Color support for Ratings

[jdrassa]

A while back someone complained that the ratings component didn't have the ability to set a color like you can for normal images. Well now it does.

For anyone who would like to test this out be for I submit it, links are below.

Github Repository:
https://github.com/jrassa/EmulationStation/tree/rating-color

Windows Build:
https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/d66xolshsck99iaw/artifacts/EmulationStation-Win32.zip

[lilbud]

Could ratings be shown by a single icon? Rather than 5 of them

[jdrassa]

@lilbud Its certainly possible, although it would be a much bigger change than this, since we would need to support both styles. Would you have to specify 5 different images? Would partial ratings just be ignored?

[lilbud]

@jdrassa I just brought it up since the topic of ratings is on the table.
What I had in mind:

A rating anywhere from 1 - 2 would be 1.png

2 - 3 would be 2.png

And so on and so forth, all the way to 5

[Syhles]

This all sounds awesome. @jdrassa color support would be a welcome addition. I also like @lilbud suggestions.

This is slightly off tangent but could we have an image for number of players?

Will test when I get a chance.

[mattrixk]

@jdrassa That's awesome! Is this the same build that you posted to me here, or a new one?

[jdrassa]

@mattrixk It is different. That build was the latest in the RetroPie repository. This one is essentially the same, but with the ability to set the color for the rating component.

[mattrixk]

@jdrassa: I was using this build to work on the next version of the Toolkit, but I came across a problem:

Video View lets you set <showSnapshotNoVideo>true</showSnapshotNoVideo> and <showSnapshotDelay>true</showSnapshotDelay> so that "md_image" will display for a short time before the video starts playing. However with both this build and the other one I linked to above, "md_image" doesn't display. It's just a blank space until the video starts to play.

When I switch to Detailed View, "md_image" shows up without issue.

Is this because of the z-index? Do you have a list somewhere of what each element is set to by default?

[jdrassa]

@mattrixk I am able to reproduce this. I don't think it has anything to do with the z-index changes. When using either of those options, the VideoComponent renders the image so it would be drawn at the same z-index as the video. Interestingly, for me it is working properly for showSnapshowNoVideo but not for showSnapshotDelay. I will try to track it down the issue tonight.

[ruckage]

@jdrassa
I completely missed this topic. Another great addition that I can't wait to use.
There is however a small problem that @TMNTturtlguy reported. It appears that the color is defaulting to black so it will make the ratings appear black in all themes not using a <color> tag, I assume its supposed to default to white.

edit: I was the person complaining so I'm very happy about the addition :).

[jdrassa]

@mattrixk said in Color support for Ratings:

@jdrassa: I was using this build to work on the next version of the Toolkit, but I came across a problem:

Video View lets you set <showSnapshotNoVideo>true</showSnapshotNoVideo> and <showSnapshotDelay>true</showSnapshotDelay> so that "md_image" will display for a short time before the video starts playing. However with both this build and the other one I linked to above, "md_image" doesn't display. It's just a blank space until the video starts to play.

@pjft It looks like the OMX change broke the <showSnapshotDelay> option. I have a fix ready, but I wanted to get you to look over the OMX side of things. I haven't tested it out on a pi yet, but I think it should work.

https://github.com/jrassa/EmulationStation/tree/video-snapshot-delay-fix

[pjft]

@jdrassa oh, that might certainly have been the case.

Let me check that. Thanks for looking into that!

[pjft]

@jdrassa Wonderful. Tested and it does work - tested both VLC and OMXPlayer on the Pi, and they work to the best of my understanding of what it should do. I changed the theme to add a delay and that flag to true, and it now shows it for a few seconds before starting the video.

Thanks for putting this together.

Also, I'm curious if you had the chance to try out the video screensaver on Windows, and whether it works as intended using VLC (performance-wise, etc) as I don't have a Windows machine.

Thanks!

[mattrixk]

@pjft I'm curious what the difference is between VLC and OMX player? What advantages does one have over the other? Do you recommend one over the other?

[pjft]

@mattrixk Sure!

If you're not on a Pi, there is no option - only VLC.

If you're on the Pi, OMX Player is a native, hardware accelerated video player. Much better performance, no overheating, etc.

VLC will require more CPU resources, and may lead to overheating on a non-cooled Pi after prolonged video rendering. Also, it will struggle to reasonably render anything above 480x360@30fps in my experience (YMMV), whereas OMX Player will usually be able to render 720p or 1080p videos effortlessly (once again, YMMV).

The main drawback for OMX Player is that it doesn't support overlays to be rendered over the video area, so if you use a theme that relies on anything being rendered on top of the video, I'd use VLC.

But if not, I'd strongly recommend OMX Player at least for the gamelists. Video screensaver support has also been added based on OMX Player for the Pi (with the option to fall back on VLC should you want to).

There's a setting to enable it in "Other Settings" if I recall correctly where I put it.

[mattrixk]

Thanks for the info @pjft.

OMX Player [...] doesn't support overlays to be rendered over the video area

Does that include the <marquee> tag? I have the logos running slightly over the top of the videos, so with OMX, the logos would be behind the video?

[pjft]

@mattrixk Correct. Mind you, it's not a design choice, but rather a limitation of the hardware acceleration in that it's rendered in a separate layer to ES, so anything that comes from ES will be under the video.

You can try it out for yourself and see.

[jdrassa]

@pjft Thanks for checking it out. I haven't had a chance to try out the video screensaver on Windows yet, but I will try to do it soon.