July Together Retro: Nintendo Virtual Boy Exclusives

[Sarge]

I would suspect my video card drivers, honestly. I did those settings. This ain't my first rodeo, after all. (My laptop kinda sucks now, and my drivers are a bit non-standard; they're not officially supported by my card.)

[Exhuminator]

my drivers are / not officially supported by my card

Well that would be my first suspect. I wonder if you rolled back your drivers to official ones, and reinstalled DirectX, how that would affect the situation. But since VBjin works in 3D mode on your laptop, maybe just roll with that. Quality red/blue 3D glasses are super cheap off Amazon.

[Sarge]

Yeah, I'm almost afraid to roll them back. It actually fixes some issues I have elsewhere. I'll probably either grab some glasses or swap over to the Wii.

My GPU is weird, anyway; it's one of those Optimus dual-card setups where it can switch from integrated to dedicated GPU. Actually, that might be worth looking at; I bet it's using my integrated card by default.

[dsheinem]

Does anyone know if there’s a way to use the PSVR on a PC to view/use the VR Virtual Boy emulator? I thought this might be a chance to try and figure out how the PSVR->PC hacks work...

[lordb0rb4]

Yeah, I'm almost afraid to roll them back. It actually fixes some issues I have elsewhere. I'll probably either grab some glasses or swap over to the Wii.

My GPU is weird, anyway; it's one of those Optimus dual-card setups where it can switch from integrated to dedicated GPU. Actually, that might be worth looking at; I bet it's using my integrated card by default.

Sarge, please give Mednafen and it's gui, i tried almost every game and it runs FLAWLESS in every aspect, you can even change the color palette!

Played a bit more of Wario today and made almost halfway through, amazing game.

[dunpeal2064]

Does anyone know if there’s a way to use the PSVR on a PC to view/use the VR Virtual Boy emulator? I thought this might be a chance to try and figure out how the PSVR->PC hacks work...

This looks like a good guide for setting up PSVR on PC: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-play ... station-vr

The only downside is that it looks like the software costs money. I know this was true with the Kinect>VR program, and that an open source (free) version existed once I started looking around, so maybe that is true here as well.

As for using it with the VB, Ex shared this:

I wonder if you could emulate the VB with a modern VR headset. Would probably be a close proximity to the original experience.

Yes you can do that. The VBJin-OVR fork lets you do it via Oculus Rift (may support other VR helmets as well). ( https://github.com/braindx/vbjin-ovr )

...which I plan to mess around with tonight. With how cross-compatible VR headsets are, I imagine there is a way to make it work on the PSVR.

[Exhuminator]

Sarge, please give Mednafen and it's gui, i tried almost every game and it runs FLAWLESS in every aspect, you can even change the color palette!

Does Mednafen have any sort of Virtual Boy 3D support?

[Sarge]

Yep, it does. Well, the Wii version does, so I would assume that it's part of the core everywhere else, too.

[dunpeal2064]

Alright, got emulators running. I've tried out 3 different games so far, using 3 different viewing modes.

Vertical Force (VBjin w/ 3D Glasses) - I had to try this out, since I have a CD that came with 3D Glasses to view its art. The effect is better than I thought, though my expectations were pretty low. The most important thing is that it provides actual depth, which would be my primary goal when emulating VB. The visuals do take a hit, though, as the image isn't a sharp red, and is more of a blue/red mush that is much softer and fuzzier. It was playable, though, and did surpass my expectations. And, to be fair, these are those classic cardboard 3D glasses, so I wouldn't be surprised if better ones improved the experience.

Vertical Force left a good first impression, too! I was worried that it would fall back on its switching planes gimmick and not offer much else aside. It uses its 3D for more than just the two planes, and has buildings jutting out which act as obstacles, and interesting enemy movement between planes. It feels Compile-like in its powerup system, with cool shield and option pickups, and has more slick, agile midbosses that are smaller and mech-like, with end stage bosses being rather impressive multi-part sprites. Hopefully it remains as good as it first appears throughout!

Wario Land (Oculus Rift) - Well, that was quite the jump in quality. Modern VR headsets emulating the Virtual Boy is quite something. The screens in the set are both high quality/resolution, and very low latency. The image and depth here are super sharp, and having actual built-in headphones is sweet. I've never used an actual Virtual Boy, but I feel pretty confident that a modern VR headset is not only the best way to emulate VB, but the best way to play VB period.

Wario Land has been pretty fun thus far. I need to get further before comparing it with its predecessor, which I quite enjoyed, but so far it seems like its headed in the right direction.

Mario Tennis (Oculus Rift + Immersive Mode) - Immersive Mode is interesting, as instead of emulating a VB strapped to your face, it emulates a giant screen that you can actually look around at. Imagine a 3D black room with a VB screen in it, except that screen can do actual 3D depth. Its less authentic, for sure, but it does offer a different experience, and I imagine it would alleviate some of the headache/sickness of using a VB, since it feels more natural and convincing.

Mario Tennis seems fun, and has put 3D into great use. I'm terrible at it, but I'll stick with it until I can at least win a few rounds.

From here on out I'll probably stick with using the normal Rift mode to most accurately emulate the VB experience, but I thought/hoped it would be interesting comparing some different methods of emulating 3D VB.

[Exhuminator]

I think playing VB games in 2D is disingenuous to the core experience; I'm glad there's multiple ways to emulate Virtual Boy in 3D.