[Theme] gameOS for Pegasus

bedgo

@PlayingKarrde I see you already merged the changes. No problem if you replace it for something better in the future. One more remark to using Alt-key combination for quick-search. I would strongly recommend to use Ctrl-key instead. The Alt-key is commonly used in Windows/Linux to focus window menus and invoke shortcuts - learned the hard way... I can change the Alt for Ctrl (or F3-key) if you wish, just let me know.

Another issue: Quitting Pegasus front-end on desktop PC, while running FULL-screen, is quite a challenge until you learn how: The platform menu must be displayed, then a game-pad "Start" button pressed to invoke a system menu of Pegasus. If you wouldn't mind, I'd suggest the following:

When Esc-key (api.cancel) button is pressed repeatedly
Current behavior: Games-grid -> Platform-menu -> Games-grid,
Suggested change: Games-grid -> Platform-menu -> System-menu - > Platform-menu -> Games-grid

So if you keep pressing the Esc-key, you always return to the game-grid list (similar to current state). I have it tested locally, and it's ready for commit to GitHub. If you like it, just give me a go.

bedgo

@fluffypillow Again, great work!
I want to tell you that I am fully aware that it's mainly your effort you made with your Pegasus front-end and your default grid theme, which was used as an inspiration for the gameOS theme. I just started to play with the gameOS first, it's not about which one is better... I like the larger video preview in yours. Btw., there is little to fix on your theme... well, maybe just the issue with remembering the last-played game index for each particular collection/system (see my fix here).
If you find any of the fixes I made to the gameOS theme useful, don't hesitate and take them as if you've done it yourself. Or eventually, if you want me, I could make the fix in your project as well.

fluffypillow

@blackshadow yes, RetroAchievements could be added, but there are two main points need to be solved for that:

Secure storage of user login (ie. passwords). Ideally using the operating system's built-in certificate storing tools would be the nice, but that probably needs some code for each platform, and then there can be cases where such thing isn't even available.
Scraping RetroAchievements game IDs. Each game on RA has a numeric ID, and that'd have to be set to match a game to the achievements. Unfortunately, no scraper yet provides this data yet as far as I know (though it could still be set manually).

@bedgo Yes there've been some bugs popping up lately (or been there for quite a while). Recently I was focusing on more of the core/engine stuff, but they aren't forgotten :) Will try to fix them when I have some more time.

PlayingKarrde

@bedgo said in [Theme] gameOS for Pegasus:

So if you keep pressing the Esc-key, you always return to the game-grid list (similar to current state). I have it tested locally, and it's ready for commit to GitHub. If you like it, just give me a go.

I was actually thinking about doing this myself so if you have a working commit already feel free to go ahead and integrate it.

@blackshadow Thanks. I agree performance is not great yet. Unfortunately I think that is due to the video playback although this for me was a Windows specific issue (not seeing performance drops on Shield for instance). I notice you said you're using a pi which, I actually haven't tested yet. If I get some time I'll try setting one of those up too so I can test.

In general there are about a million things I want to do with this theme but real life has been insanely busy since the start of the year. I'll try and keep chipping away at the feature list though as I'd at least like to get it to v1.0 before taking an extended break (I actually wanted to work on a new theme but will hold off until this one is all tied up for now).

bedgo

@PlayingKarrde Done.
I would like to discuss another topic - the aspect ratio of pictures and videos. Now it is somewhere about 16:9 or wider. However, the old systems, game consoles included, had typical 4:3 aspect ratio, not to mention box-art pictures, which are more like a portrait than a landscape.
As usual, I have a mod for it, which changes the aspect ratio to 4:3, along with other minor changes of proper grid item movement. Because it is not a bug (except the item movement), I do not commit the change unless you say you want it. I can tell you, it looks good, but I know it's a matter of taste.. ;c)

PlayingKarrde

@bedgo Would you be able to post a screenshot? I went for the aspect ratio I did for a reason but in hindsight you're right that 4:3 is more common for most games. It might be better to check the aspect ratio of the first image in the set then either show a 4:3 grid or 16:9 based on that. That's more work obviously but I think something I would likely lean towards getting to eventually.

bedgo

Here you are, items with 4:3 aspect ratio:

It fits in 2 and a half rows when using standard monitor 16:9 ratio. I also shrank the height of GameDetails from 200 to 160 px.

PlayingKarrde

@bedgo Thanks for showing me the screenshot.

