That 'emulator' is both one of the most frustrating and most amazing pieces of software. I agree with you, I think they tried too hard making it a separate VitaOS style and less emulator. And as far as my attempts are with it, 50% (closer to 60%) failure rate is what I experienced as well. Side note, I'm not a dog person, I'm a cat person so maybe that's why it fails so much.
Greetings from Spain, beeing following you since a month ago and you have quickly become my favourite emulation content creator. Literally you have depicted point by point my feelings about Vita3k since I started emulating it more or less when it first released on android. Super good job with this channel❤.
Buying a second hand PSvita is a nice idea but the consoles are at that point where the batteries on the market are really old or just bad. the 3ds/DS/SP/psp have the same exact problem. Trying to find a 3ds battery that can play for more than 2ish hours is painful. To be fair emulating some games that require both touch surfaces and gyro would be awful.
Id go with a ps vita tv box over the handheld. From what I can tell its just as easy to softmod. Though to be honest there aren't really that many vita only games. It would be cool to play muramasa rebirth to see the extra content on the vita version, but thats about it for me and hardly worth getting a whole console for lol. Emulation will just get better and better anyway.
Thanks for this! I still adore the Vita to this day and definitely think it was far ahead of its time. I'm hopeful emulation will continue to improve but I don't think the community is passionate enough like with the PSP to make as quick progress, but I do think we'll get there eventually. I have the same microphone btw, and I wanted to mention switching to an XLR was a lifesaver. You know the headphone port on the mic that you can monitor from? It was difficult for me to get that same sound over USB. I know it required an audio interface but I can vouch that it helped a lot.
It's funny because I just went through this realization with Vita 3k recently myself. However my frontend is Launchbox and there is technically a way to use vita3k in launchbox, unfortunately it requires a lot of manual text entry currently which isnt really feasible with hundreds of games but hopefully they will get it streamlined in the future. Its a younger emulator still, so it could end up being completely overhauled and turn into something a lot more usable. For now I will be excluding it from my launchbox collection.
Yeah, it feels like Vita3K hasn’t been worked on for as long or by as many people as some others (particularly Switch for example). But yeah, they seem to be emulating the entire system somehow, like, making a more explicitly exposed virtual Vita environment rather than ‘just’ a program that translates system calls and machine code, and I’m not sure why they went this route. Maybe there’s something about the system that makes this an easier route to develop for? Or maybe the system calls haven’t all been reverse engineered? Switch emulators also require a firmware download, fwiw (along with keys), but I’m not sure if they serve the same purpose in both cases
They actually like just updated daijisho, you can actually start your roms from the launcher! You have to create like a text file with some info and it forwards it to vita3k. You obviously have to install the game first in vita3k but it works after that!
I have an rg405v which has a screen orientation that makes vita screen resolution not very pleasant, but it was still so cool launching vita games from daijisho
I've subscrided and liked your video bro! As a brazilian who barelly speaks english I can get 100% of what you said on the video :) You definitelly rock on the content and it is obvious your channel it's going to become huge!
I bought both versions of the real Vita hardware (OLED and not OLED), then bought the new Lenovo legion y700 with the Snapdragon gen 3... I think it makes sense to emulate vita on a really powerful PC and then just stream it to a handheld.... It's really unfortunate that it does not support save states, and I absolutely hate having to deal with zif files or whatever.
I wanted to play one of my favourite games on my phone, Darkest Dungeon, but because they never made an Android version and the Switch version doesn't work yet, i tried Vita3k at the start of the year. I does work but it has a very janky feeling, one that the skyline didn't have, so I've been ignoring it until new updates are available. I am glad it exists though. And i was thinking of buying a vita 2k and moding it
That is a nightmare I don't understand why there isn't another option for vita emulation other than the virtual vita environment. This is why I have my original vita and I went back and bought a Japanese Oled model since I have the slim. Modded and fully English great with vita, psp, and gba for me. I always hated the tiny expensive sd cards I still have and never fit my full library. Now I have real card in it. I feel 3ds,nds,and vita are required individual handhelds for all retro fans as emulating them just isn't the same or doesn't work currently. The wii u is also underrated and could also go on that list.
