[MrSliff]

Hey mate,

since the RC1 of kodi 19 is out now, what do you think how long will it take to get a release of the launcher addon?

[Wintermute0110]

Hi all,

I'm new to AEL. I'd like to use it for launching firefox on OSMC.
I've configured a simple launcher with the name and path to firefox (which is installed, of course).

When starting that launcher following error is shown in the log.

Launching blocking process subprocess.call()
Process retcode = 1
(see https://paste.kodi.tv/evudicecay.kodi for more lines)

Do you have any idea about it? Googling about it didn't really help.
Thanks a lot.

Retcode 1 means the process returns an error. It could happen if /usr/bin/firefox it's a script. Can you test the following? Change the app to /bin/sh and the use /usr/bin/firefox as argument.

[Wintermute0110]

Hey mate,

since the RC1 of kodi 19 is out now, what do you think how long will it take to get a release of the launcher addon?

That's the million dollar question. The quick answer is that AEL working in Python 3 is not going to happen any time soon.

The long answer is: currently I am working on some big changes about how AEL deals with platform artwork (which will allow to create themes like in other frontends like EmulationStation), add more metadata fields including game region and game languages, and support more artwork fields for ROMs. The main motto is to create something that is close to what could be a future Kodi Games Database. You can see the progress of my ideas on the following document, keep in mind that is very work in progress. On the other hand, me and Chrisism have been working for a while on a new version of AEL that includes a lot of new features. This new version of AEL is currently on the master branch and only works on Python 2. Upgrading the master branch to Python 3 will take some time, plus adding the new features will require even more time. With this coronavirus thing I have a lot of free time, however it is difficult to concentrate and code. So... in the best case it will take several months to see an AEL version running on Kodi Matrix.

[capewrath]

Hi! I've been using AEL for a while and I absolutely love it. However, I would like some help on a small annoyance that I found. I have an old but somewhat gaming capable PC that I use on my living room as a "console replacement", the OS is currently ubuntu 20.04 with KDE and the kodi version is 18.9. Now, what happens is that if a game for whatever reason changes the screen resolution when being launched, kodi "steals" the screen focus and reappears on top of the game that just launched. Even if the game eventually returns to 1920x1080, as is the case with GTR2, the intro cinematic plays at 640x480 and so it switches the screen resolution causing kodi to appear on top. I know it sounds silly and I'm pretty sure it's more of a kodi thing than an AEL bug, but it does mean that I have to find a keyboard and alt-tab to the game again. While alt-tabbing out of kodi is of course not hard to do, it kinda breaks the whole "sit down, grab a controller, play the game" experience, especially for the kids. Does anyone know a fix for this? Is linux/KDE causing it? Maybe there is a "not steal focus" setting for kodi that I missed or something.

[Wintermute0110]

Hi! I've been using AEL for a while and I absolutely love it. However, I would like some help on a small annoyance that I found. I have an old but somewhat gaming capable PC that I use on my living room as a "console replacement", the OS is currently ubuntu 20.04 with KDE and the kodi version is 18.9. Now, what happens is that if a game for whatever reason changes the screen resolution when being launched, kodi "steals" the screen focus and reappears on top of the game that just launched. Even if the game eventually returns to 1920x1080, as is the case with GTR2, the intro cinematic plays at 640x480 and so it switches the screen resolution causing kodi to appear on top. I know it sounds silly and I'm pretty sure it's more of a kodi thing than an AEL bug, but it does mean that I have to find a keyboard and alt-tab to the game again. While alt-tabbing out of kodi is of course not hard to do, it kinda breaks the whole "sit down, grab a controller, play the game" experience, especially for the kids.

Does anyone know a fix for this?

Yes!

Is linux/KDE causing it?

No. Probably when Kodi detects a change in the screen resolution it tries to grab the focus to reinitialize the display subsystem.

Maybe there is a "not steal focus" setting for kodi that I missed or something.

