Homepage › Forums › RetroPie Project › Everything else related to the RetroPie Project › Testers for new image with emulator selection

Viewing 35 posts - 1 through 35 (of 40 total)
1 2
  • Author
    Posts
  • 03/09/2015 at 15:06 #90744
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    I have been working on a branch of RetroPie (which is planned to be merged when ready), that makes some changes to the way emulators are launched.

    Currently, there are multiple rom folders for some systems, as we have multiple emulators for them. The new code finally sorts this, and has a single dir per platform (perhaps excluding mame, due to the differences in romsets).

    then when launching an emulator you will be able to configure which is the default emulator for the system, and also set an emulator to be used per rom. I will also make it configurable from a retropie menu from emulationstation.

    I’d be interested if anyone would be willing to give the new code a good testing, and I can make an image available here soon if people are interested. Ideally I would like feedback from those that are also comfortable with linux in the console, in case I need to get debugging info off them, but the image will be public for those that want to try.

    Here’s some screenshots to give an idea

    http://malus.exotica.org.uk/~buzz/def1.png
    http://malus.exotica.org.uk/~buzz/def2.png

    03/09/2015 at 15:19 #90746
    chdez77076
    Participant

    That would be amazing!
    Especially in the N64 part of the project!
    Its a great feature!

    03/09/2015 at 15:41 #90759
    dddaaannnhhh
    Participant

    I don’t think I’m savvy enough to contribute, but this is beyond awesome. I’ll definitely give the image a go!

    03/09/2015 at 19:42 #90785
    cacophony555
    Participant

    Sounds like some useful enhancements. I’d be interested in giving it a try and providing feedback.

    Where can I download it?

    03/10/2015 at 01:15 #90826
    pattaboy
    Participant

    would love to see these options for the n64!!!!

    03/10/2015 at 01:51 #90827
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    great – thanks. I shall post a link when I’ve done a little more testing myself. Still fixing some bits here and there.

    03/10/2015 at 08:43 #90862
    cortex
    Participant

    That’s awesome buzz!
    I’d also test this and give you some feedback for the Image and of course about my settings on a per-game-Basis.

    03/10/2015 at 10:16 #90871
    herbfargus
    Member

    sounds like a really good idea to me! It will definitely help eliminate a lot of confusion for newer users. I’ll give the image a go when I can find some time.

    Thanks for all the hard work Buzz!

    03/10/2015 at 13:03 #90875
    smatticus
    Participant

    Count me in

    03/10/2015 at 19:14 #90897
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    id be interested in trying this out

    03/10/2015 at 19:34 #90899
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    you can grab the image from here

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_knGioK16E6bXlQMC0wTEZ6YlU&authuser=0

    note it is a rpi1 optimised image – will work on the rpi2. You can do a full binary install on it on a rpi2 to get rpi2 optimised binaries.

    the installed RetroPie-Setup is tracking my branch

    lr_module_and_emulator_rework

    so once that branch is gone, if you want to continue using it, you will need to switch back to master (git checkout master)

    updating it currently will get any new fixes I apply to my branch

    new configfiles for those that like digging around:

    /opt/retropie/configs/SYSTEM/emulators.cfg – contains the list of choices for emulators – only some systems have this when they have multiple emulators

    ~/RetroPie-Setup/supplementary/platforms.cfg – has a list of names and file extensions for platforms. if you wanted to add a file extension you can copy this to /opt/retropie/configs/all and add new ones (you will need to re-run the configure stage for the emulator in question with “retropie_packages.sh id configure” or via the gui menu 5 to reinstall / configure)

    to switch emulator for a system or specific rom, you need to access the menu after launching a rom (when the screen is black). by pressing “x” or “m”.

    03/10/2015 at 20:08 #90900
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    shame its not a RPi2 image

    03/11/2015 at 00:11 #90923
    herbfargus
    Member

    First impressions- I really like this idea much better than having separate rom folders for each emulator.

    from my preliminary testing on my raspberry pi B+- this is the list of emulators I tested.:

    MEGADRIVE
    DGEN: functions
    LR_Genesis_plus_gx: functions
    LR_Picodrive: functions

    C64
    VICE: functions

    GBA
    gpsp: functions

    GameGear:
    Osmose: functions
    lr_Genesis-plus-gx functions

    FBA
    pifba: functions
    lr_fba: functions

    SNES:
    pisnes: functions
    snes9x: functions
    lr_pocketsnes: BROKEN!
    threw an error: 

    dylib_load dylib_load() failed: opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-pocketsnes/libpocketsnes.so: cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory".
load_symbols:: failed to open dynamic library; "opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-pocketsnes/lrpocketsnes.so 
rarch_main_init :: fatal error received in: "load_dynamic()"

    NES:
    lr-fceu-next: functions

    GB:
    lr-gambatte: functions

    GBC:
    lr-gambatte: functions

    Positives:
    -I really liked that all of the libretro core emulators were preceded by “lr” to indicate their integration with the retroarch configs
    -All but one emulator I tested worked (granted some were laggy due to my B+ lack of processing power)

    Some Suggestions/Issues:

    -As noted above, pocketsnes threw an error and didn’t run.
    -My dpad wasn’t working on the libretro core emulators (but it works in emulationstation and non libretro emulators)
    -perhaps this is the wrong place to suggest this, but is it possible to add another option along with the emulators to link directly into their controller configurations? (or at the very least have one option for each of the libretro core emulators to run something like retroarch-joyconfig specific to that emulator?)
    -could the megadrive rom folder be possibly renamed to megadrive/genesis as many newcomers from the United States get confused on where to place their genesis games

    03/11/2015 at 03:35 #90940
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    great feedback – thanks! I’m really happy that most stuff has worked – and that you like the functionality.

    re ppocketsnes – Looks like I may have a bad path in there or something else – will test/get back to you about that.

    regarding your other points – one of the problems I have in controller testing, is I never have the controllers – but this is not specific to this build or ? the core system is the same, mostly just reworked launch scripts etc.

    I really would like to make controller configuration better. Perhaps it’s worth seeing if we could come up with a viable way of people loaning controllers to me or other devs for testing ?

    we could possibly do a symlink between genesis/megadrive, so either folder would suffice ?

    03/11/2015 at 05:29 #90956
    cacophony555
    Participant

    Any chance of getting an image optimized for the Pi 2?

    03/11/2015 at 06:00 #90965
    herbfargus
    Member

    My controller is a cheap knockoff from china, cost all of £3. I’ll have to keep mucking about with the controls but they worked just fine with the libretro cores in the 2.6 image.

    I think it would be interesting if aloshi were able to link retroarch-joyconfig with his controller configuration set up in emulationstation- that would minimise the amount of new users wondering why their controllers don’t work in games after they went through their controller configuration in emulationstation. Then for emulator specific controls (retroarch and non retroarch) another option could be added for controller configs in the “press x or m” menu.

    As far as the megadrive/genesis thing- one folder with both names or a symlink between the two folders should suffice. I have no preference for one of the other.

    I wish I knew more about programming so I could be more useful in the development process. But perhaps my ignorance may be useful as it gives me a noob’s perspective in testing things :p

    03/11/2015 at 07:50 #90975
    whywilson1
    Participant

    Out of curiosity has N64 emulation changed much over the past two weeks in terms of compatibility with the RPI2?

    I’ll probably give this img a test drive if so. For the most part I really haven’t had any luck getting many N64 games working well.

    03/11/2015 at 08:40 #90980
    cortex
    Participant

    I’ll give the Image a go when I’m home buzz!

    Regarding to the controller-configs of the Controllers you don’t have:
    I could give you my working controller-config for “SPEEDLINK TORID”, so you could implement it in future releases. Just tell me how/where I can give it to you.

    btw, wouldn’t a thread/an email-adress or something just for giving the developers working controller-configs with the corresponding controller-Name be useful to get a wide variety of Controllers to work out of the box?

