Please test: Random Game selection/launch via Video Screensaver

[TMNTturtlguy]

I agree with @Scannigan as I have noticed the same thing on a small number of my videos. It does not bother me at all that this happens because in all honesty, who sits and watches the screensaver videos for an extended period of time anyways? This is a very cool feature that works really nicely in my arcade cabinet build in my arcade room. It is more about the ambiance and nostalgia of the screensaver than a few seconds of the video replaying. I have had no comments this from anyone who has seen my setup, only positive feedback!

[pjft]

Oh, I see. Yes, that is correct. The screensaver loops videos every X seconds (I think 35?). If the video is shorter it'll loop, if it's longer it'll cut it short.

Thanks for clarifying all!

[airainchoc]

Thanks everyone for your answers and explanations

I agree with you that it's not really a problem, but as everything else seems to work very nice... Devil is in the details ;)

[pjft]

@airainchoc @TMNTturtlguy @Scannigan @incunabula

So, here's a small update that hopefully will serve as a good Easter present for everyone.

I have added the mute options (under "Video Player Settings" now), as well as reduced the video time to 30 secs rather than the previous 35 secs.

It also includes the Filter by Genre, Publisher/Developer, Players and Rating feature I developed a few weeks ago and is still being approved to be merged in the main branch.

But, more importantly, this build should now be up to date on everything present in the main branch up to yesterday (April 14th). That means - yes - carousel themes, maxSize, etc.

So with this current build you can - hopefully - get the best of both worlds, at least as of this date. Please test and let me know if anything that works in the main branch doesn't work here.

I don't plan on updating this regularly, as there is usually some work involved and I can't commit to that, but I may revisit if there's anything particularly big and new that would be helpful to incorporate, and that doesn't break everything :)

You can get it at

https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStation/releases/download/v0.2-ES-OMX-Apr17/emulationstation

I'll update the instructions in the main post!

[**Scannigan**]

@pjft you legend

[pjft]

@__Scannigan__ I recall you had the problem of wanting screensaver and OMX but also wanting the latest features from the main branch, so while this isn't ideal - in the sense that it's not incorporated in the main branch for good - hopefully it's good enough for now until things are properly merged:)

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft you are the best! I am away for the holiday weekend, but I will be testing this out next week for sure! This is amazing! Thank you so much

[airainchoc]

thanks for this last release,

just a question, is there a way to update emulationstation from an older release of yours ? seems it doesn't update if I do it like you told on 1st post

EDIT: Self answer:

mkdir /home/pi/tmp-es
cd /home/pi/tmp-es
rm emulationstation
wget https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStation/releases/download/v0.2-ES-OMX-Apr17/emulationstation
chmod +x emulationstation
cd /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation
sudo cp /home/pi/tmp-es/emulationstation /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation

[pjft]

@airainchoc Correct. You must have gotten the instructions form somewhere in the middle of the thread - it's a long one, sorry :)

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft Thanks again for this build! I was able to install this on my build this evening and started working on modifying my comic book 4:3 theme which i have not released yet. My hope was to get this 4:3 version up to speed with the latest ES build so I only have to release it once! When I started working on it I found that i had no control over my video size, i was stumped. No matter what values I placed for the video size, whether using size or maxSize, the video would not change. The Image sizes change, but not the video. I tested this for both the OMX player and the VLC player and both had the same issue, no control over the video size. At first i though I broke my theme, but then I decided to go back to my original theme build, Loaded that in, and the videos were again the same incorrect size.

I started testing by installing the main branch ES from binary which is 2.1.5RP. My theme works like a dream, I adjusted my videos to fit perfectly in the box with maxSize and size, no issues.

I then reinstalled the last build prior to your update: https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStation/releases/download/0.7-ssctl/emulationstation
I tested the theme i had just adjusted in the new ES (with size as maxSize does not work) Confirmed, your older build also works correctly in both OMX and VLC. To further test, i adjusted the video to make it small, it worked perfectly.

I believe in your latest merged ES there is an issue in the code regarding the video sizes. I hope it is not to much of a bother for you to take a look into this and see if you might be able to find out what the issue is? I have not yet tested the carousel yet. Here are photos showing the testing and results for each build. Let me know if you have any questions and thank you so much for your time.

Main Branch ES V2.1.5RP - maxSize and size both working as shown here


Your new build: ES V2.1.6RP-OMX-Merged - same exact theme with no modifications, tried modifications but the size does not change.

