Chicuelo Theme

pootis spencer · 11 Dec 2018, 22:13

@Wildfire Please do if its ok with @chicuelo

rajbhalsod · 11 Dec 2018, 22:53

@Wildfire hi there. So I've managed to create transparent backgrounds, add characters, and re-ordered them to appear correctly. Just need to work on scaling the artwork now in the theme.xml. Could you provide your settings for <pos> and <size> tags please? Your advice has been an immense help and I've learned a thing or two too! Thanks!

chicuelo · 12 Dec 2018, 12:03

@Wildfire Its ok for me! just send me a preview and we update the repo

Wildfire · 13 Dec 2018, 08:25

thanks @chicuelo, I'm making a few changes to the theme this week so I'll post my modified theme this weekend

pootis spencer · 13 Dec 2018, 12:02

@Wildfire Can we have a preview of the theme as it stands now?

DarishZone · 14 Dec 2018, 11:27

I also worked on that theme for months, community gave me great advices for improve it and adapt for my builds, i have also made a C64 variant.

Wildfire · 17 Dec 2018, 02:09

Hi @pootis-spencer, I'm still working on the theme to neaten up the code, make detailed view look better (as I mainly use video view) add more systems and generally make improvements to layout and performance.

As mentioned before though this theme requires a certain setup of the gamelist.xml files and game media:
e.g. player number has to be one number so it works with the player count font (1-2 players would not work because it looks incorrect) also all of the md_image elements are fixed size so they look uniform when scrolling, this may work for flat artwork but 3D artwork could look stretched.

I have created "loose" templates too which uses the "maxSize" scaling which would work with most builds but I prefer the fixed size as it looks better and suits the build I've put together.

Below are a few screenshots from the gamelist view to show the responsive design inspired by the Art Book theme. I've also included a screenshot of the Power and Kodi system and gamelist views as they feature a special layout too.

NES Video View

NES Detailed View

As you can see I'm now using a lighter background for the system view but I may change this back to the darker theme. I'm also thinking about changing play count and last played to publisher and developer, still not sure just yet...

I was planning to upload this weekend but I still want to make some changes and get it right before I do so, hopefully won't be too long now.

chicuelo · 17 Dec 2018, 12:00

@Wildfire said in Chicuelo Theme:

er (as I mainly use video view) add more systems and generally make improvements to layout and performance.
As mentioned before though this theme requires a certain setup of the gamelist.xml files and game media:
e.g. player number has to be one number so it works with the player count font (1-2 players would not work because it looks incorrect) also all of the md_image elements are fixed size so they look uniform when scrolling, this may work for flat artwork but 3D artwork could look stretched.
I have created "loose" templates too which uses the "maxSize" scaling which would work with most builds but I prefer the fixed size as it looks better and suits the build I've put together.
Below are a few screenshots from the gamelist view to show the responsive design inspired by the Art Book theme. I've also included a screenshot of the Power and Kodi system and gamelist views as they feature a special layout too.

It looks like a totally different theme to me, I think you can upload it with a new name or a chicuelo improved one :)

pootis spencer · 17 Dec 2018, 12:54

@Wildfire Thats looks amazing. Really want this now more than ever. Great improvements. Maybe call it Chicuelo 2.0 or Chicuelo - Wildfire Edition. 😀

DarishZone · 17 Dec 2018, 20:18

Incredible work, really, i'm just concerning on the operation, it has nothing to do anymore to Chicuelo theme, is almost a copy of Art-Book theme, wonder why you do not taken Art-Book as a base at this point? I guess i don't get the picture here, ES is basically two elements, systems and gamelist, the difference is in graphics and xml structure. Maybe Chicuelo xml was more appropriate for your project?
Just my thoughts, still a fantastic stuff, top quality.

Wildfire · 17 Dec 2018, 21:50

That's a good point @DarishZone, my initial intention was to just change the system layout so the characters come out from the frame but once the Art Book theme was published I loved the gamelist view so much that I decided to combine the two.

Chicuelo is still technically the base of the theme as the modified version I put together was created by editing the original theme.

However, this modified theme is equal parts Chicuelo and Art Book so I can't really claim that this is an original concept. My initial idea was to call the theme "Chicuelo - Wildfire" but at this point, it may be worth just calling the theme "Wildfire" and crediting @alphatoanant & @chicuelo as the main contributors?

