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    Input needed: ES theming improvements

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Projects and Themes
    themethemingemustationimprovementsbrainstorm
    255 Posts 32 Posters 167.1k Views
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    • herb_fargusH
      herb_fargus administrators @jdrassa
      last edited by

      @jdrassa it's a common courtesy though which I'm sure rookervik appreciates considering all the work he has done for the project

      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
        last edited by

        @Zigurana Considering this was originally an ES theming improvement thread, I'm curious: is it possible to make the UI themeable? Or is that just not likely to happen?

        My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

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        • M
          masteryoer @mattrixk
          last edited by

          @mattrixk

          This was a work in progress. I'd be interested in working with somebody else on the project though to make it easier for theme designers to match UI to theme.

          I was able to do it by rebuilding the source with the new assets, but the system already has some functionality in place for using external resources already.

          If you want to work with me on it, since I need to do it with my xcade anyways, I'd be interested in sharing it with everyone.

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

            @masteryoer It's cool that it's already part-way there, but I've no knowledge of the guts of ES. I can make themes okay, but I don't even know where to start with the actual programming.

            My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

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            • M
              masteryoer @mattrixk
              last edited by

              @mattrixk

              Well I just meant possibly helping lay out the theme structure to support the new additions. That way theme designers can build the UI along with their theme.

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

                @masteryoer I would be curious to see what the innards look like, to know what would be the best way to name/use the UI theming elements. I wonder if anyone has written an "Idiot's Guide to Playing With the Guts of ES".

                My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

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                • M
                  masteryoer @mattrixk
                  last edited by

                  @mattrixk

                  They aren't very clean. It's basically just one element for the window frame, a separate svg for the button and help icons, and a splash screen.

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                  • S
                    Syhles
                    last edited by

                    Is it possible to get an alignment feature added for the carousel? It's more for the vertical mode.

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

                      @Syhles An alignment feature would be great. At the moment everything is center aligned, but you could put the carousel against the top of the screen and top-align the logos so the larger active one sits a bit lower than the rest. Or left-align a vertical carousel so the active one sits out to the right more. I mentioned this feature at one point during testing, but I don't know how viable it is.

                      My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

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                      • S
                        Syhles @mattrixk
                        last edited by

                        @mattrixk
                        I have zero experience coding but, I feel like it should be doable. It's seems that the <text> <size> function works the same as the carousels <size> function as it makes an invisible box for said object to sit in, but this is just my guess, this may be completely wrong.

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                        • pjftP
                          pjft
                          last edited by

                          @mattrixk I downloaded your theme but seems to have the carousel bits commented out, do you confirm?

                          I'm trying to get hold of a sample theme that uses the carousel features, just to make sure I'm not breaking anything during development. Doesn't need to be complete - Indent should be fine.

                          Thanks in advance - to you or to anyone who has something I can use!

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                          • S
                            Syhles @pjft
                            last edited by Syhles

                            @pjft
                            Here's a left aligned vertical carousel.

                            <carousel name = "systemcarousel">
                            	<type>vertical</type>
                            	<pos>0.027 0.05</pos>
                            	<size>0.33 0.835</size>
                            	<color>00000000</color>
                            	<logoScale>1.5</logoScale>
                            	<logoSize>0.20 0.15</logoSize>
                            	<maxLogoCount>5</maxLogoCount>
                            </carousel>
                            
                            pjftP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • pjftP
                              pjft @Syhles
                              last edited by

                              @Syhles Thanks. I take it I just add this to the system view?

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                              • S
                                Syhles @pjft
                                last edited by

                                @pjft
                                Yeah, just put it under System, it does work for certain as I'm using it for the Modern theme.

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

                                  @Syhles thanks for the pointer. Unfortunately I must be doing something wrong in my end. I tried to add it to the carbon theme, in the theme.xml file but had little success, which left me confused. Tried to troubleshoot it but led me nowhere.

                                  Would it be to much of an inconvenience if I could ask you to zip your theme folder and share it with me via any kind of file sharing service? No urgency whatsoever.

                                  Thank you in advance.

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                                  • S
                                    Syhles @pjft
                                    last edited by Syhles

                                    @pjft
                                    Where was the theme.xml located, in the carbon folder or in a game system folder like snes?

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

                                      @Syhles in the root folder. Maybe it's being overridden later and I didn't notice. That's a possibility.

                                      J mattrixkM 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • J
                                        jdrassa @pjft
                                        last edited by

                                        @pjft I think you need to add it to carbon.xml. I don't think the theme.xml file in the root folder is actual used.

                                        Get latest build of EmulationStation for Windows here

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                                        • mattrixkM
                                          mattrixk @pjft
                                          last edited by

                                          @pjft The Indent theme is still a major work in progress and I haven't touched the xml in a while (I'm working on the graphics at the moment).

                                          The BaseVid theme from the ES Toolkit is the one you want to look at.

                                          My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

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

                                            @pjft: @jdrassa is correct. The theme.xml in root is not used. You need to make the change to carbon.xml.

                                            My ES themes: MetaPixel | Spare | Io | Indent

                                            pjftP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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