(Tutorial) Hyperspin "System Name" Settings

[thatman84]

Hyperspin Android "System Name" Settings (.ini) Files

 

What’s covered...

 

1. SYSTEMNAME.ini
2. Rompaths
3. App/Game Launching parameters
4. Finding App launch parameters
5. Basic customisation

 

(All testing done on Nvidia Shield TV Pro)

 

Before We Start...

For the purposes of this tutorial I will be editing the .ini files with Notepad++ & screenshots on a Windows PC. You can use any Android or PC text editor to complete this task it was just simpler for the purposes of writing.

 

 

If using a combined Hyperspin PC and Android setup then you can get more information on the different settings from the notes provided in the HyperHQ program. HyperHQ directly controls all of your .ini files located in Hyperspin/Settings NOT Hyperspin/Settings_Android

 

For full original listings please see this post

 

What is Needed:

1. Your set of .ini files (Located in your Hyperspin/Settings or Settings_Android folder
2. Text Editor (any will do or use Notepad++)
3. The set of clean and preconfigured .ini files (Settings_Android.zip) Included in the Android base pack I submitted.

 

SYSTEMNAME.ini

 

 

Section 1

 

            This is where all the magic happens and should be your primary concern...

 

path=               (<Not Supported>)

 

rompath=         This will be the file path that contains your games for the specific system you are setting up. There are many options so I have listed the most common below

 

1. If your games are contained within your Hyperspin directory then absolute paths are not required. Games stored in this location (Hyperspin/Emulators/Sega Mega Drive/roms) would have

 

rompath=Emulators/Sega Mega Drive/roms

 

1. If your games are stored locally on the internal storage of you device the entry could be

 

rompath=/sdcard/”rom folder”/”next rom folder”

OR

rompath=/storage/emulated/0/”rom folder”/”next romfolder”

 

1. If your games are stored on an external USB HHD or USB thumb drive you will need to add the USB ID to the rompath (You should be able to see the ID by using ES File Explorer or alike)

 

rompath=/storage/A2CA0AEBCA0ABC13/”rom folder”/”next rom folder”

 

1. If stored on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device you will need to create and share a folder at the root level of your NAS and mount the NAS to your Android device

 

rompath=/storage/”NAS Name”/”Shared Folder”/

 

 

 exe=                           This line will launch the emulator/application

 

The specific commands written here are easily found in the forum and THIS post contains the most common ones

If you can’t find the launch command you need you can try an app like Quick Shortcut Maker. Install and run QuickShortcutMaker and it will detail all the apps you have installed and provide the different launch commands for the apps. (You will need to play about with this to get it right)

 

romextension=            This line should contain ALL file extensions for the games you are trying to launch, comma separated NO SPACES (Remember that support for compressed files like .7z and .zip is VERY limited in Android so MOST games need to be UNCOMPRESSED and be supported by the emulator)

                                    Extensions are also REQUIRED for the filtering system in Hyperspin

 

parameters=                 This line contains commands to launch a specific process for the app launched from the exe= line, also found in the post linked above.

These commands have be discovered by forum users and of course Reznate, by mainly contacting the app developer to request them

 

 

pcgame=                     This line is for the purpose of creating a system wheel that launches multiple apps. It will only launch the app or Android game without passing any parameters. The exe= line is ignored.

 

If set to TRUE you will need a specific SYSTEMNAME.xml in /Hyperspin/Databases/

You use the app launch command as the “game name” entries in the .xml file

 

 

Here is an example of a system wheel database named KODI. Setup to launch KODI apk and ES File Explorer apk

 

Section 2

 

                        This is the start of customising your setup!!!

 

 themes_only=             If set to true Hyperspin will filter your games list to ONLY show games that have a theme of MATCHING name located in /Hyperspin/Media/SYSTEMNAME/Themes

 

Remember ALL Artwork/Themes/Videos and Rom file names MUST match the

 <game name=”example game”> tags in the SYSTEMNAME.xml

 

roms_only=                If set to true then Hyperspin will filter your games list to only show games that are found in the rompath provided AND matching the extensions provided also

 

If you get “Missing rom file” error check your .ini rompath= and extensions= lines and make

sure your rom file names match your database xml “game name” tags

 

 

 

 

 

Section 3

 

This is where you enable/disable the transition videos that play when moving between games in your systems games list wheel. (The Hyperspin logo swooping across the screen and similar)

 

reload_backgrounds= true or false

 

Override Transitions are .flv videos stored in each one of your systems video folder. If named as a specific game matching your SYSTEMNAME.xml, they will play when moving onto that game in the wheel list

 

Location          Hyperspin/Media/NAME_OF_SYSTEM/Video/Override Transitions

 

 

Finishing Touches

 

The other options in the .ini files for each system are adjustments to the look of the games list wheel text (if not using images), game text (text in bottom left of screen showing the year, manufacturer and game description) and Special Art settings.

 

Note. I may do a further tutorial on this but right now I have run out of steam!!!

