Hacking Emulation POPS on PSP/Vita - Config Research

Pandaxclone2

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I am very much interested to see how this experimentation develops. Being able to play the remaining handful of PS1 games that don't run correctly on the PS Vita would be the cherry on top for this little handheld. Especially since one of them (Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time) has been a game that I have on and off the years tried several times to run through both Adrenaline and Retroarch, with little success on either end.
 
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I am very much interested to see how this experimentation develops. Being able to play the remaining handful of PS1 games that don't run correctly on the PS Vita would be the cherry on top for this little handheld. Especially since one of them (Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time) has been a game that I have on and off the years tried several times to run through both Adrenaline and Retroarch, with little success on either end.

Have you tried Chovy Sign? I'd never heard of it until recently but apparently it uses a totally different approach to Adrenaline/Retro, can be installed without CFW (if that matters) and most interestingly has the lowest input lag of all PSP on Vita solutions.

Going to look into it at some point but thought I'd mention as no one seems to speak about it.
 
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Rahkeesh

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Have you tried Chovy Sign? I'd never heard of it until recently but apparently it uses a totally different approach to Adrenaline/Retro, can be installed without CFW (if that matters) and most interestingly has the lowest input lag of all PSP on Vita solutions.

Adrenaline has a bit more lag if you use any screen effect other than "original", I wonder if Chovy is an improvement over "original"?

Seems like Chovy is just using Sony's official PSP software, so its something more like Virtual Console injection on Nintendo consoles.
 
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Deleted member 42501

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Seems like Chovy is just using Sony's official PSP software, so its something more like Virtual Console injection on Nintendo consoles.

Yes, thats exactly it and VC is by far the best emu experience on 3DS.

You need an officially installed title for Chovy as it clones the bubbles to launch new titles. Would be interested in hearing how it is in terms of responsiveness if you give it a go.

From what I can see you don't get cheat codes (so no 60 FPS mode hacks) and adding in DLC doesn't seem to be as straightforward as Adrenaline. Both of those are quite important but the lowest possible input lag is also high on priorities.

https://github.com/KuromeSan/chovy-sign/releases

Rhythm action game fans have previously said that CS is perfectly responsive. There is also another mod of CS that uses a different approach via Content Manager:

https://github.com/KuromeSan/chovy-trans/releases



Another option with another approach:

https://gekihen.customprotocol.com/en/project/ARK-Fast-for-3-60



For those who didn't try yet:

Using Bubble Booter over launching via Adrenaline also seems to noticeably reduce input lag:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/adrenal...duces-input-lag-over-using-adrenaline.605839/

Could be due to using less overhead but thats only the UI not being loaded and all of the Adrenaline stuff is still present in background. Either way it is quite noticeable and is very close to the real PSP hardware in terms of feel.
 
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Pandaxclone2

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Have you tried Chovy Sign? I'd never heard of it until recently but apparently it uses a totally different approach to Adrenaline/Retro, can be installed without CFW (if that matters) and most interestingly has the lowest input lag of all PSP on Vita solutions.

Going to look into it at some point but thought I'd mention as no one seems to speak about it.

In all honesty, I'm not sure how this would fix a game that is known to crash regardless inside the PSP wrapper that the Vita employs.
 
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kristianity77

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In all honesty, I'm not sure how this would fix a game that is known to crash regardless inside the PSP wrapper that the Vita employs.

What's happening here isn't a fix for games that don't work I believe. It "might" just make games work that work under different regions. Dragon warrior 7 the Japanese version didn't needs popsloader to work, where as the USA and PAL versions did.

The way I see it, anything that doesn't work across any region, can't be fixed that simply.
 
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In all honesty, I'm not sure how this would fix a game that is known to crash regardless inside the PSP wrapper that the Vita employs.
If you don't try you won't know.

Just throwing it out there as a variable to test as its something I'd seen previously that no one mentions. Isn't something I've looked into myself yet but lower input lag and more accurate emulation are always welcome. Chovy apparently removes a lot of the extra stuff Adrenaline needs and thus is a very bare bones environment to play around in.

What's happening here isn't a fix for games that don't work I believe. It "might" just make games work that work under different regions. Dragon warrior 7 the Japanese version didn't needs popsloader to work, where as the USA and PAL versions did.

The way I see it, anything that doesn't work across any region, can't be fixed that simply.

Often when it comes to emulation wrappers like this games that were slightly finicky in their coding need a just so environment due to how they were put together. Others can run a lot looser without issues.

