RetroELEC Kodi+Wayland+Emulationstation+RetroArch (x86/XU4/RPi)

I've spoiled myself with a new NUC8i3BEK, so it's time for some new images with some focus on Generic. There's a skylake compiler optimized build in the "skylake" folder as well.

Changelog:

• trimmed image size quite a bit by removing some retroarch xmb themes and not including mame2003 in the generic build
• added fuse-libretro for zxspectrum emulation
• included nintendo wii iso tools wit and dec-decode
• inputstream.adaptive 2.4.2
• mesa 19.2.0-rc2 with LTO
• nvidia 435.21
• updated kernel/iwlwifi firmware
• include slang-shaders for generic images and glsl-shaders for rpi/xu4
• docker 19.03.1
• enabled dolphin-libretro bluetooth support
• xfsprogs/btrfsprogs 5.2.1
• hardcode default frontend in the image properly

You've provided no logs and no way to reproduce, so no idea.

New skylake build

• Native Playstation 3 emulation with RPCS3 both Vulkan and GL (create symlinks in /storage/roms/ps3 to EBOOT.BIN inside your game folders for ES to pick them up) compiled against Qt 5.13.1
• 5.3.0-rc8 kernel
• LLVM 9.0.0-rc4
• Mesa 19.3-git (OpenGL 4.6 compliance for Intel)
• Added fix to make Xorg work with Intel CPUs with AMD RX Vega discrete GPU like the Hades Canyon NUC8
• Updated iwlwifi-firmware
• Added genesis-plus-gx
• Set Intel P-state governor to performance when launching games
• The usual core updates

Dolphin libretro is smooth as butter in 1920x1080 on the NUC8's, having a blast with this again

Will clean my latest work up and commit some changes soon, consider the skylake build experimental. It doesn't have nvidia drivers included either.

Is anyone using Xenia? Wondering if it's worth it to include it yet.

Not on the nuc8, but standalone is usually faster than the libretro core. Not much difference when the hardware is powerful enough though.

Check it out, the latest skylake build running NBA Jam: Fire Edition in 1080p on RPCS3. The music is streamed over bluetooth and played through Pulseaudio

I exchanged it for an i5 before I got RPCS3 going properly so not sure. It could do the Wii version in 1080p without breaking a sweat though, except for some minor stuttering in menus. I think it will be enough, but don't take my word for it. Quad core is recommended for RPCS3, but then again NBA Jam is pretty lightweight.

If you're serious about emulation though, might as well go for the i5. Double the cores and not a big price difference. The i5 absolutely flies, really impressive little box

Save your money, for emulation purposes the i5 is more than enough to play any emulator in 3x IR with shaders. During my testing I ran into several bugs with drivers, bios, boot etc (maybe not an issue on Windows). The i5 is as fast as the previous skull canyon NUC and is half the price of the hades canyon.

New skylake build is uploaded with some exciting features, like dumping fluxbox:

• switched to i3 for a modern tiling windowmanager that automatically handles floating windows

• antimicro runs in the background and enables quitting apps with L3+PS (if you have DS4)
• connman_ncurses cli utility for easy connect to wireless (will add it to the ES menu later)
• bluez 5.51
• pulseaudio 13
• vulkan 1.1.123
• latest mesa git
• latest rpcs3 git and now uses openal by default (eliminates stuttering)
• modesetting driver by default for intel again (really the most stable choice)

Some eyecandy:

https://imgur.com/a/takxcnk

https://imgur.com/a/budjjmy

Of course I couldn't stop there. Switched to i3 "gaps", the fork that adds spacing to the windows. Also added Compton which is a compositor that can add shadows, transparency etc. Makes the windows look like canvases hanging on a wall. Now multiple windows looks and handles great, which is good for emulators like RPCS3 and Dolphin. Only the skylake image updated for now, it's experimental but works great.

Obligatory screenshot:

h3zwav9.jpg

It looks like the future is finally here, as I have a new image ready for testing which is pure Wayland

• Uses Sway (i3 compatible) as compositor
• Proper PAL switching using atomic mode setting
• Kitty terminal emulator
• Qt 5.14 alpha
• Linux 5.4-rc1
• No X11 or Xwayland!

