[chrisism]

I can gladly send logs from AKL . Take me a while to reoroduce though.
AEL launched fine on android 10 for a while but then all of a sudden (using standard retroarch) if i scan games it breaks . All games lost dissapear i have to delete categories.xml or AEL won't open at all.

Atm I'm fine using AEL with only retroplayer .  I will be switching over to AKL on my next build update . I'm in the process of forking kodi to make a legal kodi retro frontend . I have a build and wizard aassembled just need to fork .

I'm glad that RetroPlayer is working fine and hasn't caught fire yet. I fully support your retro frontend and want to see it when it's finished! Let me know if you need help getting up and running with Kodi.

At least through Retroplayer we still have a working solution indeed. Probably because it is part of the Kodi app and not a different app, meaning it isnt blocked by the new Android restrictions. But if possible can you share the android execution issue within the team? Extending the StartAndroidActivity builtin method might be solution perhaps, check https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3094521. Although the package visibility restriction might be the actual issue, as described here: https://medium.com/androiddevelopers/pac...857f221cd9
When I have time I will try it myself with a fork.

[chrisism]

1. Ok whats weird is I saved all Retriarch stuff to /storage/emulated/0/Retroarch/ 
Launcher acts like it can read it but when I set directory then auto found retroarch config nothing. It asks for additional arguments if i remeber right. I have this arguments from ael launchers i have made.  

2. Ok Im using artic zephyr 2 and with ael I got around 6 layouts with akl I have 3.

3. Interesting.  I'm on android 10 atm . I thought the scooped storage (as they call it) wasn't a issue with iagl or ael interesting.

Alright, so I looked into Arctic Zephyr 2 Resurrection mod and decided to add the needed changes. I am not going to do more with it, because I myself am going to focus on Arctic Zephyr Reloaded. I myself like to have a skin with horizontal menu bar support and Netflix/Posterflix views.
So I did the changes and created a Pull Request to the creator of Arctic Zephyr 2. Once the PR is merged they can publish it with a new release. Keep an eye on it here: https://github.com/heppen-dev/skin.arcti...od/pull/62

But to also make it easier for you, I added a beta version in my own beta/unstable repository. It should be version 0.7.7~rc2. 
For some reason on my machine it is crashing when viewing roms in AKL under program-addons menu option. If you go through the games menu option it works fine. Don't know yet what the issue is here.

[Smokeycoles]

Hello

I use AZ2 Reloaded; and a minor frustration is the skin support for AEL. 
It only provides thumbnail or list views.  Resurrection gives some wicked skin options for emulators, but not as polished as reloaded and I don't think Happen is active on Resurrection.

Does this implement differently to AEL in Reloaded?
What are the differences?


I currently use AEL and haven't used this yet, but am keen to learn a little more about it

[chrisism]

Hello

I use AZ2 Reloaded; and a minor frustration is the skin support for AEL. 
It only provides thumbnail or list views.  Resurrection gives some wicked skin options for emulators, but not as polished as reloaded and I don't think Happen is active on Resurrection.

Does this implement differently to AEL in Reloaded?
What are the differences?


I currently use AEL and haven't used this yet, but am keen to learn a little more about it

Indeed AZ2 Reloaded lacks AEL/game views support. But I am trying to get it in there. I am busy with making a fork that includes does and hopefully it will be picked up soon. Have to say that for Resurrection he responded fast and the changes should be in there already. In the case of Reloaded I am not done yet, its more work and we will have to see how fast they will merge it. In the mean time my dev version of Reloaded will be available through my own repositories.
And as in differences between AEL and AKL, there isn't that much. Basically it's AEL but made it more plugin-based with instead of launchers we simply talk about ROM/game collections. So you create your collection and you can simply plug-in multiple or different launchers and scanners. The big idea is that it will be easier to add new or custom launchers/scanners/scrapers. When running AKL you will notice it is pretty much similar as AEL, because it started from the same codebase. But just with a some small little differences here and there.

[ehammer85]

Recently upgraded to build 19.4 from 17 and just discovered AKL since I was using AEL without issue on 17.  Have gotten the repository and AKL installed, but am running into issues setting up stand alone launchers.  Is it possible to use AKL as is to create stand alone launchers as I was able to do in 17 with AEL.  I used AEL to create launchers for all my non-steam games and looking to replicate that with AKL.  All of my collections show up in build 19 with AEL, but I can't edit media assets or add new launchers without it crashing the plugin (have backups that I'm able to revert my appdata back to in order to recover them).  

Was also curious if there is a way to copy over my AEL data/collections into AKL to save myself some time.

