Playstation classic

[the_randomizer]

Of course it is when you keep on banging the drum you want to and totally ignore what the other person is saying! Keep quiet now and let someone else speak who actually reads.

Whatever you say.

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Whatever you say.

Good boy!

 

[notimp]

Made a little Snatcher Anthology on the Playstation Classic.

Have fun.




PS: I'm also working on a quick video for everyone out there that wants to know about performance on this thing.

I call i it the Arcade and the obscure. And there is also a bit of Super Mario 64 in there - for performance gaging reasons - but the most obscure level possible.

The video is currently rendering - I'll share it here as soon as it is finished.

 

[notimp]

Part 1 of the the Arcade and the obscure is now online. I'm going through different systems so you can get an understanding how well they perform.



Part 2 (which has Super Mario 64 in it (on Glupen)) still will take about an hour to complete rendering.

hf

n.

 

[notimp]

Part 2 with Super Mario 64 in the beginning is now online.

 

[notimp]

The latest Retroboot release(v0.9) is out. Structurally - everything works as it should . but default configs are a hot mess.

First - this is the first release of Retroboot that uses glcore as the default renderer. Why.
Performance on all N64 cores is worse than with gl set as the video core.
(Tested on the game resolution below 720p (core options) which is the one most people would want to run.)

Bellyclap.

Since only one set of shaders usually is manageable, it now comes with glcore shaders.

Bellyclap.

Mupen64Plus-Next core is still broken (Graphical glitches).

Bellyclap.

Cheats say they are working - but dont (not doublechecked).

Bellyclap.

Are idiots running this show? I'm asking for a friend.

All the worst decisions possible bundled into one - new users go eff yourselves.

Now. After a few settings changes - here are my findings.

Resolution one below 720p makes most N64 games run "good enough" on Mupen64Plus. The most performant core (Mupen64Plus Next) still is broken (?) on the device (tested with Super Mario 64 and Zelda OOT - grafical glitches.) 720p as render resolution even makes Mario 64 unplayable (stutter). Enabling threaded video processing doesnt help. As in no performance gains noticeable.

Which means - we now have Glupen and Mupen64plus (but not -next) cores available on the system to play in about 540p ish resolutions. Most N64 roms should run fine on this resolutions, on those two cores.

Fine means, that Zelda OOT still has the occasional stutter - maybe once on a while during cinematic pans - during gameplay its mostly fine - and you can still lower the resolution setting once more - to iron this out.

Not the best box for N64 emulation still. That said - Super Mario 64 runs perfectly on both Glupen and Mupen64Plus cores.

 

[notimp]

Latest ScummVM core from KDFManiac still hasnt got support for Blade Runner in it.

 

[notimp]

Games that are almost playable on the Playstation Classic (latest release of RetroBoot (for Autobleem)) - and then as a reward for making it to the end - some more demanding games, that are actually playable on the console. (Including captured footage of Nintendo DS titles but starting with Persona 3 (PSP) )

Have fun.

 

[przemo_one]

Is this a topic where can I ask for help with my PSC?

Have a problem with RetroBoot for AutoBleem. I have a virgin PSC. It has in 2nd USB port AutoBleem with RetroBoot (4 AutoBleem) and that's it. While AutoBleem starts with no problem and I can play some other PSO games, then when starting RetroBoot my PSC crashes with red led blinking. Any ideas? Maybye first should I use RetroBoot standalone version or BleemSync for kernel patching?

 

[notimp]

This topic should be fine.

Need more info.

1. Try installing retroboot again (delete previous retroarch files/folders just to be sure.). Make sure you also copy over the file meant for the /rc folder (?) in the install package, not only the retroarch folder.
2. Make sure that you are using the RetroBoot for AutoBleem package.
3. Make sure you are using Autobleem v0.6.0 beta 2 with the latest release of RetroBoot for Autobleem (0.9).

if it still doesnt work -

4. Install Bleemsync 1.1.0 and the OTG kernel, buy an OTG adapter or cable (I use those :

make sure to order a left angle if you want to use them as well, but you can use and OTG adapter or cable pretty much.) and now use the back usb port to power your USB drive - this we do to make sure that the USB drive doesnt have a flaky power issue. Also doing this, now every USB drive should work (no only low power ones - limitation anymore). Once the OTG kernel is installed, you can switch back to autobleem.

5. get a second USB stick (can be small) to test if it runs off of there - to test if your USB stick is corrupted, or fake (data loss). If it works from another USB stick - sadly back up and reformat, or exchange the USB stick altogether.


Your issue is not a common one - normally it should "just work".

Version incompatibility (make sure you install the versions listed (newest ones as of this moment)), or having forgotten to copy over the file for the /rc (?) folder (the thing beside the retroarch folder in the RetroBoot for Autobleem package) are the most likely culprits. If not, continue down the list.

 

[przemo_one]

I know what's the problem now. I did download RetroBoot using JDownloader2 and it didn't unpack correctly. It skipped empty directories so my installation is incomplete. Thanks for your help. Must verify few downloads.

