Homebrew GBARunner2

Skeletonman59

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Apologies for the late replies, but I just found the answer on the main wiki itself under Input Mapping:
  • With GBARunner2 you can remap your buttons to what GBA button you want. This is done by going into settings that you can access from either the file browser or when ingame, as explained above in Navigating and Usage.
  • Note that you can not have one GBA button mapped to more than one button on your system. E.G. you cannot have the B button mapped to your X and Y button at the same time.
  • If you cannot access the settings menu if for example your shoulder buttons do not work, you can also manually edit the button mappings by opening the gbarunner2.ini file found in /_gba.
  • Below is an example of what you would find inside an ini file with the GBA L and R buttons mapped to Y and X, respectively. This can simply be pasted in a text file renamed to gbarunner2.ini and put in the folder '\_gba'.
  • NB! The text file will have to be in Unix (LF) file format. On Windows this can be changed with a source code editor like Notepad++ by right clicking 'Windows (CR LF)' on the bottom status bar of the window.
And this is how it should look like:
[emulation]
useBottomScreen=false
frame=true
centerMask=true
mainMemICache=true
wramICache=true
gbaColors=false
skipIntro=false
[input]
buttonA=0
buttonB=1
buttonL=11
buttonR=10
buttonStart=3
buttonSelect=2
 

Zense

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Apologies for the late replies, but I just found the answer on the main wiki itself under Input Mapping:
  • With GBARunner2 you can remap your buttons to what GBA button you want. This is done by going into settings that you can access from either the file browser or when ingame, as explained above in Navigating and Usage.
  • Note that you can not have one GBA button mapped to more than one button on your system. E.G. you cannot have the B button mapped to your X and Y button at the same time.
  • If you cannot access the settings menu if for example your shoulder buttons do not work, you can also manually edit the button mappings by opening the gbarunner2.ini file found in /_gba.
  • Below is an example of what you would find inside an ini file with the GBA L and R buttons mapped to Y and X, respectively. This can simply be pasted in a text file renamed to gbarunner2.ini and put in the folder '\_gba'.
  • NB! The text file will have to be in Unix (LF) file format. On Windows this can be changed with a source code editor like Notepad++ by right clicking 'Windows (CR LF)' on the bottom status bar of the window.
And this is how it should look like:
[emulation]
useBottomScreen=false
frame=true
centerMask=true
mainMemICache=true
wramICache=true
gbaColors=false
skipIntro=false
[input]
buttonA=0
buttonB=1
buttonL=11
buttonR=10
buttonStart=3
buttonSelect=2
What was your issue again?
Also no need to repost the wiki here since we wrote it. Specifically I wrote that part recently :P Feedback is welcome if something wasn't clear or whatever. All in all though I'm glad to see people use the wiki, if more people would then we probably wouldn't have to tell people how to access the in game settings several times per week. "Touch the touch screen and press R."
 
Last edited by Zense,

Baromo

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Hi! I don't know if this can be helpful but I tested Hicode pre release branch for DSi and Pokemon Gaia and Clover worked fine! There are just some sound problems but when we know some months ago it was impossible to launch most rom hacks on DSi, it's quite impressive.
 
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Zense

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Hi! I don't know if this can be helpful but I tested Hicode pre release branch for DSi and Pokemon Gaia and Clover worked fine! There are just some sound problems but when we know some months ago it was impossible to launch most rom hacks on DSi, it's quite impressive.
The hicode branch build is indeed a huge step for romhacks and roms on DSi and 3DS.
As for DS users we linked in the wiki to Void's ROM3M (e.g. needed for pkmn emerald) fork that brings it up to date with latest changes (so you have an ingame menu etc.) and adds a backlight control option.
 

Baromo

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The hicode branch build is indeed a huge step for romhacks and roms on DSi and 3DS.
As for DS users we linked in the wiki to Void's ROM3M (e.g. needed for pkmn emerald) fork that brings it up to date with latest changes (so you have an ingame menu etc.) and adds a backlight control option.

