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The Xbox Series is a beast of an emulation machine

01011001

Banned
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IMPORTANT!!!
(maybe)
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👇 👇 👇


GUYS DO NOT DOWNLOAD / USE this version:

I'm pretty certain the one in the link above is categorized as an "App" (maybe people who downloaded it can confirm)

get this one here:

this ☝️ one is categorized as a "Game" which is important. an App on an Xbox can not use the full power of the hardware, not even close.
so it is important that it's actually a game!
maybe I am wrong, and the first one is actually categorized as a "game", but for me it says "you own this App" instead of "You own this Game"
when I "buy" the version I linked it says "You own this Game"


also, for file transfer, here is an FTP app for transferring files directly from your PC to your Xbox that I also use, which is apparently now also available without whitelisting

BE AWARE WHEN TRANSFERRING OVER MULTIPLE FOLDERS WITH SUBFOLDERS! THIS APP MIGHT SCRAMBLE AROUND THE FILES,
SO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IS YOU HAVE TO MANUALLY CREATE THE FOLDER STRUCTURE (NAME EVERY FOLDER 100% CORRECTLY)
AND THEN FOLDER FOR FOLDER COPY OVER THE FILES ONE FOLDER AT A TIME!!!

I am writing this in caps and red because it is important, especially for Dolphin and PCSX2 folders!!!
games will not launch if you didn't put every file in the exact place it needs to be.
this can be a bit annoying to do but you only have to do it once or once every few months at most, so not as bad as it first seems

it is important to do it, I didn't at first and just copied over my whole collection, and all the SNES games for example,
which I have in folders from "0-9" to "Z", were in the "0-9" folder after I bulk copied over everything.
so I had to go in, create the SNES folder, then create each folder for each letter, and then copy over all the games starting with each letter into their corresponding folders.
I now use a USB drive for almost all the ROMS, but this still applies when you copy over your PCSX2 Emulator folder, or your Dolphin folder... or your Dreamcast folder etc.

maybe this is an issue on my end and an issue with the FTP program I use on my PC, but you can test it out and see if the files and subfolders get copied over correctly for you.
 
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01011001

Banned
For anyone looking for an FTP program to transfer large files, I used this one. https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9NKPZMQ8R1MR

Worked just fine using FileZilla from my laptop.

yeah that's the same I linked above. I have the whitelist version of it and it works fine. but I wrote down some notes above that could be important.
maybe the issue is on my end but I had to help someone on reddit once that had the same issues as I had with it, so everyone who wants to use this read the post above :)
 
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01011001

Banned
01011001 01011001 Doing Gods work. I tried getting this from discord months ago but ran into issue after issue. Thank you

well thanks, but all I did was google a bit ^^

IbizaPocholo IbizaPocholo maybe you could quote the post I made above about the right link into your OP. just so there is no confusion. I can already see how many will download the "app" version instead of the "game" version and then need to troubleshoot not knowing why the performance is so bad on their end. and also will have to set it up all over again

I actually might make a new thread for this new version tho tbh.
Edit: I made a new thread for this whitelist-free version + basic startup guide: RETROARCH for Xbox One / Series X|S - NO MODDING, NO DEV MODE, NO WHITE-LIST | NeoGAF
 
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Crew511A

Member
Finally scored a Series X on Microsoft's online store! How much of the info in the opening post is outdated now?
 

22•22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Does the X does better emulation? Types of consoles/ performance etc?

I mean Infinite will look better bt I dont have a 120bz TV

MSFS will look better and I think Stalker 2 as well

I looking for Halo at 60fps. MSFS and use it for all my purchased games That and emulation
 
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01011001

Banned
Does the X does better emulation? Types of consoles/ performance etc?

I mean Infinite will look better bt I dont have a 120bz TV

MSFS will look better and I think Stalker 2 as well

I looking for Halo at 60fps. MSFS and use it for all my purchased games That and emulation

not really... a tiny bit better for some systems.
the main thing that is needed for emulation is a good CPU, and the CPUs in these consoles are almost the same. the tiny advantage the Series X has is negligible for the most part

so the Series S is just fine for emulation. you can still run GameCube at 4K easily (PS2 should not be pushed that high because that emulator is not that great, but that is true for both S and X) the GPU of both is overkill for any system you can emulate on them.
 
