new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!)

Folly

When trying the kgradius handheld I realised that many systems that have no media also work good with lr-mess.

It would be nice if I can implement this in the script, so there are also scripts generated for the <none> media systems.

I am now working on a part in the script so scripts can be generated that can run "command files" (.cmd).
I already created a lr-mess alike script to test the theory and this works.
But I want to connect the separate custom-core-configs. That can be a challange.

Nice thing about the .cmd script is that it doesn't use the run_mess from valerino anymore.
Also multiple media can be booted in one time.
And maybe we can add autoboot functions also. (I think a database is required)
Drawback is that you have to make .cmd files for your games to run. (Maybe they can be generated automatically)
But perhaps you can also use an "autodetect media" function.

For those handhelds this could also be a solution.
And I think it can be sorted on, for example "Game and Watch".
So the all the game and watch games come in the game and watch section.
As described in my kgradius post, standard the game file is now in the BIOS directory.
Alternatively it should be good to use the roms/system directory for this instead.

I have to stucture this and come up with a good idea to implement this.

Good idea ?

DTEAM

@folly

For systems from Tutorial: Handheld and Plug & Play systems with MAME It should be nice to set It with your approach. The challenge will be the games controllers mapping. With MAME standalone It's pretty easy to set up, but It should be the same if people go in the MAME / MESS setting menu with Lr-Mess.

On my side I'll try a reverse approch. I'll try to run GP32 with MAME standalone. Will see what will happens.--> no success for now

Folly

@dteam

I don't have the script ready yet but it's progressing.
I already installed the first extra generated script for gameandwatch to test some things. ( still have to do a lot with extensions and perhaps configs )
I don't know why, but I didn't even need a custom .cmd file,
I could just run the .zip from the games roms directory.

Sadly I came across a problem with the artwork in combination with lr-mess.
It seems that they are in high resolution and forces lr-mess to also run in that resolution.
Then the game isn't playable anymore because it becomes really slow.
Autoskipping seems to work but doesn't have the effect needed.

Do you have some expertise in how these layouts files are written ?
I would like to make a layout for just the display in low resolution format.
For example 800x600, just to test if it improves speed and also have the game in fullscreen.

DTEAM

@folly
Did you run It on a Pi4 or Pi3.
Did you run It with Lr-Mess or MAME. Frameskip must be set to auto. I run It with MAME.

config.txt (me, screen setup)
hdmi_group = 1
hdmi_mode = 4

I,ll give you my setup for Pi3 and Pi4 later today

Folly

@dteam said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!):

@folly
Did you run It on a Pi4 or Pi3.
Did you run It with Lr-Mess or MAME. Frameskip must be set to auto. I run It with MAME.

config.txt (me, screen setup)
hdmi_group = 1
hdmi_mode = 4

I,ll give you my setup for Pi3 and Pi4 later today

I use a PI4 and lr-mess.

DTEAM

@folly

Ok
Sorry, I showed you my setup for Pi3

I played Zelda (Game and Watch) and I completed It at full speed (frameskip = auto) on a Pi3 with the artworks and with MAME standalone. Maybe It's a problem with frameskip and lr-Mess.

For Pi4, I run It on a small screen (5 inch), so my setup not gonna work on a regular TV

PI4
config.txt

hdmi_force_hotplug=1

#OVERCLOCK
over_voltage=8
v3d_freq=850
arm_freq=2100
#--------------------------------------------------------------

#dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
#overscan_scale=1
avoid_warnings=1
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=1
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_cvt=800 480 60 6 0 0 0
dtparam=spi=on
dtparam=i2c_arm=on

disable_audio_dither=1

For Pi3 (must be use with a 5,25 V 3 A Power Adapter) for normal TV
config.txt

hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=4

#OVERCLOCK
gpu_mem=128
kernel=zImage
arm_freq=1375
core_freq=525
gpu_freq=525
over_voltage=3
force_turbo=1
sdram_freq=625
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=4
over_voltage_sdram_i=3
over_voltage_sdram_c=3
dtparam=sd_overclock=100

Folly

@dteam

I see you you use overclocking on both.
Thanks for sharing.
If I have the time then I think I have to try the standalone first and see what happens.

