Homebrew How much battery life do homebrew and emulators consume compared to normal 3DS games?

[Gameoverman]

As I understand it, DS games consume less power than 3DS games, and GBA games consume less power than DS games. Which means, if I want to use my 3DS for the longest possible time, I should go with a GBA virtual console game. Is this understanding correct?

But, compared to all these ways of playing games on the 3DS, just how battery consuming are homebrew applications and emulators? Would an NES emulator (say, VirtuaNES, for example) consume the same amount of power as a 3DS game? What about SNES9x, PicoDrive, and other emulators? How much battery do they consume? If this is the case, would an NES virtual console be preferred for saving battery, compared to using VirtuaNES?

 

[Ryab]

As I understand it, DS games consume less power than 3DS games, and GBA games consume less power than DS games. Which means, if I want to use my 3DS for the longest possible time, I should go with a GBA virtual console game. Is this understanding correct?

But, compared to all these ways of playing games on the 3DS, just how battery consuming are homebrew applications and emulators? Would an NES emulator (say, VirtuaNES, for example) consume the same amount of power as a 3DS game? What about SNES9x, PicoDrive, and other emulators? How much battery do they consume? If this is the case, would an NES virtual console be preferred for saving battery, compared to using VirtuaNES?

first of all you should use official vc whenever possible so NES GB GBC GBA and on new 3ds/2ds also SNES just look up a vc injector for 3ds for other consoles (not sure what they are) just use retroarch

 

[ThoD]

It depends ENTIRELY on what you are running. Two 3DS can empty the battery at considerably different speeds depending on the clock speed for the CPU they are using and how much of the graphics chip's power they use too. Homebrews are the same. Extended-memory games/homebrew consume the most battery (obviously) and emulators use more than what VC uses (VC using the hardware directly, emulators use the hardware for support and use software for emulation meaning more CPU usage, so more battery consumed).

 

[MattKimura]

How much more battery usage are we talking here, with VC versus emulators? Can't be any more than the amount of battery spent playing a new 3DS exclusive title, right? Because I get a good amoutn of play time even on a new 3DS game, and its using up high CPU to run the title.

 

[ThoD]

How much more battery usage are we talking here, with VC versus emulators? Can't be any more than the amount of battery spent playing a new 3DS exclusive title, right? Because I get a good amoutn of play time even on a new 3DS game, and its using up high CPU to run the title.

The CPU NEVER runs at full speed on non-extended memory games and even on most extended memory ones it still isn't allowed to go beyond 90% usage most of the time. As for difference between VC and emulator, for 3DS don't know exactly, but in other consoles emulators have usually taken about 15% more battery on average. Can't speak for 3DS as I only use injects.

 

[MattKimura]

The CPU NEVER runs at full speed on non-extended memory games and even on most extended memory ones it still isn't allowed to go beyond 90% usage most of the time. As for difference between VC and emulator, for 3DS don't know exactly, but in other consoles emulators have usually taken about 15% more battery on average. Can't speak for 3DS as I only use injects.

Ah okay so it doesnt really reach close to that 800 MHz CPU speed when playing a N3DS exclusive. Like when I play Minecraft, it seems like that game uses up a whole lot of CPU with how much it has to render and load up in a world. Incredible to see it running on this device honestly. It even lags sometimes and can lead to a crash. I always feel bad when I play it when it comes to my battery, but I enjoy the game enough to play it often.

 

[ThoD]

Ah okay so it doesnt really reach close to that 800 MHz CPU speed when playing a N3DS exclusive. Like when I play Minecraft, it seems like that game uses up a whole lot of CPU with how much it has to render and load up in a world. Incredible to see it running on this device honestly. It even lags sometimes and can lead to a crash. I always feel bad when I play it when it comes to my battery, but I enjoy the game enough to play it often.

