unified menu for emulators

[SNESFAN]

Is there any plans to get all the emulators on one common interface or one gui frontend loader for all the current available emulators so they have a general common "feel" to them?


I understand pickle launcher is a solution for that, but is there any solution for in-emulator menus and stuff of that nature? Getting them all on the same page, I think something along those lines would add lots of slick points to the pandora if this was accomplished/possible.


I know that getting them to work fluidly first is the main focus. And if this is one of those "give it time" situations, sure thing... just wanted to know if it's on the drawing board or is everyone all just flying around doing their own thing programming wise. I would hope that since one of the main selling points of the pandora is console emulation that emulation would be one the communities main focus's.

 

[-Tj-]

I'd be interested in seeing something like this happen, but another side of me doesn't want that. Main reason being I've seen so many different interfaces that have so many different pluses and minuses that I don't think any one interface will ever please everyone.


For example, some people might like the flashy kind of loaders that have graphics for every game you have emulated on your system, but I, personally, like the more basic text-based loaders. But that's just me.

 

[andyhamer]

Something along these lines would certainly be desirable (at least for me) and no doubt would help along the utilitarian aspects of the Pandora.


As Tj mentioned though the difficulty would be in arriving at a solution that suits all, these things generally boil down to a matter of taste - i suppose one solution would be to offer something that is highly customizable, time will tell if anyone considers something like this worthy enough to dedicate the time to (fingers crossed)

 

[Lowlander]

i don't really know if it is what you mean but there were some thoughts about this in 2008 : http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/44952-pandora-emulator-frontend/page__hl__emulator

 

[SNESFAN]

i don't really know if it is what you mean but there were some thoughts about this in 2008 : http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/44952-pandora-emulator-frontend/page__hl__emulator

yea... sorta and that would be REALLY nice

not necessarily what I was talking about, but if that's the way someone wants to take it sure


what I'm asking for is just that all the emulator interfaces look visually similar to each other, that's all.


sdk's for other os's (android, webos, iphone, windows, etc) have requirements like that. The "menu" button for instance is the menu button in all programs. When you enter the menu a similar or familiar interface will come up that is the same across the platform. hitting the pandora button will act the same (by default) in every program. menus & options having similar dimensions, fonts sizes etc. Rom choosers, directory structure. I understand the wanting for tweaking and customization but making them all the same would make skinning easier.


With skinning allows those that are more graphically inclined to be able to contribute rather than those that are both programming inclined and graphically inclined.


I think the effort would be well worth the end result if someone wants to herd the cats on this one and get everyone on the same page.

 

[bigSEXYc]

Are you looking for something similar to this?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lEgaqXsavYA?feature=oembed

 

[SNESFAN]

Are you looking for something similar to this?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lEgaqXsavYA?feature=oembed

agian, kinda overkill, but great if we can get it! (although I don't think hyperspin is open source and only for x86) But yes, along those lines (although hyperspin still falls back on the emulators themselves for individual settings within the emulator) But for just a frontend, it's supper sweet!


EDIT: maybe wine would work considering hyperspin is a fairly simple program


example of what I'm shooting for is on android there is a visually similar menu system nesoid, snesoid, psx4droid etc etc, they all have the same style menu system it also has the feel of the os settings menu about it, unique to each program as far as content of settings yet the theme is the same in all those programs.


as long as all the applications are all on the same page it would improve the polish of the os as a whole, it doesn't matter what it actually looks like, as complex or simple as you would want I suppose.

 

[ashdjones]

Well earlier today I made a script to launch roms using a couple of arguments - one for the PND name (it finds it on your SD card) and another for rom-name. At the moment I only tested this with GPFCE, as the default executable there accepts arguments. I'll be trying it with all the rest of the emulators, but most of them run startup scripts.


Anyway, the point is that you can associate the script in XFCE and launch roms from Thunar. Anyone interested in this?

 

[HackModford]

Me and a couple other guys have been trying to get xbmc to do this...


Sent from my Alltel HTC Hero using Tapatalk

 

[Caine]

Me and a couple other guys have been trying to get xbmc to do this...

Well, that work is more a generic front-end launcher for applications not necessarily a unified GUI for emulators. Although launching of ROMS can certainly be unified in this way, the specific configuration and in-game menus of emulators are not addressed.


As long as emulators use command-line options and/or simple configuration files for this it is possible to hack up a configuration screen in xbmc as well though. Maybe I'll take a look at that once we get the launcher running properly.

 

[bzar]

Okay, if I understand you correctly, you're not just after an emulator frontend to launch stuff, but also want the in-emulator experience to be unified? So possible emulator-specific menus would have the same look and hotkeys would work the same? That could be done, but I think it would be quite a task, because each emulator would need to have its native ui ripped out and replaced with this generic version.

 

[sebt3]

Okay, if I understand you correctly, you're not just after an emulator frontend to launch stuff, but also want the in-emulator experience to be unified? So possible emulator-specific menus would have the same look and hotkeys would work the same? That could be done, but I think it would be quite a task, because each emulator would need to have its native ui ripped out and replaced with this generic version.

Not counting that emulator dont output the same way : some use SDL, some use the framebuffer, other use the EGL context.


Sound like a pain project .


Ho and this would need to have a commercial friendly license

 

[meandu229]

I managed to get pickle launcher to run dega, the gameboy emu and a snes emu from one launcher, the files needed to be unzipped but it basically if the extension was .gb then it would pass that to the gb emulator is it was smc it would pass it to the snes emu,


I PND'd it up with the 3 emulators in it and was sort of a 1 package fits all,


Im not good at this stuff so I didnt release it as I didnt make a PXML or anything.


