General Emulation Discussion

Inviere · 09-01-2022 8:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118445728#Comment_118445728

Aye you can tweak endless amounts of parameters via the "shader parameters" menu, it's pretty comprehensive. These presets are just the guys own tweaked settings, and are tight enough to be default for most. I'm not overly sold on artificial crt curvature, so I like that the death to pixels shader I chose has that disabled.

Doge · 09-01-2022 9:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118445728#Comment_118445728

It would be great to get your thoughts on them. I still didn't get around to trying out your presets. Maybe it you like these and tweaked the blur you could upload a Stevex2 edit? 😁

Would be cool too if they could be added to the first post of the thread to make them easier to find.

Inviere · 10-01-2022 7:32am

Actually I completely forgot about Steve's settings myself....so my bold claims about these being the best I've seen don't include a comparison to Steve's ones! My only gripe about the Mega Bezel shaders are, from a couch gaming perspective, they reduce the screen size significantly (obv to allow for the bezel). For that reason alone, they won't be my 'daily driver' shader, but they're good enough that I've made a second config to be able to use them at the click of a button instead. I'll def look back and try Steve's settings soon though

Steve X2 · 10-01-2022 8:08am

I think my shader settings are still decent enough, but definitely need a revisit to get a bit more out of them. They are very much tweaked to look the way I want them to on a 4k display rather than going for 100% crt look(less blur like i mentioned above and a few other things).

I thought I'd have so much more time during this apocalypse to mess around with stuff(retro and otherwise), but it's kept me busier than ever :)

The Last Bandit · 14-02-2022 1:43pm

XBOX Retroarch retail mode install makes it a breeze to setup now, external USB support from rom/iso loading as well so no more storage concerns :)

Inviere · 14-02-2022 4:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118629124#Comment_118629124

Full access to ram etc too? Think dev mode limited system resource access? Is it a legit store install these days (surprising if so), or still some trickery needed?

The Last Bandit · 14-02-2022 4:47pm

Some dev has published the packages and installable from the Edge browser on the Xbox. No idea what the resource limitations are but seems to works pretty well

https://gamr13.github.io/

Retr0gamer · 14-02-2022 10:47pm

Anyone tried reducing input lag with retroarch? Really want to give the punchout games a go but don't want to be struggling with input lag with them either, they are tough enough as is.

Inviere · 15-02-2022 5:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118632279#Comment_118632279

As in the runahead feature? Or other tweaks?

Runahead is all I've ever needed with RA, game changer of a feature.

Inviere · 15-02-2022 8:18am

That said, Retroarch has become a bit of a dirty word in emulation circles these days unfortunately

https://youtu.be/v-iRW7BAoOU

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/si2v5s/duckstation_now_officially_dead_github_repository/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/siaegs/libretro_regarding_duckstationswanstation/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sruqo3

I was never big into any sort of scene 'drama', and still don't profess to fully understand it, but there's some concerning allegations being made.

Mobius2021 · 25-02-2022 12:56pm

Long time Boardsie here (original account was from Oct 2005!), moved to a new acccount about a year ago.

I'm currently enjoying Earthbound on Switch so much I am yearning for more good handheld retro action. I decided to bite the bullet and go for a Retroid Pocket 2+. It was $136 (€121) including delivery assuming I don't get hit by import duties.

It seems the best retro handheld in that general price bracket - emulates up to the PS1/N64/Saturn (Saturn is so-so) era with some reasonable Dreamcast emulation as well. For me I want it for SNES, GBA and Arcade emu mainly. I'm going to try and curate and be strict with what I load onto it, too easy to go nuts and load a full ROM set onto it - end up playing a few minutes of hundreds of titles.

Purists might scoff at a machine like this and point to the brilliant Analogue Pocket instead - but this gives me good flexibility at a decent price point.

Could take 2 months for it to arrive - might go for Mother 3 on GBA with the latest fan translation as my first game hopefully. Anyone else take the plunge with one of these handhelds?

The Last Bandit · 15-03-2022 9:28am

Philips CDi core has now been added to Retroarch :) No more excuses to avoid playing these classics

https://docs.libretro.com/library/same_cdi/

Inviere · 15-03-2022 10:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118786991#Comment_118786991

It's a very stripped down Mame CD-i core, simplifies a lot of the setup that'd previously have been required.

