After RetroArch v1.1 – RetroBox

Libretro Team

I was meaning to make this announcement after RetroArch v1.1 was released and this idea has been a bit long in the works. However, due to some sudden unexpected Kickstarters that have taken similar concepts and tried to create some kind of questionable monetization scheme around it, I felt compelled to make a pre-announcement about what we’re going to do post-RetroArch v1.1

RetroBox and why it’s needed

So the concept of RetroBox is based on a couple of problems:

  • There’s no real game console that is ‘open’ and which allows RetroArch to be on there without a jailbreak or a hack of some kind.
  • The ‘consoles’ that are open have an OS (Android) that is absolutely unsuitable for real-time performance oriented apps, such as (I don’t know) games. I’ve talked about this incessantly since 2012, but finally even the commercial games press seems to be becoming aware that there are definite performance bottlenecks associated to Android that prevents games from running at a stable deterministic framerate (read about all the problems here for instance – hardware that should be more than powerful enough with any other OS that do the job properly – http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-nvidia-shield-tablet-review)
  • SteamBox/SteamOS seemed like the perfect vehicle at first for a true ‘open source’ gaming console that gives us a little bit more freedom than the typical Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft offerings. However, plenty of problems there as well. First of all, the fact that it’s limited to Intel. Second, the high prices these SteamBoxes are going for. Third, the unconventional gamepad which seems just totally ill-suited for the kind of ‘retro games’ that are commonly played in RetroArch. Fourth, the fact that it’s still by a commercial company like Valve, which operates its own DRM app store, and therefore at any time (no matter how well-intentioned) can change what is allowed and what isn’t on the platform to suit its business model. Fifth, SteamOS is a bit less ambitious than I initially thought it would. Still being dependent on X11 means we still don’t escape the X11 performance tax when ideally they should have just made their Steam launcher run on top of DRM/KMS inside a console for optimal latency. A bloated Debian distribution might make for a ‘safe’ OS but not sure if Debian is the right way to go for a gaming OS and it’s going to cause a lot of maintenance issues in the future.
  • All of these ‘alternatives’ that exist so far, either fall into the Android camp and are therefore no good (Ouya and the usual suspects), and/or they are being run by entrepreneurs who put their bottom line first before any passion for the project in general. Trying to base your operations around such a thing is like trading one evil (the big silo’ed off console platform holders) for another one, and in the end I’m not sure if the newer evil is going to be all that better to begin with.

RetroBox

So what is the RetroBox project going to amount to?

  • Figure out a way to turn ARM/x86 small form factor boxes (from Intel NUCs all the way into XBMC boxes) into plug-and-play game consoles powered by RetroArch.
  • Have a free open source distribution that is very lightweight.
  • Strive for the most optimal conditions possible – ie. DRM/KMS mode, no X11, minimal packages installed in this distro other than what libretro ports/RA actually needs.
  • Make this a ‘Proof of Concept’ for what a game console centred around the libretro API can be.
  • Plug-and-play – can be operated with a gamepad entirely, keyboard and mouse are entirely optional.

RetroBox will be an open-spec game console. It’s not owned by any particular company, and it will operate much like the 3DO/VCR model where any manufacturer could make his own box. Because RetroArch is so impressively multi-platform and portable, you don’t even have to limit yourself to a specific processor architecture like ARM – most libretro ports are available for most microarchitectures available, so you can pick and choose your own hardware.

The aim here is to create an ecosystem that is more open, more optimal and definitely more interesting than what is provided so far by the Androids, iOSes, and Steams of this world. And to have a POC game console platform of our own that illustrates this best.

Why is RetroArch a good fit for this?

