Working Dreamcast games

parallax

@BJRetro - Thank you. Updating RA helped, I now have audio.
@quicksilver it wasn't running at all but now the standalone is running now. The speed issue also has been corrected but I can't say for sure what fixed it. As of now I prefer using lr-reicast, it's running PSO well enough for my pi3 without any overclock but I'll probably run a few tests for comparison's sake. Aside from having to quit RA anytime I change a setting (minor inconvenience) I'm quite pleased with the performance.

sergioad

Capcom Vs. SNK 2 and Street fighter 3 third strike work withouth overclocking really well

toto2000

How does Zero Gunner 2 run on lr-reicast ? On the new standalone reicast ? Graphic glitches (polygons badly shaped) appeared for me when I updated. One of the very few games that ran worse on the last standalone build.

Stuart2773

@mitu said in Working Dreamcast games:

@skj It is available as a scriptmodule, but it's not enabled for the RPI, only for PC installations.

@parallax said in Working Dreamcast games:

I was able to get lr-reicast working on my pi3 and played Phantasy Star Online v2 for a little while thanks to this thread (thank you!). I toggled all the speed settings suggested by barbudreadmon. There was no audio and I had an issue with it running too fast at times and then slowdown. I understand the slowdown is inevitable but is there anything to be done about it running too fast?

could we get a scriptmodule added for pi3 to the experimental section ? if certain games are running on the pi3 using LR-Reicast at least its better than nothing at all? i guess more users could test and report the compatibility of the games.

shavecat

@Stuart2773
yeha , i agree if its fixing issue's we can all try different games..

quicksilver

Just tested fur fighters, runs pretty good in standalone reicast though there are some menus that flicker (perhaps due to the auto frameskip?). Lr-reicast actually runs the game more accurately without the flicker and the menus are more accurately rendered but it does run slower.

shavecat

@quicksilver
Lr-reicast how can i install it too ?

mitu

@Stuart2773 I posted how to modify the existing scriptmodule to be installable on a PI3 - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21031/working-dreamcast-games/43. Look below (https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21031/working-dreamcast-games/48) for the BIOS files needed and where to place them and also for the modifications needed for making it run (https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21031/working-dreamcast-games/57).

George Spiggott

@shavecat I'm very keen to have a go at installing this as well. However the instructions given are for a slightly higher knowledge level than I currently posses.

Thanks for the guide @mitu. If you could give any noob level advice for this I would be most appreciative.

Efriim

I updated reicast yesterday, I noticed Jet Grind Radio renders shadows now, unfortunately they render and flash sometimes and Jet Grind Radio needs all the performance it can get. Is there a way to disable them again, or do I need the old binary? Do I have to edit the build source? Is there any rundown for reicast emu.cfg file? I've searched and couldn't find anything until I just now installed lr-reicast, which has the core options listed I could try to cross reference.

BJRetro

@George-Spiggott

This is the best I can do:

update the retropie setup script
update Retroarch from the the retropie setup menu choosing the “from binary” option
once you reboot and are back in emulation station press F4
type sudo nano /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/libretrocores/lr-reicast.sh

This lets you edit the lr-reicast setup script to allow it to appear on the raspberry pi retropie setup menu under experimental packages. Edit the lines motion pointed you to:

replace the rp_module_flags with
rp_module_flags=""

in the build_lr-reicast function, replace the single make line with
make platform=rpi3
Press Ctrl and X on your keyboard then y to save changes.

5)type sudo reboot to reboot then in EmulationStation go to the retropie setup menu, manage experimental packages, and lr-reicast should now be there. Install from source.

type sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/dreamcast/emulators.cfg

You will see a line that says lr-reicast= and at the very end of the line inside the last quotation mark put < /dev/null

put the bios files you need in the Dreamcast bios folder
Dreamcast should now work when you start a game.

If the paths are wrong in steps 4 or 6 let me know as I am not in front of my pi so doing it from memory.

shavecat

@BJRetro
Thanks , now i can also try it too later ;)

Stuart2773

@BJRetro @mitu

just tested this install and works great, i had about 10 games that would not load via the standard reicast and this lr-reicast version loads them ( especially the new independent releases.

its definatley worth considering this adding it to the experimental packages

thank you.

shavecat

Worked for me very slow and leggy , then for some reason stop to work....
not worth it from my side.
Why is it jumping back to the emulator ?

