Netplay on RetroPie

[socalretrogamer]

Hey everyone.

First off, I’m fairly new to RetroPie/Emulation Station, but this site has been invaluable for every issue I’ve had thus far, so thanks for that! My brothers use a Retro Arch setup on their computers (not Raspberry Pi) and they told me there’s a NetPlay feature in the main menu. I have a Raspberry Pi 1B with the latest version of RetroPie, but I haven’t seen anything about Netplay. I’m curious if there is a way for my brothers and I to set up some sort of a RetroPie/Raspberry Pi server so we can actually play with or against each other from across the country. Has anyone set something up like this? If so, I’d love to learn how. Thanks again.

[shadowfox7x]

I’m just starting my trial and error setup of netplay. I have a RPi2 and i’m trying to get this to connect to a friends desktop to play across the country like you are indicating. At this point what I have learned is that you must both be using the same version of retroarch, emulator and rom. I’m messing with the client and Host end configs now and seeing how to make this work. If I figure this out or if you do please let me know.

[herbfargus]

hey I made a quick wiki page off the top of my head from when I got netplay working. I will work on adding screenshots and whatnot once I have the chance:

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Netplay

see also:

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/issues/967

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/938

http://fightanvidya.com/wiki/index.php?title=RetroArch_(SNES_netplay_and_more!)

[shadowfox7x]

When I host it launches the game using netplay. At no point do I see that someone has connected or that its establishing a connection. When a friend launches the game on their end its going to “automatically” just put us 2 in the same game based on the IPs? Is there no connecting to a host or notice that could help with recognizing that this is working? Also how can retroarch on a desktop access js0 to launch as a netplay game? When I tested on my laptop and my pi for testing it did not give the same load prompt the pi does that you can interrupt and select the netplay option.

Lastly, does the port matter? I read some that indicated it needs to be 6069 for snes to work. Others stated any port and your wiki indicates 55435. Just curious what it needs to be setup as.

Thanks again!

[herbfargus]

If I remember correctly on the PC I had to go into the retroarch menu each time and enable netplay manually in the network options before I launched a rom through the rgui (this is essentially what the runcommand menu does on retropie).

yes- the port matters very much as that is how they are communicating over the IP. really all the settings should be exactly the same except one should be host, one should be client. (if you are on separate networks you may have to enable port forwarding through your router)

Just for reference: in retroarch 1.2.2 its in settings>>network>>netplay enable

I had to set that each time I launched a new game on the pc (you may be able to set netplay_mode = "true" in the retroarch.cfg as well so you dont have to manually set it each time.

[shadowfox7x]

Last question and then i’ll test this all out tonight and reply back with results.

In downloading lb-sne9s-next and retroarch for the desktop I downloaded the latest versions. How can you confirm the version you are using on the Pi? I have the latest v3 retropi setup. I cant find anywhere where it lists the versions of the emulators and retroarch. That could also be part of my problem as I don’t know what version its using. Again i’m using whatever is built into the default setup of Retropi v3.

[herbfargus]

It also may be wise to test on localhost (i.e. with a desktop and a pi on the same network) just to know that it is actually working first, then if it doesnt work with others outside the network you can know that it is a network issue rather than a retroarch issue.

[herbfargus]

Well as far as the cores go- I think the cores for retropie and the cores from the online downloader on retroarch should mostly match- if they dont you can try compiling from source in menu 5 from the retropie setup script for that specific emulator (though its possible there may be bugs that cause it to not work) so just stick with the defaults for now and if everything else doesnt work then it may be worth looking at compiling from source and using the latest retroarch build on the pc.

Also just for reference retropie 3.0 uses retroarch 1.2.2

[shadowfox7x]

Something must have changed. With ports open and in snes9x and snes9x next i get an error about cannot start netplay. I turned off my firewall in windows and my router and i’m not able to get this to launch. Any ideas?

[herbfargus]

Are you testing this on localhost?

I also updated the wiki with some pictures. I was rushed so I cant verify accuracy.

[shadowfox7x]

I’m assuming the later versions created an issue with netplay. Local IP or Public IT acting as the host i get an error that states “movie playback has started, cannot start netplay” My setup is exact as the wiki page and does not allow this to run.

[herbfargus]

It may only work with some roms. I don’t have time right now but once I get a chance I’ll try to recreate the working settings on my localhost and I’ll update the wiki page accordingly.

[herbfargus]

I got it working with super mario world on snes9xnext:

on the pi

what I did was set up my pi’s configs as host like the first screenshot on the wiki
and then opened up super mario world and enabled netplay launch on the runcommand menu

on the pc

then I installed retroarch 1.2.2 from the buildbot libretro site and used the online updater to install the snes9xnext core

I changed my settings to the client on the windows pc to look like the last screenshot and loaded up the snes9xnext core and the same super mario world rom and ran it and it worked.

Of course this was all over localhost with my pi and pc on the same network.

I tried it with super mario kart and got the same errors you indicated above. looks like its just kinda hit and miss depending on which game you choose.

[shadowfox7x]

Does the Pi work decent as the host for the game? I always figured run the host on the more powerful machine.

I’ll have to test with some alternate Roms tonight and see if I can make one launch.

Obviously i’m looking at a tcp/ip connection across the country and not a local play. Just was testing local to “make it work” and to understand it all before attempting the more complicated phone conversation with a friend on setting it all up.

I did figure out that the audio choppiness can be corrected by increasing the sound latency for what its worth.

[herbfargus]

You can play around with the framerate value to reduce latency but it is hit and miss, (note netplay is still sorta experimental) you should be able to run the pc as host too, I think that’s what I did the first time I tested it.
Also I made video threaded true in retroarch.cfg on my pc to reduce the choppy audio.

[socalretrogamer]

Hey guys.

First off, thanks for responding! I’ve been trying to get this to work, but I haven’t had any luck yet. I thought it was because my port wasn’t open, but I fixed that and we still couldn’t get it to go, so I have a few questions.

For the IP address, would I put the IP address of my actual home router, or the Raspberry Pi’s IP? I think I may have done this wrong, but if not, I can’t think of why it isn’t working. The only other thing I can think of is that our versions of RetroPie aren’t the same, but I think they are. However, i’m running RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 2, and my brother runs his straight from his PC. Since we’re running (I believe) the same RetroPie, but on different types of machines, could this be a compatibility issue that’s preventing Netplay from working?

Thanks for all the info guys!

[herbfargus]

The IP address should be the external IP if you’re trying to connect over separate networks. And by the same retropie I assume you mean the same retroarch? (They are two different programs)

If you’ve taken the steps on this post

Netplay on RetroPie

and can’t get it working either you are having network issues, netplay for that rom is incompatible, or something else entirely. My ISP is locked down so I can’t test outside of network so outside of everything on this post I haven’t the foggiest on how to get it working.

[shadowfox7x]

For the record, I was never able to get mine working at all. Local or internet. I unblocked everything I could think of including disabling all firewalls. It always gave me the error of unable to start netplay, regardless of the Rom I used. I’m assuming someday they will incorporate a 3rd party plugin that allows for such kinds of connections to be made across an IP networked game. Until then local multiplayer seems to be the only option.

I don’t own a 2nd Pi to test pi to pi with, but maybe that works better than a PC and a Pi.

[Author]

Posts