Input needed: ES theming improvements

[Zigurana]

Hi guys,
It's that time again!

I'm looking for some input on what to take on as my next chapter in the book called

"Mucking about in EmulationStation - or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the madness"

So I've polled you guys about this before, but now I'd like to fucus on improving the theming aspect of EmulationStation.

I'll start off with some remarks:

• I do not know how to implement on demand image loading or other fundamental tricks to manage memory consumption in ES.
• I still do not fully understand how ES is designed, so big changes are probably out.
• low hanging fruit is probably the (only) way to go (see section below).
• no promises Re. the accepted feature-list or timeframe of delivery. None.
• no guarantee that any of this will actually end up in the official RetroPie 5.0+ release.

That being said, lets start a brainstorm!
So I started this a while back with trying to change the way how the infamous Caroussel looks.
While it's not so difficult to make an extra theming element to set the color, changing the location (or scroll-orientation) got me stuck in a swampy bog quickly. So I became frustrated, and decided to take a look at condensing the metadata tags.
For example, who needs:
PLUBLISHER: Nintendo
DEVELOPER: Nintendo
DATE: 01-08-1986
PLAYERS: 2
when you could replace it by a single line that says:
Nintendo (1984), 4 players
Or
SomeDevelopers-Nintendo (1984)
With an icon to show the nr of players.

With that line of thought started, I jumped to *well, why not build some kind of string parsing tool? This would allow people to create their own elements, based on the existing metadata tags. Something along the lines of the filenaming tools for mp3s that use tags as inputs to create arbitrary strings... *

But then again, that would be a really big job, for something that will probably not be used that much. So, maybe just stick with a couple of premade strings.

Hence this topic.

What elements / strings would you like?
Examples:

• Year-> gets the publication year
• The example above with the one-line synopsis. (name for that anyone?)
• some derivation thereof.

Other, maybe more important issues regarding theming are invited to this brainstorm as well. It's just that this looks doable for me in a reasonable amount of time (ha! Famous last words).
Plus: looking at the discussion on the new Luminous theme (@Rookervik : you rock!) space is precious, and this might help with that.

So please, bring it on!

[Rookervik]

Awesome. I am on board with the "Nintendo, Nintendo, 1994, 2 players." That makes it perfect for people that love or hate metadata. It's all on one line. So that's not much wasted space if users haven't scraped info, but do have box art or screenshots.

One easy thing to do is change the color of the carousel. I know Herb has found the code, and like you said, it's in the color tag. FFFFFF(FF) the last 2 are the opacity. Just set the opacity of the carousel to 00. Then any themes that really need a white bar behind the system logos can add one... very, very easily. I'll even edit the themes if they need it badly.

One thing I'd like you to look into would be simplifying the gamelist.xml. You don't have to, it's just a wish of mine. I would love it if I could reduce my gamelist.xmls to just a couple lines per game. Right now, ES will crash if you are missing metadata tags. I'd love it if ES would skip metadata tags that are not available. Like this:

This would make my gamelists 70-80% smaller, and probably reduce the time it takes ES to boot by half. That would be heaven.

Really, that's all I can think of adding to ES. Other than maybe seeing if you can get the sound events to work.

Maybe see if you can find the code to make <md_image> not always on top? Then I could make a theme with game box art as the background. :D

Those are just my wishes for ES. And I am totally fine if none of them are ever realized. But since you asked... hehe. <3

[Rookervik]

New suggestion by another user, and I'd love it too.... have game name available as a theming element.

So we could have a screenshot on the right, and under the screenshot, the game name in a nice big bold font :D

[vasili]

Things I like to see option to do.

(Optional)

1. I like to replace the emulation station boot loading screen I really hate it , the 2 step loading look

2. Remove any part that has retro pi displayed on screen , to me the word retro makes me pissed off as I ain't that old I had most of thease as a child and have a few still . Also remove wording that reminds me I am on a pi , I don't need reminders that it's all fake.

3. I'll probably replace emulation station soon anyway with attract mode . As it's not being worked on as far as I can tell and these. Issue will persist forever

[Zigurana]

@Rookervik said in Input needed: ES theming improvements:

New suggestion by another user, and I'd love it too.... have game name available as a theming element.

Is it not? I was not aware of that, but it is certainly something to add (if only for completeness sake, all metadata tags should be included ideally)

[mattrixk]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for these, but I have some things I'd like to see:

1. I'd love to be able to filter by the different metadata, eg: filter by genre, so it only shows driving games, or only beat 'em ups.

2. I'd also like to filter by number of players. If I have a mate over, It can be annoying having to wade through 100s of single player games to find ones we can play together.

3. I'm currently using the Child-Friendly ES, and it's a great concept, but I mainly use it for the favourites. It would be great to see that become a core component.

