Homebrew RetroArch - A new multi-system emulator

[LibretroRetroArc]

All is well. I'm not mad or think bad of you in anyway for blowing up at me .......it happens you know?

Just for the record, let me clear something up here. If an issue keeps persisting in a new release - even if it was assumed to be fixed - would I be overstepping in any way whatsoever if I brought up the issue again (ie; mentioning that it was not fixed?)?

What is there to 'fix'?

That's the issue I have with these issues you keep bringing up - it's not that there is an obvious 'bug' here - it's just how the GX scaler does its thing with the specific 'width/height' you've used (ie. resolution).

There is no 'vertical scrolling' tearing on the PS3, the Xbox 1, or the 360. So all issues come back to the same thing - GX scaling artifacts. And we have included enough ways for you to mess around with width/height, overscan and so on so that you can configure it exactly the way you want it.

 

[Toad King]

All is well. I'm not mad or think bad of you in anyway for blowing up at me .......it happens you know?

Just for the record, let me clear something up here. If an issue keeps persisting in a new release - even if it was assumed to be fixed - would I be overstepping in any way whatsoever if I brought up the issue again (ie; mentioning that it was not fixed?)?

Probably, since we don't consider it an issue. It is impossible for the Wii to exactly output the same signal as a PC-Engine console, and while Wii Mednafen gets close, it's still a hack. We can try to emulate that hack, but neither of us really want to and would rather put our efforts towards other thing, like our other ports or other features.

 

[the_randomizer]

Wow you beat me to it! I hate sounding like an old fart, but I think emulators should be as accurate as possible, and I'm sure you would agree too. So basically you were able to compare Nestopia and FCEU and they both sounds identical?

Also, how long do you have to play FCEU on the Wii before the audio/video goes outta sync because I haven't noticed it yet?

FCEU has audio popping/desync issues on the Wii, regardless of how long any given amount of the time spent. Nestopia has no such video/audio issues aside from how the audio is sampled with the Wii and how it's outputted. Snes9x Next has a similar issue, but it's more likely to be resolved since it's APU-related and is a matter of pinpointing it. FCEU also has issues on Windows as I never got it to sync A/V right, but Nestopia isn't nearly as CPU intensive while being insanely accurate for NES emulation. As for recordings, I was going to record sound/music from the Windows version.

As for the whole RetroArch not being able to do X, keep in mind that the Wii CPU clock speed and PPC architecture have their weakness and as such, RetroArch cannot have 100% perfect emulation on the Wii. If/when the Wii U is fully hacked, then yeah. I give these two (LibretroRetroArch and ToadKing) the benefit of the doubt; they did valiantly to port over this emulator the Wii and considering how the CPU is the way it is, to achieve full speed in NES, SNES, many GBA games as well as arcade is something that shouldn't be tossed aside.

 

[nintygaming]

What is there to 'fix'?

That's the issue I have with these issues you keep bringing up - it's not that there is an obvious 'bug' here - it's just how the GX scaler does its thing with the specific 'width/height' you've used (ie. resolution).

There is no 'vertical scrolling' tearing on the PS3, the Xbox 1, or the 360. So all issues come back to the same thing - GX scaling artifacts.

At first I though it was only PCE Fast that had the 239p issue, but I just checked YS IV (a 239p SNES game) and the same issue happens there too (vertical tearing), so I'm certain that its a resolution issue and not an emulator specific issue. My conclusion is that 239p is not "true" 239, but possibly 237 or 234 due to the non-uniform shapes (If I'm off a little on this, please don't get mad, I'm only stating what I believe may be the problem).

And I agree about the issue not occurring on PS3 or Xbox 1/2, and I believe the reason why you don't have the issue on other consoles is because those consoles do not allow for 240p modes. In fact, if you set a 239p game to 480i/p filtered, the problem goes away on the Wii, and likewise it would on other consoles, and such is fine if you don't want to play in the games original resolution. The same mode works fine for SNES games that use it (like YS IV for example). I don't think this issue is in any way safe or form related to the R-Type graphical issue that the other person mentioned.

