MiSTer Extensions - Remote

[wizzo]

Hi. New release of Remote is now live on GitHub and through update_all. This update finally makes the Settings pages functional and introduces editing of the MiSTer.ini files. Please reboot your MiSTer after updating if not prompted by downloader, and reload the web page after it finishes booting.

A big warning straight out: this thing makes changes to your MiSTer.ini files! I've taken a lot of care to make sure edits are conservative and done my best to test them, but this was a very complex feature to implement and it's possible I've missed things. Please make a backup of your MiSTer.ini file if you spent a lot of time perfecting it. Remote will also make an initial backup of your ini file with ".original" appended in the root of the SD card. I will stop it doing this at a later date though.

Don't plan on using this feature? No problem. Remote won't modify your ini files unless you explicitly press the save button in settings. This update won't break anything for you.

In a nutshell, this update makes (almost) every possible setting in a MiSTer.ini file editable from the web UI. There's still many improvements that can be made, but I think in its current state it's very usable. I hope it's helpful for people.

Some limitations exist:

• no_merge_vidpid and controller_unique_mapping are not currently editable as they can have multiple entries and need some special handling

• Core-specific sections of the ini file are not supported, currently only the main [MiSTer] section is read and editable

If you use these features, the ini file should still load up fine and those settings won't be overwritten, but they won't be viewable through Remote. I will be working on the 2 missing settings in the next release, and the extra section support will come further down the line.

You'll also notice a good chunk of settings are plain text fields. I want to work on this going forward and make it much more user friendly. For example, instead of typing a file name for the menu font there should be a font picker. Instead of typing a video filter filename it should show a dynamic picker of what's on your MiSTer.

I am very open to feedback on all this stuff. Suggestions for placement of settings, changes to help text, ideas for better widgets, anything. I want this thing to be as user friendly as possible.

Let me know how you go!

I'll try it, but don't worry!!
I'm worried that the misuse of the language on my part gives you the feeling that I'm angry. It's not like that

No worries at all! Please try the newest release, I think it will fix a couple of your issues.

Thanks so much for adding this -- it works great when my MiSTer's Wi-Fi connection isn't spotty (I have to hit the button repeatedly sometimes to register). One usability snag I realized once this was implemented is that many titles require keypresses on the second controller to set the game up as well, but this is a really great feature overall and opens up more game libraries for casual play!

I like it! I'll have to have a think about how to do it. I don't emulate any controllers yet but it's possible.

Hi Wizzo
Could you please look into the following features:

• Uninstalling remote from MiSTer
• Renaming and moving mgl files, as well as renaming folders

Uninstall button is in! Accessible from the GUI in the scripts menu or running "remote.sh -uninstall" on the console.

[MiSTer Consoles]

Nice work! You are truly a wizard (or maybe more like a magician) with this scripting stuff Wizzo. Looking forward to trying all these new features. Are there any plans to allow users to customize the UI to suit their tastes like changing colors and that sort of thing?

[wizzo]

Nice work! You are truly a wizard (or maybe more like a magician) with this scripting stuff Wizzo. Looking forward to trying all these new features. Are there any plans to allow users to customize the UI to suit their tastes like changing colors and that sort of thing?

Thank you very much! I hope it all works for you.

Yeah for sure. It actually fully supports dynamic themes already, I just have to get around to making the things. There is one example one you can try in the settings remote page.

As for other stuff I'm certainly open to it but depends what you had in mind. I figure it would at least be good to let you customise what pages show in the sidebar.

[Fed]

Will it edit the .ini currently in use or only the MiSTer.ini file ?

[MiSTer Consoles]

Nice work! You are truly a wizard (or maybe more like a magician) with this scripting stuff Wizzo. Looking forward to trying all these new features. Are there any plans to allow users to customize the UI to suit their tastes like changing colors and that sort of thing?

Thank you very much! I hope it all works for you.

It works extremely well on my newer iPad. Still trying to find a way to debug our old iPad so I can use it as a dedicated device for the MiSTer. Unfortunately I'm a PC user and don't have a Mac around to do that. I'm still waiting to coordinate with someone who does so I can pass that info your way in hopes we can find a way to make it work.

Yeah for sure. It actually fully supports dynamic themes already, I just have to get around to making the things. There is one example one you can try in the settings remote page.

