jEnesisDS 0.7.4 - Genesis Emulator for Nintendo DS

[ethd]

You cannot have a "RAM file" on your card, called a page file, as the DS does not have a MMU - Memory Management Unit. Without this, a swap file on a memory card would be ineffective.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that SNEmulDS had some way of loading big ROMs without a memory expander (though one could be used if available). From what I understood, SNEmulDS used some sort of paging system.
Don't be mad at me, I'm not completely sure what I'm talking about and I probably misunderstood everything

[DanTheManMS]

No you're right, SNEmulDS does use a paging system to load up chunks of ROM into RAM as needed so that larger games can run. jEnesisDS does not do this, and it's possible that it could be implemented somehow.

However, what ds benjmin is asking about is a "page file" which is different. A page file sits on your hard drive and acts directly as RAM, and the computer stores information there as needed. On your computer, open up Task Manager and go to the Performance tab to see how much of your page file you're currently using. This is done so that, among other things, the computer doesn't crash when it runs out of the amount of RAM actually installed, basically letting you use more RAM than you actually have available. If the DS could use a page file, it would let applications use more than 4 MB of RAM without having to rely on a slot-2 RAM pack, as the DS would write information to the page file if needed. The application would see it all as RAM, though the DS would know the difference.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Well after trying it out for a day or so I must say this is a very good emulator. Out of the games I tried these were the only 2 issues I noticed:

Thunder Force 4 tends to randomly speed up and slow down, for example the intro seems to play a bit faster than normal, then when the title screen appears it starts to slow down.

Sonic 1 in the special stages Sonics animations don't work very well.

[ds benjmin]

Again though, how does that have any relevance to jEnesisDS?

It has relevance from speed and memory support of the emulator compared to other actual systems/emulators.

[bender709]

EDIT: I got it to work finally, and thanks man, this is one hell of an awesome emulator!

[ethd]

It has relevance from speed and memory support of the emulator compared to other actual systems/emulators.

Elaborate, please. I don't mean to sound rude, but you're really not making much sense. Do you assume that just because a system has little RAM there's not enough for a 3D map and its textures?
Either way, that really has no relevance here. Even bringing up fully native code in a thread dealing with emulation has me scratching my head.

Well after trying it out for a day or so I must say this is a very good emulator. Out of the games I tried these were the only 2 issues I noticed:

Thunder Force 4 tends to randomly speed up and slow down, for example the intro seems to play a bit faster than normal, then when the title screen appears it starts to slow down.

Sonic 1 in the special stages Sonics animations don't work very well.

I haven't tried Thunder Force 4 in jEnesisDS, but I assume it's a frame rate issue. If the number in the lower left hand corner of the touchscreen is anywhere below 60, it's putting some stress on the DS's processors and jEnesisDS just can't keep up.
I've tried Sonic 1, though. I'm assuming the hardware renderer can't update that sprite properly in the context of a special stage. You might've noticed that at the end title card, the "SCORE" doesn't go up as the ring bonus and time bonus are being counted, too. Might be a similar issue. If it's a problem for you, I suggest you try holding X (with 6-Button Pad OFF). It gets old after a while, but it updates better.

[Flygon]

You will find that in many emulators for DS that running a game that lags lots on an original hardware (Like Thunder Force 4, I presume) will lag a LOT more on the emulator, the emulator is essentially underclocked compared to the original console.

An excellent example is running Recca - Summer Carnival '92 on NesDS. Despite the DS being so much more powerful it is almost always less than 95% speed in emulating that particular game.

[Lordus]

You will find that in many emulators for DS that running a game that lags lots on an original hardware (Like Thunder Force 4, I presume) will lag a LOT more on the emulator, the emulator is essentially underclocked compared to the original console.

I cannot speak for other emus, but in jEnesisDS surely nothing is underclocked. Slowdowns can have multiple reasons. Of course you have to distinguish between ingame slowdowns (for games that lag on the original hardware, too) and slowdowns in emulation (fps dropping below 60fps).

The former should ideally be the same in an emulator as they are on the real thing, but it mostly depends on how accurate timing is emulated. You'll see sometimes, that turning H-Int emulation "ON" makes those lags smaller.

Thunder Force 4 has some emulation slowdowns in the title select screen, because it thrashes my tile caching sometimes, and ingame lags, that are present on real hardware, too. I cannot really see it "randomly" speeding up and down. I ran it beside Kega Fusion for some minutes, and couldn't notice any big differences.

[Venazard]

Hey could someone let me know when the update that'll allow me to play ROMS that are bigger than 3MB is ready. Thank You. Also this is an AWSOME!!!! emulator. Thanks.

[Flygon]

I cannot speak for other emus, but in jEnesisDS surely nothing is underclocked. Slowdowns can have multiple reasons. Of course you have to distinguish between ingame slowdowns (for games that lag on the original hardware, too) and slowdowns in emulation (fps dropping below 60fps).

I only really used underclocking as an example, I fully understand jEnesisDS is not underclocked but I was saying that it could be one way of putting the slowdowns, the emulator not having enough time to do its stuff and so on.

I don't claim to be an expert on the Mega Drive, I just know how it works =P

But anyway, great emulator and it has great speed too, it amazes me that NesDS would actually lag more with the crap I tested than jEnesisDS.

By the way, there is a severe error with F-117 Night Storm, the graphics are completely corrupt when you get to the play field (They don't update properly, they change the mappings correctly each frame but the art remains the same).