 

[notimp]

RetroBoot (/for Autobleem or standalone) now also supports Drastic (standalone) for full speed NDS emulation. The implementation lets you use it as if it were a Retroarch core. Playlist support included.

It was released 4 days ago - I link it in here for reference.

https://old.reddit.com/r/PlaystationClassic/comments/c38nnx/release_drastic_launcher_for_retroboot/

 

[przemo_one]

Would like to mention PSC just broke my SanDisk Cruzer Facet 32GB. It's detected now by PC (Win & Lin) as Read-only. Tried many things and no luck. Not looking for any support just want to warn you modding PSC is not completely safe for your drives. I'm using AutoBleem + RetroBoot for AB + Drastic up to date. Can't even create partition table...

 

[VGA]

Were you using an OTG cable? Rhetorical question.


You should have been using an OTG cable.

 

[przemo_one]

Plugged in USB2 not OTG.

 

[VGA]

USB drives drop dead all the time.

Proper way to go about things is to install Bleemsync 1.1 with the custom kernel that adds OTG support. Then use an OTG cable. And you can then use whichever hack you want, you don't have to use Bleemsync.

 

[notimp]

In anticipation of the remastered release, here is the end of disc 1 from Final Fantasy 8. (German version.)



edit: And here is a typical millennial support request - just for documentation purposes for posterity.
(How does Multi CD integration in Retroarch work? (for most cores))

 

[notimp]

The utter inability to do anything properly in the emulation scene - hurts me brain again.

Performance figures for the Rasp Pi 4 running Retroarch Cores without a graphical frontend in memory are online:
https://old.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/c7j150/emulation_on_the_raspberry_pi_4_vs_rpi_3/

The tester tested. And then tested. And then tested. And then was very excited. Allthough he forgot to mention, what he actually tested.

He probably lists "max fps" figures, probably with threaded video enabled. But even interpreting those is freaking impossible - because he mostly used games that already exceed their max fps and uncapped performance varies widely depending on just a scene in a game.

I've tested maybe 10 games with the same cores the "we dont know what we are doing Pi4 testing crew" 'tested' -

and to the best of my ability to interpret what they actually were doing - here are some interesting tidbits about RaspPi 3, PS Classic, and Rasp Pi 4 performance.

The PS classic is within 13% to 30% of the performance window of the RaspPi 4 on Mame 2003, PSX and N64 games.

The RaspPi3 is pretty far behind. How far - is hard to tell (high variation in results with uncapped framerates), but higher two figures percentage value.

What this means in practice - probably - is that N64 games still arent being able to be run on the RaspPi 4 in more than double resolution. And even for double resolution you would still likely like more performance - for most of them.

The jury is still out on Dreamcast games, where "there are comments, that the Rasp Pi 4 runs many of them in full speed" which I still would want to doublecheck. My prediction would be that most of them would be edge cases based on the performance differences I saw - but that might be highly dependent on GPU performance, which seems to me better on the RaspPi 4.

Saturn is still a no go on all three platforms. (At the moment.)

So keep a close eye on how the RaspPi 4 performs with more complex Dreamcast games, and keep in mind that the relaunch (refresh) of the Nvidia Shield TV should happen sometime this year - which all things considered might be close to the RaspPi 4 in price (once you factor in case, and dongles, and...).

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Here are some figures for you.

Same cores used on both systems.

Tetris Grand Master 1:
21fps on the PS Classic, 24fps on the RaspPi4

Castlevania SOTN:
140FPS on the Pi3, 300FPS on the PS Classic (280 in other areas), 300 FPS on the Pi4

Final Fantasy 7:
155 on the Pi3, 300 on the PS Classic, 300 on the Pi4

Super Smash Brothers:
52 on the Pi3, 59 on the PS Classic, 60 on the Pi4 - but with frequent stutter in menu transitions, probably on all plattforms.

Goldeneye: FPS all over the place, performance probably close to the Pi4's - i bet still not playable on all platforms (check youtube videos for the Pi4 after a while - maybe I'm wrong, and they really "just needed to optimize some more" - but I doubt it).

Then there are the outliers -

Killer Instinct (Arcade): 100% more FPS on the Pi4 than on the PS Classic - still unplayable.
A more accurate NES core (Mesen): 100% more FPS on the Pi4 than on the PS Classic - full speed on the Pi4

So with those kinds of values its hard do see the Pi4 aceing more demand heavy Dreamcast Games - but then, maybe the bottleneck is GPU bound - and it can. Look for youtube videos after a while..

 

[Deleted member 42501]

It seems the Shield TV still wears the crown then.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/nvidia-shield-tv-as-an-emulation-box-best-or-better-options.541243/

 

[lordelan]

I've written it in here before - but I'll go over it one more time.

How to create Retroarch playlist files (.lpl) manually - but automated.

Launch a game of the system you want to add a playlist file of - with the emulator you prefer. Exit Retroarch. That way it will show up in the content_history.lpl file. Copy it over to a PC and look at it - It will have all the information you need (rompath, emulator path, emulator name, ...) in there - so you can easily create a playlist file for an entire system by hand, but automated. This shouldnt take more than five minutes.