Ok here we go, vita emulator needs extra effort to set up, i struggled a couple times just trying to set it up. Afik and somebody correct me if im wrong its just one person working on this and apparently they have a mediatek phone, which is great for me, cause it actually works pretty well on my potato phone. Hope the dev keeps it going, i think they are the only ones working on this?
As far as I know as well (might be wrong, haven't really dove into this too much), there's indeed only one dude working on this. This always personally gives me "longetivity anxiety" because this basically means that the emulator stops if the guy gets bored of working on it.
I really was really bummed after watching the video and seeing that vita3k isn't possible to integrate with frontend launchers on Android. After that I tried to search if there are any plans to add such a possibility and what do you know - there already is such a possibility by creating link files, which launches a you from the frontend of choice into the game, bypassing the emulator. So the only trouble for vita3k is during initial setup, after that it integrates well with the frontend. After this, the video seemed under researched, if not malicious, misinforming viewers about an essential feature. If you'd like to know how to create vita3k links, check out ES-DE vita3k video. I would hope that this topic is brought up once again on this channel and corrections are made.
It DOES NOT integrate in any game frontend. Regular users should not have to create manual link files for every game they have. That's a HACK because this simply isn't natively supported right now. I'm not malicious in my intent, I'm just objective and not emotionally attached to the emulator. The second they become better and easily integrate (just like all other emulators do), I'll be the first one to praise them. But that time isn't now. Right now it's an underbaked emulator where users need to do trial and error on a per-game basis in order to figure out what works and what doesn't (the compatibility list is in my experience, not really accurate). I'd appreciate it if next time we won't just throw around accusations like me being intentionally malicious toward an emulator (out of all things), just because you didn't like my conclusion in it. :)
@@VladNerd while I agree that it needs trial and error on per-game basis, many games are still playable and people might still consider it. Creating link files is par for the course, same as sourcing ROMs, BIOS files, experimenting with cores, scraping artwork etc. It gives people an option to play some of their favourite games without a need to bring one more console with them on the go. I would appreciate it if this was actually covered in a video, explained in description, pinned comment, whatever.
@@waldamy like I said, when they natively implement an (easy and user-friendly) way to do so, I'll be one of the first to acknowledge it. Until that time, we need to understand what this is. This is a hack. :) You can call it "part of the process" if you want, but that's super subjective imo. The standardized UX is what the vast majority of emus do, which vita3k does not currently. :) The fact that Vita3K can produce a similar result through a weird workaround isn't something that should be taken as a solution. What if a person has 150 vita games? Would you want me to recommend that they create link files for each and every one of them?
@@VladNerd I think your latest video about Knulli illustrates my point well. You have tried a lot of different solutions to get everything close to a working order, to inform the viewer of everything that is possible. You have conveyed what you were not able to get working, but suggested that everyone else might be able to. To me it felt like a well done informational video, which I enjoyed and liked. Deciding for other people, if they would like to put in is not the point of the video as I see it, it's to let them make an informed choice.
Vita is in an odd spot because of Vita3K being the predominant emulator. As you show, it's a significant amount of effort to play Vita on anything but... well, a Vita. If you're specifically looking for Vita, buying one second hand is the best option, although not cheap. For the price of a Vita now, retro handhelds like RP4+ look way more appealing. I personally find myself not playing my Vita because of the systems it's limited to. That's subjective, as I'm sure others prefer the limited making it easier to decide what to play instead of paralysis of too much choice. Wonderful video showcasing Vita 3K and talking about its current state, Vlad! I can only hope it improves in the future. Too many VNs and RPJs are stuck on that device.
@@VladNerd dang youre right. Now that i think about it im pretty sure that has happened to me too with one of the senran kagura games. There's only a couple vita games that I play with 3k at the moment: atelier sophie and gravity rush
Lot of work emulating vita games on android than just doing henkaku jb on a vita for about 10mins and upscaling a game with a gfx plugin. Awesome video tho, subbed!
