Variable Support in Themes in EmulationStation

jdrassa

@ectoone The carousel is a bit of a special case. There is logic there that determines if it should show the image vs. text. I did not make any changes to that logic, so the default image doesn't currently work for the carousel. I am not sure that I see the use case where a default image would be better then text, since the user wouldn't be able to tell what system it.

EctoOne

@jdrassa Oh, thanks for the answer.
My Invaders Theme would be an example where text would break the design and that uses <text>${system.fullName}</text> to show which system is selected.
So there are cases where it would be useful, but it depends on the Theme creator to avoid confusion. So i understand why you didn't change that.

ruckage

@jdrassa
Regarding the default carousel image I agree with @EctoOne , it's something that could be useful in certain circumstances so I think it would be worth adding. For my theme I had considered it as having just text breaks the look of my theme as well - however in my case it wouldn't be ideal as you couldn't tell what system was selected so instead I'm going to generate basic icons/logos for every supported system and use the default image option for the backgrounds.

I've tested the default images in the version you posted and all seems to be working perfectly. Thanks for all your hard work.

jdrassa

@ruckage @EctoOne default images is now in the main branch. Also I did implement default images support for the carousel logos as well.

ruckage

@jdrassa
Thanks, that's great news.

ruckage

@jdrassa
Hi. I just tried you latest continuous build for windows and the automatic variable system.theme isn't working so my snes mini theme no longer displays any icons/backgrounds. Has something changed or is this a bug?

The version I was using previously was from 1st October (I think when you added default image support) and the variables all work perfectly in that version.

Thanks in advance for your help.

jdrassa

@ruckage Looks like a recent change introduced a bug where only the first variable is being resolved. Should have a fix out in a day or two.

ruckage

@jdrassa said in Variable Support in Themes in EmulationStation:

@ruckage Looks like a recent change introduced a bug where only the first variable is being resolved. Should have a fix out in a day or two.

That's good, thanks in advance for fixing it.

jdrassa

@ruckage Latest build should have the fix.

ruckage

@jdrassa
Perfect, working again now. Thanks for fixing it so quickly :) .

Was this something just affecting your build or was it a problem in the main branch as well?

jdrassa

@ruckage It was a problem on the main branch as well (or would have been). RetroPie's repository now uses 2 branches, master and stable. RetroPie-Setup now has an ES dev module that pulls from master, while the main ES module pulls from stable. The change was present on master, but hadn't made it to stable yet.

A12C4

@jdrassa I created a theme from scratch to better see how it work, and one thing that annoy me is there is no way to perform basic math operations on variables. For example, right now I position the metadata labels and values like this :

	<variables>
		<!-- POSITIONS AND SIZES -->
		<PosHoriMetadataLabel>0.012</PosHoriMetadataLabel>
		<PosHoriMetadataValue>0.024</PosHoriMetadataValue>
	</variables>

	<view name="detailed, grid">
		<text name="md_lbl_players">
			<pos>${PosHoriMetadataLabel} 0.24</pos>
		</text>
		
		<text name="md_players">
			<pos>${PosHoriMetadataValue} 0.28</pos>
		</text>
		
		<text name="md_lbl_genre">
			<pos>${PosHoriMetadataLabel} 0.34</pos>
		</text>
		
		<text name="md_genre">
			<pos>${PosHoriMetadataValue} 0.38</pos>
		</text>
		
		...
	</view>

As you can see, I can easily change the horizontal position of metadata labels and values just by changing one of the 2 variables accordingly.

But why not pushing it farther ? Why can't we do the same with vertical positions like this :

	<variables>
		<!-- POSITIONS AND SIZES -->
		<PosHoriMetadataLabel>0.012</PosHoriMetadataLabel>
		<PosHoriMetadataValue>0.024</PosHoriMetadataValue>

		<!-- Position at which the metadata start -->
		<PosVertMetadataStart>0.024</PosVertMetadataStart>
		<!-- Spacing between 2 metadata labels -->
		<SpacingMetadata>0.010</SpacingMetadata>
		<!-- Spacing between a metadata label and its value -->
		<SpacingMetadataValue>0.004</SpacingMetadataValue>
	</variables>

	<view name="detailed, grid">
		<text name="md_lbl_players">
			<pos>${PosHoriMetadataLabel} (${PosVertMetadataStart} + 0 * ${SpacingMetadata})</pos>
		</text>
		
		<text name="md_players">
			<pos>${PosHoriMetadataValue} (${PosVertMetadataStart} + 0 * ${SpacingMetadata} + ${SpacingMetadataValue})</pos>
		</text>
		
		<text name="md_lbl_genre">
			<pos>${PosHoriMetadataLabel} (${PosVertMetadataStart} + 1 * ${SpacingMetadata})</pos>
		</text>
		
		<text name="md_genre">
			<pos>${PosHoriMetadataValue} (${PosVertMetadataStart} + 1 * ${SpacingMetadata} + ${SpacingMetadataValue})</pos>
		</text>
		
		...
	</view>

That way it is a bit harder to setup, but once it's done you can quickly change all the metadata order, it's spacing, it's position, etc ... just by changing one variable's value. Do you think more people would use that or I'm just overcomplicating things ? Would it require huge changes to EmulationStation's theme parsing code ?

darknior

Hi every one :)
I have try to use this VARIABLE feature to make my theme and nothing working for me :(

<theme>

	<formatVersion>4</formatVersion>

	<variables>
		<selectColor>1f9be7</selectColor>
		<textColor>4c5058</testColor>
	</variables>
	
	<view name="system, basic, detailed, grid, video">
...

