I don’t use Stanalone from Gamecube\PS2\XBOX and Newer but After that I do use Retroarch 99% of the Time.
What about you?
I’ve played around with Ryujinx and done some testing with bsnes/higan/Ares, but that’s pretty much it for me outside of RetroArch/libretro for the past 10+ yrs.
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My current live HTPC uses Rocketlauncher, Retroarch, and a slew of standalone emulators.
My next (Currently in R&D) HTPC will only use Retroarch.
I will miss the DICE emulator.
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PPSSPP/PCSX2/Dolphin are the Emulators I use for Standalone
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PCSX2/Dolphin standalone. All the rest Retroarch.
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I recently installed Xemu to play Xbox games. Otherwise most of the systems I use are in RetroArch. I also use Dolphin to convert files, but not to play games.
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Outside of RA I only use pcsx2.
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Years, since I use Linux. When I met RetroArch I said "This is the way " and I have no more patience to things outside this ecosystem.
I have some things installed to try, like MAME, but I don’t really play much, I spend more time testing shader and RetroArch features.
What I always played were PC graphic adventures and Arcade Molde 2. Now I have a RetroOrgasm with PURE, but model2 is not even on Linux. 
I have an excuse to get out of the house.
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Yes. A lot of them:
- Yuzu/Ryujinx
- CEMU
- BigPEmu (Virtual Jaguar has been dead for many years)
- Dolphin
- PCSX2
- Ares (for accurate N64 emulation)
- Model 2 Emulator
- Supermodel
- XEMU
- Teknoparrot
- Xenia
A lot of these are closed source so there is no way for a RA core to exist. The others though have a chance. Remember Supermodel? Whatever happened to it? Also, Dolphin and PCSX2 do exist on RetroArch but they are inferior to the standalone versions in every way. The cores, unfortunately, seem abandoned and i doubt we will ever see proper ones for these systems.
The only other core i wish to see is Ares, it’s N64 core at least. It’s already the best way to play some of the games and i’m sure in the near future it will replace every other N64 emulator that’s based on old code such as PJ64 and Mupen.
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citra.
the retroarch citra core dont work with amd gpu’s at least on rx 6000 series.
Tested yuzu and ryujinx but cant say i use them, have not lauched them in a year.
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The Citra core was benefited by RetroArch’s own freesync features. It used to be much smoother compared to the standalone on my 240hz VRR screen.
Later updates however seem to have improved the standalone Citra in this aspect.
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I now use a full Mister FPGA setup, as it’s closer to real hardware, especially if you use the analogue board, and this is connected to a Sony 14" PVM for horizontal games, and a Philips 8833 Mark II on it’s side for vertical games.
For newer emulators, I always use standalone, such RPCS3 for PS3 emulation - there is zero reason to use retroarch for this, and for PS2 I use Pcsx2 - I can upscale to 4k, use custom texture packs, etc…
I use Yuzu, Dolphin, Cemu, BigP - Jaguar, Xenia, etc…
Sometimes, you just want a more simple frontend, and not have to deal with the convoluted, and annoying, Retroarch frontend, and it’s annoying menu-diving.
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libretro aside, I won’t touch closed source emus. Too many people forget or aren’t aware of how bad emulation used to be when closed-source and/or Windows-only was the norm.
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Problem is, some of these closed sourced emulators are the only choice you have to emulate a certain system. What other choice do you have to emulate the Atari Jaguar? Virtual Jaguar is only good for a handful of games. BigPEmulator is amazing though.
And then, there are the really bad situations, like the Model 2 emulator. I dislike this emulator like no other, i hate using it in my setup because of it’s wacky control setup options and other odd behaviors. But it’s the only one that can run Model 2 games. Sure, i could wait for something else but if i did i would have to wait for almost 20 years by now.
So i just always use the best option i have and hope something better comes up in the future.
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Funny how things are subjective, I use retroarch for 90% of my emulation needs because it is very simple to use and it handles all the different emulators in the same way. With stand-alones you have to deal with different settings structure, UI, saves, shaders etc etc. In RA you just need to learn how it works only once.
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RPCS3 - just run it, click on game, play.
PCSX2 - just run it, click on game, play.
Yuzu - just run it, click on game, play.
True, you might have to set up a few things from the start, but thats it.
I’ve been using RA before you were born. I am not talking about just running your dodgy roms, I am talking about shaders, overlays, editing, etc… lots of menu diving, lots of unnecessary work for simple changes.
Perhaps it’s YOU that needs to learn how to use standalone emulators.
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Perhaps this conversation is over.
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I do lot of configuration with text files, especially when setting up many cores or new cores. Writing simple scripts that automate 60 cores with many different files. Or copy a configuration from one core to a new installed one and change a few lines. Off course that’s not the end of the story and some settings are setup through gui, but this is to me the best and easiest way of handling emulators.
I’m so happy with RetroArch. And yes, i also talk about the full stack of setup with shaders and all the other things. Before RetroArch even existed, I was dreaming of something like that and always tried to do some personal scripts and conventions to get things done. I agree with the guy you replied to, as I only need to learn it once. I really “hate” using another dedicated emulator and it makes everything worse for me.
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Okay, so I don’t know why you are upset right now. Just how you responded and “corrected” Hari’s statement how he likes it better, I did my statement to explain you why I like it more to use RetroArch over standalone emulators. There is no need to be aggressive or personal here. So calm down and just have fun with discussion about the topic and explain why.
When I recently installed Xemu to test it, it showed me why I dislike standalone emulators nowadays. I have to update it separately and when I install on a different system, I have to backup those files and setup separately. The menus are all different, the options, everything. Nothing is like RetroArch and it does not fit well in my “workflow”.
Or another reason why I like cores over standalone. In example for EasyRPG, the RPG Maker player, the RetroArch version has real advantages over the standalone one. In example I can use my beloved Shaders, it supports gamepad and the configuration files and menus is in the same format as all other cores.
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