Groovy_MiSTer Core

[psakhis]

Retroarch test build patched to work with hardwared rendered cores like flycast with opengl. Maybe work with vulkan but i didn't tested.

Internal media player works if resolution can be set.

EDIT: for dosbox-pure, set 60fps on core options.

[eerie]

Would it be possible to send data to two (or three) different ip through a router? Something like The Ninja Warriors or Darius II or do you think it would be difficult to sync. Maybe not for Mister but for a cheaper FPGA alternative like you said.

Thanks again for your work

[Jeruro]

Would it be possible to send data to two (or three) different ip through a router? Something like The Ninja Warriors or Darius II or do you think it would be difficult to sync. Maybe not for Mister but for a cheaper FPGA alternative like you said.

Thanks again for your work

It's a question for the developers, but I think it should be technically possible. Anyway I'm not sure if it's worth the cost of such setup (3x Misters, 3xCRT tv of the same size, and a powefull PC) ... maybe a widescreen OLED display with a good crt shader is better.

[mikehaggar]

Would it be possible to send data to two (or three) different ip through a router? Something like The Ninja Warriors or Darius II or do you think it would be difficult to sync. Maybe not for Mister but for a cheaper FPGA alternative like you said.

Thanks again for your work

I have added support for multiple monitors in Final Fight PC. You go up to 9 players at once with 3 CRT monitors with a 3 Mister setup, and on modern displays you can go up to 10 players with ultrawide displays or whatever you've got.

You could probably do something similar with MAME.

You don't need a router, either. You can just use a fat network card like this, which will probably perform better.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MJPXX4B/

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[eerie]

Wow, looks great, a really nice idea. That'll teach the Mad Gear gang a lesson

It could be a great way for indie developers to try something different with a setup like that on CRT.

Good to know about the network card.

It's a question for the developers, but I think it should be technically possible. Anyway I'm not sure if it's worth the cost of such setup (3x Misters, 3xCRT tv of the same size, and a powefull PC) ... maybe a widescreen OLED display with a good crt shader is better.

The cost right now will be overkill, absolutely. But maybe, if someone has the ability to try something like this it could be useful for future development. For videogame museums or arcades, they usually have a few matching monitors and it´s a nice way to show multiscreen games.

[rubberduck]

I've read all the thread and still don't know: what does this core exactly do?

[FPGA64]

I've read all the thread and still don't know: what does this core exactly do?

It provides a way for emulators that have been adapted to output video via the Mister to a CRT. Thus opening the games playable on the Mister to those that can be played on emulators.

[Daddu3]

Been really eyeing at this core due wanting to have a possibly more straightforward comfier access to Retroarch in order to do some Retroachievements-related gaming. However so far the native GUI to Retroarch doesn't look to work here. I'm guessing it's possibly incompatible?

[psakhis]

Retroarch native GUI isn't implemented yet to output on GroovyMiSTer.

[kconger]

I created a little experiment to launch Groovy-enabled emulators from a MiSTer MGL file. Currently, it just starts and stops GroovyMAME using the example MGL and service. It can easily be adapted to launch a specific MAME romset or other Groovy-enabled emulator. Tested with GroovyMAME on an RPI5 and Macos. Seems to work well for me.

If I can get RetroArch working I'll add that as well.

https://github.com/kconger/MiSTer_GroovyHelper

[deltax0]

Does naomi core work?
To get the vs games working atleast?

[rubberduck]

I've read all the thread and still don't know: what does this core exactly do?

It provides a way for emulators that have been adapted to output video via the Mister to a CRT. Thus opening the games playable on the Mister to those that can be played on emulators.

And how does the emulator connect to the MiSTer FPGA?

[FPGA64]

I've read all the thread and still don't know: what does this core exactly do?

It provides a way for emulators that have been adapted to output video via the Mister to a CRT. Thus opening the games playable on the Mister to those that can be played on emulators.

And how does the emulator connect to the MiSTer FPGA?

Via a network cable between them both

[tms9918]

Awesome project! All we need now is an X server that outputs to mister (yes, shovel knight, I am looking at you)!

[shertz]

Lu made a video about this...

https://youtu.be/6ONNkWjorcY?si=DRbwKQmyrjcJruX0

[HerrBerzerk]

This reminds me of the "Sunshine" Server with the "Moonlight" Client. They are both available for many devices. I tested this last Weekend and it works like a charm.

