[NessPJ]

Hey guys,

I tried to search this topic but i could not come up with anything...
I am using ROM Collection browser together with a Logitech Cordless Rumblepad2 (F710) and i am running into a few small issues that i would like to fix:
(No custom mapping has been done, at all!)

1. When i'm inside the ROM collection browser and i press Start (Joybutton9) on my controller instead of Joybutton2 to start a rom, i will be returned to the Kodi Main menu and Rom collection browser will no longer start (it seems to have crashed?). Any ideas whats causing this?

2. Always when i return from playing a Rom (emulator closed down), the Rom Collection browser will show the "filter" and search options first no matter which key (up, or down) i press.
I always have to leave this filter menu first to get back to my Rom selection and this is pretty annoying. Is it possible to disable the filter menu?

3. I would like to add some Dos games to my Rom collection browser using DosBOX. Is there a guide somewhere on how to do this properly? Preferrably i would like to learn what sort of commandline i need to set up so the emulator starts with the right speeds, sound settings and mounted locations. I found this build which also supports the use of save states.

[Zpectre87]

3. I would like to add some Dos games to my Rom collection browser using DosBOX. Is there a guide somewhere on how to do this properly? Preferrably i would like to learn what sort of commandline i need to set up so the emulator starts with the right speeds, sound settings and mounted locations. I found this build which also supports the use of save states.

With DOSBox, I imagine it's the same situation as when you need to create a shortcut for a game. In the commandline, you'll need to specify the configuration (conf) file you want to use. This link in the Wiki should help: http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/DOSBoxShortcuts. Settings for the games are edited inside the conf files themselves, not the commandline.

However, you'll probably need to add the games separately, not as a "collection" (for example when you point to a folder and RCB scans all the roms), because different games may require different configurations (especially games which require CD images for music) and of course you need to point to different executables instead of using the %ROM% wildcard.

Depending on what you want, you have two options. One is to create a conf file for each game, another is to emulate a single do-it-all DOS machine that would be able to run everything (as this guide shows: http://www.dosnostalgia.com/?p=149). But that depends a lot on which games you want to play, as some games are a bit finicky with CPU cycles and require fixed cycles, for example, so you need a special config for them. Another drawback of the second method is that you need to either setup a virtual drive to mount CD images into or tell DOSBox to use a physical CD drive (if you own the game, of course!), as a general all-purpose config is game-agnostic, so it shouldn't tell DOSBox to mount the image itself, as you would with a config for a specific game.

I wish there was a better solution for DOSBox in Kodi, because lots of DOS games require you to run their setup.exe file to edit game settings and I don't know if you can switch back and forth between the game and setup exe files.

[NessPJ]

@Idavet: Thanks for answering one of my questions! The first method would have my preference indeed.
At first glance i will only be adding a handful of classic DOS games anyway (also just to see how well it will work and to see if i can get the DosBOX build with save states to work).

[darkmeiun]

just started experimenting with the RCB and noticed it lacks couple of things, the game language (flag icons would be grate) and version of the game some console games have revisions and prototypes are available at least i did not find any option for that in the wikis (skinning section) that there even is an option to add those into the view without extra coding for RCB, any plans on making those? or should i start learning xml

[Zpectre87]

@Idavet: Thanks for answering one of my questions! The first method would have my preference indeed.
At first glance i will only be adding a handful of classic DOS games anyway (also just to see how well it will work and to see if i can get the DosBOX build with save states to work).

I've found this post by malte (creator of RCB) in the German kodinerds forum regarding DOSBox:

Habe ich selbst schon lange nicht mehr ausprobiert. Grundsätzlich könntest Du dafür *.exe als Dateimaske verwenden. Dazu müsstest Du den Parameter "Max Folder Depth" auf 1 setzen, falls noch exe-Dateien in Unterverzeichnissen liegen. Und den Parameter "Use foldername as gamename" solltest Du aktivieren, da die gefundenen exe-Dateien ja nicht unbedingt den Spielenamen entsprechen.

Dieses Vorgehen gibt allerdings Probleme, wenn mehrere .exe-Dateien in dem Haupt-Verzeichnis liegen. Entweder müsstest Du dann die zusätzlichen exe-Dateien in Unterverzeichnisse verschieben (falls die für die Ausführung des Spiels nicht benötigt werden) oder Du könntest Dir einen Ordner mit Verknüpfungen anlegen, die dann jeweils auf die ausführbare Datei des Spiels verweisen.

