Homebrew RetroArch Switch

[DrgnMasterKota]

Hey guys, do you think in the future it will be possible to bring Retroarch’s texture packs feature to the Nintendo Switch? I’d LOVE to be able to play Chrono Cross’s HD texture pack mod on my Switch on the go let alone all the other awesome texture packs that are coming out for various games.

 

[Rahkeesh]

Switch does support texture replacement for cores that normally support it. Certainly had them working in PPSSPP.

Trouble is Beetle PSX HW is the Playstation core that supports texture replacement as well as higher rendering resolutions. There is a work-in-progress version on the Switch with not great performance. You could try that with overclock but don't expect anything stellar, and its been months since its been publicly updated.

 

[DrgnMasterKota]

Switch does support texture replacement for cores that normally support it. Certainly had them working in PPSSPP.

Trouble is Beetle PSX HW is the Playstation core that supports texture replacement as well as higher rendering resolutions. There is a work-in-progress version on the Switch with not great performance. You could try that with overclock but don't expect anything stellar, and its been months since its been publicly updated.

Gotcha, Thanks so much for the heads up. I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed and hopefully someone can bring this awesome Retroarch feature to the Switch. Would open so many doors for game modders like myself to help bring HD Texture Remasters of our favorite old school games to the Switch.

 

[Billy Acuña]

Gotcha, Thanks so much for the heads up. I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed and hopefully someone can bring this awesome Retroarch feature to the Switch. Would open so many doors for game modders like myself to help bring HD Texture Remasters of our favorite old school games to the Switch.

Flycast, Mesen, Mupen64plus-next and PPSSPP supports hires texture packs, for mupen make sure they are made with GLideN64 in mind.

 

[FanNintendo]

what is best setting for Dreamcast (Flycast)?? Anyone get HydroThunder to work?? All I get is black screen and the fps is changing i bet it is running in black screen but I set Cable type to TV (RGB)

 

[SpaceJump]

I just updated to today's build (2021-01-30) and I cannot get the controls on Pcsx Rearmed to respond anymore. All other emulator's controls still work after updating Retroarch.

I noticed one difference in the controls menu of Pcsx Rearmed. On the older version there's a control device called "Retropad" that is not available on the new build. I tried all other device types but none works.

Does this happen to anyone else?

 

[sorabora]

I just updated to today's build (2021-01-30) and I cannot get the controls on Pcsx Rearmed to respond anymore. All other emulator's controls still work after updating Retroarch.

I noticed one difference in the controls menu of Pcsx Rearmed. On the older version there's a control device called "Retropad" that is not available on the new build. I tried all other device types but none works.

Does this happen to anyone else?

yes. no idea why. went back to stable.

 

[lordelan]

Two issues I have right now:

1. All MAME cores are causing a black screen freeze, forcing me to hard shutdown the Switch. Doesn't matter which rom I use. Can anyone confirm?
2. Launching Sexy Parodius on the PSX core throws an error and quits back to RetroArch. Has anyone managed to run ANY version of Sexy Parodius (for any system except PSP) on the Switch?
   It has real co-op (while the non-sexy Parodius doesn't).

 

[Billy Acuña]

You guys always wanted to play some snes in widescreen but you faced some flickering in bsnes hd on Switch? Fear no more! A fix has been pushed by DerKoun:
https://github.com/DerKoun/bsnes-hd/commit/036c2ed3f30aa5a5a42861e65108373f5a9b1449

This is how snes games looks with widescreen, I do recommend combine it with the ScaleFX shader for better experience:

 

[ShadowOne333]

You guys always wanted to play some snes in widescreen but you faced some flickering in bsnes hd on Switch? Fear no more! A fix has been pushed by DerKoun:
https://github.com/DerKoun/bsnes-hd/commit/036c2ed3f30aa5a5a42861e65108373f5a9b1449

This is how snes games looks with widescreen, I do recommend combine it with the ScaleFX shader for better experience:

Looks absolutely stunning!
Amazing work, guys!

Btw, do you happen to know if I can run this new release of bsnes on Switch without OC? Or do I need a certain OC to get it to run smoothly? Lastly, does bsnes use the same save format as Snes9x?

 

[jabz10]

What’s the best way to map controls for Dosbox games?
I.e I tried running Wolf3d. And couldn’t get it to work if the controller is game pad. So changed to keyboard+mouse and mapped the dpad to keyboard arrows and CTRL to right trigger, etc.
Can’t I use the analog sticks ie left one for up down and right stick for left right?

Also Wolf3d starts in a small window, how do I increase the game screen. On dos it’s the + key.

Would I need to do all these mappings for each game?

Thanks for any help..

 

[Billy Acuña]

Looks absolutely stunning!
Amazing work, guys!

Btw, do you happen to know if I can run this new release of bsnes on Switch without OC? Or do I need a certain OC to get it to run smoothly? Lastly, does bsnes use the same save format as Snes9x?

Needs max clocks and both bsnes and snes9x have shared saves in libretro.

 

[Shaneus]

Had a look through this thread, but has anyone else had problems with the MAME cores taking forever to load and practically locking the system up? To the point where it looks like it's crashed but will eventually load the ROM after literally 10 minutes. And trying to close the app from Horizon just hangs for minutes as well on "Closing software...".

Two issues I have right now:

1. All MAME cores are causing a black screen freeze, forcing me to hard shutdown the Switch. Doesn't matter which rom I use. Can anyone confirm?
2. Launching Sexy Parodius on the PSX core throws an error and quits back to RetroArch. Has anyone managed to run ANY version of Sexy Parodius (for any system except PSP) on the Switch?
   It has real co-op (while the non-sexy Parodius doesn't).

