Homebrew [RetroArch] Nightly builds here!

[AmandaRose]

My file just says "Crash Bandicoot (USA)" but lists it as a CUE file and I can't change that. I got a data.bin.ecm file too. I'm sorry I'm so ignorant with this but I looked all over for a video tutorial or something.

on your PC you need to download a programme called unecm load it and place the ecm file in it it then converts it to a bin file then your bin will work

 

[Gardevoir7]

on your PC you need to download a programme called unecm load it and place the ecm file in it it then converts it to a bin file then your bin will work

Ya I found that out eventually. It works now but at terrible FPS. But it works. So thanks everyone

 

[Vague Rant]

Well, we only have a finite amount of physical buttons we can map to (I'm not sure yet if we can have them start as unbound and then be bound, without things being hard-coded, I'm still new to the way RetroArch works, maybe @aliaspider knows). I guess we could replace escape with it, or something. Alternatively, opening the RetroArch menu should work for pausing (for now), until we figure out what to do.

No we can't, it's something I've been looking at so the list is built from the core not from retropad perspective but I haven't managed yet.

There are still inputs on the RetroPad which aren't mapped in fMSX though, whether or not those inputs are actually available on 3DS: the left and right analog sticks (New 3DS has both of these, of course, but here they'd really be used as a proxy for 8 additional buttons which the player can remap as needed). Obviously this isn't a sensible way for things to operate, but with current RetroArch limitations it seems like the most workable approach to getting more keys available to the player.

 

[daxtsu]

There are still inputs on the RetroPad which aren't mapped in fMSX though, whether or not those inputs are actually available on 3DS: the left and right analog sticks (New 3DS has both of these, of course, but here they'd really be used as a proxy for 8 additional buttons which the player can remap as needed). Obviously this isn't a sensible way for things to operate, but with current RetroArch limitations it seems like the most workable approach to getting more keys available to the player.

That's true, I didn't really think about using analog sticks for buttons. I have no objections to doing that.

 

[thebestdogs]

So I've tried 3 different emus from retroarch and none of them have worked. Different builds too. They show up in the homebrew launcher but give only black and red screens when opened. What's the deal?

 

[Gardevoir7]

So I've tried 3 different emus from retroarch and none of them have worked. Different builds too. They show up in the homebrew launcher but give only black and red screens when opened. What's the deal?

Which emulators did you use? Some don't work on a O3DS.

 

[ric.]

So I've tried 3 different emus from retroarch and none of them have worked. Different builds too. They show up in the homebrew launcher but give only black and red screens when opened. What's the deal?

You probably have the old boot.3dsx. Download the latest one from Smea's website and try again.

 

[thebestdogs]

Which emulators did you use? Some don't work on a O3DS.

Genesis plus originally, and FBA cps2 and neo just now. I have a new 3ds 9.9 on ironhax.

You probably have the old boot.3dsx. Download the latest one from Smea's website and try again.

I replaced the boot.3dsx file with the one linked here http://smealum.github.io/3ds/ but it still does the same thing.

 

[thebestdogs]

Which emulators did you use? Some don't work on a O3DS.

Genesis plus originally, and FBA cps2 and neo just now. I have a new 3ds 9.9 on ironhax.

You probably have the old boot.3dsx. Download the latest one from Smea's website and try again.

I replaced the boot.3dsx file with the one linked here http://smealum.github.io/3ds/ but it still does the same thing.

 

[ubergeek77]

tried to debug that SMAS bug but no luck, it keeps reading the joypads swapped for that game :/
on a side note, super mario RPG works correctly now in catsfc.

Looks like it does! I'm glad you said that. I wouldn't have known to try it otherwise.

(Although the framerate comes to an absolute crawl for the second cutscene with the outside of the castle. It picks back up to normal afterwards though. Looks like any kind of fading in and out, as well as battle transitions, really give the emulator a hard time, even as a .cia on a n3DS)

 

[sj33]

(Although the framerate comes to an absolute crawl for the second cutscene with the outside of the castle. It picks back up to normal afterwards though. Looks like any kind of fading in and out, as well as battle transitions, really give the emulator a hard time, even as a .cia on a n3DS)

I think some kind of bug has recently been introduced. I also have noticed strange pauses during 'transition' phases, such as when loading Mario Bros. 3 itself. It recovers to full speed right afterwards. It's almost like it's 'loading', except it can't be because the full game is loaded into RAM.

