Attract Mode with RetroPie - Alternative to EmulationStation

Brigane

@InsecureSpike Did you check out the link that Finhead provided us for Pi2 earlier?

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=223.0

InsecureSpike

@InsecureSpike Did you check out the link that Finhead provided us for Pi2 earlier?

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=223.0

ahh nope, thank you! just wanna play about on the pi 2 before I go for it on the pi 3, although probably be better using the pi 3, I'll have a play around over the next few days, thank you

senkun

@InsecureSpike said:

edit: ok, is Floob's for pi 3 only?

@Floob said:

This image seems to work fine on both the Pi2 and Pi3. If I could find my Pi1 I'd try it on that.

fwiw I had it running on both pi2 and pi3, better on the pi3 obviously but still having some trouble configuring it on mine.

Finhead

@senkun said:

@Finhead thanks for checking, I have all the assets in place and "pan-and-scan.nut" is in the modules directory, all the built in Layouts work fine just that blastcity isn't showing anything. I must have messed up somewhere, will check further.

One more thing, and this seems major, how do you configure a hotkey (preferably the standard select-start combo) to exit a game/emulator once you're playing?

If I set a hotkey from the AM frontend, it drops me back to the frontend but the game is still running. :(

Odd mine does not have this issue, mine you I'm not using Floobs image either. I complied mine about 2 weeks ago and I also installed a few things he did not do on his build. I did that way as it's the only way I could get mine to compile, keep in mind I have never used linux or a Pi until 3 weeks ago so I am 100% sure I did things the wrong way. lol
I did the extra steps outlined in this thread, and found it was not need (so I have been told) after the fact. But my Pi runs great and I don't have the Keyboard issue or I guess the hotkey issue either.

Floob

@senkun said:

One more thing, and this seems major, how do you configure a hotkey (preferably the standard select-start combo) to exit a game/emulator once you're playing?

If I set a hotkey from the AM frontend, it drops me back to the frontend but the game is still running. :(

Exactly in the same way as normal as it uses the RetroPie / RetreoArch configs. You can see me exit games in the video, and I'm just using the select/start exit combo. Obviously if you are using a non retroarch emulator, then you use the config for that but it should be read in the same way as if running from EmulationStation - unless you configure the executabel oddly.
I'll do a new image soon with all the emulators pre-configured.

senkun

@Finhead hmmm extra steps meaning the patch? Seems the makefile has been updated and there is no need for the patch, but someone else in that thread still had to use the patch so I don't know. Maybe @Floob did patch his?

I cleared the game quit hotkey I set from within the AM frontend, it's weird to have it return to the frontend and have the game still running in the background. I think a path got messed up somewhere. Perhaps it's best to wait for Floob to update more config files geared to the RetroPie setup

senkun

@Floob ahh thanks for clearing that up, I must have messed up something on my install. Will wait for your new image :)

Finhead

@senkun said:

@Finhead hmmm extra steps meaning the patch? Seems the makefile has been updated and there is no need for the patch, but someone else in that thread still had to use the patch so I don't know. Maybe @Floob did patch his?

I cleared the game quit hotkey I set from within the AM frontend, it's weird to have it return to the frontend and have the game still running in the background. I think a path got messed up somewhere. Perhaps it's best to wait for Floob to update more config files geared to the RetroPie setup

Like I said found out later it wasn't needed. ;) I did find AM does not like to use a combonation of key presses in it's control config. If it will only except 1 key per input so the start/select combo press wouldn't work for me at least.

Floob

@InsecureSpike

I tried Floobs .img on my pi 2 but the dsmn thing keeps locking up on me after around 10mins, I over clocked to high and upped the memory split to 256, but still no help! any ideas? should I build if myself? would that help?

I've noticed this is in the /boot/config.txt

# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
dtparam=audio=on
gpu_mem_256=128
gpu_mem_512=256
gpu_mem_1024=256
overscan_scale=1
gpu_mem_256=128
gpu_mem_512=256
gpu_mem_1024=256
overscan_scale=1

I'm not sure why its duplicated, so maybe take out the last 4 lines. I need to check as I build it to see when that happens really, I cant see why they should be in there twice.

Although it seems fine on my Pi2 for whatever reason.

InsecureSpike

@Floob ok, i'll have a look, altho, its still in development so..... these things take time....

also, is there a way of running roms from usb's?

thank for all your work on this guy's!!

senkun

@Floob FWIW on a fresh install of Retropie 3.6 those duplicates are there as well. Been wondering about that, but I had taken them out and forgotten until your post.

Rion

With this setup can you have both emulation station and Attract on the same image.

Attract started from Emulationstation,
Emulationstation started from Attract?

ashmck73

I downloaded Floobs prebuilt Attractmode image dated April 10 and it all setup fine.

