[dankcushions]

scanlines and smoothing off. smoothing just looks blurred to me, which i suppose it is! if the effect was just a bit subtler i might be into it, but it’s too much for me.

[dankcushions]

ok, i’ve done the above exercise (took ages!) and updated the mame2003 compatibility spreadsheet. anything i’ve marked as ‘not working’ should have the ‘game_not_working’ string in the comments. some notes on that:

– ‘game_not_working’ is a little vague. i did some spot-checks and some games would boot, but they would have had graphical/gameplay glitches to the point where they were unplayable. i think under our definitions, these games might be classed as ‘has issues’, but i feel ok about marking them as ‘not working’ given the severity of the issues.

– the spreadsheet has a few lines that need deleting that i noticed – they will have a blank in the game name, and garbage in the ‘bios’ column. i can’t delete them due to write-protection.

– there are a LOT of games that don’t work, and it’s most of the ‘new’ games, to extent where i’m not sure what mame2003 gives us over the previous mame4all romset. are there any significant games that work now, that didn’t before/weren’t included?

– i have generated a new dat file for the ‘working’ subset of these games. i’ll release it in the other thread once i’ve checked it works on my system.

[dankcushions]

so i’ve been messing around with lr-mame2003 – pretty good! however i’ve noticed that the 0.78 romset has a sizeable chunk of games that won’t work at all, to the extent where the nag message on load tells you it won’t work (usually because of copy-protection). i’d like to build a 0.78 datfile that ignores all these roms, as there’s no point having stuff clogging up your storage/emulationstation when it won’t boot.

so, if you look at the source code you can see how those messages are generated – it seems that the files in src/drivers contain all the warnings, so a search for GAME_NOT_WORKING across the entire code base will find all these games. eg:

mame2003-libretro/src/drivers/zn.c

GAMEX( 1995, ts2,      cpzn1,    znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom/Takara", "Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (USA 951124)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1995, ts2j,     ts2,      znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom/Takara", "Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (JAPAN 951124)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1996, starglad, cpzn1,    znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom/", "Star Gladiator (USA 960627)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1996, sfex,     cpzn1,    znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom/Arika", "Street Fighter EX (ASIA 961219)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1996, sfexj,    sfex,     znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom/Arika", "Street Fighter EX (JAPAN 961130)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1996, glpracr,  cpzn1,    zn,       zn, zn,   ROT0, "Tecmo", "Gallop Racer (JAPAN Ver 9.01.12)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NO_SOUND | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1997, sfexp,    cpzn1,    znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom/Arika", "Street Fighter EX Plus (USA 970311)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1997, sfexpj,   sfexp,    znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom/Arika", "Street Fighter EX Plus (JAPAN 970311)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1997, rvschool, cpzn1,    znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom", "Rival Schools (ASIA 971117)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1997, jgakuen,  rvschool, znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom", "Justice Gakuen (JAPAN 971117)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX( 1998, tgmj,     cpzn1,    znqsound, zn, zn,   ROT0, "Capcom/Akira", "Tetris The Grand Master (JAPAN 980710)", GAME_UNEMULATED_PROTECTION | GAME_NOT_WORKING )

so my plan is to go through all these (100+) driver files, and then manually locate and remove any GAME_NOT_WORKING from my 0.78 datfile, and the provide that to the community, so we can rebuild our romsets, unless anyone can think of anything quicker? it seems scriptable. i was hoping that there was a generic 0.78 working-only datfile, as the list would be the same across any mame emulator using this romset, but i couldn’t locate one :(

(i will also update the compatibility spreadsheets as i go – anything that is GAME_NOT_WORKING we can blindly mark as ‘doesn’t work’)

PS – i imagine this approach will also be relevant to the mame2010 and other mame emulators, if anyone wants a project :)

[dankcushions]

when you rebuilt the roms, did you get any errors? in my experience i’ve normally had to get a hold of the actual correct mame version (eg, 0.78 for lr-mame2003) as a base, and scan/rebuild to confirm the integrity of it.

secondly, i’ve always put the entire contents of the mame set (or at least my rebuild) in the relevant directories. if you pick and choose individual .zips you could get into the situation where you’ve got a clone in there, but not the parent. only the parent zips are self-contained.

[dankcushions]

whoops, i messed up the mame2003 datfile! i think i buggered up the romlister stage, and it wasn’t the right parent datfile at all. i wondered why i was getting so many missing-file errors…

i’ve uploaded and corrected the links to: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=67593192132500562498

@herbfargus – you’ll be wanting to re-download and correct your repo also, please :)

sorry all!

