Support NeoGAF

[Lettuce]

Noticed the latest version, 2013-11-15 has removed the option for auto detect core option when loading a rom.

Also i am using the crt-interlaced-halation shader, and whilst this looks awesome for 240p games if you have a game that has a 480i res or above then you get the slight jitter of the screen like you would on a normal CRT display (which is great) but you also get artifacts appear on the scanlines every few seconds. I noticed this whilst playing G-Police on the PSX last night the main game is 240p but the title screen must be 480i as it displays the above issue. This is also apparently in a lot of post 1994 arcade games when using MAME, is there anyway to sort this out?? Also that annoying cluster of dark pixels near the center of the screen is still present in the crt-interlaced-halation shader!

As always you can grab lordashram from the Libretro boards latest build from his dropbox HERE

 

[Awakened]

The latest build of MAME works with analogs now which is awesome for driving games and stuff like Space Harrier.

I was getting intermittent sound crackling playing Marvelous in BSNES Balanced even with hard sync off, so I had the idea to try going into the Windows control panel, Power Options and changing it from Balanced to High Performance. It completely fixed crackling for me in that case even with hard sync frames 0

 

[Lettuce]

Latest version, RetroArch-Win64-2013-11-17 messes more stuff up, the button config within MAME is all messed up now!!

 

[ramine]

Did anyone make an all in one easy setup of this? Would be lovely on PC or Ouya.

 

[Awakened]

Latest version, RetroArch-Win64-2013-11-17 messes more stuff up, the button config within MAME is all messed up now!!

It had some changes so you can now map analogs and also map anything on the keyboard separate from your gamepad inputs in the MAME interface. I had to rethink how I mapped some stuff in my MAME RetroArch config, then I had to go and redo the general inputs and inputs for games with special controls in MAME. It took an hour or so, but it was worth it for analog support and more robust keyboard mapping.

 

[Lettuce]

For some reason MAME see my 8 button MadCatz StreetFighter 4 pad as keyboard button like button 6 on the pad is being see as the 'Tab' keyboard button!!?

Also what happened to the auto detect core function, where you could just load a rom and Retroarch would know what core it was for?. The last few updates this has been removed and you now have to select the core manually?

 

[Awakened]

For some reason MAME see my 8 button MadCatz StreetFighter 4 pad as keyboard button like button 6 on the pad is being see as the 'Tab' keyboard button!!?

You could check in the MAME menu (default key to get into it is Tab now) under Input (general), User Interface, then see if your joypad button is mapped to Config Menu. You can clear mappings with the delete key and start mapping buttons or keys to something with enter. If that doesn't help, you can look in your RetroArch config and see what that button is mapped to and try setting it to nul. I had to do that for some of my keyboard mappings so I could map them normally inside the MAME menu.

I'm not sure why autodetect was removed. I never used it since I launch through HyperSpin.

 

[Rich!]

Got my Wii Retroarch and Retroarch on my PC downstairs using the same save folder on my home network. I can play a SNES game downstairs on my HDTV through windows retroarch, and then continue where I left off on the Wii upstairs.

Fucking amazing. Need to have the Wii turned on, but still. Once I get a portable device that can deal with retroarch well then this will be the best thing ever.

 

[Lettuce]

Hmm, am noticing audio stuttering on the Android version, did have this issue a few version back on my HTC ONE, any ideas on how to sort it?

 

[butanebob]

Can the pc version be used to output native resolutions (240p etc) onto a CRT?

 

[Rich!]

Can the pc version be used to output native resolutions (240p etc) onto a CRT?

No (as far as I'm aware), however the Wii version can. It has an option for pretty much any resolution you want, and outputs it faithfully. I use it to output SNES to my CRT at the native 512x224 resolution. It looks absolutely pixel perfect, and identical to a real SNES image through RGB.

And the Wii retroarch is brilliant. It is the only thing I've tried that runs Yoshi's Island at a full framerate without slowdown. Final Burn also runs like a dream.

Just make sure you get the latest version, 0.9.9 found on the libretro boards. And here's some shots of just how clean the native image it puts out is, taken from my CRT (excuse the crappy mobile phone camera) :

It's as close as you're going to get to the real hardware imo. Just bear in mind that only the PAL Wii System Menu outputs an RGB signal through SCART. You either need to get a PAL system, or simply use anyregionchanger to change your console region to EU otherwise the best you'll get is S-Video.