Also tried kgradius with artwork on lr-mess, but crashes if artwork is added/used.
So perhaps I want too much from lr-mess.

valerino

dudes, just wanted to say hi :)
i'm really glad my work has been so appreciated and continued by the community !

really thans, i didn't expected that!!!!

v.

Folly

@valerino said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!):

dudes, just wanted to say hi :)
i'm really glad my work has been so appreciated and continued by the community !

really thans, i didn't expected that!!!!

v.

Nice thing about your approach is, that we now can play with many systems that we normally couldn't emulate.
( At least not in a libretro way )

So thats a big plus !!!

The first system I used I on was the Phililps CDI.
And now many followed.

Who knows where it ends.
Thank you for the start of this all ;-)

Folly

@DTEAM

This is a proof of concept :
Overlay for the gameandwatch/handheld in lr-mess.

I discovered that if we use the mame artwork with lr-mess, these games aren't playable anymore.
Also I wanted the game on the whole screen, including a background.

With vecrex (lr-vecx) many add an overlay from within Retroarch.
So I figured, I can try this also on lr-mess.

The commandline produced by the script doesn't load the overlay yet.
So I made a manual one for now. (I hope I can implement this in the scripts or configs)

And there you have it, the proof of concept with fullscreen, playable and also ok in different resolutions :

DTEAM

@folly
This is very nice. If I understand. You are able to convert MAME Artworks to be usable with retroarch. If It's that... It's excellent ! Or you are using a functionality in Lr-Mess (with Vectrex) and you are using that for handheld games and the Artworks stay in the MAME Artworks folder (great also).

Folly

@dteam said in new scriptmodules (lr-vice-xvic, gsplus, proper lr-mess integration!):

@folly
This is very nice. If I understand. You are able to convert MAME Artworks to be usable with retroarch. If It's that... It's excellent !

Yes, the first one.
I just get the background picture from the mame artwork.
Then I use Retroarch to do the overlay with some configs.
Thats about it.

Cool isn't it !

EDIT :
It looks promising now.
I was thinking that my script wasn't good.
But it turns out runcommand.sh only appends configs if the name or id of the installed script begins with "lr-*" .
As my "id-name" began with cmd within the script.
No configs are appended.

Found this by searching for '|' in the runcommand script.
(first with grep then in a texteditor)

So I converted the id-names in this, manually made, script into "lr-mess-gameandwatch".
Now the artwork is automatically appended when running the rom.
Discovered that the filename, of the script, doesn't matter.

Tested this with running a .zip and also a .cmd.
Both work, but remember you have to match the config file with the game file like this :
1 - (konamih handheld example working with lr-mess command script)
kgradius.zip
kgradius.zip.cfg
or
2 - (konamih handheld example working with lr-mess command script)
kgradius.cmd
kgradius.cmd.cfg

For systems that also have to run media (a cartridge for example) ( like vectrex) the second options will work directly.
The first option will only work, if (possible, but not ideal):

the bios is in the same directory as the game
the <system>.xml or, in this case, vectrex.xml is in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame/hash
you use the software_name of the game from the hash table.

Conclusion :
Game specific retroarch configs can be use when using a basic lr-mess commandline, just like the standard one found in the original Retropie (used in for example : arcadia)

~~Next step is to implement that in my script somehow.~~
It's implemented in version 1v4-alpha.

EDIT 1 :
Did also a test to see if such config appending works when the rom is loaded through the valerino run_mess.sh script.
(with valerino or valerino alike scripts)

It seems the game specific retroarch config is added in the commandline.
But trouble is, run_mess.sh creates a temporary .cmd file and will run this .cmd again with lr-mess. Because this is done from within the run_mess.sh the config isn't added anymore. Presumably.

Conclusion :
So it looks like these configs can not be loaded with valarino alike scripts, for now.

TPR

Has anyone had any luck getting controls re-mapped for GSplus or lr-mess-apple2gs?

Under GSPlus I can't seem to find much in the way of controller re-mapping and in several games, like Arkanoid for example, the controller just keeps going to the right no matter what I press.

For lr-mess-apple2gs I can bring up the machine options by pressing SCROLL LOCK and then TAB but I can't figure out how to re-map buttons per game. It seems like I can only re-map globally and I'd have to do that for every game I load up because keyboard mappings might be different per game.

Also can't seem to get some buttons mapped. Like Thexder seems to need the "Option" key mapped and I don't see that anywhere in the re-map options.

