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Author Topic: Emulation Station  (Read 65951 times)

xXFrostXx (OP)

  • * Former Staff
  • Posts: 234
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #20 on: January 19, 2015, 05:59:16 pm »
Further testing proves that it doesn't matter whether the emulator accepts command line or not, none will load. We need to add this for the test build.

We can add "> ~/emulator_errors.txt 2>&1" to the end of the launch command to redirect the emulator terminal output to a file (emulator_errors.txt in the home directory). That should show us the errors causing the emulators to terminate.

---

Notice: Pressing SELECT on a game brings up the Edit Metadata menu, though it is screwed up. Buttons aren't all within the menu, so their position needs moved.
Also, editing things like Description cause the app to freeze. A pop-up keyboard will need to be implemented for manual editing of the metadata.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2015, 06:14:00 pm by xXFrostXx »
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xXFrostXx (OP)

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  • Posts: 234
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #21 on: January 21, 2015, 02:38:18 am »
I now have a working theme which currently lists four game consoles. I will be adding more.

The font used is garbled for games with special characters like Conker's Pocket Tales, but I'm looking into a fix.
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com64

  • Posts: 83
    • 0x64.ca
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #22 on: January 21, 2015, 04:29:58 am »
Here's a build with debugging flags, (40MB uncompressed).

You will need to extract it to a subfolder (under ~/ or something), unpack the opk posted earlier, (unsquashfs is your friend) copy over the .so files, and run it via telnet:
Code: [Select]
env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/folder gdb ./emulationstation
« Last Edit: January 21, 2015, 04:32:15 am by com64 »

xXFrostXx (OP)

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Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #23 on: January 25, 2015, 05:18:01 am »
I have another quick update on the theme. I just need to fix the garbled text, if possible, and then I will post some screenshots.

Perhaps Opensans in ES just doesn't like special characters. That's what it's looking like so far.
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hi-ban

  • Posts: 889
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #24 on: January 25, 2015, 01:35:20 pm »
which characters appear garbled? maybe the font itself doesn't support all existing characters (many fonts only support the most usual character set, and unsupported characters usually show as squares or rectangles)

Also, depending on the characters, if you try to display them at a tiny size they may be blurry and/or difficult to read.
OpenSans supports the following characters: http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans

Quote
standard ISO Latin 1, Latin CE, Greek and Cyrillic character sets

If you press the "Show missing glyphs" button right on top of the character chart, it will expand the character chart to show all the missing glyphs. Of course, those missing glyphs are not likely to be used ever, but there is always the possibility that someone used them in a rom name or something.

If you need fonts for other languages, such as chinese or japanese, you can take a look at the following:
http://blog.typekit.com/2014/07/15/introducing-source-han-sans/
http://www.google.com/get/noto/#/
« Last Edit: January 25, 2015, 01:50:29 pm by hi-ban »

xXFrostXx (OP)

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Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #25 on: January 25, 2015, 07:44:40 pm »
which characters appear garbled? maybe the font itself doesn't support all existing characters (many fonts only support the most usual character set, and unsupported characters usually show as squares or rectangles)

No squares or rectangles. It seems if a game name has an apostrophe in it, the name becomes ineligible. So far, ES only seems to accept Opensans, so in the worst case scenario, you'll need to change "Conker's" to "Conkers".

I still have yet to see how the text fits when you show cover art, etc.
That I can't do until the metadata scraper is completed. I had to increase font size for the GCW-Zero, so hopefully the text isn't too big there, otherwise we may need to do some editing of the menu layout.

---

Quick Update: The garbled text for some game names looks better now that I removed the gray background on the game list screen. I have no idea why the background interfered, but it's better now. Games with apostrophes in the name still don't look perfect though.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2015, 10:59:13 pm by xXFrostXx »
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hi-ban

  • Posts: 889
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #26 on: January 30, 2015, 03:11:54 pm »
Further testing proves that it doesn't matter whether the emulator accepts command line or not, none will load. We need to add this for the test build.

i got the opk working without problems. Emulators load successfully.

Here is my es_systems.cfg file:

Code: [Select]
<!-- This is the EmulationStation Systems configuration file.
All systems must be contained within the <systemList> tag.-->

<systemList>

<system>
<name>nes</name>
<fullname>Nintendo Entertainment System</fullname>
<path>/media/data/roms/nes/</path>
<extension>.nes</extension>
<command>opkrun /media/data/apps/fceux.opk %ROM%</command>
<platform>nes</platform>
</system>

<system>
<name>gba</name>
<fullname>GameBoy Advance</fullname>
<path>/media/data/roms/gba/</path>
<extension>.gba</extension>
<command>opkrun /media/data/apps/regba-1.45.5.opk %ROM%</command>
<platform>gba</platform>
</system>

<system>
<name>gb</name>
<fullname>GameBoy</fullname>
<path>/media/data/roms/gb/</path>
<extension>.gb</extension>
<command>opkrun /media/data/apps/Ohboy_20141226.opk %ROM%</command>
<platform>gb</platform>
</system>

</systemList>

David Knight

  • Posts: 577
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #27 on: January 30, 2015, 06:27:29 pm »
Any chance of a video of this?

xXFrostXx (OP)

  • * Former Staff
  • Posts: 234
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #28 on: January 30, 2015, 06:42:01 pm »
Any chance of a video of this?

