Homebrew OPEN_AGB_FIRM discussion thread

[Kwyjor]

I'm playing Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls and don't know why but sometimes the game lost the progress.
I'm using the in-game save method, save in all 3 save slots to be sure but, when i turn on the console and try to load i see a hours old saves, it seems that console/emulator don't update save file. What can i do?

Are you using virtual console injects, or open_agb_firm, or something else?

Are normal 3DS games on your unit saving normally?

 

[Nothin]

Are you using virtual console injects, or open_agb_firm, or something else?

Are normal 3DS games on your unit saving normally?

I'm using open_agb_firm with chainloader (start+Power)
I didn't test saving with 3ds games because i use 3ds only to play GBA emulator.
I noticed another problem, sometimes when I start chainloader the screens stay black. To solve I have to remove the sd, blow and put back. That is why I doubt that the SD may have been damaged and AGB has problems writing / updating the saves..
Could It be the problem?

 

[pokota]

are you able to boot into cfw normally? I have a tangentally-related issue where occasionally my 3ds needs to just... be turned completely off for a few hours (I'm guessing there's a battery expansion issue in my case) for it to read the sd card correctly.

Blowing on the sd chip shouldn't help since it's constantly in contact (and unless you're using canned air you're also introducing acidity and moisture from your mouth, which will eventually degrade the contact points) but taking it out and putting it back in might be what's fixing it by reseating the sd chip.

 

[Kwyjor]

I didn't test saving with 3ds games because i use 3ds only to play GBA emulator.

I asked because it would be useful to know if they saved correctly, so why don't you test that now?

If your SD card is failing, then other 3DS games won't save properly either.

 

[ghjfdtg]

@Nothin
I would recommend to you check your SD card with h2testw/f3 and format it again. Bad contact in your SD card slot can also be a reason for corrupted save files/lost progress.

 

[Nothin]

are you able to boot into cfw normally? I have a tangentally-related issue where occasionally my 3ds needs to just... be turned completely off for a few hours (I'm guessing there's a battery expansion issue in my case) for it to read the sd card correctly.

Blowing on the sd chip shouldn't help since it's constantly in contact (and unless you're using canned air you're also introducing acidity and moisture from your mouth, which will eventually degrade the contact points) but taking it out and putting it back in might be what's fixing it by reseating the sd chip.

I asked because it would be useful to know if they saved correctly, so why don't you test that now?

If your SD card is failing, then other 3DS games won't save properly either.

@Nothin
I would recommend to you check your SD card with h2testw/f3 and format it again. Bad contact in your SD card slot can also be a reason for corrupted save files/lost progress.

Thankyou for all the tips.
I tested the sd with h2testw.
Result: No problem.
But i bought new sd, formatted and copied all files from old sd.
I tried to power on and power off many times the 3ds and it works perfectly!
Don't know whats the problem but it seems to be solved

 

[ImaDireWolf]

This is unclear. Are you saying you want to store save data on the NAND instead of on the SD card..?

i want to agb_firm store and read savegames that are in the same folder as my roms instead of a separated save folder

 

[Kwyjor]

hi, theres a way to make open_agb_firm to read .sav files from rom folder? tried editing the folder dir with hex edit but with no success, i want to use the same sd and saves between gbarunner2 and open_agb_firm only needing to swap sd cards

i want to agb_firm store and read savegames that are in the same folder as my roms instead of a separated save folder

So, what does that have to do with "swapping SD cards"?

 

[ImaDireWolf]

So, what does that have to do with "swapping SD cards"?

because i want to use the same sd card for both gbarunner2 on my dsi and open_agb_firm on my 3ds so i can have the same roms/saves for both

 

[pokota]

...okay new question. Why not just pick one system for GBA and stick with that?

 

[ImaDireWolf]

...okay new question. Why not just pick one system for GBA and stick with that?

because i like the sharpness of dsi xl but need the portability of my o3ds? is there a problem with that?

 

[godreborn]

because i like the sharpness of dsi xl but need the portability of my o3ds? is there a problem with that?

both gbarunner and open_agb_firm saves should work with each other, but you'll have to have 2 copies of the games and the saves iirc. I never had to do anything between both, so it should work for you.