I think I would like to hold off on this change for now. There are some other updates I want to do that would conflict/tie in such an update so would prefer to keep it as is for now.

bedgo

@PlayingKarrde Of course, no problem, I personally like even denser layout: 4:3 items with 5 columns, but that's really everyone's own preference. I think I am finished with updating gameOS theme for now. There's little to improve/fix at the moment. Maybe the last one thing: I have locally set "preferredHighlightEnd" to "vpx(parent.bottom)" in GameGrid.qml to ensure the grid items are being selected anywhere in the visible area of the grid-view; not like it is now, where only fist 2 rows are selectable.
~(:c)=

PlayingKarrde

@bedgo Ah fair enough. I didn't want to do that as I like having the next line down visible before selecting something, but to each their own.

Oh and thanks for all the updates also. You've definitely helped fix a lot of things I didn't have time for. Hopefully I'll get some time in the near future to add some new features also. My internal list is still pretty long for what I want to do.

fastpop72

Just to share with you my bartop project with this cool theme!!!

PlayingKarrde

@fastpop72 awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Magma

I really like the look of this theme. Unfortunately the menu is extremely laggy. Currently I have every SNES NES and Genesis game and the menus are very sluggish on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ which is a real shame.

KryPtAlIvIaN

I've got GameOS running on a pi zero, but am having issues with it playing videos under the theme. Audio can be heard, but the screen is black. I did notice that if you delete the videos it speeds everything up.

Is there a way to remove video playback from main screen when you are focused on a single game? If possible, I'd like to only allow it when you select preview in the menu that you launch the game in. What would need tweaked for that?

PlayingKarrde

There's a real issue with videos in general that I believed was a Pegasus problem (and I still believe at the root it is still potentially) but someone did mention a fix that I will need to implement when I get around to it. I've been so incredibly low on time lately that I haven't had a chance to get to any of the myriad of fixes I want to implement. Video playback performance is easily my most critical fix though.

In terms of disabling video, I ideally would like to implement an options screen for the theme but again - time. Failing that I believe what you're looking for likely lies in GameGridItem.qml around lines 171-206:

    // Video preview
    Component {
      id: videoPreviewWrapper
      Video {
        source: game.assets.videos.length ? game.assets.videos[0] : ""
        anchors.fill: parent
        fillMode: VideoOutput.PreserveAspectCrop
        muted: true
        loops: MediaPlayer.Infinite
        autoPlay: true
      }

    }

    Loader {
      id: videoPreviewLoader
      asynchronous: true
      anchors {
        fill: parent
        margins: vpx(4)
      }
      layer.enabled: true
      layer.effect: OpacityMask {
          maskSource: Item {
              width: videoPreviewLoader.width
              height: videoPreviewLoader.height
              Rectangle {
                  anchors.centerIn: parent
                  width: videoPreviewLoader.width
                  height: videoPreviewLoader.height
                  radius: cornerradius - vpx(1)
              }
          }
      }
      //z: 3
    }

I don't have time to test but try commenting out these sections (or deleting).

tobeyg

I'm having strange flickering issues when clicking on a game in the grid. The modal with the game info is not showing and everything is flashing and basically breaks the whole interface, requiring a restart. The original Pegasus theme works fine, so this issue seems to be with gameOS. The strange thing is that I tried using the theme on another setup just a week ago and didn't notice any of these issues then. Any idea what might be causing this?

PlayingKarrde

@tobeyg said in [Theme] gameOS for Pegasus:

I'm having strange flickering issues when clicking on a game in the grid. The modal with the game info is not showing and everything is flashing and basically breaks the whole interface, requiring a restart. The original Pegasus theme works fine, so this issue seems to be with gameOS. The strange thing is that I tried using the theme on another setup just a week ago and didn't notice any of these issues then. Any idea what might be causing this?

What system are you trying this on? I also sometimes get behavior similar to this when running through an arcadevga or on 240p resolution on a CRT. Are you doing something similar? I haven't found a fix for this yet.

ryuuji

any progress regarding the use of box art in grid menu ?

PlayingKarrde

@ryuuji said in [Theme] gameOS for Pegasus:

any progress regarding the use of box art in grid menu ?

Some progress but it's going to take a while as I need to implement the settings screen first which isn't a small amount of work. Even once that's in it's still not super trivial as it's not just replacing the art with boxfront. Regardless though I'm working on it and hopefully it will make it into the next big update.

ryuuji

@PlayingKarrde oh .... yes that sounds like a lot of work. I was thinking u gonna just editt the current qml and replace the sshot with box art. Much nicer what you have chosen to do.