Emulation central - recommendations in 1st post

[Hirato]

http://pcsx2.net/278-q3-2016-progress-report.html

PCSX2 posted a third quarter dev report a little while ago.
Some pretty impressive visual improvements from the bugfixes.
Like this before and after for ICO

 

[aweigh]

CAN ANYbody help me out with launching CITRE? this is a picture of the error msg that appears when i double-click the "official build":

basically i simply downloaded the most recently linked .zip/.rar that one of you fine fellows keeps posting here in this very thread (i believe it was called the scissor branch? or some such? i have no idea); and that branch is the only one that actually gets me into CITRE's actual software execution.

then i simply LOAD a decrypted RPG (i fucking forgot it's name, LOL) and then it crashes upon loading the game with an "exception code" which i'll show you guys in a minute after a few more photos finish uploading to the bucket.

I also tried the non-official branch, i.e. the only one that actually launches instead of just auto-crashing when i double-click the icon; i tried using a non-Decrypted .3ds rom of elminage: gothic "3ds remix edition" and it is not a CIA it is simply an encrypted .3ds rom dump.

EXACT SAME error as w/ the decrypted strategy RPG whose name i seriously can't recall. BRB, more pics...

EDIT: ok, here are a pic of the error it shows me when i load either the strat-RPG or the encrypted elminage rom into the non-official branch from its main menu (yes, JIT is turned on):

Now, to load a decrypted rom...

EDIT x2: here is a pic of the non-official branch running, no games loaded, picture of the dos-window debugging/info-log screen:

I tried enabling all of these options and also disabling, and mix/matching:

 

[Hirato]

CAN ANYbody help me out with launching CITRE? this is a picture of the error msg that appears when i double-click the "official build":

You could just google it, this is the first result: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/2999226
tl;dr: update your windows.

 

[aweigh]

dude, do you think i didn't google suhn? come on man, give me some credit please. i have googled this since for now upwards of three weeks.

not a single link has led me to a solution and the only thing that sounds like it might fix it is upgrading to win 10 and updating with tons of microsoft fixes i do not have installed.

trust me, i googled this shit down to the 7th page of the google results. i am not the only one w/ this! tons of others are still unable to use citre due to these messages. Sure, this is not a crime, but hey, things should work.

EDIT: ok, uploading to photobucket a picture of my google search results with EVERY LINK IN THE FIRST PAGE COLORED, i.e. COLORED AS IN "clicked"...

EDIT x2: the #1 off-the-cuff solution every single moron trying to solve this on the google links isremoving all non-native .DLLs from my system32, and also removing any .DLLs i have downloaded just to get "some random program/game to launch" because it says it is lacking something or other.

cool, did that, then off to uninstall every single trace of VC redists, obviously the x64 edition on this partition BUT WAIT, I ALSO HAVE A 2nd partition with a working win 7 x86 ! Citre gives me the exact same errors there too!

However BOTH of the win7's on my puter do not even have sp1 installed because it is completely unnecessary and it is bloat-ware. i fear that this road may lead to something super small that is hidden away inside the SP1 which will then allow me to install correctly some runtimes that CITRE needs.

but y'nkow what? i don't know anything about dis shit. so what the fuck do i know. help me out peeps.

 

[Hirato]

dude, do you think i didn't google suhn? come on man, give me some credit please. i have googled this since for now upwards of three weeks.

not a single link has led me to a solution and the only thing that sounds like it might fix it is upgrading to win 10 and updating with tons of microsoft fixes i do not have installed.

trust me, i googled this shit down to the 7th page of the google results. i am not the only one w/ this! tons of others are still unable to use citre due to these messages. Sure, this is not a crime, but hey, things should work.

EDIT: ok, uploading to photobucket a picture of my google search results with EVERY LINK IN THE FIRST PAGE COLORED, i.e. COLORED AS IN "clicked"...

Have you followed the instructions in that link?
From my understanding, that update will provide new DLLs and things that will fix your first error about the missing api-ms-win-crt-runtime dll thing.

 

[aweigh]

 

[aweigh]

nonoe of the individual (or sometimes more than 1 .dll) make any difference regardless of where i place them. i think my problem is that when i try to make a fresh install of, say, VC x64 year-whatever it won't install correctly or says it's already installed. I'll post a pic of me installing the redistributables recommended ina ll of the google links... brb.

 

[Hirato]

Mate, did you read this one? https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/2999226
It tells you exactly what to do, which is either
a) run windows update, or
b) download the right package for your OS (links are included) and run it.

 

[aweigh]

...and i just found a microsoft knowledge article (i googled the exception code that citre non-oficcial gives me when loading and crsahing the decrypted RPG rom) and apparently it is saying that exception code only appears when you are running a Windows Ce embedded (LOL) but at least it has a download link to the fix. gonna try it.