VLC player ES V2.1.6RP-OMX-Merged - video is to large

OMX player ES V2.1.6RP-OMX-Merged - video is to small

Your old build: ES V2.1.4RP_SSCTL - same exact theme with no modifications

VLC player ES V2.1.4RP_SSCTL - video is perfect! Matches perfectly to main branch ES

OMX player ES V2.1.4RP_SSCTL - video is perfect! Matches perfectly to VLC and main branch ES

Thanks again!

[pjft]

@TMNTturtlguy Thanks! If that's the only problem that occurred with the merge, I'll be happy :)

I'll look into it in the coming days, certainly, and report back!

Thanks for investigating!

[pjft]

@TMNTturtlguy can you share with new an updated version of the theme in 16:9 with the proper max size/size tags, and a picture of what it's meant to look like?

Just for my own testing, to make sure I'm fixing the right thing. It can be on a single system like the arcade one - or just tell me what to replace.

I tried using your published version of the theme, but I'm not sure I'm doing everything that needs to be done. Thanks!

EDIT: But if your theme works as expected in its current format, let me know as well :)

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft I don't have it worked up yet on the 16:9 version, i was working on the 4:3 version for my arcade cabinet.

What you need to do to test is simple, here are some steps:

1. Set the ES to use the standard VLC player
2. Open comic_book.xml
3. Modify Line 78 - first using just <size>
   3a. The default size is <size>0.3 0.408</size>
   3b. Make changes, and make them significant, like <size>0.2 0.2</size>
4. See restart ES and see if the video size has changed, Check several videos/systems to make sure you sample a few different video types/sizes. In the base ES this will make a smaller video, in your earlier working build it also made a smaller video, in the current update there will be no change in size. You should notice that the video is probably the wrong aspect ratio now.

Test 2: maxSize - redo the steps above, but use <maxSize> instead of <size> You can choose any size you want as long as it is a big enough change to see the difference. If working, it should change the size, but hold the correct aspect ratio. This should work in the current ES and your new build, it will not work in your older screen saver version of course.

Test 3: repeat test #1 and #2 above for OMX player as well.

The pictures in my earlier post apply to this, as this is the same process that I used when testing. I labeled the pictures so you can see what I found with each test. In the 16:9 format the size and black frame will be a little different, but you should be able to see what is happening.

Let me know if this makes sense to you. If not, I can try to describe better, or let me know what i can do to help. THANKS!

[pjft]

@TMNTturtlguy Should be fixed now, please redownload and test :)

I find that VLC renders some videos with a slightly different aspect, in maxSize, which is weird, but for the purpose of feature parity, it seems to be equal now. Fingers crossed!

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft thanks! I will test this tonight and let you know! You are correct that VLC does not hold the aspect ratio of videos like the OMX player does. MaxSize was suppose to fix this but it appears that it only hold 16:9 aspect ratio and not vertical ratios. I started another thread on this and have not received any responses yet.

[Arcanjohack]

thks a lot brother. Your compillation solve my problem whith the futurax10 theme.

[jdrassa]

@pjft said in Please test: Random Game selection/launch via Video Screensaver:

I have added the mute options (under "Video Player Settings" now), as well as reduced the video time to 30 secs rather than the previous 35 secs.

EmulationStation has an existing disable sounds menu option. I was planning on using this to mute videos. What do you think about just using this option vs. a video specific option?

[pjft]

@jdrassa You're correct.

In principle I actually think that can be a good idea, to be honest. It can be easily decoupled afterwards should people want to. I'll merge it on this end as well. I suppose I had thought that there'd be a use case for muting just the screensaver (even though it is not how it's currently implemented!), Hence being open to having two options, but at least for sound when navigating the game list the option could certainly be the same. Good call!

In regards to the maxSize aspect ratio comment - and confirmation - does that sound right to you, since you implemented it? Happy to take a look at that and submit a PR for that to the main branch, should there be something to address that.

Best.

[Zigurana]

Hi @pjft and others,
I finally had a run with your suggestions for a more unbiased approach to selecting random games. I've created this PR for the RetroPie branch, as its mostly done. Nonetheless, I would appreciate it if some folks with large collections could give it a test-run.

Apart from any bug you might find, I would like feedback on the time it takes to come up with the next game.

If someone finds it easier to test in a windows environment, I can supply a windows build as well.

[pjft]

@Zigurana thanks! I'll give it a go in the coming days.

Any way I can compile it myself somehow? Do you have a repository with that that I can pull and compilet from?

Or is there a way for me to actually compile the master branch with your PR? You can tell I'm still learning the ropes on GitHub.

Thanks!