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

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
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I'd guess Citra stand alone but the core should be fine too. 3DS version obviously, need that 30 fps and lusher visuals (it's more faithful than Majora's Mask 3D).
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
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30 fps is not much better, also stupid second NDS screen :anguished-face:
It's 50% better and brings it on par with most post-64 games so, yes, it's much better. Dealing with the touch controls on a non touch device like PC is no more clunky than the original game having players go into menus for the simplest things like switching out basic equipment like the iron boots for water temple tbh.
 
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dummmyy

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i dont' know if this is the wrong place, but I've been tryingto get Magic Castle running on Vita, has anybody tried or had any luck? Tried on adrenaline, and retroarch couldn't get it working on either.
 

Acidote

Omega Yul
Jun 16, 2019
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i dont' know if this is the wrong place, but I've been tryingto get Magic Castle running on Vita, has anybody tried or had any luck? Tried on adrenaline, and retroarch couldn't get it working on either.
I've put my Vita to charge just to give this a try. I'll let you know. It probably is unsupported. I think at first PS2 and PS3 couldn't run it either.
 

dummmyy

Dumb fool
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I've put my Vita to charge just to give this a try. I'll let you know. It probably is unsupported. I think at first PS2 and PS3 couldn't run it either.
I saw someone on a site had it working on Retroarch, but not sure what they changed, i asked there and my comment was erased lol
 

Li Kao

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Thinking about finally playing Xenogears through. I suppose there is no way to salvage the pixel mess without destroying the game ?
I mean, characters are good, but as soon as you enter mech combat or field travel...
 

BO7AMMOOD

Lucas isn't sure what to do anymore
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Thinking about finally playing Xenogears through. I suppose there is no way to salvage the pixel mess without destroying the game ?
I mean, characters are good, but as soon as you enter mech combat or field travel...

The magic and wonder that is Retroarch's super sampling for the PS1. This coupled with any CRT filter of your liking is by far the best way to play PS1 games imho, at least visually!
 

Li Kao

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This is officially a 'wasted' day, where I try things in emulation.
The message is clear, I need moar CPU. My Ryzen 2600x is nice and all, but we can do better.
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
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Downunder.
This is officially a 'wasted' day, where I try things in emulation.
The message is clear, I need moar CPU. My Ryzen 2600x is nice and all, but we can do better.
Are you emulating Xenogears? Iirc, 2600x is a hexacore CPU from 2019 (or 2018?). It should have plenty of horsepower for emulating Wii U/PS3 games, let alone 20+ years old game like Xenogears. Unless of course, you're emulating PS4 as Kain said. :dana_blanket:
 

Li Kao

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I fiddled with, uh, things. Like Yuzu 😳

On a side note, given how my last attempt to emulate Gears 2 went, a 360 game, I wouldn't dare trying to emulate a PS4.
 
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Tizoc

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I fiddled with, uh, things. Like Yuzu 😳

On a side note, given how my last attempt to emulate Gears 2 went, a 360 game, I wouldn't dare trying to emulate a PS4.
Well no offense, but seeing how 360 emulation is at atm, it is best to avoid for a few more years.
Try Dreamcast emulation, it's in a very good spot right now.
 
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Kvik

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Downunder.
I came across this texture mod for SMT Strange Journey Redux. The modded portrait and UI looks great, but the battle sprites is kind of ... eh. I still prefer the original. Perhaps it's just the Topaz Gigapixel AI scaling messing it up somehow.

 
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Li Kao

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Uh, stupid question, how do you update RetroArch ?
Or should I use the Steam version ? But this one is never updated :neutral-face:
Do I even need to update RetroArch ?

Great, I can't use my mouse on the Steam version.
 
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gabbo

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Uh, stupid question, how do you update RetroArch ?
Or should I use the Steam version ? But this one is never updated :neutral-face:
Do I even need to update RetroArch ?

