Community The Emulation Thread - When That PC Port Just Ain't Happening

[Parsnip]

Finally took the time and actually set up both yuzu and ryujinx.
Played a little bit of Metroid Dread to test both of them out, yuzu seems smoother, and since the resolution scaler is back, it looks great again too. It also seems like the ryujinx shader cache that I downloaded with emusak was slightly incomplete.


edit: After playing a bit more I take that back. I'm getting what feels like framepacing issues in yuzu. Looking into it, it seems like there's a known issue with their vsync solution.

 

[Li Kao]

Oh the resolution scaler is out for everyone ?

 

[Parsnip]

Oh the resolution scaler is out for everyone ?

It's still in early access, not on the mainline builds just yet.
Not sure why, maybe it still has some bugs.

 

[Knurek]

It's still in early access, not on the mainline builds just yet.
Not sure why, maybe it still has some bugs.

Yuzu has a patreon early access kind of thingy.
So you need to pay to be on the bleeding edge.

 

[Valdien]

Oh the resolution scaler is out for everyone ?

Yuzu has a patreon early access kind of thingy.
So you need to pay to be on the bleeding edge.

Releases · pineappleEA/pineapple-src

A former citrus fruit-named emulator's Early Access source code - pineappleEA/pineapple-src

github.com

 

[lashman]

 

[Parsnip]

So I'm curious, did anyone here play through Dread with Ryujinx? Just wondering just how incomplete the emusak shader download is at 385, since I only played a little bit in ryujinx but my local count has already risen by a few after the download.
If anyone of you did finish it on ryujinx, I wouldn't say no to a shader cache download via pm or something. Would like to test if it would be smoother than what I've seen so far.

I did end up playing a bit more on yuzu, the framepacing issue isn't that severe that it bothers me too much. However, there's another issue, with video playback. Apparently yuzu doesn't handle it too well when there are multiple video streams being decoded at the same time, and the videos get garbled.

Yuzu has a patreon early access kind of thingy.
So you need to pay to be on the bleeding edge.

Why are you telling me things I already know?

 

[Knurek]

Why are you telling me things I already know?

Well, you said and I quote 'not sure why'

 

[Parsnip]

Well, you said and I quote 'not sure why'

Yeah? I don't think they usually keep new features exclusive to the early access builds for more than a week, two weeks tops. It's been 3ish now, so that's why I'm saying I'm not sure what the hold up is.

 

[Knurek]

Yeah? I don't think they usually keep new features exclusive to the early access builds for more than a week, two weeks tops. It's been 3ish now, so that's why I'm saying I'm not sure what the hold up is.

I was under the impression the non-paid releases were a month behind the patreon ones, sorry.

 

[beep boop]

Games that run at 30 fps feel a lot better when you cap the frame rate with an external program like Rivatuner, presumably due to improved frame pacing. It's too bad then that doing this also slows down RetroArch's UI. Odd that with all the bells and whistles it's got, there's nothing in there to limit internal frame rates while letting the menu run at your display's. That's my only nitpick with the software so far.

 

[Kvik]

Odd that with all the bells and whistles it's got, there's nothing in there to limit internal frame rates while letting the menu run at your display's.

If you have Gsync/VRR display you can set frame throttle > sync to content refresh rate to alleviate the framepacing issue. You might have to set the exact refresh rate of your monitor/TV first under the video settings, though.

 

[Valdien]

 

[Kvik]

via Accoun . Thanks~

 

[Parsnip]

I was under the impression the non-paid releases were a month behind the patreon ones, sorry.

As far as I remember they don't have a set timetable as such unlike Cemu with its one week early access.

Though I could be misremembering, I haven't kept up with it that closely.

 

[beep boop]

If you have Gsync/VRR display you can set frame throttle > sync to content refresh rate to alleviate the framepacing issue. You might have to set the exact refresh rate of your monitor/TV first under the video settings, though.

I don't unfortunately! I'm gonna see if I can't set up a hotkey to bind a 30 FPS toggle in Rivatuner. Some cursory googling tells me it should be possible.

On a different subject entirely, playing native PC games after going deep on emulated ones for a while has made me wish that we could get save states in every game. What a blessing. I decided to jump into Sonic Adventure DX (with that nifty fan mod) on the back of a wave of Dreamcast aesthetic nostalgia, and I really miss jumping in from where I left off instantly.

