Homebrew SNEmulDS Help

choconado

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Can someone explain to me (In Layman Terms, please, I'm an idiot that knows nothing) how to use the graphical options in snemulds? I've seen the layer numbers pop up on compatibility lists, but don't have a clue how to use them properly. Plus the other options are all greek to me. Any simple explanations are welcome. If you want to use pictures, be my guest.

Also, if someone could direct me to a working compatibility list while I'm mentioning them, as I used to look at PH, but they appear to be down.
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Help a dummy out!
 

SgtThom

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choconado said:
Can someone explain to me (In Layman Terms, please, I'm an idiot that knows nothing) how to use the graphical options in snemulds? I've seen the layer numbers pop up on compatibility lists, but don't have a clue how to use them properly. Plus the other options are all greek to me. Any simple explanations are welcome. If you want to use pictures, be my guest.

Also, if someone could direct me to a working compatibility list while I'm mentioning them, as I used to look at PH, but they appear to be down.
frown.gif


Help a dummy out!


Try messing with them. Also the snes emulator for the ds have a sorts of problems.It doesn't seem emulate games that use extra chips that boost the graphics/effects etc for the snes (Mega man x games, Super Mario RPG, star fox)Mega man X does play but it doesn't play the music.The other Mega man x games have graphical errors(The sprites don't show ).Also you can't play games higher than 4MB without the Ram pack.


If any one else give more information it will be good.
 

injected11

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SgtThom said:
choconado said:
Can someone explain to me (In Layman Terms, please, I'm an idiot that knows nothing) how to use the graphical options in snemulds? I've seen the layer numbers pop up on compatibility lists, but don't have a clue how to use them properly. Plus the other options are all greek to me. Any simple explanations are welcome. If you want to use pictures, be my guest.

Also, if someone could direct me to a working compatibility list while I'm mentioning them, as I used to look at PH, but they appear to be down.
frown.gif


Help a dummy out!


Try messing with them. Also the snes emulator for the ds have a sorts of problems.It doesn't seem emulate games that use extra chips that boost the graphics/effects etc for the snes (Mega man x games, Super Mario RPG, star fox)Mega man X does play but it doesn't play the music.The other Mega man x games have graphical errors(The sprites don't show ).Also you can't play games higher than 4MB without the Ram pack.


If any one else give more information it will be good.
Mega Man X1's music works just fine on mine using version 0.6a WIP2 version.

@OP: The best option really is to just mess with them. I've managed to get pretty good layer settings on most games by just toggling them around a bit. If it plays too quickly or lags, toggle the speed hacks. If a game suddenly locks up, try turning the sound off (instantly fixes lots of games like Secret of Evermore).
 

choconado

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well, I knew full and well about the chip problems long before now.

And "mess with them" is the worst technical advice a guy can get. Ever. Especially since trying to follow the numbers on the compatibility lists of old gets me nowhere. >:(
 

granville

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I'll try my best here, i've used snemulDS a lot in the past but I don't have a DS now (possibly not ever). Here's some advice on the options-

Speedhacks- does what you might think. It's a small collection of general hacks that can possibly speed up a game at the expense of accuracy. You WILL likely have some weird glitches. Or maybe in some games, it might FIX a problem. They're unpredictable. Cycles is the best if you NEED one on for speed. Interrupts has caused speed issues in most games, rather than helped games run faster.

Vblank/Vsync- think this was what it was called. It's a rudimentary kind of speed limiter. Problem is that although games may be running at way over the normal speed, enabling this can cause the game to get much slower than 100% speed, so it's not perfect. Still, it's functional for the most part. And without it, graphics can look jittery and choppy. This seems to smooth things out AND limit speed.

Background/sprite priorities- This one is very hard to explain without getting confused. SnemulDS is unable to perfectly process all the background and sprite layers of a SNES game perfectly (not nearly in fact). So some hands on settings are needed here. Setting different values is giving instructions to the emulator which layers to place in which order. Obviously, you'll notice that when you mess with the settings, the game appears to look different. Background layers are rearranged, sometimes appearing overlapping sprites, or other layers appearing in the wrong order. Each number in the options represents a layer or priority level. I hate to say it, but the best advice IS to mess around with it, to familiarize yourself with the options and what each layer does. It's only going to confuse you more if i try to tell you what each number represents. I suggest going slow and tapping the numbers to figure out what each one seems to do. Sorry.

In fact, most of the options under "advanced" are actually related to the graphics. There's a BG3 priority option which can sometimes fix layers being overlayed on top of sprites. Again, best to try the options for the games to familiarize yourself with what they do and find the best order of layers for each game.

And as for compatibility lists, I think GBAtemp had one for their own wiki if i can find it. Yep, it's not quite up to date with the latest version of snemulDS, but here it is- http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/index.php?tit...patibility_List

And i guess it has occurred to you that this emulator has not gotten a new version in several years. 2-3 years to be precise. It's probably dead and won't be updated again. I've never liked SNES on DS much. Too complicated for games that just don't work very well. You're far better off getting a superior PC emulator, one of which should work 99% perfectly on your PC (even if it's slower, ZSNES is awesome). Sad but true. If you're determined to play SNES on DS, i'd wait for the Supercard DSTWO. It was announced to have its own built in SNES emulator. And since the DSTWO will have far superior CPU specs than the DS itself, it'll probably be a lot better than snemulDS at least. Sorry i wasn't much help, not used snemulDS in a while.
 

cturtle

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It really doesn't even matter if you know what everything is supposed to do, because everything is so random with this program. There are a small handful of games that work well, but most will have some sort of graphics issue no matter how much you mess around with the settings.

My advice would be to give up on SNES on your DS until someone writes a program that isn't so glitchy. But it looks like that won't be happening any time soon.
 

DSFan08

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Well, I grabbed the 0.6.a/latest version.
But, I can't even load a ROM and both of them are in the same folder.
 

DSFan08

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injected11 said:
DSFan08 said:
Well, I grabbed the 0.6.a/latest version.
But, I can't even load a ROM and both of them are in the same folder.
The rom belongs in a folder titled "SNES" on the root of the microSD.
So, I can't put it in any subfolders? Like the games are?

EDIT Thanks, that worked.
 

DanTheManMS

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Not really. The basic idea is that since the DS only has 4 MB of RAM, and both the emulator and ROM must fit inside this 4 MB, obviously larger games won't fit. SNEmulDS works around this by using a paging system where it calls up chunks of ROM into RAM as needed. This can sometimes cause visible pauses in gameplay, especially when transitioning between different areas of the game, but honestly in the latest version it's barely noticeable, especially when compared to the first versions of the emulator.

If you have slot-2 RAM, SNEmulDS will attempt to store the entire ROM there so that the paging system isn't used at all. While in theory this makes it faster, slot-2 RAM is itself slower than the DS's on-board RAM, so the benefit is questionable.

Having slot-2 RAM won't help with overall game speed, graphics issues, or game compatibility. It only fixes the slight pauses caused by the paging system with larger (over 3 MB) games. With smaller games it will make absolutely no difference.
 

granville

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That's not what would matter. SnemulDS supports mode7 effects, games like Fzero run well enough. Mario Kart had one of those special chips which aren't supported by SNES DS emulators. DSP-something or whatever, i forget the precise chip name for this specific game.
 

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