Retroarch Startup Guide w/ Pictures

[Zombeaver]

There's also a newish (for Windows) core called PCSX ReARMed, but I've never tried it personally. I'm not sure how demanding it is on hardware or how accurate it is for that matter. Might be worth a shot though.

[Lordmonkus]

Is that core actually available for Windows though ? The way I understand it that is for ARM based processors, hence the name ReARMed. 

[Zombeaver]

It didn't used to be, but it's in the core list in the Windows client now. Like I said, I haven't tested it yet. I've got 5 games (out of 400+) that don't actually work in Mednafen so I figured I'd try them out with it, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah there is that whole other side of PSX emulators that I just can't be bothered to look into. I have no use for any of them myself.

[spycat]

After many years of using dedicated emulators I decided to give Retroarch a go.
I've started with the Playstation and have tried out 6 games. They all load and play perfectly (video and audio) when using the beetle psx core and also the beetle psx hw core, but sometimes during the intro and loading screens I briefly get the following on-screen message:
Slow CD image read detected - consider using async or precache CD access method.

I don't notice anything behaving slowly.

The only mention of CD access method I could find is in the retroarch-core-options config file. This is set by default as sync.
Is this what the message is advising me to change?
 

[Lordmonkus]

Hmm, I haven't looked at the PSX core options in a while and by the looks it has changed a little. There used to be a "Pre cacheCD" option where the emulator loaded the disk image to memory which took a small amount of extra time on the initial load (nothing significant) but sped up the disk access a lot during game play.

It seems now that is gone and there is the new CD Access Method so yeah I would assume that is exactly what that message is referring to. Try setting that to async and see if you get any issues or messages.

Edit: There is a precache option in that setting as well, I would probably start with the precache one myself since I always turned that on before.

[spycat]

Many thanks. I'll try precache first and see how things go.

[Lordmonkus]

I just did a quick test with it and seems to work exactly as it did before.

I also noticed a couple of extra things in the core options that I don't recall being there before like the analog toggle option. I think you used to have to go into the controller options and change that before which while not a big deal this new toggle on the controller is much more convenient.

[spycat]

Both precache and async options work ok with no more on screen messages.
Unlike precache, I don't know what async does so I'm going with precache.
 

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah I don't know what async is either and there's no info when you press the select button on the controller, i'm gonna guess and say it's some sort of hybrid read ahead while playing without a full precache into ram.

[XXjoker916XX]

Thanks for the help. I am so use to Android and only use windows for work and to transfer files and download files so I was really flying blind on this and felt retarded because I have had windows software in my homes since I was in the 6th grade 1991

[Lordmonkus]

Glad it got you up and running.

[ALIE]

Hey @Lordmonkus  I have been using a Xbox One controller as my default player 1 without any issues.  But now I tried adding player 2 a ps4 controller, in the settings i can set buttons but nothing happens in game.  I have tried snes, Genesis, Ps1 cores but player 2 just won't work.  

[Lordmonkus]

Did you check the core controller options and make sure the 2nd player controller is enabled and set to the correct controller ?

[ALIE]

20 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

Did you check the core controller options and make sure the 2nd player controller is enabled and set to the correct controller ?

Within the cores yes and they seem to work doing set up. I hit save core configuration as well. 

[Nocta]

I read the news about the new DX11/12 drivers of Retroarch and I was wondering if someone here knows how to take advantage of it and if it's worth it at all? Thanks. 

[Lordmonkus]

There isn't much to do really. For now though it is suggested to the DX11 over DX12 while they work some issues out.

One of the benefits of DX11 / 12 and Vulkan is that it removes the need for the Hard GPU Sync and Max Swap Chains settings since it handles that automatically for 0 CPU overhead.

Certain cores won't use DX11 / 12 yet since they are still GL dependent.

To use shaders with DX11 / 12 you need to use the Slang shaders, CG and GLSL don't work with it.

[Nocta]

So the cores use the proper driver automatically?

[Lordmonkus]

I think what happens now is if you set the driver to say DX11 and the core doesn't support it it falls back to the GL driver unless you really try and force it through a core override. I am not 100% certain of this however though.

[Chumpalot]

Thank you for this.  I thought I had things set up quite well but it seems I can squeeze a little bit more out of it using some of the settings above.

Is Glupen64 still the emulator of choice for the N64?  I'm currently using Mupen64 and whilst things aren't perfect games are absolutely playable.

Cheers.