Flycast Dreamcast Emulator Gets a BIG Upgrade! DCNet is Here!

[@rancid_]

Love the emulation coverage, these guys are working their asses off and deserve the recognition.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ll keep covering it as it keeps happening :)

[@METR0lD]

I remember playing Chu Chu Rocket online back in the day....using dial-up internet!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I do too. And a lot of Duke 3D online

[@Thinkofsomethingnew]

Me too and in the UK Sega sent Chu Chu Rocket to people for free in the post. Maybe to help push their online service. Damn I miss the Dreamcast.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It was a great console. One of the best

[@ArcadeStriker]

Nice to see Flycast's DCNet get some love and coverage - I actually filled in that little page on the wiki to keep track of games that get added (so I'll be on that when I get word if a new game supported) and the woki as a whole years ago because baxk then people didn't know flycast has a srandaloke version I'm glad that it exists because, for how specific the issue DCNet aims to fix seems like, that fix was exactly a thing that allowed to play CCR online again recently. Cheers :)

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I always have spots to cover new innovations in gaming. Anything that helps people keep playing games and having fun is worth it here :)

[@stupidbluebird]

nice! i've been hankering for some dreamcast online but never wanted to mess with a dreampi setup.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It just got 100x easier for everyone

[@Rob64_]

I don't understand, the UPnP option on Flycast has been working for years and that already got you online with no setup and no port forwarding nonsense. What is the difference with DCnet? Nothing shown in this video is new at all.

[@ArcadeStriker]

That depends on your connection - in my case for some reason my current router refuses to work with Flycast's UPNP and couldn't play online due to that. DCNet allowed me to do so without any hiccups. As the developer described it to me, "it can work through a mobile connection" - as in...as long as your connection is functional, DCNet servers will let you join and play, rather than being a hit or miss situation if your router throws a fit or you can't configure port forwarding/UPNP on it.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It worked if your router allowed it to work. Which for a lot of people it did not

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Exactly. As I mentioned in the videos many have routers that wouldn’t work or allow them to access the settings to make it work

[@lancepage1914]

I think flycast is one of the best emulators around in general. This makes it even better. Great work!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s a great addition for sure

[@hideokojimajr]

This might put me over the edge on whether I prefer emulating this console or using OG hardware. I sure have invested in mods for my Dreamcasts... Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

For online now this beats OG hardware IMO

[@ElectroCurmudgeon]

that is really cool. i did have a ethernet adapter for the dreamcast but was never able to really get it online.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s very finicky with all the steps to go through. Still worth doing though

[@SianaGearz]

Dreamcast video chip has a couple unique features. One is that transparent surfaces are drawn by onion peeling and always appear in visually correct order, pixel precise clipped against each other and also eerily high depth buffer precision and depth latitude. This can cause emulation issues such as near surfaces clipped, far surfaces Z-fighting, transparent surfaces disappearing trianglewise or flickering. And the other odd feature is modifier volumes, which can either shade all geometry that falls into them darker, or remove geometry inside or outside the volume, and the magical thing is, it works on both transparent and solid surfaces, while say classic stencil buffer shadow technique only works on solid ones. There's a few more really odd features, that were never used not even once so the don't really need to be emulated. But i wonder how good the emulation of these unusual features is nowadays. Last i looked a couple years ago neither did modifier volume shadows perfectly. Say in Jet Set Radio, in Flycast, the environment modifier volumes weren't affecting characters, while they should have. In Redream this worked, but characters threw a shadow on the moving cars say in Tab's tutorial which they shouldn't, while environment volume shadows should still work on moving cars. See it's insanely complex, geometry and volume submission order matters. Perhaps Demul got it right, i forget.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You’d have to go in and do side by sides off the current version. Could be fun

[@Gorilla_Jones]

I had Broadband in 98 and it was great with DC.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

We didn’t get it in Vermont until like 2002

[@retropulse03]

I lease my modem/router from Comcast, and CERTAIN settings like turning on 802.11b (No WiFi for my Wii) is impossible, but the Xfinity App does let you port forward - in fact it's pretty easy on the app once you find where they put it haha. So, for what that's worth, at least that's a thing.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’ll let you port forward but doesn’t have B coverage? Wow haha

