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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • We will release 0.8.4b

    As 0.8.3b did not fix the issue for all users we will do a minor patch of 0.8.4b that should move the folders correctly to retrodeck/ES-DE/ and force set the correct path in ES_Config.

    The 0.8.0b branch is still on the old manifest and it is a bit unwieldy to debug and we are making changes to our testing routines and the tester user program.

    In some more positive news for @everyone. As soon as we got this fixed we will post our blogpost for August detailing some of the work we have done during the summertime (the new manifest).








  • Jorge, Kyle and the others over at ublue is doing a great job with their Fedora spins.

    I run Bazzite on all my computers and if you got a full AMD system you can even get full gamemode running by installing the deck image. This in turn give you the best controller experience for games, as Desktop Steam got several issues with Steam Input valve have not fixed yet.

    But not all credit should go to them for this but also ChimeraOS team, Nobara and others that are constantly working on an improved gaming experience on Linux.

    When developing RetroDECK Steam Input profiles I mainly use the Steam Deck with SteamOS and Bazzite on my desktop to test them.







  • It is the version that ships with RetroArch so it got all the features of that.

    But it is based on an older version of Citra so there no hotkey support and the performance is not as good.

    But it is also the only version we can ship.

    The Ponzu feature can be used to load legacy versions of removed emulators without support.









  • RetroDECK CM Here:

    First Question:

    When I plug a controller in and try to play something with Dolphin, many times I have to go and swap the controller in Dolphin’s gamepad setup, otherwise it doesn’t see the controller.


    A: We recommend using the Steam Input interface to leverage order switching, look here:

    Change Controller Order

    We are also working on better external controller support with a variety of hotkey for the next big update 0.8b.

    You can even download and test them right now (check the comments for latest ZIP):

    Issue 573

    They are subject to rapid change as I’m rethinking several aspects of them, until their first version in 0.8b.

    I’m also trying to utilize some features unique features for certain controllers more.

    For example right now:

    • DualSense and DualShock 4 can use their touchpad for as cursor movement for: Wiimote pointer, Lightgun aim and shoot, General mouse for like point and click SCUMMVM games.
    • The Steam Controller can do the same as above but… has back buttons L4 and R4 so I’m using R4 as a mode switcher to change the right circular touchpad into various forms between mousemode and joystick mode. I’m also experimenting with arcade trackball mode for it for games like Centipede.

    Second Question:

    Someone else mentioned that it’s possible to use emudeck to launch games directly from steam. Is this possible with retrodeck, and if not, are you planning to implement the ability to do something like that?


    A: Yes, we are working on it and have it semi working in our cooker (development builds).

    For more information what we are working on check out:

    But also the


    Other Questions check the following links:


  • Now as the RetroDECK CM another benefit is it also make it rather easy to move the important data between installations or even take backups.

    If you take RetroDECK for example all you need to do move/copy over to a new installation is:

    1. Move/Copy the RetroDECK datafolder that is either in home/sd-card/external drive/(other place where you put it) to where you want it on the new device.
    2. Re-install RetroDECK from flathub on the new device.
    3. During initial setup point to the location where you put the RetroDECK folder.

    That is it.

    All your roms, saves, scraped data and everything has been moved.

    I personally run RetroDECK on my Steam Deck and both my Linux Laptop, Linux Desktop and more in my home.



  • Lazorne@lemmy.zipOPtoSteam Deck@sopuli.xyzRetroDECK 0.7.4b - Released!
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    1 year ago

    We are trying to match that type of functionality inside the RetroDECK Configurator where we have toggles for rewind, save-on-exit etc… right now. There is also big plans to expand the Configurators functions even more further then those ports and everything is done inside RetroDECK.

    ES-DE is only a general frontend that works on all OSes.

    Projects like Batocera have their own version of Emulationstation, with a lot of integrated features. But that also requires you to replace your whole OS.

    While our project can just be installed directly from flathub on Steam Deck or Linux Desktop.


  • We do not want to comment too much on this issue. The discord had a flood of users that screamed fowl, this has never been proven to be true. We do not believe that any licenses have been broken or illegality has taken place (as far as we know, we are not legal experts). julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de comment above is more inline on from what we understand from all those that have been affected.

    We as a project cannot speak for others, but we can speak for us on what our moral compass is: Hence the statement above.


  • All of this is true. RetroDECK also have existed since the before EmuDeck as it was born from some of the AmberELEC team members.

    You can read a lot more on our wiki: https://github.com/XargonWan/RetroDECK/wiki


    In short

    RetroDECK is an full application (still in beta) and not just an emulation bundle install script. All of the moving parts of RetroDECK are inside of the sandboxed flatpak.

    As we are building several emulators from source it allows us to add features, hot fixes and uniformity to the emulators themself for a more cohesive experience in what we call the RetroDECK Framework.

    Our focus is Steam Deck, SteamOS, Linux Desktop and future SteamOS / Full Linux based handhelds.

    Some examples in development and stable are:

    • The multi-user system that allows you have different emulation profiles / saves / states / configurations per Steam Deck user account OR a local RetroDECK user account for the Linux desktop (in development).
    • Tiny things like hard patching various hotkeys that the emulators don’t allow the users to change in the GUI, changing hard coded folder names etc…

    Mindset

    This is biased but but I think the team is also approaching problems differently from others.

    One example:

    Mod and texture pack support for various emulators:

    It has been a pain for users to get them up and running. We looked at the problem and said how can we make this easier and more accessible for all?

    HD Packs for Mesen, Mupen64Plus texture packs and mods etc…

    Now all you need to do is put them into the corresponding mod / texture pack folder and follow the guides on the wiki and you will be up and running in no time.

    When doing this we also engaged with the texture and mod community.

    Another example is:

    How the framework is handling configurations is quite unique and allows us to add and remove specific things when emulators does changes and try to keep as much of the users settings when possible.

    This allows us to multi change settings inside the application across many different emulators: You want borders in Genesis but not in Super Nintendo? - You can

    For us it is about making emulation accessible for more user but at the same time provide new tools for hardcore tweakers in the long term with our RetroDECK Framework.

    This is just the beginning.


    But:

    That said this complexity adds time between patches and the users can not add their own emulators into RetroDECK, have to wait for us to do the updates and add features.

    That said we are always developing and if you want to help out check our wiki and join our discord. We need devs, artists, ambassadors and good community members :)

    End note:

    We have great discussions the entire emulation community and have close relations with ES-DE, Batocera and others. We also plan to move our reddit blogposts over to Lemmy so look forward to that in September.