| smbhax [sys=PC; cat=Emulation; reg=NA] |
| | | GBA emulator by Vicki Pfau.
https://mgba.io/
https://github.com/mgba-emu/mgba
Seems competitive with Visual Boy Advance-M (see entry 1538), except that on quick glance I wasn't able to toggle up the menu in full screen easily. |
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| | | Seems to run a bit better and maybe get updated more frequently than Visual Boy Advance-M.
... Oh wait, I WAS running mGBA before, and I went to VBA-M because mGBA started running chuggy. GHhmm. Well, now I've flopped back to mGBA? I guess we'll see. : PP |
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| | | Pfau's (old) blog: http://endrift.com/
mGBA is currently the only GBA emulator recommended by emulation.gametechwiki.com : https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Game_Boy_Advance_emulators |
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| | | "Just worked" with the DualShock4, impressive.
Had some trouble with the "Cheats" menu; it's a little confusing, but the emulator does autosave codes you enter; gotta look 'em up on the internet, and apparently there are just a lot of wrong codes out there. Finally found a working infinite lives cheat for Sonic Advance at https://www.almarsguides.com/retro/walkthroughs/GBA/games/SonicAdvance/CodeBreaker/ , for instance. |
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| | | There's currently a "frame stuttering" bug in mGBA that has been bedeviling the developer for a while now: https://github.com/mgba-emu/mgba/issues/2199
I was getting stuttery framerate too; most of it went away after I lowered "Settings - Audio/Video - Audio buffer" to the minimum setting, 512--which is also supposed to minimize input lag.
Another work around for the stuttering issue is to set "Display driver" on that same page to "OpenGL (force version 1.x)"; this eliminated the last of the stuttering for me--it wasn't really detectable in Sonic Advance, but was pretty obvious in F-Zero Maximum Velocity.
So, this is good! It fixes the janky feeling I'd associated with GBA emulation to this point--because Visual Boy Advance-M has it--or something very like it--as well.
Unrelated, in mGBA I've set "Settings - Enhancements - OpenGL enhancements - High-resolution scale" to the max, 16x ("3840x2560"); this makes Mode 7-style FX, like the ground in FZMV, render in high resolution rather than GBA base resolution, which makes a big difference; does not work in the "force" renderer though, and there's no "force" renderer in the Enhancements page's drop-down selection list (so Enhancements run through a separate renderer, interesting = o). |
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| | | | mGBA's volume setting is a big slider with no numeric output, so that's kind of no good for determining a repeatable setting. ; P |
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| | | | The GBA's screen aspect is 3:2. |
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| | | | Setting sound sample rate to 48000 Hz seemed to take a grating edge off the sound. |
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| | | | "Settings - Enhancements - XQ GBA audio (experimental)" is apparently just an attempt to make GBA sounds less "tinny" by making a "custom mix" that adds some reverb and stuff. 'p' |
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| | | That may be outdated?; https://mgba.io/faq.html#glossary says
"XQ audio: High-level mixing of the MP2k (Music Player 2000, sometimes erroneously called M4A or Sappy) audio engine for higher quality audio" |
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| | | Current altered settings then:
Audio
Driver: SDL
Buffer: 512
Sample rate: 48000
Video
Driver: OpenGL (force version 1.x)
Lock aspect ratio
Gameplay
FPS target: 59.7275 ("Native")
Sync: Audio
On loading a game: Load last state
Periodically autosave state
Save state extra data: Screenshot (disabled)
Load state extra data: Screenshot (disabled)
Interface
Show OSD messages (disabled)
Update
Automatically check on start
Enhancements:
Video renderer: OpenGL
