Homebrew RetroArch - A new multi-system emulator

[mudlord]

Just wondering what we can expect in future releases, I know SCUMMVM and perhaps larger Neo Geo rom support are down the line (9.9.9 I think?), will the point releases between now and then have additional core support, or more bugfixes/greater rom support for FBA etc?

Tentative discussions about N64.

 

[the_randomizer]

Tentative discussions about N64.

Really? That would be nice since Wii 64 hasn't been updated in quite a while. The real question is, can the Wii's PPC CPU handle it and accomplish good stability and compatibility?

 

[mudlord]

Good question. Though certainly a better RDP solution needs to be devised since glN64 is quite limited compared to others, and Glide64's wrapper is quite inefficient.

 

[the_randomizer]

Good question. Though certainly a better RDP solution needs to be devised since glN64 is quite limited compared to others, and Glide64's wrapper is quite inefficient.

Too bad Rice Video is botched; many games can't even properly display a HUD without it being corrupted, among with other recombiner issues. I just read a post from emukidid stating he would be mostly offline for the next forty days so...yeah. No Wii 64 for quite a while, though it seemed he was almost released it, but crap happened.

 

[Coto]

Good question. Though certainly a better RDP solution needs to be devised since glN64 is quite limited compared to others, and Glide64's wrapper is quite inefficient.

You mean the wrapper that translates glide calls to ogl/d3d? because Glide64 runs on my voodoo3 and it's far the best video plugin i've seen in the N64 scene. (runs framebuffer effects on a separate framebuffer on real hardware). The problem that is, it runs under C#, and a wrapper of a wrapper isn't going to end well unless a dynarec of somesorts that translate voodoo calls (separate 3D drawing, and 2D) into GX's is built/research...

 

[mudlord]

You mean the wrapper that translates glide calls to ogl/d3d? because Glide64 runs on my voodoo3 and it's far the best video plugin i've seen in the N64 scene. (runs framebuffer effects on a separate framebuffer on real hardware). The problem that is, it runs under C#, and a wrapper of a wrapper isn't going to end well unless a dynarec of somesorts that translate voodoo calls (separate 3D drawing, and 2D) into GX's is built/research...

Yes, the wrapper is written in C++ and converts Glide calls to OpenGL 2.0 calls. Its inefficient as vertex pushing doesn't make use of things like vertex caching, vertex arrays, and other things.

The plugin itself on Voodoo hardware should be fine, its the wrapper for OpenGL cards thats the problem.

 

[Coto]

Yes, the wrapper is written in C++ and converts Glide calls to OpenGL 2.0 calls. Its inefficient as vertex pushing doesn't make use of things like vertex caching, vertex arrays, and other things.

The plugin itself on Voodoo hardware should be fine, its the wrapper for OpenGL cards thats the problem.

say those were fixed hardware registers the voodoo has?! i own a voodoo and started reading voodoo's asm... i love that card and I have no problem to research as much it's required to see if a port of glide64 is possible

 

[mudlord]

No, its a issue in how the wrapper was originally written. It will take major rewrites in most texturing functions to use up-to-date functionality like vertex arrays, and vertex caching on OpenGL hardware in the wrapper.

 

[the_randomizer]

No, its a issue in how the wrapper was originally written. It will take major rewrites in most texturing functions to use up-to-date functionality like vertex arrays, and vertex caching on OpenGL hardware in the wrapper.

If someone has the balls to take the time to rewrite the plugin in such a way that can be ported (i.e. the Wii GPU), and handle the vertex arrays/caching we'd all be one big happy family. Unfortunately, a lot of the programmers neither have time or simply lack the motivation to take on such a large task. While Glide 64 does get many of the N64 effects right (such as fixing the missing skies in Goldeneye and Killer Instinct), many games don't function properly, like Dr. Mario 64.

 

[mudlord]

and not to mention TEV usage to implement combiners in the wrapper....And framebuffer effects..
Wii support will require a completely new plugin compared to just a simple port which uses OpenGL.

 

[the_randomizer]

and not to mention TEV usage to implement combiners in the wrapper....And framebuffer effects..
Wii support will require a completely new plugin compared to just a simple port which uses OpenGL.

Yep. Good luck getting emukidid and tephola to find the motivation to do that. Yikes.

