Lordmonkus Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Mesen has finally come to Retroarch and it is awesome. Update your Core Info files using the Online Updater in Retroarch and the core should be in the list. For those of you that aren't aware of this emulator it is essentially 99.9% accurate which is way more than the Nestopia or FCEUMM cores. This emulator has one other awesome little trick up its sleeve, HDNES Packs. What this allows for is higher quality sprites than the NES was capable of. For some screenshots of what is possible and your first pack if interested check out this page here which has a download link for the MegaMan 1 pack, https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=25426.0 To make this work it's very easy, load up any game in RA using the Mesen core and go into the Core Options and set Enable HD Packs to On. Then go to your Retroarch install folder and then \system, the core should have made a folder called HdPacks but if it didn't make one yourself. Then you will want a folder for the game the HD Pack belongs to named after the rom file itself and all the art files go in there. So for example on my system my MegaMan 1 rom file is called Mega Man (USA) so my folder structure looks like this:And then in this folder all the .png files are located. There are only 4 publicly available HD Packs that I am aware of as of this post and other than the MegaMan one they are horrible looking, hopefully this is something that catches on and more become available like the MSU-1 audio for the SNES. Also keep in mind that these HD Packs will impact performance of the emulation. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special T Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Thanks for posting the tutorial. Now that Mesen has been ported to retroarch do you see any reason to still use the stand alone version of Mesen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 7, 2018 Author Share Posted January 7, 2018 Only if your CPU isn't powerful enough to run Mesen because it is more CPU intensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bundangdon Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Thanks a lot for passing on this information! Just wanted to add that this core seems to still be in the early stages of development or at least is still somewhat buggy. When I try to close/escape from a game (using the mesen core) the emulator always crashes for me, but this is not the case while using other cores. However i'm sure that the retroarch team will have these problems fixed soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 7, 2018 Author Share Posted January 7, 2018 Odd issues, I haven't encountered any of those at all. It is an early core though but it is based off of the stable stand alone and being done by the same guy, Sour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bundangdon Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 8 hours ago, Lordmonkus said: Odd issues, I haven't encountered any of those at all. It is an early core though but it is based off of the stable stand alone and being done by the same guy, Sour. It looks like I may have spoken a little too soon. The core was once again updated today, and the program-crashing 'bug' seems to have been taken care of and is working nicely now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 I spoke with Sour very briefly and he said he still has work to do on the core like allowing the remapping of controls and stuff but hes off vacation now so its gonna take a little time but the core is more than usable on a daily basis for anyone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charco Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 I have switched to this core as my default for NES emulation. Tested it out last night and found it really good. I installed the HD pack for Mega Man aswell, very cool. The core also supports achievements now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro808 Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Thanks for the steps @Lordmonkus Made the switch as well and installed the HDPack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Just came across Mesen as well (retroarch core, not the stand alone). So far it seems to be a great emulator, and the HD packs have great potential. I have the Megaman one install and it's nice. For an even bigger change you can try the Super Mario HD Texture Pack remake which I also just came across (http://www.emutalk.net/threads/55446-new-super-mario-hdnes!) Warning, this changes the look considerably more than Megaman's pack. May not be to all people's liking, but it definitely shows what the HD texture packs can do for an old console Hoping that more become available for some of the classics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 Yeah the Mario pack as well as the Kung Fu and Nuts & Milk are "interesting" let's just say they aren't something I personally like. Those along with the Mega Man ones are the publicly available but there is the Metroid and Zelda 2 packs which are not but like pretty sweet looking. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 The Castlevania HDNES pack has been converted from this hack https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=24125.0 CastlevaniaHdPack.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmoney Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 I tried out the Mario pack and didn't care for it, I guess it would be cool to show off to someone but that Zelda and Metroid one does look pretty nice looking and looks like something I would definitely play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 Yeah the Mario one is too off putting. It's too bad the Metroid and Zelda ones aren't publicly available cause they do look good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 23 hours ago, Lordmonkus said: The Castlevania HDNES pack has been converted from this hack https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=24125.0 Thx for the upload/link. Will try this one when I get a chance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Sorry to bring back an older thread, but there have been several new packs released so I thought it would be appropriate to bump this thread back up in case people aren't aware of it and wanted to know https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=17110 New/updated Castlevania pack, alternative Super Mario Pack, Ninja Gaiden I and II packs, and I'm not 100% sure but I think the Megaman HD pack was updated since this post as well. It's on version 1.2 now, I don't recall what version it was when this thread was originally posted. Anyway, engoy. -CDBlue 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 No worries adding on to old post we don't chastise people for that on these forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Another update for the mesen HD pack thread. Looks like mkwong98 released a donkey kong hd pack for mesen. Link can be found in the same thread as mentioned above: https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=17110 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 I just had a look at the Donkey Kong one, not too bad looking for a "hi rez" pack but not one that suits my tastes. It was also a major performance hit because of how much it bumps the resolution up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Hmm, didn't notice any performance hit on my machine, but I have a newer PC for my "retro gamer" so perhaps it's not being affected as much. Overall, I like the looks of the DK one, except for the backgrounds maybe. I'm not sure why, but I find them too distracting so I'm not sold 100% on this one too. Had he made them darker, or more blurred, maybe I would like them better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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