Runcommand System Splashscreens!

Rookervik

These are just some tweaks users can add if they want. Jools was nice enough to allow this type of hacking around. As default, it is best if the information window display rather than a picture. It's good for starting your system from scratch and knowing where to find error logs. Knowing what emulator is launching and what game. That information is hidden using these images. So let's not make it default. But you're more than welcome to use these if you like them. :D

hiulit

Hey everyone!
I'm running Retropie 4.1.3 on a Raspberry Pi 1 and I've installed a couple of launching.png and they look amazing! Thanks @Rookervik ;)
What doesn't seem work at all when they are enabled is the runcommand.
I keep hitting "any button" to enter the configuration GUI but it keeps ignoring me and taking me to the game.
I tried disabling the spashscreens to see what would happen and it works.

I double-checked it just in case, and the runcommand has been always enabled.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any ideas?
Thanks!

herb_fargus

@hiulit mash js0 a few times.

meleu

@hiulit you must to know what is the button 0 (zero) and 1 (one) on your first controller detected by the system (/dev/input/js0), and keep pushing it right after the image disappear (actually you have 2 seconds to press it after the image is gone).

UPDATE: now you can use any connected controller, not only the js0.

hiulit

Thanks @herb_fargus @meleu ! I'll try it right now.
But is this behaviour related to having the splash screens enabled? Because when I don't have them enabled I can hit any button.

hiulit

Ok, the trick was to wait until the image is gone. They it seems that I can hit any button (at least using a keyboard, which I'm using right now)

meleu

@hiulit Sorry, I said it wrong. The buttons 0 and 1 work.

AFAIK the joystick buttons mapped to a key stroke when runcommand is running are the 0 (mapped to <enter>) and 1 (mapped to <tab>). So, I think that both work.

hiulit

Is there any reason why it doesn't work while the image is showing? Just wondering,

hiulit

@meleu It seems that actually any button works, when using a keyboard at least. I've tried: enter, space, 0, t, a and they all worked :)

meleu

@hiulit said in Runcommand System Splashscreens!:

at least using a keyboard, which I'm using right now

yeah! you can hit any key on keyboard.

actually you are able to use the joystick buttons only because two of them (the 0 and 1) are mapped to act like key stroke. ;-)

hiulit

@meleu We are overlapping each other with questions and answers xD

meleu

@hiulit yeah! Hope that it is clear now. :)

If you are really curious, the line that get this input is this:

read -s -t 2 -N 1 key

The meaning of those arguments:

-s: do not echo the key pressed
-t 2: wait 2 seconds for input
-N 1: get only one char as input and stop
key: the variable (irrelevant in this case)

hiulit

@hiulit said in Runcommand System Splashscreens!:

Is there any reason why it doesn't work while the image is showing? Just wondering,

I don't know exactly if you last reply was about this question in particular.
But in any case, where can I find this line? Can I play with it? Or is too risky?

Thanks again @meleu

meleu

Not sure if you are comfortable with Linux, etc. But let's try... :-)

Is there any reason why it doesn't work while the image is showing? Just wondering,

The image is shown by a tool named fbi. While this tool is running, that read can't get input from the keyboard.

Initially we tried running fbi in background, it would allow the read to get input while the image is showing, but it seems to bring some issues.

But in any case, where can I find this line?

In you system, the file is /opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh.

The github bersion is here: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/blob/master/scriptmodules/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh

The line is the 882.

Can I play with it? Or is too risky?

Well, the Raspberry Pi is a tool for learning, right? :-)

My opinion is: you can play with your local runcommand, if you mess something, you can allways reinstall it using the retropie_setup. ;-)

hiulit

@meleu Thanks for this little tutorial. I'll take a look just the fun of learning ;)

hiulit

So now that we know, thanks to @meleu, that in order to access the configuration GUI you have to wait until the image is gone, I have a following question.
@Rookervik, Do you think it would be a good idea to change the sentence Press a button to configure launching options to something like Wait until the image/splashscreen is gone and press a button to configure launching options or Press a button when the image/splashscreen is gone to configure launching options or something like this?
Let me explain myself.
I think Press a button to configure launching options is kind of a misleading message right now because it's telling you to do something but this something doesn't actually work when the message is showing and I get the feeling that people will get frustrated or won't understand why nothing is happening.
At least that's exactly what happened to me :P
Or maybe it could mentioned in the tutorial, as a a warning or something.

Anyway, I hope I didn't sound too harsh.
Cheers!

Dochartaigh

Question: these PNG's are 480x272 pixels in size. Raspberry Pi outputs in 1080p over HDMI which is 1920x1080 pixels. Does the default launch screen (just text basically) default to the old-school ~320x240 or ~640x480 video game console resolution (i.e. ~240p or ~480i) of the emulator it's launching?

OR, are these very small PNG's meant to be blown-up 400% thus becoming very pixelated? ...just wanted to know before I take the time to install these. It's expected for the video games themselves to be pixelated, but just like the RetroPie menus and such are in HD resolution, if I was going to change my launch screens I would likewise want them to be in a matching resolution (and not pixelated which it looks like they would be with the image specs I've looked at so far).

Rookervik

@Dochartaigh Mm, these images are from the Pixel theme - they're meant to be pixellated. If you're not a fan of pixels, you should probably avoid this pack. LOL.

Dochartaigh

@Rookervik said in Runcommand System Splashscreens!:

@Dochartaigh Mm, these images are from the Pixel theme - they're meant to be pixellated. If you're not a fan of pixels, you should probably avoid this pack. LOL.

lol, maybe - I was just looking for some splashscreens to replace the boring text, and somebody else on this forum linked me here!

...but the question still stands, because if you're going for the nice, clean, yet pixelated look (which CAN be cool!), these would look 100 times better if they were at 1080p resolution (again, assuming the splashscreens are in the native Pi's 1080p HDMI resolution...which they very well may not be ;)

Rookervik

@Dochartaigh Actually, these look 100% the same stretched to full screen since the fbi program scales just like ES does... nearest neighbor. There is no buffered rendering or anything. It's stretched pixel perfect. So the only thing that would be different with 1080p wallpapers it that it would take longer to load them, and they would fill up more of your drive space.