[Bratzilla]

Hello. Apologies in advance from a noob. I searched for my issue and couldn't find one. 

Is anyone else having problems with Chrome?

Brief summary - I use AEL to create browser instances in which I launch Netflix, etc. It's been working well for a while. I did a clean install of Kodi 18 (previously had Kodi 17.6 but I completely uninstalled and wiped to get a clean slate). Previously, AEL worked flawlessly for Google Chrome. Now, however, no launcher I defined for Chrome will work. I now only get an error notice (big red "X" noting there was an error). On a hunch, I tested Firefox Quantum (the latest version) and it works flawlessly. 

It's entirely possible that Google rewrote something in the latest version that now is causing a problem. I'm going to perform more tests with the latest stable AEL in Kodi 17.6 on another computer just to see. I wanted to post this here just in case anyone has any ideas or can point me to a thread that I somehow overlooked.

[-Alan]

Hey guys, as of LibreElec 9.0, the script here doesn't work because as soon a Kodi quits it kills any other processes. The solution I'm using is to use systemd:
'run' script:

sh:


#!/bin/sh

script=$1

shift

systemd-run /storage/$script.sh "$@"

sample retroarch script:

sh:


#!/bin/sh



EXECUTABLE="/storage/.kodi/addons/game.retroarch/game.retroarch-RPi"

LIBRETRO_CORES_DIR="/storage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/game.retroarch/cores"

CONFIG_FILE="/storage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/game.retroarch/retroarch.cfg"



LOG="/storage/launch_log"



# --- Stop KODI ---

echo $(date) "Stopping Kodi service ..." >> $LOG

systemctl stop kodi



# --- Run program ---

echo $(date) "Running $EXECUTABLE -L $LIBRETRO_CORES_DIR/$1_libretro.so \"$2\"" >> $LOG



export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/storage/.kodi/addons/game.retroarch/lib

cd /storage/.kodi/addons/game.retroarch

$EXECUTABLE -c $CONFIG_FILE -L $LIBRETRO_CORES_DIR/$1_libretro.so "$2"

cd /storage



# --- Start KODI ---

echo $(date) "Starting Kodi service ..." >> $LOG

systemctl start kodi

in your launcher you select the 'run' script as the binary, and then add the script to run in background as the first parameter. (note it adds the .sh)

Other than that i really like this project although switching roms could be a bit tedious... it would be much better if there was a way to return to the same menu when you start kodi.

Also I'm still figuring how the scraper works, it finds the roms but no meta data or arts are downloaded. I'll eventually figure that out i'm sure but any pointers are welcome too

[Wintermute0110]

@-Alan Thanks a lot for your contribution.

There is a way to return to AEL when Kodi starts. Using the AEL special arguments, you can pass the categoryID, launcherID and romID to the launched script, and then write an autoexec.py which will tell Kodi to run AEL and open the specific launchers. I do not know how to focus a ListItem row from Python, so you will be able to go to your launcher but not to the ROM at the moment.

In my understanding, LibreELECT runs Kodi without a window manager. The easiest thing to do is to ask Milhouse or any other LibreELEC developer to include OpenBox, a very simple and light window manager, and then use OpenBox to run Kodi (you can use the --standalone parameter when running Kodi inside the window manager). Users will have the option to run Kodi with/without the window manager. The window manager will allow to launch apps from Kodi without the need to close Kodi (Kodi will remain open on the background). This is the standard and ideal way of using AEL/AML and when you close the launched app you return to your ROM.

[mechevarria]

I noticed that one of the systems missing is the Nintendo Satellaview. I found some pixel console art that could be placed in the folder

Code:

media/p_pixel

 
I put that image in the folder named Nintendo Satellaview.png and updated categories.xml with the system name, and it showed right up! Something you may want to add in github. Here is a screenshot 

[Wintermute0110]

I noticed that one of the systems missing is the Nintendo Satellaview. I found some pixel console art that could be placed in the folder

Code:

media/p_pixel

 
I put that image in the folder named Nintendo Satellaview.png and updated categories.xml with the system name, and it showed right up! Something you may want to add in github. Here is a screenshot 

Thanks a lot. I have saved the platform icon for inclusion in AEL. Can you please send me the Fanart, Icon and Clearlogo of your screenshot to include in the AEL Asset Library?

[mechevarria]

Yeah no problem. Fanart, logo and clear-logo for Satellaview. I saw for the skin that you disabled trailers because of the lag. I noticed it too. Maybe increasing the delay to 2 or 3 seconds might help? That way someone casually scrolling through their library won't trigger the trailer unless they stop to look.

[mechevarria]

Not sure if you are aware, but another resource for icons and fanart is from the author of HyperLauncher. I used most of his assets for my library.

https://github.com/teeedubb/teeedubb-xbm...ms.artwork

[Wintermute0110]

@mechevarria Thanks a lot for the Satellaview artowkr and for pointing out to the HyperLauncher library. I will integrate it into the AEL Asset Library ASAP.

Regarding the rendering of trailers, yes, I had to disable the rendering of videos in Leia because it introduced a nasty delay in the skin. In high end computers like the ones I use for development is not very noticeable, but in medium- and low-end computers like my HTPC box, an Intel NUC i5 5 years old... (it's getting time to discard it and get a new one), this delay was very nasty. I decided it is best to not having trailers vs having the delay until the problem is fixed.

@Rufoo Can you please have a look at this? The invisible button to trigger the trailers is causing problems in Leia, a flickering when you change rows in a ListItem and Kodi gets stuck briefly, much less than a second but noticeable enough.

