Groovy_MiSTer Core

[Quark999]

Do you enabled mister on mednafen settings? Always when i uploaded a new test build, Mednafen it's the first one.

Yes, Mister is enabled in Mednafen - the config from the test build has it enabled anyway so I just had to supply the IP. It communicates, because the screen goes black, but it behaves like the older GroovyMister builds.

[psakhis]

New Retroarch build with a lot of new features (rgui, hardware cores, inputs..), thanks to @Calamity.

https://github.com/psakhis/Groovy_MiSTe ... s/20240427

[seastalker]

Just tried with "MiSTerCast_1_01_New_Lz4_Test.zip" and am getting the same results again - crashes program and note in red [in previous post above]

I think this error "DxgiOutput1->DuplicateOutput failed: -2005270524 Failed to initialize video capture" is related if you have 2 gpus.

On the PC I'm running it from, the motherboard has built in video, but yes I'm actually using a gfx card. I haven't had the issue with other programs that just always used the add-on card. I don't know why MiSTerCast would default to anything else, but there doesn't seem to be a settings option in the program to change it either. Anyone know of a solution?

[garou81]

Is USBIP required to get controls to work?

[psakhis]

Is USBIP required to get controls to work?

Nops.

[garou81]

Thanks got it working. Was getting a black screen until I changed the groovy_mister file to just MIsTer. When I added "[Groovy] groovy mister=main" to the mister file I got an ini error. From there I had to set my jamma interface (Irken jamma expander) to joystick mode the results have been inconsistent.
So in conclusion I would like to say thank you @Psakhis for developing this.

[MiSTer Consoles]

I've finally got GroovyMAME and Groovy RA to display on my CRT along with sound. I'm not sure how to get my controller to work through MiSTer though. Do the buttons need to be defined in the frontend programs, should they be defined in the MiSTer menu, or both?

[psakhis]

I've finally got GroovyMAME and Groovy RA to display on my CRT along with sound. I'm not sure how to get my controller to work through MiSTer though. Do the buttons need to be defined in the frontend programs, should they be defined in the MiSTer menu, or both?

Both.
On core you define your button mapping and use that for programs.

• GroovyMame TAB Settings (joystickprovider mister on your mame.ini)
• Retroarch Menu Settings -> Input -> Port 1/2 Controller (input_joypad_driver = "mister" on retroarch.cfg)

[MiSTer Consoles]

I've finally got GroovyMAME and Groovy RA to display on my CRT along with sound. I'm not sure how to get my controller to work through MiSTer though. Do the buttons need to be defined in the frontend programs, should they be defined in the MiSTer menu, or both?

Both.
On core you define your button mapping and use that for programs.

• GroovyMame TAB Settings (joystickprovider mister on your mame.ini)
• Retroarch Menu Settings -> Input -> Port 1/2 Controller (input_joypad_driver = "mister" on retroarch.cfg)

Thanks! I just gave this a try in GroovyMAME with my Buffalo SNES style USB controller. I defined the D-pad/buttons in Groovy MiSTer. Then I opened up the input settings in GM and tried to define them there. For some reason both the "Up" and "Down" directions on the controller are registering as "Down" in GM. I've never had any problems using this controller in MiSTer before. It works fine in all the menus. Do you think this is an issue with communication between the two systems?

[thorr]

Do the buttons need to be defined in the frontend programs, should they be defined in the MiSTer menu, or both?

Both.
On core you define your button mapping and use that for programs.

• GroovyMame TAB Settings (joystickprovider mister on your mame.ini)
• Retroarch Menu Settings -> Input -> Port 1/2 Controller (input_joypad_driver = "mister" on retroarch.cfg)

I was also wondering about this. Does this mean that analog triggers aren't supported because they aren't on the MiSTer? Thanks in advance.

[thorr]

Just got a chance to try this. To answer my question, there is currently no analog controller support. I know that on the Linux side, the MiSTer can see the analog triggers, but the MiSTer main menu doesn't ask about them. I think on the core side, this might be possible to include. I tried it with Outrun in Mame (the MiSTer Outrun core doesn't currently support analog triggers the last time I checked). In Groovy when I defined the joystick buttons, I defined left and right with the analog stick, and up and down as the triggers. When I went to Mame to define the inputs, it saw my left/right and trigger presses as Joystick 1 Hat directions which are digital. Hopefully in the future, every function on an Xbox controller will be supported including analog and rumble passthrough, but that may not be possible. It's not the end of the world if this never can be supported because I can use USB direct into the PC.

