Tutorial: how to configure DUCKSTATION on BATOCERA – PART 1

Emulating a video game is not always a simple operation. Everything must be configured in the right way otherwise the games could be played incorrectly or could even crash. Each system then has its own peculiarities. We have therefore decided to offer you an episodic tutorial where we explain without haste every single item of DuckStation, the PlayStation emulator that you can use under Batocera also with our Nemesis Lite 2 console.

Let's not waste time talking and start talking about what really matters. To access the options relating to the game you are interested in, scroll to the title whose settings you want to change and press the select button on the joystick. A menu with various items will appear. You will have to select the last one at the bottom, that is ADVANCED SYSTEM OPTIONS . Enter the new menu. Here you will have a whole series of elements to choose from.

EMULATOR: here you can decide which emulator to start the game with. In our case we can navigate between DuckStation, Mednafen, Pcsx Rearmed and SwanStation. Obviously choose what you prefer. Remember that in all cases AUTO simply chooses the next option in the list.

VIDEO MODE: here you can choose the resolution with which to view the game images. Obviously, the higher the resolution, the clearer what you see on the screen. However, keep in mind that too high resolutions could cause the frame rate to drop sharply. So find the right compromise between quality and fluidity. In this case we have chosen a resolution of 1920X1080, i.e. FULL HD.

GAME ASPECT RATIO: this item will allow you to select the image format best suited to your screen. 4:3, 16:9 or rarer formats are all available to choose from. In our case we will use the 16:9 widescreen format.

DECORATIONS: thanks to this item you can further embellish your gaming experience with frames and image changes. They range from the edge of the screen which recalls the contours of the PlayStation to the old cathode ray tube television complete with a pixel effect superimposed on the image.

– DECORATION SET it will let you choose the type of frame.

– STRETCH BEZELS allows you to choose the display format of frames with higher resolutions such as 4K.

– HEADS UP DISPLAY it allows you to overlay a series of interesting information on the game: for example we often choose the PERFORMANCE item which allows you to keep a whole series of parameters under control, starting from fps.

– SHOW TATTOO OVER BEZEL allows you to overlay other elements on the frames, such as game buttons.

– TATTOO CORNER will let you choose which area of ​​the screen to overlay the previously selected element.

– CUSTOM .PNG IMAGE PATH will allow you to specify the path inside the device where BATOCERA can find a customized image to overlay on the frame. You can also use a photo of your face, why not?

– RESIZE TATTOO allows you to decide whether to resize the overlay image in question within the borders of the frame

REWIND: it is the item used to let you choose how many hardware resources to dedicate to the emulator's rewind function. With the chosen key combination you can rewind the game at any time. The more resources you dedicate to this function, the more time will be available for rewinding.

GRAPHICS API: from here you can choose the graphics library on which to base the emulation. In general the best performance is obtained with Vulkan and therefore we usually choose that.

FRAMESKIP: some games may be too heavy to emulate at full speed. In this case you could decide to play in slow motion or you could choose to skip a few frames to simulate normal game speed. Unfortunately, in the worst cases, you will find yourself playing with a sequence of slides.

SHOW BIOS BOOTLOGO: you may choose to skip the console startup screen in order to speed up the loading of the game. Be careful though, because some titles may not support this feature and create temporary errors.

We have analyzed a first part of the DuckStation options on Batocera. There are many rumors and, in order not to put too much on the line at once, as already mentioned at the beginning of the article, we have decided to divide the tutorial into several parts. This way you can test every single setting in due time. Experiment without fear.

Remember that we are always available to clarify all your doubts and solve your problems. If after reading this tutorial you feel like recovering and improving your PlayStation games with our console, I remind you that you can purchase the Nemesis Lite 2 with a strong discount by manually entering the coupon in the Cart section Thu2022 . Happy configuration and merry Christmas, see you with the second part of the tutorial.