Also seen something about Naomi 2 stuff possibly coming to Flycast at some stage, which is great to hear

80s Synth Pop · 18-03-2022 8:16am

I haven't been following flycast as demul runs every naomi game fine for me. Do you know what's better about flycast? A few years ago I made a video of my naomi cab for someone on ukvac comparing the naomi 2 hardware to a pc running demul. Couldn't tell the difference.

Inviere · 18-03-2022 9:52am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118800658#Comment_118800658

Flycast is a lot more modern (don't think Demul has been updated in several years), and supports modern nicities like internal resolution increases, and so forth. It's also open source which is a huge plus. Naomi 2 has been locked behind Demul for years because its closed source.

The Last Bandit · 30-03-2022 9:12am

Looks like emulation on Steamdeck is going to pretty smooth :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIP-DF9K2SM

Retr0gamer · 07-04-2022 3:08pm

Tried Flycast on retroarch again and it's finally working with AMD hardware. Working quite nicely as well. Maken X ran rather nicely and I only saw one minor graphical glitch.

Inviere · 07-04-2022 3:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118894715#Comment_118894715

I think I'll always go Nvidia for the foreseeable future, there always seems to be something that doesn't work quite right re emulation and AMD gpu's. Shame as I'd love an all AMD build.

80s Synth Pop · 07-04-2022 8:39pm

You kind of have to go amd for emulation if using a crt for emudriver. Sometimes there are bugs but usually there is a fix available.

Retr0gamer · 08-04-2022 9:34am

I actually really appreciate the modes that AMD have on their cards for running older lower resolution games. They look stunning compared to when I had my 1070.

I wanted to go nvidia but it was just impossible to find a card but happy with the AMD and I still think we are a generation away from decent ray tracing performance.

Inviere · 08-04-2022 9:55am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118897466#Comment_118897466

Ah AMD make a fine card, and definitely have their uses. They have been for years, and still are, lagging behind in emulation performance versus Nvidia. There's always a performance differential, and there can be opengl and Vulkan issues in the mix too. It comes down to their drivers. If I needed a gpu for mainstream gaming, I'd have no issue buying AMD, but because I require a gpu for emulation purposes too, I'll always default to Nvidia.

Retr0gamer · 08-04-2022 10:16am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118897581#Comment_118897581

I've read up on it and a lot of the time it's not drivers. A lot of it comes down to developers making games with nvidia as the lead platform. On top of that it comes down to the differences in architecture as well. Apparently it comes down to nvidia using a software scheduler and AMD sticking with a hardware scheduler which makes it a disaster in DX11 and older API's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIoZB-cnjc0

A lot of emulation since it's amateur would be single threaded which would benefit Nvidia a lot more.

Andrew76 · 23-04-2022 9:30am

Morning folks, I'm just wondering if VitaDeploy is still the handiest way to jailbreak a Vita 1000?

https://retrogamecorps.com/2021/04/27/ps-vita-guide/

Inviere · 23-04-2022 11:35am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118964359#Comment_118964359

It could be Andrew, its years since I done anything on a Vita. This guide I think has the most up to do info, so have a read of it and see if it's applicable - https://vita.hacks.guide/

Andrew76 · 23-04-2022 12:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118964822#Comment_118964822

Top man thanks. Have been watching a few videos about retro gaming handhelds and saw one about modding the Vita, something to tinker with.

Tom Mann Centuria · 24-04-2022 6:23am

Great machine to mod, sd2vita is a handy thing for a few euro once you've modded it. Gives you much cheaper storage options rather than the crazy overpriced vita memory cards. PSP emulation is fantastic (via Adrenaline), I think I use that more than the Vita side of things.

petejmk · 24-04-2022 8:01am

I followed the same guide earlier this year and VitaDeploy worked perfectly. The lad running that site/channel is brilliant at easy to follow instructions.

Inviere · 08-05-2022 9:32am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov2acW-ABiA

Preview vid of upcoming MAME release being able to emulate the linking capabilities of this game

80s Synth Pop · 08-05-2022 1:16pm

Mame is usually excellent for emulating networked cabs. Most of the multiplayer driving games are covered at this stage. Nice to see this one officially added too. There is usually a bit of configuration to be added to the mame.ini file on each pc to get the network running.

I wonder will we ever see an official "netplay" build of mame to allow 4x player games like the simpsons be played across two cabs.

SuperBowserWorld · 08-05-2022 1:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119031923#Comment_119031923

Mame continues to amaze me

Inviere · 08-05-2022 2:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119031933#Comment_119031933

It's beyond description how important it is, and how it's so professionally managed and contributed to all by volunteers. It's above gold standard in every way.