[psakhis]

I added on last experimental build support for analogs but not for analog triggers.
I will check this feature.

[thorr]

Awesome, thanks so much!

[thorr]

Can anyone get a stable picture in California Speed in Mame? I tried two different TV's and different custom resolutions, but the picture keeps blipping out with red blotches and occasionally a completely black screen. It is almost as if there is too much information being sent over the network for it to handle or something. It looks fine on the PC window. Thanks!

Edit: Mostly solved this one by putting the following in my calspeed.ini file:
modeline "256x224" 5.45118 256 266 298 342 224 237 240 263 -hsync -vsync
throttle 1
mister_fd_margin 2.0

I still get red flickers when the screen changes. The key was the mister_fd_margin, but 3.0 is not any better. I may play with the resolution further, but it looks decent.

[thorr]

Also, Star Wars doesn't work anymore for me with my NTSC TV (I get a black screen). Previously I was able to put these into my ini file and use my PC's audio:
monitor ntsc
throttle 1
syncrefresh 0

If I change syncrefresh to 1, it works but it is too fast. Did something change with the new version so this no longer works with syncrefresh 0?

[thorr]

Spy Hunter is another issue. It is running way too fast. I am not complaining, just informing.

Maybe there should be a "catchall" option that allows us to use the MiSTer with a specific video mode and doesn't try to do the GroovyMame syncing. So for example, I could set up a 640x480i@60Hz modeline, set the catchall option, and it would broadcast to match like the window that is on the PC screen that doesn't have the native refresh rate. This would allow all those games that have flakey issues to just work with the video mode and refresh rate of our choosing. This would fix Star Wars, Spy Hunter, California Speed, other vector games, etc.

As an example, I was able to get Star Wars working even with MiSTer sound by using regular Mame with MiSTerCast. It would be nice if this was built in as an option for GroovyMiSTer Mame, etc. with less lag than MiSTerCast.

[Calamity]

throttle 1, syncrefresh 0 still works for me for Starwars/Spy Hunter.

Also, mister_interlaced_fb 0 helps eliminating the interlace artifacts when disabling syncrefresh.

[thorr]

throttle 1, syncrefresh 0 still works for me for Starwars/Spy Hunter.

Also, mister_interlaced_fb 0 helps eliminating the interlace artifacts when disabling syncrefresh.

Thank you for checking! That is strange. I have two different MiSTer's with two different TV's and the both show a black screen. I must be missing another setting somewhere. I reset all my settings when I was having issues at one point. I will test with the mister_interlaced_fb 0 setting as well when I am home from work.

[thorr]

throttle 1, syncrefresh 0 still works for me for Starwars/Spy Hunter.

Also, mister_interlaced_fb 0 helps eliminating the interlace artifacts when disabling syncrefresh.

I figured out the problem, and now California Speed, Spy Hunter and Star Wars work. In the core menu, I needed to change Volatile Framebuffer to Off. Thanks again for your help!

[Shogun]

I wanted to test this for video playback. I was able to get groovymame working, then got mistercast working, then retroarch. I have to say in both mistercast and retroarch the image quality is really good once you enable PWM in the core options. There is still a bit of banding after that but it cleans up quite a bit. I threw up some SD anime and it looks fantastic. Other videos the banding is more prominent seems to depend. The retroarch video player is a bit easier in the sense you don't have to set your screen size but on the other hand it is very touchy and crashes a lot when you start fussing with it.

In Mistercast the screen flickers quite a bit and a flood of Send command failed: 10035 errors come through:

pkrRlR8.png (34.35 KiB) Viewed 5298 times

This behavior seems tied to network usage as I seem to run up against things around 200mbps. I created an issue on the Mistercast github: https://github.com/iequalshane/MiSTerCast/issues/11

This same flickering behavior tied to network usage is seen in the retroarch video player. In retroarch the issue is not as bad presumably due to a bit less network usage. I did test a number of ethernet cables and noticed no change. If anyone has any suggestions about the screen flickering let me know!

