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

sörine

Banned
I was really excited about the MSX inclusion until I saw that the core can't run dsk files :( BlueMSX Wii is still perfect though so no great loss.
There are two MSX cores (blueMSX and fMSX). Both emulators can run dsk games if you include the proper machine bios, did the Retroarch team change this?

The included bios for most MSX emulators (C-bios) will only run rom files though.
 

nkarafo

Member
How is the compatibility in Mednafen PSX core? I only tested 2 games Ridge Racer and Wipeout XL. RR works fine but Wipeout XL crashes the emulator back to desktop...
 

Awakened

Member
How is the compatibility in Mednafen PSX core? I only tested 2 games Ridge Racer and Wipeout XL. RR works fine but Wipeout XL crashes the emulator back to desktop...
I had issues with Tron Bonne and Blood Omen in the past, but those have been fixed. There is an issue with the original King's Field using an English patch freezing when you try to save, but when I brought that up on Mednafen's board the admin said it was probably an issue with the patch. Everything else I've thrown at it runs flawlessly, including Wipeout XL (US version):
retroarch-0918-0218295csj6.png
 

Awakened

Member
Edit: ^ nice screenshot, that CRT Royale config looks great
It's mostly the defaults from the user-settings-royale-with-cheese-nvidia.h file now, except with "border_size_static" set to 0.0001 and the "#define RUNTIME_SHADER_PARAMS_ENABLE" line commented out so that the settings file takes effect. I ended up getting used to the slight greenish tint of the default "bloom_excess_static" setting I mentioned in my last post about Royale. The added sharpness of the default is really nice :D
 

Mikeside

Member
I don't see that on the android version

edit: also, after playing with this a lot, it seems to only be some buttons.

DPAD LEFT works fine, but the other directions seem to take ages to register, then are spotty as to whether they do or not
most of the face buttons seem to work fine.

it's incredibly odd.

anyone else got this?

nobody has the answer?

I'm devastated. I bought a DS3 controller and a clip case for my phone to get some retro action going and everything!
 

MoGamesXNA

Unconfirmed Member
Thanks, but how do i check it?

For the cue sheets you can open the .cue file in Notepad to check that the file name in quotation marks matches the name (and or path) of the .bin.

It should look something like this when you open it:

FILE "WipeoutXL.bin" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE2/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

This link will give you all the additional info you need: cue sheets

Is there a more recent tutorial on how to set Retroarch up on windows?

Lettuce created an excellent video tutorial here based on a recent build: http://youtu.be/EHXyGK9DNX4
 

Radius4

Member
Definitely... Now I want to play Wipeout. It's great to be able to play an entire library of classic games nicely on modern displays now.

On an unrelated note, I'm having to remap my Player 1 Coin-In key mapping within Mame everytime I launch it. Does anyone know of a way to force the configuration changes made within the Mame core to be persistent?

It does save the configuration here. Check your save folder there should be a mame folder, and a cfg folder there with configs per each driver.

There is a readconfig option in core options for this. If you have issues let me know I more or less mantain that port
 

Awakened

Member
On an unrelated note, I'm having to remap my Player 1 Coin-In key mapping within Mame everytime I launch it. Does anyone know of a way to force the configuration changes made within the Mame core to be persistent?
Was it the one in Input (general), Other Controls, Coin 1? I changed my setting for that today and it worked fine for all games without having to remap every time. Like AndresSM says, it should save the setting in your [save folder]\MAME\cfg folder in default.cfg, much like stand alone MAME does. I have the mame_read_config core option disabled. I think that option would only effect this if you enabled it and have a MAME.ini file in your System folder with a different cfg folder set in it.
 

Radius4

Member
Thanks the help guys, that pointed me in the right direction. I have a custom save path and that didn't have the required directories or config file present ([save]\MAME\cfg\default.cfg ). For some reason the Mame core wasn't creating it itself in the path specified in the Retroarch config. So I just manually created the directories and a blank text file called default.cfg and it's storing the custom key mappings perfectly now.

I've been messing around with using the Start menu in Windows 8.1 as a launcher for Retroarch and it works really well when combined with xbstart and OblyTile. I'd certainly recommend going down that path if you can't hold out for Lakka and have your rig hooked up to your TV. Controlling everything with a 360/PS3 controller works seamlessly. My progress so far:


There is a nasty bug with the mame core... for some reason if your retroarch save path doesn't have a trailing slash it won't create the directories... I can't seem to fix it, I had submitted a workaround but r-type killed it for some reason.
 
I've been messing around with using the Start menu in Windows 8.1 as a launcher for Retroarch and it works really well when combined with xbstart and OblyTile. I'd certainly recommend going down that path if you can't hold out for Lakka and have your rig hooked up to your TV. Controlling everything with a 360/PS3 controller works seamlessly. My progress so far:

That is the best use for windows 8's metro tabs I've ever seen. I'm thinking of building an arcade cabinet and I might just go this route since I don't need it to hide the fact that "zomg it's actually a PC in disguise!?!"
 

Aku-Audi

Member
So what settings and shaders do you guys generally prefer for the PSP core? About to try it out for the first time but figured I'd ask here before I begin to toy around with the settings.
 

