RetroArch (PS3)

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

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v1.7.8 is out.


Code: 
Fix Fixed the offset navigation on the one page docs with a sticky header.

3DS Fix C-Stick y-axis inversion.

3DS Update all icon/banner images.

Android Implemented multi-touch touchscreen support.

BLISS-BOX Add 4 new pad types from firmware 3.0

COMMON Add optional 'on demand' thumbnail downloads

COMMON Add new playlist-based thumbnail downloader. Hide the legacy thumbnail pack version by default.

COMMON Show license per core (if available) inside 'Load Core'

COMMON Add option to load content from (and dump) CD-ROM discs.

COMMON New core options interface, allows for localization, sublabels and more.

COMMON Re-enable '--log-file' command line option.

COMMON Default playlist core association is now stored as metadata inside each playlist.

COMMON Fix playlist format detection.

COMMON When saving core option overrides, only include settings for the current core.

COMMON Favorites playlist size can now be set independently of content history size. Values can be set from 0-999, or '-1' for unlimited (99999).

COMMON Prevent adding new items to favorites when playlist is full (old entries are no longer overwritten).

COMMON Prevent loading content with cores that require an incompatible graphics API version from the current one.

CPU FILTERS Add Scanline2x filter.

GAMECUBE Add default video/audio filter directories

GL1 Ignore alpha in core video, fixes XRGB8888 rendering in some cores.

GLCORE Don't hardcode shader cross compilation target version but poll it. glcore would always only use the minimum target shader version, i.e. GLSL ES 3.00 for OpenGL ES 3.0+ or GLSL 1.50 for OpenGL 3.2+

D3D10/11/12 SLANG - Added "FrameDirection" slang semantic. Works fine with braid-rewind shader, not entirely perfect with D3D12 though.

D3D10/11/12 Add option to select which GPU to render with.

D3D10/11 Fix maintaining aspect ratio when resizing window.

GLCORE SLANG - Added "FrameDirection" slang semantic.

INPUT Menu toggle hotkey can now be bound to another keyboard key and it will toggle properly.

IOS Correctly centers screen on iPhone X landscape.

IOS Implemented multi-touch touchscreen support.

LOCALIZATION Update Korean translation.

LOCALIZATION Update Japanese translation.

LOCALIZATION Update Portuguese Brazilian translation.

LOCALIZATION Update Polish translation.

LOCALIZATION Update Turkish translation.

MENU WIDGETS - All widgets are now properly cleaned up, fixing the frozen widgets bug when loading / closing content.

MENU WIDGETS - Widgets are now drawn above the overlay with OpenGL and Vulkan

MENU WIDGETS - Fine tune progress bar colors

MENU WIDGETS - Fix longstanding menu display issues on Mali400 GPUs (on ARM hardware, SBCs and mobile phones/tablets).

MENU Fix Record -> Streaming Quality, and Record -> Recording Threads settings.

MENU Fix history playlist navigation after running content.

MENU Menu entry performance optimisations.

MENU Add option to show 'remove playlist entry' only on history/favourites..

MENU Overhaul content 'Information' menu display.

MENU Add new 'Playlist Management' submenu. Allows default core associations to be set (via dropdown list), and all existing associations to be reset.

MENU Add 'Set Core Association' option to Quick Menu.

MENU Add option to remain in menu after saving/loading states.

MENU Ensure that displayed thumbnails are always refreshed correctly after selecting 'Download Thumbnails' from Quick Menu.

MENU OZONE - added to PS3.

MENU OZONE - Fix regression in 1.7.7 - OSX/macOS - was unable to start it.

MENU OZONE - Fix sublabel spacing.

MENU XMB - Add menu animation settings.

MENU XMB - Add optional thumbnail scaling.

MENU XMB - Fix display of long sublabels. Text that would exceed the display area now scrolls line-by-line.

MENU XMB/OZONE - Add optional thumbnail scaling.

MENU QT/WIMP - Path selector fixes.

MENU RGUI - Enable playlist display on platforms without database support.

METAL/SLANG Added "FrameDirection" slang semantic.

NETBSD Audioio is now the default audio driver.

NETBSD Fix a segfault when starting RetroArch with an empty configuration file and LANG unset in the environment.

OSD OSD is now drawn above the overlay with Vulkan.

OSX Fix regression with Cocoa GL - shader / preset loading was getting stuck in an infinite loop.

