MiSTer Super Attract Mode (SAM) is now available - the first game screensaver for your MiSTer!

[neogeo81]

Yes, it should work. I believe Sigismund has NeoGeo running from USB... Did you change the NeoGeo path to /media/usb0/games/NeoGeo in MiSTer_SAM.ini?

Exactly what i was missing. It works now. Thanks a lot!

[mrchrister]

Glad you got NeoGeo working

@Sigismond
Can you try just dropping the Everdrive pack for NES (~900mb) in a folder (eg /media/fat/games/nestest) and change the path to that folder for fdspath in the ini?

The mgl you posted looks like it's from an unpacked folder.

Another thing to try is if you update Mister main to the nightly version ( https://github.com/Akuma-Git/misterfpga ... ghtlies.sh )
If that makes a difference. Really no clue why you are having trouble with FDS. I can do some more testing tomorrow as well...

[Sigismond0]

Latest unstable did the trick! And it does appear to hit the start button to jump out of BIOS as expected.

I've also been able to revert to my default zip structure, and it works great.

EDIT: Some further thoughts. As you mentioned previously, a lot of GBA games have a safety prompt that you could bypass now. Though a lot of games also don't have that, so it might select a menu item on some games. Worth testing at least. Turbo CD also has a BIOS stall, though there's a autoboot bios floating around that gets out of it pretty quick. But if SAM can click through the BIOS, people don't need to look for a special BIOS to make it work. Sega CD is the same, but the autoboot bios takes like 15 seconds, so having SAM click through the BIOS there would be nice.

[venice]

Some idea's to the SAM/tty2oled problems.

We have two scripts sending data and commands to the tty2oled device.
1) the tty2oled daemon and 2) MiSTer SAM.
The SAM Script is actually programmed to wait for the tty2oled command response (waitforack) to proceed.
The tty2oled daemon is actually not reading the command response from the serial channel.

What happens if SAM reads responses which are sent from tty2oled because of a daemon command.
This will confuse the SAM/tty2oled timing and will cause problems.

Two possible solutions:
1) Remove all waitforack and use sleeps instead.
This removes the possibilty of "tty2oled-response-side-effects" but you have to play with the "sleep-length".
Is easy to test.

2) Stop the tty2oled Daemon and MiSTer SAM take care of sending the picture data.
This gives SAM full tty2oled control, but will be a bigger update.

[Sigismond0]

Sleeps aren't a particularly elegant solution but I think it should be sufficient for all SAM is trying to do. Sleep for 10 or 15s after shuffling, then send the text commands should be plenty of time for TTY2OLED to do its thing, leave the core graphic on screen long enough to be appreciated, then put the text up. There'd be some tweaking to do on the timing, but I don't think either script is volatile enough with timings for there to be any real concerns.

SAM taking over completely could allow for some fun things--show a FDS or PC Engine-CD graphic when those cores are shuffled to (similar for GB/GBC, MD/SMS, etc. shared cores). Could also do a screensaver-like function where it alternates the core graphic and the text description. But yeah, that sounds like it would be quite a lot more work.

On the other hand, the previous SAM script that I linked still worked for everything when it was briefly in the SAM testing branch. Then something changed around the time you mentioned putting in a PR for better looking transitions. Not saying that's the culprit or anything, and I don't know what actually changed in the code. But if we can revert TTY support back to the last known working SAM code it'd at least be a starting point. (viewtopic.php?t=2493&start=120#p46147)

[mrchrister]

Latest unstable did the trick! And it does appear to hit the start button to jump out of BIOS as expected.

I've also been able to revert to my default zip structure, and it works great.

EDIT: Some further thoughts. As you mentioned previously, a lot of GBA games have a safety prompt that you could bypass now. Though a lot of games also don't have that, so it might select a menu item on some games. Worth testing at least. Turbo CD also has a BIOS stall, though there's a autoboot bios floating around that gets out of it pretty quick. But if SAM can click through the BIOS, people don't need to look for a special BIOS to make it work. Sega CD is the same, but the autoboot bios takes like 15 seconds, so having SAM click through the BIOS there would be nice.