Nah everyone in heaven going to be dealing with Denuvo, there is a reason why we fly the skull and crossbones! I would personally prefer using a modded/patched VITA, its imo still a relatively new console as far as emulators go and it still has a long way to go.
Just a heads up, they received a pretty cool update since making this vid, which allows you to basically move the game installation files anywhere. Haven't tried it yet myself, though. Also, thanks for becoming a channel member, love ya! ❤️
I used to, but I'm stuck on Windows for now (hybrid graphics, Nvidia GPU, can't make Wayland to work flawlessly even if I begged it to). I go wayyy back with Linux. My first distro was Ubuntu 7.04. But oh well, these are the times. My next lappy will be a pure-amd build.
my favorite emulator after ppsspp. The games look as good as switch games with great power efficiency. Compatibility has a long way to go but my most important question to you: Ppsspp is coming to ios. Do you think vita3k is ? Does it require JIT?
I have no idea tbh. The Apple ecosystem is my Achille's heel. Last time I properly used iOS was when I had an iPad 2 back in the ancient times, and that was on iOS 5. I'm pretty sure that a lot of actively-developed emus will move to iOS as well now, it simply makes sense for the devs to do so (way fewer hardware options to optimize for, great performance)
Nah, I doubt it. New builds seem to happen sporadically. Most probably the dev keeps things locally / on a different branch before pushing stuff to git. :)
Vlad, what’s the best horizontal handheld for emulating systems below ps1? But not arnbernic rg35xx H :) I’ve bought arnbernic rg35xx plus only to discover that they have a horizontal handheld which I want to have more than a vertical one… but I don’t wanna buy two basically identical machines! What’s your thoughts?
Honestly, I'd still get the H solely because you can swap cards between them pretty easily (this allows for unified save states between the two, you don't have to replay roms on one or the other). If money's not an issue and if you really just want to play lower end systems, I'd go for something like the RG405M and then just slap GammaOS on it. It's better built and runs Android, so you'd get to have fun with filters and shaders to your hearts' delight. :) Avoid the RGB30, it has charging issues and a lot of people are reporting battery swelling issues. There's also the TrimUI Smart Pro which could work for your usecase, but that's quite a bit bigger. (I'll have a review of it in a few days, stay tuned for that). :)
i grew up with nintendo games. i rather emulate gen 6 pokemon games instead of vita games. NES, SNES, GBA, MEGA Drive, Neo Geo,DS, 3DS and PC of coure made my chilhood. sorry sony fans, my mother flipper heart has no place for sony games.
Sorry but That's just dumb. Like I grew up on the NES and SNES and then later pc. but that's exactly the reason I want to emulate Sega and Sony games I never got to play....
@zwenkwiel816 i have nothing against Sony or their games, but if you like something, enjoy. I was thinking the same way as you, but i ended up playing nothing on PSP. The games were so boring to me. Thank god i spent my childhood with the GBA SP and DS. We are talking about Vita here, a head console. There are only Sony games. No one botheres himself to develop a game for it.
Check the description if you want to *help* the channel grow.
Also, *cool nerds help other nerds out by liking and subscribing.* ❤
That 'emulator' is both one of the most frustrating and most amazing pieces of software. I agree with you, I think they tried too hard making it a separate VitaOS style and less emulator. And as far as my attempts are with it, 50% (closer to 60%) failure rate is what I experienced as well. Side note, I'm not a dog person, I'm a cat person so maybe that's why it fails so much.
Vita means life For a reason. It's the system that continues to keep on giving!
I love your presentation style Vlad, makes even mundane technical details humorous, keep up the good work!
Greetings from Spain, beeing following you since a month ago and you have quickly become my favourite emulation content creator. Literally you have depicted point by point my feelings about Vita3k since I started emulating it more or less when it first released on android. Super good job with this channel❤.
This means a lot, thanks my guy! ❤️
Buying a second hand PSvita is a nice idea but the consoles are at that point where the batteries on the market are really old or just bad. the 3ds/DS/SP/psp have the same exact problem. Trying to find a 3ds battery that can play for more than 2ish hours is painful. To be fair emulating some games that require both touch surfaces and gyro would be awful.
