Emulation central - recommendations in 1st post

[Great Deceiver]

Booted up RetroArch w/ Beetle core, PPSSPP and PCSX2 this week with Vagrant Story, Tactics Ogre and Digital Devil Saga in mind respectively. Not sure which one I'll stick with, but I'm in a mood to explore these JRPG series I have wanted to play for a long time, such a FF and SMT.

Naturally, none of these games were entirely problem free. TO had audio slowdown issues that I tracked down to be caused by the game being loaded from HDD. As soon as I moved it to my SSD, the issue seems to be gone.

The problem here is that you are using Retroarch.
Retroarch is fine to use it to play nes games but it is piece of shit for anything newer than 94 because builds of those emulators are notoriously old and sometimes outright broken.

If you want to play TO which is amazing just use PPSSPP app from their site which works like charm and has almost 0 issues with about pretty much every game on psp.

This is just patently false. For example, Beetle PSX is objectively the very best PS1 emulator you can use today. The Beetle Saturn Retroarch core is probably the best way to play Saturn games on an emulator. Ditto for the Reicast Dreamcast core.

Retroarch provides the best sync solution (especially since the runahead update) - very close to frame-perfect timings. It's unparalleled in that department. If you value accurate sync, there's no other option. The excellent shaders are the icing on the cake.

That said, there are some cores that aren't very good on Retroarch/don't get updated very often. The PPSSPP Retroarch core is one example that has issues, I would use the standalone emulator.

 

[Latro]

i like mednaffen

don't bully me...

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

This is just patently false. For example, Beetle PSX is objectively the very best PS1 emulator you can use today. The Beetle Saturn Retroarch core is probably the best way to play Saturn games on an emulator. Ditto for the Reicast Dreamcast core.

Hate to break it to you, but Retroarch devs break shit all the time in Beetle that worked just fine in standalone. They're also none too speedy about backporting changes from upstream. It'd be more accurate to say "in a choice between Beetle and not using Mednafen at all, use Beetle".

i like mednaffen

don't bully me...

This guy has the right idea. If you can swing it, standalone with an optional GUI is godly.

 

[Great Deceiver]

This is just patently false. For example, Beetle PSX is objectively the very best PS1 emulator you can use today. The Beetle Saturn Retroarch core is probably the best way to play Saturn games on an emulator. Ditto for the Reicast Dreamcast core.

Hate to break it to you, but Retroarch devs break shit all the time in Beetle that worked just fine in standalone. They're also none too speedy about backporting changes from upstream. It'd be more accurate to say "in a choice between Beetle and not using Mednafen at all, use Beetle".

i like mednaffen

don't bully me...

This guy has the right idea. If you can swing it, standalone with an optional GUI is godly.

You're being disingenuous, the original claim was that "Retroarch is shit for everything past 1994". This couldn't be further from the truth.

Academic discussions about the speed of upstream changes between Beetle and standalone Mednafen are beside the point.

 

[Sigourn]

I want to post lewd Haunting Ground pics but I can't take screenshots from my TV.

Anyhow the game is fun. I do very much miss tank controls. And I think the map (not the layout, but the actual in-game map) is sort of shit, but this is just my opinion. The protagonist may very well be the cutest protagonist in any game I've played or seen.

 

[Puukko]

Digital Devil Saga's got its hooks in me as my first real foray into SMT. I doubt I'll continue straight on to 2 after this though - I'll probably give either Persona 3 or 4 a go to see that side of the series as well. Alternatively, Nocturne.

I've only had a couple noticeable but rather insignificant issues with PCSX2 so far and that is this occasional colored line appearing across the very bottom of the screen with varying colors and thickness. It barely matters, but I wonder if internal resolution affects it since mine is really high. Could tweak around with the settings if it was actually bothersome. Besides that, I do get this occasional subtle jumping effect where the image jumps up and down ever so slightly. That one seems to be caused more by closing and resuming the emulation.