Ok, I reverted back to the old ttyoled code from LamerDeluxe for now.

Yeah GBA is tricky, that's why I haven't enabled it. I took your suggestions and enabled auto-start for megacd and tgfx16cd. Great to hear we figured why fds wasn't working. Cutting edge stuff here

[mrchrister]

@sigismond - Please update your ttyoled to the newest version. After that it should work fine.

I assume you saw this?
Apparently when Venice tested the new code it worked as expected..

[venice]

I testing the actual main branch.
One thing i figurred out already is that the tty2oled daemon doesn't show the core's logo if two times (or more) the same system is used in a row.
That's normal for the daemon.

That's one point on the list to give SAM full control.
Let me see what I can do.

Note:
I got 3 times the same SNES game in a row
And the SAM loop stops with an Acrade game

//Edit
With this corelist

Code: Select all

corelist="gba,genesis,neogeo,nes,snes,tgfx16"

my SAM was now running for 2 hrs without problems.

The only thing I added to the Script was stopping the tty2oled Screensaver.
Without stopping this functions runs on the Display forever

[venice]

Hi@all,
based on the last SAM Version (should be commit https://github.com/mrchrisster/MiSTer_S ... 54d3ab2c58)
and the additions of LamerDeluxe, here is my first beta of "MiSTer_SAM_on.sh" with full control of the tty2oled Display.
I added a few new variables to the "MiSTer_SAM.ini" file as SAM needs to know where the tty2oled pictures are located.

Code: Select all

# ======== TTY2OLED =======
# Options for https://github.com/venice1200/MiSTer_tty2oled
# usetty="Yes" shows the text name of the game being played - NOT the standard core name graphic
#ttyenable="No"
ttyenable="Yes"
ttydevice="/dev/ttyUSB0"
ttypicture="/media/fat/tty2oled/pics"           # NEW
ttypicture_pri="/media/fat/tty2oled/pics_pri"   # NEW

I added a lot "echo" output which can be removed later.

I attached my INI with the following corelist

Code: Select all

corelist="gba,genesis,neogeo,nes,snes,tgfx16"

All CD based and Acrade cores are currently untested as my SAM sometimes stops here.

How does it work?

• I added again all waitforack's, now called tty_waitforack, to the Script

• tty_update is called with a third parameter which is the corename needed for the picture lookup

• At tty_init SAM clears the tty serial buffer

• SAM stops the tty2oled ScreenSaver as this function runs on the Display in standalone mode

• SAM stops the tty2oled daemon

• If a new core is started SAM uses tty_senddata, called from tty_update, to run a picture lookup and send the data to the display

Please try...

P.S. Your tty2oled Display need the actual stable Firmware "220219".

[Sigismond0]

Testing with the Venice Beta, and it doesn't seem to work for me. Updated TTY2OLED this morning just to be thorough (was on 220219 before, still am now), dropped in your script and .ini, and it just hangs here:

Screenshot 2022-03-25 091649.png (10.36 KiB) Viewed 4357 times

SAM never shuffles, TTY2OLED never does anything other than show the main menu graphic.

Yeah GBA is tricky, that's why I haven't enabled it. I took your suggestions and enabled auto-start for megacd and tgfx16cd. Great to hear we figured why fds wasn't working. Cutting edge stuff here

Back on the test branch, I'm holding off on testing any TTY2OLED stuff because it's all so in flux right now. MegaCD and PCE-CD auto-click through BIOS does not seem to be working well. I've reverted both cores to non-autobooting BIOS. PCE-CD in SAM just sits on the BIOS screen for the full duration and never clicks through. MegaCD sometimes sits on BIOS indefinitely, and sometimes clicks through after 10 seconds. I see no obvious pattern as to why, but it seems to be close to 50/50.

