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

I gave up and use OpenEmu on my Mac.

http://openemu.org/
This looks neat. I plan to get it after I upgrade my near 10 year old iMac (it was the first Intel model - or the first return to?). Let me tell you, it is chugging right now for any tiny bit of flash or having a few too many tabs open in Firefox. Can't even download the Chrome updates anymore because they're only for 64bit machines or something?
 

Aku-Audi

Member
Looks like C64 support is coming to RA. Both VICE and Frodo? VICE has better compatibility so I'm excited for that one especially.

yMm2diQ.png

xNVOZin.png


http://libretro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2188&page=4
 

cheststrongwell

my cake, fuck off
I'm having an issue with SNES cores on PC. There is a very noticeable single line of horizontal screen tearing when running up or down. I've tried different cores and messing with options. G-sync is the only option that has gotten rid of the tearing, but it makes the games real jittery. GAF, what am I doing wrong?!
 
I'm having an issue with SNES cores on PC. There is a very noticeable single line of horizontal screen tearing when running up or down. I've tried different cores and messing with options. G-sync is the only option that has gotten rid of the tearing, but it makes the games real jittery. GAF, what am I doing wrong?!

iirc, you have to use the video, audio sync in retroarch to minimize screen tearing. I have no experience with it but this might help:

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/wiki/Getting-optimal-vsync-performance
 

nkarafo

Member
I asked before on my last-page post but i'll ask again now since this is odd to me and i can't be the only one.

Did anyone manage to run DOSBox at an acceptable speed? I can't run any game without massive frame and sound skips. Tried all different numbers on core options but didn't do anything.

I don't have such problems with the standalone DOSBox, even with more demanding (older generation) DOS games.
 

Radius4

Member
DOSBox doesn't fit the libretro model (iterate per frame) so it's wrapped around with libco.
So... yeah it's slow and doesn't work really well for anything too demanding.

I use it for
- LBA/LBA2
- Keen
- Jazz
- Pitfall the Mayan Adventure (Win95)
- Syndicate
- Tyrian

It works fine for those, you have to set the cycles as low as possible while mantaining a decent framerate.

On another topic, since we don't have higher internal res some PS games look terrible, even with CRT shaders, I found that using something like 2xBR before easymode eases the pain somewhat :p

I might get better results with Super XBR but it's quite demanding.
Hopefully higher res rendering will be implemented in mednafen at some point
 

Knurek

Member
What's the deal with buildbot servers - I've been trying to check out the newest nightly, and it's been trying to download the latest assets.zip (43 MB file) for last two hours.

Constant disconnects, and if it's downloading, it's going at a massive rate of 10-15 kB/s...

Could you perhaps mirror the non-core files at Dropbox, or somewhere where it's possible to download them?

Also, regarding the retro achievement support... Which cores exactly support these at the moment? All I'm getting at the moment is either nothing, or a message "this game doesn't support achievements", even for games that have achievements on RA site.
 

Chairhome

Member
Okay, after a looooong time following this thread and was thinking about getting a raspberry pi to do this, but I got my Steamlink and figured it would be a good way to do it. Man, this is awesome.

Questions (apologies if this is in the thread already, there are tons of pages to go through, which I may do tomorrow):
- How do I go back to "default" emulation without shaders?
- Where is the download for the borders/shaders in the OP?

Thanks!
 

nkarafo

Member
A few questions, if you don't mind to address:


-What version of Glide plugin does the N64 emulator support? GlideN64 1.2 public is the latest version and it works wonders in some games like Goldeneye, Bettle Adventure Racing and many others. As far as i know its open source so it can be implemented?

-Has anyone figure out how to force VSYNC in 4DO? None of the vsync options in RETROARCH do anything. Is it how the real console looks? If that's so then i guess there is no problem.

-MAME looks like it has lower compatibility than the stand alone version. I tried all MAME cores and i couldn't make Virtual Racing (or other Model 1 games) work. It does work perfectly in standalone versions for a long time now. Is the lower compatibility a known issue or it's just me?

-MAME also lacks core specific input settings. Is it going to be implemented?

