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RetroArch |OT| Emulation Heaven
- Thread starter Rich
- Start date
For anything Dreamcast and below I would say yes. For Wii, Wii U, PS2 and anything beyond standalone it is.
PSP and DS are good too. Especially DS, where you get way more screen layout options than standalone Desmume and can even use the touchscreen with one of the sticks and a button or trigger. The melonDS core has been getting updates lately too, but still lacks a "screen swap" button and controller touchscreen support. I think the Citra core is supposed to be good too, but I haven't used it yet.
Ah good to know thanks for the update! I still use my new3DS and my Vita for DS and PSP games respectively so I haven't looked into their emulation yet aside from a brief check-in on PPSSPP back then.
I was wondering if there was a good resource out there that collected all the user-made custom borders and overlays out there.
I mainly was looking into some nice game-specific borders for the Mini consoles, including NES and PSX. It'd be cool to have a nice game-specific border and have it load up with the game.
I mainly was looking into some nice game-specific borders for the Mini consoles, including NES and PSX. It'd be cool to have a nice game-specific border and have it load up with the game.
I looked high and low before and it really seems like there isn't any notable border-collection for Retroarch sadly.
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Hey so I have no clue how to do netplay, but I'd love to try it with one of my friends. The tutorial on the site seemed less than helpful. Is there any better guides for it?
I've switched to 1.8.1 today, and I've noticed overrides don't seem to save shader information.
I've had mine setup so that each core had a separate CGP shader preset - are these deprecated now? What do I need to do to have the same functionality - remake my presets as GLSLP files?
//EDIT: Ah, nevermind, shader presets are a separate option now.
Anyone has any idea why an overlay shader would flicker on a GSync monitor? Just the part that isn't redrawn each frame. Low framerate compensation maybe? If so, is there a workaround for that?
I've had mine setup so that each core had a separate CGP shader preset - are these deprecated now? What do I need to do to have the same functionality - remake my presets as GLSLP files?
//EDIT: Ah, nevermind, shader presets are a separate option now.
Anyone has any idea why an overlay shader would flicker on a GSync monitor? Just the part that isn't redrawn each frame. Low framerate compensation maybe? If so, is there a workaround for that?
Ahhhh, have wanted this so bad for so long :'D Should make adding romhacked files much easier
Some cores need a BIOS (you have to find them yourself), once you have make sure they match the ones in this table:
Retroarch isn't easy even for experienced computer users, depending on what you're trying to do. First thing is that while it is a front end for emulators, the emulators have to support retroarch with special versions (libretro). I'm not sure there's one for Nesica, but I'll admit I only did a couple quick searches. I found the Typextra emu, not sure if it has a libretro version. For Atomiswave, it looks like you might want the reicast core... now called BeetleDC. I don't know if it needs a bios file for atomiswave.
Hopefully this helps get you on the right path at least.
It's Flycast now, but yeah, it supports Atomiswave. I haven't tried it myself; looks like it works with the latest MAME ROM set.
If this is a frontend for emulators why does the UX suck so much? Shouldn't that be a key foundation in making this? They keep adding feature after feature but much of that is useless if most users are scared to touch it, can't find it, or its just to tedious to use
The glui menu driver got a lot of updates thanks to jdleaver and I think it's pretty pleasant to use now. It made navigating on Android a lot better, where it's the default driver. I've been using it on desktop mainly, since it has the best mouse support of the fullscreen menus and I just like the look of it. The sublabel descriptions help a lot by explaining most options too. Things have been getting better for new users, though there's still a ways to go.
That's good! I was mainly talking about user flows and information architecture though. Plus UI
I think jdleaver was also working on cleaning up the menu code, which is supposedly pretty hard to work with as it is now. That could make it more attractive to new UX designers.
Even better. Get it accessible enough so that designers can create the work flows and "skins" themselves. Kodi isn't easy to skin but there are great skins out there
So I'm starting to set up Retroarch on my PC for Saturn and Dreamcast emulation, but I'm having a bit of trouble with something.
Is there any way to enable a toggle of Full Screen? I just assumed that Alt+Enter would toggle between full screen as it does with many other emulators, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Retroarch. I seem to be stuck in either Start in Full Screen and stay in full screen, or start in Windowed and staying in Windowed. Windowed makes it a lot easier for me to do things like use save states, but I'd like to actually play in full screen mode.