[venice]

...Updated TTY2OLED this morning just to be thorough (was on 220219 before, still am now)...

Updated by hand or using the updater?

It hangs at "Stopping Screensaver..." ?
SAM is waiting for the tty2oled response.

Which ttyUSB interface is using your tty2oled device?

The default in SAM Script and SAM INI is

Code: Select all

ttydevice="/dev/ttyUSB0"

My one is working for 1,5hrs now without issue.
Also each core logo is shown if the same core is used more than once in a row.

I am thinking about to use the tty2oled INI files for SAM as well.

[Sigismond0]

Yep, according to the TTY2OLED update script, my device is detected at /dev/ttyUSB0, and that's what's in my SAM ini file. Works just fine outside of SAM, used to work just fine with SAM. But on the latest zip on this thread, it freezes trying to stop the screensaver. I've tried it both while the screen saver is not yet active on the display, and while it's actively showing with the same results.

Edit: It does appear to actually stop the screensaver. I have it set to refresh every 30s, but after running SAM (which freezes when the monitor says it's stopping the screensaver), it'll stick the screensaver in the same spot and never move again.

Double Edit: Updated running the script.

And just to be thorough, I reverted back to this older SAM script and it still works - viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1887&start=780#p43043. SAM shuffles, game names go up, etc. I think the only issue it had was SAM freezing after loading an arcade core, but otherwise it works. There was a brief time we had this code and MGL in the test branch at the same time, and I believe they worked together.

[mrchrister]

Main MiSTer branch has been updated with the new ini and "MiSTer_SAM_on.sh". Thanks for your work on this, venice!

@Sigismond Hope you get it working on your end, it seems like it's working for venice and LamerDeluxe now...

[mrchrister]

There was a brief time we had this code and MGL in the test branch at the same time, and I believe they worked together.

Arcade core wasn't working then unfortunately.

[Sigismond0]

Yeah, I guess I'm out of ideas then. Maybe we're lucky and I'm just the only person who will have issues with it. I'll just give up on using TTY with SAM for now, maybe try again later at some point.

Looping back to MegaCD and TGFX16-CD click-through on the BIOS screens, that appears to still not be working. TGFX16-CD games will sit through a full 30 second cycle and never click through the BIOS screen. MegaCD is still hit or miss--sometimes it clicks through BIOS after 10s, sometimes it will sit the full 30 and go nowhere. I did get this error in the monitor, don't know if that helps diagnose. Appears to happen every time MegaCD core gets shuffled to. TGFX16-CD does not show a similar error.

Screenshot 2022-03-25 110513.png (37.1 KiB) Viewed 4309 times

Some other notes on this: On the controller/mapping I'm using, the same button works to get through BIOS on all three cores (FDS, MCD, TGCD). If I tap the button manually during SAM, it gets through BIOS no problem for the MCD/TGCD. FDS clicks through BIOS on its own just fine in SAM. At a guess, there's a URL issue on the MCD mapping, and then maybe a timing/delay issue for MCD/TGCD. But that's me just making educated guesses here.

Edit: Well now I'm getting mixed results on FDS, too. It definitely worked yesterday when testing on unstable, but after switching to main branch today it looks like it fails. Now it's also just sitting on BIOS indefinitely at least some of the time. Will continue to observe.

Double edit: The MegaCD map issue looks like a case sensitibity issue in the URL. SAM has MEGACD in the URL, Github has MegaCD.

[venice]

Which MCU do you use?
ESP32 or 8266?

[Sigismond0]

Which MCU do you use?
ESP32 or 8266?

8266

[mrchrister]

Double edit: The MegaCD map issue looks like a case sensitibity issue in the URL. SAM has MEGACD in the URL, Github has MegaCD.

Thanks for testing this! You were right, that was the issue. TGFX16CD should work now as well. It was mapped to the wrong button (Select instead of Run)
To make it work, please delete the exisiting map files from /media/fat/Config/inputs (or update SAM and use Reset) and you probably need to reboot your MiSTer as well.

