Libretro Cores Progress Report – April 2, 2020

Libretro Team

Our last core progress report was on February 29, 2020. Below we detail the most significant changes to all the Libretro cores we and/or upstream partners maintain. We are listing changes that have happened since then.

How to update your cores in RetroArch

There are two ways to update your cores:

a – If you have already installed the core before, you can go to Online Updater and select ‘Update Installed Cores’.

b – If you haven’t installed the core yet, go to Online Updater, ‘Core Updater’, and select the core from the list that you want to install.

Final Burn Neo

Description: Multi-system arcade emulator

  • Latest updates from upstream

blueMSX

Description: Home computer MSX emulator

  • Fix not smooth scroll in PAL 50Hz
  • Buildfix for libnx (Switch)
  • Buildfix for 3DS

Beetle PSX

Description: Sony PlayStation emulator

  • Added “fast PAL” hack to allow PAL games to play at NTSC framerates
  • Added Force NTSC aspect ratio
  • Vulkan: Disable adaptive smoothing by default

    This should be disabled by default like the other Vulkan-exclusive
    enhancements so as to better match stock settings

  • Hide scanline core options based on content region
  • Refactor memory card core options logic

    Get rid of confusing check_variables() memcard startup logic and
    corresponding redundant variables, and update core option
    labels/sublabels to match actual core functionality.

  • Implement aspect ratio core option (psx.correct_aspect equivalent)

    Beetle PSX implementation of “psx.correct_aspect” introduced in Mednafen
    1.24.0-UNSTABLE (no relevant code backported from upstream).
    Additionally fixes aspect ratio scaling issues when cropping overscan or
    adjusting visible scanlines. “Force 4:3” is left as a legacy option for
    users preferring the old inaccurate behavior.

  • Add option for setting core-reported FPS timing
  • WIP: increase RAM to 8MB instead of the default 2
  • Improve internal FPS detection

Vitaquake 2

Description: Quake 2 game engine core

Vitaquake 2 is now available for the first time on Emscripten.

Hatari

Description: Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon emulator

  • Port: Ported Hatari to PS Vita

Atari 800

Description:

  • Port: Ported Atari 800 to 3DS

Dosbox core

Description: MS-DOS home computer emulator

  • Latest updates from Github

Dosbox SVN

Description: MS-DOS home computer emulator

  • Latest updates from Github
  • Make 16MB RAM default, change default cycle mode to “fixed” and “10000”

    Max and auto modes are broken on some systems.

LRMAME

Description: Multi-system arcade emulator

  • Updated to version 0.219

ECWolf

Description: Wolfenstein 3D game engine core

  • Latest updates (TODO/FIXME)

Flycast

Description: Sega Dreamcast emulator

  • fix alignment issues reported by ubsan on x64
  • Fix chd lzma and zlib buffers alignment
  • Fix rec/x64 block check alignment
  • Fix ChannelEx struct alignment
  • nvmem: generate console ID at startup. rec-x64: Call stack alignment

    Generate console ID in dc_nvmem.bin if blank. Used by chuchu rocket
    login.
    Align stack to 16-byte when calling function from x64 rec

  • (NAOMI) add sfz3ugd button labels
  • (NAOMI) Alien Front Naomi needs DIV matching disabled
  • (NAOMI) VMU support (vonot, sf3zu). Fix otrigger inputs.
  • input: only use R2/L2 for trigger input even with digital triggers
  • renderer: generate mipmaps for custom textures
  • custom texture: stop loader thread before loading state
  • renderer: decrease MipmapD bias – fixes street lights in Sonic Adventure 1
  • gdrom: don’t resume CDDA if not playing. stop if cur > end – implement ATA_IDENTIFY
  • Protect RAM and VRAM when VMEM is disabled
  • (Switch) Initial Port
  • ta: defer index building and strip merging, filter out infinite vertices
  • pvr: reserve more opaque polys. Don’t crash on TA overrun
  • vmem: unprotect vram when releasing memory if NO_VMEM
  • (Switch) Iterate each Page for Permission set
  • Use -O2 for YUV_Block8x8 due to UB
  • pvr: don’t reset tile clipping value on each frame – Fixes Irides – master of blocks
  • support multi-session cue/bin. mipmap D-adjust only to increase LoD
  • limit maple schedule time
  • allow VRAM 8-bit reads
  • gl: use common ReadFramebuffer() func
  • sort triangles even with 1 polygon – fixes missing Naomi boot logo and vtennis2 black frame during replay
  • fix crash when TR poly count is 0

ChaiLove

  • Port: Ported ChaiLove core to 3DS
  • Port: Ported ChaiLove core to Android

HBMAME

Description: Emulator of homebrew and hacked games for arcade hardware

  • New core

VICE

Description: Commodore 64 home computer emulator

  • Split “Paddles” joyport type to first two RetroPads:
    Player1 vertical axis = Player2 horizontal axis
    Player1 2nd button = Player2 1st button
    Add speed modifier hotkeys (slower+faster) for paddles/mouse

    Because “Paddles” is in fact 2 controllers in one joyport, and currently it is read like a mouse with 2 axis and 2 buttons, this is not convenient for 2 player games, like Panic Analogue, which use paddles as 2 separate entities with one axis and one button.

