c64 C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

[Zombeaver]

23 minutes ago, pyster said:

Anyone else experience distorted sound from this collection? I've tried this on 4 machines, and its kinda worthless because of the sound issues. I migrated the collection to mine, and  changed the emulator. But I'd like the original collection to be in a working order. 

Get a better CPU. Or enable threaded video in the config editor. Or stop changing any of the other hardware-punishing settings from default. Or some combination thereof.

I have multiple potato office PCs that it works fine on. Your issue is not typical, but points to insufficient hardware, typically in the form of CPU speed, or potentially GPU if you're using shaders.

[deleted user]

Um, It's not a CPU issue, its an issue with collection. The problem is seen across multiple machines, and only with this collection. c64 emulation has worked very well since the 90s. My 2021 build uses a Intel Core i7-10700KF 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor...  This audio issue, a distortion issue, isn't something I see on my personal launchbox setups, or any of the other collections I have downloaded. Just this one. All of my other collections run c64 stuff, via launchbox, 10+ year old hardware...  The issue follows the collection, across a diverse set of hardware. I's also not the GPU. While I am still rocking a rx570, and an HD6990 in another machine, these are more than capable cards, and are not the issue.

edit: The Wolfanoz collection, and so on do not exhibit this issue. I suspect there is an issue with how retroarch is setup. 

 

Edited September 15, 2022 by pyster

[Zombeaver]

5 hours ago, pyster said:

Um, It's not a CPU issue, its an issue with collection. The problem is seen across multiple machines, and only with this collection. c64 emulation has worked very well since the 90s. My 2021 build uses a Intel Core i7-10700KF 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor...  This audio issue, a distortion issue, isn't something I see on my personal launchbox setups, or any of the other collections I have downloaded. Just this one. All of my other collections run c64 stuff, via launchbox, 10+ year old hardware...  The issue follows the collection, across a diverse set of hardware

Then it's a collection issue that only affects you and your hardware (and software). Do you actually believe that the literally thousands of people that use this, spanning multiple years, 35+ thread pages, and about 200,000 views experience what you're describing and mysteriously choose to ignore it or that, just perhaps, it's something on your end? The issue doesn't follow the collection across diverse hardware. It follows the collection across your hardware. It doesn't matter if you've tested it on a dozen of your computers. I can turn around and say that I have thousands of people that have tested it on theirs and don't have the issue. I have no idea what sort of software you're running in the background or any number of other extenuating factors you have at play that can affect your performance - the same sort of factors that I've seen cause people over the years to convince themselves, for example, that Launchbox is "literally unusable", when in reality there's some miscellaneous element in their setup that they don't consider relevant that ends up being the culprit. What I can tell you is that what you are describing is a hardware performance issue. The audio problem you're describing occurs when Retroarch is struggling to maintain 100% speed, period. That is what you're hearing. Now what specifically is causing that issue is variable, but the number one culprit is the CPU, followed by the GPU. There are a number of settings that can contribute to increasing or decreasing hardware demands, nearly all of which are noted in the config editor and nearly all of which are in their least-demanding position by default. I've already told you what to do to attempt to resolve it. Turn on threaded video in the config editor. It decreases hardware demands but increases input latency which is why it's off by default - it's really just there as a last resort. Go to C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams and start Configurator.exe. Double click the config editor button at the bottom. Change the config. Feel free to do this or not. Use the collection or not. You can keep arguing or you could just do what's been suggested. Godspeed to you.

You can also try changing the video_driver= field to say vulkan or d3d12 since it sounds like you're using AMD which has the tendency to not play nicely with gl. This will break the included shaders though.

5 hours ago, pyster said:

I's also not the GPU. While I am still rocking a rx570, and an HD6990 in another machine, these are more than capable cards, and are not the issue.

This isn't necessarily true. It's dependent on a number of factors, like shaders for example. Esper, one of the included shaders, would most likely make an HD6990 have a stroke.

5 hours ago, pyster said:

c64 emulation has worked very well since the 90s.

edit: The Wolfanoz collection, and so on do not exhibit this issue. I suspect there is an issue with how retroarch is setup. 

ReSID-FP didn't exist in the 90s. It's a very accurate and, perhaps surprisingly, fairly demanding emulation of the SID chip, which is used here.

C64 emulation itself, has existed for a very long time, yes. I know, I was there, using them in the 90s. C64 Dreams is not analogous to using CCS64 or alternative in the 90s. If it was, I wouldn't have dumped the thousands of hours of my life into it that I have. It's not analogous to other C64 collections either. There are a lot of moving parts that do not exist anywhere else. And those moving parts have a cumulative demand on hardware.

[deleted user]

>Go to C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams and start Configurator.exe. 

Doesnt seem to exist in the torrent I have of C64 Dreams v0.17.7z.

