Scanlines on the menu (Emulationstation)

Deniss_K

@janderclander14
This is what I'm looking now. I tried to learn from the great guides provided on this site, but I still have almost zero knowledge in .xml and linux .. Theoretically, somewhere (unfortunately, not in theme.xml) should be a rows of code describing subtitle position and font of subtitle (game name and platform), and all what we need is just add couple of rows there.
It already was discussed In 2017 https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/12912/idea-for-video-screensaver-in-emulation-station-overlay-art with no result.
I will be very grateful if someone can help. I just one step away from my dream arcade..

Clyde

@Deniss_K said in Scanlines on the menu (Emulationstation):

Happy to help )
Let me know if you need scanlines.png in specific resolution.

Actually, you incidentally used 1600x1200 for your initial png, which is the native resolution of my arcade cabinet. Additionally, you used Comic Book like I do. 😉

That said, could you make two more versions in 1600x1200, one without the monitor frame and one without the inner (grey) frame? In Comic Book 4:3, the full frame covers too much of the theme in the corners in my opinion.

One curious thing I noticed is that only the Retropie menu has no scanlines. Can you confirm this?

Finally, I second @janderclander14's request for screensaver scanlines. 😇

Thank you again for your work!

Deniss_K

@Clyde Thank you for your feedback!
1600x1200 is the native resolution of my arcade cabinet as well. 😉
Menu, loading screens and video screensavers have no scanlines.
My apologies for quality of scanlines without the inner (grey) frame : this gray shadow is the part of original image I used, and I can not find any image source without this shadow. So I deleted the shadow manually but not pleased with the result.

scanlines 50% 1600x1200.png
scanlines 50% no gray frame.png

Deniss_K

@Clyde To improve the crt effect, and avoid that the frame covers too much of the theme in the corners, theme can be reworked using Distortion Correction filter in Photoshop. The results can be very impresive:

Clyde

@Deniss_K Wow, the reworked theme really looks very impressive!

Thank you for the two new versions. You may think about making a githup repo easy management of multiple versions and also easy download via git clone https://github/username/reponame. 💡

Deniss_K

@Clyde Thank you for the advice. Link to repo added to the first post as well.
https://github.com/ArcadeAtHomeUK/ArcadeAtHomeUK.github.io

Deniss_K

@Clyde I have fully reworked ComicBook_4-3 theme: imitation of CRT curvature and scanlines added (distortion added to all backgrounds; scanlines (on menu and carousel) enabled); optimized for 1600x1200.
I will try to upload it on repo later.

WeirdH

@Deniss_K Hey, little off-topic question, but how do you get the game logo above the video snap? Or is that baked into the comic book theme?

alt text

Clyde

@WeirdH It's part of the theme and is displayed when there's marquee artwork present. See https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Creating-Your-Own-EmulationStation-Theme/#about-emulationstation-views (video view -> md_marquee) for details.

Clyde

@WeirdH For example, look at the file /etc/emulationstation/themes/ComicBook_4-3/arcade/theme.xml. In there, this part places the image from the scraped marquee:

		<image name="md_marquee">
			<pos>0.7 0.086</pos>
			<origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
			<maxSize>0.2 0.1</maxSize>
		</image>

As I understand it, the images' file paths are taken from the <marquee> entries in the system's gamelist.xml.

WeirdH

@Clyde Cool, thanks. I will play around with it and see what I can accomplish.

Clyde

@WeirdH Beware that the home consoles don't display the marquees in the Comic Book theme, only the arcade systems do (including Capcom). If you want the home consoles to display the marquees too, you'll have to edit their theme.xml accordingly.

WeirdH

@Clyde Figured it out, looks awesome. Thanks for the pointers. Now I will stop convoluting this thread, which is about equally awesome scanlines.

Deniss_K

@Clyde Another off-topic question: what image size/resolution/format/compression/colour format is recommended for themes on raspberry pi 3+?
I have reworked two themes - ComicBook_4-3, (distortion effect and customizable scanlines added to all backgrounds) and Retrorama (converted to 4:3 resolution), but both are laggy and suffering from black screens and flickering in 1600x1200 resolution (jpg, any compression). Is there any chance to make it working without reducing resolution?

WeirdH

@Deniss_K Well, wouldn't you know... I have been tinkering with a theme over the past weekend and also ran into this. 1600x1200 is the maximum resolution on the screen in my cab, so I tried that.

It looked super crisp, but RetroPie got very unreliable: sometimes giving a black screen, sometimes just locking up in the games list. Even scrolling and exiting a game were more sluggish. Upping the VRAM limit also did little to remedy anything. I figured that it's just too taxing for the 3B+. I put everything down to 1280x960 and it runs like a dream. I might try 1440x1080 later to compare.

Clyde

@Deniss_K said in Scanlines on the menu (Emulationstation):

@Clyde Another off-topic question: what image size/resolution/format/compression/colour format is recommended for themes on raspberry pi 3+?

Alas, I have no experience in this matter.

Sanctus

@Deniss_K said in Scanlines on the menu (Emulationstation):

https://github.com/ArcadeAtHomeUK/ArcadeAtHomeUK.github.io

Hi! I am using Batocera, just because it was the first i started to use, i miss the scanlines in all in the themes too and also on the screensaver videos. However i started to follow your instructions and i couldnt understand this on the folder structure of the Batocera Themes... someone please give me a hint?

Clyde

@Sanctus Alas, I don't know Batocera or its directory tree at all. Maybe you should ask this at the Batocera forums with reference to this thread. I guess you are the Sanctus over there, too?