RECORD Fix Twitch streaming.

SCALER Fix SSE2 path for ARGB/BGRA -> BGR24 - should fix screenshots being taken for XRGB888 (viewport).

SCANNNER Skip all databases with incompatible file extensions, whether content is inside an archive or not.

SCANNNER Fix hang on empty files inside archives.

VULKAN SLANG : Added "FrameDirection" slang semantic.

VULKAN Add option to select which GPU to render with.

WII Add default video/audio filter directories.

WII Fix RGUI display corruption.

WII Fix HID joypad drivers.

WII Add optional overscan correction.

WII Fix recursive path_mkdir() operations.

WII Add widescreen RGUI support.

WIIU SLANG - Added "FrameDirection" slang semantic.

X11 Add non-evdev keycodes to fix keyboard input on non-Linux systems with X11.

X11 UDEV - Mouse pointer should work now in X11 environment with no Display.
 
I just got my ps3 modded, and I will be asking some questions in some other topics, but I came across an interesting question that I have yet to see answered in a way that I can understand.

some of these cores require a bios, and I really like my segaCD games. I got the bios for the system, but where do I put it? do I have to unpack my image files and add the bios like mame?
 
ZeroFun said:
I just got my ps3 modded, and I will be asking some questions in some other topics, but I came across an interesting question that I have yet to see answered in a way that I can understand.

some of these cores require a bios, and I really like my segaCD games. I got the bios for the system, but where do I put it? do I have to unpack my image files and add the bios like mame?
Click to expand...

I made a video a while back talking about BIOSes and how to determine if you have the right one and where to put it and used the Famicon Disk System BIOS as an example on my Windows PC. You should be able to take the tips I gave in that video and apply them to your SegaCD BIOS on the PS3. If after watching my video you still can't figure it out or get it working, let me know and I will try and get it working myself on my hacked PS3 and if I am successful I will guide you through what you need to do. Link to my video is below. At about the 5 minute and 20 second mark is where I start taking about BIOSes in case you want to skip ahead.

 
I have not messed around with RetroArch lately, so now it seems to be a good time to see what's up. All cores tested are from the nightlies site, most listed as version 1.8.1, compile date 11-20-2019 (I have not updated since 1.7.4 Extended).

81 - still has the very twitchy OSK and the inability to map keyboard to RetroPad buttons. Version reports as 1.7.5.

Cannonball - still loads but crashes to XMB upon game start or saving settings (lots of new core options, though).

Cap32 - loads to this jumbled-up screen (I think the resolution is incorrect)...

cap32.png

Start + Select brings up a OSK, Select + Triangle seems to type a load command (the last few lines of the screenshot). I think it says "Press Play then any key", but there doesn't seem to be a Play key to press. Well, at least the core doesn't freeze anymore. :)

FB Alpha (not 2012) - SF2, which worked before, now loads and immediately crashes the PS3. Can't be romset-related, otherwise it wouldn't have loaded. Probably should stick with FB Alpha 2012 and FB Neo, this core might be removed in the future (see next entry).

FB Neo - SF2 worked, need to test more. BTW, this is not an Neo Geo-only core, despite the name. It is, essentially, the new name of FB Alpha. Basically, one of the FB Alpha devs licensed the emulator commercially (despite its non-commercial license), so the other devs formed a new team. This core can play more arcade games than its predecessor (have not tested them yet, though).

FreeInt - don't use Restart, it'll crash the PS3 (well, I only tried it once). Just reload the game.

Fuse - still crashes the PS3.

Gambatte - there is a core option called "Use Official Bootloader" that defaults to "On"; you need to set it to "Off", otherwise it'll boot to a white screen. If you don't have the GB and GBC bios files in the System folder, you might not have to do this, though.

Gearsystem - Star Wars still has corrupt graphics (maybe other games, too). There is a game compatibility list for this core, maybe it just can't play certain games. Other than that, the core seems fine.

MAME2000 - MK1 worked but not MK2; romset worked with old iMAME4all core (both cores based on same MAME version, 0.037 beta 5 I believe).

MAME2003/MAME2003 Plus - games that worked before now either crash the PS3, crash to the XMB, or are unbelievably slow. Logs indicated the games loaded, deleting CFGs and NVRAM files didn't help. A major regression in arcade emulation - hopefully people backup their old cores before updating like I do.

