Kodi Community Forum
Beta Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - Printable Version

+- Kodi Community Forum (https://forum.kodi.tv)
+-- Forum: Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=33)
+--- Forum: Add-on Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=27)
+---- Forum: Game Add-ons (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=291)
+---- Thread: Beta Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi (/showthread.php?tid=287826)



RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - bibi - 2017-11-01

Line 12:16:42:580


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - Wintermute0110 - 2017-11-01

(2017-11-01, 13:24)bibi Wrote: Hi,

I just tried your plugin, but it doesnt launch...
Here is the log, see at the end :
http://sprunge.us/jRUH

Try this: before opening AEL, bring up AEL settings, go to IO tab, and execute "Check/Update all databases".

If problem persists and you have to post another debug log, please make sure Kodi debug is OFF and AEL debug is ON. To turn on AEL debug in AEL settings, last tab, choose DEBUG log level in last selection box.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - bibi - 2017-11-01

Thanks it did work !

Bibi


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - dataghost1984 - 2017-11-02

Hello everyone,

New to this plugin, I have collection scraped with metadata. Is there a way to scrape all artwork for the games at once like with RCB or do I need to manually do one at a time. Sorry for the noob questions. I must be missing something as I can not find it, Was trying to use TheGamesDB. Thank you very much!


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - dataghost1984 - 2017-11-02

Sorry for questions. I have it set up to scrape box front and backs. Is there a recommended site to use for scraping in the Advanced Emulator Launcher settings? One that works better then another etc. I am currently using TheGamesDB but it is not picking up art for the back for some reason. Thank you again.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - Wintermute0110 - 2017-11-02

(2017-11-02, 03:19)dataghost1984 Wrote: Sorry for questions. I have it set up to scrape box front and backs. Is there a recommended site to use for scraping in the Advanced Emulator Launcher settings? One that works better then another etc. I am currently using TheGamesDB but it is not picking up art for the back for some reason. Thank you again.

Try MobyGames. GameFAQs scraper is currently broken (I believe) because some changes in the GameFAQs and must be updated.

Also, make sure you read the "Scrapers Demistified" post in this thread. You have the link in the first post. Feel free to ask more specific questions if in trouble.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - crono141 - 2017-11-04

Well, I've read the scrapers demystified post, and I'm still mystified.  Here's the problem:


Quote:The scrapers can be used by the ROM Scanner or via the Launcher/ROM context menu. Note that at the moment only the ROM Scanner can do batch scraping. With the context menu you can only scrape individual Launchers or ROMs.

I have no option to invoke the scraper from the launcher/rom context menu.  The only options I have are pointing the roms at different local artwork.  There is no mention of the scraper at all.  And even when I have scraper settings set up correction, nothing gets scraped on rom import either.

Also, I tried the kodi_rpc() function in my script here

Code:
#!/bin/bash

videomode=$1
sysport=$2
system=$3
rom=$4
filename="/home/pi/.kodi/userdata/kodi.launch"

kodi_rpc()
{
   METHOD="$1"
   json_str="{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"id\":\"1\",\"method\":\"$METHOD\"}\""
   curl -H "Content-type: application/json" -d "$json_str" http://localhost:8080/jsonrpc
}

touch $filename
launchID=$(tail --lines=30 /home/pi/.kodi/temp/kodi.log | grep launcherID | grep -v grep | awk '{print $9}')
catID=$(tail --lines=30 /home/pi/.kodi/temp/kodi.log | grep categoryID | grep -v grep | awk '{print $9}')
romID=$(tail --lines=30 /home/pi/.kodi/temp/kodi.log | grep romID | grep -v grep | awk '{print $9}')
#ps -ef | grep kodi_v | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill
kodi_rpc "Application.Quit"
echo -e "$catID" > $filename
echo -e "$launchID" >> $filename
echo -e "$romID" >> $filename
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh $videomode $sysport $system "${rom}"
wait
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _PORT_ kodi

And it did not successfully quit Kodi.  I do notice a lot of "escaped" quotes, which I'm not sure is required or not.  I use non-escaped quotes in my runcommand line and it executes ok.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - h3llrais3r - 2017-11-04

@Wintermute0110 Bug found in GameDBInfo of Sega MegaDrive: See https://github.com/Wintermute0110/plugin.program.advanced.emulator.launcher/issues/46 Wink
This causes the roms to be labeled in kodi with the year instead of the description.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - stanger192 - 2017-11-05

Hi,

Thanks for your work on this addon - its a vast improvement over the original AL.

