Homebrew Saturn emulation using Cotton/Guardian Force testing and debug

[Rikua]

Seems hopeless...

Do you know if this game runs well with RetroArch instead?
I know that running Saturn games with RetroArch on the Switch ain't a good a idea but apparently some games can run well.
The core that RetroArch uses for saturn is Yabause right? There's more cores that can run it but I don't think they are available for the Switch.

The switch unfortunately isn't very powerful when it comes to 3D emulation. You could use LAKKA and run an Android instance via SD card, but even that emulation is just decent at best. Honestly, if you have a PC or a Laptop from 2013 and beyond, you can probably run the PC Saturn Emulators fairly well. Retroarch with its mednafen Beetle core or Kronos will run 99% of the library together. I use Retroarch for my Hyperspin Saturn wheel and Kronos as my go to everyday emulator as it has rendering options that the Beetle core lacks. Hope this helps in some way.

 

[SusumuNoDS]

Seems hopeless...

Do you know if this game runs well with RetroArch instead?
I know that running Saturn games with RetroArch on the Switch ain't a good a idea but apparently some games can run well.
The core that RetroArch uses for saturn is Yabause right? There's more cores that can run it but I don't think they are available for the Switch.

yabause core should be downloadable

 

[Spookytoymaker]

The switch unfortunately isn't very powerful when it comes to 3D emulation. You could use LAKKA and run an Android instance via SD card, but even that emulation is just decent at best. Honestly, if you have a PC or a Laptop from 2013 and beyond, you can probably run the PC Saturn Emulators fairly well. Retroarch with its mednafen Beetle core or Kronos will run 99% of the library together. I use Retroarch for my Hyperspin Saturn wheel and Kronos as my go to everyday emulator as it has rendering options that the Beetle core lacks. Hope this helps in some way.

Is there a way to transfer a save file to the shining force 3 nsp to start a point after it locks up?

 

[Rikua]

Is there a way to transfer a save file to the shining force 3 nsp to start a point after it locks up?

Nope. As you need to inject a save to even get the capability of saving as the game doesn't save either (another bug). Once you do that, ANY battle will still soft crash the Zebra emulator. This emulator was very much not designed for RPGs, heavy 3D, etc, so I'm not surprised a ton of issues crop from those games.

 

[Fischtickles]

Yea shining force 3 English patch loads and is fine until the first battle. Then screen goes black with audio playing still. I need to try the unpatched copy see if it still does it or if I can get past and load in a save file after.

I was able to play through the first battle of SFIII (US version, not English patch) by using overclocking sysclk. I don't think the game doesn't work, it just needs more power from the switch.

My sysclk settings (handheld):
CPU 1683 (anything less producing black screens)
GPU 384
MEM 1331

It's quite a bit overclock the CPU for the game to run, but its totally fine to do but maybe the battery drains faster. Try it out.
I can add this to the compatibility sheet.

 

[mspy]

Nope. As you need to inject a save to even get the capability of saving as the game doesn't save either (another bug). Once you do that, ANY battle will still soft crash the Zebra emulator. This emulator was very much not designed for RPGs, heavy 3D, etc, so I'm not surprised a ton of issues crop from those games.

What about Three Dirty Dwarves ? since it kinda appears to be a boot problem will a hacked save to jump further in the game work?

 

[Spookytoymaker]

I was able to play through the first battle of SFIII (US version, not English patch) by using overclocking sysclk. I don't think the game doesn't work, it just needs more power from the switch.

My sysclk settings (handheld):
CPU 1683 (anything less producing black screens)
GPU 384
MEM 1331

It's quite a bit overclock the CPU for the game to run, but its totally fine to do but maybe the battery drains faster. Try it out.
I can add this to the compatibility sheet.

Thanks I’ll try it out tonight. Any idea on the save situation? I can’t seem to think of a way to enable saves in game

 

[Spookytoymaker]

Thanks I’ll try it out tonight. Any idea on the save situation? I can’t seem to think of a way to enable saves in game

tried it out got farther in the battle still had issues but i am thinking it is possible to run fine

 

[Deleted member 323844]

I could FINALLY get my hands on the Playstation 4 version of ZebraEngine and it works flawlessly by default.

