Multiple Playlist Directories?

General
#1

I’ve been using Retroarch for over a year now, but just recently I started digging into it ahead of finally building a Pi running Lakka. I’m trying to make it as “console-like” as possible, so I’ve decided to run individual ROMs off mini-cds and dvds with a USB DVD drive. Using playlists burned onto the disc for just that specific game and then pointing the playlists/thumbs/wallpaper directories to the disc works freakin’ great (at least testing it on Windows lol). Each game has a rom playlist (good for trilogy packs and whatnot), a music playlist for soundtracks, and a video one for retro commercials and extras. All with different backgrounds for each.

My question is this – can Retroarch/Lakka read from two directories at the same time for playlists? I say this because while my main goal of using rom discs is completed, I also wanted an “installed games” kind of playlist directory on the Pi Console. Think of it as built-in software to complement the discs. So one directory pointed to the DVD drive and disc’s playlist folder and another directed to the playlist folder on the SD card is what I’m trying to do.

I took a gander in the cfg file (because there’s no way to set two directories in the XMB menu), and tried to add a secondary playlist directory in quotes right after the first one, but that didn’t work. I moved a test lpl file in there just to check if it’d pick up with zero results.

Is this possible and I’m just fudging up the cfg or am I running myself in circles? If this isn’t possible right now, is this something that could easily be added with a bounty?

Thanks for the help!

1 Like
#2

I would have to guess this is not possible.

If you mean adding things to the retroarch.cfg I would also assume that will not work. All options availiable are listed there with code relating to them. Adding things in shouldn’t work because there is no code in the program behind it.

Sounds like you have a pretty cool system. Be cool to see a video of the options for that and how the playlists all display.

#3

Hmm, fair enough. I really wanted some “pack-in” titles on my SNES project – things like a good Mario World hack, Mario Paint, Arkanoid, Bomberman 5 Gold, and Hagane. I also wanted each pi console to have video playlists featuring documentaries on that console specifically, too. Guess it’s not in the cards yet. I’m too broke at the moment to propose a bounty haha. In the meantime, I’ll look into making a separate build that only runs installed games from a customized playlist (maybe dumped in the samba share??).

I will most definitely highlight my SNES build and take video of how the playlists display, because it’s simple and beautiful. I really wanted to scale back my games, because browsing through 1,000s of game digitally became a mess for me. I wanted to focus on one game, or a collection of a series, at a time. It took me months to figure something out with this setup, because I didn’t think RA was designed to really load “one game at a time” lol. Figured it was all about super duper romsets and libraries. Then it just hit me as soon as I actually looked at how playlists work; I can just do whatever I want! LOL.

I basically just made three playlists - “gamepak.lpl”, “music.lpl”, and “video.lpl” in the playlists folder. The XMB will just display those three in alphabetical order, so it works out that the game is first thing on the list (which is what I wanted lol). I then renamed icons to match my naming scheme and created custom wallpaper for each list. Since everything is on disc, it will dynamically change according to whatever game I load up – just like the PS3 does. I absolutely wanted that experience in every Lakka project I build.

Not to mention that now I can do cool things like make a Street Fighter II collection that I can jam pack with extras. Every SNES version of the game in one playlist, SPC music files a playlist over, and a collection of commercials I ripped off YouTube to top it off. I’m also testing multiple audio or video playlists for this (naming them “video2.lpl” “video3.lpl” and so on). Mainly so I could include the entire Street Fighter II Anime (which looks boss with a CRT filter lmao) and soundtrack on it as well. I love the fact Retroarch/Lakka can juggle multimedia like this and I’m taking full advantage of it. 1.4GB on a mini-DVD is really perfect for all consoles below PS1 and it’s dirt cheap. Even without much multimedia, with just some player’s guides and manuals included I can almost max out a 210MB mini-CD, which are also dirt cheap.

I’m also going the extra mile and making custom box art and disc labels for these things. I want to display these on my shelf using PSP-sized cases designed to hold mini 8CM discs (like the gamecube). It’s an ambitious personal project of mine to just organize my roms once and for all lol.

But yeah, I’ll show this all off when I’m done in a video. When I iron out the kinks (and most importantly spend my own dimes lmao), maybe my system might inspire somebody else?