[garbear]

what about this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_0BrYmXa_g&t=11s

is there any skins or addons that can do this?

  
Kodi can do this now, if you use animated pictures like GIFs or APNGs.

If you think about background videos, it's just Kodi using a codec to turn the file into a video. What if you think about RetroPlayer the same way? It's just a thingy that turns ROMs and input into video. What if, instead of recording video, you record input and use this to generate background videos?

Imagine Kodi playing a game video in the background, and at any point you can click and instantly begin playing the game at that point.

[DjCisco]

Hi Zach,

while playing with the addon, I have noticed the following things:

1)  When one presses the Close Button on the Game Launch Window, the Addon sends a command to the video player to stop playing the video.
2)  When one plays the trailer , the trailer button disappear and the stop button appears, but if one lets the trailer play until the end (without clicking on the stop button), the stop button does not revert to the trailer button.

Here my Suggestions:

regarding 1)
simply close the window and do not stop the video, remember that the user may be using the video player for other things while browsing the addon, for example watching a movie or live tv.
Currently the following could happen:
- User is watching a movie
- he enters your addon and browses through the games
- he opens the launch window, but then decides he does not want to play, so he closes the window
- His movie is stopped by your addon

regarding 2)
- The trailer button should not have any dependency with the Stop button
- The trailer button should always be visible and every time you click it, the trailer should start
- the skinner shall be responsible for providing the user with an option to stop playback (most skins have this and is also possible to do it with the remote control and keyboard)
- since you provide a default window, you can add a stop button for your window with the following visibility condition <visible>Player.HasVideo</visible>, this way the user of your default window can stop the playback of any video that is currently being played by kodi.

[zachmorris]

Hi Zach,

while playing with the addon, I have noticed the following things:

1)  When one presses the Close Button on the Game Launch Window, the Addon sends a command to the video player to stop playing the video.
2)  When one plays the trailer , the trailer button disappear and the stop button appears, but if one lets the trailer play until the end (without clicking on the stop button), the stop button does not revert to the trailer button.

Here my Suggestions:

regarding 1)
simply close the window and do not stop the video, remember that the user may be using the video player for other things while browsing the addon, for example watching a movie or live tv.
Currently the following could happen:
- User is watching a movie
- he enters your addon and browses through the games
- he opens the launch window, but then decides he does not want to play, so he closes the window
- His movie is stopped by your addon

regarding 2)
- The trailer button should not have any dependency with the Stop button
- The trailer button should always be visible and every time you click it, the trailer should start
- the skinner shall be responsible for providing the user with an option to stop playback (most skins have this and is also possible to do it with the remote control and keyboard)
- since you provide a default window, you can add a stop button for your window with the following visibility condition <visible>Player.HasVideo</visible>, this way the user of your default window can stop the playback of any video that is currently being played by kodi.

Thanks for your suggestions.  I think I got this all straightened out, almost all of the control and logic is transferred to the skin now rather than in the addon code which I think will fix most of the issues you were having.  The control of the game trailer in the skin was really confusing.  I ended up adding a variable to track if the trailer was selected to play or not.

I have pushed the changes to github, feel free to try this again and see if it works for your skin.  If there are other things that you think are needed to make this skin friendly please let me know.

[mwillson]

Hi Zach/ IARL community,

Things *were* working for me but then suddenly downloading/launching started failing. Blue wheel spins for a second, then nothing happens. Kodi logfile for more context: http://ix.io/Lgd

Not sure what these errors are, they seem to be the root issue:

07:09:29.662 T:1942459392 ERROR: GetDirectory - Error getting plugin://plugin.program.iarl/Emulator/SNES_Bestof_ZachMorris/Game/1.++Super+Metroid
07:09:29.663 T:1942459392 ERROR: CGUIMediaWindow::GetDirectory(plugin://plugin.program.iarl/Emulator/SNES_Bestof_ZachMorris/Game/1.++Super+Metroid) failed


EDIT: Kodi Logfile generated with debug logging enabled: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/2KRptwCJF5/

[zachmorris]

Hi Zach/ IARL community,

Things *were* working for me but then suddenly downloading/launching started failing. Blue wheel spins for a second, then nothing happens.
EDIT: Kodi Logfile generated with debug logging enabled: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/2KRptwCJF5/

The error 'GetDirectory' is a red herring and not necessarily a problem.

It looks like the only game list you're having a problem with is SNES, is that correct? I'm guessing that the xml file was corrupted somehow after you tried to update it at some point. You're the third person that may have reported this problem, and every time it's been on an RPi. RPi's seem to be more prone to causing issues when writing to files I guess.

If possible, can you provide the contents of the file here for further debugging?
/storage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/plugin.program.iarl/dat_files/SNES_ZachMorris.xml

If the file is corrupted, I currently don't have a way to automatically resolve the issue. You would have to manually delete the corrupted file:
/storage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/plugin.program.iarl/dat_files/SNES_ZachMorris.xml

and either manually replace it with the one from the repository
or
after deleting the file, go into Kodi>Addons and then manually choose to update IARL. It will redownload the addon and then copy the correct file(s) over.

[mwillson]

Thanks so much for the response.

Ubuntu paste won't let me upload xml (go figure), so here's a dropbox link to the file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jmteni8pjc14u0...s.xml?dl=0

Replaced the xml file and now get this error: "the dependency on kodi.binary.instance.game version 1.0.33 could not be satisfied."

So far, what I can tell is that kodi.binary.instance.game is maybe the Libretro Compatibility Add-on? The version numbers seems to match up in the add-on manager anyway. 
When I try to "enable" it, I get a message saying it is incompatible with my version of Kodi. If this is the root of the problem, sorry to put you through all the scanning of the logfiles and xml stuff.
Could you tell me what is a version of Kodi that should work with Libretro Compatibility?

