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Knowcontrol

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Posts posted by Knowcontrol

    can not import a PSX .cue/bin game

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    1. You can drag all the cue files from their location onto the LB window and it'll import them in bulk.

    2. You should consider using chdman (search the forum for instructions) to combine the game files into one file for easy file management. chdman also compresses the files losslessly with a savings of about 60% per game!

    Tutorial: PS2 - Move a game save from RetroArch PCSX2 core to PCSX2 stand-alone memory card!

    in Emulation

    Posted

    Scenario:
    I had played just a few Playstation 2 games (TMNT and The Last Airbender) using the RetroArch PCSX2 core. During those plays, I had made some progress that I didn't want to have to repeat on the stand-alone PCSX2 emulator but that progress was saved to the RetroArch PS2 memory card. Guess what, those memory cards from RA will not load in PCSX2. Well, (in my opinion) the stand-alone PCSX2 emulator (v1.7.xxxx) works MUCH better and is much faster. So I set out to find out if I could move or convert those RA game saves to the PCSX2's memory card. I finally figured it out and here is how you do it:

    Spoiler

    Credits: Following This Reddit post 

     and this forum thread https://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-How-to-use-the-myMC-tool-to-import-export-saves-from-PCSX2  I got my answer

    Software used:

    • PCSX2 v1.7.2788 *or higher
    • RetroArch v1.10.3 with PCSX2 core
    • mymc-alpha-2.7

    Steps:

    1. Download mymc
    2. Right-click the zip file and Unblock it
    3. Extract it anywhere you choose
    4. Go to that folder and run the mymc-gui.exe
    5. On launch it will try to find your memory cards. We are going to navigate to the RetroArch PS2 memory card location because that's our goal - to extract the game save and then load it to the PCSX2 memory card.
    6. In the window that popped up, navigate to RetroArch>system>PCSX2>memcards
    7. You should see two cards - One is named Mcd001.ps2 and the other Mcd002.ps2. Select the first one, Mcd001.ps2 and press Open
    8. You will now see some system configuration files and hopefully your game saves. Click the game save you wish to export
    9. With the game save selected, click the Export icon at the top
    10. You will now get a popup window where you can navigate to any location you wish to keep this game save
    11. You can save it anywhere. For our purposes we'll just go ahead and save it to the PCSX2 (stand-alone emulator) memory card folder
    12. Navigate to your PCSX2 emulator and select the memcards folder. Do not rename your game save and just press "Save"
    13. Back in the main mymc window you will now press the left-most icon to Open a memory card. We are now going to open the memory card which PCSX2 uses.
    14. Navigate to your PCSX2>memcards location and select the Mcd001.ps2 memory card and press Open
    15. We will now import your game save!!! Press the Import icon at the top, you should automatically be in the PCSX2>memcards folder and you'll see your game save psu file! Select your file and press Open
    16. Uh oh. What if you already have a game save on the PCSX2 emulator for that game? Easy - just click the unwanted game save, go to File and then select Delete. Warning! This will delete the existing game save, be sure this is what you intend to do.
    17. Once the conflicting game save is deleted, you may now repeat step 15 to import your desired game save.
    18. That's it! Once the game save is imported, you may exit mymc and launch PCSX2 and test out your original game save!

    ***Make sure your PCSX2>Settings>Memory Cards are using the Mcd001.ps2 file in the Port 1 slot.

    I hope this helps! It worked for me, let me know if you have any problems.

    *Future tutorial: Having a memory card per each game automatically load to avoid the 8MB memory card limit

    • Like 1

    Audio volume increases to maximum on its own.

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    Check the wires to the speakers you are listening through. Update the audio driver. Disable or remove any audio players. Remove any microphones.

    Click on the Start button and then the gear-like symbol to open the Settings menu.  Go to Updates and Security >> Troubleshoot.  Select Playing audio from the options and run the audio troubleshooter.

