The State of Emulation topic

[Xyga]

I don't think you paid much attention to the topic, well, 'sub-topic'...

[copy-paster]

Try enabling glvsync in the mednafen-09x.cfg file maybe ?

Code: Select all

video.glvsync	1

Or the dirty way; if you are on Win 7 and Aero transparencies are disabled, try re-enabling them.
Still no good -> force vsync or triplebuffer in your GPU's control panel.

NOTE: that's from Mednafen's general documentation btw.

Tried all of those, still get a tearing everytime.

Speaking of MAME, what's the recent MAME build that has "Image Enhancement" feature?

[Gespenst]

Is it me or Raycrisis (original arcade version) on MAME keeps hanging during the fight against Dis-Human? I've tried several CHD dumps and cleaned the nvram folders over and over again but the result all the same. I never had this kind of issue on other G-Net titles.

I'm using MAME 0.180, 0.179 nets the same result I think.

[WelshMegalodon]

Pre-built binaries are now available for the work-in-progress Dreamcast emulator redream.

https://github.com/inolen/redream

It's not every day a new Dreamcast emulator pops up.

[e_tank]

Pre-built binaries are now available for the work-in-progress Dreamcast emulator redream.

https://github.com/inolen/redream

It's not every day a new Dreamcast emulator pops up.

i've only just skimmed the source code for this project but what i can say so far is; damn, this dev really knows his stuff.  imo this is one of the most well designed and impressive code bases for a game system emulator out there.  it's light years beyond nulldc/reicast in terms of code quality, sophistication of design, and thus overall potential.  so while it's currently in a very early state, def keep an eye on this project, i'm absolutely certain that it will soon become the defacto dc emulator.

[soprano1]

Pre-built binaries are now available for the work-in-progress Dreamcast emulator redream.

https://github.com/inolen/redream

It's not every day a new Dreamcast emulator pops up.

i've only just skimmed the source code for this project but what i can say so far is; damn, this dev really knows his stuff.  imo this is one of the most well designed and impressive code bases for a game system emulator out there.  it's light years beyond nulldc/reicast in terms of code quality, sophistication of design, and thus overall potential.  so while it's currently in a very early state, def keep an eye on this project, i'm absolutely certain that it will soon become the defacto dc emulator.

Sounds promising indeed.

[BPzeBanshee]

Is it me or Raycrisis (original arcade version) on MAME keeps hanging during the fight against Dis-Human? I've tried several CHD dumps and cleaned the nvram folders over and over again but the result all the same. I never had this kind of issue on other G-Net titles.

I'm using MAME 0.180, 0.179 nets the same result I think.

Report it on MAMEtesters, they think the driver is rock solid and it's not but there's no documentation suggesting such. Would help to record a video or input replay so that the devs can replicate the issue.

[Gespenst]

Is it me or Raycrisis (original arcade version) on MAME keeps hanging during the fight against Dis-Human? I've tried several CHD dumps and cleaned the nvram folders over and over again but the result all the same. I never had this kind of issue on other G-Net titles.

I'm using MAME 0.180, 0.179 nets the same result I think.

Report it on MAMEtesters, they think the driver is rock solid and it's not but there's no documentation suggesting such. Would help to record a video or input replay so that the devs can replicate the issue.

Nevermind. Probably just a random-ish problem on my front (or perhaps because I used autofire), I've done two successive testing runs without any error/hang recently.

update: okay, that's for normal ending run. Apparently it still hangs whenever I got TLB condition. I'll try to record an input replay soon.

[Xyga]

https://git.redump.net/mame/commit/?id= ... 4d607f3034

Portaudio officially added to baseline MAME.

Code: Select all

# OSD SOUND OPTIONS
#
sound                     portaudio
audio_latency             1

#
# PORTAUDIO OPTIONS
#
pa_api                    none
pa_device                 none
pa_latency                0

We finally have means to reduce audio latency.

Now I'm waiting for it in GroovyMAME. :p

PS: this is supposed to be even better than the ASIO port.

[WelshMegalodon]

In other news:

- Hey You, Pikachu! is finally playable in Project64. (Not that it was very playable in the first place, but you know what I mean.)

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

(No, that isn't me. I would never play a 4:3 N64 game in widescreen.)

- higan v102 is out, courtesy of byuu wanting all of his favorite gaming systems in a single emulator.

This release adds very preliminary emulation of the Sega Master System (Mark III), Sega Game Gear, Sega Mega Drive (Genesis), and NEC PC Engine (Turbografx-16). These cores do not yet offer sound emulation, save states or cheat codes.

In typical byuu fashion, the man is also considering making his own CD format:

Right now, I don't have any clue how I am going to support the FDS, Mega CD or PCE-CD.

ISO is a piss-poor format, and usually comes with lossy MP3s. Anathema to me.

BIN/CUE is "better", but still supposedly has lots of deep flaws.

I may end up just making my own format, and using icarus to convert the games.

Once that issue is resolved, the next one is "how in the holy hell do we load the games?" -- traditional format is to load the BIOS cart, and then get a second dialog. That could get annoying for loading CD-based games. But it may end up being how we do things. Because I don't have an easy alternative in mind. If we were to make some kind of "subsystem" folder setup, then we'd have to repeat that for the Sufami Turbo and BS-X Satellaview.