 

[butanebob]

That does look delicious. I don't own a wii (at the moment) though... Tempting tempting...

*Edit* Ok so i've been using this a bit and have a few questions regarding filters. Can you alter them at all?

The CRT filter with the curved screen has a black dot right in the centre, not a huge deal but slightly annoying. Any way to get rid of that? Also how do i modify it to get rid of the curved edges?

Also it doesn't seem to work with Sega Master System emulation, i get nothing but a black screen. Is there a way around that? *Edit Fixed* Set the overscan level in the core options.

The gameboy/LCD filters are amazing, but how do i modify the amount of motion blur?

Cheers.

 

[Ran Echelon]

I got this for android a while back and it's working great for the most part but I have a small problem: it forgets my chosen overlay preset/opacity every time. Is there a way to make it remember these settings?

Edit: Yes there is, globally at least: From the Main Menu > Input overlay/Overlay opacity.

 

[Ifrit]

I think I'm missing something, but how do you play Super Game boy in retroarch?

 

[rnaud]

I thought this would fit nicely here:

A guy made voxel engine for NES emulators
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCeFpLMn3sc

 

[patrickthehedgehog]

I've been messing around with RetroArch today and it's really cool, but whatever version is up now looks nothing like what the screen caps of menus everyone's been posting. I get a weird keyboard only interface and it seems if I change a shader it uses it for every game.

I guess this is one of those things where I have to go in and edit text files. Mehhh...

Oh... Was I supposed to download everything from Github in addition to the megapack thing?

 

[ILoveBish]

Retroarch is back on the play store. Huge upgrades to the thing also with auto-detect cores, more cores and more.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.retroarch

 

[Fredrik]

So I'm usually quite offended by emulators for all kinds of reasons but this almost made my heart skip a beat.

I just tried a tiny raspberry pi, maybe 2x4x1 inches, loaded with RetroPie - RetroArch - EmulationStation - running SNES games at 60 fps controlled with a wired 360 controller.

I googled it and people are even using wireless 360 controllers and DualShock 3's too, they just connect a blutooth/wireless dongle to the usb port. I'm not sure if the raspberry pi can handle all RetroArch emulators though, probably not, but nevertheless I was simply blown away by what I saw since it's so freakishly tiny, completely silent, and yet capable of handling my favorite game of all times Super Metroid even better than my EU WiiU.

 

[Corky]

Any idea why I´m getting this?

I'm on a genuine version of w7 home with dx11 installed, albeit the computer itself is an "office" computer with only an integrated gpu an intel g41...

Dxdiag shows that directx11 is installed but I cant boot retroarch.

Can't find any system requirements that would say that an integrated gpu wouldn't be supported, on the Intel webpage it says that this gpu supports dx10 so I'm a bit stumped.

 

[Kokonoe]

Retroarch needs a better interface and I'll start using it.

 

[Easy_D]

Any idea why I´m getting this?

I'm on a genuine version of w7 home with dx11 installed, albeit the computer itself is an "office" computer with only an integrated gpu an intel g41...

Dxdiag shows that directx11 is installed but I cant boot retroarch.

Can't find any system requirements that would say that an integrated gpu wouldn't be supported, on the Intel webpage it says that this gpu supports dx10 so I'm a bit stumped.

Try finding the .dll file on your computer and copy-paste it into the same folder as retroarch.exe.

 

[DeFiBkIlLeR]

Retroarch needs a better interface and I'll start using it.

Yeah, It's a fucking horrible emulator to use....people like to use it just to try and prove their 'street cred'.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Any idea why I´m getting this?

I'm on a genuine version of w7 home with dx11 installed, albeit the computer itself is an "office" computer with only an integrated gpu an intel g41...

Dxdiag shows that directx11 is installed but I cant boot retroarch.

Can't find any system requirements that would say that an integrated gpu wouldn't be supported, on the Intel webpage it says that this gpu supports dx10 so I'm a bit stumped.

Download this

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=8109

For some bizarre reason MS don't ship windows with this by default, or have it as an update option even though it's years old and was made with XP in mind. Tripped me up when I upgraded to win 8 and tried to use Higan last year.

 

[thefil]

Yeah, It's a fucking horrible emulator to use....people like to use it just to try and prove their 'street cred'.

Street cred aside, Retroarch's command line support is what makes it amazing. It's easy to create a custom script to boot directly into a game with its own config file, shader settings, etc. I just have links that boot directly into PSX games from Steam. Furthermore, most of the config is cross platform, so I can use the same config and files when I'm in Linux as when I'm in Windows.

