Open source / C++ / RetroArch

MesenCE-Libretro.

Emulator-core work exploring smarter HD texture routing, sprite behavior, and modern presentation without losing compatibility with the original game software.

Overview

MesenCE-Libretro is where I have been working on emulator-side features that make HD game presentation less dependent on brittle visual guesses. A recurring problem in old games is that the same tile or sprite data can mean different things in different stages, areas, or game states.

Instead of trying to infer everything from the pixels already being drawn, the project can use state the game itself already knows: world, stage, area type, loaded bank, and other runtime context. That makes texture rules easier to understand and much less likely to fail when assets are reused.

Current work

  • Game-state-aware HD texture routing instead of relying only on tile hashes or screen context.
  • Special-case handling for stages and areas that do not follow the normal state pattern.
  • Stable anchors and rendering priority for larger replacement sprites and layered graphics.
  • Keeping the implementation lightweight enough for real-time emulation rather than turning presentation logic into the bottleneck.

Approach

The project focuses on using the game state that already exists instead of adding fragile visual guesses or unnecessary rewrites. The goal is to make modern presentation tooling work reliably with the way the original software behaves.

Related links

The source is on GitHub, and the technical note covers the texture-routing work in more detail.