Game Boy and Game Boy Color Emulation (still to be dessired)

MeXen

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I noticed that even EmGBA gives me trouble with emulation with the micro audio stutters, but last few sessions i had issues running any of the Super Mario Bros Mini builds (game made with GBStudio).

https://mico27.itch.io/super-mario-bros-mini

All of these titles developed using this engine suffer the same issues with very basic moving to the right scrolling, whereas i saw videos of Super Mario Bros Mini running on PC emulators and running well at 60fps and with no Stutter or screen tearing, i was even having issues with Super Mario Land DX on eMGBA, i have hoewever not tested them in PC emulators tough for some reason.

Why is it that GB/GBC emulation is still not optimal?, VBAgx is outdated and i dont like the way it renders 4:3, more stretchy horizontally that how SGB looked on actual hardware, and if you use B.Sharp it makes the graphic look crunchy and poorly adapted to scanlines, eMGBA has micro stutters to sometimes downright having softlock pauses (last time i played Super Mario Bros Mini, it flaut out soft locked the Wii until i forced turned it off!, i am not making this up!

I tried to the best Game Boy cores (Gear Boy, Gambatte and mGBA) on RetroArch 1.7.6 and they all struggle to run GBStudio games to some extent! and current GB cores on modern RA are plain ass useless!

I have to wonder, why hasnt something like SameBoy being ported on the WII as a standalone emulator! how much would it take to the WII to run it since its supposed to be accurate, ITS FUCKING GAME BOY, it wouldnt cause as much issue as something like, SNES!?, even Genesis is just as good as accurate with the current dev builds of Genesis Plus GX! GBA is pretty much perfect with mGBA and that's a stand alone emulator for WII, but its terrible to run GB and GBC? specially it cannot scale GB at 4:3 Super Game Boy Pillarboxing?

Like jesus, the more i get into it, the Wii is pretty much an underwhelming experience on emulation.
 

SaulFabre

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SameBoy is avaliable as a libretro core for Wii U so i'd like to see how it performs on Wii. I'll try changing some code later.

https://github.com/saulfabregwiivc/SameBoy (my fork)

EDIT: I made a small commit in my fork for allow compiling on Wii but haven't tested (too busy rn):
https://github.com/saulfabregwiivc/SameBoy/commit/a6d8ee5f974eb35c36d3e50079d1edd9e156be64

i'll edit the message when i delete the commit and replace with a new one when i really tested it.

EDIT 2: It doesn't want to compile cause i can't install the dependency RGBDS (https://rgbds.gbdev.io/install) for my setup, but luckily upstream SameBoy has a libretro branch, which has the needed files for compile it as a Libretro core:
https://github.com/LIJI32/SameBoy/tree/libretro

EDIT 3:

GOT SAMEBOY TO COMPILE AS A LIBRETRO CORE FOR Wii!!!!!!!!! :D
(only the .a file atm, i'll try linking to some RetroArch version later)

Source code of my fork with my changes to compile for Wii as a libretro core: https://github.com/saulfabregwiivc/SameBoy/tree/wii-libretro-port/

EDIT 4:
I compiled my fork of SameBoy for Wii against RA Wii 1.7.7 and while to boots and can load roms it is unusable cause this emu runs slow on Wii, at least with the few GB and GBC games i tried.
 
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SaulFabre

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ooff, all right, thank you for trying my friend, dang.
There's still more options for GB and GBC games on Wii.

I heard you tried VBA GX, mGBA, Enhanced mGBA (emGBA), Gambatte, GearBoy, etc...

About the RA ones, did you use the official which come with the RA Wii releases or custom compiled builds?

Also... did you try my RA core of VBA-M i posted time ago? (DO NOT confuse with VBA GX, my core of VBA-M for Wii is way more updated than VBA GX)
 

MeXen

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i went back to VBA-M core on RA 1.7.6 and for most GBC runs well, seems that Super Mario Bros Mini is just poorly optimized due to the engine's nature.

speaking off, does VBA-M core lets you use a custom SGB border from file like the standalone emu does?
 
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SaulFabre

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speaking off, does VBA-M core lets you use a custom SGB border from file like the standalone emu does?
i think so yes but it's not the same procedure like VBA GX.

In the case of RetroArch, you have to get overlays and then adjust the screen position and size of the game for get the custom overlay (border) image working.

EDIT: Doing a quick Google search i found this thread where it teachs how to use custom overlay (border) images on most GB/GBC cores including VBA-M:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-super-game-boy-borders-overlays.372085/

EDIT 2: Another one:
https://gbatemp.net/download/retroarch-wii-super-game-boy-border-overlays.38172/

But i've figured out that an important setting present in the .cfg files, called overlay0_full_screen, isn't supported on the GC/Wii versions of RetroArch.
 
