Getting the rom name and emulator

Sano

You could try something like

sleep 5
while [$(pidof retroarch)]
    do
    *script to scroll once*
    sleep 5
done

Lauched in background by runcommand-onstart.

daveyman123

20 bucks to @meleu it is

meleu

@cyperghost it's not a joke! Consider yourself invited. Any game is fun with enough alcohol and friends. :-)

meleu

Let's get back on topic...

@daveyman123 usually your python script scrolls the text only once or keeps looping the text?

cyperghost

@sano I think it isn't a matter of the retroarch-PID more that the script does anyting.
But it's a nice catch to end a process by watching the retroarch-PID.

@meleu and me descriped also ways to terminate a running script :)

And thanks for the invitation. It's very unlikely that I ever enter brazil, but as I said never say never and market development changes quickly. My next stops will be more east .... romania, bulgaria, russia, belarussia...

daveyman123

@meleu
scrolls the text once. I would like it to eventually loop. but right now it stops as soon as the game actually launches

meleu

@daveyman123 got it. I'll try something when I get home (it means 4 or 5 hours).

daveyman123

@meleu
oh gosh

I may have it figured out by then ;)

cyperghost

@meleu @daveyman123 It's late here - going to sleep.
Good night mates

@daveyman123
That's the wrong intention. The script should do the loop not a bash file. The bash file should only tell changes. Because you always load the python interpreter again and again and this will waste resources and even the python language gives you much much controll over strings. So I would rather use python intead of bash.

@meleu will certainly find an easy and working solution ;)

meleu

@daveyman123 said in Getting the rom name and emulator:

I may have it figured out by then ;)

better yet!

cyperghost

@daveyman123 said in Getting the rom name and emulator:

I will look into cyperghost's loop.sh example again and see if that works to put the python script in there

The loop example is useless. You should look the runcommand-onstart.shand how scripts are called and running in background. If you were able to readout files you can simply write the romname via echo $3 to a file or you can directly call the python script with $3 command.

I think @meleu will do a nice job but meanwhile you can also try to find a solution. I'm 100% sure you find one!
Good night

meleu

@daveyman123 Here are some ideas to let you find the solution yourself...

Use this code as inspiration for your runcommand-onstart.sh:

# getting the rom name with no full path and no extension
rom_name="$(basename "${3%.*}")"

# running the python script in background
sudo /path/to/python/code.py "$rom_name" &

This one as inspiration for your runcommand-onend.sh:

# killing the python script
sudo pkill -f "/path/to/python/code.py"

And this one as inspiration for your python script:

#!/usr/bin/python

# I don't know if it's right, just used @daveyman123 code as example
from UHScroll import *
import unicornhat as unicorn

import time sys

while True:
    # I have no idea if this command is right, I just used @daveyman123 code as example
    unicorn_scroll(sys.argv[1], 'white', 255, 0.2)

    # I have no idea if 5 seconds is OK, adapt it to your needs
    time.sleep(5)

daveyman123

@meleu
there is still the problem of (i dont know if i mentioned it) the unicorn only scrolls through ONCE (even if i include a loop in python) then it will play a random sequence of lights. I.E. it reads "JIM" or "GOLDEN" in "GOLDENEYE". But as soon as the game launches it freezes or plays random lights.

My fear is it has something to do with the pins being messed with by retropie. I have not tried to replicate the problem on raspbian.. but I may have to try that.

What I have tried:
making sure audio isnt interfering with the unicorn hat pins (i.e. setting the audio output to hdmi)
and obviously have tried making the python script run in the background

Sano

@meleu said in Getting the rom name and emulator:

sudo /path/to/python/code.py "$rom_name" &

Try to modify this line like this :

sudo nohup /path/to/python/code.py "$rom_name" &

daveyman123

@Sano
nohup was nohelp... lol

something is happening at the level of the pins i believe

Sano

Ok sorry, could you try

nohup sudo /path/to/python/code.py "$rom_name" &

(possibly with quotes)
I'm pretty sure it's because the parent process (runcommand-onstart) terminates before game launch, so the child are killed, including your script.
This could be solved with the use of nohup, if I ever remember the correct syntax with sudo...

daveyman123

@sano

does nothing when i do that

my hunch is it has to do with the support for GPIO controllers in retropie. I could be wrong

daveyman123

nah thats not it. The driver packages for GPIO controllers isnt installed

daveyman123

I got it to work with a different game "super mario for snes" so... the problem must be in the emulator settings

daveyman123

I think ive pretty much figured it out boys thanks to your help

first one to link their paypal gets 20 dollars when freelancer clears