Announcing Pegasus Frontend

[Purg.Derren]

@fluffypillow that sounds really great! :)
Theme options and unified "gamelist"-file (and multi-disc/multiple-files - yay!)

[PlayingKarrde]

Some thoughts after using it extensively for a few weeks now and in multiple different scenarios:

While I like the changes to collections and gamelists, I am not convinced this is the necessary step to take. Right now I would say the number one issue that's holding the launcher back from being open the a mass audience is adding games. Currently, my flow to add a game is add the rom file to my folder, scrape the entire folder again (which takes sometimes as long as 45 minutes on large collections - it has to scrape everything each time due to Pegasus using it's own media file structure), run a script I had to write to organize the media, take the gamelist file the scraper made and drop it in the conversion tool, then replace the metadata.txt with this new info (and if I've made any changes to specific games those will get overwritten unless I'm very careful). This is just to add one game.

The only reason willing to do all that work is because I really see the potential in the launcher and think it will be the best launcher hands down when all said and done.

So combining the collection and metadata sounds good when looking at it in a bubble, but if anything it will make it more difficult with the current workflow. The same goes for multi-disc games - fantastic addition but unless the workflow is made more streamlined it will potentially get in the way more than it currently does (if it were to read .m3u files that might be more convenient).

I guess what I'm getting at is if you have a roadmap for features, working on how users add games should be a top priority. If these changes are necessary in order to reach that goal then great, but ultimately having users manually edit text files should be an absolute last resort for any usable piece of software in my opinion.

[PlayingKarrde]

@fluffypillow regarding theme options, I don't mind either way to be honest. I think if there was a template example then many theme creators could just hack that together to create something pretty easily. Having a unified one might be nicer for the launcher overall, but I think if theme makers are able to learn qml (which isn't that hard) they can put together a settings screen fairly easily. My comment about usability doesn't apply so much to theme creators as much really.

[herb_fargus]

I think everyone will have their own opinion on how to organise things. Personally I'm all for simplicity so if things can be consolidated the more the better. I've personally never cared for collections so it's not as much of a priority for me.

[PlayingKarrde]

@herb_fargus simplicity is king. But the concept of collections are necessary otherwise how would you know if you are selecting a snes game vs a mame game for example.

[herb_fargus]

@PlayingKarrde

otherwise how would you know if you are selecting a snes game vs a mame game for example

I sort by console. Not Mario games.

[PlayingKarrde]

@herb_fargus Right, and in this case that's what collections do.

[fluffypillow]

@PlayingKarrde I agree the workflow being less than optimal at the moment. However, the reason I prioritize format updates is exactly because it'd be more difficult to add changes after people start making tools, videos or guides that would depend on some stability. I can also start making, say, a metadata editor program more easily when the planned changes don't loom over my head.

As for what Skraper does and supports, that's not something I can control. When I run on just ~600 NES games and said over 5 hours left, you bet that really made me want to write a scraper too. That said, support for its assets can be added, and will likely come this week. Also looks like it can export metadata in a frontend-independent way too, which might be usable. But if a use case requires you to convert between different file formats of incompatible programs, you'll always need some manual interaction.

[PlayingKarrde]

@fluffypillow Yep, totally understand. I think maybe my comment came off a bit more confrontational than I intended. I think I'm just trying to explain the potential I see but the main thing still holding it back. Long term if it was as easy to use as, say Plex, it could potentially be the most popular launcher out there.

But it sounds like you are thinking long term so I'm on board with the changes you mentioned. I agree with everything else you say.

[fluffypillow]

@PlayingKarrde No worries, I do appreciate your concerns about the future of Pegasus. Hope I can show its full potential eventually!

---

On another topic, for yesterday's theme Api changes, forgot to mention that the key handling will change too, after I finally implement the key modifier (Ctrl, Shift, etc.) support. When checking keys, instead of passing the key code (eg. api.keys.isAccept(event.key)) you'd pass the whole event as parameter. The returned array types of keys.accept()and co. will also change.

Other than themes, because the modifiers modify regular keys, setting Ctrl and such "alone" will no longer work. The change will also require a one-time reset of the key settings, due to changes in the way keys are stored in the settings file. This update will come in one of the weekly releases (maybe the next one?) so don't worry about randomly loosing settings.

[PlayingKarrde]

@fluffypillow said in Announcing Pegasus Frontend:

after I finally implement the key modifier (Ctrl, Shift, etc.)

Just out of curiosity, what do you see the modifiers being used for? I'm assuming this was discussed/requested above but I didn't see it.

[fluffypillow]

@PlayingKarrde It was initially requested as a workaround for C64 keyboard issues, around here. Other than that, it'd also allow setting possibly more intuitive bindings, like Ctrl+F for searching or Ctrl+Left/Right to change collections.

[PlayingKarrde]

@fluffypillow Ah I see. So it's just for bindings then? (ie not giving new functions through modifiers).

I have a quick question that I can't seem to find the answer for: do you know of any way to properly format text from the metadata? I'm noticing that double line breaks (or paragraphs) aren't being accounted for at all.

[fluffypillow]

@PlayingKarrde yup, just for bindings.

As for text, it's not well documented yet, but you may use \nor <br> for manual line breaks (but don't mix the two).

[PlayingKarrde]

@fluffypillow hmm but that would require me to hand edit the metadata which isn't something im likely to do for 1000 games.

[PlayingKarrde]

Just released v0.2 of gameOS

Lots of polish and cleanup as well as added the details page into the flow. Switching between favourites and all will be the next big feature with search rounding it out after that. By that time I expect the new changes to Pegasus will be out so I will then spend the time updating it for that and probably move it into beta status.

I'll post a video as I think it looks better in motion, but as always it can be downloaded here:

https://github.com/PlayingKarrde/gameOS

[hooperre]

@PlayingKarrde Great stuff.

[Seya16]

@PlayingKarrde looks top notch, can't wait to see how it will be on it's final state.

[fluffypillow]

@PlayingKarrde Nice! Will definitely try it out.

hmm but that would require me to hand edit the metadata

Ah so it'd be for a lots of games -- I should make the converter a bit smarter then (eventually). Though if I remember correctly, I did add support for empty lines when converting from ES files, but I'll review that part.

[PlayingKarrde]

Here's the video of the update:

-edit-
Just made some new additions (adding, favorites filter, video preview in details, some other things) so going to call this v0.3. Will probably hold off from any major new features now until the Pegasus changes come in.