[@joesaiditstrue]

You gonna cover the new CRT Beam Simulator plugins available for Retroarch, Reshade and the Retrotink 4k Pro?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Soon

[@lancepage1914]

I would be interested in seeing that.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’m looking into it

[@ObiKKa]

Ooh, 4:33. Pod Racer in multiplayer. Now let's try it, baby! Some other titles like Toy Racer may be worth multiplaying too.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ve always been garbage at Pod Racer for some reason

[@PonderSmoke860]

Gotta give this a try!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Enjoy it! Tons of fun

[@ar-game-test]

Flycast is now my go to for Dreamcast gaming. I even put my Dreamcast in storage and use Flycast on my Steam Deck. Its just more convenient plus Naomi games support is the cherry on top

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

A lot easier to just lie on the couch and play too haha

[@ar-game-test]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Yeah thats super convenient

[@eliotcole]

I'm sure it's mentioned in the video, but flycast is the base of DC and NAOMI stuff in fightcade, folks ... and it's awesome ...

[@eliotcole]

fightcade completely sorts the emulation side for you and you don't need to think about anything else other than finding someone to play ... it's not just fighting games

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s a nice bonus

[@ObiKKa]

No. He didn't mention it in the video. But thank you for mentioning it to us.

[@ArinoSeb_Gccx_QC]

was hioping to see Daytona usa 2001 in the list. I hope it will be added in the future

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’m sure more games will come in the future

[@nicholassgourakis6020]

I hope so too, I've always wanted to play that online on PC.

[@ArcadeStriker]

Same here - I'll definitely be giving it a go myself the day it does

[@mentalhell4846]

I hiop so

[@Reynard_11]

Three titles I'd like to see make the list in the future: Ooga Booga, Speed Devils Online & Vigilante 8 2nd Offence.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Bomberman Online for me

[@BaronSFel001]

When it comes to emulation one big thing I care about is fidelity: 16-bit and earlier, PlayStation 1 & 2, even Gamecube/Wii reportedly seem to be there, while I still have a physical Saturn since that console's emulation still isn't quite there. Because I have less experience with their real-life counterparts I can't tell if 3DO, N64 or Dreamcast emulation is quite there as I have also heard reports about challenges with those systems. Feel free to chime in as frankly as you like, because I am contemplating whether it'll be worth trying to build a Dreamcast collection to play on an actual console (which was built cheaply because of Sega's financial difficulties at the time thus hardware is not aging well anymore).

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Saturn emulation lags behind for sure. But it’s getting there

[@HappyFridayGuy]

F355 only had link support not online race. That's amazing

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s impressive stuff

[@wilfrido16]

It had a online feature but you could only play against another players ghost race.

[@badassmotha2k]

When I bought my Dreamcast the guy at GameStop asked if it was ok they didn’t give me a modem with the preowned console. I no longer regret saying I don’t need it.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That’s weird it wasn’t included

[@badassmotha2k]

@ I have no idea why it wasn’t. Recently picked up a copy of Alien Front Online and it reminded me of the regret. I totally would have played Unreal online if I had the modem (I had the dial up)

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I hope Bomberman Online gets added soon.

[@Alex_Koban]

I was able to set up my real dreamcast online, though due to my europe time zone I can't play with DC Live schedule and DC Live EU is dead, no one plays there I was able to just meet one guy in quake 3 arena, and he was an admin playing from his PC Maybe I should try other games. But surfing old web with way back machine on a dreamcast is a blast. There are some web sites which are made for old PC enthusiasts, and those are perfect for dreamcast

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I wish YT worked. So I could just watch a video on Dreamcast. For no reason other than it sounds funny to do

[@Imgema]

I'm still waiting for Hikaru support.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

We’re probably gonna be waiting a long time

[@duxzu]

Does Redream offer anything that Flycast doesn't?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Not really

[@Flackon]

for matching service

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Hopefully we get that soon

[@raxanderjyn]

