Homebrew RetroArch Switch

[ploggy]

Joycons Attached they are working!


git https://github.com/vgmoose/RetroArch/

Very Nice
But is the game running too fast?

 

[WadsRUs]

Very Nice
But is the game running too fast?

Yeah, that's definitely running too fast.

 

[enhasa]

Not really all that excited considering how awful Retroarch is for 3DS and n3DS. But maybe they'll actually put an effort into this one?

 

[TheGreek Boy]

Not really all that excited considering how awful Retroarch is for 3DS and n3DS. But maybe they'll actually put an effort into this one?

the switch is way more powerfull so we will see a much better retroarch for SURE

 

[yardie]

Not really all that excited considering how awful Retroarch is for 3DS and n3DS. But maybe they'll actually put an effort into this one?

Take your entitled ass elsewhere

 

[x0x0]

Gonna build this as soon as I get home

try it!, vgmoose added few minutes ago quiting by clicking +-. So we can run it again without rebooting console.

 

[DarthDub]

I hope it can take advantage of docked mode too.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Not really all that excited considering how awful Retroarch is for 3DS and n3DS. But maybe they'll actually put an effort into this one?

3DS literally performs worse than a Raspberry Pi 1, New 3DS is only slightly better than a Pi 1. I think you quite underestimate just how bad the hardware in 3DS is compared to any Android hardware, really. A 2012 phone can run rings around it on a single threaded CPU performance level. I'd argue hacking up the emulators to get them to run much better on 3DS would be more effort than the hardware frankly is worth. When your hardware performs worse than a 2010/2011 Android phone, it's time to reconsider whether this is really the ideal device to be emulating on.

Switch is in a totally different ballpark on a technical level, a downclocked Nvidia Shield TV which should honestly be enough for the vast majority of software rendered cores. I have no doubt it will perform better than a Wii U for the vast majority of cores. It's just a matter of the toolchain, middleware and tools becoming more mature now.

 

[ShadowOne333]

3DS literally performs worse than a Raspberry Pi 1, New 3DS is only slightly better than a Pi 1. I think you quite underestimate just how bad the hardware in 3DS is compared to any Android hardware, really. A 2012 phone can run rings around it on a single threaded CPU performance level. I'd argue hacking up the emulators to get them to run much better on 3DS would be more effort than the hardware frankly is worth. When your hardware performs worse than a 2010/2011 Android phone, it's time to reconsider whether this is really the ideal device to be emulating on.

Switch is in a totally different ballpark on a technical level, a downclocked Nvidia Shield TV which should honestly be enough for the vast majority of software rendered cores. I have no doubt it will perform better than a Wii U for the vast majority of cores. It's just a matter of the toolchain, middleware and tools becoming more mature now.

Hey Twinaphex, do you want me to give you permission to edit the OP? Or do you want me to add another user in particular for when something else is updated?
Or should I keep editing it as I've been doing? XD

 

[enhasa]

3DS literally performs worse than a Raspberry Pi 1, New 3DS is only slightly better than a Pi 1. I think you quite underestimate just how bad the hardware in 3DS is compared to any Android hardware, really. A 2012 phone can run rings around it on a single threaded CPU performance level. I'd argue hacking up the emulators to get them to run much better on 3DS would be more effort than the hardware frankly is worth. When your hardware performs worse than a 2010/2011 Android phone, it's time to reconsider whether this is really the ideal device to be emulating on.

Switch is in a totally different ballpark on a technical level, a downclocked Nvidia Shield TV which should honestly be enough for the vast majority of software rendered cores. I have no doubt it will perform better than a Wii U for the vast majority of cores. It's just a matter of the toolchain, middleware and tools becoming more mature now.

True, but from what I recall nobody on the RetroArch team even owned a 3DS, so they basically never cared about it or were just winging it.
That's what I read here on the 3DS forum, at least (Not always the most reliable source of info). That's what I mean by my previous post.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

True, but from what I recall nobody on the RetroArch team even owned a 3DS, so they basically never cared about it or were just winging it.
That's what I read here, at least (Not always the most reliable source of info). That's what I mean by my previous post.

I own a 3DS, a New 3DS as well.

To be brutally frank with you, though, Switch is a far more capable and suitable platform for a framework like RetroArch, 3DS and Vita are way too slow in the CPU department and would require numerous sacrifices and tinkerings made to the cores to make them even run half as well as the cheapest Android phone you can buy right now. I think it's quite clear honestly which way the wind is blowing in that regard. 3DS is old and yesterday's news, Switch is the future. RetroArch would never reach its full potential on 3DS anyways, it will likely always remain a compromised port because the hardware quite simply isn't good enough for the vast amount of cores that we have.

