Retroarch Steam

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Retroarch beta on Steam - streaming disabled? Couldn't find if this was already a topic, but: When I'm browsing my library on my laptops from my Steam Link, Retroarch doesn't show up under my installed games. RetroArch is an open source and cross platform frontend/framework for emulators, game engines, video games, media players and other applications. In this video we take a quick look at RetroArch on steam, I was given access to the official Steam beta and it turning out to be amazing! Easy Online multipl.

RetroArch is shipped with a lot of shaders. There is an overwhelming array of them and we can't show all of them on this page.

Here are a few common examples:

Shaders can also be used to display the handheld border:

Shader languages and shader presets

Shaders are small programs, and they are written in specific programming languages. RetroArch supports 3 of these languages:

  • CG: Old, deprecated format. Might not be available if RetroArch is built without Cg runtime support.
  • GLSL: Shader format available to OpenGL. Wide range of platforms including phones and tablets.
  • Slang: New and recommended shader format, when available. Compatible with Vulkan, Direct3D 10/11/12, OpenGL Core, WiiU and Metal renderers.

Depending on your platform and the way you have configured RetroArch, you need to use one of these shader types.

RetroArch is also able to stack these shaders to create a combined effect. These complex effects are saved with a special extension:

  • .cpg for CG
  • .glslp for GLSL
  • .slangp for Slang

The shader presets can also have parameters. This means that you can tweak them to fit your needs.

Downloading and upgrading shaders

Link

Retroarch Steam Cores

You can download or upgrade the shader packs for the 3 types in Main Menu->Online Updater.

Loading a shader preset

To enable a shader preset, you need to have a game running.

You then trigger the menu and you should see a Shaders entry in the Quick Menu.

Go to Load Shader Preset and choose a preset file.

For this example, we used shaders_glsl/crt/crt-geom.glslp.

Configuring a shader

In this example, we have set the Menu Shader pipeline to OFF and the Background Opacity to 0 in the Settings->User Interface->Menu to be able to preview the parameter changes in live.

Load a game and apply a shader preset that supports parameters like shaders_glsl/crt/crt-geom.glslp.

You then trigger the menu and you should see a Shaders entry in the Quick Menu.

Go to Preview Shader Parameters and start playing with the values.

Retroarch Steam Link

When you are happy with your changes, you can save them under a new preset file.

Dolphin

Dolphin is a Wii and Gamecube emulator. It has been ported to libretro and an alpha version of the core is available now for Windows and Linux! Version for macOS will be released at a later date.

Retroarch

For more information on Dolphin, visit the author's website here.

See also our in-depth article here.

Citra

Citra is a 'work in progress' Nintendo 3DS emulator.

Core available now for Windows and Linux. Version for macOS will be released at a later date.

For more information on Citra, visit the author's website here.

See also our in-depth article here.

OpenLara

Retroarch Steam Key

OpenLara is an early Tomb Raider game engine recreation.

Core available now for Windows/Linux.

For more information, read our article on this release here.

It uses the original data files in order to work. What is nice about this one is that it has some very fancy graphics effects that it adds on top of the old game engine without it resulting in any stylistic clashes.

Retroarch

melonDS

melonDS is a 'work in progress' Nintendo DS emulator.

Core available now for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

For more information on melonDS, visit the author's website here.

See also our in-depth article here.

SameBoy

SameBoy is a highly accurate Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulator.

Core available now for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

For more information on SameBoy, visit the author's website here.

PX68K

PX-68K is a Sharp X68000 emulator. This is a Japanese home computer from the late '80s/early '90s that was used by Capcom as devkits for their arcade games. It played host to many popular games from the likes of Namco, Konami and Capcom.

Retroarch Steam Banner

Core available now for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

Retroarch Steam Link

For more information, read our article on this release here.