Gba Emulation

[Squidge]

The one I have just says "roms". It has no directory dividers or any hint about where thats at. I had thought that was simply the title of the list, not naming the dir that its in. Since I already have them in /roms I assume

It's relative to the current directory. So "roms" would be the roms inside the directory the executable is in. If this isn't good for you, then change the settings so it uses the other directory (/roms/snes i believe)

 

[pkostrze]

I have played about 25 GBA games on that emulator and not a single one is even playable.

Yes I agree its almost up to par with snes emulation, which isnt saying much. I have yet to get a snes game that does better than an average 20-35 (oh sure it gets 50+ when the screen is black lol), its like taking your favorite CD, rubbing some sand paper on the bottom and then trying to listen to it.

If thats your thing, cool, but when I listen to a CD, I want to 'enjoy' it, not 'deal with' it.

Even though I like SNES and GBA better then the rest, I find myself playing Genesis games more often now because I get domn near perfect emulation

I'm not sure what emulator you're using or what your settings are but that's more than a little harsh. GBA emu on the latest GPSP is not "just playable" but comfortably playable. Can you post your list of unplayable games?

As for SNES... PocketSNES, at least on my unit, plays as well as an actual SNES IMHO. I think I may have had a problem with Star Ocean but that's an odd one as far as I'm concerned. I don't think SNES is that far off the level of Genesis/Megadrive any more.

 

[Dunny]

Be that as it may, to anyone saying that it can't get any better, I do believe that in theory renderer speed for GBA (and SNES) can be improved substantially for a majority of games (but not all). So you should shut up and be patient (talking to you, Dunny )

Hehe

I originally got hold of my GP2X to replace my unfortunately knackered GBA-SP, upon which my most played game was the Sega Arcade Gallery, for the rather spiffing implementation of Outrun. Although you are correct in that most ROMs manage 100% emulation speed, all the ones I've tried have skipped frames quite badly. This isn't too much of a problem for games like Minish Cap, but for Outrun it's very, very noticeable. I played it earlier on my new DS, and it's noticeably smoother, even with the 2x clocked up to 290mhz and optimised RAM timings coupled with Notaz's mmuhack. Mind you, the cpu emulation in Outrun doesn't reach anything like 100%, so frames will always skip.

Other games, such as the Sonic platformers, suffer from frame skipping - they really need 60fps. Idle loop elimination helps somewhat, but that strikes me as the kind of trick that's employed when you're really up against the wall hardware-wise.

Having seen some of the tricks you have had to pull to get even this level of playability on the 2x, I can't help but think that this is an emulator that the 2x should leave to the PSP... But then, you no doubt have more tricks up your sleeve for this. Trust me, when this plays the games I like at speeds I accept, I'll be donating (for the second time).

There's other cosmetic issues that grate - the problematic colour palette, the overclocking util that doesn't save the settings properly, menu glitches etc, but they can all wait as they're very much secondary issues.

Don't think that I don't appreciate what you're doing, or what you've done, I just think that (like the PSX emulator) we're likely to have to put this down as one of the emulators that will be better on the next generation of the GP2x.

Maybe I am a little picky, but I'm always willing to be proved wrong, of course ;-)

And I certainly don't harbour any grudges against you or zodttd.

D.

 

[Exophase]

Yes I am in the starting woods, 250mhz, I do not have craigxs ram timings turned on (if they help why are they not default?), I cannot tell with the sound because even at full volume, I can hardly hear it (I havent tried headphones yet)

Though games like Mega Man and bass, are almost unplayable (First level, jumping over the lava, is very choppy...)

I didnt see any controller options on GPSP (maybe I missed them) but I _cannot_ play an action game with the current control scheme (A should do what X does now and X should do what B does now...if I could change these settings life would be better...)

Anyway I have said all that I really need to, anything more and Ill just be repeating myself. I hope that emulation in general gets better for the GP2x. I fear because it got to a certain point on the GP32 and then stopped.

The reason why the RAM timings aren't turned on is because they can be unstable, especially mixed with higher overclocking. There will eventually be some easier options than setting them manually. I'm really surprised you can hardly hear the music, do you play in a loud place?

Judging it based on an area with full blending on like that is a little harsh, afterall not all games have the entire screen alpha blended all the time. Getting by there without frameskip is close to unrealistic. I haven't played Megaman and Bass, but if it's like every other Megaman game for GBA it probably needs idle loop elimination and might not have it (what's the region?)

Yes there are controller options, well given that there's a centering bug I would tend to believe that you're using the latest version, I think you should look harder But why people complain about these settings is completely beyond me when they mirror the GBA layout. Although I've had people insist to me that they don't... Maybe because GP2X and PSP have more of a diagonal orientation, I guess that's one area where the more diamond Sony/GP2X design loses.

