RELEASE: EmulationStation 2.0-RC1

[Aloshi]

It would be nice to be able to disable a system in es_system.cfg.

Use an XML comment, like so:

Code: Select all

<!--
<system>
   <name></name>
   <path></path>
   ...etc...
</system>
-->

You can disable a system by placing a # before the selected system entires.

Now you have to use XML comments, since es_systems.cfg is in XML.

[Aloshi]

My only real issue is that scraping is extremely slow. It takes about 90 seconds per game from thegamesdb, but used to be much less that with the previous method of calling the script directly. Is there any logging output I can get to see what's taking so long? If I scrape games individually it is much quicker - about 5 seconds per game.

Huh, that's a new one. It should be the same speed in either mode. Are you scraping with the "USER DECIDES CONFLICTS" switch on or off? Is the bulk of the time spent with the "WORKING..." icon frozen or moving?

It'd also be good to be able to cancel scraping once it has started. Although I can see a 'STOP' button I don't get the opportunity to press it because the 'WORKING...' box is always in focus. The little icon next to the 'WORKING...' text is animated for about 2 seconds, but then freezes for a minute or so.

Ah, yeah, that would happen in "auto mode." Added it to the todo list.

The reason the "WORKING..." icon freezes is because the Pi starts to resize the downloaded image, which is currently a synchronous/blocking operation (ES is single-threaded).

Lastly, when scraping individual games, I don't think the gamelist.xml is automatically saved. I have to press start and 'quit emulation station' for it to do so. If I just restart it doesn't store the new data.

That's a bug, good catch!

[timxyz]

My only real issue is that scraping is extremely slow. It takes about 90 seconds per game from thegamesdb, but used to be much less that with the previous method of calling the script directly. Is there any logging output I can get to see what's taking so long? If I scrape games individually it is much quicker - about 5 seconds per game.

Huh, that's a new one. It should be the same speed in either mode. Are you scraping with the "USER DECIDES CONFLICTS" switch on or off? Is the bulk of the time spent with the "WORKING..." icon frozen or moving?

It is slow in both manual and automatic modes when scraping in bulk. Yeah, the 'WORKING...' icon freezes in both instances, so I assume it's something to do with image resizing. That would make sense because it seems to actually fetch the data from the remote site quite quickly so it seemed to be some kind of local operation.

It is confusing that it's so much quicker when I do them individually. Is there any other information I can get for you?

[Aloshi]

Is there any other information I can get for you?

You can check ~/.emulationstation/es_log.txt for any errors that look relevant, that's about it. Did you remember to expand the partition to fill the SD card with raspi-config after flashing?

[timxyz]

There's nothing in es_log.txt apart from notifications the gamelists have been parsed, and some errors about sounds being missing.

I did expand my partition, but I also have my roms / downloaded_images / gamelists directories symlinked to an external hard drive anyway.

I'll do some investigating...

[timxyz]

It's something to do with storing the downloaded images on my external drive because my ntfs-3g process is at 66% for the whole duration that the working icon is frozen. I'm surprised it's accessing the disk so much, but I suppose I'll just remove the symlink for now. Cheers.

(It's still strange that it works quickly when I do them individually - perhaps its actually writing the gamelist and not the images that's the problem)

[Aloshi]

Hm, hanging on writing the gamelist.xml sounds plausible. How many games do you have?

[timxyz]

Quite a lot - just over a thousand. It's quicker now I'm using the SD card instead but still slower than I'd expect

[KitchUK]

Hi Alec,

Below are some examples of the jagged text I was talking about. As you can see some of the text is fine while other parts has a jagged uneven look to it. I've checked the ES log and I cannot see any kind of errors or anything out of the ordinary. I've also tried checking various DMT and CEA modes and resolutions and still get this problem. I also checked with 480p output and it still occurs. Very strange!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dsfmq7bnr6fhg ... .11.41.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a6lyb1ptltpca ... .11.49.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j7edn1eo730o7 ... .12.03.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rv3g6ntbcf0bn ... .12.12.jpg

Does anyone else get this while using the default RetroPie distro (with default settings)?