I actually found Retroarch easier to use than ePSXe, PCSXR, or Xebra. Out of the box, with no config other than putting my BIOS in a folder, I was playing Spyro 2 with seemingly perfect emulation (love those Mednafen cores). No need to set up video plugins, deal with skipping sound, or configure input.

Of course, this doesn't help anyone expecting heavy GUI use.

*edit* Also how horrible life must be for you to read into anyone's enjoyment of a thing as wholly motivated by the perception of others.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I thought this would fit nicely here:

A guy made voxel engine for NES emulators
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCeFpLMn3sc

LTTP on this but damn. That is really cool.

 

[Rich!]

Yeah, It's a fucking horrible emulator to use....people like to use it just to try and prove their 'street cred'.

 

[Pie and Beans]

I've been tinkering with this emulator for hours now, and its driving me mad trying to get to a level of filters I'm happy with.

It doesnt help that all the cool filters I find on Filthy Pants are in the .shader form and unsupported in the current RetroArch or whatever I downloaded. Wish there were a lot more cgp and cg packs out there to replicate the old xml stuff I have no idea how to plug into the current version.

Am currently using the crt-interlaced-halation one, but want to get some ntsc-svideo into it too. This is fine in the Genesis emu that allows it as a core option, but no such luck with SNES stuff. No idea what I'm doing adding random shader lines in and trying to plop the ntsc stuff before/after it there as thats when it all goes pink or squashed.

Argh.

 

[Chairhome]

So after trying to mess with HyperSpin + Retroarch on my PC (eventually wanting it to work on my MAME cabinet), I gave up, haha. I'll try again some other time.

In the mean time, I'm going to try to hook up my Wii to my kids' playroom LCD. Any tips for using Retroarch on Wii? I'm going to hook it up via component and mess with the shaders till I find a good look. Is SCART a better option or is that about the same?

 

[russian box]

I can't get it to work with pxs games, anyone got any tips or a link to a guide?

also I really like the Gameboy shader but does anyone know if it can play a Gameboy game as if its in a Gameboy color/advance and give it the extra 4 color look?
or as if its in a Super Gameboy snes cart?

 

[RadarScope1]

OK, emu GAF. If I am not a PC gamer whatsoever and have never used emulators before and don't know a command line from a line at the grocery store ... How difficult will it be for me to figure this stuff out? I am willing to go through some trial and error and hope to get some help from places like GAF.

I just bought an Intel NUC with hopes of making an emulation box and playing retro and indie stuff from Steam and GoG.

 

[Chairhome]

OK, emu GAF. If I am not a PC gamer whatsoever and have never used emulators before and don't know a command line from a line at the grocery store ... How difficult will it be for me to figure this stuff out? I am willing to go through some trial and error and hope to get some help from places like GAF.

I just bought an Intel NUC with hopes of making an emulation box and playing retro and indie stuff from Steam and GoG.

Its not too bad if you don't want to get too deep in it at first. basically when you download the emulator, you run it, load a game, and pick the core (which emulator you want it to use). There are youtube videos of people using it so you can see the general use of it.

---------------------

The Wii version is running pretty well for me. Getting the controllers setup correctly is kind of a pain for some reason though, especially when I'm trying to use a classic controller and a gamecube controller for 2 players on the SNES9x core.

Also, how do you change shaders/get shaders to work on Wii? or can you?

 

[KojiKnight]

OK, emu GAF. If I am not a PC gamer whatsoever and have never used emulators before and don't know a command line from a line at the grocery store ... How difficult will it be for me to figure this stuff out? I am willing to go through some trial and error and hope to get some help from places like GAF.

I just bought an Intel NUC with hopes of making an emulation box and playing retro and indie stuff from Steam and GoG.

It's kind of a mess... I've been using NES/SNES emus since Dos was really the only option with command line options and Retroarch still has a learning curve above that IMO. That said, I spent all of 5 minutes trying to mess with it, tried looking at the readme (which is even MORE of a mess) and then just gave up. I'd rather just use a simpler set of emus than one "do it all" emu in that state.

 

[Seasoned Badger]

It's kind of a mess... I've been using NES/SNES emus since Dos was really the only option with command line options and Retroarch still has a learning curve above that IMO. That said, I spent all of 5 minutes trying to mess with it, tried looking at the readme (which is even MORE of a mess) and then just gave up. I'd rather just use a simpler set of emus than one "do it all" emu in that state.

