How to add more emulators

Libretro Lakka
#1

Hey,

I am new to Lakka but very impressed how nice it works. Is there a reason why there is no emulator for the GameCube or Dreamcast build in? I found references to Dolphin and Reicast on the system but did not get my games to run. The documentation does not list this consoles anyway… Do I have to spend my time to find out how to compile Lakka to add these cores? I found the documentation about it but I am not very familiar with this topic. It could take weeks to understand everything and I am not sure if I would be successful at the end :slight_smile: Is there a chance that the emulators will be added in future versions? Is there a reason why they are not supported now? … maybe because of the stability or the effort to implement it to Lakka? Anyway… Lakka is very nice. Thank you guys for all the work :slight_smile:

#2

There’s no Dolphin core. Maybe someday, though. There is a Reicast core, but you would have to download it from buildbot.libretro.com and add it to your cores directory manually unless/until kivutar et al decide to include it.

#3

Reicast core has been enabled only for x86_64 platform.

#4

Basically the devs will only add a core to a given piece of hardware (eg Raspberry Pi) if they are happy with that core’s performance on that hardware. While the Dreamcast core does work on the Pi3, only a few games actually work properly.

#5

Thank you for the answers! I am running Lakka on a x86_64 machine so I guess this are the cores: http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/x86_64/latest/ I wonder if I could simply add them to tmp/cores because of versioning conflicts. Anyway… I found the reicast_libretro.so in this directory so I don’t need the downloaded one.

I downloaded the Dreamcast Bios files dc_boot.bin and dc_flash.bin as described here:

… and copied them to the storage/system folder.

I uploaded a game that is compatible (if I can trust this list http://www.pandorawiki.org/Reicast_Compatibility_List) to the storage/roms/DC folder and scanned it using Lakkas ‘Scan Directory’… without success. So I created a Sega - Dreamcast.lpl file and added the game (using DETECT). Lakka added a new menu entry with a missing icon for that playlist (also tried it with other playlist names). After I started the game I had the chance to select reicast using the menu.

The screen turns black for a while and returns to Lakka afterwards. I don’t know if there is a log file that tells me what went wrong… does someone have an idea? :slight_smile:

#6

[QUOTE=staticvoid;43239]Thank you for the answers! I am running Lakka on a x86_64 machine so I guess this are the cores: http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/x86_64/latest/ I wonder if I could simply add them to tmp/cores because of versioning conflicts. Anyway… I found the reicast_libretro.so in this directory so I don’t need the downloaded one.

I downloaded the Dreamcast Bios files dc_boot.bin and dc_flash.bin as described here:

… and copied them to the storage/system folder.

I uploaded a game that is compatible (if I can trust this list http://www.pandorawiki.org/Reicast_Compatibility_List) to the storage/roms/DC folder and scanned it using Lakkas ‘Scan Directory’… without success. So I created a Sega - Dreamcast.lpl file and added the game (using DETECT). Lakka added a new menu entry with a missing icon for that playlist (also tried it with other playlist names). After I started the game I had the chance to select reicast using the menu.

The screen turns black for a while and returns to Lakka afterwards. I don’t know if there is a log file that tells me what went wrong… does someone have an idea? :)[/QUOTE]

Let me ask:

  1. can you confirm that there is a built-in Reicast core as part of the regular Lakka installation? If so, this is a system that made it under my radar during the ROMs and BIOSes doc update. Oops.
  2. Are you using a Redump ROM? If not, what ‘set’ is your ROM from?

If we can figure out how to get this working, I’ll add the information to our docs to make this more straightforward in the future.

#7
  1. I can confirm that there was a reicast_libretro.so after installation and that Lakka lists it under the menu entry ‘Load Core’. So I guess it is part of the regular Lakka installation.
  2. I do not know if I should link or mention rom sites at this forum. (disclaimer: I own the originals blah) Anyway… maybe it does not run because of the roms. I will try another source.
#8

[QUOTE=staticvoid;43243]1) I can confirm that there was a reicast_libretro.so after installation and that Lakka lists it under the menu entry ‘Load Core’. So I guess it is part of the regular Lakka installation. 2) I do not know if I should link or mention rom sites at this forum. (disclaimer: I own the originals blah) Anyway… maybe it does not run because of the roms. I will try another source.[/QUOTE]

I don’t need to know the origin of the ROM, but whether it has been validated against a specific kind of DAT. I you received the ROM as part of a package, generally whoever put together the package describes the source of the DAT that they used, such as the Redump project, or No-Intro for cartridge systems. On the other hand you can also validate DATs yourself with ClrMamePro.

