GAME COLLECTIONS SETTINGS Custom-COLLECTIONS HELP.

shavecat

@thelostsoul
yeha u right , i got it now with new names...
thanks

thelostsoul

@shavecat Glad it helped. Just a sidenote here why this works. Some themes have support for specific custom collections. These are in example the one you can create through the menu. These are not supported by all themes and every theme can support different of these. If they are supported, they will be shown on the main system menu frontend and if not, it goes to the list. Now, these are only supported for specific named collections, in example "custom-arcade.cfg".

Hopefully this isn't too confusing, as my explanation skills aren't good. I hope this background knowledge will help you in the future how to deal with this stuff.

ByteThis

@thelostsoul said in GAME COLLECTIONS SETTINGS Custom-COLLECTIONS HELP.:

@shavecat Its not 100% to me what you trying to do. I explain how I add custom collections. After adding the file, you need to enable it.

Open the folder structures of your sd card through file manager in Linux or Windows. This can be done via SAMBA network or by a sd card reader. Go to the custom collections folder.

Create a new text file with the extension .cfg.

Name the file with the following scheme: custom-YOURTITLE.cfg. The "custom-" part in front of it is important. "YOURTITLE" can be anything you want. And as said, the file needs to end with ".cfg".

Now leave the file empty and restart Emulationstation or RetroPie as a whole.

Open your RetroPie menu with START-button and go to menu entry GAME COLLECTION SETTINGS > CUSTOM GAME COLLECTIONS and find your newly added collection.

Enable it and restart Emulationstation.

Done.

Now you can use it in RetroPie like the other custom collections and add games to it. This sounds terribly complicated, but I am always connected through SAMBA and i have directly access to the folders on my PC through network. And the whole operation does not take longer then 2 minutes.

If you want, you can copy the content of all custom collections into single file. Just go to that folder again and open those files. Copy those lines, which represents the game entries, to your new collection. Don't forget to restart Emulation after any change.

That's an awesome tip ! Thanks.

zefolhadela

@thelostsoul do u know how to put images to the custom collections? i past all day trying to figure that out and nothing

ExarKunIv

@zefolhadela if you are talking about the image on the main screen for ES. you have to make your own.

unless the maker of the theme already has one made for that collection. otherwise it will just come up as black words.

thelostsoul

@zefolhadela As far as I know custom-collections do not support images. They only include path to the games itself. As @ExarKunIv said, some EmulationStation themes recognize specific custom collections by name and have created separate "systems" like the SNES or NEO GEO. So either your theme support this collection or does not. You can create your own, if you know how (I never did that).

I am curious if there is a setting for the general collections list view in the main menu. Maybe ES allows for customizing it like a system, but I do not know.

zefolhadela

@ExarKunIv I just discover how to do it now, my bad.
https://github.com/JungleJim42/es-theme-collections
this provides some help.
Basically i was putting the folder in themes with the same name as the .cfg (ex: custom-test).

To make this work the Collection .cfg in .emulationstation\collections should be custom-NAME

and

The Theme .emulationstation\themes (create the folder if u didnt have one) copy existing theme that u want to customize from Theme folder in /etc/emulationstation/themes to the new folder that u just created, then the new folder should have the name of the collection "NAME" and not the full .cfg name "custom-NAME"

Edit: u can copy the .xml from other collection then just tweak it

it is actually super ez

zefolhadela

@thelostsoul thanks, i think i figure out, ES could have a setting to edit collections at any time so u can change name or at least add more games without need to do it in .cfg file, that would be a great QoL update.

thelostsoul

@zefolhadela Definetely agree. I have a collection with all arcade games under one hood, ranging from neogeo, arcade folder and all mame folders. Some themes support it and some don't. As for this:

or at least add more games without need to do it in .cfg file

You can, its supported in ES GUI itself. Go to the collection in RetroPie menue and open options menu with button "Select". Choose "Add/Remove Games to this Game Collection". Now this collections is "open" right now and every game you add with the "Favorite" button "Y" will add the games to this collection instead to Favorite. If you are done editing (deleting is supported as well) open menu again and choose "Finish Editing". Do not forget to restart EmulationStation, so this setting is saved to disk.

zefolhadela

@thelostsoul Omg thanks, i didn't have seen that! Thats great!

zefolhadela

@thelostsoul btw i just figured out how to add images for the themes without images in automatic collections, it is the same as i explain in the comment but the names need to be "auto-lastplayed", "auto-favorites" and "auto-allgames".
Just in case someone have same issue as me