Homebrew Unofficial 3DS RetroArch builds

[Zense]

I'm thrilled that I can finally play R-Type Delta on the 3DS. I used the default config, and only turned VSync off, which sped it up to a point where it becomes enjoyable. What's the disadvantage of having VSync turned on?

The disadvantage of having it on is that it is more taxing so you might get deeper framerate drops. Also having it on might increase input lag, I believe I've heard. Still, as I said earlier audio sync does almost the same thing and is less taxing, that is your framerate won't drop as much.

 

[MannCo]

I've been testing some games (the first levels).


Symphony of the Night: Runs... quite well actually. Mostly ~60fps with some drops. It also has some graphical glitches, specially when text appears on screen. Nothing gamebreaking so far. The japanese version with the english patch has less graphical glitches.
Setting the frameskip to 1 makes the game run slightly better.

Crash Bandicoot 1: Runs at 50fps most of the time. With Frameskip set to 1, the game runs quite well.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Runs at ~55fps. Setting the frameskip to 1 makes it run nicely.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Runs at ~55fps. Setting the frameskip to 1 makes it run better. Not the smoothest experience, but it's playable.

Crash Team Racing: Played one lap against the CPU on Papu's Pyramid, Roo's Tubes and Sewer Speedway. Runs mostly at 40~50fps. Setting the frameskip to 1 makes it more playable but, again, it's not the smoothest of the experiences which is not ideal for a racing game, so...

Bust-a-move 4 and Bust-a-move '99: Mostly 60fps with some slowdowns when there's a lot of effects on screen. Both run great with frameskip set to 1. No music, but that's probably because I missed something.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile: 40~50fps. It runs quite well with frameskip set to 1.

Tomba: Runs at ~34fps. With frameskip set to 1, it runs at ~50fps. Frameskip set to 2 removes the slowdowns but, just like the Crash games, it's not a smooth experience. It's playable, nonetheless.



All of them were in .pbp format and the only thing I did was disable the vsync and mess with the frameskip option.



I'm amazed. I wasn't expecting the n3DS to run PSX games this well.
I'll try more games later.

 

[justinweiss]

Text and graphics glitches are caused by the unai graphics plugin. There's a newer version of unai that fixes those, but I don't know if / when it will be merged in.

I haven't tried pbp, but I'm not surprised it runs better. I think SD access is just so slow that smaller file sizes are better, even if you pay for decompression. CHD support for 3ds was just added a few days ago and sped things up a bunch for me, you should try those.

 

[Zense]

Does anyone know if SBI files that you add together with the PS1 in order to avoid anti piracy works with pcsx rearmed, and if they work with .pbp files as well? A lot of the PAL games have Anti piracy measures that should be avoidable if you add this stuff. I know that pcsx rearmed supposedly supports this since 2011.

Either way I'm gonna try to see how this works cuz I would much rather prefer adding in the SBI files rather than patch every image with some Anti AP patch that has trainers and region changers etc..

Text and graphics glitches are caused by the unai graphics plugin. There's a newer version of unai that fixes those, but I don't know if / when it will be merged in.

I haven't tried pbp, but I'm not surprised it runs better. I think SD access is just so slow that smaller file sizes are better, even if you pay for decompression. CHD support for 3ds was just added a few days ago and sped things up a bunch for me, you should try those.

So you're saying we should convert our images to chd format? Is chdman.exe the best program to use for this?
Thanks!

 

[MrHuu]

Text and graphics glitches are caused by the unai graphics plugin. There's a newer version of unai that fixes those, but I don't know if / when it will be merged in.

I haven't tried pbp, but I'm not surprised it runs better. I think SD access is just so slow that smaller file sizes are better, even if you pay for decompression. CHD support for 3ds was just added a few days ago and sped things up a bunch for me, you should try those.

Thanks for your efforts, making this possible.

I can imagine the newer unai might bring another bunch of games to perfect performance.
Do you, by any chance, know of any previous attempts towards updating the unai plugin?

Already amazed by the increase in performance using the .PBP format. Haven't tried .CHD yet, will do next.

 

[Zense]

I just followed this to convert to .chd
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/72kh6q/stepbystep_guide_how_to_convert_sega_cd_or_pc/
Let's see how it goes.

 

[Zense]

So I've done some testing. There doesn't seem to be any difference between .pbp and .chd when it comes to performance. I only tested it between the Pal version of 102 Dalmatians.

I found out that to circumvent anti-piracy checks you just need to put the .sbi file of your rom inside the same folder with the same name and the same case of letters for the file extension (.pbp with .sbi or .PBP with .SBI). Ape Escaped Pal worked for me this way.

Running Ape Escape with audio sync off and the other usual options off played pretty nicely with only the occasional effect making the fps fall and sometimes you get those over 80fps when in the hub area f.ex. I haven't tested the NTSC version of it, though. I would say it is playable though using the c-stick of the n3ds is not the best for this game...

