Homebrew WIP melonDS for Switch

ShadowOne333

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Personally, I'd rather have the option of not requiring Android to do things, which is why melonDS has my interest.
Agree 100%
To me using other OS's in a system like the Switch is just a dumb idea.
It's easier to just get the emus and roms in the phone and that's it.

But I prefer having proper homebrew made for the console's original OS.
Not only does it give the system its iwn unique feel, but it also shows how many interesting and skilled people can be when developing software based on the system's specs and libraries.
And add to that the fact that you can have almost the entire Nintendo legacy in it (excluding 3DS and Dolphin, and a couple WiiU games not yet ported for DX versions), and it's just amazing.


All in all, I am always delighted to see the development of an app/emu and how it evolves, and this is a clear example of that :)
 

ZachyCatGames

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Agree 100%
To me using other OS's in a system like the Switch is just a dumb idea.
It's easier to just get the emus and roms in the phone and that's it.

But I prefer having proper homebrew made for the console's original OS.
Not only does it give the system its iwn unique feel, but it also shows how many interesting and skilled people can be when developing software based on the system's specs and libraries.
And add to that the fact that you can have almost the entire Nintendo legacy in it (excluding 3DS and Dolphin, and a couple WiiU games not yet ported for DX versions), and it's just amazing.


All in all, I am always delighted to see the development of an app/emu and how it evolves, and this is a clear example of that :)
I wouldn’t say other OS’s are dumb, they do have some huge advantages, like the proper nvgpu drivers in L4T are really nice to have. But usually if there’s a homebrew version of something and it works decently I’ll choose it over the linux version of it
 
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Rahkeesh

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Sounds like a medium overclock would easily handle this. That's great news, and easy to stomach if the GPU is mostly idle.

So you just need a built-in overclock (hooking into sys-clk?) and you're good.
 
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doctorgoat

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progress!



like the x64 JIT (which has been merged btw!) the ARM64 JIT is now in a state where it's roughly complete, with still (hopefully very few or no:D) bugs to be found and optimisations to be made.

Unfortunately the speed gained by the dynarec wasn't enough, it ran almost full speed. In most situations the 2D GPU was the bottleneck now (3-4ms spent emulating the CPU while 9ms per frame spent emulating the 2D GPU). Fortunately I had already experimented with some optimisations in the past and here we are. It's running barely at full speed, but there's also still enough optimisation potential there.

EDIT: this is of course without overclocking


What about more challenging titles to run like FF4 or SaGa 2? I've got no problem with overclocking a bit, considering at least one game goes to higher clocking for performance
 

crow132

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Agree 100%
To me using other OS's in a system like the Switch is just a dumb idea.
It's easier to just get the emus and roms in the phone and that's it.

But I prefer having proper homebrew made for the console's original OS.
Not only does it give the system its iwn unique feel, but it also shows how many interesting and skilled people can be when developing software based on the system's specs and libraries.
And add to that the fact that you can have almost the entire Nintendo legacy in it (excluding 3DS and Dolphin, and a couple WiiU games not yet ported for DX versions), and it's just amazing.


All in all, I am always delighted to see the development of an app/emu and how it evolves, and this is a clear example of that :)

is not a dumb idea, and you can always have the option to boot multiple OS

you should respect the hard job of those who port other OS to the switch for us who find it really useful
 
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catlover007

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What about more challenging titles to run like FF4 or SaGa 2? I've got no problem with overclocking a bit, considering at least one game goes to higher clocking for performance
Sounds like a medium overclock would easily handle this. That's great news, and easy to stomach if the GPU is mostly idle.

I haven't tried many games, but I think through high overclocking most 2d games and light 3d games reach full speed (most of the time). Still I target no overclock, especially since there's still a lot of potential for optimisation.

I'm currently optimising 2d graphics, since every game uses them and outside of loading screens they're the bottleneck currently. The next thing on my list are further CPU dynarec optimisations, to eliminate the performance drops during loading screens and other cpu intense situations. At this point hopefully most 2d games will run more or less flawlessly. The next step would be 3d optimisation, we'll see when we get there.
 
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Billy Acuña

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@StapleButter is texture dumping/replacement on your todo list? I think the DS does pretty good at polycount and lighting effects, but I think something should be done with those low-res textures :)
 

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If I haven't given my 2 cents yet, let me just say "Thank You!" for not abandoning this project. Apparently Drastic is nice, but I intend to run HOS/Atmosphere most of the time. So being able to play NDS games without having to reboot is awesome! I really look forward to playing Tetris DS and Solatorobo with seperable controllers (seriously. The fact that the Switch has mountable/removable controllers is a major selling point for me!).

So, for everyone involved, thank you! This is awesome. :)
 
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catlover007

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@StapleButter is texture dumping/replacement on your todo list? I think the DS does pretty good at polycount and lighting effects, but I think something should be done with those low-res textures :)

Texture replacement would require a texture cache, which would also be an optimisation both the sw and the ogl renderer. It was mentioned a few times in the past, but there are currently no plans for anyone to implement it. If I ever get to the point where I optimise the 3d rendering, a texture cache would probably be something I would try.

Still texture replacement would require some additional work and would probably be left out for the sw renderer, since it's more focussed on accuracy and performance wouldn't be great either.
 

Arisotura

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texture cache and replacement is something that is planned, as well as xBRZ filtering and other fancy shit :)

but, y'know how this goes, I need to actually get there. and maybe understand how xBRZ filtering works and how I can apply it where I want.

Unfortunately the speed gained by the dynarec wasn't enough, it ran almost full speed. In most situations the 2D GPU was the bottleneck now (3-4ms spent emulating the CPU while 9ms per frame spent emulating the 2D GPU). Fortunately I had already experimented with some optimisations in the past and here we are. It's running barely at full speed, but there's also still enough optimisation potential there.
interesting. I'd like to learn more about why the 2D GPU runs so slowly on ARM platforms. we must be hitting some pitfall specific to ARM, as my profiling sessions on x64 have shown that the main bottleneck is always CPU emulation.

fun reminders of blargSNES, though-- I ran into the exact same issue, the PPU being the bottleneck. maybe I just suck at writing fast renderers under ARM :P


by the way, melonDS 0.8.3 is out, check it out

we haven't merged the JIT into it yet tho, I want to give it more testing and shit. there will be beta releases for JIT and DSi soon enough.
 

RisingHopperZeroOne

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Oh okay I truly dont mind the overclock I just want playable pokemon platinum tbh is there any estimation at how far along the JIT is though?
I wouldn't mind if the performance improvement is great but it isn't at the moment and the answer is soon, there will be a beta releases for it as said above.
 
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catlover007

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the x64 JIT will get a beta build sooner or later. On the otherhand the ARM64 JIT(which is relevant for switch) still sleeps on my computer and probably will continue to do so for some time. While not running 3d graphics(which haven't got any optimisations since the last time) all games I tried ran fullspeed, except for loading screens, where the cpu utilitisation jumps to 100%. So there're more JIT optimisations needed, esp. since I want to get some headroom for 3d games.
 
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ShadowOne333

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the x64 JIT will get a beta build sooner or later. On the otherhand the ARM64 JIT(which is relevant for switch) still sleeps on my computer and probably will continue to do so for some time. While not running 3d graphics(which haven't got any optimisations since the last time) all games I tried ran fullspeed, except for loading screens, where the cpu utilitisation jumps to 100%. So there're more JIT optimisations needed, esp. since I want to get some headroom for 3d games.
That sounds awesome :)
I can't wait for the JIT to evolve and melonDS as well.
Having DS emulation on the Switch would be an awesome addition.
 
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