pmindemann

Appreciate it, @sanchezmike01! I've setup several HS builds on PCs, but this is my first on Android, so I'm still figuring out a few things (like doing space-efficient things, avoiding swf files, and of course doing everything by hand!). It's honestly been a really heavy lift compared to other frontends, but I guess I kinda just want to learn something and feel like I know how things work vs. just having everything pre-populate. Oh, and AES vs. MVS... well, I've owned the "real thing" of both (along with Hyper NeoGeo 64, NGPC, etc., etc.) so, yeah, I might be one of those that would notice (lol).

Great tutorial, @fred33! This was more basic than what I needed, but I could see it being super helpful to someone who is new to it--especially considering how "manual" things are with Hyperspin for Android. Unfortunately, however, it didn't actually answer the question I had, which was asking specifically about how to launch "video themes" (that is, not just where to put videos, but how to enable pre-built, pre-recorded theme videos that completely bypass the usual themes, images, swf files, videos, etc.). I think if you're doing a PC built this might not be super necessary, but for Android builds, it can help avoid issues with swf files and probably make for a lighter load in terms of processing, etc. Anayway, @Creezz67, that file was exactly what I needed! I named it "default," dropped it in Themes, downloaded the game-specific theme videos into the Video folder, and it worked straight away! Thanks for the assist with that... I'm loving getting everything going on the Shield TV again!

Thanks, @Creezz67! So, put this in themes, rename as default, and then the individual videos for each game go in the regular videos folder?

Hey guys, I've been starting to add new game wheels in our Shield build of Hyperpin, and it's going reasonably well... I don't have a PC build of Hyperspin, currently, so I'm doing it all by hand with editing files, creating folders, moving files, etc. It's been kind of fun, and I got new SuperGrafx and Atomsiwave wheels working, BUT... I've been trying to add a NeoGeo MVS wheel, and the only game themes I've found were pre-recorded video themes (instead of individual game themse, game videos, etc. that I'd place into their respective files). Now, I've read these video-based "themes" work better than .swf and other pieced-together files on the Shield. But for the life of me, I can't get them to work! I've Google for about 2 hours and read post after post on the HS forums, but can't find any clear instructions on where to place the theme videos, or what else might need to be done to get them to work. Has anyone used video themes, and if so, can you advise how to get them to work on the Shield?

Here it is again... HyperspinFE_AndroidR_arm64_beta2.apk

That did it, @sonkun! I didn't touch the .opt files, since I don't know what they do. But I DID go and see where Retroarch expected the bios files to be located, and even though Bandit's build supposedly gets around all that by having bios files in the rom folders (and tells Retroarch to look there), that was clearly not working! The solution was just to move the bios file to the System folder, and then voila... it worked great in both Retroarch and Hyperspin! That means I've not got every system (except Dolphin, which we know) working in Hyperspin when launched from Retroarch! This is a good day... thank you for the big-time assist! My next mission will be to venture beyond Bandit's build and start adding things like TurboGrafx, SuperGrafx, etc. and see what I can break (haha). I'm not sure why he didn't include systems like those in his build, but I guess he had to leave some things out. Anyway, Hyperspin is back in the game, for me!

Thanks, @sonkun! I was able to set the GL override for just Mupen, so that's great... appreciate the assist! I tried to do the same for Yaba Sanshiro, but... Yaba Sanshiro doesn't work at all in Retroarch (I can get it to load as a standalone, however, which is odd). In Retroarch, it does say that the saturn_bios.bin is missing. I first used the bios provided in the Bandit build, but figuring maybe it was bad, I downloaded the supposedly Retroarch-approved bios from: https://github.com/Abdess/retroarch_system/blob/libretro/Sega - Saturn/saturn_bios.bin. So, yeah, I don't know what's up with Retroarch saying it's missing... or why it seems to work fine in the standalone app (?!). As for the system config file, boy was that hard to find! In my Retroarch->Config folder, all I have are system folders (and within those are .opt files). BUT... I did a "save current configuration," and Retroarch told me the file was here: \\SHIELD\internal\Android\data\com.retroarch.aarch64\files. So, that's where I found it, and I changed "Vulkan" to "GL" but it made no difference. The closest thing I could find to a per-system config file for Yaba Sanshiro was this mysterious "opt" file in the config folder. The only information shown for Sanshiro is: The yabasanshiro_addon_cart = "4M_extended_ram" yabasanshiro_force_hle_bios = "disabled" yabasanshiro_frameskip = "enabled" yabasanshiro_multitap_port1 = "disabled" yabasanshiro_multitap_port2 = "disabled" yabasanshiro_polygon_mode = "perspective_correction" yabasanshiro_rbg_resolution_mode = "original" yabasanshiro_rbg_use_compute_shader = "disabled" yabasanshiro_resolution_mode = "original" yabasanshiro_sh2coretype = "dynarec" yabasanshiro_system_language = "english" Appreciate any additional advice you might have for getting Yaba working through Retroarch!

