What Emulator do you want Z-Net 3 to support first?

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

There can be only one!

Well at least to start off with...

Yes, Z-Net 3 will support an unlimited number of emulators and other programs/games. So why am I talking about only supporting one? That's because I've decided that during development and initial testing it would be more beneficial to remain focused. And when moving into a public beta phase it wouldn't be wise to have all the users split among different emulators.

I will still be working on first party addons to support other emulators as well. But mainly just to understand commonality between many different emulators and keep Z-Net 3 designed well for supporting so many. Doing so will help ensure future addons, whether made by me or whoever, will work more seamlessly with the project.

Now with that all said, we have a new question! What will that one emulator be?

ZSNES may seem obvious. But why remain so narrow minded? As nice as ZSNES has been for Z-Net and zbattle all these years, why not get Z-Net 3 started off with something new?

Some of you may think "Ok then, RetroArch!".

Haha... Nice try!

While it may be packaged and advertised as a single emulator, it's not to Z-Net 3. I've worked with adding RetroArch support to Z-Net 3, and to do so properly it's different cores are identified individually. Choosing RetroArch as a whole as the first and only supported emulator for awhile would split users up just the same as supporting several emulators.

So again...



What emulator will Z-Net 3 support first?


That's not for me to answer. That's for you to decide!

And how you go about doing that is like this...

We're going to hold a Poll! On that poll will be 10 choices. Those choices can be anything from NES to Wii. Maybe Atari 2600. Possibly Sega Genesis! Or even Arcade like CPS2 games. Who knows!

Before this poll happens it's time to speak up and let me and others know what emulators you want listed in that poll. And the comments section of this post is the place to do it. Just post a list of up to 10 emulators in order of most wanted, along with why you list what you have.

Of course, any emulator you suggest has to support online multi-player. Whether it's built in online multi-player or Kaillera doesn't matter. Just do a little bit of research first. I'm not adding online multi-player support to emulators that don't have it, even if they are open source.

For RetroArch cores, post something like RetroArch/GenplusGX. And ZSNES isn't off the table, I just suggest to try and think beyond it.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

We could play VirtuaNES,ZSNES and KegaFusion on Classic Gaming Arena.
I think netplay is not good on VirtuaNES

DarkAkuma said...

Z-Net 2 supported VirtuaNES too. The netplay was alright. But back then I think FCEUltra was better. Now I'm not sure what's best for NES. Possibly the bNES core in RetroArch.

This is one of my hopes for this, to get some feedback and discussion going to find out what emu's for the different systems are best. I remain to wrapped up in my projects and other things to properly test the netplay of every possible emu to know how good it is compared to others.

Unknown said...

Proyect64 and MAME, both are good emulators, I hope u can implement it

DarkAkuma said...

I've worked with PJ64 and MAME32k in ZN2. They both used Kaillera and worked fine. I don't believe I've messed with anything for N64 with ZN3 yet, but PJ64 or Mupen shouldn't be an issue to support. I briefly messed with supporting them in a customized build of ZNI which used code that was later ported into ZN3.

With ZN3 I worked with supporting MAME32k, and that worked fine, but switched to MAMEpp since 32k is no longer active. Again, MAMEpp has worked fine. Additionally I think RetroArch supports MAME. I see a FBA core listed, I think it was a FBA/MAME hybrid.

Anonymous said...

I say virtuanes just because it would desync less. I don't know if mupen 64 ++ beta works with all games, but that was a good emulator too when I used it. Then again epsxe is iffy too. I'd just say virtuanes.

Anonymous said...

Mame32 and Chankast expse or N64 project

DarkAkuma said...

To be more precise, before when I said "*** worked fine", I was referring specifically to Z-Net's ability to launch games with the emu. Different emus require me to create code different ways in order for me to automate the netplay connection process with that emu, and that could be tricky.

The netplay quality of emus themselves, I haven't researched much. I spend most of my time coding rather then playing the emus themselves online.

