Emulating Xbox 360 shmups via Xenia: a reference thread

[cave hermit]

Thought I would make a thread for the purpose of compiling information on emulating 360 shmups on Xenia. Please feel free to contribute.

General problems with Xenia emulation:
-Noticeable sound effect lag
-Occasional screen flickering
-games that work in one build may not work in later builds
-games that work properly in one branch (there are two branches of Xenia, master and canary) may not work in the other
-DLC and patch installation is fairly difficult (read the documentation VERY carefully) and may not work regardless
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Note that if you legally own xbox 360 games on disc (not sure if on demand games work as well) or own DLC, they can be easily transferred to a PC in a xenia-bootable format using a Xbox 360 (no modding required!) and removable media like a flash drive. Consult Xenia's documentation about it.

If you do not legally own a game you wish to play... well you're a shmups enthusiast, you're probably used to it by now, and will figure out a solution. It should be noted that if you do figure out a solution, Xbox 360 ISOs are like 7 to 8 gigabytes large regardless of their contents, and so you may want to use another software tool to convert ISOs to a space efficient directory tree format (Mushihimesama Futari v1.5 for instance goes from 7 gigabytes or so to 800 megabytes when converted!)
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Dodonpachi Saidaioujou

-The most up to date master and canary branch versions of xenia as of this writing (3.29.20) do not support the game, they will play the opening FMV and nothing else. To play Saidaioujou as of this writing, you can use the February 13th 2020 canary build of Xenia The direct X 12 renderer needs to be used, which requires Windows 10.

-Game seems to run fine, albeit with sound effect lag and occasional flickering. Not knowledgeable enough to say anything about input lag.

-However the game will crash if you select a mode, back out, then attempt to select another mode.


Mushihimesama Futari v1.5

-You need to use the master branch of xenia for this one, the canary branch will run it, but without music. Direct X 12 should be used (again, requires Windows 10), Vulkan seems to boot it, but apparently has noticeable issues.

-Game runs great, albeit with sound effect lag and occasional flickering. According to MarkMSX/Electric Underground, input lag is only 2 frames.

-As far as I can tell, the Black label DLC and v1.01 DLC do not work. Perhaps I did not install it correctly, but I'm pretty sure I followed the documentation to the letter.

Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets

-I've only personally tested the February 13th 2020 canary branch build with Direct X 12, but from what I've read this game is in a similar situation to Saidaioujou in that it won't run on later canary builds or the master branch (I have not verified this).

-Game runs good with typical sound effect lag. Input lag seemed fine, but I don't really know much about it.

-The matsuri mode DLC does in fact work in Xenia! So for all 3 people who have redeemed their first print MMP&PS dlc codes (and those otherwise resourceful), you're in luck!
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I'll try and continue to update this with other games. By which I mean if I feel like it. Anyway feel free to provide tips of your own.

[clippa]

The August 3rd 2019 build of the master version works great for futari, and I haven't tested it properly yet but Espgaluda 2 seems to run well in this build too.

[slateman]

I tested out several games this past week using the 23 March, 2020 build. While some of this is redundant and covered by cave hermit, these are just my experiences. Hope this is helpful.

Do Not Run Boots to menu but crashes Xenia when any game mode starts
* DoDonPachi: Daifukkatsu - Black Label
* DoDonPachi: Resurrection
* DoDonPachi: Sai-Dai-Ou-Jou (intro movie only)
* Mushihimesama HD

Runs With Issues!
* DoDonPachi: Dai-Ou-Jou Black Label Extra (Audio stops at main menu, but game runs otherwise rather well!)

Dare I Say Playable?
* ESPGaluda II Black Label (there may be visual issues here, I only tested briefly)
* Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 (This game is a thing of beauty)

Other Unplayable
* Guwange (No visuals, choppy audio)
* Ketsui Kizuna Jigoku Tachi Extra (Crashes immediately)
* Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets: Ibara Sorekara (I get audio, but no visuals)

[Udderdude]

Ketsui works in the Feb 13th canary build. Only issue is the audio is desynched by almost a half second.

Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets works in the Feb 13th canary build. However, I did have it crash once when it was creating game data. After that, it seemed to not crash. YMMV.

I think it's important to keep in mind Xenia is still an alpha quality emulator and is constantly changing. Info in this thread may be rapidly outdated.

[Elixir]

Are the port-exclusive Arranges playable? Like PS Score Attack, Ketsui's X-mode, or... whatever DOJBLEX's arrange mode was called.

[Zeether]

Ginga Force and Raystorm HD work perfectly in recent builds but I have no clue how they fare lag wise. Omega Five had graphical issues and seemed to run pretty choppy.

