Opinions on dedciated versus multiple system emulation

[Jimmi1271]

Hey all,

A topic I'd like to get some opinions on as I am working through my build. Sorry if it's been covered recently but I didn't find recent relevant posts. I have been building my system thus far with a lot of different emulators, trying to get the best for each based on the research that I am doing. I recently watched Simply Austin's "Best Emulators of 2017" and walked away wondering if I should consolidate and use something like Retroarch for the emulation of multiple systems.

Any thoughts? I haven't figured out yet how to use a single emulator for multiple systems and have it represented properly within Hyperspin, but if I go down that path its another topic for another time. Right now I'd like to impose on the forum's expertise to argue this out.  .... I ordered the cabinet from RecRoomMasters and have a couple of weeks to get this finalized before I'm looking to put the initial "finished product" (I know, I will never be finished) together for use.

 

Cheers ... Jimmi1271

[griffin518]

I think you're going to get a range of responses to RetroArch, some like it, some don't... but what you'll almost always hear is that best practice is to use a dedicate MAME install for arcade games, not the older MAME core included in RetroArch.

How many systems are you considering? I use MAME for arcades, then RetroArch for the few consoles I care about (it does a great job at presenting a unified experience for these).

[Kondorito]

Same as griffin. For over a decade I have been using MAME for arcade emulation and will still do.
Just some years ago I moved from dedicated console/handheld/etc. system emulators to Retroarch, and the trigger for the change was not because of speed/stability or any of that stuff; it was just because of the silly shader stuff that RA enabled for a lot of systems (at that time I was obsessed with the idea of true curved CRT experience and loved what RA was able to achieve with all its cores in a unified manner).
Now I can say that RA came a very long way in perfecting their cores and their GUI, and they have (at least for me) the best package in terms of accuracy, configuration, features, and an all-in-one approach for multi-system configuration.

 

[ci2own]

Here you can check my PDF of the systems i emulate and which emulator i use.

 

 

 

HyperSpin_General.pdf

[Jimmi1271]

Thanks to each of you for the input. I am using a dedicated version of MAME (latest version as this is a new build) for arcade games and as of right now have a myriad of emulators for NES (Nestopia), Sega systems (KegaFusion), N64 (Project64), SNES (Snes9x), Atari 2600 (Stella), and have the emulators for other content that I haven't set up yet (systems like PlayStation 1 and 2) Gamecube and Wii, 3DO, etc., etc.

I'm setting this up via a modern PC with dedicated NVidia graphics chipset and a NAS running mirrored 8TB drives for all the ROMs and Artwork while keeping all the emulators on the primary drive. So since space and power aren't really an issue I'm just digging in to see how nice a build I can put together. I have a feeling it's going to get out of hand soon (already has if you ask my wife) ... 

I also looked at Mednafen as a unified system but it seems that if I am going to go that direction that RetroArch is doing more in maintaining development and integrating new cores. I guess that once all the media and art are gathered and the directory structure is built it's fairly easy to reconfigure the emulator of choice. I'm not really a purist trying to recreate the original experience, but prefer the best look and playability I can get utilizing a modern 32" HD LCD/LED monitor housed in a professional grade cabinet.

Ongoing opinions are welcome. I appreciate all the input I can get.

Thx ..... Jimmi

[Jimmi1271]

and CI2 ... that PDF, just wow ... that's a lot of organization to pull and maintain ... impressive. If I wasn't having fun figuring all this out I'd just make you an offer to pick up you're entire damn rig and save my marriage ... but nahhhhhhhhh 

[32assassin]

have you configured your joystick, keyboard encoder to work with all your stand alone emulators??

 

if you have you will find the major advantages of having all the non arcade systems run on retorach.

Once you configure your controller in retorach,  any system you add ;  the controllers will AUTOMATICALLY WORK!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jimmi1271]

I pulled down JoytoKey and set up both global mappings and emulator specific ones using the tool under RL. Right now I just bought an inexpensive pad for testing, but will be mapping to the Xtension TM controller that comes with the cabinet in a couple of weeks. So far it hasn't been too difficult. although a bit quirky here and there. I haven't paid too much attention to it yet even though I'll have to get it flawless for the final cabinet so the kids can use it without yelling for me every 5 minutes. I'm leaning toward retroarch for all non-arcade systems it supports unless I hear compelling arguments otherwise, but I'll keep the other emulators on the system as a backup plan in case of glitches or need for troubleshooting I think. The controller mapping sounds compelling :-) ...

