lr-duckstation - Experimental new PlayStation 1 emulator

ChaosEffect

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ChaosEffect

Thank you for adding this emulator! It seems to have resolved every issue I personally ran into with specific PS1 games in RetroPie previously.

To me, the final frontier for PS1 emulation is link-cable support (unless there are some more obscure peripherals others can think of). That's probably another can of worms, though, because it would require two instances of the emulator to run side by side. It works well with Game Boy, but, well, that's Game Boy.

Outside of handheld systems, PlayStation may have had the most link-compatible games out of the game consoles available to emulate on a Pi. The only such game I can even think of in the 8- and 16-bit eras is Zero Tolerance on MD/Genesis.

obrie572

As it turns out, the keyboard issue was due to the use of a custom launching screen process. Nothing to see here :)

lostless

@nemo93 It was my old homemade PBP. I used a mac back in the day and used an app that was for that. It had a habit of setting the files at PAL, but the psp played the games just fine, it would just crop the top and the bottom a tad. Im assuming that was the issue. Reripped a new ISO and no issues.

ecto

Hi! Thank you very much for bringing Duckstation over. I've never tried it before but heard great things... and apparently it's true.

I had to fiddle around a little, but that was expected, since I also had to update Retroach (and apparently there are again some changes to the way the configs are being loaded).

But here is my little input, which is really great:
If you set dualshock in the QuickMenu/input menu as a standard for all games, it seems that Duckstation notices incompatible games and automatically sets to digital input. This is a new behavior (at least to me), that pcsx_rearmed didn't have. So now all of my option files to set the right controller for each game aren't needed anymore. Nice!

I also tried some lightgun games, but sadly there is still no crosshair for now. Next I'll try my old NegCon with a USB adapter for some Ridge Race action, but I'll have to find it first... ;)

EDIT
Oh, and another thing: I had to symlink all my old *.srm files to *_1.mcdto make Duckstation load them. IDK on the Github page (I think) it was mentioned that *.srmfiles can be loaded, too...

Darksavior

My setup: Pi4 2Ghz/750Mhz 1440p glcore crt-pi slang shader. If it matters, I'm also using that new psx bios from the psp that supposedly helps with performance?

Without alsathread, I got a speed boost in some games from ~54fps to around full speed when going from ogl to vulkan. I was still getting huge slowdowns with castlevania chronicles at around 34fps even with vulkan, but changing it to alsathread immediately made it full speed. Wow. I'll keep that as default.
UPDATE: I set it to vulkan but I guess it must default to software since I don't have vulkan installed..

nemo93

@ecto said:

If you set dualshock in the QuickMenu/input menu as a standard for all games, it seems that Duckstation notices incompatible games and automatically sets to digital input. This is a new behavior (at least to me), that pcsx_rearmed didn't have. So now all of my option files to set the right controller for each game aren't needed anymore. Nice!

=> hi @ecto :) I did the same at first but then realized still quite many games were not functioning properly with Dualshock "on" (as of typing 170 games tested and I'd say 15-20% didn't like Dualshock :-)). By that I mean no inputs are registered thus nothing happen when you hit "start" or "O/X" buttons (or any buttons in fact). Enough in fact to have me to revert back to the standard gamepad. This way I'm 100% sure controller will always work no matter what.

I may have missed something hence can you please share names of games working as you described please? Ace Combat 1/2/3 might be ones of these.

ecto

@nemo93 Oh, ok. Bummer. I've only tested a few: "Air Combat" is one of them. Then I tried "Romancing SaGa" and "Final Fantasy 7". And there it worked IIRC.

EDIT
The following other games need a digital pad and Duckstation automatically changes the input type accordingly:

Xevious 3D-G
Legacy of Kain - Blood Omen
Alundra
Azure Dreams
Final Fantasy Tactics
Jumpin' Flash 2
Parappa
Persona
Romance the three Kingdoms IV and VI
Soul Blade
Suikoden I and II
Tales of Destiny
Tomb Raider I and II
Wild Arms 1 and 2

The following games are compatible with dualshock input (and rumble) but need the digital pad:

Pepsiman
Tenchu

This list isn't complete, of course. This is what I tested in a few minutes.

@nemo93 Can you name a few games that outright refuse dualshock input and are not changed to digital by Duckstation? Maybe we can collect those for future reference (or make Duckstation even better).

BTW. super cool news: I tried Soul Blade's secret characters, and they work. PCSX_Rearmed always crashed with those :D

lostless

@ecto not sure if these games are identified yet, but Mortal kombat trilogy, mortal kombat 4, and mortal kombat mythologies, all require a digital pad.
And for fun, the only game that requires analog is ape escape.

busywait

@dankcushions I'm trying to install lr-duckstation from the 64-bit installer, but the install option is not available. Is this expected?