Last edited by SaulFabre,

Tetsuo Shima

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@MeXen Regarding retroarch wii, make sure you disabled bilinear filtering, deflicker and soft filtering. They may impact on frame rate.
Or you can try my modded RA cores from this thread:
Retroarch Wiiflow Plugins: independent cores and pixel perfect scanlines
and follow the included guide to configure them.
I have Super Mario Mini running at stable 59 fps, as well as Mario Land DX.
and I hear no audio stuttering at all.
However, note that my Gambatte GBC and DMG cores are based on Retroarch 1.8.8 but in my experience after so many tests they proved to be the best ones for my purposes.
 
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SaulFabre

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@Tetsuo Shima about overlays, i think @MeXen was talking about these overlays, which are actually borders:

DMG_White.png


(The overlay i'm using is from the SGB borders collection for RA Wii brought by @JuanMena. Thanks Juan!)

Btw, i also was having trouble trying to get borders to work in my setup of RA Wii.
But at least with my core of VBA-M for Wii i recompiled time ago, it's possible to use custom overlays (borders) images (PNG) with VBA-M, but it's a little tricky:
(btw it works on GB, SGB and GBC games, never tried GBA)

1. Put your overlays borders into device_root:/retroarch/overlays/
2. Launch my core of VBA-M
3. Launch any GB/SGB/GBC game you want
4. Press HOME for enter to RetroArch Menu, then in the Quick Menu, go to Options

1736364276474.png


5. in Core Options, set (GB) Show Borders to OFF

1736364316998.png


You should have something like this:

1736364537156.png


6. Return to Quick Menu and go to Onscreen Overlay

1736364471469.png


7. On Onscreen Overlay options, select Overlay Preset and select the overlay you want to use

1736364599963.png


8. Make sure you set Display Overlay to ON.
9. Set Overlay Opacity to 1.00.
10. Set Overlay Scale to 1.00. NOTE: Sometimes you might want to adjust this setting if your overlay (border) covers some important parts of the screen.

1736364638789.png


11. Once done, the overlay border is ready to use with VBA-M (Wii libretro core):

1736364761183.png


Hope this helps. :)
 

MeXen

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OK so, it sorta worked, more or less, but i noticed its not scaled 100% horizontally, there's gaps around the corners of the game area.

1736399614299.png


Do i have to edit the PNG file or the cfg file i made for it (i just duplicated one included in that dropbox files from one of the links above), also here are the set ups for RA itself.

1736399701461.jpeg


by the way the one being pictured here its the only one of the borders i scaled at proper 256x224p, the others are at 2x scale but more or less are scaled at 224p, noticed how there's a bit of a video softening when using them even when having soft filters disabled.
 
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JuanMena

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OK so, it sorta worked, more or less, but i noticed its not scaled 100% horizontally, there's gaps around the corners of the game area.

View attachment 479715

Do i have to edit the PNG file or the cfg file i made for it (i just duplicated one included in that dropbox files from one of the links above), also here are the set ups for RA itself.

View attachment 479716

by the way the one being pictured here its the only one of the borders i scaled at proper 256x224p, the others are at 2x scale but more or less are scaled at 224p, noticed how there's a bit of a video softening when using them even when having soft filters disabled.
The softening is from RetroArch. It happens with ANY overlay.

Go to Video -> Threaded Video -> ON to fix it.

This only works with non demanding games, as it makes most cores slow with Threaded Video ON.
Post automatically merged:

Also Threaded Video ON breaks controls, so there's that too 😃
 
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Tetsuo Shima

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@SaulFabre Yes, I was referring mostly to the performance issues he was having with Mario micro and his RA version. I didn't notice any remarkable performance issue with my modded Gambatte from RA 1.8.8, considering that it can coexist with other RA versions, maybe it could be worth a try if if performances are still an issue and everything else fails.
 
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SaulFabre

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@SaulFabre Yes, I was referring mostly to the performance issues he was having with Mario micro and his RA version. I didn't notice any remarkable performance issue with my modded Gambatte from RA 1.8.8, considering that it can coexist with other RA versions, maybe it could be worth a try if if performances are still an issue and everything else fails.
Interesting, i'll try recompiling latest Gambatte with older RA Wii versions and see how it performs. Right now i was playing that same fangame on my core of VBA-M, and i didn't notice any slowdown other than the ones which are from the emulated system? (Having all filters turn off as well as let in OFF the Threaded Video)
 

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I notice some scroll drag on the original GB games. This is present on real hardware and the Super Game Boy for SNES.

