Original Post

I’ve been debating building a VB mini console based on Raspberry PI, my VB mini chassis, and mini NFC VB carts like was done for a custom NES mini.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT5jY35rHAE

Curious what people think about a VB version of this?

Here’s the original guy who did it for the NES mini:
https://www.daftmike.com/2016/07/NESPi.html

29 Replies

The VB is the “first” 3d console.
Making an HDMI version with no 3d (or anaglyph) is just good for colectors.
In my opinion, the only 3rd party version that makes honnor to the VB is the Oculus version.
This what the VB was supposed to be (or sold as).

BUT beeing creative and create good 3d models for the comunity is gold 😉

czar_h wrote:
The VB is the “first” 3d console.
Making an HDMI version with no 3d (or anaglyph) is just good for colectors.
In my opinion, the only 3rd party version that makes honnor to the VB is the Oculus version.
This what the VB was supposed to be (or sold as).

BUT beeing creative and create good 3d models for the comunity is gold 😉

Maybe. I think anaglyph or shutter glasses would still be acceptable. VB is 3D but it’s not headtracked so the experience is similar enough, I think.

My understanding (at least from reading Furrtek’s notes) is that anaglyph won’t work because the 3D is programmed expecting to be very close to your face; so I’m expecting 3D HDMI output would be more appropriate for a more modern HMD.

On the other hand, it may be possible to adjust the warp the output and adjust convergence in a way that makes the 3D look good on a 3D TV, or with anaglyph/shutter glasses. (And this would apply to theoretical 3D HDMI output from a real VB.) Unfortunately, that kind of image transformation is not going to be lag-free.

I realy like the mechanism of miniVB NFC cards.

I’d be pretty interested in the Pi concept you’re referencing.

I’m also hoping someone will offer pre-assembled consoles like this guy did with Furrtek’s VGA/RGB mod. I want something like this pretty bad haha

When mednafen first added 3D support for VB, I spent a long time trying to tweak it to work on my Panasonic 3DTV. I’m one of the few people that actually love 3DTV’s (when the content is done correctly), so I went into this with a positive attitude and high hopes. I just couldn’t get it working right though. If there was a Raspberry Pi solution that could work in 3D, I’d jump on it. Maybe things have improved enough to make it happen?

This sounds cool but it’s a non-3D system, so that’s sort of disappointing. That’s why I chose to build onto Pocket Chip (I actually originally did some testing on Raspberry Pi 3B, but it just wasn’t what I hoped for) which allows for on the go 3D gaming as well as video out. The split screen display should allow for use on a 3D TV.

Looks like it is indeed possible with shaders. This is how VB 3D has been done on things like Google Cardboard. Totally custom but I happen to have experience with shaders. I may try it now.

  • This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by mellott124.

Just got things setup and tested. 3D in red/blue works fine. Mario Tennis and Hyper Fighting look quite impressive. I’ll try the conversion to SBS for 3D TVs when I have some more time.

Retropie even picks up my VB controller USB adapters so the VB controller can also be used. 🙂

My first attempt at SBS shows it can all work. Don’t get too stuck on the image size. That’s all adjustable.

  • This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by mellott124.

And this looks amazing in red blue 3D. Not only was it 3D on the monitor but I could see it in 3D on my phone when I was taking the picture. 🙂

I do see some games where the stereo separation is too large and hard to fuse. All of that could be tweaked using a shader. Worst case it may be a custom shader per game. Or maybe just a shader that allows the separation to be adjusted. I’ll think more about it.

And now on my 3DTV with shutter glasses. Works great. You really need to know what you’re doing in the shader otherwise everything breaks.

Mario Tennis looks crazy good. I can sit on my couch or walk right up to the TV and peer inside. There’s also this cool illusion of perspective shifting when I walk around the room that makes it look like its following me.

Liking the progress!!

Thanks.

The idea is to build a VB mini console based on Raspberry Pi if people are interested. Think my programmer but running Retropie with 3D and VB controller.

For 3D anaglyph, I’m experimenting with the different color options to see which is best. The 3D effect can be quite good. I’ve tried the normal red/cyan and I have green/magenta on the way.

