RetroArch Android releases (v1.0.0.2)

RetroArch Android devices
#61

I ran it on one Android TV box (1GHz A9 single core, 1G RAM, Mali400) and found out the same result. But on my another Android TV box (1.6GHz A9 dual cores, 1G RAM, 4 Mali400) , it runs great, perect sound and decent speed except terrible touch controls. The touch controls are not working very good.I used a USB mouse to click the touch keys. Sometimes they work ,but sometimes not. very werid.[/quote]

I know all about the overlays and touch and how much people hate them - honestly, after viewing the response I think we should have never pushed RetroArch Android out in this state and waited until we had better overlays ready.

Anyway, by the end of this week things should (hopefully?) be a whole lot better in this regard.

Honestly though, playing games like these on a touchscreen should only ever be done as a last resort for when you don’t have a pad around.

#62

Hi again everyone,

I am going to try to upload a short video comparison between snes9x and retroarch, then you will see if its lag or slowdown (sorry, cant say exactly what it is)

The thing is that it happens on every lib, nes, snes, genesis, fba, psx, etc.

Also i´ll see if i can help with the autodetect usb support, i have a madcatz street fighter SE and buttons doesnt work, only the control.

About the overlays, having one for each console would be nice, specially for smartphones :slight_smile:

Cheers and thanks again! This will the the number one app on the Google Play in a few days :smiley:

EDIT: Here you go, hope it helps :slight_smile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-wzvd9Zi3M

#63

Seeing as this seems to have turned into a general thread about RetroArch 0.9.8, I’ll post some things here.

One ISO that works fine in the “real” Genesis Plus GX does not seem to work at all in RetroArch for some reason.

Shader and gamma settings are really unreliable on the Xbox 360 version. You can set everything up the way you want it and then after restarting the emulator the picture will look different. Shader settings tend to get “locked”, kind of like how GTK theme settings do on Linux (or at least did last time I used Linux). Thankfully you don’t have to remove the config file to “unlock” them, you can just restart RetroArch.

Even though the config file on the Xbox 360 version says “default_rom_startup_dir = “game:\roms””, clicking on “ROM Browser” in the menu does not land you in the “roms” directory. You still have to navigate there as if the setting doesn’t matter.

The handling of cores on consoles could do some work. I would suggest allowing the user to assign rom types to “default” cores. Let the user choose for example a default core for GBA roms, a default core for Mega-Drive roms, etc. Then when the user loads a rom, a core will be chosen automatically and the game will run.

For systems that need multiple files for one image alone (Sega CD, PS1, PC-Engine CD), it would be a lot more convenient if the file menu would only show one entry per image. If you have “Sonic CD.cue” and “Sonic CD.bin” for example, only show “Sonic CD.cue” (hiding the bin is better than hiding the cue since Redump images for example use multiple bin files).

Some other things about the interface on the Xbox 360 version. It would be easier to navigate and play around with settings if you could simply go back one step, either with the B button or another button, instead of going all the way back to the main menu. The ability to immediately return to the game by pressing the right analog stick would also do well.

The Wii version seems to break OV2’s hires-blend shader that I always use with SNES/SFC games.

I am very happy to see that the Golden Sun games now run full-speed on my Xbox 360 with the VBA-Next core! I have never been able to get such smooth GBA emulation on a console before. :smiley:

#64

You’ll have to be more specific than that.

Shader and gamma settings are really unreliable on the Xbox 360 version. You can set everything up the way you want it and then after restarting the emulator the picture will look different. Shader settings tend to get “locked”, kind of like how GTK theme settings do on Linux (or at least did last time I used Linux). Thankfully you don’t have to remove the config file to “unlock” them, you can just restart RetroArch.

By shader settings getting ‘locked’, do you mean that when you select a shader, it doesn’t immediately return to the previous menu? Otherwise I’m not understanding what you mean here.

Even though the config file on the Xbox 360 version says “default_rom_startup_dir = “game:\roms””, clicking on “ROM Browser” in the menu does not land you in the “roms” directory. You still have to navigate there as if the setting doesn’t matter.

I didn’t hook that up yet at all - guess I’ll do so.

The handling of cores on consoles could do some work. I would suggest allowing the user to assign rom types to “default” cores. Let the user choose for example a default core for GBA roms, a default core for Mega-Drive roms, etc. Then when the user loads a rom, a core will be chosen automatically and the game will run.

For systems that need multiple files for one image alone (Sega CD, PS1, PC-Engine CD), it would be a lot more convenient if the file menu would only show one entry per image. If you have “Sonic CD.cue” and “Sonic CD.bin” for example, only show “Sonic CD.cue” (hiding the bin is better than hiding the cue since Redump images for example use multiple bin files).

Once RetroLaunch is working on consoles, it should take care of most of these issues.

