A new version of RetroArch is here, and as usual, it brings plenty of new features to the table. For this update, the Libretro team has added some visual updates, with the highlight being support for high dynamic range, or HDR. If you're using Direct3D 11 or 12 drivers, you'll be able to enable HDR, as of v1.9.9, at least on Windows. HDR support is planned for modern Xbox systems as well, though it currently is buggy and disabled in this build. In other RetroArch news, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is now usable with the frontend as well. This allows for cleaner graphics in most games, and can be used with any core.

We have had to update our Direct3D 11 driver to allow for the use of Shader Model 5.0 when your GPU supports it, since this shader requires SM 5.0 features and wouldn’t work on D3D11 without it.
The contributor mentions in his pull request that implementing AMD FSR as a pixel shader seemed to work out just fine despite AMD insisting it is supposed to be implemented as a compute shader.

On top of this straight port of FSR, he also took the time to remake the SMAA shader. It is now supposed to be less of a port and just uses the original library unmodified, while adding a few features and higher quality search textures. The contributor wasn’t too happywith the quality of this AA and wanted to check if it could be improved, mainly because FSR requires good looking AA (Anti-Aliasing) otherwise it wouldn’t make much sense.

In the end, quality gains were marginal, pretty much imperceptible. Despite that, there is also an AMD FSR+SMAA preset that you can use.
You can see some comparison images down below – to the far left is the image without any shaders, in the middle is AMD FSR, and to the right is AMD FSR + SMAA applied.

The last major update new to 1.9.9 is bottom touchscreen support for RetroArch on the Nintendo 3DS. Now you can have a handful of options available to use at all times, including creating and loading restore points, as well as the current framerate. According to the developers, there shouldn't be any negative performance issues as a result of the new touchscreen capabilities, though you can disable it in the settings if you run into any problems.

RetroArch 1.9.9 is currently available for a variety of different systems, so if you want to play around with these new features, be sure to update, or grab the latest version from the official site.

Source

 

[ChiefReginod]

You know what? The complexity is about a million times better than if they took the Apple and Microsoft route of removing options due to "user anxiety." The options are there if you want to tweak things. You don't have to in most cases.

Sure, there are some things that could be organized a little better, but the underlying complexity and customization is actually one of the best things about RetroArch if you really think about it. Standalone emulators still have their unique benefits, but very few of them let you customize half as much stuff.

 

[MrHuu]

You know what? The complexity is about a million times better than if they took the Apple and Microsoft route of removing options due to "user anxiety." The options are there if you want to tweak things. You don't have to in most cases.

Microsoft makes me feel stupid.
RetroArch allows me to be smart!

I do have to admit some default values could use some optimizing, to allow an easier initial setup in some cases.
But i love the amount of customization RetroArch has to offer on all of it's supported platforms.

 

[mrgone]

can retroarch on switch properly emulate kirby's tilt n tunble (gbc, gyro sensor)?

 

[MadMakuFuuma]

Sure, there are some things that could be organized a little better, but the underlying complexity and customization is actually one of the best things about RetroArch if you really think about it. Standalone emulators still have their unique benefits, but very few of them let you customize half as much stuff.

and that i agree! retroarch have so many options that, in the end, even with the complex not so intuitive ui, that is worth spend time making configurations.

 

[shorty_bobert]

Just use Retroarch for more than 5 minutes and you'll understand where every setting is supposed to be.
I honestly cannot understand how people can consider this UI to be complicated or unorganized.

It's very well organized, but you can't seriously say it's not complicated if it's your first time using it.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

is this on par with Duckstations 4K upconvert option?

 

[shano]

you must stick to the simpler consoles

I haven't used RA in quite a while now but I mainly used the 8bit/16bit Cores, Handheld Cores, Arcade, PS1, Saturn, N64.
Dreamcast/PSP and up is pointless on Retroarch as the standalones for those consoles are the better option imo.

 

[HideoKojima]

I see people complain a lot about the UI, honestly what's stopping someone from making a custom simple UI for this?

Lack of coding skills maybe?

 

[Mythical]

Well a good UI doesn't even require that much time to understand, a good UI is what makes sense the moment you take a look at things, it's why there's now even degrees and jobs surrounding UI design.

What I'm wondering is just why no one has attempted to make another UI you can install for this given the frequent complaints, justified or not.

Has a bunch of themes built in, people just think it's messy because of how much it has, in reality it's really organized

 

[veggav]

How does HDR work? Is it like the Auto HDR feature on Windows, or how is it different?

I have this very same question.