Id go with a ps vita tv box over the handheld. From what I can tell its just as easy to softmod. Though to be honest there aren't really that many vita only games. It would be cool to play muramasa rebirth to see the extra content on the vita version, but thats about it for me and hardly worth getting a whole console for lol. Emulation will just get better and better anyway.
Thanks for this! I still adore the Vita to this day and definitely think it was far ahead of its time. I'm hopeful emulation will continue to improve but I don't think the community is passionate enough like with the PSP to make as quick progress, but I do think we'll get there eventually.
I have the same microphone btw, and I wanted to mention switching to an XLR was a lifesaver. You know the headphone port on the mic that you can monitor from? It was difficult for me to get that same sound over USB. I know it required an audio interface but I can vouch that it helped a lot.
The last ten percent of a project takes 90 percent of the effort, or something like that
It's funny because I just went through this realization with Vita 3k recently myself. However my frontend is Launchbox and there is technically a way to use vita3k in launchbox, unfortunately it requires a lot of manual text entry currently which isnt really feasible with hundreds of games but hopefully they will get it streamlined in the future. Its a younger emulator still, so it could end up being completely overhauled and turn into something a lot more usable. For now I will be excluding it from my launchbox collection.
Yeah, it feels like Vita3K hasn’t been worked on for as long or by as many people as some others (particularly Switch for example). But yeah, they seem to be emulating the entire system somehow, like, making a more explicitly exposed virtual Vita environment rather than ‘just’ a program that translates system calls and machine code, and I’m not sure why they went this route. Maybe there’s something about the system that makes this an easier route to develop for? Or maybe the system calls haven’t all been reverse engineered? Switch emulators also require a firmware download, fwiw (along with keys), but I’m not sure if they serve the same purpose in both cases
They actually like just updated daijisho, you can actually start your roms from the launcher! You have to create like a text file with some info and it forwards it to vita3k. You obviously have to install the game first in vita3k but it works after that!
I have an rg405v which has a screen orientation that makes vita screen resolution not very pleasant, but it was still so cool launching vita games from daijisho
I prefer Beacon tbh, even my 50yo pops knows how to navigate it
@@nkoonkukoo ya there is lots of cool launchers! I just like that daijisho works to replace the whole entire android launcher and not just for games
I've subscrided and liked your video bro! As a brazilian who barelly speaks english I can get 100% of what you said on the video :)
You definitelly rock on the content and it is obvious your channel it's going to become huge!
Thanks so much, my guy! ❤️
The way Vita games are coded it needs a fake OS environment as it checks for OS API's to do with camera's, gyro sensors etc etc.
I bought both versions of the real Vita hardware (OLED and not OLED), then bought the new Lenovo legion y700 with the Snapdragon gen 3... I think it makes sense to emulate vita on a really powerful PC and then just stream it to a handheld.... It's really unfortunate that it does not support save states, and I absolutely hate having to deal with zif files or whatever.
I wanted to play one of my favourite games on my phone, Darkest Dungeon, but because they never made an Android version and the Switch version doesn't work yet, i tried Vita3k at the start of the year.
I does work but it has a very janky feeling, one that the skyline didn't have, so I've been ignoring it until new updates are available.
I am glad it exists though.
And i was thinking of buying a vita 2k and moding it
That is a nightmare I don't understand why there isn't another option for vita emulation other than the virtual vita environment. This is why I have my original vita and I went back and bought a Japanese Oled model since I have the slim. Modded and fully English great with vita, psp, and gba for me. I always hated the tiny expensive sd cards I still have and never fit my full library. Now I have real card in it. I feel 3ds,nds,and vita are required individual handhelds for all retro fans as emulating them just isn't the same or doesn't work currently. The wii u is also underrated and could also go on that list.
i can think of a few reasons.. ngl
My dog opened this video and i only saw the "but not more than your dog" part
Ok here we go, vita emulator needs extra effort to set up, i struggled a couple times just trying to set it up. Afik and somebody correct me if im wrong its just one person working on this and apparently they have a mediatek phone, which is great for me, cause it actually works pretty well on my potato phone. Hope the dev keeps it going, i think they are the only ones working on this?
