Carbon Theme Suggestions

herb_fargus · 7 Jul 2016, 16:49

@Rookervik personally I like the boxes but then again when you open up design questions to the community you will never come to a conclusion ;)

I personally liked the other view that looked like nbba

Zigurana · 7 Jul 2016, 17:27

@Rookervik said in Carbon Theme Suggestions:

@Zigurana The new carbon tile is in there. I really really like it. You're not too fond of it? Also, I made room for kid friendly icons... in the box hahaha. I don't think Buzz likes the boxes either. I like them a lot. I wonder if there's a way to separate the gamelist and the meta data, visually, without using boxes? Also, re-drawing all of the controllers will take about 40 non-stop hours of vector. I don't know if I'm up for that. Haha.

Nah, I dont think the file size reduction is significant enough to warrant a rework of all the existing logo's.
To box or not to box, ah well, you are the creative powerhouse here, so I leave it up to your good taste.
I hadnt spotted the new texture yet, as I do most of my forum on my mobile.

Still think that we could use a light theme to go with the current dark one.

In any case, thanks for all your efforts!

celly · 7 Jul 2016, 19:03

@Rookervik You are right, the controllers have the same shape just subtle differences. TG16 has actual turbo buttons above the I and II buttons. I can pm you what I mean.
Also for the WS Color logo, I did make a mock up .svg file for my system using the red swirl. I'll pm that to you as well.

EDIT: Well since the PM system is nowhere to be found, I upped them to my dropbox.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wnuqycwax57w8a/Untitled-3.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qveqvv502ymnio8/system.svg?dl=0

Rookervik · 7 Jul 2016, 18:17

@pimpmaul69 Got the Channel F finished. Never even heard of the system to be honest. Hope I got the right images. Screenshot:

@celly That's almost EXACTLY what I did with the wonderswan logo. Haha. Nicely done! Here's what I did:

As for the PC Engine controller, you can get both the turbo-switch version, and the version without the turbo. Depends on which version of the PC Engine you have. Kind of like the Genesis with the fattie controller, and Genesis 2 with the 6-button slim one. But I think I can go and make the PC Engine without turbo (even tho you can get it with turbo) and then the TG 16 with turbo. Sound good?

Charco · 7 Jul 2016, 18:34

So has the PC Engine and Turbografx16 been separated or am I missing something?

I am also in the "if it ain't broke.." camp, I think the theme is perfect as it is.

pimpmaul69 · 7 Jul 2016, 18:38

@Rookervik said in Carbon Theme Suggestions:

@pimpmaul69 Got the Channel F finished. Never even heard of the system to be honest. Hope I got the right images. Screenshot:

@celly That's almost EXACTLY what I did with the wonderswan logo. Haha. Nicely done! Here's what I did:

As for the PC Engine controller, you can get both the turbo-switch version, and the version without the turbo. Depends on which version of the PC Engine you have. Kind of like the Genesis with the fattie controller, and Genesis 2 with the 6-button slim one. But I think I can go and make the PC Engine without turbo (even tho you can get it with turbo) and then the TG 16 with turbo. Sound good?

That looks great! Any way for me to d/l the file?

Rookervik · 7 Jul 2016, 19:05

Haha, you guys didn't tell me that the TurboGrafx16 logo looked terrible on that white background. It's really hard to see the "Grafx" part. So I added a shadow :D And here are the controllers... should make everyone happy.

Rookervik · 7 Jul 2016, 19:13

@pimpmaul69 I'll update the carbon zip file once all these fixes are finished, and then post a link. I'll ask Herb to update the online installer later on. I don't want him to have to do it multiple times.

So far the only features asked for have been Kid Mode support and Lower sound volume on the flipper (or remove it). I think there are 3 versions of Carbon? I only created the main version. Which version do you all use? Centered, Metadata, or no-metadata?

Would you like less meta data? I found most people just need Number of Players, Release Date, and Genre. And of course the goofy description text ;-)

No Hands 55 · 7 Jul 2016, 20:45

not a fan of the outlines around the titles and such. I do however really like the solid flat shapes for the controllers, would be awesome for all the settings icons too. Ideally I would have a solid black background and white accents, super minimal design. It will work way better for my handhelds with low res screens too

I use carbon no meta fyi

Rookervik · 7 Jul 2016, 20:05

@No-Hands-55 That's several votes against the borders. Such a shame, I really liked it. LOL. As for small resolution screens and minimal design, you probably want to check out Pixel :D That theme looks real good on a 3-inch composite display.

