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RETROARCH - The all-in-one emulator dreams are made of, son

I

Insert Disk Two

Member
tomwhite2004 said:
An i5 is overkill for those systems, generally you should go for the best single thread performance as most emulators only run on a single core. I have an i3-6320 and it runs absolutely everything I have thrown at it so far with ease (including Dolphin and PCSX2) and the newly released i3-7350k has absolutely beastly single thread performance. The gtx 1050 will be fine for any shader you need. And btw swap out fba for mame, its far superior, fba only advantage is that its less intensive on the cpu but is far less accurate as a result and shouldn't be a consideration considering todays cpu performance.

For reference:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, I will got for the i3-7350k then :) - and will leave the gtx 1050.

I prefer FBA for MAME for the (single reason) that it runs all games at exactly 60FPS so games do not get any stuttering. If there is a similar option in MAME, I would gladly switch :) ?
 
T

tomwhite2004

Member
Everblue said:
Thanks a lot, I will got for the i3-7350k then :) - and will leave the gtx 1050.

I prefer FBA for MAME for the (single reason) that it runs all games at exactly 60FPS so games do not get any stuttering. If there is a similar option in MAME, I would gladly switch :) ?
Click to expand...

The one caveat to this is that if at any time you plan to play modern games then the i5 or i7 will be the better option as they love those extra cores.

I must admit that I had no idea FBA locked or slightly sped everything up to an exact 60hz refresh. Yeah, I doubt that mame has this option as it would not be in keeping with the projects aims for accuracy, it can be annoying on some things like neogeo shadows flickering but in general I am able to live with it. FBA is ok but I always felt its game selection to be rather limited (although still huge) compared to mame.
 
I

Insert Disk Two

Member
tomwhite2004 said:
The one caveat to this is that if at any time you plan to play modern games then the i5 or i7 will be the better option as they love those extra cores.

I must admit that I had no idea FBA locked or slightly sped everything up to an exact 60hz refresh. Yeah, I doubt that mame has this option as it would not be in keeping with the projects aims for accuracy, it can be annoying on some things like neogeo shadows flickering but in general I am able to live with it. FBA is ok but I always felt its game selection to be rather limited (although still huge) compared to mame.
Click to expand...

This PC will be exclusively put inside an arcade cabinet, so no modern games :) - The irony is that the i3 you suggested costs more than an i5.

Games like Shadow Dancer have heavy stuttering in MAME because it runs quite off (57hz I think). So being able to lock the game at 60hz in FBA is a godsend.
 
T

tomwhite2004

Member
Everblue said:
This PC will be exclusively put inside an arcade cabinet, so no modern games :) - The irony is that the i3 you suggested costs more than an i5.

Games like Shadow Dancer have heavy stuttering in MAME because it runs quite off (57hz I think). So being able to lock the game at 60hz in FBA is a godsend.
Click to expand...

Which i5 are you looking at as it shouldn't be more expensive? If its an i5-7600k or an i5-7600 then those will both still give you more than enough performance to run what you want. Those i5s are both better at single threaded performance than my processor and that used to be only beatable by an i7 before this gen of Kaby lake came out.

I noticed the stutter mainly on the Seibu Kaihatsu games as I'm a real big fan of the Raiden series but find once I'm absorbed in the action it doesn't bother me too much. However I'm now going to have to set up FBA to try it for myself!
 
T

tomwhite2004

Member
Everblue said:
Well, I was looking at this one:

https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B010T6CG7E/

I justed tested Raiden DX and Raiden II in FBA and its perfect =)
Click to expand...

That i5 has a single thread benchmark of 1831. When I was building my PC like you was told that a score of at least 2000 was necessary to run stuff like PCSX2 and Dolphin or general emulation to an acceptable level, ie most of the non cpu intensive games work well with it. So as you can see its quite a way off that score.

I don't think that cpu would be great for the recent Sega Saturn Mednafen core in Retroarch or for the bsnes / higan core either.

Looking at the list of benchmarks the i3-7300 @4ghz and the i3-7320 @4.10ghz are still both amazing, you really cant go wrong with any of the Kaby lake i3 line, but its pretty amazing to see the i3-7350k beat an i7!
 
