Homebrew Retroarch Emulation Thread (Nightly Builds Included)

[FateForWindows]

Downloaded the latest stable release .cia from their website for my OG 3DS XL but whatever NES core I'm running for my Dragon Warrior 3 rom, it is running really really slow. What settings can I use to make it run full speed?

I believe QuickNES is the only libretro core that runs at fullspeed on o3DS though I'm not sure about FCEUMM. You'll definitely want to use bubble2k's VirtuaNES for 3DS as it's more accurate than QuickNES (more stuff works the way it should) and the performance is still a constant 60FPS on all models.

 

[Bitanator]

I believe QuickNES is the only libretro core that runs at fullspeed on o3DS though I'm not sure about FCEUMM. You'll definitely want to use bubble2k's VirtuaNES for 3DS as it's more accurate than QuickNES (more stuff works the way it should) and the performance is still a constant 60FPS on all models.

Thanks, I've switched to that and they are running fine now.

I'm assuming SNES games won't run full speed on the OG 3DS?

 

[kenseiden]

You should also use bubble’s SNES9x for 3DS if you want fullspeed SNES on the o3DS.

 

[Bitanator]

You should also use bubble’s SNES9x for 3DS if you want fullspeed SNES on the o3DS.

Is the Star Ocean & Tales of Phantasia compatability okay?

 

[kenseiden]

Is the Star Ocean & Tales of Phantasia compatability okay?

I can confirm that Tales runs on SNES9X for 3DS. Not too sure about Star Ocean, but since this is based on an older SNES9X code base (1.43, I think?) compatibility should be the same as that, which is fairly high.

 

[Bitanator]

I can confirm that Tales runs on SNES9X for 3DS. Not too sure about Star Ocean, but since this is based on an older SNES9X code base (1.43, I think?) compatibility should be the same as that, which is fairly high.

cool, Thx for the responses

 

[CosmicDan]

I read the OT completely but I didn't see - does this include DOSBox and Atari Lynx cores? I saw unofficial builds floating around that did but they're all old.

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[Rahkeesh]

Both are officially included. Lynx has the Handy core, it needs a bios and has no save states. DOS takes some configuring to get going but it can work, it supports joysticks and emulates mouse but there is no keyboard support of any kind. Usually you need to set up dosbox on your PC and install/configure your games before moving it all over to 3DS. Its pretty slow though, anything from the VGA era seems spotty, and I don't want to go back to CGA graphics myself, so didn't play with it much.

 

[CosmicDan]

Both are officially included. Lynx has the Handy core, it needs a bios and has no save states. DOS takes some configuring to get going but it can work, it supports joysticks and emulates mouse but there is no keyboard support of any kind. Usually you need to set up dosbox on your PC and install/configure your games before moving it all over to 3DS. Its pretty slow though, anything from the VGA era seems spotty, and I don't want to go back to CGA graphics myself, so didn't play with it much.

Fair enough, thanks. Shame about the lack of OSK support. I'm assuming you have a New 3DS/2DS? Can't even get 386 equivalent for VGA? E.g. Apogee era of games?

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[Rahkeesh]

So I ran gremlin's hero quest which isn't a game with much going on and it was nearly half speed. But come to think of it I could've tried lowering the target CPU and stuff. If you really want the DOS games you might make something work by tinkering with it. First set up standard PC dosbox and get yourself a "hard drive" going, then try to get it running in windows Retroarch DOSBOX core, which eventually includes having it launch an executable directly rather than using the command prompt. (might've done it by adjusting auto-run commands on dosbox). Then move the files over to the 3DS and see how it runs.

 

[MrHuu]

DOS takes some configuring to get going but it can work, it supports joysticks and emulates mouse but there is no keyboard support of any kind. Usually you need to set up dosbox on your PC and install/configure your games before moving it all over to 3DS. Its pretty slow though, anything from the VGA era seems spotty, and I don't want to go back to CGA graphics myself, so didn't play with it much.

Sorry, i just have to add this.. it is definitly possible to emulate a mouse / keyboard in DOSBOX. Just no on-screen -keyboard.