P.S I also noticed that the bottom entry of a game system list seems to have some of the text cut off (you can also see more jaggy text). See example:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ml4seddk3nq63 ... .41.50.jpg

[NBonaparte]

I'm not sure if this pertains only to 2.0-RC1 (someone has posted something similar here, albeit with RetroPie 1.10: http://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/top ... n-io-pins/), but I have a problem with using the Retrogame utility (https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Retrogame) with ES 2.0. The simulated keyboard presses do not appear to have any effect when running ES or an emulator through ES, but it works in the console and in emulators launched outside of ES. I had it work on RetroPie 1.9.1, however, so I suspect it might have to do with a change in detecting keyboard presses between 1.x and 2.0.

[Aloshi]

Quite a lot - just over a thousand. It's quicker now I'm using the SD card instead but still slower than I'd expect

Hmm, that might be it. I would like to switch the gamelist.xml format to some kind of database in the future. With that change, it would be possible to keep metadata in the database instead of loading the whole thing into memory on startup. It would also keep from having to read/write the entire gamelist.xml every single time you change something. Look to the future, I guess.

Below are some examples of the jagged text I was talking about. As you can see some of the text is fine while other parts has a jagged uneven look to it. I've checked the ES log and I cannot see any kind of errors or anything out of the ordinary. I've also tried checking various DMT and CEA modes and resolutions and still get this problem. I also checked with 480p output and it still occurs. Very strange!

This might be a rounding error in the text rendering code. You might also want to double-check that the GPU has enough memory. Can anyone else reproduce it?

I have a problem with using the Retrogame utility (https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Retrogame) with ES 2.0. The simulated keyboard presses do not appear to have any effect when running ES or an emulator through ES, but it works in the console and in emulators launched outside of ES. I had it work on RetroPie 1.9.1, however, so I suspect it might have to do with a change in detecting keyboard presses between 1.x and 2.0.

This probably has to do with the change from SDL 1.2 to SDL 2. SDL2 uses evdev for input handling (in the console in the Pi). I don't remember what SDL 1.2 uses. Not much I can do about this, sorry.

[KitchUK]

My GPU memory is currently set to the default RetroPie distro of 256mb.

[robi]

Thanks for all of the hard work. This new version is really nice. However, the emulationstation screen is stretched too wide and tall on my tv. It's cutting off some of the menu items, and in the emulators it's cutting off the bottom of the screens. How do I configure it to be smaller? When I first boot, RetroPie is aligned to the left of the screen, but once emulationstation loads, it stretches off the edges, so when I go back to the command prompt, it's off the screen.

[tafazzi87]

i configure a controller to works with emulation station and it works fine.
but after i exit from a snes or pifba game and return to emulation station, button settings are change, for example dpad down become select button. so i've to plug out my usb joystick and plug in again and after that it works fine again.
how can i fix that? (i'm using retropie 2.1)

[Aloshi]

However, the emulationstation screen is stretched too wide and tall on my tv. It's cutting off some of the menu items, and in the emulators it's cutting off the bottom of the screens. How do I configure it to be smaller? When I first boot, RetroPie is aligned to the left of the screen, but once emulationstation loads, it stretches off the edges, so when I go back to the command prompt, it's off the screen.

Try adding "overscan_scale=1" to your /boot/config.txt.

i configure a controller to works with emulation station and it works fine.
but after i exit from a snes or pifba game and return to emulation station, button settings are change, for example dpad down become select button. so i've to plug out my usb joystick and plug in again and after that it works fine again.
how can i fix that? (i'm using retropie 2.1)

This is a new one. Does anyone else have this issue? What kind of controller are you using? Do you get the same issue with other controllers?

My GPU memory is currently set to the default RetroPie distro of 256mb.

I'll be following this up in the GitHub issue you opened.

