Homebrew RetroArch Switch

[m4xw]

Oh, funny that Switch can't handle emulation of PS1 games but my phone can. Thank you anyway.

It runs on interpreter + sw rendered.
It's a testimony to the code base that we can even get 60 fps for *most* games lol.
Just for example, same core on lakka, all sw rendered + dynarec is like 550fps compared to ~59.
Dynarec does a lot

 

[regnad]

THIS PAGE should have everything you need. If you get stuck, post back and I'll try and help you out.

Thank you very much!

So I need to make playlists first, right? For RetroArch Playlist Scanner I assume I need to go online with the Switch, right? My Switch is permantly offline, so I probably need to use a third party utility. What should I use?

 

[minomore]

Use retroarch playlists buddy it's a pretty easy program to use

 

[ShadowOne333]

Dropping by just to mention that thumbnails in the Ozone theme for RetroArch is now possible thanks to the efforts by natinusala
Grab the latest nightly, and be sure to update your assets just in case

 

[masterbuzzsaw]

I have a question...

I want to install RetroArch on my Switch, but I fear accidentally banning myself from online, and I simply don't have the money right now for another Switch. So, let me ask, if I were to mod my Switch, install RetroArch, and go back to OFW via online update back to v7.0.1, would RetroArch still work???

I know this all sounds stupid, but I have RetroArch currently running on my Wii U and I had to update it so I could access the shop at the time, and the HBC and RetroArch all still worked after that. Weird I know! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[IHOP]

I have a question...

I want to install RetroArch on my Switch, but I fear accidentally banning myself from online, and I simply don't have the money right now for another Switch. So, let me ask, if I were to mod my Switch, install RetroArch, and go back to OFW via online update back to v7.0.1, would RetroArch still work???

I know this all sounds stupid, but I have RetroArch currently running on my Wii U and I had to update it so I could access the shop at the time, and the HBC and RetroArch all still worked after that. Weird I know! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

No, in order to run homebrew applications you must be on a CFW. You could always make a NAND backup of your clean switch, install retroarch and keep on airplane mode and then reinstall the clean NAND/update when done.

 

[hallo23]

Dropping by just to mention that thumbnails in the Ozone theme for RetroArch is now possible thanks to the efforts by natinusala
Grab the latest nightly, and be sure to update your assets just in case

My GBA thumbnails that worked fine in xmb don't show up at all in Ozone.
The other ones are fine.
Wonder why.

 

[ShadowOne333]

My GBA thumbnails that worked fine in xmb don't show up at all in Ozone.
The other ones are fine.
Wonder why.

Haven't tried it out myself yet
So I can't help with that, but try to double check the path in which the thumbnails are located, and also the playlists files as well, check that the path written in the playlists files is the correct one.

 

[hallo23]

Haven't tried it out myself yet
So I can't help with that, but try to double check the path in which the thumbnails are located, and also the playlists files as well, check that the path written in the playlists files is the correct one.

Ok I just checked natinusala's twitter and it seems like it's a known problem for GBA playlists atm.

But what I also noticed is that the rom name and the label name have to be identical for thumbnails to work.
Don't know if this is intentional.
I hoped the label would be handeld separately so you would only need to have the same thumbnail/rom name so you could freely change the label without changing the rom name too.
But I can work with it

 

[FanboyKilla]

Thank you very much!

So I need to make playlists first, right? For RetroArch Playlist Scanner I assume I need to go online with the Switch, right? My Switch is permantly offline, so I probably need to use a third party utility. What should I use?

Absolutely not. You can make playlists offline no problem. You can use the "Scan Directory" feature in RetroArch which will use an internal database to compare your ROMS and create your playlists. The only problem is if the CRC of your don't match up in the database, then they won't show up in the playlists. In that case you can use a 3rd party playlist builder to build your playlists, or you can manually do it yourself.

 

[linkenski]

Regarding the SVC thing for Mupen... I had this Hekate 4.6 SVC build file, but last I used it I couldn't run AMS on 7.0.1, it just booted to a black screen; does Mupen run at higher speeds on Hekate 4.8 too? (the one I'm currently using?)

 

[stick267]

Regarding the SVC thing for Mupen... I had this Hekate 4.6 SVC build file, but last I used it I couldn't run AMS on 7.0.1, it just booted to a black screen; does Mupen run at higher speeds on Hekate 4.8 too? (the one I'm currently using?)

All Hekate versions after 4.6 have the SVC stuff implemented. I also believe that the SVC stuff is built right into the latest Atmosphere version as well.

 

[minomore]

Here's a quick one. i've tried to enable cheats on RA but no matter the game the cheats either don't work or they crash the game.... any thoughts as to my dilemma

thanks

 

[regnad]

Absolutely not. You can make playlists offline no problem. You can use the "Scan Directory" feature in RetroArch which will use an internal database to compare your ROMS and create your playlists. The only problem is if the CRC of your don't match up in the database, then they won't show up in the playlists. In that case you can use a 3rd party playlist builder to build your playlists, or you can manually do it yourself.

