Steam Launch lineup revealed

Libretro Team

So, it’s been a long time since we (prematurely) announced our intent to launch RetroArch on Steam. We’re nearing the finish line now however, so now is as good as any a time to start discussing how things are going to roll out.

Will launch on Windows first (Linux later)

We will be releasing on Windows first, with a release on Linux scheduled later (no ETA).

We are trying to limit our support burden at launch here since we are (understandably) concerned about the large amount of support requests and feedback we are bound to be receiving. Adding Linux right from the bat would further exacerbate that.

10 Cores Available On Launch Day

We are deciding to launch with 10 cores at launch. These cores have already been approved and uploaded on Steam. They are as follows:

There will be no ‘Core Downloader’ in RetroArch, or anything that is not hosted on Steam in fact. To obtain cores, you need to install cores separately that we provide as ‘DLC’. These are all free just like RetroArch itself.

NOTE: We need to stress – on its own, without installing any of the cores, the most you will be able to do with RetroArch is watch some movie files and playback music files through its builtin ffmpeg core. To make it do anything else, you will have to install cores.

Differences between regular RetroArch and Steam version

Apart from these aforementioned changes, there will be no substantial differences for now in the Steam version. We understand that even though we have consistently improved the User Experience and tried to make things more easily accessible that we will still be in for a lot of criticisms over the initial learning curve, so we’ve pretty much resigned to the fact that this will happen and will just brace for impact and try to do as much as what we can with the criticism that will inevitably be piling on. We will try to do our best to be as receptive to the feedback as possible with the thickest amount of skin possible, and try to suitably make some much needed UI changes.

This is also what helped inform our decision to go with 10 cores. We could have launched with over 60 cores, sure, but the ensuing fallout would have been a mess and it would have been near impossible to focus on bug reports and issues piling in. By focusing on 10 cores, we can do some much-needed Quality Control where issues inevitably get picked up, we can respond to it and in the process improve the quality of the core. This kind of isolated feedback time with a specific batch of cores is something we have found ourselves in the past always lacking, since it was always off to do the Next Big Thing as new features, cores, and other developments are made on an almost weekly basis. This gives us the much-needed time to focus on a specific batch of cores and polish them before we move on to the next batch of cores.

RetroArch 1.8.8 released!

Libretro Team


RetroArch 1.8.8 has just been released.

Grab it here.

Read our latest Libretro Cores Progress Report blog post here. It’s an exhaustive list, and especially the older consoles have received a lot of new cores and improvements.

Remember that this project exists for the benefit of our users, and that we wouldn’t keep doing this were it not for spreading the love with our users. This project exists because of your support and belief in us to keep going doing great things. If you’d like to show your support, consider donating to us. Check here in order to learn more. In addition to being able to support us on Patreon, there is now also the option to sponsor us on Github Sponsors! You can also help us out by buying some of our merch on our Teespring store!

Highlights

Add option to sort playlists after name truncation (Ozone)

A couple of users have complained about a feature we made in 1.8.7 (Fix sidebar playlist sort order when ‘Truncate Playlist Names’ is enabled). This new addition makes the new sidebar playlist sorting behaviour optional via a Sort Playlists After Name Truncation setting under User Interface > Appearance. When disabled, playlists will be sorted the old way (according to file name), not by display name.

Localization – big updates and crowdsourced

A new language has been added, Slovakian. And plenty of the existing languages have received big updates as far as localization goes.

But by far the biggest change is our transition to Crowdin. This allows non-programmers to more easily contribute localization changes/additions to RetroArch. You can see the completion status of the various languages on our Crowdin page.

Improved shader preset dirs

1.8.8 restores the original behavior of the “Save Shader Preset As” option, and improves the cycling of shaders by allowing to cycle the shaders on fallback directories if the Video Shader directory does not contain any preset.

Input Remapping Fixes

In 1.8.7, pressing RetroPad Start to reset a core input remap to the default setting did not work correctly – analog stick inputs get the wrong defaults, and inputs that are left undefined by the core are not set to the proper RARCH_UNMAPPED value.

