PS3 RetroArch (PS3) - Guide (2018 - WIP) __

[Zar]

OKC color tag hurt my eyes !

nice table :p

 

[sandungas]

OKC color tag hurt my eyes !

nice table :p

I was not sure which color to use, the color palette is a bit limited because are very small "tags", so needs to be colors very well differenced
Any suggestion is welcomed

Btw, i noticed the github links at left column of the table, for vice (the 4 cores of the commodore emu) are wrong
Do you have correct links for that ?, i cant find them :/

 

[Zar]

it's https://github.com/libretro/vice-libretro
1 project with different makefile for each cores

 

[STLcardsWS]

I was not sure which color to use, the color palette is a bit limited because are very small "tags", so needs to be colors very well differenced
Any suggestion is welcomed

Black text would make that color better IMO, which would make it kind of the odd ball having the only black text of those tags, but maybe all them w/ black text.

Or

sample

sample

 

[STLcardsWS]

@sandungas

pokemini	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	OKC

This one works.

 

[STLcardsWS]

The only issue i see with this list and maybe a simple title change will address it.

That its not RetroArch PS3 Cores by version, as these are libretro cores and many of them never been in a PS3 release and can not be compiled for the PS3. So that aspect i think adds maybe some confusion to the user who do know about the app, at least on a first glance.

While it does show that is does not work it should be consider more of a list for developer's/advance user's then info for a noob.

Overall great job!!! and the list will be added into the guide but not sure 100% yet where i will fit into, but has TONS of great info.

 

[sandungas]

I changed the color of tags: OKC (more darker), C98 (more darker), and OFW (removed the yellow font), this is how it looks, the colors are different but imo doesnt looks better, if someone wants to suggest a color palette for this tags, please copypaste this list entirelly and post it entirelly too (because is needed to see colors next to each others)
OKC. Source code compiles successfully
C98. Needs to be rewritten in C++98
GL1. Needs to be rewritten in OpenGL/PSGL v1
DYN. Needs dynarec for PPC64
OFW. PS3 firmware has better PS1/PS2/PSP emulators
OTH. Other problems
BLK. WHI. BLU. Boots in a solid color screen (usually black)

Added the links to vice github

I dont think is a good diea to change the white font (inside tabs), because by using black font the color palette will be limited too (but in a different manner), so it doesnt solves the problem... and it doesnt looks so bad with white font on top of dark color

Pokemini was marked as OKC (compiles fine)... there is room at right to add other details (or links to how to make it work, or download links)

I dont think is only for developers, is also for rookies and noobs, it gives an awesome overview of the cores that works, the others that doesnt (but are candidates to work), and the others that probably will never work
All this are repetitive questions in forums... ive seen this questions repeated many times... people asking if a core for PSP works... or other that needs dynarec, etc... so even rookies are going to find useful info in the table
We never had a general overview like this before, the first time i started to have this view is when zar posted the list, but until today i was not able to get an overall idea of everything

Also having everything together (and well marked) makes developers to focus attention in the things that are candidates to be fixed, so by keeping everything together i guess retroarch will have more attention from developers

 

[STLcardsWS]

I dont think is only for developers, is also for rookies and noobs, it gives an awesome overview of the cores that works, the others that doesnt (but are candidates to work), and the others that probably will never work
All this are repetitive questions in forums... ive seen this questions repeated many times... people asking if a core for PSP works... or other that needs dynarec, etc... so even rookies are going to find useful info in the table
We never had a general overview like this before, the first time i started to have this view is when zar posted the list, but until today i was not able to get an overall idea of everything

Also having everything together (and well marked) makes developers to focus attention in the things that are candidates to be fixed, so by keeping everything together i guess retroarch will have more attention from developers

RetroArch / Libretro Cores are already a complexed project for an avg end user. Even veterans / developer's do not know how everything works correctly (nor myself, with every aspect and core). Almost 40 working cores

IMO you have to display what works and explain what is in the port first and foremost..
By listing some of these cores that will never be seen when they install the port i think add more info to the new user then what they need for operating and learning RetroArch. if what is supported is listed in the forefront then the questions of "what does not run" kind of answer's it self.

