The State of Emulation topic

[copy-paster]

Is it just me or... I downloaded the recent MAME version ( 0.161 ) and tested play Deathsmiles, DDP DFK 1.5, and Ibara, the sound are very buggy, framerates drop in 40-50fps and lag in some sections

Is these games wasn't emulated perfectly ?

[trap15]

It's because your computer isn't powerful enough.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Dolphin now natively supports the official Gamecube adapter for the WiiU. Works as plug-and-play and doesn't need to be configured. I've been playing F-Zero GX with it and I have to say that it really does feel a lot more accurate than other controllers. In case anyone's interested, the Ishiiruka branch of Dolphin is the one to go for F-Zero GX. It comes with a few handy hacks that improve the game's stability and performance.

In other news, Sturmwind's protection has been finally cracked and the game can now run in Demul and nullDC.

[BPzeBanshee]

MAME and MESS have officially merged into one. If you want a binary like old MAME you have to compile it yourself with subtarget=arcade.

Also, hap emulated the Tamagotchi, right down to the detail - it's exactly as fucking annoying and pointless as the real thing!

[soprano1]

There is also a new VBA-M. Nice stuff this week.

[soprano1]

Anyone knows about Bizhawk (http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk.html)? I switched to it for N64 and PCE-CD, and i'm thinking of saying goodbye to Fusion for MD/Mega-CD/SMS/GG playing. It uses Genesis Plus GX as a core, so in theory should be better, right?

[Pedro Lambrini]

^
I've never had much luck with Bizhawk but I do use RetroArch which also uses a Genesis Plus core and Mednafen PCE. I think they're excellent. GP GX is more compatible (it can run the newer Taiwan dumps) and, to my eyes and ears, is more accurate too.

It's also nice and handy having the PCE emulation under the same umbrella, so to speak.

I keep Fusion on a wee netbook that I have along with Stella (Atari 2600). That's about all Fusion is good for to me these days.

[e_tank]

bizhawk and openemu are both based on libretro/retroarch. iirc most of their cores are just direct ports of already existing libretro ones. neither are compatible with libretro, so you can't load a bizhawk or openemu core into retroarch and play it; and both projects are platform specific, bizhawk is windows only and openemu is mac osx only.

unless either of these projects has a specific feature you want that retroarch doesn't have then you might want to look into retroarch instead. the libretro api is more mature, platform independent, and has more wide spread support. you'll have more choices in emulators with libretro and you'll have access to the latest versions of supported emulators sooner.

also +1 for genesis plus gx over fusion.

[soprano1]

Yeah, goodbye Fusion. Thanks for your posts.

[Ed Oscuro]

Classic MAME Plus - the one that trap15 recommended during the last STGT - hasn't been updated from 0.168 last year, and from my reading it seemed that there were some breaking changes after that point, and according to MAME World there may be a delay in getting a new version out (needs new licensing permission from supporters, apparently).

In the meantime, what's the best recommended version of MAME with a frontend? (I still haven't looked into ASIO GroovyMAME, so there is that.)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Haven't been using MAME for (I think) years now; meanwhile, Raiden II&DX made some noise and I felt sudden urge to revisit single-screen Psikyo games Gunbarich and Space Bomber (which, devoid of background scroll, suffer virtually none of the framebuffer hack's drawbacks).
So here I am asking: is there any MAME with frontend, up-to-date Raiden II&DX support AND framebuffer hack for Psikyo hardware?
(Realistically speaking, my current PC monitor is LCD and I'd rather not move my VGA CRTs around for a while, thus framebuffer hack in backdrop scrollers too would be all the more preferred.)

[Xyga]

MAME has absorbed the MEWUI frontend now, so you can use only that if you can't find a third party of your liking.
It's still a bit awkward especially in regards to filters and settings, but I'm sure it'll get better with time.