Com64 and I can upload a video once the theme is finished and the port is ready for the release section. Though we have the emulators running (thanks hi-ban, I realize what was missing now), we still have a lot to do yet.
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xXFrostXx (OP)

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  • Posts: 234
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #29 on: January 30, 2015, 08:10:08 pm »
Added support for Picodrive, though, when you load a game, it opens the emulator and doesn't start the game you chose. This could be because Picodrive doesn't accept command line.

I messaged pcercuei awhile ago and asked him to add this so we may support it, but I haven't heard back for quite awhile.
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hi-ban

  • Posts: 889
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #30 on: January 30, 2015, 08:26:26 pm »
which font format does it use?

Freetype2 seems to support a wide range of font formats

Anyway, i'm going to start messing with themes. Seems it will be fun!
« Last Edit: January 30, 2015, 08:35:44 pm by hi-ban »

xXFrostXx (OP)

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  • Posts: 234
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #31 on: January 30, 2015, 08:42:15 pm »
Here is a photo. Notice how the text for some games is garbled.
There shouldn't be a problem with FreeType that I know of.




Also, here is a preview of the default theme for the port. Ignore the MEG entry. That's for Sega Mega Drive, but will be removed until we get Picodrive to work.

« Last Edit: January 30, 2015, 08:57:34 pm by xXFrostXx »
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hi-ban

  • Posts: 889
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #32 on: January 30, 2015, 10:03:04 pm »
could i have the files of that theme, so i have something to start from?
Thanks in advance.

Awakened

  • Posts: 96
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #33 on: January 31, 2015, 12:10:28 am »
Also, here is a preview of the default theme for the port. Ignore the MEG entry. That's for Sega Mega Drive, but will be removed until we get Picodrive to work.
Have you tried it with the Genesis Plus GX port? That uses gmenu2x for ROM selection, so it might work. It has better emulation for GEN/SCD/SMS/GG than Picodrive, but no options since it was a barebones port that hasn't been updated to include extra features.

xXFrostXx (OP)

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  • Posts: 234
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #34 on: January 31, 2015, 12:46:27 am »
Have you tried it with the Genesis Plus GX port? That uses gmenu2x for ROM selection, so it might work. It has better emulation for GEN/SCD/SMS/GG than Picodrive, but no options since it was a barebones port that hasn't been updated to include extra features.

What we really plan to do is override the emulator's menu when you hold the power slider up, and ES will show a menu where you can continue playing, save a state, load a state, or quit playing. We need every emulator to support save and load state so we can do that.

If someone can add a state function to GX, then we'd be happy to support it instead. It seems like the best option for us, we just need the save and load state support. Otherwise we can't have save/load state support for any emulator.

---

Hi-ban, let me finish up some things and I'll upload what I have.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2015, 01:30:32 am by xXFrostXx »
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hi-ban

  • Posts: 889
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #35 on: January 31, 2015, 01:19:13 am »
No problem, i managed to get a theme working.

As for the garbled text problem, it might be OpenGL ES fault: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4035718/problem-rendering-characters-with-freetype-and-opengl

xXFrostXx (OP)

  • * Former Staff
  • Posts: 234
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #36 on: January 31, 2015, 01:22:26 am »
Here is our default theme, still incomplete, but with a bit of digging, you should be able to figure it out. Entries for systems are included.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B81YUCHooq0IYWw4dG0yMDJ6TnM/view?usp=sharing

As far as the font, I did try swapping out Opensans with other fonts, but every one that I tried causes ES to crash.
I see the fix on your link, though I don't know where I would add it in. The garbled text in ES itself is fine, but the text in the theme is screwed up.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2015, 01:38:21 am by xXFrostXx »
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hi-ban

  • Posts: 889
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #37 on: January 31, 2015, 01:33:13 am »
that's strange, because i have successfully changed the fonts, in simple.xml and it works.

I'm still trying to find a font type/size combo which renders with no issues

xXFrostXx (OP)

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  • Posts: 234
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #38 on: January 31, 2015, 01:41:10 am »
that's strange, because i have successfully changed the fonts, in simple.xml and it works.

I'm still trying to find a font type/size combo which renders with no issues

What fonts have you tried? Arial, ArcadeClassic, and Helvetica caused crashing.
I have font size set to 0.5, but it will no doubt be too large for the game descriptions, etc.
(That font size can be seen in the preview photo.)
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hi-ban

  • Posts: 889
Re: Emulation Station
« Reply #39 on: January 31, 2015, 01:56:05 am »
Arial works for me.

Be sure to include a valid and case-sensitive path/filename (including extension) for the font.
If the font is incorrectly set (wrong name or file does not exist) then emulationstation crashes.

 

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