The State of Emulation topic

[Xyga]

Dah, I'm still using an x86 OS so I can't try the new faster Dolphin.
My weak mobile c2d is too weak for PPSSPP as well.
Really need a modern computer. *sigh*

[Jonathan Ingram]

That dolphin stuff looks nice. I'm one of the weirdos that actually liked Sunshine. Wonder how it will run on my Macbook Pro Bootcamp'ed. How are the Wii controls emulated for those games? I never played the first Galaxy but loved the second one.

Galaxy in Dolphin can be a bit problematic without the Wii remote because of the gimmicky aiming mechanic. The pointer is best mapped to the right analogue stick, but naturally the accuracy isn't going to be the same. KB + mouse is an option too, I guess. Your Macbook won't be able to run it at anywhere close to the full speed, anyway. AFAIK no laptop can.

[GaijinPunch]

That dolphin stuff looks nice. I'm one of the weirdos that actually liked Sunshine. Wonder how it will run on my Macbook Pro Bootcamp'ed. How are the Wii controls emulated for those games? I never played the first Galaxy but loved the second one.

Galaxy in Dolphin can be a bit problematic without the Wii remote because of the gimmicky aiming mechanic. The pointer is best mapped to the right analogue stick, but naturally the accuracy isn't going to be the same. KB + mouse is an option too, I guess. Your Macbook won't be able to run it at anywhere close to the full speed, anyway. AFAIK no laptop can.

Good to know. I might be getting a new desktop down the road but it won't be a "gaming" machine. I definitely don't keep up w/ this stuff, but don't some laptops have formidable GPUs in them?

[Raytrace]

I'll have to give latest Dolphin a go on my new PC as when I tried Super Mario Sunshine before it wasn't really playable.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Good to know. I might be getting a new desktop down the road but it won't be a "gaming" machine. I definitely don't keep up w/ this stuff, but don't some laptops have formidable GPUs in them?

GPUs, yes, but modern emulation is very CPU dependent and it just so happens that laptop CPUs aren't up to snuff at all for some of the more demanding games like SMG. Not yet, at least. You'd need an i5 or i7 with a 3.5+ Ghz clock to get a consistent 60fps out of that game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

3D platformers played with keyboard tend to blow.

[Raytrace]

I shall play with my 360 controller - actually I have a White GC controller somewhere and I think I have an adapter that does GC, DC and PS2 - I might use that.

[JBC]

I thought Sin & Punishment 2 works very well with keyboard + mouse. Never felt like more than 8-way movement was necessary.

Just being a purist. I feel that the WiiMote + nunchuck setup is the ultimate way to play that game as it gives it an original feel like no other rail shooter before it. It's my favorite game of all time.

[Obiwanshinobi]

What do you think about the Tribes series? Or the original UT for that matter.

For real, though, I wonder what scores those who play S&P2 with a joypad have to share.
The major misgiving of mine about the game is that it should be branching like OutRun rather than strictly linear as it is. That would've allowed Treasure to put as much content in as they wanted to without alienating anybody.

[Raytrace]

Tribes 2 was an incredible game I think, I played it very much - though I'm not sure how many servers are still around - the new Tribes is supposed to be very good though I think it's emphasis is not on vehicles, which were pretty much my favourite part of Tribes 2.

[ColonelFatso]

Tribes 2 with the Classic mod is, bar none, the best Capture the Flag experience that has ever existed. T:A is not terrible but it's a poor Tribes game.

Unreal Tournament is a capable game, but I actually find myself preferring the original Unreal. UT2k4 goes above and beyond them both by miles.

But neither of those really belong in this thread, do they?

On topic, has there been any movement in recent years when it comes to Saturn emulation? There are a couple of system exclusives I want to try out with the idea of maybe buying a system sometime down the line.

[BryanM]

Man, remember the parallel port?

USB is truly a Jesus-type kind of guy.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Are the F-Zero GX Story Mode and Rogue Squadron II finally playable? Not many will care for those exclusives, but some will care a lot.

Man, remember the parallel port?