Ah, thanks for clarifying @Spacman... yeah, the Dolphin standalone is no problem (and your ini file matches mine). I had mistakenly though you were running via Retroarch.

Perfectly valid question. I guess I'm just stubbornly trying to use Retroarch for everything. But, there's kind of a method to that madness... For me, it comes down to trying to create a more unified, consistent approach. For example, I first wanted to go standalone only... it was how I used ArcBrowser and, while it was a pain to setup, it worked well enough. Also, on principle, I was against using Retroarch, and I thought standalones would perform better. However, after playing around with Retroarch more, I began to like the fact that the entry/exit of every emulator was consistent, as was the setup. And I liked that I didn't need to independently manage so many apps. I discovered Retroarch could be setup using runahead and some other approaches to have even less latency than original hardware, which standalone emulators couldn't do. But most of all, I found out that Hyperspin worked with Retroarch almost exclusively (Dolphin and Sanshiro, excepting), so it all started to make sense for me to just switch everything to Retroarch and simplify my approach. All of which to say... it sucks that we don't have the option for both. If SAF could be sorted, I think we'd be in good shape. Until then, Retroarch seems like the way to go for 95% of the emulators we'd want to use with Hyperspin. And for the others, it looks like a couple standalones still work. So... we have ways to get around things, but it certainly won't win over any new users. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion and for sharing the ini file for Yaba Sanshiro. For me, the exe was wrong, but here's the one that DID work (and launches correctly from Hyperspin), in case anyone else attempts the same thing: exe=org.uoyabause.uranus/org.uoyabause.android.Yabause

Thanks, @oyehia! That parameter was exactly what I needed to get Mupen64 working... I didn't have the "gles3" part, since Bandit's build was put in place before there were different Mupen versions. But that did the trick! And with @sonkun's further tweaks, N64 seems to be running brilliantly! So, for me, I've got almost everything from Bandit's build now launchable from Hyperspin in some form, and everything is launching from Retroarch, except for Dolphin and Sanshiro.

@sonkun - Thank you so much for the advice! Unfortunately, though I have a fair amount of experience with emulators in general (and Hyperspin on PC), I'm pretty new to both Retroarch and Android, and I'm having trouble doing even the most basic things you suggest... I could only find a broad video output option for GL/Vulkan in the Settings->Video->Output in Retroarch, and I assume that applies across cores. How do I locate individual core settings, so I don't have to change them across-the-board to GL? In my Retroarch->config folder, the per-system files are all in an .opt file format, not cfg. Is there a way to do a per-system video driver change through the Retroarch UI itself, or are you seeing a folder I'm not? Similarly, for Yaba Sanshiro, I couldn't even get it to run (at all). I changed the video driver to GL in the general settings (couldn't find the cfg file, as noted above), and even with the "entire" system set to GL, all the bioses in place, etc., Yaba wouldn't launch. Any suggestions appreciated! I'm running Retroarch 1.10.3 on Android 9, for whatever it's worth.

I missed this earlier, but @moondefer and I seem to have the same questions/problems regarding Dolphin and Sanshiro not working (and I think we can add Mupen to that list). It would be great if we could get @spacman's settings for Dolphin in Retroarch. That said, I'm not sure it matters... since I can't get Sanshiro (or Mupen or Dolphin) to run in Retroarch to begin with, I don't expect them to be doing anything in Hyperspin. So, here again, without the standalone versions working--OR if Spacman or Fred33 have a legit way of making them work in Retroarch--versions with SAF seem to be the best option for these.

