Carbon Theme Suggestions

Rookervik

Eh, this stuff looks crappy. I need to replace the old icon frame that the original Carbon had. And SVG loading is SLOOOOW on Pi. Poor little thing. A SVG version of one of these icons weighs in at 97kb and takes a full 1 second to load. A PNG version of the icon weighs in at 20kb and loads instantly.

Makes me wonder if I should just replace all of the SVGs in the theme with PNGs and see if that speeds up the theme. I know Pixel uses no SVGs at all, and it's the fastest theme I've ever used. Luminous and Carbon have almost exclusively SVG and they're quite slow. Hmmm....

Update: Yeah, adding the frame again helps. File was already in there. Must have been removed when I changed all of the meta data position.

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Rookervik

Maybe some love for the non-scraped basic view? SVGs may cause memory issues with this. I'd have to test it.

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Belowstupid

This post is deleted!

sc0tt88

I'd really like to upgrade to the newest carbon theme, a lot of the screenshots here look way better than the one on my pi. However...

Would you be able to add more custom logos for other systems? TG16, Supergrafx, Genesis hacks, Snes hacks?

When is it ready? Love the colour changes.

Also... I just updated and not sure if it's the latest version you mention here? But the "Released:" and "Genre:" and "Developer:" etc are left aligned which looks a bit odd. It would look better right aligned so that the colons are aligned

Rookervik

Turbo Grafix 16 is already included. You change to it the same way you get Mega Drive to switch to Genesis.

As for other logos, once they are added to the official RetroPie distribution, I make logos for them.

You're the only person to ever ask for hack categories. If there are large amounts of people needing additional sections like that, we can think about adding them.

Right aligning the categories will greatly reduce the amount of room available for actual meta data.

sc0tt88

I'm talking about right aligning "Released:" and "Genre:" etc in their own box, and then the date and the genre next to that. Not much space is needed for a small date and the name of a genre? You have the description underneath

And sorry, I meant Super Grafx and TG16 CD

Rookervik

@sc0tt88 Jump in a graphics editor and show me what you're talking about. I got them all squished in as much as possible to leave room for Description. You also need room for Kid-Friendly icons. Those don't show up without Kid-Friendly ES installed.

Supergrafx, I've not heard of it. TG16-CD is really popular so I might go ahead and make a theme for it. It won't be added to official RetroPie distribution, but at least it can have a theme and people can create a category for it.

Ah, Supergrafx, 7 game were created for it. Doesn't sound like it needs a theme. Even 32x had more games than that :P It did play older PC Engine games as well. So it was more like Genesis 2 than a console of its own. (But the same can be said of 32x... but at least it had some 30+ games)

sc0tt88

http://i68.tinypic.com/vv1p2.jpg

I just chopped it around in photoshop, couldn't explain it any other way

Yeah I suppose I could cope without those 7 games... Just a suggestion!

I found the colour change thing by the way haha

Rookervik

Wow, it's really spaced out on your screen. Are you using 1920x1080? It does look pretty strange. Doesn't look like that on my screen. And if you have that much room for meta data, it would look better lined up. I'll see if I can line them up. Moving meta data takes enormous amounts of time... each one is pinned differently inside ES. You can't just go in and say "Ok, all of them have to start at 0.5 x" and then whatever Y... they won't line up.

I'm looking for a PCEngine CD logo but it appears it doesn't have one. TG16CD has a logo. (Only thinking about adding TG16CD to the theme because so many people have asked.)

sc0tt88

Ah it's probably the screen I'm using then? I'm not sure what resolution but it's a wide screen.

Yeah TG16CD is the one. I have a custom one, but copying the folder over overwrites your theme and makes that system look like the old version... Would like them all up to date!

Rookervik

@sc0tt88 I'm working on the PCEngine CD logo right now. They don't have a special logo saying PCECD, it's just CD-ROM2 so I'm on that at the moment. Using a grid to make sure it's clean.

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sc0tt88

The only games I have are for "TG16 CD". Google image search that in quotes and there's a few logos for that one

Rookervik

@sc0tt88 Yes, TGCD is very easy to find. I'm done with both. PC Engine CD is just "CD-ROM2" so that's what it will say. Might tuck in the PC Engine logo next to it so you know WTF it's talking about. LOL.

For controllers... they both use the base system controller, so I don't have to re-draw them. Just re-use them.

Rookervik

Ok, think I got them. "tg-cd" and "pce-cd"

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Rookervik

And Super Grafx even though it's a glorified PC Engine. Now, the REAL problem... there are FAR too many folders in themes now. 85 systems, and a global art folder. That's just... ridiculous.

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I guess I should start working on Genesis 2 and 3 and CDX and Nomad systems. Except... yeah, they all use the same controllers, too. LOL. (to be fair, Genesis 1 used 3 button and Genesis 2 had the 6 button)

sc0tt88

Awesome, thanks! What's wrong with too many? :D

Rookervik

It's just real hard for themers to make complete themes with so many systems. When was the last time you created 160+ graphics for a theme? LOL Granted, some were skipped if I was able to find a svg online. Tho most I could not.

monstermadeofman

@Rookervik
Sorry I'm completely new to all of this and I'm struggling with editing the XML files properly. I pretty much just want to change the colour palette of carbon. Like the colours of the controller outlines, red line along the bottom. and the red line along the top in the game select screen.

Also changing the font?

I'm sorry to post this here but I didn't want to start a new thread for something so mundane and I apologise profusely if this is an inconvenience

mattrixk

@monstermadeofman

Fonts

You can change the font by adding a new .ttf font file to the art folder, then doing a find/replace for "Cabin-Bold.ttf" to replace Cabin-Bold with your own font.
Or you could delete Cabin-Bold.ttf from the artfolder, place your new .ttf there and rename it to Cabin-Bold.ttf. This way seems like cheating though.

Controller Overlay Colour
carbon.xmlhas the following chunk of code within <view name="system">:

<image name="ControllerOverlay" extra="true">
    <color>8b0000</color>
</image>

This controls the colour of the controller outline on the System View. Change this value to any Hex Colour Code you like. Do the same to <image name="CenterFade" extra="true"> and <image name="BottomBar" extra="true"> to change the colours of the glow around the Carousel and the bottom bar respectively.

Note that these 2 have 8 digits instead of 6. The last 2 digits dictate the opacity of the Element.

To change the Bottom and Top colours on the Basic and Detailed Views, change the <color> values of <image name="bottom" extra="true"> and <image name="top" extra="true"> (they are at the bottom of carbon.xml).

I hope this answers your questions. If you have any other questions, I just completed a theme tutorial. It's up on the wiki now if you want to check it out. It should give you a grounding in theme building.

monstermadeofman

@mattrixk

Thank you so much :)

I'm currently at work so I couldn't watch the video haha.

So kind of you man :)