Announcing Pegasus Frontend

fluffypillow

@AndersHP as in game list and system definition files. Currently Pegasus uses ES2's XML files, but it shouldn't depend on them.

@lilbud I've made a GitHub issue for it previously, but didn't really made progress on it; I'll add some "inspirational materials" and details the weekend in case you want draw something nice.

@dudleydes could you create a new issue for the controller problem? I'd be easier for me to see the related discussion in one place.

dudleydes

@fluffypillow I have created an issue at the Github page.

I have installed Qt Creator on my desktop but I really can't figure out how to create a theme for Pegasus. I would be grateful if you could give a guide on how to get started.

fluffypillow

@dudleydes yeah the theming is still not properly documented, but you can use the Flixnet theme as an example in the meanwhile (or the default theme, which has some more complex parts).

In short, every theme needs a theme.ini metadata file and a theme.qml, the main QML file. These files should be under ~/.config/pegasus-frontend/themes/<theme name>/.

The theme.ini is a list of key = value pairs, you'll need at least a name (other values aren't used at the moment). The format may also change in the future, eg. I'll likely start using : instead of =.

The theme.qml is the QML component that'll fill the screen, which at the moment must be a FocusScope with active focus:

import QtQuick 2.7

FocusScope {
    focus: true

    // your code here
}

Other than that, you're free to use whatever QML elements you want (EXCEPT the Qt Quick Controls 1/2 items, as they aren't really for this kind of application and are not available in the automatic builds).

To access the game data, you can use the similarly undocumented pegasus object:

pegasus.platforms is a list (= you can use as a model) of platforms
pegasus.currentPlatform is the currently selected platform
pegasus.currentPlatformIndex is the index of the currently selected platform (most parts are read-only, but this is a field is writable)

Every platform has a shortName (eg. nes) and longName (which is currently empty as ES2 files only have one <name>) field, and games, currentGame and currentGameIndex fields, which work similarly as listed above.

Finally, every game has the following single-value fields: boxFront, boxBack, boxSpine, boxFull, box (same as boxFull), cartridge, logo, marquee, bezel, gridicon, flyer, music, and the following lists: fanarts, screenshots, videos.

Note that values may be empty (eg. no games for a platform, or no particular asset for a game). The field names may also change (we're still in alpha). Also in case you see .qmlc files, those are caches, no need eg. commit them to Git or such.

fluffypillow

Weekly changelog: Nothing interesting this week, as I was working on another side project.
In case you'd like to try drawing a logo and want to read my nasty comments about your entries, I've updated the relevant issue.

Darksavior

@fluffypillow My mistake for saying there was a change in the spacing. I just got used to some sections being 4 columns not 5. Changing column numbers should be about the last feature I'm waiting for along with exiting game going back to the game itself and not the beginning of the list.

tronkyfran

Well, I got working the blend image modes for my theme!!!was pretty easy, now to get a look to qt3d and rasp compatibility, that will be harder for sure. When I get everything working I can make a tutorial if anyone is interested! I see HUGE possibilities for this frontend,just dont know if the pi will hace enough juice for it ;)

fluffypillow

@tronkyfran nice! I think if the Pi can play 3D games properly then you shouldn't have problems showing a simple scene either :)

As for the weekly changelog, I've only had time the weekend, so there are just some minor fixes:

the grid now remembers the launched game when returning from play (< @Darksavior ;) )
memory optimizations: Pegasus now uses a little less RAM

lilbud

Do you think you could add a basic view to Pegasus?

fluffypillow

What kind of basic view? Just the grid without showing the details?

lilbud

@fluffypillow Yeah, just like EmulationStation. A simple list

fluffypillow

This week I've worked on improving the general "user experience":

added confirmation dialog before shutdown and reboot
added an error message when no games have been found
added an error message when the selected theme couldn't be loaded
fixed the antialiasing of the platform bar's edges
made the main menu animations somewhat smoother

