Video Preview in EmulationStation

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo said in Video Preview in EmulationStation:

The preview image... it's works for me on mame ( I started working on mame theme), but i have mixed images so the result it's very bad. Metadata saving is turned on since you fixed in this build.

Can you explain what you mean by 'mixed images'? - it might help me find the problem. Thanks.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows There is no problem, simply the image doesn't fit the screen and looks ugly but it's because the image itself.

This is mixed image:

A lot of people uses Universal XML scraper so has the images like mine.

Anyway the preview issue seems working, need to test but I notice that I loose a lot of changes in the theme, I don't know how. So you get 5 out of 6, nice score!.

OMG!!! I found the error and know I know why I lost the images and marquees on megadrive system. I did another scrape for downloading 3d box art and didn't notice the filename was wrong in all images because the suffix "-image". That's because not showing marquees in megadrive system!! I'm a fool!!!

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Ok finally can confirm that all your fixes are working except for the sound issue at exit emulationstation.

Anyway I'll upload a video for you so you can see the result of previews in theme. It'so ugly because I need to use md_image for cartridges or 3d boxes and marquees for wheel art (on console system, not mame).

I prefer a "md_no_video" default video for non video roms. But it's only an opinion. Anyway you did a lot of work and i thank you.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Here you have video preview and download link for the theme (only mame and megadrive-genesis at the moment):

Download:http://www.mediafire.com/file/8citsedr7cafagl/oldroom_beta.zip

Preview video:

Mame videos still my old not-very-good quality videos you can notice.

I hope you enjoy the theme. I whould like to add rating and times played at bottom.. maybe.. not too much place.

Forgot to say that I edited my post about the fixes to say that image preview is working.

What about to see black screen until the game start? it's not possible?

Regards.

[GtBFilms]

@Nismo That looks absolutely fantastic!

Thanks for all you guys work on this, the technicalities of whih are way over my head, but I can certainly appreciate the end result!

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo That looks really fantastic! I see what you mean about the preview image though.

I can see a couple of options for fixing this:

1. Add a new field to gamelist.xml specifically for static in-game images. This can then be used as the preview image when a video is loading or if no video exists, separate to the boxart image
2. Enhance the <video> tags in the gamelist to support static image files as well as video files so you can have one or the other
3. Add a video with md_no_video tag in the theme for games with no video (like you suggest)

I think in any case, if a preview image is displayed that is then replaced with a video there should be a nice fade between them rather than a jump.

Looking good though:D

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows preview an image and then replace it with a video is not more resource demanding? it looks very nice before anyway...

I don't care because I'm on windows but I don't know how good can achieve this a raspberry pi.

I vote for 3. Add a video with md_no_video tag in the theme for games with no video. XD

I can add something like this for games without video (but without annoying sound of course):

Or this one:

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows I'm thinking on since we can display md_video and md_image at the same time, you can do the same than preview image for video by using md_image and place it in the same place than the video without the "extra flag" and obtain the same result than the image preview for video you hardcoded on Issue #3, but with the advantage that people can use it in their themes only if they need it.

So reverting issue 3 means that people are not forced to show the image preview in their themes if they doesn't want to, but still can be do it easily if they want it in their theme.

Also I think it's less resource demanding because the way I say emulationstation doesn't need to do the same operation twice (like in my theme).

So I vote for revert Issue #3 commit for better theming possibilities and performance . It's just my humble opinion of course...

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Sorry mate but Issue #7 is not fixed. I was thinking it was fixed because I enable "save metadata on exit" option and the relative paths still in my gamelist, but I was wrong, simply my paths where untouched because even with the option enabled, emulationstation doesn't save on exit.

Sorry for didn't notice before, but i was working on themes and was too late.

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo So what you're seeing is your relative paths being replaced with full paths in the gamelist? If so then I don't think that's anything I've done. I think it's preexisting. It also happens with image paths.

I'll have a look at fixing it anyway.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows No, I'm saying that "save metadata on exit" isn't working, doesn't save anything.

Before it was working, but the issue was that it overwrites videos and marquees relative paths with absolute paths when saving metadata on exit.