Edit: here's how to set this up in RTSS. Can't really toggle it, but you can bind hotkeys for 60 fps and 30 fps limits. Also, make sure to tick that box I circled or spend fifteen minutes troubleshooting why everything's set up right but not working....

 

[Alextended]

Latest core updates in RA mean Flycast no longer has trouble switching games/cores and going back to it, it all works as intended! Hope it stays this way, ha!

Hm, disappointed to find Dolphin which I thought was near perfect for emulation and not too heavy on the specs requirements actually has several titles with less than ideal results on my PC (other than the Rogue Squadron games which I think is commonly known, for such famous games I'd think they'd have solved them by now). Luigi's Mansion and Peter Jackson's King Kong in particular probably indicate that anything utilizing advanced effects heavily like these probably won't do great. Luigi's Mansion doesn't appear to emulate all the visuals properly and King Kong displays right but suffers in performance, especially when real time lights like a flare come into play. Up until now I thought there'd be nothing but some obscure Wii games not working right but I guess not. Even Super Mario Sunshine doesn't run optimally (all this naturally after configuring it nicely with Vulkan, ubershaders and all that jazz so things like TP, F-Zero GX, Galaxy, pretty much everything else I had thrown at it ran perfectly fine making me think it's all good). There's also some weirdness going on with how it stretches some things to widescreen at random even though I've made sure to set 4:3 wherever possible, in the emulator itself and in the Wii and GameCube settings and all. Custom Robo just kept stretching momentarily while playing. Pokemon XD and others seem to have freezing issues too. I guess there's still so much to solve...

 

[beep boop]

Why don’t game companies start selling ROMs of their games? They make their own clean dump and sell just that with the disclaimer that it requires an emulator to run.

I don’t think this would compete with the ease of use that a proper port would provide, and it offers people a way to get old games without having to buy expensive used copies (that the developer sees no revenue from) or resort to piracy (which they similarly don’t see any revenue from). Seems like a net gain since they're not making any money at all on games from old hardware.

 

[gabbo]

Why don’t game companies start selling ROMs of their games? They make their own clean dump and sell just that with the disclaimer that it requires an emulator to run.

I don’t think this would compete with the ease of use that a proper port would provide, and it offers people a way to get old games without having to buy expensive used copies (that the developer sees no revenue from) or resort to piracy (which they similarly don’t see any revenue from). Seems like a net gain since they're not making any money at all on games from old hardware.

i)easier to pirate
ii)they don't control the emulators
iii)in rarer cases, they don't have the source code to the old game.

 

[beep boop]

i)easier to pirate
ii)they don't control the emulators
iii)in rarer cases, they don't have the source code to the old game.

The games that I’m thinking of are already so easily piratable that I don’t think it could get “worse”. Like, Monster Hunter Freedom for the PSP or something. That's never getting a port, and they're not getting any money off games like these already anyway, so there's little to lose.

As for source code, realistically all they need is the game and the console to rip it?

Still seems like a good idea to me, and that way there's a way for old games to live on beyond the used resale market. Eventually even those discs and carts will wear out.

 

[Kvik]

I think the reality is that legacy titles simply aren't bringing the money for console makers. They only care about preservation when there's money to be made. For example, the PS Classics and PS2 collections on PSN are essentially just the original ROM/ISOs packaged in .pkg format. Once unpacked, the checksum is the same and you can play it in your favourite emulators.

Despite its convenience and popularity, Sony shut down the store anyway and yet another avenue of game preservation is gone. My personal opinion is that we shouldn't rely on for-profit corporations to preserve gaming legacy of any kind. I don't see a future where purchasing old and obscure games will get easier, to be honest. I'm still importing old games which I deem valuable to own a physical copy of, but with the used games market being the way it is now, plus the rise of shipping costs due to COVID, I feel there's an argument to be made about supporting game preservation via other means.

 

[Gelf]

I just wish they wouldn't lock out the ROMs when they do put a release out. Like all the Capcom compilations don't allow easy access to them so your stuck with the emulation they provide unless someone finds a way to extract them.

