Good android device for retroarch

Cisek · 15 January 2017 03:50

Hi

I am using retroarch with great satisfaction on my 42’’ Sony lcd using windows 7 pc.

Recently I found about some fantastic bluetooth controllers from http://www.8bitdo.com/ An idea came to my mind to buy some mobile android device and use those controllers on any occasions. I have never used android device earlier, my questions are:

Is it possible to use android retroarch device and run 32/64 bit systems games fullspeed (mupen64 and mednafen psx cores)? Can I use lottes shader with android device fullspeed with 16 bit/mame cores? Does android retroarch gets more input lag comparing to windows retroarch? Are there 4:3 display android devices suited for retroarch?

Thank you

talos91 · 15 January 2017 06:54

Mednafen ps1 runs slow on most android devices but the ps1 core for android PCSX rearmed runs fullspeed in all android devices I have tested. Also Mupen is hit and miss, it runs fullspeed in devices like the shield tv. MAME cores are demanding and require the right romset but the FBA core runs most games fullspeed. Not all shaders work on android.

hunterk · 15 January 2017 06:54

Crt-lottes doesn’t work on Android. It turns everything green.

Yes, Android has more latency than Windows.

I don’t know of any native 4:3 Android devices.

anon24419061 · 15 January 2017 06:54

Actually android’s input lag seems commendable, I get better results on the 240p test suite on my nvidia shield portable than on my PC. Audio lag is trash.

I think the Google Pixel C is 4:3 ? or the nexus 9 I don’t remember

hunterk · 15 January 2017 06:54

You’re right, nexus 9 is indeed 4:3.

Cisek · 15 January 2017 06:54

Is there any sensible crt shader on android devices? Have any of you used GPD XD console with retroarch?

hunterk · 15 January 2017 06:54

You can try this one, which is designed for use with Raspberry Pis, but should work fine with Android, too:

github.com

libretro/glsl-shaders/blob/master/crt/shaders/crt-pi.glsl

/*
    crt-pi - A Raspberry Pi friendly CRT shader.

    Copyright (C) 2015-2016 davej

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
    Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
    any later version.


Notes:

This shader is designed to work well on Raspberry Pi GPUs (i.e. 1080P @ 60Hz on a game with a 4:3 aspect ratio). It pushes the Pi's GPU hard and enabling some features will slow it down so that it is no longer able to match 1080P @ 60Hz. You will need to overclock your Pi to the fastest setting in raspi-config to get the best results from this shader: 'Pi2' for Pi2 and 'Turbo' for original Pi and Pi Zero. Note: Pi2s are slower at running the shader than other Pis, this seems to be down to Pi2s lower maximum memory speed. Pi2s don't quite manage 1080P @ 60Hz - they drop about 1 in 1000 frames. You probably won't notice this, but if you do, try enabling FAKE_GAMMA.

SCANLINES enables scanlines. You'll almost certainly want to use it with MULTISAMPLE to reduce moire effects. SCANLINE_WEIGHT defines how wide scanlines are (it is an inverse value so a higher number = thinner lines). SCANLINE_GAP_BRIGHTNESS defines how dark the gaps between the scan lines are. Darker gaps between scan lines make moire effects more likely.

GAMMA enables gamma correction using the values in INPUT_GAMMA and OUTPUT_GAMMA. FAKE_GAMMA causes it to ignore the values in INPUT_GAMMA and OUTPUT_GAMMA and approximate gamma correction in a way which is faster than true gamma whilst still looking better than having none. You must have GAMMA defined to enable FAKE_GAMMA.

CURVATURE distorts the screen by CURVATURE_X and CURVATURE_Y. Curvature slows things down a lot.

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brujo5 · 15 January 2017 06:56

Well I have a galaxy S6 and reproach work great

raffles · 15 January 2017 06:58

[QUOTE=Radius;34468]Actually android’s input lag seems commendable, I get better results on the 240p test suite on my nvidia shield portable than on my PC. Audio lag is trash.

I think the Google Pixel C is 4:3 ? or the nexus 9 I don’t remember[/QUOTE]

Agreed. I was really surprised that my Shield Console has the same input lag on RetroArch as my Win7 machine, with vsync on.

raffles · 15 January 2017 06:58

An to answer the question - Nvidia Shield Console of course

It’s the ultimate retro emulation machine.

Modeler · 15 January 2017 06:58

I have a Nexus 9 and a GPD XD, never tried any shaders though. GPD works well apart from the simultaneous button press issue, which affects most Android devices with hardware controls that I’ve tried.