Fullscreen support on desktop is also almost done, I'll just have to add the relevant option in the settings menu. I'm also planning to clean that menu up a bit, then add theme-specific settings, which would also allow implementing eg. a basic view for the default theme.

pompitousofseth

I have installed pegasus from the RetroPie setup menu and I have gotten it started. It only shows all of the .jpg images and not the .png images. I got all of the .png images from the Universal XML Scraper today. I have put them in the downloaded_images folder and in the [roms]/media folder and neither work. Any hints on what could be going wrong. Also the log doesn't show any errors except for not being able to load some one the .svg files for the system headers. Thanks. Awesome work BTW!

fluffypillow

@pompitousofseth hm that sounds like a bug, I'll try to reproduce it the afternoon.

fluffypillow

@pompitousofseth just tested on my Pi 3, but everything seems to work fine for me. I'm using both PNG and JPG files too. Are you 100% sure the images are at the correct location with the correct name? On RetroPie, it should be ~/RetroPie/roms/[platform name]/media/, and the image names (without any suffix) should match the rom file name (also see here). The downloaded_images directory is no longer scanned directly, but ES2 gamelist files are supported (ie. if an image shows up in ES2, it should also appear in Pegasus). If it still doesn't work, feel free to open an issue so we can discuss what could be the problem.

AndersHP

Ok, I just installed Pegasus package from the RetroPie Setup... And so... Err... How do I install it, so it replaces ES?

Sorry, I know this is a noob question, since no-one asked before me.. I guess it has to do with the "Build Guide".. I just hoped it would install by itself. I'm no coder...

fluffypillow

@AndersHP you can launch Pegasus manually by calling /opt/retropie/supplementary/pegasus-fe/pegasus-fe, and to make it start on boot instead of ES2, you'll need to edit the file /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh (replace its content with the path above). There's no menu option for this at the moment, unfortunately (I wonder if there's one for eg. AttractMode?). The build guide describes the building/development setup, as an end-user you won't have to deal with that :) (unless you're interested in it, of course).

AndersHP

@fluffypillow Makes sense - thank you. I searched again, but couldn't find this mentioned anywhere.

I had it up and running. Looks really good!
But since I'm not using a controller but keyboard inputs through iPac, I couldn't really do much. Directionals work fine, and the buttons that's working like Return and Escape all work, but since all other buttons, including shoulder buttons are mapped to work as letters and numbers, these won't work.. The Controller Setup doesn't accept my inputs, so I cannot change anything. Is keyboard inputs not supported yet?

Another peculiar thing: it seems that even though everything is scraped with UXMLS, only those games marked as favorites show up with boxart..?

fluffypillow

@AndersHP Sorry, no, keyboard remapping is not yet supported. Until then you could try using some key remapping programs (Joy2Key maybe?), eg. create a custom keymap that is loaded before launching Pegasus. You can find the current default keys here.

Another peculiar thing: it seems that even though everything is scraped with UXMLS, only those games marked as favorites show up with boxart..?

Is there anything common in the image files of the games that have this problem? If you rename the image so that it belongs to a different game, does the image appear? Can you check if the format of the images match their extension? Ie. PNG files are actual PNG files, and not JPG files with .png extension (happened to me with UXMLS!). You can do that with file <filename>. Having box art and being a favorite aren't related inside Pegasus, so I'd guess something happened with the files before.

Omnija

@fluffypillow can you make a new updated video showing all the new cool stuff that's been added?

tronkyfran

Well, my theme is not progressing a lot, sadly. I'm trying to get my head around QML programming but Im afraid its something to spend a lot of time. Im not being capable to understand the inner workings of the netflix theme(Im using that as a base for learning), probably because I overestimated my programming skills, and its a bit depressing.
Its a pity because I got to make blend modes work(separatedly) and finally got to load a 3d model textured, but damn, I wish I had more time to dive in this.
So, if someone with better programming skills wants to lend a hand, or team up with me on making a theme for this would be awesome.
The possibilities are ENDLESS, and I think this frontend deserves a lot more attention and love than its given right now.