Pi3 image

[progets]

To be honest, I'm not sure. It could also be changes in RetroArch since that's used for most things on the Pi. In the past year its had many upgrades too. I'm willing to bet that it's a combination of everything (Raspbian, RetroFE, RetroPie and RetroArch).

Not to sound like a jerk but AM (Attract-Mode) is king on the Pi right now. EmulationStation (the default RetroPie FE) has limited development and only recently supported videos. I will even go on to say that using the newer "experimental" Attract-Mode install from RetroPie is less than ideal. RetroPie and a separate AM (+ SFML, ffmpeg, etc.) works much better.

I recognize you from the HyperSpin forums. I've been into emulation for a while. I think we are part of a small group that actually plays with emulation on both Windows and Linux. The Pi is even a separate Linux breed due to it's limited power.

I'll also mention that if the RetroPie "runcommand" works in RetroFe you'll be able to directly access the RetroPie setup/config menus without having to go into EmulationStation. This is almost a must for most people and can be done in AM today.

BTW - You might look at the old forum where you can see my posts about Pi issues and solutions. I can also provide main settings.conf and systems settings.conf for a RetroPie build as well as launcher.conf for direct command line and/or RetroPie "runcommand".

[Pieter Hulshoff]

No worries, the truth shall set you free. 😀 If AM is currently better on the pi, then I guess I have some work to do. As said: I'm new to the pi, so I've got some experiments to run, and figure this thing out. Then I can focus on improving things, and fixing bugs. 😀

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[progets]

Always love your "can do" attitude! Let me know if I can help in any way.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

Well, any links to handy tutorials would save me some searching time. 😀 Time's the thing I'm lacking most in life.

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[progets]

To make your FE ideal for a Pi I think you need to base it on RetroPie. No tutorial, download the latest RetroPie image https://retropie.org.uk/download/and then compile RetroFE on top and get it to work. I'll help with any configs. It should be super easy to see and have the FE working right. Emulators might be a bigger issue.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

Retropie comes with several installed emulators though, right? If its launchable from the commandline, RetroFE should be able to handle it or I can write scripts to make it work...

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[MisterB]

To me, the only major challenge in achieving a full RetroPie integration is the naming convention.  RetroPie filesystems and configs use a "shortname" system naming convention ("Super Nintendo Entertainment System" = "snes", and so on).  RetroFE (seems) to prefer a long name for the metadata input files, plus most of the preexisting collection assets and configs.  Personally, I prefer the long names, as I standardized on HyperSpin/RocketLauncher names a long time ago, and I prefer to keep that consistent across various build. 

My approach to solving this (for now) is a mapping file that translates long names to short names.  Similar to EmulationStation on RetroPie, I have created a wrapper script in /usr/bin for launching RetroFE.  The wrapper reads the mapping file at launch time, and updates the collection settings.conf files to change the long names to short names.  From there, everything pretty much works.  I also have a single launcher for run command.sh.  All of this gets set up by the RetroPie module at the time of build/install/update.

All of this can easily be configured manually, but I've been trying to come up with a solution that keep existing RetroPie and RetroFE documentation valid...and isn't too much of a hack.  Maybe some will think that's what this is, but hey...it's a starting point.  If folks have better ideas, I'm interested - at least I now I have a better understanding of how the RetroPie internals work so we can try and keep native integration.

[progets]

I use the default RetroPie setup and just point RetroFE to the correct places. This allows you to have the full names that RetroFE uses but the default folders RetroPie uses. Here are some examples.