L

Lettuce

Member
Everblue said:
Hi guys, I would like to build a PC to put inside an arcade cabinet running Retroarch. I am mostly interested in FB Alpha Roms/Megadrive/PC Engine/SNES running some nifty shaders. I was thinking of getting an i5 with a GTX 1050. Would that be overkill (I don't want to overspend for the project)?

Feel free to suggest a suitable (cheaper is better as long as it works just as fine for the job) setups :)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Get a RPi3 or if you want something with a bit more performance get a PC on a Stick device
 
L

Lettuce

Member
Depends what shaders your after so RPi3 might be out of the question, or though there is a CRT_Pi shader that im happy with that i use.

I used to have one of those Intel NUC systems that handled all shaders i threw at it, which would probably set you back about £200-250
 
A

Awakened

Member
Everblue said:
I prefer FBA for MAME for the (single reason) that it runs all games at exactly 60FPS so games do not get any stuttering. If there is a similar option in MAME, I would gladly switch :) ?
Click to expand...
I thought RetroArch's dynamic rate control did this for MAME too. Have you tested both cores, or were you comparing stand alone MAME and FBA?
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
tomwhite2004 said:
That i5 has a single thread benchmark of 1831. When I was building my PC like you was told that a score of at least 2000 was necessary to run stuff like PCSX2 and Dolphin or general emulation to an acceptable level, ie most of the non cpu intensive games work well with it. So as you can see its quite a way off that score.

I don't think that cpu would be great for the recent Sega Saturn Mednafen core in Retroarch or for the bsnes / higan core either.

Looking at the list of benchmarks the i3-7300 @4ghz and the i3-7320 @4.10ghz are still both amazing, you really cant go wrong with any of the Kaby lake i3 line, but its pretty amazing to see the i3-7350k beat an i7!
Click to expand...

Eh, my FX6300 seems do to well with PS2/Gamecube/Wii and Higan as well, don't see how an i5 would have issue? I do run into issues with Higan if I use MSU-1 hacked titles, which does result in some audio crackling, but other than that it works fine.
Of course there's some weirdness, like Metroid Prime 2 running much better than 1. 1 has like a few rooms that just chug like ass lol.
 
TheMadMan007

TheMadMan007

Member
Anyone else having problems with the quickmenu and the Xbox guide button? I updated to 1.5.0 and now I can not push the xbox guide button to pop up the quick menu.
 
Palom

Palom

Member
TheMadMan007 said:
Anyone else having problems with the quickmenu and the Xbox guide button? I updated to 1.5.0 and now I can not push the xbox guide button to pop up the quick menu.
Click to expand...
Are you able to set the button in the input config? (Input -> Input Hotkey Binds -> Menu Toggle) If you're on Windows 10, you might need to disable the Xbox app from hijacking that button. I just opened up the app on my system and noticed it updated itself and re-enabled the setting. In the Xbox app, click on Settings, and on the General tab, uncheck "Show game streaming on Home".
 
TheMadMan007

TheMadMan007

Member
Palom said:
Are you able to set the button in the input config? (Input -> Input Hotkey Binds -> Menu Toggle) If you're on Windows 10, you might need to disable the Xbox app from hijacking that button. I just opened up the app on my system and noticed it updated itself and re-enabled the setting. In the Xbox app, click on Settings, and on the General tab, uncheck "Show game streaming on Home".
Click to expand...

I disabled it before, checked, it was still disabled. But then I had to re-enable it, make a app say it was a game, go into the settings, turn on and off the enable the guide button and restart. It works now, just weird that it was only on one of my 4 pcs that had that issue.
 
M

MBison

Member
Bartop arcade using hyperspin and retroarch. Getting the d3dx9_43.dll missing error. It's running windows 7. What's best way to fix?

So I have a new bartop arcade and it's using the hyperspin front end and uses retroarch to run most of the emulators like NES and Genesis and Atari 2600 etc. lots of them. But when you launch it gives the d3dx9_43.dll missing error.

According to this website:

http://airbornesurfer.com/2016/01/how-to-fix-d3dx9_43-dll-error-in-windows-7/

It says to run the directx10 run time download link there?

Is that the best way to solve the issue? With this installed, will the error be fixed? Trying not to muck up this thing more than it already is.