Lets take the contents for a PSP game for example:

/media/RetroArch/roms/PSP/Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII (E).pbp
Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII (E)
/media/RetroArch/cores/ppsspp_libretro.so
PPSSPP

The first line is the path to the rom.
The second line is the rom name.
The third line is the path to the emulator.
The fourth line is the emulator name.

In a playlist .lpl file for an entire system there will be two more lines beneath that, for every entry. The next line would be the unique hash of the rom - when creating playlist files manually you can leave that empty.
And the line after that will be the playlist name - in the case of a PSP playlist this is: Sony - Playstation Portable.lpl

The playlist names are system specific, and have to be what Retroarch expects, so google them for the individual systems you want to add.
--

Now, lets create a playlist file for multiple files (roms) in a folder at once.

First, you need a list of all filenames in a folder in a one column list. On MacOS or linux, this can simply be done by navigating into the folder in a terminal / shell, and typing: ls followed by enter. ls -1 (forces one column of names) if the default ls command shows multiple columns by default.

On a windows computer its the same, there you'd open a command prompt, navigate into the folder an type dir followed by enter. This lists all files in a folder, and you can then copy all the filenames.

Open up a texteditor that supports unix/linux line endings (notepad++ for Windows is good and open source), copy your column of file names (with file endings, so f.e .pbp or .zip) into a new file and save it as your specific system playlist name with the ending .lpl - make sure, that you select unix/linux line endings in the save as dialog. Otherwise retroarch might not be able to read your file.

Add an empty line with enter at the beginning of your document.

Now open the search an replace dialog in Notepad++, make sure 'regular expressions' is checked in the search/replace dialogue - and search for:

\n(([^\n]+)\.pbp)

replace with

\n/media/RetroArch/roms/PSP/\1\n\2\n/media/RetroArch/cores/ppsspp_libretro.so\nPPSSPP\n\nSony - Playstation Portable.lpl

Make sure 'regular expressions' is checked in the replace dialogue. Hit replace all, and you have a well formed playlist for the PSP.

The results for every game will look as follows:

/media/RetroArch/roms/PSP/Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII (E).pbp
Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII (E)
/media/RetroArch/cores/ppsspp_libretro.so
PPSSPP

Sony - Playstation Portable.lpl

And all game entries will simply be stacked, one such entry after the other.

Remove the empty first line again (the one you added before).

Save the file, put it in the playlist folder on your USB stick (again the file name has to be the exact one Retroarch expects for the system), and thats it. Reboot and the playlist will show up.

Now. Pay attention to the replace with line above. Edit it as you have to for the emulated system and emulator of your choice, and your specific installations. Which means - the rom paths, and the path to the emulator will be different in your case (the example uses Retroboots folder structure, not bleemsyncs). In any case your filepaths have to start with /media/ before the first folder on your USB stick (its a PSC specific thing). Your emulator core names might be different (other .so files), your emulator names might be different. The file extetnsion (.pbp) in the search field might be different. (In most cases for you it usually is .zip for your zipped roms.)

So check against the content_history.lpl file and edit the replace with line accordingly. You only have to edit it once, and then do a replace all.

Thats it - now playlists show up in retroarch. And all your games that were in that specific folder, are selectable and playable.

If you want them to have covers as well, all the covers have to be in the thumbnails folder in a subfolder with the designated system name (f.e.: Sony - Playstation Portable), in another subfolder named Named_Boxarts - with the exact file names you have in line 2 of those game entries in the playlist file. They have to be image files, with the file extension .png.

Thats it. Sounds like a heck of a lot to do, but can be done in 3 minutes per system - no hassle.

edit: Short intro into how regular expressions in the example above work:
\n stands for newline (so whenever there is a new line started in the text document, by hitting enter)
() simply are brackets that can be used for callbacks
\1 or \2 are those callbacks (\1 produces the contents of the first set of brackets, \2 the contents of the second set, and so on)

\ is an escape character - sometimes (not in the case of \1 or \n ). Because in Regex, some symbols (like a . (dot)) have different meanings, you have to escape some of those characters, to tell the regex to handle this character as if it was a simple character and not something special.

([^\n]+) is a regex that catches everything in a line up until a newline marker (someone pressed enter in a text), or in our instance up to what follows that expression (.pbp or .zip) If you are interested in its actual meaning, [^x] is the format for "any character that isnt x" so [^\n] is "anything that isnt a new line marker" and + stands for "one ore more times". So this catches all characters in a line, up until the newline marker.

And thats about it, this should make you understand what you are doing a little better.

This is the best method I saw until now. I did it very similar until now with a combination of notepad++ and Excel.
Although I keep recommending playlist buddy to others, I prefer manual steps for myself.
However you're method is better and shorter than mine as you make use of the regular expressions in a better way (you used things I didn't know yet). So thx a lot for that.
You should feel free to copy paste that entire post of yours into an own thread in the tutorial section. It's a good and clear write up.