Mednafen Lynx - rotating the screen screws up the aspect ratio, you have to change it back from the Video tab. This doesn't happen with the Handy core, though.

Mednafen Virtual Boy - some games may not be full-speed, changing the core option "Emulator Type" (or something similar to that) from "Accurate" to "Fast" helps (Wario Land only runs at about 80% full-speed even with this, though).

Mednafen WonderSwan - controls are completely messed up.

mGBA - version available at the nightlies site (1.7.3) is actually older than the version from Extended Edition (1.7.4) !

Mu - boots to a PDA-looking screen but immediately crashes to the XMB. Well, it used to crash the PS3, so that's an improvement. :)

Snes9x 2005 Plus/Snes9x 2010 - using Rewind causes audio glitches and/or slowdown, don't use these cores unless you can't get full-speed in mainline Snes9x (try using Snes9x 2005 non-Plus version first).

SquirrelJME - according to the RetroArch forums, the bootloader isn't hooked up yet, so all you get is this screen...

squirreljme.png

TGBDual - still shows a white screen on boot.

Tyrquake - colored lighting option still doesn't work, not really a big deal, though. Saves are now saved to/loaded from the Savefile folder, in a sub-folder named after the folder the PAK file is in (before saves were saved to/loaded from the PAK's folder).

VBA Next - games that worked before now load and immediately crash to the XMB. Tried loading a game I hadn't used with the core with an older version, and it worked. Loaded the same game with the new version, and it worked. So it seems that if VBA doesn't find a SRAM, or finds a SRAM made by mGBA, it crashes.

Virtual Jaguar - still painfully slow.

Now some good news...:)

Handy - FINALLY found a game that doesn't crash the PS3 (Checkered Flag), first time I've ever played this core since it came out (about 3 years). :)

PrBoom - now plays the internal music. You can still use external MP3s, they will sound better than the MIDI-like internal music (but that's how the game originally sounded like, unless you had a Gravis Ultrasound). Also, no need to place each mod in it's own folder, set them up like this...

Doom folder contains doom.wad and folder with Doom 1 mods
Doom 2 folder contains doom2.wad and folder with Doom 2 mods, etc.

Additionally, saves are now dealt with in the same manner as Quake.

Snes9x (mainline version) - Yoshi's Island and hacks now play full-speed, before you had to overclock the Super FX chip.
 
Last edited:
JediKnight007 said:
I have not messed around with RetroArch lately, so now it seems to be a good time to see what's up. All cores tested are from the nightlies site, most listed as version 1.8.1, compile date 11-20-2019 (I have not updated since 1.7.4 Extended).

81 - still has the very twitchy OSK and the inability to map keyboard to RetroPad buttons. Version reports as 1.7.5.

Cannonball - still loads but crashes to XMB upon game start or saving settings (lots of new core options, though).

Cap32 - loads to this jumbled-up screen (I think the resolution is incorrect)...

View attachment 21603

Start + Select brings up a OSK, Select + Triangle seems to type a load command (the last few lines of the screenshot). I think it says "Press Play then any key", but there doesn't seem to be a Play key to press. Well, at least the core doesn't freeze anymore. :)

FB Alpha (not 2012) - SF2, which worked before, now loads and immediately crashes the PS3. Can't be romset-related, otherwise it wouldn't have loaded. Probably should stick with FB Alpha 2012 and FB Neo, this core might be removed in the future (see next entry).

FB Neo - SF2 worked, need to test more. BTW, this is not an Neo Geo-only core, despite the name. It is, essentially, the new name of FB Alpha. Basically, one of the FB Alpha devs licensed the emulator commercially (despite its non-commercial license), so the other devs formed a new team. This core can play more arcade games than its predecessor (have not tested them yet, though).

FreeInt - don't use Restart, it'll crash the PS3 (well, I only tried it once). Just reload the game.

Fuse - still crashes the PS3.

Gambatte - there is a core option called "Use Official Bootloader" that defaults to "On"; you need to set it to "Off", otherwise it'll boot to a white screen. If you don't have the GB and GBC bios files in the System folder, you might not have to do this, though.

Gearsystem - Star Wars still has corrupt graphics (maybe other games, too). There is a game compatibility list for this core, maybe it just can't play certain games. Other than that, the core seems fine.

MAME2000 - MK1 worked but not MK2; romset worked with old iMAME4all core (both cores based on same MAME version, 0.037 beta 5 I believe).