I have a feeling this year will be heavy in the emulation side for me. Exploring all these classic JRPG series I haven't tried out before, and with the PS3/360/WiiU/Switch emulators making strides, I think this will be the year when a lot more emulators mature and become recommendation worthy over the consoles themselves.

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

You're being disingenuous, the original claim was that "Retroarch is shit for everything past 1994". This couldn't be further from the truth.

No, there were multiple claims asserted. Don't accuse someone of being disingenuous while being so yourself.

 

[Hirato]

Persona 5 is pretty rough on your computer but NNK is nicer. Some slowdown occasionally in cities but not very often, and it's one of the few games I've tried that has no issues whatsoever when playing FMVs

NNK gives me some glitches when playing audio during pre-animated cutscenes.
Persona 5 runs great now, I get between 30-60FPS (with the patch) in most areas with my threadripper 1950x.

The school's one of the areas that's infamously slow, and well, and here it is:

(also that diagonal line goes away with OpenGL - according to rpcs3 devs it's some AMD card/driver bug that manifests in Vulkan)

Digital Devil Saga's got its hooks in me as my first real foray into SMT. I doubt I'll continue straight on to 2 after this though - I'll probably give either Persona 3 or 4 a go to see that side of the series as well. Alternatively, Nocturne.

You should play Persona 3/4 first if you want to have any hope of finishing them.
They're fantastic writing wise, but the gameplay is going to kill you if you enter them after or during Nocturne.

 

[Deflowerer]

Writing wise they are definitely not fantastic, particularly 4. 3rd's plot has some cool themes, but starting from 3 they contain excessive animu dialog. Particularly notable is that animu trope where on each goddamn topic, everyone who is in the room has to repeat the same fucking shit as had been said by everyone else already, but they do it because they want to have that character say the same shit but in a manner that befits their animu stereotype.

Don't even get me started on the messaging app conversations in P5.

 

[Hirato]

Writing wise they are definitely not fantastic, particularly 4. 3rd's plot has some cool themes, but starting from 3 they contain excessive animu dialog. Particularly notable is that animu trope where on each goddamn topic, everyone who is in the room has to repeat the same fucking shit as had been said by everyone else already, but they do it because they want to have that character say the same shit but in a manner that befits their animu stereotype.

 

[Duraframe300]

Writing wise they are definitely not fantastic, particularly 4. 3rd's plot has some cool themes, but starting from 3 they contain excessive animu dialog. Particularly notable is that animu trope where on each goddamn topic, everyone who is in the room has to repeat the same fucking shit as had been said by everyone else already, but they do it because they want to have that character say the same shit but in a manner that befits their animu stereotype.

Don't even get me started on the messaging app conversations in P5.

I enjoyed 4 the most imo (mainly the mystery and a few charachters). 3 was too animu emo and 5 was predictable as hell despite the enjoyable (but even more animu) theme.

 

[Rahdulan]

Digital Devil Saga's got its hooks in me as my first real foray into SMT. I doubt I'll continue straight on to 2 after this though - I'll probably give either Persona 3 or 4 a go to see that side of the series as well. Alternatively, Nocturne.

You should while the first one is still fresh in your mind, though. It's a direct continuation from when devs still dared to make direct sequels. Both DDS games are pretty good entry points into SMT overall if someone is coming from more typical JRPGs like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc. Strangely enough they're the most typical JRPGs SMT has to offer.

 

[Reinhardt]

So i'm playing Cross Edge, My party is ~25 lvl. Dungeon is ~25-30 lvl. And then suddenly there is recolored version of one of the dungeon monsters. Lvl 120... I've googled and final boss if you don't go for true end is lvl 90...

