Help 3DS emulation

[_oBSOLEte_]

Out of all the emulators I use, citra is the most problematic. It runs pretty well on the steamdeck but with a bit of a lag when loading new areas. It catches up almost immediately, though. Could totally see a remastered SMT4/A and Strange Journey getting a steam release at some point.

On topic: check your bios and firmware to make sure they are compatible. If it's not booting at all, I'd bet it has to do with that.

That or Retroarch set to GL instead of Vulkan. It's a bit of a double post from last week's 3DS thread, but I'm in the same boat as you are regarding the few stutters... IME The culprit is shader and texture caching. To alleviate the issue :

• I run Citra's folders on a SSD.
• With the Vulkan renderer (allowing SPIR-V shader gen)
• I tweak options like Shader JIT and Async Shader Compilation depending on the game.
• You could also find already compiled caches online for a few games and unzip those files in the game folder. There's instructions on how to do it here.

I have used Citra both in Retroarch and with the standalone version with the same performance for the games I have. Nowadays I mostly play with the standalone version of Lime3DS in windowed mode and VR headset, the stereoscopic mode and SteamVR and Desktop+. There's also a port of Citra for mobile oculus headsets called CitraVR but my headset dont support it. 3DS games are a blast, upscaled in 3DVR it's incredible to play those games. My computer is quite old now and lower mid range but somehow I still got enough headroom to both play and record in native 4K60FPS... Not bad.

 

[DanCalibur]

There are a handful of 3DS games I want to play. I was able to get MH4U and SMT: Strange Journey Redux working through Retroarch using a Citra 2018 core. When I tried both SMT:IV games, I got a black screen briefly and then Retroarch closes. I am curious in how to troubleshoot this. If it helps, when I select the previous two games, it allows me to choose one of the 3DS cores. When I select either of the latter two, I don't get that option, just black screen and everything closing. Thanks in advance for any helpful input.

I tested SMT:4 now and it seems to run fine out of the box using the newest version of citraQT on retrobat

 

[chaosmos]

Try switching the video driver from openGL to vulkan on both cores, maybe it will help.

Is this something I can do within retroarch or in GPU settings?

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Is this something I can do within retroarch or in GPU settings?

In Retroarch Settings > Video > Output > Video switch from "gl" or "glcore" to "vulkan". Then Main Menu > Restart.

 

[thecrow2313]

GitHub - azahar-emu/azahar: An open-source 3DS emulator project based on Citra.

An open-source 3DS emulator project based on Citra. - azahar-emu/azahar

github.com

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

GitHub - azahar-emu/azahar: An open-source 3DS emulator project based on Citra.

An open-source 3DS emulator project based on Citra. - azahar-emu/azahar

github.com

Gonna test that thanks for the info!

 

[chaosmos]

In Retroarch Settings > Video > Output > Video switch from "gl" or "glcore" to "vulkan". Then Main Menu > Restart.

I don't even see an option for settings in my Retroarch. I think I might be using an older version, though I'm not sure if that even makes a difference in that regard.

 

[rugal]

I don't even see an option for settings in my Retroarch. I think I might be using an older version, though I'm not sure if that even makes a difference in that regard.

try these things in retroarch
1 change Retroarch Settings > Video > Output > Video switch from gl or glcore to vulkan

2 turn off microphone or change it from alsathread to alsa otherwise some games crash in citra

3 in video settings enable synchronization so it enable G synk and FREE synk some computer monitors want this option on
it makes the game run smooth and prevent lag and slow down

4 if you has a weak gpu you need to change video setting to lower resolution

5 after change these settings restart retroarch so it saves the changes

if non of these works
try to change setting on you gpu using what ever program you use to changes setting on you gpu

note that there is no 3ds emulator at the time that can run all 3ds games

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

I don't even see an option for settings in my Retroarch. I think I might be using an older version, though I'm not sure if that even makes a difference in that regard.

It makes a difference, make sure you're up to date.
Usually it's a cog icon, with "settings".
Check this page it's a very useful resource :

Menu Styles - Libretro Docs

This is the official RetroArch documentation for users and developers. Information from sources outside of this website may be dated or incorrect.

docs.libretro.com

 

[Raidou Kuzunoha]

There are a handful of 3DS games I want to play. I was able to get MH4U and SMT: Strange Journey Redux working through Retroarch using a Citra 2018 core. When I tried both SMT:IV games, I got a black screen briefly and then Retroarch closes. I am curious in how to troubleshoot this. If it helps, when I select the previous two games, it allows me to choose one of the 3DS cores. When I select either of the latter two, I don't get that option, just black screen and everything closing. Thanks in advance for any helpful input.

Would like to make a note that DLC has issues, if you're trying to use it. Neither IV nor IV:A worked for me, and made the game get stuck loading infinitely or freeze on a dark screen.

SMT IV: Apocalypse DLC not working properly · Issue #955 · weihuoya/citra

I've been playing SMT IV: Apocalypse on MMJ for now and it's definitely made the experience smoother with the better performance but for some reason I can't figure out, the DLC for it refuses to wo...

github.com

This issue for it, posted in 2024, is still open.

Anyways, if the Libretro core doesn't work out (iirc those cores sometimes tend to be out of date), try one of the citra forks. Azahar and Borked3DS seem promising for now, and often get updates.

 

[RageBurner]

I had this issue before. Normally it means the DLC used was a bad dump, same for the update.