Hacking DaedalusX64 has been updated

[TheMrIron2]

Good news to those with a PSP and who still like Daedalus for playing N64 games - homebrew scene members z2442 and mrneo240 have started working on a new fork of DaedalusX64! So far they have have updated the codebase to work on the newest toolchain and they compiled it with "-O3", which is a speed up on the compiler. In short, they made the program more optimised simply by updating some dated parts of the program, and they intend to work on it further. They are actively talking about their work in the PlayStation Homebrew discord, an invite to which is available in the PSP Reddit.

Performance is definitely improved. Without sound, Mario 64 runs at over 200% speed in spots within the castle and is running at around the 40FPS mark (out of 30FPS like the original game) in the castle grounds. While Bob-omb Battlefield has a bit of slowdown and is usually 25FPS out of 30, it's still very respectable. Other games such as Star Fox are very playable and run in the 20-30FPS region most of the time as well, and in the case of Star Fox occasionally going above. Don't expect miracles though, as the changes to the actual code are few so games that previously didn't work or had issues likely are not fixed. Still, the performance improvement is welcome and it's great to see revived interest in the PSP scene.

You can download this updated build here:
https://github.com/z2442/daedalus/releases

Edit: due to overwhelming interest, here is a link to the discord we use for Daedalus discussion: https://discord.gg/bePrj9W

 

[leon315]

WHY CAN'T the author make a N64 for Vita now is fully hacked? I think games will run more smoother since vita has better HW.

 

[TheMrIron2]

N64 emulators are a massive undertaking to make - as evidenced by the fact that there are a slim few that work very well on any platform, to this day - and they may have decided that it would be better to work on the existing PSP codebase especially since there are improvements to be made.

Additionally, Daedalus can be run on Vita via Adrenaline, so making it a PSP program allows it to run on both systems anyway.

 

[Deleted User]

Guys don't get excited he literally added one thing /s

 

[CatmanFan]

Holy
Didn't see that coming.

 

[LuxerWap]

Alright. There are a list of games that I wanted to test out on this emulator. I am gonna report back whenever I can.

 

[boyfriendcoma]

Has anyone had luck getting the cover art to display? There's a "Preview" folder (with every game's cover art) in the source code files (.zip download), but not the build's package (.rar download). I thought I'd read somewhere that you just need to place "previews" in /PSP/GAME/Daedalusx64/Resources/, but this doesn't seem to do the trick. I named the preview files the same as my roms, still nothing. Any help greatly appreciated, as I love to browse game visually!

 

[Manana]

Good news to those with a PSP and who still like Daedalus for playing N64 games - homebrew scene members z2442 and mrneo240 have started working on a new fork of DaedalusX64! So far they have have updated the codebase to work on the newest toolchain and they compiled it with "-O3", which is a speed up on the compiler. In short, they made the program more optimised simply by updating some dated parts of the program, and they intend to work on it further. They are actively talking about their work in the PlayStation Homebrew discord, an invite to which is available in the PSP Reddit.

Performance is definitely improved. Without sound, Mario 64 runs at over 200% speed in spots within the castle and is running at around the 40FPS mark (out of 30FPS like the original game) in the castle grounds. While Bob-omb Battlefield has a bit of slowdown and is usually 25FPS out of 30, it's still very respectable. Other games such as Star Fox are very playable and run in the 20-30FPS region most of the time as well, and in the case of Star Fox occasionally going above. Don't expect miracles though, as the changes to the actual code are few so games that previously didn't work or had issues likely are not fixed. Still, the performance improvement is welcome and it's great to see revived interest in the PSP scene.

You can download this updated build here:
https://github.com/z2442/daedalus/releases

Peeped this 2 hours after it came out. I literally check every week. Nothing new except some merging old changes but maybe little changes here and there every month or so will result in fullspeed with sound in atleast a few games eventually. I was buggin about this a while back and it (kinda) happened. I have a gamevice controller that attaches to my galaxy s8+ like a switch. N64 and Rom hacks run beautifully and even have the option for higher res. High res I don't care about or use since I'm playing N64 anyway, I'm one of those dipshits that prefers polygons and pixelated 3D graphics over intense HD quality. Went off on a tangent there but back to my point. I have device that can already do this the way I want it too but for some odd reason updates to Deadalus on the PSP gives me goosebumps. I truly love the PSP, N64 and PS1. Those 3 are all I need so the better Daedalusx64 gets, even if it's ever so slightly, the closer I am to an all in one handheld. In all honesty, perfect SM64 Rom hack compatibility on PSP would be enough for me. I beat the Rare collection, the Zelda's, and pretty much all of the N64 essentials but I'll never trully beat SM64. Not until Rom hackers lose interest. Sorry for the essay, I just want the world to know that someone who understands that there are better options still wants this lol.

