Release Effigy (PEF) emulator Frontend

[Aimless E]

Still allot of things to improve on but here it is.


What it can do.


Scans /media/ for known roms using md5sum checks


Adding and removing from favorites


pressing Y will change sort order available sorts are system,year, and genre (this doesn't work without rom verification)


pressing B will launch the game


pressing A will jump to the next category in the sort,


pressing ctrl/select will bring up the contextual menu.


Esc will bring you to the main screen were you can exit


F6 will rerun scans. (I had to remove my directory watcher because of overhead)


All actions are also accessible via touch screen long pressing on the game will bring up contextual menu otherwise single taps are all you need.


You can also search for a game by typing the name of the game (case insensitive) when in the game library.


There is a limitation with the number of files that you can have without a swapfile. I am considering changing the rom manager to address this issue but it slows down the search (something I use alot). This wont be a problem for most of you but if you have over ~10,000 roms you may want to consider adding a small swap file if you wish to play a game.


Emulators that it can access pcsx-rearmed,mupen64plus(newest version),picodrive1.80,snes9x(the optimized one)


Bugs already known


bash scripts eat special characters when passed to the emulator so spaces in filenames/directories are a problem.


hugo-1.1.0.pnd doesn't accept command line options afaik so it doesn't work


[Gruso edit: See post #3 for working PND attachment]


Aimless Edit: See post #35 for newest PND

 

[Aimless E]

Shoot, I goofed on the script to start the program. Some folders don't get created initially so the program crashes.


Also can someone help me with the Icon Graphic I'm not sure which way to go with it.


I'll re-upload. when I get a second.


Edit: had a Second see below

 

[Aimless E]

Not sure how the forum. Handles files but if the first effigy-beta.pnd doesn't work try this one.

effigy-beta.pnd

 

[MarioPandio]

Just giving this a try now and its busy scanning directories so it certainly starts up ok (though it wants no other apps open), correctly makes an appdata folder on first run etc.


Looks like it will be a good touch interface if thats implemented. Very nice so far and timely too.

 

[Granitehead]

Screenshots please.

 

[Aimless E]

Just giving this a try now and its busy scanning directories so it certainly starts up ok (though it wants no other apps open), correctly makes an appdata folder on first run etc.


Looks like it will be a good touch interface if thats implemented. Very nice so far and timely too.

Yeah I'm working on a windowed version. The current one looks horrible if it isn't full screen.

 

[Anihil8ion2199]

Would love to give it a try but am afraid of the "Scans /media/ for known roms..." because I have a 64 GB card and it might take a long time and I don't have too much time right now. Will try tonight though...

 

[Aimless E]

Screenshots please.

sure.


Says Im not allowed....

 

[Aimless E]

Would love to give it a try but am afraid of the "Scans /media/ for known roms..." because I have a 64 GB card and it might take a long time and I don't have too much time right now. Will try tonight though...

It takes a while, I have two 32gb card (not full mind you). But Under the current stress tests (2000+ roms) it takes about 15 minutes at 500 mhz CD images will take the longest. Thankfully The program avoids .extends,.overlays,and .pnds so it helps speed things up. The scan only runs once automatically so if you go changing things you'll have to run it manually by hitting F6

 

[MarioPandio]

Not happening quite just yet but its probably my setup. Here's whats gone on...


My first run failed sadly, as I'd left a Pandebian SD card in slot 2 and it kind of hung scanning that. I could still bring up the xfcce kill app dialog but had to soft reset. Thereafter it had forgotten the card 1, so I've deleted the appdata folder and tried again. The interface is really nice looking though and the pages for found apps look good. Though the fonts are smaller here.


On the main screen the games and quit buttons work fine by touch but nothing happens pressing the settings button. Probably because the first scan messed up, so there's nothing to have a setting about. It does take a long time to scan a card though (just been to the shops and back) but given lots of potential files it may find that's understandable.


Aside from that :


It appears as 'other' in the menu. Has no icon on the desktop and no documentation, which I presume is what you expect at present, as I doubt you've had time for that yet.


edit : It just completed scanning one card and the main page became available. Sadly on clicking games, it quit back to the desktop. The appdata/.config/games.lst was empty and it wont launch again from the PND icon or the menu.


Reboot: Now launches again and like before doesnt re-start scanning. The Game button works but is empty (the ABXY all work as intended though and it will attempt to load something and return again). F6 to re-scan also works again.


Its perfectly possible on this card that I have no decent rom dumps that it recognises of course.

