Citra is outputting as fast as it can, but your computer isn’t fast enough to run all the instructions. This means that the time to generate a full frame takes longer than it would on a real 3ds, meaning there is no idle time at all. Except you said the game is running slower than it should. Indeed, outputting more frames a second does make the game play faster, but this only works because there is idle time that you can shrink.Ĭitra works the same way. Because the emulator can output frames at a much faster rate than it needs to, it makes the game look like its going faster. This is how it runs at a constant FPS.Ī fast forward button works by changing how long the emulator idles for while waiting for the next frame. Typically the more accurate the emulation, the more instructions are needed each frame, and the first rule of performance is “do less” Well, for simpler systems, there is less to emulate, and so you can just run the code to generate the frame, draw it on the screen, and the emulator just idly waits for the signal to run the next frame. Heres how other emulators do a “fast forward” featureįirst thing you need to know is emulators run all the systems (such as CPU/GPU/PPU/any other hardware) and do it as fast as the host computer (your machine) can run. Explain what a fast forward button needs to do and maybe you’ll start understand why it doesn’t make sense.

Gba emulator with fast forward mac