Emulation central - recommendations in 1st post

[v1rus]

What would you bros say, which are hidden/forgotten PSX games? Decided to finish up my collection.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

What would you bros say, which are hidden/forgotten PSX games? Decided to finish up my collection.

Exclusives, or in general?
Hellnight
King's Field
Tecmo's Deception? (no idea if that's in the hidden category or not)

 

[Puukko]

playing it on Xenia at native res would be the way to go, but I'm not in that much of a hurry.

Weird decision considering you went through the trouble of setting up RPCS3, which is not something the average user can just guess his way through. Xenia is beyond retard-friendly (File->Open) and portable too. I finished RDR + Undead DLC a few days ago, perfect performance (+ some fast-forward headroom), bugfree, on a computer slightly less powerful than yours. Don't give up and go for it.

Wait, which emulator did you play it on and at what settings? As I understand it Xenia is the only one that offers playable framerates but only at native res, bumping it up to 2x makes it eat resources like no tomorrow. I've put up with sub par performance with games I've really wanted to play, but I absolutely can't go back to 720p.

I don't think RPCS3 is particularly complicated. Then again, I'm reminded of when I played Peesona 5 and had to manually start and stop threads until it would boot. It was like working with a moody old car that takes a bit of magic to get running every time.

 

[Duraframe300]

I've put up with subpar performance with games I've really wanted to play, but I absolutely can't go back to 720p.

That's fair enough. Of course it doesn't look as sharp as a native 1080p game, but if you're on a retro-friendly forum like the Codex I wonder if it's going to be the hard wall you expect. Xenia is so easy to use that you ought to at least run the first few minutes and see if it actually bothers you so much.

That's not to say you can't improve it. Incidentally it's Xenia that finally pushed me to get a 1440p monitor because of how crisp everything is in the 720p window. Integer scaling is an underappreciated miracle, fullscreen did look significantly better than on my 1080p monitor.

I'm also the kind of people who use Reshade on everything. A sharpening filter on PS3-era textures easily makes them jump a generation or two, and with SMAA the end result was largely clean enough.

Edit: wait, I'm stupid, your screenshot is in 1440p. If you already have a 1440p monitor you definitely ought to try.

First two paragraphs: Hummm, okay I can see your point. Also Integer scaling rocks, true.

Then

I've put up with subpar performance with games I've really wanted to play, but I absolutely can't go back to 720p.

I'm also the kind of people who use Reshade on everything.

That you choose to ruin the picture post-Integer scaling just makes the whole thing worse.

 

[Puukko]

In all fairness RDR was released right in the middle of that ugly brown period, my screenshot is with Reshade as well. You definitely want to touch up games from that period if you can.

 

[Puukko]

Heads up, the save data altering update to ryujinx went live again. Last time it was pulled due to reports of fucked saves. I would assume they've fixed it, but backup just in case.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

 

[Puukko]

I had never heard of this and according to GBAtemp it's using stolen code which seems to be the theme with these Android emulators. Chinese to boot.

Still, from a technical standpoint that is impressive. I've got an SD 865/8GB phone which seems just about capable but I've got intention of running such suspicious software on it.

 

[flyingjohn]

Downloaded fresh pcsx2 cvn,can't start because of a bunch or errors about missing dll.
I guess pcsx2 for windows 7 is over.
Can anybody try running new pcsx2 builds on windows 7?
Edit:Anybody have a somewhat final version of 1.6
Found it,the last version before they fucked up windows 7 support with two exe bullshit:
https://www.emucr.com/2021/06/pcsx2-git-20210630.html

 

[Don Peste]

Quick question, can you use custom shaders on Duckstation (Android)? I see there's a "shaders" folder, but no idea how this works.

 

[deuxhero]

Is there a modern set of instructions for PrimeHack? All I can find are years old or literally over half an hour long.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I recommend playing Metroid Prime 1 and 2 with a regular controller pad. The game was designed with it in mind, and the clunkiness adds to the atmosphere.

