Please Help Troubleshoot Retroarch Launching CPS games

[chicomandell]

I have confirmed the games launch in Retroarch, but when adding to Launchbox nothing happens when clicking on them. I have confirmed that the cores are updated under Retroarch emulator settings. The same FBA core works when I open Retroarch outside of Launchbox and manually launch a game. Is there some kind of log file that will show me where the problem is? I have installed many other cores in retroarch without issue. See screenshots for relevant information.

[Zombeaver]

If you're using FBA, it looks like you're using the wrong (or possibly an old) core. It should just be "fba_libretro.dll". If you actually do have your core file named like that (and it's the correct core), it should be fine regardless, but it's one thing that I see that's a bit odd. I've got a screenshot of my various core settings here although my platform is named "Capcom CPS-1" not "Capcom CPS1" (I'm not sure if this discrepancy is due to a recent format change to the default, or if you manually changed them). CPS-1 and CPS-2 work fine through LB for me. I do have some custom named cores for FBA but they're actually just duplicates of "fba_libretro.dll" with different settings. I don't see anything particularly weird about your settings though.

[Lordmonkus]

In the "Edit Emulator" window > Emulator Details tab do you have the "extract rom archive" box checked or unchecked ? It should be unchecked. Everything else in your screenshots looks right to me. Edit: I also just use the fb_alpha_libretro.dll core. The specific cps1 and cps2 cores are just a more stripped and streamlined versions for mobile and lower end systems. Those system specific cores should work though.

[Zombeaver]

Ah okay. I thought I'd seen them named like that at some point before but I wasn't sure - I just knew the one I use is simply called "fba_libretro". They can be named whatever you want really, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't using the "fba_libretro" core when he was loading it manually in Retroarch and using "fb_alpha_cps1_libretro" (which he may or may not actually have) in the Retroarch entry in LB.

[chicomandell]

The names for everything were already in Launchbox when I imported the roms. I just selected them from a list. I do not have that box to extract roms selected. I included a screenshot of the core I am using in retroarch, and did confirm that it does work outside of Launchbox.

[Lordmonkus]

Just as a test try downloading the "fb_alpha_libretro.dll" core and try that one.

[Zombeaver]

...wouldn't that just be "fba_libretro.dll"? I think one of us is using an older one haha; or one of us has an older formatted name anyway. The non-system-specific FBA core that I have is simply named "fba_libretro.dll"

[chicomandell]

Ok, I tried fb_alpha_libretro.dll also and it's the same thing. I updated the core from the online updater in retroarch. It works fine in retroarch when loading content, but launchbox just flashes the screen and doesn't even open up the retroarch window. There isn't a log file that will tell me what went wrong? I'm guessing it's a path problem somewhere, but I've looked everywhere I can think and not finding anything.

[Lordmonkus]

Well the "fb_alpha_libretro.dll" core is the core that gets downloaded with the updater when you pick Arcade (FB Alpha) from the list. The "fba_libretro.dll" core is the one you get when you pick Arcade (FB Alpha-SVN). Not sure what the actual difference is between the two. I just know that the system specific core are just streamlined for lower end systems to squeeze out every drop of performance they can.

[Zombeaver]

lordmonkus said Well the "fb_alpha_libretro.dll" core is the core that gets downloaded with the updater when you pick Arcade (FB Alpha) from the list. The "fba_libretro.dll" core is the one you get when you pick Arcade (FB Alpha-SVN). Not sure what the actual difference is between the two. I just know that the system specific core are just streamlined for lower end systems to squeeze out every drop of performance they can.

Ahh, okay! I didn't realize there were two different versions. I love Retroarch, but this is the kind of shit that seriously drives me crazy about it @chicomandell, can you post a screenshot of your "Launcher" tab in the game entry? That's the only thing I don't see included above. We're running out of potential points of failure here...

[chicomandell]

Here is the launcher tab.

[Zombeaver]

I'm running out of ideas at this point, to be honest. This is normally about the point that I start looking at external things like adding Retroarch and Launchbox folders to my AV whitelist, restarting my computer, running as administrator... that kind of thing. I'll post screenshots of every relevant section for this game when I get home tonight. It works fine via LB for me. Basically all LB is is a GUI for organizing a pretty looking collection of shortcuts. There's no reason it shouldn't work through LB if it works through RA by itself. 1. Is LB's path to Retroarch correct? 2. Is the name of the "associated platform" in the Retroarch emulator entry identical to the platform name in your game library? 3. Is the name of the core dll file in the Retroarch emulator entry correct, and formatted as -L "cores\[core name].dll"? 4. Is the path to the rom correct in the launcher tab? That's...about it really. It's just a fancy shortcut.

[chicomandell]

Yeah I know that's what has me stumped. I've used retroarch for all of my console games and haven't had a problem. I added Neo Geo games in the same manner using the FBA Neo Geo core and that works fine in LB. I'm going to try a stand alone emulator to see if that works. Thanks for the help everyone.

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah i'm stumped on this one too. If the game is loading fine through Retroarch itself then there is an issue in one of the paths in Launchbox or a setting. The only thing I am left with at the moment is that the core listed in Launchbox is not matching up with the actual core in Retroarchs cores folder. Edit: Personally I recommend using Mame for all arcade stuff, the HLSL shaders are just as good or better than Retroarchs CRT shaders.

[chicomandell]

Yeah my last resort was to use a stand alone emulator. I just liked the idea of having everything in Retroarch since it's a cleaner setup. More of a neat freak thing than an actual problem though. :-)

[chicomandell]

I actually got it to work by setting FBA as the default core for Arcade as well. It seems to use that instead of the Capcom CPS1 settings for some reason.

[chicomandell]

I think I know what happened. When I first started working with LB I used the lightspeed tool to import mame and it auto categorized some games as CPS, so it must've pointed the paths to Arcade. I removed those platforms and am going to recreate from scratch. Either way I know how to fix it. Thanks for the help everyone.

[Zombeaver]

Alright, glad to hear it's working. I was just about to post those screenshots but sounds like you've got it under control

[Lordmonkus]

Glad you got it sorted. Are you using any CRT shaders in Retroarch for your arcade games ? I ask only because Retroarch does not rotate the shaders for vertical oriented games so the shader looks like crap.

[Zombeaver]

That's generally true, although CRT-Easymode works in either orientation.