Choosing/Changing ports used by Rainway (for forwarding in router)

Generally speaking you probably won’t have to do this if you’re using Rainway at home, but in case you want to limit the ports Rainway uses:

  1. Open/Edit the file C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Local\Rainway, Inc\Server\settings.json
    1. You can also easily go to Rainway Tray Icon > Dev Utils > Open Cache Folder
  2. Expand the section labled “Network”
  3. Change the lowest port in the range in the section “WebRtcLower”
  4. Change the highest port in the range in the section “WebRtcHigher”
    1. I.E if you wanted your range to be 21000-21010 you’d change WebRtcLower” to 21000 and “WebRtcHigher” to 21010
  5. Save the settings.json file
  6. Open the port range in your router

Change port range in Rainway

For more tips on connection problems, you can check their site:

https://rainway.com/support/unabletoconnect/

 

Add per-game controller configs for Dolphin, and make the Dolphin folder portable

This will explain how to make two key changes/improvements to your Dolphin emulator, regardless of what front end you utilize. I happen to use and am a big fan of Launchbox (specifically the BigBox portion). I can duplicate the whole Launchbox folder plus all the emulators and ROMs between my PCs. However, some emulators like to place configuration files in your personal Windows directories rather than store them locally in their own, making it more difficult to duplicate between computers. Dolphin is one such application, but this will fix the problem.

Nothing I’m showing below is undocumented on the Dolphin site. It’s simply a little confusing, so hopefully this will help make it easier to implement.

Disclaimer: Below instructions are using the latest version of Dolphin (as of 22 APR 2018 that is 5.0-7062).

 

How to make your Dolphin install portable:

Note: before this step I recommend you note/document any specific settings you had (graphics specifically). Although I explain how to copy your old settings back to the new folder that will be created inside the Dolphin directory, I found that not all the settings actually copied over.

First, add a blank text file to your Dolphin directory called “portable.txt”. This will force Dolphin to save all the config files to the Dolphin directory under a folder named “User” rather than in the windows user documents directory.

Once you’ve done this and run Dolphin once, you can copy your old files from your Documents directory (My Documents\Dolphin Emulator\*.*) to the dolphin\User directory that was created to make it portable. You may have to recreate some of your settings even after copying them over. I had to re-do my video settings.

For official documentation on this see: https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/guides/controlling-global-user-directory/

 

How to load per-game controller configurations:

Create and save your per-game controller settings:

  1. Under “Controllers – Wii Remote 1 (Configure)” set your configuration for the game.
  2. Save the configuration profile by giving it a name (preferably either generic i.e. “Sideways” or “vertical” or related to the specific game) and press “save”
  3. Right click on the game in the Dolphin menu list of games and select “Properties”
    1. Note that you must have specified the game directories in Dolphin’s settings for it to find and list the games!
  4. In the game properties menu there is a button in the lower left labeled “Edit User Config”. Select that to edit the config for that game.
    1. Note that you must specify your text editor in Dolphin’s settings for it to open the .ini (text based) file for editing.
  5. There may already be some pre-set conditions. Just add the control settings at the end, or overwrite anything in [Controls] if already there.
  6. The text you add will be [Controls] on one line and the next will be the WiimoteProlfileX (where X= the player # of the controller you are setting) = config file you set in step 2.
    1. The instructions are located at How-to set game ini settings per game.
    2. Do not add the .ini to the end of the config when you type it. Just the name of the config file.
    3. Basically you just paste the following into the ini file you’ve opened for editing:

[Controls]
WiimoteProfile1 = DKCountry

Replace the name after “WiimoteProfile1” (I used DKCountry in the example) with whatever you saved the controller config as in step 2 above.

Xbox One controller(s) won’t reconnect wirelessly to Windows 10

Symptom: Xbox One controller connects initially to the wireless adapter, but after turning off or disconnecting they will not reconnect. Requires a reboot to allow controller(s) to reconnect.

Work around:
1. Close Steam until the controller is connected, then restart Steam (if desired.) This was my and the majority of the people with the issue’s solution – See Gabriel Barsali’s post on the 4th page of Xbox One Wireless controller keeps disconnecting.

2. If you have the newer (Xbox One S and later with Bluetooth) controllers, try removing the Bluetooth Xbox Controller adapter from the Bluetooth & other devices window in Settings/Devices. If you disable Bluetooth (or remove the Bluetooth dongle) before removing the Bluetooth Xbox Controller Adapter it will appear “grayed out” in the Bluetooth & other devices window; you can’t delete it without Bluetooth on. (Of course.) This was not my issue, but is a potential solution listed by others.

