Official release thread for WindowCast core

[willywonka3]

@IHQMD

Yeah, I figured at least some latency would occur due to the way to core is pushing frames to libretro. Currently it’s software blit, so it’s pulling frame data back from the GPU to upload it the libretro’s software buffers, where it’s then going to uploaded back to GPU by RA’s presentation pipeline.

A better implementation would never have the data leave the GPU (captured frames from WGC start as GPU textures, after all), but Vulkan APIs scare me and it’ll be a while before I properly code that alternate implementation, which should hopefully be lower latency.

Is this what the WindowCast 2 experimental core is seeking to do?

[willywonka3]

The WindowCast 2 experimental build is described in the windowcast2_libretro.info file in the info folder of the build as “WindowCast 2 is a pure-Vulkan core allowing capture of the contents of a desktop window for processing via RetroArch’s shader stack. It is designed to work on both Windows (via the WGC API) and Linux (via XComposite or Pipewire), and potentially other platforms in the future.”

Is the experimental core seeking to implement the alternate formulation that should reduce latency?

[NoUserNameForYou]

I couldn’t get it to work through regular means but I found someone’s wrapper and it finally worked. But this time background input becomes an issue. Any eta for the version 2 for Windows?

[tydog98]

Any plans for Wayland support with version 2.0?

[exodus123456]

Anybody has tried to run Kodi with this? I haven’t been able to get it working for now (yellow border and crash is all I get). it would be great to get my collection of old movies with the reflection shader, so any advice will be appreciated!!!

[Cyber]

@exodus123456

Anybody has tried to run Kodi with this?

The author has reported that it works with MPC-HC so there’s that and of course you can use the FFMPEG core for some files.

Official release thread for WindowCast core

Yes this works with MPC-BE, MadVR or otherwise. I can attest this personally. It helps to put MPC-BE into borderless window mode (press 1).

[p3st]

i gonna make an Tutorial this week for the 1.0/vulkan version , including the wrapper and Launchbox after some folks asked for it on youtube .

also after some testing (AHK script for the ctrl+alt+t combo , why my old version didn´t boot , etc.) i figured out a simpler way than before

turns out you can just use some “wincast-wrapper”-shortcuts with parameters and launch them like roms via launchbox and with the AHK script it works from my couch without keyboard xD

!!! BESIDES if G-sync/free sync is enabled in Retroarch , WindowCast freezes like 98% of the time don´t know if this was mentioned already but maybe that info helps some folks

[p3st]

NICE …something went horrible wrong with an drive and i lost the project file

so i made this rather quick and cheap video tutorial now

as soon i have time again i gonna make a better not rushed version

WindowCast Wrapper and LauchBox (quick tutorial)

Wrapper Parametes

“PathToYourGame\wincast.exe” --emulator “PathToYourGame\YOURGAME.exe” --retroarch “PathToRetroarch\retroarch.exe”

in my case here i have to enter

“E:\Games\Bloodstained Curse of the Moon\exe\wincast.exe” --emulator “E:\Games\Bloodstained Curse of the Moon\exe\cotm.exe” --retroarch “D:\RetroArch\retroarch.exe”

AHK script

Sleep 24000

Send, ^!t

Sleep 1000

[Ranmori]

Somehow the combination of the current Windows 11 build and the current LB no longer works.

Is the Wrapper method the best?

[p3st]

if you mean the old way i wrote down …no it stopped working for me too

the wrapper method is way more simple to use and works with win 11^^

i even got apps starting i had no luck with before

also it closes retroarch and the game if you close retroarch and it does the partial arguments on its own

if you include the ahk script it even does the ctrl+alt+T thing and you can just grab a controller and lean back works of course with bigbox too

[exodus123456]

The BIG issue with FFMPEG core is it does not support subtitles .srt, I’ll try to give this a go again with kodi, last time I tried it did not work, let’s see how it goes now

[Ranmori]

Is this a problem with Windows 11? Or is it a problem with the AHK that comes with LB?

I’m trying to figure out what the problem is with the
“Send, ! {Tab}”
to make it work again with my AHK code in full screen pcsx2-qt.exe. Perhaps this is the correct syntax. It works now.

I’ve used the Wrapper and it is indeed great. But it seems to work only with pcsx2-qt.exe in windowed mode. Full screen doesn’t switch to RA and RA seems to fail to hook PCSX2.

I’ve tried both ways: embedding directly in LB and writing the citation in the LB parameters, and creating a shortcut and writing the citation in the shortcut, but PCSX2 in fullscreen fails to hook and does not switch to RA.
Then I double clicked to put PCSX2, which is full screen, into windowed mode, and I confirmed that it switches to RA. But it stayed black because of the hook failure.

I have confirmed that PCSX2 works correctly when started in windowed mode.

[Ranmori]

Also, I’ve been using WindowsCast a little less often now that more and more games are slowly getting to run on LRPS2.

Is LRPS2 still being updated from time to time to improve compatibility and accuracy? It would be great if RA could complete everything.

[GemaH]

Was there an update on LRPS2? AFAIK, there are a few different sources where you can get a PS2 core, the one in the buildbot being the worst and the best one is bugged and doesn’t work on Windows.

[Ranmori]

I don’t know either.
However, there are a few game titles that I used to have to rely on WindowsCast+PCSX2 to play, and now I can play them on LRPS2. The number of them is quite small, though.

[p3st]

there is an pre compiled version of the pcsx2 core that runs really great and suports vulkan …downside …it has no options atm

also i always run apps/games in window mode with windowcast so i can´t help you with that for me that works best and so far nothing wouldn´t work this way

and some standalone emulators like pcsx2 and yuzu change their game title if running a game

maybe this must be added to the partials file that the wrapper creates should be inside win32 folder it creates inside the game folder

i didn´t try standalone emus with this method tbh

[Winter47th]

I’ve been using ShaderGlass for a while, it’s been great on PCSX2, at least till the RA core gets updated.

GitHub - mausimus/ShaderGlass: Overlay for running GPU shaders on top of Windows desktop

[p3st]

as i say the precompiled version runs great give it a try vice city as example runs flawless wit mbz shader on vulkan

but a few games that normally need some patches from pcsx2 like path of neo still have visual bugs cuz you can´t turn on fixes

Releases · shandonb/pcsx2-libretro

that is the most up to date core you can get so far i know , keep in mind that retroarch maybe overwrite this core if you use the update all cores option

[SpoonyOrbit]

I’m using the original software only version and the windowcast core is working but everytime I try to load a shader preset retroarch freezes. any fix?

[SpoonyOrbit]

update if i load the preset MBZ__3__STD__PASSTHROUGH it works but whenever I load and ADV preset or cyberlab variation retroarch will still freeze