[null1024]

ISO is a piss-poor format, and usually comes with lossy MP3s. Anathema to me.

ISO is fine... but not for the job.
ISO+MP3 [or even ISO+WAV] is the devil's work. BIN+CUE would be okay if people didn't suck at this sort of thing, and IIRC there's still data missing.
CDI might be the format he's looking for, but if you're going to have to convert everything [no one dumps in CDI], you might as well tailor-make your own shit.

[soprano1]

byuu gets major respect for his work on the emulation scene, but since he started developing bsnes (now higan), i can only see someone going thorugh major hoops to make a goddamn accurate snes emulator, which now is becoming a damn Frankenstein monster.

[Xyga]

Hail ZSNES !

[soprano1]

Hail ZSNES !

No fucking way, SNES9X for now.

[ZellSF]

ISO is a piss-poor format, and usually comes with lossy MP3s. Anathema to me.

ISO is fine... but not for the job.
ISO+MP3 [or even ISO+WAV] is the devil's work. BIN+CUE would be okay if people didn't suck at this sort of thing, and IIRC there's still data missing.
CDI might be the format he's looking for, but if you're going to have to convert everything [no one dumps in CDI], you might as well tailor-make your own shit.

If you're going to convert everything you're not going to have any data you missed on by using another format in the first place.

Taking advantage of the new format would require new dumps and I really don't see that happening for a lot of games.

Also, nothing wrong with iso+wav+cue for older games. Well, nothing more than bin+cue.

[OmegaFlareX]

Once that issue is resolved, the next one is "how in the holy hell do we load the games?" -- traditional format is to load the BIOS cart, and then get a second dialog.

No, that's dumb. BizHawk is smart enough to read formats, headers and whatnot and load the appropriate core and bios for whatever ISO you throw at it.

The same multimulator has a bsnes-performance core which is still highly accurate and perfect for pretty much everyone if you tweak a few of the default settings.

tldr: just use BizHawk, it's good. The only thing it's missing is a MAMEUI-like game browser (although I think you can get a separate frontend, maybe?)

[WelshMegalodon]

This next post actually concerns the state of emulation, namely Master System emulation, rather than being an emulator plug like some of my other posts in this thread.

As you all know, the Japanese Sega Master System plays a rendition of the main theme from Space Harrier when powered on without a game inserted. With pre-PS1 emulation being constantly lauded as being near-perfect, I decided to feed a dump of the Japanese v.21 Master System BIOS into several emulators to gauge how accurately this feature was replicated, with less than stellar results.

In Bizhawk and MAME, the FM was much too quiet.
Osmose and Mednafen's Master System core (based off Charles MacDonald's SMS Plus) threw up black screens.
Standalone SMS Plus refused to start.
Regen crashed.
The respectable cycle/bus accurate emulator TwoMbit and the libretro port of Genesis Plus GX fared a bit better than all of these, but there appeared to be strange audio dropouts, as if certain notes weren't being played at times, and some of the lower tones were at the wrong pitch.

The emulator that came closest to playing the theme correctly was Kega Fusion, though it only played the theme when the "Power On" option was selected. When the BIOS was actually loaded into the program, it went to a black screen. The now outdated emulator MEKA also came somewhat close, albeit with generous amounts of crackle and other random noise. Like Fusion, MEKA didn't appear to actually use the BIOS - when the BIOS was loaded as a ROM, it also went to a black screen.
The accuracy-conscious multi-console emulator bee may also come close, but it appears to be on the buggy side and I couldn't get it to run at full speed.

Overall, a bit of a letdown. The next time you hear someone claiming all pre-PS1 emulation is basically perfect, kindly correct them.

No, that's dumb. BizHawk is smart enough to read formats, headers and whatnot and load the appropriate core and bios for whatever ISO you throw at it.

The same multimulator has a bsnes-performance core which is still highly accurate and perfect for pretty much everyone if you tweak a few of the default settings.

tldr: just use BizHawk, it's good. The only thing it's missing is a MAMEUI-like game browser (although I think you can get a separate frontend, maybe?)

Bizhawk's website reports bugs in its SNES core, though. Erratic framerate and jumpy interlacing don't sound very appealing and may even be game-breaking for some. Not to mention that the Seiken Densetsu 3 fix sounds like a per-game hack. That kind of ePSXe-style fix doesn't belong in a SNES emulator.

EDIT: Turning up the FM volume to max in MAME yields slightly better results, although it still sounds off. Oddly enough, MAME, TwoMbit, and Genesis Plus GX appear to sound closer to each other than they do to the real thing.

[OmegaFlareX]

Bizhawk's website reports bugs in its SNES core, though. Erratic framerate and jumpy interlacing don't sound very appealing and may even be game-breaking for some.

The erratic frame thing is only some games (doesn't say which) and possibly only when you enable forced determinism. That option should definitely be set to off anyway unless you're making TASes. I did have some minor speed issues (I guess that could be considered "erratic framerate"?) until I unchecked all three of the options in the core menu, it's been fine ever since.