Even New 3DS is still like half as slow as a Wii when it comes to single threaded CPU performance, it's so far behind even 2006-level console hardware.

All the more power to people who do dedicate full-time to 3DS homebrew, it is a nice system, I like the 3D effect and aliaspider did pour a lot of time and effort into it, all the props in the world to him for that. But as far as RetroArch is concerned, we are more used to dealing with console and mobile-level hardware, and that is where RetroArch really shines. Bring enough juice to the party and RetroArch will give you a very good time. A PSP or 3DS (and hell, maybe even a Vita) just falls a tad below the base requirement to really do justice to RetroArch. It might be upsetting for the people wh own these platforms to hear, but it's the truth regardless.

 

[enhasa]

I own a 3DS, a New 3DS as well.

To be brutally frank with you, though, Switch is a far more capable and suitable platform for a framework like RetroArch, 3DS and Vita are way too slow in the CPU department and would require numerous sacrifices and tinkerings made to the cores to make them even run half as well as the cheapest Android phone you can buy right now. I think it's quite clear honestly which way the wind is blowing in that regard. 3DS is old and yesterday's news, Switch is the future. RetroArch would never reach its full potential on 3DS anyways, it will likely always remain a compromised port because the hardware quite simply isn't good enough for the vast amount of cores that we have.

OK, so that rumor was BS, then.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

OK, so that rumor was BS, then.

If I could have a dollar for every incendiary rumor that gets made about our project, I'd probably have a net worth outweighing Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg put together. You'd think I'd be kidding

Simply put, don't believe what you read unless it comes directly from the horse's mouth.

 

[SG854]

If I could have a dollar for every incendiary rumor that gets made about our project, I'd probably have a net worth outweighing Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg put together. You'd think I'd be kidding

Simply put, don't believe what you read unless it comes directly from the horse's mouth.

Whats a more capable hardware for retroarch, ps3 or wii u?

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Whats a more capable hardware for retroarch, ps3 or wii u?

I'd say starting from Nintendo Wii and up you get a very good experience with RetroArch, this also includes platforms like Android/iOS, PS3/Wii U, PC obviously. 3DS and PSP (and even Vita) are on the low end of the spectrum in terms of performance, not a lot of the cores we have can run well on them because they are just so slow, it becomes akin to trying to extract blood from a stone to get anything to run well on them. And when you see cheap $10/$20/$30 ARM SoCs effortlessly run them on Android, to invest or dedicate tons and tons of one's time to try to hand-optimize for one architecture that is already obsolete becomes much harder to justify.

We port RetroArch to it anyways because we want this to be a true universal cross-platform game console that exists anywhere. Whether that particular host console is up to the task of running most cores effortlessly or not is the main concern or objective. We port to whatever platform there is that expands the reach and versatility of libretro/RetroArch as a platform.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Hell, RetroArch runs great on NES Mini/SNES Mini, and that hardware couldn't have costed Nintendo more than $10 or $5 to cobble together from some rundown shack in China somewhere. You can run low demanding games like Mario 64 at fullspeed on an N64 emulator core in RetroArch right now on a NES/SNES Classic. Just to further illustrate how far behind most of the traditional consoles/handhelds like 3DS/Wii have been compared to average run-of-the-mill $10/$20 Android ARM SoCs by now. Android sure sucks, but the hardware has proven to already run far better than any custom/specialized tech in a 3DS or Vita, for sure. Nothing really special going on there. Maybe for GPU-bound stuff, but most of the emulation cores we run here are not really GPU-bound, but CPU-bound. A literal toy Nintendo put out, a time-limited, limited edition toy at that, runs most code far better than their main event hardware, 3DS/WiiU. Imagine that.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

BTW, don't take this as us meaning that WiiU and/or 3DS will not see further improvements. On the contrary, big new improvements are planned for RetroArch WiiU right now. Aliaspider has added shader support and it will be possible to run Vulkan slang shaders on it, just to list one of the big improvements coming soon. And there has been some work done on improved networking support for 3DS, which might open the door for core updater soon where users can download new cores straight from the app. But we are not quite there yet.

