Gaming Hardware Homebrew Emulation Misc How accurate was the emulation on Virtual Console compared to most emulation?

[GAPMan]

Exactly what is says on the title, how accurate was the emulation of the Virtual Console compared to actual emulators such as Genesis Plus GX, or BSNES? Is it good or is it inferior to those emulators?

 

[ZipMartin]

I have a similar question: is the Wii Virtual Console better than the Wii U Virtual Console for some systems? Which ones? In which case, is it still better to run Wii VC games on the Wii U using vWii?

I remember seeing My Life In Gaming showing something about the colors of NES games on Wii U, for example, how they looked darkened and worse...

 

[the_randomizer]

I have a similar question: is the Wii Virtual Console better than the Wii U Virtual Console for some systems? Which ones? In which case, is it still better to run Wii VC games on the Wii U using vWii?

I remember seeing My Life In Gaming showing something about the colors of NES games on Wii U, for example, how they looked darkened and worse...

NES, Snes and N64 used dark filters to "reduce flashing lights" or something. DS, GBA were written by NERD and had no such issues. In terms of actual accuracy, N64 emulated the R4300i and RDP more accurately than the Wii did (alpha dithering in Mario 64 for example, was emulated properly). There are hacks and guides that remove the dark filters.

 

[Vague Rant]

NES, Snes and N64 used dark filters to "reduce flashing lights" or something. DS, GBA were written by NERD and had no such issues.

GBA was M2, not NERD. And both emulators do use dark filters. IIRC, GBA displays with 75% brightness and Nintendo DS with 80% brightness. Both can be tweaked to offer 100% brightness with homebrew, but they don't come that way.

Another consideration with Wii U vs. Wii VC is input lag. N64 VC on Wii U has absolutely miserable input lag, much worse than on original Wii or even the vWii in the Wii U. I've heard similar things about NES and SNES VC, but I'm not super familiar with either on Wii or Wii U because there's simply better options via homebrew. But for N64, I'd personally take the reduced input lag over improved emulation unless the game simply doesn't run right on Wii. GBA and DS Virtual Console are the only platforms where I've never heard anything negative about their handling of input.

In the scheme of things I'd say it's probably something like:

NES: Just use homebrew emulators, they're better than either VC offering.
SNES: Just use homebrew emulators, they're better than either VC offering.
N64: Wii VC for reduced input lag, Wii U VC for more accurate emulation and rumble support. Homebrew emulator Not64 for most accurate emulation, but N64 is hit and miss--some games work on Not64 but not on Wii/U VC and vice versa. There's no "one size" solution for N64 on Wii/U.

Going back to the OP's question, community emulators are far more accurate than anything the VC has ever done. bsnes would not be remotely possible on Wii U performance-wise. Virtual Console starts with the primary goal of making those emulators run a specific subset of games at 100% speed on very weak hardware, whereas something like bsnes started with the goal of emulating the SNES as accurately as possible, with performance a distant second priority, and performance on low-end hardware like a Wii not even a consideration at all. Genesis Plus (before GX) started with performance as a priority but the Wii (and later libretro) GX port was more of a full rewrite to target accuracy within the limits of the Wii. Something like BlastEm, another community Mega Drive/Genesis emulator, is more accurate again than Wii VC.

 

[Exidous]

To clarify, when people say "accurate" in the context of emulators they mean 'how close to the complete production of the original hardware is the simulation.' The most accurate emulator for some games is Not64 running in interpreter mode. It's also slow as molasses and unplayable. You want to use dynarec.

Performance/efficiency is an extremely important value in N64 emulation on Wii, because of computational constraints. I say, go ahead and drop a texture if it means going from 10 fps to 30.

That said, the "best" emulator, a mix of accuracy and performance, varies from game to game. If there is a native (not injected) VC version, that's probably the best. After that it varies from game to game, although I can't think of a game off the top of my head where I prefer the best VC injection option known to Not64.

Oh, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon injected in Bomberman Hero. But it's a bit slow, the (glorious) soundtrack is ruined, and you can't save. But it has game breaking issues in Not64, so I think that counts.

 

[the_randomizer]

GBA was M2, not NERD. And both emulators do use dark filters. IIRC, GBA displays with 75% brightness and Nintendo DS with 80% brightness. Both can be tweaked to offer 100% brightness with homebrew, but they don't come that way.

Another consideration with Wii U vs. Wii VC is input lag. N64 VC on Wii U has absolutely miserable input lag, much worse than on original Wii or even the vWii in the Wii U. I've heard similar things about NES and SNES VC, but I'm not super familiar with either on Wii or Wii U because there's simply better options via homebrew. But for N64, I'd personally take the reduced input lag over improved emulation unless the game simply doesn't run right on Wii. GBA and DS Virtual Console are the only platforms where I've never heard anything negative about their handling of input.

In the scheme of things I'd say it's probably something like:

NES: Just use homebrew emulators, they're better than either VC offering.
SNES: Just use homebrew emulators, they're better than either VC offering.
N64: Wii VC for reduced input lag, Wii U VC for more accurate emulation and rumble support. Homebrew emulator Not64 for most accurate emulation, but N64 is hit and miss--some games work on Not64 but not on Wii/U VC and vice versa. There's no "one size" solution for N64 on Wii/U.

Going back to the OP's question, community emulators are far more accurate than anything the VC has ever done. bsnes would not be remotely possible on Wii U performance-wise. Virtual Console starts with the primary goal of making those emulators run a specific subset of games at 100% speed on very weak hardware, whereas something like bsnes started with the goal of emulating the SNES as accurately as possible, with performance a distant second priority, and performance on low-end hardware like a Wii not even a consideration at all. Genesis Plus (before GX) started with performance as a priority but the Wii (and later libretro) GX port was more of a full rewrite to target accuracy within the limits of the Wii. Something like BlastEm, another community Mega Drive/Genesis emulator, is more accurate again than Wii VC.

NOT64 was okay, but a lot of Rare games used horrible linear interpolation for the audio and sound like ear rape in my opinion. Many games had culling and clipping issues. Wii U never got dynarec N64 emulation and prob never will. Best to stick with injection honestly. For Snes, Snes9x 2010 or mainline.

 

[Extrems]

To clarify, when people say "accurate" in the context of emulators they mean 'how close to the complete production of the original hardware is the simulation.' The most accurate emulator for some games is Not64 running in interpreter mode. It's also slow as molasses and unplayable. You want to use dynarec.

FYI the interpreter is less accurate than the dynamic recompiler.

 

[SaulFabre]

For change the dark and blurry color palette from NES VC releases for Wii, i've made a guide for that: https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutoria...-palette-in-wii-virtual-console-games.590714/

NES VC releases for Wii didn't have a dark filter, but had a darkened color palette, so i made a tutorial for replace that and instead of that dark colors put a color palette with brighten colors.

 

[Exidous]

FYI the interpreter is less accurate than the dynamic recompiler.

Wow, that's a surprise. Is it much less developed or optimized than dynamic? Or is the interpreter in Not64 different than the cpu rendering solution that "interpreter" usually means with other emulators?

 

[SaulFabre]

Wow, that's a surprise. Is it much less developed or optimized than dynamic? Or is the interpreter in Not64 different than the cpu rendering solution that "interpreter" usually means with other emulators?

Interpreter is slow but more compatibility
Recompiler is a bit fast but has a little reduced compatibility

 

[Extrems]

Wow, that's a surprise. Is it much less developed or optimized than dynamic? Or is the interpreter in Not64 different than the cpu rendering solution that "interpreter" usually means with other emulators?

We've never bothered to make it use the correct floating-point rounding mode on our platform, amongst other neglects over the years.