possible fix for better speed, but the description of the setting didn't say anything about performance.

On a different note, I found that I was having issues with crashing like before, and it only happens when I set up the rewind feature. Not that the rewind feature doesn't work, I was able to use it just fine when I turned it on, but once I turn the emulator off and start a new play session later, I get crashing when loading a game. (And yes, I'm being careful to turn off RetroArch through the menu properly instead of just turning it off through the 3DS Home menu. Though I do want to know if pausing the program through the Home menu would also be an issue. Guardian's Crusade is really obtuse on where it hides permanently-missable secrets, and being able to flip to a guide on the 3DS internet browser would be nice. For now, I'm keeping my phone at hand as I play.)

 

[Zense]

Any advice on how to squeeze just a tiny bit better performance out of the PlayStation emulator? I'm playing Guardian's Crusade, and it runs pretty well except for a couple minor visual glitches regarding shadows, and the occasional frame-rate drops from time to time.

It's weird. I'll be going across a field and suddenly get slowdown in an area that looks no different than anywhere else where I'm getting full speed. I've looked through the settings and I didn't notice a difference in turning off audio sync. Should I turn on frame skip to 1 or something? I thought I remember reading that was a possible fix for better speed, but the description of the setting didn't say anything about performance.

On a different note, I found that I was having issues with crashing like before, and it only happens when I set up the rewind feature. Not that the rewind feature doesn't work, I was able to use it just fine when I turned it on, but once I turn the emulator off and start a new play session later, I get crashing when loading a game. (And yes, I'm being careful to turn off RetroArch through the menu properly instead of just turning it off through the 3DS Home menu. Though I do want to know if pausing the program through the Home menu would also be an issue. Guardian's Crusade is really obtuse on where it hides permanently-missable secrets, and being able to flip to a guide on the 3DS internet browser would be nice. For now, I'm keeping my phone at hand as I play.)

For the home menu you should just try to see if it works.

As for better performance I take it you've been using the proper settings like vsync off, asynchronous cd read? There's also the possibility to run it in pal 50hz mode. Have you tried the newly released threaded renderer? Should be among the video drivers when using latest build from the unofficial thread for retroarch here on gbatemp.

 

[MarioKartFan]

Any advice on how to squeeze just a tiny bit better performance out of the PlayStation emulator? I'm playing Guardian's Crusade, and it runs pretty well except for a couple minor visual glitches regarding shadows, and the occasional frame-rate drops from time to time.

It's weird. I'll be going across a field and suddenly get slowdown in an area that looks no different than anywhere else where I'm getting full speed. I've looked through the settings and I didn't notice a difference in turning off audio sync. Should I turn on frame skip to 1 or something? I thought I remember reading that was a possible fix for better speed, but the description of the setting didn't say anything about performance.

On a different note, I found that I was having issues with crashing like before, and it only happens when I set up the rewind feature. Not that the rewind feature doesn't work, I was able to use it just fine when I turned it on, but once I turn the emulator off and start a new play session later, I get crashing when loading a game. (And yes, I'm being careful to turn off RetroArch through the menu properly instead of just turning it off through the 3DS Home menu. Though I do want to know if pausing the program through the Home menu would also be an issue. Guardian's Crusade is really obtuse on where it hides permanently-missable secrets, and being able to flip to a guide on the 3DS internet browser would be nice. For now, I'm keeping my phone at hand as I play.)

It would be helpful to understand what settings you have enabled and what build you are running. @justinweiss uploaded a new build a few days ago to the unofficial retroarch thread that has far superior performance. You will need to enable the threaded dsp driver though. As @Zense said you will also want to enable asynchronous load.
Beyond that it is a matter of trial and error. Most (not all) games run better with video sync disabled and audio sync enabled. Some game’s run better with threaded video enabled. Some games it seems can benefit from increasing the latency settings and the audio / video sync settings.
There’s a lot to play with. That’s a blessing and a curse really.

 

[SireSalty]

I got it mainly working, but NESTOPIA is hard crashing on loading any rom. I made this thread and it has the picture of the crash. https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/comments/is024b/3ds_nestopia_kernel_panic_on_content_load/

 

[SnakeOil092]

Has anyone figured out how or if SquirrelJME works? Every time I attempt to launch a .jar file I am presented with a failed to load error.

 

[plug313]

Has anyone figured out how or if SquirrelJME works? Every time I attempt to launch a .jar file I am presented with a failed to load error.

wait... there's a java emulator that can play my old phone games on my 3DS and I never knew about it???? please tell me this isn't a dream and there's a way to make this work

 

[SnakeOil092]

wait... there's a java emulator that can play my old phone games on my 3DS and I never knew about it???? please tell me this isn't a dream and there's a way to make this work

Apparently, yeah. But I am not quite sure how to make it work.

 

[fst312]

Even though I gave up for now, I need help to try understanding why netplay isn’t working for me. It says failed to connect and at times it connects to someone and it disconnects. I’m trying to connect my 3ds to my switch, once I see I can manage that I could actually try playing against others. My 3ds I’m trying to connect is an old3ds if that makes a difference. The nes I’m using is quicknes, I believe that’s what it’s called. I feel like it’s has to do with the settings but I’m not sure.

 

[fst312]

I have an old3ds and from what I recall when I tried netplay it really didn’t work, that probably changed by now but I’m not to sure. Right now because I think it’s better compatibility I’m thinking about getting a n3ds because I would like to use the 3ds for netplay. I just want to know before I buy one though if netplay actually works well on the n3ds for the classic systems.