The reason why I brought it up again before you got angry was - and this is an honest mistake on my part - because I honestly thought that you knew that it wasn't related to the R-Type issue, that you knew that was a separate issue on its own......but it appears both of us got our signals crossed.

 

[nintygaming]

FCEU has audio popping/desync issues on the Wii, regardless of how long any given amount of the time spent...........

Oh wow I thought that ekeeke and tantric fixed that in the GX version last year or earlier. I recall it skipping every 10 or so seconds back then, but if its back again, then CRAP! I know that any SNES9x GX above 4.2.9 has a similar issue with audio crackling, and plus it got much slower. Don't know what went wrong there.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

At first I though it was only PCE Fast that had the 239p issue, but I just checked YS IV (a 239p SNES game) and the same issue happens there too (vertical tearing), so I'm certain that its a resolution issue and not an emulator specific issue. My conclusion is that 239p is not "true" 239, but possibly 237 or 234 due to the non-uniform shapes (If I'm off a little on this, please don't get mad, I'm only stating what I believe may be the problem).

Then get one of these people you were constantly emailing (Tantric, ekeeke, whatever) to tell me EXACTLY what YOU WANT US TO DO so we can implement it already and I don't have to hear about this BS ever again. And I don't want gamer 'guesstimations' now - exactly what needs to be done for this supposed 'ORIGINAL MODE'.

The reason why I brought it up again before you got angry was - and this is an honest mistake on my part - because I honestly thought that you knew that it wasn't related to the R-Type issue, that you knew that was a separate issue on its own......but it appears both of us got our signals crossed.

Oh, really? You knew it wasn't related to the R-Type issue? Then why bring it up again? I didn't even STATE in my CHANGELOG that I fixed your supposed issue, so why constantly bring it up? It obviously implies that you expected this to have already been fixed and that you were being rather impatient about it all.

 

[the_randomizer]

Oh wow I thought that ekeeke and tantric fixed that in the GX version last year or earlier. I recall it skipping every 10 or so seconds back then, but if its back again, then CRAP! I know that any SNES9x GX above 4.2.9 has a similar issue with audio crackling, and plus it got much slower. Don't know what went wrong there.

Didn't notice that in 4.3.0, but if it bothers you, stick with the version that worked. FCEU always had an issue with crackling, I thought they say it couldn't be fixed. Snes9x has core changes brought over from 1.53, which is more dramatic in CPU usage than 1.52, which is what Snes9x Next is based off of, and it's faster overall. Why don't you use Snes9x Next instead? I've never had any issues with random lockups and there are no slowdowns in Yoshi's Island at all.

 

[nintygaming]

Then get one of these people you were constantly emailing (Tantric, ekeeke, whatever) to tell me EXACTLY what YOU WANT US TO DO so we can implement it already and I don't have to hear about this BS ever again. And I don't want gamer 'guesstimations' now - exactly what needs to be done for this supposed 'ORIGINAL MODE'.

I brought it up again because you asked "What's there to fix?" So I answered in the nicest possible way.

And I don't know where your getting the idea that I'm constantly emailing those guys, unless these guys are just as easily pissed off for no apparent reason and are exaggerating things beyond their true proportions. I mean seriously....a few emails of me asking a few questions about how some things work constitutes "constantly"? Geez.

WOW I can see that I have offended you to the point of pure hatred. And if you think its just me who's noticed the problem, then think again - http://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-a-new-multi-system-emulator.333126/page-78#post-4536402

Just forget it. I'll just use Wii Mednafen for TG16 and SNES9x GX for 239p SNES games instead. I don't need all this swearing and cursing and insulting and flaming. You don't need to fix anything that you don't want to fix, and I sure as heck do NOT and will NOT make any demands for you to do so. Mentioning issues in this thread was a bad idea, because I figured that if you guys didn't want to fix something, then I would get a nice "Sorry, but not gonna fix it", which would have worked just fine and I would have NEVER brought it up again, but instead I get flamed. So just forget it.