They are actually trying to streamline the program to make it more user friendly. Matter of fact, it's pretty streamlined as it is. They packed everything into one zip file so you don't have to hunt for anything.

The only thing that could confuse new users are the choices for EMUs and shaders, there are just too many and people who don't already know what they want are going to spend hours trying to figure out the difference.

 

[Platy]

Been using this with my Wii and it is GLORIOUS, specialy because it is on a CRT tv so no need for filters =P


Today I tried more on the arcade part of the emu and it is a very good emulator .... my only problem is ...

Anyone knows where the "debug menu" button is for cps2 games on the Wii Version ?

Would be really cool to change some game options, SPECIALY Battle Cirtcuit 2->4 players.

 

[Storm360]

I'm using the PS3 version here, I have got this to work before on the PC version

How do you apply the shaders? I'm going into video options and going into shaders but after applying i'm not seeing a difference? I should be selecting the CGP file right?

 

[Astral/H3X]

Alright, PC version here, and I'm wondering why I can't play the FDS version of Metroid. I have the disksys.rom in the System folder, and I've got it to where it opens up Metroid, but as soon as I go to load a file, I just get Error 7. What's up with that?

 

[Chairhome]

I'm using the PS3 version here, I have got this to work before on the PC version

How do you apply the shaders? I'm going into video options and going into shaders but after applying i'm not seeing a difference? I should be selecting the CGP file right?

As far as I know, which isn't a lot, only certain cores have filters selectable under Core options. I was able to change a few of the graphics settings on one of the NES cores on the Wii, but I couldn't find much else.

 

[astonish]

This program is awesome, I own a lot of the retro consoles/games I'd want to play, but the lag/display issues of HDTVs plus the inconvenience of digging them out of bins makes the emulation attractive.

I love CRT shaders and the halation defaults seems to work well at capturing the look at enjoy. At least SNES and such look fine, but N64 looks terrible! Two things are happening. One I have some nasty flicker/strobing that seems to be happening. Is this a mismatch somewhere in the number of lines the N64 is putting out and the shader is emulating? The second problem I have is AA. When I play the real N64 there is a really obvious and strong AA on edges (look at something like Mario's hat in M64). Anyone recommend a shader/GPU setting to apply before the halation stuff to get N64 style AA?

 

[HolyBaikal]

The program seems interesting and useful. I'm glad it's around. I've been trying to use it in both Android and Windows. Though it confuses me a bit.

For instance, I'm using Windows 8, and sometimes it seems to have a hard time saving my configuration. It also often seems like I have a hard time saving individual configurations for cores. I went in to modify the configuration file manually with notepad and that seems to have worked, but it's a bit confusing.

Also, rewinding sounds like a great feature, but I have no idea how to use it and don't seem to find any instructions though Google searching. There ought to be a way to set up a button to rewind the game. But I can't see something like that anywhere, in the input options, or anywhere else.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of the UI, but I'm still having issues modifying the default configuration without using notepad(which is more confusing than changing things in the UI), having different configurations for different cores(having the original aspect ratio is pretty important for STGs, but I like to play many SNES games with a more stretched aspect ratio), and I have no idea how to rewind or use many other features.

Another thing I'm confused about, is why the program was taken down from Google Play. Surely it didn't violate any rules on the Google Play Store.

 

[Awakened]

The program seems interesting and useful. I'm glad it's around. I've been trying to use it in both Android and Windows. Though it confuses me a bit.

For instance, I'm using Windows 8, and sometimes it seems to have a hard time saving my configuration. It also often seems like I have a hard time saving individual configurations for cores. I went in to modify the configuration file manually with notepad and that seems to have worked, but it's a bit confusing.

Also, rewinding sounds like a great feature, but I have no idea how to use it and don't seem to find any instructions though Google searching. There ought to be a way to set up a button to rewind the game. But I can't see something like that anywhere, in the input options, or anywhere else.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of the UI, but I'm still having issues modifying the default configuration without using notepad(which is more confusing than changing things in the UI), having different configurations for different cores(having the original aspect ratio is pretty important for STGs, but I like to play many SNES games with a more stretched aspect ratio), and I have no idea how to rewind or use many other features.

Another thing I'm confused about, is why the program was taken down from Google Play. Surely it didn't violate any rules on the Google Play Store.

