Jump to content
RealModScene
Bromine

Launch emulator roms directly from Aurora, Cover flow

Recommended Posts

Newbie here.  I am setting up Aurora as the dashboard in an Xbox racing arcade cabinet.  Love it so far, btw.

I am wondering if there is a way to launch a specific rom for an emulator directly from the main Aurora screen.  For example, I'd like Chase HQ or Pole Position (Mame roms) and Mario Kart (n64 rom) to have covers in the cover flow next to my Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.

I've seen info on selecting roms from the rom browser in the game content menu, but nothing about placing roms as one of the cover flow selections.  Would be nice to have all available games (regardless of whether they are launched from an emulator or not) available in a single menu.

My apologies of this has been covered before.  

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It will likely never be possible, unless you make a folder for each rom and have the emu autoboot said rom...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's an interesting idea!  There's probably only about a dozen games I'd like to do this with.  

So maybe I could accomplish this by having multiple folders with copies of mame, each with one rom in the rom folder, then autostart the specific rom in each case (assuming that's possible).  Could I then customize the name and cover image for the multiple instances of mame so that they appear as different games?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
53 minutes ago, Swizzy said:

It will likely never be possible, unless you make a folder for each rom and have the emu autoboot said rom...

Anyone know if it's possible to autoboot a rom in mame360, mupen64-360, etc?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You would have to send the launch data for a specific rom to the emulator. Some allow this via the settings file, most do not. The aurora patched emulators are setup to accept launch data. The best way I can think of would be for the developers to add a feature to pin a rom to the coverflow, but as previously said, it probably wont happen. Might be doable in the next version of aurora with a custom skin. This will not allow you to have coverflow, but in therory, you could create a tab off of the main skin, that has ROM lists, then you could filter the lists. Might also be doable with utility scripts, but I dont know about that for certain. Only time will tell on that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Bromine said:

That's an interesting idea!  There's probably only about a dozen games I'd like to do this with.  

So maybe I could accomplish this by having multiple folders with copies of mame, each with one rom in the rom folder, then autostart the specific rom in each case (assuming that's possible).  Could I then customize the name and cover image for the multiple instances of mame so that they appear as different games?

Yes, this is possible...

1 hour ago, Bromine said:

Anyone know if it's possible to autoboot a rom in mame360, mupen64-360, etc?

Mupen64-360 is a libxenon homebrew, it can't even use the romlaunch feature of Aurora...

Other then that, not sure... some emus may have autoboot a specific filename

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, Swizzy said:

Yes, this is possible...

Mupen64-360 is a libxenon homebrew, it can't even use the romlaunch feature of Aurora...

Other then that, not sure... some emus may have autoboot a specific filename

In therory, with some modifications to Xell, and the emulator, couldnt you send launch data to xell, that would then forward that data to an emulator. I know you can launch libxenon from the kernel with xell launch, so in therory it should be possible to send launch data also. It would probably require a custom version of xell, and the emulator, but should be doable, or so I would think.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No, because xell effectively reboots the console... when you do that, you lose the data... nothing is maintained in memory when libxenon software boots on your console

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ok, just an idea. I didnt really think about it, but even then it could load the data from a file, that is saved on the USB stick used to load said emulator. so if "Launch_Data_File" exist, then pass data to said application. This fixes the issue with the ram loosing all data on reboot, then the emulator can erase said file after load. It is a dirty hack, but would essentially do what is wannted.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, gavin_darkglider said:

Ok, just an idea. I didnt really think about it, but even then it could load the data from a file, that is saved on the USB stick used to load said emulator. so if "Launch_Data_File" exist, then pass data to said application. This fixes the issue with the ram loosing all data on reboot, then the emulator can erase said file after load. It is a dirty hack, but would essentially do what is wannted.

well.. i dunno how this could pan out.. but couldn't someone modify the shortcut stuff into something like a rom launcher? there was ways to make a launcher from the stock dash to boot certain things.. dunno if its possible, BUT yeah.. is an idea.. lol

 

edit: quickboot was the program.. haha.. but i dont know if it could be manipulated to boot the rom

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

it is a quick dirty hack, that would need to be implemented in Aurora, Xell, and the libxenon based app, but in therory it would work. A lot of work, for apps most people dont use though. I hardly ever boot xell anymore. Used to use it for Mplayer, and occasionally use it for Zelda OOT, but that is it. lol. It would be better to port those emulators to the XDK, but that is a lot of work. Love64 showed some promise, but was never released, and then Team XElove disappeared. There other emulators worked great though. Xeboyadvanced for example.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
29 minutes ago, gavin_darkglider said:

it is a quick dirty hack, that would need to be implemented in Aurora, Xell, and the libxenon based app, but in therory it would work. A lot of work, for apps most people dont use though. I hardly ever boot xell anymore. Used to use it for Mplayer, and occasionally use it for Zelda OOT, but that is it. lol. It would be better to port those emulators to the XDK, but that is a lot of work. Love64 showed some promise, but was never released, and then Team XElove disappeared. There other emulators worked great though. Xeboyadvanced for example.

