Nice MAME2003 overlays repository

[HurricaneFan]

@meleu Still failing with same error. I see all of the folders of stuff on my computer but its failing to do anything with them.

Is there a log file for your script?

[meleu]

@HurricaneFan said in Nice MAME2003 overlays repository:

Is there a log file for your script?

Currently not. But you can help me with this debug, launch the script this way:

bash -x rpie-ovl.sh 2> log.txt

And try to install the 1941 overlay.

Then paste the log.txt in http://codepad.org/ (select the "Plain Text" at the left of text box). It could be pastebin or something, but I'm behind a restrictive proxy...

[HurricaneFan]

@meleu Here is the output: http://codepad.org/60dAiEZi

++ ls '1941/*.zip.cfg'
ls: cannot access 1941/*.zip.cfg: No such file or directory

It's not looking in the arcade folder for 1941 folder contents.

[meleu]

@HurricaneFan said in Nice MAME2003 overlays repository:

It's not looking in the arcade folder for 1941 folder contents.

exactly! Really sorry fo this... :/

Will sort in a few minutes.

[HurricaneFan]

@meleu Take your time. I can manually test overlays.

[meleu]

@HurricaneFan fixed. Now we have to wait @UDb23 to merge the PR.

If you are comfortable with editing files on Linux, you can see the diff here: https://github.com/UDb23/rpie-ovl/pull/16/files

It's pretty simple.

And when you use the Update procedure later (after @UDb23 merge that PR) the script will get my fixes as usual. ;-)

[HurricaneFan]

@meleu That did the trick. 1941 overlay installed successfully. Thank you for the quick fix.

[UDb23]

@meleu Merged. Thanks.

[meleu]

@UDb23 I want to understand how the game console overlay config file works to implement it in the script.

Let me see if I understood well:

• the ROM_Name.cfg must be in the same dir as the ROM.
• the ROM_Name.cfg file must be named exactly the same as the ROM file name, except the trailing .cfg.
• configs in ROM_Name.cfg overrides the configs on system specific retroarch.cfg.

Can you confirm if the sentences aboce are true?

[UDb23]

@meleu said in Nice MAME2003 overlays repository:
the ROM_Name.cfg must be in the same dir as the ROM.
yes

the ROM_Name.cfg file must be named exactly the same as the ROM file name, except the trailing .cfg.
yes, including extension (like gwa4.gba.cfg in the picture below)

configs in ROM_Name.cfg overrides the configs on system specific retroarch.cfg.
yes.; please note that both cfg's for each rom override settings in retroarch.cfg for that specific system (just for the specific rom)

To summarize setup for consoles:

ROM specific overlay setup:

• ROM_Name.cfg (with naming and folder as mentioned before)
• ROM_Name_system.cfg (to be placed in overlay folder; as gwg4_gba.cfg in the example below, with the overlay png) ("system"=3 letters.)

SYSTEM generic overlay setup:

system-LR.cfg content must be added (placed above the #include line) to existing retroarch.cfg in the configs system (e.g. gba-LR.cfg) folder. ("system" = 3 letters)
If no retroarch.cfg exists in that folder (was the case for me for gba), just copy the provided retroarch.cfg into that folder (no edit required).

system_artist-ovl.cfg must be placed in the overlay folder (with the overlay png)

Hope this helps. If anything unclear just let me know.

[meleu]

@UDb23 Starting today I think I will have two intense weeks. So I can only implement the console overlays installation later. But I'm predicting some issues with the filenames here.

With the arcade overlays it was pretty simple because we are sure that the ROM files end with .zip, therefore the ROM config is .zip.cfg. But it's not true for the other systems.

I'm starting to think in a better solution to make the script identify which file is what: using the file content rather than filenames.

I don't know the details of those options/configs in those files, but as far as I understood the file that must be in the roms directory always has an input_overlay entry, and this entry is not present in that file that must be in .../overlays/arcade-bezels/ directory.

Can you confirm that?

If yes, I think that a better approach is to make the script look the .cfg files searching for the input_overlay entry. This file will be the one that must be in the roms dir.

[UDb23]

@meleu if your script can check the content of the file I can add a specific comment line in each cfg file. I think this is the easiest way to make sure your script can identify the cfg file.

E.g. first line in cfg
#meleuscript: overlay -> cfg to be placed in overlay folder
#meleuscript:rom -> cfg to be placed in ROM folder

As we're thinking about this: while arcade roms have specific and unique ROM filenames, my understanding is that console ROM filenames for the same game could be different ( different extension, different name).
So it's user responsibility to check and be sure his roms use same ROM naming as the script...

[backstander]

@meleu I also think there could be an "information file" (maybe an xml file?) that is in the same directory as the overlay that has the information needed like the file's extension and if there is clones and what their names are and any other information needed like screen positioning for the generic GBA overlay, etc.

You guys will need to come up with what the variables will be but it's an idea!

<extension>zip</extension>

[UDb23]

@backstander Right, that's another option. I also proposed this approach when we started this project; not sure it's better. It's @meleu's decision now ;-)

[meleu]

OK guys. This brainstorm was good. I am very strict in adhering to the KISS principle, so no xml files for a such a simple task, please! :)

But you guys gave me an idea. Here's my proposal:

Every single overlay directory must have a file named info.txt with the following content (example for Aliens):

# yes, we can have comments here
rom_config = "aliens.zip.cfg"
overlay_config = "aliens.cfg"
# multiple values separated by semicolon
overlay_image = "aliens_udb_1-ovl.png; aliens_udb_2.png"
rom_clones = "aliensa; aliensj; aliensu"

Many problems will be solved if we start using such a file!

[UDb23]

@meleu said in Nice MAME2003 overlays repository:

Well, I was holding back myself from asking you to do an overlay for Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. :-)
It's one of the most played by kids (and grownups too) when visiting my home.

Here it is:

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs overlay now available in the Repo.

Took a while to find, select and edit the right images.. these graphics are so great.
Never seen any Mark Schultz artwork before; thanks for making me discover all this!

[UDb23]

@meleu OK, agreed.
So this also means "Option X" subfolders will have their own info.txt; correct ?

[meleu]

@UDb23

So this also means "Option X" subfolders will have their own info.txt; correct ?

I think it's better to use only one info.txt for each game. If we stick with the info.txt approach, all the rules we defined become guidelines. The final word will be in the info.txt file. Therefore we don't need a subfolder for the optional config files. It could be, for example, RomName_opt1.zip.cfg (actually the name pattern will be completely irrelevant to the script, since it will get the info from the info.txt file).

I'll try to write the rules for the info.txt and submit to the repo. But here is an example for the Burning Force (the game that has more art in the repository).

rom_config = "burnforc.zip.cfg"
overlay_config = "burnforc.cfg"
overlay_image = "burnforc_udb-ovl.png"
rom_clones = "burnforco"
launching_image = "burnforc-launching.png"
scrape_image = "burnforc-image.png"
rom_config_1 = "Option 1/burnforc.zip.cfg"
overlay_config_1 = "Option 1/burnforc.cfg"

[UDb23]

@meleu Makes sense. One file does it all.

[meleu]

@UDb23 take a look at my latest PR. ;-)

info.txt rules here.