Hmm, no, I scanned a game and launched it from the playlist with no issues.
You are using v1.4? The HW version of Mednafen PSX? Have you set the video driver to vulkan?
What else could be the problem?
I was using a slightly older nightly. I’ll update my executable and core to the latest version and try again.
EDIT: just updated to the latest nightlies for RA and the core and launching from a playlist worked for me via vulkan renderer.
What else can I do to identify the problem? It used to work. Right now, I tested with RA1.3.6 and the latest Mednafen core (0.9.39.2 76b13e1), where I have the Playlist-Crash with the HW core only, software core works. However, with RA1.4 and the same Mednafen core version, both cores crash from playlist.
Can you post a copy of your playlist file (or at least just the section for a nonworking game)?
I just asked in IRC if anyone could reproduce the issue and will report back if anyone can.
EDIT: no one was able to reproduce it in IRC. They did note that the fallback from Vulkan to OGL isn’t working reliably, and that can cause crashes.
Another thing you can do to investigate the problem is get a backtrace with GDB. Go here and download the build for your bitness and then put the gdb executable into your retroarch directory. Then, from a command line, type: gdb retroarch_debug.exe and at the gdb prompt, type: run --menu --verbose RetroArch should launch like normal, so go through the steps to reproduce the crash. Instead of crashing out, the screen will just freeze. Go back to your command prompt and type: bt This should give you a backtrace, which you can copy/paste somewhere like pastebin and then share the link here.
The backtrace is quite short:
(gdb) bt #0 0x000000000aae83c9 in ?? () Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)
Thanks for explaining how the gdb it works!
hmm, yeah, that backtrace isn’t particularly helpful 
So what can I do to get more info about this issue? What GPU and which driver version are you using?
Show the content of that playlist causing problem.
D:\Path\To\Roms\PS1\Crash Bandicoot - Warped (USA).cue
Crash Bandicoot - Warped (USA)
D:\Path\To\retroarch\cores\mednafen_psx_hw_libretro.dll
Mednafen PSX HW
00000000|crc
Sony - PlayStation.lpl
I can copy&paste the path to the cue-file in Notepad, so the file exists and the path itself is valid. The same applies for the line pointing to the core dll file.
Nothing suspicious with that playlist entry going on?
Have you checked the cue file itself for errors?
Also, could be a problem with bad settings in the config - try removing the cfg files from the RA home folder into a backup folder to let RA generate new, clean cfg files. Then, in the options set the renderer to vulkan but touch nothing else and see if the crash still occurs. If it doesn’t, then start changing other options back to where you had them to see if you can trigger the crash again.
The cue-file is correct, as I can load it from “Favorites” and start the Mednafen PSX HW core without a problem. This is true for all my PSX games, they crash RA when started from Playlist and they work when loading them via “Load Content->Favorites” (meaning by directly passing the cue file).
Regarding bad RA config files, this is what I tried to rule out that problem: Retroarch crashes when starting a Mednafen HW game from the playlist
Is there anything else I can try to get more info about the crash?
I don’t see a problem but you could try:
and see if that works better.
That’s what I have in the playlist I tested on win7 x64 and had no problem with. (My playlist is also read-only to avoid getting it associated with a particular core.)
My cue is like this, with the bin alongside the cue file:
FILE "Harmful Park (Japan) [SLPS-00498].bin" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE2/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00
We can rule out bad cue-files, but I post one of the PSX games nevertheless:
FILE "Crash Bandicoot - Warped (USA).bin" BINARY TRACK 01 MODE2/2352 INDEX 01 00:00:00
I changed the playlist as you recommended. However, it doesn’t help. The situation is, that Mednafen PSX HW crashes while Mednafen PSX works when started from playlist.
Both cores work when directly passing the cue-file.
shaders are usually the reason for me if everything else seems correct(assuming the cue/cdimage really is working) and core still does not load.
open your retroarch.cfg, find “video_shader”, and set it as video_shader = “”
What can I do to prove that the cue/images are 100% accurate? They are, after all, showing up in the playlist from folder scanning, meaning all their checksums are valid. That should rule them out for causing this issue. Additionally, the cue-files work when first loading the Mednafen PSX HW core and then loading the file from disk via “Load Content -> Favorites”. If there would be a problem with the images, RA would crash again (which it doesn’t).
open your retroarch.cfg, find “video_shader”, and set it as video_shader = “”
Thanks for the tip with the shaders, but that didn’t fix it, too. Are shaders only loaded when starting a game via the playlist?
I did some more testing.
I configured RA to us gl as video renderer and also Mednafen PSX HW to use opengl as renderer. I start RA in Window Mode and start a game from Playlist with the HW core. The window resolution will change and then the game runs. However, as soon as I switch to fullscreen (by pressing the F-Key), RA crashes.
Next test was again gl as video renderer and Mednafen PSX HW core option set to opengl. I start RA in Fullscreen Mode and start a game from Playlist with the HW core, RA will change automatically to window mode (why?). The game will start. When changing to fullscreen, RA will crash.
The crash when going to fullscreen could be unrelated, as it also happens when starting a game from “Load Content”.
it looks like you have a core-related config set? check /config folder for related setting. delete them core-config/game-config files
RetroArch [INFO] :: [overrides] core-specific overrides found at C:\Users\User Name\Saved Games\RetroArch\config\Mednafen PSX HW\Mednafen PSX HW.cfg. RetroArch [INFO] :: [overrides] game-specific overrides found at C:\Users\User Name\Saved Games\RetroArch\config\Mednafen PSX HW\Crash Bandicoot 2 - Cortex Strikes Back (USA).cfg. RetroArch [INFO] :: Config: appending config “C:\Users\User Name\Saved Games\RetroArch\config\Mednafen PSX HW\Mednafen PSX HW.cfg” RetroArch [INFO] :: Config: appending config “C:\Users\User Name\Saved Games\RetroArch\config\Mednafen PSX HW\Crash Bandicoot 2 - Cortex Strikes Back (USA).cfg”
also, use the latest nightly release.
Thanks for your answer.
The Overrides are also loaded when I load the game from “Load Content”, so it’d be unlikely to cause this. I just deleted all overrides, which didn’t fix it.
I just updated to RA nightly (29.1.2017) with the corresponding Mednafen PSX cores. That fixed the issue. So it’s likely a bug in RA 1.3.6.-1.4.0, that may be triggered only due to some esoteric hardware stuff (because nobody was able to reproduce this with the specific versions).
Thanks a lot, again!