Video Preview in EmulationStation

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?

mattrixk

@jdrassa said in Video Preview in EmulationStation:

extra="true" should only be required for system view. All of the gamelist views have an explicit background element.

Really? I didn't know that. Good info to have, cheers!

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk said in Video Preview in EmulationStation:

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

Have a look at this Repo I'm putting together. It's still a work in progress, but you can grab one of the .bat files and put it in your Windows ES root. Click the .bat file to start ES in windowed mode instead of clicking on the .exe to open full screen.

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

Is that the same bat file that comes with the package from herb fargus portable USB version?
If so then I have that file already. So placing it into the ES root is all there is to it? Cool that will help a great deal to get things aligned proberly.

@jdrassa
Very interesting. If system is the only place that needs it then basic, detailed and video can be combined for some of the elements.

herb_fargus

@mattrixk perhaps we can work together.

Fee free to use any resources from here:

https://github.com/HerbFargus/Portable-Game-Station

I've been meaning to update the version of ES and retroarch has recently been updated so I may borrow some of your stuff too when I find the time to do it

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk: Yes they are from Herb's portable ES. I think he only had 1 or 2, so I added the others for testing different sizes. I do most of my work in the 1280x720, then test in the Full size and 4:3 when I get near the end.

@herb_fargus: Sounds good. I'm in the process of scraping all the metadata/images/videos for a bunch of roms. It's taking a bit of time because I'm also making some custom MIX and Scrape profiles for UXS. After that I need to scale down the videos so they don't take up as much room. I have no idea how to do this. I'm hoping to find a program that just lets me batch-resize them or something. I'd also like to squash the filesize of the images too. Once they're all as small as I can make them, then I'll add them to the Repo.

I also need to make some changes to the included theme (mainly reducing the image sizes and messing the image layouts).

Once it's finished I'll make a new thread about it and I'll include links to the various Windows ES versions I've found (yours, Fieldofcow's Video Preview and Zigurana's Carousel Mod).

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

I do most of my work in the 1280x720, then test in the Full size

That is what I do too. I created my theme for 1080p but my laptop only can show max 1366x768 so 1280x720 is best to work for me.

FlyingTomahawk

Finally could set it up as I wanted.
It looks like the Standard (2img) Mix profile from the UXMLS but instead of a game screenshot it shows the video.
Now I need to find a way to scrape that video+marquee set directly with UXMLS.
Thanks to all involved, job well done.

giventofly

@mattrixk if you find someway to batch reduce videosize please share :)

quick question, i have all my systems with videos (i would say >400videos) and sometimes ES crashes when going thru the gamelist (some detailed info here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/58983 ) are you having the same problems?

(btw, i'm using an adaptation from your io theme)

daeks

@giventofly said in Video Preview in EmulationStation:

@mattrixk if you find someway to batch reduce videosize please share :)

at least for Windows, google for handbrakecli

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk said in Video Preview in EmulationStation:

Now I need to find a way to scrape that video+marquee set directly with UXMLS.

This is a Scrape profile for UXS that downloads videos and logos for each Rom. It also creates a gamelist that adds the video links to the <video> tag and the logos to the <marquee> tag:

http://pastebin.com/GwB2uW9U

You just need to copy that code into an XML file and place it in the "ProfilsFiles" folder within the scraper folder, then you can select that Profile within the UXS program. You will need to play with the autoconfig settings so it finds your Roms and outputs the correct file paths.

Keep in mind that the videos are downloaded at 640x480, and between 3-15MB, so you'll probably want to make them smaller somehow before putting them on your Pi (but they'll be fine for Windows testing).

If you want screenshots too then let me know.

@giventofly: I don't use videos on my Pi, so I can't really comment. I just use a couple of them for making themes, using a Window version of ES.

@daeks: Thanks for that. I gave Handbrake a little try yesterday, but the results were unsatisfactory. It's probably just a case of finding the right config. I'll keep trying with it, see where I get.

FlyingTomahawk

@mattrixk

Thanks for the code!
If you can make time and add a screenshot of what it would look like that would be great.

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk: That code in the pastebin is just a Scrape profile that gets the Video and the Logo, so there isn't really anything to screenshot.

I'm in the middle of making some UXS Profiles that do various things, like scraping for videos or not, and creating MIX images depending on if you want videos or just screenshots. I also have one that just downloads everything (fan-art, 2d and 3d box-art, cartridges, videos, etc) so you can do whatever you want with it.