-Is there a way to have a "stable" scanline shader that doesn't get messed up every time the internal resolution changes? For instance, several PS1 games have higher resolution in the menus where the scanlines get messed up, then they get back to normal in game. I haven't figured out a way to have a stable looking scanline option in these games. My screen resolution is 1920x1080 but i get the same problems in lower resolutions as well.

Thanks in advance guys.
 

Radius4

Member
Okay, after a looooong time following this thread and was thinking about getting a raspberry pi to do this, but I got my Steamlink and figured it would be a good way to do it. Man, this is awesome.

Questions (apologies if this is in the thread already, there are tons of pages to go through, which I may do tomorrow):
- How do I go back to "default" emulation without shaders?
- Where is the download for the borders/shaders in the OP?

Thanks!

- Set shader passes to 0, then select apply

A few questions, if you don't mind to address:


-What version of Glide plugin does the N64 emulator support? GlideN64 1.2 public is the latest version and it works wonders in some games like Goldeneye, Bettle Adventure Racing and many others. As far as i know its open source so it can be implemented?

-Has anyone figure out how to force VSYNC in 4DO? None of the vsync options in RETROARCH do anything. Is it how the real console looks? If that's so then i guess there is no problem.

-MAME looks like it has lower compatibility than the stand alone version. I tried all MAME cores and i couldn't make Virtual Racing (or other Model 1 games) work. It does work perfectly in standalone versions for a long time now. Is the lower compatibility a known issue or it's just me?

-MAME also lacks core specific input settings. Is it going to be implemented?

-Is there a way to have a "stable" scanline shader that doesn't get messed up every time the internal resolution changes? For instance, several PS1 games have higher resolution in the menus where the scanlines get messed up, then they get back to normal in game. I haven't figured out a way to have a stable looking scanline option in these games. My screen resolution is 1920x1080 but i get the same problems in lower resolutions as well.

Thanks in advance guys.

- no it's not GlideN, it deviates from mainline a lot
- not sure I don't use 4do
- should run everything just the same
- not likely, use the MAMEOSD
- use crteasymode_halation, set internlacing toggle to 0
 

Knurek

Member
Anyone else having problems with Gameboy cores on newer Retroarch builds?

All three I've tried (gambatte, TGB Dual, EmuX) just crash on loading roms.

Had to revert to 2015.09.27 version, couldn't figure out what was causing the crashes...
 
The Android port of Retroarch is really bad, hardly anything works for me now. I've completely deleted it in favor of lesser emulators because I just can't deal with how horrible it currently is on Android. Took 10 steps back in the newest version imo.

Hopefully in a few years it will get better, but despite loving how it works on Windows, it just does nothing for me on Android.

Sorry to bump an old quote, but I'm also having nothing but headaches on the Android port of Retroarch. I've been trying to use it on my GPD XD because all of the CRT shaders seem really impressive, but the entire menu system is buggy on my end. Random crashes, UI elements simply not working, configs not saving, input conflicts, you name it.

Has anyone had good results with the Android port of Retroarch? If so, have you had good, stable results running Retroarch with CRT shaders at a good framerate.

Otherwise, I'll miss out on some of the shader fun, but separate emulators so far seem like much less of a hassle.
 
If you Android people think you got it bad, you should see the iOS version. For a while, it wasn't even being worked on. Now, we have two interfaces, one that is modern-ish and another that is very old, and you have to switch between them to do things because the modern-er version doesn't even have a settings button on it; to do anything with settings you have to switch to the old interface, do your tweaks, hope it doesn't crash, and get back in there. Half of the time the back buttons don't work, and you're forced to force quit the app to get it working. Also, bluetooth is broken and doesn't work unless you have external third party plugins. Even simple things like a bluetooth keyboard fail to register in the app, let alone controllers.
 

Radius4

Member
Sorry to bump an old quote, but I'm also having nothing but headaches on the Android port of Retroarch. I've been trying to use it on my GPD XD because all of the CRT shaders seem really impressive, but the entire menu system is buggy on my end. Random crashes, UI elements simply not working, configs not saving, input conflicts, you name it.

