Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone

BuZz

@folly thanks for your contribution. Is it still a system that generates module files ?

Can you give me an overview as last time I checked it wasn't implemented in a way I could envisage incorporating (generating module files etc)

Folly

@buzz said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess and mame standalone:

@folly thanks for your contribution. Is it still a system that generates module files ?

Can you give me an overview as last time I checked it wasn't implemented in a way I could envisage incorporating (generating module files etc)

Thanks for your reply.

It's now evolved as a front-end tool.
Basically you can select all systems that mame/lr-mess supports.
We have added also some manual systems regarding handhelds and systems with extra hardware.

The front-end tool contains a generating part.
So the data of the selected mame system is used to create a module-scripts on the fly.
Per media-type (cas,flop,rom, etc) are generated and a normal one without the media that can be used for .cmd files or the softlist roms.
The front-end will automatically refresh after generating and install the module-scripts on the fly.
If you want to remove them you can do that the normal way.

The major advantage is that you can install for more that 30000 systems.
I think, this would be impossible if you didn't have a generating part.

Another advantage is that the "runcommand-lines" just accept normal file-names just like any other emulator would as there is no need anymore to use softlist-names if you don't want to.

We have also added downloads for :

theme artwork
mame arwork
overlay creation for handhels in lr-mess
gamelists

This is basically the overview on what the tool does.

Just like @DTEAM says in the next post, everything can be found in the first post :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-and-mame-standalone/1
Summarized, it's an amazing piece of work !

How would you envisage incorporating ?

DTEAM

@folly
Your first post gives a good overview of how it works for people not aware of that or people who went directly at the end of that thread.

Folly

@dteam

Is there anything you would like to add to convince everybody that it should be added to the original RetroPie-Setup ?

DTEAM

@folly
No, that's perfect. You added that in your post above for Buzz.

Folly

@BuZz

Have you been able to look into it ?

We would like to know if we can take it to a next step and make a pull request.

If you are not comfortable with adding the script, please let us know why.

Thank you for your reply.

BuZz

@folly Not in detail as I'm super busy at the moment. I had a brief look at the github repository but as it currently I can't see it being incorporated sorry due to the module generating nature of it.

It may be possible to do in a single module if that module had a gui that allowed handling of each system etc. You can always include this as an 3rd party repo in ext if you want though to make it easier for users to include.

DTEAM

@buzz said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess and mame standalone:

It may be possible to do in a single module if that module had a gui that allowed handling of each system etc.

It already contains a GUI interface . Are you looking for that type of GUI? Everything can be found in the first post above (procedure and explanation)
alt text

Folly

@buzz

Thanks for your reply.

I understand that your very busy at the moment.
Hopefully we can discuss the solutions later when you have more time.

BuZz

@dteam (also for @Folly) Thanks - I appreciate that. However, I see the creation of automatic scriptmodules based on this to not be the ideal solution, and will be problematic (lots of dynamically created modules handled outside of git, which could break if a change was made to RetroPie-Setup, and it just doesn't feel like the right solution to me).

I would prefer it to be included in a way that a single module handles the configuration for all the mess systems, without creation of scriptmodules etc. I will look at this though when I have a chance and see if I can replicate some of the basic functionality in a different way.

BTW - the contributions are appreciated and this can be handled an external repo if needed (additional retropie module repositories can be checked out into the ext folder).

We have a lot of code in RetroPie, and a lot of contributions end up being unmaintained, so I have to be careful what is accepted and what isn't based on whether it's the correct implementation, maintainability, and so on. As often it comes down to me and a few other devs to keep everything working.

Folly

@buzz

Ok, I understand.

I have no problem using the ext.
Only problem is that 3rd party repository's cannot be installed from within the RetroPie-Setup as there is no module-script for it that can download these 3rd party repositories.

I would like to see something like the esthemes.sh that would contain the links to these 3rd party repositories.
So it can download them to the ext directory.
That way it's much easier for people to install without using commands or ssh.

I have already build such a module-script that will download only the .sh files from a 3rd party repos to theextdirectory.
And, it will not download a specific .sh filename if there is already the same filename in the RetroPie-Setup.
This is added to prevent the duplicate error.
You can check the module-script over here :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/blob/main/00-scriptmodules-00/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh

It would we nice if this,or something like this, could be implemented.
That way we increase our main purpose of preserving the knowledge of old computers.
It basically means that we can create a win-win situation here.

Can you let me know how you feel about that direction.
Thank you for your reply.

Ps.
Using the ext part would be an concession on our part.
Which concession are you be willing to make here ?

DTEAM

@folly said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess and mame standalone:

@dteam
Are you able to make artwork for the Atari Portfolio ?
For example only the screen.

Done ! Here it is !
You have three views (with computer, zoom on screen and without artwork)

Folly

@dteam

Superb !
Will test asap ;-)

Just updated the artwork from within the script.
The update worked and was lightning fast, perfect !!!

Running the game, looks really cool now :-)

DTEAM

@folly
I am glad to hear that. Found a picture was not a walk in the park. I prefer an image with a higher definition, but not so bad for an image from the web.

Folly

@dteam

In time I will dig up my original porfolio's.
Maybe I can make some nice high resolution photo's of them.

DTEAM

@folly
It takes a lot of time to do a "MAME artwork" . If you like this one , I suggest to keep that one.

Folly

@dteam

In that case,
I am quite happy with it.
Thank you for making it happen !

DTEAM

@folly
If you have time, send me a photo with a uniform background and I'll see what I can do. But I'm not sure I'll do it quickly.

Folly

@dteam

I have to dig them up first that will take some time too.
No rush, in time, I will see if I can send some photo's.
That would be great if we could improve this way ;-)

ps, have to go now, later !!!

Folly

@dteam

I have made some pictures, but it's quite difficult to get a good result.
The biggest problem is that the screen reflects images as a mirror and I have to have good light with good white background.

I am hoping to get some better results !

This is my best image up till now (reduced quality and size for upload) :