Old TV Theme Idea

Capeman

@mattrixk Waiiit a minute, i think i just answered my own question. Im guessing it's the tag you associate it with inside the gamelist.xml for each system right?

<image> in gamelist.xml is pulled by 'md_image' in the theme.xml
<video> in gamelist.xml would be 'md_video'

so in theory i could make anything work like this
<logo> would be 'md_logo'
<marquee> would be 'md_marquee'
<sprite> would be 'md_sprite' (if i wanted to make a little mario or mega man standing on top the tv, for example)

I could pull like 10 elements per game if all of the tags exist in the gamelist. Obviously none of my custom variables could be scraped, but i do everything manually anyway.

Im i right on that one or is there a list of set variables somewhere? This is my first theme, but i have a really good understanding of this kind of coding syntax and layout since i do this kind of stuff for web layout at my 9 to 5.

mattrixk

@Capeman Originally it was just the <image> tag along with all the metadata. Now with the new Video Preview functionality it also includes new <video> and <marquee> tags, but that's it.

It would be great if we could just add in whatever tags we want to the gamelist (<fanart>, <screenshot>, <logo>, etc) but unfortunately it doesn't work that way. You would need a programmer to change the way ES works to get that to happen.

Luckily, there are some awesome forum members working towards fixing the way filtering and tagging works, and that might be something on their to-do list.

When I mentioned putting the logo artwork in, I was thinking about making a MIX image with the Universal XML Scraper. You could set it up to scrape the video into the <video> tag, screenshot into the <image> tag and then scrape the boxart and logo into a single MIX image into the <marquee> tag.

Also: Web Developers unite!

Roxsteady

Dude this looks great. I am running a Pi Zero in an NES cart, so it probably couldnt handle this theme but this would be perfect for my next Pi3 build Great look man!

**Scannigan**

Have you checked out @Nismo theme, very similar

edmaul69

@Roxsteady you should be able to handle this just fine with a pi zero

Capeman

@__Scannigan__ that's a pretty cool theme, I'll make sure to make mine different enough to not repeat efforts

Capeman

OK, here's a question.

I'm thinking of using the marquee tag to add a small sprite character from the current game on the bottom right of the tv... Will ES theming support animated gifs if loaded with the marquee tag? It would be cool to load the megaman walk cycle or simon belmont whipping in the corner.

tronkyfran

Thats VERY nice! keep going!!!

Kamakiri

Looking forward to your theme!

mattrixk

@Capeman I don't know, but my gut says probably not. Would you want the same sprite for every game in a system, or a different sprite for each game?

Capeman

@mattrixk I was thinking of using the marquee tag to load a custom one per game, it'd take a while to make them, but it would be cool looking when done. Also some games could have still PNGs instead.

mattrixk

@Capeman Hmm. It's an interesting idea, but I don't know how well it would work in practice. You would have to create an image for each game, then add the <marquee> tag for each game to your gamelist.xml for each system. Then if someone else wanted to use your theme, they would also need to manually add each <marquee> tag to each game for each system. It's a lot of work, both for you and for whoever wants to use your theme.

An idea: You could have a couple of sprites as part of the background image (the TV and desk and what-not) for each system. Eg: for the NES you could have an old TV sitting on the desk, with Mario on top of the TV jumping up and breaking a block, while Samus and MegaMan are having a shootout on the table in front of the TV and some Ninja Turtles are climbing down the side.

HurricaneFan

@Capeman ES doesn't support animated gifs.

HurricaneFan

@Capeman this is sort of similar to Old Room Theme that Nismo is working on.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/8019/oldroom-theme-w-i-p-media-packs

HurricaneFan

@mattrixk Wheel art/marquees images are pretty easy to find online. I've been collecting those for all of my roms along with boxart and video previews. It's been a bit of work but having it all change for each game looks awesome.

mattrixk

@HurricaneFan Yup. I'm making a new theme with video support and I've created custom MIX and Scrape profiles for UXS that scrape videos and screenshots, but also scrape boxart, media art (cartridges), and wheels/logos and MIX them into a single image. It then creates the gamelist.xml with all the metadata and adds the videos into the <video> tag, the screenshots into the <image> tag and the MIX image into the <marquee> tag. It's awesome, but it's not ready yet. Still quite a bit of work to do making images for each system.

Also, @screech has recently done a major update to UXS and I haven't had a chance to see if the new version will still play nice with my new Profiles or if I'll have to update them.

I'm tempted to give a sneak peek, but I don't want to derail someone else's thread. It seems rude.

HurricaneFan

@mattrixk said in Old TV Theme Idea:

UXS

Does UXS work on mac?

mattrixk

@HurricaneFan said in Old TV Theme Idea:

Does UXS work on mac?

I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that question. You'd have to ask @screech.

Capeman

@HurricaneFan said in Old TV Theme Idea:

@Capeman this is sort of similar to Old Room Theme that Nismo is working on.

Yes, another forum member pointed that one out to me - seems like a pretty obvious idea that lots of people would try. I'm planning on making mine much simpler than that, but a little bit more refined and cohesive.

@mattrixk said in Old TV Theme Idea:

I'm tempted to give a sneak peek, but I don't want to derail someone else's thread. It seems rude.

No, please do! I'm here for the sole purpose of seeing other people's work. Always looking for inspiration!

mattrixk

@Capeman Fair enough.

Indent Theme Sneak Peek:

The logo, boxart and cartridge are a single image using the <marquee> tag while the screenshot in the middle is using the <image> tag. If you leave it on a single game for longer than 1 second, the screenshot disappears and the video preview starts playing in its place. That is something built into the Video Preview mod so users can scroll through lists of games without setting off every video in the list as they quickly scroll through.

Each system has a different colour based on some colour of the system iteself (eg: the SNES theme is purple because of the purple buttons on top of the console).

Still lots of work to do, as I have to draw each system, and need to keep testing the UXS Scrape and MIX Profiles.

I'll be asking for help testing once it's closer to done.