EmulationStation mod

jdoolin

@jdoolin :
Hey, that's great to hear! Make sure you look at Aloshi's initial attempts to an SQL db for ES (branch). Also in the (many) issues and PRs for that repo, I think I've seen people posting fixes and or enhancements for that implementation, so it might be worth it to spend some time searching the Upstream.

Oh, excellent. That will be a perfect reference. I already started looking through the code in your branch so I'm starting to see how things fit together. Seeing Aloshi's attempts at SQL will only speed things up, so thanks for that.

One thing we need to have well in place, is a robust conversion from the XMLs to the database. Not only for the initial stransition, but also for smaller updates of ones metdadata descr. I assume that many of the tools we use (eg. sselphs scraper) will only be able to work with the xmls, so there will likely never be a clean break from one approach to the other. A strategy is needed to cope with that.

I basically wrote an early version of this last night. I'll add error checking and reporting, make it as general as I can and have it use es_systems.cfg instead of a directory listing in ~/.emulationstation/gamelists.

I could also attempt a replacement scraper as well, that would dump directly to the SQLite db. I used to write scripts like that for a living too.

lilbud

@Rookervik How do you think I made the Material Theme?

Rookervik

@lilbud Hmm?

lilbud

@Rookervik Work on the theme.xml and restart ES everytime I made a Change

mattrixk

@lilbud said in EmulationStation mod:

Work on the theme.xml and restart ES everytime I made a Change

Instead of restarting ES each time to see any changes you made to your theme, you can just switch to another theme and then back to your WIP theme. It should be a lot faster than restarting ES.

... Unless I completely misunderstood what you were saying...

mattrixk

@jacobfk20

Okay, total noob question, but is there a step by step on how to get this set up on a PC?

I have a windows PC with a portable version of ES. Can I set it up on that?
Or I can set up Linux Mint on a virtual machine, but then I need instructions on how to install ES on there, as well as installing your Grid View mod.

Can anyone help me out with this? I want to update my themes to work with Grid View, but I need to be able to do it on my PC because I don't really have access to my Pi for the length of time I would need (it's mainly my media center).

jacobfk20

@mattrixk I actually haven't compiled a windows build yet. I tried yesterday but I would get a ton of compilation errors that other people are apparently having on upstream as well. I'll let you know when I get a windows build up and running.

jdoolin

I'm updating the database schema to use all of the fields in es_systems.cfg. So including the few I've added, the systems table now has the following fields, with example data:

name (snes)
fullname (Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
path (/home/retropie/RetroPie/roms/snes
extension (.bin .sfc .fig .zip...)
command (/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS snes %ROM%)
platform (snes) used for scraping
theme (snes)
developer (Nintendo)
release_date (August 23, 1991)
description (The SNES was the successor to the wildly successful SNES. Using a 16 bit blah, blah, blah)

The three fields I thought to add are in bold. If anyone has any other suggestions for the systems table or the database in general, let me know. Obviously, the leaner the database the better, but if adding features doesn't cost too much, great.

mattrixk

@jacobfk20
I'm okay with it not working for Windows, but I could do with some instructions on how to get both regular ES and your Grid View Mod working on a Linux virtual machine (I've found some instructions on how to get Linux Mint 16 running on a VM, and it looks pretty straight forward) if you have the time.

@jdoolin
Maybe a path to a system image? Either a picture of the console, or of the controller like in Carbon theme? It's not really essential as they can be added pretty easily in the theme.xml with an extra="true" tag, but I just thought I'd put it out there.

jacobfk20

@mattrixk This is from memory, so here goes nothing...
When I was taking photos for this thread initially I did it on ElementaryOS running on an old pc. I compiled on there but on linux its vary simple. On first it should create a .emulationstation directory with an es_systems.cfg in your home folder (may be hidden) it will have a example system in there (nes) and a location to put roms. put roms in that folder (will have to create those folders most likely) Once you have that it should boot like on the pi, but you'll only have NES. It won't run any roms, but you can at least test themes on there.

To compile:
Just download the zip of my Gridview fork https://github.com/jacobfk20/EmulationStation/tree/Gridview
and follow the directions for "building" in the readme below. (Linux Mint is a debian/ubuntu)

Just copy and paste the commands it says to do into terminal and it does the rest for you.

If you need more help with any of this then I will be glad to help. (except getting a emulator running)

jdoolin

Another update, this time on the XML gamelist to SQLite3 database conversion tool.

Right now it's a python program using all default libraries and takes the following steps.

1 - Opens a database at ~/.emulationstation/es.db
2a - Checks for ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg and opens it if it exists if not,
2b - Checks for /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg and opens it. In either case if there is a parse error the program exits gracefully
3 - Parses the es_systems.cfg file and adds all entries to the SQLite database
4 - For each system it finds it reads ~/.emulationstation/gamelists/<system name>/gamelist.xml, then adds those games to the database

I think all it needs is a little more error checking and some useful reporting, but otherwise it looks solid to me.

Now, am I correct that the gamelists could also exist in the respective rom paths as well? If so, where is that option found? I should be able to read the config and see where to look for gamelists.

And what else could I be missing?

mattrixk

Thanks @jacobfk20. I'll hopefully have a chance to get this running this weekend some time. I'll post back with results.

Rookervik

Oh I forgot to ask for something! * gets down on knees and begs* Can we have a clock? A clock would be so amazing. I dug out an old "grid dreams" mockup I did. Reminded me about wanting a clock in ES. Keep in mind, it was March when I did this mockup.

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Rookervik

And just for S&G, my take on Material, by Lilbud
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meleu

@Rookervik said in EmulationStation mod:

Oh I forgot to ask for something! * gets down on knees and begs* Can we have a clock? A clock would be so amazing. I dug out an old "grid dreams" mockup I did. Reminded me about wanting a clock in ES. Keep in mind, it was March when I did this mockup.

is it the mehstation?! I think I underrated it...

jacobfk20

@Rookervik Nice mockups :) The Pi doesn't have an RTC so the clock may just annoy people if they don't connect their pi to the internet to keep the time correct. But to be honest I was thinking not too long ago as I was looking at ES and just thinking "Man, I wish there was a clock." lol

bense2k

@jdoolin I dont know if it is a good idea to add some form of checksum for the source files to the db, so only changed files need to be parsed.

mattrixk

@jacobfk20 Sorry mate, but I need some help still.

I managed to set up an ubuntu virtual machine, and I got RetroPie set up on it by following this guide, but now I can't get your Mod to work.

I downloaded the latest version from your google drive and then went into /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation. I had to change the permissions before it would let me make any changes within the folder, but I figured out how to do that with chown.
So I made a back up of the emulationstation file within /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation, then I copied your file over it. Now when I try to run it I get:

/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation.sh: 6: /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation.sh: /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation: Permission denied

Do you know what this means or how to get around it? I tried changing permissions back to root, but that didn't change anything. When I moved the backup file back into place (overwriting your file) ES started working again without a problem.

jacobfk20

@mattrixk How do you run emulationstation? What command do you type?

mattrixk

@jacobfk20 I just type emulationstation in the terminal.

That works with the default file, or double clicking it also starts ES. I also use emulationstation --windowed --resolution 1280 720 so it opens in a windowed view.

However when I try emulationstation in terminal with your file in place, I get the error listed above. If I try double clicking the file, it asks me what program I want to use to open it.

I'm a linux noob, so I'm probably missing a simple step.