Great, I can't use my mouse on the Steam version.
I generally just full out install newer versions
 
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Li Kao

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The magic and wonder that is Retroarch's super sampling for the PS1. This coupled with any CRT filter of your liking is by far the best way to play PS1 games imho, at least visually!
As a new highres AI upscale mod for FF7 has seemingly been released, I'm back on this train, so sorry for the relatively old mention.
Thinking about it, why would I want to have finer details on an emulated game on which I will apply scanlines to make it feel more authentic ? Isn't it contradictory ?
Just polling the thread for input, I'm not for or against, trying to determine my course of action.

To be clear, my aim is to have the most authentic experience, upgraded to be the less painful for my 2021 self. Again I'm not against it, just wondering if AI upscale is compatible with the plan.
 
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BO7AMMOOD

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As a new highres AI upscale mod for FF7 has seemingly been released, I'm back on this train, so sorry for the relatively old mention.
Thinking about it, why would I want to have finer details on an emulated game on which I will apply scanlines to make it feel more authentic ? Isn't it contradictory ?
Just polling the thread for input, I'm not for or against, trying to determine my course of action.

To be clear, my aim is to have the most authentic experience, upgraded to be the less painful for my 2021 self. Again I'm not against it, just wondering if AI upscale is compatible with the plan.
No worries Li Kao , always happy to chat emulation whenever and wherever! You make a good point. I guess that if your goal is to replicate the original experience as faithfully as possible then you wouldn't need to use the downsampling feature. In my case though, I simply go with whatever I feel looks "nicer". This is a subjective measure at the end of the day so it will depend on your taste. While I'm not necessarily a purist I do agree that more often than not retro games do look better when set up to be "more authentic" if you will. But that's not always the case, especially with PS1 games imo, as I think that enhancements like PGXP and downsampling improve the picture quality a lot.

I suggest you giving it a try for yourself! It's pretty simple to toggle it on and off in the options while in-game, and that way you can tell for yourself which "look" you find more to your liking ;)
 
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Li Kao

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True, and if I had taken the time to re-watch your link, I would have seen that it's clearly not disruptive of the 'authentic' feel.
The new mod, no idea, but your video is totally fine.
 
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BO7AMMOOD

Lucas isn't sure what to do anymore
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True, and if I had taken the time to re-watch your link, I would have seen that it's clearly not disruptive of the 'authentic' feel.
The new mod, no idea, but your video is totally fine.
Yeah as you said, I do feel that these enhancements shown in the video do improve on the original look of the game rather than change it. The new mod goes for something completely different obviously. It's not a bad option if you really want to play the game in HD, since now the 3D models won't clash with the low-res backgrounds at higher resolutions. I still prefer the look in the video I linked to though since I feel that the game's assets still look better at lower resolutions with crt shaders at the end of the day, but hey, the more options we have the merrier!
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
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I missed that Polymega's version of the Sinden Lightgun opened preorders. It's only for use with Polymega so I guess the Sinden PC software won't support it (but maybe people will hack it anyway, if it doesn't use some special non USB port, I can't tell, I didn't really investigate this). It also has different (less generally) features and what not and of course its own form factor (which initially I liked more than the main Sinden but now knowing that has pump action function for reloads, no longer, plus it's bigger so even with the handgun form factor it'll be easier to two-hand for the feel of a shotgun or smg etc in relevant games).
If nobody makes proper (less janky, more compatible, less custom than EmuVR) RetroArch VR soon enough I will have to invest in a real Sinden lightgun myself. The guy should also do a front grip add-on, for chaotic smg games that play with hip fire, crosshair on, like L.A. Machineguns/Dragon Gun (and to give a meatier feel for shotguns as in HOTD3)! I get it's a pistol form anyway but the main Sinden seems big enough if you attach it rock solid at the front of the pump action!
 
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Tizoc

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If it hadn't been discussed yet
Duckstation is a fanatstic and the go to emulator for PSOne games esp. if you want to play these games with visual enhancements. Granted they still look like ps1 games but at least they look smooth and pretty!

