Homebrew RELEASE "Official" Flycast for RetroArch on Horizon thread

[Silent_Gunner]

With no centralization of discussion ongoing for the Flycast port to the Switch via RetroArch running on Horizon (the Switch OS' name as dubbed by the community here for Switch hacking noobs out there), I figured, at risk of destroying my notification inbox, I'd go ahead and just create a better hub for discussion of this core's release.

It's actually been out and about for a pretty long while, but there's been two main threads devoted to discussion of DC emulation on the Switch via what I will be referring to as HorizonArch (as there's more than one way to run RetroArch on the Switch):

https://gbatemp.net/threads/reicast-dreamcast-emulator-for-switch-horizon-alpha.538394/

This is for a standalone release of Reicast, which is what Flycast was based off of. There's a long story behind the name change that isn't worth discussing. This version was OK for the time, but has since been abandoned. And as for the second thread...

https://gbatemp.net/threads/flycast-dreamcast-emulator-is-coming-soon.548161/

This one started as a discussion post that eventually morphed into the release thread...without actually having the tag, title, or any central hub of information to help facilitate discussion on this particular core for HorizonArch. There's good information to be gleamed from here, including some benchmarks of various games (some done by this OP here! ), but it doesn't lay things out on the table in a way that communicates clearly what to use for DC emulation if you aren't going to go the L4T-Ubuntu, Switchroot, or Lakka route for homebrew emulation on the Switch.


Disclaimer: I am not the one making the developments to this core. I only tested a small selection of games that didn't have an equivalent release on the Switch or have so little chance of being re-released that the only way to play them on the Switch is via emulation. So I'm not the one to ask why Ikaruga might run like crap on this core. Ikaruga, Rez, and a lot of DC games honestly have had ports to several systems, collections, mini consoles, releases on compilation cartridges, Steam, etc.. For a lot of the arcade ports to the DC (that weren't made on the NAOMI board), it will probably be easier to run them on MAME 2003-Plus/Final Burn Neo than it will on the Dreamcast, and not slowdown as hard as trying to play it otherwise.

 

[sj33]

EDIT 8th June 2021

Flycast has now been added to Lakka. This grants superior performance over Flycast for regular Retroarch for Switch due to the ability to use the official Nvidia L4T drivers and Vulklan renderer. Most of the performance issues listed below are resolved by using Lakka instead, the below applies to the regular Switch build.
See this post for more information about using Flycast in Lakka.

Before reporting bugs and issues, PLEASE read the following and make sure you follow these. Don't report issues if you've not done this.

--------------

Essential Tips & Settings

-The only supported CFW is Atmosphere (chainloading hekate is fine). When we say 'support', we mean that support can only be provided for that CFW - other CFW may still work. ReiNX should work fine as far as I know, we're just not running it at the moment so aren't in a position to test. Support CANNOT be provided for SXOS - they need to fix their CFW to support flycast, not the other way around.

-There is a crashing bug with the switch_audren_thread driver. Go to Retroarch settings->Drivers and change to switch_thread.

-Make sure you are using .gdi/bin or .chd format files. Do NOT use .cdi since these are butchered rips designed to fit on a CDR. The only exception to this is some homebrew releases where only a .cdi exists, and Phantasy Star Online (see below). Naomi and Atomiswave games need to be in MAME format and nothing else.

-If your game doesn't boot, try it with PC Flycast. If it still doesn't work there, your files are the problem. A certain 'archive' site has some bad Redump files, fyi.

-Make sure you check the bios setup here, checking the SHA1 for all files. There are many Dreamcast bios sets out there and not all will work. The SHA1 MUST match.

-Overclocking to 1581MHz using Retroarch's internal overclock settings is recommended. 1581MHz is REQUIRED for full speed FMV playback. Note that we conduct all testing with GPU set to 460MHz (handheld) and RAM set to 1600MHz using sys-clk.

-Make sure you are using the LATEST version. Go to the online updater and download it there, or manually download it from here. Please don't use random builds from elsewhere. We also cannot control how up-to-date the builds may be on things like the HBAppStore.

-Go to the Quick Menu, and under Options make sure you disable DSP. This cripples the framerate with minimal real benefit for most games.