    Search MMSYS.CPL in Windows search box. Communications > Do Nothing. Playback>Locate your default Sound device (Speaker or Headphone) and Right click and click on Properties.>Enhancements>Disable All Enhancements

    RetroArch created per-game PCSX2 memory cards that PCSX2 stand-alone will not load

    in Emulation

    Posted

    Apparently I had played a few PS2 games through the RetroArch pcsx2_libretro core. The progress in those games was saved each  in their own memory card file  - gamename.ps2. Thinking I could just copy those memory cards over to the PCSX2 memcard folder didn't work. I'm unable to load the memory card in PCSX2 (1.7) and have it show up with the saved progress when in the game. Is there a way to have those RetroArch memory cards load in the PCSX2 stand-alone?

    Combined: Orionsangel's Realistic Arcade Overlays & HyperspaceMadness Reflective Shader - by Knowcontrol

    in Game Media

    Posted · Edited by Knowcontrol

    v23-May, 2022
    Orionsange_bezelsl&HyperspaceMadness_reflective_shader-Combined_by_Knowcontrol.zip

    Hello. This is my first submission to the community. I recently came across Orionsangel's Realistic Arcade Overlays for RetroArch and was blown away at how amazing they look! @Orionsangel then began to update his overlays to be compatible with HyperspaceMadness' Reflection Shader. These two visual elements really bring some amazing realistic life to MAME arcade games!!!

    I then took on a project to combine Orionsangel's overylays and HSM's shaders into one. This was more time-consuming than I thought. Because not all Orionsangel's are converted to use HSM's shaders, I had to find a way that both could exist in the same folder structure and require no user intervention to change screen scaling. Bottom line - Orionsangel's original overlays (bezels) have their scale set within the game's cfg file. His overlays combined with the HSM shader's scale is set within the game's .slangp file (each game has their own .slangp shader file). And finally, mame_libretro.cfg is controlling the global video scaling by setting Core Provided.

    • I have included -all- necessary files to make this work.
    • I hope to keep this overlay/shader combining project going whenever Orionsangel puts out new overlays.
    • I have included only the Realistic Arcade Overlays that have been modified to work with the Reflection Shader, you'll need to download the full Orionsangel's Realistic Arcade Overlays pack from his forum post to get all the overlays.

    Before you go and drop this in your Retroarch folder, I suggest just spinning up a new RetroArch folder and put these in there. Once you determine it's okay to use these in your main RA folder then it'll be just a simple drag/drop.

    CAUTION: I have a mame_libretro.cfg file in the Retroarch/config folder. This will overwrite your current mame_libretro.cfg file if you copy it over. Please be sure to back it up!!!

    These files were built with:

    • RetroArch 1.10.3
    • Orionsangel overlay set from May 3rd, 2022
    • HyperspaceMadness shaders from his github page which was updated May 8th, 2022
    • MAME 0.241 non-merged ROMset
      • Your ROM names may not match the cfg file names in the RetroArch>config folder. Simply rename the gamename.cfg to match your ROM's name.

    In LaunchBox, go to Tools>Manage>Emulators>RetroArch>Associated Platforms and enter 

    -c "config\mame_libretro.cfg"

    in the Extra Command-Line Parameters

    1053991375_2022-05-2317_28_23-Window.thumb.png.7b36ab764e56ff503000e1c5ae62262b.png

    Try launching 1943u.zip or Bubble Bobble (bublbobl.zip) as these are two examples that have the combined overlay and shader. If you want to know the other games, just go to the config/MAME folder and do a search for *.slangp

    Enjoy!

    672638820_2022-05-2317_47_50-Greenshot.thumb.png.d1d86c40a0b77d93ebe59bf5c761715b.png

    Oh! One last thing - if you have a Game Startup/Over theme enabled, you will need to do the following to make sure the "Game Over" splash screen doesn't prematurely fire because the shader and overlays take a long time to load.

