Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
350 lines (209 loc) · 10.8 KB

emulation.md

File metadata and controls

350 lines (209 loc) · 10.8 KB

Emulation

Description

This guide focuses on general emulation topics.

Note

Parts of this guide may assume that your emulation setup was done using EmuDeck.

Directory

Custom Emulator Configurations

Description

This details on certain configuration options for several emulators.

References

Nintendo GameCube

This process adds in the GameCube boot logo every time we start a game, as well as remove the Dolphin emulator's on-screen messages. This guide assumes you have set up GameCube via EmuDeck.

Add GameCube Boot Logo

  1. Acquire the GameCube BIOS and rename it (if haven't already) to IPL.bin (md5sum: fae2b558ffc344467170520d62177e5c).

  2. Copy the BIOS file to the following directory (assuming our user is deck):

    cp IPL.bin /home/deck/.var/app/org.DolphinEmu.dolphin-emu/data/dolphin-emu/GC/USA/IPL.bin

  3. Launch the Dolphin emulator.

  4. Go to Options > Configuration > GameCube and uncheck the box that says Skip Main Menu.

  5. To avoid stretched images during the boot animation, go to Options > Graphic Settings > Hacks and turn Immediately Present XFB off (default).

Disable On-Screen Messages

  1. Launch the Dolphin emulator.

  2. Go to Options > Configuration > Interface and uncheck the Show On-Screen Display Messages option.

PS2

This process customises some PCSX2 configurations such as adding in the PS2 boot logo every time we start a game and hiding on-screen display messages. This guide assumes you have set up PCSX2 via EmuDeck.

Add PS2 Boot Logo

  1. Launch the PCSX2 emulator.

  2. Go to Settings > BIOS and uncheck the entry that says Fast Boot.

Warning

Doing this will not bypass the BIOS/region check, which means some games may not be able to launch if you're missing a BIOS file or the game's region is incompatible. For these games, you may need to leave the Fast Boot option enabled.

Make Fullscreen

PCSX2 should already launch in fullscreen automatically, but if it does not:

  1. Go to Settings > Interface.

  2. Locate the Game Display section and check the Start Fullscreen option.

Hide OSD Messages

  1. Go to Settings > Graphics.

  2. Navigate to the OSD tab.

  3. Under the On-Screen Display section, uncheck the Show OSD Messages option.

Custom Game Emulation Configurations

Description

This details on certain configuration options or fixes for several games of various emulation systems.

PS3

This details additional configurations that may be required to fix or improve specific games on the RPCS3 emulator.

Demon's Souls

Black screen fix:

  1. Right click the game on RPCS3.

  2. Click Create Custom Game Configuration.

  3. Click the GPU tab.

  4. In the Additional Settings section, select the Write Color Buffers checkbox.

  5. Click Apply, Save custom configuration, and Close.

Nintendo Switch

This details additional configurations that may be required to fix or improve specific games on the Yuzu emulator.

To configure a particular game on Yuzu:

  1. Launch the Yuzu app.

  2. In the Games list/directory on Yuzu, highlight the game we wish to configure.

  3. Right click on the highlighted game and select Properties.

In the Properties window, several tabs and settings can be found and configured on a per-game basis.

Pikmin 4

Pikmin 4 has some graphical glitches when exploring the underground/burrow (at the time of writing, yuzu 1524). This can be fixed by configuring the graphical accuracy level:

  1. In the Properties window, navigate to the Adv. Graphics tab.

  2. Locate the Accuracy Level setting, and select the High option.

  3. Click the OK button to apply our changes.

Applying Translation Patches to ROMs

Description

This details on how you can apply translation patches to your supported ROMs.

References

Getting Started

  1. Make sure you have your ROM, and download your translation patch file. Your translation patch file will normally detail on what exact ROM version you would need:

    • Game name
    • Region
    • Revision
    • Dump

  2. If the game provides the sum (i.e. MD5) of the ROM, you can check if it matches by running:

    md5sum <ROM_FILE>

    Replace <ROM_FILE> with the exact name of your ROM file.

  3. Install a patching tool that is suitable for your translation patch file:

    • In the case of ips and bps files, install the Flips (com.github.Alcaro.Flips) app as a Flatpak.

    • In the case of xdelta files, install xdelta3 from the AUR using yay.