[slateman]

Are the port-exclusive Arranges playable? Like PS Score Attack, Ketsui's X-mode, or... whatever DOJBLEX's arrange mode was called.

I've found that if the base game works, both the alternate modes and all DLC work. Dumping the latter from your 360 seems possible - as are less-legitimate methods.

In the very least, this is an early representation and is promising. With some of these games being less-than-perfect ports to purists, any hiccups render the games even-less perfect. It all depends on your vantage point. I will say that Futari runs way better than I could've anticipated.

[liteon]

In the last build on xenia master or xenia canary for play saidaijou, muchi pork/pink sweet, akai katana.

open
xenia-canary-config.toml or xenia.config.toml

change
gpu_allow_invalid_fetch_constants = false

by

gpu_allow_invalid_fetch_constants = true



original source emuline.org

by benclau

Bonjour,



Pour ceux qui désirent jouer à certain jeux Cave avec les dernières versions de Xenia, vous n'avez qu'à changer dans la config (fichier xenia-canary-config.toml pour Canary ou xenia.config.toml pour Master) la ligne ci-dessous



gpu_allow_invalid_fetch_constants = false

par

gpu_allow_invalid_fetch_constants = true



Pour ma part, les jeux Akai Katana, Guwange, Deathsmiles 2, Dodonpachi Sai Dai Ou Jou, KOF Skystage, et autres fonctionnent de nouveau.

[slateman]

In the last build on xenia master or xenia canary for play saidaijou, muchi pork/pink sweet, akai katana.

open
xenia-canary-config.toml or xenia.config.toml

change
gpu_allow_invalid_fetch_constants = false

by

gpu_allow_invalid_fetch_constants = true

I can verify this helped! FYI, the config file was located in a My Documents folder, not the install directory - in case anyone wondered.

[DoomsDave]

I'm having some trouble running Futari and was wondering if anyone had any idea what I'm doing wrong. Never tried Xenia before so this is my first experience.

I downloaded this version from gus's tweet - https://twitter.com/gusyphus/status/124 ... 44128?s=20

I followed the guide on how to rip the game and followed the readme that came with the files in gus's tweet. When I start Futari it loads up fine but when I press start on the opening screen the game doesn't bring up the load from hard drive screen. The game hasn't frozen though because the logo still animates. I left it running for 10 mins and it just wouldn't go any further.

Here's a video of what happens - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yR4R3J ... e=youtu.be

Any help would appreciated.

[liteon]

Muchi Muchi Pork matsuri on xenia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mikqr-hu1W4

[hector_doepos]

I'm having some trouble running Futari and was wondering if anyone had any idea what I'm doing wrong. Never tried Xenia before so this is my first experience.

I downloaded this version from gus's tweet - https://twitter.com/gusyphus/status/124 ... 44128?s=20

I followed the guide on how to rip the game and followed the readme that came with the files in gus's tweet. When I start Futari it loads up fine but when I press start on the opening screen the game doesn't bring up the load from hard drive screen. The game hasn't frozen though because the logo still animates. I left it running for 10 mins and it just wouldn't go any further.

Here's a video of what happens - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yR4R3J ... e=youtu.be

Any help would appreciated.

I'm having this same issue, has anyone figured out why this happens? Deathsmiles runs really well/perfectly as far as I can tell.

Tested on canary and master.

[dark]

I tested Radiant Silvergun XBLA version on xenia. The game starts and you can hear sound effects from the game while you "play" it, but no in-game graphics display so its currently unplayable.

[Psynaptik]

Apologies for the necro, but this seems the correct place to put this.

I'm trying to get Xenia (latest, master and canary - little difference) running some CAVE shmups.

I've had the same issues with Radiant Silvergun and the black screen - that seems ot have not changed.

THere seems to be some serious audio lag, and the music runs out in stages. Audio lag is about a second or so.

Has anyone found any options in the config file (.toml file) that can be altered to solve this?
Are there any other builds that work better for these games than others?

I'm running an i5-4570 and GTX1660Super with 16GB ram, so I feel I should be able to run this game okay.

[sunnshine]

Sorry for the thread resurrection but I thought you all might like to know that there have been some pretty cool advances in Xenia recently if that's your thing. Stuff's running faster and less glitchy and more games are playable than before.

[bcass]

I saw the big news a few weeks ago, but sadly it doesn't seem to have affected any of the shmups that weren't previously working?

[Psynaptik]

I have to admit that I just bought an RGH 360 in the end. The audio lag in particular was killing me.