    Quote

    @Knowcontrolsaid: I recently started running some bezel overlays and shaders in RetroArch that take a long time to load and I was getting the "Game Over" screen before the game loads (which it does). My solution was to ctrl+a all the games in the platform, ctrl+e to bulk edit and then I enabled Startup Screen - Override Default Settings, enabled Startup Screen - Enabled, and set Startup Screen - Load Delay = 10 seconds. This now gives RA time to load the shader, bezel, and game without thinking the game has finished and the Game Over screen still functions as expected when closing a game!

     

    • Like 2
    • Game On 1

    A Big Collection Games on LaunchBox

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted · Edited by Knowcontrol

    Hello. That's not how LaunchBox imports ROMs. I strongly suggest organizing your folders/games as such:

    • ROMs
      • Atari 2600
        • game1.bin
        • game2.bin
        • game3.bin
      • Nintendo Entertainment System
        • game1.nes
        • game2.nes
        • game3.net
      • Sega Genesis
        • game1.gen
        • game2.gen
        • game3.gen

     Here is a Atari 2600 video that will be a very similar process for importing other platforms.
    *This is a previous version of LaunchBox - your menus may look different.

     

    Here is a playlist for LaunchBox Tutorials


     

    Big Box with gamestream shows black screen after 1 successful launch

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted · Edited by Knowcontrol

    On 2/10/2021 at 7:01 AM, Your Friendly A.I Overlord said:

    But do you have startup screens enabled for your PC games? If so, try if disabling startup screens fixes this black screen by right clicking on your game > Edit > Startup/Pause, tick "Override Default Startup Screen Settings" >  click "Customize" > Untick "Enable Game Startup Screen".

    Thank you for this tip! I recently started running some bezel overlays and shaders in RetroArch that take a long time to load and I was getting the "Game Over" screen before the game loads (which it does). My solution was to ctrl+a all the games in the platform, ctrl+e to bulk edit and then I enabled Startup Screen - Override Default Settings, enabled Startup Screen - Enabled, and set Startup Screen - Load Delay = 10 seconds. This now gives RA time to load the shader, bezel, and game without thinking the game has finished and the Game Over screen still functions as expected when closing a game!

    The Best?!?

    in Playlists & Playlist Media

    Posted

    9 hours ago, xevious1974 said:

    try to change the view in LB to "playlist" and then search them there. Maybe you have to select the right "parent" to nest them correctly.

    That was exactly it, thank you for the reminder/tip to change the view! Thank you so much for the helpful answer! Yep, all I had to do was to change the sort title and make sure the Parent was set.

    • Game On 1

    SOQUEROEU TV Backgrounds

    in Platform Media

    Posted · Edited by Knowcontrol

    I believe I found the issue. You'll need to change the "post_br" (which I assume means post rendering brightness) from 120 to 1.2 - I believe the way brightness is now handled with the most current version of Retroarch is that the decimal place has moved.

    In your 

    RetroArch-Win64\shaders\Soqueroeu-TV-Backgrounds_V2.0\presets\TV-Console\Nintendo_NES.slangp

    change from

    post_br = "120.000000"

    to

    post_br = "1.200000"

    EDIT: The above strikethrough works fine but apparently this can be set directly in the HSM shader.

    1. After loading the Soqueroeu shader scroll down to Shader Parameters
    2. The sixth item down is Post CRT Brightness. Select it
      1. select 1.20 (these are the parameters that control the HSM shader
    3. You can also go about 3/4 the way down the page to disable the Intro Sequence with the HSM logo
    4. (OPTIONAL - save this shader to load each time this core is loaded) exit out of the parameters screen
      1. scroll up to Save
    5. Scroll down
      1. select Save Core Preset
    6. I've found I also need to go to Settings>Video>Scaling>Aspect Ratio
      1. set Full
    7. Next go to Main Menu>Configuration File
      1. select Save New Configuration
    8. Go back to Launchbox and go to Tools>Manage>Emulators>RetroArch>Associated Platforms
      1. In the "Extra Command-Line Parameters" section next to your Associated Platform type
        1. -c "config\mesen_libretro.cfg"
          1. Replacing mesen_libretro with whatever core name you have set in the Core column
    • Thanks 1

    SOQUEROEU TV Backgrounds

    in Platform Media

    Posted

    Hi there. Thank you very much for this realistic TV pack! I downloaded and installed HSM and your pack and put them in the correct locations. My issue is that I'm seeing a really blurry screen and blown-out brightness/gamma. Is this an incompatibility with your shader and maybe a newer update to the HSM pack?