However I have played a few over the years. And I recently received a lot of details on the netplay quality of various emulators from Stalfos in the IRC channel.

I played with VirtuaNES some years ago, and yea, It seems to be pretty stable. I don't know how FCEUltra or the bNES core of RetroArch would stack up though compared to it.

I vaguely remember something like Mupen replacing PJ64 as the best N64 emu for netplay since I wrote ZN2. I could be wrong though.

From what Stalfos says, any PSX emu would probably not be the greatest to start out with, as the netplay on them is buggy, and there's a need to sync plugins/settings.

A short rundown of what Stalfos suggested was basically KegaFusion and RetroArch (at least with the cores me and him tested, FBA/bSNES/bNES) are the best options for quality netplay. Stable netplay is defiantly going to play a factor in deciding what to focus on.

I'd really love to see some more reasons why you guys suggest the emus you do, like mr. license code name (I'm not typing that out, lol) posted. Things like desyncing, emulation speed/resources needed, compatibility, ease of use/setup, etc.

=)

Necturion said...

project64!! and 3 player multiplayer for eg Secret of Mana would rock!!

DarkAkuma said...

Well, it's kind of a bit late to now to be suggesting things, but...

PJ64 why? As opposed to others like Mupen.

3 player SoM would be nice!. Let me know when you code in 3+ player support to a emu, and I'll strongly consider supporting that emu!

Necturion said...

Wow good to see you are still on this page :OO I thought you considered this project as "dead"... O.o

Necturion said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWIr-ZZasuM BTW there you go... 3 Player ZSNES netplay :3

DarkAkuma said...

Z-Net I may be dead, and Z-Net 3 may be dead/on hold, but this site is still something I'll pay attention to. It's easy to see when new comments are posted to any post.

I'm still wiling to listen to people regarding the project's, and while I won't guarantee support, I'm still psychically able if I so choose.

I went to that video, and right away staring you in the face in the description is this quote.

"Me, NR, and his brother fight Spikey in Secret of Mana.

This was done with both of them using the same computer."

This method of 3+ players online is mentioned in the FAQ. But this IS NOT what most people think of or mean when talking about ZSNES supporting 3+ players.

Necturion said...

Oh sorry I did not see it =(

But anyways, I read that you have dicontinued the project, because of the lack of interest. Your dream of building up a community is definitely a good one, but its involves a lot of time... Yes, I have also read, that this project is running for 3 years now and there have never been more than 25 players online at the same time.

I don't want to be/sound impolite to you in anyway because you did a great job with Zsnes I, but you can't just expect that your community is growing by its own. Well, it is kinda. But if you want more people, then you need to advertise for the program.

I am not saying, that you did not advertise vor it, because I have seen some forum posts of yours in some Emulation forums, but have you ever thought of asking some youtuber, to make a video about Z-Net? You could even write advertising comments under videos, like many people do on youtube.

DarkAkuma said...

I've already given the extent of my effort into advertizing. At some point there needs to be a minimal amount of fan advertizement, which Z-Net never got. Without it, I'm just being blind to the overwhelming lack of caring by the users. Instead I'm more telling people there's a demand for my projects rather then there actually being a demand for them that I'm fulfilling.

I hate doing advertizement. Fact is, I've been the only one doing anything for the projects. I get no help. It's very wearing on me to shoulder so much, then the burden of advertizement too. I've done the best I can, and that's all I can do.

There are just to many factors to fight playing against the success of the projects, and to much I'd have to do like advertizement. And it's all disproportionate to the return.

I need to see some more return before I can give any more. Until then, I can do other things. And I'm not saying I'm 100% done with Z-Net stuff. I might still work on Z-Net 3 at some point, when doing so sounds fun again. It's just no longer going to take priority over any other project.

Unknown said...

I will advertise for you DarkAkuma if and when you are ready to pick this back up again. My vote would be for NES or Genesis support. Thank you for the tools you have made available to us:)

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