#9

Reicast is a little weird in that you don’t put the BIOSes directly in ‘system’, but rather ‘system’/dc. Also, you need to have write access to that directory because the emu needs to write stuff in there.

#10

Yeah that’s a stumbling block.

staticvoid do you have the BIOS files within a system subfolder called /dc? If not, what happens when you put them there?

#11

I did not load a set but single roms and tried several sources the whole day now… ClrMamePro seems to be a nice tool to verify if I have got the right rom… but I am on a Mac and have to do some WINE magic to get it to run. At the same time I can upload the downloaded rom to Lakka and test it on the emulator itself. Unfortunately none of the roms worked, none of the roms had a md5 checksum like on redump.org Furthermore the archives sometimes contain *.gdi *.wav and *.bin files as expected but sometimes *.cdi or something. I give up… at least for today. Thank you very much for the help anyway!

#12

Mr. markwkidd, Mr hunterk … you know what happened if I put the bios files under the storage/system/dc folder? It works! Thank you… you saved the day. Maybe this would be a nice information to add to the documentation.

#13

[QUOTE=staticvoid;43253]Mr. markwkidd, Mr hunterk … you know what happened if I put the bios files under the storage/system/dc folder? It works! Thank you… you saved the day. Maybe this would be a nice information to add to the documentation.[/QUOTE]

Great, I have already added the new information.

Could I ask if you can post the md5 sums for the BIOSes that you are using?

#14

MD5 dc_flash.bin = 23df18aa53c8b30784cd9a84e061d008 MD5 dc_bios.bin = e10c53c2f8b90bab96ead2d368858623

Name the playlist file using the postfix (E), (U) or (E) to match the theme icon names. E.g.: Sega - Dreamcast (E).lpl I think about creating some pull requests and add some documentation under the topic “Emulator Tips”

Note: the storage/system/dc folder now also contains vmu_save_A1.bin files

#15

[QUOTE=staticvoid;43257]MD5 dc_flash.bin = 23df18aa53c8b30784cd9a84e061d008 MD5 dc_bios.bin = e10c53c2f8b90bab96ead2d368858623

Name the playlist file using the postfix (E), (U) or (E) to match the theme icon names. E.g.: Sega - Dreamcast (E).lpl I think about creating some pull requests and add some documentation under the topic “Emulator Tips”

Note: the storage/system/dc folder now also contains vmu_save_A1.bin files[/QUOTE]

Please feel very free to create issues or pull requests based on your experience. I don’t think very many people have set up Reicast with Lakka, so your input can help others in the future.

#16

Ok… I did this:

I wonder that I this is open for editing without permission or review :slight_smile:

#17

I looked at the Reicast core information in the libretro repository:

It seems that there are officially-recommended versions of these BIOS files. Based on the MD5, you are using the same dc_boot.bin as recommended there, but not the same dc_flash.bin. The recommended MD5 for dc_flash.bin is 0a93f7940c455905bea6e392dfde92a4 which according to my search correlates to a “U” version of the BIOS.

For now I would like to keep the docs using the same 0a93f7940c455905bea6e392dfde92a4 MD5 recommendation as the libretro core unless it turns out that is incorrect, or insufficient. For example, it might be that ROMs only play with the BIOS that matches their region.

Do you have any ROMs released for the US or Japan? I would be interested in knowing if they will work with the BIOS that you have.

For now I would like

#18

I just checked PAL versions until now. But the system always asks me for the date and time. Maybe I can not save and maybe that is because of the wrong flash file.

#19

If you do try that version of the BIOS (it’s definitely in circulation) and you experience the same trouble it would be grounds for an issue report on github. You’ve already done quite a bit so I won’t ask you to keep at it. But if you do, please let everyone know.

#20

Currently it makes no difference if I take my old dc_flash.bin or the recommended. The PAL games are running on both but saving does not work. But there are save game files next to the bios files: [I]vmu_save_A1.bin

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