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22•22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
not really... a tiny bit better for some systems.
the main thing that is needed for emulation is a good CPU, and the CPUs in these consoles are almost the same. the tiny advantage the Series X has is negligible for the most part

so the Series S is just fine for emulation. you can still run GameCube at 4K easily (PS2 should not be pushed that high because that emulator is not that great, but that is true for both S and X) the GPU of both is overkill for any system you can emulate on them.
Thanks a lot man.. appreciated!!
 

22•22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
not really... a tiny bit better for some systems.
the main thing that is needed for emulation is a good CPU, and the CPUs in these consoles are almost the same. the tiny advantage the Series X has is negligible for the most part

so the Series S is just fine for emulation. you can still run GameCube at 4K easily (PS2 should not be pushed that high because that emulator is not that great, but that is true for both S and X) the GPU of both is overkill for any system you can emulate on them.

Most likely going for a S. Exclusives don't really interest me (minus Halo Forza MSFS and Stalker if that turns out good) It's mostly used for my backlog and emulation.
 

22•22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
not really... a tiny bit better for some systems.
the main thing that is needed for emulation is a good CPU, and the CPUs in these consoles are almost the same. the tiny advantage the Series X has is negligible for the most part

so the Series S is just fine for emulation. you can still run GameCube at 4K easily (PS2 should not be pushed that high because that emulator is not that great, but that is true for both S and X) the GPU of both is overkill for any system you can emulate on them.

Sorry to bother you once more.. But do you know if Wave Race Blue Storm runs at 60FPS??
 

01011001

Banned
Sorry to bother you once more.. But do you know if Wave Race Blue Storm runs at 60FPS??

what you have to keep in mind with GameCube games is that you need the right settings. shader complication stutters can happen but gamecube games should almost always run at full speed.
 

22•22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
what you have to keep in mind with GameCube games is that you need the right settings. shader complication stutters can happen but gamecube games should almost always run at full speed.
Dont know about that (yet) But I'm a performance man anyways. Thanks again.
 

01011001

Banned
Amazing device.

Did the Otogi games get enhancements?
I need to know before bitting.

every og Xbox game gets a 4x res boost on Xbox One, 9x res boost on Series S and 16x res boost on One X and Series X

that means, if Otogi ran at 480p on original hardware (which I don't know but that was the most common resolution on Xbox) then it will run at 960p, 1440p and 1920p respectively


like I said that is a general resolution boost every original Xbox game gets across the board.
this means Ninja Gaiden Black, which was a 480p game, is now running at 1920p 60fps on One X and Series X.

Panzer Dragoon Orta, which is a lower res title that only ran at 378p is now running at 756p on One S, 1134p on Series S and 1512p on One X and Series X

also every backwards compatible game gets automatically 16x Anisotropic Texture Filtering
 
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kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
Was thinking of setting up my Series S for this purpose. For extra storage can I just plug in any USB drive or is there a significant benefit if I get one of those expansion SSDs?
 

elliot5

Member
Was thinking of setting up my Series S for this purpose. For extra storage can I just plug in any USB drive or is there a significant benefit if I get one of those expansion SSDs?
Yes you can expand over usb. I don’t know if emulation benefits much from the Ssd expansion that it’s worth the extra cost. It’s more for the modern games.
 

uncleslappy

nethack is my favorite dark souls clone
Specific question about emulation on a Series S/X. Could I, theoretically, play the PS2 DDR games on an emulator on one of the series machines? What about dance pads, would a USB pad work? And would the sync work? I've heard the SD input on a PS2 throws off the timing.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
I have a question. I own a Series S and wanted to set my foots into emulation on that system. There is one thing that holds me back though. I heard that Microsoft could potentially ban your account when you do emulation on their system... and my account is filled with about 200 games and I really don't want to risk that. What are the options for me?
 

01011001

Banned
I have a question. I own a Series S and wanted to set my foots into emulation on that system. There is one thing that holds me back though. I heard that Microsoft could potentially ban your account when you do emulation on their system... and my account is filled with about 200 games and I really don't want to risk that. What are the options for me?

there has been no reported case of someone getting banned. I personally used multiple versions of retroarch, PPSSPP and some other emulators on it for over a year now.

the only thing they really do is deleting the emulators from the store from time to time, which means the people that make them available will need to reupload them every week or so.

and this back and forth makes most people think that Microsoft is basically ok with this happening, basically to make the homebrew community happy and to discourage attempts at jailbreaking the system
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
there has been no reported case of someone getting banned. I personally used multiple versions of retroarch, PPSSPP and some other emulators on it for over a year now.

the only thing they really do is deleting the emulators from the store from time to time, which means the people that make them available will need to reupload them every week or so.

and this back and forth makes most people think that Microsoft is basically ok with this happening, basically to make the homebrew community happy and to discourage attempts at jailbreaking the system
sounds good. I also heard of people making a second account for emulation. You know, I really don't wanna loose those games in a worst case scenario.
 