There is no such thing. Modern applications (including games) are not supposed to change the screen resolution because flat screens do not have several resolutions, they only have one native resolution. As opposed, CRT monitors where able to change the resolution of the display because of their analog nature. For example, in the past emulators like genecyst changed you screen resolution to 320x200, 640x400, etc. Modern emulators like Retroarch and MAME just grab the screen resolution and then adjust their video output to that resolution, for example by scaling the 320x200 native output 2 or 3 times, hence the vertical black bands on either side.

One possible solution is to create a shell script to use a program like xdotool. With xdotool you can control the windows from the command line. If you get into trouble use sleep to wait some time between commands, sometimes if the commands execute very fast you run into race conditions.

[capewrath]

One possible solution is to create a shell script to use a program like xdotool. With xdotool you can control the windows from the command line. If you get into trouble use sleep to wait some time between commands, sometimes if the commands execute very fast you run into race conditions.

Well, maybe that's not exactly what you had in mind, but I had my standalone games as a .sh anyways since most of them needed to be launched from wine, so I simply added a line on the launch script to start the problematic game, wait 2 seconds, call xdotool keydown alt and tab, wait 2 seconds, then release alt. Not sure if it's the best way to do it but hey, works for me! Turns out this xdotool is really cool, I'm now thinking about using the search function on libxdo to automatically close steam/uplay/random DRM client after I close a game so it doesn't keep eating those 200 MB of my RAM for no reason at all. Thanks for the help mate!

[Wintermute0110]

Well, maybe that's not exactly what you had in mind, but I had my standalone games as a .sh anyways since most of them needed to be launched from wine, so I simply added a line on the launch script to start the problematic game, wait 2 seconds, call xdotool keydown alt and tab, wait 2 seconds, then release alt. Not sure if it's the best way to do it but hey, works for me! Turns out this xdotool is really cool, I'm now thinking about using the search function on libxdo to automatically close steam/uplay/random DRM client after I close a game so it doesn't keep eating those 200 MB of my RAM for no reason at all. Thanks for the help mate!

Rule #1 of UNIX: If it's works then it's the best way.

I'm glad it worked for you. To search for and kill process maybe a more elegant solution is to use the common Linux commands such as killall, ps, awk, etc. If you google a bit you will find tons of examples. But again, if you found a solution that works for you then stick to it but keep in mind there are alternatives.

And yes, the amount of things you can do from the command line in Linux, or equivalently from a sh script, is quite amazing. That's why I always recommend Linux for HTPC and emulation boxes, it could take some time to install and configure at first but in the end you have a lot of flexibility to tune your setup as desired.

[MrSliff]

Hey mate,

since the RC1 of kodi 19 is out now, what do you think how long will it take to get a release of the launcher addon?

That's the million dollar question. The quick answer is that AEL working in Python 3 is not going to happen any time soon.

The long answer is: currently I am working on some big changes about how AEL deals with platform artwork (which will allow to create themes like in other frontends like EmulationStation), add more metadata fields including game region and game languages, and support more artwork fields for ROMs. The main motto is to create something that is close to what could be a future Kodi Games Database. You can see the progress of my ideas on the following document, keep in mind that is very work in progress. On the other hand, me and Chrisism have been working for a while on a new version of AEL that includes a lot of new features. This new version of AEL is currently on the master branch and only works on Python 2. Upgrading the master branch to Python 3 will take some time, plus adding the new features will require even more time. With this coronavirus thing I have a lot of free time, however it is difficult to concentrate and code. So... in the best case it will take several months to see an AEL version running on Kodi Matrix.

Thanks for the reply. Nice to hear, there is at least a release planned and also with a feature update.

Im running Kodi Matrix on a Windows VM on my HTPC (reason is, only Kodi Matrix on Windows currently supports 4k/HDR playback, so i passed through the graphics card to the VM). Since i also can use GeforceNOW with it, it would be nice to be able to start those Games directly from Kodi. 

