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    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    How-to guide: Recording Live Gameplay in RetroPie’s RetroArch Emulators Natively on the Raspberry Pi (and Twitch streaming)

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    • R
      RetroResolution
      last edited by RetroResolution

      Well, the good news is that I was able to build RetroArch with FFmpeg recording enabled, and have seen in RGUI that under Settings/Driver the 'Record Driver' entry is 'ffmpeg'.

      I haven't actually tested the recording, as I'll need to move some roms and bios files onto the new test system, and setup the emulator.cfg files, but it looks like it will work on the latest Raspbian and latest RetroPie.


      For reasons I haven't yet determined, I cannot now build a specific version of RetroArch using the instructions I posted earlier in this thread (that said, the blog commenter which prompted the creation of that approach has subsequently confirmed that his installation works fine using the original approach, in which the RetroPie-Setup script fetches the latest RetroArch version from github)

      For posterity, the error I get when attempting to build 1.3.6 of retroarch as released on July 17th is:

      Checking operating system ... Linux 
      Unknown option --enable-opengles
      Makefile:9: config.mk: No such file or directory
      rm -rf obj-unix
      rm -f retroarch
      rm -f *.d
      Makefile:9: config.mk: No such file or directory
      config.mk is outdated or non-existing. Run ./configure again.
      Makefile:128: recipe for target 'config.mk' failed
      make: *** [config.mk] Error 1
      /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup
      Could not successfully build RetroArch - frontend to the libretro emulator cores - required by all lr-* emulators (/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/retroarch/retroarch not found).
      

      It seems to me that the owner and permissions of the /tmp/build directories which the setup script creates beneath /home/pi/retropie-setup have changed - I believe they were both 'Pi' on my previous installations, but are now 'root'.

      Regarding the error 'unknown option --enable-opengles', this is on the same line as the 'disable--fmpeg' command which the SED instruction removes, however I've checked that this works cleanly, and also manually excised the instruction, but with no success.

      I'm wondering if you have any insights @meleu ? - you seem to be pretty hot on this stuff!

      If a post has helped you, please encourage the author by up-voting via the ^ icon located in the bottom-right corner.

      RetroResolution.com - Adventures in retro gaming on original hardware and via emulation with RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi.

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      • S
        shaun040 @RetroResolution
        last edited by

        @RetroResolution I did run into that error as well earlier. After running ./configure manually and re-running the script it did rebuild retroarch but I still had the ffmpeg issue.

        The good news is after recompiling ffmpeg and then pulling down a fresh latest copy of retropie, ffmpeg is now showing as enabled!

        Thanks for your help!

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        • R
          RetroResolution @shaun040
          last edited by

          @shaun040 that's great news, I'm glad recording is working for you.

          I'm determined to work out why building a specific release of retroarch is no longer working - I suspect it's a change in RetroPie's build scripts, but just in case, could you let me know if your system was built on the new Raspbian image (with the Pixel desktop theme)?

          If a post has helped you, please encourage the author by up-voting via the ^ icon located in the bottom-right corner.

          RetroResolution.com - Adventures in retro gaming on original hardware and via emulation with RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi.

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          • S
            shaun040
            last edited by

            I built it it on Raspian Lite - file name is 2016-05-27-raspbian-jessie-lite.img

            I see that there is a newer version so I must have downloaded this one a day or 2 prior to the 9/23/2016 release being put up to download.

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            • R
              RetroResolution @shaun040
              last edited by

              @shaun040 hi,

              Thanks for this information, I appreciate it - that's also good news in that it eliminates the latest Raspbian as the issue regarding building a specific RetroArch version (I suspected as such - after all it can compile all of ffmpeg and assorted codecs).

              Thanks also for noting that you were able to compile the July 17th build of retroarch 1.3.6 after manually running ./configure - that's where I got to last night (but I didn't actually do that, it was getting late!)