 

[Aimless E]

Not happening quite just yet but its probably my setup. Here's whats gone on...


My first run failed sadly, as I'd left a Pandebian SD card in slot 2 and it kind of hung scanning that. I could still bring up the xfcce kill app dialog but had to soft reset. Thereafter it had forgotten the card 1, so I've deleted the appdata folder and tried again. The interface is really nice looking though and the pages for found apps look good. Though the fonts are smaller here.


On the main screen the games and quit buttons work fine by touch but nothing happens pressing the settings button. Probably because the first scan messed up, so there's nothing to have a setting about. It does take a long time to scan a card though (just been to the shops and back) but given lots of potential files it may find that's understandable.


Aside from that :


It appears as 'other' in the menu. Has no icon on the desktop and no documentation, which I presume is what you expect at present, as I doubt you've had time for that yet.


edit : It just completed scanning one card and the main page became available. Sadly on clicking games, it quit back to the desktop. The appdata/.config/games.lst was empty and it wont launch again from the PND icon or the menu.


Reboot: Now launches again and like before doesnt re-start scanning. The Game button works but is empty (the ABXY all work as intended though and it will attempt to load something and return again). F6 to re-scan also works again.


Its perfectly possible on this card that I have no decent rom dumps that it recognises of course.

Of course. What rom dumps for which system do you have? I have a scripts on my end for such things... Don't need the roms just need to get you the right script. Though you might want to run it on a PC rather than the Pandora for speed reason.

 

[gruso]

It's been a long time coming, Aimless_E!


Scanning now, and looking pretty. One thing though, I don't think auto-scanning is a good idea. It should ask you where to scan ('select a folder' or 'entire card' or 'all cards'), and you should be able to run the scan at a time of your choosing. (Even though it's useless until the scan is run, people will want to fire it up and check out the UI & settings before committing to a scan.) It should also give a warning - "this may take several minutes" etc.


Screenshot(s) to come.


[edit]


Ok, this is a slick, beautiful thing. The interface itself is ace. Touch & game control friendly, very well done. I haven't got it to launch a game yet, but there is plenty of time for that.


Here are some screenshots, feel free to use one in OP:


http://i.imgur.com/1gCCX.png


http://i.imgur.com/drXDr.png


http://i.imgur.com/xTemI.png


Some ideas:

• Initial launch screen needs d-pad control
  
• Ditch 'Esc' key to go back to main screen, and make it Start or Select (to fit in with the rest of the gaming control scheme)
  
• When scrolling through the ROM list, you should be able to bring the options bar in & out (currently done with Select) with d-pad left & right (left in, right out).
  
• 'Y' to sort is good, but at bottom left, it displays the sorting method you're currently using. It should tell you the next sort method you will switch to when you hit Y again.
  

 

[Sigma]

Nice frontend "Aimless E" but I'm had troubles getting it started pnd didn't work so I've manually mounted it and tried to


start but received a message that libxss.so.1 was missing, I did a "opkg install libxss1" and that solved the problem can you enclose the libxss library in the PND.


I'm the one who made de wahcade-beta pnd but your frontend seems much nicer from my experience adding emulators to the


wahcade frontend with command line parameters the following emulator you can easily add:


gngeo


gnuboy


fceu


the ones with problems are atari and hu-go (you've already encountered problem with Hu-go) I did run into the same


problemen and tried to contact "ZX-81" the one that ported hu-go, and heard that it isn't easy to add command line parameter


to the one he compiled, I tried to compile hu-go from the source but was unable to do it I ran into compile errors maybe if someone can compile hu-go it can be added (hu-go does have command line options so that would be nice)


Perhaps adding mednafen-pce would be the workaround to add pcengine emulation to your frontend.


I just wanted to share some information with you.


keep on the good work it is definitely a frontend I will going to watch and use


grtz


Jordi

 

[Aimless E]

Nice frontendng "Aimless E" but I'm had troubles getting it started pnd didn't work so I've manually mounted it and tried to


start but received a message that libxss.so.1 was missing, I did a "opkg install libxss1" and that solved the problem can you enclose the libxss library in the PND....

Strange, I thought I was using a default install. Which Hotfix version are you using.


I also seem to be missing a lib for settings and the db manager to work. Ill get them added. stay tuned.

 

[Sigma]

Nice frontendng "Aimless E" but I'm had troubles getting it started pnd didn't work so I've manually mounted it and tried to


start but received a message that libxss.so.1 was missing, I did a "opkg install libxss1" and that solved the problem can you enclose the libxss library in the PND....

