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RETROARCH - The all-in-one emulator dreams are made of, son

Ifrit

Member
Just trying this one, which are the best preset shaders for SNES it to look like the one on the OP (maybe with a little curvature)?
 
I just tried SMW with the bsnes accuracy core on my phenom ii x6 at 3.7ghz. Everything runs fine but it has really bad input lag on my 360 pad. Nestopia works fine so I'm not sure if there's a setting or tweak I missed. Anyone know what's up?
 

Awakened

Member
I just tried SMW with the bsnes accuracy core on my phenom ii x6 at 3.7ghz. Everything runs fine but it has really bad input lag on my 360 pad. Nestopia works fine so I'm not sure if there's a setting or tweak I missed. Anyone know what's up?
Use the GL video driver and turn on Hard GPU Sync and set Hard GPU Sync Frames to 0 for the least amount of input lag on Windows. Well, you can get less by turning off Vsync, but then you get tearing and stuttering.
 
Use the GL video driver and turn on Hard GPU Sync and set Hard GPU Sync Frames to 0 for the least amount of input lag on Windows. Well, you can get less by turning off Vsync, but then you get tearing and stuttering.

Thanks that worked. Is there a setting you can add to the config file to make that the default? I didn't see anything in the phoenix launcher.

edit: also, what's the best genesis core? Gens seems ok, but the timing and animation just feels a little off.

VVV: I think you need .bin and .cue files for them to run.
 

Lettuce

Member
Have downloaded the latest megapack, and im unable to get the the mednafen_psx_libretro core to work. As soon as i load a PSX game RetroArch closes down, any ideas?
 

Verano

Reads Ace as Lace. May God have mercy on their soul
Retroarch doesn't work well on HTC one. The frame rate stutters. How would one fix that?
 

Awakened

Member
Is there a setting you can add to the config file to make that the default? I didn't see anything in the phoenix launcher.
You can add video_hard_sync = "true" to the config to have it on by default. Hard sync frames defaults to 0 so you don't have to add anything for that. You can also add config_save_on_exit = "true" so anything you change in the in game GUI will be added to your config file. The new megapack version has that on in the config that comes with it by default.

edit: also, what's the best genesis core? Gens seems ok, but the timing and animation just feels a little off.
Genesis Plus GX is the most accurate Genesis emulation core (also Sega CD, Master System and Game Gear) available in RetroArch. In my basic tests of making sure the background when you select weapons in Alien Soldier looks correct and how the level end sign post in Sonic 2 sounds it seemed as accurate as Kega Fusion to me, but I may be missing some nuances. The only other Sega system core is Picodrive, which is faster but less accurate. It can do 32x so I use it for Knuckles Chaotix, which emulates with a few minor visual glitches and the sound isn't quite as nice as Fusion with SuperHQ on.
 

Lettuce

Member
Is there a way to create a .cue file for PSX games that stream the music from the CD? I know how to make a standard cue file but for games where the audio is streamed form the CD you need the correct index's for each audio track. Is there program that can scan the .iso or .img file and create correctly indexed cue files?
 

Ifrit

Member
Yep, there's a new mainline (0.150) MAME core that's coming along really well. From my testing it only seems to be lacking fast forward and analog support. It's not included in the current mega pack, but someone on the libretro forums compiled a 64bit version here. I don't think anyone has compiled it for 32bit Windows yet.

Can't get anything to load with this MAME core, it just shows a loading percentaje and then it closes
 

Awakened

Member
Can't get anything to load with this MAME core, it just shows a loading percentaje and then it closes
Are you using ROMs that work in the normal MAME 0.150 build you can get from MAMEdev.org? The latest MAME requires the latest MAME ROMs and any BIOS files they require need to be in the same folder, such as neogeo.zip for Neo Geo games or qsound.zip for CPS2 games. If you run RetroArch from a command prompt it should tell you the error after it exits which can be helpful too.
 

Ifrit

Member
Are you using ROMs that work in the normal MAME 0.150 build you can get from MAMEdev.org? The latest MAME requires the latest MAME ROMs and any BIOS files they require need to be in the same folder, such as neogeo.zip for Neo Geo games or qsound.zip for CPS2 games. If you run RetroArch from a command prompt it should tell you the error after it exits which can be helpful too.

I'll look into that, thank you

Why do they keep changing they way you load roms like every version on MAME?
 

Lettuce

Member
Am getting audio skipping when using the PSX emulator, any ideas how to eliminated this? Is there different audio plugin u can use?
 

