RetroPie forum home
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Home
    • Docs
    • Register
    • Login

    EmulationStation Toolkit - Theme Making Helper

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Projects and Themes
    themestoolsemulationstatiotheme making
    67 Posts 10 Posters 29.8k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • mattrixkM
      mattrixk @herb_fargus
      last edited by

      @herb_fargus Ahh, I see what you mean. At the moment I just link to the 3 Windows ES builds I've found (yours, Zigurana's Carousel Mod and Fieldofcow's Video Preview). If we somehow ended up with a complete build, would we link to that from the Toolkit Repo, or host it on the Repo itself? (I'm not much for knowing GitHub. I still don't know how to do a pull request).

      My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

      pjftP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • pjftP
        pjft @mattrixk
        last edited by

        @mattrixk this is a great toolkit, not only for Windows but for ES development as well in general.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • R
          robertybob
          last edited by

          I had a quick look at this last night and found that upon attempting to load the .bat files, Emulationstation didn't load and a Windows "Emulationstation is not respondnig" messahe appeared (there was an error message too but I forgot to c&p it somewhere). Do they work ok for everyone else?

          mattrixkM B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • mattrixkM
            mattrixk @robertybob
            last edited by

            @robertybob: Does ES start normally when you open it with the .exe?

            What does your file path look like? eg:
            C:\Users\RobertyBob\EmulationStation\Launch ES Mid Size (1280x720).bat
            or
            E:\EmulationStation\Launch ES Mid Size (1280x720).bat

            My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

            R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • R
              robertybob @mattrixk
              last edited by robertybob

              @mattrixk I'm at work at the moment but I think it's:

              C:\Program FIles (x86)\Emulationstation

              It worked ok when using the .exe

              mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • mattrixkM
                mattrixk @robertybob
                last edited by

                @robertybob Hmm... I don't know what could be causing it, but I'll have a play and see what I can find. I stole the .bat files from @herb_fargus's Portable EmulationStation build, so I don't really know how they work, just that they do work for me.

                The .bats start with set HOME=%~dp0, but I don't actually know what that means or does. Maybe Herb can tell us.

                My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                herb_fargusH R 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • herb_fargusH
                  herb_fargus administrators @mattrixk
                  last edited by

                  @mattrixk ah so it's my fault now is it ;)

                  Put it in a path without spaces and then see if it works. The launch bats are supposed to be for the portable builds where everything has relative paths. Eg if you install emulationstation on Windows possibly wont work, vs extracting the zip which should.

                  If you read the documentation it will answer 99% of your questions: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/

                  Also if you want a solution to your problems read this first: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

                  mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • mattrixkM
                    mattrixk @herb_fargus
                    last edited by

                    Hey don't blame me @herb_fargus, I'm just the thief using other people's hard work :D
                    (I just realised I never actually gave you credit for them, so that has now been fixed in the README.md file)

                    My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                    herb_fargusH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • herb_fargusH
                      herb_fargus administrators @mattrixk
                      last edited by

                      @mattrixk I'd like to streamline the testing as much as possible.

                      I wrote up a guide on installing a portable ES here
                      https://github.com/HerbFargus/Portable-Game-Station/wiki/Manual-Installation

                      But for your testing repo I'd like to:

                      • get automated test builds for retropie ES (I'll see if I can do that this weekend)
                      • add rookerviks theme helper (I'll ask him)
                      • make a quick guide on installation

                      Then I would also like a wiki page of sorts on integrating video view for ES (perhaps may be a nice addition to your theme making guide) and then also would be nice to have a guide on scraping videos

                      If you read the documentation it will answer 99% of your questions: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/

                      Also if you want a solution to your problems read this first: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

                      mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • B
                        backstander @robertybob
                        last edited by

                        @robertybob

                        I had a quick look at this last night and found that upon attempting to load the .bat files, Emulationstation didn't load and a Windows "Emulationstation is not respondnig" messahe appeared (there was an error message too but I forgot to c&p it somewhere). Do they work ok for everyone else?

