Game launching video loading screens

Unboundclassic

@mitu Perfect! Thank you so much! I've been trying to figure this one out for a long time.

So for anyone wanting to run these Runcommand videos and have audio on an i2s sound board here's the script that worked for me.

# Extract file name from called ROM
 gname="$(basename "$3")"
 # build path to file and remove extension from ROM to add mp4 extension
 # $HOME variable will help users that are not stick to raspberry ;)
 ifgame="$HOME/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/${gname%.*}.mp4"
 ifsystem="$HOME/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/$1.mp4"
 default="$HOME/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/default.mp4"

 # If condition to check filename with -f switch, f means regular file
 if [[ -f $ifgame ]]; then
     omxplayer -o alsa "$ifgame" > /dev/null 2>&1
 elif [[ -f $ifsystem ]]; then
      omxplayer -o alsa "$ifsystem" > /dev/null 2>&1
 elif [[ -f $default ]]; then
    omxplayer -o alsa "$default" > /dev/null 2>&1
 fi

Unboundclassic

Also here's the set of Runcommand videos I made for my Game Gear Pi if anyone wants to use them. I need to take some time and do HD versions at some point. Rookervik Style Runcommand Videos

gus_sc

One of my pet peeves with this setup is the total loading time = Total video runtime + total game loading time.
My solution to this is making the call to omxplayer fork, and it immediately gets on with loading the game, "behind" the playing video.
Most of my (arcade) roms load faster then the usual runtime of the videos, but by the time I finish the video it's run throught he boot initialization and is asking for a coin.
If this also irks you:

(<any of the above calls>)&

Since I don't use sound and I'm using a per-rom set of loading screens :

(omxplayer "$ifgame" > /dev/null 2>&1) &

Clyde

@gus_sc I once tried this with launching images, but it created some irritant effects:

this will create a strange behavior of the keyboard's Enter key in the emulator, which is especially annoying in MAME's Tab menu: Pressing Enter will either exit the Emulator or do other strange things like running Emulation Station a second time. It seems like another terminal is running in the background that reacts to the keyboard inputs in the running game.

See https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/24671/loading-rom-completely-while-displaying-launch-image/ for the complete thread about it.

Does your method have any such effects?

PISCES3988

Can Someone Please help me with this!?

Hi, I need help with getting game launching video loading screens to work on my
Raspberry 3B+ on Emulation Station. I'm new to this so can you help me step by step so I can learn how to do this on my own. The reason why I want help with this is, I followed the 3 steps, like step 1 create copy of omxplayer file, I typed cd/usr/bin then I typed sudo cp omxplayer omxplayer_silent, pressed enter, then I typed sudo nano omxplayer_silent. When I did this, this command worked. Then I scrolled down to the end of line like the directions tell me where it says, LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$OMXPLAYER_LIBS${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}" $OMXPLAYER_BIN “$@"

Then I typed the text that says,

LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$OMXPLAYER_LIBS${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}" $OMXPLAYER_BIN "$@" > /dev/null 2>&1

Then I press CTRL-X Press: Y Press: <enter> when I did this, this also worked. Then step 2 edit the runcommand-onstart.sh script, okay so I typed on the command line the commands and I pressed enter after each one, when I did this, this also worked. So I typed the lines:

enablevideolaunch="true"
if [[ $enablevideolaunch == "true" ]]; then
gname=echo $3 |cut -f7 -d "/" |sed 's/.\{4\}$//'
ifgame=ls "/home/pi/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/${gname}.mp4" |wc -l
ifsystem=ls /home/pi/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/$1.mp4 |wc -l

if [[ $ifgame > 0 ]];then
omxplayer_silent --blank "/home/pi/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/${gname}.mp4"
elif [[ $ifsystem > 0 ]];then
omxplayer_silent --blank /home/pi/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/$1.mp4
else
omxplayer_silent --blank /home/pi/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/default.mp4
fi
fi

when I typed all the lines in the runcommand-onstart.sh then I pressed CTRL-X pressed Y pressed <enter>