The good thing is that the controllers are working on the client (Moonlight) and get routed to the server (Sunshine) and even though there is no (noticable) lag (to me).

Here's a german video about that, you can turn subtitles on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp8riMUhbt8

[PikWik]

But it's not for ANY screen, it's for CRT owners.
Plus, the Mister is limited by its own HDMI output, as it can barely do 1440p without Pixel Repetition, so it's never going to do 4k.

i agree CRT users are the main target group for Groovy_MiSTer, and will benefit the most from something like this in an arcade cabinet.

and i apologize for asking the same thing, but i cant find a definitive yes or no for my question. i understand 1440p is around the max the MiSTer can output, and 4K is out of the question. but can i setup Groovy_MiSTer to output at 1080p over HDMI?

i havent configured a computer to test this out, so im just brainstorming things and deciding on a way to incorporate this into my 1080p/HDMI setup
(which is in an enclosed arcade style cabinet, so would prefer to have less video input switching as possible)

im really excited for this new core and to see how far this progresses, it adds so much more to the MiSTer and will create a pathway for arcades/consoles that arent on the MiSTer to be played with as little lag as possible from a PC. its very nice to have groovy mame and retroarch “streaming” to your MiSTer via an Ethernet cable

i did ask the devs in Discord, and this core can also be used for HDMI setups. it would send the video input from your computer at the standard res (just like a normal MiSTer core/game, 480p max) and then the MiSTer would scale it to whatever you have set in your ini. my use case a 1080p computer monitor that can freely rotate 90 & -90 degrees

[FPGA64]

But it's not for ANY screen, it's for CRT owners.
Plus, the Mister is limited by its own HDMI output, as it can barely do 1440p without Pixel Repetition, so it's never going to do 4k.

i agree CRT users are the main target group for Groovy_MiSTer, and will benefit the most from something like this in an arcade cabinet.

and i apologize for asking the same thing, but i cant find a definitive yes or no for my question. i understand 1440p is around the max the MiSTer can output, and 4K is out of the question. but can i setup Groovy_MiSTer to output at 1080p over HDMI?

i havent configured a computer to test this out, so im just brainstorming things and deciding on a way to incorporate this into my 1080p/HDMI setup
(which is in an enclosed arcade style cabinet, so would prefer to have less video input switching as possible)

im really excited for this new core and to see how far this progresses, it adds so much more to the MiSTer and will create a pathway for arcades/consoles that arent on the MiSTer to be played with as little lag as possible from a PC. its very nice to have groovy mame and retroarch “streaming” to your MiSTer via an Ethernet cable

i did ask the devs in Discord, and this core can also be used for HDMI setups. it would send the video input from your computer at the standard res (just like a normal MiSTer core/game, 480p max) and then the MiSTer would scale it to whatever you have set in your ini. my use case a 1080p computer monitor that can freely rotate 90 & -90 degrees

or you could just take the output from the PC to the HDMI and save having to mess about

[PikWik]

yes, i understand what im asking to do seems a little redundant and odd

but my use case is a MiSTer in an arcade cabinet style build with a computer monitor, and the HDMI cable that is in place is fixed in a way to allow the screen to freely rotate 90 and -90 degrees. this would be an extra bit of fuss to run another HDMI cable to this setup and then have to switch inputs to play groovyMAME (which is more cumbersome with my cabinet)

also, when MGL files get implemented well enough, i can have everything run on one HDMI cable and have all the arcade cores/consoles not available yet "streaming" thru my MiSTer with a simple game loading setup

im sure you already know but we are years away from CPS3, PGM, CV1000 being on FPGA, so this is a great way to have those games somewhat on the MiSTer

[Bristles]

But, since you are using a flatscreen LCD, you could just use your PC to play these games, and use modern shaders to mimic CRTs, and it would all look, and run far better than across a network. There is nothing Mister is adding to your situation, it's actually down-grading everything just so you can run it across your network. The point of this core is for modern PCs to be able to connect to a CRT via the Mister, and run systems that ran on CRTs, but don't have Mister cores. Modern PCs can't connect to CRTs at 15hz, unless you can find the most modern ATI card that can make use of Calamity's drivers.

I mean, it's up to you what you do.