The standard should be how the Sega Mega Drive classics are handled, ROMs are unencrypted and accessible and there's even workshop support for romhacks.

I do dream of some sort of GOG for ROMs though. Maybe a site that would handle providing the default emulation side themselves and then work out deals to sell the ROMs with them. With the more technical minded user then free to use any emulator they want.

 

[Alextended]

Tried Yuzu and got it to work. Seems like some games run like shit but others are near perfect. Arms is near perfect, Astral Chain is horrible with stuttering and BOTW somewhere inbetween, it clearly dips more than on the Switch and more often and does stutter here and there, but then occasionally it's perfectly fine too (I guess this is why people seem to recommend emulating the WiiU version of BOTW, it's apparently better for it). I guess some of it is my PC and much of it the actual emu still needing work. People are nuts (and/or lying sods) to propose playing in emulators by default as often done. I checked the compatibility list and only a small fraction of the library is listed as "perfect", a bit more of it as "great" (but Mario Odyssey is listed as great like Arms yet is pretty bad on my end, not just performance wise but graphically the first world is completely wrong) then "good" and much of it untested etc. I cba with the hassle compared to emulated older systems either, I think. You have to source the base game, DLC and updates, have to fake install the DLC and updates to the nand, stuff like that. It needs to build a shader cache and the nand with the fake installs and all that stuff seem to go to the default roaming folder, not where you keep the main emulator files, roms and whatever else and that takes space from my Windows SSD. Also some times on first run it went in slow motion but highlighting something else then going back to the emulator or similar fixed that. So, yeah, I really want a Switch (2), but its prospects are natrually very nice for preservation with emulators already in this state (then again, even the renowned Dolphin still has bad issues as I wrote earlier, I thought it's better). Arms (and Twintelle) is

Edit: tried Ryujinx as well, more or less the same experience. BOTW runs way worse even after repeating the intro stuff after it built the shader cache (I guess it doesn't have async shaders yet hence people trying to find predone shader caches which is another exercise in frustration to find up to date compatible ones).

Also, wtf, all this time (not really looking into it since ideally I will play it some day) I thought, to my dismay, BOTW had done away with the series now trademark lock-on battling but apparently it's very much how it is, with all the additions on top. I have no idea what made me think so but I'm sure I had read stuff like that.

 

[Parsnip]

Almost done with Metroid Dread. Ended up playing it mostly on Ryujinx because of the video playback issues in yuzu. It's not perfect by any means but more than good enough.


Next I'm going to finally start Shadow Hearts on PCSX2. Always loved the soundtrack but never actually played the game.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I tried playing my copy of SMTV on my Switch at first, but the frequent sub-30 frame rate drops compelled me to play it on an emulator. The game looks and runs much better on Ryujinx, so I think I made the right decision. I sure hope I don't hit some game-breaking bug later in the game, though.

 

[Valdien]

I tried playing my copy of SMTV on my Switch at first, but the frequent sub-30 frame rate drops compelled me to play it on an emulator. The game looks and runs much better on Ryujinx, so I think I made the right decision. I sure hope I don't hit some game-breaking bug later in the game, though.

Well, I've poured nearly 20 hours in the game so far and am currently halfway through the second area and haven't crashed or come across any bugs. The only crash I had was during the intro cutscene under the bridge.

 

[Kvik]

Next I'm going to finally start Shadow Hearts on PCSX2. Always loved the soundtrack but never actually played the game.

Margarete is a treasure. But also a dork.

 

[Parsnip]

Coincidentally I'm Mister Spy Genius.

 

[Parsnip]

If anyone was waiting for the yuzu res scaler to be in mainline instead of using the early access builds, your wait is now over.

 

[Kvik]

Front Mission (SFC)

 

[Li Kao]

Front Mission was so good. Still stings to have stopped with 1 because the translation for the second one is not 100%

 

[Kvik]

Still stings to have stopped with 1 because the translation for the second one is not 100%

I still think it's worth playing, because:

1. The complete script for all the special events is included in the patch.
2. Alternatively, it's trivial to use RetroArch's AI Service if you're not keen on reading the script on another device or via Steam Overlay. Although, you might have to compromise on accuracy.