A lot of changes at the moment but basically aside from the new licensing story, baseline MAME is also progressively integrating GroovyMAME features (yes really), a new rendering/shaders system (BGFX), and new programming stuff called LUA which will allow people to make a lot of new things they'll 'plug in' to MAME, opening tons of new possibilities.

All those changes are kind of killing some long-time existing derivative builds and hacks, at least in the form they existed up until yesterday.
Which means for instance some extra features and hacks can no longer easily be distributed built into a downloadable full executable (a .diff supposedly would be ok).
Minding licensing and the new system would come first, but it seems most of the 'unconventional' stuff that might drop because of this will be back some day in one form or another.

At the moment I'm a bit concerned about the continuation of the Toaplan and Raiden Fighters samples hacks/mods, and I don't understand how the new autofire feature works.
I'm also waiting to see if the GroovyMAME features I like (d3d9ex w/ automatic syncing method switching keeping lag low, integer scaling) will really be retained and maybe even evolve.

@obiwan: GroovyMAME fits your requirements, no need for framebuffer hack, in the .ini on the 'video' line just set 'd3d9ex'
(note: you still have to create the .ini via command line)

[soprano1]

Yeah, goodbye Fusion. Thanks for your posts.

Holy shit, just tried out Gunstar Heroes on Bizhawk, feels much better moving and aiming than with Fusion. Is it just me, though?

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks Xyga, and everybody else for the Genesis discussion. At the moment, it seems like Exodus is stalled (for nearly a year now, despite the open source release) and Regen as well. Genesis Plus GX sounds like another good option. It's too bad there isn't a cycle-accurate emulator for the Genesis as there is for the SNES, though.

[copy-paster]

Recommended emulator to play PCE-CD games ??

Anyone ?

[soprano1]

Recommended emulator to play PCE-CD games ??

Anyone ?

Ootake.

[e_tank]

mednafen pce. you can use it directly thru mednafen or thru retroarch via its libretro core (i highly recommend the latter). mednafen pce is also the default built in core used by openemu (mac osx only). bizhawk (win only) has its own built in pce emulation core that according to its wiki is comparable to mednafen pce, can't vouch for it myself though.

i'm not sure but mame's pce emulation might be an option as well. last time i tried it it was pretty much crap but that was years ago, it might be in better shape by now.

[soprano1]

mednafen pce. you can use it directly thru mednafen or thru retroarch via its libretro core (i highly recommend the latter). mednafen pce is also the default built in core used by openemu (mac osx only). bizhawk (win only) has its own built in pce emulation core that according to its wiki is comparable to mednafen pce, can't vouch for it myself though.

i'm not sure but mame's pce emulation might be an option as well. last time i tried it it was pretty much crap but that was years ago, it might be in better shape by now.

I think Bizhawk doesn't use the mednafen pce core.

[BPzeBanshee]

At the moment I'm a bit concerned about the continuation of the Toaplan and Raiden Fighters samples hacks/mods, and I don't understand how the new autofire feature works.
I'm also waiting to see if the GroovyMAME features I like (d3d9ex w/ automatic syncing method switching keeping lag low, integer scaling) will really be retained and maybe even evolve.

The autofire system in MAME now is like MAMEUIFX. No custom buttons. You enable cheats via commandline/mame.ini and from there can either enable a button to toggle autofire on button [number] or use the submenu in the Cheats system to switch buttons on and off. It's passable but I'd rather custom buttons myself.

Regarding the sample hacks, the issue isn't the hacks themselves but the choice of build we use - MAME Plus. The sample hack for RF itself was always tested against normal MAME first and assuming I distribute the modified source under the same license as what R.Belmont and co did for seibuspi.cpp I should be legally in good standing, same with Unzu and his ThunderMAME alterations.

However, MAME Plus hasn't been updated in two months and last I checked has several contributors who are no longer reachable including YuiFAN, the current maintainer for said project, so there is an issue not only of getting it working again under MAME's core changes but also regarding relicensing. If MAME Plus dies I'll just have to compile for normal MAME instead and hope someone more competent than me gets custom button support working as a .diff once more.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I might have confused framebuffer with spritebuffer in my previous post here. Never mind.

