General:
• Besides having a Desktop Menu and an animated UI with custom themes. RetroArch should also get a QT6 Menu (similar to the one for the standalone versions of Duckstation, PCSX2 and Dolphin) which should also let you customize cores before starting to play games on them with their own unique options, which should also be good and ideal for people who don’t want separated non-RA versions of the emulators and prefer getting those emulators (as cores) within RetroArch. This new menu should make those cores behave exactly like their non-RA counterparts (but with more features including many shaders).
• In-app update feature.
• Rewind Support within a game settings to also include switches for Fast-Forward and Slow-Motion. So Rewind Support will be renamed to “Rewind, Fast-Forward and Slow-Motion Support” (Especially if you’re only using a Controller on a phone, tablet or playing on a console and emulating consoles made before the PS1 and handhelds made before the NDS (except the PSP)). I sure wish many companies would make Telescopic Android controllers with chatpads so you can easily access these hotkeys without constantly remapping your controller.
• Please stop being limited to Zip files, RAR files should be supported too (one site I found claims that it has a better and more modern compression method than Zip and is apparently slightly more storage efficient than Zip).
• Remove “Beetle PSX” but don’t remove “Beetle PSX HW” because the HW version seems to be the exact same as the non-HW version but with more optional features to enhance visuals using your GPU. Also the HW version includes a Software Rendering Mode (which is apparently the only rendering mode on the non-HW version). Does HW have higher minimum system requirements than the non-HW version? I hope not because HW can automatically fall back to Software Rendering when using weak or unsupported GPUs.
• For the Beetle PSX HW Core, remove the option to switch save formats between “.SRM” (a libretro format for most old cartridge based consoles) and “.MCR” (a Memory Card format) and make the Core support “.MCR” only so it could be less confusing to tell which one you saved on before, more friendly to Memory Card modifying apps and I don’t see the reason to have one emulator supporting 2 different save formats (it’s weird and confusing). I don’t think .SRM is necessary for PS1 games, I think Memory Card-based saves should stay unique compared to Cartridge-based saves.
For those who don’t know about save locations on RA, make a warning for that update to rename those to .MCR.
• Add an Aspect Ratio stretch option for Beetle PSX HW (stretching the output to 16:9 and other Ratios, unlike the Widescreen Hack option) for games that have native widescreen options (like Pac-Man World).
• On RetroArch versions for most modern computers, modern consoles and smart devices that support 64-bit-only OSs, simplify the list of Cores by merging similar cores into one. For example, the “Beetle PCE”, “Beetle PCE FAST” and “Beetle SuperGrafx” Cores should merge into one Core and then the speed, accuracy and system model options should be configured via the Core’s options.
*Same for many old year versions of SNES Cores and Arcade Cores. Merge them into one each and make the older versions selectible within the 2 cores options. I hope this works?
• On the Mupen64Plus-Next Emulator, make Vulkan HLE RSP and RDP’s (Vulkan alternatives to GLideN64) which I would like to call “VulkaN64”, so we can have modern Vulkan systems get some enhancements such as Texture Packs, Overclocking and higher Resolutions (all optional) and in-case OpenGL disappears in future hardware.
• Besides including thumbnails for Playlists of Front Cover Box-Art, Title Screen Shots and In-Game Screenshots.
° Add an option to download Game Manual PDFs (from a game’s Database) for reading how to play those games with those screenshots and artwork drawn in them.
° Add Box Spines. Also add multiple sides of game boxes by certain consoles such as the PS1 Game PepsiMan (AKA “Drink” on the Front cover) having 2 sides by being called “PepsiMan” on one side and the other side being Japanese text with a cloudy background.
° Add Cartridge sticker labels.
° Add Disc Art.
° Add Back of Boxes (especially for games like MGS1).
Also add multiple box and Cartridge/Disc scans for people to choose and set within the RetroArch settings for certain single ROMS. For example, PAL ROMS to have both European and Australian Box and Cartridge/Disc scans on them if the same ROM that’s labelled “Europe” by the No-Intro database is also that exact ROM version released in Australia but had a slightly different Box-Art and Cartridge-label in that said country.
Also when viewing a scanned game via Playlists, add an option to look at every thumbnail you download for a scanned game you’re viewing.
• GBA Cores should also add better GameCube connectivity and Game Boy Player features due to the Dolphin and mGBA Cores to behave like their non-RA versions with their unique menus like I mentioned earlier. There should be a way to have 2 of these Cores open at the same time for this.
Windows:
• Remove Restart Retroarch because it sometimes quits instead (it doesn’t save settings when it does that), and quitting and reopening Retroarch is basically the same thing. (Doesn’t appear on Android but it’s still on PC)
• Since there are three more versions of RA for older Windows versions, make a fifth version just for Windows 10 (2004 version and later) and up (which should also require 64-bit with no 32-bit version existing) and the current Windows version of RA should become a legacy version for Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and pre-2004 Windows 10. Especially after January 10th 2023.
• When using Mid-High range x64-x86 (as well as ARM64) CPUs since Intel Core 4th Gen (hence why I couldn’t get Win 11 yet) and GPUs since GTX 10 Series, the 64-bit modern Windows version of Retroarch (the one I mentioned above) should have video driver/output set to Vulkan by default. Also I think gl, gl1, gdi, d3d10 and d3d9_hlsl (and probably any other API I don’t know about that uses GLSL instead of Slang for Shaders) should be removed in that new Windows version.
Android and iOS:
• Besides having a phone rumble for supported cores, make Controllers themselves rumble too for other devices that can’t rumble such as Tablets, Meta Quest, Apple TV and Android/Google TV, Etc. As well as if your phone is standing on a table via a stand on the back of some covers.
Also there should be switches for the rumble options (both for phone and controller) which can either be on simultaneously (especially if you’re using a Controller while having your phone on a holder attached to your neck) or turn off which one you wouldn’t prefer. Also the phone rumble option should be forced off on non-phone devices that can’t rumble.
• Add a real Solar detection feature for the Boktai games on smart devices that support Solar brightness detection (though I don’t know if it’s actually there already?).
• Have a better awareness for the M1 and M2 iPads and make about every core function correctly on them. (After watching ETA Prime’s video about the M2 iPad Pro, the emulation was shockingly good on it.)
• (though I’m losing interest in that Controller after finding better controllers) Do something about MOGA XP5-X Plus controllers having an issue with analog sticks being recognized as D-Pads at the same time (except the up input).
• On Android, add an option to keep the Android Navigation Bar visible when in the RetroArch Menu (especially when a controller is connected).
• Improve NDS emulation for both Desmume and MelonDS so it could run smoother and less glitchy on most phones made after 2020. Though I don’t know if my phone (with a Snapdragon 732g SoC) is capable of DS emulators like these? Since the DS is apparently more powerful than the PS1 (which my phone can handle better than DS Cores) and despite being a lower resolution than PS1, it may actually have double of whatever resolution you selected due to having 2 screens.
. I would like to make some general coments on your suggestions: