Pi3 image

[MisterB]

I guess I'm still a little confused about what everyone is trying to accomplish with the RetroPie integration. I agree that hosting a separately hosted RetroFE-based image is undesirable, but it's also unnecessary - that's where I was hoping my module/script would help out.  The intention is submit it for formal incorporation into RetroPie, so that anyone could go into RetroPie-Setup and 'turn it on' - just the AttractMode, MehStation, and ES-Kids.

Progets - If you haven't tried it or looked at the source, running the install/update script will compile and install the latest RFE from BitBucket.  The steps mimic what is in the old RPi script, plus more auto configuration to make RFE work well in a RetroPie environment.  Are there other specific steps you believe the script should make?  I guess I'm curious about the concerns you have with AttractMode being installed in via the RetroPie-Setup.

Pieter - With regards to your concerns about changing the video driver for the emulators, that could be inserted in the script as well - probably not the most elegant solution if you can prevent the need in the first place.  But especially considering the majority of RetroPie pushes folks to RetroArch for emulation, that's a single config change that I could automate.  Additionally, I could modify the autoboot settings as well - however, the RetroPie admins might not look kindly on that.  That's a case where it might be netter to let people know that they should use the autobot config setting that is built into the setup tool.

At the end of the day, I think I've got things pretty close to usable and can script in any gaps.  If you guys can provide some requirements for improving usability, I'd like to help.

[progets]

Progets - If you haven't tried it or looked at the source, running the install/update script will compile and install the latest RFE from BitBucket.  The steps mimic what is in the old RPi script, plus more auto configuration to make RFE work well in a RetroPie environment.  Are there other specific steps you believe the script should make?  I guess I'm curious about the concerns you have with AttractMode being installed in via the RetroPie-Setup.

I tried it and it didn't work for me. I didn't look into why or fixing it. Personally I could careless about any auto configuration, that's an easy one time thing (which I have already done). Really the biggest issue with RetroFE on the Pi is the emulators not launching with focus. This makes the frontend pretty useless.

The RetroPie Attract-Mode install sucks because it doesn't include hardware video decoding, it uses symbolic links that are different than a regular Attract-Mode install and it adds every system under the sun which I don't need or like. This makes updating AM or RetroPie a pain because every time you update either it puts back all the unwanted systems in to AM. It would be like needing to reconfigure RetroFE every time you update. By installing AM separately you can update RetroPie or AM without needing to reconfigure anything in AM. It also make getting support easier because people on the AM forums aren't expecting the changes that the RetroPie install has made.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

My goal is to allow the easiest possible path to run RetroFE on the pi. From that perspective I thought that a separate SD image would be best, but from what I've learned a good install script would work just as well. I will also take the upgrade path into account.

I've already progressed quite a bit with the C++ code. It's working for me, but I want to do some more cleanups and tests before I check it into bit bucket. Once that's up and running, you should be able to run RetroFE on RetroPie without too much trouble; I'm sure you can handle the installation process for now while I work on a script that handles everything for users with less knowledge of the pi.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

I've updated the code in bit bucket; please give this a try, and let me know if this works out for you. Don't forget to set unloadSDL = true in the settings.conf (default on the new settings.conf in bit bucket).

[progets]

It needs gstreamer1.0 to compile retrofe. Once retrofe is running it is able to launch games with the RetroPie runcommand which is nice.

Videos seem slow but I need to test a little more.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

It needs gstreamer1.0 to compile retrofe. Once retrofe is running it is able to launch games with the RetroPie runcommand which is nice.

Videos seem slow but I need to test a little more.

It did feel a bit slow here and there, but overall I think it works pretty well. Perhaps a theme should be used that only displays a single video rather than the two used in Aeon Nox. I also need to figure out a way to auto select a 16x9 or 4x3 theme depending on the screen resolution.

[progets]

I tried the "Default 16x9" layout before my prior post. It could be my videos but they're the same ones I use in EmulationStation and Attract-Mode on the Pi. I'll test some more when I have time.

[progets]

Just a quick update.

When I tested above I built a new SD card. I installed RetroPie from the 4.2 image, updated raspi-config, updated retropie, tried to install retrofe (failed), installed gstreamer1.0, deleted and reinstalled retrofe. The builtin videos (Arcade and Genesis) played ok but my videos didn't (they work fine in ES or AM).

I have copied off the retrofe folder from the new SD card and moved it to a different SD card with my personal retropie build. My videos do play ok here. I have tested the runcommand and non-runcommand launchers and both work on my build. I have to say retrofe works much better on my personal build than on a new build (this could be just video related).

On both builds retrofe maxes out the CPU when running the FE. In AM using ffmepg to hardware decode videos makes a huge difference in CPU use and Pi temp (about 20 degrees celsius). I don't know if this is an option for retrofe but when you're dealing with a Pi every little bit of CPU offloading helps.

For what it's worth, my Pi build is at RetroPie 4.2.3. The latest is at Retropie 4.2.8. I'm updating my image to see if it makes a difference but I doubt it will since my image is was updated less than 2 months ago.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

Before I spend a lot of time looking into ffmpeg (a library I have little experience with), could you check if the 100% CPU is also used when video has been turned off? In other words: is it the video playing that causes this or is there a different cause for it?

With regards to videos not playing on a specific build: that's probably a decoder issue. I'm not sure which decoder those specific videos use...

[dougan78]

I put a base retropie image on my sdcard.  Will install retrofe tonight and test.  Will need to dust off my linux know how again.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[progets]

Before I spend a lot of time looking into ffmpeg (a library I have little experience with), could you check if the 100% CPU is also used when video has been turned off? In other words: is it the video playing that causes this or is there a different cause for it?

With regards to videos not playing on a specific build: that's probably a decoder issue. I'm not sure which decoder those specific videos use...

On my personal RetroPie build turning off the videos drops the CPU to around 80%. On a basic RetroPie build the CPU is stays at 100% even with the videos off.

All my videos are from emumovies. On the Pi I use the SD videos (because of space and performance). The videos use the h264 codec.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

Ok, so videos only take 20%. How much impact does the theme have?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[progets]

Ok, so videos only take 20%. How much impact does the theme have?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

I updated my post above. On a basic build the CPU didn't drop.

Themes don't change the CPU use very much but do make a big difference using the FE.

[dougan78]

So sorry if this seems like a linux n00b question.  I ran the command:

bash <(curl -s https://bitbucket.org/phulshof/retrofe/raw/default/Scripts/Raspi2/install.sh)

but i am afraid I do not have a retrofe program to run.  I type

./retrofe/Artifacts/linux/RetroFE/retrofe to start and doesnt exits.  Checked the folder too.

./root/retrofe/Artifacts/linux/RetroFE/retrofe is the path on my pi.  Anyway help is appreciated I am close to testing.

[progets]

So sorry if this seems like a linux n00b question.  I ran the command:

bash <(curl -s https://bitbucket.org/phulshof/retrofe/raw/default/Scripts/Raspi2/install.sh)

but i am afraid I do not have a retrofe program to run.  I type

./retrofe/Artifacts/linux/RetroFE/retrofe to start and doesnt exits.  Checked the folder too.

./root/retrofe/Artifacts/linux/RetroFE/retrofe is the path on my pi.  Anyway help is appreciated I am close to testing.

You need gstreamer1.0 to compile retrofe.

You can run this before the retrofe install command you mention above

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0