Radius4

Member
For 3d games I use no shaders, PSP output res > 1080p and internal res 1080p, and I use texture scaling XBR level 4.

For 2d games I use internal res native, output res native and I use XBR or something like that. Game dependent actually. For SFA3 I use a CRT shader since it makes the game look like and arcade game (and btw, SFA3 PSP is the best SFA3 version)
 

nkarafo

Member
Is there any way to force 60hz refresh rate through retroarch? I use a CRT that is 85hz but when i load retroarch i want this to change to 60hz, in order to be in sync with NTSC games. There is a video_refresh_rate option in the .cfg files but it doesn't do anything.

Am i missing something?
 

nkarafo

Member
Hmm change your desktop refresh rate to 60hz I guess that should do the trick...
Changing the refresh mode manually every time i want to start RetroArch, isn't very practical. Neither i want 60hz as my default hz, since its a CRT and 60hz are painful for the eyes when you are doing anything else besides gaming. That's why i asked if there is a way to force 60hz only when RetroArch is opened. The standalone versions of the emulators have these options (well, most of them) but here you only have the general RetroArch options.
 

EasyMode

Member
(Cross-posting from the Libretro boards)

I decided to try replacing the green & magenta mask in crt-easymode with a basic, configurable RGB mask. By default, it's an aperture grille pattern:

1dtskd.png


Setting subpixel_width 2, subpixel_height 1, stagger 3, results in Lottes' shadowmask pattern:

20gsn4.png


Here's a link to the updated shader:

http://pastebin.com/NezuKeEi

Here's some screenshots with the new default parameter settings:

 
(Cross-posting from the Libretro boards)

I decided to try replacing the green & magenta mask in crt-easymode with a basic, configurable RGB mask. By default, it's an aperture grille pattern:

1dtskd.png


Setting subpixel_width 2, subpixel_height 1, stagger 3, results in Lottes' shadowmask pattern:

20gsn4.png


Here's a link to the updated shader:

http://pastebin.com/NezuKeEi

Here's some screenshots with the new default parameter settings:

Holy crap those pics are beautiful, by far my new favorite shader for 16bit games. Keeps everything nice and sharp.
 

Lettuce

Member
(Cross-posting from the Libretro boards)

I decided to try replacing the green & magenta mask in crt-easymode with a basic, configurable RGB mask. By default, it's an aperture grille pattern:

1dtskd.png


Setting subpixel_width 2, subpixel_height 1, stagger 3, results in Lottes' shadowmask pattern:

20gsn4.png


Here's a link to the updated shader:

http://pastebin.com/NezuKeEi

Here's some screenshots with the new default parameter settings:

Hmm have tried this shader, but i cant seem to get it to apply, does change the shader at all when i clicl 'apply'
 

EasyMode

Member
Hmm have tried this shader, but i cant seem to get it to apply, does change the shader at all when i clicl 'apply'

Let's try loading it from scratch:

- right click and save the following in shaders\crt, replacing any previous version: https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders/raw/master/crt/crt-easymode.cg

(In shader menu)

- Shader passes 1
- re-select the shader manually
- filter: Nearest
- scale: 'Don't Care' (not 1x, 2x, etc)
- apply

Holy crap those pics are beautiful, by far my new favorite shader for 16bit games. Keeps everything nice and sharp.

Thanks!
 

nkarafo

Member
I downloaded the package from this topic and there are some files in the "gfxfilters" folder, like 2xbr.dll, blargg_ntsc_snes_rf.dll and the like. But when i try to find them through the video options in order to enable them, the folder seems empty even though its the correct path.

Anyone knows how to make them appear in the options?
 

EasyMode

Member
Tired that and still get the same issue, not sure why its not working, all the other shaders do

That's surprising. If there's an error in the shader, there should be a message about it in the log window. Can you try to launch retroarch with --verbose, attempt to load the shader, and then look for an error message?
 

thefil

Member
I don't really play many old console games, but I have to say the UIs you folks put together with boxart and so on are beautiful. I want to set that up, but I know I'll never play any of it...
 

nkarafo

Member
Did you check the MD5 sum of your bios files against the hashes on the libretro wiki??
I ll try to check... question is, if i have both the EU and US bioses in the same folder. will the emulator pick the correct one? Because in the core options there isn't a region option.
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
Just throwing this out there in case anyone can help - have been playing FF7 on iOS, 35 hours in, all the way up to the waterfall after using the key of the ancients. And then there's a crash - for some reason something in the waterfall room is crashing the emulator.

Not had any problems at all up until now, has anyone else experienced this crash? Or played past this point on iOS?
 

Ziffles

Member
It's okay. I Was gonna ask for ideas on the issue Lettuce was having, but I believe HunterK found the problem. Apparently my shader doesn't work on AMD cards at the moment because they use a different cg profile than my Nvidia.

Working just fine on my 7970m here, and the Intel GPU.
 
So I almost have Retroarch set up with XBMC/Rom Collection browser perfectly besides one thing: I have to manually set the emulator every time. So lets say when I play a Genesis game, if I switch to SNES the screen just stays blank unless I go into the settings and change the emulator. Is there a way for it to do this automatically based on the rom youve selected?
 
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