Hello, welcome. As usual, and I know you guys really like it, today I bring a compilation of all the main news from the beginning of January until almost the end of February. A lot has happened during this period.
Among the highlights, a controversial PS3 emulator for Android, the launch of Game Fusion, which also came with some controversies, the return of Sadachi, and the removal of an Android emulator from the Play Store. But first, a message from the sponsors. If you want to buy original games while saving a lot, check out Instant Gaming. the digital store that sells games for various platforms, such as PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
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Before we begin, please leave a like to help promote the video. And if this is your first time on the channel, consider subscribing for more updates. Starting with Drastic, the best Nintendo DS emulator available for Android.
I had already mentioned last year that Drastic would be the next emulator to be removed from the Play Store. Its developer had made the emulator free for everyone after Nintendo sued and shut down Yuzu. This time, it had nothing to do with Nintendo, but rather with Google Play's policies. Basically, today, to have an app on Google Play, you need to update the SDK, which are the Android system libraries.
However, Drastic hadn't received updates in over two years, making this SDK obsolete with the last version of Android at the time of the last update. Also, It is mandatory to have a physical address and email to have an app on Google Play, which essentially turns your app into a business. The drastic development team disagrees with this policy, as they believe it could compromise privacy and potentially bring issues to the developers. Now, with PCSX2, the project received a list of games this month that saw up to a 300% increase in performance, depending on the hardware. The list of games will be shown on screen for you.
Basically, some games were making unnecessary texture copies on the GPU. and these textures were being updated too frequently, causing the game's performance to be below expectations. I tested some games on my machine and saw an increase of almost 10 fps.
However, since I noticed this was a GPU issue, maybe my GPU is fast enough to handle all these texture changes. In other benchmarks presented by the PCSX2 team, there was a significant improvement, especially at higher resolutions. For those who want to know more, just watch the link on the card.
Another controversial highlight this month was the launch of Game Fusion. For those who don't know, Game Fusion does the same thing as WinLater, meaning it runs PC games on Android. However, to make things work on Game Fusion, you don't need a PhD in computer science.
In general, I believe emulators should be functional enough for an average user to make things work, and that's what Game Fusion delivers. The compatibility and performance are lower than WinLater, for example, but all you need to do is point to where your game folder is. and it takes care of the rest, configuring everything and downloading the necessary dependencies to make it work. Amazing, right?
However, things aren't as good as they seem. The first issue is that Android started blocking the installation of this app due to data collection, which caused a lack of trust in the project from the community. We also know that this company aims to monetize, either through ads or the sale of games or products. Do you think Game Fusion is Next we have the emulator I recently tested and definitely liked what I saw, Kronos, the Sega Saturn emulator.
In this new update, nearly 30 games were improved. There might be more that haven't been tested yet. Overall, games that wouldn't even start before were fixed, along with others that had issues with sprites or 3D environments in general. This new update, along with the Yachting, is a great way to start your game.
Yaba Sanshiro 2 update brought many graphical improvements to make your favorite classic game look modern and clean. I tried version 2.7 of Kronos and found it to be very good, smooth, and intuitive. If you use this emulator, I recommend updating it as soon as possible.
Another project that took forward an idea highly suggested by the community emerged, bringing together all the fixes and improvements from various 3DS emulators into one project, Borg 3DS. This emulator combines all the improvements from Mandarin, Lime 3DS, and the old Pablonk 7 fork into one large project, aiming to unify everything. Bort 3DS is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and also for Android, with very modest system requirements, asking for only a Snapdragon 835 on Android. I also tested it and thought the project was good, but very similar to all the projects we currently have.
If you're dissatisfied with any project, whether due to lack of updates or issues with a particular game, it's worth using Borg 3DS, which had its last update a week ago. Another project we've discussed on the channel, which also aims to emulate the Nintendo 3DS, is Tanooki 3DS. Initially, it was released only for Linux, but now we have versions for Linux, Mac, and Windows. The big difference with Tanooki, compared to other emulators, is that all are based on Citra. But Tanooki is a new project.
made from scratch. Although I tested its initial version and found many issues, when I tested it again to record this video, I was surprised. Obviously, not all games worked, like Resident Evil Revelations, but it would be unfair to say that this is a bad project. Right from its early versions, the audio was perfect, and APIs for joysticks were already implemented, which are currently configured automatically.
Some features I missed were a v-sync option, so I had to lock the FPS directly with RevitWinner to prevent games from speeding up. the lack of a user interface, and the lack of upscaling, which, even though it's mentioned on the project's website, I couldn't figure out how to enable. Shad PS4 also reached its version 0.6, and as of now, it runs 255 out of the 1,711 games tested in the project, making a total of 15% of games playable. According to the developer, version 0.6 received many improvements since the last version, making many games become playable.
along with other interesting projects. Among the improvements are, improvements in DevTools Shader Recompilation, SDL Audio API, which allowed near-perfect audio in Bloodborne, implementation of motion controls, save improvements, UI enhancements, such as game loading speed, kernel improvements, fix for issues when initializing a game on Windows, and the option to change the location of save data. Talking about visible improvements for the average user, there are now practically no more graphical issues in Bloodborne, like vertex breaks and particles.
