Lordmonkus Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 I have been using the stable build of Retroarch 1.3.6 for a while now and haven't really bothered with the nightlies at all. Tonight though I decided to check in on it and see what is going on with it and the next version is looking to be very nice indeed. So let me share some of my first impressions with you, they are good. First let's get the simple thing out of the way, emulation quality isn't going to have a huge improvement if any at all since that has always been very good outside of a couple of oddball cores and that is on the core level anyways, not the UI. The first thing I noticed immediately was that by default using an Xbox 360 controller the A button is now "confirm" and B is "cancel'. This is backwards to what it has always been but many people including me felt it should have been this way all along. Don't worry though there is an option to revert it back to the old way if you want it that way. The second thing you will notice if you have been using an older non nightly build is that when you go to a setting underneath it will see a short description of what that setting is and what it does. Now that doesn't mean it has a full blown explanation of every little thing since there simply isn't enough space but there is enough there to give you a general idea. It is still upon the end user to do some research on what some of the more advanced options are. The third thing I noticed was there was no more "Per Core Settings" in the configuration section. This doesn't mean that it is gone though, it has simply moved to the core settings and even more fine detail in the core controller settings. This is fine since the bulk of your settings such as video and audio are all going to be the same across all cores anyways. The fourth and last but not least thing I noticed was controller setup, more specifically the bindings screen. While at first glance you would think nothing has changed in here but there is a very nice little improvement made. On the left hand side you will of course see all the buttons representing the controller for the system you have loaded. For example the Sega Genesis controller has ABC, XYZ, Start, Mode and d-pad. On the right hand side you will see 2 sets of buttons, 1 is the keyboard button and the other is the button of the controller you are using. *Informercial Voice* "But wait, THERE'S MORE !!!" The controller buttons you see in the right hand column match up with the controller you are actually using. Earlier I said by default everything is set to the XBox 360 controller but I use a Hori FC4 controller (pic below) for anything that doesn't require an analog stick. This is a Playstation controller so obviously all the buttons are marked with Playstation button markings (X, Circle, Square, Triangle). To map my controller to match the Genesis controller I simply had to select the button from the left hand column and press left or right on the d-pad to match the button on my controller. By default since it was a PS controller Retroarch sets up Square, X, Circle as A,B,C. I just had to go to the A button on the left side and press right on the d-pad til the right hand changed to X. The go to B on the left hand side and change the right hand column to the Circle and so on til all my buttons were mapped. Then in the controller settings with the Genesis core loaded just simply save that as a core default. The "share" and "options" buttons were correctly mapped to "mode" and "start" automatically. This was so much easier than in the past, good times ahead. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damageinc86 Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 I will keep checking up on retroarch, because I'm hoping for the day when it recognizes all of the controllers I have plugged in. So far in all versions, it only shows the 1st xbox360 controller as being mappable, even though half of the controllers pop up on the yellow text saying they are plugged in. How many different controllers were you able to map? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 Two that I have plugged in, the 360 pad and the Hori pad. I didn't try any more though it looks like they are putting some effort into the controller mapping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damageinc86 Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Nice, might take a look at it when they release the next stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charco Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Sounds great, my LaunchBox setup is running whatever nightly from the day I installed RetroArch in early September or whatever. I'll update at the next stable release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norfair Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 (edited) 7 hours ago, lordmonkus said: The second thing you will notice if you have been using an older non nightly build is that when you go to a setting underneath it will see a short description of what that setting is and what it does. Now that doesn't mean it has a full blown explanation of every little thing since there simply isn't enough space but there is enough there to give you a general idea. It is still upon the end user to do some research on what some of the more advanced options are. I have the "Nov 25 2016" build. I actually found out you can get more info about the setting if you press the RetroPad "Select"-button (maybe the "Share" button on your controller). You get a popup text with more info. I don't know if this is new, but I haven't noticed it before, Edited November 28, 2016 by Norfair Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 7 hours ago, lordmonkus said: The first thing I noticed immediately was that by default using an Xbox 360 controller the A button is now "confirm" and B is "cancel'. Nice. This has always felt awkward to me. 7 hours ago, lordmonkus said: The second thing you will notice if you have been using an older non nightly build is that when you go to a setting underneath it will see a short description of what that setting is and what it does. I remember them mentioning that they were planning on doing this and it's a very welcome (and overdue) change. I hope this will help alleviate the mystery of some settings for people. Some of this stuff has been far too opaque for far too long. Too often you're relegated to either digging through forum posts for information or just experimenting and hoping that you can pinpoint the difference (which isn't always apparent). 7 hours ago, lordmonkus said: The third thing I noticed was there was no more "Per Core Settings" in the configuration section. This doesn't mean that it is gone though, it has simply moved to the core settings and even more fine detail in the core controller settings. This is fine since the bulk of your settings such as video and audio are all going to be the same across all cores anyways. I'm not sure what I think of this yet. I guess I'll have to mess around with it to see. When I heard they were doing this a while back I was worried it was going to screw up some of my configs but after a bit of testing it didn't seem to, so that's a relief. Still, more experimentation is necessary. RA has always had an odd and arguably convoluted approach to this, so I just hope this doesn't make it worse. 