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    Low Resolution Theme

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Projects and Themes
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    • RookervikR
      Rookervik Global Moderator
      last edited by

      The only way you'd be able to put both box art and screenshots would be to edit each scraped image, individually, and create an image containing both. Very time consuming, I highly suggest against it.

      I did see a post, somewhere, about someone that had tried to automate the task. But it wasn't customizable. He had screenshots, box art, logo text and something else.

      FlavorF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • FlavorF
        Flavor @Rookervik
        last edited by

        @Rookervik I guessed as much based on the fact that I hadn't seen anything else done.

        I guess that I'd ASSUME that I'd be in favor of options that didn't change the color of the text itself.

        After that, I'd wonder if something simple like a white (or very light) background with black text would look good highlighted in yellow or something. Of course I'm thinking of a typical book or printout where someone takes a yellow highlighter marker and sets off some text. This barely affects the contrast, but it still makes the selection pop.

        http://www.flashmasta.com
        http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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        • RookervikR
          Rookervik Global Moderator
          last edited by

          Could try one of these options:
          undefined

          #1 Leave the entire game list a little light, then highlight the game with black text.

          #2 Or Black text and a very, very translucent highlight.

          FlavorF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • FlavorF
            Flavor @Rookervik
            last edited by

            @Rookervik said in Low Resolution Theme:

            The only way you'd be able to put both box art and screenshots would be to edit each scraped image, individually, and create an image containing both. Very time consuming, I highly suggest against it.

            Okay, scrap that idea, then. I'm mostly brainstorming here. Obviously I don't have a grasp on the technical limitations of ES.

            Can ES only show one or the other?

            On your original mockup (black background SoR screenshot), there was no room for anything else. On the one to the right of it, the SoR screenshot leaves room for boxart below it.

            Your 3rd mockup (with the game list full-width below the screenshot) is by far the best, IMO. In theory, there may be room for boxart+screenshot side-by-size above the game list, but I really don't know (or know if it's doable). I would not be in favor of creating new images.

            http://www.flashmasta.com
            http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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            • FlavorF
              Flavor @Rookervik
              last edited by

              @Rookervik said in Low Resolution Theme:

              Could try one of these options:
              undefined

              #1 Leave the entire game list a little light, then highlight the game with black text.

              #2 Or Black text and a very, very translucent highlight.

              I really like #2, but I'd have to see it on the small LCD before I say it's better than #1.

              #1 would be good if it didn't make the deselected games unreadable.

              http://www.flashmasta.com
              http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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              • RookervikR
                Rookervik Global Moderator
                last edited by Rookervik

                ES can only show one image for each game. There is no way to script in an ability for it to show multiple images for each game. ES is very very limited. Pretty much any trick you can think of has been done in Carbon and Luminous and Pixel. You might want to check out the EmulationStation Theming Readme to see what ES has options for. It would take too long for me to make a bullet list on things it can do. :D

                Sadly, several points in the README were never implemented. Such as: event sound effects, music, and grid layout.

                lilbudL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • lilbudL
                  lilbud @Rookervik
                  last edited by

                  @Rookervik Where is this luminous theme you speak of?

                  Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

                  Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

                  FlavorF RookervikR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • FlavorF
                    Flavor @lilbud
                    last edited by

                    @lilbud said in Low Resolution Theme:

                    @Rookervik Where is this luminous theme you speak of?

                    See https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2600/carbon-light/

                    http://www.flashmasta.com
                    http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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                    • RookervikR
                      Rookervik Global Moderator @lilbud
                      last edited by

                      @lilbud Yeah, it's what I decided to call the Carbon Light theme. Since it wasn't very Carbon-y. LOL

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                      • RookervikR
                        Rookervik Global Moderator
                        last edited by Rookervik

                        This is actually running in EmulationStation at 320x240 screen resolution: (Changed font to be bigger)

                        undefined

                        FlavorF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • FlavorF
                          Flavor @Rookervik
                          last edited by

                          @Rookervik I like that! Let me know if/when there's a zip to test. Thanks!

                          http://www.flashmasta.com
                          http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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                          • RookervikR
                            Rookervik Global Moderator
                            last edited by

                            Test it out. See if the retropie menu looks bad. Might take some custom work. Or not. Might be just fine. /SHRUGS/

                            I might use this as my default theme. Ta heck with meta data :P

                            Download MiniLumi Beta 1: Yes I have a folder this time, QQ

                            FlavorF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • FlavorF
                              Flavor @Rookervik
                              last edited by

                              @Rookervik ;) Thanks, I'll try it in the morning.