1.8.8 fixes the issue.

RetroArch WiiU: Gamepad hotplugging support, theoretical multi-gamepad support

1.8.8 adds support for hotplugging WiiU Gamepads. Critically for users, this makes the driver no longer assume a Gamepad is present, so when it’s broken or out of battery or missing; the first Wiimote gets slot 1 instead (helpful when All Users Control Menu is off). I [quarkawesome] also made it check Gamepad channel 2 – while it’s impossible to connect a second Gamepad on a retail console, the code to do it still appears to be there. If that feature ever becomes a thing through CFWs, it’ll work here.

RetroArch P2 – New SDK/toolchain – big improvements

fjtrujy spent a lot of time adapting RetroArch PlayStation2 to the latest PS2 SDK. RetroArch PS2 is now being built with a modern version of the GCC compiler, and certain cores are already seeing massive speedups as a result.

As can be seen by the tweet, QuickNES went from 255fps with the old SDK to 429fps with the new SDK. This makes the core more than fast enough to use runahead – on a PlayStation2 of all things!

A newer C/C++ toolchain also will make it much easier to port over software to PS2, it was previously quite difficult to port C++ cores over to PS2.

fjtrujy also added Theodore to the list of cores supported.

Changelog

What you’ve read above is just a small sampling of what 1.8.8 has to offer. There might be things that we forgot to list in the changelog listed below, but here it is for your perusal regardless.

1.8.8

  • AUDIO/JACK: Fix regression introduced after 1.8.4 – would hang at startup
  • CHEEVOS: Disable hardcore when cheats are enabled
  • CHD: Return false when special track cannot be found
  • DISCORD/MATCHMAKING: Fix Discord ‘Ask To Join’ functionality
  • FILE PATH: Various file path handling optimisations
  • FONT: Fix Arabic, Chinese and Korean font rendering
  • INPUT MAPPING/REMAPPING: Restore broken ‘reset to default’ functionality with RetroPad ‘start’ button
  • INPUT MAPPING/REMAPPING: Fix ‘reset to default’ action for analog sticks and undefined core inputs
  • LIBRETRO: Add new message extension allowing for richer messages
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Arabic translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Chinese (Simplified) translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Chinese (Traditional) translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update German translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Greek translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Spanish translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update French translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Italian translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Japanese translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Korean translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Dutch translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Polish translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Portuguese Brazilian translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Russian translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Turkish translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Update Vietnamese translation
  • LOCALIZATION: Add Slovak translation
  • MENU: Small buffer optimizations
  • MENU/THUMBNAILS/BUGFIX: Fix heap-use-after-free error
  • MENU/OZONE: Add option to sort playlists after name truncation
  • MENU/OZONE/ANDROIDTV: Default to Ozone menu driver
  • MENU/OZONE/ANDROID: Gamepad-like devices default to Ozone now (Shield Portable)
  • NETPLAY: Lower announcement rate
  • OVERLAYS: Fix memory leak when loading overlays
  • SHADER PRESETS: Improved shader preset dirs
  • TIME/DATE: Enable configuration of date seperator in clock and runtime ‘last played’ displays
  • VITA: Fix upside-down vertical games
  • UWP: Enable playlist and savefile compression by default (because of slow file I/O)
  • VIDEO/WIDGETS: Fix overlapping text when simultaneous pop-up notifications and core/shader messages are being displayed
  • WIIU: Gamepad hotplugging support
  • WIIU: Theoretical multi-gamepad support
  • X11: Fix crash in x11_display_server_get_screen_orientation
  • X11/XSHM: Allow X11/XHSM video driver to operate without SHM extension
  • X11/XSHM: Fix compatibility with X11 input driver
  • XVIDEO: Fix keyboard input initialization
  • XVIDEO/XWAYLAND: Fix XVideo support on xwayland (by supporting I420 and YZ12)