The goal of the guide is to contain alot of info but also present it in the most easiest way for a noob to understand and then as you peel back the layers of the guide more info can be extracted and i think that is where your table fits in and also aiding in helping get the proper core set back on the PS3 version, but for user who want to know what is there and how to use what is there, the table contains alot of stuff that just does not matter to the operation of the port and that is why i say it more of a table of info for advance user's / developer's. ITS AN EXTREMELY USEFUL GUIDE,, very glad you took the time to create and add the info.

Pokemini was marked as OKC (compiles fine)... there is room at right to add other details (or links to how to make it work, or download links)

Ahh i see, the versions where missing that core was missing in my mock up of that original list. As i was adding things to post 2 noticed that core and a few others were missing.

I changed the color of tags: OKC (more darker), C98 (more darker), and OFW (removed the yellow font), this is how it looks, the colors are different but imo doesnt looks better, if someone wants to suggest a color palette for this tags, please copypaste this list entirelly and post it entirelly too (because is needed to see colors next to each others)
OKC. Source code compiles successfully
C98. Needs to be rewritten in C++98
GL1. Needs to be rewritten in OpenGL/PSGL v1
DYN. Needs dynarec for PPC64
OFW. PS3 firmware has better PS1/PS2/PSP emulators
OTH. Other problems
BLK. WHI. BLU. Boots in a solid color screen (usually black)

Yea i think those look much better with the darker color.

 

[sandungas]

But look at it from other point of view... how much "contras" there are in displaying all that list of cores together ?
The only contra i see is it makes the list double the lenght... but other than that ? i dont see any contra

And i see several important benefits in th other side of the ballance
-is a great overview of everything that could potentially work in retroarch PS3
-it solves the questions about "why x core doesnt works?"
-is pointing fingers to the cores candidates to be "fixed"
-making no difference in between final users and developers is nice, it means more collaboration

Is the same table we was using before, but it did not had the colored "tags" and the "not included" cores
So basically is the same we was doing... but longer

 

[STLcardsWS]

But look at it from other point of view... how much "contras" there are in displaying all that list of cores together ?
The only contra i see is it makes the list double the lenght... but other than that ? i dont see any contra

And i see several important benefits in th other side of the ballance
-is a great overview of everything that could potentially work in retroarch PS3
-it solves the questions about "why x core doesnt works?"
-is pointing fingers to the cores candidates to be "fixed"
-making no difference in between final users and developers is nice, it means more collaboration

Is the same table we was using before, but it did not had the colored "tags" and the "not included" cores
So basically is the same we was doing... but longer

I think i need to explain a bit better, (my fault)

For example, i would not place it on Post #2 in the first tab. Because i feel it gives too much info not needed for the operation of the app and that is the focus of the guide because there is NOTHING like that and its been needed, Your excellent table may fit better in a section of the guide called "RetroArch PS3 Development", basically my argument is that this is not a good list to educate a noob with, but can be education to everyone (just not right off the bat). .

You have to look at it from this point of view. The PS3 Port has been poorly managed since v1.0.0.2 and so much confusion has been added by PS3 releases that were not up to par at times. So restoring a fully working app and detailing what works and how to operate it. That is the main goal and objective of the guide. So if it does not work for the port or pertain to the port that is not the focus of the guide (not to say th3e guide can not contain these things, just not in forefront or start of the guide).

Edit:
Added "RetroArch PS3 Development" section in the guide.
1st tab i think your table would be best fit, but open to suggestions.

(also added your name @sandungas to the guide credits as well ).