3. Some feel uninstalling GeForce Experience is required. I have GeForce Experience running and this did not cause a conflict for me. It was definitely a conflict with Steam and the new Steam capability to manage non-Steam controllers.

Adding an already existing emulator as default emulator if RocketLauncher doesn’t recognize your system’s name.

When you add a system to RocketLauncher you have to choose the default emulator – but what if RocketLauncher doesn’t list the emulator you want to use? Note: this is not how to add a new emulator/system if the emulator was not previously added. That has been covered on the RocketLauncher page here.

rl_defaultemulator

As you can see above, my System names (left column) don’t all correspond with “traditional” RocketLauncher names. In this case it’s because they were imported from LaunchBox. You can see that rather than being called “MAME”, the name (circled in green in the left side of the screenshot) is “Arcade”. While that is because it was imported from LaunchBox, it’s a more descriptive name for the non-initiated. Not that someone would be messing with RocketLauncher if they didn’t know what MAME was, but anyway.

Continue reading

Mednafen core for Sega Saturn emulation through RetroArch

  1. Download the two BIOS files you need (they are here in a zip file.)
    1. sega_101.bin (md5 hash is: 85ec9ca47d8f6807718151cbcca8b964)
    2. mpr-17933.bin (md5 hash is: 3240872c70984b6cbfda1586cab68dbe)
  2. Place them in the appropriate folder under RetroArch
    1. Typically this is the RetroArch/system folder
    2. You can place them where ever if you use per-core configs (I use RetroArch/system/mednafen_saturn_bios)
    3. If you just use one config file (i.e. everything is saved to RetroArch.cfg) then place all BIOS files for all emulators in the same folder (again, typically RetroArch/system folder.)
    4. You will have to set the BIOS location in RetroArch
  3. Open RetroArch and enter the Directory location
    1. It is in the second column – “Settings”; the one with the gears for the icon
    2. Near the bottom of that column is the Directory section
  4. The first directory option under the Directory section is System/BIOS Dir
    1. Set the directory to wherever you saved the two BIOS files in step 2.
    2. Save the RetroArch config.
      1. If you are using per-core configs MAKE SURE YOU’VE LOADED THE Mednafen Saturn config file first! Don’t overwrite the default RetroArch config file with a new default BIOS directory location – unless you’re going to put ALL emulator BIOSes in that directory (see 2.C. above.)

Compressed ROMs in LaunchBox (using Demul as example)

Using a zipped/compressed ROM in emulator through LaunchBox.

Allows you to save hard drive space, but does take a little longer to launch each game (about 20 seconds per 500MB depending on CPU and hard drive speed.)

You must have the setting checked to “Extract ROM archives before running” in the emulator setting inside Launchbox.

Example: Tools, Manage emulators, Demul (or whichever emulator) then Edit. Bottom right corner is a checkbox for “Extract ROM archives before running”. In this image it is NOT checked, but you’ll need to check it and click the OK button for it to work.ExtractRomArchive

The audio is a little choppy in the game start…this is due to the slower laptop I was editing on and not indicative of the game play.

RetroArch tips and tricks

Tips and tricks:

1. When RetroArch is launched by RocketLauncher, it still will use per-core settings if you have it enabled in RetroArch. However, rather then naming the config file after the core, you have to name it after the gaming platform. The easiest way to make it work is to make a copy of the per-core config from RetroArch in the same directory/folder, but rename it to the name of the system used by RocketLauncher. Example:

  1. If you are using the Nestopia core and per-core settings in RetroArch, the config file is called nestopia_libretro.cfg.
  2. Make a copy of it in the same folder and rename it Nintendo Entertainment System.cfg
  3. Now when you load RetroArch and play an NES game, that config will load. You can even press F1 and see that config is loaded, and save changes directly to it (i.e. change to shader, controller, etc.)

2. In RetroArch the default exit key is the Esc button. You can set it to use one – or two simultaneous – controller button(s) in the Input Hotkey Binds. See video below:

 

 

 

RocketLauncher with Launchbox

 

If you’ve been using RocketLauncher with another front end (i.e. HyperSpin or the like) I recommend you look at Simply Austin’s video tutorial on integrating your already created RocketLauncher profiles: SA_RLwLB

Exiting games when using RocketLauncher as “go-between” using controller.

Works with BigBox version of LaunchBox as front-end. Does not seem to work when using the default LaunchBox desktop mode. Pressing “Esc” key still works from either. Update: It does work from LaunchBox.

