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

nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
Aeana said:
Have you tried using the GPU hard sync option?
Click to expand...
Yes it's on by default for all emulators.

But with the SNES, i had a bit more lag compared to, say, Genesis. This was more apparent with Super Mario World where i could feel a bit of lag even on my CRT monitor. I feel that now it's alright, although i haven't tested it yet on my LCD.
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
nkarafo said:
Did they manage to fix the input lag in SNES emulators? I feel like it's a bit more responsive now with Bsnes_Mercury_balanced.

Are there any other cores that are improved like so?
Click to expand...

Yes snes9x, next and bsnes shaved one frame of input lag that was inherent to snes emulation recently.
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
Quick question. I'm trying the 174 mame core and the games run great, but I have this issue where I can't read anything from the MAME UI. Tried different video settings, disabled shaders, DSR, etc. but nothing seems to fix it. Any ideas?

b9Emks1.png

4MfLeCy.jpg
Click to expand...

The game themselves looks fine though.

edit: Got it. Alternate render method in the core options fixed it. It's very tiny but at least I can read it now.
 
A

Awakened

Member
Dizzy-4U said:
Quick question. I'm trying the 174 mame core and the games run great, but I have this issue where I can't read anything from the MAME UI. Tried different video settings, disabled shaders, DSR, etc. but nothing seems to fix it. Any ideas?



The game themselves looks fine though.

edit: Got it. Alternate render method in the core options fixed it. It's very tiny but at least I can read it now.
Click to expand...
Waiting for that and the aspect ratio problem (4:3 is squished more than it should be) to be fixed. Then I can finally upgrade from my year old core now that the no nag options are back in.
 
D

Dizzy-4U

Member
Awakened said:
Waiting for that and the aspect ratio problem (4:3 is squished more than it should be) to be fixed. Then I can finally upgrade from my year old core now that the no nag options are back in.
Click to expand...
Ah, ok. So it's a problem with the core. I thought I messed up somewhere. Thanks.
 
B

Brhoom

Banned
Dina said:
Fellas,

What is the best way to setup aspect ratio and resolution for different emulators in general. I believe I have left aspect ratio on 'set by Core'. Resolution I'm unsure about.
Click to expand...

What I like to do is turn on "per core config" then with each core I turn on integer scale and set aspect ratio to "custom".

Then I change the "Custom viewport width/ height" for each core (make sure you turn on and off intger scale so it resets to the perfect scale.

Here watch this video at the 41:20 mark:
https://youtu.be/3yeKMo6mcAo

Just make sure you increase both the width and height the same number of times to get the best picture.

Hope this helps you getting the best picture out of your games.
 
D

Dina

Member
Brhoom said:
What I like to do is turn on "per core config" then with each core I turn on integer scale and set aspect ratio to "custom".

Then I change the "Custom viewport width/ height" for each core (make sure you turn on and off intger scale so it resets to the perfect scale.

Here watch this video at the 41:20 mark:
https://youtu.be/3yeKMo6mcAo

Just make sure you increase both the width and height the same number of times to get the best picture.

Hope this helps you getting the best picture out of your games.
Click to expand...

Writing this from work so I can't check RetroArch itself.

So am I understanding this right in that for the NES, I need to put integer scale on and set custom viewport (I've never used this before) to 256 × 224? Or should I set custom viewport to 8:7? Or should I up the resolution in 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x increments until I get to either 1920 or 1080?

I do use a shader (CRT-Royale) if that helps.
 
B

Brhoom

Banned
Dina said:
Writing this from work so I can't check RetroArch itself.

So am I understanding this right in that for the NES, I need to put integer scale on and set custom viewport (I've never used this before) to 256 × 224? Or should I set custom viewport to 8:7? Or should I up the resolution in 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x increments until I get to either 1920 or 1080?

I do use a shader (CRT-Royale) if that helps.
Click to expand...

Set it to custom and work from there, if you want to see everything 4x and if you are ok with some of the image getting lost in the overscan use 5x

For nes I just use integer, I don't care about perfect circels, I just want the sharpiest picture I can get. Sure the image will be less than 4:3 and more like 8:7 but I like it that way, in the end do what you like.

Also since you use crt royale check this link

http://libretro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4909

The best shader settings I've used, if you want to change shaders setting I think "menu shader parameters" is the one you change setting with.
 
I

Iced

Member
Do you still need to compromise either audio or video with Retroarch on Android? I remember reading a post from one of the developers (I think) stating perfect playback just isn't possible, and that you'll either need to deal with stuttering video or audio cracks/hitches. I was dealing with the latter on my Xperia Z3 Compact the last time I used Retroarch (I believe about 6 months ago).