 

[sandungas]

Ok, you decide

But if the table was meant for development only i would have not made it that way, probably i would have removed the columns at the center with the info for the cores "included" in official releases, and all the cores marked as "stable" (all this is not interesting for developers because it works)
In other words, the table was intended for development + final users, by using it only for developers the table is a fail (because contains info not needed for developers), or said in a different way... the table doesnt satisfyes the requirements of the enviroment where you are going to use it
And if you make other table for "final users only" with the same info about the "included" cores... that info is going to be duplicated and is going to be double the hard to mantain both tables updated, one table for "final users only" and other for "final users + devs"

But i dont want to insist much in what to do with it, i made it for you as a suggestion, now you can do whatever you want with it
I will make a backup of how is now incase eventually i imagine different ways to rebuild it

*I suck at building conditional sentences in english, hope is understandable

 

[STLcardsWS]

And if you make other table for "final users only" with the same info about the "included" cores... that info is going to be duplicated and is going to be double the hard to mantain both tables updated, one table for "final users only" and other for "final users + devs"

You English is fine my friend

See Part 1 and also then Part 6 of the guide., i think both variants of the tables work well together IMO .(as they display many different things, one is geared to the operation of the app and the other is geared to elements of the app but not necessarily of operational )
This is kind of my vision. my vision is not final and very open to suggestions. .

(also note when i copied your table over to part 6 there is some color legend issues, minor stuff but i have not properly fixed it yet, )

 

[sandungas]

Ok, so the info in part 1 of the guide is not going to have a table with the same style ?
When i wrote my previous message i thought you still wanted to use the table you posted at top of this post

What i did to make the new table was to copy the info from that table (together with the other info from zar)
My goal in some way was to "superceed" both... but this implyed to "clone" the info in them, heheh

If the table on top of this post is not going to be used i guess is fine, because is not going to be that problem of duplicated info


-----------
Btw, to me is hard to find the titles of the "part X" of the guide when scrolling the thread, i guess is because are displayed inside the "black tables"
I think could be better to take them out of the black tables and display them "on top" of the black tables, centered, and with big font

Or, hmmm, im just imagining another trick (copyed from wiki) to create some kind of "index" with links to all the parts of the manual, and repeat it for every post, this way it can be used like some kind of "fast navigation box"
I need to make some tests to see how it looks and show to you, by now forget about it, im just mentioning it to dont try to make that "index"
Is mostly the same you are doing at top of part 1 of the guide, but with a different style to be repeated at top of all the posts of the guide

 

[STLcardsWS]

Ok, so the info in part 1 of the guide is not going to have a table with the same style ?
When i wrote my previous message i thought you still wanted to use the table you posted at top of this post

No don't want to use that one, your version replaced that one and reason i kind of have it in the spoiler now as it was just moreless a foundation for other things.

What i did to make the new table was to copy the info from that table (together with the other info from zar)
My goal in some way was to "superceed" both... but this implyed to "clone" the info in them, heheh

If the table on top of this post is not going to be used i guess is fine, because is not going to be that problem of duplicated info

Yea both tables will complement each other, that why i was suggesting yours was more geared towards development in a sense compared to the one in post2.. I think we are on same page

Btw, to me is hard to find the titles of the "part X" of the guide when scrolling the thread, i guess is because are displayed inside the "black tables"
I think could be better to take them out of the black tables and display them "on top" of the black tables, centered, and with big font

Or, hmmm, im just imagining another trick (copyed from wiki) to create some kind of "index" with links to all the parts of the manual, and repeat it for every post, this way it can be used like some kind of "fast navigation box"
I need to make some tests to see how it looks and show to you, by now forget about it, im just mentioning it to dont try to make that "index"
Is mostly the same you are doing at top of part 1 of the guide, but with a different style to be repeated at top of all the posts of the guide

Yea a nav type of thing would not be bad

Also, I was actually thinking about implementing some anchor points That way we could (hopefully) open tabs and such when clicking on a core name and other aspects of the guiide

 

[alechair]

So, I have a 160GB slim PS3, currently running ferrox 4.82 cfw (not cobra).
And I downloaded a couple of different versions of retroarch, but I'm not being able to make it work properly.
First, doesn't matter which version I install, it just does not start.
The only workaround I found for this is manually deleting the retroarch.cfg file, but it's very annoying to do this EVERYTIME i have to start.