                        I haven't used this toolkit yet but I have used @herb_fargus Portable EmulationStation build and I had the same issue with the .bat files and after some troubleshooting, I discovered it was because of spaces in the directory name(s) so I just moved everything to C:\EmulationStation\ and after that I didn't have these issues.

                        R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • R
                          robertybob @backstander
                          last edited by

                          @backstander

                          Awesome, thanks for letting me know :)

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • mattrixkM
                            mattrixk @herb_fargus
                            last edited by mattrixk

                            @herb_fargus Sounds like the beginnings of a plan. I'll see what I can do on my end. I have a Pi on the way , so I'll be able to test out video preview on the latest image properly. Once I've wrapped my head around exactly what can and can't be done with videos, then I'll update the How-To guide.

                            I have some time off coming up next month, and I plan on spending at least part of it with RetroPie* (I may even spend some time playing games, which I don't actually do very often).

                            * I eventually want a single portable unit with LED, power button, fan and hard drive, but I'll be happy with just a power button to start.

                            Edit: Thanks @backstander, that's good to know. I've made a note of it in the README.md file.

                            My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • lilbudL
                              lilbud
                              last edited by

                              @mattrixk said in EmulationStation Toolkit - Theme Making Helper:

                              playing games, which I don't actually do very often

                              Same here. I spend more time with themes and experimenting with the pi.

                              Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

                              Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • R
                                robertybob @mattrixk
                                last edited by robertybob

                                @mattrixk

                                I copied my ES folder from program files into C:\Emulationstation and ran the .bat files... Emulationstation didn't crash, but it did say my systems weren't set up, or some bullshit, so I gave up :( I don't know why it would say that when the .emulationstation folder hadn't changed or moved.Ah well.

                                *Edit If everything was working fine when the ES folder was in Program Files then I'm stumped why it would now not work when moved to a different location.

                                herb_fargusH mattrixkM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • herb_fargusH
                                  herb_fargus administrators @robertybob
                                  last edited by

                                  @robertybob you need to download the portable version and extract it. It isn't the same as the installed version on windows

                                  If you read the documentation it will answer 99% of your questions: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/

                                  Also if you want a solution to your problems read this first: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • mattrixkM
                                    mattrixk @robertybob
                                    last edited by

                                    @robertybob I just added some links to various ES builds in the Toolkit README.md. They were supposed to be there already, but I guess I missed them when I was making the kit.

                                    My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • FlyingTomahawkF
                                      FlyingTomahawk
                                      last edited by FlyingTomahawk

                                      I created a folder on my desktop and first put in the files of the beta version ES that has the video support. Then I start the emulationstation.exe file and it gives me the no system error message. At the same time it will create the .emulationstation folder.
                                      Then I copy and paste all the files from this ES toolkit into that new created .emulationstation folder and overwrite the 2 existing files too.
                                      Then I copy and paste one of the windowed bat files, in my case 1280x720, and put that in the same place where the emulationstation.exe file is.
                                      Done!
                                      Double click on the bat file and voila.

                                      That is how I did it and it works for me.

                                      mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                      • mattrixkM
                                        mattrixk @FlyingTomahawk
                                        last edited by

                                        That's a perfect step-by-step of how it's supposed to work @FlyingTomahawk. I started writing one for the Toolkit, but I got distracted. I'll have to get back to it.

                                        My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                        herb_fargusH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • herb_fargusH
                                          herb_fargus administrators @mattrixk
                                          last edited by

                                          @mattrixk I'm getting a release ready that you can throw up on GitHub if you like based on @jdrassa binary

                                          If you read the documentation it will answer 99% of your questions: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/

                                          Also if you want a solution to your problems read this first: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

                                          mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • mattrixkM
                                            mattrixk @herb_fargus
                                            last edited by

                                            @herb_fargus I'm not sure how to do that. I can create a Repo and add files to it, but that's about it. I don't know anything about releases.

                                            Also I'm curious, wouldn't you just put the release up on your github? Or do you want it on mine so it's together with the Toolkit?

                                            My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                            herb_fargusH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post

                                            Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.

                                            Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.