[Rufoo]

@mechevarria Thanks a lot for the Satellaview artowkr and for pointing out to the HyperLauncher library. I will integrate it into the AEL Asset Library ASAP.

Regarding the rendering of trailers, yes, I had to disable the rendering of videos in Leia because it introduced a nasty delay in the skin. In high end computers like the ones I use for development is not very noticeable, but in medium- and low-end computers like my HTPC box, an Intel NUC i5 5 years old... (it's getting time to discard it and get a new one), this delay was very nasty. I decided it is best to not having trailers vs having the delay until the problem is fixed.

@Rufoo Can you please have a look at this? The invisible button to trigger the trailers is causing problems in Leia, a flickering when you change rows in a ListItem and Kodi gets stuck briefly, much less than a second but noticeable enough.

 @Wintermute0110 & @mechevarria 

Can confirm this issue. 'Tis one of the reasons why trailer support hasn't gone live in Lyrebird yet either.

Once I ran into the problem I removed the code and didn't bother trying to diagnose the issue, the focus was building views. But I'd never refuse a request from @Wintermute0110. So back into the breach we go!

I stuffed an invisible button in the focusedlayout container and got testing...

Hardware may have something to do with it. But the grunt of your processor would be an unlikely cause as I'm on an i7 3770K and have the same experience still, my AEL assets are on a 5400RPM drive which isn't exactly blazing fast though so it could be possible that may have something to do with it, same may be said if your machines are using some kind of cheap eMMC. I doubt those are really the root cause but to rule it out I'll move stuff across to my SSD shortly and report back. However, I'm betting this actually yields nothing.

Naturally the suggestion from @mechevarria seems like a logical one but can assure you that pumping the delay time up for the button to appear only "masks" the effect on approach. You still get that odd janky snap on movement to the next item instead of a smooth transition if the trailer is triggered. I'm thinking it is simply possible the old "shove a button in the focusedlayout" is actually the cause and a new approach needs to be taken. The problem is, the button, while hacky, was a useful solution as you can tell it when it doesn't have focus (ie: transitioning to the next item) to kill what is playing.

I already have some ideas in mind which I'll test out.

I'll make this a focus of mine to solve and aid in. I'll keep you posted in the coming days.

[mechevarria]

EDIT Seems like its a disk I/O issue. I tried it out on a system with trailers on an SSD and the issue is not noticeable at all

My system is very similar. I have a large 5400 drive with all my files and a i7-4790S running Lubuntu. How is trailer support implemented in Rom Collection Browser? Does that addon have the same issue? To be honest its not that big a deal on my system and I really like having the trailers. Having an option to toggle trailers on/off with a selection of 1 or 4 seconds could give everyone a choice

[tvferret]

Hi, there is something I do not understand, should AEL process MAME.xml extracted from MAME with listxml command, just like AML does? I tried to feed the MAME.xml via the Add No-Intro/Redump XML DAT command but it does not work. AML imports the MAME.xml with no problem, creating parent/Clone info etc. How can this be achieved in AEL? Thanks!

[Wintermute0110]

Hi, there is something I do not understand, should AEL process MAME.xml extracted from MAME with listxml command, just like AML does? I tried to feed the MAME.xml via the Add No-Intro/Redump XML DAT command but it does not work. AML imports the MAME.xml with no problem, creating parent/Clone info etc. How can this be achieved in AEL? Thanks!

MAME XML is totally different from the No-Intro and Redump XML DATs. MAME XML is very complex and includes a lot of information. Note that AML is as complex as AEL but focused on MAME only.

AEL includes a good offline scraper for MAME (actually, the MAME offline scraper is currently the best available) so if you have a few MAME ROMs just create the launcher in AEL and you are done. If you have a lot of MAME ROMs (or have only a few but want to see all the MAME machines) then use AML.

If you want to create a MAME Parent/Clone launcher, then a XML DAT with No-Intro format must be created from the MAME XML file. This could be a good exercise of Python programming If you want it desperately maybe I will code the script and post the MAME No-Intro-like XML DAT (or even better, I can code that option with AML, it would be quite easy to export the XML DAT and an updated version of the MAME offline scraper).

In the future, the offline scraper will include ROM Region and Parent/Clone information. No-Intro XML DATs will be used for ROM audit only and Parent/Clone information would be done with the XML DATs if available, or if not available with the offline scraper or the No-Intro ROM tags.

Also in the future I will expand the interaction between AML and AEL. In AML, you will be able to export a read only launcher into AEL from any of the AML filters, including the custom filters. For example, you can use AML to browse all of the MAME overwhelmingness and also use AML as a sofisticated MAME machine filter, exporting some read only launchers into AEL for convenience with, for example, your MAME Favourites, Capcom CPS games Neo Geo games, etc.

[Nibako]

Hi Wintermute0110,

thank you and your Team for this awesome work! Really, thanks!

Are there some updates to the scrapper? This is my Main-Problem, I cant get the artwork to run manually.

[Wintermute0110]

Hi Wintermute0110,

thank you and your Team for this awesome work! Really, thanks!

Are there some updates to the scrapper? This is my Main-Problem, I cant get the artwork to run manually.

I'm working on the scrapers (and a dozen other things...), but it will take some more time.

Why you cannot download the artwork? Do you need help about how to do so?

[Nibako]

Ok Yes, I can download them all manually and put the in over "edit rom" but it is a very slow process... Moreover I am not sure how to import the metadata and where to get them for my Wii-Roms..