Core settings per folder possible?

rmbell34

Hello. Is it possible to apply core settings per rom folder? In my example I have a folder for nes games named "nes" and a folder for famicom games named "famicom". I am using Nestopia emulator for both roms folders.

I like to use shaders and overlays for my retroarch games. I have a nes overlay and a famicom overlay. Right now if I save core overlays with the nes overlay, it will apply the nes overlay to both "nes" folder roms and "famicom" folder roms since they both use nestopia.cfg for the core config.

I can create individual game configs, but was hoping I could apply settings per folder if possible. Ideally I have a "nes" folder config applied to all nes games and a "famicom" folder config applied to all famicom games.

Thanks so much for your help!

Folly

@rmbell34

I am assuming you use "lr-nestopia", right !
I had a look in the module-script.

If you install lr-nestopia it makes 2 systems with seperate configs and 2 rom folders :

nes (Nintendo Entertainment System)
fds (Famicom Disk System)

Extra core configs are in :

/opt/retropie/configs/nes/
/opt/retropie/configs/fds/

I have not tested this for you, but it seems you can use the "fds" directory (instead of famicom) for this purpose.

rmbell34

@folly Hi there! Thanks so much for the reply! I am using lr-nestopia you are correct. Also I am using fds already with an fds overlay for Famicom Disk System games and that works. I have another folder just for famicom games since they are separate from fds games. Can I do something similar for those?

Folly

@rmbell34

Do you like to do an experiment ?
Don't blame me if it goes wrong, haha ;-)

Make backups of your configs, to be sure you don't lose anything !

I think you can do this :

Add this in /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/platforms.cfg (add or change your desired extensions ! ) :

famicom_exts=".7z .nes .fds .zip"
famicom_fullname="Famicom"

Add these lines on the appropriate places in /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/libretrocores/lr-nestopia.sh :

mkRomDir "famicom"
ensureSystemretroconfig "famicom"
addEmulator 1 "$md_id" "famicom" "$md_inst/nestopia_libretro.so"
addSystem "famicom"

Then update lr-nestopia from the RetroPie-Setup.

Let me know if this works for you !

rmbell34

@folly HI again! Sorry it took me so long to reply. I tried what you had suggested and I am still not able to have a per folder config file. It looks like when I save the core config for Nestopia it saves it to:

/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/config/Nestopia/Nestopia.cfg

Anytime I launch a game using Nestopia it will pull it from that config apparently. If I do an individual game config like for example "Final Fantasy II (JP).cfg" then that will override it and work properly.

Any thoughts? Its not the end of the world if I have to make a per game config file. I just wondered if I am doing more work than I need to. Again I appreciate all your help!

Folly

@rmbell34

Ok, that's not really what i hoped.

Is the nestopia.cfg a retroarch config ?
Did you save it through the retroarch menu ?

Then I think you have to extract the lines you need for your overlays and place them into the system specific configs :

/opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg
/opt/retropie/configs/fds/retroarch.cfg
/opt/retropie/configs/famicom/retroarch.cfg

It shoud be the lines like this :

# Enable the overlay.
# input_overlay_enable = true
# Hide the current overlay from appearing inside the menu.
# input_overlay_hide_in_menu = true
# Path to input overlay.
# input_overlay =
# Opacity of all the UI elements of the overlay.
# input_overlay_opacity = 1.0
# Scale of all UI elements of the overlay.
# input_overlay_scale = 1.0
# Toggles to next overlay. Wraps around.
# input_overlay_next =
# Overlay directory. Where overlays are kept for easy access.
# overlay_directory =

Try to extract which config is loaded in /dev/shm/runcommand.log after you ran a game.

rmbell34

@folly @folly Hey bud, I really appreciate your help so far. I am following what you are saying, but still have an issue. So I tried to save retroarch.cfg like you suggested. Here is where I am at:

NES - I saved /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg - everything works correctly when I launch a game from the nes folder. I have the correct shader, configs, and overlay.

Famicom - I saved /opt/retropie/configs/famicom/retroarch.cfg - it still reads from /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg when using nestopia. Is there a way I can tell RetroPie to use the retroarch config from /opt/retropie/configs/famicom/retroarch.cfg when I launch games in the famicom folder?

I think if this is possible then my problem will be solved. Thanks again!

Folly

@rmbell34

Basically, if it works for one system, it should work for more, unless some games still use game specific configs.
You have to check this by pressing a key if you run the game. (when you see the retropie load screen)
In this menu you can also enable verbose mode !
If you then check your dev/shm/runcommand.log it will contain more information that you can use to debug.

Your emulators.cfg in /opt/retropie/configs/famicom has to contain this :

lr-nestopia = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-nestopia/nestopia_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/famicom/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
default = "lr-nestopia"

This is the command the famicom system uses as when starting a game.
You can see it should load /opt/retropie/configs/famicom/retroarch.cfg

You also have to know that, if you use a libretro-core, the runcommand script will also check for game specific configs in the rom directory (where the game is).
Like explained here :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2638/vectrex-overlay-artwork/5

I hope you can use this information to solve your problem.

rmbell34

@folly It worked! Thanks so much! That was the issue. I needed to change the emulators.cfg to tell it where the retroarch.cfg was in the famicom folder. Thanks again!

Folly

@rmbell34 said in Core settings per folder possible?:

@folly It worked! Thanks so much! That was the issue. I needed to change the emulators.cfg to tell it where the retroarch.cfg was in the famicom folder. Thanks again!

Great to hear it is working.

Curious,
what lines did you have in the famicom emulators.cfg ?

It should have added it when you updated your patched lr-nestopia.