[dankcushions]

there’s 2 main n64 emulators – the default: lr-mupen64plus, is outdated and seems to have many issues. the second: mupen64plus is better for me. are you using that one?

also, mupen64plus has two renderer plugins: rice and gles. the latter is normally the best, but the former can sometimes be better.

finally, n64 emulation is pretty flakey on the pi. some games work nearly perfectly, but others are a mess, or don’t work at all. there might not be a solution for playing some games.

you can check to see if anyone’s tested these games, and what setup to use here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Wjzbu90l6eCEW1w6ar9NtfyDBQrSPILQL5MbRSpYSzw/edit?usp=sharing

[dankcushions]

a couple of settings that might help –

go into opt/retropie/configs/snes/retroarch.cfg and make sure
rewind_enable = false
video_threaded = true

[dankcushions]

i have 4 of the ibuffalos – they are probably the nicest snes pads you can buy, but i have to say that mine have started to suffer from the buttons sticking.

[dankcushions]

thanks so much for this shader! i’ve tried it (with the – fix) and it works great, but i do get some slowdown. it’s strange – in something like sonic 1 you can see the screen hitching a little bit when it pans, when compared to without the shader. it’s annoying i can’t give better figures as the framerate counter in retroarch never seems to work for me! it is miles faster than the other CRT shaders, though.

i’m running a pi 2 at 1080p (including my retroarch render resolution, which is set to ‘video output’).

[dankcushions]

i can’t seem to update my old post :( but there’s a new one (added to the wiki)

MAME:

Emulator: lr-Mame2003
Romset: MAME 0.78
Datfile: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=04618720736720226948
Description: working, no clones
No. Roms: 2256
RomLister search used: (!cloneof & !sample_name= & !emulation=preliminary) & !(isbios=yes)

Datfile: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=05598248539957382925
Description: ‘lite’ set: working, no clones, neogeo, PlayChoice (NES multiplay), no rotary/dial/trackball/lightgun controls, no casino/multiplay/quiz/mahjong/fruit_machines/rhythm/adult
No. Roms: 1615
RomLister search used: !(‘PlayChoice’ | ‘neogeo’) & !(rotary | dial | trackball | lightgun) & (!cloneof & !sample_name= & !emulation=preliminary) & !(isbios=yes | casino | multiplay | quiz | tabletop | Fruit_Machines | Rhythm | Mature)

i’ve updated the wiki: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs

[dankcushions]

render resolution definitely affects shader performance, but that’s just about the only thing that is GPU-bound i think. for most things, it’s the CPU that is under the most strain. even mupen64plus seems to run the same for me at 1080p as it does 720p.

[dankcushions]

have you tried the other mame4all emulator? there are two:
mame4all-pi
lr-imame4all

they both use the same romset so you should be able to swap the default to whatever one you’re not using. might be worth a shot! :)

failing that, you should be able to see any error messages in /tmp/runcommand.log after a crash – this might give a clue as to the problem.

[dankcushions]

mario kart should work fine. what emulator are you running? most people get best results using the non-libretro version of mupen64plus + the gles64 plugin. you can choose it if you hit ‘x’ key when loading the rom.

the libretro version of mupen64plus is out of date as far as i can tell, or at least set up weirdly. i’m not sure why it’s still the default in retropie – it’s awful!

n64 is definitely a little ropey, but there’s a lot of games that work nearly perfectly. mario kart and f-zero are great in 4 player mode, even (some sound issues) :)

[dankcushions]

This is great! thanks :) you should upload it somewhere and link to the wiki (I guess you can link it to the upload here?)

[dankcushions]

All but the first one have curvature for me. eg, crt-interlaced-halation. the curvature isn’t quite right, but i’ve fiddled with various display settings in my setup so it might be ok for you, or at other resolutions.

you’re right, cgcw-geom.glsl doesn’t seem to work, but the rest worked fine for me, at low framerates. i’ve attached a screenshot of an example:

[attachment file=”image1.JPG”]

(if you can’t see the image, go to https://www.petrockblock.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/image1.jpg – images don’t seem to be showing up for me)

[dankcushions]

there are curvature shaders in there by default – just try the various ones in the shaders/CRT folder. that crt-geom one should already be there: https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders/tree/master/crt

you might have to update to the latest version of retroarch, depending on what version you’re running right now.