[PikWik]

i do see your point about just using a PC for the arcades and consoles the MiSTer cant/wont run. however, my PC and MiSTer are in different parts of my home and have different uses. the MiSTer is used for playing video games and is in a different part of my house, separate from my work area with my PC

but to your other points, i would be using the current shadow masks and scanlines that all of the other cores use for groovy_mister, and i feel like those are fantastic as they are. and if i was going to use a PC to play groovyMAME, i was under the impression using the groovy_mister core would give better input latency over the network, compared to outputting directly with a standard GPU. i thought that was one of the features of groovy_mister (that there is less in the way of the video output, and the input latency is _3ms when in use)

a2OB4ds.jpeg (1.32 MiB) Viewed 5333 times

so yeah, i know its a weird setup, but i feel like having a dedicated machine for playing video games is a worthwhile investment and effort. that is the beautiful thing about the MiSTer, its such a versatile piece of tech, everyone can tailor it to their own setup

[lu_source]

This is an amazing project and love how low latency it is.

I'm now trying out RetroArch and can successfully run games, however, consoles like the DC, PS2 & Gamecube are not working for me. I saw that there was an update to support hardware rendered cores. The cores run fine on the PC if I specify a retroarch.cfg file without the necessary Groovy MiSTer changes, but when I do run them with the required changes, those cores crash before the game can even load.

All other retroarch cores I tested run just fine on Groovy MiSTer. Any idea on what else I can do to get hardware accelerated cores to work?

[Neocaron]

I now have both a window 98 PC and windows xp retro PC, any possible way to send my entire windows screen to the groovy core to play my PC games on my CRTs?

I have 2 crts in my "work" room but no PC CRT sadly, so it would a cool thing to output everything at 480p on an actual CRT. I'm sure Max Payne 1 or Half Life would look amazing.

[AkujiTheSniper]

I now have both a window 98 PC and windows xp retro PC, any possible way to send my entire windows screen to the groovy core to play my PC games on my CRTs?

I have 2 crts in my "work" room but no PC CRT sadly, so it would a cool thing to output everything at 480p on an actual CRT. I'm sure Max Payne 1 or Half Life would look amazing.

I'd love this as well. At the moment my setup has a MiSTer connected to an RGB-only PVM and a beefy PC both connected to my router, and currently my only method of connecting my PC to my PVM requires a big spaghetti mess of converters and an RT5X (and they're also on opposite sides of the room). It'd be nice if I could just send a 240p/480i downscaled, 4:3 cropped version of one of my monitor's output to the MiSTer already connected to my PVM. Even if the latency wasn't as good as a specifically modified application it would still be nice for media. I have no idea how feasible this would be so apologies if this sounds very improbable.

[KennyL]

This is an amazing project and love how low latency it is.

I'm now trying out RetroArch and can successfully run games, however, consoles like the DC, PS2 & Gamecube are not working for me. I saw that there was an update to support hardware rendered cores. The cores run fine on the PC if I specify a retroarch.cfg file without the necessary Groovy MiSTer changes, but when I do run them with the required changes, those cores crash before the game can even load.

All other retroarch cores I tested run just fine on Groovy MiSTer. Any idea on what else I can do to get hardware accelerated cores to work?

Are you using gl for video driver? I had better luck with that.

Issue I'm having is that resolutions over 240p are choppy for me on groovy mister side, fine on my pc. Like what you see on Lu's video when he's running VF. Thankfully flycast has option for 320x240 which is working much better for me except for some glitches like losing colors and images going off frame. Is there a way to run dolphin core at 240?

Edit: Oh wait are you the Lu of Lu's Retro Source??

[Yodasghost]

Would this work with fightcade/fbneo? Would be really fun playing 3rd strike online on a crt.

[psakhis]

For retroarch hardware rendered core (i only tested glcore), i recommend test build with lz4 activated.

For flycast, is needed disable threaded renderer.

[lu_source]

Edit: Oh wait are you the Lu of Lu's Retro Source??

Yes that's me

[lu_source]

For retroarch hardware rendered core (i only tested glcore), i recommend test build with lz4 activated.

For flycast, is needed disable threaded renderer.

Thanks! Disabling threaded renderer works, so Dreamcast boots, but Gamecube still doesnt boot.

[psakhis]

I didn't tested gamecube. Probably will be better patch it on standalone Dolphin/PCSX2