              If a post has helped you, please encourage the author by up-voting via the ^ icon located in the bottom-right corner.

              RetroResolution.com - Adventures in retro gaming on original hardware and via emulation with RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi.

              R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • R
                RetroResolution @RetroResolution
                last edited by

                Further to yesterday's posts regarding problems with the custom build of RetoArch, it appears that some changes in the current/latest RetroPie build system have necessitated slightly revised steps to obtain and compile the specific RetroArch 1.3.6 build as released on 17th July.

                I've edited the earlier post in which the steps are detailed, adding the creation of a couple of temporary directories, adding sudo to a few commands, and running the retroarch ./configure manually.

                As noted yesterday, it should only be necessary to run through these additional steps if an overnight build of RetroArch happens to conflict in some manner - normally the simpler approach to rebuilding RetroArch, as covered in the main guide, will suffice.

                If a post has helped you, please encourage the author by up-voting via the ^ icon located in the bottom-right corner.

                RetroResolution.com - Adventures in retro gaming on original hardware and via emulation with RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi.

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                • R
                  RetroResolution @RetroResolution
                  last edited by

                  @RetroResolution just to finish off the updates from yesterday and today, I've just successfully tested recording from the following RetroArch emulators:

                  PlayStation (lr-pcsx-reamred),
                  VCS (lr-stella),
                  Megadrive (lr-picodrive).

                  These tests were made on a fresh install of Raspbian Jessie with Pixel (Image 2016-09-23), with the latest RetroPie installed on top (4.0.3) as per my guide:

                  https://retroresolution.com/2016/03/31/multipurpose-raspberry-pi-installing-a-media-gaming-pc-replacement/

                  If a post has helped you, please encourage the author by up-voting via the ^ icon located in the bottom-right corner.

                  RetroResolution.com - Adventures in retro gaming on original hardware and via emulation with RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi.

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                  • S
                    selsine
                    last edited by

                    This is a great guide. I followed it last night and got gameplay recording working on my RetroPie with only a few hiccups. I've blogged about my experience and the steps I took (which are basically RetroResolution's steps) here: How To Record A GamePlay Video From A RetroPie

                    Personally I think that this would make a great default addition to RetroPie in the future.

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                    • R
                      RetroResolution @selsine
                      last edited by

                      @selsine Cheers selsine, that's great to hear. I've responded to your comments on my blog as well (sorry for the delay in replying). Thanks

                      If a post has helped you, please encourage the author by up-voting via the ^ icon located in the bottom-right corner.

                      RetroResolution.com - Adventures in retro gaming on original hardware and via emulation with RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi.

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                      • R
                        RetroResolution
                        last edited by

                        I've still not got around to revisiting the issue of getting Streaming to Twitch working, however this weekend a user posted a couple of links in the comments section of my blog post for the guide; in their linked article they use ffmpeg to stream from the Pi, albeit not from within RetroArch. I feel sure there's a way to combine all the available information and get this working!

                        If a post has helped you, please encourage the author by up-voting via the ^ icon located in the bottom-right corner.

                        RetroResolution.com - Adventures in retro gaming on original hardware and via emulation with RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi.

                        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • S
                          selsine @RetroResolution
                          last edited by selsine

                          @RetroResolution I actually got Twitch streaming working today and wrote a quick blog post about it: How To Live Stream To Twitch from a RetroPie

                          I ended up using the following FFmpeg settings, 'libmp3lame' caused a bus error and would crash so I switched to 'aac':

                          vcodec = libx264
                          acodec = libfdk_aac
                          pix_fmt = yuv420p
                          threads = 2
                          scale_factor = 1
                          format = flv
                           
                          video_preset = ultrafast
                          video_profile = baseline
                          video_tune = animation
                          video_level = 1.2
                           
                          sample_rate = 44100
                          audio_preset = aac_he_v2
                          

                          I'm still trying to figure out the FFmpeg settings because what is available in the config file doesn't seem to match what the FFmpeg documentation has 100%. I'm assuming that some translation is happening but I'm not sure.