I've literally been doing the exact, same thing today! I have the latest RetroArch 64-bit (1.10 from their website, as you noted), and changed all the ini files to point to the right exe. So far, it's MOSTLY working with Hyperspin to just launch everything through Retroarch (to avoid the SAF issues), but even then, that's problematic because something things don't seem to work in Retroarch (!)... N64 doesn't work with the built-in Mupen cores. Since it won't run in Retroarch and just crashes, Hyperspin loads a black screen, then backs out. Saturn doesn't work with the built-in Yaba Sanshiro core, either. Same black screen in Retroarch (crashing), then HS backs out. Gamecube doesn't work with the built-in Dolphin core, either. I've pretty well tried all the "fixes" (Sys file in Dolphin-emu, etc.), but it appears the built-in Android version is just broken in Retroarch... others seem to have the same issue in forum posts I've seen. BUT... this is the one standalone emulator that works with Hyperspin outside of Retroarch, so that remains a valid workaround. All total then, N64 (Mupen) and Saturn (Sanshiro) are the two emulators for which there doesn't appear to be any way to get them to work with Hyperspin. I haven't tried other systems outside of the Bandit build, but figured I'd start there as a common point of reference. If someone is aware of a way to get N64 and Saturn to play nice with Hyperspin, we might be in business!

I was about to ask for the same thing! I did find the list of cores here. However, I'm also a novice when it comes to the Android side of things, so I'm not sure if it's just the per-system ini files that need to be changed in order to use only Retroarch cores, or if there's something additional (I'm using Bandit, too). EDIT: I DID find some of the cores are listed in the "docs" folder of Bandit's build in the "Technical Setup" doc included with the download: HOWEVER... I tried switching to the Retroarch versions of Mupen64Plus and PPSSPP using the core values above and updating the ini files after downloading the core in Retroarch... but neither worked. I'm using the Retroarch v.1.8.8 version Bandit recommended due its MAME2010 compatibility, but I'm wondering if it's gimped on some other emulators. I can't even get this version of Retroarch to index the PSP files, let alone play them. Ugh.

So, rather than sit here and not have Hyperspin working with any of my stand-alone emulators, I decided to try the approach some others have suggested and downloaded Bandit's "No Clutter" build (which, btw, is pretty impressive). Fortunately, I can confirm it DOES work with the beta Hyperspin version shared here, and works well! That is... if you're using Retroarch. Mostly. Since it's a bit confusing, I decided I should start cataloguing what works and what does (at least in that build)... Works: Any core launched via Retroarch (special 1.8 build for Bandit)... that includes Flycast with the updated ini file, PSXre-armed, MAME2010, Nestopia UE, SNES9x, mGBA, etc. Dolphin standalone DOES work, somehow! Does NOT work: Mupen64PLUS FZ standalone (same "invalid emulator" error as everyone else has shown here). Yaba Sanshiro 2.2 standalone (same "invalid emulator" error). PPSSPP standalone ("not a valid disc image" error in emulator itself). Interestingly, I CAN open and run these same, standalone emulators via ArcBrowser using the SAF templates. So, that seems to be the common theme (though why or how retroarch and Dolphin still work is beyond me). For now, the "easiest" workaround would seem to be sticking with Retroarch cores. I haven't spent time fiddling with Bandit's ini files to try to get Hyperspin pointing to a Retroarch core (for, say, Mupen64 instead of the standalone version), but that might be the simplest path to a fully-functional Hyperspin, at the moment.

Sorry, I might have been unclear with what I was saying... I don't want to carry over artwork. My point was that arcade games don't have consistent art, in general, since they don't all have a box or a cabinet picture, or whatever--they never will, and that's ok. But because it's not all neat and organizable like having NES boxes or something, it's perfect for Hyperspin. You get wrapped up in sound, video, and stuff like that and don't have to worry about everything being the same size or whatever. Anyway, the fact that Retroarch basically works is also of little help, because some of us are morally opposed to Retroarch (there are reasons you won't find certain emulators like Redream on there), and even if we aren't some of the cores just aren't great... for the life of me, I can't find a Retroarch core that does as well with Playstation as ePXSe, for example. My old favorite "Air Combat" (precursor to Ace Combat) barely runs on FPse and some of those. So, I HAVE to use standalone emulators. And for other systems, Retroarch just doesn't offer a built-in option, so once again, I have to use standalone. And as of right now, SAF or whatever is preventing many of them from working. TL;DR - SAF needs to be addressed for Hyperspin to be viable on Shield again.