Anyone got any feedback on Saturn emulation? I understand retroarch is the go to way but the standalone mednafen I hear is quite good and so is Yabuse Sanshiro (sp). Would like some impressions on which is a good one to get and how to set it up for saturn games.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
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Mednafen does Saturn (and PS, SNES and a ton of other stuff) quite great, but you'll need a front end for it for GUI. The RA Beetle core is just as great. SSF stand alone should be the most accurate emulator but still has some issues like SNK fighting games getting missing sprites last I tried, when they appear fine in the other emus (then again, great as those fighting games were in the Saturn days, they weren't 100% perfect when you can emulate the arcade instead, and the neo geo home versions too). I dunno about a front end for Mednafen, last I used Mednaffe but I dunno if it's been updated for later versions since I just use the RA cores nowadays. Saturn generally doesn't get enhancements beyond stuff like deinterlacing, real instead of mesh transparencies and crt filters (although stand alone emus tend to have pitiful options compared to all the RA shaders), except for the Kronos emu which allows high res and other stuff but isn't as advanced as the others. Yabause/Yabasanshiro seem to work well as RA cores or stand alone for weaker specs like my android phone where beetle just crawls.
 
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Tizoc

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Thanks, I tested Mendafan Beetle Saturn core on retroarch with Die Hard Arcade (US) and i've experienced some audio glitches and slowdowns, which I didn't experience with the JP ver. when I tested it. I'll try stand alone and the others and see how it turns out :D
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
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Downunder.
From recent memory, I had an issue with the Kronos core in Sakura Taisen, in which the RetroArch crashes every time it exits a battle scenario. No such issues with the Beetle core, though. Playable from start to finish.
 
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FunnyJay

Powered by the Cloud
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So, I have an Raspberry Pi set up with Retropie, which i setup about 2 years ago and I bring out once in awhile.

So when I want to update it, I check the changelog, and I often find that a long time has passed since I last updated, and therefor I am supposed to reflash the entire memory card to get the new raspbian image, and I gotta say, that's quite annoying. I guess running the retropie updatescript is not good enough, since the underlying OS has been updated so much?

I think I'm on retropie 4.4 right now, and the current version is 4.7 and the raspbian image has been updated to Buster.
 

Li Kao

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I suppose there is no working PS4 emulator yet ?
 
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Theswweet

Theswweet

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i dont' know if this is the wrong place, but I've been tryingto get Magic Castle running on Vita, has anybody tried or had any luck? Tried on adrenaline, and retroarch couldn't get it working on either.
I know this is incredibly late, but I played Magic Castle on Vita back at launch. I converted an eboot myself, if you want a link?
 
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dummmyy

Dumb fool
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I know this is incredibly late, but I played Magic Castle on Vita back at launch. I converted an eboot myself, if you want a link?
YES, PLEASE!!!! i had tried converting it myself too, but it just wouldn't work at all! no idea why. You're a saint!
 

Li Kao

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Fuck I regret selling my PS3 / Vita :cryblob:
I needed the money, but there are so many abandoned games on those platforms.
 

Tizoc

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Fuck I regret selling my PS3 / Vita :cryblob:
I needed the money, but there are so many abandoned games on those platforms.
Eh, moneys better.

But you have a 2070 don't you? That's good for emulating PS3 long as you got a good CPU.

Vita...gotta wait a few years for that emulation.
 
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Li Kao

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Are there good portable emulation machines ? Good perf ? Until what system do they work ?
Or should I just buy a phone ?
 

Knurek

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Are there good portable emulation machines ? Good perf ? Until what system do they work ?
Or should I just buy a phone ?
GPD Win 3/Aya NEO if you have the money. Up to PS3
Android Phone with a clip-on gamepad if you don't. Up to PS1 in most cases.
 
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Li Kao

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Hmm, unfortunate for the PS2, though.
And do android emulators support scanlines ? Not that important given the size of the screen but who wants to bask in the 3d models of ff7 in all their crispest glory ? Not me :coffee-blob:

I suppose a phone + kishi is my best bet, as a pricey but not unreachable solution.

The Retroid Pocket 2 is sexy too. I could play the early Megaten on that.
 
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Knurek

OG old coot
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Yeah, Retroarch on Android has all of the shaders the desktop version does.
Many won't run fullspeed on most phones though.
 
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Li Kao

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Thank you for those infos, as with most things these days, all I get out of it is that I’m a dirty poor.
This is tiring :loudly-crying-face:
 
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