No Hands 55 · 7 Jul 2016, 21:03

@Rookervik

I will give it a shot and see how it looks. I dont mind the emulator screens but im not a fan of the tetris block borders in the list views.

I might just end up making my own simple, minimal black and white theme lol. any suggestions where to start?

Rookervik · 7 Jul 2016, 21:17

@No-Hands-55 You can use the pixel theme as a base, and change the images in the art folder to something not-tetris.

Try loading the "background.png" in an image editor and just erasing everything and flood filling it with grey. That way you can keep all the logos and system images, but gets you away from the tetris. The grey will allow each system to still have the darker alternate colors. (each system has it's own dye that it adds to the background.)

Then the border images you can just delete. ES will throw some simple log errors that it can't find them, but you don't need them since they are tetrisy.

Ends up looking like this:

The darker you make that background.png, the less color and darker the background will be. Lighter will make the colors brighter.

Rookervik · 7 Jul 2016, 21:27

@Rookervik

Also, ES comes with a minimal theme - it's what appears when you apply a theme with errors. It's all black and white. haha. Try backing up one of the themes' main xmls and making a couple of random changes and saving it. The theme will error and load as a white theme with just black words on the system select, then some flat colors in the game select. It's quite.... minimal. ;-)

Rookervik · 8 Jul 2016, 03:16

@pimpmaul69 @celly

Carbon update with Channel F, WonderswanColor Logo Fix, and Turbo Grafix 16 logo and controller updates:
Carbon Update 07072016

Changes have been sent to Herb to update on the downloader. Please be patient as he has many other tasks.

Rookervik · 8 Jul 2016, 03:17

@pimpmaul69 @celly

Carbon update with Channel F, WonderswanColor Logo Fix, and Turbo Grafix 16 logo and controller updates:
Carbon Update 07072016

Changes have been sent to Herb to update on the downloader. Please be patient as he has many other tasks.

pimpmaul69 · 8 Jul 2016, 04:35

So i assume you guys are using the "iforgetthename"2png program to take pics of es theme screens? I cant find any info on how to take a screenshot with the program or where the pics are saved to. Any info would be awesome. I wanna be take some pics of my theme. I use carbon but on 10 of the systems i have custom themes on the gamelist that i make them look like the systems. (Ram limitation sucks) I want to post some pics but cant figure out how to take the screenshots.

InsecureSpike · 8 Jul 2016, 06:43

have you thought of making a white based version? I know there was the original "simple" theme, maybe a combination of the 2? but better!

also a side note, my distressed/weathered logos are at your disposal if you'd like to try them, the only issue is they are .png

No Hands 55 · 8 Jul 2016, 16:35

@Rookervik Thank you! That is a big help! I didn't know it was all so straightforward as a xml file and folders with images. I will definitely begin working on my own! But for now I am just going to remove the border files and use the Pixel theme because i really like it without just those.

Rookervik · 8 Jul 2016, 17:52

@pimpmaul69 @InsecureSpike

I am actually using the Windows EmulationStation to create and test themes. It's a lot easier. And way easier to take screenshots. :D If you have a windows machine, or I think linux or mac, too, you can load the themes into the desktop version of ES. It's a little struggle to get the es_systems.cfg created, but I can help.

I am actually planning on making a light variant to the Carbon theme on this major update. So far I plan to:

Move gamelist to left side, for us left-to-right reading order users.
Increase size of screenshot/boxart
reduce metadata to: release date, genre, players, description (unless the only important information is # of players?)
add support for kid friendly icons ( just for you, @Zigurana :-) )
add ability to choose the color of the theme elements (overwrite carbon.xml with a different color version)
add a light variant background that users can point to in the xml
Note: we may think about no longer updating the "Centered" and "No Metadata" variants of Carbon.

Zigurana · 8 Jul 2016, 19:37

@Rookervik: Thanks! You are the best! </ Tips hat>