General Emulation Discussion

80s Synth Pop · 09-03-2021 3:41pm

nice to have other emulators supporting the same easy to find MAME set.

I wonder if the CD drive emulators like rhea and mode support CHD format too?

KeRbDoG · 09-03-2021 8:36pm

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

nice to have other emulators supporting the same easy to find MAME set.

I wonder if the CD drive emulators like rhea and mode support CHD format too?

Seems MODE doesn't but for the price you think it might.

• Compatible with CDI, GDI, CCD, MDF, bin/iso+cue images

Nor Rhea

Supported image types:

CDI
CCD+IMG+SUB
MDS+MDF
ISO (games with no audio tracks and homebrew)
IMPORTANT: Images based on CUE sheets are not supported.

The Last Bandit · 09-03-2021 9:14pm

You need (some) processing power and memory to decompress those CHD images, older one like Rhea/Phoebe certainly don't have the resources to do it.
And from the developers prospective, its probably a case of meh get a bigger sd card.

Different images are a pain alright, trying to use the Redump collections for most of mine now where possible.

Inviere · 10-03-2021 7:39am

The Last Bandit wrote: »

You need (some) processing power and memory to decompress those CHD images, older one like Rhea/Phoebe certainly don't have the resources to do it.
And from the developers prospective, its probably a case of meh get a bigger sd card.

Different images are a pain alright, trying to use the Redump collections for most of mine now where possible.

I'd the same thought, there's some processing power required to decompress a chd. I suppose its possible to incorporate a processor onto the board to do it, but it'd certainly push the price up. Probably not cost effective when there's large storage options out there.

Redump is the only way to go if you need disc images. What I like about CHD is it'll combine multi-bin disc images into a single file...makes storing and maintaining a large collection that bit neater. Plus you can undo the conversion and go back to disc image losslessly if needed.

The only system I haven't converted to CHD is PS1 games. I left them as PBP files (converted from bin cue to PBP) because PBP supports multi disc games (disc 1 and disc 2 together in a single file), which makes disc swapping a complete breeze. PBP is lossy though, so there's a slight tradeoff.

paul79 · 10-03-2021 7:36pm

Really miss lightgun games one of my favorite genres,The Sinden lightgun Looks really good and a nice review below.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hduEzZdm95Y&feature=youtu.be

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hduEzZdm95Y&feature=youtu.be

The_B_Man · 10-03-2021 8:18pm

Don't remind me. My 2 recoil guns are getting shipped on Monday apparently. I'm hoping I don't get stung for customs...

paul79 · 10-03-2021 10:11pm

The_B_Man wrote: »

Don't remind me. My 2 recoil guns are getting shipped on Monday apparently. I'm hoping I don't get stung for customs...

I was only thinking this myself during the week hopefully it gets through for us without any .

TechnoFreek · 11-03-2021 8:51pm

Has there been any progress with those lightguns working on console?

The_B_Man · 11-03-2021 10:31pm

No, just people talking about PS2. It sounds like you need a DIY hardware mod, going by his Discord post from 2 weeks ago:

MrLightgun: I'm definitely happy to actually put together an official road map because community input into that is quite important, just trying to get rid of the backlog first so I can actually plan properly for the future, in general some of the priorities:

PRIORITY1 -> Get everyone their lightguns
Fix any bugs that can cause instability (bluetooth issues is an example)
Merge 2 player support into a single instance
Some kind of profiles system to change settings per game
Linux software add video preview on the test app to help configuration
Ability to update firmware on Linux
PS1/PS2 support, publish software, guides and videos
MiSTer support
Android support
Hardware adapter to make PS1/PS2 support easy instead of DIY mod
Any ways to make it easier to add borders
Making the case for new lightgun games and getting support added to games
More original console support Xbox, Saturn, Dreamcast, NES, SNES, Megadrive, Master system
Ship to more countries

Inviere · 20-03-2021 1:53pm

Not emulation per se, but just wondering if anyone has tried the Sinden with the new Singe 2.0 'emulator'? Seen a vid on RMC & seems to work perfectly for some Mad Dog McCree goodness (!)

Retr0gamer · 24-03-2021 5:53pm

So what's the best dreamcast emulator/retroarch core. And if I was to...... Transfer all my gd roms to a format.... What format would I be looking for rather than those awful cut down cd versions.

