I know vba-next core added TILED_RENDERING and it speeds games a lot. I wonder how magic it is, so I tried it on Gamecube from version 1.0.0.0 to 1.0.0.2. But I never get it working!!! The emu only crashes when ROM is loaded. Is anybody successfully play any GBA games via vba-next core on Gamecube? Did any developer test it on Gamecube (or on Wii with Gamecube mode) before release it? I am not complaining anything, because that helps nothing. I just want to know the truth. If it does not work at all on Gamecube, isn’t it meaningless to release it with version bumping up?
I don’t have a homebrewed GameCube to test on, but you might be running into RAM issues. Let’s see … GameCube RAM is 24MB, the core itself will probably take about 1.5MB of that, then some emulator overhead, let’s say 4MB, conservatively … emulated RAM is trivial (256KB) … very rough estimate, 16MB ROMs are probably pushing it in terms of fitting into the GameCube’s RAM. Maybe test an 8MB ROM and see if that’s any better? Or 4MB if that still fails?
The only reason the Gamecube versions get released is because libogc makes it very easy to push out versions for Gamecube as well.
Sometime ago I used to test the Gamecube version first on my Gamecube - I did not for the past few versions though. Having to do the PSO hack everytime is a bit tiresome.
Anyway, the Gamecube port basically is pushed out with barely any testing and no support provided - things are mostly expected to work since they work on the Wii and the two are so structurally similar. It is up to people who care about the Gamecube (ie. other devs) to build upon the foundations we made, put in the extra effort to do whatever it is you guys want it to do, and then upstream it.
I have heard lots of talk on gc-forever about improving certain things in RetroArch cores for Gamecube, yet it has always stayed at talk, and nobody has ever done anything.
And yes, only the smallest GBA ROMs might fit into the Gamecube’s free RAM. If you need more, maybe you could do something with the ARAM. But anyway, I would appreciate it if other developers started getting involved - I have a lot to do already as-is.