While you've likely been enjoying GBA emulation for years, on various platforms, the PlayStation Vita hasn't always had an easy time of it. Despite being a very similar form factor to the original GBA, and still relatively portable, the handheld never made for an ideal platform to emulate Game Boy Advance games on. mGBA is still making progress on improving GBA emulation on the Vita, while gpsp has been dealing with a major bug, which causes noticeable stuttering ingame. That's not the case anymore, though, as Frangar, developer of gpsp, has made a significant update to the emulator which fixes the broken dynarec that has been plaguing it for the past three years. The bugfix, which allows for "a big increase in performance", has been merged into Libretro's master branch, and should be available to try out in the next nightly version of RetroArch.

Source

 

[TurdPooCharger]

This might give GBA VC a run for its money for those with new series 3DS/2DS. My quick play through in F-Zero: Max Velocity, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Metroid: Zero Mission was super smooth and stable for the gpSP core found in the latest RetroArch v1.8.1 nightly build. There were a few graphical inaccuracies here and there but nothing noticeably jarring. You guys might want to adjust the video filter with 2xBR, LQ2x, or Normal2x setting for sharper image quality.

Late edit - Ignore what I wrote above. The reported bugfix only applies for the PS VITA.

I misunderstood the article with the idea this fix was cross platform. After further testing with more games like Golden Sun and Pokemon romhacks, gpSP for the 3DS still experiences random crashes.

Apologies for the bad post.

 

[Zense]

So for those without a Vita, does this also affect the 3ds gpsp core?

 

[Clydefrosch]

So for those without a Vita, does this also affect the 3ds gpsp core?

i would assume no, because the 3ds never had an issue with stuttering and thus low performance. it always ran fullspeed and beyond, just with randomly crashing for unknown (though supposedly dynarec related) reasons



so the next nightly would be out tomorrow?

 

[tabnk]

Already out.

https://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/playstation/vita/2019-11-10_RetroArch.vpk

Golden Sun FULL SPEED.

 

[gnmmarechal]

Pretty nice to see!

 

[Rahkeesh]

Good job! Now let's fix the 3DS dynarec too so I don't have to buy a Vita.

 

[animex2k9]

Sorry but I think I came a little.

 

[x65943]

Guess it's time to wipe the dust of the PSP today!

 

[AkitoUF]

This is awesome. It'd be great to have this kind of discoveries for SNES emulation too which, while still pretty decent, still gets slowdowns in games like DKC or in general with parts heavy on Mode7 (I noticed it while playing Dragon Quest 3 last week, got huge slowdowns when flying on the phoenix)

 

[lafleche]

Great stuff.
Playing dkc 3 as smooth as butter.

 

[MrCokeacola]

Vita does what Nintendon't

 

[ChibiMofo]

Vita does what Nintendon't

Finally a reason to own a PS VITA: That it can play 15-20 year old Nintendo games without stuttering like it has for years.
LOL!

 

[Joel16]

Finally a reason to own a PS VITA: That it can play 15-20 year old Nintendo games without stuttering like it has for years.
LOL!

Finally I can play games with an actually good screen, not some 240p screen that looks like it came from the 90s.

 

[Flame]

with the latest nightly (retroarch) its keep crashing and not opening for me for some strange reason on the vita.

 

[limpbiz411]

doesnt seem to save, i dont know if im making a mistake but saves arent working

 

[Graxer]

with the latest nightly (retroarch) its keep crashing and not opening for me for some strange reason on the vita.

Exactly the same thing is happening to me. I can't start any games without Retroarch crashing. That is with the new version of Retroarch linked to above.

 

[Flame]

Exactly the same thing is happening to me. I can't start any games without Retroarch crashing. That is with the new version of Retroarch linked to above.

I'm mean every other cores work fine on other consoles such and GB/C, NES, SNES, Sega stuff and what not

I'm sure they fix it in the coming days....... hopefully.

 

[coinblock]

This might give GBA VC a run for its money for those with new series 3DS/2DS. My quick play through in F-Zero: Max Velocity, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Metroid: Zero Mission was super smooth and stable for the gpSP core found in the latest RetroArch v1.8.1 nightly build. There were a few graphical inaccuracies here and there but nothing noticeably jarring. You guys might want to adjust the video filter with 2xBR, LQ2x, or Normal2x setting for sharper image quality.

But until the issues with the dynarec are fixed it's pretty much unusable on the 3DS, unless you can deal with losing your progress when the emulator randomly crashes.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

i would assume no, because the 3ds never had an issue with stuttering and thus low performance. it always ran fullspeed and beyond, just with randomly crashing for unknown (though supposedly dynarec related) reasons

But until the issues with the dynarec are fixed it's pretty much unusable on the 3DS, unless you can deal with losing your progress when the emulator randomly crashes.

Yah, sorry about that. I jumped the gun with my first report.

Did some more play through with Golden Sun and Pokemon romhacks, and gpSP for the 3DS crashed on those later titles unfortunately. Talk about coincidence the first three games that were tested worked seemingly fine at a glance.

Edited my first post to reflect the mistaken observation.