RetroArch 1.8.8 released!

RetroArch 1.8.8 has just been released.

Read our latest Libretro Cores Progress Report blog post here. It’s an exhaustive list, and especially the older consoles have received a lot of new cores and improvements.

Remember that this project exists for the benefit of our users, and that we wouldn’t keep doing this were it not for spreading the love with our users.

Highlights

Add option to sort playlists after name truncation (Ozone)
A couple of users have complained about a feature we made in 1.8.7 (Fix sidebar playlist sort order when ‘Truncate Playlist Names’ is enabled). This new addition makes the new sidebar playlist sorting behaviour optional via a Sort Playlists After Name Truncation setting under User Interface > Appearance. When disabled, playlists will be sorted the old way (according to file name), not by display name.

Localization – big updates and crowdsourced

A new language has been added, Slovakian. And plenty of the existing languages have received big updates as far as localization goes.

But by far the biggest change is our transition to Crowdin. This allows non-programmers to more easily contribute localization changes/additions to RetroArch. You can see the completion status of the various languages on our Crowdin page.

Improved shader preset dirs

1.8.8 restores the original behavior of the “Save Shader Preset As” option, and improves the cycling of shaders by allowing to cycle the shaders on fallback directories if the Video Shader directory does not contain any preset.

Input Remapping Fixes

In 1.8.7, pressing RetroPad Start to reset a core input remap to the default setting did not work correctly – analog stick inputs get the wrong defaults, and inputs that are left undefined by the core are not set to the proper RARCH_UNMAPPED value.

1.8.8 fixes the issue.

RetroArch WiiU: Gamepad hotplugging support, theoretical multi-gamepad support

1.8.8 adds support for hotplugging WiiU Gamepads. Critically for users, this makes the driver no longer assume a Gamepad is present, so when it’s broken or out of battery or missing; the first Wiimote gets slot 1 instead (helpful when All Users Control Menu is off). I [quarkawesome] also made it check Gamepad channel 2 – while it’s impossible to connect a second Gamepad on a retail console, the code to do it still appears to be there. If that feature ever becomes a thing through CFWs, it’ll work here.

RetroArch P2 – New SDK/toolchain – big improvements

fjtrujy spent a lot of time adapting RetroArch PlayStation2 to the latest PS2 SDK. RetroArch PS2 is now being built with a modern version of the GCC compiler, and certain cores are already seeing massive speedups as a result.

https://twitter.com/fjtrujy/status/1263565117448470533

As can be seen by the tweet, QuickNES went from 255fps with the old SDK to 429fps with the new SDK. This makes the core more than fast enough to use runahead – on a PlayStation2 of all things!

A newer C/C++ toolchain also will make it much easier to port over software to PS2, it was previously quite difficult to port C++ cores over to PS2.

fjtrujy also added Theodore to the list of cores supported.

Changelog

What you’ve read above is just a small sampling of what 1.8.8 has to offer. There might be things that we forgot to list in the changelog listed below, but here it is for your perusal regardless.

1.8.8

AUDIO/JACK: Fix regression introduced after 1.8.4 – would hang at startup
CHEEVOS: Disable hardcore when cheats are enabled
CHD: Return false when special track cannot be found
DISCORD/MATCHMAKING: Fix Discord ‘Ask To Join’ functionality
FILE PATH: Various file path handling optimisations
FONT: Fix Arabic, Chinese and Korean font rendering
INPUT MAPPING/REMAPPING: Restore broken ‘reset to default’ functionality with RetroPad ‘start’ button
INPUT MAPPING/REMAPPING: Fix ‘reset to default’ action for analog sticks and undefined core inputs
LIBRETRO: Add new message extension allowing for richer messages
LOCALIZATION: Update Arabic translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Chinese (Simplified) translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Chinese (Traditional) translation
LOCALIZATION: Update German translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Greek translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Spanish translation
LOCALIZATION: Update French translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Italian translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Japanese translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Korean translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Dutch translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Polish translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Portuguese Brazilian translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Russian translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Turkish translation
LOCALIZATION: Update Vietnamese translation
LOCALIZATION: Add Slovak translation
MENU: Small buffer optimizations
MENU/THUMBNAILS/BUGFIX: Fix heap-use-after-free error
MENU/OZONE: Add option to sort playlists after name truncation
MENU/OZONE/ANDROIDTV: Default to Ozone menu driver
MENU/OZONE/ANDROID: Gamepad-like devices default to Ozone now (Shield Portable)
NETPLAY: Lower announcement rate
OVERLAYS: Fix memory leak when loading overlays
SHADER PRESETS: Improved shader preset dirs
TIME/DATE: Enable configuration of date seperator in clock and runtime ‘last played’ displays
VITA: Fix upside-down vertical games
UWP: Enable playlist and savefile compression by default (because of slow file I/O)
VIDEO/WIDGETS: Fix overlapping text when simultaneous pop-up notifications and core/shader messages are being displayed
WIIU: Gamepad hotplugging support
WIIU: Theoretical multi-gamepad support
X11: Fix crash in x11_display_server_get_screen_orientation
X11/XSHM: Allow X11/XHSM video driver to operate without SHM extension
X11/XSHM: Fix compatibility with X11 input driver
XVIDEO: Fix keyboard input initialization
XVIDEO/XWAYLAND: Fix XVideo support on xwayland (by supporting I420 and YZ12)

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RetroArch 1.8.8 released!