Release [Rebirth Comp] pandoraUnity: alternative GUI for Pandora (formerly FlashMenu)


sirthunder516

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Hello folks. I've been working on an alternative GUI for the Pandora, based on a program I wrote to run Windows executables from my flash drive (this program has evolved a lot since then).


Right now it even supports extensions (plugins) so users could even add shortcuts to roms, internet shortcuts, etc in place of PND's.


If anyone is interested in last-minute beta testing or writing extensions/plugins, please let me know! I don't have a Pandora, so I have no way of testing if this works on the device.


Thanks in advance!


Here's a simple website (download links to the program/source are disabled): pandoraunity.webs.com


Here's some screenshots:


interface1.png



interface2.png



EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see that my old thread was moved here. Perhaps the old one should be deleted? The program has changed significantly (in nearly every possible way) since early January.


Old thread:
 
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Looks nice! The more launchers the merrier :)


Also glad to see that the Pandora is following the good ol' FOSS tradition of having 4< ways to do everything.
 
The PND from the Rebirth pack is not starting :( But the one from the last dropbox link you PM'd to me is fine. Maybe upload that version to the Rebirth FTP? And I will help you fault find the other one after work. Disregard! I just had to delete appdata for the new version to work. New users should not be troubled by that.


----------------------


Just some general comments then. These are for the benefit of readers, as sirthunder has already read plenty from me! (I was beta testing). I think a lot of people will look at this and think "nice idea... but where does it fit into things?" That was my first impression. Then I tested it and saw the flexibility that was being designed into it, and started thinking about how it could be used. Now I reckon it could be one of the most interesting additions to the software library, especially for (but not limited to) XFCE users.


Some scenarios:

  • Use it like a Minimenu that runs inside XFCE. Make categories and fill them with links to PNDs, NAND apps etc.
  • Use it like PickleLauncher (this is largely based on future plugins). Instead of filling your categories with app links, fill them with files, ROMs etc which launch the app of your choice when run.
  • Do all of the above simultaneously, hybrid style ;)
  • If you're a dev, use it as the front end in your own project.


So fire it up and try a basic setup. Add a new group, then add some PNDs and/or XFCE commands to it. This is the Minimenu-style approach:


pandoraUnity.png



For a different usage scenario, look at this screenshot:


RsLnL.png



That's a real shot from my system, although the links are placeholders at this stage. You can see that it is set up like a universal emu front end, with multiplatform ROMs sorted by genre. And there's no reason you could not include native apps in the mix too. As mentioned before, this arrangement depends on plugins. You would need a plugin for each emulator, which would allow it to recognise ROMs and launch the correct PND. There are some proof of concept plugins available, and I guess these will be developed based on demand (and they can be created by anyone). Sirthunder has plans in this area and I will let him talk about that in his own time.


My ideal scenario would be for PandoraUnity to autoscan and replicate all categories of the XFCE menu, and have plugins for all emus and relevant apps. Then it would be set as a startup item, so that booting into XFCE gives you all the gaming-control-friendly benefit of booting into Minimenu, with the added advantage that you can simply minimise the menu system to access the full desktop.


I'm not trying to solicit votes for the entry, if it looks like that! I just wanted to let people know some of the capabilities which may not be apparent at a glance. :)
 
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Although an actual desktop is more my style I will admit this looks very nice, and options are always nice!
 
Minor bug report: If you get an item's Details > General > File Size, the MB size is miscalculated by the factor 1000.


Example: BlobWars shows as: 66946464 bytes, 6695 MB
 
Oh wow, thanks for the extensive review

Wow! Is the mentioned plug-in system the continuation of this discussion process: PND That Auto-Launches an emulator with a specific game ?
No, this is something new.

Minor bug report: If you get an item's Details > General > File Size, the MB size is miscalculated by the factor 1000.


Example: BlobWars shows as: 66946464 bytes, 6695 MB
Thanks! I will fix this in the next update.


Although, I can't do much now, because I'm on a school trip throughout Europe.
 
this would make a really nice emulator front end if you could somehow tie elements of minimenu into this


put your systems on the left, and icon and/or list of roms on the right. If running through .pnd doesn't work by feeding the file as a variable like picklelauncher. I haven't checked what systems do this and which do not, but I know some systems on PC don't automagically load the rom when you fead it as a variable. I also don't know how hard it would be to rewrite some of the existing emualtors to accept files via command line.


A more advanced idea would implement a meta tag system on roms for different genres or systems. Automatically scan rom folders for files and put them into each system based off meta tag data. File type association probably wouldn't be the best idea due to most people using .zip / 7z on their roms. But if you tag all your NES games with a NES metatag along with optional genre it would know NES games use the NES emulators and will open files with that meta tag with a specific emulator.
 
this would make a really nice emulator front end if you could somehow tie elements of minimenu into this


put your systems on the left, and icon and/or list of roms on the right. If running through .pnd doesn't work by feeding the file as a variable like picklelauncher. I haven't checked what systems do this and which do not, but I know some systems on PC don't automagically load the rom when you fead it as a variable. I also don't know how hard it would be to rewrite some of the existing emualtors to accept files via command line.


A more advanced idea would implement a meta tag system on roms for different genres or systems. Automatically scan rom folders for files and put them into each system based off meta tag data. File type association probably wouldn't be the best idea due to most people using .zip / 7z on their roms. But if you tag all your NES games with a NES metatag along with optional genre it would know NES games use the NES emulators and will open files with that meta tag with a specific emulator.
Thanks for the feedback! (I would've responded sooner, but my iPod was only letting me respond to private messages, not board posts).


Currently roms can be organized with systems on the left and icons on the right (once plugins are fixed). The command line variable issue will be a problem though. Obviously any emulator that works with picklelauncher will work as a pandoraUnity plugin, but anything else would require code changes.


As for the meta tag system, I already am working on something like that, but it is far too buggy/primitive to use. In the next release, it will be much better, easy to use, and documented.
 
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