As far as I know as well (might be wrong, haven't really dove into this too much), there's indeed only one dude working on this. This always personally gives me "longetivity anxiety" because this basically means that the emulator stops if the guy gets bored of working on it.
What's the program you use to have all your emulators show up at once like that?
Beacon Launcher. You can find it in the playstore.
I really was really bummed after watching the video and seeing that vita3k isn't possible to integrate with frontend launchers on Android.
After that I tried to search if there are any plans to add such a possibility and what do you know - there already is such a possibility by creating link files, which launches a you from the frontend of choice into the game, bypassing the emulator. So the only trouble for vita3k is during initial setup, after that it integrates well with the frontend.
After this, the video seemed under researched, if not malicious, misinforming viewers about an essential feature.
If you'd like to know how to create vita3k links, check out ES-DE vita3k video.
I would hope that this topic is brought up once again on this channel and corrections are made.
It DOES NOT integrate in any game frontend. Regular users should not have to create manual link files for every game they have. That's a HACK because this simply isn't natively supported right now.
I'm not malicious in my intent, I'm just objective and not emotionally attached to the emulator. The second they become better and easily integrate (just like all other emulators do), I'll be the first one to praise them. But that time isn't now. Right now it's an underbaked emulator where users need to do trial and error on a per-game basis in order to figure out what works and what doesn't (the compatibility list is in my experience, not really accurate).
I'd appreciate it if next time we won't just throw around accusations like me being intentionally malicious toward an emulator (out of all things), just because you didn't like my conclusion in it. :)
@@VladNerd while I agree that it needs trial and error on per-game basis, many games are still playable and people might still consider it.
Creating link files is par for the course, same as sourcing ROMs, BIOS files, experimenting with cores, scraping artwork etc.
It gives people an option to play some of their favourite games without a need to bring one more console with them on the go.
I would appreciate it if this was actually covered in a video, explained in description, pinned comment, whatever.
@@waldamy like I said, when they natively implement an (easy and user-friendly) way to do so, I'll be one of the first to acknowledge it. Until that time, we need to understand what this is. This is a hack. :)
You can call it "part of the process" if you want, but that's super subjective imo.
The standardized UX is what the vast majority of emus do, which vita3k does not currently. :)
The fact that Vita3K can produce a similar result through a weird workaround isn't something that should be taken as a solution. What if a person has 150 vita games? Would you want me to recommend that they create link files for each and every one of them?
@@VladNerd I think your latest video about Knulli illustrates my point well.
You have tried a lot of different solutions to get everything close to a working order, to inform the viewer of everything that is possible. You have conveyed what you were not able to get working, but suggested that everyone else might be able to.
To me it felt like a well done informational video, which I enjoyed and liked. Deciding for other people, if they would like to put in is not the point of the video as I see it, it's to let them make an informed choice.
Vita is in an odd spot because of Vita3K being the predominant emulator. As you show, it's a significant amount of effort to play Vita on anything but... well, a Vita.
If you're specifically looking for Vita, buying one second hand is the best option, although not cheap. For the price of a Vita now, retro handhelds like RP4+ look way more appealing.
I personally find myself not playing my Vita because of the systems it's limited to. That's subjective, as I'm sure others prefer the limited making it easier to decide what to play instead of paralysis of too much choice.
Wonderful video showcasing Vita 3K and talking about its current state, Vlad! I can only hope it improves in the future. Too many VNs and RPJs are stuck on that device.
Vita3k is pretty good but can't just pick a random game and expect it to play perfect
Fair point, but both games weren't random. They were both marked as "playable" in the official Vita3K compatibility sheet listed on their website. :)
@@VladNerd dang youre right. Now that i think about it im pretty sure that has happened to me too with one of the senran kagura games. There's only a couple vita games that I play with 3k at the moment: atelier sophie and gravity rush
The emulation will improve. Some games play. Some don’t. Wait for the system to get more love.
I tried this Emulator and it was to much hassle to get it going. I'd rather pick up a Vita and Modd it.
Did I miss what SOC you ran the Vita emulation on Vlad lad?
