NOOB Question

[tilt100]

OK so I'm a NOOB to attract mode and I'm probably doing something really stupid but I'm having issues getting this running correctly. I'm pretty familar with emulation environments and have built PC based highly customized setup's in the past and have recently played with retropie / emulation station without to many issues but really wanted to play with attract mode as I really like the hyperspin type environment that I've used before.

So I've tried both V04 and V05 of the pre built images, both have the same issue.

On boot I end up in the AM inital menu where I can configure AM, reboot in EM etc. I think I have everything setup correctly, I've setup some initial MAME roms, built ROM list in AM which seems to work, I can launch them in EM but no matter what I do I can't get AM to launch, it always dumps me back in the initial menu.

I do see the following output including errors on the console....

Starting Attract-Mode v2.1.0 (Linux)
Config: /home/pi/.attract/attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Attract Mode Setup'
- Loaded master romlist 'Attract Mode Setup' in 11ms (7 entries kept, 0 discarded)
- Constructed 2 filters in 6ms (14 comparisons)
AL Lib: (WW) alc_initconfig: Failed to initialize backend "pulse"
glGetError 0x500
glGetError 0x500
glGetError 0x500
 - Loaded layout: /usr/local/share/attract/layouts/Basic/ (layout.nut)

*** Running: /bin/bash "/home/pi/.attract/Attract Mode Setup/V0.5 build 23-08-2016.sh
glGetError 0x500
^[^[[B^[[A^[[A

If I select the name of this image version from the inital menu (which I'm guessing is the way to fire up AM manually) I see the console output briefly and then I'm back in the menu and the same console output is repeated.

Looking around the forum it seems like the errors are known and most folks say they have to impact on AM running so I really am not sure what's going on. My first thought was that there was something I was not configuring that i needed to and hence it was just dumping me back in the menu but I'm really not sure. Second thought was I've got to be doing something really stupid :-) as plenty of other folks seem to have this working. I'm running on a PI3.

Anyhow, any help would be greatly appreciated as I'd really like to get past this and actually start setting up an AM based system and i'm running out of hair to pull out :-)

Jerry

[omegaman]

Hi tilt100-

Check out floob's tutorial here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ssbyofbm4Q

Also, you might want to post one of your emulators configs here for more help.

[tilt100]

I had watched that video, but watching it again allowed me to catch one small detail I was missing. I couldn't figure out how he was getting from the menu to the wheel type display and after I watched it again I realized that right arrow on the key board shifts you to the next "display" which is the actual AM front end. I new there had to be something really stupid on my part but it really wasn't that obvious. So the good news is that everything is working as far as what I said up wheel wise and I can launch a few test games.

So a couple more questions...

Can I get AM to launch into the front end (wheel or whatever layout is selected) on boot and not the configuration menu? I'm looking at the start up settings in configuration general and its not obvious what to select there and even if this is the right place to control this. for a cab setup this is preferable.

Another weird issue which I think is more retropie and my mame setup then anything to do with AM is that I can't escape out of MAME once I fire up a game. Just wondering if anyone has seen this before? I really don't want to reset the PI every time. With all my previous MAME setups ESC always got you out. every other key seems to respond as I would expect.

Anyhow, some progress now which is good :-)

Jerry

[omegaman]

Few things . . .

Check out your am control input mappings and remap them to your liking. You can configure the inputs by hitting the tab key and selecting controls.

To configure the retropie controls, select emulationstation under floob's basic layout. This should boot into emulationstation. In em configure the emulators you want and their controls. Once that is done, under retropie settings there should be an option to boot in attract instead of em.

If you are still having problems we can edit the configs manually. But, what I suggested should get you off on the right foot.     

[tilt100]

Yes I'll investigate the control mappings in both and see if I can see what's going on.

I figured out the issue with boot to the front end (wheel etc) rather than config menu, I guess there's no option to force that but if startup mode is set to last selection and the last selection is the front end then that's what it boots to. So basically if you escape, quit and reboot from the command line then it boots back to the front end. It would be nice if there was a way to always force that behavior though, and maybe there is if I dig around some more or I'm sure someone here knows.

Jerry

[omegaman]

Yes I'll investigate the control mappings in both and see if I can see what's going on.

I figured out the issue with boot to the front end (wheel etc) rather than config menu, I guess there's no option to force that but if startup mode is set to last selection and the last selection is the front end then that's what it boots to. So basically if you escape, quit and reboot from the command line then it boots back to the front end. It would be nice if there was a way to always force that behavior though, and maybe there is if I dig around some more or I'm sure someone here knows.

Jerry

You can change the frontend you want to boot up by editing the file /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh and change emulationstation to attract. Now, you will always boot into attract. The layout determines whether you boot into a theme with a wheel or not.