RetroArch iOS release (v1.0.0.1)

RetroArch Apple devices
#50

We support iCade and BTStack (PS3 pads/Wiimote Classic). iCade was mainly put in because iOS non-jailbreak lacks any kind of gamepad support.

Regarding iControlPad - I don’t own such a pad and that is the main hurdle really when supporting these controllers. For that same reason I can’t test the iCade controllers (although John Maddox from Github has already reported that they do work). We need more people who hardware gift us things really or collaborate with adding extra pad support.

I don’t like or respect Broglia very much, sorry - you can probably fill in the reasons why if you read through our manifesto in the manual. But no, we won’t contact him.

  1. Is analogue input even possible on iOS? Or is it possible within the emulator? Is it possible with PS3 controller?

Analog support is in ‘core’ RetroArch - but I’m unsure about RetroArch iOS properly supporting or exposing this.

  1. I have tested NX Engine core and it sucks pretty much. I have a friend who has already ported NX Engine to iOS and it rocks. He has fixed a lot of bugs and performance issues. E. g. you cannot open the map before obtaining it (in RetroArch you can). Here’s the github. I think you should contact him and include his version of the core. It rocks. https://github.com/PIlin/NXEngine-iOS Or I could contact him. Just tell me.
  1. You could contact him and we are receptive to merging the game bug fixes. I believe we talked before about some kind of possible merger - however, at this point that really isn’t possible anymore since we have had to practically do a complete rewrite.

I haven’t merged in his game bug fixes. However, performance-wise the nxengine libretro port right now is perfectly fine. We put in a lot of effort to make sure it’s no longer file I/O based and the audio no longer stutters so while I may accede that it still has game bugs (which the original NXEngine also had ), performance definitely is not one of its problems right now.

#51

Hey, i just wanted to thank you guys for wasting your time on this freaking amazing app, this is for me one of the most wanted releases from millions of ios users!

I got a few questions if its ok.

When using the PSX emulator do you guys recommend getting a bios? i tried running FF9 and it worked flawlessly i really didn’t sow a reason to look up for a new bios.

Are you guys planning on introducing a N64 Emulator?

I created an acc here mostly to thank you for the great job and keep up the good work.

#52

For certain games the emulated HLE BIOS might be enough but you will run into issues sooner or later when trying to run other games. Hence why we recommend just putting the BIOS files inside Documents/.RetroArch.

Yes, we are planning on doing a Mupen64 port that will use the libretro GL context.

#53

I just downloaded scph7502 (it said it was compatible on the pdf as well) and put it on the correct folder but i still get the same message when i load a PSX game “No bios found, Expect bugs”.

Im currently using an Iphone 5 IOS 6.2, am i supposed to do anything else or is it some sort of odd bug?

#54

I just downloaded scph7502 (it said it was compatible on the pdf as well) and put it on the correct folder but i still get the same message when i load a PSX game “No bios found, Expect bugs”.

Im currently using an Iphone 5 IOS 6.2, am i supposed to do anything else or is it some sort of odd bug?[/quote]

Throw all the BIOS files in there and not just scph7502 - that might not be enough.

Also make sure the permissions are correct (ie. owned by mobile:mobile)

#55

I just downloaded scph7502 (it said it was compatible on the pdf as well) and put it on the correct folder but i still get the same message when i load a PSX game “No bios found, Expect bugs”.

Im currently using an Iphone 5 IOS 6.2, am i supposed to do anything else or is it some sort of odd bug?[/quote]

I was getting the “no BIOS found, expect bugs!” even after trowing a lot of BIOS in the Documents/.RetroArch folder. I think the core is Case Sensitive so all BIOS should be in lowercase like:

scph1001.bin scph5500.bin scph7003.bin

This way seams to be working fine :D.

#56

I’m not sure if this is a bug or not, but I’ll throw my observations out there after testing on both an iPad 4 and iPhone 5:

-The exit on sram option doesn’t seem to work in any game. I’m playing the Legend of Dragoon now, and every time I press the home button and try to go back, my save file doesn’t exist when I try to load. I have been playing off of savestates so far. Have you considered adding a automatic savestate when the emulator is minimized, that could be loaded on the start of a game?

