runcommand launching images for ANY theme

[meleu]

cool examples 2

simple theme

32x

mame

nbba theme

game boy advance

fds

tronkyfran theme

fba

[meleu]

bad examples

tronkyfran theme

The background images from the tronkyfran theme are amazingly beautiful, they alone are good launching images, maybe I'll add an option to generate with no logo (UPDATE: it's already implemented, use the --no-logo option).

atari2600

clean-look theme

Maybe I'll add an option to put a background belt behind the logo...
UPDATE: the problem below can be avoided using the --logo-belt option.

turbografx

simple theme

the colors make some letters become invisible (UPDATE: you can avoid it using --loading-text-color and --press-button-text-color options).
neogeo

[synack]

very nice! may want to edit the OP to add the additional step of chmod a+x script for our less linux-familiar friends :-)

[meleu]

@lilbud said in runcommand launching images for Carbon theme:

@meleu Is there a way to choose color of background per system?

Yep, there's a way to do it, but I didn't implement it yet on my script. It's already in the TO-DO list. ;-)

[liquidzoo]

This is fantastic (and can be modified for user-installed themes that aren't in /etc). Any way to get it so that it will run over SSH? It wants to show me each splash, which is fantastic, but PuTTY doesn't display graphics, so the script ends for me (I think)

[meleu]

@liquidzoo said in runcommand launching images for ANY theme:

can be modified for user-installed themes that aren't in /etc

Do you mean the themes installed in $HOME/.emulationstation/themes? OK. I can do this.

Any way to get it so that it will run over SSH?

I think the only way to make it usable over SSH is adding a, let's say, --yes option. Where you accept every generated image with no confirmation. Is it enough for you? (Keep in mind that some images won't look so good, as you can see in the bad examples)

[liquidzoo]

@meleu said in runcommand launching images for ANY theme:

Do you mean the themes installed in $HOME/.emulationstation/themes? OK. I can do this.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean (I was able to modify my own copy for this, but I'd rather have it as an option if possible)

I think the only way to make it usable over SSH is adding a, let's say, --yes option. Where you accept every generated image with no confirmation. Is it enough for you? (Keep in mind that some images won't look so good, as you can see in the bad examples)

I think that would be acceptable. The bad examples I did see, and I can work on tweaking things on my end to help avoid that (I will look through the script to see which files are being used).

[lilbud]

@meleu I was thinking that the system color, would be the background, and the logo would be white

[meleu]

@lilbud could you show me an image as an example?

[meleu]

@liquidzoo Done and (partially) done.

The script now looks for themes in $HOME/.emulationstation/themes too.

And to use it over SSH you have to edit the script and set the yes_flag to true (I'm assuming you're comfortable to edit a script). I know it's ugly, I've made this way as a fast solution to make it usable for you. I'll polish the code later.

[liquidzoo]

Fantastic! And yes, I can edit the script myself, thanks for adding the option.

Looks like I need to make some modifications to my theme, though (or add in some sort of a background file). Right now I don't have a separate entry in my xml for a per-system background and it gave some errors. Going to look into it and see what I can come up with.

[meleu]

@liquidzoo is your theme available somewhere? I would like to know what's wrong.

or add in some sort of a background file

I'm planning to add an option to make the background as a solid color. It would be useful when there's no background image file.

Another problem is that my script currently looks for the data it needs in the [SYSTEM_THEME]/theme.xml, and if not find, it looks in the file that is <include>d in the theme.xml. I need to improve this searching method (e.g. the @mattrixk 's IO theme use yet another <include> inside the io/io.xml and my script is currently unable to look at it).

[lilbud]

@meleu

[liquidzoo]

Mine isn't anywhere to view yet. It's a homebrew combination of Carbon and nbba with a little added flair (it also has Genesis and TG16 rather than MegaDrive and PCEngine)

It does have a background defined in the overall theme.xml rather than the individual systems, but I don't know if the script is picking it up.

From the theme.xml (called test.xml):

	<image name="background" extra="true">
		<!---<tile>true</tile>--->
		<size>0 1</size>
		<pos>0.5 0.5</pos>
		<origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
		<path>./_art/whitehex.jpg</path>
	</image>

And the error:

WARNING: No background found for "snes" system.
The launching image for "snes" was NOT created.

Repeated for each system (though not every system I have ROMS in, for example it is not there for either PCEngine or TG16)

[meleu]

@lilbud I'm not sure if I convert any logo to a white version it will look good... Some logos has several colors. Example:

If the white logo is provided by the theme it's OK, but I'm not sure if applying a color to a logo would be cool...

[meleu]

	<image name="background" extra="true">
		<!---<tile>true</tile>--->
		<size>0 1</size>
		<pos>0.5 0.5</pos>
		<origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
		<path>./_art/whitehex.jpg</path>
	</image>

Good that you posted that code snippet! The problem is there!!

To get the XML data in my script I use a tool named xmlstarlet. This tool takes the XML Specification very seriously. :-)

According to the comments section of XML Specification: "the grammar does not allow a comment ending in --->". And the xmlstarlet doesn't recognize this string as closing comment string.

That's the why my script is unable to create images for the pixel theme. I've submitted a PR fixing it, but @Rookervik needs to approve it.

[liquidzoo]

@meleu

That fixed it, for sure. I deleted that comment and it worked, mostly.

Launching image for "fba" created with success!
Launching image for "fds" created with success!
Launching image for "gamegear" created with success!
Launching image for "gb" created with success!
Launching image for "gba" created with success!
Launching image for "gbc" created with success!
Launching image for "mastersystem" created with success!
Launching image for "megadrive" created with success!
Launching image for "n64" created with success!
Launching image for "neogeo" created with success!
Launching image for "nes" created with success!
Launching image for "pcengine" created with success!
Launching image for "ports" created with success!
Launching image for "psx" created with success!
Launching image for "sega32x" created with success!
Launching image for "segacd" created with success!
Launching image for "sg-1000" created with success!
Launching image for "snes" created with success!

Am I correct in thinking that it's only looking for the systems that have emulators installed, and even then only certain naming structures (megadrive over genesis, pcengine over tg16)?

[lilbud]

@meleu

[meleu]

@liquidzoo said in runcommand launching images for ANY theme:

Am I correct in thinking that it's only looking for the systems that have emulators installed, and even then only certain naming structures (megadrive over genesis, pcengine over tg16)?

It looks for the systems present in /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg and ignores retropie (for retropiemenu).

I don't know the trick to use genesis rather than megadrive...

[liquidzoo]

That makes sense to me, thanks.

The trick for using one naming convention over the other has to do with the platforms.cfg file (that doesn't exist normally), but the es_systems.cfg file still only has one valid <name> section per emulator. Makes sense as to why it's only doing certain ones.

Not a concern to me, but I know that emulationstation itself looks for ~/.emulationstation/ entries before those in /etc/emulationstation/ Just an idea for your next update.

Thank you for the great work! Now to tweak to make sure the text will show up on my background (thank you for including valid color names there! Huge help!)