USB is truly a Jesus-type kind of guy.

Some people blame USB for input lag, but I can't say I've ever found it a problem on my WinXP machine with CRT (where I consider the difference between 1 and 2 frames lag on emulators perceptible).

I remember in the first Moto Racer for PC there's a "gamepad" option in the controls menu where said controller is pictured as SNES controller. Luckily analogue controller hooked up USB is detected as "joystick" and works a treat.

[Wooph]

F-Zero GX Story Mode

The whole game is playable. Take note of problems found here. Most notably, Dual Core needs to be disabled. Also, Sand Ocean's Heat Haze effect is a performance killer.

[Ed Oscuro]

A note about Regen, the SG / SMS / Genesis emulator: Support of Korean games (i.e., those on the NoIntro set) is not good. For example, "[BIOS] Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Korea)" shows the Sega logo, some hangul text, then hangs and crashes the emulator. "Nemesis 2 (Korea)," which I really want to try out, doesn't get past a black screen. Neither does the first Korean Nemesis. Those are the only Korean games I've found and tested so far.

[null1024]

Huh. Apparently Dolphin runs some games entirely fine on just an i5 with no dedicated video.
I just popped in SA2 to test [mostly kept 60, had a few bits where it looked like frames were dropped even though it still said 60], and at the very least the tutorial of Xenoblade keeps 25fps .

Dolphin is fast these days.

On topic, has there been any movement in recent years when it comes to Saturn emulation? There are a couple of system exclusives I want to try out with the idea of maybe buying a system sometime down the line.

SSF is still the only good Saturn emulator. It has rather high compatibility and decent accuracy, runs fast on most any recent machine, and probably the only issue you might encounter is that it has no ISO loading support since it's designed to run games from the discs themselves [so, use Daemon Tools. I have to do this on my i5 laptop even though I have a stack of Saturn games next to me, since the machine has no CD drive].

Also, SSF will not start if it doesn't detect a CD drive, real or virtual. Load the game before starting SSF.

mostly used it to play Bulk Slash, that game is standout in every way

[Obiwanshinobi]

at the very least the tutorial of Xenoblade keeps 25fps .

Xenoblade PAL outputs 60 Hz (when console runs in 60 Hz mode), so it should be 30 fps, at least from time to time (the game's got some pretty bad peformance issues later on).

[soprano1]

How is the state of emulation on PSone? psxfin works for the most part, but people seem to recommend epsxe. How about pcsx-reloaded, any good?

[Xyga]

ePXSe is the best no contest, almost everything plays with no issues, very nice in high-resolution and with the right smoothing shaders.
But I like the 'crt emulation' shaders even more, have a look here; http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=51298
Requires the right monitor and and a decent pc though.

[JBC]

I've always had the best luck with ePSXe. I think it's pretty easy to download & convert save states for as well, if I'm remembering right.

I recently tried the one for PS2 Free McBoot but it was dismal, though luckily some folks are working on a rebuilt version of POPstarter, Sony's unreleased official PSX emulator for PS2.

PSX emulation is in good shape over PC though, but I still prefer the real deal or at least burning a backup to play in a slimline unit using the swap trick. I did this with Jumping Flash! & Pandemonium last week to see how reliable it was. Pretty much perfect besides the risk of ragging out your drive. Still, slims are a dime a dozen, sealed copies of PSX games aren't.

[soprano1]

Compatibility seems to be an issue across all emulators, though, at least on PC. PSP has the best "emulator" so far, problem is battery life and screen size

[Xyga]

some folks are working on a rebuilt version of POPstarter, Sony's unreleased official PSX emulator for PS2.

First time I'm reading about that, gonna check!

PSP has the best "emulator" so far

The thing is it lacks proper enhancement features, as a friend mentioned recently "FF IX looks like shit on the PSP"...obviously because it relies heavily on dithering and you can't do anything about it.
With ePSXe, you're just a click away from making it look gorgeous.
And regarding compatibility, honestly I have been using it since v1.5.2 (2002) when it still had some problems, but from 1.6.0 (2003) I have been able to play any game without any serious or noticeable compatibility issue.

