MESS has been around for awhile, dolphin is new. In fact, I don’t think dolphin actually works yet.
What he said! Personally I’ve been checking the front page this last year hoping to find 1.1 release. When that didn’t happen i started checking the forums out, and even there it was pretty vague what was happening. There must have been tons of stuff added since 1.0.0.2 and finding the highlights could be kinda difficult. I’m not saying you guys owe us anything, but after all the 1.1 hype and then suddenly going dark was perhaps not the best move. I’m gonna give the nightlies a whirl though, i’m sure they’re awesome!
[QUOTE=bleakassassin;20662]I’ve been keeping quiet on my feelings on v1.1 for awhile now. However, now that it’s been a year since v1.0.0.2 has been released with a future stable release now seeming about as likely as The Last Guardian coming out, I feel I should say something about it.
I can understand wanting to embrace a constant, nightly update system. This works for various projects out there, and it seems fitting for the Libretro project as a whole (to me, at least). However, you guys cannot just ignore those looking for a stable release. You have both promised and hyped up a v1.1 release over the course of several front page news posts. There’s also been promises of release dates that have slipped by. First the end of September (or early October), then by the end of last year. Now there’s nothing available to know when a stable release is coming. There are many people following the project with the pretense that a new stable release of RetroArch is coming. And there’s quite a subset amongst those people who are not following the nightly updates because they’re looking for a stable version with which they can count on to (most likely) not run into issues. I can only speak for myself, but it wouldn’t shock me if there was a loss of goodwill over the increasing radio silence on this future version. (I didn’t mean that you’re losing my goodwill. You’re not.)
I truly admire Libretro and the goal of the project. It’s an incredibly ambitious one that I hope becomes the centerpiece for emulation. If you don’t want to focus on releasing stable releases anymore, fine. However, you all still owe it to those who have been promised a new version such a release. At this point, I personally think any new release should just be called RetroArch v2.0 with how many changes have been added since v1.0.0.2… Just please make some sort of definitive statement on the stable release front that isn’t just hype/promise. Even if it’s a front page post stating that neither v1.1 nor any stable release is coming anymore, that’s fine. Just please let people know what’s going on on that front.[/QUOTE]
What he said! Personally I’ve been checking the front page this last year hoping to find 1.1 release. When that didn’t happen i started checking the forums out, and even there it was pretty vague what was happening. There must have been tons of stuff added since 1.0.0.2 and finding the highlights could be kinda difficult. I’m not saying you guys owe us anything, but after all the 1.1 hype and then suddenly going dark was perhaps not the best move. I’m gonna give the nightlies a whirl though, i’m sure they’re awesome!
How is going to the downloads section difficult?
I’m pretty sure he’s talking about how the buildbot section has a plethora of different downloads available, and how it may not be immediately obvious as to what needs to be downloaded and placed where for RetroArch to work. Many may overlook the dependencies altogether and then question why the program is asking for .dlls that aren’t on their system. Also, the nightly core download archives only having the cores that were updated in the last day may throw off many who are looking to get to the most recent version of everything for use in RetroArch. The current buildbot setup may make sense from a logical standpoint, but it can confuse many who are jumping into the Libretro fold for the first time or are updating after a long absence. Looking at things from the perspective of an end user can help with understanding this.
Also, just to be clear, the only reason I was inquisitive about v1.1 was because of the prior news pieces about its pending features and then-solid finish dates. The number of news posts about it, as well as their detail and quality, gave away assumptions of the project sticking with those.
With emulation projects, there are really only two ways to let people know about how things are progressing:
- No formal news updates on the project’s progress unless some major breakthrough occurs. Just let the commits and nightly changes speak for themselves, and then put up a news piece once the next stable release is out.
- Keeping consistent with news updates and trying not to state anything that can easily be falsified later in time.
Trying to do the latter but then regressing into the former without notice can undoubtedly make (potential) users question what is going on. It did for me, and I know it is for many others on other websites (you know the ones). Having someone say something about v1.1’s current status can be seen as a good gesture to others eagerly awaiting some formal statement of progress of the project without having to dig through thousands of commits and words from other users that may or may not be entirely accurate. It’s what they were grown to expect, whether it was the intention or not.
