let's improve ES docs

meleu

@herb_fargus said in let's improve ES docs:

@meleu I upload them on an issue tracker and copy the links from there. It's a hack, but seems to work

can you post the link of the issue so I can post comments with some images too?

herb_fargus

@meleu doesn't matter which issue. Can be any issue. You don't even have to post it, just drag an image into the text box area and it will upload and create a URL which you can copy/paste to the wiki

meleu

@herb_fargus said in let's improve ES docs:

@meleu doesn't matter which issue. Can be any issue. You don't even have to post it, just drag an image into the text box area and it will upload and create a URL which you can copy/paste to the wiki

This is exactly what I am doing. I just thought that centralizing in an issue would be a good idea. Nevermind, I'll keep doing this way.

herb_fargus

@meleu if we were to do it proper we'd have a source like a branch with assets on this repo

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Docs

But the docs change all the time and I didn't want to keep swapping out images. Plus I don't really see GitHub as the best option for hosting images but I digress. Functions for now as is, retropie is a lot to manage as it is, and docs are almost a separate project on their own. Anyways I appreciate your help with this as I've fallen out of form with docs/retropie with the unfortunate responsibilities of real life.

meleu

@herb_fargus are you fine if I open and close an issue on that repo for this image storage trick?

jonnykesh

@herb_fargus Just my 2 cents...
There are currently ~70 themes available. That seems like a lot. Even half that number would be a lot to choose from. I appreciate everyone likes different things and is looking for something to meet their needs.
Maybe have a cull and stick the others in a themes-extra option or something like that.

EctoOne

Missing things I noticed are related to theme creation.

Carousel Theming (including vertical wheel)
Variable Support
Default Theme Support
Default image Support

And there is the thing to disable the ES splashscreen by editing the es_settings.cfg (or whatever it's called). It's just a little tweak but still. I have to take a look later to find the exact line if needed.

meleu

@ectoone My intention is to make the ES part of the docs simple enough for end users. I think the subjects you listed are more for theme makers.

EctoOne

@meleu I understand, yet Creating your own theme is in the docs and they are part of ES aren't they? They are documented in the themes.md but not in the tutorial. And THB even I noticed that the themes.md exist and is kinda up to date just recently.
Anyway, I just wanted to point that out. Do what you want. :)

meleu

@ectoone Sorry, I didn't express myself well. I think the subjects you've listed are very valuable and need to be documented.

I was refering to this specific page of ES documentation, but I agree that I wasn't very clear. I'm going to edit the OP.

Thanks for pointing that. ;-)

Hex

@meleu Can we add developer comments eg. detailed documentation of feature workings so it becomes easier to maintain for others? I am interested in explaining how PS works and what must be handled by new features to get optimal behaviour.

meleu

@hex that would be really useful to increase ES longevity, IMHO. But I'm not sure if the ES wiki page is the best place to put this kind of info.

I believe that dev stuff should be at RetroPie's EmulationStation repo. Maybe a wiki on the repo with info for developers? Let's see what @BuZz think about it.

meleu

@pjft said in let's improve ES docs:

Please let me know where I can contribute

Well, I would like to know how I can add games to a custom collection after "finish editing 'my custom' collection" using ES interface only. Is there some way to do it? Or is it doable only by adding lines with rom paths to ~/.emulationstation/collections/custom-my custom.cfg?

pjft

@meleu You certainly can!

Edit collection:

Navigate to the games list of the collection you want to edit
Press "select" to open the Gamelist Menu
Choose "Add/Remove games to this game collection"

From there, you can now navigate in ES, and you can add or remove games from that collection by pressing "Y".

Finish editing collection:

In any games list, press "select" to open the Gamelist Menu
Choose the "Finish Editing Collection" entry

Notes:

You will also start editing a collection automatically when you create a new one.
You will stop editing the previously selected collection the moment you decide to start editing a new one.
If you stop editing all collections, the "Y" button will revert to the default function of editing the "Favorites" collection.

Does this help?

cyperghost

@meleu I think here is the thread you've asked for.

@pjft I think the manual method is really nice one and I recently talked to meleu that the custom-collections feature is one of the milestones done during ES development. But I think we should also talk about other ways to manage collections :) Thank you thank you thank you for this one

My outfindings are this, that if you share a collection and the file is missing, the concering ROM isn't displayed. So for a share of SNES-minicollection for ex. can be prepared if some other people will contribute their ROMSet and we merge all sets together into one file.

Because some naming conventions are just Super Mario Land.gb other is Super Mario Land [E].gbother is Super Mario Land (E).gb and so on ;)

For MAME-sets the exchange of custom collection will work much much better as the names are standarized in a kind of manner.

lilbud

@herb_fargus said in let's improve ES docs:

But yeah the ES themes are in various stages of disrepair, not sure if it's worth leaving in hopes someone updates them or if a culling is in order. Idk. Haven't been able to decide myself.

What if we combined the different versions of the same themes (Simple and Simple Dark for say) and create 1 theme with different layouts for the different versions, like the SNES Mini theme by @ruckage

meleu

@pjft I've added instructions about how to use custom collections to the ES wiki page. Can you check if it's fine and/or if there is something more to say?

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/EmulationStation#custom-collections

pjft

@meleu Thank you! I added a few bits and pieces, but you did the majority of the work - thank you!

I'll add the video screensaver to that page then in due time - thanks!

Zigurana

@lilbud that would become much easier once I get the time to finish up the theming refactoring activity I had started some months ago. Then you could create an infinite amount of views within a single theme, and not be limited to the fixed simple/detailed/video trio.

I'll see when I can get a chance to look at it again.

meleu

Changelog

I've added a link to a video showing how to scrape videos for ES video preview (it's actually in the Scraper page, no in the ES one):
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/Scraper#scraping-videos