tty2tft Soft & Hardware Add-On (shows core based pictures and videos on a color TFT display)

[salamantecas]

what has changed so that when updating it doesn't show the images correctly? I have to say that I haven't changed anything on the sd, the same is there is the error but I only did an update

You have missed the last updates and changes to their configursation(s)

Thanks Larry I already assumed that I had lost a lot of work, I will read everything to see if I can get it ready and without a doubt I will enjoy doing it. If something doesn't go well I'll let you know in case I have to go back to a previous version
great beer!

[RealLarry]

@MiSTer Consoles was kind enough to give another "license fee" in the form of a donation for the use of my tty2tft project in his own project!
The team around i2c2oled/tty2oled, tty2tft/tty2rpi (@venice, @d.ti and myself) are collecting all donations to give them to sharity projects, this time for the Tafel Deutschland e.V. (see (1) also), a food bank here in Germany..
We donated the total amount in half, one half going to Tafel for children against hunger and the other half going to Tafel Educational offers for children.

Even if you don't believe it, around 20% of all German children and 25% of all German adults are at risk of poverty and hunger (2)(3)(4). What a shame for such a rich country.

If you're considering buying a all-inclusive MiSTer system, head over to MiSTer Consoles project page and have a look!

However, thanks again for all donations our users did, especially MiSTer Consoles!

(1) https://www.tafel.de/
(2) https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten ... utschland/
(3) https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/zahlen-un ... ngsquoten/
(4) https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Socie ... _node.html

spende-tafel.jpg

Official donation receipt follows.

[RealLarry]

Better late than never, here are the official donation receipts.

1.jpg

2.jpg

[MiSTer Consoles]

Kudos to you and the others for donating to such a great cause. I agree that it’s a shame for rich developed countries to have anyone go hungry. It’s also a tragedy that anyone in this world has to go without food.

[Kevh182]

I have one of the cases that Mister Consoles sells with the tty2tft display built in. This is such a cool project. Thank you for investing the time and effort into this project and thank you, Mister Consoles, for creating such a nice case for it. I love being able to see which core is loaded.

Is it possible to display artwork of the game that is loaded within a core?

[RealLarry]

Is it possible to display artwork of the game that is loaded within a core?

This depends on the core. For Arcade cores yes, almost every Arcade core is setting its name which will be displayed as video/picture. For other cores, ie Computer cores like Atari, Commodore and so on, it is also possible in principal - we have discussed this in the past and there are available settings for this (thanks to Sorgelig), but Alas, there is no stringent naming scheme for the loaded games and, even more complex, this would lead to do thousands of new pictures. And for the latter, sadly nobody was helping out in creating more than a picture or two 'til now.

[MiSTer Consoles]

Kevh182: I'm glad you are enjoying the case. I agree that having the little screen to display core artwork is one of the best features of my enclosures and RealLarry is a true wizard genius for making it work so seamlessly with MiSTer.

RealLarry: There is a site called Emumovies that has all sorts of artwork (title screens, box art, gameplay snap shots, short videos, etc.) for consoles, arcade games, and computers. They have a utility called Emumovies Sync that will look through your game collection and name the artwork files the same as your games. I use the GameEx frontend for my arcade machine and the author of that software created the Sync program to be able to match the artwork with games in his program. If a user were able to get the desired artwork to match the game names exactly using this utility could TTY2TFT be modified to display them when the game is played? If there was no match for some reason perhaps the default core artwork could be displayed instead? I think this would be the easiest approach so TTY2TFT wouldn't need to use any parsing to "guess" what artwork goes with a particular game.

[MiSTer Consoles]

Kevh182: I'm glad you are enjoying the case. I agree that having the little screen to display core artwork is one of the best features of my enclosures and RealLarry is a true wizard genius for making it work so seamlessly with MiSTer.

RealLarry: There is a site called Emumovies that has all sorts of artwork (title screens, box art, gameplay snap shots, short videos, etc.) for consoles, arcade games, and computers. They have a utility called Emumovies Sync that will look through your game collection and download the available artwork + name the files the same as your games. I use the GameEx frontend for my arcade machine and the author of that software created the Sync program to be able to match the artwork with games in his program. If a user were able to get the desired artwork to match the game names exactly using this utility could TTY2TFT be modified to display them when the game is played? If there was no match for some reason perhaps the default core artwork could be displayed instead? I think this would be the easiest approach so TTY2TFT wouldn't need to use any parsing to "guess" what artwork goes with a particular game. Users who want the game-specific artwork could either subscribe to Emumovies and get it there or they could find the artwork online and just do the renaming themselves.