Pretty sure the Game Boy Color fixed the stuttering. It came with a better processor and more memory.

If the homebrew games aren't running smooth, I would contact a GBstudio dev. Is there a video of the rom running without scrolling issues? What emulator?
 
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MeXen

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@Tetsuo Shima about overlays, i think @MeXen was talking about these overlays, which are actually borders:

View attachment 479641

(The overlay i'm using is from the SGB borders collection for RA Wii brought by @JuanMena. Thanks Juan!)

Btw, i also was having trouble trying to get borders to work in my setup of RA Wii.
But at least with my core of VBA-M for Wii i recompiled time ago, it's possible to use custom overlays (borders) images (PNG) with VBA-M, but it's a little tricky:
(btw it works on GB, SGB and GBC games, never tried GBA)

1. Put your overlays borders into device_root:/retroarch/overlays/
2. Launch my core of VBA-M
3. Launch any GB/SGB/GBC game you want
4. Press HOME for enter to RetroArch Menu, then in the Quick Menu, go to Options

View attachment 479656

5. in Core Options, set (GB) Show Borders to OFF

View attachment 479657

You should have something like this:

View attachment 479661

6. Return to Quick Menu and go to Onscreen Overlay

View attachment 479658

7. On Onscreen Overlay options, select Overlay Preset and select the overlay you want to use

View attachment 479662

8. Make sure you set Display Overlay to ON.
9. Set Overlay Opacity to 1.00.
10. Set Overlay Scale to 1.00. NOTE: Sometimes you might want to adjust this setting if your overlay (border) covers some important parts of the screen.

View attachment 479663

11. Once done, the overlay border is ready to use with VBA-M (Wii libretro core):

View attachment 479664

Hope this helps. :)

I never got a response over the fact that when i managed to get it done on my end, it left gaps like this:

1737249243814.png
 

water_kooler

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I never got a response over the fact that when i managed to get it done on my end, it left gaps like this:

View attachment 481256

I couldn't replicate the overscan issue on my end.
However I want to share a method I use to make the stuttering less noticable. Apply these settings in Retroarch:

Video > Output > Threaded Video (on)
Video > Scaling > Integer Scale (on)
Video > Synchronization > Sync to Exact Content Framerate (on)

The horizontal scrolling is so choppy on default settings.
supermariobrosmini.gb runs smooth on mGBA now.
 
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MeXen

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I couldn't replicate the overscan issue on my end.
However I want to share a method I use to make the stuttering less noticable. Apply these settings in Retroarch:

Video > Output > Threaded Video (on)
Video > Scaling > Integer Scale (on)
Video > Synchronization > Sync to Exact Content Framerate (on)

The horizontal scrolling is so choppy on default settings.
supermariobrosmini.gb runs smooth on mGBA now.
You still there bro? are you talking about mGBA core on PC RA or Wii RA? out of last resort i run this and Akumanor DX on Wii Mednafen and they run, welp, better, but that one cannot output the same proper 4:3 SGB style Integer Scale aspect ratio i think after thinkering with settings.
 
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SaulFabre

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@MeXen i'll send you two overlays (it has four but it's actually two with two versions: one without scanlines (pixels) and one with scanlines (pixels).

Was intended to use with my VBA-M core but i think it should work on other GB/GBC cores on RA Wii too.

Beware that i use these overlays when the Screen Aspect Ratio option in Video settings is set to Core provided.

GBC_Kiwi.png

GBC_Kiwi_scanlines.png
 

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water_kooler

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You still there bro? are you talking about mGBA core on PC RA or Wii RA? out of last resort i run this and Akumanor DX on Wii Mednafen and they run, welp, better, but that one cannot output the same proper 4:3 SGB style Integer Scale aspect ratio i think after thinkering with settings.
Im away from the Wii, so I tried using the Android version of retroarch. Most of the video settings are the same.
I use the Super Game Boy borders built into mGba. I haven't figured out the bezels yet.
Post automatically merged:

@MeXen i'll send you two overlays (it has four but it's actually two with two versions: one without scanlines (pixels) and one with scanlines (pixels).

Was intended to use with my VBA-M core but i think it should work on other GB/GBC cores on RA Wii too.

Beware that i use these overlays when the Screen Aspect Ratio option in Video settings is set to Core provided.

These overlays look great. Is there a guide on how to use these? I can't get overlays to work
 
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