Core Requests/Issues

[WodsonKun]

Here, you can comment your Core requests and your Core troubles/issues 😁.

[WodsonKun]

[Nintendo 64 Core Request]

Will you add a Nintendo 64 core?

And, if you add, will you use Mupen64Plus Core or ParallelN64 Core?

[albertofustinoni]

If I can manage to, yeah.

From 16 bit onwards consoles start using 3D, which means Libretro cores for them rely on 3D acceleration. I don't know whether I will manage to get that working, to be honest. PlayStation is about the last thing you can get away with if limited to software rendering, I believe.

Which means that before I can think about which n64 core to port, I need to

• Test if I can make cores work with Angle
• Rewrite RetriX's video renderer to be Angle based

[MysteriousHercules]

A request I have is 16:9 support or widescreen support. I do not how hard it will be but it would be awesome for me because I am not a fan of black bars.

I was wondering though, does Angle have 3d support like n64?

[MysteriousHercules]

I guess for core requests, I would want either dosbox, mame, or prboom. I do not think anyone of them requires 3d acceleration. but you know more than I do.

[WodsonKun]

A man "called" MobWi, ported Mupen64Plus to UWP (Win64e10) using ANGLE (If I'm not wrong...) and with Dynamic Recompilation! They are porting now Dreamcast to Xbox One (WinDCe10)... On XB1EMU, on WinDCe10 post... They talked about porting PS2 to Xbox One! It's possible?

@MysteriousHercules Yep, ANGLE supports 3D, @perneky used it to make a initial port of PPSSPP to UWP... Works, but with a low performance 😢

[MysteriousHercules]

well we do not want a small performance, because win64e10 is a very badly designed emulator. Even super Mario 64 has massive slowdown. on that emulator, and other games do not run at all. but you guys know more than I do. I am honestly interested to see how they would port ps2 to xbox one, the only good ps2 emulator is pcsx2. and from what I have been told it is not portable.

[WodsonKun]

Hm... Looks like they will port PCSX2 code just into a new UI

[dominater01]

ppsspp run great on xbox one what you mean

[MysteriousHercules]

does ppsspp uwp use angle?

[dominater01]

maybe not idk it doesnt say but if thats what you ment nevermind then

i just thought you we're saying it was slow on xbox one in general

[MysteriousHercules]

I think n64 emulator should be possible. but as alberto mentioned, it may mean he will have to re edit some part of his code to use hardware rendering

[WodsonKun]

@dominater01 Not the official port, the port made by MobWi (WinPSPe)

@MysteriousHercules Yep, a older version of WinPSPe/PPSSPP used ANGLE

[perneky]

ANGLE is not THAT slow. It is used in both Chrome and FF to render WebGL content, and it is even fast enough to render Unreal Engine in a browser.

When it comes to emulation, the Emulator's overhead will be bugger than ANGLE's.

[MysteriousHercules]

so is there hope for more 3d advanced emulators on xbox one like dolphin, ps2, and reicast? or even citra that just released.

[perneky]

The problem with publishing on any Windows store (Windows 10 or XB1) is this: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/04/microsoft-formally-bans-emulators-on-xbox-windows-10-download-shops/

Also with PPSSPP they have contacted MS, about publishing it on the store, but the rule here is that you need an approval for that from the platform holder, (so Nintendo or Sony) so that they agree to have that emulator in the Store, which is very unlikely.

[dominater01]

we're not trying to publish to the store tho

[albertofustinoni]

It is exactly as @perneky says

As I state in the project's front page, the hope is RetriX should become a good enough product distributed outside the store that people take notice of Windows 10's ability to side load (and hopefully complain loudly should Microsoft ever try to remove side loading).

To do so, however, the installation process needs to be more "install android app" and less "compile from source after setting PC for development", which is the reason I want to do binary distribution with an authenticode certificate.

[MysteriousHercules]

I personally want that as well. but until Microsoft changes their mind with emulators, I am perfectly fine with just sideloading retrix with dev mode. Maybe xbox live creator program will allow people to release emulators on xbox one.

Actually I just remembered something, if you go to the windows store right now, you will see a bunch of zx spectrum and commodore 64 emulators still active despite Microsoft saying "banned from all windows devices" . This is because these emulators claim to be more "general" than being just "gaming" emulators. I was wondering if we could use a loophole like that to release retrix.

When you think about it, the rule says "Apps that emulate a game system are not allowed on any device family". So couldn't we just say something like retrix is used for educational purposes to teach people about older games. it is not just a gaming emulator, it also has stuff like "rpgmaker, dosbox, commodore 64" etc.

I know there is more to it than that, but I figured that you guys may have a better idea to use a loophole like that to release the emulator.

Sorry for the very long post.

[MysteriousHercules]

I guess another way would be using Linux, since Microsoft just announced that Linux will officially be supported on xbox one by them.

