Homebrew RetroArch - A new multi-system emulator

[VatoLoco]

Yay! just played some donpachi, dodonpachi, and esprade via the FBA core =)

 

[Toad King]

so can i play up to 4 players with this emulator or no?

Yes, it supports up to four players through wiimotes, gamecube controllers, or a combination of the two

 

[DJPlace]

forget to ask does this support both models of Classic controer's?

 

[zerofalcon]

Great! Doom with music support! thanks

 

[bm123456]

Great job guys thank you for this release
P.S.
I hope someone is working on getting the larger Neo geo games working, seems the wii is the only system out that can't get an emulator to support the larger roms.

 

[Centrix]

I know this is a first release for this emulator on Wii but I can't wait to see the next release hopefully it won't end up like Mednafen Wii I really liked that emulator its a shame its been so long since the last update! Keep up the great work so Far most of SNES and NES games run great, how do you get the Sega CD games to work Toad King? in other words say I make a folder for my Sega CD games were do I put the bios files?

Also I noticed there's a ton of different screen sizes that the Retro Arch supports but I don't see a full screen option why is that? or am I just missing it

 

[CyborGamer]

Final Burn Alpha! I am so trying this once I get back home! Question; does the game size support limit for Neo Geo games apply to CPS2 games as well? Dungeons and Dragons Shadow over Mystara for example I think is over 30mb.

 

[DEFIANT]

Cheat support?

 

[the_randomizer]

Here's hoping the GBA emulator will be able to run Golden Sun 2 at full speed....hey, I can dream, can't I?

 

[Toad King]

Great! Doom with music support! thanks

Should work fine with both versions, but I have no classic controllers to test with, so best bet would be to download it and try yourself. (Don't forget you have to set them up for each core!)

Cheat support?

Unfortunately not in this release.

Also, I just noticed a huge issue with loading large ROM folders. Normally I would let the fix wait until next release, but this bug can lead to loading large ROM folders several minutes if large enough. So I've decided to make an emergency release tonight with this fixed. Please be patient.

 

[Toad King]

Okay, I quickly compiled a fix for the performance bug.

Main Package: https://anonfiles.com/file/d8e1f0fdbd6dc2264d0eeb68e6fc0ff0
FBA core: https://anonfiles.com/file/ca774fae1f14ec43fc26bf314ec59444

Please download and use these cores if you downloaded the earlier, buggy release.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Updated the links on xbins too (both FTP and the DL link).

 

[vigi_lante]

Congratulations. Great job!

The only thing that is really missing is an option to support 240p resolution, like others Wii emulators. Particularly, the way wii-mednafen handles 240p is the best method, since it correctly adjust the resolution no matter what is the emulated system.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Congratulations. Great job!

The only thing that is really missing is an option to support 240p resolution, like others Wii emulators. Particularly, the way wii-mednafen handles 240p is the best method, since it correctly adjust the resolution no matter what is the emulated system.

Yes, this is something I've been intrigued by and will look into this.

I'm also thinking of borrowing ekeeke's gamma code in vi_encoder.c so that we have more gamma options available instead of the 3 pre-supplied gamma levels GX provides.

 

[Dogway]

A dream come true, finally CPS2 in Wii. Thank you!

 

[nakata6790]

On the Wii we can't really afford any additional frills that eat up RAM. The reason it took people so long to get a CPS2 emu out on Wii that can load large ROMs such as Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Vampire Savior I put largely down to people's fetishism with fancypants GUIs. On the Wii, every megabyte counts, every 100 kilobytes even counts - a few megabytes laid to waste means a few more ROMs that will not work because of it.

I see... In that sense, even a static image with small .png icons would be too much, function before form.
BTW, if RA would load the core and restart AFTER the choice was made by the specified system icon click, would it still eat RAM?

Would editable rom directories for each core be possible?


About the CPS1 roms on the Wii i get the error when loading them. However, here's what the PC FBA rom browser shows:

if i click on the part of the games with no red icon, they play just fine.
Is there a way to ''trim'' the unecessary files so that the Wii FBA can load them too? E.g. Captain Commando ver.911014 plays fine, where as version 911202does not




PS. Thank you and Toadking for the update

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

On the Wii we can't really afford any additional frills that eat up RAM. The reason it took people so long to get a CPS2 emu out on Wii that can load large ROMs such as Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Vampire Savior I put largely down to people's fetishism with fancypants GUIs. On the Wii, every megabyte counts, every 100 kilobytes even counts - a few megabytes laid to waste means a few more ROMs that will not work because of it.

I see... In that sense, even a static image with small .png icons would be too much. BTW, if RA would load the core and restart AFTER the choice was made by the specified system icon click, would it still eat RAM?

