MetaPixel - A New Emulationstation Theme

gomisensei

OK, narrowed it down somewhat, at least the white box part... I can get rid of the white box for a single game in the gamelist of any system by deleting the 'number of players' entry in it's metadata. The bottom left box labeled "players:" doesn't actually ever show anything, even if the players number is set in the metadata, except for the white box when ES becomes unstable, so I'm gonna assume it has something to do with that part of the xml.

gomisensei

and finally, found the problem... the art/font.ttf was corrupt, and the size of the md_players was causing crashes, and the white box. Replaced it with the one from pixel, and now everything works fine. YAY! Love this theme... now if it could be tiled.....

mattrixk

@gomisensei: That's some fantastic debugging. I've been having a bunch of family stuff going on, so I haven't had a chance to look into this. I wonder if other people have the same problem with the font...

There is a weekend coming up, so I'll spend some time to fix the font thing. I've had someone mention they didn't like the font much, so I was thinking of putting a couple of fonts in and letting the user choose which one they want. That way, if one font wasn't working for them, then they could choose a different one.

gomisensei

@mattrixk said in MetaPixel - A New Emulationstation Theme:

@gomisensei: That's some fantastic debugging. I've been having a bunch of family stuff going on, so I haven't had a chance to look into this. I wonder if other people have the same problem with the font...

There is a weekend coming up, so I'll spend some time to fix the font thing. I've had someone mention they didn't like the font much, so I was thinking of putting a couple of fonts in and letting the user choose which one they want. That way, if one font wasn't working for them, then they could choose a different one.

amazing how just a bad font can screw up a whole system... reminds me of an old xbox hack... The pixel font is slightly smaller, and different. I also tweaked the sizes of a few things to make them fit better, notably the MD_genre entry, which was truncated with a ..., i resized it slightly , and now it wraps better. I also added a md_played, cuz I love tracking such things, would probably stomp on a favorites icon, if i used the kid-friendly thingy.

I don't remember if i tweaked the size, or fontsize, but it def looks better to me

 <text name="md_genre">
       <pos>0.435 0.3</pos>
        <size>0.180 0.065</size>
        <fontSize>0.020</fontSize>
 </text>

CourierSS

If anyone is interested, I've modified the system descriptions to add more information, most of it based off of Wikipedia. I'm not sure if it's as aesthetically pleasing since the text now fills most of the available space below the carousel, but it's a bit more consistent in information. Each description has the generation the console belongs to, name of the creator, year of first release, an interesting (hopefully) information blurb, and total sales if available.

Examples:
SNES

32X

Game Boy Color

I also added the MSX system and the scroll sound from Rookervik's Carbon theme. To add this theme, extract the contents into a folder and place it into /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/themes . Alternatively, if you just want the descriptions without the scroller sound, go into the theme.xml files in each folder and copy and paste them.

Dropbox Folder: MetaPixel - Description Mod

CourierSS

I've added Amiga, Atari Lynx, Neo Geo, Neo Geo Pocket, and Neo Geo Pocket Color to my mod. Screenshots are sourced from Google Search.

Edit: Available in github via update

mattrixk

@CourierSS: The system data was originally taken from theGamesDB.net, but cut down to be more succinct. I'm pretty loaded down with work at the moment, but when I get the chance I'll add your folders into the theme.

Hah, I just saw you've used an image from Slime World for Atari Lynx. I used to have that game on MegaDrive. I rented it from a video store, but the store burnt down (it wasn't me) before I could return it. Ahh memories.

CourierSS

@mattrixk If that's the case, then I'll redo the screenshots. Some games don't have them available on GamesDB so I'll see if I can make some myself. And thanks for adding it to the theme!

mattrixk

@CourierSS

"Todd's Adventures in Slime World is a side-scrolling platform game first released for the Atari Lynx in 1990, with Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, and PC Engine CD versions following in 1992." - wikipedia

No need to change the sreenshot, as it was on both Lynx and MegaDrive.

My "Hah" at the beginning of the sentence was because the image of the game brought back some fun/interesting memories.

CourierSS

@mattrixk

At first I wasn't sure if it was alright to take images from Google, so that's why I thought I should redo the screenshots. I tried Slime World just now while I was taking a screenshot and I have to say it's pretty interesting.

So now I have replaced screenshots for MSX, Neo Geo, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Amiga, Sega SG-1000, and Atari Lynx. They're from my screenshots, theGamesDB, or MobyGames.

Edit: Available in github via update

CourierSS

I've added the Atari 8-bit family of computers (Atari 800), Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, and Atari ST. I've also made slight edits to descriptions of various systems.

Edit: Available in github via update

CourierSS

I've added Daphne, Game & Watch, Virtual Boy, WonderSwan, and WanderSwan Color.