[dankcushions]

hmm, i think if retroarch can’t tell the difference between the pads then you may struggle.

can’t you just set up each /opt/retropie/configs/SYSTEMNAME/retroarch.cfg with the correct input settings for the controller you want to use for each systems? you could do this through the retroarch UI within the emulators if you preferred. then it’d be right as long as you had the right one plugged in for each system.

[dankcushions]

I think it already works like that? if you’re using actual separate physical controllers, if they are different types they will have a different config file in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads with whatever config you set up for it.

i use a PS4 controller for psx games, and a snes clone for everything else. both have their own config.

[dankcushions]

but my understanding is that these shaders split all the various functions into different passes – one shader preset is a load of separate passes, each with a different utility; eg, in a CRT shader, one pass will add scanlines, one will add blurring, one will add the curvature, etc. you can turn off all but the curvature pass, and achieve what the post is describing without touching any code. you can even save that as a new preset. this is exactly what i did when i wanted to use a LCD-type filter for GBA games, without killing my performance by including a load of extra passes i didn’t care for.

you might be in luck in that your project only needs a small resolution, i guess? if you set your retroarch output to that resolution (through the retropie launch menu), it may well cope with a single pass shader ok!

[dankcushions]

these already exist as shaders in retroarch:
https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders/tree/master/crt (see http://filthypants.blogspot.in/2015/04/more-crt-shaders.html for examples). you can view the source code for each: https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders/tree/master/crt/shaders

i think for most of these you can remove the extra passes (scanlines, blurs, etc) within retroarch shader options until you’re left with just the curvature part of the shader, but even then i think it’s going to be way too slow.

perhaps someone with opengl experience can let you know if there’s any further optimisation possible, but it seems to be a fairly basic opengl warp operation so i’m not optimistic :(

[dankcushions]

is your USB drive set to FAT32? if it, permissions won’t work that way – you have to set the permissions at the point that it’s mounted: http://superuser.com/questions/617777/how-do-i-auto-mount-a-usb-drive-that-all-users-can-write-to

[dankcushions]

whoops, yeah, SF3 I have running on lr-FBA, not lr-imame4all :)

[dankcushions]

any more general impressions of these?

FBA-next – any good? the previous lr-FBA was pretty good, in my experience. all neogeo games were 100%, and the rest of the romset was handled mostly with ease. anything notable in the (slightly) later romset of FBA-next? any games handled better?

lr-imame4all was the best of the stock mame emulators, for me. street fighter 3 at full speed! it did have a few weaknesses, though: any scaling sega games (after burner, space harrier, etc), and the midway big-sprite games (MK series after 1, openice, etc), all performed with noticeable sound and lag issues. any improvements here?

i don’t expect anything outside of the old mame romsets having a hope of running on the pi 2, but any surprises? :)

[dankcushions]

so you previously adjusted the overscan to get the command line text flush with the edge of the screen? I’m not so sure that’s how it should be. i think a small buffer border is intentional.

you need to set overscan to match something that renders to the edge of the screen – eg ES.

[dankcushions]

[quote=105637]
The config file you quoted isn’t mine. It was posted by someone else.
[/quote]

i copied it from your second post…

I tried adding the following lines without success:

overscan_left=23
overscan_right=-20
overscan_top=-20
overscan_bottom=-10
overscan_scale=1

[dankcushions]

[quote]Pi B+, Overclocked to “Pi2″, A/V Output through HDMI. (I also did something about availble RAM or VRAM or something, boosting it from 64mb to 512mb, although I don’t remember what it was called)[/quote]

pi2 overclock setting is for the pi2, not the B+. i would get rid of this overclock and either use one of the other settings (they’re all for the Pi 1), or just none at all whilst you’re troubleshooting.

also, the VRAM split shouldn’t be 512MB – that’s all the memory! it should be 128MB or 256MB – i’m assuming it ignored your setting, otherwise i’m not sure how it would function!

i’m not sure if these are in any way related to your issue, but were first things that jumped out. instability definitely causes sound issues, but it’s normally a sort of distortion/skipping, rather than changing it.

[dankcushions]

[quote=105628]I tried working on this over the weekend. I tried adjusting the frame buffer values and tried disabling overscan without success. I found that removing the line “overscan_scale=1″ from my config.txt file helped a little bit. Now I can see about half of the emulationstation menu. It seems like adding this line is the only thing that has helped everyone else, so I am out of ideas.

