Announcing Pegasus Frontend

wallmachine

I'm guessing for like MAME games we will need the metadata file to identify its longer name etc not automatic yet?

lilbud

What does the horizon theme look like? I saw it on github, but can't find any screenshots.

fluffypillow

@msheehan79 yeah that's an accidental bug in the main theme, will see if I can fix it before today's update!

@Meldrak that seems to be correct, which games and files are missing exactly? Note that the file entries under files are relative to the metadata file; if it's not next to the games, the paths should be also corrected. For example if the file is D:\somedir\metadata.txt, then files: Super Mario Sunshine.iso will mean D:\somedir\Super Mario Sunshine.iso. In case it's not there, you could write E:\games\gamecube\Super Mario Sunshine.iso instead.

@wallmachine Yes, there's no MAME-specific game support, so they also have to be described with metadata files (or through ES gamelists). Coincidently I was just in the middle of creating metadata files for various full sets of games, which might help you.

@lilbud actually it's the "working title" for this one. Still experimental, just had some ideas to try out as a theme. May get some more updates in the future.

lilbud

I've been experimenting with making a nintendo switch theme for Pegasus. Ran into this issue though

I'm using the es2-simple theme as a base

Is there a way to keep the background image in the same place, but move the icons over? When I try to move the icons over, the background gets all out of wack.

alt text

My plan is to move the selected icon up and over and make the carousel act like the switch. A selector moves 1 to the right and the icons move 1 over to the left and disappear. The selector can just keep moving down the line to the end.

fluffypillow

@lilbud I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the Switch, but if I understand correctly you'd like the background image to change instantly, without any animations, right? You could then change the delay here to 0 to disable the scrolling effect. If you'd like to use only a single fixed image as background, you could even remove the whole background carousel.

lilbud

@fluffypillow I don't want the background to move at all. If I try to move the icons, the background moves as well, that's why the image isn't entirely on screen.

I already set that to 0.

How would I move the logos closer together?

And move the carousel position?

fluffypillow

@lilbud Then you could also replace the Carousel with a single Image element, then change its source to what you'd like to show -- that'd have no movement animation at all.

The logo images are set to fit into a wide rectangle, you can reduce their width here to make them closer.

lilbud

@fluffypillow Already changed both of those to vpx(300) which makes the icons square. I am trying to increase the logo spacing (I guess) so the logos stay a certain size but they are closer together.

Changing this line pathItemCount: Math.ceil(width / itemWidth) + 2 doesn't do anything.

I want the background to stay in place and able to be moved independent of the carousel. Because changing any of the settings in the picture above move the carousel and the background or color and draw black underneath.

fluffypillow

@lilbud ah right, the item width is set here actually (and not by the rectangle width). The number of visible items is then calculated automatically based on that.

lilbud

@fluffypillow Ah, now I got it.

Now for the next part

How would I change the x and y coordinates of the carousel over so it matches the background image (once again, thats only there to line the whole carousel up, i'll replace it with a solid color background once I have the carousel just right)

And how can I change which icon is the selected one?

wallmachine

Just confirming is something like select game directory then it creates the metadata file for you planned? example,

In game directory Bubbler (Europe).7z

Pegasus does the following in the metadata file:
game: Bubbler
file: Bubbler (Europe).7z
developer:
genre:
players:
summary:
description:
rating:
x-id:
x-source:

Also what will happen if you import a game that has multiple disc versions how would it display? below is an example.

4x4 Off-Road Racing (USA) (Disk 1)
4x4 Off-Road Racing (USA) (Disk 2)

4 Most Action (Side A) (Europe)
4 Most Action (Side B) (Europe)

With game naming shouldn't it read the 'game:' title instead of file name?

fluffypillow

@lilbud for the vertical alignment, the carousel is aligned to the center, so perhaps the fastest would be to add a negative anchors.verticalCenterOffset to it to move upwards. To make them match up horizontally, you'll have to change the preferredHighlightBegin/End positions of the Carousel. You'll probably want it to be the center point of Zelda in this case (and maybe the end at Snipperclips?). Depending on how many aspect ratios you'd like to support, you can either just write the number in, or do some calculations based on the window dimensions.

@wallmachine Pegasus would be able to create the collection section for you, and perhaps example game blocks. Ideally there would be a graphical tool too to edit these files in the future.

Also what will happen if you import a game that has multiple disc versions how would it display?

A game can have more than one file entries, and when it's started you can choose in Pegasus which one you want to start. Here's an example.

With game naming shouldn't it read the 'game:' title instead of file name?

Yes, if the file matches. File paths are relative to the metadata file, perhaps this comment might also solve the issue for you. You can also check the log file for any issues (should be under C:/Users/[username]/AppData/Local/pegasus-frontend/ on Windows).

wallmachine

@fluffypillow thanks changing to the following below worked as the metadata file is located D:\Pegasus\metafiles\metadata.txt

Just to confirm a metadata file can be created for each system?

Also with the 'directory:' I thought that searched for the gamelist but you need both the file: and directory:?

collection: Nintendo Entertainment System
directory: D:\Pegasus\Systems\Nintendo Entertainment System
extension: 7z
launch:

game: 10-Yard Fight
file: D:\Pegasus\Systems\Nintendo Entertainment System\10-Yard Fight (USA, Europe).7z

fluffypillow

@wallmachine yup, you can create as many metadata files as you like. directory entries will make Pegasus also look for rom files in those directories too, however the file paths are always relative to the metadata file (consider cases of multiple directories and games with same filenames).

wallmachine

when selecting a game that has two discs do I need to press a certain key to chose as I don't see it.

lastrun.log

2019-04-23T19:59:25 [w] qrc:/frontend/dialogs/MultifileSelector.qml:100: TypeError: Cannot read property 'count' of undefined
2019-04-23T19:59:25 [w] qrc:/frontend/dialogs/MultifileSelector.qml:110: TypeError: Cannot read property 'files' of undefined

fluffypillow

@wallmachine Looks like a bug! Will check it out the afternoon.

Meldrak

@fluffypillow it's the same issue for me

another request, will you add support to other games from uplay and origin? it would be great

wallmachine

@fluffypillow

With regards to adding native support for LEDBlinky to Pegasus it would require modifications to Pegasus. If you are interested in doing this, the developer (support@LEDBlinky.net) of LEDBlinky is more than willing to work with you on the integration.

Current features missing from LEDBlinky when not integrated with Pegasus are not limited to below.

Lighting the front-end controls
Lighting the game controls as you scroll through lists
Running various animations while the FE is active, etc

Lighting the relevant controls for a non-MAME game requires the FE to pass the ROM/Game name to LEDBlinky. If Pegasus provides a way to run a script file when events occur, then you can run LEDBlinky commands in those scripts. This requires Pegasus to expose one or more events like FE Start, List Select, Game Start, Game Quit, FE Quit, etc.

What do you think?

jdrassa

@wallmachine Pegaus already supports some of these events.
https://pegasus-frontend.org/docs/user-guide/scripting/

fluffypillow

@Meldrak > will you add support to other games from uplay and origin? it would be great

Yes adding support for them would be really nice (and also for things like Epic or Battle net), but I think I'll wait with them until we reach the beta version (there are still a bunch of things to work on!).

@wallmachine Yes that sound exactly like something you could customize well with scripting. The only missing thing from your list is probably the on-scroll-change effect, as that depends on the selected theme and not handled by Pegasus internally.