[RealLarry]

Hmm, but looks like that the sync utility is Windows-only/Closed Source and that using their videos requires a subscription/payment. IMHO videos are too many and too big to store them on ESP's SD (respective no SD card >32 GB (or 64 GB?) can't be used with an ESP) and may require downscaling before use.
That might an applicable idea for tty2rpi, where almost any SD cards can be used and storage can be an external server.

[MiSTer Consoles]

Hmm, but looks like that the sync utility is Windows-only/Closed Source and that using their videos requires a subscription/payment. IMHO videos are too many and too big to store them on ESP's SD (respective no SD card >32 GB (or 64 GB?) can't be used with an ESP) and may require downscaling before use.
That might an applicable idea for tty2rpi, where almost any SD cards can be used and storage can be an external server.

Emumovies is just one source for artwork, but I'm sure there are other places you could download images for console and computer games. You would just have to manually rename the files to match your games or use a utility like a batch file to do the renaming if you are computer savvy. The utility is handy because it will scan your entire collection and not only download all available artwork, but will rename it for you. It's very convenient and well worth the investment. A lot of folks like me might already have access. Plus the owner of the Emumovies site has done a fantastic job of collecting high quality artwork for the various systems and even has some custom stuff on there.

I would probably use the box art files or title screen images in my setup. The service offers so many different types of artwork and they are all named to match your games. I've attached a few files they have for the NES game Athena. Being able to show images for each game would take this project and other TTY projects like TTY2RPi to the next level.

[Kevh182]

EmuMovies is a great source for the artwork. I think you can download the individual art packs from the website without the utility. You still need a free account to access it though. I feel like we could do without the video clips, at least for TTY2TFT. I personally think having a video playing on the screen would be kind of distracting while playing a game. At least with my setup anyway. I don't feel it's worth the extra effort of converting the video files and the extra storage space it would take. A static image would be just fine. Maybe cycle between the different types of artwork for each game (Box, Title Screen, logo, etc). This could act as a "screen saver" while playing the game.

Out of curiosity, on a console core, where does Mister reference which rom file is loaded? I was poking around with my Mister via SSH. I noticed that /tmp/ACTIVEGAME will contain the filename of the rom that is loaded if I launch a game from wizzo's "Mister Remote". If i launch a game from the Mister Menu, ACTIVEGAME gets cleared out and does not update. /tmp/CORENAME updates the core name that is loaded both by the Menu and Mister Remote.

[RealLarry]

The video playback only happens when enabled, corresponding video on SD available and is then played only once, followed by a still/picture.
While videos are funny, I personally dislike to have/download/manage all available videos when a core is started on MiSTer. This is space and time consuming. I think that if a user wants to have a specific (or all) video(s) he's free to collect and to convert/resize them for himself, maybe offering the result(s) on another platform for all other interested users.
This also applies to tty2rpi, where ₅₀₀ videos and thousands of pictures are already available.

[MiSTer Consoles]

The video playback only happens when enabled, corresponding video on SD available and is then played only once, followed by a still/picture.
While videos are funny, I personally dislike to have/download/manage all available videos when a core is started on MiSTer. This is space and time consuming. I think that if a user wants to have a specific (or all) video(s) he's free to collect and to convert/resize them for himself, maybe offering the result(s) on another platform for all other interested users.
This also applies to tty2rpi, where ₅₀₀ videos and thousands of pictures are already available.

Videos are much less desirable for these slower TFT screens and I definitely agree that those shouldn't be in the scope of displaying artwork for each game launched. Even if the screen could show just one jpg image (boxart, title screen, logo, etc.) for a game similar to what it does for each core that would be extremely cool.

As Kevh182 mentioned Emumovies does allow you to download artwork without paying. I think you might even be able to use that Sync utility as well. I believe I paid a one time fee to be able to use FTP to grab artwork since that is much faster than the site's "free" download speeds. And even there it is really only beneficial for large files like videos.

[RealLarry]

Well, okay, but there are already almost all pictures for all cores for tty2tft (at least for 320x240 - 480x320 is still missing many of them). Means that a user can download his needed/better pictures from any source, re-scale them for the needed display size and put them onto ESP's SD...

[MiSTer Consoles]

Well, okay, but there are already almost all pictures for all cores for tty2tft (at least for 320x240 - 480x320 is still missing many of them). Means that a user can download his needed/better pictures from any source, re-scale them for the needed display size and put them onto ESP's SD...

Agreed. It would totally be up to the user to do this work because the image files would need to match the name of his/her games exactly. Even if there was a collection of image files available that had been resized to fit the display, they probably wouldn't have the proper file names for matching because everyone's games could use different naming conventions. And honestly not all users will need/want to have game-specific images. They might be perfectly content with displaying the core's graphic. I think this would be mostly for the advanced/motivated users who want to make the most out of their displays.

