Simple enough stuff being hard to find.

Xeon

A big problem with retropie so far is basic easy stuff being hard to find and google leading you to out dated topics.

for example..
where do i put files for the video screen saver?

What files are supported?

How do i enable usb sound?

Why do bios files just get dumped into a single folder for all emulators?

Another thing is that you have downloaded a recent build... but you need to update.. and changes can make what worked before suddenly not work... so now you try endless guides with no luck.

Eventually this leads to a lot of topics made.. none are indexed when solved...

incunabula

I disagree. I think the documentation that exists for Retropie is bountiful, easy to follow and covers 99% of use cases. If you want a completely documented system with technical support perhaps you should use a Windows 10 PC from a large OEM like HP or Dell. Very few (if any) linux-based projects ever have great documentation updated in sync with the code. Writing technical docs is something that pays very well in the real world, so who wants to do it for free as a hobby? Do you?

Xeon

@incunabula

Actually
That sounds like a good idea.
I think in my spare time i will look for verified topics and put together a mini guides as they are solved.

i will submit it to the retro pie team and they can decide to post or not :)

Also... guys... i keep hearing these comments on full PC's like I have never seen one.

I am on my 12th PC, born 1983 even had a Apple 2e, mac 2nd gen, spectrum ZX, sega megadrive 2, nes, snes, ps1, ps2, ps3, xbox, xbox 360, wii.

I was not born in a ditch my pc's ranged XT, 286, 386, 486 66Mhz, 75Mhz, 166Mhz, 600Mhz riva tnt2, 1700 MHz geforce 440, 2200MHz geforce 4800 x16, x2 2700MHz 8600GT, 6x 3300MHz 7890 HD....

I have rebuilt and had several laptops, some real old school gems.

I really don't need people treating me like the pi is my first pc ever or that i don't know any better.
Those if you that has seen my IP on this site know where i am from.. if you met me you would eat every thought you had and rethink it all.

I am really a very nice guy, a bit direct, but actually nice.

The fact that i only have 1 arm on my body and am typing this with it proves this.

Xeon

To be honest.. i love the hell out of this project and think everything done so far is really great work.
Could not be more proud of it's community.

Xeon

Downvoted.. no argument made.
No reason given.

The butthurt is over 9000

Xeon

Not even going to try help.
Please delete this thread i don't care anymore.

Xeon

For example.. AGAIN.. https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Sound-Issues/
These guides do not work.

But you can just downvote and achieve less.

Xeon

This was what ended up working
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11847/rpi-usb-audio-woes-and-other-zombies/18

I was told after this that this is wrong too with no explanation why and no explanation how to do it correctly.

I am not un thankful to those that helped, i really appreciate all the guys that make a effort to assist.

edmaul69

This post is deleted!

Hex

@Xeon I can help you out with your sound issues. Can you elaborate on that or paste a link to another post if already posted.

Xeon

@hex
Just using this as a example.
You did the best you can to help.

Hex

@Xeon yea I remembered you asking and I helping. Were you able to get it running. ?

The thing is we do not have many "doccumentors" and devs would rather code than explain. Devs see world in a different color than users. This makes devs generally the worst people to document. What is obvious to devs is not obvious at all to users. You can help solve this problem for us.

If you would like to volunteer I would gladly explain to you all my contributions to ES in depth so you can pen them down.

Xeon

@hex
Sounds like a great plan.

We can meet on teamspeak or create a retropie dischord group too.
The community is growing.

I did get it to work but afterward i had a glitch, i just need to verify if it was the power supply or messing with usb devices that created the problem afterward.

Hex

@Xeon we have an irc channel on freenode #retropie.

Fix a time mutually and let us know. Devs can help you out. Make a thread for this so devs/users can tag along

Xeon

@hex Cool
Will get something planned.

Hex

@Xeon I understand the frustrations of not having good documentation. I am writing an emulator interface for Nokia mobile games and the framework has non existent documentation. Still things looks promising once you gain traction.

Why did you need Moderators/admins for ?

pjft

The video screensaver uses the videos from your gamelists. A simple question will get the answers.

Documentation is on my TO DO list.

Hex

@pjft I bet nearly every dev says this.

pjft

@hex TO DO is the short version for "to document".

EctoOne

where do i put files for the video screen saver?
How do i enable usb sound?

I don't know but I also don't care. So I can't help with that.

What files are supported?

That is no Simple Stuff. What files do you speak off? Video Screensaver files (probably most that Linux supports), Roms (that's mostly covered in the Docs) or what?

Why do bios files just get dumped into a single folder for all emulators?

I guess for simplicity. At least for me that was easy to understand. Bios in the Bios folder, games in the roms folder.

Another thing is that you have downloaded a recent build... but you need to update.. and changes can make what worked before suddenly not work... so now you try endless guides with no luck.

Show me any OS nowadays that doesn't wants to update after a fresh installation. And you don't NEED to update if you don't want to. I personally update only once in a while when I know there's something that I want and then I'm willing to take the risk of breaking things. Good thing is that it is pretty easy to simply backup/restore a SD card.

Eventually this leads to a lot of topics made.. none are indexed when solved...

That's not the fault of the Retropie Devs, it's more a general problem today. People just want to get answers without searching for it. And when they have it they don't care anymore.

My personal opinion is, that this community is pretty awesome when it comes to helping and general caring for the project. Yet this project is for the biggest part maintained by like two people in their free time, plus some individuals which do their own magic to make things better. So I'm not surprised that not everything is documented but I also see that as a challenge to figure something out.
And then there is the wiki where everyone can contribute. But if it is kinda obvious that people don't use it to gain information I can understand why no one wants to keep updating it (I've seen that before when I soly was writing guides on a site and still every day there was a question in the forum that was covered in the wiki).