New Comic Book Theme!

[Syhles]

@TMNTturtlguy
After your next theme update happens I'll try and clean it up a little. In case there is any XML changes.

I enjoy editing theme xmls, wrote my own theme from scratch, it was enjoyable can't release it though...

Ubuntu keeps breaking micro SD cards on, not sure what it's issue is.

But, I'm more then happy to try and clean your theme coding up, and I won't change how it looks.

[TMNTturtlguy]

@Syhles now the SD card question is....my computer has a completed .img file of my current build, the SD card back into the pi and it wouldn't read it. What broke it? When i get a new SD card do I attempt to put my recent backup on it and see if it boots? or do i go with the previous backup and loose about a days worth of setup?

[Syhles]

@TMNTturtlguy
I'm not sure what would've broke it. I'm not even sure why Ubuntu broke SD cards on me, I went through 2-3 spare small SD cards I had that Ubuntu was breaking when I tried to move files on them, and each instance of Ubuntu breaking them they were moving different files.

Depends on how tight you are on money I guess, if I had the money I would risk breaking another SD card so I wouldn't have to redo work. If I didn't have the money I'd just use my previous backup and redo the work. It's sort of a catch 22, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[dizmodawg]

So where do I put the game videos at in the .emulationstation themes folder or do I make a snaps folder in the Roms folder? Or do I put them some where else?

[TMNTturtlguy]

@dizmodawg there are several places you can put them. They have to be in your game list.xml and that will point to the location you put them. You should read the docs and look at posts on how to scrape media and create gamelists for all the info you need and different ways of doing this.

[fatelvis1]

@TMNTturtlguy no problem. yes i know you are using it to which is why i thought you may have worked on it already as before now the 4:3 was running ahead of the 16:9. i could give you a list but it is pretty much covered with the 16:9 update above i think. i will continue to check back and appreciate all you are doing and the time it must take to complete this.

just one question. what resolution do you run your system at? the native 4:3 res for my screen makes the borders much smaller than the background image. if i play about with the res i can sort this but then lose some of the screen. i have not had alot of time to play with this but was just wondering what resolutions you were using to get it all to fit.

[TMNTturtlguy]

@fatelvis1 my 4:3 monitor is 1600x1200 and I run my resolution as the default output from retropie, i have not made any modifications, i just plug in my hdmi to dvi into the monitor and it runs cleanly. I am creating all of the new images at 768x1024 resolution much like i created all of the 16:9 at 720x1280. The black boarders are a .svg file which should automatically stretch to the screen size you are running without any issues. Try removing any resolution over rides you have on the ES front end and see what happens. Hopefully the next update will clear this up.

Edit: Question - is your monitor a 4:3 or a 5:4? Unfortunately this will not work properly with a 5:4 monitor, the background image will stretch, the black outlines will keep their 4:3 format. If I merge the black outlines with the background the angled lines get very jagged and are not crisp due to file size compression and monitor scaling/distortions.

Thanks

[Zigurana]

@TMNTturtlguy said in New Comic Book Theme!:

I am creating all of the new images at 768x1024 resolution much like i created all of the 16:9 at 720x1280.

Wait, you create these images in vertical-mode?
[/just kidding]

[fatelvis1]

@TMNTturtlguy my display is definitely 4:3 I will have another play around and get it to work. I totally understand the merging issues and wouldn't want to ruin your theme. I will figure it out I'm sure.

[fatelvis1]

Just looked and native resolution for my display is 1024 x 768. Will look at settings in the displays settings to bring it down to 720.

[TMNTturtlguy]

@fatelvis1 why would you set to 720? The current 4:3 theme on github is formatted for 4:3 format, but I reduced the images to a smaller ratio for file size. I am now redoing 4:3 to be standard 768 and using a different compression. I are you certain you have the 4:3 theme downloaded? Can you post a picture of your screen so I can see the issue? Thanks

[dizmodawg]

@TMNTturtlguy said in New Comic Book Theme!:

how to scrape media and create gamelists

So i figured out how to get the videos working so thanks for all the help! I got the very last update of the comic update 16x9, but what about the 4x3 update? My arcade cabinet is 4x3

[TMNTturtlguy]

@dizmodawg glad you got the videos working! If you scroll way up in the posts there is a link to the 4:3 version but I haven't updated it yet. I am optimizing the backgrounds and then creating all new ones for the other systems. It take a lot of time and work to get them completed, as soon as I make some good progress I will post an update for that version as well. Thanks

[lipebello]

Hello, i was working on the system themes and on the 3D rendered covers when i first saw your post. I don't want to sound rude or anything, but this is not the first time that this kind of thing occurs so i just didn't care. I've just stopped to work on my theme and move to other things.
There's no need to put my name on the credits, i was the author of this theme and you rip-off my work. I think that the term "inspiration" that you used a little insulting.
Anyway, fell free to distribute it because i won't working on it anymore.

[TMNTturtlguy]

@lipebello Hello @lipebello, I tried to reach out to you several times, i also had contact with your brother. link to post, link to post, You had not visited the forum for several months and it did not appear that you would be returning. This is also not an uncommon thing. Seeing that your brother was getting in contact with you, and I did not hear back, I assumed that you were no longer interested in not only the theme, but the forum.

Please see this post where I state that I am awaiting to hear back from you or your brother, link to post

Also see this post where I again state I am waiting to hear back. I "tagged" both of you in posts and did not receive a response. link to post

I apologize for upsetting you as this was not my intention. I would have never released this had you let me know you were still working on it. I will gladly remove the theme if those are your wishes.