Great news! A big thank you to all of you for your work.
I noticed some sound lags with games who previously hadn't this problem (like Pokemon Emerald or Pokemon Pinball) but I suppose it must be expected when using prerelease build.
 
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Zense

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Great news! A big thank you to all of you for your work.
I noticed some sound lags with games who previously hadn't this problem (like Pokemon Emerald or Pokemon Pinball) but I suppose it must be expected when using prerelease build.
That's probably because you're used to using builds from the DSP branch which has very good audio. As a matter of fact I'd usually recommend using that build, and it's the build that comes with twilightmenu++ for this very reason. Hicode builds are good if you want to play those few games that need it and if your romhacks/patched roms/large roms in general need it.

My advice if you use twilightmenu is to leave a hicode build in the root of your SD card and have the dsp branch build in _nds as the main one for twilghtmenu
 
Last edited by Zense,

Baromo

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That's probably because you're used to using builds from the DSP branch which has very good audio. As a matter of fact I'd usually recommend using that build, and it's the build that comes with twilightmenu++ for this very reason. Hicode builds are good if you want to play those few games that need it and if your romhacks need it.

I see. Thanks for explanations.
Any chance one day DSP and Hicode branch would merge together? Or rather maybe Hicode branch would have similar audio?
 

Zense

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I see. Thanks for explanations.
Any chance one day DSP and Hicode branch would merge together? Or rather maybe Hicode branch would have similar audio?
As it stands now, DSP is not merged into the master branch, the main branch in other words, because some extra options for running without framerate adjustment should be added, mostly for compatibility reasons and to get less of the twlbg bug for 3DS users. Not sure if anyone else noticed but after framerate adjustment got added to dsp some speedups in certain games went back to gba speeds. The only example I can think of right now are the dimmed frames upon entering the pokécenters in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen which before didn't happen on GBARunner2, but now does that just like it does on native GBA. Not a big deal but very interesting nonetheless.

When dsp gets merged, I'd imagine it could be added to the hicode branch, unless hicode is merged into master before that happens. There's also talk about hicode for DS and whether that will be possible so I figure that will have to be figured out or ruled out before hicode gets merged into master, but don't take my word for it.

Note that there are no ETA's from Gericom, the dev, so you'll just have to wait and see what happens.
 
Last edited by Zense,
D

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Firstly, thank you for this; I was hesitant to try for a while because it's not as easy for the casual like myself as running a Homebrew or CIA application on my New 3DS XL. I am glad to have tried to get it working, though, as it loads much faster than what I'm used to.

That said, I'm not sure whether I dug myself into a hole with my problem or whether that's what it's supposed to look like; I'm running GBARunner2 directly from TWiLight Menu++, not through the NDS file and I have also completed the tutorial to get Widescreen working.

When I run Pokemon FireRed on either Top or Bottom screens, I see that some of the World right at the corner of my screen is being drawn-in as I'm walking to it; is this normal or a mistake that I caused by applying Widescreen.

Edit:
I found that I could remove the problem in the TWiLight Menu++ Settings.
Under the GBARunner2 Settings Tab, I turned on Centre and Mask and it removed any in-game artefacts whilst keeping the game centred with a Widescreen format.

I also found it was visually easier for me to just use the NDS version of GBARunner2, pasting it in the same folder as my NDS ROMs rather than having to navigate out of said folder to go to my GBA ROMs and then navigate back in every time.
 
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Lucaskame921

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Is there a tool or a way to convert frames in png/bmp to bin (or tutorial)? Why the choice of bin format? Since emulators like gameyob use frames in common formats like bmp
 

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xonn

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I don't know if this question has been previously answered, sorry if it's repeated.
Why on earth Gbarunner2 can't be executed in a n5 card and yes in other R4 clones?
Thanks a lot :)
 
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Lucaskame921

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@Gericom

Please make a tutorial or basic conversion software on how to convert a bmp or png file to bin ... The """""tips""""" in previous threads are not helping ...
A conversion tool was promised 1 year ago ...