Doge · 24-03-2021 7:10pm

Inviere wrote: »

Not emulation per se, but just wondering if anyone has tried the Sinden with the new Singe 2.0 'emulator'? Seen a vid on RMC & seems to work perfectly for some Mad Dog McCree goodness (!)

Not sure if i used Singe 2.0 or some older version that was included in the Light Guns Crisis pack i downloaded, but I did play Mad Dog McCree and Drug Wars 1 & 2 and they worked great, (except when you're chasing a car in Drug Wars and they give you a ridiculously short window to shoot before the enemy even appears! :pac:)

I'll have to revisit d'oul Sinden Lightgun again, haven't been retro gaming in a good while actually.

Inviere · 24-03-2021 7:51pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

So what's the best dreamcast emulator/retroarch core. And if I was to...... Transfer all my gd roms to a format.... What format would I be looking for rather than those awful cut down cd versions.

I think I use the Flycast core for most things DC (will check tomorrow when I'm at the pc). Between that and the Redream core, you'll have most things covered.

For disc images, you'll want to grab the GDI images which are 1:1 to the original discs, and then convert them to CHD using the batch file I posted above a few days ago. CHD is lossless, and both cores are compatible with it.

Inviere · 25-03-2021 5:20pm

Inviere wrote: »

I think I use the Flycast core for most things DC (will check tomorrow when I'm at the pc). Between that and the Redream core, you'll have most things covered.

Just checked there, yep, I've Flycast set as my default DC core.

Inviere · 29-03-2021 6:35am

Inviere wrote: »

I know it's more hardware emulation/simulation, but interesting times ahead for Mister

https://twitter.com/sentientsixp/status/1356831344966463490?s=21

Bios now booting...

Shapey Fiend · 29-03-2021 5:47pm

My Mega Drive seems to be dead so I ordered a Mister on Friday. Can't wait to start faffing about with it on the CRT. If they get the Saturn working it'll be the icing on the cake but until then I've plenty to be getting on with.

Inviere · 23-04-2021 4:17pm

I'm not normally a fan of bezel overlays, but this one takes the cake. Very interesting reflections! I think it's pretty demanding to run, which can be heard in the video (the uploaders computer seems to be struggling)

Also, there's a new "Super Mario 64 Plus", based on the original decompiled source code I assume. Plenty of new QoL improvements, and really shows what a piss poor and lazy job Nintendo did porting it to Switch recently...

Doge · 23-04-2021 9:03pm

Inviere wrote: »

I'm not normally a fan of bezel overlays, but this one takes the cake. Very interesting reflections! I think it's pretty demanding to run, which can be heard in the video (the uploaders computer seems to be struggling)

The reflections are cool, but the CRT filters dont look great unfortunately. I still haven't got around to trying SteveX2's custom filters he posted a while back but from memory they looked much better.

Inviere · 24-04-2021 6:09am

Doge wrote: »

The reflections are cool, but the CRT filters dont look great unfortunately. I still haven't got around to trying SteveX2's custom filters he posted a while back but from memory they looked much better.

Agreed, though I only noticed it after you said it! I spent the whole time looking at the voodoo reflections

Inviere · 24-04-2021 1:16pm

Long standing bug in Mame's Contra emulation has been resolved:

urrtek fixed one of the long standing emulation bugs for Konami's arcade game 'Contra' in MAME.

This bug meant the game logic in Contra under MAME had never been correct, the ‘3D’ stages of the game were far too easy, with all mines, and the majority of the bullets being shot at you veering off to the right rather than coming down the screen towards you, thus requiring no effort to avoid. In reality Contra should have been considered a non-working game this whole time, because the gameplay logic was broken.

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/msr0df/game_logic_bugfix_for_konamis_contra_arcade_in/

From 6:30 on you can see it...

Retr0gamer · 25-04-2021 11:45pm

Well ****, I've beaten Contra on Mame and found it too easy...

This is probably why

CiDeRmAn · 26-04-2021 8:05am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well ****, I've beaten Contra on Mame and found it too easy...

This is probably why

And you won't be able to blame the controller when you lose next time!

Retr0gamer · 28-04-2021 8:03am

Discovered a big, biiiiiiiig annoying flaw with retroarch.

Was playing a RPG on it for a couple of hours, went downstairs to get a drink, came back up and retroarch had grand.

