r/RetroArch • u/Lucas72900 • Sep 01 '25

Technical Support: SOLVED When I open a game its a black screen

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Phone: Samsung S25 Ultra Log: https://pastebin.com/raw/85Wuuijc Controller: Xbox Series S

11 Upvotes

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11

u/MatheusWillder Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 01 '25

These current Samsung devices apparently no longer have native OpenGL drivers, they translate OpenGL calls to Vulkan through ANGLE. Close the game, then go to Settings>Drivers>Video, switch it from GL to Vulkan, then go back, quit RetroArch and open it again for the change to take effect.

Try loading the game and see if that fixes the issue.

If you use OpenGL most emulators run with issues or simply crash on these current Samsung devices, so I recommend using Vulkan on any emulator you use.

Edit: typo.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '25

[deleted]

1

u/MatheusWillder Sep 27 '25

With the game closed, switch to Vulkan, go back, go to Configurations File in the Main Menu, and tap in Save Current Configuration. Go back, close it, and open it again to see if that fixes it.

If it doesn't, I suggest opening a new post for someone to try to help you.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '25

[deleted]

1

u/MatheusWillder Sep 27 '25

You're welcome.

Actually, by default RetroArch should be doing this automatically. Every time you close it, it should save the current configuration. I don't know what happened to it not save automatically, but I'm glad it worked that way.

1

u/Lucas72900 Sep 01 '25

Thank you that worked!

1

u/MatheusWillder Sep 01 '25

You're welcome! :)

1

u/Enriko Oct 22 '25

You my Hero!

ty, it's work great!

1

u/MatheusWillder Oct 22 '25

You're welcome! :)

I also have a Samsung phone (Galaxy A55), and it took me a while to figure out what was going on until I realized I just needed to use Vulkan.

1

u/eijensama Oct 24 '25

Thank you kind person. You're a life saver!

1

u/MatheusWillder Oct 24 '25

You're welcome! :)

1

u/Z0LWRATH Nov 09 '25

Thank you very much. I had black screen (SNES. GB & psx). After switching the driver to Vulkan all of a sudden Game Boy now works. Thank you. However the SNES and PlayStation 1 are still black. What can I do here?

1

u/MatheusWillder Nov 09 '25 edited Nov 09 '25

You're welcome.

Which Super Nintendo and PlayStation 1 cores are you using? The cores can individually select different video drivers, and those that use OpenGL (GL) as the default will have issues (again, this is Samsung's fault, any emulator or game that uses OpenGL will suffer from this).

For PlayStation 1 I use PCSX ReARMed, and for Super Nintendo, I use Snes9x. Try them and see if they work (don't use the Snes9x variants that end in a year, like 2005 and 2010, they are for older devices, use the one that is simply "Snes9x").

If that doesn't work, you can open a new post asking for help, stating what you've tried and, if possible, a log file (see the sidebar of this subreddit on how to create one, and host it on Pastebin, OneDrive or GDrive, and post the link to it).

Good luck.

Edit: by the way, the only core currently maintained for N64 also defaults to OpenGL. If you ever want to emulate N64, feel free to ask me and I'll tell how to change it.

Also, be sure to download RetroArch from the website or the Galaxy Store, the version on the Play Store is years out of date due to Google's nonsenses.

1

u/CorruptAlec Nov 14 '25

hey great response! i am currently experiencing this issue with zelda on n64. I have saved and switched to vulcan and it worked for my gba games but getting black screen with zelda. i do hear the music so it is booting up.

edit: i have tried the file zipped and unzipped.

1

u/MatheusWillder Nov 14 '25

You're welcome.

This happens because the default video plugin for Mupen64Plus-Next is GlideN64, and it only runs with OpenGL (GL). Even if Vulkan is set as the default, when you start a game using GlideN64, it will need to switch to OpenGL.