                              http://www.flashmasta.com
                              http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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                              • FlavorF
                                Flavor
                                last edited by

                                This is REALLY good compared to anything else I've seen so far.

                                image
                                image

                                It looks a bit goofy for any game that doesn't have an image, though. Is there a way to pop in a default image or something? I guess I should read the Theming Readme. :)

                                image image

                                http://www.flashmasta.com
                                http://www.gamepieadvance.com

                                RookervikR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • RookervikR
                                  Rookervik Global Moderator @Flavor
                                  last edited by

                                  @Flavor Eh, there are a couple things you could do.

                                  One would be to place an image in the background, always, that says "No Image"... the box art will go over it, and then any game without a box art would show what's behind.

                                  The other is to FRIKKIN GET BOX ART FOR IT! Haha. Do it! Fix it up! :D

                                  FlavorF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • FlavorF
                                    Flavor
                                    last edited by

                                    Here's another thing that looks a bit funny. Keep in mind that this is likely caused by the LCD being 240x320 viewed on its side (as opposed to 320x240 viewed natively). The fades (or other wholesale screen changes) get a diagonal tearing. I don't really notice these ingame as much, but they are very evident when the theme fades in/out. See

                                    http://www.flashmasta.com
                                    http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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                                    • FlavorF
                                      Flavor @Rookervik
                                      last edited by

                                      @Rookervik said in Low Resolution Theme:

                                      @Flavor Eh, there are a couple things you could do.

                                      One would be to place an image in the background, always, that says "No Image"... the box art will go over it, and then any game without a box art would show what's behind.

                                      I like this idea. The other idea could be to just have a horizontal line between the game list and the art areas, so it's visually set apart.

                                      The other is to FRIKKIN GET BOX ART FOR IT! Haha. Do it! Fix it up! :D

                                      Heh, yeah, but I do have some that were unreleased or homebrew that won't have art. I guess I haven't played with the scraper enough to know if there's a way to grab a default image in these cases.

                                      As an aside, the pictureless game shown in my screenshots is Motocross Challenge. It was an unreleased GBA game.
                                      https://www.unseen64.net/2009/05/19/motocross-challenge-gba-cancelled/

                                      http://www.flashmasta.com
                                      http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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                                      • RookervikR
                                        Rookervik Global Moderator
                                        last edited by

                                        I'd get screenshots for those unreleased ones. Or whatever. Haha.

                                        I can do the horozontal bar... I like separators. Last time I suggested it I had a bunch of people comment on hating it. SO MUCH HATE! LOL.

                                        Still, probably not a bad idea to put some text behind the box art with "No Image." Probably good practice... unless someone uses an image with transparency... like we do with the RetroPie menu. But it's sort of a special case, it has it's own theme.xml that changes some things.

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                                        • RookervikR
                                          Rookervik Global Moderator
                                          last edited by

                                          @Flavor And yeah, tearing is something we all have to just deal with. It's how the screen refreshes. My awesome little GP2x Wiz has diagonal screen tearing on fast-moving scenes. Otherwise it's gorgeous. For you, looks like just the parts of the theme that scroll fast get torn. Center carousel bar doesn't tear. Makes sense. Not really anything we can do with it. I think it can be fixed with some driver tweaking (not that I know how to do any of that stuff)

                                          FlavorF mattrixkM 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • FlavorF
                                            Flavor @Rookervik
                                            last edited by

                                            @Rookervik said in Low Resolution Theme:

                                            @Flavor And yeah, tearing is something we all have to just deal with. It's how the screen refreshes. My awesome little GP2x Wiz has diagonal screen tearing on fast-moving scenes. Otherwise it's gorgeous. For you, looks like just the parts of the theme that scroll fast get torn. Center carousel bar doesn't tear. Makes sense. Not really anything we can do with it. I think it can be fixed with some driver tweaking (not that I know how to do any of that stuff)

                                            The GP2X had the EXACT same problem. That's why I know about it. I worked (homebrew) on those systems back in the day. They had a portrait LCD packed into a landscape console. It was probably cheaper to manufacture, but it created problems (like tearing).

                                            Back in the GP32 days, I remember using an assembly routine to do the screen translation. I've recently wondered if that could help here, but I don't know enough about Pi hacking yet.
                                            http://gp32wolf3d.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/gp32wolf3d/Wolf3D/xlatgp32.s?revision=1.2&view=markup

                                            Heh, this is entertaining to me. When I was looking up info to back up my memory, one of the top hits was an article I wrote.
                                            http://play-asia-rulez.blogspot.com/2009/05/gp2x-wiz-review-ready-to-rock.html

                                            http://www.flashmasta.com
                                            http://www.gamepieadvance.com

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