Anyone have any tips on how to have a smooth overall presentation? One thing I read was putting in your screen's exact refresh rate in the video options can help, but I've never been able to figure out what the exact number is, and I don't feel like doing a lot of trial and error.
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
I don't have any stuttering or anything like that but my devices are way more powerful.
The problem is the CPU governor, thermal envelopes and the garbage collector.

Even on the Shield Tablet / K1, the CPU governor kicks in and throttles down when there is low load (say for example SFX games in SNES9x) and then you get crackling. If you touch the screen touch boost kicks in and all is good again. If I set my power policy to max performance all is good again.
 
I

Iced

Member
Radius4 said:
I don't have any stuttering or anything like that but my devices are way more powerful.
The problem is the CPU governor, thermal envelopes and the garbage collector.

Even on the Shield Tablet / K1, the CPU governor kicks in and throttles down when there is low load (say for example SFX games in SNES9x) and then you get crackling. If you touch the screen touch boost kicks in and all is good again. If I set my power policy to max performance all is good again.
Click to expand...

I see. So is this info outdated? http://libretro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189 It's a sticky in the Android forum.
 
I

Iced

Member
Radius4 said:
I don't see how what I said invalidates any of that.
Click to expand...

Well that thread seems to blame it on the refresh rate being incorrectly reported to the AndroidOS, which seems different from what you said. Unless they're not? (I honestly don't know.)
 
The Faceless Master

The Faceless Master

Member
Iced said:
Well that thread seems to blame it on the refresh rate being incorrectly reported to the AndroidOS, which seems different from what you said. Unless they're not? (I honestly don't know.)
Click to expand...
One thing some devices do to save power is lower the refresh rate during low loads, so it can be related.
 
I

Iced

Member
I see. So basically I'm screwed?

I used to be able to run Retroarch just fine on my Nexus 5. I didn't think I'd have worse performance on a Z3. And it seems like I would have to root my phone in order to control how the CPU performs, which isn't in the cards for me.

If anyone here has somehow had any luck with a Z3 and Retroarch, I'm all ears!
 
Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck

Member
What's the best controller for this on the PC? Does it support all of them like the Xbox one controller? Is that the simplest one to use?
 
B

BassForever

Member
So I'm watching a video tonight on setting up retroarch and hyperspin on my new nvidia shield tv and I was baffled when the guy showed how to torrent and more specifically him getting every game for an entire system in one click. I'm not sure what blows my mind more the fact such a thing exists, that someone would blatantly show themselves doing something illegal on youtube in an instructional video, or that someone would even want to have every single game on a system. I get it for physical collectors or for systems like the wiiu, vita, or vb where the library is small, but ffs why would you waste time getting an entire library when you probably only plan to play like 1% of the games on it?

Sorry about that, I do have one actual question that I browsed the thread and didn't find an answer apology if its been asked before. If I've got emulators working for individual systems and I don't really care about filters or borders and care mostly for as accurate as possible gameplay with no input lag does retroarch run games better or is it mostly the conveinence of it being a one stop shop?

Another question, can retroarch support more then 4 players... And by extension can the nvidia shield tv support more then 4 players?

Thanks for any advice anyone can give
 
A

Awakened

Member
BassForever said:
Sorry about that, I do have one actual question that I browsed the thread and didn't find an answer apology if its been asked before. If I've got emulators working for individual systems and I don't really care about filters or borders and care mostly for as accurate as possible gameplay with no input lag does retroarch run games better or is it mostly the conveinence of it being a one stop shop?
Click to expand...
I get very smooth Vsync performance and no noticable lag with it on my desktop, whereas some stand alone emulators stutter or lag in fullscreen. I haven't used it much on Android, but I've read on the Libretro forums that the vulkan video driver has really good performance on the Shield TV.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
BassForever said:
I get it for physical collectors or for systems like the wiiu, vita, or vb where the library is small, but ffs why would you waste time getting an entire library when you probably only plan to play like 1% of the games on it?
Click to expand...
Preservation. Research (some sets have prototypes, unreleased games, etc). Building your own database. Comparing every port if you do reviews or you are just interested. Testing compatibility of emulators.
 
B

BassForever

Member
Awakened said:
I get very smooth Vsync performance and no noticable lag with it on my desktop, whereas some stand alone emulators stutter or lag in fullscreen. I haven't used it much on Android, but I've read on the Libretro forums that the vulkan video driver has really good performance on the Shield TV.
Click to expand...