Also random but anyone in this thread in Jacksonville florida and an expert in this stuff (retroarch pc, hyperspin, arcade controls/bartops etc)
 
daninthemix

daninthemix

Member
Does anyone know how to reconfigure a controller - and only THAT controller?

Sometimes I play with a Mad Catz Fightpad (amazing for retro games, by the way), but I need to swap the RB and LT buttons so that RB actually is the right shoulder button (by default the right shoulder button on the Mad Catz is actually LT).

But sometimes I play using a PS4 pad through Steam Link, and I don't want to change any mappings there (obivously the shoulder buttons are actually mapped correctly).

Any ideas, peeps?
 
Radius4

Radius4

Member
Map your pad in any way you like, save and autoconf, and then select user 1 default all.
Then whenever that pad is hookeed it will use the layout you had set.
 
daninthemix

daninthemix

Member
Radius4 said:
Map your pad in any way you like, save and autoconf, and then select user 1 default all.
Then whenever that pad is hookeed it will use the layout you had set.
Click to expand...

Doesn't work. At least, if I try remapping, pressing my assigned save state key (LT) still sends a right-bumper button press to the game, so now both my reassigned RB button, and the actual RB button are hooked up to RB in the game.
 
GlamFM

GlamFM

Banned
Radius4 said:
https://forums.libretro.com/t/gamepad-configuration-101-wip/8638
Click to expand...

Hey guys.

Some general questions, sorry if they´ve been covered a million times in this thread already.

Looking into turning my PC that is hooked up to my TV into an emulation machine and I´ve stumbled over RetroArch. It seems it would do all I want (?)

I want to emulate:

-NES
-SNES
-MasterSystem
-MegaDrive
-Saturn
-Arcade

And I want to use 2 XB1 gamepads.

Did I come to the right place?

EDIT: Dreamcast NOT Saturn...
 
daninthemix

daninthemix

Member
GlamFM said:
Hey guys.

Some general questions, sorry if they´ve been covered a million times in this thread already.

Looking into turning my PC that is hooked up to my TV into an emulation machine and I´ve stumbled over RetroArch. It seems it would do all I want (?)

I want to emulate:

-NES
-SNES
-MasterSystem
-MegaDrive
-Saturn
-Arcade

And I want to use 2 XB1 gamepads.

Did I come to the right place?
Click to expand...

Yes, with XB1 pads you won't have any controller problems (I have opted for Dualshock 4, and given up on the Mad Catz Fightpad)
 
daninthemix

daninthemix

Member
GlamFM said:
Great, thanks!

Though it seems I can´t find a Arcade or MAME or whatever core on the libretro page?
Click to expand...

I don't actually do MAME / Arcade emulation myself, but the best bet is to download Retroarch and actually use the Core Updater and see what options you get. It may be that the documentation is out of date.
 
GlamFM

GlamFM

Banned
So far RetroArch seems awesome.

One more question though.

How do I access the settings of my individual cores?
 
Palom

Palom

Member
GlamFM said:
So far RetroArch seems awesome.

One more question though.

How do I access the settings of my individual cores?
Click to expand...
If I'm understanding you correctly, after you load a game, open up the quick menu. Near the bottom should be options to save core override or game override configurations.

If you mean the settings for the core itself, it's the same menu, labeled "Options".
 
daninthemix

daninthemix

Member
Can anyone assist me with Mupen? It has like, a hundred core options. Is it possible to get 1080p rendering on the 3D stuff without butchering the 2D stuff (fonts, GUI, etc) ? Is there a particular shader? (In fact, does any shader work with this core??)
 
daninthemix

daninthemix

Member
I don't know what the hell I've done, in tinkering between v-sync / triple buffering modes etc, but I now get a flickering red screen every couple of seconds.

EDIT: I'm a complete moron - I was playing Earthbound and had sunstroke. Yeah yeah, laugh it up...
 
C

CrashPrime

Member
So size has officially spoiled me away from gaming 24/7 on my beautiful Sony Trinitron. I have just gotten setup with a 65" Sony X750D. One of the lowest latency 4k 4:4:4 TV's. It's only about 30ms which isn't great but for 4K it is nearly unmatched. It also has BFI at 120hz and excellent motion resolution.