Annoying but not a big issue. It crashed on the save screen so I had just saved.

Booted it back up and my save game from the start of the session was the save in the game...

So I looked this up and got reams and reams of angry people giving out about this. Apparently you need to turn on an option to save the SRAM to disk incrementally. It isn't on by default. Otherwise Retroarch will only save on exit.

So I went to the options to turn it on.... and it was on already but it didn't work.

So apparently some games use the SRAM as working RAM and save data to them constantly. If the SRAM is different in the interval you set (10 seconds in my case) the SRAM isn't saved to the disk.

So I lost about 3 hours of progress last night.

Just a heads up to check if this is happening to a game you are playing and to exit the emulator once an hour just to make sure.

Inviere · 28-04-2021 8:38am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Discovered a big, biiiiiiiig annoying flaw with retroarch.

Was playing a RPG on it for a couple of hours, went downstairs to get a drink, came back up and retroarch had grand.

Annoying but not a big issue. It crashed on the save screen so I had just saved.

Booted it back up and my save game from the start of the session was the save in the game...

So I looked this up and got reams and reams of angry people giving out about this. Apparently you need to turn on an option to save the SRAM to disk incrementally. It isn't on by default. Otherwise Retroarch will only save on exit.

So I went to the options to turn it on.... and it was on already but it didn't work.

So apparently some games use the SRAM as working RAM and save data to them constantly. If the SRAM is different in the interval you set (10 seconds in my case) the SRAM isn't saved to the disk.

So I lost about 3 hours of progress last night.

Just a heads up to check if this is happening to a game you are playing and to exit the emulator once an hour just to make sure.

I'm not following you. There's two types of saves:

1) the game's own built in save system (sram). You use the game's own save mechanic to manually save the game. Other games might incrementally save the game at certain points. This is independent of Retroarch.

2) save states. You manually save the game at a certain state from within Retroarch.

What didn't work properly for you?

Inviere · 28-04-2021 8:49am

OK found some info on it:

"As it turns out, RetroArch/LibRetro will only save whatever changes happen to the SRAM if you properly close the core, or if you turn on an option to do it once every 10 seconds (or more, 10 seconds is the minimal setting I can put it).

Apparently, the reason for that is that some games use the SRAM as part of their own RAM, and they keep overwriting it all the time, which could lead to potential wear of the storage media, and that’s why it has that behaviour."

https://forums.libretro.com/t/a-question-about-save-file-updating/6629

"So no offense to the OP, but this kind of seems like a non issue now. You can set the SRAM to 600 seconds (so that it doesn’t happen excessively) as a preventive measure, and the likelihood of losing anything is dramatically decreased. Unless you saved in game right after an SRAM backup occurred (unlikely), and the game crashed in that 10 minute window (also unlikely) between the next SRAM backup, I don’t think you’re going to have too many problems.

But, to be honest, I don’t completely understand how the current implementation could be improved. Do other emulators handle it differently/better?"

So the sram isn't actually written while the core is active, because the reasons above. I didn't know that, seems odd considering no other emulators seem to work this way. However, the interval setting mitigates it nicely - as a preventative though unfortunately for Retr0. The flaw here is that should be configured by default to have a low interval.

I've never had Retroarch crash and cause this, but nice to know its possible. I'll look at those settings later just in case.

Retr0gamer · 28-04-2021 10:06am

It seems it's only for games that use the SRAM as RAM. That seems like a really bad use of SRAM so I say very few games use it.

The game I was playing was Live a Live, a very play Squaresoft RPG for the SNES so you'd expect the programming to be a little bit better than this (it came out around the time of Chrono Trigger but is probably as complex as FF4). It could also well be an anti piracy measure, I can only assume that saving contantly to SRAM would make the game unplayable on one of those floppy disk based piracy devices at the time.

So basically the interval thing is no use for this game. I had it set to 10 seconds, what retroarch does is check the current sram against the sram 10 seconds ago and if there are differences it doesn't save, this is probably to stop excessive disk writes. Unfortunately if a game is using the SRAM as RAM the SRAM is going to be constantly changing (probably every frame) and retroarch will therefore not save the SRAM at all.

Might just be wroth checking the time of the last sram file modification in any game you are playing to check that it won't be an issue.

It was my first retroarch crash as well.