  • Fixes for JiffyDOS, Disk Control & Statusbar –

    To evade JiffyDOS incompatibilities with CRTs, PRGs & TAPs, the allowance method is changed from whitelist to blacklist.
    Also M3U playlists of D64 images will allow, and playlists of TAP images will not
    Fixed not being able to insert disks at all when starting without content
    Drive type defaults to 1541, as in inserting D81s will not work for now, because drive type autodetection happens only on autostart
    Finetuned statusbar

  • Turbofire & JiffyDOS fix –
    Minor fixes:

    Turbofire pulse was off (value 2 was actually 4)
    No reason to allow JiffyDOS core option with anything other than D64 & D81, or is there..?

  • Remove Nuklear GUI, Add VKBD touch control –
    Replaced bloaty Nuklear with the lightweight VKBD from PUAE

    No drawbacks, only benefits: Touch control, better performance, simpler maintenance

  • Port: Fixed VICE core Android build
  • Port: Ported VICE core to 3DS
  • Port: Ported VICE core to Emscripten
  • Add support for disk control interface v1 (disk display labels)
  • x64: Exclude vicii-clock-stretch.c – vicii-clock-stretch.c is not really used on x64, it’s only for x128
  • Disable cpmcart on x128 –
    Both x128 and cpmcart have z80 cpu and both have z80_regs symbols.
    On platforms other than emscripten those symbols end up being aliased
    due to “-fcommon” behaviour. This would lead to very weird results if they
    would ever be used together.

    On real hw cpmcart is unnecessarry due to integrated CP/M mode

    In the emulator cpmcart is runtime-enable only on x64 and x64sc but
    the relevant code is still compiled-in.

    So just remove cpmcart.c and #ifndef to avoid references

  • Core option for disabling autostart joined with autostart warp
  • Statusbar improvements, VKBD transparency core option

GME

Description: Game Music Emulator core

  • Port: Ported GME core to PSL1GHT (PS3)
  • Port: Ported GME core to 3DS

prBoom

Description: Doom 1/2 game engine core

  • retro_run: Don’t attempt to run domm lop after exit – This fixes crash on exit on 3DS
  • Port: Added PSL1GHT port (PS3)

MelonDS

Description: Nintendo DS emulator

  • (Switch) Latest updates

P-UAE

Description: Commodore Amiga emulator

  • VKBD updates, CD turbo speed backport
  • WHDLoad changes (button overrides)
  • VKBD touch control –
    Only tested with Windows and mouse, since RETRO_DEVICE_POINTER also reacts with it. Hence also disabled real mouse control while VKBD is visible.
  • Port: Ported P-UAE to PSVita
  • Minor save state improvements
  • Extended ZIP support

ScummVM

  • Update to ScummVM 2.1.1
  • Allow launching games directly from game files

Mr. Boom

Description:

  • Port: Ported Mr. Boom to 3DS
  • Port: Ported Mr. Boom to Emscripten
  • Port: Ported Mr. Boom to PSP
  • Port: Ported Mr. Boom to PS Vita
  • Port: Ported Mr. Boom to Apple tvOS
  • Fix unaligned casts

FCEUmm

Description: NES emulator core

  • Fix unable to load some unif carts
  • M274 update
  • Add 42-in-80000 multicart (m380)
  • Add mapper 389 (Caltron 9-in-1)
  • BMCFK23C – update
  • Fix default palette
  • Add Mortal Kombat Trilogy – 8 People (M1274) (Ch) [!].nes to ines-cor…
  • Merge unif board BMC-Super24in1SC03 to BMC-FK23C
  • M176: Minor tweak to chr mixed ram/rom logic check and others
  • Simplify dipswitch options for Nintendo World Championships 1990 cart
  • MMC3: Make sure to free any allocated memory when using MMC3 as an external module
  • Misc mapper updates
  • m269: Move chr unscrambling to mapper init
  • Unif: Show raw values for prg/chr rom size in logs
  • Remove unneeded code in BMC-Super24in1SC03
  • Remove duplicate code in bmc-fk23c
  • Rewrite BMC-FK23C/A (m176) based on updated notes and testing
  • Fix incompatible pointer type warning
  • Add 168-in-1 New Contra Function 16 to ines-correct.h
  • unif.c: Align board map struct
  • ines.c: Cleanup mapper struct and iNESLoad()
  • Fix unterminated savestate struct
  • Update mapper 79
  • vrc2and4: Fix mapper 22 games not working (regression) and refactoring
  • Update ines-correct.h

The Powder Toy

Description: Game engine core

  • Port: Ported The Powder Toy to 3DS

PocketCDG

Description: MP3 Karaoke audio player

  • Eliminate too verbose output – On 3DS stderr is printed on lower screen and is slow. This messes up the
    performance completely.