It's just that in almost 13 years I have never seen any of the most useful or even sometimes essential configuration tips properly explained and gathered in a readme or help file.
Instead as this is often the case with emulators, the developers chose to let everything as is and let the internet handle it forever, which explains why in 2014 there are still new threads on every fucking forum in every fucking language asking 'how to make the battle swirl in FFVII show', 'why is there no music in Tomb Raider', 'why Valkyrie Profile sounds so horrible', etc. ad nauseam.

The thing is they have left most of the compatibility thing to the plugin system, but as Pete Bernert did most of the work and seems to have stopped caring years ago, same with shaders, it's left to forumers again.

Welcome to emulation 101: neither devs nor users ever learn anything from each other. Lulz.

[BPzeBanshee]

My main test game as an indicator of emulation status for PSX is The Unholy War. The only emulator I've seen actually able to properly run it without having graphics glitches after a fight on the same map has been with NO$PSX which has been a recent development and doesn't make use of plugins. Unfortunately his GUI is broken as hell and leads to crashes if you poke it the wrong way.

For everything else though I use ePSXe.

[BryanM]

Talking about enhanced art, that reminds me that the NDS emulation started experimenting with higher res polygons a couple years back. It makes a huge, enormous difference in how good many games look; there's really nothing that ever has or ever will be as improved by emulation as NDS 3d art has been.

[BPzeBanshee]

Talking about enhanced art, that reminds me that the NDS emulation started experimenting with higher res polygons a couple years back. It makes a huge, enormous difference in how good many games look; there's really nothing that ever has or ever will be as improved by emulation as NDS 3d art has been.

It still lives. http://www.geocities.jp/gponys/desmume_aa.html

I imagine the performance requirements go through the roof to an extent but it really does look like it makes a difference. From Game Boy to Wii, almost. Mainline DeSmuME has a thread in the feature tracker but it seems the devs aren't interested in pursuing that avenue.

[soprano1]

Talking about enhanced art, that reminds me that the NDS emulation started experimenting with higher res polygons a couple years back. It makes a huge, enormous difference in how good many games look; there's really nothing that ever has or ever will be as improved by emulation as NDS 3d art has been.

It still lives. http://www.geocities.jp/gponys/desmume_aa.html

I imagine the performance requirements go through the roof to an extent but it really does look like it makes a difference. From Game Boy to Wii, almost. Mainline DeSmuME has a thread in the feature tracker but it seems the devs aren't interested in pursuing that avenue.

I am truly speechless! It looks so good...

[Xyga]

You can do similar stuff with ePSXe; very high internal resolution + AA shader 4.o + texture filter #4 (tf is dispensable, looks good on 3D games though).
The results are very pleasing with many games, but sometimes they're just meh whatever you do, for instance on prerendered/digitized stuff (which looks okay only with 'crt' shaders anyway).

[soprano1]

You can do similar stuff with ePSXe; very high internal resolution + AA shader 4.o + texture filter #4 (tf is dispensable, looks good on 3D games though).
The results are very pleasing with many games, but sometimes they're just meh whatever you do, for instance on prerendered/digitized stuff (which looks okay only with 'crt' shaders anyway).

Xyga, since you seem to be in the know, any sound plugin you could recommend? I am using peops dsound 1.10, but there is some sound crackling in Castlevania Chronicles.
Here's a shot of the config: http://imgur.com/StmhyBW

[Xyga]

Sure, I could never get things right with that one, so I've been using Eternal SPU 1.41 for ages (there's another version but I don't think it does much more)

Spoiler

SPU Async + Smooth is the trick.
You don't necessarily have to enable the fixes, but since I often play those games I forget to untick, whatever...

Note that I'm using it in conjunction with Mooby2 cd plugin 2.8 which handles the CDDA part;

Spoiler

'Subchannel data' should be ticked but it's the one thing that prevents i.e. Tomb Raider music to play.
Leaving it unticked doesn't seem to be a problem though.

[soprano1]

I'll give that a try, thanks.