 

[Manana]

N64 emulators are a massive undertaking to make - as evidenced by the fact that there are a slim few that work very well on any platform, to this day - and they may have decided that it would be better to work on the existing PSP codebase especially since there are improvements to be made.

Additionally, Daedalus can be run on Vita via Adrenaline, so making it a PSP program allows it to run on both systems anyway.

I think all emulators are a massive undertaking, sure some systems are more complex than others but I feel that Rom compatibility and performance have alot to do with the popularity of the emulated system and current hype behind the system It's being ported to. Take Sega Saturn example, correct me if I'm wrong (Because I probably am) but N64 is more complex yet it seems to have better overall compatibility on most of the systems It's on. PC's always have the best emulators, I know PC's are stronger but I think it could also have to do with the fact that alot more people own them so there is more demand for them and also more people that can assist in the emulators development.

 

[Augsss]

cool

 

[TheMrIron2]

Remember that this is a 333MHz PSP emulating a 90MHz N64 - this is a colossal ask and it's incredible that many games are near full speed. Mario 64 runs at 25/30FPS even in open areas like Bob Omb Battlefield, inside the castle it comes closer to 60FPS than full speed, 30FPS.

 

[Augsss]

Yea, especially it runs faster without sound (which i don't mind)

 

[th3joker]

this brings me joy even if it doesnt improve much

 

[Poudink]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong here but it downloads as a 42mb rar files but it extracts as an 8kb file. I really want to have this update though, since a lot of the games run pretty slow right now and it looks like this improve things tremendously.

 

[Chillimonster]

New version dropped a few days ago (1.1.2)

and is on the github page

 

[Poudink]

yeah that's what I had trouble with. got it working though. 1.1.3 is out too, and is said to come with more huge performance improvements.

 

[TheMrIron2]

Yes, I was the person responsible for 1.1.3, which in all honesty is hardly "huge". It's simply optimising some of the math used by the Media Engine on the PSP; we still need to rework the job manager for it, more importantly. Once that is done, asynchronous sound should run at more or less the same speed as sound off. This is a pretty big deal because F-Zero X runs at 100FPS in places without sound, but only half that with sound, so in specific cases it is a serious bottleneck. We'll be addressing that soon enough anyway. For now, we've squeezed all we can out of the current code, so we need to start writing some new stuff.

For those wondering, I also made a compatibility list for all the games with the latest Daedalus stuff and I'm updating it constantly: https://github.com/z2442/daedalus/wiki/Compatibility
https://github.com/z2442/daedalus/wiki/Compatibility
Edit: For those having issues with 1.1.2, that's because the source code was uploaded, not a compiled EBOOT for your PSP. 1.1.3 released with an EBOOT.PBP file which you can safely replace in your current daedalus folder.
Edit 2: I'll specify what I mean by "hardly huge" - the performance speedup is 3-9% depending on game. It's not that big.

 

[Durelle]

I'll test this (1.1.3) , hopefully the 1 game I wanna play works lol

-edit-
I don't see the eboot,

 

[Poudink]

this is the most complete compatibility list I know of, if you want to have somewhere to start from.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160828165432/http://forums.daedalusx64.com:80/compat.php
edit:yeah don't use the 1.1.2 update ever. use 1.1.1 with the 1.1.3 eboot else you'll get constant blue screens.

 

[TheMrIron2]

I'm aware of the compatibility list, but thank you. I'm bearing it in mind, but I am basically trying to re-test games wherever possible to reflect the most recent performance.

Edit: I'd also like to mention that we have a Discord server for discussing our plans and stuff like that. I don't know the GBAtemp rules on this, so am I allowed to post invites?