Thoughts on Ludo OS

Libretro Ludo
#1

Ludo: https://ludo.libretro.com/

Ludo Github: https://github.com/libretro/ludo

Its a minimalist frontend for emulators and a beginner friendly one.

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#2

I think the theme is pretty, but I think a lot people forget that when you use RetroArch you can hide parts of the menu that you donā€™t want to see to reduce clutter, or give a more minimalistic appearance. User Interface, Menu Item Visibility, etc.

#3

It looks nice, but iā€™m not sure if this is the right way to address the ā€œnot for beginnersā€ aspect of Retroarch.

IMHO providing opinionated defaults in Retroarch without removing any feature would be way simpler:

  • a default core selected for each system
  • default shaders for each system. Select those that better match the ā€œrealā€ system: a CRT for most machines, and specific ones for handheld consoles
  • disable most options by default, let the user enable them

Just my 2 cents

#4

Still needs some work, though Ludo needs some love too

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#5

Hello everyone, I would like to say that I really LOVE Ludo! :heart_eyes:

I really love the clean approach, the ease of use, the minimalism, as an alternative to many other options already present. Itā€™s also a great match to my RPi 3 in a Retroflag SNES case!

I have some ā€œmixedā€ questions, if I may:

  1. Is it possible to limit max resolution to 720p? Iā€™d like to squeeze just a little bit more power out of the RPi 3 to play SNES and Genesis smoothly with the Blarrg filters enabled (Iā€™ve already done a little overclocking)

  2. Is it possible to disable thumbnails in game playlists? IMHO they clash a bit with the minimalist style of the beautiful UI.

  3. Does LudOS support by chance RPi composite output on CRT?

  4. During the boot does not appear any icon (e.g. on Lakka) but only a black screen. Is this normal or is there some problem on my system? (everything else works fine)

Thank you so much!

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#6

Itā€™s been a while since Iā€™ve last used Ludo. I want to say that many underestimate the need for a minimalist beginner friendly emulator frontend. There are numerous who donā€™t see that many have difficulties with emulation. Not everyone using emulation is an expert or a computer savvy tech user, even I myself have had difficulty with plenty of the functions and emulators from emulation.

In my personal experience with people that I know in person, not many were able to understand or use emulators correctly. Which is why Iā€™ve had to set it up for them and teach them how to use it, and aid them when they did get into other issues. Iā€™ve been introducing others to emulation, itā€™s not easy when it can be overwhelming to people who never used or even heard of it. The amount of time it takes to learn and even troubleshoot is off-putting to some. Some would be happy without having to mess with more difficult emulation, which is something to consider. And do keep in mind that not everyone has free time in abundance and would rather be using it that towards actual gaming instead of troubleshooting.

The idea of Ludo is something I can get behind. If Ludo can be someones foray into emulation, being one that can get them into emulation without them giving up and throwing in the towel, then thatā€™s good for the emulation community. It definitely wont hurt to gain extra support for emulation.

Ludo on Linux desktop
Ludo on Linux desktop3840Ɨ2160 560 KB

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#7

I totally agree with you.

In my case, even though I am quite familiar with input lag, run-ahead, video modes, frameskip, cores, source code builds, shaders and so on, I am really appreciating Ludo, which allows me to enjoy the emulation without thinking too much about the settings.

I really hope that the development will go on, maintaining the goal of minimalism and optimizing as much as possible for supported platforms.

#8

You can set the resolution via config.txt as described here. For 720p:

hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=4

Note that this is for ā€˜olderā€™ Raspberry Pi OS and LibreELEC (and derivatives) releases, which I believe applies to Ludo OS.

#9

Hi, thank you for your kind feedback. I thought I could do it, so I tried both the ā€œhdmi_groupā€ and ā€œhdmi_modeā€ in config.txt (probably deprecated) and in cmdline.txt ā€œvideo=HDMI-A-1:1280x720@60ā€ with no luck. Maybe I did something wrong?

#10

Maybe it has something to do with ludo running in X. Try xrandr if it is available.

#11

Seems like it would take a long time to scroll through a big list of games, just going by the pics.