Okay I officially love RetroArch

[DOS76]

For the longest time I didn't want to use RetroArch at all. In my mind it was over complicated and I didn't even want to bother learning how to use it. Then I saw Jason's video awhile ago and I found it wasn't as complicated as I had thought. Using the video I was able to get the snes9x core up and running relatively quickly but the things was when I used it for SNES I didn't really see any improvement that made me think that it was worth looking into any further so I put it on the back burner. Then I started having issues with TurboEngine for emulating TG16CD/PCECD games and decided to try RA again and this time I had it working and performing better than the stand alone I was using so finally I found a use for RetroArch. Then I got PC-FX running in RA so now I had two uses for RA even if the PC-FX uses are very limited still nice to have going. Then I was checking out NeoGeo Pocket games using NeoPop and having issues with it changing my resolution, having black bars on the side in full screen and just overall not looking good so I tried RA once again and was impressed with it over the standalone. That got me thinking so I know I had issues with how Handy displayed so I downloaded the Handy core for RA and once again RA shined through above and beyond the stand alone. So I thought of other emulators that didn't display the best VBJin for Virtual Boy tried the VB core for RA another instant convert. Wonder Swan another one. Finally today I decided to try the Virtual Jaguar core and it looks better than Virtual Jaguar stand alone too. So to keep it in perspective while no I haven't replaced Kega Fusion, Nestopia, ePSXe ,MAME or SNES9X because there isn't any reason to these are all great stand alone emulators that don't have the problems that the others I've mentioned earlier do but it is the lesser emulators that RA shines and out performs anything else that is available to us the users. So if you are like me and you don't want to use RetroArch just because I urge you to stop being stubborn and try something new. Is it maybe a little harder to setup then some other emulators? Yes it is. I'm not going to lie it is somewhat harder and less intuitive than many emulators at first. I think that without Jason's video I never would have benn able to get started because I would have never thought that z and x would be the keys to control the settings. Despite this I think that with the knowledge and resources of this community that any one could learn how to use this brilliant emulator, trust me it is well worth it.

[SentaiBrad]

I get that comment more than I thought I would for the tutorials as well. It's part of the reason why I wanted to do them though.

[Lordmonkus]

Glad you are starting to to love it :) I wouldn't switch from Mame either, stand alone Mame is still far superior. I would say give the Genesis and PSX cores a shot though since they are atleast on par with the stand alones but with far better shaders, ePSXe 2.0 is pretty awesome though. As far as Snes9x goes though it is exactly like the stand alone version but again with better shaders so I see no reason not to use it. The bSnes cores are also better from an overall compatibility and accuracy standpoint if you got a powerful enough system to run them.

[SentaiBrad]

lordmonkus said Glad you are starting to to love it :) I wouldn't switch from Mame either, stand alone Mame is still far superior. I would say give the Genesis and PSX cores a shot though since they are atleast on par with the stand alones but with far better shaders, ePSXe 2.0 is pretty awesome though. As far as Snes9x goes though it is exactly like the stand alone version but again with better shaders so I see no reason not to use it. The bSnes cores are also better from an overall compatibility and accuracy standpoint if you got a powerful enough system to run them.

With the RetroArch announcements coming for every core, but also the specific ones for PS1 I would actually say RetroArch is currently on par, and about to get a lot better.

[Lordmonkus]

Up until ePSXe 2 the Medanfen PSX core was much better in terms of accuracy but the new ePSXe actually is a hair better in accuracy now but it is extremely close and both are very near perfect. I saw a comparison chart after version 2 came out and it is something like 93% for Mednafen and 94% for ePSXe 2. It's nice that Retroarch and it's cores are open source it means that development is on going or at least if people stop working on it someone can come along and pick it up.

[DOS76]

I haven't gotten as far as the shaders as of yet. I'm just getting cores up and running and trying to get bios although in my limited experience so far that bios files I already have renamed to what RA is looking for seem to be working fine for me. Quick question for Sega CD do you need all 3 bios' to play different regional games? (I'm assuming yes but figure I'd ask 1st)

[SentaiBrad]

Yea, check your PM's in a second Derek.