[/quote]

you need to add overscan_scale=1 in conjunction with the various overscan_left/etc settings. your settings from above:

overscan_left=23
overscan_right=-20
overscan_top=-20
overscan_bottom=-10
overscan_scale=1

if ES is running OVER the edge of the screen, you should be using positive numbers. negative numbers exacerbate the problem – they’re for when you have a black border around ES. so it makes sense to me that if you remove overscan_scale=1, you see more, assuming you’re still using the above set up.

try:
overscan_scale=1
overscan_bottom=20 (rather than -10)

if that works i’d probably do the same with the other overscan_’s – you’ll probably find they all need the same number.

[dankcushions]

[quote=105362]afair overscan_left / right etc won’t affect ES, just the framebuffer – but usually overscan_scale=1 solves problems of it being offscreen – you said you have tried that so im out of ideas. You didn’t post your config.txt though.

[/quote]

overscan_left / right etc for sure affect ES – I also had overscan issues in ES (the menu button icons ran over the edge of the screen) and used these settings to sort out my overscan – I had to be right up to the screen to get the pixel-perfect settings :) here’s my config.txt:

# uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
#hdmi_safe=1

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
#disable_overscan=1

# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
overscan_left=24
overscan_right=24
overscan_top=24
overscan_bottom=24

# uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus
# overscan.
#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)
#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=1

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2

# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
# no display
#config_hdmi_boost=4

# uncomment for composite PAL
#sdtv_mode=2

# for more options see http://elinux.org/RPi_config.txt
gpu_mem_256=128
gpu_mem_512=256
gpu_mem_1024=256

overscan_scale=1

# overclock settings
arm_freq=1000
over_voltage=0
core_freq=500
sdram_freq=483
over_voltage_sdram_p=0
over_voltage_sdram_i=0
over_voltage_sdram_c=0
gpu_mem=256

[dankcushions]

i’m not sure about changing save directory, but for your USB drive – is it FAT32? if it is, you’ll have to set the permissions when you mount it.

for me, i mount the drive automatically every time i boot using fstab, and i give it 777 permissions for all users. i can’t remember exactly how i did this, but there’s some help on the net: http://askubuntu.com/questions/251206/mount-usb-drive-with-write-permissions-for-everyone-or-specific-user

[dankcushions]

there are various shaders built in to retroarch that do this, but they are a slide-show on the pi 2. what’s the context? do you to want to emulate the CRT curvature whilst running emulators? as i think this is demonstrably unplayable on the pi 2, unless these shaders are totally inefficient (and given that most of the shaders in retroarch have the same result on the pi, i’m not sure that they are!)

[dankcushions]

i had the same issue with overscan in the ES menu, and changing the boot/config.txt fixed it for me, so i can confirm that ES respects the values (i think it has to, as they’re set at a system level). i’ll try and remember to dump my boot/config.txt here tonight.

[dankcushions]

ah :) well, SF2 works on lr-imame4all, but your version is presumably from a different mame romset than the one required for lr-imame4all, so doesn’t work. hopefully someone can sort your control issues out, but if not, source a 0.37b5 mame romset, and the two mame4all emulators are an alternative

[dankcushions]

i think for the most part, once we’ve agreed all the best systems, that would just represent the default set up in retropie. right now i think it’s up for debate the best setup and config for each system, so i’m not sure there’s much agreement, yet :) eg, that video_threaded option isn’t the default in 3.0 final because it apparently can cause sync issues (i don’t know what this means, but that’s what i’ve been told)

this should become better as we go – there a few spreadsheets linked in these forums detailing what games work on what emulators/setups/etc. eventually we should get a good picture of what is the best general setup.

my setup is definitely quite a bit different from what came with my retropie build (3.0 beta 3). i’m happy with it but i’ve not explored all the options.

[dankcushions]

is there any particular reason you want to use advance mame? only i’ve found imame4all-libretro is pretty decent and also is a retroarch core so works with all the regular configs.

[dankcushions]

doesn’t that conflict with the OP’s situation, though? there’s was set to enable rewind in the psx config (perhaps by accident but even so), and by reverting it they corrected the issue. so the individual core configs override the /all/retroarch.cfg?

if that’s the case I’m not entirely sure of the purpose of the all/ one!

video_threaded is set to false in all/retroarch.cfg (as of 3.0 final), so you could override that if my assumptions about overrides are correct. I’ve got an older version so it’s set to true. all my emulators work fine as far as I can tell.

[Author]

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