Nice! I'm glad some of it is working. I won't be picking it up again until some version of MAME works (the best use for Hyperspin, in my mind, since arcade titles never have box art that makes things like Launchbox look so good). But I'm glad it's at least semi-functional!

In other words, all of the emulators I actually use... lol. (All of which work in Arc, notably... probably worth trying to figure out what they're doing to get things working, and/or see what the differences are between the emulators that work and those that don't. But I'm sure reznnate has thought of all that!)

It might have something to do with SAF... or might not. I say that because I don't use the SAF template with MAME4droid in Arc Browser, and it still seems to function just fine. Here are the actions that Arc Browser shows for MAME: All that said, I don't understand any of it nearly well enough to say that we shouldn't pursue the SAF and permissions thing... that's the most significant change since Hyperspin stopped working, so it makes sense to investigate that.

Great info, @fred33! If we knew what, specific instructions replaced the original "com.seleuco..." maybe we could try putting that in its place in the MAME.ini file. But I know nothing... this is @reznnate's domain!

Weird! I’m using MAME4droid, but I’m guessing it’s the same issue as yours, @reznnate. Even if I get nothing else working, MAME (arcade) is the one emulator I always run with Hyperspin, so it would be a deal-breaker if we can’t get it going. Let me know if/how I can help!

Love it! Just ran the new .apk and it installs fine. I think I got my rom path issue sorted, too. All that said, when I try to actually get MAME4droid to open through Hyperspin, I get an error: Now, I used the exe that was already in the MAME.ini file from the official Hyperspin Android Base Pack (which is the same as what's shown here for MAME: Any ideas what might be causing MAME to return that error, @reznnate?

WE HAVE LIFTOFF! Ok, despite having done a fair number of Hyperspin builds in the past, I'll admit this is the first time I've done it on Android, and some basic things really threw me. But the MOST basic of all is that you have to have the Android Base Pack installed FIRST! Simply creating folders isn't enough... Hyperspin wanted all of the assets and ini files, which makes sense, in retrospect. So, for me, here's what that looked like when I was done (I'm looking at my Shield through the network connection on my PC... I placed the Hyperspin apk in the Hyperspin folder and installed it from there, but I'm not sure if that matters or not): The part that got me off track is that the instructions on this page said, "But First..." and then it proceeded to talk about where to create folders, getting a file explorer, and eventually launching the app. Some of this (in my mind) should have predeed the Base Pack instructions, since it looks like it's telling you to do all of this setup before you get the Base Pack, when in reality, that's part of the Base Pack guide. Anyway, it may have just been my reading of it, but it threw me. So, I immediately attempted to point the ini files to my existing ROMs in Mame4Droid, and it failed to launch any of them or even index them correctly (lol). Clearly I'm doing some things wrong there, and I'll try to read up more and figure it out... it sure it's nearly as easy as something like ArcBrowser, I'm a glutten for punishment. For now, I'm just glad it launches, and hopefully this will help you too, @moondefer!

Thanks, @LexHeyden23, but unfortunately those tips from the videos are largely irrelevant, at least in my case... First video: the hotfix is outdated... I'm already on a software version that's more recent than the hotfix, and the link for the fix is dead, anyway, due to its age. Second video, I'm already remoting in via network (from my PC), so that's a moot point, but might be helpful for someone else. Third video, I'm not using network storage, so I don't need to deal with firewalls, reg. edits, etc... everything is seen as a local drive (internal) and the need for permissions, etc. is irrelevant. Either way, appreciate the time you took to post those, and for shooting out some ideas!

@reznnate - Thanks for asking. I didn't setup anything other than a base Hyperspin folder... figured I should make sure the app runs before I go downloading a whole bunch of assets. Are you saying I should download the asset folders first?