Main settings.conf (point the baseItemPath to /home/pi/RetroPie/roms)

Code: [Select]

##############################################################################
#
# For support, visit www.retrofe.com
# or visit irc.foreverchat.net  (channel #retrofe)
#
# For Documentation, visit www.retrofe.com/documentation
#
##############################################################################


#######################################
# Display
#######################################
fullscreen = no
horizontal = stretch # or enter in the screen pixel width (i.e 1024)
vertical = stretch   # or enter in the screen pixel width (i.e 768)
layout = Aeon Nox
hideMouse = yes
showParenthesis = no
showSquareBrackets = no

# specify the name of the first collection to load on start
firstCollection = Main

# specify whether RetroFE should switch to Favorites list if it exists.
autoFavorites = false

#######################################
# Video playback settings
#######################################
 
# set to "no" for very old/slow systems
videoEnable = yes

# Number of times to loop video playback (enter 0 to continuously loop)
videoLoop = 0

#######################################
# General
#######################################
# exit the frontend when the back button is pressed on the first page
exitOnFirstPageBack = yes

# enter 0 attract mode, otherwise enter the number of seconds to wait before enabling attract mode
attractModeTime = 45

# remember the last highlighted menu when re-entering a menu
rememberMenu = no

#######################################
# Base folders of media and ROM files
#######################################
# Override if you choose to have your media stored outside of RetroFE.
# If this is commented out your artwork will be searched in collections/<collectionname>/<imagetype>
# baseMediaPath=d:/media

# Override if you choose to have your ROMs stored outside of RetroFE.
# If this is commented out your roms will be searched in collections/<collectionname>/roms
baseItemPath = /home/pi/RetroPie/roms

Nintendo Entertainment System settings.conf (point paths to RetroPie folders)

Code: [Select]

# Uncomment and edit the following line to use a different ROM path.
list.path = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes
list.includeMissingItems = false
list.extensions = nes,smc,sfc,fig,swc,mgd,zip
list.menuSort = yes

launcher = Nintendo Entertainment System

media.screenshot    = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/snap
media.screentitle   = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/title
media.artwork_back  = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/boxart_back
media.artwork_front = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/boxart
media.logo          = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/wheel
media.medium_back   = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/cartart_back
media.medium_front  = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/cartart
media.video         = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/video
media.story         = %BASE_ITEM_PATH%/nes/story

Nintendo Entertainment System.conf launcher using RetroPie runcommand

Code: [Select]

executable = /opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh
arguments = 0 _SYS_ nes "%ITEM_FILEPATH%"

Nintendo Entertainment System.conf launcher without using RetroPie runcommand

Code: [Select]

executable = /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch
arguments = -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-fceumm/fceumm_libretro.so "%ITEM_FILEPATH%"


[MisterB]

My (WIP) RetroPie module for RetroFE is attached.  Copy this file to ~/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/ .

To install, run ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh , then go to Manage packages | Manage experimental packages | retrofe (should be near the end of the list).

Once installed, the full set of retroFE configs is accessible via RetroPie's "config/all/retrofe" samba share for easy management.

The version I am attaching should provide a full build, install/remove, and basic configuration of RetroFE.  It does not do any of the automatic mapping of system/platform names that I mentioned earlier.  However, it does create a custom launcher for each of the systems that RetroPie supports out of the box.  Therefore, to get a collection up and running, I recommend the following minimal changes to the collection's settings.conf:

Code: [Select]

list.path = /home/<username>/RetroPie/roms/<platform shortname>/

Code: [Select]

launcher = <platform shortname>
For example, to enable the sample Sega Genesis collection that comes with the retroFE build, you would substitute <platform shortname> above with megadrive.  You will also need to copy files into RetroPie's "roms/megadrive" samba share, since the above config is using the standard RetroPie location, and not the roms directory within the RetroFE collection.

I look forward to any feedback!

[Pieter Hulshoff]

Thanks. 😀 I will check it out soon

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[Pieter Hulshoff]

I managed to play Super Mario World on Retropie with scanlines: not bad at all. Play was smooth. I guess the next step is to install RetroFE, and get cracking...

[Pieter Hulshoff]

My retropie does not have the libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-dev package, and throws an error... I can compile without, but it won't play video. 😭

[Pieter Hulshoff]

Slowly getting there; RetroFE is running with video and sound now. 😀

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[Pieter Hulshoff]

I share your focus issue for launching games; I've had these issues before, but haven't found a solution on the pi yet.

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[MisterB]

Out of curiosity, did you use the RetroPie module, or are you playing on your own?


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