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HENKaku -- Vita Homebrew and more comes to all 3.60 Vitas

Joey Ravn

Banned
VitaShell 0.7 by FailOverfl0w released.

Changelog 0.7
Ported to HENkaku (support for renaming/creating folders and for analog stick for fast movement).
Added custom dialogs.
Added graphics by Freakler.
Added possibility to use FTP in background.
I/O operations can now be cancelled.
Removed misc stuff, shader compiler, homebrew loading, PBOOT.PBP signing, network host.
Fixed various bugs.

It's basically HENkaku (which in itself is based on VitaShell), so if you're OK with what you currently have, there's no need for you to install this. Backgrounf FTP is... OK, I guess. I don't understand why he removed all those features, though.
 

thomasmahler

Moon Studios
Does anyone else here also highly prefer the Vita over the 3DS when it comes to Emulation purposes? The 3DS just makes me cramp up and isn't that comfortable when you play with the DPAD - Whereas the Vita is just great. Also, while the 3DS has that native res screen, the screen quality is just garbage, whereas the Vitas OLED... holy crap. And now with SNES and Gameboy emulation, I can play A Link to the Past and Links Awakening at full speed and it's just all awesome, I'm super happy about Henkaku and have been playing with my Vita more than ever. Really makes you think where this handheld could've gone if it would've had proper software support to begin with.
 

NeOak

Member
Does anyone else here also highly prefer the Vita over the 3DS when it comes to Emulation purposes? The 3DS just makes me cramp up and isn't that comfortable when you play with the DPAD - Whereas the Vita is just great. Also, while the 3DS has that native res screen, the screen quality is just garbage, whereas the Vitas OLED... holy crap. And now with SNES and Gameboy emulation, I can play A Link to the Past and Links Awakening at full speed and it's just all awesome, I'm super happy about Henkaku and have been playing with my Vita more than ever. Really makes you think where this handheld could've gone if it would've had proper software support to begin with.

This really helps with the NN3DS XL

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B016XCSBC2/?tag=neogaf0e-20
 

Chesskid1

Banned
it looks like they changed the naming scheme for retroarch snes, according to the thread on gbatemp. i guess because they all are based on different versions of snes 9x, except heavily modified.

http://wiki.libretro.com/index.php?title=Category:Libretro_Cores

  • snes9x2002_libretro.vpk - Snes9X 2002 , SNES Emulator (Previously known as PocketSNES, Lowest Accuracy) *NEW*
  • snes9x2005_libretro.vpk - Snes9x 2005 v1.36, SNES Emulator (Formerly known as CatSFC) *NEW*
  • snes9x2005_plus_libretro.vpk - Snes9x 2005 Plus v1.36, SNES Emulator + Improved Sound? (Formerly known as CatSFC+) *NEW*
  • snes9x2010_libretro.vpk - Snes9x 2010 v1.52.4, SNES Emulator (Formerly known as Snes9x_Next, Highest Accuracy, slow!) *NEW*

shrug. latest nightly is up btw.
 

Redhood

Member
We should really be looking into asking the developer of PPSSPP for a possible vita port rather than a psp exploit. Native Vita resolution rendered PSP games + 60 fps patches are more of a big deal.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
it looks like they changed the naming scheme for retroarch snes, according to the thread on gbatemp

  • snes9x2002_libretro.vpk - Snes9X 2002 , SNES Emulator (Previously known as PocketSNES, Lowest Accuracy) *NEW*
  • snes9x2005_libretro.vpk - Snes9x 2005 v1.36, SNES Emulator (Formerly known as CatSFC) *NEW*
  • snes9x2005_plus_libretro.vpk - Snes9x 2005 Plus v1.36, SNES Emulator + Improved Sound? (Formerly known as CatSFC+) *NEW*
  • snes9x2010_libretro.vpk - Snes9x 2010 v1.52.4, SNES Emulator (Formerly known as Snes9x_Next, Highest Accuracy, slow!) *NEW*

shrug. latest nightly is up btw.

That's... totally not confusing at all! What a brilliant idea!

Why!?

We should really be looking into asking the developer of PPSSPP for a possible vita port rather than a psp exploit. Native Vita resolution rendered PSP games + 60 fps patches are more of a big deal.

Is this just wishful thinking or has anyone actually done the math to see whether this is factually possible? I've seen "stuff X needs to be ported to Vita now", including PS2 and Dreamcast emulators, but I honestly think people are completely overestimating the capabilities of this machine. I don't know if the Vita has the power to emulate a PSP at four times the resolution (480x272 to 960x544), let alone at 60 FPS.
 

Redhood

Member
Is this just wishful thinking or has anyone actually done the math to see whether this is factually possible? I've seen "stuff X needs to be ported to Vita now", including PS2 and Dreamcast emulators, but I honestly think people are completely overestimating the capabilities of this machine. I don't know if the Vita has the power to emulate a PSP at four times the resolution (480x272 to 960x544), let alone at 60 FPS.