  • From its inception, RetroArch has featured a gamepad-controlled UI that has thrown many PC users for a loop that were used to traditional WIMP point-and-click UIs. We have sticked to our guns for a long time and maintained this was the right road to travel, because we always envisioned RetroArch as this ‘game console platform’ all unto itself. RetroBox will see that high-level concept come into reality and made even more convenient.
  • Our API perfectly allows for the kind of plug-and-play portability we want and need through this game controller abstraction called the RetroPad.
  • RetroArch is second to none when it comes to optimal audio/video. Despite the so-far pretty lacklustre eyecandy found in its UI, there is basically nothing out there it plays second fiddle to when it comes to this department. And it’s also one of the few projects that aims for certain best practices on Linux like ensuring that everything can be ran from DRM/KMS instead of just solely depending on X11.  Latency, audio/video performance, and the impeccable shader subsystem all make for a great platform for a game console.
  • People are already doing this right now anyway. There’s an obvious demand for this and there’s an obvious need among all those ARM boxes to introduce some sanity to them and to make sure that things run right out of the box. It’s a lot of work having to fiddle around with these boxes and to even get semi decent/passable performance out of them. Might as well focus on this and make it part of the overall plan

So what is this project NOT going to be?

Every effort will be undertaken to ensure this will not be your typical sleaze-ridden entrepreneurial ‘scam’ where the main incentive is ‘get-rich-quick’. There will be NO Kickstarters, no Indiegogos, no crap like that going on. I would find it morally unconscionable raking in thousands of bucks for an undertaking like this off something that is typically going to be used by most people as a way to play emulated videogames run on copyrighted trademarked video game consoles made by commercial companies. If other people want to sell out and try to make themselves a buck off this ‘retro game stuff’, they can go ahead and do it. We will try to maintain a clean nose and keep ourselves out of this potential legal quagmire. The ramifications will be huge in the long run and we refuse to have any part in it.

So, crowdfunding is not an option. So far we are going to run the RetroBox project with our own personal finances and with the hardware we already have. Which is why it’s essential that we have your support in this endeavor. Hardware gifts will be of the utmost importance in ensuring this project will become better. However, hardware gifts will only be necessary for stuff we necessarily need – so that this doesn’t become another way of profiteering altogether.

Not just about emulation

Also, RetroBox will NOT be only about emulation. I keep stressing that RetroArch is NOT a multi-system emulator frontend, and I mean it. I want to ultimately see this evolve into its own game platform, with indie games, emulators, games, virtual reality applications and rich multimedia applications all competing for the user’s same attention. So you will be also seeing a lot of additional stuff not related to emulators at all, but which will be just as exciting.

Of course, because this is an open-spec console, emulators don’t get relegated to the sidelines like they would on a traditional videogame console. This is what will make RetroBox different – the freedom is in the hands of the user, and the platform holder doesn’t dictate to the user what he/she can’t do with this box.

What about features that people want to see?

We will try to make sure that this has as many of the bells and whistles that these sleaze-ridden KIckstarter-founded projects have such as Ignition and Gamertopia. The whole NES Remix-idea for a kind of retro game console is a good idea, as is netplay, leaderboards and that kind of thing. We think we can do all of this better anyway because of RetroArch’s impeccable cross-platform nature. I think we can do this netplay in a way that every RetroArch port out so far on any platform can play together with the RetroBoxes all the same.

What about standardization?

  •  There will be a Retro Performance Level (going from 0 to 15 and beyond) introduced that will range from very low-tier hardware to top-tier hardware (such as, say, SteamBox specs). Libretro cores will be able to look at this level at runtime, compare it to the performance level of the box in question and thereby evaluate whether or not the machine it’s running on will be able to run the core at fullspeed. If it can’t, it will display a warning.
  • This console will be about libretro ports using the libretro API. Therefore, we can gut any part of the Linux distribution that we don’t need.
  • I strongly believe in zero dependencies and keeping everything as lightweight as possible. Cores are also designed with this ‘zero-dependency’ ideal in mind. Everything that a libretro core should need should already be baked into the core from the start, so that it isn’t necessary for us to ship a truckload of packages (all of which can be potential dependencies and maintenance hazards) into the main distribution. So that means that if a core requires libusb, libusb gets baked in. If a core requires SDL, either the SDL specific code gets entirely removed or SDL gets baked in. Zero dependencies and making sure as much as possible is contained within the same dynamic library as the core itself will make this game console model sustainable.
  • By keeping this limited to the libretro API, it will basically be no different from any other RetroArch port to any platform we have done before in the past, like the PS3, 360, and whatnot. It is the same concept, except this time we’re going to make it happen for all this commodity hardware that is around.

So what will all this take?

  • Time
  • Community support. More hands on decks for this project, the better – since we will need to cover a lot of hardware
  • Dedication and the will to see this through to completion. Not going the obvious sleaze-ridden entrepreneur route obviously puts us at a large commercial disadvantage to play on an even playing field but then having risks is all part of the fun and we think users can see behind the promises of most of these other projects anyway. We have had a consistent track record so far and we are not going to compromise on our core values now either.

So when will all this start?

So yeah, this announcement is a bit of a ‘jumping the gun’ type of affair, but I felt I had to say something. I felt compelled to make this post because I see a lot of Johny-came-latelys trying to make a buck for themselves by filling an obvious gap in the market, and I just want them to know about our plans and that there’s something coming up that will put all their ‘accomplishments’ to crap. Hopefully people have gotten wise at this point and they don’t buy into another Ouya. Then again, given the obvious sleaze associated to these Kickstarter-led ‘game consoles’ and the empty hollow platitudes and ‘dumbspeak’ (and most importantly the amount of money they can accrue), you never know.

This project will start being kicked into high gear after RetroArch v1.1 is released. If you are interested in helping out in any way possible, drop us a mail at [email protected].  This project is being started because most importantly we feel like doing it and not out of any sleazy attempt to ‘get rich quick’ or whatever the incentive is by most of these entrepreneurs. Hopefully our attempt to keep this ‘real’ and not branch off into entrepreneurial la-la land will be appreciated by endusers, developers and platform holders alike.

RetroArch v1.1 – What to expect

Libretro Team

Here’s a rundown on what you can expect from RetroArch v1.1, the next version of RetroArch to be released. Please bear with us that it has taken us so long since v1.0.0.2 to come up with a new official release. This v1.1 version has been long in the making to ensure that this new version will be a big major milestone for RetroArch in general.

So, here’s what the release will comprise of –

Going all PSP – PPSSPP core

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We have ported the popular PlayStation Portable emulator, PPSSPP, over to the libretro API. This marks the second big libretro implementation to be using libretro GL after Mupen64 Plus.

It is shaping up to be a very stunning release.  Linux users will especially appreciate the changes we’ve made which makes it possible to run PPSSPP in DRM/KMS mode (something which wasn’t possible in standalone since glew has X11 dependencies).

We’re aiming for two modes of operation. One mode will be in which the PPSSPP core functions much like standalone – where it saves everything inside a main PPSSPP assets directory and you install games from PPSSPP’s GUI. The other mode is more like a headless mode – the way every libretro core has functioned up until now. Saves will be saved in .srm form and it will be possible to directly boot ISOs/PBPs/.BINs without having to install them first from a GUI. There’s something to be said for both modes of operation.

We of course take no credit for any of the real emulation work in PPSSPP – the only thing we take credit for is porting it to the libretro API. We take nothing away of the accomplishments made by this team and we hope that the libretro port can be pushed upstream once it’s done. Please pay them a visit at http://www.ppsspp.org/ and support their efforts to improve PSP emulation – they’ve already come a long way in the two years it has been public.

We’ve made some screenshots of the core in action which you can check out here and on Twitter. We’re striving to expose as many of PPSSPP’s features as possible through core options for headless mode operation.

Needless to be said, we think this will be one of the main standout features of RetroArch v1.1. Hopefully it will open up people’s minds about how RetroArch and libretro doesn’t necessarily mean retro-grade graphics – some of these games  like Tekken 6 and Soul Calibur Broken Destiny don’t look far removed from their PS3 versions when upscaled to 2x or 3x. And to see it running as fluidly as it does in RetroArch without any audio breakup whatsoever or any frames dropped is a sight to behold.

The PPSSPP core will be available for PC (we’re aiming for Linux/OSX and Windows), and mobile (iOS/Android/Blackberry). After version 1.1 is released, we will research an Xbox 360 port.

Going all PSP – RetroArch PSP

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Just having a PSP core would be one thing, but RetroArch v1.1 is going to go one extra mile by also simultaneously appearing on the PSP itself.

Nearly all of the credit for this port should go towards aliaspider- I played only a minor but crucial part in the proceedings. He has really done a bang-up job porting over a great many new cores over that are useful for the PSP, as well as improving the performance of existing cores so that they run well on the PSP.

Right now we have greatly improved the performance of FCEUmm, NXEngine, Gambatte, Mednafen PC Engine (and others) so that they run fullspeed at PSP. Please keep in mind that a PSP for general purpose code is about two times as slow as a Raspberry Pi. So you’re dealing with a very weak CPU here, and so it necessitates specific PSP-specific code to really get the most out of its performance. And thankfully the libretro API allows for this – the libretro API doesn’t prevent you from taking advantage of PSP-specific hardware features in order to speed up performance inside a core.

Aliaspider also made a port of TempGBA over to the PSP. This is a Game Boy Advance emulator based on gpSP Kai (itself based on gpSP – a now defunct emulator by Exophase). There’s also a preliminary port of the popular CPS2/Neogeo emulator, but it isn’t yet done. No idea yet if this core will make it for the v1.1 release.

Like hunterk’s previous blog post indicated, the portability of RetroArch is really coming into its own now. With the PPSSPP core, it will be possible to run RetroArch PSP itself. So essentially what you have is that RetroArch PSP can be made to run inside a PSP emulator which itself is being run inside a native platform version of RetroArch. How much farther can we go from here? The future only knows.

New cores

Several new cores will be appearing. We made a port of fMSX and BlueMSX to the libretro API. This was a home computer released in the mid-1980s that was backed up by a consortium of companies (among them a little company called Microsoft and another small fish called Sony). Oddly enough, while it couldn’t really be considered a major worldwide success, it was relatively popular in Japan and (of all countries) The Netherlands. This home computer is also noteworthy for receiving some of the first games Hideo Kojima made in his career, such as Penguin Adventure (one of the first games I ever played BTW) and Metal Gear 1/2.

There will be RetroKeyboard support for these cores to sweeten the deal, but we will also try to have some sane default configs for the RetroPad per-game for some of the more popular games.

There will also be a Vectrex core, Vecx. This was another ’80s game console, and the main notability of this game console is that it wasn’t using sprite rasterization but rather vector-based. For all practical purposes it could be considered the first real home console capable of ‘3D graphics’.

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Lakka – a new GUI beginning

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Lakka will appear inside RetroArch starting as of version 1.1. So far, users have been using a very low-fi menu called RGUI. It is perfectly scalable from low-resolution displays to high-definition TVs, but there’s no denying it looks very much like something you would expect from a DOS program.

Lakka will be a more full-featured eyecandy UI. It will require OpenGL support inside the RetroArch version, so expect this to be usable on RetroArch PC and Android/iOS/Blackberry (PS3 maybe if it makes it for v1.1).

In terms of features and appearance, Lakka looks a lot like the PSP’s XMB frontend.

In the future, more menu drivers can be added, each being tailored towards a specific enduser preference. We have made the menu code far more generic to allow for different implementations which doesn’t require the coder to rewrite all the settings logic again and again.

You can watch a video of a prototype in action here – keep in mind that this is still a prototype and that the final version will look a lot more refined. In case you wonder, the guy showcasing it here is one of the authors responsible for the Lakka GUI –  Jean-Andre Santoni (known also as kivutar).

Audio DSPs / Software Video Filters

We already touched upon this in the previous blog post about RetroArch v1.0.0.3 (which has now morphed into version 1.1). This feature has been implemented and it makes it possible to apply audio DSP filters and video software fitlters to RetroArch’s audio/video output.

Blackberry 10

We received a Blackberry Z10 phone from Blackberry sometime ago. In return, we will fully support Blackberry 10 starting as of v1.1. A new audio driver has been written, ALSA QNX, which should be far more optimal than the OpenAL driver we had before. We also intend on writing a nice Qt UI which wraps around RetroArch itself.

I know there has been a lot of discontent among Blackberry users that there have been so few releases, but rest be assured, we’re working on it.

Revamped iOS / OSX ports

I finally bought a Macbook Pro, and so I’ve been spending a lot of work on the OSX / iOS ports of RetroArch as of late. We’ve revamped nearly all of the settings so that it is possible for settings to be exposed to WIMP menus. This will be put to good use in the OSX / iOS ports of RetroArch.

The iOS version will be totally revamped as well. Cjori was working with me sometime ago on Controllers For All support. Hopefully I will be able to approach him a week before release time or so that we can do some final beta testing before we put the final polished version out.

X-Arcade Tankstick support

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I received an X-Arcade Tankstick courtesy of Xgaming, and in return this device will be fully supported. Android support will be added, and I will also look into making it possible to bind it in RetroArch as two separate game controllers instead of it being recognized as a keyboard.

After v1.1, I will look into adding USB input drivers for the PlayStation3, Wii and Xbox 360 ports so that we will be able to use the X-Arcade Tankstick on thosee consoles as well without using their proprietary gamepad converter (which costs an additional $30).

Revamped Android port

Lots of work still remaining on the Android Port. The input code has been totally revamped and it should be possible to map a new gamepad directly from the menu. New input overlays have also been made (such as a a default RetroPad overlay) which works quite well.

Maybe if we make it in time we can revamp a lot of the UI code as well using our new generalized settings code which should prevent code duplication issues in the future.

Improvements to existing cores

Lots of improvements have been made to Mupen64Plus since the last new release, as well as a lot of other cores. We will also try to bring over the MAME/MESS 2014 cor e to Android – this might not appear on the Google Play Store since this will increase the APK size by about 150MB or so – instead a more fully featured version might be available on our new website.

New server

Starting with the release of v1.1, there will be another big change – a new server (Virtual Private Server), and with it will come a buildbot. We will finally have the ability to do continuous integration tests and have daily builds for the cores and the RetroArch platform versions. The existing website will soon be moved over to the new host – the transition will be as seamless as possible to the user, so hopefully you guys won’t notice when we finally make the switch.

So when will it come?

The rest of this month will be spent by me and others feverishly working to get all of this stuff in a presentable state. We also want to do a fair bit of Quality Assurance so that this next big version will be very solid. The estimated release is somewhere in early September. A new release is contingent on all these different factors all coming together. In case some parts might take longer than expected, we might just drop a version of v1.1 with some of these features being added later. In any case, you shouldn’t have to wait longer than early September.  Again, we’re sorry for some of the delays and announcements from before but we’re really trying to ensure here that this next RetroArch release will be a real big gamechanger and so the delays are justified from that perspective. Hopefully you’ll agree once it is dropped.

Also, I’m sure I neglected to mention a fair few new features as well in this writeup. In any case, there have been far too many changes since February of this year to sum up in one blog post. When v1.1 hits I will put up a more comprehensive overview of everything that has been added ,changed and improved.

Making Windows a first-class libretro citizen

Libretro Team

This will be a continously updated blog post detailing my progress on getting our Windows/Winbloze game up.

I’ve dusted off an old Core 2 Duo laptop, put Windows 7 and 8 on it, and intend on getting the Windows ports up to snuff as well as starting work on the Windows Phone/Surface ports (I can only do the Surface ports for now since I still don’t have Windows Phones to develop on, though).

A few things I will be looking at:

  • Windows Surface/Phone RetroArch port – ie. making RetroArch suitable as a Windows 8 app
  • Getting RetroArch on the Windows App Store
  • Native MSVC 2010 solutions for most libretro ports out there (should also work on MSVC 2012 and later)
  • A frontend GUI/menubar of some kind for the Windows versions.
  • Two RetroArch Win versions – one for Windows 8 Modern UI, the other Desktop one with a more conventional UI

Right now, most libretro ports depend on a Mingw build environment. I’ll try augmenting this with native MSVC solutions so that we are no longer dependent strictly on Mingw for development. Also, like the last bullet point already suggests, an effort will be made to start implementing a rational, conventional, thin ‘GUI/menubar’ around the Windows ports. While RetroArch/RGUI is still meant  to be controlled by a gamepad and this is fine, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that we are able to at least select ROMs with a native file dialog screen – and other niceties like that which a menubar would provide. The RetroArch OSX port also benefited from similar additions and I don’t think the ‘raw’ way the current Windows version is put out really does it justice.

For people who won’t like this menubar/GUI, it will be possible to disable it so that RetroArch Win32 will look and act the same as it does now.

Also, of course with the port to Surface/Windows Phone will come an additional Windows 8-centric Modern UI GUI as well. The way I see it, there will be several versions of RetroArch in the future – one that will be available on the Windows Store with a modern UI look (where we basically release several statically linked cores + RetroArch on the App Store), and there will be a RetroArch with a desktop UI look (probably looking mostly similar to SNES9x) which you will be able to download from our Libretro website.

The RetroArch for PC with the modern UI look would have severe disadvantages (dynarec code can’t work for Windows 8 Store apps, Win8 apps don’t allow dynamic libraries so we will have to release standalone emus, and lots of other shenanigans) but at least we will have a presence for enduser people that only look at the Windows Store for possible apps to download – that, and it will converge neatly with the Surface/Windows Phone port.

I hate Windows 8.x as much as the next guy and am rooting for it to fail. The only reason I am really doing this is because of the RetroArch project and my desire for it to be omnipresent. If it weren’t for this, I wouldn’t be bothering to do this right now.

I’ll update this post when more progress is made (or make a new post in case this one is taking too long).

RetroArch/Libretro Technical brochure

Libretro Team

Here is a PDF slideshow giving a nice overview of Libretro, RetroArch and the road ahead for the project –

http://www.libretro.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/RetroArch-Libretro-Technical-Brochure.pdf

Tomorrow updated versions of RetroArch for iOS, Android and Wii will follow- some hotfixes here and there (FBA core missing in Android, graphics glitches with Glide64 in Mupen64 iOS, resolution setting not saving in RetroArch GX, etc).

RetroArch 1.0.0.2 Changelog

Libretro Team

In this post I’ll try to summarize all the changes made to RetroArch since the last version (1.0.0.1). It’s by no means complete but it gives a general overview of what has changed.

Note that the iOS version is still upcoming.

Cores

Mupen64 – W coordinate for vertices now properly set according to per-game depth bias. Should fix most of the texture wobbling issues in games.

Mupen64 – Fixed ‘No Controller connected’ issue in Banjo-Tooie.

Mupen64 – Uses refactored audio RSP plugin, includes numerous fixes such as improved MusyX support, etc.

Mupen64 – Glide64 refactoring  – Optimized dither noise code – is now done on the GPU entirely.

Mupen64 – Glide64 refactoring – codebase has been cleaned up significantly, code duplication cut down on.

Mupen64 – (Non-mobile versions) – Three-point filtering option instead of just bilinear filtering. The N64 used an inferior form of bilinear filtering called 3-sample (or 3-point) filtering. Textures were made with this in mind so many look a lot better with point filtering vs. bilinear.

Screenshot comparison here: http://imgur.com/a/M9nRP

Genesis Plus GX – Aspect ratio changes are now applied correctly.

Genesis Plus GX – Other changes.

Mednafen VB – Added Core Options for Virtual Boy – Anaglyph/Palette.

Mednafen (All) – Should correctly save SRAM to save directory now.

SNES9x – Memory leak fixes and some other improvements.

Nestopia – Core updates.

3DEngine – New core. A combination of all other 3D tech demos so far along with advanced libretro features like camera support, GPS/location services, etc. Can also be used to display still pictures (JPEG/PNG). JPEG support is buggy right now.

VBA-M – Adds Code Breaker/Game Shark support (by using cheat files).

FBA core – No more hardcoded 1024×1024 frame buffer – is now set dynamically. Should in most cases free up around 3MB of system RAM.

RetroArch GX – Gamecube/Wii

– More screen resolutions.

– Overlay support.

– Faster blitting – inlined lots of GX functions.

RetroArch OSX 

– Joypads should work now.

– Analog mapping to D-pad works now for all cores.

– All the changes made to RGUI since the last release (Core Information, reorganized Settings, possible to map frontend actions to gamepad buttons/analog axes, etc)

RetroArch Android

– Should fix App Not Responding issue that happened with overlays and threaded video.

– All the changes made to RGUI since the last release (Core Information, reorganized Settings, possible to map frontend actions to gamepad buttons/analog axes, etc)