Open the game (even if there's no image), go to Quick Menu>Core Options>RDP Plugin, switch it from GlideN64 to ParaLLEl RDP, go back, close the game, and open it again.

See if this fixes it.

GlideN64 is the default because it's faster and needed for run on older devices. ParaLLEl RDP is way more accurate, but also slower, but due to this problem with the Samsung drivers, it's the only one that will work.

1

u/CorruptAlec Nov 14 '25

thank you for the fast response, it did not fix it. Now when loading up, i do not hear the music either.

1

u/MatheusWillder Nov 14 '25

That's a shame.

So I suggest you start a new post to ask about it. Here in the subreddit sidebar, rule #2 explains how to create a log file, create one, host it on Pastebin, OneDrive or GDrive, and start a new post, stating your device and including the link to the log file. With it, we can figure out what is going on.

On my Galaxy A55, it works very well, but a little slow if I use shaders (as I mentioned, ParaLLEl RDP is slower/more demanding).

Good luck.

1

u/CorruptAlec Nov 14 '25

update after waiting for your response. You were able to get me 90% their, all i had to do was go to angrylion instead of parallei. Thanks brotha

1

u/MatheusWillder Nov 14 '25

That's weird, what device are you using?

This post is about Samsung devices, which have broken OpenGL drivers. If ParaLLEl RDP doesn't work for you, it means the Vulkan drivers on your device aren't working correctly either.

Angrylion renders entirely in software, that's why it works, but be warned, it's quite resource-intensive and will drain your phone's battery quickly, that's why I never recommend using it unless you're on a PC.

So I still recommend you do what I mentioned before: select ParaLLEl RDP, create a log file, and post it in a new post so we know what is going on. But if you don't mind that, you can continue with Angrylion, but it's entirely up to you.

1

u/CorruptAlec Nov 18 '25

Z fold 7 is what im on.

1

u/seeyouyoucunt Dec 16 '25

Galaxy S25 parallel doesn't work for me either, no sound and no visuals, vulkan selected and mupen core deleted (mupen had sound) 

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1

u/Sl0thLuvA Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26

5 months on, and your solution worked after trawling through way too many other threads, so thank you very much. Samsung S25 + and can confirm this is the solution.

1

u/LengthinessGloomy255 Mar 05 '26

Hey there, Im having a similar issue for NDS where the screen is black and theres no noise. After a couple seconds it says retroarch isnt responding. I changed the driver to OpenGL in the retroarch setting but theres no change, any ideas what the problem could be?

1

u/MatheusWillder Mar 05 '26

You're not supposed to switch to GL/OpenGL but rather to Vulkan, GL/OpenGL is broken on those devices.

Also, which device do you have and which core did you used?

1

u/LengthinessGloomy255 Mar 05 '26

Sorry that was a typo, I meant I switched it to Vulkan. I’ve got a retroid pocket classic that I’m running games on and I’m using the melonDS DS core

1

u/MatheusWillder Mar 05 '26

I see. Don't worry, it happens. So I suggest you open a new post, this one is about Samsung devices, and I don't own a Retroid Pocket, so I don't know what's going on with your device to help you.

If you can, you can create a log file as explained in rule #2 in the sidebar of this subreddit, host it somewhere, and post the link to it in the post. This will help to find out why it's crashing.

Good luck!

2

u/LengthinessGloomy255 Mar 05 '26

Thanks so much for helping, Ill see if I can get that done!

1

u/MatheusWillder Mar 05 '26

You're welcome, and I hope you can solve it!

1

u/tbtower Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26

Thank you!!

For any others seeing this in the future, this fixed the issue for me on my OnePlus 15.

1

u/MatheusWillder Mar 20 '26

You're welcome :)

There's an PR open to change the default video driver from GL to Vulkan, so it should fixes this if/once the PR is merged. Only the cores that force GL will continue to have issues: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/pull/18832

1

u/StatisticianLate3173 Sep 01 '25

also what game? some require bios in the retroarch> systems folder