dankcushions

@busywait I see the issue - I'll fix it shortly

Genos98

Man really loving duckstation and so far it solved a lot of games I have issues on pcsx rearmed. I'm using a pi4 updated everything to latest without any overclocking.
Tekken 3 and Ridge racer r4 - feels more accurate and the fps is more stable now.
Capcom vs Snk and Hotwheels turbo racing - greets you with a blackscreen when starting the game but it finally ran on duckstation.
Parasite eve 2 - Fixes the crash when leaving the shooting range. So far so good no random crashes when playing.
FF VIII - solves the random crashing.
Star ocean second story - solves the random crashes at later part of the game.
Johnny Bazookatone - finally solves the invisible textures and makes the game playable now.
Nba 2k3 - Solves the random freezing I get during fouls or timeouts.
2xtreme - No more random crashes when racing.
Pool Hustler - Another game that will greet you immediately with a black screen on rearmed is now fixed on duckstation.
Jedi Power Battles - The infamous game known to crash immediately on the first level with pcsx rearmed is now fixed and runs well on duckstation.
Gran Turismo 2,Nfs III Hot Pursuit,Wipeout III SE - Tried a few races and it feels much smoother on duckstation imo.
DDR - Tried a rhythm game for the heck of it. I still do encounter slight slowdowns but pretty good and responsive overall. If I remember correctly even the ps1 version back in the days also experienced slight slowdowns from time to time.

windg

I test some problematic/unplayable games( in lr-pcsx_rearmed) :

3Xtreme: Game doesn't freeze.
Final Fantasy VIII : Doesn't soft lock during the Lunar Cry FMV.
Parasite Eve II : Doesn't soft lock in the beggining of the game.
Vampire Hunter D : Doesn't have the black screen on the menu .
Psybadek: Is playable.
WWF In Your House :Is playable
Formula One Arcade : Is playable but you have to disable the compatibility mode when you are in the race so the game can run i full speed,
Xenogears: Doesn't have the annoyng sound in the menus.
T'ai Fu - Wrath of the Tiger : Is playable

nemo93

@ecto said:

@nemo93 Can you name a few games that outright refuse dualshock input and are not changed to digital by Duckstation? Maybe we can collect those for future reference (or make Duckstation even better).

Sure. Here you go: Crash Bandicoot, D, Destruction Derby, Disruptor, Final Doom, Front Mission 2, Gaia Seed, Ganbare Goemon Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu, Gex. To share just a few examples.

Test protocol:

open RGUI > Controls > Port 1 controls > Device type > Analog Controller (Dualshock)
in that same panel I make a Save Core Remap (DuckStation.rmp is being created under psx/configs/DuckStation folder)
exit Retroarch
run another game and check that Core Remap notif appears on start
if game is incompatible then it becomes impossible to bypass logos/intro FMV or to navigate the main menu

dankcushions

@busywait i thought i knew the issue but it seems a generic thing with aarch64 and binary-only emulators. eg, the redream package exhibits the same thing for me on aarch64. buzz is on the case!

@nemo93 thanks very much for your tip on alsathread! i have queried this with the retroarch team and they have confirmed that alsathread seems to much faster, even for PC installs, so they agreed that it should be the default. this change has been merged but won't in retropie until we move to the next version of RetroArch (whenever that is released/if it's compatible), so for now we will have to manually set that audio_driver. will add instructions to the OP

ecto

@nemo93 Huh, interesting. Duckstation changes the input to digital for Crash Bandicoot and D for me. For Front Mission 2 it indeed stayed on Dualshock and it didn't work. So I created a rebind file for that game. Maybe because the game was patched to English? IDK. I don't own the other games you suggested, so I couldn't test them...

But I found some more games with only digital pad support, by trying games from before 1997. But so far, every other game than FM2 I tested worked automatically.

I think I'll leave the contoller remap for the core on dualshock, as most of my games work :)

nemo93

@ecto said:

@nemo93 Huh, interesting. Duckstation changes the input to digital for Crash Bandicoot and D for me. For Front Mission 2 it indeed stayed on Dualshock and it didn't work. So I created a rebind file for that game. Maybe because the game was patched to English? IDK. I don't own the other games you suggested, so I couldn't test them...

=> I've found the culprit... me :-) Duckstation does work nicely and exactly as you described to the condition to leave the Apply Compatibility Settings set to ON in RGUI > Options panel. For some reason I left it to OFF and this messes everything up. Lesson learned: leave that setting to ON :-) Thanks for testing and reporting back, much appreciated. I'm keeping Dualshock as well and it is perfect that way. Another win for Duckstation. For the record, location of the database about those compatibility settings.

@dankcushions no problem. Happy to share. Thanks to you for the PR and for bringing Duckstation. Not sure about the process to promote emulator from "exp" to "main" but lr-Duckstation for sure is running way better than lr-PCSX-ReARMed which is in "main" IIRC. After testing roughly 300 games for now + feedback from users above I still can't find a single game which is crashing/unplayable. I keep on testing and update my first post. Thanks again.

ChaosEffect

@genos98 Which device are you using to run the emulator? On a Pi 3B, I get noticeably worse performance in Tekken 3 than I do in lr-PCSX-ReARMed (this is with a CHD file using software for GPU, alsathread for audio, and compatibility settings on).

@windg Are you using an m3u playlist file for Final Fantasy VIII? I can't seem to even get an m3u to load in lr-duckstation. Is the file type supported? The same file works in lr-PCSX-ReARMed.

windg

@chaoseffect
Yes but i change the file extentions inside the m3u file from . CDx to .cue. because Duckstation cant read CDx . You have another option, to compress the cds with chdman (.chd) and create the m3u file with the them.

Tekken 3 on a Raspberry Pi3 even with the alsathread and software renderer settings, is running better on the ir-PCSX-ReARMed emulator .

Genos98

@chaoseffect I'm on the pi4. Tekken 3 on rearmed with increased cpu clock is mostly fine overall but depending on the game's stage I still do experienced random fps drops and also the game slightly speeding up. It's pretty noticeable at default cpu clock.