 

[Hielkenator]

Just keep in mind that not all HDTV's are created equal on their VGA input. Some or most of them actually do scale the VGA signal to their native resolution. And many of them actually do have post-processing on the VGA (albeit not as much as HDMI for example)

Even if a HDTV doesn't scale the signal or use post processing, it will still have some lag simply due to the display being digital (yep, even with a analog source, as it has to convert it to digital). I've seen some ridiculously high input lag reports on VGA inputs of some HDTV's, so its rarely a "sure thing". And, most current TV's are doing away with VGA altogether almost as fast as they did with S-Video.

And the SLG 3000 will give you a "faux" sense of reduced ghosting due to what you said, it adds the scanlines, thus reducing the total amount of pixels seen, thereby "covering" the amount of pixels seen which would "ghost" or "blur" while in motion, but, you cannot see them anymore. Still its a fake effect and does not actually reduce the TV's response time at all. (Its just as fake as frameskipping, in the sense that frameskipping deludes you into thinking the game is running faster, but its actually not and instead is using a "fast-forward" function). If a person is using scanlines to "cover" up alot of motion blur, then at this point he might as well add more and more scanlines to cover up the whole darn screen and get rid of the blur altogether.....

Its all garbage to me. We never had ghosting or input lag (or pixelation) in older technology, and if this "so-called" better technology cannot at the very least match the old in all areas, then I don't want it. Sure the old CRT's are bulky, but, so is your couch, furniture, refrigerator, bed, recliner, and toilet. Until something better comes along, then the only way to perfectly emulate a CRT is to get one. I do however believe that maybe 5-10 years from now though we will have HDTV's with high enough contrast, dpi and resolution to allow us to show a convincing CRT shader.

This is NOT correct at all.
YOU NEED A LINE DOUBLER to connect your SLG to your TV.
The slg does NOT add Scanlines or covers up lines.
The needed scaler doubles the lines first before going into the slg.
It NOT A FILTER like the Mame crap.
it's hardware but fake.

You need to disable post processing on the vga input like on on any lcd/plasma.
If you cannot do that on your tv, it's not meant to display as a monitor.
Also a PC monitor with low respons time can also be used.

It outputs at 640x 480 p with the addition of the scanline effect.
Look for video's and explanations on the web. I do not have time to explain.
The SLG3000 is awesome but expensive and the best solution to get retro images on your LCD/plasma tv.

 

[nakata6790]

Tentative discussions about N64.

Oh wow... Be still, my beating heart!!!!!

BTW i just caught wind of what transcribed at the other thread (yes, sorry i am late), i gotta say i'm REALLY sad to see that happened. Maybe it is for the better, for the discussion to begin anew in the link ToadKing kindly provided.

 

[the_randomizer]

Oh wow... Be still, my beating heart!!!!!

BTW i just caught wind of what transcribed at the other thread (yes, sorry i am late), i gotta say i'm REALLY sad to see that happened. Maybe it is for the better, for the discussion to begin anew in the link ToadKing kindly provided.

What link?


Edit: Never mind

 

[nintygaming]

This is NOT correct at all.
YOU NEED A LINE DOUBLER to connect your SLG to your TV.
The slg does NOT add Scanlines or covers up lines.
The needed scaler doubles the lines first before going into the slg.
It NOT A FILTER like the Mame crap.
it's hardware but fake.

You need to disable post processing on the vga input like on on any lcd/plasma.
If you cannot do that on your tv, it's not meant to display as a monitor.
Also a PC monitor with low respons time can also be used.

It outputs at 640x 480 p with the addition of the scanline effect.
Look for video's and explanations on the web. I do not have time to explain.
The SLG3000 is awesome but expensive and the best solution to get retro images on your LCD/plasma tv.

Whooooaaaa easy there. I'm not trying to argue. I can see that the way I worded my previous posts made me appear to be snobby. I'm sorry for that.

And I did tell the truth about post-processing on VGA, some TV's have processing on it, others don't. Its a toss up. There's still going to be the digital delay due to the fact that pixel-based displays are digital in nature (CRT are analog in nature). And I also told the truth that you cannot get rid of ghosting (unless you start adding more RTC processing, which increases lag while reducing ghosting). I might not be perfectly aware of how the SLG3000 works in regards the "lines", but it literally cannot reduce your pixel response time as that is something done by the TV's circuit board and cannot be corrected. If your TV has 10ms pixel response, then your stuck with 10ms, its not going to get lower with any outside device.