Hence the word possible! Lets not forget Vita has 3 cores and more RAM. A PSP emulator doesn't seem farfetched! Only the developer can assess that. Hence was suggesting that.
 

c0de

Member
That's... totally not confusing at all! What a brilliant idea!

Why!?

It's not that bad at all to me. At least it's all Snes9x now :)

Is this just wishful thinking or has anyone actually done the math to see whether this is factually possible? I've seen "stuff X needs to be ported to Vita now", including PS2 and Dreamcast emulators, but I honestly think people are completely overestimating the capabilities of this machine. I don't know if the Vita has the power to emulate a PSP at four times the resolution (480x272 to 960x544), let alone at 60 FPS.

I really think hackers should find out what Sony does to get psp games running on the vita and just use the same approach.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
It's not that bad at all to me. At least it's all Snes9x now :)

I really think hackers should find out what Sony does to get psp games running on the vita and just use the same approach.

I think that having CATSFC as one option and SNES9X as another option is better, for clarity's sake. Now we have four cores with the same basic name, but with subtle variations: 2002, 2005, 2005 Plus and 2010. It looks like KOF nomenclature...

As for the PSP emulator, what you're suggesting is exactly what has been happening until now: developers have been exploiting Sony's native PSP emulator to run PSP ISOs. But that just runs them in PSP mode... like what happens with the Wii mode in the Wii U or the DS mode in the 3DS. Or the 360 virtual machine in the Xbox One, I guess.
 

c0de

Member
As for the PSP emulator, what you're suggesting is exactly what has been happening until now: developers have been exploiting Sony's native PSP emulator to run PSP ISOs. But that just runs them in PSP mode... like what happens with the Wii mode in the Wii U or the DS mode in the 3DS. Or the 360 virtual machine in the Xbox One, I guess.

So they have to find a way to run the emulator in Vita mode? Can we switch to PSP mode with the hack? Sorry, but I am totally new to the Vita hacking stuff.
 
Is it normal that the newest CatSFC core (the stable build I think) doesn't save in any game? Tried FFVI, SMW and Super Metroid. I mean the ingame save.

Also, is there a way to open RetroArch oprions while ingame or do I always have to quit and restart for those options?

Any difference between CatSFC and CatSFC Plus cores?
 

Chesskid1

Banned
Is it normal that the newest CatSFC core (the stable build I think) doesn't save in any game? Tried FFVI, SMW and Super Metroid. I mean the ingame save.

Also, is there a way to open RetroArch oprions while ingame or do I always have to quit and restart for those options?

Any difference between CatSFC and CatSFC Plus cores?

there are no stable versions of retroarch, just nightlies that are well, coming out nightly. if there is a save bug, people will be reporting it so expect it to be fixed soon. i remember people complaining about this a few days ago and it was fixed, so really make sure you are running latest versions.

L+R and select+start to adjust options while in-game. you can change it @ Main Menu -> Settings -> Input -> Menu Toggle Gamepad Combo.

CatSFC Plus has better sound but runs worse.

a user is running a retroarch catch-all thread on GBAtemp which is really handy, btw. covered most of your questions.

So, in-game saving doesn't work on mgba?

Should have had a disclaimer.-.

Also the sound issues are horrid :/

dude cmon, you are using a hack/homebrew that has been literally out a week. A WEEK! expect tons of bugs!

i dunno if mgba is having saving problems, haven't heard people complain about this. maybe someone else can chime in. found a thread on reddit for ya.

and yeah, the sound is horrid but has nothing to do with the sound emulation.

mGBA dev said:
It should be worth noting that the sound issues aren't a bug, per se, so much as a side effect of the game running slowly. mGBA doesn't do any sort of audio stretching, so what you're hearing is the sound coming out as fast as it can, and gaps when it can't keep up, which leads to the awful mess you hear. Trust me, I know it's horrible, but there isn't a real fix apart from speeding up the emulator. When games run full speed, the audio is clean, but very few games run at precisely full speed
 
there are no stable versions of retroarch, just nightlies that are well, coming out nightly. if there is a save bug, people will be reporting it so expect it to be fixed soon.

L+R and select+start to adjust options while in-game. you can change it somewhere in options.

CatSFC Plus has better sound but runs worse.

thanks a ton! ^^
 

Scavenger

Member
P4G cutscenes have been subbed. I now have a completely undubbed version of P4G running on my Vita. :)

P4D has also been undubbed.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
So they have to find a way to run the emulator in Vita mode? Can we switch to PSP mode with the hack? Sorry, but I am totally new to the Vita hacking stuff.

No. HENkaku and the ePSP exploits are two different things altogether. HENkaku is a native hax and doesn't touch the ePSP part of the Vita. In order to run PSP ISOs (and CSOs) with the official PSP emulator created by Sony, you need to have a kernel exploit for the ePSP.

