Homebrew RetroArch - A new multi-system emulator

[catuligbat]

For anybody had problems with neogeo as me
I found solution for mi case i dont have get all romset (i use emuparadise neogeo romset and works )
Only need neogeo bios for MAME 0.139

 

[gusmento01]

Great work Toad, I've been following some of your work since you posted the SdL Mame on Tehskeen.

 

[daxtsu]

Just out of curiosity, and this is a bit offtopic, but do you think the Wii has the CPU power to run a NEStopia core at a decent speed, Toad King? Or is it a bit too slow for that level of accuracy?

 

[the_randomizer]

I believe he praised the Wii CPU being more powerful than people give it credit, I would think Nestopia to be feasible; if a cycle-accurate Genesis emulator (which has pretty complex hardware) and run full speed...well you get the idea.

 

[daxtsu]

That's true. I'd love to see a Nestopia core/emulator for the Wii, in addition to FCEU.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

I believe he praised the Wii CPU being more powerful than people give it credit, I would think Nestopia to be feasible; if a cycle-accurate Genesis emulator (which has pretty complex hardware) and run full speed...well you get the idea.

I believe if you program only against one main CPU (like we do for pretty much most emus), you would find that the PS3/Xenon CPUs in practice are only about 20% faster than the Wii CPU.

I've ported the same code over to enough platforms by now to state this with confidence - the PS3 and 360 at 3.2GHz are only (at best - I would stress) 20% faster than the 729Mhz out-of-order Wii CPU without multithreading (and multithreading isn't a be-all end-all solution and isn't a 'one size fits all' magic wand either). That's pretty pathetic considering the vast differences in clock speed, the increase in L2/L1 cache and other things considered - even for in-order CPUs, they shouldn't be this abysmally slow and should be totally leaving the Wii in the dust by at least 50/70% difference - but they don't.

BTW - if you search around on some of the game development forums you can hear game developers talking amongst themselves about how crap the 360/PS3 CPUs were to begin with. They were crap from the very first minute the systems were launched - with MS hardware executives (according to some 360 'making of' book) allegedly freaking out when IBM told them they would be getting in-order CPUs for their new console - which caused them to place an order to have three 'cores' instead of one because one core would be totally pathetic (pretty much like the PS3 then where you only have one main processor and 6/7 highly specialized 'vector' SIMD CPUs that are very fast but also very low on individual RAM and essentially have to be able to do some heavy code weightlighting for you to gain anything). Without utilizing multithreading, you're essentially looking at the equivalent of Pentium 4-spec consoles that have to be helped along by lots of vector CPUs (SPUs) and/or reasonably mid-specced, highly programmable GPUs (which the Wii admittedly lacks).

 

[the_randomizer]

I believe he praised the Wii CPU being more powerful than people give it credit, I would think Nestopia to be feasible; if a cycle-accurate Genesis emulator (which has pretty complex hardware) and run full speed...well you get the idea.

I believe if you program only against one main CPU (like we do for pretty much most emus), you would find that the PS3/Xenon CPUs in practice are only about 20% faster than the Wii CPU.

I've ported the same code over to enough platforms by now to state this with confidence - the PS3 and 360 at 3.2GHz are only (at best) 20% faster than the Wii CPU without multithreading (and multithreading isn't a be-all end-all solution and isn't a 'one size fits all' magic wand either). That's pretty pathetic considering the vast differences in clock speed, the increase in L2/L1 cache and other things considered - even for in-order CPUs, they shouldn't be this abysmally slow and should be totally leaving the Wii in the dust by at least 50/70% difference - but they don't.

BTW - if you search around on some of the game development forums you can hear game developers talking amongst themselves about how crap the 360/PS3 CPUs were to begin with. They were crap from the very first minute the systems were launched. You're essentially looking at the equivalent of Pentium 4-spec consoles that have to be helped along by lots of vector CPUs (SPUs) and/or reasonably mid-specced, highly programmable GPUs (which the Wii admittedly lacks). Without utilizing multithreading - you're essentially looking at Pentium 4 2.4GHz-esque performance.

Just don't let the fanboys realize that fact. It's surprising and pathetic how anticlimactic those CPUs are when compared to the Wii; that along proves developers could have used a lot more of the hardware than they used.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

I believe he praised the Wii CPU being more powerful than people give it credit, I would think Nestopia to be feasible; if a cycle-accurate Genesis emulator (which has pretty complex hardware) and run full speed...well you get the idea.