 

[Li Kao]

I still think it's worth playing, because:

1. The complete script for all the special events is included in the patch.
2. Alternatively, it's trivial to use RetroArch's AI Service if you're not keen on reading the script on another device or via Steam Overlay. Although, you might have to compromise on accuracy.

I didn’t follow for some years, are you implying in 2 that retroarch has some machine translation thing integrated ?

 

[Kvik]

are you implying in 2 that retroarch has some machine translation thing integrated ?

Yep.

AI Service - Libretro Docs

This is the official RetroArch documentation for users and developers. Information from sources outside of this website may be dated or incorrect.

docs.libretro.com

 

[SkyStarblaze]

I upgraded to a Ryzen 5800X and while BotW ran well on my 8600k before, playing it without a single dropped frame in 4k 55fps with RTGI is a sight to behold. And what's crazy is that my overall CPU utilization is only around 20%, it's a beast of a emulation CPU

 

[Cacher]

I am waiting for Xenoblade 2 to run perfectly on emulator. Switch just can't do it justice.

 

[beep boop]

The Beetle PSX core is now available on the Steam version of RetroArch!

 

[Alextended]

I missed/forgot that last year Ao no 6-gou - Saigetsu Hito o Matazu - Time and Tide/Blue Submarine No. 6 - Time and Tide for the Dreamcast was fan translated. It's interesting with nice visuals in its cel shaded characters and underwater parts. I can't find great user footage so the old Japanese trailer works.

SEGA-SKY Portal - Blue Submarine no.6 'Time & Tide' - English Translation for Sega Dreamcast

Portal SEGA-SKY | Piszemy o konsolach SEGA Dreamcast i SEGA Saturn oraz automatach arcade Naomi, Atomiswave i emulacji.

sega.c0.pl

This game is slick, it has great presentation in the adventure parts (though characters aren't very animated and what animations they do have are for the close up dialogue boxes, when viewing the scenes they're static) and the submarine sections look pretty nice. Gameplay probably won't amount to much going by how the controls are. It works but there are no real advanced maneuvers like full 6DOF, rolls or strafing, you can just pitch (with limits), yaw, thrust forward or back and switch between a few weapons and tools. I guess it's like a slower, more methodical and story based Treasures of the Deep contrasting its frantic arcade action. The translation seems fine, some wording could be better but whatever. In the very first saving note some text warning you to not turn off the console doesn't wrap properly but in subsequent cases it does, maybe there are other minor errors. Sadly there are in-engine scenes and VA where subtitles couldn't be added unlike in the cut scenes/dialogue boxes so they've opted to have the original VA in the background with a neutral male voice translating it.

Edit: playing more, the fan translation leaves a lot to be desired, there are more mistakes and weird wording but hey, it makes it playable. In the adventure part the NPCs are part of the 2D background until you talk to them and get the cel shaded model with the dialogue box. I didn't realize this when using a heavy CRT filter so, all areas are static as they're pictures. There are in-engine cut scenes using the dialogue models (maybe they can be considered more advanced or animated dialogue scenes) and anime/CG. Underwater I don't think it's as good as Ecco or even Deep Fighter but it's not bad, it look clean and the enemy models so far are nice. Weird fish, nautilus type things, sharks and crabs with ranged attacks. I guess you have to play carefully initially, I ran out of ammo in the first low stakes salvage job by attracting more enemies than I should and trying to fend them off rather than just head to the objective and only deal with those necessary for the operation. Upgrading the sub at the scrap yard seems decent with different armor, engine, battery options, as well as weapons & tools.

 

[Cacher]

I dig out my Japanese copy of Wild Arms Alter Code F and run it with PCSX2 today. I played the original PS1 version a couple of years ago but never beat it. Somehow I feel nostalgic just by listening to the music. Damn this game really has good music.

The original opening animation is vastly superior than Alter Code F version, imo.

Someone put the manual scan onto Internet Archive. There are some cool arts inside so you can check it out.

Also, the US version is ridiculously expensive. WTF.
Amazon product

 

[didamangi]

There's a new PS2 emulator for android and it's pretty awesome. I've only tried Virtua Fighter 4 Evo on my phone (Poco F3, Snapdragon 870) so far, but it can run the game at 3x internal resolution, with widescreen patch at full speed. Pretty impressive.

