Emulation central - recommendations in 1st post

[InD_ImaginE]

Honestly having everything tidy in one location without much of a fuss is reason enough to use RA.

 

[Perkel]

Huge update coming to early acess yuzu in coming days called cache buffer rewrite. It is supposed to fix shitload of graphical bugs and improve a lot performance. It should come out in few days.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've complained on and off in this thread about PCSX2's significant latency/frame timing issues - I tried everything under the sun for years and nothing seemed to fix either of them.

However, ever since switching to a 120hz panel, I notice that the timing issues are pretty much gone (no more scrolling stutter every few seconds - especially noticeable in a game like Gradius V if you pay attention to the background). Even input latency feels much better - even though the emulator is locked at 60hz. I can't think of an explanation, but I'll take it!

Playing through Maximo now. I think the first game is very underrated and the sequel, although universally praised as being an improvement, is much worse.

 

[Perkel]

That might be due to PAL/NTSC difference. PAL games i think work in 50fps not in 60fps (thoug it depends a lot on game engine).

Due to the low resolution of the display and the easy to use dump/load textures of Citra, the 3DS games are among the best candidates to be emulated in HD with AI-upscaling algorithms. Inspired by this work on SMTIV, I tried to do something similar for SMTIV-A and Soul Hackers. The following are some preliminary results...

Yeah we did something like this with team like a 1 year ago for Monster Hunter XX (which is 3DS version of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate). Basically 100% of game textures (aside from few npcs) were upscaled via AI.

3ds:

highres + texturepack:

3ds textures + highres

highres + texture pack

 

[Great Deceiver]

No, it's not a 50/60hz issue. There is a frame pacing issue in PCSX2 (at least in 60hz displays) that produces stutter every few seconds (in both APIs - OpenGL and DirectX 11), try it for yourself - get a third person game (say, Tenchu) and pan the camera slowly around your character. You can also observe this in fast-scrolling games like shmups (very easy to see in Gradius V, which has busy backgrounds with a lot of moving elements).

 

[Perkel]

No, it's not a 50/60hz issue. There is a frame pacing issue in PCSX2 (at least in 60hz displays) that produces stutter every few seconds (in both APIs - OpenGL and DirectX 11), try it for yourself - get a third person game (say, Tenchu) and pan the camera slowly around your character. You can also observe this in fast-scrolling games like shmups (very easy to see in Gradius V, which has busy backgrounds with a lot of moving elements).

I never had this issue and i played plenty of games on pcsh2.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Well, if you can't see it, more power to you.

 

[mogwaimon]

if your new monitor has Freesync/Gsync perhaps that was what fixed the issue? could be a possibility. I've never had a good relationship with PCSX2 myself, it's serviceable and it's really all we've got for PS2 but it's not exactly the most bug-free emulator...

 

[Deuce Traveler]

No, it's not a 50/60hz issue. There is a frame pacing issue in PCSX2 (at least in 60hz displays) that produces stutter every few seconds (in both APIs - OpenGL and DirectX 11), try it for yourself - get a third person game (say, Tenchu) and pan the camera slowly around your character. You can also observe this in fast-scrolling games like shmups (very easy to see in Gradius V, which has busy backgrounds with a lot of moving elements).

I never had this issue and i played plenty of games on pcsh2.

I had this problem on Burnout: Crash for PS2 while using PCSX2. It ran a Wizardry game fine, but couldn't handle a racing game.

 

[aweigh]

BROS, the new Yuzu Early Access build with the new cache improvements is the real deal. This is the *FIRST TIME* I can legitimately say, "yeah I can play a game on Yuzu". Just spent like two hours blasting through Mario Odyssey with zero problems.

Also tried out Xenoblade Chronicles 1 Definitive edition remake and it's also the very first time I think that game is even playable on Yuzu, however unlike Mario Odyssey it did not run that well. Make sure to change the Accuracy setting to 'High' for Xenoblade (default is 'Normal' and it's what's best for most games), and make sure everything is on OpenGL and all the options are enabled, and lastly and most importantly: you need to set your Windows page File to be at least 15 gigabytes or more or else most 3d games will crash quickly (Yuzu has problems with memory management). Personally I have a 32gb page file.

You will still see some stutters as you play the games, unfortunately. On OpenGL it has dynamic shader creation on-the-fly and it does work but it's not seamless, there are still mini-stutters as the game creates the shader pipeline as you play, but it is bearable. It's nothing like how bad it was on CEMU before they implented their dynamic system. Alternatively you can try to seek out pre-made shader caches but you'll have to wait a little bit before they show up again as the last few builds broke previous caches.

EDIT: Oh, also tried Link's Awakening and that one runs decently too but with missing graphics on OpenGL; for Link's Awakening it's recommended to use VULKAN but the downside (aside from Yuzu's vulkan implementation being worse-performing than its OpenGL) is that Vulkan doesn't support dynamic shader creation so the pipeline creation is the bad one, like in the old CEMU days. If you can bear that, or find a pre-made shader cache someone made (will probably start showing up soon on emulation/piracy reddits) then it's basically 100% playable.