    1971272961_2022-05-1307_38_30-Greenshot.thumb.png.8817d2499fdeb67764c2fcf90fb7da57.png

    Here is the HSM MBZ__1__ADV preset by itself

    808247270_2022-05-1307_49_16-Greenshot.thumb.png.6cde604d9a32c22a4b6df5a7824ecb39.png

    Orionsangel's Realistic Arcade Overlays for MAME & Retroarch (Updated 08/10/2025)

    in Game Media

    Posted · Edited by Knowcontrol

    22 hours ago, Knowcontrol said:

    Maybe I just have my global settings wrong?

    Create a configuration file for MAME. Then with mame_libretro.cfg loaded, go to Settings>Video>Scaling and set it to Core Provided. I wound up having to add the aspect_ratio_index to all game cfg files to get the game to scale to the overlay. This was quite simple with Notepad++. Here is a screenshot of what to enter

    61493845_2022-05-1200_17_16-new2-Notepad.thumb.png.b1cf34add1ef2f272da989b53c7d553b.png

    Press ctrl+h, go to the Find In Files tab

    • Find what: (.*)
    • Replace with: aspect_ratio_index = "23"\r\n\1
    • set your directory where your Retroarch/config/MAME game cfg files are stored
    • on the bottom left under Search Mode be sure to select "Regular expression" and check the box for . matches new line.

    Here is how you would load a custom core file config in LB emulator settings

    1243306778_2022-05-1216_15_51-Window.thumb.png.3d86cf4ec5c8a8e46b114ce127e114d9.png

    ** I wound up not using the custom mame_libretro.cfg as I found that just keeping the default retroarch.cfg set at "Core Provided" scaling worked just fine as long as you modify the text files as mentioned above.

    Orionsangel's Realistic Arcade Overlays for MAME & Retroarch (Updated 08/10/2025)

    in Game Media

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Knowcontrol said:

    I'm now able to get each game to load its respective overlay but the custom_viewport sizes aren't being respected?

    AH-HA! I figured it out! Thanks to this post on the retropie forum

    https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/19598/custom-viewport-problem-retroarch-1-7-5

    First of all, I'm running the most current Windows x64 1.10.3 Retroarch as of May, 2022. Second, I have a curated set of MAME 0.241 non-merged. Within Retroarch I had my Video>Scaling set to Core Provided. This is what was interfering with allowing each game to resize itself as per the cfg file's custom_viewport parameters. I then added the following to the top of each game's cfg file and BAM! the game was resized to fit within the overlay!! 

    aspect_ratio_index = "23"

    Example astroid.cfg: 

    aspect_ratio_index = "23"
custom_viewport_height = "640"
custom_viewport_width = "842"
custom_viewport_x = "545"
custom_viewport_y = "253"
input_overlay = ":\overlays\arcade\asteroid.cfg"

    I hope this helps! Maybe I just have my global settings wrong?

    Orionsangel's Realistic Arcade Overlays for MAME & Retroarch (Updated 08/10/2025)

    in Game Media

    Posted · Edited by Knowcontrol

    I'm using your Retroarch bezels in Retroarch.

    One major issue that caused hours of frustration - there is a Arcade.cfg file in the Retroarch/config folder. It was constantly overriding each game's cfg and loading berzerk.png! Removing it allowed each game to load its respective overlay.

    Second, I'm now able to get each game to load its respective overlay but the custom_viewport sizes aren't being respected? Large portions of the edges of the games are being covered by the overlay. I've been testing with Asteroids and Centipede, neither are being resized to fit within the confines of the overlay. Help, please.

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