[MysteriousHercules]

here is the link: "https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/11/microsoft-will-offer-3-flavors-of-linux-on-the-windows-store/"

[wiired24]

@albertofustinoni give this a look. It's the tool I've been using to make binary builds for easy sideloading https://youtu.be/QcKHCcaa1b0

[albertofustinoni]

@MysteriousHercules As you yourself said, claiming RetriX is for educational purposes is a loophole, and Microsoft is not that dumb. Best case scenario, RetriX squeezes through initial certification but you can bet it would be taken down the minute it gained any real traction. Also, I already have a bunch of apps on the store and am not going to put my dev account at risk.

Using Linux is not a way to get around the limitation since:

• It's technically impossible to run RetriX on Linux
• Having to download a whole Linux distro to run one program on windows is pointless: at that point just getting Retroarch or something is way easier and takes less space

@wiired24 Making the binary is not the issue: you can do that easily within Visual Studio. The issue is getting that appx to install on PCs that do not have developer mode enabled. Turning developer mode on has security implications for the device.

Even leaving that aside, I want to have signed binary releases so that users can be sure the RetriX appx comes from me and has not been tampered with - I find myself quite often having to run executables for some small utility that I need and crossing my fingers I don't get infected. See this article and discussion to understand what I mean.

[dominater01]

hey alberto can you implement a debug list to retrix so we can see whats wrong on the xbox one

[MysteriousHercules]

That is a fair point, As I said, until Microsoft change their views on emulators, I am perfectly fine with resorting to xbox dev mode to sideload apps. Maybe xbox live creator program will allow emulators on the store.

I didn't mean to do something illegal, I just thought that they do not care about emulators if they are not gaming only, otherwise they would get rid of the zx and commodore 64 emulators since they run games. The commodore 64 emulator literally comes with games.

[WodsonKun]

@dominater01 I suggested to @albertofustinoni on https://github.com/Aftnet/LibretroRT/issues/27 to add HockeyApp to RetriX...

[dominater01]

@WodsonKun i see that i just asked here aswell because i dont know if he's reading the other one as much as this one

[albertofustinoni]

@dominater01 @WodsonKun HockeyApp is something I'm going to look into, although I think it will have to wait for a bit. Right now the codebase is changing quite a bit and things will break.

[MysteriousHercules]

I assume you already know this, but one thing I learnt when testing and editing ppsspp on xbox one, is that crashes can be created due to exceeding the 1 gb processing limit.

[dominater01]

since this is a request thread i would like to have turbografx 16 and cd, virtual boy, 32x, and neo geo pocket/color and maybe throw some atari 2600 5200 7800 as well

[WodsonKun]

@albertofustinoni I'd even offer my Xbox One for RetriX testing... But, I do not have a developer account 😪

[MysteriousHercules]

@WodsonKun if you are willing to still donate an xbox one to @albertofustinoni, he could use the donation money from his fundme page to get a dev account for himself.

[WodsonKun]

@MysteriousHercules I'm 14-years old... I do not have money... 😔

[WodsonKun]

And I not would go donate my Xbox... I would test RetriX and send some performance reports

[MysteriousHercules]

@WodsonKun oh sorry I understood you wrong. I thought you were saying you do not mind donating an xbox one. and that is why I was saying that he could use the money from the fundme page to get a dev account

[dominater01]

would like to request turbo grafx 16 and CD support

[wiired24]

@albertofustinoni If it's not too much trouble could you try swapping out the "Beetle PSX" PS1 Core for PCSX-ReARMed. That's what winpse10 uses and it runs pretty solid in terms to performance.

Here is the official libretro repo https://github.com/libretro/pcsx_rearmed

I'll even throw $20 your way if you get it working

[Albinoman887]

looks like with the "refactoring" commit change the Parallel64 coreinforeads test passes.. could you try adding it to gui now?

[WodsonKun]

@albertofustinoni Can you add Dolphin core on RetriX? I want play some GC games...

[dominater01]

@WodsonKun he sed dolphin is gonna have to wait since its experamental even on retroarch

[WodsonKun]

@dominater01 Experimental, but runs good on high-end PCs... A Xbox One, technically, it's a high-end PC, but, in a console form.

[dominater01]

this is what he sed word for word

Dolphin is going to be much harder, since it requires GPU acceleration and even the Libretro guys consider their port experimental. As much as I want it, it will have to wait.

[albertofustinoni]

@Albinoman887 That test has always passed, no relevant changes were made in that commit. You should probably merge from a current version of the RetriX repo and add it to your own builds yourself. It is a single line of code now -look in EmulationSetvice.cs

@WodsonKun Xbox One is anythimg but a high end PC, especially with regards to CPU, which is something emulators need more than normal games.

Dolphin is a hard core to add: it needs GPU acceleration in addition to what has been mentioned above. As much as I want it myself it will have to wait

[WodsonKun]

@albertofustinoni

MelonDS runs laggy on Xbox One... Can you change to DeSmuME core?

[Maisso89]

Alberto, could you change the Psx core on xbox? The current one runs extremely bad. Thanks and keep up the great work!

[TheExpertNoob]

[all cores request] game genie and gameshark support would be cool.