AetherSX2 - Apps on Google Play

AetherSX2 Simulator

play.google.com

 

[Cacher]

Finished the three prologues of Alter Code F. Wow, compared with the original game, they changed nearly everything outside the story. The game plays much faster and the dungeons are much more fun to do with all these puzzles. The differences between the three characters are also more pronounce. I am seriously impressed by this remake.

 

[pinson]

There's a new PS2 emulator for android and it's pretty awesome. I've only tried Virtua Fighter 4 Evo on my phone (Poco F3, Snapdragon 870) so far, but it can run the game at 3x internal resolution, with widescreen patch at full speed. Pretty impressive.

AetherSX2 - Apps on Google Play

AetherSX2 Simulator

play.google.com

I hope the Aether dev backports the enhancements he's been working on back to PCSX2 (as I understand that it's based on that emu). But yeah, the more people working on PS2 emulation, the better. I'm really looking forward to the day when that console is as well emulated as the GCN/Wii are.

 

[Arulan]

I hope it gets delivered next week.

 

[Deku]

I need help with running Wii games on Dolphin emulator. Trying to run Kirby Return to Dreamland. The game starts, but it runs slow. How do I set up the emulator to run at full speed?

edit: Never mind, I forgot to plug the power cord, so the computer was running at power saver mode or something

 

[Alextended]

Wow, Bulk Slash got fan translated and they made it compatible with the twin stick, that's nuts. I think.

Bulk Slash (English)

A full English localization of Bulk Slash, including dubs of all voices in-game and during ending cutscenes, as well as an implementation of the Twin Stick controller.

segaxtreme.net

 

[low-G]

Wow, Bulk Slash got fan translated and they made it compatible with the twin stick, that's nuts. I think.

Bulk Slash (English)

A full English localization of Bulk Slash, including dubs of all voices in-game and during ending cutscenes, as well as an implementation of the Twin Stick controller.

segaxtreme.net

And not only fan translated, but a fan translation with voice acting that sounds great. This is basically beyond Working Designs

 

[Li Kao]

Pretty sure Ryujinx doesn't play well with win11 auto hdr. Annoyed, I like blowtorch mode now.

 

[Kvik]

I've researched HDR injection via SpecialK, but it's kind of a mess. On some games, it looks great, but sometimes the increased luminance is applied on top of UI elements so the menu looks washed out. There is a per-game calibration, but I'm not really familiar with most of the concept yet.

Maybe I'll have another go at it during the holidays when I have time.

 

[curi0usBystander]

Man, I'm pissed (well not really but it's the best word i can find). The other day I decided to finally try Yuzu/Ryujinx and I liked what i tried.
So i decided to get an old unpatched switch as a dumping machine and do things the right way.

And I found one for 190€ (It was just the switch + the joycons + a charger, no dock but since it would be a dumping machine i don't really care), on ebay resold by a pawnshop (so they gave me 30 days return which was nice) but for whatever reason it kept saying "paypal is not available at this time" so I said I'll try again later. Big mistake it was gone when I checked again.

And now my next option (that i know it's 100% hackable) costs 50 extra euros (sure it includes the dock and a few other things, but i won't use them).
Guess I'll have to keep looking.

 

[Cacher]

I found a local retro gaming store which has a very cheap copy of Shadow Hearts, reasonable-priced Super Robot Wars OGs and God Hands. All are Japanese version. Extremely tempting but I want to finish some games on hand first.

Man, I'm pissed (well not really but it's the best word i can find). The other day I decided to finally try Yuzu/Ryujinx and I liked what i tried.
So i decided to get an old unpatched switch as a dumping machine and do things the right way.

And I found one for 190€ (It was just the switch + the joycons + a charger, no dock but since it would be a dumping machine i don't really care), on ebay resold by a pawnshop (so they gave me 30 days return which was nice) but for whatever reason it kept saying "paypal is not available at this time" so I said I'll try again later. Big mistake it was gone when I checked again.

And now my next option (that i know it's 100% hackable) costs 50 extra euros (sure it includes the dock and a few other things, but i won't use them).
Guess I'll have to keep looking.

That's suck. I wish there is a easier way to dump Switch games down the road even though I have the very first version Switch. Otherwise it would be very difficult to dump games for many people in the future.