Games compilation howto on the Pinebook-pro (Manjaro Linux and Debian native)

[Upokupo]

I managed to get Battle for Wesnoth 1.15 compiled and installed on Manjaro KDE. It was pretty straightforward and runs great. I'm hoping to be able to get this added to the main repo. I already found their wiki on how to contribute and keeping the software version updated. This is so much fun.

[Idaho]

Hi guys, it's been a long time since I last posted here but I've been busy tho there's been a lot of improvements with mesa recently and I decided to see what I can get out of it and I'm going to share with you a tutorial on how to build mupen64next-plus for retroarch, it is now working in a decent manner.

Note: you're gonna have to install mesa-git as it's only mesa version that supports OpenGLES 3.0 for now and if you want a better integration with existing packages you're gonna have to install retroarch from the repo as well:

Code:

pacman -S mesa-git

Code:

pacman -S retroarch

So let's get to it, first you're gonna need to clone the libretro git repo:

Code:

git clone https://github.com/libretro/libretro-super.git

Then place yourself into the "libretro-super" directory:

Code:

cd libretro-super

Then you're gonna need to fetch mupen64plus-next:

Code:

./libretro-fetch.sh mupen64plus_next

Once that is done place yourself in the "libretro-mupen64plus_next" directory:

Code:

cd libretro-mupen64plus_next

Now you're gonna have to compile it with the following flags:

Code:

make platform=unix FORCE_GLES3=1

Wait  for around 10 to 15mn while it compiles and finally you can place it with the other libretro cores, if you're using the retroarch build from AUR, use the following command:

Code:

sudo cp mupen64plus_next_libretro.so /usr/lib/libretro

You are now ready to enjoy N64 emulation with the rest of your RetroArch emulators, the performances are good but for now it seems some sprites are rendered in boxes and I can't seem to find an option to correct this...

If you want to compile other emulators that you are unable to find on the repos, the standard build procedure should work(for most of them), it is explained in the following link: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index..._RetroArch

The PineBook Pro is getting better everyday, with the addition of n64 emulation to its capabilities I have reached the functionality level I expected when I bought the device but I'm pretty sure it can go further

[poVoq]

How is the emulation speed with N64 games? Mario Kart etc playable with 30+ fps?

[branon]

Here is the order I followed to get halflife1 running on the pinebook pro.

I tried multiple ways, but this was the most stable.

A tip, do not use the flashlight. (buggie)

You can put the "code-block" below in a file, e.g. create_hl.sh

It will give you halflife (xash3d) in the dir ~ / hl you can then start halflife with "xash3d.sh"

I've had 3 crashes before "the explosion" happened. So be warned

Code:

mkdir ~/hl

#COPY your "valve" folder from (windows or linux system steam/cd install) to ~/hl/valve
#on steam it is $HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Half-Life/

# create re-writen hl-engine.
git clone --recursive https://github.com/FWGS/xash3d-fwgs.git
cd xash3d-fwgs
git checkout tags/v0.20
git submodule update

./waf configure -T release --prefix ~/out
./waf build
./waf install

cd ..

cp ~/out/lib/xash3d/* ~/hl/

# create hl-sdk (improved).
git clone https://github.com/FWGS/hlsdk-xash3d.git
cd hlsdk-xash3d
./waf configure -T release
./waf build

cp build/cl_dll/*.so ~/hl/valve/cl_dlls
cp build/dlls/*.so ~/hl/valve/dlls

cd ~/hl

# get a startup script from a older re-writen engine. (stil works)
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FWGS/xash3d/master/scripts/xash3d.sh

# make it executable.
chmod +x xash3d.sh

Interesting that you had issues with crashing. I am using xash3d-fwgs engine as well.

I followed these two guides: https://astr0baby.wordpress.com/2020/01/...ng-part-3/ && https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/commen...r_goldsrc/

Both are using the 'legacy' engine https://github.com/FWGS/xash3d which I swapped out for the new engine: https://github.com/FWGS/xash3d-fwgs

This has mostly worked, hazard course works, multiplayer works, story mode also works, however during story mode I sometimes get crashes, mostly while loading new areas. If I restart the game and try again, the area will load successfully.
 
Here's a screenshot: https://branon.me/share/OTlmZTR.png

And the output: https://pastebin.com/raw/V8q8esfs (nothing is ever printed after "Stack dump:")

Not sure if I should try to debug this, or compile the legacy engine and see if it goes away

[Idaho]

How is the emulation speed with N64 games? Mario Kart etc playable with 30+ fps?

It is playable but for some reason i get boxes around some sprites and textures and it does not seem to be related to any emulator settings, I'm compiling latest core atm and updating my system, hopefully it'll make me get rid of it...

Edit: neither updating the core or updating mesa-git resolved anything, newest mesa-git seems to screw things up even more if anything, I'm getting artifacts in the Retroarch UI now and if I revert to classic mesa these aren't here, games can load and render but the boxes are still here...

[Labo]

@Idaho I followed your instructions to compile mupen64plus_next, then tried to launch Legend of Zelda but it doesn't work. Retroarch just quits. When I try

Code:

retroarch --verbose -L /usr/lib/libretro/mupen64plus_next_libretro.so ~/Downloads/Legend\ of\ Zelda\,\ The\ -\ Ocarina\ of\ Time\ \(USA\)\ \(Rev\ B\).n64

It quits without any error too. Any idea?


EDIT: sorry, I hadn't installed mesa-git. Now it can launch but the sound and image are so chopped that it's not playable.

[Idaho]

@Idaho I followed your instructions to compile mupen64plus_next, then tried to launch Legend of Zelda but it doesn't work. Retroarch just quits. When I try

Code:

retroarch --verbose -L /usr/lib/libretro/mupen64plus_next_libretro.so ~/Downloads/Legend\ of\ Zelda\,\ The\ -\ Ocarina\ of\ Time\ \(USA\)\ \(Rev\ B\).n64

It quits without any error too. Any idea?


EDIT: sorry, I hadn't installed mesa-git. Now it can launch but the sound and image are so chopped that it's not playable.

Hmm maybe you should disable some options, games tend to have have playable framerate on my device but I got these shitty boxes around certain textures which kinda breaks the fun...

[bastafari]

I've downloaded retroarch from the repo store on Manjaro along with some cores. Seems to work but the only game I've tried it with, chrono trigger, the audio becomes choppy randomly. I don't know if it's the core I'm using but I tried a few and they all seem to have the same issue. Any recommendations on how to correct this?

---

I've downloaded retroarch from the repo store on Manjaro along with some cores. Seems to work but the only game I've tried it with, chrono trigger, the audio becomes choppy randomly. I don't know if it's the core I'm using but I tried a few and they all seem to have the same issue. Any recommendations on how to correct this?

Ok. I don't now what I did. Was messing around with the settings and lost sound output. Closed retroarch and restarted. Now I get nothing but a black window. No menu or anything. Reinstalling does nothing. Installing from terminal does nothing. Strange.

[brzegorz]

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...6#pid79726

I'll allow myself to link to other thread since it's connected with this one. I've attempted to run Neverwinter Nights, though without success. If there's somebody with a Debian install watching, I'd be glad if he could test box86 on armhf+i386 multiarch - it works on other devices, and I suppose that something might be wrong with my Docker environment. I'll try to move forward myself in some time, but I don't have time now.

[rustynkoal]

I'm starting to look for ways to run the game Braid, by Jonathan Blow, on a PBP. However this game "comes with a 32-bit binary only" (https://www.gog.com/game/braid), and running such binaries on an aarch64 machine doesn't seem easy (see for instance https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/557730).

Does anyone have any idea ?