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
I have a series S and X both set up and havent had any bans. A separate account would have been smart but I am dumb.
 

01011001

Banned
sounds good. I also heard of people making a second account for emulation. You know, I really don't wanna loose those games in a worst case scenario.

if multiple people in your household want to use the emulators it is also better to use a special account for that because Retorarch settings and folders will be tied to individual accounts, making it impractical for multiple accounts to access RetroArch
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
if multiple people in your household want to use the emulators it is also better to use a special account for that because Retorarch settings and folders will be tied to individual accounts, making it impractical for multiple accounts to access RetroArch
okay. i will give it a try. How is the PS2 emulation? Like are there games that a problematic or how is the ratio of games working and games not working. I want to do this mostly for PS2 emulations (because playing PS2 from real hardware looks pretty shitty on a big LCD TV).
 

01011001

Banned
okay. i will give it a try. How is the PS2 emulation? Like are there games that a problematic or how is the ratio of games working and games not working. I want to do this mostly for PS2 emulations (because playing PS2 from real hardware looks pretty shitty on a big LCD TV).

with a bit of tinkering PS2 runs pretty well for the most part. input latency is the biggest issue you might run into.

games I've played and that run basically perfectly are God Hand, Shadow of Rome, Urban Chaos and a few others. but for Urban Chaos I needed to adjust some settings to fix an effect it uses that made it look like the whole screen is filled with agressive chromatic aberration.

since the PS2 is still a bit of a weird system to emulate even on PC, you will run into those issues from time to time
 

Crew511A

Member
with a bit of tinkering PS2 runs pretty well for the most part. input latency is the biggest issue you might run into.

games I've played and that run basically perfectly are God Hand, Shadow of Rome, Urban Chaos and a few others. but for Urban Chaos I needed to adjust some settings to fix an effect it uses that made it look like the whole screen is filled with agressive chromatic aberration.

since the PS2 is still a bit of a weird system to emulate even on PC, you will run into those issues from time to time

Can you please elaborate on what kind of tinkering should be done to improve PS2 performance? I got Outrun 2006 to run...but it was unplayable. The game ran very slowly.
 
What I can't figure out is I have everything set up correctly with Dolphin but can't get more than a couple frames per second when trying GameCube on my Series S.

No idea how it works so well for everyone else.
 

Crew511A

Member
What I can't figure out is I have everything set up correctly with Dolphin but can't get more than a couple frames per second when trying GameCube on my Series S.

No idea how it works so well for everyone else.

I think that gen is just the borderline of where we'll get acceptable performance. Rogue Leader runs pretty bad for me, but NHL Hitz seems to run just fine on my Series X.
 

01011001

Banned
What I can't figure out is I have everything set up correctly with Dolphin but can't get more than a couple frames per second when trying GameCube on my Series S.

No idea how it works so well for everyone else.

I think that gen is just the borderline of where we'll get acceptable performance. Rogue Leader runs pretty bad for me, but NHL Hitz seems to run just fine on my Series X.

this guy here usually has very good setup videos for each system:

GameCube uses shaders that need to be compiled every time you play a new game. you have to use the UberShaders setting on that.
shader stutters is sadly something you can not escape even on PC.

the Xbox Series consoles basically play these games relatively at the same level as a modern PC
 

Neff

Member
So can I still just buy the dev license and start downloading emulators for this? Can roms be transferred to the console via USB or do they have to be downloaded? Have a Series X with current firmware.
 

01011001

Banned
So can I still just buy the dev license and start downloading emulators for this? Can roms be transferred to the console via USB or do they have to be downloaded? Have a Series X with current firmware.

you don't even need the dev mode anymore

edit: I made a thread about that a while ago, I try to update when there's new development.

 
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Im kinda tight I traded with my cousin my xbox one for the star wars xbox 360.

Or I should atleast go visit him in chicago to set it up. They still got the NES hooked up.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Got it running now. It's fantastic. Haven't played one that is unplayable, but quite a few with weird graphics glitches (namely Ape Escape 2 and Kya, the latter I deemed unplayable because of it.).
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
I will share my experiences with PS2 games and put them into categories based on their playability and visuals, sound etc.