This is using an N3DS.

 

[Osakasan]

What happened with Picodrive? It's absent in today's nightly

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Ya I found that out eventually. It works now but at terrible FPS. But it works. So thanks everyone

9.2 N3DS CIA PCSX
frameskip +1,
Audio Sync off
VSync: off
(if it doesn't bother you) audio mute: on

get about 50+ FPS in most parts

 

[Osakasan]

Ok, i'll ask before trying anything else... How can i use the CPS1 core? It always locks my O3DS with the line [FBA] Cannot find driver

Do i need some kind of BIOS?

EDIT: also, got a black screen tryin to load Vampire Killer on jMSX. I'm not having a nice day today, damn

 

[Vague Rant]

Ok, i'll ask before trying anything else... How can i use the CPS1 core? It always locks my O3DS with the line [FBA] Cannot find driver

No BIOS for CPS-1. This sounds like something that would happen if you tried to run a game which isn't for the CPS-1 at all. How are you finding and placing your ROMs? You mustn't rename the zips after *cough* obtaining them, and you do load the zips directly, don't decompress them at all. Could you give an example of a game you're trying that's not working?

 

[Osakasan]

No BIOS for CPS-1. This sounds like something that would happen if you tried to run a game which isn't for the CPS-1 at all. How are you finding and placing your ROMs? You mustn't rename the zips after *cough* obtaining them, and you do load the zips directly, don't decompress them at all. Could you give an example of a game you're trying that's not working?

Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. Is it a CPS1 game or did a mess up? :$

 

[Vague Rant]

Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. Is it a CPS1 game or did a mess up? :$

Nope, that's right, Champion Edition is a CPS-1 game. Your zip file should be called sf2ce.zip. Arcade ROMs operate in sets of "parent" and "child" ROMs with particular archive names, so in this case "sf2ce.zip" is a parent ROM.

You need to have a parent ROM around to play any of its related child ROMs, so if you're trying to play, e.g. sf2ceua.zip, you'll need to have sf2ce.zip in the same directory unless you duplicate the ROMs from the parent in the child (this is highly uncommon, any source you're getting ROMs from probably provides them split into parent and child).

But the error you're getting doesn't sound like one relating to parent and child ROMs. I just tried running sf2ce.zip here (I lazily grabbed the latest MAME ROM, which seems fine, looks like the set is unchanged since the FBA build that's running on 3DS) and it works perfectly fine.

 

[Osakasan]

*talk*

Ok... let's see if i can get this running. Thanks!

EDIT: Ok, now is ROM index 0 not found wft?

EDIT2: Ok, got it running. Still it runs at 20 fps but hey! At least it runs xD

 

[Vague Rant]

Here's a quick rundown and a remap file for anybody trying to play vertical WonderSwan/Color games. The WonderSwan family are a weird bunch. Similar to the Atari Lynx, some games are intended to be played by physically rotating the console in your hands, like so:

For horizontal games (left picture), the bottom left inputs are your "d-pad" (these are buttons X1-X4), your face buttons are A/B over on the right there. The top left inputs (Y1-Y4) are mostly unused, but some more complex games will put things up there. The default button layout in RetroArch puts these on L1/L2/R1/R2.

When you're playing vertical games (right picture), all the inputs are rotated, so now your "d-pad" is the Y buttons, your face buttons are X1-X4, and A/B up the top are the generally-unused ones.

There are some games which expect you to rotate the console mid-game, the most prominent of these being Klonoa. These are probably not worth playing on RetroArch, as you'd have to go in and toggle your remaps constantly to play them. No good.