Lettuce

Member
Hmm i seem to be getting audio scratching on all emulator cores with this latest 20130927 release!!. Also how come 'retroarch-phoenix.exe' isnt included anymore, as that exe seem to give alot more options for video and audio settings?

Is there a guide anywhere on how to create your won borders??. I now have a 2560x1440 res GameBoy border saved as a PNG file, but not sure what i need to do next
 

Vinlaen

Member
Is the retroarch-phoenix updater broken?

I've just downloaded "retroarch-win64-0.9.9.zip" and it doesn't contain any cores or anything.

When I run retroarch-phoenix and select "Update Retroarch" I keep getting errors about it not being able to download...

I've been able to download the retroarch "megapack" for x64 systems, but it doesn't include retroarch-phoenix so I can't reconfigure my x-box 360 controller... (to be able to rewind, and change NES controls, etc)
 

Awakened

Member
It's in a transitional phase, where they're trying to add most of the stuff you could configure via Phoenix to RGUI (the F1 in game menu). I compiled a 64bit version of the source yesterday you can grab here that has the ability to map inputs in Input Options you can use with the megapack. It doesn't have an option for mapping rewind yet though. You can copy Phoenix from the older download into your megapack folder and use it to configure special inputs like that as long as you point it to your .cfg file.
 

Lettuce

Member
RetroArch megapack (20131013) out NOW!!!!!

Anyone know why the PicoDrive core isnt included?? has the .info file but not .dll file in the libretro folder??

Also there is a super high quality Gameboy border in shaders\handheld\dmg-shader\resources folder!!!. Shame theres not a GBA one. Speaking of GBA what shader do people use for that?

EDIT: Have also noticed if using the CRT shader, Interlaced-halation, there seems to be a black/dead pixel right in the centre of the screen when playing a rom and it fairly distracting to me. Any ideas on how to remove it?
 
Has anyone run into an issue where nestopia's audio suddenly becomes horrible and crackly? I had everything working fine up until a few days ago. The only thing I can think of is that I updated my Nvidia drivers for my 560ti and that seems to be when everything went to hell. Anyone know of a fix?

edit: It's everything in Retroarch not just nestopia. Doesn't matter what I use to launch them either, Steam or XBMC. Ugh.
 

Awakened

Member
Has anyone run into an issue where nestopia's audio suddenly becomes horrible and crackly? I had everything working fine up until a few days ago. The only thing I can think of is that I updated my Nvidia drivers for my 560ti and that seems to be when everything went to hell. Anyone know of a fix?

edit: It's everything in Retroarch not just nestopia. Doesn't matter what I use to launch them either, Steam or XBMC. Ugh.
Never with Nestopia, only occasionally with CPU intensive cores like BSNES or Mednafen PSX. I've eliminated the crackling in BSNES balanced by setting the few problem games like Marvelous or Starfox to use hard sync frames 1. PSX I use hard sync frames 1 for everything and the rare crackle doesn't bother me since I remember ePSXe doing the same thing sometimes with much less accurate emulation. Upgraded my Nvidia drivers recently too and didn't notice any performance decrease (using a 570).
 

Lettuce

Member
Here's a picodrive 64bit build. I don't have a compiling environment that will build 32bit if anyone wants that unfortunately. I also uploaded MAME 0.150 since it's not included in the pack either.

Thanks buddy!!!

Any ideas on settings for the audio, i seem to get crackling/skipping audio now and again, im sure i didnt get this with a few version ago. Also have you noticed the CRT shader, Interlaced-halation, there seems to be a black/dead pixel right in the centre of the screen when playing a rom and it fairly distracting to me. Any ideas on how to remove it?

Do You happen to have use custom borders for Gameboy and GBA??
 

Awakened

Member
Thanks buddy!!!

Any ideas on settings for the audio, i seem to get crackling/skipping audio now and again, im sure i didnt get this with a few version ago. Also have you noticed the CRT shader, Interlaced-halation, there seems to be a black/dead pixel right in the centre of the screen when playing a rom and it fairly distracting to me. Any ideas on how to remove it?

Do You happen to have use custom borders for Gameboy and GBA??
No problem! They've been talking about getting a buildbot up so we get nightly builds of (hopefully) all the cores so you can get the most up to date version without having to do your own compile or wait for a megapack release.

I don't do anything special with audio settings to reduce crackling. For games that are really CPU intensive like SuperFX stuff on BSNES I just tone down hard sync frames to 1. If you don't use hard sync for input lag reduction, you can try turning on threaded video. I found that completely eliminates the rare audio pops in the PSX core. Threaded adds too much input lag for me though, so I just deal with the pops. Sometimes I don't get any depending on the PSX game.