    And again, as I can’t thank you guys enough for this project:
    Thanks for all the great work and development!

    03/11/2015 at 12:39 #90992
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    regarding rpi2 optimised image – as I said in my post – just do a full binary install on it and you will get rpi2 optimised binaries – the equivalent of an rpi2 image then.

    03/11/2015 at 14:14 #90999
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    I have fixed pocketsnes – to update – cd to RetroPie-Setup and do

    
git pull
sudo ./retropie_packages.sh lr-pocketsnes configure
    03/11/2015 at 19:54 #91027
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    [quote=90992]regarding rpi2 optimised image – as I said in my post – just do a full binary install on it and you will get rpi2 optimised binaries – the equivalent of an rpi2 image then.[/quote]

    Only issue with doing that is it takes ages to complie the RPi2 image and if you want to do a fresh install at any point they you’d have to compile all over again. I’ll wait until there is a RPi2 image before testing i think

    03/11/2015 at 20:06 #91028
    cacophony555
    Participant

    [quote=91027]

    <div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buzz wrote:</div>
    regarding rpi2 optimised image – as I said in my post – just do a full binary install on it and you will get rpi2 optimised binaries – the equivalent of an rpi2 image then.

    Only issue with doing that is it takes ages to complie the RPi2 image and if you want to do a fresh install at any point they you’d have to compile all over again. I’ll wait until there is a RPi2 image before testing i think
    [/quote]

    I think he means to just do the full binary install which I’m guessing is much quicker. I’m trying it right now…

    edit: only took a few minutes to do the full binary install, so hopefully that does get me the pi 2 optimized binaries

    03/11/2015 at 20:16 #91031
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    [quote=91027]
    Only issue with doing that is it takes ages to complie the RPi2 image and if you want to do a fresh install at any point they you’d have to compile all over again. I’ll wait until there is a RPi2 image before testing i think
    [/quote]

    It doesn’t take ages to do a binary install. Once that is done you have the equivalent of a rpi2 image. There won’t be a rpi2 image for testing.

    You don’t actually need rpi2 optimised binaries to help me find any issues before the code gets merged – which is the point of this thread.

    03/11/2015 at 20:32 #91035
    cacophony555
    Participant

    For me personally the reason for wanting Pi 2 optimized binaries is that I’m also testing/experimenting with cores to determine my ideal setup, and for that I really need optimized binaries.

    Speaking of which :)

    I added the experimental core for snes9x-next and did verify that it was using the Pi 2 appropriate compiler flags for the build, but when I did CATSFC it doesn’t seem to be using the Pi 2 flags:

    http://pastebin.com/hg4UPgck

    Any idea why?

    03/11/2015 at 21:02 #91037
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    the makefile overrides our CFLAGS, I have committed a fix to the dev branch to patch it. This is unrelated to any new functionality with the new branch.

    03/11/2015 at 21:28 #91040
    cacophony555
    Participant

    [quote=91037]the makefile overrides our CFLAGS, I have committed a fix to the dev branch to patch it. This is unrelated to any new functionality with the new branch.
    [/quote]

    Yep, figured it was unrelated, but thanks for fixing it.

    Ok, copying ROMs over and I’ll do some testing later today.

    +1 on fixing the megadrive/genesis confusion

    03/11/2015 at 23:08 #91045
    cacophony555
    Participant

    First, let me say that this new functionality is a HUGE improvement. It’s never fun to have to manually modify es_systems.cfg or move roms, and having an easy way to associate specific roms with a different emulator is fantastic. So thanks for doing this !!! :)

    Pretty smooth sailing thus far with a couple observations:

    1. I changed the default pceengine emulator to mednafen-pce-fast core, but it fails to launch because it can’t find the .so file

    2. I think this configuration screen might benefit from some usability improvements: http://malus.exotica.org.uk/~buzz/def1.png (I realize this screenshot isn’t up to date with the current version, and my comments below apply to current version, not the screenshot)

    If there was a way to indicate that a rom specific override was set that might be useful. Maybe append a “*” to line 2 or 3, or display the override value as part of line 2, or not have the “remove” lines if there is no current override.