I'm having some odd problems. I used scan directory, and as you'd expect most, but not all, ROMs were added to playlists. Strangely scanning the Gameboy Color folder resulted in just one game on the list despite quite a few games being in the folder, but this only happened with GBC. Most others had only a few that weren't added.

I seem to be unable to add more to lists. I edited the lpl file with Notepad++, copying and pasting another entry and just editing the name.

Also I can't seem to add thumbnails. I downloaded the RA thumbnail database images and added them as it says in your link, but they don't show up.

 

[FanboyKilla]

I'm having some odd problems. I used scan directory, and as you'd expect most, but not all, ROMs were added to playlists. Strangely scanning the Gameboy Color folder resulted in just one game on the list despite quite a few games being in the folder, but this only happened with GBC. Most others had only a few that weren't added.

I seem to be unable to add more to lists. I edited the lpl file with Notepad++, copying and pasting another entry and just editing the name.

Also I can't seem to add thumbnails. I downloaded the RA thumbnail database images and added them as it says in your link, but they don't show up.

Yes, unfortunately this is a common problem and it happened to me as well. The reason why is because RetroArch uses an internal database to "verify" your ROM's. So when it's searching thru your folders, it doesn't actually look at the "filename" but instead it does a "CRC" check and then compares that value to see if it corresponds to one that's in the database. If it finds a match then it will know exactly what ROM that is and it will add it to your playlist along with all the info.

The only way to workaround this is to edit your playlists manually, or to use one of the playlist builder apps floating around. I actually ended up making a batch script to build my playlists, but I did test out these two Playlist Builders and they both seem to work pretty well.

Playlist Buddy

Playlist Manager

I would suggest downloading both of them and playing around with both and decide for yourself. I didn't really spend a lot of time testing them out because like I said before, I ended up just making a batch script to build my playlists.

And when you add thumbnails to RetroArch, they have to be added to a specific folder structure that corresponds to your playlist, and the filename of the "thumbnail" image, needs to be exactly the same as the filename of the "ROM".

For example: Zelda, Ocarina of Time

This ROM is located on my SD Card at...
/Games/Nintendo 64/Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time.z64

The thumbnail image is located on my SD Card at...
retroarch/thumbnails/Nintendo - Nintendo 64/Named_Boxarts/Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time.png

The thumbnail has to have the EXACT same filename as the ROM.

And one other little issue that you MIGHT run into, if you have ROM's that have a filename that contains a & character, then you have to use an underscore in the "thumbnail" filename instead.

Example..
ROM: Toejam & Earl.gen
Thumbnail: Toejam _ Earl.gen

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[sj33]

Yes, unfortunately this is a common problem and it happened to me as well. The reason why is because RetroArch uses an internal database to "verify" your ROM's. So when it's searching thru your folders, it doesn't actually look at the "filename" but instead it does a "CRC" check and then compares that value to see if it corresponds to one that's in the database. If it finds a match then it will know exactly what ROM that is and it will add it to your playlist along with all the info.

The only way to workaround this is to edit your playlists manually, or to use one of the playlist builder apps floating around. I actually ended up making a batch script to build my playlists, but I did test out these two Playlist Builders and they both seem to work pretty well.

Playlist Buddy

Playlist Manager

I would suggest downloading both of them and playing around with both and decide for yourself. I didn't really spend a lot of time testing them out because like I said before, I ended up just making a batch script to build my playlists.

And when you add thumbnails to RetroArch, they have to be added to a specific folder structure that corresponds to your playlist, and the filename of the "thumbnail" image, needs to be exactly the same as the filename of the "ROM".

For example: Zelda, Ocarina of Time

This ROM is located on my SD Card at...
/Games/Nintendo 64/Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time.z64

The thumbnail image is located on my SD Card at...
retroarch/thumbnails/Nintendo - Nintendo 64/Named_Boxarts/Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time.png

The thumbnail has to have the EXACT same filename as the ROM.

And one other little issue that you MIGHT run into, if you have ROM's that have a filename that contains a & character, then you have to use an underscore in the "thumbnail" filename instead.

Example..
ROM: Toejam & Earl.gen
Thumbnail: Toejam _ Earl.gen

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

That’s great info, thanks. Might explain why half of my N64 games are not being detected. The CRC thing is particularly frustrating if using translated roms.

 

[MrRevocs]

the audio keeps cracking on retroarch, is there any way to get rid of it?

 

[the_randomizer]

the audio keeps cracking on retroarch, is there any way to get rid of it?

Could be a buffer setting needs to be changed. Can you change the buffer size to 64, 96, or 112 ms to see if it helps?

 

[MrRevocs]

Could be a buffer setting needs to be changed. Can you change the buffer size to 64, 96, or 112 ms to see if it helps?

By the way it only happens on the Sega Genesis core, the rest seem fine

 

[the_randomizer]

By the way it only happens on the Sega Genesis core, the rest seem fine

That's weird, very weird, still, um. Hmm.