 

[32assassin]

well from what I know,  if you are going with an Xtension controller,   they use keyboard encoders;  Ipac to be exact.

this is like plugin a keyboard into your computer. joy2key will not work with it but then again

the hole point of Joy2key is to convert  Windows Joystick button presses in to keyboard key presses. this would be redundant because you already have keyboard commands with the Ipac.

you will need to remap all your individual emulators to match their layout. (FYI some emulators don't like service keys such as ALT, CTRL SPACE)

retroarch  --> map one emulator  --> done

 

if you decided to use a game-pad or a joystick encoder.   you could map your pad directly to retorarch and their would be no need for joy2key let alone any specific joy2key emulator profiles.

[Rowr14]

I think it comes down to what works best for you, I don't think there is a wrong answer.

I haven't had any issues using Retroarch for Arcade games, that said - I ensured I got the right version of the core to match my setup and backed it up so It wouldn't be overwritten. I haven't extensively tested a ton of games though so who knows.

I did find some genesis games running a bit laggy in RA though compared to Kega. That was a while ago so I might go back and check to see if there has been any fix on that.

It's hard to go past some of the conveniences RA offers having everything running through one program - it's definitely less time consuming than installing a whole series of different programs and configuring them just so, especially in regards to controllers. 

I would suggest starting with RA and if you find your having issues, try using dedicated emulators. Even if you start with RA to get everything up and running and then configure and add dedicated emulators when you have time to tinker.

[ci2own]

20 hours ago, Jimmi1271 said:

and CI2 ... that PDF, just wow ... that's a lot of organization to pull and maintain ... impressive. If I wasn't having fun figuring all this out I'd just make you an offer to pick up you're entire damn rig and save my marriage ... but nahhhhhhhhh 

LOL! If you have any questions, just ask me! i will be happy to help you!

 

[Jimmi1271]

8 hours ago, Rowr14 said:

I think it comes down to what works best for you, I don't think there is a wrong answer.

I haven't had any issues using Retroarch for Arcade games, that said - I ensured I got the right version of the core to match my setup and backed it up so It wouldn't be overwritten. I haven't extensively tested a ton of games though so who knows.

I did find some genesis games running a bit laggy in RA though compared to Kega. That was a while ago so I might go back and check to see if there has been any fix on that.

It's hard to go past some of the conveniences RA offers having everything running through one program - it's definitely less time consuming than installing a whole series of different programs and configuring them just so, especially in regards to controllers. 

I would suggest starting with RA and if you find your having issues, try using dedicated emulators. Even if you start with RA to get everything up and running and then configure and add dedicated emulators when you have time to tinker.

That makes a lot of sense and I've been playing with RA for a series of different systems over the last day or so ... As long at it provides a good experience in playability and visuals (at least to start) that's the direction I'm inclined to lean. Thanks

[Jimmi1271]

14 minutes ago, ci2own said:

LOL! If you have any questions, just ask me! i will be happy to help you!

 

Absolutely will .... In case you haven't noticed, I'm not shy about asking for help 

[ci2own]

1 minute ago, Jimmi1271 said:

Absolutely will .... In case you haven't noticed, I'm not shy about asking for help 

Great! Check how much systems can you emulate just with MAME and RetroArch. I would start with this two emulators.

[Jimmi1271]

3 hours ago, ci2own said:

Great! Check how much systems can you emulate just with MAME and RetroArch. I would start with this two emulators.

That's what I'm doing now, trying to convert consoles I already have running in dedicated emulators over to RA ... just running into issues with Colecovision right now because it is trying to load mess_libretro.dll, which doesn't exist. I've pulled down both the Multi core and the bluemsx core, which are both supposed to support CV, but no joy so far. I'm going to go watch and watch the RA config YouTube from Simply Austin. Once I have my base systems done (I've already configures wheel and video snips for them all through HyperHQ in HS) I'm planning to move onto figuring out bezels to both get rid of the dark space in the 16x9 screen being used and be able to go back to non stretched resolutions to get visuals looking as correct as possible .....

And don't tell me, I'm just getting started right ??

[ci2own]

4 hours ago, Jimmi1271 said:

That's what I'm doing now, trying to convert consoles I already have running in dedicated emulators over to RA ... just running into issues with Colecovision right now because it is trying to load mess_libretro.dll, which doesn't exist. I've pulled down both the Multi core and the bluemsx core, which are both supposed to support CV, but no joy so far. I'm going to go watch and watch the RA config YouTube from Simply Austin. Once I have my base systems done (I've already configures wheel and video snips for them all through HyperHQ in HS) I'm planning to move onto figuring out bezels to both get rid of the dark space in the 16x9 screen being used and be able to go back to non stretched resolutions to get visuals looking as correct as possible .....