As for other stuff I'm certainly open to it but depends what you had in mind. I figure it would at least be good to let you customise what pages show in the sidebar.

I gave the example theme a try and definitely prefer the teal to the purple. Thanks for mentioning that. I have some custom graphics for my MiSTer that would be cool to incorporate into Remote. The primary colors are red, green, blue, and yellow. Perhaps being able to use an alternate logo image in the upper left corner and assign buttons/menu elements specific colors would be cool to make it match. Obviously what you have already is amazing and this would just be something to consider once all the other bells and whistles have been implemented.

IMG_5498.jpg (2.75 MiB) Viewed 13398 times

[wizzo]

Will it edit the .ini currently in use or only the MiSTer.ini file ?

It will edit the one currently in use

It works extremely well on my newer iPad. Still trying to find a way to debug our old iPad so I can use it as a dedicated device for the MiSTer. Unfortunately I'm a PC user and don't have a Mac around to do that. I'm still waiting to coordinate with someone who does so I can pass that info your way in hopes we can find a way to make it work.

I gave the example theme a try and definitely prefer the teal to the purple. Thanks for mentioning that. I have some custom graphics for my MiSTer that would be cool to incorporate into Remote. The primary colors are red, green, blue, and yellow. Perhaps being able to use an alternate logo image in the upper left corner and assign buttons/menu elements specific colors would be cool to make it match. Obviously what you have already is amazing and this would just be something to consider once all the other bells and whistles have been implemented.

Please keep me posted if you eventually get that sorted. I'm more than happy to add support for older devices if it's possible.

I see where you're coming from now. I'll make a new about having the custom images. If you want to have a crack at it right now, feel free to mess around with the theme editor and I can put it in!

https://bareynol.github.io/mui-theme-creator/

Not much of an eye of colour myself so it's always been low on my list.

[MiSTer Consoles]

It works extremely well on my newer iPad. Still trying to find a way to debug our old iPad so I can use it as a dedicated device for the MiSTer. Unfortunately I'm a PC user and don't have a Mac around to do that. I'm still waiting to coordinate with someone who does so I can pass that info your way in hopes we can find a way to make it work.

I gave the example theme a try and definitely prefer the teal to the purple. Thanks for mentioning that. I have some custom graphics for my MiSTer that would be cool to incorporate into Remote. The primary colors are red, green, blue, and yellow. Perhaps being able to use an alternate logo image in the upper left corner and assign buttons/menu elements specific colors would be cool to make it match. Obviously what you have already is amazing and this would just be something to consider once all the other bells and whistles have been implemented.

Please keep me posted if you eventually get that sorted. I'm more than happy to add support for older devices if it's possible.

Will do. Definitely much appreciated!

I see where you're coming from now. I'll make a new about having the custom images. If you want to have a crack at it right now, feel free to mess around with the theme editor and I can put it in!

https://bareynol.github.io/mui-theme-creator/

Not much of an eye of colour myself so it's always been low on my list.

I went to that website and was able to change some colors and the font style. How would those changes end up in Remote?

[wizzo]

I see where you're coming from now. I'll make a new about having the custom images. If you want to have a crack at it right now, feel free to mess around with the theme editor and I can put it in!

https://bareynol.github.io/mui-theme-creator/

Not much of an eye of colour myself so it's always been low on my list.

I went to that website and was able to change some colors and the font style. How would those changes end up in Remote?

For now, you will have to copy and paste that code in the top right window of the site here and then I can apply it, tweak it, and include it in the next release. Or I can send you a test copy. Depending how easy it is to apply I could add a "custom theme" option to apply it yourself later.

[KennyL]

I played around with settings a bit and it's working great so far! It's such a life saver thank you! Hope I never need to look at those ini files again heh heh.

[MiSTer Consoles]

I see where you're coming from now. I'll make a new about having the custom images. If you want to have a crack at it right now, feel free to mess around with the theme editor and I can put it in!

https://bareynol.github.io/mui-theme-creator/

Not much of an eye of colour myself so it's always been low on my list.

I went to that website and was able to change some colors and the font style. How would those changes end up in Remote?

For now, you will have to copy and paste that code in the top right window of the site here and then I can apply it, tweak it, and include it in the next release. Or I can send you a test copy. Depending how easy it is to apply I could add a "custom theme" option to apply it yourself later.

