Announcing Pegasus Frontend

fluffypillow

@msheehan79 coincidentally, I was also thinking about extending these extra properties :) Currently they are ignored, but I'd like to make them available for the themes, and perhaps also support using them in launch commands.

nemo93

Hello @fluffypillow
quick message just to let you know that the current "continuous builds" are broken for PI1/2/3 - and probably for X11 as well. There's no binary inside the zip archive. This has the side effect of removing Pegasus should you update via the Retropie Setup script.

Thanks!

fluffypillow

@nemo93 whoa, how did that even happen... will fix it in a minute.

EDIT: fixed, thanks!

msheehan79

@fluffypillow OK no worries, just wanted to confirm they aren't currently available. If you do incorporate this as a feature later on down the line, I will be sure to try it out!

fluffypillow

Weekly update! Had a busy week again, but managed to land a few updates:

The new gamepad handling is now in use on Windows too. Should work out of the box, no additional installation is necessary. Please report if you run into issues.
Fixed a bug where the files field in metadata files was not handled correctly (thanks @msheehan79)
Fixed the Linux release packaging (thanks @nemo93) and updated the .deb package
Fixed some incorrect log messages and other minor things

msheehan79

@fluffypillow I noticed while testing some things this evening that the files fix you implemented seems to have broken the 'ignore-files' functionality in the metadata files. I spotted a couple of files that previously were ignored that now pop up in the list. When I rolled back to a build from last week it works fine with the same metadata collection.

fluffypillow

@msheehan79 hm, do you have an example file? It's possible that something broke, but I couldn't reproduce the issue yet with my test files.

msheehan79

@fluffypillow sure thing. Just did a retest tonight to make sure and something definitely changed.

My setup is Win x64 and I use the metadata files in the pegasus/configs/metafiles directory. I reconfirmed tonight with just 1 metadata file (attached) in the folder.

When I used an older build it works as expected:
Ignored Files OK 12-39-gdd58baf.PNG

With no other change but updating to yesterday's build:
Ignored Files Appear 12-92-gb240543.PNG

The metadata file contents: (ports-wolf3d.metadata.txt)

collection: Ports
shortname: ports
extensions: wl6, sod
launch: "..\..\..\launch\Ports-Wolf3D.cmd" "{file.path}" "ecwolf" "ports\wolf3d\ecwolf.cfg" "" ""
directory: ..\..\..\roms\ports\wolf3d
x-shortname: ports-wolf3d

ignore-file: sod/AUDIOT.SOD

ignore-file: sod/GAMEMAPS.SOD

ignore-file: sod/MAPHEAD.SOD

ignore-file: sod/VGADICT.SOD

ignore-file: sod/VGAGRAPH.SOD

ignore-file: sod/VGAHEAD.SOD

ignore-file: sod/VSWAP.SOD

ignore-file: wolf3d/AUDIOT.WL6

ignore-file: wolf3d/GAMEMAPS.WL6

ignore-file: wolf3d/MAPHEAD.WL6

ignore-file: wolf3d/VGADICT.WL6

ignore-file: wolf3d/VGAGRAPH.WL6

ignore-file: wolf3d/VGAHEAD.WL6

ignore-file: wolf3d/VSWAP.WL6

game: Wolfenstein 3D
file: ..\..\..\roms\ports\wolf3d\wolf3d/AUDIOHED.WL6
release: 1992
developer: id Software
publisher: Apogee
genre: Shooter
players: 1
description: Wolfenstein 3D is an episodic first-person shooter and a follow-up to the top-down infiltration game Castle Wolfenstein. The game puts the player in the boots of B.J. Blazkowicz, an allied spy. There are six episodes: the first distributed complete as shareware; the second and the third available after registration; and the three final missions (which happen before the events of the first episode) available in the Nocturnal Missions pack.
launch: "..\..\..\launch\Ports-Wolf3D.cmd" "{file.path}" "ecwolf" "ports\wolf3d\ecwolf.cfg" "" ""

game: Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny
file: ..\..\..\roms\ports\wolf3d\sod/AUDIOHED.SOD
release: 1992
developer: id Software
publisher: FormGen
genre: Shooter
players: 1
description: It's World War II and you are B.J. Blazkowicz, the Allies' most valuable agent. In the midst of the German Blitzkrieg, the Spear that pierced the side of Christ is taken from Versailles by the Nazis and secured in the impregnable Castle Wolfenstein. According to legend, no man can be defeated when he has the Spear. Hitler believes himself to be invincible with the power of the Spear as his brutal army sweeps across Europe.
launch: "..\..\..\launch\Ports-Wolf3D.cmd" "{file.path}" "ecwolf" "ports\wolf3d\ecwolf-sod.cfg" "" ""

fluffypillow

@msheehan79 Thanks! I've found the issue, it should work now.