When I did this, this also worked but when I get to step 3, this is what happens on step 3 create a new folder to store mp4 files. I typed the command cd /home/pi/Retropie then I pressed enter this step did'nt work for me all I get instead is a message that says,

-bash: cd/home/pi/Retropie: No such file or directory

when that did'nt work I tried typing the command mkdir videoloadingscreens that did'nt work either all I got was the message that says,

mkdir: cannot create directory videoloadingscreens file exists

this is the problem I'm having with trying to do this. I can't go beyond step 3 create a new folder to store mp4 files. Is it something I'm doing wrong? This is why I'm asking for someone to help me with this.....

Clyde

@pisces3988 According to the opening post, you don't have to copy omxplayer anymore:

There's no longer any need to create a duplicate copy of omxplayer. Just the runcommand-onstart.sh addition and then MP4 files.

As for your problem with cd, the directory's name is RetroPie with an upper case P. Linux' file and directory names are case sensitive, so Retropie is a different dir than RetroPie.

mkdir: cannot create directory videoloadingscreens file exists

That means just that: there already is a file or directory with this name. Any chance that you created it before? Can you cd into it?

PISCES3988

@clyde

I can't remember if I did or not.

Clyde

@clyde said in Game launching video loading screens:

Can you cd into it?

PISCES3988

@clyde
Yeah I'll try, but what else do I type after cd

Clyde

@pisces3988 cd means "change directory". It's followed by the directory name or path to change into. So, cd videoloadingscreens will (try to) change into that directory.

BUT since your cd /home/pi/RetroPie failed before, your mkdir videoloadingscreens (mkdir = make directory) very likely tried to create videoloadingscreens not in RetroPie like the instructions say, but in your user pi's home directory. So, let's try to do it right:

cd /home/pi/RetroPie     # mind the upper case!
mkdir videoloadingscreens

If there are no error messages from these commands, go on with step 4.

PISCES3988

@clyde
Thankyou clyde it worked, now what do I do?

Clyde

@pisces3988 At which point of the instructions are you?

PISCES3988

@clyde
I can't remember

PISCES3988

@clyde

because I've done this quite a few times already but can't get it to work

Clyde

@pisces3988 It's impossible for me to say what you should do if you yourself don't know at which step you are.

I would suggest that you start over and note every step taken, every result (success, problems etc.), and report here if you're either stuck or done.

PISCES3988

@clyde
ok thanks for trying to help me.

PISCES3988

@clyde

Hi Clyde about the other day when you said to note every step of where I'm at with the videoloading screens, Well, here I'am agian this is where I'm at with this. I'll try my best to explain everything to the best of my ability.

I've type the runcommand-onstart.sh here is the one I typed.
I've created the videoloading screens folder, The weird thing is on Putty, or directly on the Raspberry Pi 3B+, it says that the videoloading screens folder is created but when I select and start a game it says,

"$HOME/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/default.mp4" not found or something like
that.

I've tried to add the mp4 files where I put them at is, home/pi/retropie/videoloadingscreens folder this is where I put the mp4 files. Agian when I selected and start a game It says,

"$HOME/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/default.mp4" not found, this is pretty much where I'm at with this. Am I doing something write or wrong please tell me and guide me through this Thanks a million.

dmmarti

@pisces3988
Briefly looking at it, you have a situation where "case sensitivity" might be happening.

/home/pi/RetroPie

is not the same as

/home/pi/retropie

You need to make sure you created the videoloadingscreens folder in the correct location.

/home/pi/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens

Notice the capital "R" and "P" in RetroPie ... make sure you are using that path, not the all lowercase version.

PISCES3988

@dmmarti

That's the way I typed it but it still did'nt work.

mitu

@pisces3988 Run, from the terminal

ls $HOME/RetroPie/videoloadingscreens/

and post the output.