TN pc monitors have the lesser amount of ghosting, but also have the worst picture quality of the 3 main types of panels (IPS, VA, TN) and that's not saying much in regards to a technology (LCD) that was never meant to be a TV tech to begin with. Truth is that unless LCD is redesigned from the ground up, then TV manufacturers will continue to tack on more and more digital post-processsing and RTC processing to hide LCD's ugly face, and they have literally been doing this since the first LCD TV's, as evidenced by the fact that input lag became worse and worse every year and now in 2013 is higher than its ever been, why? Because they have more digital post-processing than ever before. Why? Because its cheaper than redesigning LCD technology. And thus gamers are being screwed. Try playing the hardest levels of New Super Mario Bros. U on a laggy HDTV, or try playing the upcoming Wii-U Virtual Console Punch-Out!! Mr. Dream on a HDTV and you'll start to hate modern technology.

 

[groose]

how does the wiiU not like crt ? just plug in the wii cable into the wiiU and ta-da instant ol skool crt

now I also got an Issue to play some old mame games like donkey kong ect all work fine using the fba_ultra.dol thing is no matter what I do I cant get
burgertime
jr. pacman
pacman
mousetrap

to run at all and no idea why, as this emulator seems to play anything yet these 4 30 year old games are kicking my butt lol any help I would be thnkful

These games are currently not emulated by Final Burn Alpha upstream. Hence none of them will work in any of the RetroArch ports.
Your only option is MAME at the moment.

 

[papermanzero]

General question about Homecomputers.
Is the retroarch team going to port homecomputers as well?

MSX, Amiga, Commodore64 and Atari would be great. ^^

 

[Charco]

I don't think the developers will be posting here anymore unless it is to announce new releases. You can ask here:

http://forum.themaister.net/

I do know that SCUMMvm is planned for a future release so you can play old LucasArts point and click adventure games, not sure of home computer emulators though. I hope so.

 

[Tuddles]

These games are currently not emulated by Final Burn Alpha upstream. Hence none of them will work in any of the RetroArch ports.
Your only option is MAME at the moment.

think I well just build a cocktail with a 60 in 1 jamma board and relive my teen years lol

 

[Hielkenator]

Whooooaaaa easy there. I'm not trying to argue. I can see that the way I worded my previous posts made me appear to be snobby. I'm sorry for that.

And I did tell the truth about post-processing on VGA, some TV's have processing on it, others don't. Its a toss up. There's still going to be the digital delay due to the fact that pixel-based displays are digital in nature (CRT are analog in nature). And I also told the truth that you cannot get rid of ghosting (unless you start adding more RTC processing, which increases lag while reducing ghosting). I might not be perfectly aware of how the SLG3000 works in regards the "lines", but it literally cannot reduce your pixel response time as that is something done by the TV's circuit board and cannot be corrected. If your TV has 10ms pixel response, then your stuck with 10ms, its not going to get lower with any outside device.

TN pc monitors have the lesser amount of ghosting, but also have the worst picture quality of the 3 main types of panels (IPS, VA, TN) and that's not saying much in regards to a technology (LCD) that was never meant to be a TV tech to begin with. Truth is that unless LCD is redesigned from the ground up, then TV manufacturers will continue to tack on more and more digital post-processsing and RTC processing to hide LCD's ugly face, and they have literally been doing this since the first LCD TV's, as evidenced by the fact that input lag became worse and worse every year and now in 2013 is higher than its ever been, why? Because they have more digital post-processing than ever before. Why? Because its cheaper than redesigning LCD technology. And thus gamers are being screwed. Try playing the hardest levels of New Super Mario Bros. U on a laggy HDTV, or try playing the upcoming Wii-U Virtual Console Punch-Out!! Mr. Dream on a HDTV and you'll start to hate modern technology.

You can also connect to a proper crt monitor, to get scanlines from your Wii.
Remember not all CRT monitor support Lo-Res like 640 x 240. ( so no scanlines )
You could also use a normal PC LCD monitor to hook up your Wii.
Agreed you will get somepost processing depending on brand.
Most PROPER tv's have workarounds that disable these processings.
Same is true for CRT tv's though, buy the best you can.
I also own a Philips imageline 100Hz crt, you would NOT believe the input lag on that thing vs my LCD tv via VGA.
Wort of it all is that CRT has no option to turn processing off.Making any games unplayable.

If you own a PROPER LCD PLAMA TV and you want the scanline artifact as good as possible, get yourself a scaler( also to get the interlaced signal to progressive ) and the SLG3000. You will not believe the image quality you get with your beloved retro consoles, games.
Clean , crisp and razor sharp with NO noticable ghosting.