And when i had these var to my skin ES don't want to load it.
I'm using the emulationstation-dev from retropie-setup

Using ${system.theme} not working but not break my skin.

Is it the correct version plase ?
Thansk

ruckage

@darknior
It may be related to the problem reported a while ago (see here: Post 78 )
@jdrassa said the bug was present in the dev version (which you're using) but not in the stable version.

darknior

Sorry for the VARIABLE bug it's my fault :(

I write <textColor>4c5058</testColor> and replace X by S ... stupid guy :p

@jdrassa said in Variable Support in Themes in EmulationStation:

@ruckage It was a problem on the main branch as well (or would have been). RetroPie's repository now uses 2 branches, master and stable. RetroPie-Setup now has an ES dev module that pulls from master, while the main ES module pulls from stable. The change was present on master, but hadn't made it to stable yet.

@ruckage Thanks ... but if i understand fine the bug was removed from the DEV branch (Master). I'm not using the Stable one.
If my english is so bad and i don't understand fine, i wish @jdrassa will fix it to in dev branch. Dev branch has many update not in Stable one, like now Thumbnail preview if no video that working fine :)
But with a SIZE bug for the moment :p

ruckage

@darknior said in Variable Support in Themes in EmulationStation:

@ruckage Thanks ... but if i understand fine the bug was removed from the DEV branch (Master). I'm not using the Stable one.
If my english is so bad and i don't understand fine, i wish @jdrassa will fix it to in dev branch. Dev branch has many update not in Stable one, like now Thumbnail preview if no video that working fine :)
But with a SIZE bug for the moment :p

No, it was the other way around, the bug was in the Dev branch (Master) but hadn't made it into stable I believe. Hopefully if the Dev branch hasn't been corrected yet it will be in the future (otherwise it will end up in the stable version as well).

The bug stopped built in variables such ${system.theme} from working so it sounds like the bug is still present in the dev version you're using - have you updated it recently?

darknior

@ruckage said in Variable Support in Themes in EmulationStation:

The bug stopped built in variables such ${system.theme} from working so it sounds like the bug is still present in the dev version you're using - have you updated it recently?

Ok, i will stand for it :)
Yes this morning to try this new feature : https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation/pull/362#issuecomment-362193592

EctoOne

I can confirm that the system.theme bug is indeed fixed on the dev branch. I also updated a few hours ago to test the new thumbnail fix.

mattrixk

Hi @jdrassa, I've been away from theme making for over a year, but I'm getting back into it now, using variables for the first time. I have a question (it was sort of answered around post 57 of this thread, but not fully.

For system logos I can put them in a folder called "logos" and name them gb.png, nes.png and snes.png, then link to them with <path>./logo/${system.theme}.png</path>.
For console images I can put them in a folder called "console" and name them gb.png, nes.png and snes.png, then link to them with <path>./console/${system.theme}.png</path>.

I want each system to display additional information on the System view (stuff like console generation, year of release, units sold and a brief description). The old way would be just have a folder for each system with a theme.xml file inside, but I'm trying to cut down on the number of folders, and this seems like something variables would be able to help with.

This is how I thought (hoped) it would work:

create a folder called "details", create an xml for each system (gb.xml, nes.xml, snes.xml) then link to those files in the main theme.xml like <include>./details/${system.theme}.xml</include>.

This isn't working, but is there a way to do something similar with the current build?

ruckage

@mattrixk said in Variable Support in Themes in EmulationStation:

This is how I thought (hoped) it would work:

create a folder called "details", create an xml for each system (gb.xml, nes.xml, snes.xml) then link to those files in the main theme.xml like <include>./details/${system.theme}.xml</include>.

This isn't working, but is there a way to do something similar with the current build?

Sadly it's not not possible at the moment, I had a similar issue with my latest snes-mini update and also tried using variables in the include tags as I wanted system specific colours for text etc.
In the end I had to use pre-generated images for all the text and other elements that I needed but it's far from an ideal solution. It make changes more difficult, limits what elements can be modified (I couldn't have system specific colours for metadata for example), and greatly increases the number of images needed for a theme.

Variable support in the include tags would be a really useful addition if it's possible.