Everything seems to work great, although I haven't done any extensive testing so there might be bugs. Every emulator/core included runs directly on Wayland. PCSX2 is an exception, as it's currently not possible. It can run through Xwayland, but I'd rather not build and include the extra X11 stuff just for that. Hopefully the "Play!" core will mature enough to scrap PCSX2 in the future.

Unfortunately, Kodi does not yet support switching resolution/framerate on Wayland. I will probably compile it against GBM instead for future builds.

Download link here.

New Wayland build is out just in time for my post #1500:

• Kodi now runs on GBM/KMS (no X server, directly on the framebuffer like on ARM) - this is actually the future of LibreELEC as stated by the team, AFAIK it's also the only way to get HDR to work. Resolution and refresh rate switching working just fine.
• Switched to Alacritty for terminal emulator (I've ported terminology from enlightenment as well, but haven't landed on a final choice yet due to cross compiling issues)
• As RPCS3 seems to have issues with stretching the picture on Wayland, I've added resolution switching to 1280x720 for proper fullscreen gaming
• Polished systemd services for everything to work seemlessly
• Downgraded to 5.3.4 kernel as 5.4 gets a corrupted pagetable due to ply-image
• Mesa 19.3-git
• The usual libretro core updates

The wayland build is Intel only for now. Download here.

It's come to my attention that certain voices aren't very happy with my progress (envy?), apparently it means that I "don't care about the average LibreELEC user" (TALEU for short). Well, "TALEU" used to be stuck with Kodi and not much else. Oh, you have a brand new HTPC and wanted to run some games, or run a transmission server as well? Sorry, no can do. Did you want Plex? A browser? Spotify? Sorry, no can do. "Death of a thousand cuts", have been the usual response to such things when requested on the forums by "TALEU". Well, I actually added all those things for "TALEU" and the same voices (or voice?) have greatly benefited from my work without so much as a "thank you". Well, rest assured that everything I add will find their way to other projects as they always do, but after you see it here of course.

There seems to be great concern about PCSX2, well I actually am the one who brought PCSX2 to LibreELEC for the first time, and my docker container is in fact used (or copied) to other projects offering it as well. PCSX2 runs fine in Xwayland which can easily be added (I'll probably add options for it so people can build themselves). Doesn't really add that much to the image, and you don't need to run a full X server, so it's still a win. Oh, and beetle-psx actually have a Vulkan backend, so that only leaves Flycast which benefits from OpenGL for it's "OIT" engine, which isn't all that. It's an OK compromise for now. NVIDIA can support Wayland through EGLStreams, although I don't have such hardware for testing and frankly it's not the best pick for open source gaming these days.

Some really cool progress on my Wayland builds, see demo here:

EDIT:

(sound is out of sync and video is off sometimes but this is just due to the recording tool I guess, because it runs great)

EDIT2: Turns out it was just due to software encoding being heavy. Enabled vaapi in ffmpeg and it's all good, will make a new video later.

• Xwayland (from xorg git) included (adds about 6MB to the compressed image size) - launches only when needed
• Emulators with hardware engines pick the best available (Vulkan/OpenGL/OpenGL ES)
• Every libretro core using Vulkan or OpenGL through EGL directly on Wayland
• RPCS3 switches to the resolution set in the GUI (needs quit after changing in GUI)
• PCSX2 through Xwayland
• Quit apps with Antimicro (Dualshock 4 PS + Left trigger is set up automatically)
• Included wf-recorder recording utility
• Alacritty terminal
• Mesa 19.3-git with Intel and AMDGPU Mesa drivers
• Kodi compiled with GBM/KMS platform
• Linux kernel 5.3.5
• Qt 5.14 beta

Haven't added NVIDIA as I don't have any hardware to test, but should be possible through EGLStreams. This isn't included though. I'm quite pleased with the results, Wayland is running smoothly. I did have the odd crash here and there, but I'd say it's ready for day to day use.

Advantages with Wayland/Sway:

• Input lag comparable to KMS/GBM without needing to switch to a virtual terminal (less flickering when starting emus)
• Automatic PAL/NTSC refresh rate switch using Sway
• Lightweight desktop environment without the old and heavy X11 displayserver
• No tearing due to the compositor doing vsync

New image available here.

Others said it couldn't be done...