Has anyone had good results with the Android port of Retroarch? If so, have you had good, stable results running Retroarch with CRT shaders at a good framerate.

Otherwise, I'll miss out on some of the shader fun, but separate emulators so far seem like much less of a hassle.

I can help you.
The GUI should work perfect once you have your controls properly mapped but that device doesn't have an autoconf yet.
First of all, what version are you using? if you're using the playstore version I recommend to remove that and install from F-Droid, info on the subject here:

http://www.libretro.com/index.php/new-nightlies/

Now about your issues:
- CRT shaders on that device... highly unlikely, maybe CRT-easymode (the non-halation variant) or crt-hyllian, but the screen is small and not really high resolution so even a basic scanline shader should look great with integer scale
- Crashes, can you tell me what causes it to crash?
- UI elements not working: which ones, can you take a screenshot? is your UI green/black or the new one that emulates material design?
- Make sure you set your save locations and BIOS locations to user writable locations from the get-go, otherwise you might lose your data if you uninstall (the default location is with your roms but that isn't always writable)

As for controls, to remap your inputs do the following:
- Navigate using the touchscreen to Settings/Input/Input User 1 Binds
- Select user 1 bind default all
- Select user 1 bind all

This is where it gets tricky. In RetroArch we handle each device as a controller, so the first device to be active is mapped to port 1 (like a console), so hopefully your device has the controller implemented as one HID device (several controllers don't do this, NVIDIA shield has the back button in a separate device, ARCHOS gamepad is 3 devices and so on), you should see a different name appear when you hit a button if the device is different than the current device and on that case we'd have to add a workaround for your device.

- If everything mapped you should be set, otherwise edit the binds that failed (or clear them pressing whatever you bound as start)
- Select User 1 Save Autonconf
- Select user 1 bind default all

If your device has a sane gamepad that should be it for this part, if not let me know, I've added workarounds for some other devices already.

Known issues:
- The overlay reappears when you task switch
- The stubbed android menu is still present and confusing


If you Android people think you got it bad, you should see the iOS version. For a while, it wasn't even being worked on. Now, we have two interfaces, one that is modern-ish and another that is very old, and you have to switch between them to do things because the modern-er version doesn't even have a settings button on it; to do anything with settings you have to switch to the old interface, do your tweaks, hope it doesn't crash, and get back in there. Half of the time the back buttons don't work, and you're forced to force quit the app to get it working. Also, bluetooth is broken and doesn't work unless you have external third party plugins. Even simple things like a bluetooth keyboard fail to register in the app, let alone controllers.

But why do you have to be so negative? I worked really hard to get new nightlies for you, and yes these should be considered alpha even if RetroArch itself is at 1.2, a lot has changed and iOS wasn't really for prime time. I added the nightlies so we can have testers and feedback but we never said they were ready for general consumption.
The settings button is the little cog icon on the right, touch it!

We're trying to make a generic btstack driver and the cocoa GUI might disappear soon (once we match functionality with GLUI). Both should look fairly modern, otherwise you might be using an older build or one of the first builds without GLUI as the default.
 
But why do you have to be so negative? I worked really hard to get new nightlies for you, and yes these should be considered alpha even if RetroArch itself is at 1.2, a lot has changed and iOS wasn't really for prime time. I added the nightlies so we can have testers and feedback but we never said they were ready for general consumption.
The settings button is the little cog icon on the right, touch it!

We're trying to make a generic btstack driver and the cocoa GUI might disappear soon (once we match functionality with GLUI). Both should look fairly modern, otherwise you might be using an older build or one of the first builds without GLUI as the default.

I'm sorry if that came off as really negative. I appreciate and do recognize all the hard work that goes into all of the ports of Retroarch, but I was just trying to show that poster that despite the problems in the Android version, there are a lot in the iOS version, presumably because so few people are working on it. You guys do work hard. I'm sorry if that didn't come across in explaining the current issues with the iOS version.
 