OIC. I would definitely be curious to see how the changes I made below look in there. If you feel like including them in the next release that would be cool. I would love the option to be able to continue tweaking the colors, fonts, etc. from time to time using a "custom theme" option and not having to bug you each time to apply those changes. Thanks again for all your hard work on this script. It's definitely one of the coolest features available for MiSTer and is a fantastic compromise to having a fancier GUI for the platform!

Code: Select all

import { ThemeOptions } from '@material-ui/core/styles/createMuiTheme';

export const themeOptions: ThemeOptions = {
  palette: {
    type: 'dark',
    primary: {
      main: '#257cc7',
    },
    secondary: {
      main: '#d31e2b',
    },
    warning: {
      main: '#efa400',
    },
    success: {
      main: '#2bc32b',
    },
  },
  typography: {
    fontFamily: 'Play',
    fontSize: 14,
  },
};

[prenetic]

Thanks so much for adding this -- it works great when my MiSTer's Wi-Fi connection isn't spotty (I have to hit the button repeatedly sometimes to register). One usability snag I realized once this was implemented is that many titles require keypresses on the second controller to set the game up as well, but this is a really great feature overall and opens up more game libraries for casual play!

I like it! I'll have to have a think about how to do it. I don't emulate any controllers yet but it's possible.

Ohh okay interesting, if you aren't emulating controllers... then I guess cores like this accept numerical from a keyboard (I've never checked)? It still wouldn't help for games like Body Slam Super Pro Wrestling on the Intellivision, where input from keypads on both P1 and P2 are required to customize your respective wrestlers, but very cool nonetheless.

[Fed]

Hi @wizzo !

I'm back with a couple of enhancement suggestions, they are all to be considered as nice to have in my opinion so treat them accordingly.

Display information of what version of the Extension is currently happening, think of it as an "about" menu. This would allow users to confirm at a glance which version of the Extension they are running.

Add a "shortcut" that would allow to load/save a state with the push of a button. (I am passing this one over from a a friend who uses save-states a lot, not really convinced myself about the usefulness of this one honestly.)

Do not make the "refresh index" an option from a dropdown menu and make it a direct button instead. There is not other option in there so it feels pointless to have to open a dropdown menu to only find a single option in there.

[wizzo]

Hey. Pretty busy with work atm so I won't be knocking out giant updates like recently, but still got some more cool stuff in the works

OIC. I would definitely be curious to see how the changes I made below look in there. If you feel like including them in the next release that would be cool. I would love the option to be able to continue tweaking the colors, fonts, etc. from time to time using a "custom theme" option and not having to bug you each time to apply those changes. Thanks again for all your hard work on this script. It's definitely one of the coolest features available for MiSTer and is a fantastic compromise to having a fancier GUI for the platform!

Looks pretty good! Have attached a screenshot. Couple issues: I don't really use the warning theme colour at all right now so that's not showing up, at this stage fonts are bundled with the app itself so that font won't work unless it's installed on your own system I think. Not sure how to best deal with that right now but I'll have a think about the custom theme option idea some more. Thanks for the feedback.

Display information of what version of the Extension is currently happening, think of it as an "about" menu. This would allow users to confirm at a glance which version of the Extension they are running.

I'll definitely do this, you're right it would be very helpful. It would also be a big step towards having the UI itself detect if there's a version mismatch between it and the server (after an update).

Add a "shortcut" that would allow to load/save a state with the push of a button. (I am passing this one over from a a friend who uses save-states a lot, not really convinced myself about the usefulness of this one honestly.)

I like it. I will put this in, but I think this is a good opportunity to set up a context-sensitive controls first. So we can have the save state buttons only show on cores that actually support save states.

Do not make the "refresh index" an option from a dropdown menu and make it a direct button instead. There is not other option in there so it feels pointless to have to open a dropdown menu to only find a single option in there.

It's interesting that you say this. Do you find yourself using this button a lot? I guess my intention was that I figured most people only press it once in a while, and also to reserve some space for later in case I need to add more utility functions. I agree though by itself it looks pretty odd. I'll have a think where a nice place to put it instead would be. This whole search page will also change a lot down the line once I add in support for metadata on game files.

Thank you for the suggestions! I really appreciate it.

