Homebrew RetroArch - A new multi-system emulator

[LibretroRetroArc]

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.

That is the case yes. I don't think it's broken at all - I didn't change one single line of code in FBACores Neo - it's simply how the current codebase (on FBA 0.2.97.28) happens to work. Just 'restart' the core after loading a ROM. The Neo Core is one big WIP at this point anyway until virtual memory has been added.

Regarding the flickering: it's probably just the specific 'resolution' you've selected.

 

[Charco]

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.

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

You were right on both counts, thanks for this. I'll make sure to troubleshoot more before I report any issues in future.

 

[the_randomizer]

*Burninated*

 

[nakata6790]

Reading issues on the last pages about arcade games, makes me wonder.

I simply use Fba core and i can play ALL CPS2 games and ALL neogeo games smaller than 23MB. I posted a list on page 39 of about 500 games that work.
There are about 150 fba games that don't work yet (again a list in page 61 iirc) , but seeing that the original fba updates have growing memory requirements i think Wii have it as good as it gets for that core. So that;s that.
(BTW hyper street fighter and cotton are working now with cps2 core and new fba core)


All in all, personal thoughts on RA
GenPlus GX: Perfect for me (yeah 32X would be nice but i don't think it's possible, and not important games library tbh)
SNES9X Next: Perfect for me
Vbanext: pretty good for most games, but given Wii's hardware this is the best possible atm. IDK about gpsp, i hope a port is feasible on 0.9.9 or later. I complement this one with WiiMednafen which uses speed hacks for some games like Metroid Zero Mission etc.
FCEUM GX: Perfect for me. (I use FCE GX for lightgun IR support for a couple of games)
PCE Fast: I use it for PCE CD games, no issue so far. I use WiiMednafen for cart games.
Gambatte: Great! Palletes are an issue, but not if you use the previous core which is what i do.

Honestly, RA is really close to ultimate for me bar:
-IDK if we could have a core remember a specific directory for it.
-IF possible, Neo geo core for large ROMS. If not, not a big deal we already have 180+ neogeo working games AND there are official releases and injects of large neo geo games on VC (Last Blade 1,2, Prehistoric Isle 2, Sengoku 3, Shock Troopers 2, all the Metal Slugs etc). Only missing ones so far are Garou, SVC and Matrimelee but i have a DS for those.
- Mame 0.72 for some games like xsleena, snowbros and some lightgun games.
- Full name display for roms if possible
- Aforementioned gpsp core, IF possible
- Memory leaks although this is an issue from the original PC cores. I am now familiar with the size of my roms and already manually restart when i calculate i exceeded 23mb so no big deal either.

And there you have it. The devs have done so much already, even if there were no other improvements RA Wii is awesome.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

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?

I can confirm that. I think it's memory related, like FBA.

@libretroretroarc:
One feature that I seriously miss, is to be able to save the rom path for each core, and possibly resolution/aspect ratio. It would be a great improvement for usability.
Is it possible in Retroarch?

 

[Charco]

If Genplus GX is running too slow, use the standalone version. It's not that hard to do.

Seriously, this has gone on far enough and it needs to stop. It doesn't matter how it started, but it has to stop, it's nothing but a trivial argument at this point.
Why can't there be more rational people like you. RetroArch isn't perfect yes, so they should give the developers the benefit of the doubt and stop the bickering. It's childish and make people look immature. I don't care how it starts, it shouldn't begin in the first place. I came to this thread to read information on RetroArch Wii, not to get involved with a trivial argument.

But the issue was resolved, not sure what you are getting at here, and if you came here to read information and not get involved with a trivial argument, why are you saying this when there was no argument to begin with. I'll take it that you simply didn't read the previous posts.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

But the issue was resolved, not sure what you are getting at here, and if you came here to read information and not get involved with a trivial argument, why are you saying this when there was no argument to begin with. I'll take it that you simply didn't read the previous posts.

We should probably put up a big warning when enabling the rewind feature that if it runs below realtime on next startup, you should disable it for that specific core.

 

[the_randomizer]

Okay, I digress, I didn't read them thoroughly enough. Disregard the posts.

Time for me to make like a hockey player and get the puck out.

 

[solidhit]

@libretroretroarc

The Neo Core is one big WIP at this point anyway until virtual memory has been added.

What?

You have plans to support virtual memory, like in windows that expand the available RAM using disk space?

Please, could you elaborate a bit on that...

1. What will that make possible?
2. Is it planned for the near or not so near future?
3. Will it be so difficult to implement that it will require a long testing period?
4. Anything else?

 

[Charco]

Yep, works great now and I agree, if there are negative results from using it for a specific core, it should be removed.

Also, while we are on the subject of usability, I think the Core option should be at the top of the menu.

Edit: @the randomizer No problem at all man. I recommend HHLPA 93

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

@libretroretroarc



What?

You have plans to support virtual memory, like in windows that expand the available RAM using disk space?

Please, could you elaborate a bit on that...

1. What will that make possible?
2. Is it planned for the near or not so near future?
3. Will it be so difficult to implement that it will require a long testing period?
4. Anything else?

It's probably only going to be useful for select cores like Neo Geo. It has been done before on Xbox 1 to great success - not sure how much slower SD read speeds are compared to the Xbox 1's 5400rpm IDE HDD, but hopefully it will be similarly successful on here.

 

[the_randomizer]

I would think using virtual memory would wear the flash memory/NAND out faster.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

I would think using virtual memory would wear the flash memory/NAND out faster.

Wii64 uses virtual memory as well so the same rule would apply there then.