[Sigismond0]

I think that sorts out the autoboot stuff. Can confirm that TGCD, MCD, and FDS all click through the bios basically immediately. Excellent feature update!

Edit: One hiccup ovserved so far. When it tried to shuffle to Mega Schwarzchild on MegaCD, it looks like it may have mis-timed the button press and we ended up in the CD audio view instead of the game.

[mrchrister]

Does Mega Schwarzchild work manually? I encountered quite a few chd's in the MegaCD collection that wouldn't boot for me... Right now it sleeps for 3 seconds before sending the button push. I can change this to 4 or 5s if you encounter more such errors...

[Sigismond0]

Yep, I think that's all it is. Had it happen on another game, tried them both manually, and get the same results there. Not sure if it's a bad dump or just a core compatibility issue, but definitely out of the scope of this thread.

[mrchrister]

Mega Schwarzchild is working here but it crashed SAM. I can't even reboot from terminal currently. Definitely something wrong with it...

[venice]

Which MCU do you use?
ESP32 or 8266?

8266

I need to get an tty2oled with 8266 ready for testing.

[venice]

It hangs at "Stopping Screensaver..." ?
SAM is waiting for the tty2oled response.

I found the "response issue" using tty2oled with NodeMCU 8266.

I have released a tty2oled testing firmware version "220325T" with a possible fix.
For my NodeMCU 8266 the fix was is working fine since more than 45 mins.

To get this firmware onto your tty2oled device you need to add

Code: Select all

TTY2OLED_FW_TESTING="yes"

to your /media/fat/tty2oled/tty2oled-user.ini file.
See also https://github.com/venice1200/MiSTer_tt ... ngoptional

Please test and report!

[Mr. Encyclopedia]

I just wanna say I really appreciate all the work you guys are putting into this, SAM is one of the coolest features for the MiSTer and a great way to show off the huge variety of games available.

[Sigismond0]

Tested, and looking good so far!

A couple of notes:

• Instead of a graphic it just shows "fds" on the display when SAM shuffles into an FDS game. Might need to alias that to show the NES logo, or if there's an FDS graphic in the TTY stuff show that. (TGFX16-CD games do show the TGFX16 core graphic)
• Got stuck for longer than usual after showing a MegaCD game. Was long enough that I thought SAM crashed, but after an extra 30 seconds or so it shuffled to another core just fine. Only observed this once though.
• TTY2OLED does not resume normal functioning after SAM stops shuffling without a cold reboot.

Otherwise, it's looking great! Amazing quick turnaround on that. And so far all CD cores and arcade work fine for me, no freezing other than that one delay I noticed.

[venice]

Is „fds“ something official?
We can add a easy workaround by linking a pseudo fds picture to nes or we can fix it in the script.

And we can add a „tty2oled start“ on „SAM stop“.

[Sigismond0]

I assume the TTY code here in the SAM script is getting a "corename" variable or something from SAM, so when SAM shuffles to a Famicom Disk System game, the TTY code uses "FDS" as the corename, finds no corresponding graphic, and just displays the text.

[mrchrister]

I just wanna say I really appreciate all the work you guys are putting into this, SAM is one of the coolest features for the MiSTer and a great way to show off the huge variety of games available.

Thanks man, appreciate the feedback

[venice]

Hi@all,
find attached my Beta2 which is based on the latest sources on Github.
I opened a pull request as well.

Fixes:

• A fds game is loading now the nes Picture.
  For this I use now the, within SAM declared, list namend CORE_LAUNCH to identify the needed core name.

• At SAM Stop the tty2oled daemon will be started if tty2oled support is set to "Yes" in SAM INI

• No tty2oled configuration needed if the SAM INI file is present.
  The config for tty2oled Serial Port and the Picturefolders is now taken from the original tty2oled INI files.

Please report!