Announcing Pegasus Frontend

fluffypillow

As for the weekly changelog+recap:

Created a frontend chooser for Retropie, downloads here
Fixed the favorites filter not working (thanks @AndersHP)
Pegasus now logs if there are directories in game_dirs.txt that couldn't be opened (might help @Seya16)
Android builds are now properly optimized
Compatibility modules (ES2, Steam) are no longer built for platforms where they aren't available (ie. Pegasus won't search for ES2 on Android)
Cleaned up the code of the main theme a bit
Fixed some minor mouse issues

Seya16

Hi me again,

So with the new update I'm now sure that the directories paths that I put on the game_dirs.txt are recognize (What I did is to change some folder's name in the text file to see if it will be able to find the directories or not) but I couldn't get it to find the games. I did create the collections.pegasus.txt where I put some basic text for testing purposes but nothing still have the same problem... Maybe it's just me, maybe I did somethings wrong but I don't know where :/...
Anyway thanks for your dedication and your hard work on this project.

fluffypillow

@seya16 Hmm interesting, so the directory paths are correct, but Pegasus still doesn't see the txt files (no Found /path/to/whatever.txt). I've just made a version with additional logging, you can get it here. It will also print warnings when

no collection files found in a directory
no games found in a directory
the file opening has failed (though it seems it doesn't reach that point for you)

Seya16

Big thanks mate ! but it does show how stupid I am :/ I didn't see that I have to put the collection text file on the rom directory not on the pegasus-frontend folder. So sorry, I feel that I did waste your time on this :/....
But thanks again, at least it's make me test the app furthermore, so I will come back at you when for feedback purposes.

fluffypillow

@seya16 Hey no problem :) Yes, collection files are local to a rom directory; a kind of global collection file support is also on my roadmap, but not implemented yet.

AndersHP

@fluffypillow Favorites all good again, this frontend is getting better and better, almost perfect for me now.

What's the status in making it possible to remove/turning off the few seconds of code when booting the frontend, booting games, and quitting games?

It would look so seamless without these strings of code in between.

fluffypillow

@andershp Actually I have an idea for improving the seamless launching, I'll see if I can try it out the weekend. The other two issues are somewhat different though:

The startup delay can be reduced by optimizing some lower-level code, which is a bit time consuming, but I've started working on it already (as a side-side-side project).
Pegasus reloads the UI when the launched program says "Ok, I'm done!". Not sure how much that could be improved, but I'll see what can be done. Perhaps it'll also speed up when the startup time gets optimized.

AndersHP

@fluffypillow I didn't mean reducing the delay to zero, just hiding the code alltogether, either with a black screen or maybe using the launch-image for a few seconds longer. Similar to these functions.

Sounds cool that you're willing to test this :)

fluffypillow

So this week I've updated the Qt version (ie. the UI code); this should make Pegasus start up somewhat faster and may fix a color depth issue someone mentioned earlier. It's a big change under the hood, so feel free to report if something's broke. The changes are not available on Android/Windows yet, there are still some build errors to be fixed there.

I've also put up some actual content to pegasus-frontend.org, so you can find the latest downloads there too. Also started working on more seamless game launching, there are just some silly bugs left to fix.

fluffypillow

Today's update:

Finished the work on the seamless launching; the UI now disappears only when the launched program has started successfully. Any delay left now is up to the launched program.
Added a --silent command line parameter, which will make Pegasus not print anything to the terminal. Might come handy for startup, or in case a launched program itself shows the terminal.
Updated the Android release too with the new Qt libs.

fluffypillow

Aand the Windows build got the update as well.

Darksavior

I couldn't get any games to show up in the windows version. Steam games automatically showed up. I'm probably doing it wrong, even after reading the documentation. I'd like better examples. I converted my gamelist.xml from my pi to metadata.txt and made a game-dirs.txt that it doesn't care to see. I'm not sure how collections.txt work and did it like the example but got nothing as well.

I also tried the windows version of ES to see if that might get me anything but Pegasus will only see that in a specific place and even then it tells me it can't parse es_systems.cfg or something but I'd rather not use this method..seems like extra work.

fluffypillow

@darksavior That's game_dirs.txt, with an underscore; fixing that should solve the collection/metadata loading. But yeah, providing some actual example configs would be a good idea.

BJRetro

What is the effect of adding this package to a RetroPie Raspberry pie already running emulation station? Do you just not see emulation station any more and this front end replaces it? If so is there any way to “go back” or switch between them easily or at that point do you have to reload a backup image/fresh install? Thanks! (Looks very nice by the way, which is why I might want to try it, but on the other hand I finally have a 128gb setup that I can “just play” for the last month or two and am a bit worried about screwing that up).

BJRetro

I see there is a front end chooser and that you can edit a certain file to run Pegasus automatically but I didn’t see instructions on how to do that or what you need to do in that file to change back to emulation station running automatically. Also seems from some posts (though hard to read all 700) that if you change front ends you might need to change the locations of RomS and their metadata so that is the sort of thing I am getting at - once you download this how hard from a practical standpoint is it to switch back and forth or “go back” to the ES version even with the front end chooser or editing of the startup file? Thanks - I am sure this is a noob question.

fluffypillow

@bjretro The RetroPie installer will just download the release for your device -- it doesn't change your settings, so ES2 will start the next time you boot too. You'll be able to launch Pegasus from the terminal then. If you want to change which frontend to start automatically on boot, you can either edit the autorun file manually, or use the frontend chooser that does this for you (and can do the installation as well) -- you can find it here, or in the first post too.

If you already have Emulationstation set up, Pegasus will automatically (try to) detect your games, metadata and assets, no configuration needed. The ES2 files will not be changed, only read. If you want to use Pegasus without ES, then you can do that too, Pegasus' own file format is documented here, and the asset detection is described here (I should move this to the documentation site too).

AndersHP

@bjretro It's a good question. Pegasus only "installs" by getting placed on the sd card and nothing else changes. So, EmulationStation still runs as normal, and to test Pegasus, you have to quit ES and type the code mentioned in #1 under Retropie Package. If you like Pegasus and would like your Pi to boot directly into this frontend instead of EmulationStation, add the code in the autostart.sh, also mentioned there.

I have not tinkered with the frontend chooser, as I only use Pegasus now, but I'm using gamelist and metadata the default places (as Universal XML Scraper does) and this works in both frontends.

My suggestion is; give it a whirl, you can always go back to ES. Me, I'm staying with Pegasus.

Edit: Ah, @fluffypillow - beat me to it :)

fluffypillow

And another update for the week, Pegasus now keeps track of play times (except it's not displayed on the main theme yet, but that will be added later). I've also updated the list of changelogs of the first post.

jonathandownin

@fluffypillow I just wanted to say thank you for the dedication. The professionalism of the regularity of updates and documentation is top notch, and frankly, something that is amazing for a free piece of software. UX and design aesthetics are top-notch as well. I'm looking forward to making this my main launcher. I really hope this becomes the standard frontend for RetroPie in the future. Kudos!

fluffypillow

@jonathandownin You're welcome :)