Switch to Emulation Station from Attract Mode (Retropie)?

[tonberryhunter]

Is it possible to add a menu shortcut back to Emulation Station once in Attract Mode?  Ive added links to Retropie Setup and various other configs from Attract Mode but cant seem to get back to Emulation Station without returning to the command line and typing emulationstation.  Would like something slicker than that. 

Thanks

[progets]

Something like this should create the files you need (your paths might be different). Then you just point your AttractMode launcher to /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/setup/EmulationStation.sh.

Code: [Select]

mkdir /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/setup
cat >> /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/setup/EmulationStation.sh << EOF
clear
echo "Switching default boot system to EmulationStation and rebooting"
echo ""
sed -i 's/attract/emulationstation/g' /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh
sudo reboot
EOF
cat >> /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/Attract-Mode.sh << EOF
echo "Switching default boot system to Attract-Mode and rebooting"
echo ""
sed -i 's/emulationstation/attract/g' /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh
sudo reboot
EOF
chmod +x /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/Attract-Mode.sh

This and more is described in this thread http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1311.msg9542#msg9542.

[tonberryhunter]

So it cant be done without a reboot everytime is what your saying?  This is a script that rewrites the autostart.sh config and reboots?  It would be essentially rewriting the autostart.sh everytime I wanted to switch between the two?   

Thanks for your reply

[progets]

It can be done without a reboot, that's just not what most people want. Other options are below but have their own drawbacks depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

This will run ES when you exit AM
Configure-->General-->Exit Command=emulationstation
 
Or you can create a EmulationStation.sh file that only contains "emulationstation" but this will cause AM to wait in the background while ES is running. You can also make the script exit AM first but that would be the same as the option above aside from the fact you can still exit AM to the command line.

[tonberryhunter]

Hmm I might opt for the exiting AM loads Emulation Station.  That seems a little more graceful and faster?  Its critical to get back to Emulation Station to configure a new controller since Attract Mode configs arent tied to Retroarch or Emulation Station unless I'm missing a workaround there.  Attract Mode would be perfect if its controller configs acted globally like Emulation Station.  Will Attract Mode ever make it out of experimental in Retropie?   

Thanks for all your help. 

[progets]

I don't know if AttractMode (AM) will ever come out of experimental in Retropie. I doubt it but you can ask on the RetroPie forum. I would never install AM using the RetroPie menu, it causes a lot of issues if you really want to run AM as your primary frontend (FE). I (and others here on the forum) recommend installing RetroPie, and then complile (FFMPEG and then) AM manually and run a script like I showed you to get it all together. Unless something has changed, the RetroPie menu install doesn't give you FFMPEG video decoding in AM and it also overwrites many things when you do an update and it doesn't stop there.

The Pi is great if you want to spend little money to emulate. There are cheap PCs and NUCs that can do much better for only a few dollars more. I haven't touched a Pi for emulation in a couple of years. I only looked at it for fun to get my friends that were jealous of my PC setup a cost effective emulation system.

Today if my only choice was a Pi and I wanted AM as the primary FE, I would install a minimal *nix OS then advmame and retroarch (RA) manually and then AM manually.

If you're only using RA then you can just run RA setup to add the controllers in AM. You really didn't go into details of you setup and needs/desires for other controllers. I use a cabinet where the controls don't change but people are cleaver and if there is is will, there is always a way.

[progets]

I should also mention that I've seen unreleased memory space when switching between AM and ES which makes the reboot on the Pi a longer (time wise) but good idea for performance. Keep in mind that I mentioned that I haven't touched a Pi for a while.

If you're only trying to configure controllers while in ES (and not playing games) it may or may not matter if you use the option to have AM running while you run ES. I know it would hurt game performance but it might not cause issues if only configuring controllers. You'd have to try and see but the longer reboot option will likely payoff in game play performance.

Always backup before making any changes.

[tonberryhunter]

I like the cross platform nature of Attract Mode.  So I'm constantly working on updating it for all my systems.  I also like running it on my handheld which has no choice but to run Retropie since its based on the Raspberry Pi.  In all honestly while the Raspberry Pi is weaker than my i7 gaming pc its more exciting getting a single board computer to emulate.  I wouldn't discount the Retropie development scene just because the hardware isnt as powerful.  The future of emulation seems to be single board computers and mobile based operating systems.  Sure it was exciting 10 years ago to take an old Windows XP machine and put it in a big old arcade machine but I think the portable emulation scene is far more exciting these days.  Attract Mode will eventually get left behind by faster more efficient frontends with the next wave of SBCs and Raspberry Pi models.  While I like Attract Mode the development has been stagnant with no major improvements in the last 3 or so years.  I appreciate the work done so far but fear the project is dead and I personally lack the coding skills to improve on it. 

Ive already compiled Attract Mode from scratch and an update from Retropie Setup menu doesnt break it aside from adding displays back in that you have previously removed.  Which isnt too much work to clean up.  I actually find the software decoder more reliable when it comes to video snaps on the Raspberry Pi.  The hardware decoder does not seem to improve playback that much and many times video snaps will lock up the system (regardless of file size).  The scraper in Attract Mode is still broken for both PC and Linux?   

Also noted on my Windows build video snaps have audio desync issues.       

Thanks for your time