 

[the_randomizer]

Wii64 uses virtual memory as well so the same rule would apply there then.

Yikes, make senses though, hence the "loading ROM fully/partially into MEM2". Speaking of which, Wii 64 is dead, but that's another story. I'll stick with RetroArch Wii thank you.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Yikes, make senses though, hence the "loading ROM fully/partially into MEM2". Speaking of which, Wii 64 is dead, but that's another story. I'll stick with RetroArch Wii thank you.

MEM2 is the second RAM segment of the Wii. It's not virtual memory at least.

Here's a post explaining how it works for Wii64 -

http://emulatemii.com/wordpress/?p=119

If I am correct, TLB is a register/buffer located on most CPUs to allow the use of virtual memory. In this case, the game cartridge would be used as virtual memory. Since the game cartridge’s contents (ROM) are normally rather large (12MB+), they cannot be stored in the Wii/GC’s MEM1 (the fast, smaller amount of RAM), they have to be executed directly from the storage device that is attached to the Wii (SD, SDHC, USB Flash, USB HDD) or stored in some other (large) device/area/RAM, like the Wii/GC’s MEM2 (the slower, larger amount of RAM).

MEM1 is for lack of a better term the Gamecube RAM segment, whereas MEM2 is the additional Wii segment of memory.

I think for some games they execute some dynarec code on the SD card. Then again, I haven't really looked at Wii64's sourcecode but this is what it appears to be.

 

[the_randomizer]

MEM2 is the second RAM segment of the Wii. It's not virtual memory at least.

Here's a post explaining how it works for Wii64 -

http://emulatemii.com/wordpress/?p=119



MEM1 is for lack of a better term the Gamecube RAM segment, whereas MEM2 is the additional Wii segment of memory.

At least Ocarina of TIme (256Mbit/32MB) uses virtual memory - I suspect they allocate too much already in MEM1/MEM2 for that to fit in MEM2.

Heh, so much I know. I'm just going to go now since my being here is just as welcome as a skunk at a picnic. First I make accusatory statements about arguments that never happened, and just now I make noob assumptions on how emulators works. Good day. I've bothered you enough with my trivial reports on tinny sound "issues", so I beg you my leave.

 

[Disorarara]

I was actually going to ask about virtual memory, if it's implemented in some way it could be possible to get a CPS3 core on the Wii?

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

I was actually going to ask about virtual memory, if it's implemented in some way it could be possible to get a CPS3 core on the Wii?

I could experiment with it but there's no telling how good performance is going to be. At least with Neo Geo we know it can work decently but that's probably an isolated example.

 

[solidhit]

@libretroretroarch

Since my first post I wanted to report a bug that is very difficult to tell when it occurs. I couldn't make it happen intentionally so I just skipped any mention of it. It was there on 0.9.8, 0.9.8.1 and now on 0.9.8.2.

It happened again just a few minutes ago...

I turned on the wii, ran retroarch, used the snes9x core to load two games. I let each run in demo mode for a couple of hours, I didn't play at all. Then I wanted to play a game in FBA. I switched the core, went to change resolution from 640x576i to 320x240. The moment the resolution mode went below 640x448i the screen got garbled and it could only be fixed by selecting 640x448i or above.

From then on, the emulator became very slow. Exited the emulator to the homebrew channel and the homebrew channel was also slow. Exited the homebrew channel to the wii menu and the wii menu was slow. The only solution was to shutdown wii and turn it on again. Then everything worked as usual.

It has happened before with different cores so it can't be core related. I've tried in the past to repeat the error but I couldn't. I'll try again but the only thing that I didn't try in the past was to let a core play for hours before switching cores and messing with the resolution.

Now that I finished writing this, I wonder if I should post it ... oh well ...

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

@libretroretroarch

Since my first post I wanted to report a bug that is very difficult to tell when it occurs. I couldn't make it happen intentionally so I just skipped any mention of it. It was there on 0.9.8, 0.9.8.1 and now on 0.9.8.2.

It happened again just a few minutes ago...

I turned on the wii, ran retroarch, used the snes9x core to load two games. I let each run in demo mode for a couple of hours, I didn't play at all. Then I wanted to play a game in FBA. I switched the core, went to change resolution from 640x576i to 320x240. The moment the resolution mode went below 640x448i the screen got garbled and it could only be fixed by selecting 640x448i or above.

From then on, the emulator became very slow. Exited the emulator to the homebrew channel and the homebrew channel was also slow. Exited the homebrew channel to the wii menu and the wii menu was slow. The only solution was to shutdown wii and turn it on again. Then everything worked as usual.

It has happened before with different cores so it can't be core related. I've tried in the past to repeat the error but I couldn't. I'll try again but the only thing that I didn't try in the past was to let a core play for hours before switching cores and messing with the resolution.

Now that I finished writing this, I wonder if I should post it ... oh well ...

It could be that it was simply not a wise decision to add those resolutions. Not sure if I should take it all out. Alternatively, we could simply take out some of the odd ones that don't make any sense anyway with how the GX scaler works.

Anyway, I'm not going to mess around with this shit anymore until Eke-Eke (or somebody else with some experience in Wii homebrew coding) can take a good look at it and tell me whether my current approach is doing it totally wrong or not (it doesn't help again that there is zero free documentation, and yes, the only way to get the 'real documentation' it seems is to get the SDK docs from the 'Revolution SDK' - which tells you all you need to know about where all this stuff came from in the first place). Not going to make any more guesstimations or worked up over it - I have other stuff to do right now.

Also, you're sure you just don't have rewinding on? Though if you say it affects HBC too it can't be that.