Problem with retroarch-based games

chris256

Hello everyone,

First post for me so I would first like to thank the developers for their work !

I come from recalbox and support of my PC is much better in Batocera for N64 and dreamcast for instance. However, I have an issue with the other systems (I think systems that are based on retroarch which is why I think that dreamcast and n64 work).

When I launch a snes game for instance, I have the decoration around the game, I have sound (but quite distorted) but the image in the middle is black. If I use my gamepad, I can hear that my inputs are taken into account. If I do hotkey+start, the system freezes (no sound, I cannot go back to ES). If I do hotkey+B, it also freezes. I can still access Batocera via ssh so I do a reboot. Maybe it is related to the reboot, but after that, I can find an uncompressed version of the rom besides the zip file.

Could you help me ?

My configuration
- latest stable 64 bit batocera
- Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 (rev. 1.0)
- AMD Phenom 2 3.2 Ghz processor
- Radeon 4870 graphic card
- TV full HD through amplifier
- Wii u pro gamepad with Mayflash adapter

PS : I had a similar problem in recalbox beta. Dreamcast and n64 work quite well (not as good as in Batocera) and launch instantaneously but for the other systems, it takes forever (I mean 2/3 minutes) to launch. After that the game however works, I can access retroarch and go back to ES. But even on my RPI3, it was instantaneous.

PPS : in recalbox there was a game list only option that makes the start of the system much faster. I did not find it in Batocera. Is it possible ? If not, implementing it is planned ? I found on this page that the option exists for ES but I don't know what to modify : https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera-emulationstation/blob/master/GAMELISTS.md

chris256

Hello again !

I spent quite some time reading what I found about that on the web and could not manage to solve my problem. Here is what I get with several commands. I hope it will help to localize the issue. I put the information that may be relevant in red.

With "/usr/bin/retroarch --menu --verbose", I get
....
[INFO] [GL]: Found GL context: kms
[INFO] [GL]: Detecting screen resolution 1920x1080.
[INFO] [EGL] Found EGL_EXT_platform_base, trying eglGetPlatformDisplayEXT
[INFO] [EGL]: EGL version: 1.5
[ERROR] [Video]: Cannot open video driver ... Exiting ...
[ERROR] Fatal error received in: "init_video()"

With "glxinfo | grep -i opengl", I get
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: AMD RV770 (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.17.0)
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 18.1.4
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 18.1.4
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 18.1.4
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.00
OpenGL ES profile extensions:

Also, I went back up to batocera-5.17-x86_64-20180901.img (retroarch 1.7.3) to see if it helps but the problem is always the same.

Thanks in advance for your help !!

chris256

Hello,
I tried several things I found on the internet such as modifying the /etc/retroarch.cfg and changing video_driver = "gl" to video_driver = "sdl2"or video_driver = "xvideo" but does not seem to change anything. I am however not sure that this is taken into account (for instance this file is restored at each reboot). So I also tried to put video_driver = "sdl2" in retroarchcustom.cfg in share folder. But still the same error message as in my previous post

[ERROR] [Video]: Cannot open video driver ... Exiting ...
[ERROR] Fatal error received in: "init_video()"

I have tried so hard with no success that I would even consider buying a new card. I saw a second hand RX 560. Does anyone know if this one would work better ? Or should I try an nvidia in order to use the proprietary drivers (I also have a GTX 550 Ti but it is not supporter by the proprietary drivers in the current version as it is too old : 2 video cards and two problems, I’m not lucky ;-) ).

If someone has the time to look at my problem that would be very nice. Thanks !

