All new RetroPie UI

mick

Hey guys,

with the release of RasberryPi 4 (and 4k), what do you think of an all new User Interface ("Theme") for RetroPie/Emulation Station?

I always felt like the design looks outdated, especially compared to Apple tvOS, Netflix, Nintendo Switch, PS4, etc. Also i cant find any Theme that pleases my eyes yet.

This could be a theme by use of Emulation Station's theme engine, use the Pegasus Frontend or be an all new approach if the current theme engine is not enough.

Personally I would give a UI/UX designer no technical restrictions on his first draft(s). As I am a UI/UX designer myself, I would love to do some layouts but have limited time only. I got something super sleek and simple in my mind und would also think about some UX improvements.

What do you think if we make an open request:
Designers all around the world could think of how a game launcher ui (or game console ui) could look and feel like and present their ui/ux designs. Who knows, maybe they even come up with some improvements on the RetroPie corporate design itself, too? There are tons of awesome design-concepts for imagine or existing software on platforms like Behance or Dribbble but i've never seen one for a gaming console. The contributors of RetroPie, or the community, could then vote for the best layouts/concepts or even discuss to mix ideas from different designers into one. Finally it could be released as an optional theme(for testing purposes) and eventually as the default theme celebrated with a big release, like RetroPie 5 (or 6 since its trendy to skip a versionnumber).

What do you think?

mick

P.S. I can't edit the title but this should be called "All new RetroPie UI" instead since there is a choice of different Game Launchers (especially Pegasus).

mitu

@mick You can edit the title - just edit your 1st post.

A Former User

Unless you are going to personally step to the plate to code this, I am not entirely sure what your expectations are here.

Pegasus has been in development for years and is where it's at today. EmulationStation has pretty deep capabilities when it comes to themes. People like @f-caruso have forked the current EmulationStation build, adding even more theme capabilities.

mitu

@mick Since you're referring about a for a new UI on Emulationstation - did you know it has a Grid view layout ? It's quite different from the carousel based layout that most themes are using and might be closer to the look you're envisioning.
The forum topic that started it all is here. Since it was - until recently - a beta feature, there aren't many themes created for this layout (there are links to some of the themes in the topic).

mick

Maybe the right way would be going with Pegasus as the new default game launcher. Their UI isnt the greatest, too. I wonder if it makes sense to ask for the same on their channels or stay with RetroPie.

matchaman

Slightly off-topic, I'll probably make a separate thread about it. But how awesome would something like that be? (skip to 1:37)

ballboff

@mitu said in All new RetroPie UI:

@mick Since you're referring about a for a new UI on Emulationstation - did you know it has a Grid view layout ? It's quite different from the carousel based layout that most themes are using and might be closer to the look you're envisioning.
The forum topic that started it all is here. Since it was - until recently - a beta feature, there aren't many themes created for this layout (there are links to some of the themes in the topic).

I second this. I use a neo geo classic theme on my build and it uses the grid view, and it's pretty awesome tbh.

hiulit

@mitu Is the GridView layout in the main EmulationStation repository?

mitu

@hiulit Yes, it's in the 2.8.x version series, released this February (the stable branch).

sergioad

@mick I also think Pegasus would be a great UI but with some RetroPie specific modifications like a built in scrapper

hiulit

@mitu Alright! And is there any specific way to enable it, or should the theme be the one that supports it?

mitu

@hiulit You need to have a theme that supports it and then switch to the gameview style from the ES UI options. Note that switching to grid view for a theme that doesn't support it (or the other way around) will crash ES.
You will have to switch both options at once in the UI options - theme and view type.

hiulit

@mitu Noted. Thanks ;)