-If you are having graphical issues, make sure Alpha Sorting it set to Per-Triangle. There is no need to use less accurate settings at 1581MHz, and reporting issues with less accurate settings isn't helpful. Yes, this fixes the item boxes in Sonic.

-The slow framerate in many 2D games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and SNK games is known. We may soon see some improvement there thanks to this. You may find some of these problem 2D games work better with the FinalBurn Neo or MAME 2003 Plus cores. PCSX ReARMed is probably your best bet for Capcom Vs. SNK for now.
EDIT - this fix is reportedly integrated now. Give it a go.

-If you get black screen after the Sega licence screen, or if the game exits to the Dreamcast menu, go to Quick Menu->Options and set Cable Type to TV(RGB) and Broadcast to NTSC. This fixes games like Unreal Tournament and San Francisco Rush 2049.

-Windows CE games are never going to run well. No Sega Rally 2 for us. Some WinCE games like the Tomb Raider games and Resident Evil 2 can be played on PCSX ReARMed.

-Online play is supported. Phantasy Star Online Version 2 works online using the Sylverant server. I recommend using the 'V2 Ives EP' version as this is pre-configured to connect to Sylverant and has other enhancements. To set up online play, use Quake 3 - set a username and password of your choice, DNS as 0.0.0.0, Phone Number as 111-1111. Google for 'psopalace sylverant'.

-If you want to keep track of changes being made to flycast, browse the commits here https://github.com/libretro/flycast/commits/master

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Essential Tips & Settings

-The slow framerate in many 2D games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and SNK games is known. We may soon see some improvement there thanks to this.

To be specific about Capcom Vs. SNK, CVS2 runs at a good speed, with some minor slowdowns here and there from what I remember. It's CVS1 and CVS1 Pro that slow down like crazy.

 

[m4xw]

<Reserved>

 

[komabear]

Thanks for this.

I've been having a problem with Skies of Arcadia running on Retroarch's Flycast core. It used to work perfectly and I played as far as getting to the desert part. Yesterday I thought it would be fine to update the core directly from Retroarch, but now after loading my game and pressing start to open the in-game menu, it crashes with the "the software had to be closed because an error ocurred". I'm also getting graphical glitches everywhere in the world map.

I'm guessing it was due to the SA2/PSO fix? Can anybody clarify?

Also I can't remember for the life of me where to download a pre-fix core - I'm sure that one used to work flawlessly.

Here's a link to my VMU if it helps testing: https://ufile.io/tfoikedg

In any case thanks for the hard work!!

 

[sj33]

Thanks for this.

I've been having a problem with Skies of Arcadia running on Retroarch's Flycast core. It used to work perfectly and I played as far as getting to the desert part. Yesterday I thought it would be fine to update the core directly from Retroarch, but now after loading my game and pressing start to open the in-game menu, it crashes with the "the software had to be closed because an error ocurred". I'm also getting graphical glitches everywhere in the world map.

I'm guessing it was due to the SA2/PSO fix? Can anybody clarify?

Also I can't remember for the life of me where to download a pre-fix core - I'm sure that one used to work flawlessly.

Here's a link to my VMU if it helps testing: https://ufile.io/tfoikedg

In any case thanks for the hard work!!

Just tested this using the above VMU file, I can confirm this issue.

It seems there is already an issue opened on the Github but flyinghead was not able to reproduce. So I have linked to your post with the VMU file.
https://github.com/libretro/flycast/issues/902

 

[komabear]

Just tested this using the above VMU file, I can confirm this issue.

It seems there is already an issue opened on the Github but flyinghead was not able to reproduce. So I have linked to your post with the VMU file.
https://github.com/libretro/flycast/issues/902

Thanks!

 

[sj33]

Thanks!

Right, I've figured this out. This issue only affects old saves from old versions of flycast but I have a workaround for you.

You want to go back to port, make a new save at the save point, exit the game then load that new save. It should work then.
I have attached a VMU file to this post with this already done. Just load save 2.

 

[komabear]

Right, I've figured this out. This issue only affects old saves from old versions of flycast but I have a workaround for you.

You want to go back to port, make a new save at the save point, exit the game then load that new save. It should work then.
I have attached a VMU file to this post with this already done. Just load save 2.

Oooh, thanks!!