MAME2003/MAME2003 Plus - games that worked before now either crash the PS3, crash to the XMB, or are unbelievably slow. Logs indicated the games loaded, deleting CFGs and NVRAM files didn't help. A major regression in arcade emulation - hopefully people backup their old cores before updating like I do.

Mednafen Lynx - rotating the screen screws up the aspect ratio, you have to change it back from the Video tab. This doesn't happen with the Handy core, though.

Mednafen Virtual Boy - some games may not be full-speed, changing the core option "Emulator Type" (or something similar to that) from "Accurate" to "Fast" helps (Wario Land only runs at about 80% full-speed even with this, though).
Mednafen WonderSwan - controls are completely messed up.

mGBA - version available at the nightlies site (1.7.3) is actually older than the version from Extended Edition (1.7.4) !

Mu - boots to a PDA-looking screen but immediately crashes to the XMB. Well, it used to crash the PS3, so that's an improvement. :)

Snes9x 2005 Plus/Snes9x 2010 - using Rewind causes audio glitches and/or slowdown, don't use these cores unless you can't get full-speed in mainline Snes9x (try using Snes9x 2005 non-Plus version first).

SquirrelJME - according to the RetroArch forums, the bootloader isn't hooked up yet, so all you get is this screen...

View attachment 21604

TGBDual - still shows a white screen on boot.

Tyrquake - colored lighting option still doesn't work, not really a big deal, though. Saves are now saved to/loaded from the Savefile folder, in a sub-folder named after the folder the PAK file is in (before saves were saved to/loaded from the PAK's folder).

VBA Next - games that worked before now load and immediately crash to the XMB. Tried loading a game I hadn't used with the core with an older version, and it worked. Loaded the same game with the new version, and it worked. So it seems that if VBA doesn't find a SRAM, or finds a SRAM made by mGBA, it crashes.

Now some good news...:)

Handy - FINALLY found a game that doesn't crash the PS3 (Checkered Flag), first time I've ever played this core since it came out (about 3 years). :)

PrBoom - now plays the internal music. You can still use external MP3s, they will sound better than the MIDI-like internal music (but that's how the game originally sounded like, unless you had a Gravis Ultrasound). Also, no need to place each mod in it's own folder, set them up like this...

Doom folder contains doom.wad and folder with Doom 1 mods
Doom 2 folder contains doom2.wad and folder with Doom 2 mods, etc.

Additionally, saves are now dealt with in the same manner as Quake.

Snes9x (mainline version) - Yoshi's Island and hacks now play full-speed, before you had to overclock the Super FX chip.
Click to expand...
Overall it sounds that the updated retroarch is worse!
 
JediKnight007 said:
Cap32 - loads to this jumbled-up screen (I think the resolution is incorrect)...

cap32-png.21603


Start + Select brings up a OSK, Select + Triangle seems to type a load command (the last few lines of the screenshot). I think it says "Press Play then any key", but there doesn't seem to be a Play key to press. Well, at least the core doesn't freeze anymore. :)
Click to expand...
It seems to be this screen:
33406650-33bad2bc-d56e-11e7-9e69-23a2d9f3fe33.png

https://github.com/ColinPitrat/caprice32/issues/84
http://originales13.rssing.com/chan-22805299/all_p14.html
https://forums.libretro.com/t/caprice32-two-joysticks-not-supported/23725
 
You are almost there :)
x4jXh4N.jpg

It seems it acepts commands fine, when you did the CAT the output was ok.. and the RUN seems to be the responsible of printing the "Press PLAY then any key:"

Im wondering it is needed to type the name of the rom in between quotes inmediatly after the RUN
It looks by pressing the dualshock buttons it does the RUN" (with the first opening quote, but not the second closing quote)



Edit:
It seems is not needed to close the quotes in the RUN command
In the documentation of this link seems to be madatory
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Locomotive_BASIC#RUN_.5Bline.5D_or_.22filename.22
But in this blog he doesnt closes the quotes, he simply types RUN"FILENAME
https://www.sean.co.uk/books/amstrad/emulator.shtm

 
Last edited:
Neal Cullum said:
Overall it sounds that the updated retroarch is worse!
Click to expand...

Well, remember these are nightlies. Hopefully they get fixed before the stable release. (I prefer to update via nightlies, it's easier than downloading a 400MB+ package and extracting the core files).