These two themes are by far my favorite on this platform and I've had a lot of fun taking inspiration from both creators.

DarishZone · 18 Dec 2018, 17:17

Thanks for your answer, very interesting take on theme edit.
Agree Chicuelo and Art-Book are the best aside Supersweet by Hursty, an incredible piece of work where anything is made to keep ES light. Is fast and beautiful and made smart use of carousel function. I'm actually working on that base with great results.
A little glimpse of my personal mod

movisman · 18 Dec 2018, 18:14

@Wildfire

Hey there, great looking theme coming along there. Are you supporting systems like PSP, Dreamcast and GameCube like in the original theme?

Cheers!

PittStone · 18 Dec 2018, 21:35

@DarishZone Looks Awesome. Waiting for this.

DarishZone · 19 Dec 2018, 01:02

@PittStone said in Chicuelo Theme:

@DarishZone Looks Awesome. Waiting for this.

Thank u man :)

pootis spencer · 26 Dec 2018, 19:24

Any update please on releasing @Wildfire ?

Wildfire · 31 Dec 2018, 10:52

@pootis-spencer I haven't been working on the theme over Christmas but I'm keen to get back to it again in the new year. I'm currently adding more systems/collections, tidying up the code, compressing images within reason (to improve performance) and I'm thinking about separating the characters from the background to make it easier for others to mod. Apologies for the long wait but I'd rather do the work now to get it as good as possible before I upload it.

@movisman glad you like the theme :) I currently have PSP (crisis core) PSP mini (jetpack joyride) and Dreamcast (crazy taxi) but nothing for GameCube yet. It's on the list though so it will 100% be included.

@DarishZone can't say I've installed Supersweet on my build but your modified theme looks awesome! I love simple themes like that which run smooth as butter :D I'm trying desperately to keep my modded theme as light as possible (which is a challenge given the transparent png's....) once compressed the theme works much better but it may still be a challenge to run for people who have tons of systems installed.

duiz · 19 Jan 2019, 10:00

@Wildfire Any progress update on your amazing theme? I been aching to put it on my TV device.

DarishZone · 19 Jan 2019, 11:33

@Wildfire said in Chicuelo Theme:

@pootis-spencer I haven't been working on the theme over Christmas but I'm keen to get back to it again in the new year. I'm currently adding more systems/collections, tidying up the code, compressing images within reason (to improve performance) and I'm thinking about separating the characters from the background to make it easier for others to mod. Apologies for the long wait but I'd rather do the work now to get it as good as possible before I upload it.

@movisman glad you like the theme :) I currently have PSP (crisis core) PSP mini (jetpack joyride) and Dreamcast (crazy taxi) but nothing for GameCube yet. It's on the list though so it will 100% be included.

@DarishZone can't say I've installed Supersweet on my build but your modified theme looks awesome! I love simple themes like that which run smooth as butter :D I'm trying desperately to keep my modded theme as light as possible (which is a challenge given the transparent png's....) once compressed the theme works much better but it may still be a challenge to run for people who have tons of systems installed.

Thank you very much! Your themes mods great too, so i'm very flattered!
Supersweet original creator used very smart ideas performance wise, using small vertical PNG images with color scale instead of RGB, little loss detail but they are way more light for ES to handle. As results the theme is light speed even with custom collections enabled, i've stick to that same formula for the mod and i'm very satisfied! Waiting for your work shared.

Wildfire · 24 Jan 2019, 08:28

Hi @duiz, I'm currently working on custom collections. I've completed all the artwork and logos for the game collections (such as final fantasy, sonic, marvel, metal slug etc) just need to create a .xml file with descriptions for them.

Last night I was working on genre collections (such as RPG, strategy, racing, lightgun etc.) I have all of the SVG logos complete and the XML files are ready to go so I just need artwork and that will be finished.

I was going to do developer collections too but I think I'll leave that for another day as its already taking a long time to get the theme ready. Sorry for the delay but I should be finished soon :D

@DarishZone I'm not so sure my theme will ever be light speed but it runs well enough for me. I've been processing all of my compression through a website called tinypng which works really well.

On some images, you can barely tell the difference however there are some images (usually the ones with gradients) that look a bit blocky... They still look good though and it's a sacrifice that has to be made for faster loading.