Inviere · 28-04-2021 10:25am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It seems it's only for games that use the SRAM as RAM. That seems like a really bad use of SRAM so I say very few games use it.

The game I was playing was Live a Live, a very play Squaresoft RPG for the SNES so you'd expect the programming to be a little bit better than this (it came out around the time of Chrono Trigger but is probably as complex as FF4). It could also well be an anti piracy measure, I can only assume that saving contantly to SRAM would make the game unplayable on one of those floppy disk based piracy devices at the time.

So basically the interval thing is no use for this game. I had it set to 10 seconds, what retroarch does is check the current sram against the sram 10 seconds ago and if there are differences it doesn't save, this is probably to stop excessive disk writes. Unfortunately if a game is using the SRAM as RAM the SRAM is going to be constantly changing (probably every frame) and retroarch will therefore not save the SRAM at all.

Might just be wroth checking the time of the last sram file modification in any game you are playing to check that it won't be an issue.

It was my first retroarch crash as well.

Just use a save state in place of the game's own mechanic then in this case, rules out any headaches. Yeah I'd never heard of games using sram as ram, seems mad to do it.

Are you sure the interval works that way? I though it was to set the interval where the sram WOULD be saved?

Retr0gamer · 28-04-2021 10:41am

Yep that's how it works. The people asking about it are being told it's working as intended. It's to save on excessive writes to flash media.

It's very strange it doesn't have a flash on change but then again on something like Live a Live that would probably mean a flash every frame which is excessive.

I'd imagine it was a copy protection thing rather than bad coding.

Inviere · 28-04-2021 11:26am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Yep that's how it works. The people asking about it are being told it's working as intended. It's to save on excessive writes to flash media.

I get the excessive writes protection, as the sram would be constantly changing as you say. The interval would seem to make more sense as to when to initiate a save though wouldn't it? Strange.

Retr0gamer · 28-04-2021 11:31am

I guess maybe I just got unlucky with my choice of game. I'll check with something more nromal.

Colonel Panic · 28-04-2021 2:02pm

It's similar on MiSTer and even some Everdrive variants where you need to go to the menu for it to write in-memory save data to flash. I've been stung a few times.

Skerries · 28-04-2021 7:53pm

this seems a bit redundant

Inviere · 11-05-2021 4:16pm

Xenia has seen some very impressive lovin' lately...

Inviere · 30-05-2021 11:38am

Very impressive HD Pack for the original Mega Man

sprucemoose · 04-06-2021 8:31am

The_B_Man wrote: »

Don't remind me. My 2 recoil guns are getting shipped on Monday apparently. I'm hoping I don't get stung for customs...

did you get stuck with customs in the end?got mine the other day and i didnt have to pay anything but wondering was that just a lucky break

The_B_Man · 04-06-2021 7:59pm

No I didn't have to pay customs either.

I threw the box out so can't have a look now but maybe he put down that they're only worth €20 or something. The people paying customs seems to be in the minority so he's gotten around it somehow.

How do u find them anyway? I have them hooked up to the telly via a pi 4. Works great! They also managed to get them working on CRTs (or at least my Nanao one) so they can be used on any TV and most arcade cabinets.

I'd recommend joining the discord, if you haven't already. They're very quick to respond to help requests.

sprucemoose · 09-06-2021 1:07pm

The_B_Man wrote: »

How do u find them anyway?

a bit mixed so far i have to say. when its working well its great, but ive had issues a few times with it just flat out refusing to work apart from the buttons. occasionally the trigger pull will register as one of the face buttons too. these may be down to the ps1 emulator possibly but ive had similar issues when playing straight pc

having said that i like it. have only tried it with emulated time crisis and typing of the dead overkill, but it seems quite accurate. its maybe a little on the heavy side, i find after a little while playing time crisis using the slide for cover/reload i start to cramp a bit, although that could be just my positioning i suppose. the recoil isnt anything amazing either to be honest.

overall happy enough with it but maybe a little overpriced.

The_B_Man · 11-06-2021 4:40pm

Ye I'd agree with you for the most part.
Their stance is that it maps the buttons from the gun as a mouse and keyboard so if the emulator is buggy with a mouse and keyboard then thats on them, not the gun. They're probably right to be fair. I think expectations weren't managed and people were expecting a silver bullet/holy grail of light guns.