[chrisism]

Recently upgraded to build 19.4 from 17 and just discovered AKL since I was using AEL without issue on 17.  Have gotten the repository and AKL installed, but am running into issues setting up stand alone launchers.  Is it possible to use AKL as is to create stand alone launchers as I was able to do in 17 with AEL.  I used AEL to create launchers for all my non-steam games and looking to replicate that with AKL.  All of my collections show up in build 19 with AEL, but I can't edit media assets or add new launchers without it crashing the plugin (have backups that I'm able to revert my appdata back to in order to recover them).  

Was also curious if there is a way to copy over my AEL data/collections into AKL to save myself some time.

Just as you are used to with AEL, you can import the json/xml files into AKL using the option under the utilities list item in the root. Because of the same origin of the codebase most will be easily converted into the AKL database. So on that part, Yes definitly. 
Now the "however" part. However I have not yet implemented the stand-alone launcher substitute. Everything is there already code-wise, but not yet in the menu options. I have been busy in the world of kodi skins and adding all the game support views in several. So I have to switch focus again, give me a couple of days.

But also, since AKL switches to a game collection approach instead of launcher type collections approach, it gives the ability to add separate or multiple launchers to games. This means you will also have the ability to make one collection with steam gamess and different launcher games in there.
I also am planning to add a GOG Galaxy launcher plugin. I have added all the games in my steam, epic, ea origin launchers into my GOG launcher and using that as the starting point. So multiple solutions ahead.

I would suggest to just give it a go, start trying it out. Check out all the available plugins to install. You'll notice that is pretty much similar to AEL.

[ehammer85]

Recently upgraded to build 19.4 from 17 and just discovered AKL since I was using AEL without issue on 17.  Have gotten the repository and AKL installed, but am running into issues setting up stand alone launchers.  Is it possible to use AKL as is to create stand alone launchers as I was able to do in 17 with AEL.  I used AEL to create launchers for all my non-steam games and looking to replicate that with AKL.  All of my collections show up in build 19 with AEL, but I can't edit media assets or add new launchers without it crashing the plugin (have backups that I'm able to revert my appdata back to in order to recover them).  

Was also curious if there is a way to copy over my AEL data/collections into AKL to save myself some time.

Just as you are used to with AEL, you can import the json/xml files into AKL using the option under the utilities list item in the root. Because of the same origin of the codebase most will be easily converted into the AKL database. So on that part, Yes definitly. 
Now the "however" part. However I have not yet implemented the stand-alone launcher substitute. Everything is there already code-wise, but not yet in the menu options. I have been busy in the world of kodi skins and adding all the game support views in several. So I have to switch focus again, give me a couple of days.

But also, since AKL switches to a game collection approach instead of launcher type collections approach, it gives the ability to add separate or multiple launchers to games. This means you will also have the ability to make one collection with steam gamess and different launcher games in there.
I also am planning to add a GOG Galaxy launcher plugin. I have added all the games in my steam, epic, ea origin launchers into my GOG launcher and using that as the starting point. So multiple solutions ahead.

I would suggest to just give it a go, start trying it out. Check out all the available plugins to install. You'll notice that is pretty much similar to AEL.

I'm assuming that I'll have to wait until the stand alone launcher feature is available.  I tried to export my AEL settings, but got an "failure processing command 'import_launchers'" error when attempting to import via the AKL utility.  I might just revert back to 17 for now and check back with things on a later date (also haven't really found a skin i like and looks like the one i have isn't compatible with 19).  looking forward to see what comes of this plugin.

[chrisism]

Recently upgraded to build 19.4 from 17 and just discovered AKL since I was using AEL without issue on 17.  Have gotten the repository and AKL installed, but am running into issues setting up stand alone launchers.  Is it possible to use AKL as is to create stand alone launchers as I was able to do in 17 with AEL.  I used AEL to create launchers for all my non-steam games and looking to replicate that with AKL.  All of my collections show up in build 19 with AEL, but I can't edit media assets or add new launchers without it crashing the plugin (have backups that I'm able to revert my appdata back to in order to recover them).  

Was also curious if there is a way to copy over my AEL data/collections into AKL to save myself some time.

Just as you are used to with AEL, you can import the json/xml files into AKL using the option under the utilities list item in the root. Because of the same origin of the codebase most will be easily converted into the AKL database. So on that part, Yes definitly. 
Now the "however" part. However I have not yet implemented the stand-alone launcher substitute. Everything is there already code-wise, but not yet in the menu options. I have been busy in the world of kodi skins and adding all the game support views in several. So I have to switch focus again, give me a couple of days.

But also, since AKL switches to a game collection approach instead of launcher type collections approach, it gives the ability to add separate or multiple launchers to games. This means you will also have the ability to make one collection with steam gamess and different launcher games in there.
I also am planning to add a GOG Galaxy launcher plugin. I have added all the games in my steam, epic, ea origin launchers into my GOG launcher and using that as the starting point. So multiple solutions ahead.

