As far as changing cores goes, I’m no sure how to do that via EmuDeck, but I know how you can do it the old-fashioned way:
Switch to desktop mode
Open Retroarch
Go to “Online Updater” and install the different core(s) you want
Close Retroarch
Open Steam (while still in desktop mode)
Find the shortcut for the game you’d like to run in a different core
Right-click that game and select “properties”
You should see a text field that starts with /usr/bin/flatpak (or something similar). Somewhere in that string, there will be a path to the desired core (it might end in snes9x or something similar). You can replace that with the path to the core you’d like to use instead. (You may need to use the file explorer to find its filename.) (Note: Steam ROM Manager puts those options in the path, but EmuDeck might work differently and put it in “Command Line Arguments.” So if you don’t see it in the path, look there instead.)
Close the properties and try running the game. If it doesn’t work very well, change the core path back to the one you had before.
I’ll try that. EmuDeck just automates the initial install and updates the Steam ROM Manager with artwork, etc. I can open Retroarch separately, and I am sure I can adjust the text string accordingly. I’ll let you know how it goes.
You need to replace the filename snes9x_libretro.so with the filename of the core you installed. You can find these in the Retroarch directory. It may be as simple as bsnes_libretro.so.
I think my problem is I don’t know how to find that. I tried a search in Dolphin File manager for the location but came up with nothing. It doesn’t return results for snes9x_libreto.so. I’m hampered by my lack of Linux experience. I’ll keep poking around forums and Google search to see if I can find the solution.
Can you determine its location from the directory settings in Retroarch? From the Libretro docs:
If you are having trouble locating your retroarch config folder, check back in the Directories setting, take a mental note of what appears on the Config directory, this should lead you to a retroarch folder. If all hope is lost do a system-wide search for retroarch.cfg
I’ll check there. I’ve basically been looking for exactly that but my unfamiliarity with RetroArch meant I was just clicking through every menu not knowing what it was named. I’ll look for Directories.
So you were right, it was in var/app/org.libretro.RetroArch/
But I was in the wrong var (there are two, one in the home/deck folder and one at the root level). Problem solved and I can now switch cores for specific games.
Great! And yeah, in general you want to avoid editing files outside your home directory. It’s kinda like spelunking around C:\\Windows or C:\\Program Files on a Windows PC… very occasionally necessary, but usually not!
My problem was I couldn’t initially find var in the home directory but then saw another var folder in the root (which shows up in the quick links area of Dolphin).
Next step: figure out how to replace the retroarch instance of bsnes with the standalone version of bsnes, just to see how much I can tweak after EmuDeck does its install dance. This is not urgent, jut something I want to figure out for myself.
Which update channel are people subscribed to, stable or the beta channel?
I see some neat features in beta but I am not sure if I should just wait for those features to filter down to the stable release.
I know this is really basic but I’ve hooked my Steam Deck up to a dock connected to my TV, paired a DS4 controller, remapped the controller input and am now playing Inscryption from my couch. It’s not a big deal, it’s something I could totally do with a PC, is basically what the Switch already does, but somehow it’s still awesome.
I’m impressed with how quickly things improve week to week. When I got my Deck Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire wasn’t quite working perfectly and it was listed as untested on ProtonDB. Now it works out of the box with default settings and maximum resolution without issue and is rated Gold. Next I want to see if I can get my Bluetooth N64 controller to work with my Deck and relive my teen glory days playing this game.
Increasingly things just seem to work without excessive tweaking and that can only be read as a great sign.
So I discovered that Heroic launcher may not quite work offline. I have all of my Epic games loaded through Heroic and have had zero trouble running games perfectly that way. Until today, while on a train ride back from seeing family. Nothing I do will launch a game. Upon checking the log it looks like it’s because the games can’t authenticate. I might have to abandon Heroic as a result because I don’t have any issues if I launch games with the EGS launcher. Shame, Heroic is quite nice and much snappier.
Update: confirmed that once connected to WiFi this is resolved. But also confirmed it’s not Heroic but Epic itself, as it seems that not being connected to Epic prevents games from loading. This is annoying for travel and I’ll have to investigate if this persists even if I’m using the official Epic launcher.