Emulation central - recommendations in 1st post

[Viata]

From Nintendo's SNES emulator:

 

[Puukko]

Interesting, SMT/HT(?) seems to be harmful for some games while necessary for others. Might be worth investigating once I find a game I actually plan to play and not just test, and want extra performance.

 

[Duraframe300]

If you ever wanted ~4500 fps in a gba emulator your wishes have been fullfilled.

 

[Viata]

Not what I wanted, but then again, you never know when you need that.

 

[spekkio]

These are great days we're living, BROs.

PC-emufags playing current-gen games even before the official premiere. While dirty console peasants patiently wait for their turn.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

How on earth did I not remember this thread? Muddling my way through emulation. I was going to ask which of the japanese lines of computers were the powerhouse of their time:
https://www.sega-16.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-28632.html

Seeking the best possible version of Starcraft versions of popular games. It becomes confusing
NEC-pc88
Nec-pc98
F7
FM-town
Sharp x1
Sharp 68000
Msx
Msx2
Etc

 

[Viata]

Many of them have a lot of jp-only games(NEC and FM-Town, for example), others have a lot translated(MSX 1 and 2), some have not that many good games (Sharp x1 and 68k). I guess it depends on what you want to play.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, there was some testing.

I've decided to test Fire Emblem - Fates (SA), and its HQ Texture Pack + some mods.

But let's start with vanilla game (Native Internal Res + no texture pack):

:notbadnotterrible:

1) First thing that I've tested was Fates Icon Project. It's a romfs mod, which replaces "old" icons with new ones. There are two variants: "Regular" (no background) and "Background" (the old approach).
You can see what's what on the screens below (weapons icons).

a) Regular:

b) Background:

2) Second thing tested was the Fates Ghosting Shader Fix. This is a cheat code / ips patch, which fixes ghosting effect on non-native resolutions. So at 4x internal, this:

Becomes this:

3) And this shit is essential when using the HQ Texture Pack. Which looks FUCKING GLORIOUS.

As you can see, the author wouldn't be a real modder, without adding some weird shit. In case of this pack, the usual modding-autism manifested itself as Playstation button prompts, and (to add insult to injury) - inverted. So A is 'cross', B is 'circle', X is 'square' and Y is "triangle". Why? Because that's how the author rolls.

Fortunately, you can fix this by modifying a single texture:

tex1_512x256_E6F746B2E422F774_13.png

Just swap positions of required icons (or make A B X Y ones in Photoshop) and replace the texture in the "load/textures" folder. That's what I did to get the effect shown on screens above ('cross' to go back - in the vanilla texture it was 'circle').

Anyway, the author of the pack can be excused for his autism, 'cuz the pack itself looks DOPE in action:

As you can see, the only problem are pixelated units, but we have to just deal with it I guess (good luck with AI-resizing anything animated - had same problem with Strange Journey)...

Another potential problem: the pack is compatible only with the EU version of the game. Tried on US rom and some textures were missing (and thus LQ).

And that concludes testing for today.

AFAIK there's no pack for Awakening (which supposedly sucks anyway), and pack for Echoes is in a heavy WIP state ATM.

Anyway, I can play this game with original voices (undub) + JAP-only restored content (swimsuits) + 6GB of HQ Textures + 1600x960 internal resolution + some mods + quicksaves. For free.

Beat that with your funny hardware / publishing policy, Nintendo.



#gloriouspcmasterrace

 

[Duraframe300]

As you can see, the author wouldn't be a real modder, without adding some weird shit. In case of this pack, the usual modding-autism manifested itself as Playstation button prompts, and (to add insult to injury) - inverted. So A is 'cross', B is 'circle', X is 'square' and Y is "triangle". Why? Because that's how the author rolls.

Fortunately, you can fix this by modifying a single texture:

tex1_512x256_E6F746B2E422F774_13.png

Just swap positions of required icons (or make A B X Y ones in Photoshop) and replace the texture in the "load/textures" folder. That's what I did to get the effect shown on screens above ('cross' to go back - in the vanilla texture it was 'circle').

I'd disagree.

That's absolutely correct, from a playstation gamepad perspective. So, I can see why he did it, and honestly rethinking the controls to the convention of the target controller/gamepad is the right approach. Otherwise you just have Nintendo/Switch controls on a dualshock gamepad, which feels wrong.

(Assuming here that's what he did)

That said: Obviously these should be optional textures, not main ones.

 

[Puukko]

Funny how Fates gets the most attention when it's the series black sheep.

 

[LJ40]

That's absolutely correct, from a playstation gamepad perspective.

Wouldn't that only be correct compared to a Microsoft/Xbox pad? Compared to Nintendo it's A = Circle, B = Cross, X = Triangle, and Y = Square.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

How many pixels in the units?

 

[Duraframe300]

That's absolutely correct, from a playstation gamepad perspective.

Wouldn't that only be correct compared to a Microsoft/Xbox pad? Compared to Nintendo it's A = Circle, B = Cross, X = Triangle, and Y = Square.

? Yes and no. It applies to both.