 

[sj33]

Are there any Phantasy Star Online players here? You may know that the game can still be played online, and it works fine on the Switch through flycast.

What you need is a modified iso called Ives Enhanced Pack found in PSO Ives Pack 2.0 made by PSO Palace. No linking here but use Google. This will automatically connect to Sylverant server.

Maybe we can write up a list of interested people and arrange some online PSO sometime.

 

[Alucardio]

Thanks for this, Speaking as a fighting game lover, having access to full speed versions of CVS2 and eventually (I hope) MvC 2 on the go is like a dream!

Really looking forward to updates on this core

 

[Schnida]

I played THPS2 excessively and it works very well. I only encountered a few crashes in the Sketestreet level when entering the secret areas. I was able to prevent this by restarting the level after unlocking the secret area and before entering said area.

 

[sj33]

THPS2 works fine as far as I'm aware, it's just the first game that runs badly for some reason.

 

[soniczeki]

I'm having problems.
I literally can't boot any DC games.
I tried every solution nothing works.
- bios files , md5 correct
- using GDI format
- sys clk manually added gpu mhz
- retroarch high cpu profile

It just gives me error message when i try to open and app closes.

 

[sj33]

The build on the buildbot is probably still broken from the attack on libretro servers last month.

I've attached a build from 15th August which is known to work, try this.

 

[Zeddy]

I'm having a similar issue as well. I've tried everything but I cannot get Flycast to boot. The August 15th build is the closest I've seen it to running, as it loads, but crashes before the Retroarch banner disappears. Everything works completely fine on PC. I am on latest Atmosphere (0.14.4), and the latest Switch firmware (10.2.0). Since Reicast stopped working when I updated, the issue I am having might have to do with either the Atmosphere version or firmware 10.2.0. I was able to get it to go to the Sega logo once before crashing, but I can't recreate that. I get that none of this is really useful information, but maybe someone else had a similar issue and knows how to fix it (which might just be waiting for everything to update to support the latest versions of Atmosphere and the Switch firmware)

EDIT
Tried it on older Atmosphere and firmware, (8.1.0) and still had the same issue.

EDIT 2
The issue seems to be with the Homebrew menu NSP I was running, as I realized some apps were mistakenly having errors for thinking it was in applet mode. The Flycast core seems to run fine if HBM is loaded by holding R at the start of any app. The Retroarch NSP forwarder works fine though. Hopefully this helps someone else who's having issues.

EDIT 3
After a day of playing Sonic Adventure 1, it's almost working flawlessly, but every so often the game freezes and I have to close it. Having the game render at its intended reason doesn't help this either, like some places online suggest. Since my post is becoming a wall, I'll leave it at this edit unless I find a fix for this issue. If anyone has any tips, that would be very appreciated!

 

[sj33]

In the Retroarch settings, go to Drivers and change the audio driver to switch_thread if it isn't already. The switch_audren_thread driver currently has a crashing bug.

NSP forwarders really do cause all kinds of problems, that's why we recommend against them.

Updated the second info post with information regarding switching audio driver to prevent crashing, and added a working build of flycast. The Retroarch buildbot is producing broken builds and the online updater is downloading broken builds. Please use the flycast build posted above until further notice.

 

[Zephir1991]

Finally solved my Dreamcast problem. Was in the mood to play some Dreamcast - updated to the newest core and nothing worked anymore. Was wasting so many hours trying to fix the problem.
It never came to my mind to use an older core. :c

The only problem I have left is, that Retroarch (and my switch) crashes while starting it through the HBLoader.
My only solution so far to enter retroarch is to create a NROForwarder nsp.

 

[MasterYous]

thank you so much for this post. dl’d the attach build and configured per the tips and was up and running

really looking forward to the 2D enhancements - many many hours of my life were spent on mvc2

you guys are awesome

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...
The only problem I have left is, that Retroarch (and my switch) crashes while starting it through the HBLoader.
My only solution so far to enter retroarch is to create a NROForwarder nsp.

With Atmosphere, for me, it works fine from hbmenu on all Horizon v8, v9, and v10 versions. Are you making sure to use an actual game image to hijack and not the album? you need more memory than album if you’re still doing that older way. good luck.

 

[kane159]

I enable the boot into bios option and when i open a backup it always crash the emulator is this a knowing issue?