RetroArch Config Confusion and Issues

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 02:16

Sooooo....ignore my last post,switching to a different PSX game seems to have actually reset all the config settings to default again!Jeeeeeezzzz....time to investigate!

meleu · 1 Jun 2016, 02:16

@Wolfman100 hahahaha this is the very same feeling I had while I kept the "save config on exit" enabled!!!
:-D

Floob · 1 Jun 2016, 10:15

@Wolfman100 said in RetroArch Config Confusion and Issues:

Sooooo....ignore my last post,switching to a different PSX game seems to have actually reset all the config settings to default again!Jeeeeeezzzz....time to investigate!

Watching file changes in /opt/retropie/configs/psx/ can be a useful way to understand whats going on when you make changes in the GUI (either from RGUI or the Configuration editor etc..). Try PuTTY out and check it out.
The video above should cover system and per game changes that are possible.

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 15:10

@meleu hahaha.....top tip!

Wolfman100 · 6 Jan 2016, 16:15

@Floob Will look into that.Thanks

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 15:17

@Floob

As far as I can tell looking through the config file in the folder you mentioned,there is no options to enable/disable shaders,set aspect ratio etc.The closet thing I can see is setting the destination directory for shaders...

dankcushions · 1 Jun 2016, 15:23

@Wolfman100 said in RetroArch Config Confusion and Issues:

@Floob

As far as I can tell looking through the config file in the folder you mentioned,there is no options to enable/disable shaders,set aspect ratio etc.The closet thing I can see is setting the destination directory for shaders...

there is. every setting in can be changed in the /corename/retroarch.cfg. the /all/retroarch.cfg overrules it, the same setting is in there and uncommented.

in this specific case, you're interested in:

# Path to shader. Shader can be either Cg, CGP (Cg preset) or GLSL, GLSLP (GLSL preset)
video_shader = "/path/to/shader.{cg,cgp,glsl,glslp}"

# Load video_shader on startup.
# Other shaders can still be loaded later in runtime.
video_shader_enable = true

as before, you should change these via the config editor unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 15:29

@dankcushions Hmmmm strange....

Unless I'm going blind I definetly can't see that in there...

http://pastebin.com/wTkPZks9

dankcushions · 1 Jun 2016, 15:34

@Wolfman100 said in RetroArch Config Confusion and Issues:

@dankcushions Hmmmm strange....

Unless I'm going blind I definetly can't see that in there...

http://pastebin.com/wTkPZks9

perhaps it doesn't appear there unless it's set? this is why you should be using the config editor and not looking at the files :)

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 15:42

@dankcushions that would maybe make sense.

This is kind of exact example though of conflicting information regarding this,one school of thought says to just use the config editor and enable save on exit and another completly conflicting one is to edit the files manually...I'm also slightly baffled as to why there is not simply ONE config file for each emulator to edit via either the config editor or manually and any changes made to this ONE file in turn cause the desired changes to happen

dankcushions · 1 Jun 2016, 15:51

@Wolfman100 said in RetroArch Config Confusion and Issues:

@dankcushions that would maybe make sense.

This is kind of exact example though of conflicting information regarding this,one school of thought says to just use the config editor and enable save on exit

what? why would you enable save on exit if you're editing through the configuration editor? save on exit is only for editing via the retroarch GUI.

and another completly conflicting one is to edit the files manually...I'm also slightly baffled as to why there is not simply ONE config file for each emulator to edit via either the config editor or manually and any changes made to this ONE file in turn cause the desired changes to happen

because certain changes you want to be global, and certain changes you want to be for specific emulators. i think maybe there's an argument that the /all/retroarch.cfg file goes away, and all the various core emulators have only their unique .cfgs, but then you'd have to extend configuration editor to do batch-updates if you wanted to change global settings. i can forsee people quickly getting into messes.

honestly, it's not as hard as you're all making it out, but you've asked for opinions about what's the best, and apparently attempted a mixture of all :P

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 15:57

@dankcushions I hear ya.I think I'm just possibly getting a little flustered because it just doesn't seem to be as straightforward as it could be and I'm being impatient..rather than digesting the information logically.

I did mention earlier though that all the changes I was making WERE being done in the configuration editor,yet were not being saved....

meleu · 1 Jun 2016, 15:58

@Wolfman100 said in RetroArch Config Confusion and Issues:

@dankcushions that would maybe make sense.

(...)one school of thought says to just use the config editor and enable save on exit and another completly conflicting one is to edit the files manually...

If save config on exit is enabled, the manual configuration is insane!

Please, forgive me. I didn't put it so clear. If you want to edit the retroarch.cfg (the file directly or with Configuration Editor), turn off the config save on exit.

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 15:58

@meleu OK cool....that's clear enough..think I manage that :)

Riverstorm · 1 Jun 2016, 16:15

@Wolfman100 said in RetroArch Config Confusion and Issues:

@dankcushions that would maybe make sense.

This is kind of exact example though of conflicting information regarding this,one school of thought says to just use the config editor and enable save on exit and another completly conflicting one is to edit the files manually...

It probably is multiple schools of thought. I wouldn't call it conflicting information it just different points of view and different ways of doing the same thing! Given the same challenge people will present multiple solutions. Perception is everything. It just depends on your level of experience and knowledge. It's like command line vs. GUI. One way is probably more comfortable and suits your needs better than the other but that's neither right nor wrong. It wouldn't be very flexible if everything was completely linear! ;) Options are good!

It's a hierarchy which makes perfect sense really. Global changes at the top and more granular at the bottom. I agree with Dank you would being doing a lot more work if it was only one config file per emulator! :/

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 16:35

@Riverstorm Don't get me wrong,I totally think that options and flexibility are indeed benificial and essentially the very ethos behind open source software.I do believe however that flexibility need not be compromised by useability.I think a system where you have one file for 'global' configs and then one file for each emulator(that overrides any global settings changed for that emulator) which is accessed through ONE universal global interface makes sense doesn't it?And this would also leave far less room for error and conflicts.

dankcushions · 1 Jun 2016, 16:42

This post is deleted!

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 16:45

@dankcushions Yes I know that's the case currently....what I was saying is wouldn't it make more sense if individual config files would simply override global settings for that particular emulator and all this was done from one unified interface?

Riverstorm · 6 Jan 2016, 17:47

@Wolfman100 said in RetroArch Config Confusion and Issues:

@Riverstorm Don't get me wrong,I totally think that options and flexibility are indeed benificial and essentially the very ethos behind open source software.I do believe however that flexibility need not be compromised by useability.I think a system where you have one file for 'global' configs and then one file for each emulator(that overrides any global settings changed for that emulator) which is accessed through ONE universal global interface makes sense doesn't it?And this would also leave far less room for error and conflicts.

I agree some processes could be simplified but also you have to remember it's not one piece of software. Not quite sure how to word that. It's several really. You have RetroPie, Libretro cores, Retroarch, Emulationstation basically several pieces working together.

If it was one group or one company I could see the merits of a unified uniform software solution to our retro gaming needs. As I get older I don't want to say cynical but the world just isn't black and white made up of good people and bad. You make one group happy and the opposition is upset. It's a lot of compromises and gray area and honestly I can only thank my lucky stars for RetroPie. It works great really once you get it down and is only getting better! :)

Wolfman100 · 1 Jun 2016, 16:50

@Riverstorm I must also paradoxically say 'hear hear' to that statement too! :)