I can help you.
The GUI should work perfect once you have your controls properly mapped but that device doesn't have an autoconf yet.
First of all, what version are you using? if you're using the playstore version I recommend to remove that and install from F-Droid, info on the subject here:

http://www.libretro.com/index.php/new-nightlies/

Now about your issues:
- CRT shaders on that device... highly unlikely, maybe CRT-easymode (the non-halation variant) or crt-hyllian, but the screen is small and not really high resolution so even a basic scanline shader should look great with integer scale
- Crashes, can you tell me what causes it to crash?
- UI elements not working: which ones, can you take a screenshot? is your UI green/black or the new one that emulates material design?
- Make sure you set your save locations and BIOS locations to user writable locations from the get-go, otherwise you might lose your data if you uninstall (the default location is with your roms but that isn't always writable)

As for controls, to remap your inputs do the following:
- Navigate using the touchscreen to Settings/Input/Input User 1 Binds
- Select user 1 bind default all
- Select user 1 bind all

This is where it gets tricky. In RetroArch we handle each device as a controller, so the first device to be active is mapped to port 1 (like a console), so hopefully your device has the controller implemented as one HID device (several controllers don't do this, NVIDIA shield has the back button in a separate device, ARCHOS gamepad is 3 devices and so on), you should see a different name appear when you hit a button if the device is different than the current device and on that case we'd have to add a workaround for your device.

- If everything mapped you should be set, otherwise edit the binds that failed (or clear them pressing whatever you bound as start)
- Select User 1 Save Autonconf
- Select user 1 bind default all

If your device has a sane gamepad that should be it for this part, if not let me know, I've added workarounds for some other devices already.

Known issues:
- The overlay reappears when you task switch
- The stubbed android menu is still present and confusing

Wow! First of all, thanks for all the help and guidance. I am using the most recent nightly build from http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/android/. I have managed to get Retroarch to finally accept my menu button settings for the most part. It's good to hear that individual device settings are taken into account. As far as I know, the GPD XD mainly defaults to Dual Shock 3 mappings in most circumstances. I'll try some of your specific recommendations a little later.

As far as nonfunctioning UI elements goes, I've had instances where certain menu options refused to register. I'm having trouble recreating them on-the-fly, but if they happen again, I'll let you know. Certain things recently like updaters refusing to download, submenus failing to load, things like that. I'll try to take some screenshots if they occur again.

About the crashes. I've had it happen when switching cores on a fairly regular basis. I'm beginning to learn when crashes occur, though.

For the CRT shader, the online updater only downloads two different shaders compared to the multitudes it downloads on the windows side, neither of which work. I've tried manually adding shaders to no success either. Unfortunately, that is by far my favorite part of Retroarch for Windows.

I do like Retroarch in Windows, so I didn't want to sound too negative about it. I was just hoping to get CRT filters working in Android first, and then learning my way around Retroarch's UI secondly. Thanks again for all your help!
 

Platy

Member
I am having insane amount of trouble to get a simple retroarch exe not to crash on me on my crap laptop....

Both the nightly and the stable gave errors when I try to open .... nitghly misses a weird DLL and stable just plain crashes before anything happens.

Anyone have a link to a good 32bit version of Retroarch that might work ?
 

Radius4

Member
Wow! First of all, thanks for all the help and guidance. I am using the most recent nightly build from http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/android/. I have managed to get Retroarch to finally accept my menu button settings for the most part. It's good to hear that individual device settings are taken into account. As far as I know, the GPD XD mainly defaults to Dual Shock 3 mappings in most circumstances. I'll try some of your specific recommendations a little later.

As far as nonfunctioning UI elements goes, I've had instances where certain menu options refused to register. I'm having trouble recreating them on-the-fly, but if they happen again, I'll let you know. Certain things recently like updaters refusing to download, submenus failing to load, things like that. I'll try to take some screenshots if they occur again.

About the crashes. I've had it happen when switching cores on a fairly regular basis. I'm beginning to learn when crashes occur, though.

For the CRT shader, the online updater only downloads two different shaders compared to the multitudes it downloads on the windows side, neither of which work. I've tried manually adding shaders to no success either. Unfortunately, that is by far my favorite part of Retroarch for Windows.