What I have found is an emulator shader (more latency I know...) that I have fallen in love with. CRT-Royale-Kurozumi. I have used it on my 1080p monitor with good results. Apparently it is unbelievably convincing at 4k resolution.

I want to get setup with an emulation PC for running Saturn (Mednafen/Beetle). I don't think I need to worry about Gamecube/Wii too much but sure it'd be nice.

What are the hardware requirements for running Saturn (Beetle) with CRT-Royale-Kurozumi at 4k?
 
S

ShaggsMagoo

Member
I can't seem to get retroarch to add most of my Sega CD or Saturn games to a collection, It plays them fine when i manually start them, but it won't recognize them to add it automatically. It's really annoying.
 
daninthemix

daninthemix

Member
ShaggsMagoo said:
I can't seem to get retroarch to add most of my Sega CD or Saturn games to a collection, It plays them fine when i manually start them, but it won't recognize them to add it automatically. It's really annoying.
Click to expand...

I had to make most of my Collection playlists manually. Search for 'Retroarch Playlist Buddy', which is a program that will generate a playlist from a folder.
 
P

Paragon

Member
Is there any reliable way to get G-Sync working in RetroArch these days?
Whether I use audio sync or the frame throttle set to 1.0x to limit the game speed, I get a consistent stutter once every second.

Using audio sync to limit the game speed results in my monitor reporting framerates fluctuating up to 2 FPS higher than the target whether rate control is enabled or not.
Using the frame throttle set to 1.0x seems to cap it to exactly the correct framerate, but it still doesn't fix this stutter.
 
R

Rufus

Member
Conan-san said:
So no Bios files, no settings I should be aware of?
Click to expand...
Ah. Not a BIOS as such, but you need a couple things from the Github repo. I forgot about this, it's been a long time since I've used the core (i.e. very briefly tested basic operation years (?) ago).

Create a folder called PPSSPP in RetroArch's system directory and put the following into it:

ppge_atlas.zim from here (right-click > save as):
https://github.com/libretro/libretro-ppsspp/tree/master/assets

flash0 and lang from here:
https://github.com/libretro/libretro-ppsspp
(download the entire thing via the green button on the right, then just pull those two folders out)

That said, the core is based on an older version of PPSSPP (1.01 vs1.4). If you do run into issues, that's your first line of inquiry. More specifically, PPSSPP's own compat list and forums.
 
C

CrashPrime

Member
Does anyone have experience with a Q6600 for an emulation box?

I am looking at putting together a very low voltage system utilizing an AMD 5350 and it seems that the Q6600 was pretty popular and very comparable to the ultra lightweight 5350. I am sure others have more experience with the Q6600 than that obscure little AMD chip.

I was thinking of trying for 4K up-to 16-bit era (should integer scale nicely). 750 ti seems it would be a great low-voltage match that can output 4K.

CPU is like $30. GPU is like $70 or something. Microcenter basically gives you a free mobo when you buy the CPU.

I mean I know that the Pi is a cheap retroarch box but I am not so sure it can do 4K (or if this cheap-o CPU will either?). I can see maybe doing PS1 on the box at the most. I am not trying to render at 4k, just do nearest neighbor scaling.

Does scaling to 4k take up a lot of CPU?
 
RoadHazard

RoadHazard

Gold Member
CrashPrime said:
Does anyone have experience with a Q6600 for an emulation box?

I am looking at putting together a very low voltage system utilizing an AMD 5350 and it seems that the Q6600 was pretty popular and very comparable to the ultra lightweight 5350. I am sure others have more experience with the Q6600 than that obscure little AMD chip.

I was thinking of trying for 4K up-to 16-bit era (should integer scale nicely). 750 ti seems it would be a great low-voltage match that can output 4K.

CPU is like $30. GPU is like $70 or something. Microcenter basically gives you a free mobo when you buy the CPU.

I mean I know that the Pi is a cheap retroarch box but I am not so sure it can do 4K (or if this cheap-o CPU will either?). I can see maybe doing PS1 on the box at the most. I am not trying to render at 4k, just do nearest neighbor scaling.

Does scaling to 4k take up a lot of CPU?
Click to expand...

Rendering resolution and upscaling should have nothing to do with the CPU, that's purely a GPU task. But yeah, you won't be doing 4K with a Pi.
 
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