I believe if you program only against one main CPU (like we do for pretty much most emus), you would find that the PS3/Xenon CPUs in practice are only about 20% faster than the Wii CPU.

I've ported the same code over to enough platforms by now to state this with confidence - the PS3 and 360 at 3.2GHz are only (at best) 20% faster than the Wii CPU without multithreading (and multithreading isn't a be-all end-all solution and isn't a 'one size fits all' magic wand either). That's pretty pathetic considering the vast differences in clock speed, the increase in L2/L1 cache and other things considered - even for in-order CPUs, they shouldn't be this abysmally slow and should be totally leaving the Wii in the dust by at least 50/70% difference - but they don't.

BTW - if you search around on some of the game development forums you can hear game developers talking amongst themselves about how crap the 360/PS3 CPUs were to begin with. They were crap from the very first minute the systems were launched. You're essentially looking at the equivalent of Pentium 4-spec consoles that have to be helped along by lots of vector CPUs (SPUs) and/or reasonably mid-specced, highly programmable GPUs (which the Wii admittedly lacks). Without utilizing multithreading - you're essentially looking at Pentium 4 2.4GHz-esque performance.

Just don't let the fanboys realize that fact. It's surprising and pathetic how anticlimactic those CPUs are when compared to the Wii; that along proves developers could have used a lot more of the hardware than they used.

To be fair though, game developers have learned to go multithreading heavy and games these days are all about fancy polygonal graphics models and post-processing shaders - stuff where lots of parallel SIMD processors and a fancy GPU are the main crux of the system - and the PS3/360 are capable there - so they've managed to work around the main CPU being so utterly weak. That and the fact that with HDTVs - most HDTVs cannot be guaranteed to have zero input lag so you don't have to worry about running your games at 60fps since you would cut out a large percentage of your potential audience because they wouldn't own a TV capable of handling the input to action response time to be able to play it properly - so what they do instead is run it at 30fps - which leaves enough wiggle room for even the worst HDTVs with lots of post-processing filters going on that slow down the response time.

It's for this reason you have seen such a surprising lack of rhythm action games as well this generation on 360/PS3 - something like Parappa or Space Channel 5 I mean.

 

[the_randomizer]

Ouch. That's sad, but I'm glad there are dedicated people such as yourself that take the time to program awesome emulators that take advantage of the Wii CPU.

 

[ZeroRamirez2701]

Does anyone has loading problems loading RetroArch? Mine is taking so long to load and in some cases,it doesn't load at all...

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

RetroArch Wii - SNES9x 1.53 mainline port

Some guy mentioned earlier he could not get Tales of Phantasia working on SNES9x Next.

He was right.

I should explain - SNES9x Next is a heavily edited and optimized version of SNES9x 1.52 - it was originally meant as a way to make most games playable at fullspeed on PS3 (hacks were required to make certain games run at fullspeed). These speed hacks also carry over well to the Wii as can be seen.

Even though I would recommend it over SNES9x mainline for playing on Wii, there might be cases where regressions might pop up in SNES9x Next that are not in SNES9x mainline - or perhaps the changes after 1.52 might make more games playable and/or with less glitches.

For that reason, I've also decided to make a quick port of SNES9x mainline - slower, but more accurate. This is the latest version right off the presses from github - with the byuu APU. This one will play Tales of Phantasia right now at least and will give me some breathing room to sort out the bug in SNES9x Next.

You can just install these files in the RetroArch directory on your SD card and it will automatically install this core. Also, IT WILL NOT OVERWRITE your pre-existing SNES9x Next core - it will be named differently - so you can select between the two SNES9x cores as you please.

Hopefully that is the best of both worlds. Just don't expect to be playing Yoshi's Island with SNES9x mainline at fullspeed and you should be good.

https://anonfiles.co...b02a3b3047844d9

ToadKing - go ahead and post this on the first post as well.

 

[catuligbat]

First thanks for your work again but if posible add psx core not matter have requires much machine but its a good idea for test, and last question mame core its avalaible for wii???

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Fisrt thanks for your work again but if posible add psx core not matter have requires much machine but its a good idea for test, and last question mame core its avalaible for wii???

There's no point to Mednafen PSX on Wii - it would be far, far too slow to be even remotely testable - you need a fast PC for it to be playable (Core 2 Duo+) because it renders the graphics with software rendering and the CPU core is interpreter-based (read: accurate but slow). We're better off with a port of PCSX-Rearmed together with some PPC dynarec if it ever comes to pass.

