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

      I've submitted a pull request with substantial changes.

      I'll have a look when I get the chance. I looked at your "refactoring" branch before I left work. I noticed you've put all the media and gamelists into the Roms folder, which I think is a good idea. I'll have to make some changes to the UXS profiles so the gamelists all point to the right place.

      One advantage of the existing Toolkit is, I think most of it would work on PC, Mac and Linux. The .bat files might not, and the UXS stuff maybe not too (I don't know if that's a windows only program), but the Media, Gamelists and fake Roms (which are the heart of the Toolkit) shouldn't have a problem.

      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 uxs and rookerviks theme helper are windows only. The only platform agnostic piece is the configs related to emulationstation, which I think is the main benefit of the toolkit

        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
        • Z
          Zigurana
          last edited by

          This!
          is!
          Awesome!

          It will really help my tests for ES-kidmode stuff as well!
          Question, does it contain a system with subfolders under the main system folder?
          I 've seen a couple of issues related to that, so it would be nice to include that in the tests.

          If tetris has thought me anything, it's that errors pile up and that accomplishments dissappear.

          herb_fargusH mattrixkM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • herb_fargusH
            herb_fargus administrators @Zigurana
            last edited by

            @Zigurana no it doesn't yet but I think that's a great suggestion for testing as it seems to be a use case that is commonly overlooked ;) though it seems with the current issue: it looks all valid but it's only when launching a ton that the issue becomes evident so in that case I'm not sure dummy ROMs would help even if they were in subfolders

            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 @Zigurana
              last edited by

              @Zigurana Good idea. I'll add them when I get the chance. I also have to add the code for Kid-Friendly icons to the BaseVid theme. On a related note, any chance of getting a Windows build of the Child-Friendly ES the same way you did for the Carousel Mod? Being able to test that on Windows would be awesome.

              My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

              Z 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Z
                Zigurana @mattrixk
                last edited by

                @mattrixk :
                I will have a look at a windows build for Kid modes ES tonight.

                If tetris has thought me anything, it's that errors pile up and that accomplishments dissappear.

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

                  @Zigurana Ooooh [rubs hands together with glee].

                  My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                  Z 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Z
                    Zigurana @mattrixk
                    last edited by

                    @mattrixk :
                    0_1490397612566_heypsst.png
                    Psst, hey fella, can I interest you in some high-grade ES-SW?

                    Freshly build, guaranteed!

                    This is a WIP attempt to rebase the latest developments on videosupport for ES with the incredibly out of date Kids, Kiosk UI modes branch of ES.
                    I have been trying to iron out the kinks that happen when you do stuff like removing the last favorite game while in 'show fav only'-mode and similar uglyness.

                    If tetris has thought me anything, it's that errors pile up and that accomplishments dissappear.

                    mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                    • mattrixkM
                      mattrixk @Zigurana
                      last edited by

                      That's awesome @Zigurana. I don't know if I'll get the chance to check it out on the weekend, but I'll give it a go soon.

                      Also, the secret of Monkey Island is probably my number 1 game of all time (followed closely by Curse and LeChuck's Revenge, in that order)

                      My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

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

                        @mattrixk Bit of a long shot, but will there be fake roms for every system that RetroPie supports?

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

                          Sorry @robertybob, but it's just too time consuming, and I have a lot of other things on my plate. It's also quite mind-numbing and repetitive. Even if you only have 5 fake roms per System, there are about 80 Systems that RetroPie supports. They aren't hard to do, just follow these steps (using NES as an example):

                          • Google "nes games"
                          • find one you like the look of (Aladdin for this example).
                          • create a new text document.
                          • open text document and add some content (it can just be a couple of random characters, just so long as the file is larger than 0b. Github won't accept it if it think's it's an empty file).
                          • save file as aladdin.nes

                          Now do that 400-odd more times.

                          This doesn't even take into account scraping the media (images and videos) for each rom. After scraping them I had to run each image through an image compressor to get the file sizes down, and run the videos through Handbrake for the same purpose. Granted you probably won't need to do that for a personal set-up, but it still takes a lot of time.

                          I'll also note, that the more Systems you have set up, the longer it takes to swap between themes, which is the best way I've found to "refresh" to see any changes made while building a theme. Having to wait an extra couple of seconds each time you swap a theme can get quite annoying if you're only making small changes each time.