 

[the_randomizer]

I'd say starting from Nintendo Wii and up you get a very good experience with RetroArch, this also includes platforms like Android/iOS, PS3/Wii U, PC obviously. 3DS and PSP (and even Vita) are on the low end of the spectrum in terms of performance, not a lot of the cores we have can run well on them because they are just so slow, it becomes akin to trying to extract blood from a stone to get anything to run well on them. And when you see cheap $10/$20/$30 ARM SoCs effortlessly run them on Android, to invest or dedicate tons and tons of one's time to try to hand-optimize for one architecture that is already obsolete becomes much harder to justify.

We port RetroArch to it anyways because we want this to be a true universal cross-platform game console that exists anywhere. Whether that particular host console is up to the task of running most cores effortlessly or not is the main concern or objective. We port to whatever platform there is that expands the reach and versatility of libretro/RetroArch as a platform.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Hell, RetroArch runs great on NES Mini/SNES Mini, and that hardware couldn't have costed Nintendo more than $10 or $5 to cobble together from some rundown shack in China somewhere. You can run low demanding games like Mario 64 at fullspeed on an N64 emulator core in RetroArch right now on a NES/SNES Classic. Just to further illustrate how far behind most of the traditional consoles/handhelds like 3DS/Wii have been compared to average run-of-the-mill $10/$20 Android ARM SoCs by now. Android sure sucks, but the hardware has proven to already run far better than any custom/specialized tech in a 3DS or Vita, for sure. Nothing really special going on there. Maybe for GPU-bound stuff, but most of the emulation cores we run here are not really GPU-bound, but CPU-bound. A literal toy Nintendo put out, a time-limited, limited edition toy at that, runs most code far better than their main event hardware, 3DS/WiiU. Imagine that.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

BTW, don't take this as us meaning that WiiU and/or 3DS will not see further improvements. On the contrary, big new improvements are planned for RetroArch WiiU right now. Aliaspider has added shader support and it will be possible to run Vulkan slang shaders on it, just to list one of the big improvements coming soon. And there has been some work done on improved networking support for 3DS, which might open the door for core updater soon where users can download new cores straight from the app. But we are not quite there yet.

Wait, wait, wait, hold the phone, the Wii U is capable of running the Vulkan API?

 

[ShadowOne333]

Added a video of Snes9x 2010 running on the Switch to the OP
Btw guys, for those who don't know, RetroArch had a commit during the weekend which makes the Joycons usable while being connected to the Switch in portable mode.
Previously, they only worked while being detached from the console.

 

[lordelan]

Added a video of Snes9x 2010 running on the Switch to the OP
Btw guys, for those who don't know, RetroArch had a commit during the weekend which makes the Joycons usable while being connected to the Switch in portable mode.
Previously, they only worked while being detached from the console.

Already saw this on YouTube somewhere. Great news!

Just makes me happy to read the last few posts here. I think RetroArch is gonna be big on the Switch!
The best thing will be when we can change quickly from both JoyCons being one controller to each JoyCon being one controller!
What I mean is, I'm having the JoyCons attached to the Switch and play Super Mario Bros. somewhere outside in a park at a small table just when a friend of mine shows up. I'll detach the JoyCons, take one of them for me and handle one over to my buddy and we have a great run with "Turtles in Time" together just like it is shown in the official Switch Launch trailer where two players are playing MK8D with one JoyCon each.
That's what is making the Switch the perfect RetroArch platform in my opinion.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Already saw this on YouTube somewhere. Great news!

Just makes me happy to read the last few posts here. I think RetroArch is gonna be big on the Switch!
The best thing will be when we can change quickly from both JoyCons being one controller to each JoyCon being one controller!
What I mean is, I'm having the JoyCons attached to the Switch and play Super Mario Bros. somewhere outside in a park at a small table just when a friend of mine shows up. I'll detach the JoyCons, take one of them for me and handle one over to my buddy and we have a great run with "Turtles in Time" together just like it is shown in the official Switch Launch trailer where two players are playing MK8D with one JoyCon each.
That's what is making the Switch the perfect RetroArch platform in my opinion.

I didn't even thought of that lol.
But you bring up a pretty solid point, being able to map each Joycon as its own controller would be great for a quick multiplayer round of any retrogame.
I usually don't care at all about that feature, because I mostly play alone and single player games (and the fact that it costs us a proper DPad )
but I can definitely see the appeal that such feature could have in RA.

 

[x0x0]

Big thanks to @Natehaxx for spending a lot of time to get it working, and ofc RA Team.