    • In the case of ppf files, install applyppf from the AUR using yay.

  4. Follow the rest of this guide according to the specific patching tool you will need to use.

Flips

  1. In this example, we will assume these values:

    • ROM name: Dragon Quest Monsters - Caravan Heart (Japan).gba
    • Patch name: Dragon Quest Monsters Caravan Heart.ips

  2. To apply the patch to the ROM:

    • Launch the Flips app.

    • Click Apply Patch.

    • Select your patch file (i.e. Dragon Quest Monsters Caravan Heart.ips).

    • Select your ROM (i.e. Dragon Quest Monsters - Caravan Heart (Japan).gba).

    • Name your output file (i.e. Dragon Quest Monsters - Caravan Heart (Japan) [English].gba).

    • Click Save.

    Now you should have your output file that has been patched with the translation.

xdelta3

  1. In this example, we will assume these values:

    • ROM name: Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 - Umi no Bouken-hen (Japan).iso
    • Patch name: Boku2EnglishPatch1.1.xdelta

    We will also assume that these files are in the same directory, i.e. ~/Downloads.

  2. To apply the patch to the ROM:

    • Get into the directory where your ROM and patch files are located:

      cd ~/Downloads

    • Apply the xdelta patch to the ROM file:

      xdelta3 -d -s <ROM_FILE> <PATCH_FILE> <NEW_ROM_FILE>

      Based on our example, the exact command would be like so:

      xdelta3 -d -s "Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 - Umi no Bouken-hen (Japan).iso" "Boku2EnglishPatch1.1.xdelta" "Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 - Umi no Bouken-hen (Japan) [English].iso"

      In this example, the intended NEW_ROM_FILE name is Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 - Umi no Bouken-hen (Japan) [English].iso.

    Now you should have your output file that has been patched with the translation.

applyppf

  1. In this example, we will assume these values:

    • ROM name: Dragon Quest V - Tenkuu no Hanayome (Japan).iso
    • Patch name: DQ5_English_Translation_Patch_v1.2_DQ.ppf

    We will also assume that these files are in the same directory, i.e. ~/Downloads.

  2. To apply the patch to the ROM:

    • Get into the directory where your ROM and patch files are located:

      cd ~/Downloads

    • Make a backup of your ROM file, which will then later use for the patch:

      cp "Dragon Quest V - Tenkuu no Hanayome (Japan).iso" "Dragon Quest V - Tenkuu no Hanayome (Japan) [Backup].iso"

    • Apply the ppf patch to the (Backup) ROM file:

      applyppf a <ROM_FILE> <PATCH_FILE>

      Based on our example, the exact command would be like so:

      applyppf a "Dragon Quest V - Tenkuu no Hanayome (Japan) [Backup].iso" "DQ5_English_Translation_Patch_v1.2_DQ.ppf"

  3. Now the (Backup) ROM file that you have applied the patch to should have been patched with the translation successfully.

    Optionally, rename the patched ROM file to something more sensible to finish things off:

    mv "Dragon Quest V - Tenkuu no Hanayome (Japan) [Backup].iso" "Dragon Quest V - Tenkuu no Hanayome (Japan) [English].iso"

Notes

  • In some cases, there are translation files of different variants, Full/Playable and Addendum.

  • The former version is expected to be applied to a supported ROM that they have specified.

  • Meanwhile, the latter is expected to be applied to a ROM that has been patched with a specific Full/Playable patch. Apply these patches using a patching tool such as Flips, one by one.

Convert XCI Switch Games to NSP

Description

This details how we can convert .xci Nintendo Switch games to .nsp.

References

Steps

  1. Install the 4nxci-git package using yay in your system or in an Arch Linux based Distrobox container.

  2. (Optional) Create a dedicated working directory for converting .xci games for ease of use:

    mkdir xci-to-nsp

  3. Move your prod.keys file to the working directory:

    mv prod.keys xci-to-nsp

  4. Place your .xci game (i.e. MyGame.xci) to the working directory:

    mv MyGame.xci xci-to-nsp

  5. Perform the conversion using 4nxci:

    4nxci MyGame.xci -k prod.keys

    4nxci expects the .xci game file, while the -k flag expects the full path to our keys, prod.keys.

    You will get an .nsp game file of the .xci we had passed to 4nxci to convert in the same working directory at the end.