Homebrew CaVE Database Manager - A SNES, NES, N64, Genesis Switch Online modding App

Ty_

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DarkAkuma said:
Ok... Time to dial in some expectations.

I think booting custom N64 games is possible, but its going to take more work than most would hope. Each game requires a set of files specifically created for the game.

Code: 
metapack_temp\*.meta
metapack_temp\*.cfg
metapack_temp\*.nro
metapack_temp\*.spv

Those are the current minimum with my testing, but some may not be required still.

What IS required is game specific hacks like:

JSON: 
    "Idle" :
    [
        {
            "JmpAddr": "0x80000810",
            "JmpInst": "0x1000FFFF",
            "IsIdle": "0x1"
        }
    ],

While I may take a shot at creating such hacks... its going to largely be a communal effort. I'm going to focus my efforts on CaVE for the moment, and allowing users to supply such meta packs.

For reference, they are a .cpio archive that's .z compressed. And while the ROM itself isnt required to be compressed (.bnz when .z compressed), the meta info is. There at least seems to be some leeway with the internal naming structure though...

As for good news... Sega Genesis Online boots custom games just fine! No unlock hack needed!

View attachment 281814

I'll try to focus on getting a CaVE release out so at least Genesis databases can be made. N64 "support" will likely technically be included, but... don't expect to be booting custom games without custom .dtz's.
Click to expand...

Even pointing people in the right direction is a huge help. Nice work dude
 
Ty_

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I'm curious if some N64 games will have commonalities in these modifier packs to run under the Nintendo emu. Like games with a similar engine or similar developer like games made by Rare
 
demonXcore

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RadMcFist said:
You're either not copying all the files or have your Switch set to a different language than the one you set when you wrote the descriptions. If you have your Switch set to a different language then you should have set it in CaVE also (I think it's in Edit/Language). If you're sure you copied all the files then it's the language thing. You have two options: either copy the file you already have to the folder of your language or just create a new one after setting CaVE to the correct language. If you copy the file over, you'll end up with English descriptions for the official games (I assume English is not your language because if it is, then what are we doing here?). Honestly, I'd just copy the descriptions you already wrote, set your language in CaVE, and paste your descriptions again.

If you want to copy the file, then you probably have to create a folder inside romfs\bootapp\resources\strings named after your language. Accepted folder names are "de" for German, "en" for American English, "engb" for British English", "es" for Spanish, "esus" for Latin American Spanish, "fr" for French, "frca" for Canadian French, "it" for Italian, "ko" for Korean, "nl" for Dutch (or Netherlandic, I guess), "pt" for Portuguese, "ru" for Russian and I can't believe that I just wrote all of that down. So make a folder for your language and copy the strings.ln file you already have (likely inside a folder named "en" inside romfs\bootapp\resources\strings. Then copy everything over to the sd and try again.

Phew. That came out way more convoluted than it needed to be. Sorry.
Click to expand...
This is a pretty late answer to this topic but I just used the tool for myself and had the same kind of issue. I am using English language on my switch but it still wouldn't load the description.
After some testing I realized that the Switch doesn't tell you if it's US or GB english - I assume it depends on where you bought your console. Since I am from Europe, I tried saving the database using GB english and voilà, the description is there! So anyone who's having issues adding an english description should maybe try to figure out if the console is either using GB or US english, because it really doesn't tell you.
 
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BulletExodus

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DaniPoo said:
no it really hasn’t, especially not with frambuffer emulation. Only hope to get ”playable” speed with framebuffer emulation was to overclock and reducing resolution.
and even then it would still have occasional sound crackles and stuff.
only way I got good speed in most games was to turn the FBE off. But that would break functionality in some games.

Nintendo’s N64 emulator seems to be able to up the resolution and still use FBE without overclocking.. So far it has been a more enjoyable experience for me. Minus the widescreen hack
Click to expand...

I'm stoked as well but It's important to manage expectations with their emu.

People are already posting vids on youtube of how much lower quality they had to make the games in order for them to run without overclock. Compared to retroarch's I mean.

Maybe this 'per-game settings' thing will fix that if people can find a way to change the graphics settings.
 
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BulletExodus said:
I'm stoked as well but It's important to manage expectations with their emu.

People are already posting vids on youtube of how much lower quality they had to make the games in order for them to run without overclock. Compared to retroarch's I mean.

Maybe this 'per-game settings' thing will fix that if people can find a way to change the graphics settings.
Click to expand...

perhaps, but personally I don’t mind a bit of a visual downgrade as long as there is no visual glitches or hiccups, the sounds is good and the gameplay is responsive.

I am curious to see how well Majoras Mask runs once it’s released, this game was not nice in RetroAarch with framebuffer emulation turned on. unless you overclocked, cpu and gpu as well as lowered the resolution It would be super laggy and have sound issues. Without FBE it ran pretty well but the camera feature needs FBE and that’s important to be able to finish the game. Also MM used FBE quite a lot for motion blur like effects and without it turned on even the title screen would just be a black screen.

I am happy that n64 emulation exist in retro arch but to me it’s far from perfect. And far from all games work well, especially not in handheld mode.

framebuffer emulation in Mupen seems so damn slow when you compare it to Nintendo’s emulator. When you open the menu in Ocarina of Time for instance.
just compare yourself and you’ll see what I mean
 
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Juanaugusto

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Hi thanks DarkAkuma for this tool. i downloaded the unlock version 2.4.0 for snes, i added some roms to canoe and some roms didn´t work especially the roms that i patched to spanish. how can i fix these roms ? and i want to add cheats for some roms like unlimited lives, if it is possible, how can i do that ? if somebody can help me i´d be really grateful sorry about my english
 
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Hello @DarkAkuma !

First, thanks very much for this utility!

However, everytime I try to create a database, the application closes after a couple of seconds.

Any idea?

Thank you

Pitou!
 
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Ok thanks very much for the info. I tried many combination and still doesn't work. I tried 2 different PC as well. Running Win10, I will try running another windows version in Virtualbox

Pitou!
 
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As stated in the FAQ, it's related to the language/region of Windows. I installed VirtualBox, used media creation tool to generate a pure English US Win10 ISO image and all is fine.

Thanks!
 
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Pitou said:
As stated in the FAQ, it's related to the language/region of Windows. I installed VirtualBox, used media creation tool to generate a pure English US Win10 ISO image and all is fine.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Create a new user in win10 and open it with the new user.
 

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