The Wii version seems to break OV2’s hires-blend shader that I always use with SNES/SFC games.

This is by design - the Wii’s CPU is too weak to run those games at fullspeed in hires mode, so instead I ‘compromise’ by downscaling the picture to low-res.

This works fine for Seiken Densetsu 3, but produces mixed results for Kirby’s Dreamland 3 since the game depended on the pseudo-hires mode for transparency of background layers - without which some parts of the screen get obscured.

So honestly, I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet there and remove the ‘hack’. However, this will mean that it will be unplayable since it will be running below 60fps.

#65

I don’t think I can give the image to you, but the game I tried that works in the “real” genplusgx but not in RetroArch is Lunar - Eternal Blue (NTSC-J). The image consists of three wav files, one iso file and one cue file. The cue looks like this:

CATALOG 4988649413213 FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue.iso” BINARY TRACK 01 MODE1/2048 INDEX 01 00:00:00 FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue (Track 2 of 4).wav” WAVE TRACK 02 AUDIO PREGAP 00:02:00 INDEX 01 00:00:00 FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue (Track 3 of 4).wav” WAVE TRACK 03 AUDIO INDEX 00 00:00:00 INDEX 01 00:01:74 FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue (Track 4 of 4).wav” WAVE TRACK 04 AUDIO INDEX 00 00:00:00 INDEX 01 00:01:74

I can load the image and get through the BIOS until I hear the Sega sound. Then it goes black and nothing happens.

When you switch from one shader to another, you can sometimes see that it has no effect. It is simply stuck with a shader you have chosen previously and there is no way to change it (and make it affect the image) without restarting RetroArch. The settings menu changes as if the shader has been changed, but it doesn’t affect the image in the game.

Great.

Oh, I didn’t know we would get RetroLaunch for consoles. Awesome! :smiley:

OK, I didn’t know it was intentional. No reason to complain then if the Wii can’t handle it, I’ll just stick with something more powerful for SNES/SFC emulation.

#66

PM me.

When you switch from one shader to another, you can sometimes see that it has no effect. It is simply stuck with a shader you have chosen previously and there is no way to change it (and make it affect the image) without restarting RetroArch. The settings menu changes as if the shader has been changed, but it doesn’t affect the image in the game.

I think the problem is that the 360 menu doesn’t yet show an error message when the runtime shader compiler failed compiling the shader for whatever reason.

You might simply be selecting a shader that does not even compile as HLSL for whatever reason - all these shaders come from the common-shaders repo and I usually have to do a number of patches before they will work as HLSL.

#67

I don’t think I can give the image to you, but the game I tried that works in the “real” genplusgx but not in RetroArch is Lunar - Eternal Blue (NTSC-J). The image consists of three wav files, one iso file and one cue file. The cue looks like this:

CATALOG 4988649413213 FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue.iso” BINARY TRACK 01 MODE1/2048 INDEX 01 00:00:00 FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue (Track 2 of 4).wav” WAVE TRACK 02 AUDIO PREGAP 00:02:00 INDEX 01 00:00:00 FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue (Track 3 of 4).wav” WAVE TRACK 03 AUDIO INDEX 00 00:00:00 INDEX 01 00:01:74 FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue (Track 4 of 4).wav” WAVE TRACK 04 AUDIO INDEX 00 00:00:00 INDEX 01 00:01:74

[/quote]

To fix this problem. rename the auido tracks to this Lunar - Eternal Blue (Track 2 of 4).bin and so on and then for the cue file FILE “Lunar - Eternal Blue (Track 2 of 4).bin” BINARY and so on

that should fix that problem.

#68

Just tried it. Same result unfortunately.

#69

Big new version coming up - check the OP. This is what the initial release should have been in hindsight. Hopefully it will take care of most of the major issues people have been having so I can return to whipping the PS3 and Wii versions back into shape.

#70

Just tried it. Same result unfortunately.[/quote]

Yeah i just tried a sega cd game on my pc (linux) I guess the original filenames are fine. I know on PCE CD games it needed to be changed, figured it might of been the same for sega cd but nope. So sorry for the time wasted on changing the filenames.

I just tested the ntsc-u redump version of the game on the pc and it works just fine. so it’s either your copy or the 360.

#71

While I won’t exclude the possibility that there is something wrong with my dump, I really doubt that’s the issue because like I said the “real” Genesis Plus GX for Wii runs it fine. It’s just the libretro port I’m having issues with. Also, I have tried it in RetroArch on both my Wii and my 360, so I don’t think it’s my 360.