[Zombeaver]

32 minutes ago, pyster said:

Doesnt seem to exist in the torrent I have of C64 Dreams v0.17

Congratulations. You're using a multiple year old version (which had more demanding settings by default, such as hard sync). 0.17 is literally from 2019. The current version is 0.45. I deleted the rest of your rambling inane horse shit in your post because this is literally the only sentence that means anything in the entire rant.

Get 0.45. It will probably just work out of the box. If it doesn't, do what you've been told to do. Or dont. Fine by me either way.

One more tirade and you're banned. I'm being nice and warning you beforehand.

[Zombeaver]

On 9/11/2022 at 8:54 PM, hoderer said:

Thanks alot for your quick reply, but Xbox controllers are always working. Devices which require a config change are the problem, but you're right: If that would be a problem in general, it would have been reported. I'll try my best in the next days and report.

I'm going to try to take a look at this this weekend. I've got the controllers you sent me. Chances are this is something that shouldn't be too hard to fix assuming that Retroarch identifies them with some kind of unique signifier. You should just need to figure out what Retroarch is calling those specific controllers and then edit the autoconfig for it (or create one if it doesn't exist already - there are quite a few included with Retroarch by default but of course there are a huge range of different controllers out there so there will be exceptions). I don't know if you looked at the autoconfig link I posted previously or had any luck on your own, but if not I should have some time this weekend to look at it.

[Zombeaver]

On 8/21/2022 at 12:35 PM, zoragon said:

Would this collection work on my RG351MP handheld if I transfer the roms and put the retroarch per game configurations in the correct folder? I know it won't have all the features (manuals, background music etc.) but I just want to know if all the games would be properly mapped to the controller.

 

On 9/13/2022 at 12:59 PM, fallenturtle said:

Actually once I started digging in I realized this was a nearly impossible task because Launchbox seems to point towards VBS files and not the disk files.

I wish there was just a way to launch this whole thing on a raspberry pi.

So the plan is to eventually release the collection, in modified form, for RetroPie. I have an RG351V that I've got the collection setup for, for example, but it's still a WIP. At this point though I've kindof shelved that until 1.0 since 1) the collection will still be changing over time up to that point so I'd like to avoid double work and 2) it's not exactly a quick switch from one to the other / entails a not-insignificant time investment.

Keep in mind that even once this is done it will not be 1:1 with the Windows version because I'm using additional third party software to accomplish things in that setting that can't be replicated on a Pi - AHK scripts, PDF readers in tandem with the game for manual browsing, etc. There's just no way to replicate some of the those things on RetroPie. Basically it would be all the games, configured as needed, with media and metadata. You'd still have most of the in-game functionality like disk swapping, saving and loading states, etc. but some of the fancier bells and whistles like manual swapping are out.

[opeth2112]

@Zombeaver I'd like to personally say THANK YOU for your hard work on this.  Seems of late you've been getting a lot of "this doesn't work" etc etc posts from people forgetting this is something they are getting FOR FREE and they expect Geek Squad White Glove level support to hold their hands through the process.  READ SOME DAMN INSTRUCTIONS once in a while.  

Just wanted to break up the monotony with some gratefulness.  Awesome work!  Keep it up and again, THANK YOU!

[Zombeaver]

@opeth2112 thanks! I really do appreciate that.

[LineOf7s]

I just wanted to pop back in now that I've got a chance to say that I managed (somewhat unexpectedly) to get an autoconfig set up for the adaptor/joystick I had an issue with, and my friend and I - he on his Wico Command Control Bat Handle that he used on his C64 and Amiga since 1985 and me on my Xbox 360 Wired - successfully had an evening of Space Taxi, Beach Head II and (on the Amiga) SWIV.

Was pretty spesh.  Thank you for your contribution toward it. 

[Zombeaver]

7 minutes ago, LineOf7s said:

I just wanted to pop back in now that I've got a chance to say that I managed (somewhat unexpectedly) to get an autoconfig set up for the adaptor/joystick I had an issue with, and my friend and I - he on his Wico Command Control Bat Handle that he used on his C64 and Amiga since 1985 and me on my Xbox 360 Wired - successfully had an evening of Space Taxi, Beach Head II and (on the Amiga) SWIV.

Was pretty spesh.  Thank you for your contribution toward it. 

Glad to hear it!

[Zombeaver]

Alright @hoderer I think I've got the issue straightened out. Merge the below with the Retroarch folder and you should be good. You may want to backup your retroarch.cfg just in case but there shouldn't be any issues. I played some 2 player and 4 player games, in various combinations of the two Speedlink joysticks + two XB1 controllers and everything was working fine. The controls I've assigned are large left button = fire, large right button = spacebar, small left button = virtual keyboard (you can then choose a key with the joystick and select with the left large button), small right button = Runstop. You can change these if you wish. If you do, make sure you change them in the autoconfig file itself. That's the file that's going to be located in Retroarch\autoconfig\dinput and is named "Game Controller for Android .cfg" (this is what Retroarch/Windows calls the Speedlink joysticks).

