Gaming Thread
- Thread starter Liverslapper
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Det Som Engang Var
Viking Bastard
Talking Backwards
Senior Citizen
- Oct 5, 2009
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El Stormo
Member
Det Som Engang Var
Viking Bastard
El Stormo
Member
Oh. So no domo arigato miss Roboto for you then?
Careful by the way, she breaks tables over her head when she's drunk.
Careful by the way, she breaks tables over her head when she's drunk.
Det Som Engang Var
Viking Bastard
Det Som Engang Var
Viking Bastard
Amazon wants $50 for Twilight Princess on Gamecube I'm so pissed. Maybe I should sell my PS2 to get it.
WhiteBeastofWotan
Apostitutes!
~Lynn~
Bah...
~Lynn~
Bah...
WhiteBeastofWotan
Apostitutes!
Talking Backwards
Senior Citizen
- Oct 5, 2009
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Have any of you heard of RetroArch? It's basically the M.A.M.E. of console emulators (and it even runs M.A.M.E. too!). Instead of needing a different emulator for each console, they are all nice and tidy under one frontend.
Each different console emulator under it as called a "core", and some of the cores are based off of things like SNES9x or bsnes, but some differ a bit. The main goal with their cores is to emulate the way the game was on each console without scaling enhancements like say how ePSXe could render the polygons at a higher internal scale. It does as far as ppsspp (PSP), but it doesn't have PCSX2 implemented, because they say that emmulator in general is a mess, so they don't want to bother with it.
Sounds basic and maybe shit right? Well here is what sets RetroArch ahead of virtually every other emmulator that it can be compared to: shaders. The worst thing about playing a pre PS2 gen console on an HDTV is the scaling. They were meant to be played on a 480i or 480p CRT. RetroArch has one of the most comprehensive shader suites I have ever seen, and the best are those that makes your 1080p (or beyond) resolution look like it's a CRT screen. From the old horizontal scanline type or the grille type (where there are also vertical lines that intersect, creating really tiny squares instead of lines). For those that are old enough to have played the classic consoles on a then modern screen, this shit looks amazing. Just like an old CRT though, you wouldn't sit as close to them as you would a modern monitor. You would need to sit at least one foot farther back depending on the size.
The filters or shaders most other emulators use basically smears the sprite to give it a less aliasing look, but it's just replacing one issue with another. Plus, they did a shit job in most PSX games that used both polygons and prerendered backgrounds.
Biggest issue right now with RetroArch? It can be a pain to setup. It's not that difficult, but it took me hours of fiddling as well as setting up the directory to look at the needed bioses for some of the consoles (PSX, SegaCD), plus you also have to rename the bioses to a very specific name or it won't recognize it. After that though, it's fairly straightforward.
What platforms does it support?
RetroArch sets the standard on cross-platform portability right now.
Linux (x86 and x86_64)
Windows (32bit/64bit)
Mac OSX (Intel)
Playstation 3 (PS3 SDK)
PlayStation Portable (PSP) [WIP]
Xbox 1 (XDK)
Xbox 360 (XeXDK/Libxenon)
Gamecube
Wii
Raspberry Pi
OpenPandora
Android
Blackberry (10/Playbook)
iOS
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=637928&highlight=
Sorry about the size of some of these. No idea how to resize on this forum, since quoting doesn't do it.
vs
Each different console emulator under it as called a "core", and some of the cores are based off of things like SNES9x or bsnes, but some differ a bit. The main goal with their cores is to emulate the way the game was on each console without scaling enhancements like say how ePSXe could render the polygons at a higher internal scale. It does as far as ppsspp (PSP), but it doesn't have PCSX2 implemented, because they say that emmulator in general is a mess, so they don't want to bother with it.