 

[PokeParadox]

The LCD Slider plays an important part in this question of jumpiness. At one point I had very stuttery looking MegaDrive emulation... after about an hour of tweaking the LCD slider I have something that looks like the 60Hz refresh.

I applaud Notaz for taking steps to see what can be done with LCD timings, with such settings as "perfect refresh" mode in GPFCE.

Anyway Super Mario World should be pretty damn close to full speed with little or no overclocking on DrPocketSNES or the latest SquidgeSNES. If it's still skipping and stuttering then I think the LCD needs firther tweaking

 

[RockOut]

I personally thought that the lcd slider only had to do with correcting the problem with incorrect rendering on the MK1...

Anyway, so the concensus is to use Squidesnes? I have tried NKSNES, Drpocketsnes, and squidesnes, and I have been using the DR partially because it has a much simpler interface. However, if Squidgesnes is that much better, I might have to go with it.

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

But why people complain about these settings is completely beyond me when they mirror the GBA layout. Although I've had people insist to me that they don't... Maybe because GP2X and PSP have more of a diagonal orientation, I guess that's one area where the more diamond Sony/GP2X design loses.

Because your right hand, your thumb points from South to West, the way you have the control layout is South to East. Very awkward. Just rotate the controls around 1 spot and it makes everything much easier.

I'm really surprised you can hardly hear the music, do you play in a loud place?................

Not really, just in my living room with nothing else going on, sometimes when its really really quiet (like 3 AM) I can hear it really loud, almost too loud (although some emulated games seem much quieter..) but if its not absolutely dead silent, the GP2x (at least in emus, I don't know about much else) cant be heard...

 

[DaveC]

I disagree, that is not the common useage of fullspeed and you know it.

My understanding of this says that GPSP is not *fullspeed emulation* but the games can run full speed. Fullspeed emulation would be the emu running the game at the GBA speed, rendering as many frames as a GBA and having full non-skipping sound. GPSp doesn't do this on the GP2X, it is not fullspeed emulation.

It can however run games fullspeed (at the speed of the original) it is just that you have to skip frames to do it. So it can run games at fullspeed but is not fullspeed emulation.

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

I agree, but when people read "Fullspeed" it becomes all encompassing, because the author of said post commits a lie of omission.

If you made a PS2 emulator for the GP2X, and said "Its full speed it just has to skip 59 frames per second" do you think anyone will actually believe that its "Fullspeed"? No. Because they do not use that definition of full speed. The only ones really that use that version of the full speed definition are the emulator authors and their yes men.

If you then advertised your emulator at being a full speed PS2 emulator for the GP2X, you would be lying. It may keep the game in sync, but that doesnt make it full speed, at all.

The speed of the emulator, as common useage is the whole combined speed, not one minor portion of it.

Do any of these yes men say

"Its full speed syncing, but %30-%50 speed emulation" ? No, they never do. They candy coat it.

Personally, I dont really care that its not full speed, I got my GP2X for homebrew and development. I just hate it when people lie and candy coat emulation speed.

 

[Racemaniac]

I disagree, that is not the common useage of fullspeed and you know it.

are you serious? with full speed, i just think of the speed, and nothing else, haven't we also had discussions about emus where they were saying 'game x runs full speed with fs0, game y runs full speed with fs2, game z runes 90% speed with fs1, etc....
like just about everybody else, i think that full speed, as the name suggests, reflects speed and nothing but speed, it says nothing about the accuracy of the emulation/drawing/whatever, just that the speed is correct...

 

[Exophase]

I agree, but when people read "Fullspeed" it becomes all encompassing, because the author of said post commits a lie of omission.

If you made a PS2 emulator for the GP2X, and said "Its full speed it just has to skip 59 frames per second" do you think anyone will actually believe that its "Fullspeed"? No. Because they do not use that definition of full speed. The only ones really that use that version of the full speed definition are the emulator authors and their yes men.

If you then advertised your emulator at being a full speed PS2 emulator for the GP2X, you would be lying. It may keep the game in sync, but that doesnt make it full speed, at all.

The speed of the emulator, as common useage is the whole combined speed, not one minor portion of it.

Do any of these yes men say

"Its full speed syncing, but %30-%50 speed emulation" ? No, they never do. They candy coat it.

Personally, I dont really care that its not full speed, I got my GP2X for homebrew and development. I just hate it when people lie and candy coat emulation speed.



