The Emulation Thread

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: The Emulation Thread

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Calavera
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Re: The Emulation Thread

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The Ridge Racer Type 4 thumbnail for that video reminds me of the old Bleem! box. Show a real screengrab and get your butt sued off by Sony!
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Re: The Emulation Thread

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I love all the stuff Retroarch is doing, but I hate using it because it has to be one of the most convoluted emulators out there. Nothing is easy when using it, and I spend more time figuring out how to enable the cool shit they put into it than I do actually playing anything. The Retroarch team needs to join forces with the EmulationStation team and make something as groundbreaking and simple.

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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melancholy wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:11 pm I love all the stuff Retroarch is doing, but I hate using it because it has to be one of the most convoluted emulators out there. Nothing is easy when using it, and I spend more time figuring out how to enable the cool shit they put into it than I do actually playing anything. The Retroarch team needs to join forces with the EmulationStation team and make something as groundbreaking and simple.
Who would've thought that the Playstation 3 system interface wouldn't be the best option for an advanced emulation frontend packed with hundreds of options. :olol:

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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pixel wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 2:55 pm
melancholy wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:11 pm I love all the stuff Retroarch is doing, but I hate using it because it has to be one of the most convoluted emulators out there. Nothing is easy when using it, and I spend more time figuring out how to enable the cool shit they put into it than I do actually playing anything. The Retroarch team needs to join forces with the EmulationStation team and make something as groundbreaking and simple.
Who would've thought that the Playstation 3 system interface paired wouldn't be the best option for an advanced emulation frontend packed with hundreds of options. :olol:
And those hundreds of options do nothing to help the average person understand their effects. Take this last video Zoidberg posted. What normal person trying to play some Mario on their PC is going to know that Dynarec GPU Event Cycles basically means overclocking? Not that it matters, since all these options are hidden behind an Advanced menu that’s hidden by default. Most users will never get to see the best features because they won’t even know they exist, and will have trouble configuring them if they find them.

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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Parallel N64 with Parallel RSP dynarec release – fast and accurate N64 emulation is now here!

Hot on the heels of our Beetle PSX dynarec public beta release, here comes another bombshell, this time targeting that other big 5th generation console, the Nintendo 64.

ParaLLel N64 is back with a vengeance, and this time Parallel RSP coupled with Angrylion Plus RDP is the enabling technology for a big performance jump in low-level accurate N64 emulation.

Parallel RSP

We have released today a new version of Parallel N64 for Windows and Linux that adds back the Parallel RSP dynarec. This together with multithreaded Angrylion makes Parallel N64 the fastest LLE N64 emulator by far.

We have also added missing bits and pieces to Parallel RSP that allows for several games to work, such as World Driver Championship, Stunt Racer 64, and Gauntlet Legends. On top of that, we also optimized some parts in Angrylion RDP Plus which resulted in greatly enhanced core/thread utilization on a 16-core Ryzen CPU. It should also similarly scale well downwards.

Just to illustrate how dramatic of a difference all these performance-focused enhancements make: on an underpowered 2012 Core i5 laptop, the following games are capable of being played at fullspeed: Resident Evil 2, Mario Kart 64, 1080 Snowboarding, Doom 64, Quake 64, Mischief Makers, Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh, Bust-A Move 2 Arcade Edition, Kirby 64 – The Crystal Shards, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Forsaken 64, Harvest Moon 64.

A 2012 Core i5 desktop CPU like the Core i5 3570k should be more than capable enough of playing the vast majority of N64 games at fullspeed with Angrylion+Parallel RSP, with only rare exceptions like Star Wars Episode 1 Racer being too much for it.

Dramatically lowering the performance ceiling like this has vast implications for the viability of low-level accurate N64 emulation, and opens the door for more people to enjoy bug-free N64 emulation, previously the preserve of only the most overpowered PCs.

Right now, only Linux and Windows are able to enjoy the benefits of Parallel RSP due to the LLVM dependency. This might solve itself later on, though.

How to get it

On Windows: Just downloaded the latest Parallel N64 core from RetroArch’s Online Updater menu. You can either download it from Core Updater, or you can select ‘Update Installed Cores’ if you already had a prior version of Parallel N64 installed.

On Linux: Download the latest Parallel N64 core from RetroArch’s Online Updater menu. You can either download it from Core Updater, or you can select ‘Update Installed Cores’ if you already had a prior version of Parallel N64 installed.

