Hello, everyone. I'm working on a run for the Game Boy Advance. And I noticed there are some tricks I can perform with ease on the real system, while I'm having severe trouble in Visual Boy Advance (this extends to VBA-M). Does anyone else experience this? And what could be causing it? Perhaps it's easier to perform frame or pixel perfect tricks on the original hardware, because we're more used to it?
One thing could be the input method - the GBA might allow for better inputs than a keyboard or USB controller on the emulator.
Another thing is that VBA can be inaccurate compared to an actual GBA so it could be that the emulator is running a bit faster than the console which could lead to less input frames to perform some of the tricks.
Emulators can also have a tiny bit of input delay, which can impact movement and tough tricks.
[quote] I'm having severe trouble in Visual Boy Advance (this extends to VBA-M). [/quote] Well tbh VBA isn't that accurate compared to console or other emulators (¤cough¤ BizHawk ¤cough¤), so that's not really surprising
[quote="UbuntuJackson"]Why use an emulator, when you can run on a real Game Boy Advance?[/quote] For me, it's because I want to record my runs, for multiple reasons. I can't record from the handheld.
[quote="xDrHellx"]Well tbh VBA isn't that accurate compared to console or other emulators (¤cough¤ BizHawk ¤cough¤), so that's not really surprising[/quote] Would you recommend BizHawk? I've never looked into it.
I tried BizHawk, and I really like how it's set up... However, at some point I experienced slow-down, which is of course highly unwanted when speedrunning. Perhaps it was because I was using OBS to record at the same time...
This is less applicable for GBA (I don't actually know if they even support capture cards), but if you use an external console and a capture card, your recording software doesn't have to compete with an emulator for your computer's CPU usage.
The only way to record GBA games on original hardware, that I know of, is using the Gamecube's Gameboy Player. I haven't got a Gamecube, however.
You can use a DS also, since it has a GBA Slot. I'm not sure if people still make capture boards for these though ?
@xDrHelix: NDS Capture boards are currently in the making, last time I asked, Neal was waiting for a response from a new seller for the last missing component.
VBA is extremly inaccurate to the point where Bizhawk (which btw uses either the VBA-next or mGBA core for GBA games) during routing felt like a 10% speed improvement that I also felt when I finally got to try Pokemon Emerald on console. Trying stuff like Spinner manip in that game on VBA also showcases the input lag very well. And I'm not at all used to original hardware, because I haven't owned the game for about 7 years before that
I can't afford to spend $150,- to enjoy speedrunning better.
[quote=Mitsunee]VBA is extremly inaccurate to the point where Bizhawk (which btw uses either the VBA-next or mGBA core for GBA games) during routing felt like a 10% speed improvement that I also felt when I finally got to try Pokemon Emerald on console. Trying stuff like Spinner manip in that game on VBA also showcases the input lag very well. And I'm not at all used to original hardware, because I haven't owned the game for about 7 years before that[/quote] I'd really like to use BizHawk instead. But as I said, it froze on me for a couple of frames, something Visual Boy Advance hasn't ever done. Have you got any idea on how to prevent that? (also, VBA isn't 'extremely inaccurate'. It looks and sounds identical to my eyes and ears, and if it were 'extremely inaccurate', it wouldn't even look and sound remotely similar.)
[quote] (also, VBA isn't 'extremely inaccurate'. It looks and sounds identical to my eyes and ears, and if it were 'extremely inaccurate', it wouldn't even look and sound remotely similar.) [/quote]
The framerate isn't as stable as on BizHawk (in general), also, the main problem, atleast for me, is lag. VBA handles lag very badly, what should be a few frames of lag becomes seconds (minutes even, in some games). It may sound like something not important, but trust me, it is.
As for why it froze, all i know is that Bizhawk uses more resources on your PC, so maybe it's because of that ? I remember not being able to use Bizhawk when it first came out, my PC wasn't good enough to run it without having problems.
Yup. I did a run on BizHawk, on my desktop pc (which is more powerful than my laptop), and it went a whole lot more smoothly. The framerate was fully stable, while in VBA it gets bad half of the time. My laptop isn't as strong, but it should be able to run most things without problems... but perhaps it can't handle recording and emulating at the same time?... I'll try some more. At this point, the time I'd lose with a potential freeze is less than the time I lose to my own mistakes anyway. :P