 

[nintygaming]

Didn't notice that in 4.3.0, but if it bothers you, stick with the version that worked. FCEU always had an issue with crackling, I thought they say it couldn't be fixed. Snes9x has core changes brought over from 1.53, which is more dramatic in CPU usage than 1.52, which is what Snes9x Next is based off of, and it's faster overall. Why don't you use Snes9x Next instead? I've never had any issues with random lockups and there are no slowdowns in Yoshi's Island at all.

Oh I see, the audio issues started "after" 4.3.0. I should've said that Yoshi's Island ran faster in 4.2.9 than 4.3.0, that's where the mix up came from. So the slowdown issues basically started in 4.3.0, while the audio issues started in 4.3.1. Gotcha.

And yes I do use SNES9x Next. Its great!

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

I brought it up again because you asked "What's there to fix?" So I answered in the nicest possible way.

And I don't know where your getting the idea that I'm constantly emailing those guys, unless these guys are just as easily pissed off for no apparent reason and are exaggerating things beyond their true proportions. I mean seriously....a few emails of me asking a few questions about how some things work constitutes "constantly"? Geez.

WOW I can see that I have offended you to the point of pure hatred. And if you think its just me who's noticed the problem, then think again - http://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-a-new-multi-system-emulator.333126/page-78#post-4536402

Just forget it. I'll just use Wii Mednafen for TG16 and SNES9x GX for 239p SNES games instead. I don't need all this swearing and cursing and insulting and flaming. You don't need to fix anything that you don't want to fix, and I sure as heck will NOT make any demands for you to do so. Stating issues in this thread was a bad idea, because I figured that if you guys didn't want to fix something, then I would get a nice "Sorry, but not gonna fix it", which would have worked just fine and I would have NEVER brought it up again, but instead I get flamed. So just forget it.

Nice try playing the poor little victim here. I find it funny that the guy doing the harrassing wants to play this little game of getting his feelings hurt all of a sudden.

Just forget it. I'll just use Wii Mednafen for TG16 and SNES9x GX for 239p SNES games instead.

Please do - I can focus on more important things then that don't revolve around the needs of one single person on a message board in a scene that is growing more and more niche by every single day.

Priorities, my friend - you'll learn to love them when you have the amount of stuff I intend to get done for all these different platforms. Any other person would have basically shut down this talk a long time ago - I was nice enough to protract it for so long but even I have my limits.

 

[nintygaming]

Nice try playing the poor little victim here. I find it funny that the guy doing the harrassing wants to play this little game of getting his feelings hurt all of a sudden.

That was not my intentions if it came across that way. But the trolling on your part is completely unnecessary.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

That was not my intentions if it came across that way. But the trolling on your part is completely unnecessary.

Trolling: Being a prick on the internet because you can.

That is the definition of trolling. That does not constitute a guy who takes an entire day out of his weekend to provide you with yet another update to fix most of the outstanding bugs remaining, only to be told 'I hate to do this, but.... please look into this minuscule little issue I'm having with my 'double strike' mode blablabla'. That really just pisses somebody off - especially when focusing on this stuff means slipping up on other things I need to do, like releasing an Xbox 1/360 update and a new Android update. (which I didn't get to BTW - take one deep guess why).

Simply put, if you want this development process sped up - get involved in programming. I am doing the best I can and putting way too much time already in this project. If you feel like it isn't going fast enough and your specific quirk isn't being addressed, then HELP OUT by CODING. You'll find that I am a much more reasonable guy to user feedback than maister would EVER be - so consider yourself grateful that I'm even talking to you right now, because I know a lot of people who would have stopped at post #2. I consider as much user feedback valid as possible and I always try to see the logic in something a user says.

 

[nintygaming]

That is the definition of trolling. That does not constitute a guy who takes an entire day out of his weekend to provide you with yet another update to fix most of the outstanding bugs remaining, only to be told 'I hate to do this, but.... please look into this minuscule little issue I'm having with my 'double strike' mode blablabla'. That really just pisses somebody off - especially when focusing on this stuff means slipping up on other things I need to do, like releasing an Xbox 1/360 update and a new Android update. (which I didn't get to BTW - take one deep guess why).