Now it doesn't work so that was my confusion, I was thinking that now was working because with "save metadata on exit" enabled the relative paths still ok, but i was wrong, relative paths are ok but even with "save metadata on exit" enabled emulationstation doesn't save anything.

I hope you understand to me now, sorry but my english is not very good.

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo Hmm... The metadata saves fine for me (and the relative paths are switched to full paths). Have you had a look in the log file to see if there are any errors?

Your English is excellent by the way.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows give me one minute to see log.

I have some questions.. Have you read my comment about reverting issue 3? what do you think?

And what about annoying go to desktop when loading games? can be fixed? Do you need a video to see what I mean?

Thanks for you patience.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Ok I deleted old log file, open emulation station, save metadata on exit is enabled, edit the name of one game, i can see the changes inside emulationstation, exit.

Here the log:

lvl2: EmulationStation - v2.0.1a, built Nov 16 2016 - 22:29:20
lvl2: Creating surface...
lvl2: Created window successfully.
lvl2: Added known joystick XInput Controller #1 (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
lvl2: Checking available OpenGL extensions...
lvl2: ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: ok
lvl2: Loading system config file P://.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg...
lvl2: Parsing XML file "P://.emulationstation/gamelists/sega32x/gamelist.xml"...
lvl2: Parsing XML file "P://.emulationstation/gamelists/atari2600/gamelist.xml"...
lvl2: req sound [video.menuOpen]
lvl2: (missing)
lvl1: OptionListComponent too narrow!
lvl1: OptionListComponent too narrow!

Now I open emulationstation again and my changes are gone, and the gamelist.xml file is untouched.

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo It should end with

lvl2: EmulationStation cleanly shutting down.

So this indicates it is not exiting cleanly. Try running it with:

emulationstation --debug

and see if you get any more entries in the log to show what is going on.

Also, have a look in the Windows event viewer at "Windows Logs->Application" and see if there are any errors where the source column is "Application error" for emulationstation.exe. If there is then give me the text in the 'general' box. E.g.

Faulting application name: emulationstation.exe, version: 2.0.1.0, time stamp: 0x5823b9dd
Faulting module name: libvlccore.dll, version: 2.2.0.0, time stamp: 0x38a93891
Exception code: 0xc0000005

Regarding issue 3 - I can certainly revert it for now and build you a new version.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Thanks for the tips, i'll take a look right now.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Ok I repeat the same steps than before with debug option enabled, the log is very similar than before, but now on exit i have force close:

lvl2: EmulationStation - v2.0.1a, built Nov 16 2016 - 22:29:20
lvl2: Creating surface...
lvl2: Created window successfully.
lvl2: Added known joystick XInput Controller #1 (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
lvl2: Checking available OpenGL extensions...
lvl2: ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: ok
lvl2: Loading system config file P://.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg...
lvl2: Parsing XML file "P://.emulationstation/gamelists/atari2600/gamelist.xml"...
lvl2: req sound [video.menuOpen]
lvl2: (missing)
lvl1: OptionListComponent too narrow!
lvl1: OptionListComponent too narrow!
lvl2: req sound [video.menuOpen]
lvl2: (missing)
lvl1: OptionListComponent too narrow!
lvl1: OptionListComponent too narrow!

Now i'll see windows log.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Windows log:

Nombre de la aplicación con errores: emulationstation.exe, versión: 2.0.1.0, marca de tiempo: 0x582cf386
Nombre del módulo con errores: ucrtbase.dll, versión: 10.0.14393.0, marca de tiempo: 0x57898db2
Código de excepción: 0xc0000409
Desplazamiento de errores: 0x000891cb
Identificador del proceso con errores: 0x6084
Hora de inicio de la aplicación con errores: 0x01d2411eba035dc9
Ruta de acceso de la aplicación con errores: P:\emulationstation.exe
Ruta de acceso del módulo con errores: C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll
Identificador del informe: fbb3ce93-59f0-4caa-aa8a-635b70120108
Nombre completo del paquete con errores:
Identificador de aplicación relativa del paquete con errores:

If you need translation to english tell me.

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo No need to translate thanks. That's a stack corruption bug. It's going to be hard to find without reproducing it here. Does this still happen if you remove the video from the theme?

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows ok i'll remove the videos, one minute.