Why 3DS and Wii U emulation is hard to do?

[Ikagura]

I've finally managed but both had that encryption thing that made them a bit tedious to handle until I got better emulators.

I don't get why it's not just plug 'n play but thankfully I got a decryption program for the 3DS and a txt file with all keys for the Wii U.

 

[fake-kun]

Because they're more recent devices, so obviously they'll be harder to emulate.

 

[freebie#47]

Two words i can think of....Nintendo's Anti-Piracy

 

[Tbest25]

Yeah, like @freebie#47 said. It took me a while to make the mii maker app work on Citra, couldn't import my saved miis to games that used them, like Miitopia. Other than that, the 3ds is not that hard to achieve a good performance in most games. Hell, i play the games on my phone with 6gb of ram and a ok processor and i still get 30-60 fps in most games. Can't say the same to the Wii U emu though

 

[Iguana-0]

Nintendo's Lawyers watch the next one who types...

 

[Ikagura]

Because they're more recent devices, so obviously they'll be harder to emulate.

The Saturn and original Xbox beg to differ.

 

[Muklas]

It's hard to work on a program that will have Nintedo's lawyers hounding you until death and beyond.

 

[fake-kun]

The Saturn and original Xbox beg to differ.

And? How exactly do they refute what I said?

 

[Ikagura]

And? How exactly do they refute what I said?

Because more recent doesn't necessarily means harder as older hardware can still be hard to properly emulate. It's up to the architecture and talent of the emulator's devs.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

This a thread just about you having issue installing an emulator? XD You dont even describe which flavor of Citra you wanted to boot...

 

[fake-kun]

Because more recent doesn't necessarily means harder as older hardware can still be hard to properly emulate. It's up to the architecture and talent of the emulator's devs.

How hard the older hardware can be to emulate is neither here nor there.

 

[Ikagura]

This a thread just about you having issue installing an emulator? XD You dont even describe which flavor of Citra you wanted to boot...

No, I've installed emulators already.

Lime 3DS is quite useful as I apparently don't need to decrypt the rom files.

 

[Tbest25]

No, I've installed emulators already.

Lime 3DS is quite useful as I apparently don't need to decrypt the rom files.

Are you using Lime 3ds on a pc? How's the performance in the games you have? I've tried it before but only on Citra mmj i've got stable fps

 

[retro-gamer]

I think Nintendo has become better and better at fighting piracy and this diva company Nintendo takes it very seriously as you can see . To all who do this, be careful I think Nintendo has its spies everywhere.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

No, I've installed emulators already.

Lime 3DS is quite useful as I apparently don't need to decrypt the rom files.

So what's the problem? Seems you dont even need your decrypter for CIA FBI and homebrew stuff.

Latest most up to date Citra flavor is Azahar, relevant thread just here :

Azahar 2120.2

Azahar is an open-source 3DS emulator project based on Citra. It was created from the merging of PabloMK7's Citra fork and the Lime3DS project, both of which emerged shortly after Citra was taken down. The goal of this project is to be the de-facto platform for future development. Azahar...

retrogametalk.com

 

[nobitakun]

The power need to emulate a platform is basically calculated with two main things: how awkward and how powerful is the original hardware. Later, it's the task of the dev to adjust the accuracy of the emulator to meet the needs or the purpose.

That's why emulating Saturn is more costly than emulating Dreamcast, which is one generation newer.

And going back to the main topic of this thread, I don't think emulating Wii U is something hard. From that generation, is the one which is easier to emulate by far. PS360 are still considered "work in progress" emulated platforms.

 

[Raggs]

I can perfectly emulate Dragon Quest VII on RetroArch with the outdated Citra 2018. Modern Citra libretro core runs Radiant Historia full speed. My computer hates stand alone Citra. And the Bravely games all run like ass no matter what I try.

The point to my ramblings is when you discuss emulation and difficulties there are so many factors and moving parts contributing to the end results: your rig, your graphics card, what game, what emulator, what settings on said emulator; what programs are running in the background, etc etc.

 

[33madlib]

I mean you kind of answered your own question. The entire point of the encryption is to make it more difficult.

 

[MasterEn]

How hard the older hardware can be to emulate is neither here nor there.

the original xbox is basically a computer in an fancy box; and any computer has a hard time trying to emulate itself; which is what an xbox emulator would be: a computer emulator. the computer would be trying to run itself in this case.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Something people aren't really pointing out: the dual screens on both consoles. It's still pretty difficult to play some stylus heavy DS games (TWEWY anyone) because of how finicky the stylus is that can't be replicated. Book Mode is also a bit difficult to work around. So then the 3DS runs into the same problems and the Wii U has that game pad (and the stylus) to properly re-create. It's no wonder emulators for those two were scarce.

The uniqueness of both consoles work against them

 

[Raggs]

The uniqueness of both consoles work against them

Lol, you just reminded me of that Wizard of Oz game on the DS. I wanted to love it so much, but the movement is so jank without the actual hardware.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

They can be somewhat tricky, as both systems had gimmicks that split up the image processing in a strange way. The big kicker, sadly, is the death of the biggest names in 3DS emulation, though the CEMU project for Wii U is still going strong. I’d still recommend an original system for both, but I think the emulation scene has gotten pretty great for both! Just a bit cumbersome for my personal expertise.

 

[HyperTurboFox]

Atari Jaguar : HOLD MY BEER!

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Nintendo has had a long history of overcomplicating things by trying to be cutting edge... and some companies even took that further in order to prevent their games from being pirated. Not only the N64 had a huge amount of custom code that developers could modify to their heart's content (and that's what makes emulation hard even on this day and age), but some even installed extra chips on their cartridges in order for them to fail to load (or only load up to a certain point, just to be assholes). Fast-forward to the GameCube's mini discs and the DSi's "encrypted" ROMs and you have a company running on paranoia at the cost of profit, because they can afford to crash the boat like that.

I'm sure it only got stupider from there, too.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Nintendo has had a long history of overcomplicating things by trying to be cutting edge... and some companies even took that further in order to prevent their games from being pirated. Not only the N64 had a huge amount of custom code that developers could modify to their heart's content (and that's what makes emulation hard even on this day and age), but some even installed extra chips on their cartridges in order for them to fail to load (or only load up to a certain point, just to be assholes). Fast-forward to the GameCube's mini discs and the DSi "encrypted" ROMs and you have a company running on paranoia at the cost of profit, because they can afford to crash the boat like that.

I'm sure it only got stupider from there, too.

I think the irony of all of that is that Nintendo consoles have the largest cracking, hacking, and emulation scenes out there. Nintendo presents a challenge and people IMMEDIATELY take to it. Nintendo is the perfect storm of creating systems that act like fun puzzles for hackers, while also creating and publishing games that are the most beloved by the industry, which makes people want to emulate and crack their systems even more.


Nintendo are a bunch of pricks with how they treat anything outside their controlled, profit hungry ecosystem. But the Nintendo scene, created by US (the people), is one of the most vibrant out there and certainly the most popular. I would say the SEGA scene has thrived the most in recent days, benefiting from the passage of time and the openness of the parent company, but the Nintendo scene is the one that has the most spoken on mythology, and it will never die. Nintendo will never give up the fight with their players, but their players will never give up the fight with Nintendo, and generation after generation has come along to open up Nintendo’s games and systems to a wider market.