Strange, I thought I was using a default install. Which Hotfix version are you using.


I also seem to be missing a lib for settings and the db manager to work. Ill get them added. stay tuned.

i'm using the latest hotfix 5, I cannot enter the settings option is it disabled? (or still need to be implemented)


none of my emu's work and that properly because the location of the emulator file is different from yours but can find a


option to change the file location.


grtz


Jordi

 

[Sigma]

Think I found why my emu pnd won't start (did't test it yet) but when I look at the p_snes:


/usr/pandora/scripts/pnd_run.sh -p /media/mmcblk?p?/pandora/*/snes9x4p_din.pnd -e ./snes.sh -b snes9x.skeezix.alpha -c 600 -a "$1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7"


you use: "/media/mmcblk?p?/pandora" but I formated my SDcard and give it a name (SDHC) so when my SDcard is mounted it is mounted it look like this: /media/SDHC/pandora


I won't be the only one who will name the SD card so you will need to keep that in mind when you release the frontend


also the pnd file I use for snes emu has a different name:


perhaps you need to change it like this:


.. /media/*/pandora/*/snes9x4p*.pnd -e ...


this maybe will delay the speedup but this way the pnd file name and SDcard name does not matter.


grtz


Jordi

 

[gruso]

Maybe it's possible to take some of the automation out of it? Personally I keep all my ROMs in one place (sd/pandora/roms, further subdivided into systems). My preferred behaviour would be to manually tell it where the ROMs are, and manually assign a PND to each rom folder.

 

[penguinbait]

I agree it would be better to be able to add the dirs you wanted scanned.


If not, please make it so if will not md5sum my 18GB of mp3's, an exclusion on mp3 files would be great.


It seems to always crash before it finishes

 

[Aimless E]

Maybe it's possible to take some of the automation out of it? Personally I keep all my ROMs in one place (sd/pandora/roms, further subdivided into systems). My preferred behaviour would be to manually tell it where the ROMs are, and manually assign a PND to each rom folder.

Automation was/is one of its benefits. I am working on a "smart scan" that will only scan directories where roms are found after the initial scan. I'll have a place to manually set the directories in the settings section when I figure out why it isn't releasing focus back to the rest of the program. (Works on the PC) I'll also add some of the warning dialogs as you suggested earlier. I already have a skeleton for it thanks to my work/reworking of the cpu speed settings.

I agree it would be better to be able to add the dirs you wanted scanned.


If not, please make it so if will not md5sum my 18GB of mp3's, an exclusion on mp3 files would be great.


It seems to always crash before it finishes

Yeah not going to get rid of the md5sum check since thats how it finds the proper information and settings from the DB. I started adding a "skip this" list yesterday should have finished before releasing.


@Sigma: Yeah I said the emu search was hackish at best. I didn't know the Pandora's mounting routine cared for or about the Partition names I'll fix that in the scripts. Oh and make sure you don't have special characters or spaces in the rom names. My program doesn't care about it, but the run_pnd.sh scripts do.


On a side note for those that are mounting the pnd and poking about in data/emu-config/nameofsystem/ there is a script called mklist.tcl it will need to be edited for your setup and I would backup the original games.list but if you are having trouble with the detection part of the scan this will create the list based on your romset. I don't have that many non-english roms and hardly any psx games so the additions would be great. Just upload them to this thread and I'll keep at it.


Thanks for all your input. Real life and a two year wait didn't help the project much. I hope now that I can properly test it that development cycles will go by much quicker.

 

[Sigma]

found some new things:


- firmware/hotfix 5 is missing tlc therfor the mklist.tlc does not work


- can't get a game to run, when I try to run a game it tries to start but then return to the game selectscreen


when I quit effigy I see the following errors in my terminal:


ERR214>:elementary elm_entry.c:1639 elm_entry_entry_get() text=NULL


for edje 0x7243038, part 'elm.text'


maybe some missing library?


- You've mentioned that running a game with special characters or spaces in it does not work, I've encountered the same problem


when I was working with Wahcade I then solved it by modifying the pnd_run.sh script, but today I looked at the snes.sh script from the snes9x4p_20110310.pnd and modified it a little (mounting and unmounting of the snes9x.pnd file) and that seems to work with romnames with spaces and special charaters in it.


I've attached the file perhaps you can take a look at it and maybe it's something you can use.


grtz


Jordi

p_snes.tar