Second, scanning a rom directory leads me to: nothing.
It just stops for some reason. Reads some of the games and then magically dies.
I tried updating the databases, the cores. No good.

Third, I know I can't download the thumbnails from the retroarch, so I got em from somewhere else, but I don't have a clue where to put those... (sorry if this was explained before, I just don't get it.)

This thread has become a little more adavanced, so I was kinda worried about posting so many noob questions, my apologies.

 

[STLcardsWS]

First, doesn't matter which version I install, it just does not start.
The only workaround I found for this is manually deleting the retroarch.cfg file, but it's very annoying to do this EVERYTIME i have to start.

A retroarch.cfg file should not be present until the application start for the first time. It then writes the file.
Deleting that can help in a case when it does not boot, but never heard of this when doing a fresh install.
if you having trouble like this be sure you deleting the old version from the XMB of the PS3 and install the new pkg.

Second, scanning a rom directory leads me to: nothing.
It just stops for some reason. Reads some of the games and then magically dies.
I tried updating the databases, the cores. No good.

Depending on the version this may or may not work. (rom scanning, later versions to should work)

Your roms could be the issue as well. more info here:
https://docs.libretro.com/guides/roms-playlists-thumbnails/

Third, I know I can't download the thumbnails from the retroarch, so I got em from somewhere else, but I don't have a clue where to put those... (sorry if this was explained before, I just don't get it.)

I believe there is a thumbnails folder withing the /SSNES1000/ directory someplace, but i believe they can be put anywhere and you can define (set) the location in the Directory Settings within RetroArch XMB view.

This thread has become a little more adavanced, so I was kinda worried about posting so many noob questions, my apologies.

Any questions are welcome please no apologies .
Questions like this make's for an even better guide that way we can make sure we cover angles and the point of the guide as well

 

[sandungas]

The only workaround I found for this is manually deleting the retroarch.cfg file, but it's very annoying to do this EVERYTIME i have to start.

You was trying to use the cannonball core ? (for ZX spectrum)
Cannonball core has been reported buggy, it seems everytime you use it corrupts the retroarch config file :/

 

[alechair]

Thanks for the answers!!

Probably I'm using a folder or roms not properly named. That will explain the failure on the scan.

I'll try to start with a single rom (super mario world for example) and make sure I can scan, and add a thumbnail.
That'll be enough to test what I'm looking for.

The real mistery is: why my retroarch is not starting... tried unsintalling from xmb, installed 3 different versions.
Never used the cannonball core.
I get a black screen and return to xmb every time. (using the filemanager on multiman and deleting the cfg file works)

Any other ideas?

 

[STLcardsWS]

Thanks for the answers!!

Probably I'm using a folder or roms not properly named. That will explain the failure on the scan.

I'll try to start with a single rom (super mario world for example) and make sure I can scan, and add a thumbnail.
That'll be enough to test what I'm looking for.

The real mistery is: why my retroarch is not starting... tried unsintalling from xmb, installed 3 different versions.
Never used the cannonball core.
I get a black screen and return to xmb every time. (using the filemanager on multiman and deleting the cfg file works)

Any other ideas?

What version are you using and where are you downloading it from?

 

[alechair]

What version are you using and where are you downloading it from?

Downloaded the lastest version from official site. (https://xbins.org/libretro/stable/1.7.4/playstation/ps3/RetroArch.PS3.CEX.PS3.pkg).
Also tried the "extended version of 1.7.1. (Found it here on the forums).

The cfg file appears whenever I do a fresh install... So I always have to erase it using multiman.

Sorry for the double post (couldn't find the edit button on my previous entry)
I just tried the 1.7.2 version (https://xbins.org/libretro/stable/1.7.2/playstation/ps3/).
This time I was able to run Retroarch after a fresh install, but whenever I restart the PS3 I have the same issue.
So, since the cfg seems to be the problem I'm uploading it here.

One more thing, I had this problem with another cfw. Actually I updated just because retroarch was not woking...