[Launcher] New enhanced GameShell (and DevTerm?) launcher in Development - Devlog & Feedbacks

GameShell Firmware and Apps
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Very little time if it’s a person that knows how to use Godot!
I’ll release some documentation on how to tweak the launcher and how to add your own modules, but at least basic Godot knowledge is a requirement.

2 Likes
22

I was wondering how to approach the handling of app/folder icons in the launcher.

In the stock one icons have to be placed inside a directory structure like:
~/launcher/skin/default/Menu/GameShell/...
and have to replicate the directory structure of the actual folders that contain the games and other apps.

Do you like this approach?
This has the advantage that icons can be swapped easily, all together.
The disadvantage is that icons are far away from actual apps, and setting up an app with an icon is a fragmented task.

The way icons will be displayed in this launcher may be slightly different (and dependant on theme settings, e.g. the icons frame shape and decoration), so changing all the icons at once could be a less common thing to do.

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23

Here we have icons support! Still to refine but it’s there.

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24

Looks great! Can’t wait to try it! Congrats @Samdze

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25

The work on the launcher is proceeding!
Next steps are:

  1. Localization system.
  2. Complete the settings app.
  3. Standby system.
  4. Update system.
  5. A bit of cleaning for the theme system + dark theme.
  6. A few nice to haves, like battery remaining notifications.
  7. Internals refactoring.

After all of that, a first testable beta version of the launcher will be released! The initial support will be for gamepad-like controls only.
Your feedback will be extremely valuable!

Remember that this launcher aims to be usable on any kind of single-board computer or Linux pc, so feel free to test it on different hardware.
A few features may not work (Wi-Fi, brightness settings, audio volume, etc.) due to different software backends used by other distributions, but the launcher supports modules for this reason too!

I’ll also have to think how to name it…

4 Likes
26

i was following before… but now knowing your aim, i will definitly be following more closely and will spin it up in as many places as i can.

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27

Thanks!
The more people get to know it, the more community-supported modules and improvements there could be in the future!

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28

and the more testing it gets, too.

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29

Sure, will be needed to properly support various hardware and software configurations!

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30

Not much to show in these days, implemented the localization system and refactoring a lot of stuff under the hood to allow every crazy type of customization.

Hope to not end up over-engineer too much the entire system, but should come out quite simple to tweak thanks to the work I’m doing now.

3 Likes
31

The Settings app is almost ready.
You can now select languages, themes, and many other components of the launcher (if you have other implementations of some modules) to substitute or add to the default ones.

Modules (and custom modules too) can also expose settings to the Settings App, so that the user can have all its tweakable settings in one place!

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Of course the launcher supports a wide range of resolutions and aspect ratios (testing on pc with a background shader by @ArcOfDream)

ehwy0tH.gif844×240
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33

When will it be ready for community testing?

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34

I think in around a week!
Not much is left to do to provide basic functionalities.

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35

The power management/standby system is in place!
The update system is ready too!

Only the last few things to do before the public beta release!

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36

This is brilliant! I’m so excited that it’s based in Godot (Juan was just tweeting about how great Godot is for complex UIs)

Thanks @Samdze, I’m looking forward to tinkering/customizing/contributing to this.

4 Likes
37

Thank you for supporting this project!
I think I’ll open a new topic once the launcher is ready for the beta test phase. There I’ll share all the details needed to install it and make it work.

The github repository is already available and public but I’ll leave it to people willing to search it until I release the first beta!

5 Likes
38

full tuts are wicked preem. totally deserving of a thread all their own. I did find the github. have it bookmarked while i study it at my leisure.

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39

Great! Hope it’s easy to understand, the core infrastructure should be solid and allow a wide variety of customizations.

A few things are still left to refactor or improve but we are almost there.

Let me know if you think something is hard to grasp or too complex!

2 Likes
40

I found your Git repo and tried it since last week. Just pulled your last commit and things look very solid now.
Last week I had issue when bring up widget bar while running RetroArch, now it’s just fine. Thank you!!!

I’m planning on learning Godot for some game dev stuff. Hope I can contribute to your work some day. For now, I’m thinking of an Airplane Mode on/off :smiley:

3 Likes