Darksavior

@fluffypillow I ran pegasus from ssh so I can see what's going on when it's loading. This is the first line. Not sure if it's related to the problem:
Setting framebuffer size is only available with DRM atomic API
Loading any game does indeed give this message endlessly [e] Could not queue DRM page flip on screen HDMI1 (Device or resource busy)
The pi4 does have two hdmi ports now, hdmi0 and hdmi1. I'm using hdmi0. No change if using hdmi1.

fluffypillow

@Darksavior Yes, the DRM errors likely come together, apparently some video buffers ("resources") are not released/acquired properly which causes such errors. I've found some possible workarounds, but I couldn't get to try them yet. For example, I've found a report that said export QT_QPA_EGLFS_ALWAYS_SET_MODE=1 before running Pegasus might solve this; if you have some time could you try this?

Darksavior

@fluffypillow Yea just post the builds, I'll try test them out. I'll check back often and test asap.
I tried that command. No change. Maybe I'm not running it right? I execute the command you posted then I type pegasus-fe

fluffypillow

@Darksavior It works! Just got back to my Pi 4, and after some more searching I've found a variable that fixed the issue for me. Try this before launching Pegasus:

export QT_QPA_EGLFS_KMS_ATOMIC=1

On the other hand, this produces a "Framebuffer size format is invalid" warning, but that seems to have no visible effect for me.

Darksavior

@fluffypillow Progress, but still not loading games for me. Launching a game loads to a black screen for a few seconds and then returns to pegasus. SSH'ing, I see no error messages from pegasus. The runcommand menu when loading the game is also not displayed. It's only displayed on my computer when ssh'ing.
[i] ----------------------------------------
[i] The external program has finished cleanly, with exit code 0

Same errors when checking the runcommand log:
failed to export dumb buffer: Permission denied
Failed to create scanout resource
failed to export dumb buffer: Permission denied
Failed to create scanout resource

fluffypillow

@Darksavior ah you're right, and also console programs don't get displayed either. The work continues...

fluffypillow

Also a weekly update! Haven't had too much time, so only minor changes:

The macOS release too now uses the new gamepad handling. Please report your experiences with it.
Fixed ignore-files and relative file field handling when mixed with directory entries in Metadata files (thanks @msheehan79)

Now that the gamepad handling is in a better shape, I'm planning to update the documentation during the next week(s). (Unless something comes up.) I'm also trying to fix the Pi 4 build meanwhile.

SinisterSpatula

@fluffypillow any chance the gamepad input's could support the select button (xbox back button I guess?). I'm currently doing a strange hack in order to use it lol. (I'm sure this is highly improper but it's working for me)

    Keys.onPressed: {
        if (api.keys.isAccept(event) && !event.isAutoRepeat) {
            event.accepted = true;
            root.detailsRequested()
        }
        //Hack to check if it was the Gamepad Select button
        if (event.key.toString() == "1048586" && !event.isAutoRepeat) {
            event.accepted = true;
            root.settingsRequested()
        }

fluffypillow

@SinisterSpatula you mean you'd like to use one fixed gamepad button, even if the user remapped it? Well, technically yes, it's possible, just note that there might be users who can't use that button (for whatever reason). If you still want to do it, at the moment the gamepad buttons are in the range 0x100000-0x10000F (eg. event.key == 0x10000A for Select). (They don't have fancy names like keyboard keys, but they should work fine.)

SinisterSpatula

I guess I'm thinking of a user remappable but optional button. In case a theme want's to utilize select to call up a special feature, but I guess this need goes away when theme settings screen becomes officially part of pegasus, but could still be useful, like a hotkey perhaps, so a theme could look for hotkey+[whatever button] combo to do something unique.

fluffypillow

Weekly update! Unfortunately I haven't had much time the past weeks, this one might be busy too, but I should have some more time in the next one. However, that doesn't mean there were no changes, in fact there have been a few interesting developments going on in the background:

Added Korean translation by @losernator (thanks!)
Linux: Preparations for Flatpak support. The next "stable" release might be available on Flathub.
- Maintainers: added AppStream metadata files (ie. software center support), and changed the desktop and icon file names to follow the specs more closely. The AppStream files can be installed by setting the INSTALL_APPSTREAMDIR config option.
Fixed a bug where Pegasus could crash when the launched game crashed

Meanwhile in the theme development thread @SinisterSpatula is playing with Pegasus on the Retroflag GPI, there are some very nice recordings of his progress too.