Is VITA3K stuck in development hell?

[Spike's iconSpike]

I only recently started to use Vita3k heavily. Since December 2024.
Exactly at "v0.2.0 Build 3691". It's been 3 and a half months and we are at "v0.2.0 Build 3743" at the time of writing this.
In these 3 months, all updates were minimal, 1 liners nothingburgers without any real impact on emulation or compatibility.
And if you actually go spend some time in the compatibility list you'll see many games that were playable on 0.1.5 or other older versions won't even boot now.
Like from fully playable to "nothing".

That's a massive red flag that should have been immediately addressed by the devs. If we have a big number of games that literally won't even run any more maybe the update wasn't good? Go back? That's what GIT is for.

And then when you report those issues, they go largely ignored by the 2-3 people that curate the compatibility list, even if tagged, even if they see it...they rarely admit it's a "regression" (as they call a game going from good to worse). Maybe on purpose or maybe not but It seems to me there's some pushback to admit regressions
IMO that's extremely freaking important. Cos if you don't see the regressions, then, it's all good, right? ... (*picture of monkey covering their eyes*)
If we release an update and it breaks more things than it fixes then it's not really much of an upgrade is it?

Compare that to DuckStation. Every time I launch that emu I'm bombarded with updates each one with shitton of fixes and improvements.
Maybe stenzek isn't human, I don't know, haven't asked.

My point is, this emu isn't getting better, all updates are underwhelming.
Nothing really seems to get fixed.

As an isolated example: 2 months ago the emu simply went from immediately starting to being stuck 5-7 seconds on launch.
I reported this. It got acknowledged. And nothing got done. LOL.
So now every time I restart the emu, which happens 50 times a day cos there's no "STOP EMULATION" button (God forbid!) I have to sit there and stare at it struggling to open. Why? It should have been an immediate regression.
And like that every bug accumulates, all the time moving forward with a worse version than before.

Rant over.

 

[HextarVigar]

Probably ducking and covering - the companies are going after emulators again and this time the law's on their side.

Sort of how you made the repo inaccessible without a forum membership.

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

Probably ducking and covering - the companies are going after emulators again and this time the law's on their side.

Sort of how you made the repo inaccessible without a forum membership.

They are as safe as Dolphin which Nintendo doesn't touch cos it doesn't have the same protections as the Switch does.

 

[Zachery2112]

I use Vita3k because it is the only PSVita emulator and it kind of stinks now. I agree with you, it seems to have gotten a little worse over the past year. I've been playing Adventures of Mana on it and the game crashes every five minutes. It used to crash, but not this frequently.

 

[HextarVigar]

They are as safe as Dolphin which Nintendo doesn't touch cos it doesn't have the same protections as the Switch does.

Never presume you're in the right, especially with these people.

 

[moonbits]

I get your frustration but it's a hobby project with 4 years and barely any traction now. They're busy or something.

 

[Merchant]

I only recently started to use Vita3k heavily. Since December 2024.
Exactly at "v0.2.0 Build 3691". It's been 3 and a half months and we are at "v0.2.0 Build 3743" at the time of writing this.
In these 3 months, all updates were minimal, 1 liners nothingburgers without any real impact on emulation or compatibility.
And if you actually go spend some time in the compatibility list you'll see many games that were playable on 0.1.5 or other older versions won't even boot now.
Like from fully playable to "nothing".
View attachment 49894
That's a massive red flag that shouldn't have been immediately addressed by the devs. If we have a big number of games that literally won't even run any more maybe the update wasn't good? Go back? That's what GIT is for.

And then when you report those issues, they go largely ignored by the 2-3 people that curate the compatibility list, even if tagged, even if they see it...they rarely admit it's a "regression" (as they call a game going from good to worse). Maybe on purpose or maybe not but It seems to me there's some pushback to admit regressions
IMO that's extremely freaking important. If we release an update and it breaks more things than it fixes then it's not really much of an upgrade is it?

Compare that to DuckStation. Every time I launch that emu I'm bombarded with updates each one with shitton of fixes and improvements.
Maybe stenzek isn't human, I don't know, haven't asked.

My point is, this emu isn't getting better, all updates are underwhelming.
Nothing really seems to get fixed.

As an isolated example: 2 months ago the emu simply went from immediately starting to being stuck 5-7 seconds on launch.
I reported this. It got acknowledged. And nothing got done. LOL.
So now every time I restart the emu, which happens 50 times a day cos there's no "STOP EMULATION" button (God forbid!) I have to sit there and stare at it struggling to open. Why? It should have been an immediate regression.
And like that every bug accumulates, all the time moving forward with a worse version than before.

Rant over.

that sounds pretty messed up, I don't know much about the subject. But I hope people on the team listen to the feedback. I was quite eager to use this emulator, so I hope this improves.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Never presume you're in the right, especially with these people.

I think you mean "never presume you're always in the clear," which tbh fair.

 

[RageBurner]

Progress is slow true, but I've been pretty impressed with it. Doesn't run everything, but does what matters to me at least. Patches are actually somewhat frequent but the rate of user facing improvement is slow.

 

[LiberoVulpes]

Could depend on how finicky de Vita itself is, Sony consoles have that infamy of being a pain in the ass to develop for, it could also translate to emulating them as well.

The bigger the code becomes the harder it becomes to maintain, and i can understand not even wanting to revert cause it could break more stuff (even with Git, it can happen, been there).