I think pickle launcher would work for anything which can be fed the rom as an arguement.


edit: this obviously wont solve the in game feel but when the emu is exited it would close to the launcher so it does feel quite nice


It would be nice if all emus went with certain things like the same key to exit and the same keys for load/save states.

 

[ashdjones]

I managed to get pickle launcher to run dega, the gameboy emu and a snes emu from one launcher, the files needed to be unzipped but it basically if the extension was .gb then it would pass that to the gb emulator is it was smc it would pass it to the snes emu,


I PND'd it up with the 3 emulators in it and was sort of a 1 package fits all,


Im not good at this stuff so I didnt release it as I didnt make a PXML or anything.


I think pickle launcher would work for anything which can be fed the rom as an arguement.


edit: this obviously wont solve the in game feel but when the emu is exited it would close to the launcher so it does feel quite nice


It would be nice if all emus went with certain things like the same key to exit and the same keys for load/save states.

I like this approach. Like I said, I'm messing around with doing this with normal PND files on an SD card. It may be that I have to create custom script code which mirrors the startup scripts for each emulator... but then that would lower the compatiblity to whatever I've written for - I guess the only advantage is space saving, and not having to wait for a new release of mega-emulator-x for individual emu updates.

 

[Mygames19]

Sorry to randomly interject on the subject, but this is something that always bugged me...


What happened to Zib? A few years ago, a few forum members where throwing together a emulator front-end for the Pandora. Weather it got anywhere... I don't know. but here's an old image form the topic years ago showing what it might have looked like:

I have a couple more images from that topic too, if anyone's interested. They're mostly just the puzzle pieces though.

 

[HackModford]

I really like the zib interface


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[skeezix]

Something to mind is that many things work very differently.


We've been over this a million times, and the real issue is -- everyone likes emus to have their own character, especialyl developers, so its a tough sell to get a dev to do extra work for no gain


Some folks wanted an 'overlay' and thats a real big pain in the rear for a lot of reasons I can go into, but you just need to know 'no'


A 'unified style' or even 'unified menu that devs adopt' can work for _similar systems_; ie: cart systems like NES and SNES and Genesis could probably be cojoled to work pretty similarly; but then go to MAME and not very well, given all the dipswitch settings and different kidns of sub-emulation (MVS versus System16 etc), and then start really pushign the concept by going to computer emulators (Amiga, Atari ST) with carts, floppies, different 'monitors' (high res, low res, colour amounts), or even further.. emu's like MESS where it emulates many computers, so you may have floppy drives or not, hard drives or not.


Also consider stuff like an Amiga, Atari ST,, Commodore 64 / Vic 20, the 8 bit Ataris like 800XL, where the floppy or tape is often changed mid-game. (ie: disk 1, disk 2) .. and do you want C64 fast loader on, or off?


TurboGrafx .. hu cards, or CD?


DOSBOX, ScummVM .. what about all those options?


Its one of those things where always seemed ot me that a few systems could adopt a common codebase for a menu, but for comprehensive emulators, it just doesn't make too much sense, or would take a huge amount of effort .. for little gain.


I'm not against the idea, I've just not seen a good solution proposed; peopel tend to suggest it off the cuff, without thinking it end to end through .. nothing wrong with that, but someone figure it out end to end, and let me know


jeff

 

[SNESFAN]

A 'unified style' or even 'unified menu that devs adopt' can work for _similar systems_; ie: cart systems like NES and SNES and Genesis could probably be cojoled to work pretty similarly; but then go to MAME and not very well, given all the dipswitch settings and different kidns of sub-emulation (MVS versus System16 etc), and then start really pushign the concept by going to computer emulators (Amiga, Atari ST) with carts, floppies, different 'monitors' (high res, low res, colour amounts), or even further.. emu's like MESS where it emulates many computers, so you may have floppy drives or not, hard drives or not.

mame is kind of an all in one solution by it's self, it's taking this unified menu to whole different level and making a unified program for all arcade emulators, but that's basically it right there, all the different arcade systems use the same application rather than just looking the same. If that is what someone wants to do kudos!

Also consider stuff like an Amiga, Atari ST,, Commodore 64 / Vic 20, the 8 bit Ataris like 800XL, where the floppy or tape is often changed mid-game. (ie: disk 1, disk 2) .. and do you want C64 fast loader on, or off?

computer emulators are generally seperate from console emulators when talking about emulators right? I haven't/don't mess with them, do these have similar options that can be catagorized?

Its one of those things where always seemed ot me that a few systems could adopt a common codebase for a menu, but for comprehensive emulators, it just doesn't make too much sense, or would take a huge amount of effort .. for little gain.

Is this somehthing that can be put in a sdk as a template or something? This might also be helpful for other programs that want to adopt a similar visual theme for their own settings menu. Content inspecific, just the framework I guess is what should be done. You know how in a window how "file" option is (useally) always the first option and it commonly has the same general options in it? (I'm not suggesting this visual theme, but the idea, and the standard) fix it now while the software liabrary is small instead have everyone re-write their applications later.


I know this might sound similar to reinventing x/windows but one theme can be applied to all applications at once and makes skinning/themeing increadbly simple.

I'm not against the idea, I've just not seen a good solution proposed; peopel tend to suggest it off the cuff, without thinking it end to end through .. nothing wrong with that, but someone figure it out end to end, and let me know

is this something you would work on? I can try to think a template down to a "t" grapically and flowchart wise if that's what you want. I was just here to plant the seed of an idea. I haven't fully thought this out, but at this stage of conversation I was seeing if it was in fact being looked at. I'll take that as a no.

 

[Link]

I hope someone puts a nicer frontend on NES, is Picklelaunchpad an option?

 

[myownlittlworld]

If you're that into a unified menu, you could try to build a frontend for Raine, which is (as I understand it) the version of MAME meant for actually playing games, instead of just perfectly emulating a variety of systems.