PS : I edited my previous post to remove lines that I think not necessary to make it more readable but if you need more logs, I can provide them.

chris256

Hello again ! I think I found a post with my exact problem here :
https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7119

I'm pretty sure that this is exactly what I am experiencing. However, my knowledge is to low to understand the discussions in details and to understand and apply the proposed temporary solution :
You need a driver which returns EGL configs in an order where the first one returned doesn't happen to match the DRM format that you've chosen. Nouveau is an instance of this happening, but it can happen anywhere. Try e.g. requesting a 10bpp format with intel and it will fail in the way described. Or RGB instead of BGR (or vice-versa).
a patch is also proposed here (that partially solves the problem) but I don't know how to apply it :
I threw together a quick fix following what had been done to kmscube to address the same issue. Please, let me know if it works for you too. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mT_lb9Of49M3eJszhGAqVzySGnG0BTIu/view?usp=sharing
and a commit is here :
https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/pull/7729

Sorry for the numerous messages but may be I am not the only one affected by this bug ?

PS : As I get it, it is related to the use of opengl, do you know if I can temporary force using something else ?

Arganis31

chris256 hello,
You mentionned you’re using the lastest build x64 stable.
This version have problem with amd/ati gpu because threaded_video is enabled by default.
Can you try the 5.18 version and report if is working on you’re hardware ? (5.18 is not impacted with this bug)
You can download 5.18 here : https://batocera-linux.xorhub.com/upgrades/x86_64/stable/last/20180930/

chris256

Arganis31 Thank you very much for your reply! As said in my second post, I went through each version back to 20180901 and same problem.

I just retried the 5.18 version as advised and /usr/bin/retroarch --verbose gives me:
[INFO] RetroArch 1.7.4 (Git 4968b6b6a6)
[INFO] === Build =======================================
Capabilities: MMX MMXEXT SSE1 SSE2 SSE3
Built: Sep 28 2018
[INFO] Version: 1.7.4
[INFO] Git: 4968b6b6a6
[INFO] =================================================
[INFO] Environ SET_PIXEL_FORMAT: RGB565.
[INFO] Version of libretro API: 1
[INFO] Compiled against API: 1
[INFO] [Audio]: Set audio input rate to: 29970.03 Hz.
[INFO] [Video]: Video @ 960x720
[INFO] [DRM]: Found 3 connectors.
[INFO] [DRM]: Connector 0 connected: no
[INFO] [DRM]: Connector 0 has 0 modes.
[INFO] [DRM]: Connector 1 connected: yes
[INFO] [DRM]: Connector 1 has 47 modes.
[INFO] [DRM]: Connector 1 assigned to monitor index: #1.
[INFO] [DRM]: Connector 2 connected: no
[INFO] [DRM]: Connector 2 has 0 modes.
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 0: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
...
[INFO] [GL]: Found GL context: kms
[INFO] [GL]: Detecting screen resolution 1920x1080.
[INFO] [EGL] Found EGL_EXT_platform_base, trying eglGetPlatformDisplayEXT
[INFO] [EGL]: EGL version: 1.5
[ERROR] [Video]: Cannot open video driver ... Exiting ...
[ERROR] Fatal error received in: "init_video()"

You say it may be related to threaded_videobeing enabled. So I tried to add video_threaded = false in file /share/system/configs/retroarch/retroarchcustom.cfgand then doing /usr/bin/retroarch --verbose gives me the same thing as above. Is it the good way to proceed ?

I also tried in the retroarchcustom.cfg several combinations for video_driver and video_context_driver as below but without an change. I am asking myself if what I choose is taken into account (for instance I guess that d3d given below should give me another error)
# specific to x86 video_fullscreen = true video_threaded = false video_driver = "d3d" video_context_driver = "wgl"

Any other idea? Thanks again!!

chris256

A huge step for me ! In fact, I was doing /usr/bin/retroarch --verbose in ssh which is always giving the same error (I guess since I am not on the computer, it cannot open display).

If I add, even in latest version, video_driver= "sdl2" in retroarchcustom.cfg, retroarch works ! I see that I loose decoration around the main screen (I mean for instance the game boy advance that is drawn around the game when launching a gba game). Am I loosing something else by switching from "gl" that I think is the default to "sdl2" ?

If I can provide logs that could help to solve the issue with "gl" driver, please tell me how to proceed.

We are progressing ;-)
Thanks again