Flycast update improves Dreamcast emulation, Naomi support and online play

Flycast has a new update out, and this one focuses on the parts people actually notice while playing. Frame pacing is better, Naomi multiscreen support has expanded, Dreamcast modem emulation has been improved, and several games have received specific fixes. There are also useful changes for Android users, including automatic backup support for VMU save data. Add new interface languages and a longer list of compatibility fixes, and this becomes a fairly broad update rather than a single-feature release. Flycast supports Dreamcast alongside Sega Naomi, Naomi 2 and Atomiswave hardware, so changes like these can affect a wide range of games.

Frame pacing gets a useful upgrade

One of the biggest changes is automatic frame-rate detection. Flycast can now detect the frame rate a game expects and adjust frame delivery around it. That should help reduce uneven motion and timing problems, especially in games where scrolling or camera movement makes poor pacing easy to spot.

This isn’t about pushing prettier graphics or raising the internal resolution. It’s about how consistently frames reach the screen. An emulator can technically hit the right average frame rate and still feel slightly uneven if those frames don’t arrive at regular intervals. The new pacing system is designed to deal with that. It’s a technical change, but the result is simple: smoother-looking motion.

Naomi multiscreen support expands

The update also adds multiscreen support for Airline Pilot, Sega Strike Fighter and Derby Owners Club. That’s more significant than it might sound. Some Naomi arcade machines used multiple displays as part of the cabinet itself. A normal single-screen setup can’t fully reproduce that arrangement, so the emulator needs to handle each view separately.

Airline Pilot and Sega Strike Fighter are good examples. Their original arcade setups were built around more than one display, so proper multiscreen support brings Flycast closer to the way the software expects the hardware to behave. Derby Owners Club also benefits from the new work, alongside additional compatibility improvements.

Dreamcast modem emulation gets better

Networking is another major part of the update. Flycast now has improved Dreamcast modem emulation, with fixes for several games that use online features. The Japanese version of Cyber Troopers Virtual-On: Oratorio Tangram gets online corrections, while the Japanese release of F355 Challenge has also been improved.

Rune Jade receives fixes for its online functions, and Power Smash gets changes aimed at reducing network lag. These aren’t broad changes that suddenly make every Dreamcast online feature behave differently. They’re more targeted than that. Flycast is refining how individual games work with its modem and network systems, which is usually where emulator networking needs the most attention. Support for DreamPicoPort and DreamPotato has been improved as well.

Android users get automatic VMU backups

Android users have a practical new feature too. Flycast can now use Google Auto Backup for VMU saves and other non-volatile data. That means save files can be included in Android’s existing backup system instead of relying entirely on manual copying.

It’s the kind of feature that’s easy to ignore until you switch phones, reinstall the app or lose local data. VMU files hold Dreamcast save data, so automatic backup support makes day-to-day use a little safer and less dependent on file management. The interface also adds several new languages, including French, Hungarian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and Swedish.

More Dreamcast and Naomi games get fixes

The update includes a fairly long list of game specific improvements.The Naomi version of Samba de Amigo gets input corrections. Other changes cover Dinosaur King in Chinese, Love & Berry 3 in Chinese, DreamParaPara and Fish Life.

Airline Pilot and Sega Strike Fighter benefit from the new multiscreen work, while Derby Owners Club is also included in the compatibility changes. This is where the update starts to feel broader than the headline features suggest. A lot of the work is spread across smaller fixes that affect specific games, hardware setups and input behaviour.

Flycast is also being pushed into the browser

Separate work based on Flycast has also shown Dreamcast software running directly inside a web browser through WebAssembly. The interesting part is performance. Earlier browser builds using an interpreter could only manage a few frames per second. The newer approach uses a custom SH4-to-WebAssembly JIT recompiler, which translates Dreamcast CPU instructions into code the browser can execute much more efficiently.

That makes a huge difference. Games such as Shenmue and Jet Set Radio have been demonstrated running close to their intended performance at native resolution on suitable hardware. The browser build also includes work on frame pacing, audio, memory access and compile management.

There are still limits. Windows CE Dreamcast games remain a problem because the current browser JIT doesn’t yet provide all the memory-management behaviour they need. For the main Flycast emulator, though, the latest update is much more straightforward. It improves frame delivery, expands Naomi multiscreen support, tightens up modem emulation, protects Android saves more effectively and fixes a long list of individual games. It’s not one dramatic feature. It’s a lot of useful work in the places that matter.

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