You know, it's very abrasive of you to take a semantic argument (which you're actually not in the majority of supporting) and extend it to calling people liars. No one says something is "30-50% speed emulation" when it is "full speed synching" because it isn't - skipping frames doesn't say anything about the speed of emulation, at all. You can't blame other people because of your incorrect usage of a term and expectation for everyone else to follow suit. And saying that an emulator that runs at native speed but drops over half its frames is running at "50% speed emulation" would in fact be a gross inaccuracy and would very much mislead people, because virtually all people will find fs1 much, much more playable than 50% game speed without frameskip. But it's really annoying because you seem to have the common (incorrect) mentality that skipping frames results in multiplying the overall speed, only you apply it in reverse.

And your PS2 example is kinda silly too, I understand that you're just using it to make a point, but actually running a PS2 emulator fullspeed on GP2X while rendering only one frame per second would be a vastly impossible feat. This kind of reasoning simply doesn't apply because no consoles have that much of a gap between video power and everything else, and because the law of diminishing returns applies sharply to frameskip. Anything beyond fs4-5 or so is usually pointless, for anything worth emulating.

And DaveC, no offense, but your definitions are even more arbitrary - am I to understand that "fullspeed" is a fitting description but "fullspeed emulation" isn't? So the word emulation qualifies that no frames are skipped? I'm completely lost now. Why don't you all just spend a little bit more on the extra words necessary to describe something.

 

[Orkie]

Why don't you all just spend a little bit more on the extra words necessary to describe something.

Or even better, just drop it and admit Exophase is right .

 

[dsraa]

Guys I must say, after playing the latest version of GPSP and Minish Cap, I find it completely playable. I DO NOT FIND ANY LARGE GAPS OF ANIMATION! I also tried it with metroid, and found that to be completely playable as well.

Does it skip, slightly, BUT it does play very well compared to the earlier versions, and I am loving the experience that I get out of this *EMULATOR*. Which is what you all must realize that its an emulator. If you truly cannot play these games and enjoy them this way, then go and buy a GBA.

I'm loving it.


DSR

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

Exophase couldnt be more wrong. But he is an emu author, as such is blinded by the need to defend himself when under attack. As I would be in the same situation. So arguing this point is fruitless, but hopefully if someone chimes in occasionally in Emu topics to say that its not full speed at all, then those browsing, possibly to buy a GP2x for emulation, will at least see a few people willing to admit the truth so thoy can know what they are really getting into.

Yes, I know its an emulator, and is difficult to get even to the point it already is, kudos to the authors that have manged it thus far, but that doesnt mean you have to candy coat it.

Anyway, Im done in this topic, its unsubscribed, so if you want to say something to me, email or pm it.

 

[dsraa]

But why people complain about these settings is completely beyond me when they mirror the GBA layout. Although I've had people insist to me that they don't... Maybe because GP2X and PSP have more of a diagonal orientation, I guess that's one area where the more diamond Sony/GP2X design loses.

Because your right hand, your thumb points from South to West, the way you have the control layout is South to East. Very awkward. Just rotate the controls around 1 spot and it makes everything much easier.

I'm really surprised you can hardly hear the music, do you play in a loud place?................

Not really, just in my living room with nothing else going on, sometimes when its really really quiet (like 3 AM) I can hear it really loud, almost too loud (although some emulated games seem much quieter..) but if its not absolutely dead silent, the GP2x (at least in emus, I don't know about much else) cant be heard...



You can't be serious??

I play Minish Cap, in the same room as my GF watching TV, and I can hear it fine, plus she can also hear it as well, and tell me to turn it down many times.

So simply if its not loud enough....hit the volume+ key a bunch. The volume works quite well also, and gets quite loud.

 

[Exophase]

Exophase couldnt be more wrong. But he is an emu author, as such is blinded by the need to defend himself when under attack. As I would be in the same situation. So arguing this point is fruitless, but hopefully if someone chimes in occasionally in Emu topics to say that its not full speed at all, then those browsing, possibly to buy a GP2x for emulation, will at least see a few people willing to admit the truth so thoy can know what they are really getting into.

Yes, I know its an emulator, and is difficult to get even to the point it already is, kudos to the authors that have manged it thus far, but that doesnt mean you have to candy coat it.

Anyway, Im done in this topic, its unsubscribed, so if you want to say something to me, email or pm it.

You're just bitter because you didn't get what you expected. This doesn't have anything to do with me being an emu author, and if I was satisfied with gpSP's performance I wouldn't be putting so much energy into optimizing it. Maybe I'm blinded by the need to defend myself under attack in any situation, when the attack is unwarranted. I've never candy coated anything about gpSP, I'm very upfront with what it does and doesn't do, and I would hold the same arguments with any other emulator (and by extension, do).