 

[gyr0ray0]

i want to agb_firm store and read savegames that are in the same folder as my roms instead of a separated save folder

Why don't you just drop your roms into

/open_agb_firm/saves

, then set oagbf and GBARunner2 to read them from there...

I know it's a dumb workaround, but maybe you can give it a try?

Also, it'd be a good idea to ask the developers for an option to set custom saves folder in oagb...

 

[RetroGen]

3DS screen is 800x240. If you wanna see how a perfect 3x horizontal scale can look, install mGBA and play any GBA game. You'll see it doesn't make much of a difference: it sounds amazing, but in reality it's not even noticeable.

Just spent some time comparing OAF and mGBA and 800x240 mode definitely provides a noticeable image quality improvement. Text is sharper and fine detail is better resolved, looking like an overall higher resolution image. Zelda LTTP looks great in 800x240 using Binlinear (pixelated), surprisingly so, given the GBA's original resolution. In contrast, OAF looks reasonably sharp from a distance, but finer details appear chunky and less distinct up close due to the lower resolution. The differences in detail became easier to discern after spending a little time with Hori-HD and swapping between 400 and 800 pixel modes and learning the impact on the image. Unfortunately, mGBA seems to have some minor sound glitches on my N3DS XL, whilst OAF runs otherwise flawlessly, so hopefully mGBA will fix that in the future.

 

[ghjfdtg]

oaf also has bilinear scaling if you prefer it. Should be scaling mode 1 in the config file.

 

[RetroGen]

oaf also has bilinear scaling if you prefer it. Should be scaling mode 1 in the config file.

Yes, tried that setting. Bilinear OAF looks smooth and a tad blurry for my taste, and doesn't show fine detail like mGBA in 800x240. The 800 pixel mode really does make a noticeable improvement and is my preferred option for upscaling; it retains fine detail, but with fewer jaggies than 400x240, resulting in a smooth-yet-sharp image. It's sort of a holy grail for 3DS upscaling, IMO.

I started down this rabbit hole after using Sono's TWPatch, finding it helped improve detail in DS games when using Linear sharpen 1.

 

[BETA215]

Sure, though 'having to learn' the difference between 800px and 400px, evidently shows that most wouldn't even notice it. And I really don't unless I'm looking for it.

Scaling to 240p is already an awful enough situation, I can't see how 800px mode would make such a noticeable difference.

The hardware scaler is really cool, bilinear makes sense though it's not my cup of tea... but pixel perfect mode is amazing on XL consoles - GBA's image shows at the same size of an original GBA.

Pixel perfect mode just needs the ability to use borders and it'll be fantastic - those immense black borders feel awful to the eyes.

 

[RetroGen]

Sure, though 'having to learn' the difference between 800px and 400px, evidently shows that most wouldn't even notice it. And I really don't unless I'm looking for it.

Scaling to 240p is already an awful enough situation, I can't see how 800px mode would make such a noticeable difference.

The hardware scaler is really cool, bilinear makes sense though it's not my cup of tea... but pixel perfect mode is amazing on XL consoles - GBA's image shows at the same size of an original GBA.

Pixel perfect mode just needs the ability to use borders and it'll be fantastic - those immense black borders feel awful to the eyes.

1:1 is obviously the best for accuracy, though pretty small, IMO. However, 800px mode does provide objectively better integer scaling. I mentioned Hori-HD because such differences in visual perception may not be readily apparent to the untrained eye; but once you see the improvement from using 800x240, it is impossible to unsee. The detail visible in various textures in Zelda LTTP is quite impressive in 800px. If aiming for the best possible upscaled image quality, 800px is clearly superior. Of course, this is not to take away from OAF, just to point out that 800x240 is the best choice if having optimal upscaled image quality is the goal.

 

[steval_beaning]

I'd agree that 800px mode quite obviously looks better and would definitely be worth it

 

[Maximumbeans]

See as much as I appreciate having crisp 1:1, the image is just too small for me. It was fine back in the day but now I’d rather use bilinear and have it a comfortably larger size. Just preference I guess.