Yes, on Xbox 1, for instance, I free the background image and the ROM selection panel textures before RetroArch loads up the emu - and then I load the texture images again when I go back to the menu. This frees up around 5/6MB RAM that we need for the bigger ROMs. On Wii with RGUI, I thankfully don't have to do this - because it adds a delay when switching back and forth from menu to ingame and because the approach is still wasteful - memory-wise. Not to mention that when we load a very big ROM (such as a 23+ MB CPS2 ROM), there is no longer enough main RAM to load the textures into memory and you're left instead with debug fonts onscreen - the textures are fetched into memory again when you load a somewhat smaller ROM - so you can see the whole issue - we have to juggle between texture memory usage and ROM loading into main RAM - and the two don't exactly get along on systems with just 64MB of main RAM (or 88MB of segmented RAM in the case of the Wii).

And yes, RGUI is as memory-light as we can hope for - but there might still be room for improvement.

BTW, if RA would load the core and restart AFTER the choice was made by the specified system icon click, would it still eat RAM?

For the PS3 port of RetroArch, I have a collaborative effort going with the author of Multiman - his is a frontend/backup manager with an integrated desktop environment that can browse the filesystem and load ROMs. It does this by executing the RetroArch executable and passing it a few arguments (such as the ROM path and the 'return path'). Once RetroArch boots up with that ROM, it's possible to go back to Multiman by selecting 'Return to Multiman' - which will bring you back to Multiman where you have this menu with boxart decorations and all the stuff people seem to care about so much on consoles.

If there's a similar program on Wii that people use for this purpose, I could go talk to the author and see if he has any interest in integrating RetroArch support into it. A media player with filemanager abilities would also do - just so long as I can have RetroArch Wii stick to the spartan GUI and have some other guy create the frontends with all the eye candy.

It's an integral part of the RetroArch infrastructure I'm providing - when a porter makes a new emu port with libretro, he has to be ensured he has as much free RAM available to himself as possible. Having a bloated GUI in there for the RetroArch Wii port with lots of textures to fetch into memory is completely unacceptable from that perspective. The GUI as it is right now is functional - you launch RetroArch to play games and not to look at a fancy boxart image and think to yourself, 'hey, this looked quite nice as a cardboard box' and then press the 'load ROM' button anyway to play a game.

Pointer support would be nice though in RGUI - I will admit that. Something like that I feel could possibly be added.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

On the Wii we can't really afford any additional frills that eat up RAM. The reason it took people so long to get a CPS2 emu out on Wii that can load large ROMs such as Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Vampire Savior I put largely down to people's fetishism with fancypants GUIs. On the Wii, every megabyte counts, every 100 kilobytes even counts - a few megabytes laid to waste means a few more ROMs that will not work because of it.

I see... In that sense, even a static image with small .png icons would be too much, function before form.
BTW, if RA would load the core and restart AFTER the choice was made by the specified system icon click, would it still eat RAM?

Would editable rom directories for each core be possible?


About the CPS1 roms on the Wii i get the error when loading them. However, here's what the PC FBA rom browser shows:

if i click on the part of the games with no red icon, they play just fine.
Is there a way to ''trim'' the unecessary files so that the Wii FBA can load them too? E.g. Captain Commando ver.911014 plays fine, where as version 911202does not

They are not unnecessary files - you just got lucky on PC.

captcomm is the main ROM for Captain Commando and is needed.

Just go find the missing ROMs that you require - there are sites for that stuff that I'm sure you know I can't point you to for various reasons.

All CPS1 games work with the CPS1 core and all CPS2 games work with the CPS2 core - guaranteed - provided you have all the needed ROMs.

 

[the_randomizer]

Congratulations. Great job!

The only thing that is really missing is an option to support 240p resolution, like others Wii emulators. Particularly, the way wii-mednafen handles 240p is the best method, since it correctly adjust the resolution no matter what is the emulated system.

Of course, keep in mind that many HDTVs do not support this resolution natively* and will only show a black screen. Just sayin'... but I believe Mednafen called it "double strike".

*If you want to use 240p/240i, you need a device that tricks the TV into displaying the signal.


EDIT: Just wanted to say the Snes9x Next is awesome! But for some reason, the audio channels are reversed; left channel is on the right and the right channel is on the left. I know this because when you fire your charge beam on Mega Man X2, the *whoosh* sound comes from the wrong side when the channels pan.

 

[vigi_lante]

Congratulations. Great job!

The only thing that is really missing is an option to support 240p resolution, like others Wii emulators. Particularly, the way wii-mednafen handles 240p is the best method, since it correctly adjust the resolution no matter what is the emulated system.

Yes, this is something I've been intrigued by and will look into this.

I'm also thinking of borrowing ekeeke's gamma code in vi_encoder.c so that we have more gamma options available instead of the 3 pre-supplied gamma levels GX provides.

Thanks! I'm looking forward.

Of course, keep in mind that many HDTVs do not support this resolution natively* and will only show a black screen. Just sayin'... but I believe Mednafen called it "double strike".

*If you want to use 240p/240i, you need a device that tricks the TV into displaying the signal.

240p will only be useful for people using standard CRT TVs - in order to achieve maximum picture fidelity.

Older games look amazing on CRTs when using 240p. That's why I really like the Wii, since others consoles are unable to output 240p.