Emulation juggernaut RetroArch has been updated to a new version; 1.7.4. This new update brings about a wealth of new features, such as Discord integration, which allows you to show your playing status with what emulator and game you've currently got open. A 64-bit Android version has also been added to the Google Play Store, offering support for Dolphin, and causing some of the cores to run faster and have better performance. Also improved upon was the desktop UI for the program for Linux and Windows. You can drag and drop games in order to create a custom playlist of roms, and for those that appreciate visual effects, boxart support has been added to the frontend. This can be set to automatically grab thumbnails that you can click to play your titles, if you prefer that as to a list of names.

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More specific changes, such as being able to edit shader presets, and a feature for FreeSync/G-Sync users have also been implemented. With the latter, it can adapt to variable refresh rates supported by certain monitors. Lastly, there's a new cheat code search interface that overhauls the previous version and adds a more organized list to sort through.. You can check out the entire rundown of the update at Libretro's official site, below.

Source: Changelog
Download RetroArch

 

[DarthDub]

I hope they fixed the weird crashing bugs that I experienced a while back.

 

[Chary]

Boxart support is so great, finally!

 

[HEADBOY]

Out of curiosity, is there any difference between using the Dolphin core instead of the emulator on Google Play?

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Nice!!!! Looks a metric ton more user friendly!!! So grabbing this when I have the time.

 

[AlanJohn]

Installing RetroArch and using it for the first time ever blew me away. That professional Playstation-esque interface, and the ability to download ANY emulator you want right from the program itself amazed me. Gone were the days where I had to download each emulator individually, configure my PS4 controller manually and sometimes using third party addons/plugins just to make the game work. RetroArch just works (most of the time). Truly, this is the golden age of emulation.

 

[Sakitoshi]

Out of curiosity, is there any difference between using the Dolphin core instead of the emulator on Google Play?

retroarch usually adds huge overhead, this is fine for most retro emulators, but for resource heavy ones you really see how standalone emulators perform better than retroarch cores.

 

[KiiWii]

For some reason after scanning to add directory content for DC/AmstradCPC/Saturn and a few others I can’t seem to add them to the XMB.

Any idea why?

I’m sure they have to match a database or something, but all my N64 SNES/nes MD/32x and GC added fine...

 

[cvskid]

Does anyone know if any retroarch changes ever make it to anything other than windows, linux, mac, android, and ios?

 

[seren3]

Did they update the PS1 core for n3ds?

 

[foxtochop]

As I don't have any idea about it, I'll ask:

I have Retropie in a Raspberry Pi 3B+, it works with Retroarch. Do I have to/Can I update something now? How?

 

[Metoroid0]

Boxart support is so great, finally!

BoxArt was there before...what do you mean?

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retroarch usually adds huge overhead, this is fine for most retro emulators, but for resource heavy ones you really see how standalone emulators perform better than retroarch cores.

In my experience RetroArch preforms better in SNES emulation than stand alone SNES emulator (im talking about vita)

 

[Mark McDonut]

For some reason after scanning to add directory content for DC/AmstradCPC/Saturn and a few others I can’t seem to add them to the XMB.

Any idea why?

I’m sure they have to match a database or something, but all my N64 SNES/nes MD/32x and GC added fine...

some of them don't work, I found a good solution to this is using mark kidd's retroarch playlist buddy from here - https://github.com/markwkidd/ahk-retroarch-playlist-helpers/releases/tag/a3923ee

it lets you do an offline outside of retroarch scrape of games and it creates playlists you drag and drop into the playlist folder in retroarch.

works great for retroarch on wiiu and ps3 too, just adjust paths.

 

[KiiWii]

some of them don't work, I found a good solution to this is using mark kidd's retroarch playlist buddy from here - https://github.com/markwkidd/ahk-retroarch-playlist-helpers/releases/tag/a3923ee

it lets you do an offline outside of retroarch scrape of games and it creates playlists you drag and drop into the playlist folder in retroarch.

works great for retroarch on wiiu and ps3 too, just adjust paths.

Thanks will check it out, need to also make sure I’m using the 64bit version on Nvidia shield tv....

 

[Attila13]

Meh...I was hoping that there will be some improvements on the PS3 version....but nope...it's still the utter thrash as it was before...at least for me it works like garbage...
I don't use it on other platforms, so I can't comment on those...

 

[Mark McDonut]

Thanks will check it out, need to also make sure I’m using the 64bit version on Nvidia shield tv....

the version only matters for what pc you're running it on, not the target retroarch device, you can adjust paths to match what the android/linux directory structures will look like, only REAL prereq is making sure you name your rom folders the same before you drag them over to the relative paths pm your retroarch device. playlist buddy is kind of a run once tool unless you're updating your rom libraries.

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Meh...I was hoping that there will be some improvements on the PS3 version....nut nope...it's still the utter thrash as it was before...at least for me it works like garbage...
I don't use it on other platforms, so I can't comment on those...

are you using the bios files for your emulators? I find it works much smoother with official bioses enabled, I play GBA and Sega Genesis games pretty well on my ps3.

 

[Bernhard]

Nice progress!!! haha hope to play dolphin core on switch soon

 

[Ericthegreat]

How does it work compared to using the best individual emulators?

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah, I can't figure out how to use the new GUI, there's no option for it.

 

[bennyman123abc]

I hope they fixed the weird crashing bugs that I experienced a while back.

I only got those on Linux, and not even the latest commit fixes the crashing bug. It's been around for as long as I can remember.