nestopia_libretro.dll running fast on some nes games?

[Ricky]

Anybody else had this issue of nestopia_libretro.dll core running faster on some games?

[Lordmonkus]

Only some games and not all of them ?

[SentaiBrad]

Yea that's strange that it's not all of them. Try a different NES core?

[Ricky]

Found the issue. It's because I am playing PAL versions. Most of my roms are PAL because that's what I grew up playing with down here in New Zealand. No matter what different NES core I use, the games are speed up. I thought the emulators were region free?

[Lordmonkus]

They are region free. Check in the core options for the Nestopia core, at the bottom you can change which region you prefer your games to be run at, NTSC, PAL, Famicom, Dendy and Auto. Auto should be the default and it will choose whatever region the rom is set for but I believe you can force it to PAL if that is what you prefer.

[Ricky]

Where abouts exactly do I change the region on nestopia core in retroarch? It should be on auto anyway, I haven't changed it.

[Lordmonkus]

Load up a game and press F1 on the keyboard to being up the Retroarch menu. Go to Quick Menu then Core Options / Options (depending on which version of RA you are using). At the bottom will be the region, it should be set to auto and the vast majority of roms are NTSC by default, you can force it to PAL if that is what you want. I did a quick test on Super Mario and set it to PAL and it slowed the game down to PAL speed. I hope this helps you out, i'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to PAL and NTSC stuff.

[Ricky]

I think it's a bug in RetroArch. RetroArch allows you to choose which favored system be it NTSC or PAL and by default it is auto. Auto I presume means region-free, however the auto option doesn't work. No matter what NES core system you use, auto won't work, suggesting it's a bug in RetroArch not the NES cores. Hopefully somebody more knowledgeable than me could resolve this, otherwise I will have to get all NTSC roms instead.

[SentaiBrad]

Then what happens when you set it to PAL?

[Ricky]

It works fine. However, there are many good NTSC games I want to play also.

[SentaiBrad]

I assume that the NTSC games then are messed up set to PAL. Games during that time we're not converted properly to PAL and Nestopia is cycle accurate. The only other thing I can think to do is to limit the FPS or Refresh Rate (a lot harder) or try turning of V-Sync in the RetroArch video options. I would create a separate config file for the NES and use the -c command in Associated Platforms to load the custom config. To create the config, before make a ton of changes, go to the first tab and press X on "Create new config", this should then load that config automatically. Make your changes then go back to the first tab and press X on "Save current config." A config file names after the core (usually, but not always) will be in the Config folder in RetroArch. Go in and copy that name along with .cfg. In associated Platforms after the quotations for the -L command (which means to load a core) type -c "config ame_of_the_config_here.cfg" and it will load that config every time. Except this doesn't solve any issues NTSC games then might have... but set to Auto + no V-Sync I am hoping this fixes it.

[SentaiBrad]

That config has a slash in it just like the Load Core command does between it's quotations, but our forums don't like "special" characters... it's BS.

[Ricky]

Hmmm. I think I'm just going to play NTSC games then. I don't want to tamper with V-sync and FPS. I like things to run smooth and the way they are designed to run. Simple setup is what I like, rather than tweaking things here and there each time I setup a new LauchBox and RetroArch system. Thank you for your help anyway Brad. It's just odd that other emulators run region free just fine, but when it's run in RetroArch via it's core system it doesn't work?

[SentaiBrad]

Nestopia stand alone does this too apparently. Also, if you wanted it to be as close to consoles you'd turn V-Sync off, that's a rather new computer thing from the last 15-20 years. It's mostly prominent for 3D based games and all it does is lock your Frame Rate to your monitors refresh rate (generally 60Hz) so that there is less or no tearing of an image. If it fixes your problem I'd rather you be satisfied with your nostalgia. :P Yea they're pretty much the same game, but I would feel the same way if the shoe was on the other foot so to speak. For tweaking RetroArch for ever core, that's why they have the Custom Config load command. It's actually super simple because of LaunchBox and I teach it in my Tutorial series because it also helps keep controller specific, system specific settings. Window Scaling isn't the same across cores, shaders should be the same across 2D and 3D, sometimes across 2D cores too so it's so much more super helpful than just this 1 instance.