                          Maybe someone who knows FFmpeg really well can point us in the right direction.

                          If it's up my Twitch stream is here:

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                          • S
                            selsine @selsine
                            last edited by

                            @selsine said in How-to guide: Recording Live Gameplay in RetroPie’s RetroArch Emulators Natively on the Raspberry Pi (and Twitch streaming):

                            The following config settings seem to be working much better than my previous settings:

                            vcodec = libx264
                            acodec = libfdk_aac
                            pix_fmt = yuv420p
                            threads = 2
                            scale_factor = 1
                            format = flv
                            
                            video_preset = ultrafast
                            video_profile = main
                            video_tune = animation
                            video_bufsize = 512k
                            video_minrate = 512k
                            video_maxrate = 512k
                            video_r = 60
                            video_g = 120
                            video_keyint_min = 60
                            
                            sample_rate = 44100
                            audio_preset = aac_he_v2
                            audio_global_quality = 1
                            
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                            • RionR
                              Rion
                              last edited by

                              How about Youtube streaming? Is it possible?

                              FBNeo rom filtering
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                              Fba Arcade Bezels
                              Fba NeoGeo Bezels

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                              • S
                                selsine @Rion
                                last edited by

                                @Rion said in How-to guide: Recording Live Gameplay in RetroPie’s RetroArch Emulators Natively on the Raspberry Pi (and Twitch streaming):

                                How about Youtube streaming? Is it possible?

                                Yup, I wrote up a quick guide: How To Live Stream To YouTube from a RetroPie

                                It's the same thing as streaming to twitch except you use the YouTube RTMP URL and your YouTube stream key.

                                I've noticed that the performance on the YouTube live stream isn't as good as the twitch stream, so the FFmpeg settings probably need to be tweaked.

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                                • R
                                  retroday
                                  last edited by

                                  Great work on the guide, thank you very much! Using scale_factor on the cfg to double the resolution really ramps up the CPU usage to make it impossible! I found a way to make it work and failed to get a recording thus far though.

                                  Raspberry Pi 3 has an integrated hardware encoder, dubbed h264_omx and to use it you need to compile ffmpeg with these added:

                                  –enable-omx
                                  –enable-omx-rpi
                                  –enable-mmal

                                  I compiled FFMPEG with these, but when I choose h264_omx as my encoder it results in an empty recording. What am I doing wrong?

                                  Also, most encoders and formats do not work, which is really super weird.

                                  By the way, if this works as intended, the hardware encoder can do live transcoded 720p livestreams or recordings with no sweat. I've seen a person use a raspberry pi 2 as a transcoding PC through nginx-rtmp to stream to Twitch.

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                                  • S
                                    spawnsworth
                                    last edited by spawnsworth

                                    Hi all,

                                    I've managed to get gameplay recording working for PSX after following the great guides BUT I have hit a bit of a snag. Some PSX games record OK at first when you launch it so the intro, menus etc record OK, but as soon as you get in to the actual game the screen goes black and I can only hear sound. What have I done wrong?

                                    I tested 3 PSX games:

                                    Retropie 4.1
                                    Retroarch 1.3.6

                                    Alexi Lalas International Soccer [See video below]

                                    Lone Soldier

                                    Doom (worked OK with no issues ??)

                                    These are both using my config.cfg file which is as follows:

                                    format = matroska
                                    threads = 3
                                    vcodec = libx264rgb
                                    video_preset = ultrafast
                                    video_tune = animation
                                    pix_fmt = bgr24
                                    video_qp = 0
                                    acodec = flac

                                    Could it be an NTSC/PAL related problem?

                                    Any ideas?

                                    Thanks!

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                                    • budegarowerB
                                      budegarower @RetroResolution
                                      last edited by

                                      @RetroResolution , hi!

