The State of Emulation topic

[Harpuia]

Is there a good setup guide for Retroarch online? I'm having a hard time trying to get the Genesis Plus GX core to work for some reason.....

http://www.libretro.com/index.php/getti ... retroarch/

This should be helpful. Ignore the part about getting a nightly release though, the latest stable build (1.3.4) is great and there's a new one that should hopefully be coming soon.

[OmegaFlareX]

Just get the latest versions and keep your sets up to date, problem solved.

[BryanM]

Just set yourself on fire, jump off a cliff and kill yourself, problem solved.

[BrianC]

Is there a good setup guide for Retroarch online? I'm having a hard time trying to get the Genesis Plus GX core to work for some reason.....

http://www.libretro.com/index.php/getti ... retroarch/

This should be helpful. Ignore the part about getting a nightly release though, the latest stable build (1.3.4) is great and there's a new one that should hopefully be coming soon.

The latest nightly also appears to be currently crashing on all cores, both on Android and Windows.

I also found the wiki page here helpful.

[Blinge]

I've been enjoying skipping through these ancient emulator videos: https://youtu.be/jDlnEDoaLos

[Squire Grooktook]

Question: What's the best psp emulator?

[Harpuia]

PPSSPP is the only one worth using

[Gespenst]

JPCSP has built-in 3d model export feature though, so it may be quite handy if you're into 3d modelling or modding.

[OmegaFlareX]

How hard would it be to compile my own version of MAME (latest version, 0.174 at time of post) using the following:

- ShmupMAME's autofire
- MAME+ UI (specifically, the dual-info right-hand panels with snaps on top and history/info dats on the bottom)
- ThunderMAME's Toaplan samples / custom buttons
- CPU overclocking from various builds (MAMEUIFX et al)

I realize you can't just drag-n-drop this stuff; some knowledge of C is required to hook them together. I have none, but I'd like to know how feasible it would be to learn.

[EXEXEX]

Is there another MAME version that has "Video Compression" feature before start an AVI recording? The only I know is MAME32PlusPlus 0.119.

[soprano1]

Found an interesting presentation from GDC by a Digital Eclipse guy related to emulation:

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023470/-I ... -Emulation

[WelshMegalodon]

I'm late to the news, but earlier this month there was a new release of PCem, a PC hardware emulator that strives for higher accuracy than DOSBox. Seems some big improvements have been made from the previous release. Link here.

Which brings us one step closer to IBM PC emulation on par with what we have for the Amiga and Atari ST. Looking at the release notes, even 3DFX Voodoo Graphics work all right.

[BPzeBanshee]

@OmegaFlareX

How hard would it be to compile my own version of MAME (latest version, 0.174 at time of post) using the following:
- ShmupMAME's autofire

Probably the hardest part since it's well-integrated as part of MAME Plus now which hasn't been updated properly past 0.168 last I checked. I looked into it and gave up but I'm no expert either.

- MAME+ UI (specifically, the dual-info right-hand panels with snaps on top and history/info dats on the bottom)

People seem to have gotten MAMEUI working with latest MAME changes so that should be trivial.

- ThunderMAME's Toaplan samples / custom buttons
- CPU overclocking from various builds (MAMEUIFX et al)

Depends on what's been done to toaplan2.cpp, I don't know of specific custom button stuff ThunderMAME provides but I was able to transplant it for ShmupMAME so it'd probably be a good start for you. As for the CPU overclocking that's as easy as changing some numbers.

[ZellSF]

I'm late to the news, but earlier this month there was a new release of PCem, a PC hardware emulator that strives for higher accuracy than DOSBox. Seems some big improvements have been made from the previous release. Link here.

Which brings us one step closer to IBM PC emulation on par with what we have for the Amiga and Atari ST. Looking at the release notes, even 3DFX Voodoo Graphics work all right.

I really like how well PCem is progressing. I try reinstalling Windows 98 SE every time a new version is released until I realize I have no use for it.

[tomwhite2004]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOyfZex7B3E

Very exciting development, glad that he has shared his knowledge with emulation authors!

[Heavy Viper]

Blue skies never die. ;_;7

[soprano1]

Dolphin now plays F-Zero GX without issues for me, and it plays great.
800th post, hahaha.

[KAI]

CEN64 update - N64 emulator with the goal of being extremely accurate, now with audio support

At last.

[WelshMegalodon]

That's one big step forward for N64 emulation. Of course, the real question is, will it play Pokemon Snap? (Which it can, just not at full speed).

I wonder how much further along we'd be if people weren't obsessed with breaking games by upscaling them. There was this awful thread on NGemu or some other worthless site where people were bashing Sony's official PS1 emulator for not being able to render at higher resolutions like ePSXe could.

"y official emu not as good as fan project?"

[Mortificator]

It's not unreasonable to expect the manufacturer's emulator to be at least as good as what some fans working backwards have done.

[WelshMegalodon]

Maybe I'm the odd one out for expecting official emulators to lean towards outputting an image resembling that found on the original hardware, or at least (in the case of Sony's PS1 emulator) to avoid having to deal with the plethora of rendering oddities that only become more apparent at higher resolutions. A stable and relatively glitch-free emulation experience at ~240p seems "better" than a plugin-infested, buggy one at 1080p.

