Video Preview in EmulationStation

mattrixk

Sounds like @FlyingTomahawk will be getting home from work just as @Nismo is waking up, so it kinda works out anyway :D

FlyingTomahawk

I had a quick look at your changes and now I see what went wrong on my attempt. I did not add the video view inside the main xml file (futura.xml)
I think I can improve the code a bit more and evtl. update the theme with this new feature.
I am at the vet right now but will test it asap.
Thanks again for the quick help.

Nismo

@FlyingTomahawk No problem.

FlyingTomahawk

@Nismo

Just tested it and it works like a charm! Fantastic work!
Now I have to fine tune it and add a nice marquee over the video (bottom-right).

Nismo

@FlyingTomahawk I'm glad to help, maybe you can use the f_basic_10px.png instead of f_detailed_10px.png for detailed and video view and place the marquees on top left, and place the logo on top center... you are the theme developer so you decide, it's just an idea...

FlyingTomahawk

@Nismo

I am sure it has been answered somewhere already but going through 400+ pages....
Is there a ES version for windows that supports that video stuff so that I'll be able to test it on my PC?
I moved some code pieces yesterday and things started to break and testing on a Pi is a bit of a pain.

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk Here you go.

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

Thank you! "thumbup"

Nismo

@FlyingTomahawk Here you have the windows version I use: https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation/releases/tag/v0.1-beta.7

Ups too late...

daeks

@FlyingTomahawk said in Video Preview in EmulationStation:

@Nismo

I am sure it has been answered somewhere already but going through 400+ pages....

@herb_fargus offtopic: Might it be an idea to restructure the Ideas and Development Forum a bit? That would make it much easier to find relevant threads for specific topics.

Ideas / Requests
Development
- EmulationStation
- Third Party Tools
- Themes
- etc.

FlyingTomahawk

@Nismo

I was finally able to setup the whole video ES stuff on my Windows PC. Lot more comfortable to work now.

Is there a way to keep the videos original aspect ration?
For example; I have videos of vertical shoot em up games and regular fighting game videos. If I adjust the video code to match the fighting games the vertical shooter videos get stretched.
Is there a way to avoid that?

jdrassa

@FlyingTomahawk currently there is not. I am working on adding maxSize support to videos and hopefully will be submitting it soon.

Nismo

@FlyingTomahawk Like @jdrassa said, there is no way to keep the AR at this moment.

Once maxSize has been implemented, you will only have to change "size" with "maxSize".

Of course this will not work on the experimental windows version we are using, I hope it's not too difficult to compile a new windows version with all the new commits coming...

mattrixk

@Nismo said in Video Preview in EmulationStation:

I hope it's not too difficult to compile a new windows version with all the new commits coming

I'm hoping someone who knows how to do this will be nice enough to do it for us :D

FlyingTomahawk

When looking at the main xml file of any theme the all add the "extra="true" code to the background which again is mostly used by all views.

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

What is the reason for adding that "extra=true" code? And what would happen if it would be removed?

Yeah, I know why not try it and see what happens right? Well, it is 8:39am and I'm at work and can't test anything right now. But my head still can't stop running and thinking what happens if...

The reason I ask is the extra thing puts the video behind the background if I use this.

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

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk I'm not sure of the specifics, but it basically works like this:

You need to add the extra="true" to any extra element you add that isn't part of ES by default (like "logo", "md_image", "gamelist", etc), which would include any background images. On the normal Views (System, Basic and Detailed), if you used <image name="background">, nothing would show up until you added extra="true" to make it <image name="background" extra="true">.

Now the way Video View is made, <image name="background"> has been set as a new default element (the same as <image name="logo">), so it no longer needs extra="true" to make it work. It also has it's default z-index set to be the very bottom, so everything else sits on top of it. If you add extra="true", it changes the z-index to be that of every other extra="true" element, which is above the video.

I hope I've explained it properly, but feel free to correct me if I have something wrong.

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

Thank you that was very clear and well explained.
Code-wise that is not so good looking though. Everything has to be added twice, one with extra one without.
I know this is all very newly added and @jdrassa is working on a z-index solution which hopefully will address this issue. I guess step by step we move sowly and steady forward.

Nismo

@FlyingTomahawk Your theme it's the only one I have seen that requires to add it twice for video view, usually it's not necessary (and I have modded a few themes for video).

@mattrixk Very well explained.

jdrassa

@mattrixk Just to clarify, extra="true" should only be required for system view. All of the gamelist views have an explicit background element.

FlyingTomahawk

@Nismo

Really? Maybe it is time to compare it with some other themes and improve the code.

Is there a way to run the beta ES in window mode?