I do like Retroarch in Windows, so I didn't want to sound too negative about it. I was just hoping to get CRT filters working in Android first, and then learning my way around Retroarch's UI secondly. Thanks again for all your help!

Regarding the maps, we don't use standard android maps so mapping like I said is a must, actually once you figure it I could use the data to add an autoconf to our database.
For CRT, I'll check the archive, it should have quite a bunch but I may have screwed up the shader archive you're not the first person complaining.

As for cores crashing, most of the time it's a missing BIOS or something.


I am having insane amount of trouble to get a simple retroarch exe not to crash on me on my crap laptop....

Both the nightly and the stable gave errors when I try to open .... nitghly misses a weird DLL and stable just plain crashes before anything happens.

Anyone have a link to a good 32bit version of Retroarch that might work ?

Hmm that's odd... I haven't fixed the 32 bit archive, I swear, I'll do it this week. Haven't had the time to fix that one after the buildbot was redone.
 
Regarding the maps, we don't use standard android maps so mapping like I said is a must, actually once you figure it I could use the data to add an autoconf to our database.

Yeah, I'm fine without an autoconfig. I just had an issue where it seemed multiple buttons were mapped as the menu button and I had trouble getting it properly set before just clearing the presets. Sorry if I wasn't clear about it before.

For CRT, I'll check the archive, it should have quite a bunch but I may have screwed up the shader archive you're not the first person complaining.

Thanks, I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining, I don't mean to. I really do appreciate everything emulator authors and contributors do. :)
 

Chucker

Member
I haven't read the whole thread, so apologies if it's been asked.
Got a steam link last night and it works really well. Does anybody have any experience with using this added to steam and used in big picture mode? I figure I'll do all the heavy lifting and setup on my PC and then play from the couch.

Thanks in advance.
 

Awakened

Member
I haven't read the whole thread, so apologies if it's been asked.
Got a steam link last night and it works really well. Does anybody have any experience with using this added to steam and used in big picture mode? I figure I'll do all the heavy lifting and setup on my PC and then play from the couch.

Thanks in advance.
I used Ice to add individual Steam shortcuts for my games and they launch fine from BPM or the desktop client and the Steam overlay works. I've never tried streaming it though.
 
I
We're trying to make a generic btstack driver and the cocoa GUI might disappear soon (once we match functionality with GLUI). Both should look fairly modern, otherwise you might be using an older build or one of the first builds without GLUI as the default.

I meant to ask this earlier, and I ask the following out of complete ignorance on my part:

Is btstack causing the problems with generic bluetooth devices? I mean, it's odd that I can use a bluetooth keyboard to enter text in every iPhone app except RetroArch. If so, is there a way for me to disable the custom bluetooth interface RetroArch is using so I can use whatever built-in bluetooth Apple supplies every other app? I assume the way the RetroArch is currently written is to allow the greatest amount of flexibility with controllers (PS3 and PS4 controllers, most likely) on jailbroken devices that use "controllers for all" and other third party drivers or apps. But, for those that want to use the native bluetooth built-in to the iPhone without jailbreaks or hacks, can I just comment out all traces of btstack from the Xcode project? Does this make sense?

I guess that is my current stumbling block with the iOS version right now since I have to use the on screen controls because a standard bluetooth keyboard isn't recognized by RetroArch.
 

Lettuce

Member
Thanks for the feedback folks.

It looks like a vignette effect that mimics the curvature of the screen. I'm away from my PC this week, but I'll look into it when I get a chance.

Any update to adding this to your shader yet easymode?

Also anyone else here using on of those 8Bitdo SNES pads with RA?, having real issues getting mine to configure correctly
 

Rick74

Neo Member
Any update to adding this to your shader yet easymode?

Also anyone else here using on of those 8Bitdo SNES pads with RA?, having real issues getting mine to configure correctly


Yes... My SFC30 isn't working anymore on latest nightlies

It works in the controller configuration utility, but it isn't detected in the Retroarch.exe when I try and configure
 

nkarafo

Member
I saw someone on Youtube having this type of setup

maxresdefault.jpg



So basically, instead of loading each core configuration file separately, all the core can be accessed in the UI at any time and under each one you got the games.