    In the summary launch config at the top why not include the video mode as well?

    Also, I still have no idea how to pick among these video modes. Like many people I have a 1080p TV. I see four possible 1920×1080 CEA modes but I have no idea why I’d pick one over the other. So if there was some instruction text or default recommendations for common display types that would probably prevent a lot of confusion, especially given that with this new functionality I would expect this config screen to be much more heavily used.

    That’s it for now but I’ll post more observations as I see them. Thanks again!

    03/11/2015 at 23:36 #91052
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    thanks

    1. should be fixed now – please update with

    
git pull
sudo ./retropie_packages.sh lr-mednafen-pce-fast configure

    2.

    I like the ideas – Will make it clearer there is a specific rom/emulator override by hiding the remove. I’ll look into displaying the video mode.

    in regards to what video mode to choose, this is something that depends on your system / monitor and the emulator. in many cases there is no need to change it at all. Not sure right now what useful info could be added – but maybe later something can be done via the wiki.

    03/11/2015 at 23:46 #91055
    cacophony555
    Participant

    One more issue. It looks like mame4all is failing to launch. Here’s the tail of the es_log.txt if it helps:

    lvl2:   Attempting to launch game...
lvl2:           /opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ mame4all /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame4all/outruna.zip
lvl2:   Creating surface...
lvl2:   Created window successfully.
lvl2:   Added known joystick Logitech Gamepad F310 (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
lvl2:   Added known joystick Logitech Gamepad F310 (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
lvl2:    req sound [basic.launch]
lvl2:      (missing)
lvl2:   Attempting to launch game...
lvl2:           /opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ mame4all /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame4all/outrun.zip
lvl2:   Creating surface...
lvl2:   Created window successfully.
lvl2:   Added known joystick Logitech Gamepad F310 (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
lvl2:   Added known joystick Logitech Gamepad F310 (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
lvl2:   EmulationStation cleanly shutting down.

    Or maybe changing the default mame emulator isn’t supported at all yet? I do know my romset works with mame4all (which is what I typically use)

    03/12/2015 at 02:48 #91085
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    thanks.

    I have hopefully fixed up the mame issue now, and have improved the launch menu.

    update with

    
git pull
sudo xmlstarlet ed -L -P -d "/systemList/system[name='mame4all']" /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg
rm /opt/retropie/configs/mame-mame4all/emulators.cfg
sudo ./retropie_packages.sh mame4all configure
sudo ./retropie_packages.sh lr-imame4all configure
sudo ./retropie_packages.sh runcommand install

    note the rom location for mame4all/lr-imame4all is now ~/RetroPie/roms/mame-mame4all

    03/12/2015 at 04:57 #91095
    cacophony555
    Participant

    buzz, I just verified that the issues with mednafen-pce-fast and mame4all are both fixed by your recent changes. I also saw your very nice improvements to the launch settings screen. Thanks! So at this point everything seems to be working very well. I haven’t tried all the systems but I have played with the biggies: mame, nes, mastersystem, pcengine, snes, and genesis

    03/12/2015 at 11:01 #91129
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    thanks for the feedback.

    03/14/2015 at 17:10 #91303
    petrockblog
    Keymaster

    Just to let you all know that all the code is in the main retropie branch now. So if anyone does a binary install after updating the script they will get this functionality.

    03/14/2015 at 20:07 #91332
    herbfargus
    Member

    Great news Buzz! Thanks for all the hard work!

    03/14/2015 at 23:24 #91340
    proxycell
    Participant

    this sounds freaking amazing… this totally blows my workaround away… i had setup on my own a theme that let you pick different emulators by basically being “different” systems

    this is far more elegant and appropriate

    Note: everyone should be testing this out asap

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 35 posts - 1 through 35 (of 40 total)
1 2
  • The topic ‘Testers for new image with emulator selection’ is closed to new replies.