[Fed]

Do not make the "refresh index" an option from a dropdown menu and make it a direct button instead. There is not other option in there so it feels pointless to have to open a dropdown menu to only find a single option in there.

It's interesting that you say this. Do you find yourself using this button a lot? I guess my intention was that I figured most people only press it once in a while, and also to reserve some space for later in case I need to add more utility functions. I agree though by itself it looks pretty odd. I'll have a think where a nice place to put it instead would be. This whole search page will also change a lot down the line once I add in support for metadata on game files.

Thank you for the suggestions! I really appreciate it.

On top of my full sets I am cherry picking at least a new translation or hack once a week I would say and update the index each time I do so.
Really not a big deal, it can stay as it is now if there are plans to offer additional values in the dropdown menu.

Always great to see your enthusiam for our suggestions.
Your extension is top tier right next to the update_all script in my opinion.

[MiSTer Consoles]

OIC. I would definitely be curious to see how the changes I made below look in there. If you feel like including them in the next release that would be cool. I would love the option to be able to continue tweaking the colors, fonts, etc. from time to time using a "custom theme" option and not having to bug you each time to apply those changes. Thanks again for all your hard work on this script. It's definitely one of the coolest features available for MiSTer and is a fantastic compromise to having a fancier GUI for the platform!

Looks pretty good! Have attached a screenshot. Couple issues: I don't really use the warning theme colour at all right now so that's not showing up, at this stage fonts are bundled with the app itself so that font won't work unless it's installed on your own system I think. Not sure how to best deal with that right now but I'll have a think about the custom theme option idea some more. Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks for posting the screenshot. The theme creator didn't have quite as much flexibility to color individual elements as I thought, so I put the 4 colors from my logo in the categories that I thought might show up in Remote. It's ok if they don't all make an appearance though. The blue and red are probably the more appealing colors from the group visually. As far as the fonts go I was actually looking for Handel Gothic which is the one used in my artwork. I didn't see that available in Google Fonts, so I just looked for an alternative that seemed cool. I'm not really attached to it in any particular way and the default font in the app gets the job done...

[wizzo]

Thanks for posting the screenshot. The theme creator didn't have quite as much flexibility to color individual elements as I thought, so I put the 4 colors from my logo in the categories that I thought might show up in Remote. It's ok if they don't all make an appearance though. The blue and red are probably the more appealing colors from the group visually. As far as the fonts go I was actually looking for Handel Gothic which is the one used in my artwork. I didn't see that available in Google Fonts, so I just looked for an alternative that seemed cool. I'm not really attached to it in any particular way and the default font in the app gets the job done...

Let me see what I can do about adding extra accent colours so you've got more than 2 colours to work with. And a way to add custom fonts. This might not happen for a while but it's on my list and I think it's a useful feature to add.

[wizzo]

A new release is now live on GitHub and through update_all.

This release is geared towards people with multiple MiSTers, but I think it will still be useful in some way for everyone.

New changes:

• Remote now lets you access your MiSTer with a <hostname>.local address. This means if you're stuck with a MiSTer that has changing IP address, you should be able to bookmark/add to homescreen an address like http://mister.local:8182/ instead. Compatibility of this feature depends on a lot of factors with your devices and network, but hopefully it just works for most. If it doesn't work, you have to wait for an update on your device to support these addresses (most Android phones).

• Remote now auto-discovers other MiSTers with Remote on the network, and will let you quickly connect to them with the "Browse MiSTers" button at the bottom of the side menu. This feature will work regardless of the .local address caveats.

• Added hostname and Remote version info to top of side menu under logo.

• Some basic system information can now be seen at the bottom of the side menu.

• System hostname and ethernet MAC address can now be set from the Settings > System page.

• A button to reboot the MiSTer completely has been added to the Settings > System page.

• A new theme called "MiSTer Consoles" has been added.

A warning for people with a lot (like a hundred) of MiSTers on a network or many smart devices (which also use mDNS): be aware that the .local and auto-discovery are driven by an mDNS service in Remote which registers itself and runs periodic scans for itself. For almost everyone, this is no problem, but it still causes multicast chatter and could result in network congestion. If you find you're having network problems after updating, you can disable this feature entirely with the config below. I'm not able to reliably test this myself, so please get in touch if it affects you and we can work something out.