There's a lot of talk about coding in native support to the emulators. If that gets done, there'll be a lot less issues.

sprucemoose · 14-06-2021 9:01am

The_B_Man wrote: »

Ye I'd agree with you for the most part.
Their stance is that it maps the buttons from the gun as a mouse and keyboard so if the emulator is buggy with a mouse and keyboard then thats on them, not the gun. They're probably right to be fair. I think expectations weren't managed and people were expecting a silver bullet/holy grail of light guns.

There's a lot of talk about coding in native support to the emulators. If that gets done, there'll be a lot less issues.

oh some of it is definitely down to the emulation (and im far from an expert on that subject so im probably doing something(s) that won't help everything run smoothly) but its just a few of the same quibbles happened with HOTD too and i wouldve thought that should be fine since its a straight PC game (much as its actually a bit of a faff with steam). I'll have to try it out with a few more games/emus etc, before I fully decide i suppose. having said that, time crisis is just too fecking addictive at the moment.........

The_B_Man · 14-06-2021 9:33pm

Ye they're great once u get passed the initial setup.
I had awful hassle at the start. Couldn't get the calibration screen to open and nothing worked except a few of the buttons/D-pad. Turned out my TV was on some power saver mode so even though it looked plenty bright, it was still too dim for the gun camera to pick up the borders. Was so annoying.

You'd be quick to blame the gun but then u can't expect them to work on every brightness level of every panel in every TV. Maybe a firmware fix could increase sensitivity. But ye it's probably not ready for your average end user. It'll be interesting to see if the AE Lightgun fares any better...

Inviere · 27-06-2021 3:21pm

Spent the last while adding a few previously troublesome systems to my BigBox setup. For whatever reason, this time it all worked a charm (maybe there's been some updates in the last year or so)

Apple II (some gems on there! Looking forward to trying Castle Wolfenstein)
Apple IIGS (interesting system!)
Atari 800 (again, some very interesting games here)
BBC Micro (purely for Granny's Garden, oh the nostalgia! There's some other decent looking titles to explore)
Commodore VIC20/C16/Plus4/128 (mostly similar, nice to try the few exclusives)
Sinclair ZX81 - 3D Monster Maze, the first ever 'survival horror'

Inviere · 03-07-2021 7:38am

Just tried this wizardry out, it's amazing

Andrew76 · 17-07-2021 8:42am

@Inviere - for someone who hasn't dabbled with emulation since Hyperspin was a thing - is it much of a pain in the arse to get a basic Mame setup going on a PC these days? Most of my retro gear is in the attic these days but now and then I get the urge to play Aliens but cba when I think back to the hassle of configuring stuff. Would love to just plug in a USB arcade stick and double click an icon and everything works (and doesn't look too awful on a monitor).

P.S. What does using '@UserName' actually do? Do you get a notification or something?

Inviere · 17-07-2021 5:33pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623155#Comment_117623155

I got a notification, but only AFTER I clicked the bell...so it needs some work.

Re emulation, absolutely there exists one click solutions, such is my own. I double click the game and the frontend handles everything else. Tbh with the way this site is it'd be harder to communicate with you than actually set it up, so fire me off a PM with your email address Andrew, and we'll sort things out for you.

Inviere · 17-07-2021 6:01pm

@Andrew76 testing mention, see above

Andrew76 · 17-07-2021 6:06pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117625156#Comment_117625156

I see your mention in my Notifications list but there's no red indicator to say I have a new notifiction - and I only looked in the list because I saw your post. 🤣

I do have 'Notify me when people mention me.' selected in the Popup column, maybe I missed the popup if I was typing. Who knows. 😁

Sent you a PM cheers.

This automatic empty line is annoying...

Inviere · 11-09-2021 10:44am

Still very very early days, but there's a PS4 emulator in development called Spine. It can now run many commercial games in various states of playability. I wouldn't consider it useable/playable for any games just yet, it's Linux only for now, & naturally 2d content works a lot better than anything 3d for now. The video below shows Persona 5 Royale 'running', and while it isn't what you might expect yet, the game is actually running. Incredible accomplishment, with further progress it can be open sourced and take on community contributions too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXpaSoOxPXY

Sonic Mania

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE2Cc_HQeiA

Blade Arcus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGJHyJFQg4U