I would suggest to just give it a go, start trying it out. Check out all the available plugins to install. You'll notice that is pretty much similar to AEL.

I'm assuming that I'll have to wait until the stand alone launcher feature is available.  I tried to export my AEL settings, but got an "failure processing command 'import_launchers'" error when attempting to import via the AKL utility.  I might just revert back to 17 for now and check back with things on a later date (also haven't really found a skin i like and looks like the one i have isn't compatible with 19).  looking forward to see what comes of this plugin.

Currently rolling out a new release candidate for AKL (1.1.0 rc). You can get it from the beta/dev repository.
This version contains the standalone launcher ability. Just choose "Add new ROM (standalone): from the context menu.

If you can provide the logs for your import error I can have a look at it also.

[Hael]

Out of curiosity, is there a skin with a view that supports video (in the form of trailers) for this?

[FurnaceRocker]

I followed these directions, but nothing is showing up.  I think I'm setting the ROM folder incorrectly, but not sure how else to set it.  I'm talking about the asset folder it asks me to make when I make a new ROM directory.

I have set it to /SteamLibrary/steamapps/common and nothing shows, and I have made a folder with shortcuts to all of the games, set it to that, but the scanner still can't find anything.  Any tips?  Is there a different way I should set it up?  Sorry, I've looked through the documentation and didn't see more direction

[FurnaceRocker]

Also wasn't sure if it was clear, but the directions I was referring to were the directions to set it up for steam games on the first page.

[chrisism]

Out of curiosity, is there a skin with a view that supports video (in the form of trailers) for this?

Not sure at the moment. I think most of them are still custom mods. I am still trying to add it to Arctic Zephyr skin(s), but currently I am a little bit occupied with getting some Android changes in the new Kodi Nexus before they ship it. You can have a look in the AEL or IAGL addon threads. Skins might be compatible. 
Else you will have to wait a little bit longer untill I pick up the skinning again, because I definitly want to add that.

[chrisism]

I followed these directions, but nothing is showing up.  I think I'm setting the ROM folder incorrectly, but not sure how else to set it.  I'm talking about the asset folder it asks me to make when I make a new ROM directory.

I have set it to /SteamLibrary/steamapps/common and nothing shows, and I have made a folder with shortcuts to all of the games, set it to that, but the scanner still can't find anything.  Any tips?  Is there a different way I should set it up?  Sorry, I've looked through the documentation and didn't see more direction

It depends on how you want to do it and the OS you are running it on. One way is to create a folder full of .lnk files to your games and use that as ROMs, using the default launcher. The second option is to install the Steam plugin (Steam library plugin for AKL) you can get using my addon repository in Kodi. In that case you need to work with a Steam API key.
Once installed (you might need to scan for plugins in AKL 'Utilities' menu item) you need to configure the plugin by going to that addon and open up the addon settings for it. There you can insert your Steam API key. To obtain one an API key go to this page. 
With this configured you can add a new ROM Collection. When asked for a assets directory simply point it to some empty directory you created beforehand (eg. c:/mygamelib/steamgames/). AKL will store all images in that particular directory when you apply a scraper. You can then apply a scanner on it (context menu item for the launcher, add roms). Choose the Steam scanner. It then should login into your Steam account online and read your game library. All entries are added to the ROM collection. 
To launch a game you associate the Steam launcher. Under the hood it will actually perform the "steam://rungameid/<ID>" command. This should trigger your locally installed Steam library launcher to open up that game. Notice that AKL also add/scans games that are not installed. 

Going back to the first option with lnk files, it pretty much works the same way but you choose the default launcher and file scanner.

Hope this helps. If not let me know or PM me. As said in the other post, at the moment my focus is on Android changes in Kodi Nexus so that all the launcher addons work normally again for Android users.
(and I will update the documentation as soon as possible)

[Hael]

Out of curiosity, is there a skin with a view that supports video (in the form of trailers) for this?

Not sure at the moment. I think most of them are still custom mods. I am still trying to add it to Arctic Zephyr skin(s), but currently I am a little bit occupied with getting some Android changes in the new Kodi Nexus before they ship it. You can have a look in the AEL or IAGL addon threads. Skins might be compatible. 
Else you will have to wait a little bit longer untill I pick up the skinning again, because I definitly want to add that.

Entirely fair, I appreciate the work and response!

[FurnaceRocker]

That did work for the games showing up!  I used the direct from steam method, and it looks like everything's there.

Now however I'm running into a different problem.  If I try to launch a game it says "Cannot Launch ROM".  I've tried it with Steam open and closed, any tips on figuring that out?

Thanks!