8 hours ago, lordmonkus said: The controller buttons you see in the right hand column match up with the controller you are actually using. Earlier I said by default everything is set to the XBox 360 controller but I use a Hori FC4 controller (pic below) for anything that doesn't require an analog stick. This is a Playstation controller so obviously all the buttons are marked with Playstation button markings (X, Circle, Square, Triangle). To map my controller to match the Genesis controller I simply had to select the button from the left hand column and press left or right on the d-pad to match the button on my controller. By default since it was a PS controller Retroarch sets up Square, X, Circle as A,B,C. I just had to go to the A button on the left side and press right on the d-pad til the right hand changed to X. The go to B on the left hand side and change the right hand column to the Circle and so on til all my buttons were mapped. Then in the controller settings with the Genesis core loaded just simply save that as a core default. The "share" and "options" buttons were correctly mapped to "mode" and "start" automatically. Neato! That sounds like a good change. I'm definitely looking forward to digging into this stuff once it's released as stable. Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 4 hours ago, Norfair said: I have the "Nov 25 2016" build. I actually found out you can get more info about the setting if you press the RetroPad "Select"-button (maybe the "Share" button on your controller). You get a popup text with more info. I don't know if this is new, but I haven't noticed it before, Yeah that's been there for a bit but very limited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 3 hours ago, Zombeaver said: I'm not sure what I think of this yet. I guess I'll have to mess around with it to see. When I heard they were doing this a while back I was worried it was going to screw up some of my configs but after a bit of testing it didn't seem to, so that's a relief. Still, more experimentation is necessary. RA has always had an odd and arguably convoluted approach to this, so I just hope this doesn't make it worse. It was a bit weird to me at first but I think this is a better way to handle it. It also makes having different controllers for different games using the same core. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Just now, lordmonkus said: It also makes having different controllers for different games using the same core. I definitely like that. Right now I have separate emulator entries for things like "Retroarch - Super Scope", "Retroarch - PSX Dual Analog" and one or two others. Being able to eliminate those would definitely be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 Here's a couple of screenshots of the "Core Options" for the Genesis core. In the one screenshot you will see at the bottom for Save Core and Save Game overrides. In the other screenshot is the controller settings and you can see the Save Core and Save Game Remap. You can also see the button config and how it is labeled the same as the Playstation buttons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 So I bought one of these yesterday and have been having fun with it. The only problem is that the default mapping for the buttons isn't synonymous with the equivalent 360 buttons - so I have to remap them if I want to switch from one to the other. I remembered this post and wondered if this is something that's resolved in the nightlies. With 1.3.6 stable in the input section it recognizes that they're not the same controller if I switch from one to the other (the 360 controller says something like "360 Controller" and the SNES controller just says "USB Controller") but it doesn't actually differentiate/change the controls based on which one I have plugged in at the time. They just stay as whatever I map them to regardless of the controller plugged in. Re-reading your post, I'm not entirely clear on this - does it now remember the controls independently based on the connected controller? That's awesome if so. If not, I'm wondering what the best method would be to address this. Having to remap the controls every time I want to switch from one to the other is kindof a pain... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charco Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Once you remap your buttons hit "Save Autoconfig" and it will save your bindings to the autoconfig file for that controller. Next time you plug it in and boot up RetroArch it will auto load that config with the correct bindings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charco Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Make sure that "Autoconfig enable" is set to On aswell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Interesting! I've never used that before. Previously the only controllers I've had connected are my 360 controller and my Mayflash F300 which is also Xinput so the buttons are 1-to-1 between them. It appears that "Save Autoconfig" is already part of 1.3.6 stable. I'll give this a go tonight. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charco Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 No problem, glad I could help. I use a wired 360 pad for 3D games and my iBuffalo SNES pads for all the 2D stuff, works perfectly when I switch between the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 I was having a blast last night playing some Contra III and F-Zero with it. I'd kindof forgotten how small (comparatively) the SNES pad was. It didn't take too long to pick back up though. It's funny how different things feel just with a different control peripheral. A couple buddies of mine have a local retro game shop and they had one for sale for $15 so I figured what the hell. I wish it was wireless but it's not a huge deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charco Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 To be honest, I think you are better off with wired controllers, less in put lag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 While that's technically true, a wireless 360 controller is my daily driver for most things and I never have any issue with input lag out of it. Hell, I use a wireless 360 controller to play via streaming on my Steam Link over WIFI and I still don't have any problems with it. I've beaten Contra III more than once in that scenario. That doesn't mean you're wrong, I'm just saying I think that point (which is made pretty frequently when the topic comes up) is a little overstated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 AutoConfig doesn't seem to be doing anything... It says it saves it and it says it loads one or the other when I switch from one controller to the other and start a game but the controls themselves aren't changing at all. "AutoConfig Enable" is set to on. "Remap Binds Enable" is set to off though. Maybe that's the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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