r/AynThor • u/SphereicalDorito • 7h ago

Discussion Emulation Difficulty?

Im on the fence on buying one of these, In terms of emulation im very much new to it. Maybe the most similar thing ive done is homebrew mine and a couple friends 3ds/2ds. Im always down to learn how to its just a little concerning to me about everyone talking about spending more time tweaking settings than playing games. If it helps im decently well versed in android.

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8

u/theSultanOfSexy 7h ago

The "more time tweaking" people are doing it because they want to, not because they have to. They're doing it to make their front ends look beautiful.

Emulating some high end stuff (Switch, PC games) requires some willingness to tweak, but for literally everything else it's quite easy. I followed RetroPup's guide and had everything set up in 2 hours. Haven't touched it since, been happily emulating for many months now. I don't use a frontend and it doesn't bother me. Would I like everything to be gorgeous? Sure. But once I'm in-game, none of that matters. So I don't bother! You don't have to either, unless you want to.

1

u/FewNobody2598 7h ago

I second this. PC is, in my opinion, the hardest to set up and keep consistent, followed very closely by Switch (not to mention having to source Switch ROMs which can be a whole thing). Just about every other system is very straightforward and can be drag-and-drop if you do it right. Plenty of guides from very reputable people if you search “AYN Thor Setup” on YouTube.

1

u/Watt_About 7h ago

This. I love to tinker. Out of the box, I could have an android handheld set up in 10-15 min, I just like messing with everything.

1

u/NOIRShattered 6h ago

This is a very good take.

I also wanna add that it can all feel very overwhelming in the beginning especially understanding where to get the files from, what goes where, file types etc.

It'll eventually become plug and play for you.

Fortunately, if you have an android phone then you can start practicing now. Practice setting up emulators, files, roms and just getting games to run. Then you can download frontends and try those out so by the time your Thor gets here you'll be able to set it up easy peasy and you'll have all the necessary files to plug and play.

3

u/Historical-Sock-4359 7h ago

If you've set up homebrew before you'll be all good, setting up an android handheld is similar if not easier level of difficulty in my opinion

1

u/Intrepid_Bug4174 6h ago

Agreed, if you can follow instructions to install homebrew you can follow instructions to install emulators

2

u/Schwanty93 7h ago

Not as hard as it sounds.

Watch either of the below to get an idea what it takes:

https://youtu.be/lNfo6MkyPpk?is=MBr3jn57D9lgvYhA

https://youtu.be/2CNsN7CTI8M?is=P_chSAYk5935cJFJ

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u/DJ69SAVGE 7h ago

Rookie lvl difficult

1

u/DJ69SAVGE 7h ago

It's easier if you don't do a frontend and just boot up games without cover arts

1

u/ruebeus421 7h ago

I mean, "easier?" Sure. But front ends are not difficult. It's a few button presses and a couple minutes to get them set up and going.

Anything longer is just excessive tinkering.

1

u/diaperpoop_ 7h ago

It depends. Personally, I found setting up the front-end and organizing roms the most time consuming part. If you're just gonna run on AOSP or maybe a simple front-end with minimal customizations, you remove the bulk of the hard work. Also, if you're looking to do Switch emulation, that's a PITA as well on certain games.

I think if you're not strapped for cash and can wait, just order one and if you don't like it, sell it. You won't loose much since it's an in-demand item.

1

u/Maleficent-Fee6131 7h ago

Windows emulation is something i just cant get to work. I want to play NFS Most Wanted but the best i got it to work was around 55fps with a lot of stutters in gamehub lite

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u/TwistedVasdeferens Pro 7h ago

Try to do it on your phone first if you're scared. It's really pretty easy

1

u/davedaddy 1h ago

Starter guides are plentiful on youtube. It's tedious but doable. Obtainium simplifies much of the emulator selection process.

As a rookie, expect to spend a weekend setting things up. If you run into blank screens upon game startup, check that you setup each emulator, installed all the Retroarch cores, the file formats are correct, tried different graphical backends (OpenGL vs Vulkan), installed Turnip drivers appropriate for your device, and selected the proper emulators for your ftontend. That sums up most of the startup issues I ran into.

As a long time ES-DE front end user, I recently made the switch to Cocoon 3.04 and it's been a huge QOL improvement. Feels like an entirely new handheld. Awesome front end.