If someone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Folly

@tpr

Perhaps others have a better idea or an other opinion.

But I think this is still an issue, in the way valarino's scripts setup the config files.
All lr-mess configs are stored in :
/opt/retropie/configs/<system>/<configs>
This is done to clean it all up, and try to intergrade the configs into the Retropie structure.
This is ofcourse really nice !
Possible drawback can be that you can't configure per game.
But perhaps I am wrong.

Theoretically it's possible that the configs are stored in the same directory as where the game is in. (mame/cfg)
So it's possible to use different directory's for different joystick settings.

Edit : this is not the solution
I am not sure, but I think you have to experiment with this :
(/opt/retropie/configs/apple2gs/custom-core-options.cfg)
Solution :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/25576/new-scriptmodules-lr-vice-xvic-gsplus-proper-lr-mess-integration/377

TPR

@roslof I'm having trouble getting lr-mess-ti99 working. I can get the system working under ti99sim but not under lr-mess. I'm assuming I have the right bios files but in the wrong place for MESS. Can you let me know which files and I need and where they are supposed to go and I can give that a try?

Thank you.

TPR

@roslof I've checked with this page: http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=ti99_4a

And I seem to have the correct TI99_4A.ZIP with the files having the crc matching. I currently have that file in: /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ but anytime I try to load a rom I'm just taken back to the ES menu.

Any ideas?

UPDATE: I put my ti99_4a.zip file in this folder: /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ti99_4a and now it crashes at the initialize screen.

My zip file contains this exactly:

NAME | SIZE | BIOS | STATUS | MERGE | REGION | OFFSET | OPT | CRC | SHA1
---------------------+-----------+----------------------+---------+----------------------+-------------------+------------+-----+----------+-----------------------------------------
994a_grom0.u500 | 6144 | | good | | cons_grom | 0 | no | 2445a5e8 | ea15d8b0ac52112dc0d5f4ab9a79ac8ca1cc1bbc
994a_grom1.u501 | 6144 | | good | | cons_grom | 2000 | no | b8f367ab | 3ecead4b83ec525084c70b6123d4053f8a80e1f7
994a_grom2.u502 | 6144 | | good | | cons_grom | 4000 | no | e0bb5341 | e255f0d65d69b927cecb8fcfac7a4c17d585ea96
994a_rom_hb.u610 | 4096 | | good | | console_rom | 0 | no | ee859c5f | a45245707c3dccea902b718554a882d214a82504
994a_rom_lb.u611 | 4096 | | good | | console_rom | 1 | no | 37859301 | f4e774fd5913b387a763f1b8de5524c54b255434

Folly

@tpr

You have to look in your runcommand.log to find out whats wrong :
/dev/shm/runcommand.log

TPR

@folly I did that. I couldn't tell what the issue was though...

(removed)

Folly

@tpr

You can remove your log from the post.

I think some bios files are not found :
cd2325a.u2a NOT FOUND (tried in ti99_speech ti99_4a)
cd2326a.u2b NOT FOUND (tried in ti99_speech ti99_4a)

I think you have to add ti99_speech.zip .
Look in your ti99_speech.zip and ti99_4a.zip for those files.
I think you have to put it in the normal root of the BIOS directory. (no subdir)
Experiment with this until you don't see this anymore.

TPR

@folly I have tried everything and I just keep getting this crashing screen:

These are the files I'm using:
994a_grom0.u500
994a_grom1.u501
994a_grom2.u502
994a_rom_hb.u610
994a_rom_lb.u611
cd2325a.u2a
cd2326a.u2b

I have checked and double checked the crc with sites that say they are good. I've put them in the BIOS directory on their own, I've zipped them up. I've tried different versions of the files, even ones where the crc doesn't match. I've tried different configurations of the zip file. I've tried everything. I literally spent about 7 hour yesterday just tryng different configurations of everything I can think of. I'm just convinced this core doesn't work.

Any other ideas? Maybe @roslof might have a clue?

Here is my most recent log from a crash that happened right now. It still says those two files are missing. But I've put them in the zip file, I put them in the BIOS folder, I've put them in a ti99_4a folder, I've even put the ti99_speech.zip inside the other BIOS zip and nothing seems to work.

Please help! I'm about to give up on this one! :D