 

[deuxhero]

Already played them, just want keyboard and mouse for replay.

I've since figured it out. The instructions are on the wiki section of primehack's git (as opposed to a readme). You'll also want to check Immediately Present XFB in the graphics, use Vulkan as the renderer, and add a blank portable.txt file to primehack's directory (to keep its settings distinct from mainline Dolphin's)

edit: Prime 1 is way shorter than I remember it being. Got the Thermal Visor and saved, load screen shows 28% in 3.5 hours. I remember the artifact quest at the end is blatant padding making you walk back and forth everywhere, but I wonder if I'll even need 20 hours for this.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, some good news for the DOSfags (assuming there are still some of them left alive?).

I've got an itch for some space combat and decided to check TIE Fighter Collector's CD-ROM on Win10. It's a real bitch to set up properly (not really), but it works damn fine.

1) Daum's DOSBox (adds quicksaves, MT-32 emulation, Direct3D output, Glide support and more - go with the build from 26.01.2014 beacuse it's the last good one) works great. Maybe except the output window, which is p. small in "pure dos":

It looks like on Win10 window mode requires you to "force" the scalers:

But this will also make everything "pixelated":

So it's best to just stick to Normal 2x / 3x / 4x (not forced) scalers and use full screen (alt+tab). Glorious 640x480 like God intended:

I've tested different Outputs, and all of them work p. much the same (scalers won't work in windowed mode, until forced).

Anyway, game looks like this on Nvidia GPU, 1920x1080 resolution, scaling set to "aspect ratio" + "perform scaling on GPU":

With these DosBox settings:

fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface

And following scalers:

a) Normal 2x

Output is 640x480, so in full screen I get slightly blurry graphics (which I like) + black bars not only up & down (visible on screenshot), but also left & right.

b) Normal 3x

Output is 1176x664, graphics in full screen are more "crisp & pixelated", black bars still visible (up/down & left/right).

c) Normal 4x

Output is now 1280x800, graphics are even more "crisp", no black bars up/down finally (graphics fill the entire screen, except left/right area OFC - 4:3 aspect ratio).

When you go 3D, VESA kicks in, so it's glorious 640x480, no matter what scaler you choose:

And that's all when it comes to "emulating the game". But there's more.

Since my trusty DualShock 2 is a little bit loose after all these years (TBH it's probably looser than Lana Rhoades' anus), without adding some deadzone (and sadly I can't do it via gamepad drivers) my poor spacecraft is drifting a bit.



So I had to crank this shit up by creating a virtual joystick using vJoy + UJR:

OFC you need:

joysticktype=4axis_2

in dosbox.conf to use "virtual" joystick (#2) instead of real gamepad (#1).

And since I really love the "auto-release" option of RB-Joy (button gets pressed only once, even if you keep it pressed, which is different than how "real" keyboard works - sends continuous input), instead of using DosBox's input mapper to map gamepad buttons / axes as keyboard inputs:

I've mapped all the shit I wanted via RB-Joy (aka program with probably the worst UI ever):

Last version is from 2007, works like a charm on Win10 (except shitty scaling OFC) and still beats Joy2Key when it comes to functionality.

My gamepad mapping for TIE Fighter:

left analog stick: analog joystick (ship's direction) [DosBox input]
triangle: x (firing settings)
square: w (weapon settings)
circle: (roll) [DosBox input]
cross: (fire) [DosBox input]
L1: r (target nearest enemy)
L2: y (previous target)
L3: i (toggle target boxes)
R1: s (shield settings)
R2: t (next target)
R3: enter (match speed of target)
Select: shift+a (assign target to wingmen)
Start: p (pause)
d-pad up: ' (select next component)
d-pad down: . (cockpit on/off)
d-pad left: f9 (laser recharge rate)
d-pad right: f10 (shield recharge rate)
right a-stick up: ; (shield energy to lasers)
right a-stick down: ' (laser energy to shields)
right a-stick left: - (decrease throttle)
right a-stick right: + (increase throttle)

So, all 16 buttons and 4 axes used. Can you beat that, joystick-fags?

