Upcoming – RetroArch 1.7.9 – Menu Touchscreen Gestures!

Libretro Team


RetroArch 1.7.9 (scheduled for release soon) will debut touchscreen gestures for the menu for the first time! You will now be able to operate the XMB menu without needing a gamepad or overlay!

The following gesture-like functionality is available:

  • Swipe up/down in the left margin: scroll through current menu list by ascending/descending the alphabet
  • Swipe up/down in the middle region of the screen: scroll up/down through current menu list by one ‘page’ (i.e. one screen’s worth of entries)
  • Swipe left/right: navigate left right, or change the setting value of the currently active item
  • Tap left margin below top margin: Back/cancel action
  • Tap left margin above top margin (top left corner): Open search interface
  • Tap right margin: select currently active item
  • Tap menu list in middle region of screen: activate item, or select it if already active
  • Long press active menu item in middle region of screen: reset item to default setting value
  • Press and drag up/down in the right margin: scroll up/down through menu list (the further you drag, the faster it goes – up to a limit corresponding to keeping a cursor key held down)
  • Press and drag left/right in the top margin: navigate left/right, or change the setting value of the currently active item (again – the further you drag, the faster it goes)

RetroArch 3DS: Full speed PS1 now possible with PCSX ReARMed w/ Unai renderer!

Libretro Team


Written by Justin Weiss

NOTE: When talking about 3DS in this article, we actually mean the New 3DS. Don’t expect old 3DS to be able to emulate many games at fullspeed.

The Nintendo 3DS is a great little portable RetroArch machine. Especially for classic systems: it has all the buttons you need, and the screen is sharp and pixel-perfect. We’re happy to share a few improvements to RetroArch 3DS that make it even better.

Full-speed cores from the homebrew menu

There are a few different ways to run homebrew apps on the 3DS. Until recently, you could only run cores with a dynarec turned on, such as gpSP and PCSX ReARMed, if you installed the .cia version of RetroArch to the home menu.

On setups using Luma3DS 8.0 or higher, these dynarecs now run when launched as .3dsx files from the homebrew menu, for those who prefer to keep their home menu clean — there is no difference in speed between .cia and .3dsx.

Faster renderer for PCSX ReARMed

PCSX ReARMed has graphics and sound plugins, and some plugins are better suited for certain systems than others. Until now, the 3DS has used the P.E.Op.S. graphics plugin, which is reasonably accurate, but slow. We have just changed the 3DS builds to use PCSX4ALL’s Unai renderer, which is less accurate, but much faster. In many games, 10-20fps faster!

This means that on the New Nintendo 3DS, many PSX games will run at a full 60fps — outside of FMVs, loading, and special effects. But this next feature improves even those:

CHD support in PCSX ReARMed

CHD is a compression format that works great for disc images, losslessly shrinking CD-sized games into something more manageable. Support for CHDs was added to PCSX ReARMed by [fulfilling a bounty] earlier this year, but that support didn’t carry over into the 3DS version.

Now, CHD support has been enabled on PCSX ReARMed on 3DS. This means you can share the same images between RetroArch versions, the images will take up less speed on your SD card, and they will load (and run!) significantly faster than .bin/.cue files. This greatly reduces framerate dips, especially during FMVs and loading zones.

Full-speed PlayStation

When you combine the faster renderer with CHD support, a lot of great PlayStation games run at full-speed on the New Nintendo 3DS! Try it out today: the updated core is currently available in the latest nightly versions, and will ship with the next RetroArch release.