Retroarch refers to each button via the below numbers:

Large left button = "3"
Large right button = "0"
Small left button = "4"
Small right button = "1"

Speedlink Fix.zip

[marcosgaming]

Ciao @ Zombeaver

e per la configurazione del controller xbox360 su pc per c64. È automatico?  Grazie

[hoderer]

7 hours ago, Zombeaver said:

 I think I've got the issue straightened out.

It's working like a charm. THANKS ALOT for your help and your time!!! GREAT!!!

[Zombeaver]

4 hours ago, hoderer said:

It's working like a charm. THANKS ALOT for your help and your time!!! GREAT!!!

No problem! Happy to help.

[Zombeaver]

8 hours ago, marcosgaming said:

Ciao @ Zombeaver

e per la configurazione del controller xbox360 su pc per c64. È automatico?  Grazie

Sì, i controller 360 e XB1 dovrebbero funzionare automaticamente.

[JuRaSSiCBoY]

Hi all! In first place, thanks to Zombeaver for sharing his impressive work with all of us!!

Is It possible to include the C64 Dreams into a previously existing Launchbox installation but having all the games on external device without losing C64 Dreams functionalities? I've got all my ROMs on a NAS and all the rest (images, videos, Launchbox config, etc ...) at a local PC. I know maybe It can be done with symlinks but I prefer to not use them and leave my emulation files structure as it is.

I think It can be possible by changing some (or a lot) of paths on C64 Dreams configuration files but I don't know where to find those files.

 

Thank you all in advance!!

Edited September 23, 2022 by JuRaSSiCBoY

[Zombeaver]

On 9/23/2022 at 3:38 AM, JuRaSSiCBoY said:

Hi all! In first place, thanks to Zombeaver for sharing his impressive work with all of us!!

Is It possible to include the C64 Dreams into a previously existing Launchbox installation but having all the games on external device without losing C64 Dreams functionalities? I've got all my ROMs on a NAS and all the rest (images, videos, Launchbox config, etc ...) at a local PC. I know maybe It can be done with symlinks but I prefer to not use them and leave my emulation files structure as it is.

I think It can be possible by changing some (or a lot) of paths on C64 Dreams configuration files but I don't know where to find those files.

 

Thank you all in advance!!

This is theoretically possible. You wouldn't actually change anything in C64 Dreams itself as it's self-contained, it can be run from any location. You would just need to update Launchbox's xmls to refer to the altered location for starting the games. i.e. the normal relative path for Bruce Lee for example would be .\C64 Dreams\Games\Bruce Lee\Bruce Lee.vbs (this would be with the C64 Dreams subfolder located in the Launchbox folder as it's designed by default) and you would need to change it to say X:\Emulation\C64 Dreams\Games\Bruce Lee\Bruce Lee.vbs (or whatever the new path is going to be). You should be able to do that fairly easily en masse with something like Notepad++

[JuRaSSiCBoY]

On 9/29/2022 at 10:22 PM, Zombeaver said:

This is theoretically possible. You wouldn't actually change anything in C64 Dreams itself as it's self-contained, it can be run from any location. You would just need to update Launchbox's xmls to refer to the altered location for starting the games. i.e. the normal relative path for Bruce Lee for example would be .\C64 Dreams\Games\Bruce Lee\Bruce Lee.vbs (this would be with the C64 Dreams subfolder located in the Launchbox folder as it's designed by default) and you would need to change it to say X:\Emulation\C64 Dreams\Games\Bruce Lee\Bruce Lee.vbs (or whatever the new path is going to be). You should be able to do that fairly easily en masse with something like Notepad++

Thank you very much!!! It's working like a charm. I recommend to made all the changes over your "C64 Dreams+Launchbox pack" before doing the migration process explained at the OP.

I would like to inform about an interesting pack of bezels and presets for Retroarch, I think It would be nice to include them at your project (I'm using them atm). Search for "HSM Mega Bezel Graphics and Presets" and "TheNamec Mega Bezel Commodore pack". It would be a nice addition! And they're easy to use!

[Zombeaver]

I spent pretty much all day yesterday working on some HSM presets for C64 Dreams. The default values aren't the correct aspect ratio, colors, etc. so took quite a bit of tweaking to get it the way I wanted, with no doubt more to come before release. I have a generic one and two from Namec's pack, each with an additional curvature preset.

The generic one can be combined with any of the existing bezel overlays, changeable in the Configurator.