Still, I have to use 4 "emulators" simultaneously to play one old game...



More autism (+ info on all these programs) here.

Now you can go back to posting news about Yuzu & Ryujinx.

Spoiler

newfags

 

[flyingjohn]

Daum's DOSBox (adds quicksaves, MT-32 emulation, Direct3D output, Glide support and more - go with the build from 26.01.2014

You mean DOSBox SVN Daum 20140125?
Also,hasn't daum svn been dead for years?
Everybody nowadays seems to be using dosbox-x or staging.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've been resisting moving on from Daum for ages, but this year I've finally moved on to Dosbox-X. It's not as convenient (still have to do more .ini tweaking than Daum, which has more direct options togglable via GUI), but it's better. The MT-32 emulation especially is significantly better (I guess they never stopped perfecting MUNT). It also has pixel-perfect scaling via OpenGL, if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[spekkio]

Ohshit I see Dosbox-X finally has quicksaves. Maybe it's indeed time to migrate to it.

Well, nothing like a nice cup of testing.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Out of curiosity, did the game already detect the controller originally? I've had this weird issue over the years where I want to use my joystick with a flight or space sim, and while it connects to the computer fine, it makes DOSbox lose its damn mind some way or another. Its been consistent across every system I've used for some bizarre reason.

 

[spekkio]

Out of curiosity, did the game already detect the controller originally?

Yup. As always.

I've had this weird issue over the years where I want to use my joystick with a flight or space sim, and while it connects to the computer fine, it makes DOSbox lose its damn mind some way or another. Its been consistent across every system I've used for some bizarre reason.

If you're talking about the same joystick, then maybe DosBox hates it for some reason. Maybe try some other setting in dosbox.conf, like "fcs" or "ch":

# joysticktype: Type of joystick to emulate: auto (default), none,
#               2axis (supports two joysticks),
#               4axis (supports one joystick, first joystick used),
#               4axis_2 (supports one joystick, second joystick used),
#               fcs (Thrustmaster), ch (CH Flightstick).
#               none disables joystick emulation.
#               auto chooses emulation depending on real joystick(s).
#               (Remember to reset dosbox's mapperfile if you saved it earlier)
#               Possible values: auto, 2axis, 4axis, 4axis_2, fcs, ch, none.

 

[Latro]

In other news, Japan has released a report on foreigner deaths in their country that confirms Byuu hoaxed his suicide (it was 0, lol)

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

If you're talking about the same joystick, then maybe DosBox hates it for some reason. Maybe try some other setting in dosbox.conf, like "fcs" or "ch":

I've had a couple over the years, but the last time I tried the one I currently have, it was always moving, like it had no deadzone. Curiously, I checked just now and its solved...I just need to manually have DOSbox register each axis as a joystick one. Weird. Did it always have that functionality and I've just now noticed it or is it new?

 

[flyingjohn]

For anybody owning a significant non gdi dreamcast collection here is a nifty tool to convert bin/cue to gdi:
https://github.com/feyris-tan/gdidrop
This is useful because demul only reads gdi if you aren't mounting files.A least in my experience.

 

[flyingjohn]

Speaking of cue files can anybody recommend a good cue mounting software?
Windcemu does not comply and most other options are bundle ware like daemon tools.

 

[spekkio]

^
If you need CD-Audio emulation, AFAIK only Daemon Tools can do this. I've tested couple "replacements" for DT when playing Langrisser PC and had to go back to DT for CD Audio.

Just stick to reasonably old version, DAEMON Tools Lite 4.49.1 (from 2014) worked fine on Win7.

 

[Derringer]

The few disc imaging tools with CCDA audio support are older Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120% versions.