Fun Facts Splashscreens

Zigurana

If it takes too long, maybe run the image-generation-script on system shutdown, to be used at next boot-time?

meleu

@zigurana good idea! ;-)

@hiulit I have more comments, maybe it's better to move the nerdy conversation to the nerdy topic... :)

hiulit

@zigurana Yeah, good idea! Although I really don't have any idea of where I should put my script to do that... (⊙_☉) hehe! Noob at scripting here :P

hiulit

More progress! :D
Now the splashscreen is created using the font of the active theme in EmulationStation, and if it has none it takes the Carbon theme font as default.

A little video demo of the script working https://streamable.com/s/bbzzd/fecqc

And here's the the splashscreen of the Pixel theme with a Fun Fact!™ using Pixel's own font.

0_1510312850864_Captura de pantalla 2017-11-09 a les 13.20.02.png

meleu

@hiulit you're doing a good job bro!!

I've submitted a PR to your repo. But, as I'm away from my RetroPie currently, please test it before merging. ;-)

hiulit

WOW, thanks man! I will take a look at it and I'll get back to you :)

hiulit

@meleu Hey, I've merged your pull request but I had to make a little change because it didn't seem to work properly.

The change I made was adding a ! before -f "$splashscreen" when checking for the splashscreen.

if [[ ! -f "$splash" ]]; then
    splash="$DEFAULT_SPLASH"
fi

Besides that, everything was alright! Thanks! :)

hiulit

@meleu When I encountered the problem with Pixel theme and xmlstarlet I tried a different approach for finding the font.

function get_theme_font() {
    get_current_theme
    if [[ -n "$(find "$ES_DIR/themes/$current_theme/art" -type f -name '*.ttf')" ]]; then
        font="$(find "$ES_DIR/themes/$current_theme/art" -type f -name '*.ttf')"
    else
        font=$DEFAULT_FONT
    fi
}

I did the job, but I wasn't happy about repeating the find function , but I don't know any better :P

Do you think that could be a workaround for finding theme fonts?

I know that some themes can have multiple fonts but I think it's ok to use the first one found.

meleu

@hiulit it's better to move the nerdy conversation to the nerdy topic... :)

I'll try to answer your questions there. Wait a moment. ;)

hiulit

@meleu Oh, you're right! ;) See you there!

meleu

@BuZz please, evaluate if you would accept the following feature for splashscreen script module (and asplashscreen.sh script):

Adding an option to put a random "fun fact" on the splashscreen.

The result would be something like this:

pixelsplashfunfact

Some notes about how I'm thinking to implement that:

add a toggle option on splashscreen script module to enable/disable fun facts.
when enabled, a new splashscreen would be generated at every boot
a new dependency to generate the images: imagemagick (same as launchingimages scriptmodule).
the image would be generated at boot in a background process and would be used in the next boot. I mean, when I boot my pi, the splashscreen I would see already exists and the script would be generating a new one for the next boot in a background process.
(obviously) it would be only used when the splashscreen is an image (do nothing when using a video)
the "fun facts database" would be a text file in $datadir/splashscreens/.
- an "official" funfacts collection could be stored in the official repo in scriptmodules/supplementary/splashscreen/
- provide a way to the user use a custom funfacts collection.
the font to be used for the fun fact text would be the same as the one used by the current ES theme in detailed view.
- Note: RetroPie must be frontend agnostic. Then, if the script can't find the font as described above, it would use a generic font.
all the logic for the image generation would be in asplashscreen.sh script

BuZz

@meleu I wouldn't be interested sorry.

meleu

@buzz copy that.

@hiulit let's keep the development extra-officially.

hiulit

@meleu Alright!

hiulit

Good news everyone!
We have a working Fun Facts Splashscreens generator! :D

https://github.com/hiulit/RetroPie-Fun-Facts-Splashscreens

Fun Facts Splashscreens for RetroPie

Not working yet! Well, it's working, but it's not officially released! It's just for testing purposes!