Similar to how the Canoe modding scene leapt from "That'll never work" to almost 99% being perfectly playable thanks to lateral thinking and poking around in the code for clues.



BFM was super finicky on the PSP anyway so its definitely a code issue. Its also weird on PS Classic where you need to use a speed hack to set the CPU to 85% so its code may be relying on certain calls that are expecting real hardware and emulation causes it to act screwy.



Actually, anther lateral thought:

Anyone who has this on Vita and is at the point where it crashes, experiment with underclocking the PSP in Adrenaline and see what that does. There are lots of speed variables available and IIRC this game can work perfectly anywhere between 50 - 80% with a speed hack so that may be enough to get you through the troublesome points.
 
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The_Ho

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If I play the US version on PS3 through to the save before Skulpion and then transfer the save to PSP, would that be any help?
[EDIT] I'll be using 'Brave Fencer Musashi (USA)' from ReDump

Yes, you can upload your own PS3 save here and then I'll try to fix the problem. I was going to try to play until then, but I'm out of resources for now.
https://gekihen.customprotocol.com/en/project/ARK-Fast-for-3-60



For those who didn't try yet:

Using Bubble Booter over launching via Adrenaline also seems to noticeably reduce input lag:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/adrenal...duces-input-lag-over-using-adrenaline.605839/

Could be due to using less overhead but thats only the UI not being loaded and all of the Adrenaline stuff is still present in background. Either way it is quite noticeable and is very close to the real PSP hardware in terms of feel.
ARK is really promising, perhaps a last hope for popsloader integration into Vita.
What's happening here isn't a fix for games that don't work I believe. It "might" just make games work that work under different regions. Dragon warrior 7 the Japanese version didn't needs popsloader to work, where as the USA and PAL versions did.

The way I see it, anything that doesn't work across any region, can't be fixed that simply.
Exactly, this happens because of the BIOS that the PSP uses in POPs to launch PS1 games, the BIOS is Japanese, and this seems to make games with Japanese region have greater compatibility, it's no wonder that one of the most used IDs to fix problematic games is the SLPS01222 among other JPs, however there are few exceptions of the PSP running a European game well and everything else bad. But some games need you to "simulate", that he is in fact Japanese as a way to trick the PSP / Vita as is the case of Dragon Warrior VII where just changing the ID to Japanese with PSX2PSP, does not solve. The cool thing about the method used in DWVII is that I'm almost certain that you can simulate the game for the Japanese region even if it hasn't been released in Japan, among other regions.
 

Humanfly138

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Yes, you can upload your own PS3 save here and then I'll try to fix the problem. I was going to try to play until then, but I'm out of resources for now.
My god.... I played it for two hours. I can't handle it anymore. Killed a robot, Did a load of fetch quests, saved a dog and fell off A LOT of platforms. I can't do it.... It's not fun at all:rofl2:
 

Deleted member 42501

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:rofl2: Some games really benefit from rose tinted recollections. You can overlook a lot of padding that way and just see what you want to see, mainly the happy childhood memories associated with the first time of playing it.

Funny how that works... The sense of Bamboozlement ;)

Have personally loaded up quite a few titles I used to enjoy and think "This is crap. Wheres the gameplay?" when I became aware of this whole process. A rare few are actually truly awesome and stand the test of time on their own merits.
 

Humanfly138

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:rofl2: Some games really benefit from rose tinted recollections. You can overlook a lot of padding that way and just see what you want to see, mainly the happy childhood memories associated with the first time of playing it.
I've never played it before..... It's been on the list of games to get round to. I really was expecting it to be good

In any case.... I think it would be possible to get a save close to the Skullpion boss fight. It seems you can go back to town and save whenever you want. I just really can't be arsed missing platforms for another hour :rofl2:

+1 for the Bamboozle
 

rantex92

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But dw2003 is already playable, from start to finish, without any bugs
nope theres a bug if you enter the beach in the begining area right after the first town wich ends in blackscreen/freeze + you need to go to the beach in order to play the story so its not beatable
 

ExData7

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nope theres a bug if you enter the beach in the begining area right after the first town wich ends in blackscreen/freeze + you need to go to the beach in order to play the story so its not beatable
but isnt that bug from a specific pops version? iirc on psp it needed a lower pops version from the latest one to work fully, i dont remember if that was the NTSC or PAL version tho
 

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