Picodrive

Description: Sega Megadrive/Genesis/32X/CD emulator

  • Add option to change sound quality – Even with the fast renderer (#116), the framerate on the PSP slows down at some points in some games. Reducing the sound rate can help increase the framerate in these cases.

    It’s not ideal but it’s better than frame skipping. [bmaupin]

VBA-M

Description: Game Boy Advance emulator

  • Fix Save Failed error for Super Monkey Ball Jr.

gpSP

Description: Game Boy Advance emulator

  • [3DS] Fix dynarec prefetch aborts
  • Add automatic frame skipping

Frodo

Description: Commodore 64 emulator

  • Support running without ROM

PX68K

Description: Sharp X68000 Emulator

  • Prevent simultaneous up+down / left+right button presses

Lutro

Lutro now runs on the 3DS.

Snake runs at 60 fps
Platformer runs at 20 fps

  • (3DS) Fix build
  • (Switch) Fix build

ECWolf Wolfenstein 3D Libretro core WIP available today on Windows/Mac/Linux/Android!

Libretro Team

ECWolf Libretro running on RetroArch at high resolution and widescreen enabled

A new Libretro core is being made available for RetroArch and other Libretro frontends today! ECWolf is a Wolfenstein 3D source port game engine. This port is courtesy of phcoder.

ECWolf can run the following content:

  • Wolfenstein 3D
  • Spear of Destiny
  • Super 3D Noah’s Ark

It will be available today for the following platforms:

  • Linux
  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Android

It will probably be released over time on other platforms.

How to get it

There are two ways to install and/or update the ECWolf core:

a – If you have already installed the core before, you can go to Online Updater and select ‘Update Installed Cores’.

b – If you haven’t installed the core yet, go to Online Updater, ‘Core Updater’, and select ‘Wolfenstein 3D (ECWolf)’ from the list. It will then download and install this core.

How to play it with the shareware version

If you don’t have the full registered version’s data files to play with, you can still get the shareware version. We provide this in an easily obtainable way to you, so let’s go through the steps. Start up RetroArch first. Then do the following:

1. Go to Online Updater, ‘Content Downloader’.

2. Go to ‘Wolfenstein’, and download ‘Wolfenstein 3D (Shareware).zip’.

3. Now go back to the Main Menu. Select ‘Load Content’, and select the ‘Downloads’ directory. Select ‘Wolfenstein 3D (Shareware)’, and then select ‘WOLF3D.EXE’. Start this with the ECWolf core when asked about it.

Current status


This port is currently incomplete but already has a lot of functionality.

NOTE: You need the file ‘ecwolf.pk3’ inside either your System directory, or the same directory as your content. You can get this file from within RetroArch through the Content Downloader (see the previous paragraph, but instead of downloading ‘Wolfenstein 3D (Shareware).zip’, download ‘ecwolf.pk3’ instead.

Differences with standalone port

* Menus are removed and it goes straight to episode or skill selection
* All options are moved to libretro options
* Full screen control is also moved to normal libretro
* Load and save is moved to libretro facilities as well
* Quit is removed from the core and is to be handled in libretro way as well
* Invunerability cheat is moved to libretro options
* Gamma control is not supported. Use libretro filters.
* Currently has variable framerate support up to 360fps. Original game ran at 70fps.

Missing features

* Only IMF music is supported
* “Read This!” is missing
* “High scores” are also missing
* MLI cheat is missing
* Demo recording and playback are missing. Note: normal libretro demos are still there.
* F1 help is missing
* ID easter egg is missing
* Mouse and keyboard support, including corresponding config, is missing.
Only RetroPad currently works. You can control using retropad mappings
* ‘0’-‘9’ weapon selection is missing
* Buttons ‘zoom’, ‘reload’ and ‘altattack’ are missing. They’re used only in mods.
* Buttons ‘Strafe modifier’ and ‘status bar’ are missing
* Netplay is missing
* Difficulty confirmation screen is missing
* Resizing screen with +/- is not supported. Use options
* Commander Keen easter egg is missing
* Menu movement animation is missing
* Robert’s jukebox is missing

Known glitches

* Rewinding through intermission or death fizzling results in glitched screen
* Sometimes after loading a large asset, FPS drops. If that happens go to RetroArch menu for couple of seconds and then back
* The sound is currently a bit glitchy/crackly when running below 70fps (the game’s original framerate). We have found that there are far less sound issues at 70Hz and above (such as 120Hz).
* Frame pacing and frame time deviations can probably still be further improved.