Author Topic: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation  (Read 6199 times)

awaawaawa

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External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« on: January 14, 2018, 01:43:53 AM »
Hi,
I want to start use the fantastic Attract mode  :)

I have estrernal HDD with all the game and I want to use the same disk and folder with the Attract Mode.

It is possible??
Any help is appreciated...

keilmillerjr

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2018, 03:18:11 AM »
Yes. Just have your paths in the emulator config files and attract.cfg point to the appropriate location.

awaawaawa

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2018, 06:35:57 AM »

And where is the file for the emulationstation with the path of the art??
I have the art inside the roms folder...

Thanks again

keilmillerjr

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2018, 06:58:01 AM »

And where is the file for the emulationstation with the path of the art??
I have the art inside the roms folder...

Thanks again

Not sure. I didn’t know we were talking about emulation station.

akafox

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2018, 02:15:38 PM »
You have to use Attract Mode OR Emulation Station You can not use both.

To set up attract mode all you have to do is set your paths to the directories to the items. (Marquees, Flyers, Snaps, etc.)


1. I need to know if you are on a PC and if so what operating system you are running in order to help you!
2. Are you loading your roms and artwork from the HDD? or just the artwork?

If you are using a PC then use the full path that your file browser program lists in the address bar to your artwork folder and use that information into the attract mode config file. If you do that then here is some other things to know:


Note that if you set up emulationstation and scraped the artwork through there the artwork WILL NOT work. This is because emulationstation adds "tags" to the artwork (i.e. -marquee -video) so Attract Mode does not see them and use them. To fix that you have to rename all the art work removing the "tags" (i.e. gng-video.mp4 to gng.mp4) There is a problem with that though..now you "break" Emulation from working now. If you are not going to use Emulationstation any longer no big deal..if you want to use both there is a "quick" fix...

Rename all your artwork. (use Bulk Rename Utility for windows or pyrenamer for linux [it's in your repository]). Then MAKE A BACK UP or your gamelist.xml from emulationstation. Next open it in a TEXT editor (windows users better to use notepad++ here because you HAVE to save it as a linux file..wordpad and the like will use windows encoding and thus make your list unsuable to linux) Finally search and replace -video.mp4</video> with .mp4</video>. This will strip the "tag" from there and emulation station will still read the information and work as normal..and you can switch back and forth between Attract Mode and Emulation Station.

If you need more help let me know.

(Sorry mac users i don't own a mac..anyone with a mac if you do this please post software tools and links.)
« Last Edit: January 14, 2018, 02:26:24 PM by akafox »
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keilmillerjr

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2018, 10:00:17 PM »
You have to use Attract Mode OR Emulation Station You can not use both.

To set up attract mode all you have to do is set your paths to the directories to the items. (Marquees, Flyers, Snaps, etc.)


1. I need to know if you are on a PC and if so what operating system you are running in order to help you!
2. Are you loading your roms and artwork from the HDD? or just the artwork?

If you are using a PC then use the full path that your file browser program lists in the address bar to your artwork folder and use that information into the attract mode config file. If you do that then here is some other things to know:


Note that if you set up emulationstation and scraped the artwork through there the artwork WILL NOT work. This is because emulationstation adds "tags" to the artwork (i.e. -marquee -video) so Attract Mode does not see them and use them. To fix that you have to rename all the art work removing the "tags" (i.e. gng-video.mp4 to gng.mp4) There is a problem with that though..now you "break" Emulation from working now. If you are not going to use Emulationstation any longer no big deal..if you want to use both there is a "quick" fix...

Rename all your artwork. (use Bulk Rename Utility for windows or pyrenamer for linux [it's in your repository]). Then MAKE A BACK UP or your gamelist.xml from emulationstation. Next open it in a TEXT editor (windows users better to use notepad++ here because you HAVE to save it as a linux file..wordpad and the like will use windows encoding and thus make your list unsuable to linux) Finally search and replace -video.mp4</video> with .mp4</video>. This will strip the "tag" from there and emulation station will still read the information and work as normal..and you can switch back and forth between Attract Mode and Emulation Station.

If you need more help let me know.

(Sorry mac users i don't own a mac..anyone with a mac if you do this please post software tools and links.)

Mac OS 10 you can use Automator to create an action to bulk strip those tags from the file name. Automator comes bundles with OS 10.4+

My guess since he/she is using emulation station and attract mode, they are likely using retropie.

awaawaawa

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2018, 03:10:45 PM »
Thanks a lot...  :D

I want to have shared roms in EmulationStation and Attract Mode.

In the External drive EmulationStation want a retropie-mount folder and attract mode want a piroms.

Can I switch one of the two??

Thanks

akafox

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2018, 05:44:55 PM »

Mac OS 10 you can use Automator to create an action to bulk strip those tags from the file name. Automator comes bundles with OS 10.4+

My guess since he/she is using emulation station and attract mode, they are likely using retropie.