[RealLarry]

Exactly. And that's why I'm moving over to tty2rpi: way more powerful and flexible (thanks to the RPi), any display size, autoscaling of videos and pictures (but no touch support for now).

[MiSTer Consoles]

Exactly. And that's why I'm moving over to tty2rpi: way more powerful and flexible (thanks to the RPi), any display size, autoscaling of videos and pictures (but no touch support for now).

That does seem like a more robust/flexible platform for displaying images. Do you think you will be able to get the game-specific artwork to display there as well? It would be awesome for digital marquees on MiSTerCADE setups that also run console and computer cores.

[RealLarry]

All existing tty2tft pictures (even those for 320x240) can be "recycled" (will be upscaled) but I already started to rebuild all for an 800x600 resolution (more space for pixel art, will be downscaled - better than upscaling ). Pictures for Marquee sized displays can be used from the MAME project (where I did another bunch of 700 new or better pictures). And ₅₀₀ videos are available as "Video_Marquees_V1.1" archive.

More than enough arguments, I think

[MiSTer Consoles]

All existing tty2tft pictures (even those for 320x240) can be "recycled" (will be upscaled) but I already started to rebuild all for an 800x600 resolution (more space for pixel art, will be downscaled - better than upscaling ). Pictures for Marquee sized displays can be used from the MAME project (where I did another bunch of 700 new or better pictures). And ₅₀₀ videos are available as "Video_Marquees_V1.1" archive.

More than enough arguments, I think

Nice! I was just wondering if you will be able to modify the code for TTY2RPi devices so they will also be able to display console or computer game-specific artwork when a game is launched versus only displaying the image for the core itself?

[RealLarry]

We have discussed this in the tty2oled thread some time ago. It is possible and there are settings for that in mister.ini but we have paused this idea for now until we've found Columbus egg: How to and who guarantees the exact needed game title and/or its checksum?

The code of tty2tft and tty2rpi is already fit for that task: you send and command+name to the device and it will look for and display that video/picture. Just try it for yourself. Create a picture with a specific name (ie myvangough.jpg), throw it onto SD/rpi, enter MiSTer's console and type

Code: Select all

echo "myvangough" > /tmp/CORENAME

Voila, picture will be displayed.

[MiSTer Consoles]

We have discussed this in the tty2oled thread some time ago. It is possible and there are settings for that in mister.ini but we have paused this idea for now until we've found Columbus egg: How to and who guarantees the exact needed game title and/or its checksum?

The code of tty2tft and tty2rpi is already fit for that task: you send and command+name to the device and it will look for and display that video/picture. Just try it for yourself. Create a picture with a specific name (ie myvangough.jpg), throw it onto SD/rpi, enter MiSTer's console and type

Code: Select all

echo "myvangough" > /tmp/CORENAME

Voila, picture will be displayed.

Would using the roms filename in order to simplify the process for matching artwork to a specific game that has been launched make it easier? Kevh182 noticed that the filename is written in a temporary file called ACTIVEGAME.txt in some circumstances. Namely this was observed when launching a game using the "Remote" script. Perhaps Sorg could do the same when a game is launched from any method?

ACTIVEGAME.jpg

[RealLarry]

Would using the roms filename in order to simplify the process for matching artwork to a specific game that has been launched make it easier?

Not really. Think about the naming, PacMan for C64 for example. You'll name it "PACMAN.D64". But what about "pac-man.d64" ? (uppercase/lowercase doesn't matter). Or "pacman (namco).d64". Or take "BlueMax.crt" and "Blue Max.crt"?
Another option would be a checksum of the disk/rom, but there are way too many different version of the same game from way too many different archives...cracked ones, patched ones and so on. Pay attention to which checksum? From what source? Who wants to take care of all of this?
Possible, yes, absolutely, but difficult to care of.

evh182 noticed that the filename is written in a temporary file called ACTIVEGAME.txt in some circumstances. Namely this was observed when launching a game using the "Remote" script. Perhaps Sorg could do the same when a game is launched from any method?

Already done since years Sorgelig was so kind to add an option to mister.ini for that upon our request. You'll get additional informational files under /tmp when enabling this:

; Write out file name under the cursor in browser for external integration
; External application or script may parse the info and do some additional actions and/or send info to 3rd party server.
; Warning: it may slowdown the system or add lag while browsing the files in OSD depending on external app/script.
log_file_entry=0

[MiSTer Consoles]

Would using the roms filename in order to simplify the process for matching artwork to a specific game that has been launched make it easier?

Not really. Think about the naming, PacMan for C64 for example. You'll name it "PACMAN.D64". But what about "pac-man.d64" ? (uppercase/lowercase doesn't matter). Or "pacman (namco).d64". Or take "BlueMax.crt" and "Blue Max.crt"?
Another option would be a checksum of the disk/rom, but there are way too many different version of the same game from way too many different archives...cracked ones, patched ones and so on. Pay attention to which checksum? From what source? Who wants to take care of all of this?
Possible, yes, absolutely, but difficult to care of.