The only issue I have is trying to add another layout to it. I have downloaded the Nevato layout from the Attractmode forum and copied the folder over into the /home/pi/develop/attract/config/layouts folder on the Raspberry Pi but it will not show up as one on the available layouts.

I also see Robospin is listed as one of the available layouts, but I do not see a Robospin folder in the layouts directory as listed above.

Just wondering if it is loading the layouts from somewhere else.

Finhead

@ashmck73 said:

I downloaded Floobs prebuilt Attractmode image dated April 10 and it all setup fine.

The only issue I have is trying to add another layout to it. I have downloaded the Nevato layout from the Attractmode forum and copied the folder over into the /home/pi/develop/attract/config/layouts folder on the Raspberry Pi but it will not show up as one on the available layouts.

I also see Robospin is listed as one of the available layouts, but I do not see a Robospin folder in the layouts directory as listed above.

Just wondering if it is loading the layouts from somewhere else.

Layouts are found in /home/pi/.attract/layouts
And for the nevato layout it doesn't like vertical monitors layout. You'll need to mode the layout.nut to make it work at all.

ashmck73

Thanks for that - was thinking I just had the wrong folder for the Layouts. Didn't realise there was a hidden folder for it.

senkun

I started again from scratch and been playing with AM for a bit, getting to really like it a lot now that I've got everything working more or less properly on my RPi3.

I've got it to now boot directly into AM, and fixed that xkbcomp RALT error by, well, "compose:ralt" to make it happy. It's pretty seamless now, from booting up into frontend then launching and exiting games. So went tweaking and got rid of that annoying flash of a white xterm window/log using a dirty hack of setting -fg and -bg to black, which also helps hide msgs in between starting and exiting a game. I'm sure there must be a more elegant solution by diverting output windows or suppressing msgs, if anyone?

Some surprises, I left it unattended to answer a call with just the frontend displaying, came back and was a tad shocked thinking somehow a game got launched automatically. Then realized it was just the AM screensaver. It has some awesome options, including full screen videos of whatever game videosnaps you have installed.

True to it's name, Attract Mode is very attractive and dynamic. So very end user friendly (with the setup ease and convenience of Retropie behind it), it just beckons one to try out the games installed. It would be fantastic for a cabinet but I'm looking forward to using it in a small portable setup with one of them cheap GPIO TFT screens.

Finhead

@senkun

For startup I have mine running the standard RetroPie splashscreen with a Video. About 14 secs is all it needs and you don't see anything other than the video after the inital 4 Raspberries and the 4 lines of code for the breif second.

InsecureSpike

@senkun said:

I started again from scratch and been playing with AM for a bit, getting to really like it a lot now that I've got everything working more or less properly on my RPi3.

I've got it to now boot directly into AM, and fixed that xkbcomp RALT error by, well, "compose:ralt" to make it happy. It's pretty seamless now, from booting up into frontend then launching and exiting games. So went tweaking and got rid of that annoying flash of a white xterm window/log using a dirty hack of setting -fg and -bg to black, which also helps hide msgs in between starting and exiting a game. I'm sure there must be a more elegant solution by diverting output windows or suppressing msgs, if anyone?

Some surprises, I left it unattended to answer a call with just the frontend displaying, came back and was a tad shocked thinking somehow a game got launched automatically. Then realized it was just the AM screensaver. It has some awesome options, including full screen videos of whatever game videosnaps you have installed.

True to it's name, Attract Mode is very attractive and dynamic. So very end user friendly (with the setup ease and convenience of Retropie behind it), it just beckons one to try out the games installed. It would be fantastic for a cabinet but I'm looking forward to using it in a small portable setup with one of them cheap GPIO TFT screens.

hi are you able to post up your .img?

senkun

@Finhead said:

@senkun

For startup I have mine running the standard RetroPie splashscreen with a Video. About 14 secs is all it needs and you don't see anything other than the video after the inital 4 Raspberries and the 4 lines of code for the breif second.

For some reason video splashscreens run flaky on mine. If you want you can get rid of the raspberries as well
to /boot/cmdline.txt add logo.nologo

That brief coloured flash on startup you can suppress by adding to /boot/config.txt
disable_splash=1

senkun

@InsecureSpike said:

hi are you able to post up your .img?

hey, I would but it's now been expanded to 16GB and I'd need to borrow a cd drive so I can use gparted and try compress it. As it is, the img we have now is quirky with the keyboard, AM seems to ditch it after a few seconds. If I hadn't set a controller I'd have to ssh in to shutdown or reboot.

I'd wait for @Floob to release his new img tho, it would definitely be the way to go.