To disable all mDNS features, create a new file called "remote.ini" in the Scripts folder, alongside the remote.sh file, with the following contents:

Code: Select all

[remote]
mdns_service=no

Hopefully that never happens, but I just want to make sure.

Let me know how you go!

[MiSTer Consoles]

Thanks for posting the screenshot. The theme creator didn't have quite as much flexibility to color individual elements as I thought, so I put the 4 colors from my logo in the categories that I thought might show up in Remote. It's ok if they don't all make an appearance though. The blue and red are probably the more appealing colors from the group visually. As far as the fonts go I was actually looking for Handel Gothic which is the one used in my artwork. I didn't see that available in Google Fonts, so I just looked for an alternative that seemed cool. I'm not really attached to it in any particular way and the default font in the app gets the job done...

Let me see what I can do about adding extra accent colours so you've got more than 2 colours to work with. And a way to add custom fonts. This might not happen for a while but it's on my list and I think it's a useful feature to add.

I am super happy with the theme changes you put in already and any new options would just be icing on the cake honestly. You've got your plate full with all the other cool features you are implementing and the GUI stuff can (and should) wait until it's a good time for them. By the way, if I were to make a custom graphic to replace the "MiSTerFPGA" in the upper left corner assuming we might have the option to do that down the road would it need to be a certain size or would your app scale it to fit in the available space?

Another quick question for ya. When scrolling through game lists, is there a way to advance page by page like you might with "Page Down" on the keyboard? If not, would it be possible to implement that or even perhaps an A through Z alphabet scroll list on the right side that would let you jump to games that start with a certain letter? This might be helpful if you know that a game starts with the letter "D", but maybe don't know how to spell the full name in order to use the search function. Some of the Japanese titles come to mind like the Akumajou Castlevania games. I had to Google the spelling because I can never remember it. LOL!

[wizzo]

I am super happy with the theme changes you put in already and any new options would just be icing on the cake honestly. You've got your plate full with all the other cool features you are implementing and the GUI stuff can (and should) wait until it's a good time for them. By the way, if I were to make a custom graphic to replace the "MiSTerFPGA" in the upper left corner assuming we might have the option to do that down the road would it need to be a certain size or would your app scale it to fit in the available space?

Another quick question for ya. When scrolling through game lists, is there a way to advance page by page like you might with "Page Down" on the keyboard? If not, would it be possible to implement that or even perhaps an A through Z alphabet scroll list on the right side that would let you jump to games that start with a certain letter? This might be helpful if you know that a game starts with the letter "D", but maybe don't know how to spell the full name in order to use the search function. Some of the Japanese titles come to mind like the Akumajou Castlevania games. I had to Google the spelling because I can never remember it. LOL!

Thank you for saying that I appreciate it!

Yes it would scale. The current image is actually 2 images next to each other. So if I added a custom image it would be a whole new component not a change of image path. But I'll make sure that scales too. I highly recommend an svg for these tiny little images.

When you say game list you're talking about scrolling through the OSD lists on the mister itself right? The page up and down button are good, I'll add them next release. I think they could fit well in that blank space I left bottom right of the arrow buttons.

The letters I'm not sure to be honest. I think the idea makes sense, but I'm not quite sure how I could display a widget like that in a nice way on a phone that would be any easier than opening up the full keyboard (which should work for what you want btw). I'm also not sure if I can reliably detect a menu page is open that would require these buttons. I'll have to have a think but thank you for the suggestion

I also plan on adding the ability to hold down the buttons too. I've been very happy with the performance and reliability of the control page so I reckon it would be safe to implement it now

[MiSTer Consoles]

Thank you for saying that I appreciate it!

I'm sure I speak for others when I say that I'm extremely grateful for all the work you're doing on this script and all the others you have made for the community. The fact that you take feedback/feature requests from end users and implement them so quickly is very cool.

Yes it would scale. The current image is actually 2 images next to each other. So if I added a custom image it would be a whole new component not a change of image path. But I'll make sure that scales too. I highly recommend an svg for these tiny little images.

I assume the MiSTer-Kun kitty is one of the two images right? If that's the case, I would actually want to keep that and add my other logo right next to it. I created a SVG file from the PNG using Inkscape. I had to zip it because the forum doesn't support the file type as a direct download. Would something like that work?