                          I've found 5 is a good number of systems, it lets you test each View and gives some viariety to screenshots. For most Themes, each System looks pretty much the same, except for console and logo artwork, and background colour, so it doesn't matter if you don't really see all the Systems when you build a theme. Unless you are doing ultra-custom work like the Old-Room theme.

                          My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

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

                            @mattrixk I also would rather we keep the toolkit small, its just a base. If people want custom additions then they are free to do so.

                            Btw feel free to merge the changes with the pull request they are satisfactory to you - at your leisure

                            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 My lunch starts in an hour, I'll check it out then.

                              I extracted your gamestation 1.5 last night. I was very surprised that a 200MB download extracts to over 700MB.

                              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 7z is a very efficient compression. I still need to update the binaries with the carousel changes but that's just the download, it's easy enough to switch out.

                                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
                                • Z
                                  Zigurana @mattrixk
                                  last edited by

                                  @mattrixk said in EmulationStation Toolkit - Theme Making Helper:

                                  I'll also note, that the more Systems you have set up, the longer it takes to swap between themes, which is the best way I've found to "refresh" to see any changes made while building a theme. Having to wait an extra couple of seconds each time you swap a theme can get quite annoying if you're only making small changes each time.

                                  About that : it might be quicker/easier for you to start ES in debug mode (-debug) and press Ctrl-R to reload the theme while in SystemView.

                                  If tetris has thought me anything, it's that errors pile up and that accomplishments dissappear.

                                  mattrixkM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                  • mattrixkM
                                    mattrixk @Zigurana
                                    last edited by

                                    @Zigurana You just blew my tiny little mind.

                                    alt text

                                    My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                    • mattrixkM
                                      mattrixk @Zigurana
                                      last edited by

                                      @Zigurana: What else can you do with the debug? Is there a list of commands somewhere?

                                      My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                      Z 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • Z
                                        Zigurana @mattrixk
                                        last edited by Zigurana

                                        @mattrixk
                                        Let's see:
                                        Running ES as such: emulationstation --debugwill give the following additional features :

                                        • Logging of the debug statements in the output window
                                        • Ctrl-R in a GamelistView will reload that view (including the theme)
                                        • Ctrl-R in a SystemView will reload everything.
                                        • Ctrl-G will toggle the lines of ComponentGrid.
                                        • Ctrl-T will show bounding boxes around text elements, to debug text flow and filling and such.

                                        That's all I could find quickly. The last two items might sound interesting but are really only relevant for debugging of the components themselves, and probably not much for the theming of them. But play around with it, and see for yourself!

                                        If tetris has thought me anything, it's that errors pile up and that accomplishments dissappear.

                                        mattrixkM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                        • mattrixkM
                                          mattrixk @Zigurana
                                          last edited by

                                          @Zigurana ctrl+T is going to come in so handy!

                                          My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • alphatoanantA
                                            alphatoanant
                                            last edited by

                                            @mattrixk, was wondering if I could ask for your help on getting this up and running. I figure I am missing something silly on my end but am stumped on what to try next =)

                                            Essentially when I try to run any of the .bat files I get the following error:
                                            "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click OK to close the application"

                                            My current setup...

                                            • Win10 Pro Version 1607
                                            • Emulationstation folder setup at the root of my c drive (C:\Emulationstation)
                                            • contents of https://github.com/mattrixk/es-toolkit/releases/download/v1.1/ES_Toolkit_v1.1.7z copied directly into the above folder
                                            • installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable from the URL supplied in the above zip (x86 and 64bit versions)
                                            • made sure I have what I believe the expected DLLs in place

                                            I figured it would be helpful to show you what I have done so I recorded the following video:

                                            Hoping you have run into something similar and can nudge me in the right direction. No worries if not. Thank you for simply just putting this toolkit together. My best.

                                            My RetroPie Themes:
                                            Art Book https://github.com/anthonycaccese/es-theme-art-book
                                            Art Book Next https://github.com/anthonycaccese/art-book-next-retropie
                                            TFT https://github.com/anthonycaccese/es-theme-tft

                                            herb_fargusH mattrixkM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                            • 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.