And besides, part of appreciating the N64 era is recognizing how awful its 3D truly was.

[ZellSF]

That's one big step forward for N64 emulation. Of course, the real question is, will it play Pokemon Snap? (Which it can, just not at full speed).

I wonder how much further along we'd be if people weren't obsessed with breaking games by upscaling them.

I think a lot of emulators didn't go with HLE emulation because of its potential for upscaling, but for the fact that it could actually, you know, run games at playable speeds.

If everything was done in software, I don't think Dolphin or PCSX2 would be nearly as usable as they are today for example.

[null1024]

That's one big step forward for N64 emulation. Of course, the real question is, will it play Pokemon Snap? (Which it can, just not at full speed).

I wonder how much further along we'd be if people weren't obsessed with breaking games by upscaling them.

I think a lot of emulators didn't go with HLE emulation because of its potential for upscaling, but for the fact that it could actually, you know, run games at playable speeds.

If everything was done in software, I don't think Dolphin or PCSX2 would be nearly as usable as they are today for example.

This is true. Hell, higher-resolution rendering on 3D systems was a side benefit of using hardware acceleration, since you sure as hell couldn't do software rendering to play N64 games on a machine from 2001 at a playable rate, and you sure as hell couldn't emulate all of the various components too closely, but doing HLE with hardware accelerated rendering lets you get something approaching playable on a machine from that time [shit, I used to play F-Zero X on a PIII laptop from the time in PJ64].

but we're at a point in computing hardware where you can have a reasonable go of doing lower level emulation of these systems and it might even run at full speed

[WelshMegalodon]

Please don't misunderstand. I don't mean to sound as if I don't support the use of HLE where necessary and appropriate, and I have nothing but respect for the developers that got Dolphin to where it is now with HLE. It's just that you seem to hear a lot more about cartoon shaders and widescreen hacks than you do about Rogue Squadron being any more playable.

Dolphin has been getting more accurate even with HD support, so I suppose I shouldn't complain as long as the emulator isn't being compromised by these optional enhancements. Even bsnes used to support 2xSaI, after all.

[Ed Oscuro]

Input lag investigations in SNES emulators (besides higan):
http://libretro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5428

In other news, Libretro has a new N64 renderer coming along really nicely, and the dev team plugged memory leaks in RA itself. Looks like 1.3.6 is a must-have release. http://www.libretro.com/index.php/retro ... -released/

[Blinge]

How do I add scanlines to Higan?

I'm looking atm, can't find how.

edit: nvm, just gonna use Bsnes

[Ed Oscuro]

Agh, everything MAME related is up in the air.

mamesick, developer of MAMEUIFX, called it quits roughly two weeks ago:
http://mame32fx.altervista.org/forum/vi ... ?f=1&t=307

MAME Plus! variants all seem dead in the water for now, MAMEUI doesn't seem to fit the bill exactly, and I'm not sure where GroovyMAME stands as its latest version is 171 (with some features subsumed into baseline MAME apparently).

All I'm looking for is a responsive window based UI listing of titles, good autofire options, and the ability to work with G-SYNC which should be as simple as native resolution at arbitrary framerates. Most everything else is extra. However, Dive Bomber turned out to be terrible so maybe most folks can stick with an older version for now.

[Xyga]

At first I was happy with MAME's new policy, it was supposed to bring great things, then all the best alternative builds disappearing one after the other, leaving us just wishing mamedev would one day grace us with bringing back the stuff we like...got me wishing it never happened.
I was perfectly happy with Groovy and UIFX, both improving features that mattered to me with every release. Now we can just go beg mamedevs and be told to fuck off.

[Ed Oscuro]

To be fair, mamesick seems to say that MAMEdev tried to shut him down many times, but this was totally driven by his real life, not MAMEdev. If people who maintained independent builds didn't want to keep up those builds after getting some features in baseline MAME, that's really their choice.

[Xyga]

Oh I was not thinking of a cabal against independent builds or something (well...who knows for sure, some devs don't hide their disdain of those if I recall), and mamesick's reasons are personal indeed.
But the recent changes put a halt to several things I liked not found in baseline, and mamedev clearly don't give a crap about those things or what we think about anything as users.
With the people doing independent builds we had a relationship, with mamedev it's like talking to a private company or a party with all its non-communication rules, secrecy, anger etc.
Just have a look at mameworld, it's one of the most toxic places I know for talking emulation, the devs themselves are downright contemptuous and there's nothing to make them consider anything you'd say or want unless you're yourself a contributor or something they actually care enough about so they would lend an ear and eventually refrain from spitting in your face.
MAME is just too big a thing, absurdly not dedicated to playing games, and the devs too alien like they're in a cult, to speak with simple people, which is why independent builds are (were) a good thing, it's a really a shame that several of the best disappeared rencently (there was UME also before, think I'm annoying if you want but I liked that it was a thing outside of baseline since like most people I've always thought MAME as an emulator for arcades period. Now there's more and more hardwares nobody give a crap about down to the most obsure machine as long as it's electronic and uses a screen, it's bloated af).