Sounds basic and maybe shit right? Well here is what sets RetroArch ahead of virtually every other emmulator that it can be compared to: shaders. The worst thing about playing a pre PS2 gen console on an HDTV is the scaling. They were meant to be played on a 480i or 480p CRT. RetroArch has one of the most comprehensive shader suites I have ever seen, and the best are those that makes your 1080p (or beyond) resolution look like it's a CRT screen. From the old horizontal scanline type or the grille type (where there are also vertical lines that intersect, creating really tiny squares instead of lines). For those that are old enough to have played the classic consoles on a then modern screen, this shit looks amazing. Just like an old CRT though, you wouldn't sit as close to them as you would a modern monitor. You would need to sit at least one foot farther back depending on the size.
The filters or shaders most other emulators use basically smears the sprite to give it a less aliasing look, but it's just replacing one issue with another. Plus, they did a shit job in most PSX games that used both polygons and prerendered backgrounds.
Biggest issue right now with RetroArch? It can be a pain to setup. It's not that difficult, but it took me hours of fiddling as well as setting up the directory to look at the needed bioses for some of the consoles (PSX, SegaCD), plus you also have to rename the bioses to a very specific name or it won't recognize it. After that though, it's fairly straightforward.
What platforms does it support?
RetroArch sets the standard on cross-platform portability right now.
Linux (x86 and x86_64)
Windows (32bit/64bit)
Mac OSX (Intel)
Playstation 3 (PS3 SDK)
PlayStation Portable (PSP) [WIP]
Xbox 1 (XDK)
Xbox 360 (XeXDK/Libxenon)
Gamecube
Wii
Raspberry Pi
OpenPandora
Android
Blackberry (10/Playbook)
iOS
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=637928&highlight=
Sorry about the size of some of these. No idea how to resize on this forum, since quoting doesn't do it.
vs
El Stormo
Member
Wait, emulate PS3 on a PC? No PC can provide even a fraction of the power needed for that, though?
Dead Winter
STAHP
WhiteBeastofWotan
Apostitutes!
FYI dudes, theres now a Steam Workshop up for KOTOR2 and they already have the Sith Lords Restored Content mod up there, which I think is pretty much required to play the game.
Talking Backwards
Senior Citizen
- Oct 5, 2009
- 1,833
- 43
- 48
The list is a list of devices the emulator works with, not what it emulates. Meaning, you can have RetroArch (and all of its emulators) running on your PS3, although most of the consoles have to be "jailbroken" to do that.
I even said it goes as far as the PSP (which came out before the PS3).
Basically: Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbographix 16, SegaCD, Playstation, Saturn, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Neo Geo, M.A.M.E., PSP and a bunch of other random early consoles. It doesn't add new emulation compared to what's already been around a while (since the majority of the cores it uses are ports of existing emulators), but in most cases functions just as well and sometimes better than the originals. What makes RetroArch a big deal is that it combines all of these emulators into a single package and adds the best (CRT) shaders out there. The shaders make a huge difference in how retro games look on modern screens. Some of these shaders are so good that you can't even tell (unless sitting 1-2 feet away) that you're playing on an HDTV. IMO retro games look better like that than they do trying to use XBR or some other smear or texture scaling filter that just distorts the picture. Most 2D + 3D games look like trash too on other emulators. For anything but GC, Wii and PS2, this is the emulator to use. Not only because of how good it looks and runs, but because of how many different platforms you can actually use it on.
The best options for retro gaming would be:
1. Playing the original games in the original consoles on a nice looking CRT.
2. Playing the original games in the original consoles using the XRGB mini; a $350 scaler.
3. Using RetroArch.
The Retron 5 stole quite a bit of the RetroArch code and is just an emulator itself, since it doesn't use any of the original hardware. The scaling it does is also not very good and it is very limited for shaders.
Hasn't that been around for years though?
Dead Winter
STAHP
I'm close to the end of the story in The Witcher 3, but I stopped and went back to play parts 1 and 2 so I can upload their saves to each sequel for a big ass, epic continuation, especially since they just announced the New Game Plus feature in the next free DLC.
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