About MAME - I will be porting MAME 0.72 over to libretro - note - this is not the old iMAME4All which is based on MAME 0.36 and which I'm quite unsatisfied with.

The main thing I'm porting MAME 0.72 over to libretro for is to be able to play the Mortal Kombat/NBA Jam games at fullspeed. PS3/360 should be guaranteed on that front since they have enough RAM and the (ahem) horsepower. We'll see down the line whether there's enough RAM on the Wii for Mortal Kombat 3.

 

[catuligbat]

Thanks for your answer and maybe asking something more:

I see page libretro in github and appears another modules:

stella (atari 2600 ????) - yabause (saturn?????) - mednafen-pcfx (pc engine fx???) - mednafen-lynx (atari lynx????) - mednafen-vb (virtual boy???) - meteor (GBA)

And see another how bsnes, bnes

 

[Dogway]

Can someone confirm me if there's more lag using cordless controller? I kinda feel the GC controller to response better but I don't know.

 

[sabandellos]

Why isn't RetroArch on WiiBrew.org yet?

 

[the_randomizer]

Fisrt thanks for your work again but if posible add psx core not matter have requires much machine but its a good idea for test, and last question mame core its avalaible for wii???

There's no point to Mednafen PSX on Wii - it would be far, far too slow to be even remotely testable - you need a fast PC for it to be playable (Core 2 Duo+) because it renders the graphics with software rendering and the CPU core is interpreter-based (read: accurate but slow). We're better off with a port of PCSX-Rearmed together with some PPC dynarec if it ever comes to pass.

About MAME - I will be porting MAME 0.72 over to libretro - note - this is not the old iMAME4All which is based on MAME 0.36 and which I'm quite unsatisfied with.

The main thing I'm porting MAME 0.72 over to libretro for is to be able to play the Mortal Kombat/NBA Jam games at fullspeed. PS3/360 should be guaranteed on that front since they have enough RAM and the (ahem) horsepower. We'll see down the line whether there's enough RAM on the Wii for Mortal Kombat 3.

Make sense, and I believe emukidid is porting PCSX-rr (I think) under the name WiiSX, but there hasn't been a release for quite some time. I wonder if he dropped it without telling anyone.

 

[quepaso]

Does anyone have a working forwarding channel for retroarch yet?

 

[Hielkenator]

RetroArch Wii - SNES9x 1.53 mainline port

Some guy mentioned earlier he could not get Tales of Phantasia working on SNES9x Next.

He was right.

I should explain - SNES9x Next is a heavily edited and optimized version of SNES9x 1.52 - it was originally meant as a way to make most games playable at fullspeed on PS3 (hacks were required to make certain games run at fullspeed). These speed hacks also carry over well to the Wii as can be seen.

Even though I would recommend it over SNES9x mainline for playing on Wii, there might be cases where regressions might pop up in SNES9x Next that are not in SNES9x mainline - or perhaps the changes after 1.52 might make more games playable and/or with less glitches.

For that reason, I've also decided to make a quick port of SNES9x mainline - slower, but more accurate. This is the latest version right off the presses from github - with the byuu APU. This one will play Tales of Phantasia right now at least and will give me some breathing room to sort out the bug in SNES9x Next.

You can just install these files in the RetroArch directory on your SD card and it will automatically install this core. Also, IT WILL NOT OVERWRITE your pre-existing SNES9x Next core - it will be named differently - so you can select between the two SNES9x cores as you please.

Hopefully that is the best of both worlds. Just don't expect to be playing Yoshi's Island with SNES9x mainline at fullspeed and you should be good.

https://anonfiles.co...b02a3b3047844d9

ToadKing - go ahead and post this on the first post as well.

Thank you, ( and I'm that guy...)

Just a question: Why is the core used for NES emulation from fce ultra?
In my experience the nes emulation is faster ( more responsive controls and sound ) in wiimednafen.

Are there any precautions to be met in order to load cps1/2, neogeo roms?
PCE-cd is working prefectly with the bios files in the folder of the game you want to load btw..
Anyway the scaling option is a gift from heaven. Thank you
Just keeping my fingers crossen for scan line emulation!

 

[nakata6790]

Does anyone have a working forwarding channel for retroarch yet?

seconded

Is it feasible, what with the many .dol files and all?

PS. possible mame support? hooooooo boy