Thanks a lot :)
 
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pen_name_generator

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Sorry if my question has already been answered, but I spent several hours trying to figure it out.
My objective is to get better performance in Pokemon FireRed (audio mostly) using a flashcart (R4i Gold 3DS RTS) on a DSi XL.

I understand there at least those options: forcing the DSi to run at 134Mhz or running the emulator in DSi mode. If I understand correctly, I must use TWiLight Menu++ to perform any of those, which requires CFW.
Is there any way to achieve my objective without custom firmware, considering I am not interested in any other feature than better gba support ?

What would be the absolute minimal setup to achieve that and could it be done using a temporary method, for example the Memory Pit exploit for the DSi camera, instead of permanently altering the nand ?

Thank you very much for your work and your support, and sorry if my question is out of place :)
 

Lv44ES_Burner

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Sorry if my question has already been answered, but I spent several hours trying to figure it out.
My objective is to get better performance in Pokemon FireRed (audio mostly) using a flashcart (R4i Gold 3DS RTS) on a DSi XL.

I understand there at least those options: forcing the DSi to run at 133Mhz or running the emulator in DSi mode. If I understand correctly, I must use TWiLight Menu++ to perform any of those, which requires CFW.
Is there any way to achieve my objective without custom firmware, considering I am not interested in any other feature than better gba support ?

What would be the absolute minimal setup to achieve that and could it be done using a temporary method, for example the Memory Pit exploit for the DSi camera, instead of permanently altering the nand ?

Thank you very much for your work and your support, and sorry if my question is out of place :)

The absolute minimal way you're going to accomplish this is by using TWiLight Menu++ with the Memory Pit exploit by Shutterbug2000. This will require booting into it every time you want to use TWiLight Menu++, meaning if you want to use the DSi's camera app, you're going to have to swap the Memory Pit exploit files out every time you want to use the system at stock.

I can't recommend this at all, to be honest. You will be better off installing Unlaunch on your DSi with the Memory Pit exploit and using that to boot into TWiLight Menu++ at the startup of your system, if you want a minimal setup that doesn't require CFW and is (relatively) more future-proof*.

* - "Relatively" in the sense of your own personal experiences. Unlaunch tends to be a case-by-case basis on whether or not newer versions of it will bork your system. As always, use your better judgement on these things.
 
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pen_name_generator

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I went as far as running GBARunner2 through TWilight Menu++ using the Memory Pit exploit. All went fine until past the GBA boot screen, at what point all I could get was a white screen. My assumption is that GBARunner2_arm7dldi_dsi.nds cannot be run without Unlaunch. I used GBARunner2_arm7dldi_ds.nds instead and it worked fine, but then I loose the benefit of using TWilight Menu regarding GBARunner2 specific improvements :)

I now installed Unlaunch and all is well, GBARunner2_arm7dldi_dsi.nds runs amazingly. There was no around it I suppose.
Thank you very much !
 

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I went as far as running GBARunner2 through TWilight Menu++ using the Memory Pit exploit. All went fine until past the GBA boot screen, at what point all I could get was a white screen. My assumption is that GBARunner2_arm7dldi_dsi.nds cannot be run without Unlaunch. I used GBARunner2_arm7dldi_ds.nds instead and it worked fine, but then I loose the benefit of using TWilight Menu regarding GBARunner2 specific improvements :)

I now installed Unlaunch and all is well, GBARunner2_arm7dldi_dsi.nds runs amazingly. There was no around it I suppose.
Thank you very much !

if you have TWilight Menu++ setup it's built in GBARunner2.

put the GBA rom file in the gba folder in roms folder and start the game you want.
 

pen_name_generator

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if you have TWilight Menu++ setup it's built in GBARunner2.

put the GBA rom file in the gba folder in roms folder and start the game you want.

I meant that the inbuilt GBARunner2 was not running properly (white screen) until installing Unlaunch. The only working around I found was to use the ds version instead of the inbuilt dsi.
 
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Flame

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I meant that the inbuilt GBARunner2 was not running properly (white screen) until installing Unlaunch. The only working around I found was to use the ds version instead of the inbuilt dsi.

my bad, miss read your post. :)
 
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