Is there any chance you could implement a LaunchBox importer? LB has the most comprehensive and fastest scraper I have used, which covers a slew of platforms, plus rom management is easy due to having a desktop gui. With an emumovies account it will pull the standard covers, plus additional artwork such as music, game + platform video snaps and pdf manuals. Only issue with LB is that the BigBox interface is a paid product which doesn't hold a candle to the slickness of Kodi.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - Wintermute0110 - 2017-11-06

(2017-11-04, 15:22)crono141 Wrote: Well, I've read the scrapers demystified post, and I'm still mystified.  Here's the problem:

Quote:The scrapers can be used by the ROM Scanner or via the Launcher/ROM context menu. Note that at the moment only the ROM Scanner can do batch scraping. With the context menu you can only scrape individual Launchers or ROMs.

I have no option to invoke the scraper from the launcher/rom context menu.  The only options I have are pointing the roms at different local artwork.  There is no mention of the scraper at all.  And even when I have scraper settings set up correction, nothing gets scraped on rom import either.

To scrape single ROM artwork: 1) Browse to the ROM you want to scrape artwork and open the ROM context menu. 2) Select "Edit ROM". 3) Select "Edit Assets/Artwork". 4) Select the artwork type you want, for example "Edit Title..." 4) A new select dialog shows up with options "Select local image", "Import local image (copy and rename)", "Unset artwork/asset". After "Unset artwork/asset" you have the scrapers. Note that the scrapers you see depend of the artwork type and the platform. AEL is intelligent enough to display only the scrapers that support the particular asset type. For example, if you are scraping the Title of a ROM whose platform is not MAME, then you will see "Scrape Title from TheGamesDB", "Scrape Title from GameFAQs", "Scrape Title from MobyGames".

(2017-11-04, 15:22)crono141 Wrote: Also, I tried the kodi_rpc() function in my script here

Code:
#!/bin/bash

videomode=$1
sysport=$2
system=$3
rom=$4
filename="/home/pi/.kodi/userdata/kodi.launch"

kodi_rpc()
{
   METHOD="$1"
   json_str="{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"id\":\"1\",\"method\":\"$METHOD\"}\""
   curl -H "Content-type: application/json" -d "$json_str" http://localhost:8080/jsonrpc
}

touch $filename
launchID=$(tail --lines=30 /home/pi/.kodi/temp/kodi.log | grep launcherID | grep -v grep | awk '{print $9}')
catID=$(tail --lines=30 /home/pi/.kodi/temp/kodi.log | grep categoryID | grep -v grep | awk '{print $9}')
romID=$(tail --lines=30 /home/pi/.kodi/temp/kodi.log | grep romID | grep -v grep | awk '{print $9}')
#ps -ef | grep kodi_v | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill
kodi_rpc "Application.Quit"
echo -e "$catID" > $filename
echo -e "$launchID" >> $filename
echo -e "$romID" >> $filename
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh $videomode $sysport $system "${rom}"
wait
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _PORT_ kodi

And it did not successfully quit Kodi.  I do notice a lot of "escaped" quotes, which I'm not sure is required or not.  I use non-escaped quotes in my runcommand line and it executes ok.

Couple of things:

1) When I developed the script I used /bin/sh in Ubuntu and you are using bash. I'm not sure if there could be some incompatibilities from bash and sh for this script.

2) All the quotes are strictly necessary (at least in sh).

3) Have you activated the "Non-blocking launcher" option?


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - Wintermute0110 - 2017-11-06

(2017-11-04, 20:54)h3llrais3r Wrote: @Wintermute0110 Bug found in GameDBInfo of Sega MegaDrive: See https://github.com/Wintermute0110/plugin.program.advanced.emulator.launcher/issues/46 Wink
This causes the roms to be labeled in kodi with the year instead of the description.

Thanks for reporting. I also saw your report in Github. Will fix for 0.9.8.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - Wintermute0110 - 2017-11-06

(2017-11-05, 02:11)stanger192 Wrote: Hi,

Thanks for your work on this addon - its a vast improvement over the original AL.