N3DS exclusives take more processing and graphical power to run than extended memory games, so of course they consume a lot of battery. Doubt Minecraft takes too much though, as there is a rip-off for the O3DS that runs about the same, except with worse textures. Games like Xenoblade Chronicles and Beyond the Labyrinth take the most though. Minecraft lags even on PC, it's not that it's heavy, just VERY badly optimized Because of bad optimization, it may take a lot of battery, don't have N3DS to test, but it's possible.

 

[gnmmarechal]

N3DS exclusives take more processing and graphical power to run than extended memory games, so of course they consume a lot of battery. Doubt Minecraft takes too much though, as there is a rip-off for the O3DS that runs about the same, except with worse textures. Games like Xenoblade Chronicles and Beyond the Labyrinth take the most though. Minecraft lags even on PC, it's not that it's heavy, just VERY badly optimized Because of bad optimization, it may take a lot of battery, don't have N3DS to test, but it's possible.

Minecraft is one terribly-performing game. The PE/W10 version that was made from scratch runs so much better.

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When people try to speak of a potato PC and saying "it can't even run Minecraft" they really underestimate how horribly it runs on any computer.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Minecraft is one terribly-performing game. The PE/W10 version that was made from scratch runs so much better.

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When people try to speak of a potato PC and saying "it can't even run Minecraft" they really underestimate how horribly it runs on any computer.

This is the truest thing I've ever seen on this site. Java is just generally bad for games anyway, especially 3D rendered games with large worlds, lol.

 

[MattKimura]

@gnmmarechal @Sophie-bear
Minecraft for 3DS is basically a very early build of pocket edition, like build 0.5.0 or something. While the actual pocket edition and windows 10 edition is already as far as 1.2 right now. They stripped down a lot by using an early build to make sure that it works on the 3DS, then build up from there. Making it its own fork of the game.

Pocket edition/windows 10 edition is considered "bedrock edition", based on its code base which is made from C++ rather than java. Only the console editions (ps3, xbox 360, wiiu, ps4) use java as far as I know. The Xbox One and Switch are fortunate enough to be adopted into the bedrock line, as its getting the "Better together" update, as well as the new "aquatic" update.

As far as Minecraft new 3DS goes, they're slowly enabling things. They just recently added the underwater monument stuff. They seem to be extremely slow and lackluster about developing it though. I made bug reports on mojang's site to help out. Its very playable imo, you can even beat survival and build all you want. Though the game could rarely crash which sucks. But then auto saves and frequent manual saving makes it better. Think back when there were minecraft homebrew apps for the 3DS. This is actually a million times better than that.

 

[gnmmarechal]

@gnmmarechal @Sophie-bear
Minecraft for 3DS is basically a very early build of pocket edition, like build 0.5.0 or something. While the actual pocket edition and windows 10 edition is already as far as 1.2 right now. They stripped down a lot by using an early build to make sure that it works on the 3DS, then build up from there. Making it its own fork of the game.

Pocket edition/windows 10 edition is considered "bedrock edition", based on its code base which is made from C++ rather than java. Only the console editions (ps3, xbox 360, wiiu, ps4) use java as far as I know. The Xbox One and Switch are fortunate enough to be adopted into the bedrock line, as its getting the "Better together" update, as well as the new "aquatic" update.

As far as Minecraft new 3DS goes, they're slowly enabling things. They just recently added the underwater monument stuff. They seem to be extremely slow and lackluster about developing it though. I made bug reports on mojang's site to help out. Its very playable imo, you can even beat survival and build all you want. Though the game could rarely crash which sucks. But then auto saves and frequent manual saving makes it better. Think back when there were minecraft homebrew apps for the 3DS. This is actually a million times better than that.

I know. Just pointing out that the Java version of Minecraft performs horribly. Thank fuck they remade it from scratch, tbh. A game like that has no right to perform that poorly.

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This is the truest thing I've ever seen on this site. Java is just generally bad for games anyway, especially 3D rendered games with large worlds, lol.

I'd blame Java less. It could perform better. They did decide to make W10/PE from the ground up and they likely changed quite a bit internally, and well, it does perform much, but much better. I wouldn't say that's because it isn't Java. Java performing badly is more of a meme than anything else these days.