My German isn't that good, and I needed dictionary assistance for some stuff (hehe ), but basically what he said is that, when RCB asks for the extension you want to use, you must use *.exe; you also need to set Max Folder Depth to 1 if there are exe files in subfolders and activate "Use folder name as game name" option, because the exe files aren't named as the real game names (you may remember DOS only accepted 8 max characters in filename).

The problem is that with some games there's more than one exe file in the main folder. In this case, you must either move the other exe files (like the setup ones) into subfolders, or you can create a folder containing shortcuts referring to each main executable of each game, and have RCB point to that (when it asks for the rom folder, and also you use the *.lnk extension for shortcuts).

I prefer the second method, because it's far more flexible and it allows you to use different configs for each game, as opposed to the first one. Also note that, when using the second method, Max Folder Depth and Use Foldername as Gamename aren't strictly necessary, because you can give the shortcuts the name of the game, and RCB will accurately scan the files and give you the correct information.

A tutorial on creating shortcuts to run games in DOSBox can be found here: http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=17500.

It's still a bit problematic, because I don't know if there's an easy way of running setup files. In fact, I'd like to suggest malte to allow RCB to scan multiple files per game in the library. Then, in the case of DOSBox, you can choose which executable to run (useful for configuration and netplay).

[desumoyo]

(Android 4.4.4 (FireTV) /Kodi 14.2)

Hello, when I try to add a Gameboy Advance collection, it does nothing on the screen, and I have this on the log:

Code:

15:32:10 T:1757694568  NOTICE: RCB_INFO: selected platform: Game Boy Advance
15:32:10 T:1757694568  NOTICE: RCB_WARNING: Error while reading gameclient addons via json. Assume that we are not in RetroPlayer branch.
15:32:10 T:1757694568  NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Running on Android. Trying to find emulator per autoconfig.
15:32:10 T:1757694568  NOTICE: EmulatorAutoconfig: findEmulators(). os = Android, platform = Game Boy Advance, checkInstalled = True
15:32:10 T:1757694568  NOTICE: EmulatorAutoconfig ERROR: Could not find platform Game Boy Advance for os Android in emu_autoconfig.xml
15:32:10 T:1757694568   ERROR: EXCEPTION Thrown (PythonToCppException) : -->Python callback/script returned the following error<--
                                             - NOTE: IGNORING THIS CAN LEAD TO MEMORY LEAKS!
                                            Error Type: <type 'exceptions.TypeError'>
                                            Error Contents: 'NoneType' object is not iterable
                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                              File "/storage/extUsb/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/addons/script.games.rom.collection.browser/resources/lib/dialogcontextmenu.py", line 107, in onClick
                                                statusOk, errorMsg = wizardconfigxml.ConfigXmlWizard().addRomCollection(self.gui.config)
                                              File "/storage/extUsb/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/addons/script.games.rom.collection.browser/resources/lib/wizardconfigxml.py", line 50, in addRomCollection
                                                success, romCollections = self.addRomCollections(id, configObj, consoleList, True)
                                              File "/storage/extUsb/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/addons/script.games.rom.collection.browser/resources/lib/wizardconfigxml.py", line 151, in addRomCollections
                                                for emulator in emulators:
                                            TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable
                                            -->End of Python script error report<--
15:32:10 T:1757694568  NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onAction: ACTION_CONTEXT

But I do have entries for the GBA in emu_autoconfig.xml

Code:

        <platform name="Game Boy Advanced">
            <alias>GameBoy Advanced</alias>
            <alias>GBA</alias>
            <emulator name="VBA-M (RetroArch)">
                <detectionMethod name="packagename">
                    <packagename>package:com.retroarch</packagename>
                </detectionMethod>
                <configuration>
                    <emulatorCommand>/system/bin/am</emulatorCommand>
                    <emulatorParams>start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER -e ROM "%rom%" -e LIBRETRO /data/data/com.retroarch/cores/vbam_libretro_android.so -e CONFIGFILE /data/data/com.retroarch/retroarch.cfg -e IME com.android.inputmethod.latin/.LatinIME -n com.retroarch/.browser.retroactivity.RetroActivityFuture</emulatorParams>
                </configuration>
            </emulator>
            <emulator name="VBA Next (RetroArch)">
                <detectionMethod name="packagename">
                    <packagename>package:com.retroarch</packagename>
                </detectionMethod>
                <configuration>
                    <emulatorCommand>/system/bin/am</emulatorCommand>
                    <emulatorParams>start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER -e ROM "%rom%" -e LIBRETRO /data/data/com.retroarch/cores/vba_next_libretro_android.so -e CONFIGFILE /data/data/com.retroarch/retroarch.cfg -e IME com.android.inputmethod.latin/.LatinIME -n com.retroarch/.browser.retroactivity.RetroActivityFuture</emulatorParams>
                </configuration>
            </emulator>
            <emulator name="GameBoid">
                <detectionMethod name="packagename">
                    <packagename>package:com.androidemu.gba</packagename>
                </detectionMethod>
                <configuration>
                    <emulatorCommand>/system/bin/am</emulatorCommand>
                    <emulatorParams>start --user 0 -n com.androidemu.gba/.EmulatorActivity -a android.intent.action.VIEW -eu Uri "file://%rom%"</emulatorParams>
                </configuration>
            </emulator>
            <emulator name="GBA.emu">
                <detectionMethod name="packagename">
                    <packagename>package:com.explusalpha.GbaEmu</packagename>
                </detectionMethod>
                <configuration>
                    <emulatorCommand>/system/bin/am</emulatorCommand>
                    <emulatorParams>start --user 0 -n com.explusalpha.GbaEmu/com.imagine.BaseActivity -a android.intent.action.VIEW -eu Uri "file://%rom%"</emulatorParams>
                </configuration>
            </emulator>
        </platform>