[Lordmonkus]

Not sure if you need all 3 but I have them all just in case. Shaders are where Retroarch really shines. I don't know where your tastes lie but there is a ton of them to cover just about any personal preference you may have. Some quick recommendations to check out though. If you just want a sharp upscaled look check out the pixellate shader in the retro folder of the presets. If you like the smoothed out look then the xBR series of shaders is what to look at scalenx shaders. If you like the CRT look I would say look at the Hyllian, Lottes or CRT-Easymode presets, those are a good starting point. I really prefer the CRT look but shaders are very much all about personal preference.

[SentaiBrad]

Also make sure you use the _GLSL folder, the _CG folder may crash RA.

[Mute64]

I was in the same boat as you DOS76, after watching Brads tutorial video i decided to migrate as many of my systems to RA, i just love the controller support and being able to save and load states all by the controller no keyboard needed which is exactly what im aiming for in my build 100% controller supported, also that rewind feature i must admit gets used way to much ;) i have it mapped to the "back"/"select" button on my 360 controller. While there are ceartain games i still run on ceartian emulators ild say 80% of my library is run via RA, im also currently working on some custom bezels for each system as well. I do still have issues with certain psx games but i think it may just be a bad rip of the game....... Next is to get into MAME @SentaiBrad did you metion in your last tut you were working on a MAME tutorial?

[SentaiBrad]

I was asked to hold off on MAME because Jason wants to revamp it in LaunchBox first.

[Lordmonkus]

SentaiBrad said Also make sure you use the _GLSL folder, the _CG folder may crash RA.

I believe the CG shaders are for Nvidia cards and the GL shaders are for AMD and for the Linux and mobile versions of Retroarch. I use the CG shaders on my main PC with zero issues but I also have an Nvidia graphics card. One other thing I forgot to mention about shaders is that your ability to run certain ones will be dependent upon the power of your graphics card.

[SentaiBrad]

lordmonkus said

SentaiBrad said Also make sure you use the _GLSL folder, the _CG folder may crash RA.

I believe the CG shaders are for Nvidia cards and the GL shaders are for AMD and for the Linux and mobile versions of Retroarch. I use the CG shaders on my main PC with zero issues but I also have an Nvidia graphics card. One other thing I forgot to mention about shaders is that your ability to run certain ones will be dependent upon the power of your graphics card.

Yea, Derek is good there for power and the Pixellate shader is fairly low power. Shader + Increased internal resolution (some cores have them in their Core Options which is completely separate) will take the power consumption even further. I didn't know the Nvidia qualification, I just know we've had reports of it crashing for some users.

[DOS76]

I have a GeForce GTX 960 with an i7 4700 and 2 computers with GTX 750 TI's and nice new i5 6500's to go with them so unless you need like a super powerful machine I should be ok to run whatever on those 3 computers.

[Lordmonkus]

I won't swear my life on it but I believe I read over on the RA forums that the CG shaders are built on a framework by Nvidia.

[SentaiBrad]

I wouldn't be surprised. I can't keep up with every little minutia. Also, this is a perfect case study for why we need a chat room...... @Jason....

[Lordmonkus]

Indeed we do need a chatroom, something I thought about too :) Yeah DOS you are more than good to go on hardware for shaders. I don't know where your tastes lie but I use a modified CRT-Royale which is one of if not the hardest on system power shaders and I absolutely love it. I didn't come up with the combo though, I followed someone else modifications over on the RA forums. It's supposed to recreate a high quality PVM monitor and it looks perfect to me.

[SentaiBrad]

Actually, we technically have one on Steam. We have a stream group and there is a chat function there: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/LaunchBox

[Lordmonkus]

Having a forum chat room would be better and probably more used though I would think. I don't have Steam open often unless I am playing one of my Steam games which actually isn't very many.

[SentaiBrad]

lordmonkus said Having a forum chat room would be better and probably more used though I would think. I don't have Steam open often unless I am playing one of my Steam games which actually isn't very many.

I have too many Steam games, but it is a random option. A forum or IRC chat would be more functional in the long run.