Atari
firstly, i wanted to ask if you can update the wiki entry for this. I have rewritten the scripts to be neater, more efficient and easier to read. i have also arranged them so that they can be a bit more extensible for sending the info to a pi/x86 combo
to answer your question about using a pi:
for an x86 pi combination, the x86 computer will plug into the main monitor and work as normal. all of the commands are sent to the pi over a network (using the NC command) and then received by the pi
the pi is then plugged into the secondary monitor and when the commands are received, it uses a similar method to display the images or video in a framebuffer.
the artwork will need to be loaded onto the pi, or accessible from a network share. i was using a network share, with all of the artwork (and roms) in a “roms directory” that would be mapped in batocera to /userdata/roms
by doing it this way, you could have the artwork and roms as an internet share, or as local files on the SD card and the script would not know the difference. however for the x86/pi combo, you would need to have the artwork copied to the pi beforehand. I suppose that the artwork could be transferred as needed from the x86 computer using scp to the pi in real time, but i haven’t tried that and think it might be slower than i would be happy with.
i had originally used ssh to connect the 2 computers but found NC to be a bit easier to setup and a little more responsive than ssh, but in theory the SSH/SCP method could work. i think for performance sake, it is best to have the artwork copied to the pi though.
in a few weeks when i get caught up on other things i will add a x86/pi script as well so people using other setups can benefit from this as well