[bcass]

I have a JPN Jasper unit for my Cave fix, but I'd prefer to have them all on PC via (high quality) emulation. The emulator is obviously more than capable of it, it's just that these games are highly niche and there's likely no-one looking into the issues on these particular games at the moment.

[sunnshine]

I saw the big news a few weeks ago, but sadly it doesn't seem to have affected any of the shmups that weren't previously working?

It seems to be more of a performance thing, like stuff that would chug along on my work potato (i3-6100 + GT 1030) is now playable. Espgaluda II runs particularly well (some audio glitching but it's playable through to the end and games save ok) and Afterburner Climax is fully playable where before it wouldn't get past the 'select aircraft' screen.

edit- I've got an RGH Corona Slim but it's nice to have an alternative for when it fails!

[Psynaptik]

I could never get Xenia to not have a big audio delay.

Graphics were great (apart from Radiant Silvergun), but audio was always at least half a second late. Doesn't sound like much 'on paper', but in a game that's a really long time! Especially in shmups!

[anon56489]

I am aware there is a custom Xenia build to run Mushihimesama Futari's DLCs, but it is now very outdated in comparison to the master branch, and I dislike running opaque custom builds without support.

In order to patch Xenia to run the unpacked DLCs: (you need to be familiar with building from source, sorry)
1) Clone the repository
2) Open up src/xenia/kernel/xam/content_manager.cc
3) Find the line where this is written in ContentManager::ListContent :

Code: Select all

content_data.display_name = xe::path_to_utf16(file_info.name);

4) Replace with the following:

Code: Select all

if (file_info.name.filename() == "496F816DD4B53DAEFF931838B6C69831AAD7663043")
    content_data.display_name = u"虫姫さまふたり　ブラックレーベル";
else if (file_info.name.filename() == "9893A78CA6062B935BD1F53EA43CFD546B7246DF43")
    content_data.display_name = u"虫姫さまふたり　Ver1.01";
else
    content_data.display_name = xe::path_to_utf16(file_info.name);

5) Make sure the source file uses UTF-8 when saving.
6) Rebuild and enjoy the DLCs.

[Zeether]

Has anyone gotten the Otomedius Gorgeous DLC to work properly in the Canary build? I got the music DLC to show up but for whatever reason the character and stage DLC won't. Esmeralda and Poini Coon show up in the shop and I can even buy their weapons for the other characters but I can't actually use them and the game prompt for playing with the Easter Island stage doesn't appear. There's a build called "stfs-writer" that can properly play the DLC but it has some bouts of slowdown here and there.

[Tuwiuu]

I am aware there is a custom Xenia build to run Mushihimesama Futari's DLCs, but it is now very outdated in comparison to the master branch, and I dislike running opaque custom builds without support.

In order to patch Xenia to run the unpacked DLCs: (you need to be familiar with building from source, sorry)
1) Clone the repository
2) Open up src/xenia/kernel/xam/content_manager.cc
3) Find the line where this is written in ContentManager::ListContent :

Code: Select all

content_data.display_name = xe::path_to_utf16(file_info.name);

4) Replace with the following:

Code: Select all

if (file_info.name.filename() == "496F816DD4B53DAEFF931838B6C69831AAD7663043")
    content_data.display_name = u"虫姫さまふたり　ブラックレーベル";
else if (file_info.name.filename() == "9893A78CA6062B935BD1F53EA43CFD546B7246DF43")
    content_data.display_name = u"虫姫さまふたり　Ver1.01";
else
    content_data.display_name = xe::path_to_utf16(file_info.name);

5) Make sure the source file uses UTF-8 when saving.
6) Rebuild and enjoy the DLCs.

Just swinging by to tell that there is now an updated custom Xenia build available made from the current canary fork.
No more audio delay in the DLCs even if you can't build from source!

[Reiko]

Just swinging by to tell that there is now an updated custom Xenia build available made from the current canary fork.
No more audio delay in the DLCs even if you can't build from source!

The Mushihimesama Futari dlcs are now working in the official Xenia build. Tested with the 2023-11-18 canary version.

Once you open the emulator, go to File > Install Content and choose the DLC file. Have to do this twice, once for each of the DLCs. When I say DLC file, in my case I'm using the one I copied from my Xbox 360 console.
Then run the game and it works fine. No need to use a custom build.

[Enemy]

Anyone else notice a stutter in akai katana?

I have tried normal build and canary and just can't seem to get rid of the stutter. It's obviously most noticeable in the scrolling.

I even watched some video of it being played in xenia and see that the stutter is there.

I don't have this issue with other shmups/games in xenia.