Is there a setting somewhere I need to configure for a Full Screen toggle? Or is there a keyboard shortcut already that I'm missing somewhere?
Is there any way to enable a toggle of Full Screen? I just assumed that Alt+Enter would toggle between full screen as it does with many other emulators, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Retroarch. I seem to be stuck in either Start in Full Screen and stay in full screen, or start in Windowed and staying in Windowed. Windowed makes it a lot easier for me to do things like use save states, but I'd like to actually play in full screen mode.
Is there a setting somewhere I need to configure for a Full Screen toggle? Or is there a keyboard shortcut already that I'm missing somewhere?
So I finally really got this up and running yesterday. A few days ago, I got it in my head to go back and replay the Legacy of Kain games. I popped them into my PS2 and it's... okay. It's in another part of the house than I usually game in, and I'd much rather have it up on the bigger screen and better sound system of my home theater. And, of course, they don't look as good as they did through those rose-tinted glasses.. hehe.
So I picked up the PC versions of the two Soul Reaver games, they were on sale for a buck apiece, so what the hell. Naturally, they don't work worth a damn with modern controls, and I had to load up external mods and hacks to get them to even run in HD.
So that got me thinking, "Hey, I've got the original discs, and I've got RetroArch... surely, there's something can be done?!?"
So, I got RetroArch updated, dug around to see that Beetle HW was the best option, did all that. Then remembered that my DVD drive in my PC doesn't work. Got that sorted. Dug around to figure out what format RetroArch wanted them in, did all that. Loaded them up and... nothing. About two hours later, finally came across a single article that mentioned that the BIOS name can't have any special characters in it, so that took care of that.
Finally got them up and running. They run beautifully, of course. It's neat turning the texture correction on and off, playing something like Tomb Raider to see just how bad it could get (even more noticeable at 1080p!).
Noticed initially that the 2D games (Blood Omen and Symphony of the Night) both looked a little blurry. Figured I could deal with that later.
Then I did one more thing, I set up the controller to use "Analog to digital", so I could use the thumbstick to move even in games that didn't support it. And that's when it all went to shit. The system just completely lost the controller, as if it wasn't even there. Just... gone. No control in menus, games, nothing. (Yes, the controller still works fine outside of RA)
I think it has something to do with what "port" the software is seeing the controller on. The problem is, this is somewhat dynamic depending on what else is plugged in at the time. It doesn't seem to recognize whatever it sees as "Port 0" (where it says it sees the controller on startup). I can't seem to find anything in the software on how to configure the actual input ports (not the player ports, the actual inputs), or any confirmation as to whether RA even sees the controller correctly.
Now, the whole goal of all of this was to run the software over the Steam Link to my home theater room. Oddly enough, its controller works fine. I think that's because it's in "Port 1" instead of the hardwared controller on the PC that's in "Port 0". Even the analog-to-digital works.
The other thing I noticed at the time was that my 2D games no longer looked blurry... they looked, how do I describe this... "painterly". All of the pixelated edges had been rounded off and sharpened. Despite the system saying that changing the internal rendering resolution wouldn't affect 2D graphics, it most certainly seems to have done just that. And I can't seem to find any option in the texture blending that changes the look at all. I assume that if I lower the internal rendering resolution back to 1x, it'll look fine, but without a controller on the PC, that's been somewhat difficult. I'd like to avoid having to change all the settings every time I boot up a different game, though.
So here's my questions:
Is there any way to confirm that it actually sees the controller and that it's working? It pops up when you start the program and says "XInput Controller found on Port 0"... how do I find and configure Port 0?
Can options and render settings be set on a per-title basis? Right now, it looks like it's only set on a per-core basis and that all titles using that core will use the same settings. But with PS1, I'd like 2D games to use different settings than 3D games. Is that possible without having to change the settings every time I change games?
So I picked up the PC versions of the two Soul Reaver games, they were on sale for a buck apiece, so what the hell. Naturally, they don't work worth a damn with modern controls, and I had to load up external mods and hacks to get them to even run in HD.
So that got me thinking, "Hey, I've got the original discs, and I've got RetroArch... surely, there's something can be done?!?"