Quickboot mate xex's for use on stock dash.. which could show up in coverflow for fsd/aurora.. just how to manipulate it to do how the rom browser option is.. would be the hard work.. or.. one could possibly edit the existing code in swizzy's github, and have the retroarch core launch a generic name.. and change it out as you see fit.. that might be the easiest option lolol.. then have custom cover per version to indicate rom..

 

Example: have nes core launch rom.nes, and then you have several copies of the same build, each with its own specific game renamed to rom.nes..

 

but yeah.. i think that would be annyoing to code lol

 

Edit: folder structure would be like this..

Nes/Zelda/rom.nes

Nes/mario/rom.nes

Nes/excitebike/rom.nes

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, gavin_darkglider said:

another option would be to add a line to the configuration file that would autoboot default rom, but would still be a pain to implement.

True lol.. that might be easier and simpler haha.. but still.. would have to edit the source.. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

After talking to MaesterRowen about this, it doesnt look like it would be possible at this point in time, to pull this off. He was saying something about creating a widget sort of interface where you can write your own widgets, and add them to the skin(possibly), or a widget scene. I only asked, because with password protection, I have it set up to block the game settings, so the children in the house arent messing with those settings, and wanted to move the rom browser out of that scene, to a new tab on main.xur. This creates handle issues with the code, and would require a dynamic based cache limits. Long story short, if all goes well, in the future, it should be possible to do something like this, but wont happen in 0.7b, and will probably be 0.8+. This will basically mix how FSD3 handles caching with how aurora handles caching. Should be interesting to see how this works out in the future. This still will not effect any emulator that doesnt support rom launching from aurora though, and definitely not libxenon based emulators.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the replies.  I appreciate you guys looking into it and considering adding it as a feature in an upcoming release.

In the meantime, I will try the multiple-folder workaround discussed above.  If it works for me I'll update in case others want to try the same.

BTW, Aurora is a nice front end suitable for use in an arcade machine.  Clean and simple.  Just pick your game.  

Lots of great arcade racers run natively on the 360 (Daytona, Outrun, Sega Rally, etc.) which is why I'm building my arcade racing can around it.  Would be awesome to add a few more retro racers too, running from Mame.  I'll see if I can get it to work in Aurora...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That is a complete waste of HDD space in my opinion. lol. When the emulator itself takes up about 20MB, that is 20MB more per 2-5MB rom. I can see why you would want this, but I would never do it like this. lol.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, gavin_darkglider said:

That is a complete waste of HDD space in my opinion. lol. When the emulator itself takes up about 20MB, that is 20MB more per 2-5MB rom. I can see why you would want this, but I would never do it like this. lol.

Yes, it is very inefficient, but right now the only way to accomplish what I'm going for.  Adding a dozen retro games through mame into a seamless menu is worth wasting 200-300 MB of space.

We'll see if I can actually pull it off though.

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, gavin_darkglider said:

It is doable, but an extreme waste of HDD space.

13MB per retroarch core, is less since you CAN remove the overlays, which is roughly 10MB(isnt used on 360 like EVER lol)

so 13MB x 721 (snes mind you) = 9373MB / 1024 = ~ 9.16GB

so 10 gig per system, give or take

7 systems, so ~ 70GB of space to have a full coverflow setup for individual roms.. 1TB external costs roughly $60.. 

honestly.. not wasting space at all.. imho lolol

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm doing this for a racing arcade cab, so I'm not looking at adding hundreds of games.  Maybe a dozen... twenty at the most.  Plenty of HDD space to do that.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, my first crack at this and I'm already a bit stuck.  I'm looking for a way for Mame360 to boot directly into a rom when Mame360 starts.  Can't seem to find anything in the mame.ini or another config file to get that to work.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

7 minutes ago, Bromine said:

Well, my first crack at this and I'm already a bit stuck.  I'm looking for a way for Mame360 to boot directly into a rom when Mame360 starts.  Can't seem to find anything in the mame.ini or another config file to get that to work.

It all depends on the emulator. Some dont allow this.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 minutes ago, gavin_darkglider said:

 

It all depends on the emulator. Some dont allow this.

Figured as much.  I was really hoping there'd be a way to do this for Mame though, since that's where most of the games I'm interested are at.

If anyone knows if this is somehow possible on Mame360, lemme know!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...