If it becomes slower as it scales, sounds like a Python problem, but i don't know if Python is the language.

Just throwing hypotheses.

 

[HextarVigar]

I think you mean "never presume you're always in the clear," which tbh fair.

They've purposefully perched on a couple of mods they knew about and waited until they released so they could shitcan it and do as much damage as possible.

 

[petran79]

I use Vita3k because it is the only PSVita emulator and it kind of stinks now. I agree with you, it seems to have gotten a little worse over the past year. I've been playing Adventures of Mana on it and the game crashes every five minutes. It used to crash, but not this frequently.

It crashes on my system too but unlike a regular crash makes the whole system freeze and I have to reset. This happened on Gravity Rush during fight scenes and explosions. Had to switch to OpenGL. No other emulator does that.

 

[Action_Hank]

I only recently started to use Vita3k heavily. Since December 2024.
Exactly at "v0.2.0 Build 3691". It's been 3 and a half months and we are at "v0.2.0 Build 3743" at the time of writing this.
In these 3 months, all updates were minimal, 1 liners nothingburgers without any real impact on emulation or compatibility.
And if you actually go spend some time in the compatibility list you'll see many games that were playable on 0.1.5 or other older versions won't even boot now.
Like from fully playable to "nothing".
View attachment 49894
That's a massive red flag that should have been immediately addressed by the devs. If we have a big number of games that literally won't even run any more maybe the update wasn't good? Go back? That's what GIT is for.

And then when you report those issues, they go largely ignored by the 2-3 people that curate the compatibility list, even if tagged, even if they see it...they rarely admit it's a "regression" (as they call a game going from good to worse). Maybe on purpose or maybe not but It seems to me there's some pushback to admit regressions
IMO that's extremely freaking important. Cos if you don't see the regressions, then, it's all good, right? ... (*picture of monkey covering their eyes*)
If we release an update and it breaks more things than it fixes then it's not really much of an upgrade is it?

Compare that to DuckStation. Every time I launch that emu I'm bombarded with updates each one with shitton of fixes and improvements.
Maybe stenzek isn't human, I don't know, haven't asked.

My point is, this emu isn't getting better, all updates are underwhelming.
Nothing really seems to get fixed.

As an isolated example: 2 months ago the emu simply went from immediately starting to being stuck 5-7 seconds on launch.
I reported this. It got acknowledged. And nothing got done. LOL.
So now every time I restart the emu, which happens 50 times a day cos there's no "STOP EMULATION" button (God forbid!) I have to sit there and stare at it struggling to open. Why? It should have been an immediate regression.
And like that every bug accumulates, all the time moving forward with a worse version than before.

Rant over.

I tried vita3k once in 2020. I immediately bought a vita 2000 and never looked back. It will probably take a huge data leak to make any significant advance.

 

[Zooey]

The problem is the main person behind Vita3k, Macdu, is busy with other things.

 

[Advil Lavs]

And the bad thing is it's the only good PSVita emulator. I'm not sure how many there are but what I am sure of is that I can't play Gravity Rush with them on my phone. I really hope the developers put more effort into the project, or if not I hope someone else would with to continue improving it.

 

[Zeb89]

And the bad thing is it's the only good PSVita emulator.

I'm gonna correct you, it's the only PS Vita emulator PERIOD. It's a similar situation to Dolphin and Cemu but 100 times worse

 

[Merchant]

I tried vita3k once in 2020. I immediately bought a vita 2000 and never looked back. It will probably take a huge data leak to make any significant advance.

fire profile pic ill tell you what

 

[Capricorn_is_Goat]

They've purposefully perched on a couple of mods they knew about and waited until they released so they could shitcan it and do as much damage as possible.

@HextarVigar :
Strange.

Post automatically merged: Friday at 7:29 PM

that sounds pretty messed up, I don't know much about the subject. But I hope people on the team listen to the feedback. I was quite eager to use this emulator, so I hope this improves.

@burntman :
I'm glad it wasn't just my eyes playing tricks.

 

[RageBurner]

It's a bit of a mystery. Cyber Sleuth seems to run fine for many, but for me it freezes completely when closing menus. I can only surmise emulation quality is very hardware sensitive for Vita 3k, moreso than other emulators.

 

[Fateman 2006]

And I thought 3ds emulation had it's problems, Vita emulation seems to be very limited in emulator options. I did try it once and some games ran well, I don't know if I was using a new version or a old version. I did manage to play all the tales of games on their and I also got to play persona 4 golden, but i couldn't get Berserk band of the hawk mosou game running.

 

[Pkemr4]

Short Answer: yes
Long Answer: lol yes

 

[Advil Lavs]

fire profile pic ill tell you what

Dang, thanks! I made it myself.

 

[baroterri9000]

There's value to holding developers to account - but ultimately, it's hard to complain too much about a volunteer project. These are really smart guys doing great work in their spare time - life happens, and sometimes these sorts of projects fall through the cracks or end up on the backburner. It's a shame and I can really appreciate that OP is really invested in the progress of this emulator, but that's just how it goes sometimes.
It sometimes helps me to take the long view. Cold comfort as it is, but Vita emulation today is better than it was a year ago, and it will be even better in another year or two.

I hope you can tide yourself over with other games (or maybe even actual vita hardware, if it's available to you) until the devs either sort this out, or another project arrives.