I tried to figure this out but can't set it up this way. Is there any tutorial that explains how this can be done?
 

Conan-san

Member
Isn't that done via the Add Content / Playlist function which, outside of custom Playlists is awful strict on what it adds (IE: No hacks / Language Mods)
 

Lettuce

Member
Odd thing I have all of the 8bitdo pads and they are working fine for me

Im not sure what the issue is, i got to set the key binds for the pad (which is detected as Wireless controller) when i get to setting the d-pad keys instead of it being pad buttons it lists as keypad 2,4,6,and 8 so basically the arrow keys on the keypad on the keyboard, i can get around this but just skipping these d-pad binds as it seem to detect these buttons from default so that not too bad...but this not acting like it should do.

When i actually load a core (bsnes) the key binds i just set are all mess up and not at all what i previously set them as, i then have to go back into key binds and set the buttons all over again but once i have done this the 'z' and 'x' keys on the keyboard to access and exit menus in the RGUI stop working.....im guess the pad binds have over written these for some reason!??. I just dont have a clue what on earth is going on!?
 

Radius4

Member
Im not sure what the issue is, i got to set the key binds for the pad (which is detected as Wireless controller) when i get to setting the d-pad keys instead of it being pad buttons it lists as keypad 2,4,6,and 8 so basically the arrow keys on the keypad on the keyboard, i can get around this but just skipping these d-pad binds as it seem to detect these buttons from default so that not too bad...but this not acting like it should do.

When i actually load a core (bsnes) the key binds i just set are all mess up and not at all what i previously set them as, i then have to go back into key binds and set the buttons all over again but once i have done this the 'z' and 'x' keys on the keyboard to access and exit menus in the RGUI stop working.....im guess the pad binds have over written these for some reason!??. I just dont have a clue what on earth is going on!?

Are you using overrides or remaps or something?
Also, you firmware is oooooold, proof of that is that the controller is mapping the dpad as the keyboard numpad buttons, from 2.52 up it maps them as actual axes.

On my firmware, the NES30, SNES30 and SFC30 are recognized as Blueetooth Wireless Controller

Screenshot%202015-11-11%2020.29.17.png
 

Lettuce

Member
Are you using overrides or remaps or something?
Also, you firmware is oooooold, proof of that is that the controller is mapping the dpad as the keyboard numpad buttons, from 2.52 up it maps them as actual axes.

On my firmware, the NES30, SNES30 and SFC30 are recognized as Blueetooth Wireless Controller

Screenshot%202015-11-11%2020.29.17.png

Nah i updated it to the latest FW this week.

No sure about overrides or remaps, i havent touched anything apart from going into the input menu, player 1 binds, and bind all.

EDIT: have just checked an im on FW 2.63 for the snes pad, which is the latest fw
 

Lettuce

Member
it only uses 2,4,6,8 as arrows in keyboard mode then

i just power the pad on, i dont hold down any buttons so it should just be normal wireless mode, and RA even notices is a bluetooth wireless controller, surely it would list it as keyboard if the pad was in keyboard mode?
 

Radius4

Member
I don't know what to tell you other than it's working as a keyboard, check the numpad, 2, 4 ,6 ,8 are the same as the arrows on the numpad.

Also, the controller is always named like that on windows when used via BT, no matter what mode you use.

Try resetting it to factory defaults or whatever.
 

nkarafo

Member
Ah, i finally figured out why both Yabause and DosBox were so slow on my machine... I have hard sync ON by default for every system and these two cores slowdown a lot with it. I disabled it and now they run well (still not as good as SSF or standalone DOSbox), although some minor input lag is to be expected without hard sync.
 

Dizzy-4U

Member
You know in the MAME core, when you press the left trigger it brings the MAME menu....How do I disable that?

More often than not I hit it by accident so I'd like to complete remove it from the controller and leave it just to the TAB button.
 
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