[zachmorris]

Thanks so much for the response.

Ubuntu paste won't let me upload xml (go figure), so here's a dropbox link to the file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jmteni8pjc14u0...s.xml?dl=0

Replaced the xml file and now get this error: "the dependency on kodi.binary.instance.game version 1.0.33 could not be satisfied."

So far, what I can tell is that kodi.binary.instance.game is maybe the Libretro Compatibility Add-on? The version numbers seems to match up in the add-on manager anyway. 
When I try to "enable" it, I get a message saying it is incompatible with my version of Kodi. If this is the root of the problem, sorry to put you through all the scanning of the logfiles and xml stuff.
Could you tell me what is a version of Kodi that should work with Libretro Compatibility?

 Nothing wrong with the xml, it wasn't corrupted (which is good).  The issue though is the archive was updated.  In this particular case it was updated because the old archive was updated on archive.org.  If you update IARL within Kodi, it should ask you if you want to update list(s).  After the list is updated, you currently have to enter settings for the new list.

kodi.binary.instance.game isn't not a dependency for IARL, so it shouldn't be needed.  After you update the game list(s) then you'll need to either run the wizard again for your setup or manually set the launch command for the updated list.  See here on the wiki.

[thejims]

Strange I am getting the same message as well, yet I can see in the logs that I have a version that meets the requirement installed:
21:04:48.070 T:1941779008  NOTICE: ADDON: kodi.binary.instance.game v1.0.36 installed

And yet still:
21:21:23.659 T:1555030912   ERROR: CAddonInstallJob[game.libretro]: The dependency on kodi.binary.instance.game version 1.0.33 could not be satisfied.

Logs:
http://ix.io/OTD


What version Kodi are you running? 

I'm on the testbuild from https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=298461, LibreELEC (community): devel-20180223210341-#0223-g89ad872 (RPi2.arm)

[JayJay1974]

Good Day, I'm not sure if my question can even be addressed or not but would like some help if possible.

So I have PC running 32-bit Windows 7. I have Kodi 17.6 installed and running The IARL App. The only intended use for this PC is for retro gaming. My issue is, I run kodi in full screen mode. However when I am in IARL and launch a game and then close the game, Kodi is minimized to the task bar.  It would be more useful if Kodi were to stay open and in full screen instead of having to keep a mouse next to me to open back to full screen. Any help guys? Hope I explained my self properly.

Thank you

Sorry I should say I dont think this is the addon's issue. I just posted here hoping someone could help that may have had the same experience or understands what I'm asking

Again Thank you

[Solo0815]

for all with the game.libretro-1.0.33-issue, here is the solution. At least for Milhouse-builds, don't know, if it's working on other installs:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2708091

[mmstos]

Hi Zach,

I use retroplayer with android and can´t play anything, I get just 3 emulators when oppening the file, because it is a ZIP file.

I looked into the log and appears the iarl is not converting the zip to xml.

20:45:58.700 T:18446744072720742704   DEBUG: IARL:  Download save filename: /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/plugin.program.iarl/temp_iarl/demonatk.zip
20:46:02.843 T:18446744072720742704   ERROR: IARL:  File was not recognized as a zipfile and not extracted, pointing back to file: /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/plugin.program.iarl/temp_iarl/demonatk.zip


Could you give some advice

thanks

[mmstos]

https://paste.ubuntu.com/26496347/

Here's my log, same issue, it looks like the ZIP file doesn't get extracted so the program select only 3 systems (FBA, vice and cap32) as candidate to open the ROM.

 I have the exact same problem in android, just 3 emulators to open the rom, I figure it is because of the zip files.

Have you found a solution yet?

[zachmorris]

https://paste.ubuntu.com/26496347/

Here's my log, same issue, it looks like the ZIP file doesn't get extracted so the program select only 3 systems (FBA, vice and cap32) as candidate to open the ROM.

 I have the exact same problem in android, just 3 emulators to open the rom, I figure it is because of the zip files.

Have you found a solution yet? 

Can you provide a full debug log and post it to a pastebin?  My best guess is the game archive you're looking at was updated - if you haven't already update to the latest version of IARL and update all game list / dat files when prompted.

[mmstos]

https://paste.ubuntu.com/26496347/

Here's my log, same issue, it looks like the ZIP file doesn't get extracted so the program select only 3 systems (FBA, vice and cap32) as candidate to open the ROM.

 I have the exact same problem in android, just 3 emulators to open the rom, I figure it is because of the zip files.

Have you found a solution yet?  

Can you provide a full debug log and post it to a pastebin?  My best guess is the game archive you're looking at was updated - if you haven't already update to the latest version of IARL and update all game list / dat files when prompted. 

Thank for the reply.

Follows the log, my IARL is 1.6.9

log retroplayer

[zachmorris]

 I have the exact same problem in android, just 3 emulators to open the rom, I figure it is because of the zip files.

Have you found a solution yet?  

Can you provide a full debug log and post it to a pastebin?  My best guess is the game archive you're looking at was updated - if you haven't already update to the latest version of IARL and update all game list / dat files when prompted.  

Thank for the reply.

Follows the log, my IARL is 1.6.9

log retroplayer 

 I tried the same game on an OSX and Windows machine running v18 and they both worked, so something is going on with the Android version alphas.  The error is either in the downloaded file being 'incorrect' (urllib not working) or the python unzip function not working.

The last person that had this issue I think installed the ARM64 version and that did work.

I'd be interested in troubleshooting this further.  If you can get to the folder:

xml:
/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/plugin.program.iarl/temp_iarl/

And get a hold of the file Kodi downloads send me a PM.