I love how it has branched out to home machines too, particularly microcomputers. However I've been reading lately about cv1000 speed issues with Mame, and how in general with software emulation it's incredibly complicated to accurately emulate slowdown/wait states etc...this even spills over into cps1 stuff etc, where we seen Mister is able to 1:1 the timings in hardware, but Mame still can't (yet).

Still, it continues to improve time and again, so in time I'm sure someone will solve it. A lot of current issues seem to stem from simply needing more contributors, rather than software limitations.

SuperBowserWorld · 08-05-2022 3:32pm

I remember when it first came out... It was like magic. I know there are other emulators but this does so much and has been going for so long..

It's like git or Linux ... It's just brilliant and free.

I'd say the remaining problems are the harder ones to solve. No low hanging fruit.

Mobius2021 · 09-05-2022 9:06am

Finally got my Retroid Pocket 2+ last week. They had production issues but they are resolved now.

I love it. Emulation is very strong on it as the reviews say. Followed some straight forward setup guides on Youtube and have GBA, SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, PSP, PS1, Saturn all working perfectly. Currently dividing my time between Super Mario RPG (SNES) and GTA Liberty City Stories (PSP). Build quality is decent and considering it cost me $136 in total including shipping it was a great deal I think.

Only negative but cannot complain too much at the price is it would be great if It had a slightly larger screen.

I hope I get some good use out of it and if I do I could see myself upgrading in 2-3 years when hopefully these Android handhelds are powerful enough to emulate PS2/Xbox/Gamecube pretty flawlessly.

CiDeRmAn · 09-05-2022 9:44am

I've that many ways to play games on the go, at this stage, I don't think I can buy any more!

I have a Retroflag GPi case with a Pi0 inside and it works quite well for everything I need, not really after PS2/GC or Xbox tbh, Dreamcast would be nice though!

MrVestek · 20-06-2022 8:29am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119035411#Comment_119035411

A Pi4 would handle Dreamcast games quite nicely. Anything before that struggles with them a little, even the 3b+.

Gamer Bhoy 89 · 11-07-2022 7:39pm

Lads. I'm having a few irritating issues on RetroArch (via Project Eris on PSC). I normally don't post any problems I have as I typically use Reddit or YouTube, but in this case, Reddit users aren't responding (instead they just keep upvoting my question and I get no replies) and I can't put some of my issues into words that Youtube will remotely understand what it is I'm trying to explain. So I thought I'd come here!

When playing a game that uses rumble, the vibration goes on a little too long. FIFA 99, for example: a simple tackle should cause the controller just to vibrate in time with the impact, but instead it's a long, drawn-out vibration that doesn't feel right.

Another issue I'm having is; I can't set any bindings to the touchpad on my Dualsense because RA thinks I'm using the Xbox 360 controller and I don't know how to change it.

Third issue; On some games, after a while, the buttons become overly sensitive.

I was trying to play Premier Manager 98 the other day and I couldn't get past the name-input screen because the D-Pad went mental, going back and forth at a rapid rate.

On another game was I navigating a pause screen and I only needed to tap it and it went two or three menus down. It's almost as if turbo mode had been enabled (it's not). I was playing Driver, and after a few minutes, I braked and the sound from the screeching tires sounded like I was, again, using the turbo function. I wouldn't complain so much if it did this on a game like Track and Field lol But it's an issue I can't seem to figure out how to fix.

Am I going nuts? Is there anything in the config that I can fart around with?

Retr0gamer · 12-07-2022 8:03am

Sounds like it's using the wrong controller profile. I had this issue before with retroarch picking the wrong controller profile for my 8bitdo controllers. I can't remember how I fixed it put it took me a long time and I saved my configuration because it was such a pain in the arse to fix.

There's two folders as well for controller profiles, direct input and xinput. I think I had to find an updated controller profile list on github in the end.

Retroarch isn't plug and play for me with controllers.

Doge · 22-08-2022 5:33pm

https://tech4gamers.com/steam-deck-can-emulate-xbox-360

..

Inviere · 22-08-2022 7:40pm

Yeah I only learned through the recent MVG video that Xenia (canary build) has had a pretty significant performance boost quite recently.

The Last Bandit · 22-08-2022 7:52pm

Interesting progress alright, will be waiting for a native build though, can't be arsed setting up a Windows install on it.