And don't tell me, I'm just getting started right ??

To start: Download ALL cores from RetroArch (none will miss ). And search for "RetroArch bios pack" on google and add all bios to "system" folder in side your RetroArch.  You will save a lot of time doing this.

[Rowr14]

I recommend trying to grab the current version of Mame core that matches what version you are updated to before a newer one is released for maximum compatibility. Just in case.

Maybe there is a place to download older cores to match your version, but I couldn't find it.

And yeh you are just getting started... haha.

I'm just now trying to sort out my own bezel situation, and then I found the shaders...

It seems to me that an advantage of going with Mame is that the bezel situation seems to be catered mostly towards Mame which uses a different type of config file than RA. (Please someone correct me if i'm wrong.)

Check out the "Artwork and sounds > Announcements > Bezels" section in these forums for some awesome stuff.

[32assassin]

4 hours ago, Rowr14 said:

It seems to me that an advantage of going with Mame is that the bezel situation seems to be catered mostly towards Mame which uses a different type of config file than RA. (Please someone correct me if i'm wrong.)

 

their are 3 ways you can load bezels each have their own config files

Rocketlauncher

MAME

and through RA

 

I converted all the Bezels made by Krakerman (Bezels configured to load with RL)

 

 

to load with RA; so that I could use them on my Raspberry Pi

https://emumovies.com/forums/topic/18196-krakermans-bezels-formatted-for-retropie-use/

 

you might be able to use them with the Windows version of RA,  I have no plans to test them given that I don't plan to stop using the stand alone version of MAME.

[Jimmi1271]

My preference is to set all Bezel's up, regardless of emulator, to load within either RL (or HS if possible) ... essentially trying to adhere to the idea of using RL for function and HS for visuals.

I'm running 64bit Win10 and a 32" 16:9 HD screen as the monitor. I hope to find something preconfigured to "plug and play" with the MAME bezels being aligned to the games, the consoles can be more generic (i.e. 1/system) unless I found something that already had the work done per game.

[Jimmi1271]

19 hours ago, ci2own said:

To start: Download ALL cores from RetroArch (none will miss ). And search for "RetroArch bios pack" on google and add all bios to "system" folder in side your RetroArch.  You will save a lot of time doing this.

Completed this, and found what I hope is a complete list .... It also added Machines and Databases subdirectories. Thery are all clean, but unsure really how complete they are until I start giving things a try I suppose.

[ci2own]

7 hours ago, Jimmi1271 said:

My preference is to set all Bezel's up, regardless of emulator, to load within either RL (or HS if possible) ... essentially trying to adhere to the idea of using RL for function and HS for visuals.

I'm running 64bit Win10 and a 32" 16:9 HD screen as the monitor. I hope to find something preconfigured to "plug and play" with the MAME bezels being aligned to the games, the consoles can be more generic (i.e. 1/system) unless I found something that already had the work done per game.

For Bezels I would use RocketLauncher with HyperSpin. You will be able to configure everything much easier too!

You can try with my Bezels set here:

 

And here for Handhelds (I will reupload in a few hours, because Amazon link is down right now)

 

 

[ci2own]

On 14/2/2018 at 2:47 AM, Jimmi1271 said:

That's what I'm doing now, trying to convert consoles I already have running in dedicated emulators over to RA ... just running into issues with Colecovision right now because it is trying to load mess_libretro.dll, which doesn't exist. I've pulled down both the Multi core and the bluemsx core, which are both supposed to support CV, but no joy so far. I'm going to go watch and watch the RA config YouTube from Simply Austin. Once I have my base systems done (I've already configures wheel and video snips for them all through HyperHQ in HS) I'm planning to move onto figuring out bezels to both get rid of the dark space in the 16x9 screen being used and be able to go back to non stretched resolutions to get visuals looking as correct as possible .....

And don't tell me, I'm just getting started right ??

You can change the used module in RL if the default one is not the one you want.

[phulshof]

I'm using MAME for practically everything pre-Nintendo64. I like having a single setup with all the features that MAME brings, including accurate emulation over hacks.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Tribe Fan]

My build is mostly limited to MAME and Retroarch for simplicity. Some more obscure systems and Wii emulation have dedicated emulators though. It’s just so much less of a hassle to stick with one emulator once you learn how it works and how it interacts with Rlauncher.

[Jimmi1271]

11 hours ago, ci2own said:

For Bezels I would use RocketLauncher with HyperSpin. You will be able to configure everything much easier too!

You can try with my Bezels set here:

 

And here for Handhelds (I will reupload in a few hours, because Amazon link is down right now)

 

 

Thank you, this should be an enormous help.