I do most of my config changing in Notepad++, since many options aren't in the GUI yet and it's easier if you have multiple configs to copy some things over from existing ones. You can open retroarch.cfg.clean to learn about everything available to be configured (use ctrl+f to find things easier). For rewind:

# Hold button down to rewind. Rewinding must be enabled.
# input_rewind = r
# Enable rewinding. This will take a performance hit when playing, so it is disabled by default.
# rewind_enable = false

So you'd change rewind_enable to true and change input_rewind to whatever key you want (you can use input_rewind_btn to set a gamepad button or input_rewind_axis to set it to a gamepad analog axis). You'd remove the # before those lines too, since those are basically commenting out those lines.

As far as I know they never got a specific reason from Google on why it was removed from the Play Store, though Squarepusher suspected it was something to do with people complaining about non-GPL licensed cores. Which is why now the android version prompts you about keeping those cores or not on first boot.

 

[plc268]

It's kind of a mess... I've been using NES/SNES emus since Dos was really the only option with command line options and Retroarch still has a learning curve above that IMO. That said, I spent all of 5 minutes trying to mess with it, tried looking at the readme (which is even MORE of a mess) and then just gave up. I'd rather just use a simpler set of emus than one "do it all" emu in that state.

I'm hoping someone will make a nice frontend for retroarch similar to the mac only openemu.

 

[Astral/H3X]

I find it really weird that people are having issues with this emulator. It's honestly one of the easiest ones I've used, in terms of getting it to run right. It has some quirks with saving configs, but if you're using the main program, and already have the cores downloaded, it seems pretty easy to me. Hell, half the problem with it is that you have to make sure you have those cores. I don't think they come in the default download, do they?

 

[Crisium]

double post

 

[Crisium]

Alright, I'm sort of figuring it out. I've found a good enough filter.

The problem. Input lag! Is there no solution? There is a very noticeable delay between between presses and screen response between this and zsnes. This is on Windows x64. If this doesn't get solved, this'll be my go to emulator for turn based games, but otherwise it doesn't cut out. What a shame. It can look like a CRT all it wants, but if it has multiple frames of input lag it sure isn't acting like one!

 

[Awakened]

The problem. Input lag! Is there no solution? There is a very noticeable delay between between presses and screen response between this and zsnes. This is on Windows x64. If this doesn't get solved, this'll be my go to emulator for turn based games, but otherwise it doesn't cut out. What a shame. It can look like a CRT all it wants, but if it has multiple frames of input lag it sure isn't acting like one!

Go into video options and turn on Hard GPU Sync and make sure Hard GPU Sync Frames is at 0 (should be by default) to get the least amount of lag while maintaining vsync. Also make sure your video driver is GL instead of D3D.

 

[Boulotaur2024]

I miss a GUI as well, I'm used to Linux stuff and commandline but I'd like newcomers to enjoy the beauty of Retroarch without being scared by it. Bsnes awesome emulation (dat Chrono Trigger music accurately reproduced) + CRT-interlaced-halation shader (thank you cgwg wherever you are, I love you) put me in heaven :

 

[DarkCloud]

The only issue I have with retroarch atm is that I cannot figure out how to get Super Gameboy to function. I know that at present it can only function via commandline but none of the combination strings I've tried have resulted in the results I want. Either Gameboy normal will load or i"ll load to a black screen. If anything loads at all.

 

[polyh3dron]

I find it really weird that people are having issues with this emulator. It's honestly one of the easiest ones I've used, in terms of getting it to run right. It has some quirks with saving configs, but if you're using the main program, and already have the cores downloaded, it seems pretty easy to me. Hell, half the problem with it is that you have to make sure you have those cores. I don't think they come in the default download, do they?

Have you tried playing Star Fox, Mega Man X2 and X3 with the BSNES core?

 

[DarkCloud]

Have you tried playing Star Fox, Mega Man X2 and X3 with the BSNES core?

I have with both the accuracy and balanced versions. They run just fine as long as your cpu has the strength to do so.

 

[polyh3dron]

I have with both the accuracy and balanced versions. They run just fine as long as your cpu has the strength to do so.

Oh really, I have an older version of the core, but I had to seek out image dumps of the DSP chips to make them work properly and the dumps that I initially found weren't the right dumps and it was a real chore to get the proper ones, and even then one of the dumps still doesn't work properly and I can't play X3. My quest to find the dumps is actually documented much earlier in this thread IIRC.

I wasn't talking about performance, more about actually being able to get the games to run and finding the appropriate DSP files etc.