Thanks for the work.

[bakito]

Hello everyone, how can I run game with rocket launcher ? What are the arguments must i put?
trying with cemu and rpcs3 and.. it work with rocketlauncher but how does it work under ael ?
I used to do it with advanced launcher but it was a time ago...
thx in advance !

[bakito]

Hello everyone, how can I run game with rocket launcher ? What are the arguments must i put?
trying with cemu and rpcs3 and.. it work with rocketlauncher but how does it work under ael ?
I used to do it with advanced launcher but it was a time ago...
thx in advance !

Find a way through shortcuts ( one by game) ...and make a launcher via LNK launcher...But I still don't know why cant I make rocketlauncher work directly with AEL
with just one parameter line to rule them all

[Wintermute0110]

Find a way through shortcuts ( one by game) ...and make a launcher via LNK launcher...But I still don't know why cant I make rocketlauncher work directly with AEL
with just one parameter line to rule them all

Because AEL is a multiplatform addon that works in Windows, Linux, Android and Apple and Rocket Launcher is a Windows specific app?

[bakito]

Find a way through shortcuts ( one by game) ...and make a launcher via LNK launcher...But I still don't know why cant I make rocketlauncher work directly with AEL
with just one parameter line to rule them all

Because AEL is a multiplatform addon that works in Windows, Linux, Android and Apple and Rocket Launcher is a Windows specific app?

ah...ok!

[capewrath]

Rule #1 of UNIX: If it's works then it's the best way.

Well, allow me to bother you again with linux weirdness haha. I'm trying to setup Cemu, but it needs something like

cpp:
/usr/bin/wine /home/kodi/bin/cemu/cemu.exe -g "Z:\home\kodi\AEL-ROMs\nintendo-wiiu\MarioKart8\code\MarioKart8.rpx"

to launch the emulator then load a ROM. The first part I can just throw in a file and call it from AEL, but I can't seem to figure out how to pass the ROM in a "windows-like" path to Cemu. Trying to pass the linux path (which I assume is what AEL does when calling the emulator) results in cemu complaining that the file can't be opened, and while I could create separete files to launch each ROM with a hardcoded path it seems kinda silly to do it that way. Can I make AEL output the path with inverted slashes and a leading "Z:"?

[the_stag]

I must be daft. I'm on v0.9.9 and I can't find the option to manually add roms. Is that still a thing?

I ask because when I try to scan for Wii U, most of the roms are incorrect. And the ones that have update files in addition create duplicates. Maybe my issue is I'm scanning the wrong info (.rpx extensions). Thanks!

[capewrath]

I must be daft. I'm on v0.9.9 and I can't find the option to manually add roms. Is that still a thing?

I ask because when I try to scan for Wii U, most of the roms are incorrect. And the ones that have update files in addition create duplicates. Maybe my issue is I'm scanning the wrong info (.rpx extensions). Thanks!

Maybe there's a better way to do it, I followed the guide at https://cemu.cfw.guide/dumping-games to get games from the Wii U but dumpling generates (at least to me) random names for the .rpx ROMs, so the scrapers never work. Since I don't really have a lot of Wii U games (who does? haha) I just renamed the files to something the scraper could work with, like "Mario Kart 8" or "New Super Mario Bros U". Note that you have to change the cos.xml (it's on the same folder as the .rpx) to point to the new file name, the line you're looking for is something like

xml:
 <argstr type="string" length="4096">Mario Kart 8.rpx</argstr> 

otherwise cemu will freak out and crash. To avoid duplicates, I placed all updates and DLCs on a completely separate folder so AEL can't scan them (I keep them there as a backup, but I don't think you really need the original files after you've installed the updates/DLC). That's just the way I found to be easier because the scrapers work great once you have proper file names, however you could always manually edit the .nfo files and ROM assets if you want to.