#72

While I won’t exclude the possibility that there is something wrong with my dump, I really doubt that’s the issue because like I said the “real” Genesis Plus GX for Wii runs it fine. It’s just the libretro port I’m having issues with. Also, I have tried it in RetroArch on both my Wii and my 360, so I don’t think it’s my 360.[/quote]

The problem with Genesis Plus GX’s CD loading function is that it is port-specific code - so whenever he adds something to it, I have to manually replicate it all with a few changes made to it so it fits the confines of libretro.

Anyway, I’m going to check out what the issue is here and hopefully increase Sega CD ISO compatibility that way. Just be patient - there’s only so much I can do in a single day.

#73

I just tried the same image in RetroArch Phoenix and it works fine, so it must be a port-specific thing like you said. Of course I’ll be patient. :slight_smile:

Concerning donating devices, could one arrange so that you receive the device directly from the company, or does one have to receive the device first and then send it to you? Would an unused device be too much? Not saying that I will donate a device, but just checking.

#74

I just tried the same image in RetroArch Phoenix and it works fine, so it must be a port-specific thing like you said. Of course I’ll be patient. :slight_smile:

Concerning donating devices, could one arrange so that you receive the device directly, or does one have to receive the device first and then send it to you? Would an unused device be too much? Not saying that I will donate a device, but just checking.[/quote]

Anything will go as long as I get it.

#75

No, VBA Next is not going to support link cable functionality. I took all that crap out for a reason - it broke a lot of commercial games such as Sonic Advance 1 and 2.

Regarding TGB Dual - yes, I’ll look into porting that.

Regarding your performance problem - like I said before, VBA Next is not the fastest core around for ARM. A gpSP port would do a lot better there.

Regarding Gambatte - I honestly don’t know why you say it’s slow - it’s one of the fastest and most accurate Game Boy cores - it’s even fullspeed on my crappy Cortex A8 Allwinner tablet. What device do you have?[/quote]

Thank you for your answers.

The reason why I’m interested in link cable functionality is so that I can play strategic games like Pokemon as a sort of hotseat multiplayer game on my phone. My device is the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. I thought maybe Pokemon Trading Card Game 2 was slow because I used an English translation patch, but just now I tried playing a normal non-patched Pokemon Gold rom and it’s slow as well -both sound (there’s also static) and game speed. The PC version of Gambatte plays the games fine.

#76

No, VBA Next is not going to support link cable functionality. I took all that crap out for a reason - it broke a lot of commercial games such as Sonic Advance 1 and 2.

Regarding TGB Dual - yes, I’ll look into porting that.

Regarding your performance problem - like I said before, VBA Next is not the fastest core around for ARM. A gpSP port would do a lot better there.

Regarding Gambatte - I honestly don’t know why you say it’s slow - it’s one of the fastest and most accurate Game Boy cores - it’s even fullspeed on my crappy Cortex A8 Allwinner tablet. What device do you have?[/quote]

Thank you for your answers.

The reason why I’m interested in link cable functionality is so that I can play strategic games like Pokemon as a sort of hotseat multiplayer game on my phone. My device is the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. I thought maybe Pokemon Trading Card Game 2 was slow because I used an English translation patch, but just now I tried playing a normal non-patched Pokemon Gold rom and it’s slow as well -both sound (there’s also static) and game speed. The PC version of Gambatte plays the games fine.[/quote]

I’ve never played that game - would have to check it out specifically.

I can’t really imagine a game running with bad performance on Gambatte - it’s about the fastest Game Boy emu around.

Anyway, I can try it.

#77

Hi. First of all, let me just say this is the best emulator for the android.

Now here’s my problem:

It’s regarding the wonderswan emu. I can’t seem to run any games with it. I’ve tried wonderdroid and my games run fine. Games has the wsc extension. Or is the emu for the non color games?

#78

We really screwed up with the Wonderswan core (or rather, me) - the same problems happen on Wii too.

Let me get that fixed up pronto.

#79

We really screwed up with the Wonderswan core (or rather, me) - the same problems happen on Wii too.

Let me get that fixed up pronto.[/quote]

Oh i see. I thought i was the one who did something wrong.

Not a big deal though. It’s one of the least popular emulator anyway. But it’s still nice that it’s included.

Keep up the good work man. I would gladly pay 20$ for this app. This is so much better than most paid emulator available on google play

Edit: any chance of a saturn and n64 emulator? :slight_smile:

#80

Someone around here has tested already r6 with hdmi output?

I read that something about 50hz games has been fixed, i wonder if this had solved anything with the slowdown issues on the big screen, cant wait to gohome and try!

PS: The new on screen controls are nice, but i think having a bigger d-pad would be nice

Cheers!!

EDIT: Now i can confirm that the problem is not having autoframeskip, tested snes9x emulator with autoframeskip=0 and found the same issue when connecting hmdi so…any chances for having autoframeskip on retroarch android? Heres hoping :slight_smile: