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/vr/ - Retro Games

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4859929 No.4859929 [Reply] [Original]

What are the downsides of libretro package instead of separate emulators?
I remember there was some drama about it. Like, RetroArch devs gathered all emulators and called them their own or something?

>> No.4859938

It's unnecessary overhead. Yeah it's "easy" to port but standalone emulators, particularly on underpowered or unique hardware always preform better. For instance there's a n64 emulator for psp, and while it does run best in 16 bit color, the ps3 retroarch doesn't even support n64.

>> No.4859958
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4859958

>> No.4860069

>>4859958
autism

>> No.4860129

>>4859929
not every core has all the options the standalone emulators do
for instance the vba core doesn't do gb/gbc

>> No.4860357

>Like, RetroArch devs gathered all emulators and called them their own or something?

No. Don't take shitposting seriously.

>> No.4860384

>>4859929
>What are the downsides of libretro package instead of separate emulators?
This: >>4860129

RetroArch adds a lot of universal features for all cores like shaders and so on, but it strips them of their own standalone options. The most notable difference for me is the lack of a cheat code search function across all cores (I use Cheat Engine to make up for it).

But that's sometimes good too. For example, higan's retarded library system is a nonsensical hassle and the libretro core just wekrs in comparison.

Another potential downside is cores being out of date to the point that compatibility becomes a huge issue between the standalone emulator and the libretro core. For example, PPSSPP was phased out for years and virtually worthless in its libretro form, and only somewhat recently updated and brought up to speed. I'm sure there's more cases of this.

All in all I prefer RetroArch and the downsides don't bother me, but they may become pronounced depending on your platforms of choice and of what features you actually need. Contrary to popular belief I didn't find it hard at all to set up and I like its look to boot, so there's that too, but some people can't live without WIMP interfaces.

>> No.4860743

>>4859929
As some have already said, some cores are missing features here and there, and others just outright suck. Most of them are pretty good, though. Nestopia, MGBA, VBA, Genesis Plus GX, SNES9x, Higan, FinalBurnAlpha, Mupen64Plus/Parallel, Fuse, Mednafen PSX/Saturn/PCE/VB/WS, PX68K, Sameboy, Neko Project Kai, Gambatte, Desmume, Handy, Stella are all great cores and are as good as if not better than their standalones in general functionality and take advantage of RA's shader, save state, run ahead (for the most part), and hard sync.

You'll want to emulate C64, Amiga, DOS, GC/Wii, PSP, Colecovision, Intellivision, MSX, and MAME stuff in their standalones at this point in time, however. Those cores are either woefully incomplete, contrived as shit to use, missing important features like save states, or just plain janky and not worth the trouble.

>> No.4860751

>>4860743
>PX68K, Neko Project Kai
I find switching floppies rather annoying in them because they are running an interface inside the interface.

>> No.4860834

>>4859929
I don't think you understand what RetroArch does. The developers of a given emulator need to write an implementation of their emulator using the libretro libraries. The RA devs don't port emulators themselves and take no credit or liability for any software that uses their libraries, just like with any open source software.

>> No.4860843

>>4860751
Yeah, but it still works, and the standalones for them have shitty scaling and vsync.

>> No.4860848

I thought the idea was Retroarch makes a software environment so emulators can be more standardized by just being made for that environment.

>> No.4860872

There's still some issues, but libretro cores seem like an excellent future-proof solution for emulating. Certainly better than hoping every new platform or operating system gets proper updates and new emulators made for it.
And I find that pretty much all of them perform better and take up less CPU compared to standalone emulators - not sure where the opposite claims are coming from honestly.

>> No.4860876

>>4860872
Desumeme runs better on standalone than it does on Retroarch for me. Could never figure out why, but it's probably a problem on my end (overlooking an option or something).

>> No.4862541

>>4859929
The only downside is certain cores aren't up to date or don't work properly. Like the home computer cores (c64/amiga/x68k all have issues etc) and modern stuff like dolphin and citra.
But for pretty much every system up to and including generation 5 if you're not using retroarch you're doing it utterly wrong.

>> No.4862567

>>4860384
I agree with all these points except for the higan core working. I've never been able to get games that require firmware to work despite doing everything properly. At one point I had copies of each firmware in about every possibly folder and it still instantly crashed every time.

If I want to play MMX2 or Pilotwings it has to be snes9x. :'(

>> No.4862589

>>4862567
If you really want to use bsnes but can't deal with that whole chip HLE bs, switch to bsnes-mercury to bypass byuu's autism