The fog is now rendered correctly, and shadows, at least in my case, showed considerable improvements, with no more giant shadows on the character. There were also stability improvements, making the emulator use PC resources in a more modest way. After a few months without updates, Sadachi not only brought one update but two. It now supports Donkey Kong Country HD. which was leaked just days before this update.
And finally it received another update, where it was said to have only improved the compatibility and accuracy of some games, but nothing that an average user could notice, since no list of affected games was released. Finally, the Citroen 0.5 update has been released. As I've shown in some previous videos, it's now possible to play some Unreal Engine games on Android, as long as the Mr. Purple Driver is used. There were performance and compatibility improvements overall. Looking directly at the change log provided by the development team, they inform us that Citroen received significant improvements in its core, with the implementation of services and optimizations.
This update focuses on enhanced stability, improved networking features, and better compatibility on Android. For those who want to know more about the updates, I'll leave a playlist for you to check out the changes since version 0.4. Still talking about Nintendo Switch, we now have the project called MelonX.
which is a Nintendo Switch emulator for Apple platforms, namely macOS and iOS. I want to first thank the Discord users who made the gameplay captures and allowed me to use them, Deflex and JPikachu. The project uses the Ryujinx core as a base, as was shown in the project's closure, which, by the way, was working very well.
Apparently, looking at the project's page and benchmarks, it seems that the games are running below expectations, but after analyzing the benchmarks sent by Deflex and JPikachu, I see a solid project. The stutters when compiling shaders are slow, just like Ryujinx's shaders. But this is totally understandable when watching smooth gameplay on both systems.
Let's do a quick analysis of the games that were sent to me. The first analysis we'll do is of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Apparently, we have a standard resolution here, 1080p. In the open fields, the average is 27 FPS, occasionally dipping lower and sometimes reaching even the 30 FPS native to the console. In the shrines, the performance is significantly better, with a solid 30 fps.
Despite the slow shader compilation, I didn't notice any visual problems or sudden drops in performance. The second game tested was the first Hades. We know that this Switch version is one of the worst ports, both because of its distant zoom to save the console's graphical power and its inaccurate frame rate.
However, the playback sent to me shows a totally stable frame rate, which hardly drops below 60 fps. And again, There were no visual or performance issues. We also have Bowser's Fury, seemingly running at 1080p, which presents some slowness when compiling shaders, but after this process, the gameplay is smooth. There are no issues with reflections or other graphical problems, and I definitely consider this game playable. Super Mario 3D World was also flawlessly run by J.Pikachu, seemingly at 1080p.
However, this time, I noticed a small visual issue with the shadows of objects. It could be an issue with the screen recorder, or it could be a small visual glitch from the emu. emulator, but this shouldn't affect the experience for anyone looking to enjoy the game. Lastly, we have Super Mario Bros. Wonder, seemingly running at 1080p and 100% playable.
I didn't notice any visual issues or other problems. The shader compilation here was significantly faster, but keep in mind that this game has many 2D objects. What did you think of the performance test of Melon X? Personally, I expected this project to be much worse, but I was pleasantly surprised by the results.
Lastly, let's talk about more controversy, this time with APS3E, the PlayStation 3 emulator for Android. I made a video testing and talking more in depth about it, I'll leave the card. But for those who want a summary, initially, the Chinese developer of this emulator, simulator asked for a sum of $5,000 for the project to be released as open source and quickly received many negative comments from other projects like RPCS3, CMU, and even Vita 3K, from which he took the touchscreen controls.
After that, he lowered the goal to $2,000, saying he couldn't work on this project full-time, but if the goal was met, he could release all the code. Then, the RPCS3 team decided to take down the project, claiming that they were not respecting open source rules. But hold on, it's not over yet. In recent days, the developer posted again on his page, thanking users for their support, who deeply respected the RPCS3 team. However, at the time of the post, they were unaware of the GPL2 license, which may have led them to make some incorrect statements.
And now, APS3 will always remain open source and free. But here's the catch, the emulator is not open source, as the code is not yet available. Continuing. the developer says that the emulator is still in an early and unfinished stage, even needing a user interface and an icon to represent the project. However, right now, they need user feedback for debugging.
And once the user experience is stable, they will release the source code. They also claim that releasing the code right now could lead to malicious code compilations. And it's still not over, here's the worst part. The developer says that the project will now enter a closed beta, and you can join if you want via Reddit, Discord, or WeChat. where non-public and completely free builds will be distributed.
But, there's always a catch. You'll only be able to get these builds if you're a donor. If you make a donation via PayPal or another platform, you'll join the alpha testing group and then receive the test versions. What do you think about this?
Finally, after seeing all of this, the developer of Sadachi decided to create a new project called RPCS3 Droid, which, literally, consists of porting RPCS3 to Android. Keep in mind that this already exists. with a project called Olympus.
However, to get it working, you need to run two different Termix terminals, paste some code lines, and nothing guarantees it will work. I don't consider myself that stupid, and I tried executing the process twice. following tutorials precisely, and in the end, nothing happened. So, if you don't want a headache, it's not worth trying to run this project, as it's too much work for a disappointing result. And those were the news for February.
Thanks for your audience, and I'll see you in the next video.