If the Libretro project continues as it is after the next stable release surfaces, it should probably stick with the former of the two plans. There’s nothing wrong with that.
P.S.: I’d be pleasantly surprised if the Dolphin core worked. Last I checked, it had been around a month since the last change to it. I just assumed that that meant the core wouldn’t make it to v1.1.
First things first. Emulators are a big part of our ecosystem but this is not an emulation project. Now, regarding these “issues”
- There are no dependencies, just download Retroarch_latest_full and it’s all set
- Dated folders are incremental and only for regression testing, there is a latest folder that contains all the cores
- Everything is explained there! in the footer. If users get confused but they don’t read the notices they deserve to be confused.
People are getting used to dolphin’s monthly blog posts and continuous updates but we are not them. Heck I think most of us are old school and not used to tweeting and managing communities and stuff like that. Back them you wouldn’t see a release (nor a forum response) for 5 years. Now people are complaining because of lack of updates Again we can focus on PR or in the stuff that matters. Yeah 1.0.0.2 was a long time ago but in that period a lot has been done regarding RA itself, and a lot of effort has been put into the nightlies. All these things have required a lot of time and dedication.
I tried to remove any specific reference to emulation in my post before I submitted it. I see I accidentally left one in still. I apologize for that. You do have to admit, though, that this is what pretty much everyone except those in direct involvement with Libretro will see it as.
- The redist files are required for RetroArch to work, so they are dependencies. I forgot that the Latest download included them.
- That’s still a point of confusion for users. Which is offset by…
- …this. That footer must be a new addition. The last time I hit the downloads section, it wasn’t there.
I’m not asking for constant notifications on progress. Just some sort of indication that things are on track of some sort. And it’s not for me, but for those who are still interested in the project but haven’t been following it closely. Even if it was just a single sentence, that would be fine. That’s all I’ve been asking for. Not something like what Dolphin is doing. Obviously no other emulation-related (Is that better?) project will have the constant stream of updates that Dolphin has. That’s an anomaly amongst all other ones, as well as most programs in general.
I get the feeling you despise me. I also feel that the more I add to this topic, the chances of me getting banned here increase. I mean no ill intentions. I was just giving what I thought would be some advice. Instead I feel this entire thing has led to me being ostracized.
Nah no way I just disagree our priorities are different that’s all.
We’ve never banned anyone.
Oh. Alright.
The Internet can sometimes let out the worst of people’s emotions. I’m someone who is emotional by nature, so it can often be really bad with me. I’m truly sorry about the tone of my previous post. I was going to edit it ASAP once I realized how it was and include a note on the edit. But of course I was too late. Funny how karma works.
Having said that, I’ll leave this topic where it is at. I hope progress is/remains smooth!
Don’t worry bleak, you’re not alone, i feel the same way. As a blackberry user any sort of update on a native RA would be good news. Been following this site for a long time now looking for good news in regards to blackberry updates but there hasn’t been much to be excited about yet. I am using the latest android nightly builds and they have been ok for the most part, much better than the stable version. I just hope the native blackberry version is being worked on since we don’t have any nightly builds of our own to play around with.
I wasn’t even aware that there were Blackberry builds. I wouldn’t worry about nightlies. The team has been good about phasing in devices into the nightly fold, presumably based on demand and need for testing. I’m sure nightlies for BB users will show up soon enough.
[QUOTE=Radius;21134]First things first. Emulators are a big part of our ecosystem but this is not an emulation project. Now, regarding these “issues”
- There are no dependencies, just download Retroarch_latest_full and it’s all set
- Dated folders are incremental and only for regression testing, there is a latest folder that contains all the cores
- Everything is explained there! in the footer. If users get confused but they don’t read the notices they deserve to be confused.
People are getting used to dolphin’s monthly blog posts and continuous updates but we are not them. Heck I think most of us are old school and not used to tweeting and managing communities and stuff like that. Back them you wouldn’t see a release (nor a forum response) for 5 years. Now people are complaining because of lack of updates Again we can focus on PR or in the stuff that matters. Yeah 1.0.0.2 was a long time ago but in that period a lot has been done regarding RA itself, and a lot of effort has been put into the nightlies. All these things have required a lot of time and dedication.[/QUOTE]
What does Dolphin have to do with the price of fish? … Oh wait! 