Thank you for that information.  :D

I assume that as well however i need to know if the op is on a raspberry pi or PC retroPie can be installed on a PC and it works the same as the rasp pi..however paths will be different of course. I need to know this information so I know what i am working with.
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akafox

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2018, 05:59:58 PM »
Thanks a lot...  :D

I want to have shared roms in EmulationStation and Attract Mode.

In the External drive EmulationStation want a retropie-mount folder and attract mode want a piroms.

Can I switch one of the two??

Thanks

I'm sorry I don't fully understand what you are wanting here. You don't have to have anything on the sd card except the operating system..you can store everything on the hdd as far as attract mode or emulationstation is concerned. However in order for us to get it working I need to know what you are storing on each device.

to answer your first statement:
   Your roms can be shared between emulation station and attract mode...however again you have to set the path to the roms in attract mode for them to be found. if they are on the external drive then you need to put that path into the config files for attract mode. If they are on an sd card (assuming you are using a raspberry pi) then you make sure the path is set to the correct path on the pi.

That being said..you need to tell me what you are using to run retopie on.
       1. Are you running retro pie on a PC or a raspberry pi?
        2. If it is on a PC what operating system are you running?
        3. You need to tell me where your roms and artwork are being stored
        4. What is on the HDD and what is on the sd card (if you are using a pi)

If you can not tell me that then I can not help you. It is not that i do not want to..it is that i can not because I do not have information to start problem solving with.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2018, 06:01:47 PM by akafox »
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awaawaawa

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2018, 02:30:32 AM »
You right sorry...  ;D

I run in Raspberry Pi3
In the SD card I want to have only the configuration files.

Now, to extend the file into an external HDD:

- No Attact Mode: the system create a folder named retropie-mount
- Attract Mode: the system create a folder named piroms

I have, for example, Atari2600 roms. For the No Attract Mode I have to copy in the folder retropie-mount/roms/atari2600 and the system recognize the roms.
For the Attract mode I have to copy in piroms/atari2600 and the system recognize the roms.

In witch way I can share the folder between two systems??
Thanks

Thanks a lot...  :D

I want to have shared roms in EmulationStation and Attract Mode.

In the External drive EmulationStation want a retropie-mount folder and attract mode want a piroms.

Can I switch one of the two??

Thanks

I'm sorry I don't fully understand what you are wanting here. You don't have to have anything on the sd card except the operating system..you can store everything on the hdd as far as attract mode or emulationstation is concerned. However in order for us to get it working I need to know what you are storing on each device.

to answer your first statement:
   Your roms can be shared between emulation station and attract mode...however again you have to set the path to the roms in attract mode for them to be found. if they are on the external drive then you need to put that path into the config files for attract mode. If they are on an sd card (assuming you are using a raspberry pi) then you make sure the path is set to the correct path on the pi.

That being said..you need to tell me what you are using to run retopie on.
       1. Are you running retro pie on a PC or a raspberry pi?
        2. If it is on a PC what operating system are you running?
        3. You need to tell me where your roms and artwork are being stored
        4. What is on the HDD and what is on the sd card (if you are using a pi)

If you can not tell me that then I can not help you. It is not that i do not want to..it is that i can not because I do not have information to start problem solving with.

akafox

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Re: External Disk Attract and Enulationstation
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2018, 10:11:49 AM »

I have, for example, Atari2600 roms. For the No Attract Mode I have to copy in the folder retropie-mount/roms/atari2600 and the system recognize the roms.
For the Attract mode I have to copy in piroms/atari2600 and the system recognize the roms.

Ok so I am guessing here that no Attract Mode means EmulationStation. Am I correct? If so please just say Emulationstation

Second let me made sure I understand:
1. You want all the games and media on the external HDD with just the operating system. configuration files on the SD card.correct?
     Easy to do. (I assumed that you already have done it.) If everything is on your HDD..

I do not know why you have two folders of roms for the same system. That is not needed. If the path  retropie-mount/roms/atari2600 works with emulationstation then all you have to do is set up Attract mode to use that path as well.

1. On the main Attract mode screen Press the Esc button
2. Go to emulators
3. Go to Atari2600
4. Got to roms path
5. Enter  retropie-mount/roms/atari2600 there
6. Press Escape
7. Now go down to generate list (if is asks to overwrite your list say yes)
8. When done press Esc twice (you should be back on the main screen)
9. look at your atari 2600 list

This can be done with every path (for videos, marquees, etc.) Just point it to the path that is shown. Note that is you are looking at the path over ssh or sfpt (a network) you will NOT get the right folder. You need the local path on the pi.

I find your path strange though normally the path starts with /media/usb0/ for an external device on the pi. That is where you should be looking for your hdd...from beyond that you can have whatever path you want.

Remember when using a HDD you MUST have it powered separately the pi can NOT power the pi by itself it was never designed to do that!

read through these write-ups here an see if they can help you as well:...

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1777.msg12521#msg12521
http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=328.0
http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=344.0

if you can get attract mode and emulationstation to read your roms  and make a list from the same folder (or different if you want) tell me. THEN we will work on making work and switch between them.
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