I literally just switched to Flycast from Redream today since it was having issues with fps in Rez and a few other games, and now they do this the same day?! I made the right call at the right time lol!🔥

[@zergslayer69]

Flycast does so much more than redream, I'd never go back

[@raxanderjyn]

@@zergslayer69 I most definitely won't, I got everything working and could even play Seaman now if I want 😂 The only reason why I was still using Redream was because I paid for it around the time it first came out. Haven't really looked into other Dreamcast emulators until I started to have problems. Glad I made the switch though

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha good timing

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s my preferred

[@garybrower239]

There are only a few supported titles though. If playing Dreamcast games online is your thing? Your best bet is still physical hardware and a Dreampi. You will have far more supported games.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Remember this is new. I’m sure more games will get support

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Oh wow! That really is a big update VGE. Amazing. I have to look into this more bro. 8^)

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

A huge improvement over what we had before

[@desktorp]

I remember playing the original version of Phantasy Star Online at my friend's house a couple times.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That was one of the best online games

[@rgm4646]

56k modems....ahhh... memories...... :)

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha we all used it and loved it back then. Even when we hated it

[@pam8352]

56k modem? you were lucky, i get the 33k modem and it connected at 28/24

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha I had a 28.8k first then upgraded at some point

[@rgm4646]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I am aging myself I realize that lol but...I had a 2400, then 9600 baud then eventually a 14.4 growing up. :) The good old days. lol

[@rgm4646]

@ 33.6 I remember that, that was in the pcmcia days.

[@SP95]

There is your next excuse to make an other video about Daytona USA online 😏

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha that one isn’t supported yet or else I would. Same with Bomberman

[@Gamma00Ray]

For Chu Chu Rocket, you didn't get a little lag back in the day. You got A LOT of lag back in the day.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha it’s been decades. I don’t remember the specific lag

[@grandjjdx]

Flycast implies Bass Fishing and Bass Fishing is what makes us men happy 😎

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ve never caught a fish fishing. I’ve got lots of hangovers though

[@rars0n]

I would like to see someone develop a hardware mod for the 56k modem to turn it into a Wifi adapter. I'd be willing to sacrifice it considering I don't have a landline anymore. This is the next best thing though, and it's really cool to see it implemented within an emulator because now a lot more people will have an easy way to play online. I played my Dreamcast online back in the day over the modem. The only game I really played much of was Daytona USA, and it worked pretty well when it worked, but I often had connection problems and lag. I think that was partly due to noise on the phone line, as we never could max out our internet connection speed, either.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

There are some modern mods for Ethernet but yes I’ve never really seen anything WiFi based. Thats a good point

[@vincentvega3093]

DreamPi

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Does that do wifi?

[@TheSquirreless]

Nfl2k????

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Not as of yet but hopefully

[@GamerGee]

Who can I play in Ferrari. ?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Alejandro in a Lambo

[@corinful]

He's sold it 😂

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

He wants you to think that lol

[@marcelfilz7989]

Flycast is not for me, until the frame pacing issues with 30fps Dreamcast games like Headhunter are fixed. It is a very old issue, and the only way to get smooth gameplay with 30fps games is the software renderer. So you have no benefits. Redream iscthe better choice for me.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

The good thing is we have options

[@vincentvega3093]

What you want is DreamPi on original Dreamcast hardware

[@hisinfernalmajesty1849]

does it use the same servers as the actual console? so if i had a console, a friend had the emulator, we'd be able to play against each other?

[@shadicpro21]

Yup!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Exactly. It’s seriously that easy

[@hisinfernalmajesty1849]

@@VideoGameEsoterica yeah, i have the dreampi for my dreamcast. ideally, id like to play against my bro. i could lend him my dreamcast and dreampi, use flycast for myself, to play against my bro.

[@PapillionLikesKids]

Pointless until they resolve the analog control issues

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ve had no issues with controls?

[@PapillionLikesKids]

@@VideoGameEsoterica IT doesnt deal with the analog proeprly due to dreamcasts magnetic based analag, i forget the name. Anyway its wildly innacurate. Play Toy commander on a real console then on flycast. Controls are nowhere near real hardware