I wish there were some simple way to lock the fps without the fps taking a hit from it.

 

[justinweiss]

There is a branch with new unai in it that works. I just don't know what plans there are to integrate it. It fixes render glitches but doesn't seem to affect performance more than a few fps in either direction.

I've had mixed luck with enabling / disabling frame duping and dithering in games that slow down during effects. Worth a try if that's where things are stuttering.

I don't know what causes the fps to go above 60 with vsync off. Does that happen on other cores / platforms? Maybe setting frame throttle->maximum run speed to 1.0x will help. I think that would disable fast forward though.

 

[Zense]

There is a branch with new unai in it that works. I just don't know what plans there are to integrate it. It fixes render glitches but doesn't seem to affect performance more than a few fps in either direction.

I've had mixed luck with enabling / disabling frame duping and dithering in games that slow down during effects. Worth a try if that's where things are stuttering.

I don't know what causes the fps to go above 60 with vsync off. Does that happen on other cores / platforms? Maybe setting frame throttle->maximum run speed to 1.0x will help. I think that would disable fast forward though.

I never tried disabling frame duping. But dithering I keep disabled just because it doesn't make much sense unless you have a composite filter on etc.. I would turn frame throttle to 1x but it has too much of an impact on frame rate for some reason.

I do believe turning vsync off does permit the fps to go wherever it wants in other cores too. I've experienced it in the genesis/mega drive cores.

 

[MrHuu]

I've used negativeExponent's updated unai branch, merged with the latest libretro source to compile these builds.

Source:
https://github.com/negativeExponent/pcsx_rearmed/tree/new_gpu_unai
https://github.com/MrHuu/pcsx_rearmed

As justin pointed out, this fixes a few graphical issues we encounter with the previous and official build.

Thanks to @justinweiss and negativeExponent!

 

[Rj.MoG]

I've used negativeExponent's updated unai branch, merged with the latest libretro source to compile these builds.

Source:
https://github.com/negativeExponent/pcsx_rearmed/tree/new_gpu_unai
https://github.com/MrHuu/pcsx_rearmed

As justin pointed out, this fixes a few graphical issues we encounter with the previous and official build.

Thanks to @justinweiss and negativeExponent!

Stop! I can only get so erect!

 

[Zense]

I've used negativeExponent's updated unai branch, merged with the latest libretro source to compile these builds.

Source:
https://github.com/negativeExponent/pcsx_rearmed/tree/new_gpu_unai
https://github.com/MrHuu/pcsx_rearmed

As justin pointed out, this fixes a few graphical issues we encounter with the previous and official build.

Thanks to @justinweiss and negativeExponent!

Thanks! Would you happen to have any examples of such graphical issues?

 

[Rj.MoG]

Thanks! Would you happen to have any examples of such graphical issues?

Doom was missing walls, Inuyasha was really garbled graphics wise. There was quite a few games with tons of issues. Terracon works much better now too.

 

[Zense]

Cool. Btw windows security is giving me virus alarms for both files.

 

[MrHuu]

Thanks! Would you happen to have any examples of such graphical issues?

Silent Hill was showing weird hitboxes.
Skullmonkeys had texture popup issues.

Both seem fixed.

 

[Zense]

Btw I found that bios or HLE is not as straight forward as thought earlier. F.ex. in 101 Dalmatians HLE gives ~10fps higher during gameplay compared to with bios/auto.

 

[MrHuu]

Cool. Btw windows security is giving me virus alarms for both files.

Haven't got a clue why windows raises false flags.

But feel free to compile yourself, if this is an issue.

 

[Kurt91]

Anybody mind doing me a favor and testing any of the following games?

Grandia
Guardian's Crusade
Legend of Legaia
Parasite Eve

These are the main games that I'd like to try, but I've just moved into a new dorm building and need to actually find and unpack my 3DS. It would be nice to know ahead of time what to expect, my class schedule has a space between classes where it's long enough to be bored out of my mind without something to do, but not long enough to walk all the way to my dorm and back and still have enough time to do anything worthwhile in between.

 

[NanashiFinal13]

Anybody mind doing me a favor and testing any of the following games?

Grandia
Guardian's Crusade
Legend of Legaia
Parasite Eve

These are the main games that I'd like to try, but I've just moved into a new dorm building and need to actually find and unpack my 3DS. It would be nice to know ahead of time what to expect, my class schedule has a space between classes where it's long enough to be bored out of my mind without something to do, but not long enough to walk all the way to my dorm and back and still have enough time to do anything worthwhile in between.

Im playing Parasite Eve on my New 3DS and works great, one hour of play and until now i have no issues.

 

[NanashiFinal13]

Alone in the Dark the New Nightmare and Galerians also runs pretty well