[tafazzi87]

i've a ps2 controller with an usb adapter...i can't use another joystick i havent another one

[robi]

Thanks. I tried the overscan thing. It turned out that I needed to leave overscan on, but I had to change my hdmi group to a 720p for the best fit.
http://elinux.org/RPiconfig#Video_mode_options for anyone else that might need to know the modes.

[Paul013]

Hi.
I was using the older ES with 2 PSX controllers through a USB adapter. I have just updated to ES2 and I can't see how to get the controllers working with the sega emu. It used to use dgen but now I'm not sure. All the config files seem to have moved as well. Would appreciate some help with this and other emus. I am guessing you do it through /opt/retropie/configs but I'm not too sure how.
Paul.

[cacophony555]

Excited to try the new version

Any advice for upgrading from the old version? Can I reuse my old es_systems.cfg and gamelist.xml files?

[dinki]

I'm having a problem and it may be painfully obvious to fix but I can't find a solution despite poking around everywhere.

I'm using a generic usb SNES style joystick. I am able to configure buttons just fine in the frontend and it behaves as expected. I use it to load up an NES game and the game starts fine but I am unable to use the joystick to control the game. I can, however, use the keyboard to control the game. What do I need to do to configure the joystick so that it can be used in the emulator(s)?

Also, I am getting errors on my mame roms. I'm using MAME4ALL 037b5 roms. Is this correct?

[KitchUK]

I'm having a problem and it may be painfully obvious to fix but I can't find a solution despite poking around everywhere.

I'm using a generic usb SNES style joystick. I am able to configure buttons just fine in the frontend and it behaves as expected. I use it to load up an NES game and the game starts fine but I am unable to use the joystick to control the game. I can, however, use the keyboard to control the game. What do I need to do to configure the joystick so that it can be used in the emulator(s)?

Also, I am getting errors on my mame roms. I'm using MAME4ALL 037b5 roms. Is this correct?

I assume you are using RetroPie? If so, you will need to configure the specific cores for the nes, snes, megadrive etc emulators.

You need to go to the opt/retropie/configs/ directory and add each specific setup for each emulator.

When playing mame roms do you get an error saying files are missing? If you are using Retropie image v2.1 then the path to the roms is incorrect in the mame.cfg. Go to /opt/retropie/emulators/mame4all-pi/ and open up the mame.cfg. Where it says rompath add: rompath=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame

[dinki]

@ KitchUK, thanks for the speedy reply. That fixed all my problems!

[Aloshi]

I have just updated to ES2 and I can't see how to get the controllers working with the sega emu. It used to use dgen but now I'm not sure. All the config files seem to have moved as well. Would appreciate some help with this and other emus. I am guessing you do it through /opt/retropie/configs but I'm not too sure how.

I'm not sure either! I've only been working on ES. Try posting over in the RetroPie topic (or on the RetroPie forum).

Any advice for upgrading from the old version? Can I reuse my old es_systems.cfg and gamelist.xml files?

Gamelist.xml files will work, as long as you move them to the appropriate place (now in either the system's games directory or at ~/.emulationstation/gamelists/[SYSTEM_NAME]/gamelist.xml). es_systems.cfg is now in XML, so you'll have to either translate it to XML yourself or use the new one. Upgrading in place is not recommended - you should back up your current installation and re-image your SD card.

And finally, here's a video of EmulationStation 2.0 in motion, for anyone who hasn't had a chance to try it for themselves.

[cacophony555]

Nice video! Looks like some very impressive improvements.

What are you using for the scraping? Still es-scraper or did you make something different?
I ended up giving up on using es-scraper about 6 months ago because on my large rom collection it incorrectly matched so many roms it wasn't worth the trouble (if I recall I ended up with about 6 games labeled Super Mario Bros 2, even though some of the rom names were nothing even remotely close to that).

[Aloshi]

ES-scraper was written in Python, so everything had to be rewritten in C++ in order to integrate it with ES. The algorithm is still pretty much the same, so there are still incorrect matches (we can't control how thegamesdb.net comes up with its search results), but you can manually approve results to be sure matches are correct (something es-scraper lacked, if I remember correctly).