[KennyL]

I have the same issue with mistercast with my win11 PC. I get that error and image gets unstable when throughput goes above 200mbps. Workaround for me is adjust capture size to add more blank paddings to reduce bandwidth.

For fun, you can disable lz4 compression in retroarch. I get tons of artifacts but my network gets around 450mbps with flycast heh heh. 240p DC games like Jojo is actually not bad with lz4 off. Basically I'd like to see less aggressive compression for mistercast and see how that goes.

[Shogun]

For fun, you can disable lz4 compression in retroarch. I get tons of artifacts but my network gets around 450mbps with flycast heh heh. 240p DC games like Jojo is actually not bad with lz4 off. Basically I'd like to see less aggressive compression for mistercast and see how that goes.

I thought I'd mess with that setting and heres what I got:
lz4=0 - Jittery 250mbps
lz4=1 - Worked great. Went over 200mb fine
lz4=2 - What I was using, flickering right away and any time above 200mbps.
lz4=3 - Worked great. Went over 200mb fine

All become unstable after being paused on the PC (hit "P") or move the window on your pc or do anything that pauses the video. So thanks for that I'll use lz4=3 for now and avoid messing with it on the PC.

SCWxrKd.jpeg (103.6 KiB) Viewed 5297 times

[dickhardpill]

I have that same remote but it came with my Philips. Sorry, back on topic.

[KennyL]

I get garbled artifacts on the bottom of screen. Do you get something like this?

mistercast-test-01_-_frame_at_0m3s.jpg (185.76 KiB) Viewed 5623 times

[Shogun]

I get garbled artifacts on the bottom of screen. Do you get something like this?

mistercast-test-01-frame_at_0m3s.jpg

Thats kind of what the flickering looks like. Its not permanent but is primarily on the bottom half of the screen.

On a separate note I noticed some of the videos I open up do a rolling screen so it looks like some switchres configuration might be in order for my tv to get a solid modeline.

[KennyL]

Yeah ok I get that artifact flickering in and out so we have the same problem.

[Mr Mister]

I cannot for the life of me get this to work, but I'm certain it's user error so I am hopeful. The first question - is Groovy_MiSTer even possible wirelessly over Wi-Fi, or does there need to be a wired Ethernet connection? I'm a little confused where the github says "(can be work on wifi5/6 or Gb lan)."

I went through all of the steps to get it working, and while I see the bouncing ball on the CRT side, I just get a nanosecond flash of command line when running the MAME shortcut or batch file on the Win PC. I assume a quick static IP reconfigure and Ethernet cable connection would clear this right up.

[psakhis]

I cannot for the life of me get this to work, but I'm certain it's user error so I am hopeful. The first question - is Groovy_MiSTer even possible wirelessly over Wi-Fi, or does there need to be a wired Ethernet connection? I'm a little confused where the github says "(can be work on wifi5/6 or Gb lan)."

I went through all of the steps to get it working, and while I see the bouncing ball on the CRT side, I just get a nanosecond flash of command line when running the MAME shortcut or batch file on the Win PC. I assume a quick static IP reconfigure and Ethernet cable connection would clear this right up.

Wired is recommended. Preferences:
1) Direct connection.
2) Routed
3) Wired AP wifi 5/6 to eth (no usb wifi)

[Mr Mister]

I think I understand- so in all three scenarios the MiSTer must be connected physically via Ethernet cable, whether it's to the computer running MAME, router, or access point; whereas the source of MAME can be wireless if need be?

[Mr Mister]

I'm still not able to get this to work.

I grabbed the MAC address from the mister and set up a static IP for the mister in my router, but it has me thinking - why is this necessary if I now have a direct/wired connection via ethernet cable from the laptop to the mister? That said, I am still seeing the wifi symbol in the mister menu and not the network symbol, so something clearly isn't working. Also, I am reading that I need to edit "dhcpcd.conf" but I cannot save my changes to the file when using ftp (permission denied, despite having correct permissions) and I am no longer able to log in via putty/SSH.

I'm afraid I'm totally lost here. Is there a definitive guide for absolute noobs?