Sounds solid guess I'll test it out in a little bit.

nkarafo said:
Preservation. Research (some sets have prototypes, unreleased games, etc). Building your own database. Comparing every port if you do reviews or you are just interested. Testing compatibility of emulators.
Click to expand...

All good points, especially the reviewer doing all ports never considered that. Thanks!
 
I

Iced

Member
Iced said:
I see. So basically I'm screwed?

I used to be able to run Retroarch just fine on my Nexus 5. I didn't think I'd have worse performance on a Z3. And it seems like I would have to root my phone in order to control how the CPU performs, which isn't in the cards for me.

If anyone here has somehow had any luck with a Z3 and Retroarch, I'm all ears!
Click to expand...

I would just also like to mention that when I was on my Nexus 5, it was on Lollipop. I'm wondering if my performance issues stem from being on Marshmallow now.
 
B

BassForever

Member
So I dunno why but Retroarch seems to crash for me all the time on my nvidia shield tv regardless of what SNES core I try using usually when trying to leave the game for the menu or getting back into the game. I'm also finding everything just feels... I dunno how to explain it but slow? Like there's no input lag regardless of which core I use or what options I flick but the game always feels slow and switching over to SNES9x EX+ proves it's not just me. I assume I have to keep flicking switches and the nightly might just be jank but it's incredibly frustrating trying to figure all this out with it crashing every 5 minutes.

Is there a way to save your settings? Having to turn off the default button press overlay is really annoying since this isn't a touch screen device.
 
Dr. Zoidberg

Dr. Zoidberg

Member
Rufus said:
It should be saving everything you change on exit, but since you're crashing that doesn't happen.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've gotten in the habit of quitting Retroarch after making configuration changes, then restarting before I try to load a game. That way my changes are saved. Not a big problem now but when I was first learning how to set everything up it was a serious issue because Retroarch does not fail gracefully. One incorrect setting or BIOS in the wrong place and you simply crash to desktop with no errors given. So it's best to quit (which saves) and then restart to test.
 
P

Phatcorns

Member
So today I decided I was going to finally get an emulator set up properly, but one thing that has always turned me off on emulators is scrolling games are so choppy. Here's a video comparison I made of Yoshi's Island: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPzisy2wYq0

Hopefully you can tell, but why is it that the emulator scrolls so choppily? I have vsync enabled, I'm running at 60hz, I have a very powerful computer. Is there something I'm missing?

EDIT: I figured it out. Had to go to GeForce control panel, enable triple buffering and then set v-sync to be controlled by the 3d application. Smooth as butter now.
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
Dr. Zoidberg said:
Yes, I've gotten in the habit of quitting Retroarch after making configuration changes, then restarting before I try to load a game. That way my changes are saved. Not a big problem now but when I was first learning how to set everything up it was a serious issue because Retroarch does not fail gracefully. One incorrect setting or BIOS in the wrong place and you simply crash to desktop with no errors given. So it's best to quit (which saves) and then restart to test.
Click to expand...
FVmO9Gu.png
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
PSA: core-specific configs are going away, it's just a horrible hackjob in the codebase and it was quite problematic, particularly on static linked platforms.

Instead we'll try to add a "Save configuration override" in the menu for the next version

For people that use them... well sorry, you can still use them by adding --config corename.ext.cfg to your commandline I guess
 
B

Brhoom

Banned
Radius4 said:
PSA: core-specific configs are going away, it's just a horrible hackjob in the codebase and it was quite problematic, particularly on static linked platforms.

Instead we'll try to add a "Save configuration override" in the menu for the next version

For people that use them... well sorry, you can still use them by adding --config corename.ext.cfg to your commandline I guess
Click to expand...

Is there a way other than this to have different integer scale for each core then?

EDIT: I feel like we've been stuck in page 63 for years now.
 
K

Knurek

Member
Radius4 said:
PSA: core-specific configs are going away, it's just a horrible hackjob in the codebase and it was quite problematic, particularly on static linked platforms.

Instead we'll try to add a "Save configuration override" in the menu for the next version

For people that use them... well sorry, you can still use them by adding --config corename.ext.cfg to your commandline I guess
Click to expand...

Are configuration overrides those tiny cfg files, that have per core/game settings?
config\bsnes\Mario no Super Picross (Japan).cfg
Code: 
video_shader = ":\shaders\bsnes_balanced_libretro.dll.cgp"
audio_mute_enable = "true"

Will something like this work after the change you mention?