-The touch screen doesn’t work on the DS core, but a lot of the games are running really smoothly. Sonic Colors runs great, even though the music is a little jumpy.

-I am not having any luck getting SNES games to run. Has anyone else experienced that?

#57

Snes games are runing fine with me. And my games are autosaving just fine…

There is a option on the core “Auto Save on Exit” I think it work when you are multitasking.

#58

I have made an icon: http://i.imgur.com/oAx5Y7e.png

It comes in 3 sizes.

You have to delete all icons inside RetroArch folder, rename one of my icons to icon.png accordingly to your device and respring. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2273415/RetroArch-icon.zip

#59

I’ve tried it today on jailbreaked device , works great with an arcade game and snes ! Do you think possible to affect multiple roms path in futur versions ? It can be great to pool roms between several emulators. Or may be just one folder with the ability to select wich one.

#60

That wouldn’t work on non-jailbreak at all - since you are ‘sandboxed’ into an app’s own folder.

Hence why we are using the Documents folder like this - so that non-jailbreak is not some far distant ‘second class citizen’ of the jailbreak version.

Certain users are very appreciative of us catering to their non-jailbreakable devices as well.

#61

I am one of those certain users and I have to say I love this project and the work you have put in. My iPhone 5 is happily running gba games at max fps with 6% gpu usage ? (According to Xcode anyways) This is by far the best emulator project for devs with non jail broken idevices

#62

Yeah, this is the advantage of having not put all of my eggs into one basket (ie. dynamic recompiler-based CPU cores) - since it now turns out modern-fangled (walled gardened) OSes try their best to prevent you from running such code. The PS3 GameOS normally doesn’t support dynarecs either (without firmware hacks) - neither does Windows RT.

So an alternative for non-jailbroken phones right now (for PS1) would be Mednafen PSX but you will have to wait for the ARM equivalent of a Core i3 to turn up to be able to run that at fullspeed - I’m almost certain it will run too slow right now even on the highest-specced iPad so far.

VBA Next (both it and Mednafen GBA being interpreter CPU-core based) I have been told should run at fullspeed on an iPad 4 - it certainly doesn’t run at fullspeed on an iPad 2/iPad Mini but I guess that’s the A5 CPU for you.

#63

Yep, VBA Next seems to run at full speed on iPhone 5 as well.

#64

I think there’s a glitch with the home button while you’re in-game.

I got the exit to sram feature working, and minimizing while back on the list of cores works fine

But pressing the home button while playing a game causes the emulator to completely close, and it does not save a state in that process

#65

Double-tapping home button and then clicking on the RetroArch icon in the task bar should bring it back and the game should continue as usual.

This is not really a bug. This is how every app functions on iOS.

#66

There is a issue with playing with a PS3 Controller and the auto-lock. The phone screen goes black since you are not using the touchscreen.

This is easily fixed by using sbsettings auto-lock toggle. But in the next release this could be look at i guess. So that the PS3 Controller is recognized as you using the screen.

Blutrol also had this issue but i think it was fixed in the latest release.

Also a turbo option would be nice. A chance to configure a button as turbo mode.

#67

This can be done already - go to the Cocoa overlay, select Core Config, under Input goto System Keys, and bind either ‘Toggle Fast Forward’ or ‘Hold Fast Forward’ to a button or key.

#68

[quote=“Squarepusher”]

This can be done already - go to the Cocoa overlay, select Core Config, under Input goto System Keys, and bind either ‘Toggle Fast Forward’ or ‘Hold Fast Forward’ to a button or key.[/quote]

Sorry i mean the turbo that you only hold a button and it continuously act like you are pressing it :D.

#69

This can be done already - go to the Cocoa overlay, select Core Config, under Input goto System Keys, and bind either ‘Toggle Fast Forward’ or ‘Hold Fast Forward’ to a button or key.[/quote]

Sorry i mean the turbo that you only hold a button and it continuously act like you are pressing it :D.[/quote]

There is something like that available on PC but I don’t know about iOS.