Side-by-side stereo for 3DTVs is even better 3D with shutter glasses. This requires a shader running which looks good so far. It does require the shader to be tweaked per game. I found out that there is a shader distributed with Retropie for this, but an earlier one has user adjustable settings that can be set that will work better for tweaking per game. I’m tweaking the default shader for what I think is best. I’ve done a lot of shader work for HMDs in the past. Once settings are tweaked then a preset config file is made for each game for the best settings to load at bootup.

Mini carts with NFC tags inside that auto launch the VB games is another feature. This auto launch will be particularly important for the side-by-side 3D on 3DTVs. For the SBS mode the regular Retropie menus are not in SBS but the VB output is. So this can be confusing or difficult when moving in and out of the VB emulator versus the regular Retropie menus. The NFC carts can direct launch into the games which operates more like a console and helps with the 3D aspect. For 3D anaglyph, you can still see the regular Retropie menus so its less of a problem. This NFC launching is an idea taken from the NES mini project that did the same.

Then VB controller input via my adapter or even an adapter built into the console. With the adapter built into the console the cables for the VB controller will be short. With the adapter external then a USB cable can be used to extend as long as needed. Still debating the better approach. The integrated adapter is cleaner but with a short cable problem. I’d really like to not have to build extension cables. I’ll be updating my design VB controller USB adapter to not need donor parts if it moves forward on this project.

For the VB mini case the LCD on the back will display the current running game title. I’m open to other suggestions if people think there is better info to display on the LCD.

Wondering what people think about this and if there is more interest now that I’ve shown 3D works? I’m not 100% sure I’m going to do it yet but I’ve obviously started testing and it looks like it can all work. The entire thing would be built from new parts and using no donor parts.

What do people think?

  • This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by mellott124.
  • This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by mellott124.

I think this is friggin awesome and would buy one right away. I also think this is one of the few examples where the advantages of something like this far outweigh any lag or inaccuracies added by emulation.

I agree, this is awesome!! I would definitely want one for myself as well.

mellott124 wrote:
Wondering what people think about this and if there is more interest now that I’ve shown 3D works? I’m not 100% sure I’m going to do it yet but I’ve obviously started testing and it looks like it can all work. The entire thing would be built from new parts and using no donor parts.

What do people think?

I’m sure it is 0% surprising to you that I would be interested in this project! I’ve had a similar notional idea… basically a Pi-based “VB Classic” for lack of a better term. A dedicated device that is setup, loaded, and configured solely for VB games (and sits on my shelf in a cute little VB enclosure when not in use).

As for my thoughts, I would personally just be using it for with anaglyph glasses since I don’t have a 3D TV. I have played Mednafen in anaglyph mode for years and it works pretty well for me. I can get the ghosting to an acceptable level for most games and have several different color combinations of glasses I bought for this purpose (although most of the time I go with the classic dark blue/red (not cyan)). I see the benefits of the NFC feature, particularly if game-wise config files make for a better experience, but if the same can be done with GUI-based launching, it probably wouldn’t be worth too much hassle in my case since I don’t have a 3D TV.

I like the idea of having USB ports for the controllers rather than integrated sockets. I think the cord length would be prohibitive. Luckily, I have one of your adapters and I know some folks on here have hardwired USB cords onto their VB controllers, so I personally think that is the best USB poarts are the best option. And some folks could probably even get by with other more common USB adapters available for SNES controllers or Wii Classic controllers, for example, since many of the games don’t require the RHS dpad. It might be useful to have at least 2 USB ports intended for input devices so the second one can be another input device that could be used for emulator functions like save state save/load, game reset, etc.

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts, but I’ll be quite interested in how this develops!

One more cool feature would be Bluetooth, I think. That would open up the Wii U Pro, Switch controllers, and 8bitdo products as controller options that lots of people already have, among others.

Great idea and amazing execution so far, Kevin!

astro187 wrote:
One more cool feature would be Bluetooth, I think. That would open up the Wii U Pro, Switch controllers, and 8bitdo products as controller options that lots of people already have, among others.

Bluetooth is built in. Using a Bluetooth controller now along side my VB controller.

 

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