( it is completely and only about how the error only strikes embedded windows OS's that lack a lot of shit devs think they need to include in their fucking emulators. sigh )

EDIT: has to do with my win 7, both 64 and 86 installs, are lacking a fair few of C/C+/C++/C#/C## "runtime stuff" that is simply not installed (because no SP1 and ergo -> no SP1-dependant MS bloatware shit.. like motherfucking FRAMEWORK, UGH).

this MS article on how to implement a tiny bit of those C/VisualB/VS "runtime shit" into the Embedded OS might help me out! but of course, the MS article itself does not provide a link without authorization, so i'm gonna go google for that redist.

EDIT x2: Oh! also apparently the error (the one when loading the decrypted rom) has to do with the emulator asking the PC for floating point shit and my PC not giving shit in return.

 

[aweigh]

and Hirato, just so you know i am not being a dramallama this is a REDDIT (reddit! out of the 20 million ppl posting shit there SOMEONE should've replied... right??? nah) of another poor soul having the EXACT SAME exception code error when loading a rom:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Rainbow6/comments/45p3sm/my_game_keeps_crashing_before_it_even_launches/

not. one.single. reply.

And now here's the exact same question (my citre gives me an exception code when i load my filthy pirated decrypted ROM) from another thread, ALSO on reddit (it got 2 replies):
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3ze5cn/troubleshootingafter_clean_install_of_windows_7/

the question-OP ended the thread after those 2 responses with the following, SOUL CRUSHING tidbit:

well, after all the work thinking that reverting back to windows 7 would fix things, it doesn't. I upgraded back to a 'cleaner' version of 10. After that, everything worked perfect. sorry.

 

[aweigh]

another dude having the same exception code, but happy ending he fixed it by installing visual studio: http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=146526&page=2

OK,
So this is working now...
http://hwbot.org/submission/2993394_...0k_17sec_494ms

I wish I could point to exactly one thing that resolved the problem. The biggest suspect is the ISO. I used a different commercial unactivated copy of windows 7 x64. I was using an activtated non-comercial iso that allowed install of any win7 x86/x64 version. I also used a CD instead of a thumb drive, but it is a usb cd, so really to the computer, same diff, right?

The other diff was the commercial copy is Ultimate. I had not tried ultimate from the activated version, but this again should make no diff really! Right?

So in the end the problem is resolved but not solved. I really hate it when that happens!!

Anyway, When I have the time, I will try to reproduce the problem as I will obsess over the cause. The only thing I can think of doing is installing VisualStudio and trying to debug/obtain a error stack. But in most cases installing VS will fix a problem with all the crap it installs.

So-Hey! Does anyone know if there is a version of GPUPI with debugging symbols enabled? If so I can use the debug enabled versions of msvc redist to try and derive more information.

Thanks everyone for their help. Always very much appreciated!

Luego

off to install VS!

 

[Hirato]

Out of curiosity, what CPU do you have?
And does it support SSE3?

 

[aweigh]

Hirato

ok, i think i know pretty well everything i am missing, and i already downloaded all of it (visual studio 2015 + VS runtimes), MS .NET Framework(s) 3/4/5 (i have no clue what i have installed), motherfucking INTERNET EXPLORER 11 (because the new VS 2k15 needs it to run! LEWL), stand-alone offline .executables containing such things as C/C+ "runtimes" which i need to install and i already downloaded; and generally speaking a ton of shit.

so fuck it i just bit the bullet and am downloading a usb-w7-sp1 and will install it later. why? because every single thing i need and/or mentioned i cannot install because i am missing shit from X, Y or Z and X, Y or Z needs shit from SP1.

thanks for listening to my nerd-rage

 

[spekkio]

Shitlisted aweigh.

 

[aweigh]

spekkio

to make it up to you honey-bunny i just placed inside a .zip everything you might need to run Citre: all of the offline redistributable package-installers for all versions of .NET Framework starting from ver 2.0; same w/ all versions of VS starting with 2008 + the corresponding "updates/service packs"; all of the offline redistributable installer packages from back to 2005 and up to now, i.e. stuff like C/C+ run times and and VS/C/C+/ARM/ARM64/x64/x86/etc specific code (such as the fact that Citre needs PCs to have floating point CPU code available and there are tons of various ways in which the tons of crap software you have installed will make Citre think your CPU can't do FP); the w7-w8-w10 service pack(s); etc.

i'll double compress the archive and upload it to my firedrop and send you the link in PM spekkio as hopefully a small way of alleviating your annoyance with my manic episodes.

 

[A user named cat]

It looks like you're running Windows 98. Why on earth are you running an archaic basic theme? Enable Aero for starters if you want to begin avoiding issues. You do realize that having it disabled actually impacts your performance negatively, right? This isn't 2006 Windows Vista. In Dolphin, if you have aero disabled it means you also have composition disabled, which equates to slower Direct3D performance. A number of other programs don't like it disabled either.