One can perhaps help the process by reporting core issues on their respective Github pages. I would do this, but my Internet access is so sporadic I find it hard to do. I might have to find the time, however, if nobody else will. The RetroArch devs can't fix problems they don't know about.

@sandungas I managed to get Road Blasters to work on Cap32, it booted right up (4 other games didn't). I need to research BASIC commands.

MAME2003/MAME2003 Plus, the problem was I had Logging turned on, that caused the massive slowdown. Still testing games with these cores.
 
Aha! Figured out Cap32!

If the game doesn't boot, then call up the OSK and type this...

mode 0

(press Select if the cursor doesn't move, Circle to send a keystroke)
Now the text is readable. Next, enter the following command...

cat

A list of files appears. You want to run a BIN or BAS file. Assuming the file is "game.bin", enter...

run"game

(don't need a space after run, the closing quotes, or the .BIN/.BAS)

An example...

Chase HQ.png


MAME2003/MAME2003 Plus...some games are working (MK1, Tecmo Bowl, NBA Jam, Frogger, Punchout!), others not but they used to (MK2, MK3, SF the Movie). Also, if you install the optional history.dat, prepare to wait 30-60 seconds as it loads the file.

Neal Cullum said:
Why with the newer Retroarch releases you never get the Sega CD Bios? I've always had to sort it manually
Click to expand...

You mean why doesn't RetroArch include the bios? Because it's copyrighted.
 
Figured out what's going on with the GBA cores...

1. VBA was choking on the bios file - disabling the Use Bios core option stopped the crashing. mGBA uses it fine, however.

2. Normally, save files and save states made with one GBA core are usable with the other. However, since mGBA is of an older version, the files are not interchangeable. In fact, they will actually overwrite each other. So, if you have a game going with mGBA, and you open it with VBA, your save file will be erased, and any save states won't work. Be warned.

3. Switching from using the bios to not using it will also render save files and save states useless, even with the same core. No real reason to use the GBA bios, unless the game requires it.
 
Crystal said:
Meanwhile RetroArch seems stopped to be compiled for PS3. Still stopped at 1.8.1.... :apologetic:
Click to expand...

Nightlies seem to be back up. So I grab the latest MAME2003 Plus, load a game that worked before...and the PS3 crashes. :mad:

On the plus side, Genesis Plus GX and Mednafen PCE Fast/Supergrafx now support CHD files, a compression format for CD images. In my first test, I compressed a 309 MB Sega CD BIN/CUE game to a 200 MB CHD, not bad.

https://forums.libretro.com/t/playing-roms-directly-from-archive-which-systems-work/12249
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/72kh6q/stepbystep_guide_how_to_convert_sega_cd_or_pc/
 
Last edited:
Hi all!
Can someone please suggest me good Retroarch PS3 version for MAME, because it's the only thing that I play (not care if other emulators are working). I played in 2018 some version and it all roms worked great, now I downloaded last stable (1.8.4) and some work but some that i liked most (Spinmaster for example) just black out PS3.
What version is best for MAME emulating?
Thanks in front!
All the best!!
 
Bockko said:
Hi all!
Can someone please suggest me good Retroarch PS3 version for MAME, because it's the only thing that I play (not care if other emulators are working). I played in 2018 some version and it all roms worked great, now I downloaded last stable (1.8.4) and some work but some that i liked most (Spinmaster for example) just black out PS3.
What version is best for MAME emulating?
Thanks in front!
All the best!!
Click to expand...

Either use an older version of MAME2003 (I have one if you need it), or use MAME0125.

What other games are not working for you? I am compiling a list that I will eventually submit to github. The list so far...

MK2, MK3, UMK3, NBA Hangtime, Run 'n Gun, Alien3, Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, Lethal Enforcers 2, Backfire.
 
JediKnight007 said:
Either use an older version of MAME2003 (I have one if you need it), or use MAME0125.

What other games are not working for you? I am compiling a list that I will eventually submit to github. The list so far...

MK2, MK3, UMK3, NBA Hangtime, Run 'n Gun, Alien3, Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, Lethal Enforcers 2, Backfire.
Click to expand...

Well I only wanted to play Spinmaster, and I started from middle, 1.7.6. and didn't work (on both MAME's) so I started downloading backward, 1.7.5., 1.7.4. - nothing, and it worked on 1.7.3. So, I am using 1.7.3. now, Spinmaster works, Punisher, CCommando also... I'm good...
 
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