For the Game & Watch, there are two versions of each screenshot in the folder. The default is just the gameplay screenshot while the other version includes the gameplay with the handheld. I wasn't sure which one people would like and it seemed like the version with the handheld in it clashed with the theme which is why the gameplay one is the default. On the other hand, the design of the cases feels pretty important to the nostalgia of the handhelds, hence the second version. The third screenshot is a gif comparison between the two versions.

Edit: Available in github via update

Screenshots:

Daphne

Virtual Boy

Game & Watch

mattrixk

@CourierSS: I must say, the work you are putting into this is mighty impressive. I really need to pull my thumb out and start adding all this great stuff to the theme so other people can benefit from your input.

CourierSS

@mattrixk
Well I was impressed by the theme you created. Originally I was just editing some text for the system descriptions but then I started adding a system, and after a while I figured that I can make a contribution back to the community by making available the files that I had while making some more. Although creating these do take quite a bit of time, I learned quite a bit about systems and games that I've never played before and the process is fun in its own way, so it's pretty cool in the end.

detron

I really love this theme, I have had some minor issues that took me back to the standard pixel theme, but I am a huge fan, and regret that I had to switch back to Pixel (which is great too)

my issues were funny things like exiting a game, and then the theme seems to have "zoomed in" and only shows like 70% of the content, but using 100% of the screen (zoomed in)

the other is some times when I would flip through the systems, it would catch and show 1/3 of the previous system, and 2/3's of the system I am on.
so while on Game boy advance, the screen would show the right 1/3 of the Gameboy screen on the left of my tv, and the remaining right 2/3s would contain the left 2/3s portion of the GBA screen.
I did not photograph this, (hind sight I realize that was a missed opportunity.
I do not know if I am explaining that well enough or not, but it was as if the "flip" from system to system (when in the game view list) got off by 33%

robertybob

@detron What aspect ratio is your TV? 4:3? 16:9?

dankcushions

@detron said in MetaPixel - A New Emulationstation Theme:

I really love this theme, I have had some minor issues that took me back to the standard pixel theme, but I am a huge fan, and regret that I had to switch back to Pixel (which is great too)

my issues were funny things like exiting a game, and then the theme seems to have "zoomed in" and only shows like 70% of the content, but using 100% of the screen (zoomed in)

the other is some times when I would flip through the systems, it would catch and show 1/3 of the previous system, and 2/3's of the system I am on.
so while on Game boy advance, the screen would show the right 1/3 of the Gameboy screen on the left of my tv, and the remaining right 2/3s would contain the left 2/3s portion of the GBA screen.
I did not photograph this, (hind sight I realize that was a missed opportunity.
I do not know if I am explaining that well enough or not, but it was as if the "flip" from system to system (when in the game view list) got off by 33%

i'm fairly sure this isn't a theme-specific issue, but a general ES issue. i think if you start a game during the 'animation' of sliding between systems you can sometimes (all the time?) mess up the alignment of es and everything is all screwy. i've had what sounds like the same issue in regular pixel. if you go into a game and come out again, or restart ES, it goes back to normal.

Rion

@CourierSS I would like to make some requests.

Amstrad CPC
Apple II
Coco
Colecovision
Commodore 64
Famicom Disk System
Macintosh
MESS
Oric
PC (Dosbox)
Sam Coupe
TI-99/4A
TRS 80
VideoPac / Odyssey 2
Zmachine
ZX Spectrum

I know this is a lot and any system you find the time to make is more then enough.

detron

@robertybob it is a 16:9

detron

@dankcushions said in MetaPixel - A New Emulationstation Theme:

@detron said in MetaPixel - A New Emulationstation Theme:

I really love this theme, I have had some minor issues that took me back to the standard pixel theme, but I am a huge fan, and regret that I had to switch back to Pixel (which is great too)

my issues were funny things like exiting a game, and then the theme seems to have "zoomed in" and only shows like 70% of the content, but using 100% of the screen (zoomed in)

the other is some times when I would flip through the systems, it would catch and show 1/3 of the previous system, and 2/3's of the system I am on.
so while on Game boy advance, the screen would show the right 1/3 of the Gameboy screen on the left of my tv, and the remaining right 2/3s would contain the left 2/3s portion of the GBA screen.
I did not photograph this, (hind sight I realize that was a missed opportunity.
I do not know if I am explaining that well enough or not, but it was as if the "flip" from system to system (when in the game view list) got off by 33%

i'm fairly sure this isn't a theme-specific issue, but a general ES issue. i think if you start a game during the 'animation' of sliding between systems you can sometimes (all the time?) mess up the alignment of es and everything is all screwy. i've had what sounds like the same issue in regular pixel. if you go into a game and come out again, or restart ES, it goes back to normal.

that is Great News, I will switch back! I love it