Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo

WeirdH

Two Konami beat 'em ups exhibit fairly isolated performance issues on my Pi 3B+:

asterix becomes stuttery in level 2, maybe due to the background effect of air swirling in the heat

moomesa does the same when the attract mode gets to a boss fight with a floating platform

Apart from these instances, the games seem to run fine, so are these emulation issues, or is the 3B+ just too slow and obsolete by now?

barbudreadmon

@weirdh those are called raster effects and are usually quite demanding, their proper emulation is one of the main reasons recent'ish arcade cores are slower than the old ones

WeirdH

@barbudreadmon Okay, good to know, thanks. Will a Pi4 have trouble with these effects as well? Or is it all different on a per-game basis? I remember tophuntr having issues with the bonus level transition effect on Mame2003-plus, but it works fine on FBNeo.

G30FF

@weirdh Tried it out on my Pi 4, and I don't see any problems with the games you mentioned. I don't have any overclock settings, and am using default FBNeo settings for them. Most games I've tried work in FBNeo on the Pi 4 stock, some (like Sega system 32 games) require a frameskip setting of 1 frame enabled to play at full speed, and there are a few games I've tried that are just too laggy to play even with frameskip, but work in lr-mame2016 instead (for example, gametngk and tetrisp).

Addison

Hi.

Is it possible to load lua training scripts?

Here's a collection for many supported titles:

https://github.com/peon2/fbneo-training-mode

barbudreadmon

@addison No, that stuff only works on FBNeo standalone (windows), RetroArch doesn't offer any kind of support for lua.

barbudreadmon

Yet another very popular system was added to FBNeo : Sega C/C2. Original announcement at https://neo-source.com/index.php?topic=980.msg33258#msg33258. This one is especially known for its puzzle game classics (Puyo Puyo, Columns, ...).

G30FF

@barbudreadmon Very exciting news! I've taken a bunch of games from the set out for a spin, and haven't noticed any issues so far! Thanks!

dodonpachi

Updated from binary, and now ddpdojblk gives me a black screen with "ROM ERROR !" It worked fine prior to updating. What happened?

EDIT: deleting the ddpdojblk.fs file in roms/arcade/fbneo fixed it. Game works now.

barbudreadmon

@dodonpachi This romset was updated to a newer revision in https://github.com/finalburnneo/FBNeo/commit/1876e6d4ab373d224b1b450105fd173b3f42f0fe

The new one apparently uses a different protection for nvram, so loading a nvram from the older revision probably doesn't work, thanks for the heads-up.

Note : i don't recommend updating from binary.

sirhenrythe5th

@barbudreadmon said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

@dodonpachi This romset was updated to a newer revision in https://github.com/finalburnneo/FBNeo/commit/1876e6d4ab373d224b1b450105fd173b3f42f0fe

For everyone searching this romset: the one for MAME 0.239 does the job ;)

Red_Trev

@sirhenrythe5th does any other ROM from MAME 0.239 work with finalburnNEO ?

barbudreadmon

@red_trev said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

@sirhenrythe5th does any other ROM from MAME 0.239 work with finalburnNEO ?

read top post.

Red_Trev

@barbudreadmon said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

See https://www.libretro.com/index.php/goodbye-fbalpha-welcome-fbneo/

New code is commited on a daily/weekly basis, which includes :

support for new games

better emulation for already supported games

fixes for reported issues

regular romsets syncing with latest known MAME dumps (MAME 0.210 at the time i write those lines, but it changes every few months)

Up-to-date clrmamepro dat files are always available at https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo/tree/master/dats

The best way to get valid romsets is to use clrmamepro with a previously valid FBNeo/FBAlpha full romset & the latest MAME dumps as sources.

If you are too lazy to keep your romsets up-to-date, never update your FBNeo core (ofc, never complain about issues either). People think it's time-consuming, honestly it's not : i would be surprised if i spent more than 1 hour a year to keep those updated, ofc you'll need a supply of fresh MAME dumps.