I do disagree with you on the fact that I ripped off your work. I clearly told everyone that I took the design of the system selection views directly from your posts. As you only posted about 3 systems worth of images, and my game selection menus are completely different from yours, I would suggest that giving you full credit for the design inspiration is appropriate. I created all of the artwork used, and I modified them to work on both 4:3 and 16:9 setups.

Again, your theme is/was amazing. I apologize that this upsets you. I wish you would have reached out earlier. I would like to continue to give you credit, because credit is deserved. I will also remove the theme from the community at your request because i have no intentions of creating enemies or disrupting the community. I really enjoy this community, i gain a lot of knowledge from all of those working and participating on this project, and i also feel like i help make some positive contributions as well.

Thank you for contacting me.

[lipebello]

I read the entire thread and i'm not upset with you especifically. If was not you, other will end up doing this. That's why i decided to not share anything else again. But you can't expect me to be happy to see my idea (and a project that i was still working on) posted by someone else and fell glad that my name will be on the description.

"As you only posted about 3 systems worth of images, and my game selection menus are completely different from yours"
Yeah, the screens are "completely different". It's funny how i think alike and decided to put the description box in yellow to resemble old comic books.

[pjft]

@lipebello thanks for getting back to @TMNTturtlguy on this matter. As he stated, he tried to contact you, was even under the belief that your brother or someone close to you was giving you the heads up on this, and still included you in the attributions. He is also very much open to removing the theme altogether from distribution should you so request it.

I was checking the source thread and it doesn't seem you shared any specific theme code, unless I'm mistaken. And while the layout of the system view is certainly quite similar, the game list view seems to be sufficiently unique in its own right.

Given that no code was shared, this was closer to inspiration and adaptation from your design and then there was effectively effort put into this rather than just appropriating your ideas, as you put it. There's only so much one can do with the current ES layouts and one could make the same argument about several themes having specific elements in similar locations, or having similar looks.

I understand how you may feel about this, and I believe most here do. As @TMNTturtlguy very openly stated, just say so and he'll pull the theme down, and just use it himself if you so wish.

Nobody wants anyone to have any hurt feelings, people just want to create things and allow others to benefit and share from each others' work. Creators and sharers are what makes a project live. The easiest option for most people would be to do something for themselves and never share it with others, and that's not what happened here.

Now, there's no point in posting sarcastic remarks towards anyone who's trying to solve things around here in whatever way is possible. We understand you're frustrated and unhappy with the situation, and I'm sure things can be worked out as reasonably as possible.

Thanks, and peace.
-- a Community member

[lipebello]

There's no point in continue arguing about this. I came up with an idea, started a project and posted it on the comunity, made about 300 MB of images and someone release a "quite similar" project first. It's released, right ? and i should be glad that i served as an inspiration.

I'm pretty sure that is not how the comunity grows, but i won't be replying on this topic or post anything more. So enjoy this theme, it is released to the comunity.

[herb_fargus]

@lipebello well If anyone has a right to complain it's @Rookervik because almost every theme is derived from his assets in some form or another.

Or the retropie team as countless people are stealing our work and selling it.

Nobody is stopping you from releasing your version of the theme and @TMNTturtlguy has been more than amicable.

You're welcome to be part of the community or you can have a pity party because someone was inspired by a great idea you had.

[TMNTturtlguy]

To the community and leadership/moderators of this forum:

First off, I want to again thank everyone for their continued support in my growth and learning, I am completely addicted to retropie and this forum. Props to leadership and everyone involved in making this forum and project what it is today.

With that said, I again want to state that I do not want to create any issues or enemies on this forum and I want to be a good steward to the project. I look to leaderships advice on next steps and for their recommendation on how to proceed or shutdown this theme.

I have been working hard at updating the 4:3 theme and want to thank @modmaster for all of his hard work in helping create background graphics for the 16:9 theme. We are nearly complete with most all systems at this point. I also want to thank @pjft and @Nismo as well as everyone else who has made this theme better, and what it is today. Without everyones help on graphics, layouts, .xml codes it would not be where it currently is.

I started this theme for my own use after waiting a few weeks to find out if and when @lipebello would release his version. After no response and seeing that he no longer visited the forum, I decided to take as stab at building a theme on my own. I have a few full size stand up arcade cabinet builds and I wanted his comic theme on one of them. A few days later I had the theme up and running and I had all of the systems Intended to run (12) systems completed. I noted that there were several others interested in the original theme so I decided to try to reach out to the community to get the attention of @lipebello and approval to share or shut down. Since that time i have spent several hundred hours, and i am not making that number up, tweaking the theme to make it run more smoothly for the community, We now have something like 42+ logos and backgrounds created and 4+ members supporting and creating content for the theme to share with the community. None of this work is needed for may arcade cabinet. It would have run well on my system and served its needs. The rest of the time spent has been to create a theme for everyone to enjoy. Along the way i have learned so much and the theme has improved well past what I had originally imagined.

Speaking on behalf of myself and @modmaster, we would enjoy the opportunity to continue to improve and release updates and additional systems for this theme. Our goal is to have a 100% complete and optimized theme that can one day be part of the retropie script.

If the community and leadership supports these continued efforts we are happy to continue our work. However if advised, we will also immediately shut the project down and remove it from github. My sincere apologies for the long post and for anyone who I have upset.

Respectfully and Very Gratefully,
TMNTturtlguy

Edit: i must have hit enter right after @herb_fargus did :) Thanks for your comment.