MEGA (small).png (61.27 KiB) Viewed 11857 times

When you say game list you're talking about scrolling through the OSD lists on the mister itself right? The page up and down button are good, I'll add them next release. I think they could fit well in that blank space I left bottom right of the arrow buttons.

Actually I think I went into the "Search" function and just selected a system to generate the list of all games for it. Then I scrolled down through the list and wondered if there was a faster way to do it. I think most people will probably just look at the menu on the TV when they are trying to find a game and they can use the arrow buttons to move forward and backward by page (or page up/page down if you end up adding those). I have my games organized into folders using the SmokeMonster scripts, so they are already somewhat narrowed down by first letter which shortens the list quite a bit when I'm trying to hunt down a game.

The letters I'm not sure to be honest. I think the idea makes sense, but I'm not quite sure how I could display a widget like that in a nice way on a phone that would be any easier than opening up the full keyboard (which should work for what you want btw). I'm also not sure if I can reliably detect a menu page is open that would require these buttons. I'll have to have a think but thank you for the suggestion

Using the keyboard to select a starting letter when viewing the game list on the TV was exactly the option I was looking for. Brilliant! As mentioned above I don't know that most people would bother looking thru the full game list in the "Search" form when trying to locate a game whose name they don't know how to spell. It's certainly an edge case and I wouldn't even bother with it unless you run out of other features to add and want to add that as a bonus.

I also plan on adding the ability to hold down the buttons too. I've been very happy with the performance and reliability of the control page so I reckon it would be safe to implement it now

I am really impressed with how snappy the performance is when using Remote. There seems to be no perceptible lag when I perform a function on my iPad. I see that action immediately on my MiSTer which is pretty amazing considering that the iPad is connected to the network thru WiFi and the signal has to traverse my home network. I must've done something right when I set it all up. LOL!

[wizzo]

I have put a new hotfix release up for Remote to fix an issue with the MAC address generation and included an extra feature:

• The generate button for the MAC address option on the settings page now produces valid MAC addresses.

• I've included a background feature to fix permissions on the /root/.ssh folder and sync the authorized_keys file between /root/.ssh and /media/fat/linux. This means passwordless SSH login now actually works, and your keys will persist through Linux updates. If you don't have SSH keys it will fix the permissions one time but otherwise do nothing, you won't notice a difference.

If someone got unlucky and I broke their MAC address. Sorry about that. You can revert the change completely by deleting u-boot.txt in the linux folder on the SD card (or /media/fat). Or just press the generate button again and save if you still have access to Remote. The feature will work fine from now on.

I assume the MiSTer-Kun kitty is one of the two images right? If that's the case, I would actually want to keep that and add my other logo right next to it. I created a SVG file from the PNG using Inkscape. I had to zip it because the forum doesn't support the file type as a direct download. Would something like that work?

This should be no problem. And yes. I've got a way in mind to make this work. I can't promise it won't change in the future but would work well for your purposes right now. Keep an eye out!

Actually I think I went into the "Search" function and just selected a system to generate the list of all games for it. Then I scrolled down through the list and wondered if there was a faster way to do it.

This is a tricky one. I get what you're saying and I agree, but I'm limited right now by the performance of the search which scales poorly. It's on my list for sure to improve the experience here like you've mentioned but there's quite a lot of work to do before I get to it. I'd say it'll happen after I have a games browser implemented.

Thanks again for the kind words!

[neogeo81]

As you can create shortcuts with the remote can you also delete them?

[Toya]

Talking about shortcuts or MGL files. It would be nice to be able change the name of the files

[wizzo]

As you can create shortcuts with the remote can you also delete them?

Talking about shortcuts or MGL files. It would be nice to be able change the name of the files

Sure. I planned for my next release to add support for the update script. I'll add in as well to do delete/rename/move for stuff in the menu page.

[MiSTer Consoles]

I assume the MiSTer-Kun kitty is one of the two images right? If that's the case, I would actually want to keep that and add my other logo right next to it. I created a SVG file from the PNG using Inkscape. I had to zip it because the forum doesn't support the file type as a direct download. Would something like that work?

This should be no problem. And yes. I've got a way in mind to make this work. I can't promise it won't change in the future but would work well for your purposes right now. Keep an eye out!

Sweet! Thanks again for taking the time to work on this feature request. I'm excited to see what you're cooking up.

Actually I think I went into the "Search" function and just selected a system to generate the list of all games for it. Then I scrolled down through the list and wondered if there was a faster way to do it.