                                      First of all, thank you for the rich tutorial! Besides I haven't accomplished to start the recordings, I think I will get there.

                                      I am new to Retropie, but I could understand almost everything you told about this process.

                                      I have a Raspberry Pi 3 running Retropie (fresh 4.1 installation) . I Did not install over an existing Raspbian, but instead, I've burned a Retropie 4.1.
                                      RetroArch version is 1.3.6.

                                      I have succeeded the FFmpeg installation (used your script).

                                      But, on the step:

                                      "Rebuilding RetroArch to Enable FFmpeg Recording"

                                      after following your instructions with the script:

                                      #remove the config that disables ffmpeg on the RPI
                                      sed -i "s/--disable-ffmpeg//" scriptmodules/emulators/retroarch.sh
                                      #build new retroarch from source
                                      sudo ./retropie_packages.sh retroarch
                                      #put the file back how it was
                                      git checkout scriptmodules/emulators/retroarch.sh

                                      I 've got this:

                                      0_1485018636745_out1.png

                                      I've tried to find the ffmpeg driver on settings menu ( I'm using Retroach 1.3.6)
                                      but it still shows 'null'.

                                      Well, I've read your new considerations about "OBTAIN AND BUILD SPECIFIC VERSION OF RETROARCH TO ENABLE FFMPEG RECORDING".

                                      I repeated all command line procedures as suggested by you and in the end I've got to this:

                                      0_1484960558729_out2.png
                                      What am I doing wrong? Sorry for the long post, but I believe this is a feedback to you, as new releases come always with issues!

                                      Thank you!

                                      Filipe

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                                      • S
                                        selsine @retroday
                                        last edited by

                                        I compiled FFMPEG with these, but when I choose h264_omx as my encoder it results in an empty recording. What am I doing wrong?

                                        Does anything show up in your /dev/shm/runcommand.log logfile when you try to use h264_omx?

                                        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • budegarowerB
                                          budegarower
                                          last edited by budegarower

                                          Hey all!

                                          I just want to say that I made it! I have flawless videos recordings from SNES!

                                          But, as a feedback, I will put something I realized after trying different things.

                                          First, as I posted before, I was trying to follow all procedures as described by the rich tutorial written by @RetroResolution - Recording Live Gameplay in RetroPie’s RetroArch Emulators Natively on the Raspberry Pi .

                                          I was using a fresh Retropie 4.1 installation. As I told on the previous post, I've failed to rebuild Retroarch.

                                          So, I decided to install the last version of Raspbian Jessie Light (without Pixel).

                                          Then, I first installed FFmpeg using the All in One Script ( thanks again, @RetroResolution!) and tested it, confirming it was working properly.

                                          I have manually installed and configured Retropie and, after using the few steps first described in the tutorial:

                                          "OBTAIN AND BUILD SPECIFIC VERSION OF RETROARCH TO ENABLE FFMPEG RECORDING".

                                          I still could not succeed!!!

                                          Well, I got really intrigued with this persistent issue: fail to apply pach when running retroarch.sh during the rebuilding procedure...

                                          So, as a last try, I went to the little tutorial posted by @selsine (thanks for that: How To Record A GamePlay Video From A RetroPie) because you put something important there:

                                          "And finally execute it, but NOT as root:

                                          $ . /home/pi/tools/build-retroarch-with-ffmpeg.sh"

                                          And suddenly, Retroarch is rebuilt!

                                          Well, I don't know if it has something to do with the permissions (ownership) but it did run.

                                          Now, I am just testing some configurations, but it seem to run really smooth to me!

                                          To conclude:

                                          I suspect it does not work using retropie image from the website. If you manually install, it works! Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

                                          And, many thanks to you guys for the amazing information you share!

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                                          • S
                                            selsine @budegarower
                                            last edited by

                                            @budegarower That's great. I'm pretty sure that you have to run it not as root. I think I remember running into the same issues when I was setting everything up.

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