Demo mode (random starting of games) for ES/Retropie-menu

ProjectFirestart

@mth75 Please can you help me to resolve this issue? I want so hard this script towork but i get a permission error message when i run the script, then i kicked back to emulationstation. I followed instructions at letter. I use last Retropie version on Rpi4.

mth75

@projectfirestart

The issue seems to be not within the demoscript. I noticed this behaviour a few months ago, thinking that all the joy2key changes are the culprit. I reverted back to an older image and now I tried again. I updated to the latest retropie-setup and the script works again, although with pkill error. Looking into the pkill proces id resulted in ...!

ps -Flww -p 4762
F S UID        PID  PPID  C PRI  NI ADDR SZ WCHAN    RSS PSR STIME TTY          TIME CMD
5 S root      4762     1  0  80   0 -  5865 -      12284   0 21:09 tty1     00:00:00 python3 /opt/retropie/admin/joy2key/joy2key_sdl.py /dev/input/jsX kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x0a 0x20 0x1b 0x09 kpp knp

The script does not try to close Joy2Key, I think runcommand does?

Anyway: update to the latest RetroPie-Setup, I will try to iron out this annoying error message.

WeirdH

@mth75 Very cool, thanks for replying. Will update and test this weekend.

mth75

@weirdh @ProjectFirestart

Add:

sudo pkill -f joy2key_sdl.py

to demomode.sh.

Problem solved!

WeirdH

@mth75 The error message is gone, but it still doesn't switch games for me.

mth75

@weirdh said in Demo mode (random starting of games) for ES/Retropie-menu:

@mth75 The error message is gone, but it still doesn't switch games for me.

Are you running a RetroPie image or one of the pre-build images?

WeirdH

@mth75 Retropie image from the official site.

I was also thinking: I did update to the latest RetroPie-Setup, but didn't use it to install the script. Is it in there somewhere? Wouldn't a manual installation bypass the usage of the RetroPie-Setup?

mth75

@weirdh

no, the demoscript is on GitHub only and not part of RetroPie-Setup. I did not wrote a installscript for it.

https://github.com/mth75/retropie-demomode

@weirdh said in Demo mode (random starting of games) for ES/Retropie-menu:

Wouldn't a manual installation bypass the usage of the RetroPie-Setup?\

No.

wstanek

@mth75 Awesome script! Works great.

I am trying to get this to fire as a screen saver. I've added the required emulationstation script directory: (~/.emulationstation/scripts/screensaver-start/). I dropped demomode.sh in there but when I start the screensaver it doesn't get to it.

Any thoughts?

ws

WeirdH

@mth75 Okay, good to know. Could the issue be that I'm on a Pi3? I believe the RetroPie images don't use all the same folders when run on a Pi3 vs a Pi4 (stuff like gamelist.xml being in different locations if I'm not mistaken). For instance, the gamelist-addition for the demomode to show up uses another folder on my Pi3 than stated in your instructions.

buzzardbait

@mth75 This works great- awesome job. I'm going to try to tinker with the timing as mentioned above, but it totally works!

barbudreadmon

@mth75 fwiw, you could also use the timeout command, it closes a process after running it for X second (ex.: timeout 10 retroarch will run retroarch and close it after 10s), i use that a lot when running batch for debugging purpose.

ProjectFirestart

@mth75 Thank you very much for the support, i was out of hope then i saw your solution and now everything works! The only issue now, as stated above, the game dosn't change after 60 seconds, what could be te cause? I use a vanilla Retropie image updated on Rpi4.

ProjectFirestart

Ok, looks like i figured it out, i was using a wired Dual Shock 4 controller and even if i not using it for 60 seconds it refuses to swap game, maybe because it feels the controller. If i run script with a keyboard and no gamepad connected it actually change. Hope it helps.

WeirdH

@weirdh said in Demo mode (random starting of games) for ES/Retropie-menu:

@mth75 Okay, good to know. Could the issue be that I'm on a Pi3? I believe the RetroPie images don't use all the same folders when run on a Pi3 vs a Pi4 (stuff like gamelist.xml being in different locations if I'm not mistaken). For instance, the gamelist-addition for the demomode to show up uses another folder on my Pi3 than stated in your instructions.

Does anybody know if being on a Pi 3 instead of a 4 would cause me the non-game-switching issue due to differing directory structures?

ProjectFirestart

@weirdh said in Demo mode (random starting of games) for ES/Retropie-menu:

@weirdh said in Demo mode (random starting of games) for ES/Retropie-menu:

@mth75 Okay, good to know. Could the issue be that I'm on a Pi3? I believe the RetroPie images don't use all the same folders when run on a Pi3 vs a Pi4 (stuff like gamelist.xml being in different locations if I'm not mistaken). For instance, the gamelist-addition for the demomode to show up uses another folder on my Pi3 than stated in your instructions.

Does anybody know if being on a Pi 3 instead of a 4 would cause me the non-game-switching issue due to differing directory structures?

Did you tried unplug or turn off any controller before start demo mode? It will refuse to switch game if any controller is detected, apparently it only works properly if you start it with a usb keyboard input (and is pretty reasonable i guess).

WeirdH

@projectfirestart No, I have a cab with all the controls semi-permanently hooked up (but no separate controllers connected beside that). My keyboard doesn't navigate Emulationstation, so I don't know how I would ever even start demo mode without my sticks and buttons plugged in...

ProjectFirestart

@weirdh said in Demo mode (random starting of games) for ES/Retropie-menu:

@projectfirestart No, I have a cab with all the controls semi-permanently hooked up (but no separate controllers connected beside that). My keyboard doesn't navigate Emulationstation, so I don't know how I would ever even start demo mode without my sticks and buttons plugged in...

I think this is the issue because Demo mode script will never switch if a controller is detected, that is my case anyway, otherwise the game might swap when you play it so it's totally resonable to disable demo mode with an active controller. Author of script might suggest some workaround if possible.

ProjectFirestart

Also we should learn how to point script to evade xml files because those are not needed to run and breaks the demo mode, the script is complex and i have no idea how to set an exception for xml files, hope author can help us here!

mth75

@ProjectFirestart said in Demo mode (random starting of games) for ES/Retropie-menu:

Also we should learn how to point script to evade xml files because those are not needed to run and breaks the demo mode, the script is complex and i have no idea how to set an exception for xml files, hope author can help us here!

Check GitHub ...