 

[spekkio]

Digital Devil Saga & Nocturne

I strongly recommend using at least Progressive scan mode Cheats for these games. You can read about them (and other, gameplay-related cheats) here:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/streamlining-megami-tensei-ps2-games.111194/

 

[Puukko]

Digital Devil Saga & Nocturne

I strongly recommend using at least Progressive scan mode Cheats for these games. You can read about them (and other, gameplay-related cheats) here:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/streamlining-megami-tensei-ps2-games.111194/

Thanks, I applied the 2x EXP/halved encounter rate parts. Since we're on the topic, do you know what could be causing this line to appear on the bottom here?

Spoiler

Also, occasionally when a battle starts, there's some ominous speech but I'm playing the undub so I can't tell what it says. Does it have some significance?

 

[spekkio]

do you know what could be causing this line to appear on the bottom here

My guess would be high internal resolution coupled with some non-standard external res. Try playing around with GSdx's advanced options:

https://wiki.pcsx2.net/GSdx

 

[Puukko]

I noticed that accessing the mantra menu from a terminal is fiddly. It's crashed on me a once or twice and I couldn't get it to load at all with the frame limiter unlocked, which is a minor issue but something I did encounter a couple times when grinding a bit before I made the connection. That menu seems to be a separate entity from the rest of the terminal from a programming viewpoint, probably because of how populated it is.

 

[sullynathan]

Why can't i use the touchpad in the DS emulator? I'm using retroarch

 

[glass blackbird]

Why can't i use the touchpad in the DS emulator? I'm using retroarch

Assuming you mean clicking on the bottom screen, well, Retroarch doesn't do well with mouse controls generally, sadly. You can make it work but it's a pain in the ass; try using the actual standalone version of whatever DS emu you want and it'll probably be much simpler

 

[sullynathan]

Why can't i use the touchpad in the DS emulator? I'm using retroarch

Assuming you mean clicking on the bottom screen, well, Retroarch doesn't do well with mouse controls generally, sadly. You can make it work but it's a pain in the ass; try using the actual standalone version of whatever DS emu you want and it'll probably be much simpler

Just downnloaded Desmume and it actually works. Lots of options too, gonna config the PS3 controller if I can.

Oddly enough It wasn't just retroarch, openemu didn't work either.

 

[Baron Dupek]

PS Vita: a 6-year hacking journey comes to an end as the very last layer of the Vita crypto security is defeated
http://wololo.net/2019/02/24/ps-vit...ayer-of-the-vita-crypto-security-is-defeated/

Just in time when production stopped.
Hope it will be some wind of change with new stuff coming soon.

 

[Taxnomore]

Just ordered a RaspBerry Pi 3B+ (the latest one) with a 16 GB card and have a few things to ask all of you professional elite retro squad.

-How much will OS + Retropie swallow of this space ?
-By the way, Retropie or Recalbox ? I cannot seem to find a definitive answer on this.
-DS4 gamepad : works in bluetooth ?
-Sixaxis/DS3 gamepad : works in bluetooth ?
-Does PS2 emulation work ? Gamecube emulation ?
-Would it be easy to do a dualboot or something if I also want this Pi to replace my Steamlink ?

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Is there any development regarding Vita emulation? Vita3k seems incredibly slow on progress.

 

[sullynathan]

Is there any development regarding Vita emulation? Vita3k seems incredibly slow on progress.

was gonna ask this exact same question.

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

Why can't i use the touchpad in the DS emulator? I'm using retroarch

Assuming you mean clicking on the bottom screen, well, Retroarch doesn't do well with mouse controls generally, sadly. You can make it work but it's a pain in the ass; try using the actual standalone version of whatever DS emu you want and it'll probably be much simpler

Just downnloaded Desmume and it actually works. Lots of options too, gonna config the PS3 controller if I can.

Oddly enough It wasn't just retroarch, openemu didn't work either.

OpenEmu and RetroArch are kissing cousins, it's rumored. Quite a bit of code-sharing going on when it comes to core implementation specifics. I've never bothered to look myself, but it's hysterical if true.