Nintendo (1984), 4 players

4. Another option for this could be turning off the metadata info you don't want to see. I personally really only care about Genre and Number of Players, so It would be nice if I could hide the info for developer/publisher, how many times I've played a game or when I last played it.

5. I'm also using the RetroPie-Joystick-Selection script from @meleu and I find it indispensable.

As I said, I don't know if this is the right place for these, but I love RetroPie, and these are just things I think would make it even better.

[mattrixk]

@Zigurana said in Input needed: ES theming improvements:

While it's not so difficult to make an extra theming element to set the color, changing the location (or scroll-orientation) got me stuck in a swampy bog quickly.

So I guess changing the console carousel to something like this:

(big image is picture of the console, all names using logos, all data scraped from theGamesDB)

is probably out of the question?

I like being able to see more than just 3 names on the screen at once. It makes it much easier to see how many times I have to press the controller button for me to get to the option I want.

[lilbud]

The ability to color the logos on the carousel. Like using a white svg and being able to dictate what color it will be on the system select. It can be done in the gamelist.

[mattrixk]

@Rookervik said in Input needed: ES theming improvements:

One easy thing to do is change the color of the carousel. I know Herb has found the code, and like you said, it's in the color tag. FFFFFF(FF) the last 2 are the opacity. Just set the opacity of the carousel to 00.

Can you tell me what the code is for the carousel? Something like:

<carousel name="system_logo">
    <color>ffffffff</color>
</carousel>

Within root theme.xml?

I just don't know how to target the carousel.

[herb_fargus]

@mattrixk it's not themeable, it has to be edited in the source code and recompiled

[Zigurana]

@herb_fargus said in Input needed: ES theming improvements:

@mattrixk it's not themeable, it has to be edited in the source code and recompiled

Indeed, its hardcoded here.
Making it a themable element is one is the features I intent to implement.

[mattrixk]

@herb_fargus said in Input needed: ES theming improvements:

it's not themeable, it has to be edited in the source code and recompiled

I must have misread Rook's original statement. Darn. I'm having fun playing with theme XML stuff, but I think messing with the source is a bit beyond me. Cheers for letting me know.

@Zigurana

Making it a themable element is one is the features I intent to implement.

I'm looking forward to it. I also just want to say that I'm really enjoying the Child-Friendly ES. Being able to have favourites is wonderful.

[mattrixk]

I just remembered something else that bugs me about ES, and I don't know if you would be able to change it, but I would like the menus to be able to cycle, so when you are on the top menu item and you press up, it takes you to the bottom menu item, and pressing down while on the bottom menu item it takes you to the top item.

[Zigurana]

@mattrixk said in Input needed: ES theming improvements:

I just remembered something else that bugs me about ES, and I don't know if you would be able to change it, but I would like the menus to be able to cycle, so when you are on the top menu item and you press up, it takes you to the bottom menu item, and pressing down while on the bottom menu item it takes you to the top item.

Yeah, I hear you loud and clear.
The irony is that the textlists can be enabled to be cyclic very easily. But changing the textListComponent to be cyclic breaks the controller input-wizard, because it auto continues automatically to the next item, which for a cyclic list is, well, you see where this is going...

So I was pondering to A) create a new type of list specifically for the controller setup wizard, or B) change the exit mechanism to exit one you press two buttons simutanously (i. e. Up + Start).

Both are ugly hacks for this issue, and there must be a better fix.

In any case, it's on my radar!

[mattrixk]

@Zigurana said in Input needed: ES theming improvements:

So I was pondering to A) create a new type of list specifically for the controller setup wizard, or B) change the exit mechanism to exit one you press two buttons simutanously (i. e. Up + Start).

I can see how that could be difficult to work around. I'd also like a way to cancel out of the controller config without a keyboard too if that is possible.

I have to ask you something as well: I'm making a theme and using your child-friendly icons. How do you want me to attribute them to you? So far in readme.txt I just have:

• Hidden, Child-Friendly and Favourite icon SVGs made by Zigurana (https://retropie.org.uk/forum/user/zigurana)

Is there a way you would prefer me to do it?

[gomisensei]

@Zigurana not sure if it's there, just delving into it now, but could the metadata lnclude "times played", "time played", the rom file name?

Also, would it be possible to have multiple types of image folders, i.e. Boxart, Title, ingame, cabinet, flyer, and then switch between which of them is displayed while browsing a game by press left/right trigger?

[Zigurana]

Ok, so its been a while, but because @fieldofcows has been so nice to write down how to compile and build on Windows, I thought it would be nice to give you guys a small peek-preview on what I am working on currently:

I am splitting out the carousel bar as a separate theming element, so we can move it around and change the color, location, height etc.
What do you guys think?

NB: WIP, not done yet, universe might explode before completion.

[lilbud]

@Zigurana

[mattrixk]

@Zigurana I love you.

Edit: Too forward?

[lilbud]

@mattrixk No, this is how you would say it...