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Read the full README ↗RetroArch is the reference frontend for the libretro API. Popular examples of implementations for this API includes video game system emulators and game engines as well as more generalized 3D programs. These programs are instantiated as dynamic libraries. We refer to these as "libretro cores".
libretro is an API that exposes generic audio/video/input callbacks. A frontend for libretro (such as RetroArch) handles video output, audio output, input and application lifecycle. A libretro core written in portable C or C++ can run seamlessly on many platforms with very little to no porting effort.
While RetroArch is the reference frontend for libretro, several other projects have used the libretro interface to include support for emulators and/or game engines. libretro is completely open and free for anyone to use.
Latest binaries are currently hosted on the buildbot.
To reach developers, either make an issue here on GitHub, make a thread on the forum, chat on Discord. You could create a post in Reddit with Technical Support flair.
See our Documentation Center. On Unix, man-pages are provided. More developer-centric stuff is found here.
RetroArch attempts to be small and lean while still having all the useful core features expected from an emulator. It is designed to be very portable and features a gamepad-centric and touchscreen UI. It also has a full-featured command-line interface.
In some areas, RetroArch goes beyond and emphasizes on not-so-common technical features such as multi-pass shader support, real-time rewind (Braid-style), video recording (using FFmpeg), run-ahead input latency removal, etc.
RetroArch also emphasizes being easy to integrate into various launcher frontends.
RetroArch has been ported to the following platforms:
There are no true hard dependencies per se.
On Windows, RetroArch can run with only Win32 as dependency.
On Linux, there are no true dependencies. For optimal usage, the following dependencies come as recommended:
OSX port of RetroArch requires latest versions of Xcode to build.
RetroArch can utilize these libraries if enabled:
RetroArch needs at least one of these audio driver libraries:
To run properly, RetroArch requires a libretro implementation present; however, as it's typically loaded dynamically, it's not required at build time.
Console ports have their own dependencies, but generally do not require anything other than what the respective SDKs provide.
Your videocard needs to at least support the OpenGL 1.1 spec.
Shaders: N/A
Menu driver support: MaterialUI, XMB, Ozone and RGUI should all work correctly. XMB won't have shader pipeline effects because of the aforementioned lack of shader support.
Your videocard needs to at least support the OpenGL 2.1 spec.
Shaders: You can choose between either NVIDIA Cg shaders (deprecated, requires separate runtime to be installed on your system), or GLSL shaders.
Menu driver support: MaterialUI, XMB, Ozone and RGUI should all work correctly.
Your videocard needs to at least support the OpenGL 3.2 core feature spec.
Shaders: You will be able to use modern Slang shaders with this driver.
Menu driver support: MaterialUI, XMB, Ozone and RGUI should all work correctly.
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