In LaunchBox, make sure you have the “use controller automation to control Windows outside of Launchbox” enabled. Then when you press down on the “Hold this button” selected button, and press the “Close the active window” button it will exit the emulator and RocketLauncher and return to BigBox.

Using buttons 10 as initiation button and 9 as the action (close) button on my Xbox360/Xbone controllers means when I depress the left stick, hold it down, and while holding it down depress the right stick it will exit the emulator returning me to BigBox.

LB_controllerAutomation

Per-game/Per-core settings when using RocketLauncher and RetroArch.

See the RetroArch post. Bottom line: RocketLauncher does use per-core and/or per-game settings natively, but you have to name the config file (XXX.cfg) to the name of the system rather than the core.

Until my full post is complete, please look at my comments on the LaunchBox forums reference this discussion: http://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/32919-issue-with-rocketlauncher-resetting-retroarch-settings/?#comment-199967

Retro gaming / Emulation

I’m a big fan of emulation on the PC of old(er) games; arcade, home systems, even older computer games.

This will be organized by topic concerning some of the larger groups that either allow you to play the games (i.e. the hardware emulator) or allow you to play them more easily (i.e. front ends or collections).

Generally speaking, you use a hardware emulator to run the game software for a specific system. If you only want to emulate arcade video games, you could use the hardware emulation built into MAME to run the software for each video game. If you want to run games on the Wii or GameCube you could use the Dolphin hardware emulator.

The hardware emulator is like having the actual console or arcade inner workings on your computer. You still need the actual game to play ON the hardware emulator – a ROM for an arcade game, or one of the CDs/DVDs/cartridges from the home systems. Just like you plug in a cartridge into a Supre Nintendo (SNES), you load the game software into the SNES hardware emulator.

If you want to emulate multiple hardware devices, it is convenient to have a front end. You choose the game you want to play, and it loads the correct hardware emulator and loads the software of the game into that hardware emulator.

Finally, in between the hardware emulator and the front end there are some systems – I call them launchers – that add to the experience either by allowing the front end to be used by you more easily, or adding features such as pausing, passing commands to controllers (i.e. using an Xbox360 controller with your Dolphin emulator to simulate using a Wii controller), etc.

I’ve added a separate page to keep these posts organized, rather than having to search through posts.

Note that I will not attempt to duplicate some of the fantastic training and set-up videos by such stalwarts as Simply Austin or the LaunchBox team. My intent is initially to add tweaks/fixes for these systems and games that I’ve found so I don’t have to remember them each time. I’ve found that some challenges I have are more common than one might think, so I’m collecting them in this page.

Without further ado, you can go to the tab for the retrogaming page at the top of the blog or simply click here: Retrogaming page

Mouse button / touchpad button response has delay after typing (Windows 8+/Windows 10)

Many people using laptops with touchpads for gaming (even just Facebook) complain about not being able to press keys and move their “player/character” with the touchpad simultaneously.

This is not the same problem.

The problem about being able to (for example) press the “W” key to move forward, while changing direction using the touchpad is typically a driver issue, where the touchpad is disabled automatically when they keyboard is used. The intent is to prevent inadvertent movement of the cursor by the typist if his/her hand accidentally brushes the touchpad while typing. This problem is (relatively) easily fixed by unchecking the “disable touchpad while typing” setting in your touchpad’s settings.

Recently my son noticed on Minecraft that there was a new problem. When he would be using the keypad to move, or even for a half-second after he quit using the keys, the mouse buttons would be non-responsive. This has significant detrimental effect in any player-vs-player (PvP) or first person shooter (FPS) game. (OK – any serious gamer isn’t using a touchpad, but this is Minecraft.)

The answer wasn’t anywhere in the touchpad driver settings. It is a Windows 8 / WIndows 8.1 “fix” for us. (Thankssssss for that.)

The solution is

  1. Go to “Settings” (move your mouse to the upper right corner, then click on the Settings charm),
  2. At the bottom of the screen section for Settings, click on “Change PC Settings.”
  3. Now click on “PC and devices” (should be near the top left in the PC Settings window.
  4. Click on “Mouse and touchpad” (about halfway down the left side settings in the PC and devices window.
  5. On the right, typically the last selection is labeled “Touchpad.” Under there is a sentence that reads ” To help prevent the cursor from accidentally moving while you type, change the delay before clicks work.” Yeah. Because I’m always banging my keys so hard that I mash the mouse buttons too. Anyhow, change the box below it to “No delay (always on)” to fix this…fix that Microsoft blessed us with.

MouseClickDelay-1024x558