Is there any chance you could implement a LaunchBox importer? LB has the most comprehensive and fastest scraper I have used, which covers a slew of platforms, plus rom management is easy due to having a desktop gui. With an emumovies account it will pull the standard covers, plus additional artwork such as music, game + platform video snaps and pdf manuals. Only issue with LB is that the BigBox interface is a paid product which doesn't hold a candle to the slickness of Kodi.

Probably not. However, I plan to implement an Offline Launchbox scraper. Reasons:

1) I do not use LB myself. Actually, I don't even use Windows which is the OS LB uses. It will be complicated to setup a development environment.

2) As you said, LB is a paid (or semi-free) software which is not open source. I think I won't be able to know the format of the LB database in order to import it in AEL.

3) If I implement a LB importer (even if it is possible, see 2)) then later some other user may ask: "Can you please make an importer for HyperSpin/GameEx/mGalaxy/RetroFE/Write here you favourite front-end... importer?"

All in all, I think now AEL is feature-wise on par with LB. In some aspects, like ROM auditing, I believe AEL is even more advanced. If there is an interesting feature in LB or any other front-end then I will be happy to consider the implementation. Note that AEL uses Kodi and this means AEL is restricted to the 10-feet interface which may seriously limit some features other Windows front-ends may have.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - dataghost1984 - 2017-11-06

What is the likelyhood of launching games off http/https I have a server I want to upload some of my collections to, I edited the json to an online link and it said rom not found. I would be interested in that. This runs amazing, absolutely love this addon!!!! Thank you so much!


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - crono141 - 2017-11-07

(2017-11-06, 12:58)Wintermute0110 Wrote: To scrape single ROM artwork: 1) Browse to the ROM you want to scrape artwork and open the ROM context menu. 2) Select "Edit ROM". 3) Select "Edit Assets/Artwork". 4) Select the artwork type you want, for example "Edit Title..." 4) A new select dialog shows up with options "Select local image", "Import local image (copy and rename)", "Unset artwork/asset". After "Unset artwork/asset" you have the scrapers. Note that the scrapers you see depend of the artwork type and the platform. AEL is intelligent enough to display only the scrapers that support the particular asset type. For example, if you are scraping the Title of a ROM whose platform is not MAME, then you will see "Scrape Title from TheGamesDB", "Scrape Title from GameFAQs", "Scrape Title from MobyGames".



Couple of things:

1) When I developed the script I used /bin/sh in Ubuntu and you are using bash. I'm not sure if there could be some incompatibilities from bash and sh for this script.

2) All the quotes are strictly necessary (at least in sh).

3) Have you activated the "Non-blocking launcher" option?

Ok, I was able to manually invoke the scraper.  However, scraping 800+ NES games in the manner is not a task I'd like to undertake, especially since I have to do it 3-5 times per rom to get all the artwork.  I know you were working on an automatic batch scraper.  How's the progress on that?

To you last point, where do I find the non-blocking launcher option?  I checked all the settings, and didn't see it anywhere.


RE: Advanced Emulator Launcher - Multi-emulator frontend for Kodi - Wintermute0110 - 2017-11-07

(2017-11-06, 22:51)dataghost1984 Wrote: What is the likelyhood of launching games off http/https I have a server I want to upload some of my collections to, I edited the json to an online link and it said rom not found. I would be interested in that. This runs amazing, absolutely love this addon!!!! Thank you so much!

I think that is not possible. Keep in mind that AEL is a launcher front-end and ultimately an external program is called (typically an emulator) to run your game. To the best of my knowledge, the only emulator that supports ROMs in remotes is Retroarch and it must be Samba (Windows network) remotes like \\Server_name\My_ROMs\. Artwork, however, may be in remotes since Kodi is able to handle URLs.

I think this is going to change in Kodi Leia and Kodi M****. Garbear is doing some work on the Retroarch cores to support the Kodi Virtual Filesystem (VFS). This means that Retroplayer (and Retroarch if Garbear code is merged into Retroarch main line) will be able to run ROMs in remotes like ssh://, http://, ftp://, sbm://, nfs://. AEL, of course, will support this feature but at the current development pace I estimate 1 or 2 years before it is completed.