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Anbernic RG DS "Plus" was recently announced, what do you all think of it? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) by sbeak@sopuli.xyz to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world

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The main improvement seems to be the larger 1024x768 4.3" screens (compared to the 640x480 4" screens on the RG DS) and the inclusion of a built-in stylus (still one of those rubber nib ones though), as well as some minor changes to the hinge and other bits. However, it uses the same chip, has less RAM (from 3GB to 1GB), and ships with a Linux-based OS instead of a barely-runnable Android version. It also has a single stick instead of dual, but the RG DS was never powerful enough to run most dual stick games anyways (PS2, GC, etc.), so that probably isn't an issue. The internal eMMC storage has also been removed in favour of another microSD slot (one for the OS, another for ROMs)

It's a little weird they called it the Plus, since the only improvement is the screens and maybe the stylus, while having downgrades to the memory.

It comes in pink, black, and blue (navy-ish), while the RG DS had the red/black, turquoise, and white colourways.

What do you all think of this RG DS "Plus"?

edit: announced, not released!!

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[–] popcar2@piefed.ca 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Despite all the complaints online, I think the changes make sense on paper. Switching to better pixel-perfect screens and having an integrated stylus is more important than the extra RAM and storage. Especially since we all know ram and storage are crazy expensive now. The 2gb less ram won't affect DS emulation, which is really the point of this thing.

I've seen so many people just say "they should use a better chip and have more ram and re-add internal storage and use Android and a bigger battery"... But then it wouldn't be $100, would it? If people want a high end handheld for DS/3DS emulation, the AYN thor is that way.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Android is a major downside for these devices now with google killing itself.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 points 23 minutes ago* (last edited 22 minutes ago)

The RG DS Plus will run an version of Linux OOTB (the correct decision, since Android ran horribly on the original RG DS)

And I would guess Rocknix will be supported soon after release due to the use of the same chip (as long as there isn't weird stuff going on with the new displays)

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think the RG DS Plus is a bad device, it's just a little limited (through factors that Anbernic can't really control without jacking up the price). It also looks like it will be the same, if not lower, price than the original RG DS, which is good. I think the lack of RAM is not great but isn't too bad (though it puts into question the feasibility of 4x integer scale DS)

[–] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

With some clever code, I would think integer scaling would be relatively low impact on RAM. Instead of storing multiple of each pixel, you'd query the same pixel multiple times to create the displayed frame, so the main source of new RAM consumption relative to 1x size would be storing and building the latest frame. That's a 4^2^=16x increase, but it's still just one frame.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think that's how scaling works. I believe Drastic (and other DS emulators) use interpolation for their scaling (i.e. linear, bilinear, etc. instead of nearest neighbour). You also have the difference between the scaling of 2D and 3D elements, meaning sprites and textures are handled separately (and therefore they need to be stored somewhere: RAM!)

But the original RG DS already underperformed when it came to DS (I believe Russ was able to run 2x with Drastic on the original in some games), having a third of the RAM certainly won't help for playing 4x integer scale DS. I highly doubt that Anbernic will make it work with their "NNDDSS" emulator

[–] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

None of that matters if and only if you're merely scaling the image. I don't imagine them making an image 4x the size with 4x the detail. I imagine them just cleanly scaling the image up. Produce an image of normal DS game quality and scale that. Power users can try to scale that up if they want, but the base experience will probably just be base quality, just on a screen that scales it cleanly.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 points 55 minutes ago* (last edited 24 minutes ago)

Again, interpolation is how Drastic and other emulators scale up their images (this is to reduce jagged edges I believe), and you also have the upscaling of 3D textures too (which can be significant in some DS games)