I don't use CRT shaders (well, I've been experimenting with crt gamma ramp, but that just affects colors/brightness) or borders, sorry. You might want to try posting in the Shaders section on the libretro boards, which came back up a few days ago at http://libretro.com/forums/
 

Ifrit

Member
I'm trying the LCD shader, but it doesn't look good on my big screen 720p TV, tried on my 1080p monitor and it looks nice in there.

Is there any way to make that particular shader look nice on my 720p TV?

I'm really liking this emulator so far btw awesome stuff
 

Rich!

Member
does anyone know if you can get those amazing CRT filters working in GGPO/Final Burn Alpha?

Yep. Just make sure you set the options to "don't care" otherwise it will not display correctly. Do it right, and you get this:

jn8GzxwXLtvoe.png

Also, some shots of the new DMG border by themaister:




It's now literally perfect. amazing.
 
Do you have to mod the ps3 to get retroarch running on it or can you just download it right to the PS3 hard drive the way you would say, an MP4 file for instance? I have the 320gb PS3 slim model fwiw.

I have an OG Xbox with NES, SNES, Sega Master, Genesis, etc emulators on it but I'd rather just have one simple emulator not to mention having one less console in my entertainment center since I don't use the OG Xbox for anything else anymore.
 

Rich!

Member
Do you have to mod the ps3 to get retroarch running on it or can you just download it right to the PS3 hard drive the way you would say, an MP4 file for instance? I have the 320gb PS3 slim model fwiw.

I have an OG Xbox with NES, SNES, Sega Master, Genesis, etc emulators on it but I'd rather just have one simple emulator not to mention having one less console in my entertainment center since I don't use the OG Xbox for anything else anymore.

Needs to be modded. If you're on anything higher than 3.5 firmware, you're shit out of luck.
 

Ntsouls

Banned
What we need to do is create something with a slick UI that supports achievements and friends lists. I mean it's not crazy...
 

Rich!

Member
What we need to do is create something with a slick UI that supports achievements and friends lists. I mean it's not crazy...

I'd rather have functional than slick. And incorporating achievements into emulated titles is a momentous task that simply isn't worth the hassle.

I understand there is a NES emulator that incorporates some, but it's unfeasible in the long run.
 
I don't really care about achievements, but friends lists are cool. That's why I've started to backup all of my old games and put them into my steam library
 

Awakened

Member
Which core are you using to emulate cps3?
It's probably FBA since it's stretched all to hell. MAME 0.150 core runs Third Strike and all the other CPS3 games without a hitch with better emulation and correct aspect ratio on my 2500k. Even on my old Athlon XP single core system I had no problem with with CPS3 in stand alone MAME, though I never tested the RetroArch core version on that system since it's 32bit (the MAME core only compiles for 64bit).

For anyone who wants up to date 64bit builds with more cores, lordashram on the Libretro boards has been uploading his own megapack style versions on a dropbox here. It includes cores the official packs omit like picodrive, MAME and Mupen64. The Mupen core has been getting pretty good too.
 

Rich!

Member
I prefer FBA over MAME purely because FBA is better suited for a gamepad. MAME has a habit of needing keyboard inputs which is a big no no for me. Ruins the whole aim of having a console-esque setup

Besides, I rarely use it. I stick to my Nintendo stuff really.
 

Awakened

Member
I prefer FBA over MAME purely because FBA is better suited for a gamepad. MAME has a habit of needing keyboard inputs which is a big no no for me. Ruins the whole aim of having a console-esque setup
Stand alone MAME's allowed assigning everything to gamepad inputs via it's Tab interface for as long as I've used it. The RetroArch core is nice since it by default assigns a shoulder button to open MAME's interface which you can navigate with the dpad just like RetroArch's, Select to insert coins and face buttons for action buttons like you'd expect.

FBA is decent though. I just found the sound was off for a few games I tried and it doesn't emulate nearly as many games as MAME.
 

Lettuce

Member
It's probably FBA since it's stretched all to hell. MAME 0.150 core runs Third Strike and all the other CPS3 games without a hitch with better emulation and correct aspect ratio on my 2500k. Even on my old Athlon XP single core system I had no problem with with CPS3 in stand alone MAME, though I never tested the RetroArch core version on that system since it's 32bit (the MAME core only compiles for 64bit).

For anyone who wants up to date 64bit builds with more cores, lordashram on the Libretro boards has been uploading his own megapack style versions on a dropbox here. It includes cores the official packs omit like picodrive, MAME and Mupen64. The Mupen core has been getting pretty good too.