 

[aweigh]

I'M RUnning w7, 2 partitions one w/ x64 and one w/ x86.

both installs are a w7 first "release" classification "Home" gutted to the extreme of all bloatware via using nLite (i've been using nLite to create custom Win-distros for almost 10 years) and i managed to get this w7 down to a whopping 328mb.

obviously no w7 sp1, and obviously zero MS updates. Why? because no MS win update does anything and in fact they only make your win install more vulnerable true story man i read that.

also used nLite to strip out almost 75% of all of the services, y'know, the RAM-hogging CPU-sucking useless and worthless "services" that forever run in the background while a Win OS is running. You can blindfold your eyes and set exactly any, ANY half of all the list of Win services and set them to not run automatically and to stop running then reboot and i guarantee you it'll be like u just bought a new CPU.

...but i guess my desire to play the 3DS remix version of Elminage: Gothic for the 3DS is more important than all that so i'm breaking my cardinal rule of never installing an MS software package and am almost done upgrading my install (the x64 one) w/ sp1 and every single runtime/etc you can fucking think of.

if Citre doesn't launch after that i'm going straight to store and buying a 2DS.

 

[A user named cat]

I understand wanting to gut Windows of the bloat, but you still need to have aero running if you want to avoid problems and also for best emulator performance. Hell, even screen recording programs like FRAPs will not function with it disabled.

Not all Win updates are bad, especially not SP1. I don't know what tinfoil hat theories you've been reading online but that is nonsense and people are stupid. You're a lot more vulnerable without the security patches installed and you're also overlooking that there are a number of updates which improve performance. Here is a random example:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2028560

Honestly you should install all Win 7 updates except for the following, which I've kept in a notepad after learning firsthand the problems they cause with things like Windows activation. You can simply uncheck and hide these, grab the rest.

Do not install
KB3068708
KB3075249
KB3080149
KB2670838
KB2952664

 

[aweigh]

well i'm knee-deep in installing sp1 + like a dozen other updates that were recommended in many of the threads i was reading about my error messages so... yeah, safe to say i'm "updating".

still my prouded life moment is the day i burned a CD containing a 68mb Windows 98 stripped to the bone and using the explorer shell from Win 95 for more speed BUT still w/ complete features like ethernet, burning a CD-ROM, watching video media and listening to music files and I even managed to squeeze in a super-tiny "suite" of small foot-print freeware for stuff like writing text documents and the like.

68 fucking MB, mang. I remember I used to use registry edits to make Win98 boot straight into an FPS game instead of booting its GUI shell, hehe. Would save me up 4 or 5 precious MB's of RAM !

 

[aweigh]

Hirato

Hirato!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

success! SUCCESS! i now am no longer certain, AT ALL, if my inability to have Citre-QT branch load a decrypted rom without crashing immediately was ever stemming from my PC's lack of Microsoft crap (.NET, Framework, VC, VS, C/C+, "Runtimes"; ETC...) because after a marathon session of installing every single fucking MS update/whatever I could Google comforably I went and launched Citre-QT except this time I decided to turn off the "CPU JIT" from the "main tab". I always assumed, and I think i've read it plenty around here that that option is the most important one.

guess it is important after all cos disabling it made my decrypted game launch! it runs at like 10-15 FPS, but whatevs.

EDIT: CORRECTION! it is not the official branch that runs for me (citra/citra-qt); those two executables give me the "api-ms-win-crt-runtime-etc, etc, etc" error that EVERYONE seems to be having and no one can fix it for ppl other than the person w/ the problem simply installing a fresh OS.

the branch that launches and runs the game(s) for me is the "citra-qt-gcc-jit-sse3", and it's two siblings the "citra-qt-gcc-jit-sse3-Hack-VSync-use-sleep " and finally the third executable from this branch the "citra-qt-gcc-jit-sse3-revert-scissor-branch".l

Only those launch the emu for me and now by disabling the CPU JIT in the main GUI screen the decrypted ROMs launch and run. Slowly.

Currently trying to find a site that explains how I can decrypt the elminage: gothic 3DS remix edition ROM so i can see if it runs at an acceptable/playable frame-rate...

 

[SCO]

One of the old versions of citra was crashing because of a unsupported unconditional SSE4 instruction in my older computer. It got fixed with a recent pull request before the JIT pull. But i'm on linux so it's not equivalent.

 

[aweigh]

I'M ROcking an almost 7 year old AMD quad-core running at stock 2.8ghz. Pretty sure whatever instructions Citra is demanding... my cpu ain't heard of it.

EDIT: i give up googling decrypting 3ds shit... please, can some filthy, sub-human PIRATE just private msg me how i can go about decrypting the jp rom i already downloaded of elminage: gothic 3ds remix edition? (not a CIA, it's a dumped rom).

 

[Hirato]

so gregory just committed a HW Mipmap hack to the PCSX2 repo.
It's not ready yet, so you'll have to manually set the option yourself inside the ini.

UserHacks_mipmap = 1

It performs well and fixes mipmapping in the entire ratchet and clank series - I haven't tried any other games though.
Before:

After:

 

[spekkio]

Sweet, I was testing R&C recently and got this error.
Still waiting for somebody to fix the broken eye textures in Silent Hunk & Talkative Squirrel.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Sweet, that should fix Soul Reaver 2 as well.