Gonna torrent 3 Houses next and give that a try next.

EDIT 2: Also tried Astral Chain and it works pretty well. Actually, probably the 2nd best performer after Mario Odyssey! However it did crash occasionally, every 20-30 minutes of gameplay, and every cutscene it was 50/50 whether it'd crash or not. Probably has to do with some memory leakage as not even the 32gb pagefile alleviated the crashes like it does with other Yuzu games. Besides the crashing, though, the actual game itself runs just fine and is perfectly playable.

 

[Perkel]

It is already out ? neat.

 

[aweigh]

Unrelated specifically to emulation but I also recently got a GSYNC-compatible monitor and it does work. It has a feature called Low-Framerate Compensation where, when gsync is activated, if a game's FPS falls to below 40fps or so then it will double the gsync'ed refresh rate, so that for example Mario Odyssey running at 30fps on Yuzu, gsynced, will use 60Hz signal. This is actually really fucking nice because you play the game at the gsynced framerate but without the latency of the lower refresh rate. At around 50fps or so it reverts to normal behavior and syncs 1:1 the fps with the refresh rate, so 60fps = gsynced 60hz; however this LFC feature ended up being REALLY good for Emulated games that run at 30fps.

the way gsync works, basically, is simple: it matches the refresh rate to whatever the frame rate is, down to the decimal, every single milisecond, so this means the game is always "synced" regardless of the framerate fluctuation and this means it's smooth and doesn't camera-stutter or hiccup like games do when they're not 'synced' to the refresh rate, and additionally there is no sudden big STUTTER that happens when normal v-sync is being used and the framerate falls below the refresh rate... HOWEVER (and I want to stress this) it isn't magic. 30fps still feels exactly the same as 30fps does on a normal system. It does not magically make lower framerates play or feel better. What it does do, however, is really really really fucking nice. Not having to worry about your frame rate fluctuating or suffering a sudden drop is pretty damn magical, plus you never again have to give another thought to vsync usage, which that alone can be a huge worry off the mind. Just turn on gsync and play.

Can't really say right now if it's worth the extra money you'll pay for the monitor to have the feature... it's tough to judge. For me it was worth it. It gives me both very smooth gaming, always synced, no worry about fps fluctuation, but it doesn't make your games run better, it doesn't eliminate game-related stutters, it's very much a "bonus" feature. A very, very good one, a REALLY good one that can improve your quality of life during a gaming session, but it's not like upgrading your GPU or CPU, it's not THAT kind of upgrade.

EDIT: Oh forgot to mention that when gsync is on you don't have the latency you'd get from using v-sync, so for people like Great Deceiver it's also a nice thing to have. I can tell you right now, as someone who normally used v-sync enabled on every game for years and years (I hate camera stutter) when I loaded up a game with only Gsync on and no vsync bruh... it felt like I was fucking flying through the game. It was quite dramatic. The lag added by normal vsync is no joke!

So for people who find the added lag of vsync uncomfortable but also want the smoothness of vsync then yes, Gsync is exactly what you want. That alone might be enough for you if you want as least latency as possible while also having zero camera stutter.

The monitor I got is the Nixeus EDG 27, snagged it for $335 on Amazon.

 

[Duraframe300]

No, it's not a 50/60hz issue. There is a frame pacing issue in PCSX2 (at least in 60hz displays) that produces stutter every few seconds (in both APIs - OpenGL and DirectX 11), try it for yourself - get a third person game (say, Tenchu) and pan the camera slowly around your character. You can also observe this in fast-scrolling games like shmups (very easy to see in Gradius V, which has busy backgrounds with a lot of moving elements).

I never had this issue and i played plenty of games on pcsh2.

I had this problem on Burnout: Crash for PS2 while using PCSX2. It ran a Wizardry game fine, but couldn't handle a racing game.

Burnout games for ps2 are one of those that are notoriously difficult to emulate in general. Do lots of weird precise stuff.

No, it's not a 50/60hz issue. There is a frame pacing issue in PCSX2 (at least in 60hz displays) that produces stutter every few seconds (in both APIs - OpenGL and DirectX 11), try it for yourself - get a third person game (say, Tenchu) and pan the camera slowly around your character. You can also observe this in fast-scrolling games like shmups (very easy to see in Gradius V, which has busy backgrounds with a lot of moving elements).

There are, though honestly since the frame pacing improvements last year I can't notice them anymore either. I definitley did before though.

Edit: Could those changes have possible be coincided with your purchasing of a new display? The last of those changes were in october.

https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/commit/b62270ea2ecd8c6aec0851b3db25b79e65ddc3e8

 

[aweigh]

Some footage of latest Yuzu build running Xenoblade Chronicles 1 remake. Rig is i5 8400 6-core CPU / RTX 2060 6gb GPU.