[Xyga]

@BP: Yes Mame Plus seems dead, well good luck. ^^
Apparently MAMEUIFX should survive as a derivative, don't know how nor if they'll maintain the Toaplan samples support...
Hope both of you will manage to bring back custom buttons in a way or another.

@Obiwan: yes indeed anyway sprite buffer hacks weren't a good thing, GroovyMAME using the queue-less 9ex with 'throttle-able sync' thingie is the perfect and right replacement, I don't know why people still use ShmupMAME honestly.

[Pedro Lambrini]

Recommended emulator to play PCE-CD games ??

Anyone ?

As I mentioned above. I use the Mednafen PCE Fast core through RetroArch. It's accurate, smooth and it's easy to use (just drop a system3 card image in your content folder).

I really haven't found a better PCE emulator.

[Blinge]

What's the saturn like these days?
Do you still have to mount CD images with stuff like daemon tools? anyone recommend a program?

[Ed Oscuro]

Recommended emulator to play PCE-CD games ??

Anyone ?

As I mentioned above. I use the Mednafen PCE Fast core through RetroArch. It's accurate, smooth and it's easy to use (just drop a system3 card image in your content folder).

I really haven't found a better PCE emulator.

Did you try it out with Renny Blaster? That one seems problematic on the various standalone emus I've tried.

[Pedro Lambrini]

Can't say I have. I'll grab a DL just now and let you know how it goes.

EDIT: Just gave the game a quick shot. I'm unfamiliar with the game or with any issues running it under emulation but it seemed to be grand. Smooth enough scrolling, no glitches in sound or graphics. I played it until the first boss. I gave up after that... the game's horrendous!

[Harpuia]

What's the saturn like these days?
Do you still have to mount CD images with stuff like daemon tools? anyone recommend a program?

Yabause can play ISO files, but it's not as compatible as SSF. If you have a strong Android device (like an Nvdia Shield) ouYabouse is supposedly very good from what I've seen.

[BrianC]

I have Retroarch on Android, but a good chunk of the cores don't allow for simultaneous inputs on pads or keyboards. Most NES and GB games allow for simultaneous inputs, though (TMNT II and III NES are the worst offenders with inconsistent inputs, both with physical controllers and overlays, but other games like River City Ransom and Double Dragon II are fine). Hopefully, PCE isn't one of those cores with the input issue. A good chunk of the overlays also have an issue with inputs. I found many of the flat overlays to work best.

One tip for Retroarch for those who want to play NES games. NstDatabase.xml can be found in the forums for the emulator (not sure if it's okay to link to an emulator website) and some games only run with this file in the system directory using the Nestopia core. With this file, some games with issues in other emulators for Android like Ms. Pac-Man run great in RetroArch. I couldn't find a way to play Zapper games with the touchscreen using RetroArch, though.

As far as other emulators, MAME4Droid 0.139u1 and SNES 9X EX+ are both well done and have nice pad support. I had to play musical ROMs with MAME, but it was worth it.

[Shepardus]

What's the saturn like these days?
Do you still have to mount CD images with stuff like daemon tools? anyone recommend a program?

If you mean a program for mounting CD images, I use Virtual CloneDrive for most purposes, but I also have Alcohol Portable since Virtual CloneDrive doesn't support .cue files.

[Ed Oscuro]

Alcohol Portable sounds good, but I did sour on their regular virtual drive software for the shady adware tactics and intentionally confusing demo support. Is this more or less painless to use now?

[Shepardus]

I've never used their regular software so I can't say how it compares to that, but I haven't had any issues with Alcohol Portable. The screenshots on that site is pretty much all there is to it, you just drag+drop an image file to mount it and right-click on it to unmount it. There's a bit more on its online help page but there's not much to see because it's a pretty simple program.