So, I got RetroArch updated, dug around to see that Beetle HW was the best option, did all that. Then remembered that my DVD drive in my PC doesn't work. Got that sorted. Dug around to figure out what format RetroArch wanted them in, did all that. Loaded them up and... nothing. About two hours later, finally came across a single article that mentioned that the BIOS name can't have any special characters in it, so that took care of that.
Finally got them up and running. They run beautifully, of course. It's neat turning the texture correction on and off, playing something like Tomb Raider to see just how bad it could get (even more noticeable at 1080p!).
Noticed initially that the 2D games (Blood Omen and Symphony of the Night) both looked a little blurry. Figured I could deal with that later.
Then I did one more thing, I set up the controller to use "Analog to digital", so I could use the thumbstick to move even in games that didn't support it. And that's when it all went to shit. The system just completely lost the controller, as if it wasn't even there. Just... gone. No control in menus, games, nothing. (Yes, the controller still works fine outside of RA)
I think it has something to do with what "port" the software is seeing the controller on. The problem is, this is somewhat dynamic depending on what else is plugged in at the time. It doesn't seem to recognize whatever it sees as "Port 0" (where it says it sees the controller on startup). I can't seem to find anything in the software on how to configure the actual input ports (not the player ports, the actual inputs), or any confirmation as to whether RA even sees the controller correctly.
Now, the whole goal of all of this was to run the software over the Steam Link to my home theater room. Oddly enough, its controller works fine. I think that's because it's in "Port 1" instead of the hardwared controller on the PC that's in "Port 0". Even the analog-to-digital works.
The other thing I noticed at the time was that my 2D games no longer looked blurry... they looked, how do I describe this... "painterly". All of the pixelated edges had been rounded off and sharpened. Despite the system saying that changing the internal rendering resolution wouldn't affect 2D graphics, it most certainly seems to have done just that. And I can't seem to find any option in the texture blending that changes the look at all. I assume that if I lower the internal rendering resolution back to 1x, it'll look fine, but without a controller on the PC, that's been somewhat difficult. I'd like to avoid having to change all the settings every time I boot up a different game, though.
So here's my questions:
Is there any way to confirm that it actually sees the controller and that it's working? It pops up when you start the program and says "XInput Controller found on Port 0"... how do I find and configure Port 0?
Can options and render settings be set on a per-title basis? Right now, it looks like it's only set on a per-core basis and that all titles using that core will use the same settings. But with PS1, I'd like 2D games to use different settings than 3D games. Is that possible without having to change the settings every time I change games?
Damn, this program can be twitchy. I figured out the problem with the controller. I think what happened was that, at some point while futzing around the menus, I hit "Bind All" under the input settings, not realizing what it did. When I realized it wanted me to manually bind each and every button, I just backed out and kept futzing around. At the time, it still worked. But it created a new Autoconfig file for the XInput controller, and it used that the next time I loaded it... having zero inputs bound. I stumbled across a reference on another forum advising the user to check the .CFG files, and when I realized there was an extra one, I just deleted it, and it defaulted back to the built-in controller config and everything works perfectly again. It worked fine through Steam Link because that's using a different controller, and thus a different profile that worked fine.
I get what it did, and I get why. I just wish it had told me that's what it was doing. Now I can get back to screwing around in the menus to hopelessly break something else...
I get what it did, and I get why. I just wish it had told me that's what it was doing. Now I can get back to screwing around in the menus to hopelessly break something else...
I wouldn't mind trying to make my own, but I don't know what the required dimensions would be. Is there an easy template where you can just insert the images of your choice?
That's a blast from the past quote alright! Well I think the easiest would be is if you make screenshots of the games running in Retroarch for various systems and then just use them as the base, scaled to 4k so you get the exact dimensions.
Such exciting prospects here :D I can't wait for widescreen patches to mature
Try changing your shader type (cg, glsl, slang). Some don't work with Vulkan, some don't work with DX, etc.
Try the standalone version of the emulator (https://purei.org/). If it doesn't work there, it's just not ready yet.
All SH2 entries from the compatibility list suggest as much, but they're all fairly old.
All SH2 entries from the compatibility list suggest as much, but they're all fairly old.
One of the biggest issues with PCSX2 as a core is that it's 32bit only, so you'll need a secondary 32bit RetroArch install if it ever gets libretroized. Unless you're actually using the 32bit version already, but it tends to have less cores available than the 64bit one.