BJRetro

@shavecat I am not sure what you mean or what game you tried. But I was playing around with the settings on Virtua Fighter (yay I was right; by enabling analog to digital controls for left analog in the retro arch settings I can finally use this game on my bar top! That alone makes it worth it for me to have lr-reicast). What I found was that at least for that particular game, using the runcommand menu to select CEA-3 as the video mode (so a lower resolution)and then using the retro arch menu and turning on bilinear filtering on video settings in-game, made it run very well and also look good rather than fuzzy or jagged edges. I can tell it is still running slightly slower than the game was supposed to run originally but I can have a lot of fun this way. So the big benefit of using lr-Reicast is you can mess with the settings a lot easier and see what works best for you.

George Spiggott

@BJRetro Thanks. That was a clear description. It worked first time for me.

And so onto the testing with a vanilla Pi3B & vanilla LR-Reicast. Comparisons are with the lastest version of Reicast where relevant:

General: Set to Spanish language for some reason and cannot be changed AFAIK. Games pick up on the general Retropie settings for screen size (widescreen), volume and joypad buttons (more on this) as you would expect.
[edit] The language and controls (disable User X Analog To Digital) can be fixed in Core Options and setting Frameskip to 1 speeds things up a little.

Soulcalibur: Still has graphical glitches and stutters. This is worse on LR Reicast than on Reicast IMO.

Rez: No graphical errors, stutters slightly in places. Much improved on LR Reicast.

Soul Reaver. Still stutters on intro screens and is slower. Also has an odd interaction with the dpad up being mapped to the analogue left stick. Worse on LR-Reicast. Best played on PS1 with the hi-res graphics hack IMO.
[edit] Core options can be used to fix the analogue stick problem. Still a little slower on a Pi3B+

Rayman 2: Stutters slightly and has some odd graphical glitches. Better on Reicast where it runs flawlessly.

Shadowman: Some graphical glitches. the dpad/analogue stick problem makes the game unplayable. Better on Reicast.
[edit] As above for controls.

Panzer Front: Runs too slowly to play. Appears to have cleaner graphics than on Reicast though. Better on Reicast.

Marvel VS. Capcom: Game runs slower in intros but plays fine. Slightly better on Reicast.

Daytona USA: Game music is choppy and there are graphical glitches. Better on Reicast.

Jet Grind Radio: Plays fine. I didn't notice the shadows problem mentioned above. Fine on either LR-Reicast or Reicast.

Conclusion: Only one of my games actually plays better on LR-Reicast but I see this as in no way a failure (since I can still use Reicast). I suspect many of my problems are easily resolved with a little modification of settings. [edit] Indeed the language and joypad issues can be easily fixed. Speed issues can be mitigated to some extent without resorting to overclocking.

This is to my mind a great step forward for the Retropie and Dreamcast emulation communities. Kudos to all (especially @mitu and @BJRetro in this thread) who have made this possible.

shavecat

@BJRetro
Worked at the start but very slowly (the same games i have the ruining already)....
maybe your fix your fix it.
but for now it is just going to black screen then back to menu station :\

Efriim

@George-Spiggott
I think Soul Reaver on reicast is best, the widescreen and high resolution gives it a remarkable placement. With frameskips at the lake of the dead with all the waterfalls, and maybe some other places with rain effects. Comparably I got slowdowns at the first pool of water in the PSX version. But I didn't have any controller problems, and the videos are worse I was thinking it was because of chd compression or downsizing.

In JGR in the area after it introduces the love shockers, theres a waterway and quite a few shadowed areas, the shadows were not rendered in the previous reicast version around retropie 4.4.1. Entering the shadows they look mostly fine but sometimes the shadow layer will disappear and it will suddenly be bright again, not to mention this game needs all the performance adjustments it can get. The same level there are the police that use tear gas and that was super slow.

To each their own.

BJRetro

@George-Spiggott thanks but real credit goes to @barbudreadmon And @mitu I just put it all on one post (I don’t know how to edit the reicast wiki page but if someone knows how maybe they can take my post and put the info on there for someone who wants to try lr-reicast until it makes its way back into the setup script by default). Barbudreadmon actually worked on lr-reicast and was the one who brought it to our attention it would run on rpi. Also I have a 3b+ overclocked so that may make a difference on performance too.

George Spiggott

@Efriim I don't doubt that there is a shadow problem, I just didn't see it.

The controller problem crops up in games where the D pad and the analogue stick are used for different commands. For example in Soul Reaver D pad up is used to open the Glyph menu. When you push directly up on the analogue stick it opens the Glyph menu instead of moving Raziel forward.

To solve my language problem I need to access the Dreamcast Bios menu mid game.

@BJRetro Thanks for the clarification. Thanks to @barbudreadmon for all of his hard work.