1. The light camera stutter you see is mainly because I disabled vsync/gsync in order to record better, and it is additionally exaggerated by the shitty recording software. The game is smooth during normal play with the emulator's vsync option enabled (or with gsync).
2. There is a noticeable "hiccup" when the game first loads where the footage jumps, again this is because of the recording software. Game runs fine during normal emulated play.

EDIT: DailyMotion takes a while to raise a newly uploaded video's quality to 'source', so if it loads at 360p for you it's because of the wait queue. It'll be at its original quality later.


EDIT 2: Here's Mario Odyssey:

 

[spekkio]

Repost from the "avatard" thread. Great avatar potential / good luck upscaling all this with AI...

Humies:

Monsters:

All files in original size from the game, only flipped.

 

[Perkel]

you missed one:

 

[spekkio]

Does not appear in DS AFAIK, check your dick privilage lore, sith lord.

 

[lightbane]

Looks good, but worst girl Yuzu doesn't deserve to be part of the package. The Jack Bros look cool.

 

[Doktor Best]

My fucking S10 somehow deleted my Dragon Quest 3 rom by itself in which i was about 3/4 through the game....

I managed to find two .SAV files but i can't get johnsnes to recognize them as save files for my redownloaded DQ3 rom (the version should be identical)

Am i fucked now or is there some way to sync those?

Also what the fuck is this? Never had this issue with cheaper phones. Goddamn Samsung piece of shit, always bothering me with updates and bloatware...

 

[mogwaimon]

the actual save file might have a .srm extension, keep in mind. .sav is usually used for save states I think and not the cartridge memory. Also make sure your saves have the exact same filename as the ROM otherwise it likely won't pick up. TBH not too familiar with Android/iOS emulators but that's the general rule of thumb for traditional emulators so hopefully it'll work for your emu too

edit: exact same file name minus the extension of course, so if your rom is Dragon Quest 3 (J) [!].smc for example your save needs to be Dragon Quest 3 (J) [!].srm or .sav. just read that some android emulators do save the SRAM as .sav and not .srm

 

[Great Deceiver]

My current monitor does support GSYNC, actually (it's a CX OLED tv), but I'm not using it currently because I'm still running a GTX 1070, which doesn't support GSYNC through HDMI, only through DisplayPort. I was expecting to upgrade to a 3080 late last year, but prices have been ridiculous and I refuse to be scalped. I'd even be willing to go for a 3070, but those are also scalper's paradise right now.

aweigh I've been forcing Scanline Sync through RTSS all this time, it's sort of a ghetto version of variable sync and you can only use it reliably on games that you can double or even triple the target framerate (last game I played through with Scanline Sync on was Dead Space 1). Looking forward to the real deal.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, since I'm done with DS-O for the moment, I've decided to dump all textures that I can put my hands on ATM.

The "best" ones are the "static" 256x256 ones, accessible either via "Team Edit" menu or "Fusion - Search" or during combat. So, I wasn't able to dump all neccessary textures, since to do so, I would have to re-play the game to "meet" some early characters / bosses in combat, or in case of Naoya, dump the texture either in combat or when he joins the team.

Deal with it.

BTW, the "animated" textures used in dialogues are inferior, since they're "cropped" (128x256):

Still, these are the only ones usable for characters you don't meet in comat, like mr Gigolo or ms Journalist:

I've dumped textures of all demons available to me, from Lv2 Kabuso, to Lv62 Mithras:

How about some examples?

a) Main fags:

b) Demon Rangers' Mugs (128x128), handmade stuff:

c) The Opposite Team:

Grab the shit here

The original, non-flipped textures can be enhanced via AI enhancers, same way Kasaski followed when making his SMT4 HD Texture Pack.

IMO it's not worth the effort, 'cuz:

1) Enhanced textures look meh.

- Kasaski's 1024x1024 (4x enhance) demons from SMT4:

- My 1024x1024 demons from DS-O, made using the same program (waifu2x-caffe) - just quick attempt at default settings:

2) To utilize these ingame, you would have to crank internal res at least to x2 or x4, which fucks up "non-enhanced" textures and UI in general:

As you can see, Kresnik and Laksmi look decent, but if you scroll the cursor to some other demon, its texture gets borked:

Plus almost everything looks pixalated, so you would have to enhance all the "small" and "text" textures too.

Anyway, if somebody has too much time on his hands, go ahead and AI enhance all this shit.

Drama king out.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I already tried to upscale DS. The problem with the fonts is that they are not stored neatly in a single texture that you can upscale once for all. The fonts are "generated". Every bit of text, including all the dialogue lines, is rendered on different textures. You need to upscale all of them. And this is crazy, even if you write a script to automate the upscaling procedure, you still need to go by hand through every dialogue option, messages, etc., of the game.

 

[spekkio]

Yeah, I've noticed that too when dumping. I've been getting textures with characters' dialogues and descriptions all the time and was like "WTF, this shit is being generated by the game, or what?".

Oh well, maybe we'll get a HD re-re-release one day...

Yeah, right. Of Persona 22 or some shit.

 

[kirin]

Is it better to emulate Breath of the Wild on cemu or yuzu?