A question regarding cores and emulators

RetroArch General
#1

Hello everyone,

I am brand new to this type of emulator, I actually found RetroArch by typing in “top emulators” in Google and found this list of top 10 emulators, so here I am.

I have read the “Getting Started” page on Libretro’s main page, and I am confused with the terminology here. Are cores basically the central point for all the emulators that exist on the web. So the core is basically a host for the emulators through RetroArch?

Also when you say “Content” are you referring to the games also. So I still have to download the games off of a place like “Emulator Zone” for example right? If so does this mean I have save the zip files into a certain folder so that RetroArch can load them through the different cores? So basically, if I’m correct, it is basically like running a regular emulator just a lot more organized through RetroArch?

Help with these questions will be greatly appreciated.

Stay blessed homies. Keep your voluptuous aura in your mind. :slight_smile:

#2

[QUOTE=Jory;48551]Hello everyone,

I am brand new to this type of emulator, I actually found RetroArch by typing in “top emulators” in Google and found this list of top 10 emulators, so here I am.

I have read the “Getting Started” page on Libretro’s main page, and I am confused with the terminology here. Are cores basically the central point for all the emulators that exist on the web. So the core is basically a host for the emulators through RetroArch?

Also when you say “Content” are you referring to the games also. So I still have to download the games off of a place like “Emulator Zone” for example right? If so does this mean I have save the zip files into a certain folder so that RetroArch can load them through the different cores? So basically, if I’m correct, it is basically like running a regular emulator just a lot more organized through RetroArch?

Help with these questions will be greatly appreciated.

Stay blessed homies. Keep your voluptuous aura in your mind. :)[/QUOTE]

Basically what I’m asking is, are ROMs and content the same thing?

#3

The terminology can indeed be confusing :slight_smile:

RetroArch isn’t an emulator in and of itself, though the vast majority of cores are based on emulators. It’s just a high-performance frontend for the libretro API.

The idea behind libretro is that most games (and some non-game programs), be it an emulator or a game engine or a video player or whatever, want to perform the same basic handful of activities: load a file, listen for input, perform some functions based on that input and then output a frame of video and some audio samples (rinse and repeat ~60 times per second). So, libretro acts as a translator for those basic activities between a frontend (most commonly RetroArch, but there are others, as well) and other programs, which we call “cores”.

“Content” is the catch-all name we use for anything that cores load. For emulator cores, that’s ROMs. For the image-viewer core, it’s image files. For the ffmpeg video player core, it’s videos… We don’t provide any of that content, so you get it from wherever you normally get that sort of thing. We offer some freely licensed content–mostly audio/video/gamepad test ROMs–through RetroArch’s ‘add content’ menu. We can’t tell you where to locate anything else.

The advantages to using RetroArch are that: 1.) RetroArch runs on a ton of platforms, including many legacy platforms that are no longer supported by most programs and/or manufacturers. 2.) RetroArch has well-written audio/video drivers and a rock-solid a/v sync model that is often better (or at least has more/different features) when compared with the standalone programs. 3.) RetroArch has a ridiculous amount of features and options (many have complained that we have too many, actually) that apply to all or almost all of the cores at once, so you don’t have to worry about inconsistent feature sets across programs. For example, some emulators lack exclusive fullscreen, or they don’t support pixel shaders, or can’t launch from a command-line (which is necessary for use with Hyperspin/Rocket Launcher/et al.), etc.; RetroArch handles all of that and more.

Does that clear things up at all?

#4

This helps more. You did answer my main question regarding ROMs in relation to RetroArch.

Can you explain to me please what a shader is. Using a more simplified linguistics so I don’t end up looking up a web page on google that uses layman’s language? Thank you :slight_smile:

#5

Content essentially means roms. A core is essentially an emulator. The only difference is that a core isn’t an executable program, like a normal, standalone emulator, since everything is done through the retroarch program. So if you want to be able to emulate the NES, but you don’t care about the SNES, you would download a NES emulator core (such as the bnes core, or the Nestopia UE core).

So if you would normally load, say, the rom file for Castlevania with Nestopia, the Retroarch way is to select the rom from “load content,” and run it with the Nestopia core.

It’s pretty intuitive, really. Just a little terminology.

One more thing: standalone emulators don’t come from the cores. In most, maybe all cases, the cores were made from pre-existing open-source emulators. And the cores are only kept up to date because of the hard work of the developers.

#6

[QUOTE=Mr. Figs;48561]Content essentially means roms. A core is essentially an emulator. The only difference is that a core isn’t an executable program, like a normal, standalone emulator, since everything is done through the retroarch program. So if you want to be able to emulate the NES, but you don’t care about the SNES, you would download a NES emulator core (such as the bnes core, or the Nestopia UE core).

So if you would normally load, say, the rom file for Castlevania with Nestopia, the Retroarch way is to select the rom from “load content,” and run it with the Nestopia core.

It’s pretty intuitive, really. Just a little terminology.

One more thing: standalone emulators don’t come from the cores. In most, maybe all cases, the cores were made from pre-existing open-source emulators. And the cores are only kept up to date because of the hard work of the developers.[/QUOTE]

Thank you also for the insight. This is what I was assuming, but I wanted to come on here in the forums and get a clearer clarification.

#7

Shaders are little sub-programs that run on your video card to change the way the video output looks. They are similar to the old filters that you may be familiar with, like hq2x and supereagle, and there are actually shader equivalents of many of them. In addition to those that try to provide a less jaggy, pixellated image, there are also shaders that mimic the behavior of CRT TVs and others that apply various effects.

#8

So would shader’s be something you would want to use maybe for streaming games or recording gameplay?

#9

Some can be good for that sort of thing but you have to be careful because additional scaling (like the kind that happens when you watch the video in a little embedded player) can make some shaders look weird/bad. It’s good to test what they’re going to look like in the final format before committing too much time/effort to videos using them.

#10

Ok. thanks for the input.