Also, sorry to be pushy, but had you any time to look into that 'not saving autosavestate while quitting' issue I mentioned back when 1.3.6 got released? I've just tried the nightly build from today, and the problem still persist.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Radius4 said:
PSA: core-specific configs are going away, it's just a horrible hackjob in the codebase and it was quite problematic, particularly on static linked platforms.

Instead we'll try to add a "Save configuration override" in the menu for the next version

For people that use them... well sorry, you can still use them by adding --config corename.ext.cfg to your commandline I guess
Click to expand...

this is a good change.
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
Knurek said:
Are configuration overrides those tiny cfg files, that have per core/game settings?
config\bsnes\Mario no Super Picross (Japan).cfg
Code: 
video_shader = ":\shaders\bsnes_balanced_libretro.dll.cgp"
audio_mute_enable = "true"

Will something like this work after the change you mention?

Also, sorry to be pushy, but had you any time to look into that 'not saving autosavestate while quitting' issue I mentioned back when 1.3.6 got released? I've just tried the nightly build from today, and the problem still persist.
Click to expand...

Yes overrides are those.
And btw I hope by tomorrow you won't need overrides for shaders, I am adding functionality to save and load presets per-core and per-game :D

Edit: sorry haven't looked at that issue yet.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Is it true that the input lag has been decreased in recent builds?

Because I've just built up a full retro console RGB setup to my HDTV (full native RGB SCART input) and the difference in input lag is staggering.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Radius4 said:
The SNES cores got a fix that should decrease input lag a full frame, not sure if that's what you mean.
Click to expand...

Which core in particular? BSNES, SNES9X or CATSFC? Or all?

I noticed quite significant lag in DKC2 against the same game on my JVC PVM.
 
B

Brhoom

Banned
I'm starting to like my ps1 games not upscaled and just as they is.

Help.

Edit: Changing overlay scale in retroarch causes it to crash, I can do it by editing the file myself but I can't through retroarch.
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
Knurek said:
Also, sorry to be pushy, but had you any time to look into that 'not saving autosavestate while quitting' issue I mentioned back when 1.3.6 got released? I've just tried the nightly build from today, and the problem still persist.
Click to expand...

Does it happen with exit from the menu instead of any hotkeys or alt-f4?
I only get the weird behavior when I exit with alt-f4
 
L

Lettuce

Member
Rich! said:
Is it true that the input lag has been decreased in recent builds?

Because I've just built up a full retro console RGB setup to my HDTV (full native RGB SCART input) and the difference in input lag is staggering.
Click to expand...

Also depends on what TV you have and the input lag that TV introduces on top of what ever RA adds
 
R

Rich!

Member
Lettuce said:
Also depends on what TV you have and the input lag that TV introduces on top of what ever RA adds
Click to expand...

My current TV has the lowest out of any set I could find. It's a 55" LG, but its the closest I've ever experienced compared to a CRT. I have all of my retro consoles hooked up via the direct RGB SCART socket on the back of the LG HDTV, and there is significant lag on retroarch compared to it, using the same display.
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
Ok, automatic shader loading ALA remaps and overrides is in :)
Just go to settings/configurations and enable the setting.

Then load a game, load the shader you want and then select the option to save a shader preset for the game or for the core and voila, should load automatically going forward.
 
K

Knurek

Member
Radius4 said:
Does it happen with exit from the menu instead of any hotkeys or alt-f4?
I only get the weird behavior when I exit with alt-f4
Click to expand...

Autosave is handled correctly only if you use the Quit option from the Retroarch menu.
Using Alt-F4 or Esc (or whatever key you configured for input_exit_emulator, input_exit_emulator_btn and input_exit_emulator_axis) does not save the state, which definitely wasn't the case earlier.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
Radius4 said:
Yes overrides are those.
And btw I hope by tomorrow you won't need overrides for shaders, I am adding functionality to save and load presets per-core and per-game :D.
Click to expand...
What if a core supports multiple systems and you need a different shader for each?

Edit: Shit. This update pretty much broke my Hyperspin/rocketlauncher setup once again.
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
Are you Gemah from libretro forums?
Still no solution, there is no differentiation between system in RetroArch other than playlists.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
Radius4 said:
Still no solution, there is no differentiation between system in RetroArch other than playlists.
Click to expand...
But if the per-core option worked, why remove it completely? You said it was a hacky method, ok but it worked for those who wanted it. Now without it some people (including me) are stuck with older versions of RetroArch, no?
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
There was no way to differentiate systems that a single core ran with the old method either so your argument is invalid
 
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