Simply put, if you want this development process sped up - get involved in programming. I am doing the best I can and putting way too much time already in this project. If you feel like it isn't going fast enough and your specific quirk isn't being addressed, then HELP OUT by CODING.

Again, you have my sincere apologies.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Again, you have my sincere apologies.

OK then. It's not that I don't consider your input valid or that I discard it out of hand - it's just that I need to get the major stuff out of the door first.

We MIGHT look into this stuff later but it's not a huge priority right now. Fixing the outstanding bugs remaining in 0.9.8 was however.

That being said, if somebody can provide reasonable pull requests to do what you want this to do, then we could merge it.

Again, I don't have the time right now and just requesting this stuff any more makes me even more unreasonable.

 

[solidhit]

@libretroretroarc

Thank you for your time in replying to my post.

That's why it's called 'Debug text' - it's there so that I have some region of the screen where it reports useful stuff to me - with no regard paid to if it interferes with the rest of the menu. Regular users shouldn't even be using it anyway.

I will have to disagree only because the fps is there. I use the fps value every time before I decide to seriously play a game. If it is lower, higher or otherwise inconsistent than what is expected, I won't play the game.

Have you verified that the same ROMs work on FBA 0.2.97.28 on PC? I would try that first before reporting anything to me. I have gotten R-Type to run at least before.

I forgot to mention that. Yes, I have tested the same roms on PC FBA 0.2.97.28 and they work fine.

 

[Charco]

Tested Genplus GX core in the latest build and I am getting 26fps. Mega CD games give an error on loading. All work fine on normal Genplus GX app.

 

[solidhit]

@libretroretroarc

In my initial post I wrote:

I use a classic controller pro as my controller. I have noticed that if I start any game (any core) prior to connecting my ccp to my wiimote, the controller is not recognized. I have to press the home button followed by the minus, go to Controller #1 config and then choose another device then Classic Controller again and return to the game where the controller becomes operational.

and you answered:

This is normal - this is due to every core 'forcing' a unique input configuration. I think we might want a toggle for this so that people who want one shared input config for all cores can do that as well.

I should also add something that I noticed and I'm not sure if it's covered by your above response.
Right after I change the core, although I can see that Controller #1 is the Classic Controller, the first time I enter a game (even with the controller connected), I need to do what I wrote above to make it work.

From then on it works fine even if I restart Retroarch, until I change the core again.

 

[Disorarara]

Neo-Geo core still broken for me, trying to load one rom after another is still causes a black screen for me. Anyone else have this issue? Nobody seems to have reported it, also the title screens to Neo-Geo flicker when you insert coins, this isn't an issue at all but I don't think it should be doing that.

 

[tacodaemon]

I just want to add some thanks for the work that has been done on the Wii port of RetroArch. I've been following the emulation scene for the last 15 years, and this is first time I've been genuinely happy and gotten lost in the games of my childhood while testing instead of continually tweaking because it just feels so right. After all this time repeatedly configuring new emulator releases and being disappointed with PC versions for visual and input latency issues I couldn't overcome after investing a lot of time and money, I now have an incredibly responsive near-perfect way to play just about every game I care about in 240p. If compromises had to be made to make this possible, then I think you made the right ones. Thank you for the incredible work. I'm going to go play some games.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Tested Genplus GX core in the latest build and I am getting 26fps. Mega CD games give an error on loading. All work fine on normal Genplus GX app.

False positive. You have something like Rewind enabled then, because no way does it run at 26fps.

Fact - Rewind will be too slow on Wii for the vast majority of cores out there unless a core runs at (at least) double realtime. Genesis Plus GX is not one of them.

It might have been better leaving Rewind out altogether for Wii - although it is indeed handy for the NES cores and other cores that are at least 2x realtime.

For Mega CD you need the BIOS files inside the 'system' directory.