Update to 4.3 results in bad 7800 (lr-prosystem) colors

Lyle_JP

Pi Model or other hardware: 3
RetroPie Version Used (4.2,4.3):
Built From: Images from this site
USB Devices connected: keyboard
Controller used: SNES USB gamepad
Emulator: lr-prosystem
How to replicate the problem: Upgrade 7800 core or install 4.3

Pretty straightforward here. On a fresh 4.2 image, 7800 colors look great. Spot on. In Joust, the title is a bold, primary yellow. The buzzards you fight in the first round are red. The platforms are a rock color. In Donkey Kong, the platforms are red and Mario is a darker red.

When you upgrade lr-prosystem to the latest version (also part of 4.3), either by binary or source, you wind up with awful colors. The Joust title is a pale pastel yellow. The buzzards you fight are now pink. The platforms are a sickly pea green. In Donkey Kong, the platforms are now pink, and Mario is a dull, desaturated red. Every game has wrong colors to the same degree.

I can confirm that it is the 7800 core itself. I upgraded just it on a fresh 4.2 image and got the problems, so it seems unrelated to any changes to retro-arch or ES.

I have reverted to 4.2 since I tend to play 7800 games a lot. I hope someone can find out what went wrong with that core.

edmaul69

@lyle_jp why dont you just backup the 7800 libretro core file, update your system and overwrite the bad file with the good one?

Darksavior

@edmaul69 It's what I did when snes9x-2005 had audio bugs in wild guns. Latest version late last month finally fixed it, but it was broken for at least 6months+.

edmaul69

@darksavior i actually have a few emulators in different folders than default and have the emulators.cfg point to them so they cant be overwritten by an update. So the emulators.cfg have options for both the original emulator and the good one so if an update ever fixes it i can still test. I use a modified advmess 3.4 because the controls config is screwed up on so many systems, so i had a friend fix the systems i needed to use.

Lyle_JP

I appreciate the workaround strategies but... is there really no one here who thinks the Retropie distributions should revert to the older binaries until the problem is fixed?!

BuZz

@lyle_jp Looking at the upstream repo, the colours were recently changed to correct them - if you think they are wrong you need to report it here https://github.com/libretro/prosystem-libretro

This may be subjective - the old colours may have actually been over saturated compared to the original system.

dankcushions

@lyle_jp it looks like these palletes were intentionally changed in august - see https://github.com/libretro/prosystem-libretro/pull/27 (or perhaps one of the other similar recent commits)

what is your basis for saying they're wrong? a lot of games looked funky when on NTSC CRTs, etc. at some point it's personal preference as to whether you prefer 'as it looked' colour schemes, or 'as per the code' colour schemes, but if you have an issue with the default palette you should log it here - https://github.com/libretro/prosystem-libretro/issues

Lyle_JP

@dankcushions
I say they are wrong because the previous color palette got the games much closer to the arcade games they were trying to port and also because the new colors are simply aesthetically unpleasing in every way possible. No one would have knowingly chosen some of these color schemes.

But if you want something more concrete: The manual for Joust on the 7800 specifically refers to the Bounder as "wearing red". On the old palette, it was red. Now it's hot pink!

It's wrong. I don't know how I can prove it better, but it's wrong.

BuZz

@lyle_jp then you need to make this argument on the github tracker for prosystem and convince them - arguing it here will do nothing as we don't develop the emulator. I'm not convinced but perhaps it could be a core option to switch for those that prefer the saturated palette.