This script generates splashscreens for RetroPie with a random Fun Fact!™.

WARNING: Splashscreens are only only available on the Raspberry Pi.

For now, this is the best way to use the splashscreen created by this script:

Create a Fun Fact!™ splashscreen. See the examples below.
Go to the Splashscreen Menu (the Splashscreen Menu can be accessed from the RetroPie Menu in EmulationStation or through the setup script under option 3)
Select the Choose Own Splashscreen option. See the Splashscreen wiki.
Select the recently created Fun Fact!™ splashscreen.

Instalation

cd /home/pi/
git clone https://github.com/hiulit/es-fun-facts-splashscreens.git
cd es-fun-facts-splashscreens/
sudo chmod +x es-fun-facts-splashscreens.sh

Usage

sudo ./es-fun-facts-splashscreens.sh [options]

If no options are passed, you will be prompted with a usage example:

USAGE: sudo ./es-fun-facts-splashscreens.sh [options]

Use '--help' to see all the options

Options

--help: Print the help message and exit.
--enable-boot: Enable script to be launch at boot.
- $1: Path to the splashscreen to be used.
- $2: Text color.
--disable-boot: Disable script to be launch at boot.
--create-fun-fact: Create Fun Fact Splashscreen.
- $1: Path to the splashscreen to be used.
- $2: Text color.

If no options are passed to --create-fun-fact or --enable-boot, the script takes the splashscreen and the text color defaults, splash4-3.png and white, respectively.

Examples

`--help`

Print the help message and exit.

sudo ./es-fun-facts-splashscreens.sh --help

`--enable-boot [options]`

Enable script to be launch at boot.

WARNING: Backing up /etc/rc.local it's most recommended before using this option. It could erase important stuff. Use it at your own risk.

Options:

$1: Path to the splashscreen to be used.
$2: Text color.

sudo ./es-fun-facts-splashscreens.sh --enable-boot /home/pi/Downloads/retropie-2014.png black

`--disable-boot`

Disable script to be launch at boot.

WARNING: Backing up /etc/rc.local it's most recommended before using this option. It could erase important stuff. Use it at your own risk.

sudo ./es-fun-facts-splashscreens.sh --disable-boot

`--create-fun-fact`

Create Fun Fact Splashscreen.

Options:

$1: Path to the splashscreen to be used.
$2: Text color.

sudo ./es-fun-facts-splashscreens.sh --create-fun-fact /home/pi/Downloads/retropie-2014.png black

Credits

Thanks to:

@Parviglumis - For the idea of creating the Fun Facts Splashscreens.
@meleu - For all his help and wisdom with the code :D
All the people at the RetroPie Forum.

hiulit

Here's a little video demo where you can see it generates a new random splashscreens at every boot:

P.S. I know!!! Get a new power supply!! I know!!! :P

meleu

@hiulit Good job! :D

Parviglumis

WOW. You guys are amazing!

hiulit

@meleu @Parviglumis Thanks! : D It's been fun doing this project! There's a couple of things that could be improved to make it more 'bullet-proof' (aka robust) but I'm happy with it.
I hope you can try it and let me know if it works and if you'd like something else implemented.

hiulit

Also, I think it's time to add more Fun Facts!, right?

Here it is an online text editor that anyone can edit http://www.writeurl.com/text/w67sdbpbji22fdc7exd5/ps4uvs5e3cu0nn58m757/4fn5n3cx7x3fn4fkvdav

EDIT: Or, if you know how, create a pull request with changes to https://github.com/hiulit/RetroPie-Fun-Facts-Splashscreens/blob/master/fun-facts.txt

Just add a new Fun Fact!™ at the end and I'll grab them from time to time and update the repository.

IMPORTANT: Every Fun Fact!™ must be in one line.

P.S. That's something that could be improved :P
P.S.S. Does anyone know if there's like a video games 'fun facts' database? It would be awesome if it came with an API :D