Until OFW 3.55, this emulator had flaws that could be exploited and used to run ISOs, but they were patched with OFW 3.57. So a new flaw needs to be found and published to enable the native PSP emulator on OFW 3.60.

I may be mistaken, but I don't think we will ever be able to run PSP games without going to the ePSP mode. That is to say, unless someone comes up with a non-official PSP emulator for Vita, like PPSSPP, we won't be able to run PSP games as if they were native Vita games.

Edit: Also, some people have already solved the Stage 2 portion of the hack. It has kernel access and all that!

http://yifan.lu/2016/08/05/henkaku-koth-challenge/#comment-7062
 

c0de

Member
No. HENkaku and the ePSP exploits are two different things altogether. HENkaku is a native hax and doesn't touch the ePSP part of the Vita. In order to run PSP ISOs (and CSOs) with the official PSP emulator created by Sony, you need to have a kernel exploit for the ePSP.

Until OFW 3.55, this emulator had flaws that could be exploited and used to run ISOs, but they were patched with OFW 3.57. So a new flaw needs to be found and published to enable the native PSP emulator on OFW 3.60.

I may be mistaken, but I don't think we will ever be able to run PSP games without going to the ePSP mode. That is to say, unless someone comes up with a non-official PSP emulator for Vita, like PPSSPP, we won't be able to run PSP games as if they were native Vita games.

Edit: Also, some people have already solved the Stage 2 portion of the hack. It has kernel access and all that!

http://yifan.lu/2016/08/05/henkaku-koth-challenge/#comment-7062

Awesome, thanks for the insight!
 
Things are definitely progressing with the nightly retroarch builds, snes9x2005_libretro *formerly known as CatSFC* can now play Kirby Superstar at pretty much full speed (56~60fps) compared to the 38fps it had before.
 

Max_Po

Banned
I love my Vita, but do you have to keep the system always ON? as in Sleep mode.

I havn't touched the Vita in a year...


OLED baby.
 

firelogic

Member
So, in-game saving doesn't work on mgba?

Should have had a disclaimer.-.

Also the sound issues are horrid :/

In-game saving is working for Metroid Fusion for me. The problem is it keeps locking up after the 3rd save room. Sound is ok too in-game but bad at the title screen.
 

L.O.R.D

Member
i really hope someone figure out how to decrypt the Vita memory card to be able to use mSD adapter with the Vita,200GB memory card for less then $60? Of course yes.
 

L.O.R.D

Member
I doubt there will be one, the cards are pretty much the same size.

it doesn't have to be the same size,it could be small circuit you can attach it to the mSD card,or something like this and can latch to the PS Vita it self.

sku_17296_4.jpg
 

Eylos

Banned
someone got the link to the mgba build? the last one (i think nightly) I downloaded doesn't work, I have installed, and then tried to execute then I got an error C-something
 

NeOak

Member
Hence the word possible! Lets not forget Vita has 3 cores and more RAM. A PSP emulator doesn't seem farfetched! Only the developer can assess that. Hence was suggesting that.
More cores doesn't automatically mean "faster" machine, especially for emulators.
 
My Vita arrived today, woohoo. Had a busy day though, so way too tired to attempt anything today. I'm going to download 3.6 firmware in the meantime and attempt it tomorrow, hopefully.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
I'll also report back soon. I'm transfering my copy of Digimon World 3. I'll start with a purely 2D game and see how it performs :)

Edit: Digimon World 3 crashes RetroArch for me...

Edit2: Also, does anyone know if installing a new nightly VPK overwrites the previous installation, like it does when you install a newer CIA on 3DS?
 
We seriously need to make a list of the best emulators (or versions of emulators) for each system. This is just getting to be really confusing.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
PCSXr doesn't work yet. Crashes on launch of a .bin or .cue file.

I don't have an ISO because I ripped it from the disc. Maybe making them into that would work better?

Yeah, people are reporting that it seems to have been pulled from nightly? Or something like that. It's clearly not meant to be usable just yet, though.
 

Chesskid1

Banned
crashes on load for metal gear solid here as well, but it's happening!

Yeah, people are reporting that it seems to have been pulled from nightly? Or something like that. It's clearly not meant to be usable just yet, though.

still there for me. the good thing about buildbot is the uploads are timestamped so you know if theres a change or not.

will be cool to do a side-by-side of games with the pcsx emulator/psn release.

retroarch devs @ reddit said:
Doesn't work right now, hold tight while we figure out why.

In the meantime, I'm going to upload a new video showing all the progress we have made over the past few days. Lots of extra stuff now working!

retroarch devs are aware of the issue and are working on it now, and will show off all the stuff that is now working!

also, remember this from a few pages ago :p

wECSBEy.png
 
crashes on load for metal gear solid here as well, but it's happening!



still there for me. the good thing about buildbot is the uploads are timestamped so you know if theres a change or not.

will be cool to do a side-by-side of games with the pcsx emulator/psn release.

best thing about ps1 emulation is screenshots and higher res rendering

native widescreen hacks, even
 
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