Filesystem is pretty much the same as Switch, but, for some reason, files are not encrypted. I have swapped the cue/bin with a few games and it works the same as Switch: same compatibility, same input lag, biggest difference is the performance, I haven't seen any drop whatsoever.



The game + update 1 require FW 8.50, so of course you must be in 9.00. Or maybe someone can do a backport, I'm not sure how they work.

 

[ganons]

What do you need to oc exactly to get X-Men Vs Street fighter playable, CPU or GPU? What frequency?

 

[Thorhax]

What do you need to oc exactly to get X-Men Vs Street fighter playable, CPU or GPU? What frequency?

Overclock at 1420 will be fine, but you should max the CPU overclock to reduce input lag.

 

[ganons]

Overclock at 1420 will be fine, but you should max the CPU overclock to reduce input lag.

Its stuck on black screen after the capcom logo.

 

[Thorhax]

Its stuck on black screen after the capcom logo.

Sounds like your injected .ini file needs modification to add the 4mb ram cart.

 

[ganons]

Sounds like your injected .ini file needs modification to add the 4mb ram cart.

I'm sure I injected it but I'll have another look.

 

[TOG914]

Does anyone know if it's possible to create an injected nsps that can run multidisc saturn games (Panzer Dragoon Saga, Deep Fear, Enemy Zero, etc)?

 

[Thorhax]

Anyone gotten the English Patched Bulk Slash to load?

 

[shadow256]

Does anyone know if it's possible to create an injected nsps that can run multidisc saturn games (Panzer Dragoon Saga, Deep Fear, Enemy Zero, etc)?

Yes it's possible to have three games with the Saturn Tribute compilation but it's very technical to make it automaticaly. To do it the NSP should be rebuilt with modified NCAs containing the games/texture.tex/PlayingGuide/etc... The NSP compilation is a NSP that contains each NSP of each game and an additional application to launch the wanted game, it's a simplified explanation of how the NSP of the compilation is built. So yes it's possible to do a multi-disk game with the compilation but you can only use three disks and I don't think that I will implement this in my script cause it's to mutch work to do and I don't have the time to do it.

For those who want the logic to do this (the process could be wrong because I've never tested it) you should extract the NCAs of the NSP of the compilation, find the NCAs containing the games and extract them in a separated folder for each one, delete the NCAs containing the games, replace the content wanted in each folder, modify the TitleID, name of the game, author, etc... of the "control.nacp" and "main.npdm" of each NCA of the compilation (to do that you should extract the content of each NCA, delete the NCA extracted, modify the files and rebuild the NCA) and finaly rebuild the NSP with all the NCA replaced. A thing that I don't know is if the file containing the infos on the structure of the NSP should be modified or if it could be automaticaly created during the rebuild process with Hacpack.

An other possibility is to modify the TitleID of the NSP of the compilation (the name, author, etc... could probably be modified also), install it and use the layeredfs method to replace the game files, this use more space on the SD and on the target where the NSP is installed but it's probably more easy to do like that.

To help to understand I will attach the cnmt of the four NSP, for the NSP of an unic game we can simplify the structure but for the compilation it seems more difficult to do that.

 

[Thorhax]

Anyone gotten the English Patched Bulk Slash to load?

I figured it out, it was the .cue file.
5hours late I learned that the Japanese original .cue file was required due to some inconsistencies.
Also the generic .ini in the script didn't work. I used the originally dumped one from like page 1 of the thread.

 

[Thorhax]

I'm still looking for help with getting super tempo to work. I tried changing things in the .cue, using different .ini settings all no luck.
Just a black screen after the Initial Sega Saturn screen.

 

[antonyfirst]

Hi guys, I am playing Policenauts. Should I just replace the bin/cue files in my Cotton2 folder, when it comes the time to swap cd?