I'm talking about actual functionality here though, not the direct translation (As spekkio pointed out its inverted after all). With the biggest crux (as always) which button confirm and which cancel is. And for both Playstation in the west (as of a year ago even worldwide) and XBOX that's opposite of Nintendo. Cross is functionally A and Circle is functionally B.

Edit: So, that's why I can see why the modder did it (though imo he should have left X and Y well enough alone.)

 

[spekkio]

Yeah, just to clarify for normal people people who could be lost... :D

1) 3DS (aka Nintendo's) button layout:

Game uses:

A - Confirm
B - Return / Cancel
X - Show range
Y - Change weapon

2) Playstation button layout:

And since the author seems to be using swapped settings in "controls" of the emu for A/B & X/Y, he went with:

Circle - cancel
Cross - accept

These are indeed default values used by Sony, at least in the West... But what the fuck.

Triangle - change weapon
Square - show range

I don't mind this change, because I have Citra configured as that (which reflects X-bawks layout):

But again - what the fuck. Both these things should be optional.

Modders gonna mod I gues...

 

[spekkio]

BROs, just to show my love to all my emuBROs.

1) Use the default texture from the mod (both A/B & X/Y swapped), you'll get this:

2) Use my personalized texture (A/B not swapped, X/Y swapped):

https://imgur.com/tbZGOhP

Get this:

3) Use this, just recently made by slihtlgy drunk (not really) me, texture - nothing swapped:

https://imgur.com/VjCEzss

Get this:

This is the "default" layout, so all DualShock buttons properly correspond to Nintendo buttons.

#hackerman

 

[Duraframe300]

But what the fuck.

Is what I'm feeling when I look at your screenshots and see the Cross Button as cancel/back.



Why don't you switch to the original switch textures (there should be some HD buttons around I'm assuming) or a personal xbawxs layout, btw?
(Since I assume that's the gamepad you're using?)

 

[spekkio]

^
You mean "original 3DS textures"? These would be pixelated AF on 4x Internal.
OK, I got it after your edit.

I think if somebody could AI-Enhance the original texture (to 2048x1024):

tex1_512x256_E6F746B2E422F774_13.png

It would be perfect (original Ninny prompts).

WTF is what I'm feeling when I look at your screenshots and see the Cross Button as cancel/back.

That's how I roll, mang. All these Snes / GBA Fire Emblems has imprinted this "X = cancel, O = accept" thing into my mind. So when I switch to some PS1 / PS2 game I'm like "what the fuck, X = accept, O = cancel now???" for couple minutes.

Since I assume that's the gamepad you're using?

Dual Shock 2 + USB adapter since like 2004. I also have Logitech F710 as second controller (uses Xbawks layout).

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Seeking the best possible version of Starcraft versions of popular games. It becomes confusing
NEC-pc88
Nec-pc98
F7
FM-town
Sharp x1
Sharp 68000
Msx
Msx2
Etc

The thing to know about Japanese computers is that with the exception of the 68000 and the FM Towns, every single one of them started production in 1982 or before. That means that generally speaking, those two are better than the rest. The FM Towns uses CDs, so its the best generally. The Sharp 68000 is better than the rest except the PC-98 in some cases. As to the rest, well, I have incomplete knowledge. A good chunk of games released on multiple Japanese computer systems have an incomplete set of rips, so we can't really compare them properly. Starcraft for instance, well I haven't touched their ports of RPGs yet, but I have looked at some of the ports of Scott Adams adventure games, and while I think we have every game they did, we have an incomplete selection over every system. (also, these titles are expensive, so don't expect more rips anytime soon) I can't confirm this, but at least one game promises to work with both the PC-88 and the PC-98.
That said, you're should probably look at some ports of arcade titles to these systems. You won't have to deal with the language barrier before going towards the titles you really want to check out. And remember, whenever you insert a game disk or something, check restarting the system with that disk in. That seems to be a pretty standard way to run games on these systems, at least, that's what I've noticed with the FM-7, PC-88 and X1. The MSX, PC-6001 and generally tapes work more like traditional computers from that time.

 

[Viata]

But there is no O in SNES and GBA.

 

[spekkio]

BRO, it looks like you're not thinking in portals...

Plus:

You're correct about GBA, but its simplified button layout was just showing how awesome the hardware was. You needed only two (actually 4) buttons for everything awesome to happen.

 

[Duraframe300]

^
You mean "original 3DS textures"? These would be pixelated AF on 4x Internal.
OK, I got it after your edit.

I think if somebody could AI-Enhance the original texture (to 2048x1024):
.

This is a very quick and shitty job, so feel free to ignore it

Spoiler

 

[spekkio]

I think we would need somebody slightly more competent for this job...

Puukko

 

[spekkio]

Funny thing is, it doesn't look THAT bad ingame:

#nailedit

 

[Puukko]

I think we would need somebody slightly more competent for this job...

Puukko

UI elements with text... very tricky.

How's this?

4x_-UniScale_Restore_1x_ArtClarity

 

[spekkio]

^
Better than Duraframes' attempt, that's for sure. But I think it should've been created from the scratch to look good. The author of the pack wrote:

Tools used: Adobe Photoshop, waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan-GUI and Gigapixel AI

But also:

- made an HD font
- cleaned up UI and icons

And it's clear that most of this:

Is handmade.