If you have a game loaded, open the 'Quick Menu'. Here you'll find core specific settings.
Open 'Controls' and set the 'User 1 Device Type' to 'Keyboard + Mouse'.

Now scroll down till the button definitions, 'Auto: B (btn)' being the first. With the desired button selected press right to select the preferred Keyboard button to bind to.

If you've set all buttons for a game, select 'Save Game Remap File' to save these settings. These settings will be loaded the next time you start the game.

That's it, almost all keyboard keys are available.

The y axis of the mouse is inverted by default, redefine the general !! control settings to fix this.

 

[plug313]

has this seen any improvements at all in the last few months? I haven't been checking lately but I'm assuming no

 

[FateForWindows]

has this seen any improvements at all in the last few months? I haven't been checking lately but I'm assuming no

There have been some, mostly Emulator-side but also QOL stuff for Retroarch itself, e.g. now the default driver is DSP instead of csnd, default interface is rgui because of issues xmb has always had, etc.

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

Both are officially included. Lynx has the Handy core, it needs a bios and has no save states. DOS takes some configuring to get going but it can work, it supports joysticks and emulates mouse but there is no keyboard support of any kind. Usually you need to set up dosbox on your PC and install/configure your games before moving it all over to 3DS. Its pretty slow though, anything from the VGA era seems spotty, and I don't want to go back to CGA graphics myself, so didn't play with it much.

is it possible to create a VC injection like forwarder for DOSBox 3DS? because i would love to make a couple for it!

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Fair enough, thanks. Shame about the lack of OSK support. I'm assuming you have a New 3DS/2DS? Can't even get 386 equivalent for VGA? E.g. Apogee era of games?

Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

D/Generation and Hocus Pocus worked perfectly fine for me and those are VGA games, or perhaps it's because maybe i have a new 3DS xl that fixes the slowdown with certain DOS games?

 

[Rahkeesh]

Does anyone have or know where to obtain the 1.3.3 build of Retroarch? Someone recently uploaded 1.3.6 to GBAtemp downloads which is cool, but according to some old forum posts, that is when things *started* going to hell, like gPSp dynarec crashing, vsync getting borked, cores slowing down, etc. Making 1.3.3 the last 100% supported stable release for 3DS. If we can find that and it fixes the gPSP dynarec that would be of huge value to the community.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Does anyone have or know where to obtain the 1.3.3 build of Retroarch? Someone recently uploaded 1.3.6 to GBAtemp downloads which is cool, but according to some old forum posts, that is when things *started* going to hell, like gPSp dynarec crashing, vsync getting borked, cores slowing down, etc. Making 1.3.3 the last 100% supported stable release for 3DS. If we can find that and it fixes the gPSP dynarec that would be of huge value to the community.

Does the gPSP core still crash on the latest versions?

 

[Rahkeesh]

Crashes for me on the latest 1.7.6 stable, yes.

Again only when dynarec is on. But its much slower without.

 

[plug313]

There have been some, mostly Emulator-side but also QOL stuff for Retroarch itself, e.g. now the default driver is DSP instead of csnd, default interface is rgui because of issues xmb has always had, etc.

that's great to hear! when I have some free time I'll play around with some of these emulators

 

[DualBladedKirito]

Does anyone have or know where to obtain the 1.3.3 build of Retroarch? Someone recently uploaded 1.3.6 to GBAtemp downloads which is cool, but according to some old forum posts, that is when things *started* going to hell, like gPSp dynarec crashing, vsync getting borked, cores slowing down, etc. Making 1.3.3 the last 100% supported stable release for 3DS. If we can find that and it fixes the gPSP dynarec that would be of huge value to the community.

I have that core somewhere but it still has the crash issue.
Edit here's a even older version 1.3.2
Edit 2: So. I talked with a mod on retroarch discord and they said we are better off looking at the source code for 1.3.2 and see if the problem can be fixed. Beyond my capabilities but someone might be able to find the issue
Here's the source https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/archive/v1.3.2.zip

 

[Rahkeesh]

Awesome! Thanks for posting this even if it is crashy.

This version does seem to have eliminated the tearing at the top of screen at least!