Mesen Retroarch Core & HDNES Packs

[Lordmonkus]

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.

[Special T]

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?

[Lordmonkus]

Only if your CPU isn't powerful enough to run Mesen because it is more CPU intensive.

[bundangdon]

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

 

[Lordmonkus]

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.

[bundangdon]

  On 1/7/2018 at 11:59 PM, 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.

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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  

[Lordmonkus]

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.

[Charco]

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.

[Retro808]

Thanks for the steps @Lordmonkus Made the switch as well and installed the HDPack. 

[CDBlue]

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.

[Lordmonkus]

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.

 

[Lordmonkus]

The Castlevania HDNES pack has been converted from this hack https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=24125.0

CastlevaniaHdPack.zipFetching info...

[kmoney]

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.

[Lordmonkus]

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.

[CDBlue]

  On 1/23/2018 at 2:15 AM, Lordmonkus said:

The Castlevania HDNES pack has been converted from this hack https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=24125.0

 

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Thx for the upload/link.  Will try this one when I get a chance

[CDBlue]

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

[DOS76]

No worries adding on to old post we don't chastise people for that on these forums.

[CDBlue]

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

[Lordmonkus]

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.

[CDBlue]

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.