Source: Libretro

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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melancholy wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 12:54 am
pixel wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 2:55 pm
melancholy wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:11 pm I love all the stuff Retroarch is doing, but I hate using it because it has to be one of the most convoluted emulators out there. Nothing is easy when using it, and I spend more time figuring out how to enable the cool shit they put into it than I do actually playing anything. The Retroarch team needs to join forces with the EmulationStation team and make something as groundbreaking and simple.
Who would've thought that the Playstation 3 system interface paired wouldn't be the best option for an advanced emulation frontend packed with hundreds of options. :olol:
And those hundreds of options do nothing to help the average person understand their effects. Take this last video Zoidberg posted. What normal person trying to play some Mario on their PC is going to know that Dynarec GPU Event Cycles basically means overclocking? Not that it matters, since all these options are hidden behind an Advanced menu that’s hidden by default. Most users will never get to see the best features because they won’t even know they exist, and will have trouble configuring them if they find them.
Come on, now! Doesn't everyone remember their days as a computer science student and learning about dynamic recompilation!?

For how stupidly obtuse Retroarch is these days, older versions were even more convoluted and hard to use. I'd like to know if the typical Retroarch power user enjoys using it, or if everyone just grits their teeth and bares it.

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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Does anybody here use ReDream the Dreamcast emulator? I tried the free version and I like the frontend with box art and how the games immediately boot up with no Dreamcast and Sega boot screens. Is it worth $5. I've still been using NullDC and it works pretty much perfectly for around 90 percent or so of games I want to play. A nice feature that I like about NullDC is the widescreen option for extra geometry. It actually makes the game run in true widescreen. It doesn't work great for all games but the ones it does work on look great. As far as I know only NullDC has this feature. So eh idk.
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Re: The Emulation Thread

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I've only used the free version as well, on Android. It's pretty cool, so I'll probably pay for it eventually.

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pixel
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Re: The Emulation Thread

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I think it's worth the $5 to support the developers, especially since they offer the free version. I also like the fact that it's a one-time donation rather than stringing people with a monthly donation.

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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I bought it. I had like $30 in my Play Wallet from answering Google Surveys so it didn't really cost me anything. It's pretty good and definitely worth the money. I have it on my phone and tablet. It runs fairly well.

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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Calavera wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:07 am Does anybody here use ReDream the Dreamcast emulator?
I like to think we're all still playing on original hardware!!! :rofl:
Still haven't seen emulation (or re-releases or remakes) provide a 100% accurate Crazy Taxi experience.
I've had friends say to me I couldn't pick the difference in a blind test, we've done the test and I picked it within 2 minutes...
Dreamcast with VGA adapter on a nice CRT monitor > any emulation on any type of display you want to say is better.
$20, 20 year old CRT > than 1 year old $2000 monitor....
Have to say, since playing the Shenmue remakes, I simply couldn't go back to the DC versions though :olol:

And when someone says "Saturn emulation is GOOD now" to you, and you break out one of your actual Saturns and game that's "JUST AS GOOD EMULATED"
and the emulator is stuttering and slow, and the game plays perfectly on a saturn... Well, you feel better.. :olol: OH I WAS AN IDIOT FOR PAYING THIS MUCH FOR A GAME??? Well at least I can play the game properly and your fucking tight ass is dealing with 15 FPS slowdowns on a 30 FPS game :rofl: JUST AS GOOD MY ASS!!!
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Re: The Emulation Thread

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ian wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 1:34 am
Calavera wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:07 am Does anybody here use ReDream the Dreamcast emulator?
your fucking tight ass is dealing with 15 FPS slowdowns on a 30 FPS game :rofl: JUST AS GOOD MY ASS!!!
I think you're doing something wrong.



Consider me a tight ass for not wanting to spend $300+ to get a working Saturn on eBay, an upscaler/CRT monitor, and an SD card mod to play four good games, several horrendous PS1 ports, and a sea of unremarkable JRPGs.

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Re: The Emulation Thread

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pixel wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2020 2:50 amfour good games, several horrendous PS1 ports, and a sea of unremarkable JRPGs.
Sure sounds like the Saturn to me! :olol:

But the one saving grace is that Saturn Wipeout was better than PS1 and N64 wipeout.
If I should Die Hard Arcade before I Alan Wake.
PREY the Lords of Lore my Soul Calibur to Take
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Re: The Emulation Thread

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ian wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:50 pm
pixel wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2020 2:50 amfour good games, several horrendous PS1 ports, and a sea of unremarkable JRPGs.
Sure sounds like the Saturn to me! :olol:

But the one saving grace is that Saturn Wipeout was better than PS1 and N64 wipeout.
I forgot Saturn had Wipeout. Why is it better?

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