[Theme] Art Book

alphatoanant

Update 8/25/17:

4x3 version available on github (https://github.com/anthonycaccese/es-theme-art-book-4-3)

Finished work on the 4x3 version and uploaded to github. Going to test it for a few more days before submitting it to the official es-themes list.

Only changes are layout to fit 4x3 resolutions best (all systems from the 16x9 version are included)

duiz

@greekmanx I would also like to see more character support + a little wider framing for the games list. Not sure how feasable it is though.

HurricaneFan

@alphatoanant duiz brings up a good point on the gamelist width. If you don't have any metadata for a system, the gamelist width seems kinda small when games have longer names. I noticed it with some computer roms I'm testing in zspectrum. Their names are super long and the gamelist scrolls for every single game, even though the list could use so much more width of the screen.

alphatoanant

@greekmanx, @HurricaneFan and @duiz while working on the 4x3 version I noticed I had missed updating the width of the gamelist on basic view so I just fixed that for the 16x9 version too.

For detail/video view the width is intentional to give the image and metadata more room to display. I'll see what's possible to increase it a bit more.

HurricaneFan

@alphatoanant Thank you! I'll update my pi today. Thanks for all of your hard work.

fynflood

Love the look of these theme, thanks for all the work!

When I install it (from esthemes or manually from git), mine looks weird... Rather than dark grey system logos, I have a grey bar across the screen with white system logos. Is that something you've seen before? HOpefully I explained it well enough.

gaavoid

@fynflood I think it's that way if you have it set to fade. Switch it to instant or slide.

Sashby

@fynflood You need to update emulationstation.
In emulationstation, go to Retropie > RetroPie Setup
Once in, select Update RetroPie-Setup script and select yes to update it. Once that's done, you'll be back at the RetroPie Setup menu.
Now select Manage packages, followed by Manage core packages, select emulationstation and finally Update from binary. Once that's done, either go back to the main menu and select Perform reboot or exit the setup script and press start > Reboot System from emulationstation.
You can also choose to update emulationstation from source instead of binary but building from source takes longer and can sometimes come with issues that haven't been worked out yet. Binary install is usually the safe bet.

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/updating-retropie

fynflood

@sashby said in [Theme] Art Book:

@fynflood You need to update emulationstation.
In emulationstation, go to Retropie > RetroPie Setup
Once in, select Update RetroPie-Setup script and select yes to update it. Once that's done, you'll be back at the RetroPie Setup menu.
Now select Manage packages, followed by Manage core packages, select emulationstation and finally Update from binary. Once that's done, either go back to the main menu and select Perform reboot or exit the setup script and press start > Reboot System from emulationstation.
You can also choose to update emulationstation from source instead of binary but building from source takes longer and can sometimes come with issues that haven't been worked out yet. Binary install is usually the safe bet.

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/updating-retropie

There we go.. working great - and the videos are showing now as well. Thanks!

alphatoanant

Thank you for the assist @Sashby and thank you for trying out the theme @fynflood!

Sashby

So sorry guys. Selph Scraper doesn't work with .pbp files for PSX. Thats why it cut short in my screenshot. @alphatoanant your scraping command lines work perfectly otherwise. Sorry for wasting your time.

Jaxel

Is it possible to make it so that if a game doesn't find a related VIDEO to it, it instead shows a SCREENSHOT?

HurricaneFan

@jaxel I believe if you put an image in the video tag, you can do that in your gamelist.xml file. This will load instead of the static video.

example:
<video>./images/myimage.png</video>

alphatoanant

@hurricanefan is spot on - that will work

Jaxel

I like this theme! I think there are a few specific things that can be fixed though... I am using the 1920x1080 layout.

1 - The meta data area seems truncated for some reason. If a game has multiple "genres", it gets cut off with an ellipsis, even though there is plenty of space to show more text.

2 - Three to four lines of text for the game description seems a bit small. It will scroll on every game. Maybe some of the elements can be shifted around to give more space for the description? Move the "launch" and "favorite" text to the bottom middle of the screen? (and move the "random" text down to be in line with them). The "ratings" stars could probably be moved too.

3 - The panel on the right with the list of games is very thin. Pretty much every game title is going to get truncated.

Jaxel

Okay, here is a screenshot of the slight changes I made:

alt text

You'll notice I make more use of the "negative space" in the theme... without making it seem cluttered.

Moved the console logo up 0.10
Moved the random button down 0.10
Increased the height of the game list 0.20
Moved the "launch" and "favorite" buttons to the same level as the "random" button, and centered them in the grey area.
Doubled the length of the meta-data fields (it used to say "Shoot`em Up / Li...")
Slightly decreased the font of the meta-data description, and greatly increased the height of the field.

greekmanx

@jaxel i really like those changes looks good just make gamelist wider and I am happy

Graphicsgod

@alphatoanant

Wow I was just thinking of doing a layout like this!!

If you need help with the artwork and ideas, hit me up bro!!

Graphicsgod

I'll try to whip up some concept images tonight after I get off work. And if you like it, maybe we can work together on this..

msheehan79

@hurricanefan @alphatoanant

"I believe if you put an image in the video tag, you can do that in your gamelist.xml file. This will load instead of the static video.

example:
<video>./images/myimage.png</video>"

Did you guys successfully get this method to work? I tried putting an image in the video tag and it didn't render for me.

My ideal scenario is a theme that can display the wheel/logo, boxart and instead of a video just a screenshot image but could never get it to work and was under the impression ES doesn't support this. It would be awesome if it does work and I just missed something.