XQ GBA audio (experimental)
OpenGL enhancements:
High-resolution scale: 16x |
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| | | Not sure if this is legit as it comes from the expanded "Google AI" results under
https://www.google.com/search?q=mgba+command+line&client=firefox-b-1-d&hs=bQNU&sca_esv=1badf32c9921710a&ei=4XxNad_ZD5yr0PEPv7yYyQo&ved=0ahUKEwifzpD2qdmRAxWcFTQIHT8eJqkQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=mgba+command+line&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiEW1nYmEgY29tbWFuZCBsaW5lMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTILEAAYgAQYhgMYigUyCxAAGIAEGIYDGIoFMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTILEAAYgAQYhgMYigUyBRAAGO8FMggQABiABBiiBEjdBlC6Ali6AnABeACQAQCYAVqgAVqqAQExuAEDyAEA-AEC-AEBmAICoAJowgIVEAAYgAQYsAMYsQMYQxiKBRhGGPkBwgINEAAYgAQYsAMYQxiKBZgDAIgGAZAGDJIHATKgB7oFsgcBMbgHX8IHAzItMsgHC4AIAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
'p'
but it says there's a command-line setting for volume. I'm trying to run from a shortcut with Target line for instance
C:\downloaded\mgba\mGBA.exe -f -C audio.volume=0.75 "games\Namco Museum (USA).7z"
but that audio volume part--"-C" supposedly allows you to override menu settings--isn't changing the volume, in either latest Stable or Development builds. I've entered it as an issue
https://github.com/mgba-emu/mgba/issues/3656
in case it actually is a supported feature. |
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| | | | Game Capture in OBS with -150|1620x1080 59.94 fps. Seems okay with the 'FPS target: 59.7275 ("Native")' setting. (Target at 60 definitely seemed a tad fast for Ms. Pac-Man in Namco Museum, for instance.) |
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| | | Options listed under that Google AI result whose source I can't seem to find (some of them are https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/man6/mgba.6.html , plus extensive debugger commands):
~~~~
Common Command Line Options
Launch & Display:
mgba <ROM_file>: Load a game ROM.
-f: Start in fullscreen.
-1, -2, etc.: Scale window by 1x, 2x, etc..
-s n: Skip every n frames (frame skip).
BIOS & Cheats:
-b biosfile: Specify a BIOS file.
-c cheatfile: Apply cheats from a file.
-p patchfile: Apply IPS/BPS/UPS patches.
Debugging & Logging:
-d: Start in command-line debugger.
-g: Start a GDB session (defaults to port 2345).
-l loglevel: Set log level (bitmask for errors, warnings, debug, etc.).
Save States & Configuration:
-t statefile: Load an initial game state.
-C option=value: Override configuration settings.
Example Usage
bash
# Launch Pokémon Emerald in fullscreen with GDB debugging
mgba -f -g pokemon_emerald.gba
# Load a specific save state and apply a cheat file
mgba -t save_slot1.state -c my_cheats.cht my_game.gba
# Run with increased logging for debugging
mgba -l 30 (1+2+4+8+16) my_game.gba |
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| | | | In the current Development build branch, that XQ audio "Enhancement" setting is gone. |
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| | | Pfau (endrift on github) let me know that the volume-setting command line is '-C volume=["integer value between 0 and 256"]' : )--so for instance
C:\downloaded\mgba\mGBA.exe -f -C volume=35 "games\Pac-Man Collection (USA).7z" |
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| | | | Pac-Man in Pac-Man collection was running to slow so I set the emulator back to 60 fps. ... Didn't really help hahah. |
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| | | Updated settings:
Audio
Driver: SDL
Buffer: 512
Sample rate: 48000
Video
Driver: OpenGL (force version 1.x)
Lock aspect ratio
Gameplay
FPS target: 60
Sync: Audio
On loading a game: Load last state
Periodically autosave state
Save state extra data: Screenshot (disabled)
Load state extra data: Screenshot (disabled)
Interface
Show OSD messages (disabled)
Update
Update channel: Development
Automatically check on start
Enhancements:
Video renderer: OpenGL
XQ GBA audio (experimental)
OpenGL enhancements:
High-resolution scale: 16x |
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