Using the Emumovies Sync tool all my artwork has the exact same names as my game files. That is necessary for the GameEx frontend I use on my arcade machine to pull up artwork for those games. If "per game" matching were to be implemented for TTY2TFT I think it would be necessary to do the same. Each user would need to make sure jpg images have identical names to their corresponding games. That way you don't have to worry about trying to match on variations of filenames or checksums like you mentioned. If a user doesn't want to go through all that trouble then the core's image can just be displayed by default when a match can't be found.

evh182 noticed that the filename is written in a temporary file called ACTIVEGAME.txt in some circumstances. Namely this was observed when launching a game using the "Remote" script. Perhaps Sorg could do the same when a game is launched from any method?

Already done since years Sorgelig was so kind to add an option to mister.ini for that upon our request. You'll get additional informational files under /tmp when enabling this:

; Write out file name under the cursor in browser for external integration
; External application or script may parse the info and do some additional actions and/or send info to 3rd party server.
; Warning: it may slowdown the system or add lag while browsing the files in OSD depending on external app/script.
log_file_entry=0

I actually saw that option in the ini file last night and wasn't sure if it was meant for this purpose. I will have to enable that.

[Kevh182]

Already done since years Sorgelig was so kind to add an option to mister.ini for that upon our request. You'll get additional informational files under /tmp when enabling this:

; Write out file name under the cursor in browser for external integration
; External application or script may parse the info and do some additional actions and/or send info to 3rd party server.
; Warning: it may slowdown the system or add lag while browsing the files in OSD depending on external app/script.
log_file_entry=0

I was tinkering a little bit with the Mister.ini. When i enable "recents", I can load a game from the Menu and the ACTIVEGAME file updates with the full file path. Turning on "log_file_entry" creates new files under /tmp, like RealLarry mentioned. The "CURRENTPATH" file updates with the filename (minus the file extension).

Screenshot 2024-01-24 215746.png

Screenshot 2024-01-24 215813.png

Screenshot 2024-01-24 215824.png

[Kevh182]

Looking at things closer. "CURRENTPATH" is the folder the game lives in. I am not seeing the filename show up when "log_file_entry" is enabled under any of the additional files it creates.

[RealLarry]

Expanding the MiSTer part of tty2tft/tty2rpi to also keep an eye on /tmp/ACTIVEGAME (or whatever) isn't that hard and I'll re-open that case for further considerations.

But to put it bluntly: I'll not implement any AI magic to to differentiate between a normal core and its loaded content nor to manage media sources. That way it's on the user to find/create/manage the additional content.

[MiSTer Consoles]

Looking at things closer. "CURRENTPATH" is the folder the game lives in. I am not seeing the filename show up when "log_file_entry" is enabled under any of the additional files it creates.

I noticed the same last night after enabling that option in the ini. It's much cleaner though with just the name of the game file (minus the extension) and no path to its location.

Expanding the MiSTer part of tty2tft/tty2rpi to also keep an eye on /tmp/ACTIVEGAME (or whatever) isn't that hard and I'll re-open that case for further considerations.

But to put it bluntly: I'll not implement any AI magic to to differentiate between a normal core and its loaded content nor to manage media sources. That way it's on the user to find/create/manage the additional content.

For users like Kevh182 and I who would love to see artwork for each game, putting in a little effort to find/create/manage the jpg files so that they are the proper size (which can be done quite easily using Microsoft PowerToys program) and so that their names match the games is a fair compromise.

Thanks again for all your efforts on this project and for taking a deeper look at this enhancement!

[RealLarry]

Ladies and Gentlemen, the following is experimental code. If you enable "log_file_entry" in mister.ini , the detection routine in tty2tft on MiSTer is going a different way. Leaving "log_file_entry" disabled goes like before.

Detection works an all menu entries except ARCADE (they are having their own naming). No touch support for now when "log_file_entry" is enabled.

Create a backup of /media/fat/tty2tft/tty2tft.sh and replace that file with the extracted version of attached archive. Restart MiSTer.

"Pump up your volume" with myriads of corresponding pictures.

You can watch what is happening by entering MiSTer's console and typing

Code: Select all

tail -f /tmp/messages

The output there is important if you are reporting issues.

Happy (intensive!!) testing. And don't forget to report success and happiness or issues if unsuccessful.

[MiSTer Consoles]

Wow RealLarry. You work fast! I am going to play around with this on my lunch break today. Very excited to give it a try.

[Kevh182]

Oh, wow, that was fast! Thank you! I’ll start some tinkering this evening after work.