The new GB boarder from themaister is awesome!!. I would prefer it to be zoomed in a tad more though so the GB screen was larger, also I think I have seen a better shader used to emulate the GB look, that one looks too green. Does anyone have 1440p version of the GB and GBA borders with the correct shaders used, or a guide anywhere on how to make one please?

Also I'm using the mame150 core along with the CRT shader but on games like ridge racer the scanlines look messed up and has a type of sync line that scrolls down the screen, any ideas on that at all?
 

Rich!

Member
The new GB boarder from themaister is awesome!!. I would prefer it to be zoomed in a tad more though so the GB screen was larger, also I think I have seen a better shader used to emulate the GB look, that one looks too green.

Have a look in the folders:


You actually have a selection you can use. There's even one that mimics the Gameboy Pocket. Examples:



If you want to really get into customizing it, you can open up the shader file itself (I highly recommend avoiding using Notepad and instead getting Notepad++ to use) and then have a go tweaking the motion blur and other settings.
 

Ifrit

Member
It's probably FBA since it's stretched all to hell. MAME 0.150 core runs Third Strike and all the other CPS3 games without a hitch with better emulation and correct aspect ratio on my 2500k. Even on my old Athlon XP single core system I had no problem with with CPS3 in stand alone MAME, though I never tested the RetroArch core version on that system since it's 32bit (the MAME core only compiles for 64bit).

For anyone who wants up to date 64bit builds with more cores, lordashram on the Libretro boards has been uploading his own megapack style versions on a dropbox here. It includes cores the official packs omit like picodrive, MAME and Mupen64. The Mupen core has been getting pretty good too.

That's pretty informative, thank you. I'll check out that link
 

Rich!

Member
Just decided to install Retroarch 0.9.9 on my Wii. Got a retro gaming set up going upstairs with a 4:3 21" CRT, and I've hooked up the Wii for VC titles and the like.

Having never tried Retroarch before on the Wii, holy fuck. This is amazing. Plus points:

1. Runs GBA fullspeed. Never seen that before on the Wii.

2. Runs Super FX games like Yoshi's Island full speed with no issues. And people say that the reason why Nintendo never put YI up on the VC was because they couldn't get it working. lol.

3. Best speed out of any emulator I've used on the Wii. SNES9x core runs so much better than Snes9x GX it's laughable.

4. Adjustable resolutions. Absolutely the greatest feature for a CRT owning dude like me. Playing a SNES game? Change the resolution to 512x224 and bam - the image is literally identical to what a real SNES would be pumping out. It's absolutely crystal clear and imo superior to Nintendo's own VC titles.

5. Final Burn Alpha runs absolutely brilliantly. I'm shocked. Didn't think the Wii could do it.

Of course, it's lacking the filters and customizations from the PC version, but fuck me it's amazing. Absolutely hands down the best homebrew on the Wii. Amazing just how close in functionality it is to the PC version. woah.

Just make sure you get version 0.9.9 from the libretro forums. The version on Wiibrew and the homebrew channel is outdated shit.
 
It's probably FBA since it's stretched all to hell. MAME 0.150 core runs Third Strike and all the other CPS3 games without a hitch with better emulation and correct aspect ratio on my 2500k. Even on my old Athlon XP single core system I had no problem with with CPS3 in stand alone MAME, though I never tested the RetroArch core version on that system since it's 32bit (the MAME core only compiles for 64bit).

For anyone who wants up to date 64bit builds with more cores, lordashram on the Libretro boards has been uploading his own megapack style versions on a dropbox here. It includes cores the official packs omit like picodrive, MAME and Mupen64. The Mupen core has been getting pretty good too.
2nd Impact actually has a 16:9 Widescreen mode.
 

Awakened

Member
2nd Impact actually has a 16:9 Widescreen mode.
That's interesting; looking at wikipedia it says that was the only CPS3 game to have that. I wonder why they didn't add it to 3rd Strike.
Yeah, the emulator auto-selects the native resolution.
I've used stand alone FBA before and it always defaulted to pixel aspect instead of 4:3 like MAME does.

I tested out 2nd impact in the MAME core and you have to enable the widescreen mode in the bios:

So here's 4:3 mode compared to real 16:9 compared to rich's shot:
4:3:
retroarch-1116-1702080iuoq.png

16:9:
retroarch-1116-170725m5uv0.png

rich's screenshot:
jn8GzxwXLtvoe.png
Just saying, the aspect ratio is wrong in his screenshot :p. True widescreen in 2nd impact is kind of cool, but 3rd Strike is so much better musically, FPS and feature-wise I don't mind the 4:3.
 
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