Currently I'm playing Hot Pursuit 2. As a game it holds up very very well. Controls are tight, graphics scale up nicely, soundtrack has a lot of butt rock, but generally is decent, I really like the track design, it has a nice flow.. the is one thing that's annoying though. When close to other cars the game considerably slows down. It turns back to normal again when you're first place (or far way from the enemy drivers). Thats definitely a huge bummer. Personally I think the game is still playable, but far from perfect (or almost perfect) because of this. When emulating on the Xbox Series S, you should however turn down the resolution native, deactivate FXAA and anisotropic filtering, shaders can stay (I usually use advanced AA), this will improve the performance a lot (although still not perfect or close to perfect).

I will put it this way. If you drive well enough the normal career (without the cops) will be fairly playable. You should get used to the slowdowns, but for the most part it should be fine. If you race against the clock, you shouldn't have any problems. If you race with cops though.. yeah forget about that. Those races are way to intense, there always will be at least one (emphasis on at least) car close to you, not even mentioning helicopters etc.
The slowdowns will be too much to make this game any enjoyable.

Overall, the game is great, emulation on Xbox Series S will give you a somewhat playable experience.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Haunting Ground runs great. So far I could only make out some graphical issues with the shadows. They're rendered in a way that doesn't translate well. Looks glitchy and off. Other than that though the game scales up great. I could turn on shaders, FXAA and 8x anisotropic filtering without any issue. It runs at a resolution of 720p. No problems whatsoever.

This is an almost perfect experience.
 

Crew511A

Member
I will share my experiences with PS2 games and put them into categories based on their playability and visuals, sound etc.

Currently I'm playing Hot Pursuit 2. As a game it holds up very very well. Controls are tight, graphics scale up nicely, soundtrack has a lot of butt rock, but generally is decent, I really like the track design, it has a nice flow.. the is one thing that's annoying though. When close to other cars the game considerably slows down. It turns back to normal again when you first place (far way from the enemy drivers). Thats definitely a huge bummer. Personally I think the game is still playable, but far from perfect (or almost perfect) because of this. When emulating on the Xbox Series S, you should however turn down the resolution native, deactivate FXAA and anisotropic filtering, shaders can stay (I usually use advanced AA), this will improve the performance a lot (although still not perfect or close to perfect).

Overall, the game is great, emulation on Xbox Series S will give you a playable experience.

Have you gotten Outrun 2 SP to work? Almost every PS2 game I've tried either isn't recognized as runnable by PCSX2, or runs the PS2 startup screen, then goes to the memory memory. The 2 exceptions are:

GTA Vice City - loads, but runs poorly, then crashes.

Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast - loads, but cars are not visible on selection screen, and plays poorly.

Everything else doesn't even load.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Have you gotten Outrun 2 SP to work? Almost every PS2 game I've tried either isn't recognized as runnable by PCSX2, or runs the PS2 startup screen, then goes to the memory memory. The 2 exceptions are:

GTA Vice City - loads, but runs poorly, then crashes.

Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast - loads, but cars are not visible on selection screen, and plays poorly.

Everything else doesn't even load.
I haven't tried it yet, but the PSP version of Outrun 2006 runs very good.

I don't know why you have so many issues. Maybe your bios files are corrupted? Maybe restarting retro arch will help. I had to restart retro arch a couple of times because the game didn't load and at second attempt it did. sometimes it just needs a few seconds to load (10-20s, depends, I play from an external 4tb drive and its not the fastest), sometimes I have to restart retro arch altogether, but generally it works and every game I've tried at least started.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
ICO - There are a few things that look off, like at some scenes the lightning (that's what I believe its supposed to be at least) on the right down corner looks weird. The controls seemed a little weird too. It played better with the dpad for me. It doesn't play poorly,
but the walking animation seems a little off. You also sometimes randomly stop running when using the stick, but honestly that's something you can probably fix if you play around with the settings a little.

Game scaled up great and runs super smooth. This is an almost perfect experience.
 
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SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Shadow Tower Abyss - Few graphical glitches, not many though and other than that no issues. Framerate is smooth and it scales up nicely.

Settings:
Resolution at 720p
FXAA on
8x anisotropic filtering
Shader - advanced AA

This is an almost perfect experience.
 
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