Sonic mania 3ds port released!

[sonictopfan]

I imagine this project is dead? It’s September and still no news of any sort of official release or any updates.

Edit: nvm please disregard my assumption, project is very much still alive and kicking.

 

[CeeDee]

Hot damn I didn't realize how impatient people were, it's been about two weeks. No one's getting paid to do this, it's gonna take time. Some working builds have been released but I don't think there's a definitive one yet, give it time

 

[sonictopfan]

My apologies, of course I fully understand development takes time, please take all the time you need, I just assumed because we haven’t heard any news in a while and the hardware is clearly too weak for the game to run properly, my mistake, please ignore what I said.

 

[HiSaturnV]

I imagine this project is dead? It’s September and still no news of any sort of official release or any updates.

Hot damn I didn't realize how impatient people were, it's been about two weeks. No one's getting paid to do this, it's gonna take time. Some working builds have been released but I don't think there's a definitive one yet, give it time

Dev here; I literally had COVID and was stuck in bed for about a week, in case you were wondering why there were no updates for a while. I am very much still working on it.

The reason there weren't any builds sooner was because I was working on getting audio running and didn't want the initial release to be a buggy rush-job like was the case with CD a while back. Wasn't aware people had already turned to making .cia builds themselves already, to be honest. Once a release build is up, I'll make a thread for it. Until then, you can track progress on the 3ds-main branch here.

 

[horsiezoozoo]

Dev here; I literally had COVID and was stuck in bed for about a week, in case you were wondering why there were no updates for a while. I am very much still working on it.

The reason there weren't any builds sooner was because I was working on getting audio running and didn't want the initial release to be a buggy rush-job like was the case with CD a while back. Wasn't aware people had already turned to making .cia builds themselves already, to be honest. Once a release build is up, I'll make a thread for it. Until then, you can track progress on the 3ds-main branch here.

Hey thanks so much for this ! We love sonic, just compiled your latest commits and very cool has audio! I actually like the audio quality in this build- it reminds me of when I played sonic 2 on megadrive on an early 80’s tv using a rf unit back in 1993

 

[HiSaturnV]

Hey thanks so much for this ! We love sonic, just compiled your latest commits and very cool has audio! I actually like the audio quality in this build- it reminds me of when I played sonic 2 on megadrive on an early 80’s tv using a rf unit back in 1993

Thanks... but I'd recommend compiling again. I just pushed a commit that fixes the audio quality; turns out I forgot to set all the u16 variables to s16 when switching to using signed samples, and that was tripping up the audio, heh.

 

[horsiezoozoo]

Thanks... but I'd recommend compiling again. I just pushed a commit that fixes the audio quality; turns out I forgot to set all the u16 variables to s16 when switching to using signed samples, and that was tripping up the audio, heh.

Oh my gosh yep that’s better! Thanks for that, your hard work is much appreciated!

 

[AleronIves]

Thank you for your amazing work. Is there any hope of improving the loading speed, or is the 3DS just too slow?

 

[HiSaturnV]

Thank you for your amazing work. Is there any hope of improving the loading speed, or is the 3DS just too slow?

AFAIK, the 3DS's slow I/O is mainly to blame for the load times. I've heard reports that using Data Folder mode is a bit faster, as well as just having an SD card with better access times, though I haven't tested myself. The Switch port handled this by loading the entire Data.rsdk file into memory and directing all reads there, however, said file is 199 MB, so this isn't an option on 3DS. Music and SFX needs to be cut entirely just to get the port to run at all on O3DS systems, and even then, it needs to run in Mode 3 (extended memory).

That said, looking at the console output, some of the file loads the game makes are a bit useless, so messing with the game logic to not load certain files might help a little bit. I'll try to see if there are any other possible solutions.

 

[sonictopfan]

Dev here; I literally had COVID and was stuck in bed for about a week, in case you were wondering why there were no updates for a while. I am very much still working on it.

The reason there weren't any builds sooner was because I was working on getting audio running and didn't want the initial release to be a buggy rush-job like was the case with CD a while back. Wasn't aware people had already turned to making .cia builds themselves already, to be honest. Once a release build is up, I'll make a thread for it. Until then, you can track progress on the 3ds-main branch here.

My apologies, I honestly figured the 3DS turned out to be too weak to run the game which may have lead the devs giving up, glad to know I was wrong, hopefully this won’t discourage you from continuing this project.

 

[horsiezoozoo]

AFAIK, the 3DS's slow I/O is mainly to blame for the load times. I've heard reports that using Data Folder mode is a bit faster, as well as just having an SD card with better access times, though I haven't tested myself. The Switch port handled this by loading the entire Data.rsdk file into memory and directing all reads there, however, said file is 199 MB, so this isn't an option on 3DS. Music and SFX needs to be cut entirely just to get the port to run at all on O3DS systems, and even then, it needs to run in Mode 3 (extended memory).

That said, looking at the console output, some of the file loads the game makes are a bit useless, so messing with the game logic to not load certain files might help a little bit. I'll try to see if there are any other possible solutions.

Yeah I was thinking along those lines as well, but I think like with 3ds retroarch it’s a “it is what it is” limitation of the hw. But IT’S SONIC MANIA ON 3DS! How cool is that? (sorry :-))

 

[placebo_yue]

Music and SFX needs to be cut entirely just to get the port to run at all on O3DS systems

oh no.. i hope you somehow find a workaround for that

 

[CeeDee]

oh no.. i hope you somehow find a workaround for that

It's probably a case of needing 3DS-specific optimization to run better, though that'll likely take time to happen. Is the Mania port software rendered? I remember Sonic CD running much better once it got a hardware renderer implemented.

 

[Computer_Freak_2004]

I compiled some Sonic Mania CIAs for the Old3DS. Code is from https://github.com/smb123w64gb/RSDKv5-Decompilation/tree/3ds-main.
One CIA uses a reduced screen resolution (320x240) which helps to run it at full speed. But there will still be a lot of slowdowns. They don't have music or SFX.

 

[sonictopfan]

Is it possible to run it with sound on New 3DS? I can compile it myself and the version I have is the one @godreborn shared earlier.

 

[Computer_Freak_2004]

Is it possible to run it with sound on New 3DS? I can compile it myself and the version I have is the one @godreborn shared earlier.

If you're on New3DS I think it should be possible to run it with sound if you compile the latest commit from HiSaturnV's repo.

 

[VashTS]

dope. my illness ridden brain (just a cold not covid) thought, i wonder if they ported this to switch yet LOL

 

[sonictopfan]

If you're on New3DS I think it should be possible to run it with sound if you compile the latest commit from HiSaturnV's repo.

Like I mentioned I dunno how to compile my laptop is literally a potato.

 

[SpanishFreddy]

Like I mentioned I dunno how to compile my laptop is literally a potato.

this is the newest version for the new 3ds with sound, just put the data.rsdk in "SonicMania" and move the "SonicMania" folder to the folder on your sd called "3ds" and that's it, the game starts from homebrew launcher

 

[sonictopfan]

this is the newest version for the new 3ds with sound, just put the data.rsdk in "SonicMania" and move the "SonicMania" folder to the folder on your sd called "3ds" and that's it, the game starts from homebrew launcher

Thank you!