This is a tricky one. I get what you're saying and I agree, but I'm limited right now by the performance of the search which scales poorly. It's on my list for sure to improve the experience here like you've mentioned but there's quite a lot of work to do before I get to it. I'd say it'll happen after I have a games browser implemented.

Cool. Yeah definitely don't sweat this one. There are better ways to find games than this and I wouldn't want you to waste any time trying to improve that if it isn't something easy to address.

Thanks again for the kind words!

It's all well deserved.

[Jeruro]

Is there a way to launch scripts from the frontend?

[wizzo]

Is there a way to launch scripts from the frontend?

I just got this working properly last night. Will be in the next release

[wizzo]

New release 0.2.0 is now up! Available through update, update_all and GitHub.

https://github.com/wizzomafizzo/mrext/b ... /remote.md

New major features:

• All files in the Menu page can be moved, renamed and deleted. You can also create new folders, and view some basic file information.

• New Scripts page has been added which lets you launch any scripts you have in the existing MiSTer Scripts menu and open the console. This launches the script exactly as MiSTer does, it doesn't run them in the background like over SSH.

New minor features:

• Neo Geo CD and N64 have been added as supported systems

• Disk usage for SD, CIFS and USB drives is shown in the side menu

• You can now hold down the arrow keys on the Control page (would like some feedback on how this works for people)

• A custom logo image can be set for the top of the side menu (see below for instructions)

• Icon on home screen when creating a PWA has been improved

• VGA mode settings help text has been adjusted to be more helpful for real life

• System information in side menu can be refreshed by tapping anywhere on it

• Page up and page down buttons have been added to Control page

• Confirmation dialog added for reset button on Control page

• Regenerate search index button has been made more obvious (confirmation dialog will be used for another feature later)

• The Music side menu entry will only display if you actually have BGM installed and running

Bug fixes:

• Stopped a sync loop happening with SSH key copy feature

• Made the restart remote service button work if script is not installed to Scripts folder

• Hidden some useless IP addresses shown when wifi is not configured

• Using the settings ini editor without an existing MiSTer.ini file now works, or one that didn't have a main section

• Launching a core from the system menu which uses and official MGL file now sets the setname correctly

• Tracking live core and game state is more reliable now

• Now avoid mounting root as read/write as much as possible

• Fixed an issue where games with an & in the filename would not launch

• Management of the cores symlink for MRA shortcuts now cleans up as necessary and writes to SD less

• A bunch of other very minor things like layout and edge case handling on web client

I said before I was going to support the update script natively in the background. Since I got the proper scripts launching working, I actually decided against it. System updates are a very resource intensive activity, there is nothing you can really do safely on a MiSTer while it's happening, so what's the point of having a whole fancy thing to manage it running that way. I might add a log viewer thing so you can see a summary of the last update though.

Here's how you add a custom logo. Create a new file in the Scripts folder where Remote is installed called "remote.ini". Put this in it:

Code: Select all

[remote]
custom_logo=<full path to image file>

Then restart Remote. Put the image where ever you want, for example the line could be: "custom_logo=/media/fat/MEGA.png". The app is not fussy about the format, anything your web browser support will work, svg png jpeg whatever.

Hope it runs ok for everyone!

[Lightwave]

Are directories under "Menu" supposed to be scrollable (by touch)? Can't seem to get scrolling working on my iPad.

Thanks for the update!

[MiSTer Consoles]

Are directories under "Menu" supposed to be scrollable (by touch)? Can't seem to get scrolling working on my iPad.

Thanks for the update!

I also noticed that scrolling thru the folders in the "Menu" section doesn't seem to be working on my iPad. I think this might be broken in other areas like the ini settings, although I'm not sure how many sections had stuff further down below the bottom of the display. Other than that everything else seems to be working well as far as I can tell. Having access to scripts from the main screen is awesome, especially being able to star the ones that are used most frequently to put them at the top. Very nice touch!

Holding down the arrow buttons works great and is very responsive. The page up/down buttons also work well too, although holding those down does not allow you to skip multiple pages. I'm assuming they aren't supposed to right?

Remote looks fantastic and fits very well on my larger iPad Pro. Everything is clear and easy to read. It can save a lot of time trying to navigate menus with the controller which is definitely a bonus.