 

Special Art is setup in the same way as the Main Menu.ini. Special Art C is for the Genre feature which is not supported on Android so can be ignored

 

 

Game Text is best setup manually by changing the corresponding values for colour, shadow, colour ratio and position. To get the values use HyperHQ as directed below. You can also enable and disable what information is displayed. (Although the sticky post shows Not Supported I know that you can disabled the manufacture text from diplaying as I have this off in my MAME wheel)

 

Wheel Text is best configured by using HyperHQ. Adjust the settings under the options Wheel Settings -> SYSTEMNAME -> Wheel -> Wheel Text

 

Here you can find the colour HEX values and adjust the shadow and ratios to fit your themes

 

Lift the settings from HyperHQ or an adjusted PC setup settings file and edit them here

 

The last section I will briefly cover is...

 

Navigation settings

 

This section customises how your games list wheel responds. Most are self explanatory bar one

 

use_indexes= true or false

 

This setting along with your database SYSTEMNAME.xml settings determine in what order your games list is displayed. It also allows for proper use of the letter skip function for jumping through the games list by letter.

 

If your games database xml is NOT in alphabetical order then you must have ONE game entry set to index=”true” AND set the above use_indexes to true. Now your games list will be ordered exactly as they are in the xml not alphabetically

 

If there are no index=”true” tags in your database then Hyperspin will list your games alphabetically by game description.

 

All official databases are ordered alphabetically with correct indexes this makes skipping by letter simple.

 

 

If you have read this all you deserve a break and a pat on the back!!

 

This has been a tough one to write so please comment if there are any mistakes. I will update them

 

Hope this helps someone

[ejay81]

How do you know what to name the system.ini file? 

​Example:  SNK Neo Geo or Neo Geo?

 

Hyperspin has to be looking for a spedific name I would guess which also needs to match your database.xml and media folder name for that system correct?

 

Will it work just as long as you match the main wheel database system name?  Essentially where do you define what that system name is going to be so the structure works?

[thatman84]

Answered in other thread. Maybe I will add your comment to this guide. Good spot

Btw has this helped you at all? Just wondered if the tutorials are worth the effort

[ejay81]

Yes helpful.  I have a fully working PC setup in my cabinet but this android build is giving me issues.  I have all the stuff setup but when i hit a rom for a system the screen flashes quick and nothing happens.  Roms open fine direclty in retroarch.  NES and Genesis roms are zipped but i did have this working at some point so dont think thats the issue.  Has to be something in the .ini file but i can't find any issues.  Roms are found, media and everyting is there, database files match the same name as roms so not sure.....

[Honosuseri]

Yes helpful.  I have a fully working PC setup in my cabinet but this android build is giving me issues.  I have all the stuff setup but when i hit a rom for a system the screen flashes quick and nothing happens.  Roms open fine direclty in retroarch.  NES and Genesis roms are zipped but i did have this working at some point so dont think thats the issue.  Has to be something in the .ini file but i can't find any issues.  Roms are found, media and everyting is there, database files match the same name as roms so not sure.....

 

Perhaps your parameters line is incorrect in the .ini file, this determines which retroarch core is used. It could just be a typo or maybe you haven't downloaded that particular core in retroarch's online updater. Yes I know the games are working in Retroarch but you could be say using picodrive in RA when your Sega Megadrive.ini has genesis_plus_gx set to load and hence no dice when lauching from Hyperspin. Long shot but anything is possible, it's always a silly little mistake that trips us up.

I have a USB HDD attached as adoptive storage to the Shield TV, my Roms folder is inside the Hyperspin folder. It definitely works so I'll give you a snippet from my Sega Megadrive.ini if it helps you.

 

path=/storage/emulated/0/Hyperspin/Roms/Sega Mega Drive/

rompath=/storage/emulated/0/Hyperspin/Roms/Sega Mega Drive/

userompath=true

exe=com.retroarch/com.retroarch.browser.retroactivity.RetroActivityFuture

romextension=zip

parameters=cores/picodrive_libretro_android.so

searchsubfolders=true

pcgame=false

winstate=HIDDEN

hyperlaunch=true

[sanchezmike01]

On 10/25/2016 at 2:33 PM, thatman84 said:

 

[razlebol]

On 28/10/2016 at 2:05 PM, ejay81 said:

Yes helpful.  I have a fully working PC setup in my cabinet but this android build is giving me issues.  I have all the stuff setup but when i hit a rom for a system the screen flashes quick and nothing happens.  Roms open fine direclty in retroarch.  NES and Genesis roms are zipped but i did have this working at some point so dont think thats the issue.  Has to be something in the .ini file but i can't find any issues.  Roms are found, media and everyting is there, database files match the same name as roms so not sure.....

I have the same issue with Retroarch and hyperspin. Games launch fine in Retroarch but only flickers in Hyperspin. Could it be the path settings inside Retroarch?

[thatman84]

Probably chech the parameter line is using the core you want to use and you have the core installed.