Anyone who knows anything about emulators (which will be basically all of GP2X's user base) will know that it's customary to implement frameskipping on 2D platforms. If they can't find the numerous references to how much frameskip an emulator typically does then they should ask. Face it, a number of people are much more concerned with getting correct speed because unlike you they care about accurate music and gameplay timing more than seeing all of the video. It's important for there to be an indication for whether or not the emulator can achieve accurate gameplay timing. Making "fullspeed" mean "no frameskip" is not only illogical, because the name has nothing to do with accuracy, but it sets the bar way too high and calling an emulator that's fullspeed while rendering like 90% of the frames "not fullspeed" will cause people to refuse to play it, people who would be fine with the skipping.

 

[Rivroner]

I love GBA emulator Thank you very much to Zodttd and to Exo

 

[Racemaniac]

Exophase couldnt be more wrong. But he is an emu author, as such is blinded by the need to defend himself when under attack. As I would be in the same situation. So arguing this point is fruitless, but hopefully if someone chimes in occasionally in Emu topics to say that its not full speed at all, then those browsing, possibly to buy a GP2x for emulation, will at least see a few people willing to admit the truth so thoy can know what they are really getting into.

Yes, I know its an emulator, and is difficult to get even to the point it already is, kudos to the authors that have manged it thus far, but that doesnt mean you have to candy coat it.

Anyway, Im done in this topic, its unsubscribed, so if you want to say something to me, email or pm it.

come on, seriously... i've never heard the term fullspeed used in your developer interpretation, if only for the fact that it'd confuse 90% of the people using emus and them getting totaly confused about the terms, and needing too much knowledge to understand a simple term like that -_-
fullspeed says the emu runs the game at the original speed, and that's it. wether framers are skipped, or the sound is inaccurate, or whatever, doesn't matter one bit, speed=speed, and not 100% correct functionality.

it's funny to see you so stubborn about this, but like most people here, i think you're wrong... if only for the fact that when discussing how games run on the emus, people have so often said that something runs fullspeed at frameskip 1, so that IS the common usage of the term, indicating the speed at which it runs, and only the speed...

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

First, please do not PM me to say "I responded to you in the topic" that I said I didnt want to continue in.

Second
QUOTE
You can't be serious??

I play Minish Cap, in the same room as my GF watching TV, and I can hear it fine, plus she can also hear it as well, and tell me to turn it down many times.

So simply if its not loud enough....hit the volume+ key a bunch. The volume works quite well also, and gets quite loud.

Very serious, I dont think its emulator specific though (volume is maxed btw), I think its just the system all together, its about as loud as the PSP which isnt saying much. I dont really care though, its not an issue for me, as long as I have a tiny amount of game background noise, Im ok.

QUOTE
You're just bitter because you didn't get what you expected.

Actually I got exactly what I expected, an emu author and some yes men saying that fullspeed doesnt really mean fullspeed. I have had this argument enough times in enough places that I could almost write your replies for you.

"Oh well if I am wrong why havent you countered any of my vaild points?" Im still waiting for those valid points...

Anyway please do not respond to me in a PM to say that you responded to me in topic, I have already stated my case, new users or those looking to get a GP2x, have at least one topic they can read in their search that can answer their questions about whether "fullspeed" is good enough for them. Thats all I wanted.

 

[Exophase]

First, please do not PM me to say "I responded to you in the topic" that I said I didnt want to continue in.

Then don't say "PM me if you want to resume" and even better, don't respond here again?

Second
Very serious, I dont think its emulator specific though (volume is maxed btw), I think its just the system all together, its about as loud as the PSP which isnt saying much. I dont really care though, its not an issue for me, as long as I have a tiny amount of game background noise, Im ok.

I think you're hard of hearing.

Actually I got exactly what I expected, an emu author and some yes men saying that fullspeed doesnt really mean fullspeed. I have had this argument enough times in enough places that I could almost write your replies for you.

That isn't what I meant at all. Let me try this again:

You're just bitter because you didn't get what you expected when you saw people claiming something was fullspeed. You expected emulators that don't frameskip.

Im still waiting for those valid points...

As are many from you, I'm sure.

Anyway please do not respond to me in a PM to say that you responded to me in topic

I wrote in this topic so other people could see then told you as well as an afterthought. You didn't have to look at it and you certainly didn't have to respond again, so don't bother putting this on me. Actually, if you didn't broadcast that you weren't posting in a topic anymore I wouldn't have bothered telling you, or PMing you. I think we all realize that saying such a thing is just a childish way of getting the last word in an argument you refuse to back down from at all, while having the gall to call someone else "completely wrong."

I have already stated my case, new users or those looking to get a GP2x, have at least one topic they can read in their search that can answer their questions about whether "fullspeed" is good enough for them. Thats all I wanted.

If I were a new user I wouldn't take you seriously at all given how hostile and antagonistic you've been about this (not to mention the less than supportive general response you've gotten, but of course a new user should realize these people are all just biased "yes men" I'm sure)