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    Displaying button actions

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    button mapppingbutton positiondisplay controlemultionstation
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    • mituM
      mitu Global Moderator @Texacate
      last edited by

      @Texacate Someone had a similar idea recently - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21464/ - for showing the button layout on the start up image.

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      • T
        Texacate
        last edited by

        Thank you so much for the pointer. I never considered using the startup image. Excellent idea. But the downside is: once the game starts, the map/legend is gone... Ideally I like it to be persistent. I need to read that thread carefully to see if they figured out how to automate the creation of the control map image.

        mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • mituM
          mitu Global Moderator @Texacate
          last edited by

          @Texacate The topic has one suggestion for how to automate things - using imagemagickfrom the command line to programatically compose the image. Here's an idea:

          • have a master image with the layout
            [ Y ][ X ][ L ]
            [ B ][ A][ R ]

          and a separate text inset that would explain the buttons -
          Y = Fire
          X = Turbo
          etc.
          But the inset would be empty (in this template image).

          • have one (transparent) image with each button selected/lit - i.e. for instance let's say `A' is used, have the same image as above, but just with

            [ A ]

          • When generating the final image, combine the layout with the images containing the buttons and populate the text in the inset with the button names/actions.

          B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • B
            BJRetro @mitu
            last edited by

            @mitu seems like maybe for a typical 6 button arcade setup this page’s explanation for text positioning with gravity might work on an image because it would always place the text the same relative place on an image of the buttons: https://imagemagick.org/Usage/annotating/ . Very over my head on the coding aspect though.

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            • hiulitH
              hiulit
              last edited by

              I could help with imagemagick.

              But @Texacate has a point:

              But the downside is: once the game starts, the map/legend is gone... Ideally I like it to be persistent

              @mitu do you know if it's possible to alter EmulationStation or RetroArch to map button to show/hide the controller image?

              My little contributions to the RetroPie project:

              • Shell-Script-Boilerplate
              • Fun-Facts-Splashscreens
              • Limit-Last-Played-Games
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              • mituM
                mitu Global Moderator @hiulit
                last edited by

                @hiulit Emulationstation is pushed in the background once the game starts, so there's little use to modify it.
                RetroArch can use some overlays (bezels) to display the button mappings and I see there's some settings like input_overlay_show_physical_inputs (dunno what it means) or input_overlay_next_btn. Ideally you could have an additional overlay (bezel) to show the button mapping and toggle between the normal (or empty) overlay to the button layout overlay using input_overlay_next_btn. I'm thinking at something similar discussed in this topic which handles shaders.

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                • mituM
                  mitu Global Moderator
                  last edited by

                  Aha, I found out what input_overlay_show_physical_inputs does. You can create an overlay (bezel) to show the controller buttons and you can map regions of the overlay to be toggled as you press the buttons on your controller. Here's an example for a NES overlay which can show buttons being pressed while you play.

                  ed386913-1fb9-427a-9263-e3cf48df30f1-image.png

                  hiulitH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • hiulitH
                    hiulit @mitu
                    last edited by

                    @mitu WOW, that's even cooler that showing a plane image! O_O

                    Now, how could the process of creating those bezels be automated?

                    My little contributions to the RetroPie project:

                    • Shell-Script-Boilerplate
                    • Fun-Facts-Splashscreens
                    • Limit-Last-Played-Games
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                    • hiulitH
                      hiulit
                      last edited by

                      @mitu There's an arcade bezel https://github.com/libretro/common-overlays/blob/master/gamepads/arcade/arcade.cfg that could be used

                      My little contributions to the RetroPie project:

                      • Shell-Script-Boilerplate
                      • Fun-Facts-Splashscreens
                      • Limit-Last-Played-Games
                      mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • mituM
                        mitu Global Moderator @hiulit
                        last edited by

                        @hiulit They don't look so hot

                        firebarr-190312-132918.png

                        hiulitH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • hiulitH
                          hiulit @mitu
                          last edited by

                          @mitu No. they don't.... :( But then again, we could create a new bezel, right?

                          My little contributions to the RetroPie project:

                          • Shell-Script-Boilerplate
                          • Fun-Facts-Splashscreens
                          • Limit-Last-Played-Games
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                          • B
                            BJRetro @hiulit
                            last edited by

                            @hiulit I wonder why the name one is on top of the game whereas NES was outside of the frame.

                            hiulitH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • FurlugeF
                              Furluge
                              last edited by

                              These would be amazing if they were being shown outside the screen in all that unused blanks space as opposed to on top of the gameplay.

                              hiulitH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • hiulitH
                                hiulit @BJRetro
                                last edited by

                                @BJRetro I don't understand. I see both bezel on top of the game.

                                My little contributions to the RetroPie project:

                                • Shell-Script-Boilerplate
                                • Fun-Facts-Splashscreens
                                • Limit-Last-Played-Games
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                                • hiulitH
                                  hiulit @Furluge
                                  last edited by

                                  @Furluge What" unused blank space" are you referring to?

                                  My little contributions to the RetroPie project:

                                  • Shell-Script-Boilerplate
                                  • Fun-Facts-Splashscreens
                                  • Limit-Last-Played-Games
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                                  • FurlugeF
                                    Furluge @hiulit
                                    last edited by Furluge

                                    @hiulit The sides of the screen when using a 16:9 monitor to display games meant for 4:3 aspect ratio. I'm saying I don't understand why the overlays are covering up the screen when they could be filling empty space you would usually see art / bezels fill up for a 16:9 monitor showing a 4:3 game. Displaying controller inputs seems like a pretty nifty usage of that space but all these overlays I'm seeing, even the metroid one, are putting everything over the display area, which seems silly to me. It looks like it was meant cell phone on screen controls to be honest. Actually that's probably exactly what these overlays were made for.

                                    mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • mituM
                                      mitu Global Moderator @Furluge
                                      last edited by

                                      @Furluge The screenshots were done by me, by just loading the bezels/overlays without any parameters (i.e. screen size, viewports size). They can be configured to show outside of the game viewport, I just loaded them to test the button actions reflecting on the bezel changes.

                                      FurlugeF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • FurlugeF
                                        Furluge @mitu
                                        last edited by

                                        @mitu Ooohh, ok, I'll have to take a look at them then. Though they still do look suspiciously like on screen phone controls. :D

                                        mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • mituM
                                          mitu Global Moderator @Furluge
                                          last edited by

                                          @Furluge I suppose they look like RA's controls when run on a mobile device - but they're overlays. I posted the link to them in the first screenshot post.

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