I ran it on a Snapdragon 8 gen 1 (on the Lenovo Legion Y700 2023 tablet that I occasionally sneak and talk about in some of the videos 😄)
Thank you Vlad🙏🏿
Lot of work emulating vita games on android than just doing henkaku jb on a vita for about 10mins and upscaling a game with a gfx plugin. Awesome video tho, subbed!
Nah everyone in heaven going to be dealing with Denuvo, there is a reason why we fly the skull and crossbones! I would personally prefer using a modded/patched VITA, its imo still a relatively new console as far as emulators go and it still has a long way to go.
You convinced to uninstall Vita3k and not even try.
Just a heads up, they received a pretty cool update since making this vid, which allows you to basically move the game installation files anywhere. Haven't tried it yet myself, though.
Also, thanks for becoming a channel member, love ya! ❤️
@@VladNerd No problem! 😃
Vlad, do you daily drive Linux?
I used to, but I'm stuck on Windows for now (hybrid graphics, Nvidia GPU, can't make Wayland to work flawlessly even if I begged it to).
I go wayyy back with Linux. My first distro was Ubuntu 7.04. But oh well, these are the times. My next lappy will be a pure-amd build.
my favorite emulator after ppsspp. The games look as good as switch games with great power efficiency. Compatibility has a long way to go but my most important question to you: Ppsspp is coming to ios. Do you think vita3k is ? Does it require JIT?
I have no idea tbh. The Apple ecosystem is my Achille's heel. Last time I properly used iOS was when I had an iPad 2 back in the ancient times, and that was on iOS 5.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of actively-developed emus will move to iOS as well now, it simply makes sense for the devs to do so (way fewer hardware options to optimize for, great performance)
@@VladNerd thank you as always for your promt response Vlad. Most appreciated.
I think the vita3k project was abandoned
Nah, I doubt it. New builds seem to happen sporadically. Most probably the dev keeps things locally / on a different branch before pushing stuff to git. :)
Wanted to play the MGS HD remasters through Vita3k on my Odin 2, couldn't get it work.
how to exit game?
My new fave geek info outlet 🤓
Vlad, what’s the best horizontal handheld for emulating systems below ps1? But not arnbernic rg35xx H :)
I’ve bought arnbernic rg35xx plus only to discover that they have a horizontal handheld which I want to have more than a vertical one… but I don’t wanna buy two basically identical machines! What’s your thoughts?
Honestly, I'd still get the H solely because you can swap cards between them pretty easily (this allows for unified save states between the two, you don't have to replay roms on one or the other).
If money's not an issue and if you really just want to play lower end systems, I'd go for something like the RG405M and then just slap GammaOS on it. It's better built and runs Android, so you'd get to have fun with filters and shaders to your hearts' delight. :)
Avoid the RGB30, it has charging issues and a lot of people are reporting battery swelling issues. There's also the TrimUI Smart Pro which could work for your usecase, but that's quite a bit bigger. (I'll have a review of it in a few days, stay tuned for that). :)
@@VladNerd thank you man of the people 🙏
i grew up with nintendo games. i rather emulate gen 6 pokemon games instead of vita games.
NES, SNES, GBA, MEGA Drive, Neo Geo,DS, 3DS and PC of coure made my chilhood.
sorry sony fans, my mother flipper heart has no place for sony games.
Sorry but That's just dumb. Like I grew up on the NES and SNES and then later pc. but that's exactly the reason I want to emulate Sega and Sony games I never got to play....
@zwenkwiel816 i have nothing against Sony or their games, but if you like something, enjoy.
I was thinking the same way as you, but i ended up playing nothing on PSP. The games were so boring to me. Thank god i spent my childhood with the GBA SP and DS.
We are talking about Vita here, a head console. There are only Sony games. No one botheres himself to develop a game for it.
0:43 Thank you for that... -.-" those youtubers are really annoying, thanks again
LEGACY OF KAIN MENTIONED 🦀🦀🦀
HECK YEAH, it's my favorite series of all time! Vae Victis, my nerd.
Yes it needs work
Yeah you're right,my dogs love me more
It sucks
Exactly it's trash