There is a FAQ at https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo/blob/master/src/burner/libretro/README.md

I installed RetroPie maybe 18 months ago and have not updated FBNeo since. I obtained my FBNeo compatible ROMs at the same time.

If I update FBNeo to the latest version, will these ROMs cease to work ?

dankcushions

@red_trev some, yes. you should update your romsets if you update the fbneo core.

Red_Trev

@dankcushions said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

@red_trev some, yes. you should update your romsets if you update the fbneo core.

thanks for the quick replys ! My final question .... I have been trying out ROMs from latest MAME version and find 80% load but dont actually work (via MAME emulator). The 2D games I have tried seem to work OK but the 3D games either run very slow or dont open at all.

I have read elsewhere that MAME is all about accuracy while other emulators are more suited to play-ability (using software hacks to work around graphics issues for example).

So my question is: do MAME ROMs have a better compatibility rate when they are run via FBNeo emulator (assuming emulator & ROM versions all match up) ?

Examples of games I would want to play are Mortal Kombat 4, Arcana Heart, Street Fighter EX, Ridge Racer ....

dodonpachi

@red_trev Final Burn Neo doesn't support 3D games. For that you'll have to try one of the various MAME versions.

Some roms need additional files to load correctly. Look up the game you're trying to play on Arcade Italia, and scroll down until you see a "MAME required files" drop down. (EDIT for mods: Arcade Italia is just a database, not a rom hosting site)

barbudreadmon

@red_trev said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

If I update FBNeo to the latest version, will these ROMs cease to work ?

I'd say maybe around 1% of your roms will stop working if they are 18 months old. The good news is that the FBNeo core is very verbose about this nowaday.

@red_trev said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

I have read elsewhere that MAME is all about accuracy while other emulators are more suited to play-ability (using software hacks to work around graphics issues for example).
So my question is: do MAME ROMs have a better compatibility rate when they are run via FBNeo emulator (assuming emulator & ROM versions all match up) ?
Examples of games I would want to play are Mortal Kombat 4, Arcana Heart, Street Fighter EX, Ridge Racer ....

you might want to read https://www.libretro.com/index.php/final-burn-neo-1-0-0-02-release/ for that statement about accuracy
we don't emulate any of those games, generally speaking we don't support any 3D arcade games, neither do we plan to change that.

Red_Trev

@barbudreadmon said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

@red_trev said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

If I update FBNeo to the latest version, will these ROMs cease to work ?

I'd say maybe around 1% of your roms will stop working if they are 18 months old. The good news is that the FBNeo core is very verbose about this nowaday.

@red_trev said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

I have read elsewhere that MAME is all about accuracy while other emulators are more suited to play-ability (using software hacks to work around graphics issues for example).
So my question is: do MAME ROMs have a better compatibility rate when they are run via FBNeo emulator (assuming emulator & ROM versions all match up) ?
Examples of games I would want to play are Mortal Kombat 4, Arcana Heart, Street Fighter EX, Ridge Racer ....

you might want to read https://www.libretro.com/index.php/final-burn-neo-1-0-0-02-release/ for that statement about accuracy

we don't emulate any of those games, generally speaking we don't support any 3D arcade games, neither do we plan to change that.

thank you so much for this information, I am more than happy with my current FBNeo collection of games so there is little point upgrading for the half dozen 2D ROMs that work on MAME anyhow.

barbudreadmon

@red_trev fair enough, a few additional words though :

upgrading isn't only about having support for new games, most of our work is about fixing issues and overall improving emulation
over the past 18 months, we are probably closer to a hundred new games supported, not including clones/hacks
due to its shallow libretroization, the MAME libretro core has a lot of missing/broken features (partial savestate support, no runahead/netplay/rewind, no retroachievements, broken shaders on vertical games, ...), so it is usually recommended to use FBNeo whenever possible