Upgrading Pi3 to Pi4 for 8-16 bit Emulations

maschine

Hi folks,

Now that pi4 is officially suported, I am wondering if it is worth upgrading from pi3 to pi4? I have a main focus on the 8 and 16 bit era, rather than N64, DC, PS games. Is the performance such as loading times that much better on a pi4? Thanks

m

dankcushions

so for snes, you can now use snes9x which is more accurate than the pi3 default of snes9x-2010. what that means in terms of emulation, i don't know, but hey.

the other thing you can do is set more aggressive latency reduction settings. runahead, threaded video = off, swap intervals, and so on. if input latency is an issue for you, it can be solved with pi4.

barbudreadmon

@dankcushions said in Upgrading Pi3 to Pi4 for 8-16 bit Emulations:

what that means in terms of emulation, i don't know

More accurate means acting closer to real hardware, the 2 main benefits from this are better compatibility and less glitchs. In the case of snes9x you can find some information at https://docs.libretro.com/library/compatibility/snes/ , not sure it's complete & up-to-date though.

Ecks

Honestly if your main focus is 8bit and 16bit games only should just stick with the Pi 3 but this is just my opinion so.

Darksavior

@dankcushions Aside from the better emulation, Snes9x has MSU1 audio support too which is a mixed bag in quality, but I do like a handful. Mesen (NES) is the one that I don't see a reason to use unless someone can give me one.

@maschine I wanted to be able to use the latest version of Snes9x AND being able to handle the speedhacks to eliminate the slowdown that happens with the real thing. The pi4 can do it. The pi3b+ can't. The pi4 supports bsnes but I don't see a reason to use it. I'm only interested with the higher res mode 7 effects but that slows everything down even on a pi 4.

barbudreadmon

@Darksavior said in Upgrading Pi3 to Pi4 for 8-16 bit Emulations:

Mesen (NES) is the one that I don't see a reason to use unless someone can give me one.

Is that even an option with pi4's specs ? There are dozens of nes titles that will benefit from accurate emulation to get rid of various glitches, a few months ago i gave an example in https://www.libretro.com/index.php/final-burn-neo-progress-report/ with codemaster's micro machines, this screen has glitches in both nestopia & fceumm.

Mesen also happens to be one of the most featured nes emulators, there is even a HD pack feature, check this :

Darksavior

@barbudreadmon Yes, Mesen works on the pi4. HD packs are too slow, though.

barbudreadmon

@Darksavior ok, anyway, even without hd packs, i think mesen has the biggest compatibility, with 0 known glitch, and is still an active project (meaning any bug you might find will be fixed), on the other side nestopia/fceumm have been inactive for years afaik.

saccublenda

I've noticed that Mesen is very slow if you turn on runahead.

barbudreadmon

@saccublenda That's legit, mesen is far more accurate than other nes emulators available on pi, the only close match would be FBNeo but mesen has a bigger list of supported mappers and is easier to get working since it doesn't rely on romsets (most users won't want to bother with this for console emulation).

saccublenda

@barbudreadmon said in Upgrading Pi3 to Pi4 for 8-16 bit Emulations:

@saccublenda That's legit, mesen is far more accurate than other nes emulators available on pi, the only close match would be FBNeo but mesen has a bigger list of supported mappers and is easier to get working since it doesn't rely on romsets (most users won't want to bother with this for console emulation).

I agree. However the possibility to reduce the input lag with runahead makes FCEUMM and Nestopia still preferable for me.

maschine

Thanks guys for your thoughts on this.

Retro

I have a Pi 1 Model B and NES & SNES emulation works fine. Only a tiny glitch on SNES with Super Mario Kart relating to when the bottom camera faces behind but that's because I have to use the least powerful SNES emulator. I'd say you're good to stick with the Pi 3 tbh