Inviere · 02-10-2022 11:06am

It's amazing how emulated pixels, an emulated bezel, and an emulated dynamic reflection on that bezel can come so close to the real thing. Obviously a dodgy phone pic compressed to high heaven on Boards doesn't do it justice, but it looks incredible in person.

o1s1n · 04-10-2022 12:18pm

That's really amazing! Just looks like a closeup photo someone took of a 2000's era silver CRT.

What is that displaying in?

Inviere · 04-10-2022 2:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119699575#Comment_119699575

That's a Retroarch shader called the hsm mega bezel shader. The monitor shown on above is a bog standard dell 24" 1080p monitor with poor black levels... apparently on a 4k oled this shader looks beyond amazing.

https://youtu.be/TxiVA-t5Lxw

Personally I don't bother with the fancy bezels, just the generic one is fine for me.

johnny_ultimate · 04-10-2022 3:01pm

Dipping into PS2 emulation to play Silent Hill 2. Have PCSX2 set up and working fine. Are the higher resolution options worth using? Playing on a 1440p monitor.

Inviere · 04-10-2022 3:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119700550#Comment_119700550

They can be very impressive, though it depends on the game. Are you playing at stock ps2 resolutions? I usually bump it to 1080p and leave it at that, though that said, that's as far as my display resolution goes anyway so no point going higher.

johnny_ultimate · 04-10-2022 3:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119700685#Comment_119700685

I got it working yesterday but didn't get further than the title screen as had to head off! I'll have a play around and see how it fares anyway, it did look extremely blurry on stock resolution but also know upscaling won't magically fix low-resolution FMVs or anything like that :)

Inviere · 04-10-2022 4:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119700742#Comment_119700742

Indeed, as far as pixel art & fmv scenes etc, upscaling won't be of any use. It can be unreal for 3d games though, making PS2 games look not far off modern remasters. That said, for Silent Hill 2....have a look at the enhanced edition mod for PC...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v1USVhtfjQ

More info here - https://www.silenthillmemories.net/sh2/enhanced_edition_en.htm

I have it set up and installed, but haven't gotten around to playing it. Apparently, it's pretty definitive.

Steve X2 · 05-10-2022 1:11am

Check out these bezels. 4k, scratches and reflections and it took the guy 3 or 4 years to complete.

Been testing them out for a few hours tonight and they look awesome in 4k. But, not sure my brain can accept the scratches and reflection on the actual monitor area long term. But he did a fantastic job on it. The full set is about 16GB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yv_f1S2XSQ

https://forums.launchbox-app.com/files/file/2225-mr-retrolusts-mame-4k-lights-out-realistic-bezels/

Here's one of his candy cab default bezels. It gives an idea as what you can expect with the reflections and some scratches.

And I stuck a game screenshot under it in Photoshop 😉

Link to full resolution pics:

https://i.imgur.com/BoyjNa0.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lK5mTnB.jpg

Retr0gamer · 05-10-2022 10:13am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119700550#Comment_119700550

One issue with higher resolutions with some games is you can get artifacts around 2D elements that look awful and there's no way to fix them. The art looked fine at 640x480 so the dev team left it and as a result you start to get elements of adjacent 2D assets from the asset sheets (basically all the 2D art will be in one big sheet of pixel art and the game will display certain sections of it) will bleed into the asset. Only way to over come it is to drop to native resolution.

I still don't think PS2 emulation is really quite there yet once you venture off the bigger games. I've had a lot of graphical errors in medium tier games. Low budget stuff is usually ok as they use rendering techniques from similar libraries but the more impressive mid tier stuff can have issues.

Inviere · 22-10-2022 5:01pm

Not strictly emulation related, but Launchbox related. I grew tired of browsing different storefront libraries for my PC games, and never really knowing exactly what I owned unless opening up all of the stores and manually checking. So I decided to try Launchbox's storefront management system, using the PC Platform, I imported all of my owned games (not installing them, just importing them based on my existing purchase libraries)...and it works wonderfully well. All of my games show up, with a little badge to show which store-front they originate from too. A mere right click, and it'll launch the required storefront to either install the game, and from there, it's launchable like any other game.

^^ Games from three different storefronts, all browsable and playable without fuss.

^^ As above, just open the right click menu to install any game from the relevant storefront.

^^ Better still, you can group any additional apps like expansions, mods, conversions, ports, etc all under the main game and view them from the Play Version menu....lovely and tidy.

General Emulation Discussion

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