However, for the vast majority of games, you should be fine with either the default layout (horizontal games), or the following remap intended for vertical games:

Spoiler: Vertical WonderSwan.rmp

input_player1_b = "10"
input_player1_y = "1"
input_player1_select = "2"
input_player1_start = "3"
input_player1_up = "9"
input_player1_down = "0"
input_player1_left = "1"
input_player1_right = "8"
input_player1_a = "11"
input_player1_x = "9"
input_player1_l = "6"
input_player1_r = "7"
input_player1_l2 = "5"
input_player1_r2 = "4"
input_player1_l3 = "14"
input_player1_r3 = "15"
input_player1_l_x = "0"
input_player1_l_y = "1"
input_player1_r_x = "2"
input_player1_r_y = "3"
input_player2_b = "0"
input_player2_y = "1"
input_player2_select = "2"
input_player2_start = "3"
input_player2_up = "4"
input_player2_down = "5"
input_player2_left = "6"
input_player2_right = "7"
input_player2_a = "8"
input_player2_x = "9"
input_player2_l = "10"
input_player2_r = "11"
input_player2_l2 = "12"
input_player2_r2 = "13"
input_player2_l3 = "14"
input_player2_r3 = "15"
input_player2_l_x = "0"
input_player2_l_y = "1"
input_player2_r_x = "2"
input_player2_r_y = "3"
input_player3_b = "0"
input_player3_y = "1"
input_player3_select = "2"
input_player3_start = "3"
input_player3_up = "4"
input_player3_down = "5"
input_player3_left = "6"
input_player3_right = "7"
input_player3_a = "8"
input_player3_x = "9"
input_player3_l = "10"
input_player3_r = "11"
input_player3_l2 = "12"
input_player3_r2 = "13"
input_player3_l3 = "14"
input_player3_r3 = "15"
input_player3_l_x = "0"
input_player3_l_y = "1"
input_player3_r_x = "2"
input_player3_r_y = "3"
input_player4_b = "0"
input_player4_y = "1"
input_player4_select = "2"
input_player4_start = "3"
input_player4_up = "4"
input_player4_down = "5"
input_player4_left = "6"
input_player4_right = "7"
input_player4_a = "8"
input_player4_x = "9"
input_player4_l = "10"
input_player4_r = "11"
input_player4_l2 = "12"
input_player4_r2 = "13"
input_player4_l3 = "14"
input_player4_r3 = "15"
input_player4_l_x = "0"
input_player4_l_y = "1"
input_player4_r_x = "2"
input_player4_r_y = "3"
input_player5_b = "0"
input_player5_y = "1"
input_player5_select = "2"
input_player5_start = "3"
input_player5_up = "4"
input_player5_down = "5"
input_player5_left = "6"
input_player5_right = "7"
input_player5_a = "8"
input_player5_x = "9"
input_player5_l = "10"
input_player5_r = "11"
input_player5_l2 = "12"
input_player5_r2 = "13"
input_player5_l3 = "14"
input_player5_r3 = "15"
input_player5_l_x = "0"
input_player5_l_y = "1"
input_player5_r_x = "2"
input_player5_r_y = "3"

The vertical layout works largely as you'd expect from looking at the picture on the right above. The D-Pad and ABXY buttons become the Y and X button-sets, and B/A are placed on L/R since there's not really anywhere else for them.

Keep in mind that screen rotation isn't currently working in the 3DS port, so you'll need to either physically rotate the 3DS, or play with the screen sideways (this sort of works for games like Judgment Silversword, you can play it like a horizontal shmup this way). Once rotation is working, it will be necessary to have a third remap, intended for vertical games which you're rotating using RetroArch rather than rotating using your hands, because all the directional buttons will be 90 degrees off. But that bridge, etc.

 

[9thSage]

on your PC you need to download a programme called unecm load it and place the ecm file in it it then converts it to a bin file then your bin will work

To expand on this, since people don't seem to be sure what an ECM file is...ECM is a program/compression scheme created by Neil Corlett that is meant to compress down CD disc images. That's why it didn't work straight out of the box, because the file was compressed and the emulator didn't know what it was supposed to be. That's why you'll see it on a download site at times, because sometimes the size difference is significantly smaller as compared to a file that's not compressed.

If I remember right, it works by getting rid of a lot of redundant data, making the disc images smaller and compress better in say a zip file.

 

[Stack3r]

Would lowering the sound latency on retroarch produce better sound quality or just lower frame rates? Also does audio sync now work without crippling frames?