Okay, this is me as well. I wonder if it's Horizon-based, as even using the August 2020 build of Retroarch on hbstore is locking up with MAME cores, and I'm pretty sure it never did.

 

[jabz10]

What’s the best way to map controls for Dosbox games?
I.e I tried running Wolf3d. And couldn’t get it to work if the controller is game pad. So changed to keyboard+mouse and mapped the dpad to keyboard arrows and CTRL to right trigger, etc.
Can’t I use the analog sticks ie left one for up down and right stick for left right?

Quoting myself, I got it working mostly the way I want, however the biggest issue is I want to use the Left stick as Up/Down, and Right stick as Left/Right. How can this be achieved, when remapping "Switch Port 1 Controller", Key/Mouse. There is NO right stick option. and the Left Stick binds to the D-Pad.

This will be an issue in ALL dosbox games? Please help

 

[Shaneus]

Two issues I have right now:

1. All MAME cores are causing a black screen freeze, forcing me to hard shutdown the Switch. Doesn't matter which rom I use. Can anyone confirm?
2. Launching Sexy Parodius on the PSX core throws an error and quits back to RetroArch. Has anyone managed to run ANY version of Sexy Parodius (for any system except PSP) on the Switch?
   It has real co-op (while the non-sexy Parodius doesn't).

Hey, I managed to find the fix for #1! I setup logging as written here, and at least in my instance the lockup was happening when trying to read the MAME-2003Plus cheats.dat file.

Mine was located under /retroarch/system/mame-2003plus/cheats.dat, which I just completely deleted and now it loads up fine! So check out if you have any cheat.dat files for any of your MAME cores located anywhere (I didn't realise they could also be located under the /system folder and delete or rename them.

No idea if it still happens with cheats.dat files downloaded directly from the Retroarch online repo or just whatever old dat I had on my Switch, but everything is definitely running better now

 

[lordelan]

Hey, I managed to find the fix for #1! I setup logging as written here, and at least in my instance the lockup was happening when trying to read the MAME-2003Plus cheats.dat file.

Mine was located under /retroarch/system/mame-2003plus/cheats.dat, which I just completely deleted and now it loads up fine! So check out if you have any cheat.dat files for any of your MAME cores located anywhere (I didn't realise they could also be located under the /system folder and delete or rename them.

No idea if it still happens with cheats.dat files downloaded directly from the Retroarch online repo or just whatever old dat I had on my Switch, but everything is definitely running better now

Wow nice find! Will try that out as soon as possible.
Would be so nice if I could finally play Arcade games again! Thanks a lot!

Why would anyone cheat in arcade games anyway? We literally have infinite coins.

 

[FanNintendo]

I know this is for L4T Ubuntu but nice video though:



I have my fingers crossed that:

• we'll see the rumored Switch Pro next year
• it will be hackable
• m4xw eventually drops a decent Dolphin port for HOS
• Wii games run pretty well on Switch Pro + Atmosphère + RetroArch (+ OC)

I bought Galaxy Tab 7 i say holy crap Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Metal Slug 6 ran smooth flycast also with dolphin emulators ran good.and ordered wireless sensor DolphinBar for Wii so i can use Wiimote+nunchuck or Classic controller. So while im waiting for Switch to catch up oh yeah forgot to mention that Saturn (YabaSanshiro) and Play! (Playstation 2) is alright few ran 100%

 

[Pgdollar88]

Hi all! I've been trying to play Final Fantasy IV the Complete Collection using PPSSPP core on Retroarch. However, the game keeps freezing (often mid-battle) and will not respond, forcing me to close the app. Has anyone encountered this or have any tips?

I just saw in the thread that there is a new release, so I'm going to try updating my files. A little nervous because I don't want to lose any save data.

 

[lordelan]

Hey, I managed to find the fix for #1! I setup logging as written here, and at least in my instance the lockup was happening when trying to read the MAME-2003Plus cheats.dat file.

Mine was located under /retroarch/system/mame-2003plus/cheats.dat, which I just completely deleted and now it loads up fine! So check out if you have any cheat.dat files for any of your MAME cores located anywhere (I didn't realise they could also be located under the /system folder and delete or rename them.

Hi again. This indeed fixed the black screen freeze so thank you very much!
It still takes around 10 seconds or a little more to actually launch the rom (which is still strange compared to my experience I had with MAME games in the past on the Switch) but it works.
Now I'm facing another issue that all direction keys (no matter if d-pad or analog stick) don't work. The fire buttons do however.
Dunno where this is coming from but I'll dig into it at a later point and eventually re-set them in the control options.

 

[Shaneus]

Hi again. This indeed fixed the black screen freeze so thank you very much!
It still takes around 10 seconds or a little more to actually launch the rom (which is still strange compared to my experience I had with MAME games in the past on the Switch) but it works.
Now I'm facing another issue that all direction keys (no matter if d-pad or analog stick) don't work. The fire buttons do however.
Dunno where this is coming from but I'll dig into it at a later point and eventually re-set them in the control options.

Easy fixed! If you go into the quick menu and Options (not control options), there's some option to map directions or something to analog or digital, and the default will already be set to analog (it's one of the first few lines, you'll see it). Change it to digital and it'll go to the d-pad.

Glad to hear that cheats fix worked too, couldn't find a fix anywhere so it would've been the only solution!