Interlacing thing has been fixed, they just haven't removed that line from the infopage.

Not to mention that the Seiken Densetsu 3 fix sounds like a per-game hack. That kind of ePSXe-style fix doesn't belong in a SNES emulator.

I disagree because SD3 is a unique game in how it handles resolution that doesn't mesh with how computer monitors work, so I think a one-off workaround is warranted in this case. It uses a hi-res mode for a lot of stuff so, for instance, any time you talk to someone or enter the menu the display output will appear to become smaller.

You can still play it on the performance core (enabling the hack forces the accuracy core on) by using the display options - disable integer scaling and maximize the window (or play in fullscreen). Then it's only noticeable at all if you use bilinear filtering. Even this difference can be minimized by increasing the prescale value.

[soprano1]

SD3 is indeed weird in accurate emulators. Whenever a dialogue box appears, it seems like bilinear filtering is turned on. I thought this was due to the translation patch, but it seems I'm wrong. Thanks for clarifying.

[OmegaFlareX]

SD3 is indeed weird in accurate emulators. Whenever a dialogue box appears, it seems like bilinear filtering is turned on. I thought this was due to the translation patch, but it seems I'm wrong. Thanks for clarifying.

Hm, the opposite occurred for me - if I had bilinear on, it would turn off during dialog boxes and everything would turn super-sharp, but I noticed no difference if bilinear was off to begin with. Maybe it's different depending on which family of video hardware you run (I have Nvidia) and your monitor?

That reminds me, something weird about BizHawk - it doesn't seem to do true fullscreen. It is a maximized, borderless window and hides the taskbar ("windowed fullscreen" as some modern games call that setting). So if you're using an Aero desktop theme, there's no way to turn off Vsync (Aero makes all windows vsync/triple-buffered). I guess that's not an issue anymore since windows 8+ ditched Aero, but if you're still running 7 like I am it could be a problem. I just switched to the Basic theme and it's fine.

[soprano1]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017- ... k-of-games
Oh shit, byuu...

[WelshMegalodon]

The box label eventually turned up... without a box. byuu thinks the package may have been stolen.

This arrived in my mailbox today.

http://i.imgur.com/e6RnjWd.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/kLxZo0Z.jpg

They shipped me the mother fucking box label and nothing else, claiming the machine ate it. BULLSHIT. If the label came off, it'd belong to the box right next to it without a label.

The USPS employees in Jersey City just stole a $10,000 package of games. This is felony theft.

Please spread this as far and wide as you can. I'll be contacting all the press I can as well.

I'm also looking for a good lawyer.

I've set up a Patreon page. If anyone is able to help me with replacing this donor's games, I would be very grateful. I also have a Paypal account if you'd prefer, and you can PM me for that. Thank you!

https://www.patreon.com/byuu

2016-02-16 03:24 PM:

Just received a call from USPS consumer affairs, who found the Reddit thread. They have opened an internal investigation to try and locate the package. I will keep you all informed how it goes.

If the package ultimately arrives, I will be refunding all donations.

[Ed Oscuro]

That's shitty...and here's another reason to use a serious carrier like FedEx. It also should have been shipped in multiple packages to increase the eggs-to-basket ratio.

He should check the post office auctions site too, in case the games turn up there (which happens with undeliverable mail).

[BIL]

Sad. I hope the games turn up.

But yeah, fuck attempting that sort of operation with anything less than courier. Makes me uneasy just thinking about it.

[soprano1]

Sad. I hope the games turn up.

But yeah, fuck attempting that sort of operation with anything less than courier. Makes me uneasy just thinking about it.

lol, they won't.

[WelshMegalodon]

If any of you are interested in some old-fashioned lag testing, there's a mandatory sports festival segment ~20min into Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with You that includes a ball-balancing minigame. Basically you mash the circle button to run while balancing the ball with the L1 and R1 buttons. It's probably quite easy on an actual PlayStation, but Mednafen's input lag is great enough that you can never catch up to the other runners, at least from my experience.

I invite all of you to prove me wrong.

EDIT: Your movement speed is affected by your Athletics stat, so that could also be a factor...

[BIL]

Konamic button mashing, not even once.

[copy-paster]

A question for XM6 TypeG users :

Been trying this emulator and there's one problem, the screen doesn't scroll smoothly while playing horizontal games. Is there any solution for this?

[tomwhite2004]

A question for XM6 TypeG users :

Been trying this emulator and there's one problem, the screen doesn't scroll smoothly while playing horizontal games. Is there any solution for this?

I'm quite new to this emulator myself but I would think the answer is no. I doubt these games were exactly 60hz (could be wrong) which they would need to be to produce stutter free scrolling on what I presume is an LCD you are playing on.

If you are not talking about stutter and more non uniform pixels its because xm6 doesn't have any integer scaling for its various resolutions, just the sliders in the display tab. There are various forks that do but they all gave me serious graphical glitches.

I would love to work out how to use the mess version and use the scaling options that I know how to use from mame but I could never work out how to remap the keys in game.

[soprano1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hva3twLfU0Q
The Mini NES can run N64...