Any idea why?

Any idea?

[aquiles2k]

Even though im a coder, im completely new to kodi addon programming and skinning. So i got some questions

I saw the 720p folder in the skins directory. I assume the upscaling for 1080i is done in kodi code or is there some support functions/values in the addons code?

I saw other addons having a 1080i folder instead. Can i just add such folder, copy over the 720p files and adjust the values of some UI elements in the xml files? Or has this to be somehow in sync with the python code?

So basically as said before im trying to look into fixing the aeon nox visual bugs, (probably through a 1080i skin?) and asking for some initial guidance.

regards.

[aquiles2k]

Just saw that when scraping an GBA game with thegamesdb the request contains "platform=Nintendo%20Gameboy%20Advance".

This results in "<Error>The specified platform was not valid.</Error>".

Correct platform would be "Nintendo%20Game%20Boy%20Advance".

Regards

[Zpectre87]

@desumoyo, there's a line in the code you posted which says "Game Boy Advanced", change it to "Game Boy Advance". This bug was discussed a few pages back.

[Daeymon]

Any skins for this which make RCB more friendly for touch devices? Trying to use the Filters on Android is a bit of a nightmare.

[aquiles2k]

Heres another suggestion

I use, like probably many others, one of the many collection tools (Romulus in my case) to sort, archiv and correct my ROMs. Through this tool my ROM gets renamed like e.g. "Final Fantasy IV Advance (E) (M5).gba".

For this file and based on the log output you then query:
http://thegamesdb.net/api/GetGame.php?na...%20Advance

which results in no result even though gamesdb does have the game.

So heres the suggestion, according to the API you can also query with GetGamesList:
http://thegamesdb.net/api/GetGamesList.p...%20Advance

Et vóila, first result is the game and an id you can then query with GetGame.

I could try to code this into RCM if you want.

regards

[NessPJ]

@Idavet: Thanks for answering one of my questions! The first method would have my preference indeed.
At first glance i will only be adding a handful of classic DOS games anyway (also just to see how well it will work and to see if i can get the DosBOX build with save states to work).

I've found this post by malte (creator of RCB) in the German kodinerds forum regarding DOSBox:

[.......]

Thanks for all the info! I'm gonna try and see if this works.

[nalias]

I am using ROM Collection browser together with a Logitech Cordless Rumblepad2 (F710) and i am running into a few small issues that i would like to fix:
(No custom mapping has been done, at all!)

If you havnt already try switching to x mode for the controller, further there is a file called keyboard.xml http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_keyboard.xml

[Zpectre87]

@Idavet: Thanks for answering one of my questions! The first method would have my preference indeed.
At first glance i will only be adding a handful of classic DOS games anyway (also just to see how well it will work and to see if i can get the DosBOX build with save states to work).

I've found this post by malte (creator of RCB) in the German kodinerds forum regarding DOSBox:

[.......]

Thanks for all the info! I'm gonna try and see if this works.

No problem. Unless you're nostalgic about using the DOS commandline to run games, the best way of running old DOS games through DOSBox is by creating custom shortcuts.

The problem is that you also need a shortcut for setup and netplay executables... I think you could add those to your collection as standalone games and specify that they're not the main executable in the collection, also add own artwork and description for them. Ugly, but should work.

[desumoyo]

@desumoyo, there's a line in the code you posted which says "Game Boy Advanced", change it to "Game Boy Advance". This bug was discussed a few pages back.

Thanks, it fixed the problem