Bug? Box art displaying incorrect size the first time I enter a system

mattrixk

@TMNTturtlguy Would that make a difference on PC though? It happens on my Windows build, and my computer here is relatively beasty (at least compared to a Pi).

TMNTturtlguy

@mattrixk probably not on a pc, you are right you are right. I would still give it a try and see if it works because it only affects the first image, the first time, so for some reason it isn't loading properly the first time, but the it corrects itself. Another test I might try is to remove the image from the first game on the gamelist. That way when you enter into the system, the first game on the list wont have any images to load, scroll down to the second game, how does that appear?

j.e.f.f

@mattrixk I'm on a Raspberry Pi 3, RetroPie 4.2

j.e.f.f

@TMNTturtlguy How do I go about increasing VRAM? I'm on a Raspberry Pi 3

j.e.f.f

@TMNTturtlguy I removed the image from the first game in the list. I replaced the entry in gameslist.xml with <image />. When I entered that system, the first game had no image, then the second game rendered the box art image at the correct size. So it seems like it is an issue with only the first game in the list when an image is available.

Interestingly, it seems that when the image renders improperly, it appears that it is renders the image to square dimensions, as wide as is available per the maxSize width setting.

TMNTturtlguy

@j.e.f.f Sounds like we are getting somewhere! My suspicions are correct that the Pi is having issues with opening just that first image when you go into the system......so i am still thinking it is a ram issue.

To find VRAM, simply push the start button to get to the main menu, go to other settings. VRAM limit. Try setting it to 120Mb. Put that first image back into the game list. restart emulatiostation and see what happens when you try to open the system. If it doesn't fix it, try 130, then 140. No need to restart ES when changing the VRAM limit. If this does not work, the next step would be to try to decrease the files size of your image, maybe just the first games image.

j.e.f.f

@TMNTturtlguy hmmm... I've gone all the way up to 200mb for the VRAM limit and it doesn't seem to have an effect.

Not sure if this was clear, but it does this with the first image in every system the first time I enter a system. Meaning that if I enter any system, leave the first image highlighted, and then navigate left and right to each subsequent system, each image will be distorted in the same way. Each system will continue to have the problem until I navigate to another image within that system. The only exception is Arcade, which instead of distorting the first image, it doesn't display at all until I navigate down and back up.

Also I'm using transparent PNG files for my images, not JPGs

I'll try decreasing the image size and see if that makes a difference.

TMNTturtlguy

@j.e.f.f .png files are what you should be using so that is good. set your Vram back down to 100. trying the file size is my last guess. If the other images show up correctly, your theme.xml should be ok.....are you using <maxSize>?

j.e.f.f

@TMNTturtlguy Yes, I am using <maxSize>. I tried decreasing file size by reducing dimensions to one quarter of the original size. No change in behaviour. Aracade still doesn't display the first image; other systems display the first image distorted.

Here's an example of what my theme XML looks like.

<view name="detailed">

  <image name="md_image">
    <pos>0.43 0.37</pos>
    <maxSize>0.55 0.333</maxSize>
    <origin>0 0.5</origin>
  </image>

</view>

<feature supported="video">

  <view name="video">

    <image name="md_image">
      <pos>0.43 0.37</pos>
      <maxSize>0.15 0.333</maxSize>
      <origin>0 0.5</origin>
    </image>

    <video name="md_video">
      <pos>0.6 0.37</pos>
      <maxSize>0.25 0.333</maxSize>
      <origin>0 0.5</origin>      
      <delay>0.2</delay>
      <default></default>
      <showSnapshotNoVideo>false</showSnapshotNoVideo>
      <showSnapshotDelay>false</showSnapshotDelay>
    </video>

  </view>

</feature>

Note that I don't have the problem with "detailed" view, only "video" (almost all of my systems use video view).

TMNTturtlguy

@j.e.f.f I have been playing a lot with video views on my themes, but i can honestly say I haven't tried to put an image under my video. I am assuming you updated your ES this week? There was an update that came out a few days ago. Something to try, might not work, but would be interesting is to take the <feature supported="video"> out and just try starting with <view name="video">. I have been playing with both with varying results depending on which version of ES i am running. Not sure it will work, but it is worth a shot.

After that, i am out of suggestions for you. I am stumped and have not come across this problem. Hopefully someone else out there has some good thoughts. Let me know if you try to remove the feature line (don't forget to take it out of the bottom of feature view as well).

j.e.f.f

@TMNTturtlguy I'll give it a shot. Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll report back later with my results.

jdrassa

I spent some time trying to debug this over the weekend. I am not sure what the exact cause is, but it appears to be an issue with the fact that the same image/texture is being loaded twice, for md_image and md_video.

I experienced some weird behavior while messing around with it. Currently, the image is loaded into the VideoComponent and then loaded into the ImageComponent. When I switched this order, all of the images were rendered incorrectly. When I disabled loading the image into the ImageComponent, the image rendered properly. Seems to be a bit of a race condition.

@fieldofcows since md_image and md_video will show the same image, is there any reason to still include md_image on the video view?

j.e.f.f

@jdrassa They don't display the same thing, at least not the way I'm doing it. I have game footage videos and box art for all the games in my collection. I've modified the theme to display them side by side. md_image displays the box art, and md_video displays the game footage.

TMNTturtlguy

@j.e.f.f I just got this to work for me....take the md_image out of the main .xml file for your overall theme, i.e. carbon.xml. place it in your theme.xml. Now ES will be able to load them simultaneously without fighting with each other. I have this working on my build right now.

j.e.f.f

@TMNTturtlguy Awesome! I'll give this a shot tonight! Thanks!

jdrassa

After posting, I did some more digging and I have a fix for the issue. The cause of the problem appears to be that the initial image is set when the view is create, before the theme is applied, and is being sized based on the default values. I am going to submit a fix that will defer setting the image until the view is shown.

TMNTturtlguy

@jdrassa Awesome, that will work as well, sounds like my fix is a work around, but it seems to work.

j.e.f.f

@jdrassa Oh sweet! I'll wait for the fix then... breaking out md_image to the various theme.xml files seems like a bit of a daunting task...

TMNTturtlguy

@j.e.f.f The official fix will is great and probably worth waiting for, just be aware it will only work if you are running the most current ES. I am using a video screensaver build, so I won't be able to take advantage of the fix until the screensaver is added to main ES.

As for the md_image in the themes....how many systems do you have? It took me about 10 minutes to do 16 systems. I just opened up the main .xml and copied the md_image text, opened the theme.xml and pasted it in, saved and was done. Since all the parameters are set it worked like a charm.

j.e.f.f

@TMNTturtlguy So I have two definitions for md_image -- one for detailed view and one for video view. Do I copy both to theme.xml or just the video view one (since detailed view never had the problem)?