Video View For All Themes

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo I haven't made any changes to support the <version> tags yet :) But when/if that change is made the use of the tags will be purely optional: if you want to support non-video ES then you can use the tags, if you don't want to support non-video ES then you can leave them out.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows And what happen when apart from video view you use things like this (from carbon with video support):

<view name="basic, detailed, video">

I use it on my theme too, and don't remember but in pixel theme uses it too...

I suposse we need to divide the views to make it backward compatible and place the version tag...

Anyway i think your solution it's the best one for all...

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo said in Video View For All Themes:

@fieldofcows And what happen when apart from video view you use things like this (from carbon with video support):

<view name="basic, detailed, video">

I believe that is already ignored by the non-video ES.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Yeah I imagine that, we need to separate views in order to place the "version" tag. It's a little bit more work but that way we can have the compatibility we are looking for...

[Nismo]

So I think if finally we use the "version" workaround, the themes uploaded to github must be backward compatible so no problems for anybody...

[fieldofcows]

I've made the change to my ES to support the <version> tag to try it out and it works fine. I've set the current version of the theme to '4' whereas the non-video ES uses version '3'. This means this code works on the video supported ES (with my fix which is currently not in the RetroPie fork) but is ignored on older versions of ES:

<version minimum="4">
   [video config]
</version>

What does everyone else think of this solution? Is it the right way to fix this?

[lilbud]

@fieldofcows I'm thinking this would be the right way. Having to add video support to 80+ systems is not the way I'd imagne spending an afternoon.

[herb_fargus]

@fieldofcows looks like the best option to me. I suppose if grid view is ever incorporated this will be a solution for that too.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows I'm not totally sure but version 4 is not for kids support?

[mattrixk]

@fieldofcows Any theme that supports @Zigurana's child-friendly icons also needs to be version 4. Does that mean those themes also need to support video previews?

Edit: Hehe, @Nismo beat me to it by 30 seconds.

[Nismo]

@mattrixk lol, yes @fieldofcows commit must be changed to version 5...

And for me, yes it's the right way...

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo said in Video View For All Themes:

@fieldofcows I'm not totally sure but version 4 is not for kids support?

Well, this is the problem with multiple ES forks. The RetroPie fork is still on version 3:

https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation/blob/master/es-core/src/ThemeData.cpp#L98

This would naturally go up to 4 to support this change. However, if there are themes out there for a different fork then it is going to cause problems...

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Yes, it's a mess... but I'm still thinking it's the best way to solve the issue...

[fieldofcows]

Another thought. Instead of checking version numbers we could use something like this:

<feature supported="video">
  [configuration if ES supports video]
</feature>

<feature supported="grid">
  [configuration if ES supports grid]
</feature>

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Omg you are a genius, that's totally amazing...

Will that thing cause troubles with older versions of ES?

[herb_fargus]

@Nismo I agree, I think it makes more sense with all the forks...

[fieldofcows]

@Nismo said in Video View For All Themes:

@fieldofcows Omg you are a genius, that's totally amazing...

Will that thing cause troubles with older versions of ES?

No, it won't cause trouble with older versions. Ok, I'll make it so.

[herb_fargus]

As an aside at some point it might be good to add the theming docs for video view to the GitHub themes.md

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows Yes, I think that's better than the version thing because can be compatible between different forks and doesn't interfere with child icons.

[Nismo]

@fieldofcows I forgot to ask to you, will be that tag mandatory or optional if you make the commit?

I think it will be mandatory for backwards compatibility... but optional for non backwards compatibility.