Want to build a new theme for PlayStation

hansolo77

Here's what I came up for as the game list menu background... I tested it by replacing the image in my pre-existing setup, and it looks great! I even swapped out the font. I simply renamed the existing font Shaka_Pow.bak and named mine Shaka_Pow.ttf. Simple cosmetic changes.. no changes to code.

I wish I knew how to take a screenshot of ES from my Pi. Then I could show you the fonts. I found (on the free dafont website) a font for PlayStation, and it looks great. So far, all my backgrounds are in 1080p. Once I get a full system scrape with videos, I might have to reduce down to 720p. It takes a couple seconds for the artwork to buffer in memory, even when I load up a 20-game list.

TMNTturtlguy

@hansolo77 I assume you no longer need the template? Looks like you have it figured out.

hansolo77

Yeah I think I got this.. quick question.. does the system.png file need to be in those specific dimensions? The top corner of my flags are right at the topmost pixel. When they render in the game list, there's no spacing between the top of the flag and the black outline. If I could say, add 5 pixels of dead void to the canvas for the system file, that would clean up the edges better. Otherwise, I'll have to go back and create new images with the flags a little smaller.

TMNTturtlguy

@hansolo77 system.png can be made any size you want. Adjust in very small incraments.

hansolo77

Cool, I'll work on this more soon. Bad headache came on.. taking a nap before dinner.

mattrixk

@hansolo77 I like your Detailed View background, but can I make a suggestion? Try to keep all the spacing between the boxes the same. It looks a bit weird having some spacing quite large (at the top) while others are really narrow (the bottom-right).

I think if all the spacing was the same the whole thing would look a lot cleaner.

TMNTturtlguy

@hansolo77 look up raspi2png and install that. Is it a great and simple script that allows you to take nice screenshots of your pi.

hansolo77

@mattrixk said in Want to build a new theme for PlayStation:

@hansolo77 I like your Detailed View background, but can I make a suggestion? Try to keep all the spacing between the boxes the same. It looks a bit weird having some spacing quite large (at the top) while others are really narrow (the bottom-right).

I think if all the spacing was the same the whole thing would look a lot cleaner.

I hear what your saying, and do see it as well. All I did was re-use the image @TMNTturtlguy had created, simply changing the background. When I have another free day, I'll see if I can tweak it some.

TMNTturtlguy

@hansolo77 You are correct, the spacing is not equal on my background. That is also on purpose as i was creating comic book cells, and the spacing differs along with the background and offsets different visual "categories" of the view. When all of them were equally spaced with the ComicBook backgrounds it felt to rigid and perfect, the spacing gave visual interest along with the content. I think it is fairly successful. I have attached a screenshot.

For your playstation theme, it might be good to actually see a screenshot, try raspi2png as suggested. Maybe with the cells populated it will look better? To @mattrixk point, when you are simply changing the colors of the same background, maybe having them equally spaced will look better. Another thought, if you are going to redo the spacing, you may want to straighten out the line work so they are boxes. I am not sure that the angled lines make a ton of sense since you are not trying to convey the comic book cells.

hansolo77

Meh, I dunno. I like the way it looks with the angles. I love the original theme so much, that's why I decided to use it as a starting point for mine. I wasn't too interested in changing out anything more than the various screenshots in the system menu, making region flags for the systems, and then making a more generic PlayStation'y feeling game select screen. When it comes right down to it, the original PSX didn't have that neat blue wave that the PS3 has.. it was a white screen with the Sony logo, then changed to a black screen with the PlayStation logo. So I could have done that.. a white system screen and a black game select screen. I like it the way it looks. And honestly, I never intended to release it as part of the official selection of themes. I'd be willing to share it, but there's going to be too much @TMNTturtlguy stuff in the code. I'm just swapping out his art and font.

About the raspi2png.. is that something that I can trigger like via SSH when the screen I want to see is up? Or is it something I'd have to go in and configure a keystroke for/etc. If it's a simple SSH command, that'd be awesome, and I can do that easily enough. I will give that a try on Wednesday (my next day off from work).

I might try tweaking the angles a bit and make them square. I dunno. I could even go round lol. It's just a pet project, work in progress. Only person I'm really out to please is myself anyway. :)

TMNTturtlguy

@hansolo77 raspi2png is an shh, super simple to use from putty. Once you install you just get the screen you want up on your pi and type: raspi2png -p name.png change out name to whatever you want the image to be named. super slick.

You are right, make it how you want to make it! it is for your use first and foremost.

mattrixk

@TMNTturtlguy: I see where you're coming from with that, and it really does just come down to personal preference. You're the mind behind the theme, so you can make it the way that you think looks best. I like structured and even lines, but not everyone is the same as me, and that's awesome because that's how we end up with so much great stuff!

@hansolo77: You do you mate. If you like the way it looks, then by all means keep it as is, it still looks great. There's no point making extra work for yourself just because some random yahoo on the net said they like something one way over another, especially if you are just making it for yourself.

hansolo77

HELP!!!
Perhaps I'm in over my head. I thought if I just added new folders inside the theme for each new folder I created for ROMS, that's all I would need for the theme to pick up the different art, but it's not working!!! Are there some specifics I need to do?

I changed the menu list art and font just fine.
Inside the ComicBook book theme I created a new folder \America
Inside THAT folder I copied over everything from the existing \psx folder
I then replaced all the art with the ones I created.
When that didn't work (just shows the regular PSX screens, I renamed \psx to \psx-temp
Now I have nothing.. and it looks f-ugly.

alt text

lilbud

@hansolo77 You need to add an entry to es_systems.cfg

Look here: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Add-a-New-System-in-EmulationStation

hansolo77

hansolo77

@lilbud said in Want to build a new theme for PlayStation:

@hansolo77 You need to add an entry to es_systems.cfg

Look here: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Add-a-New-System-in-EmulationStation

Thanks I will try that. I didn't think that was necessary since @TMNTturtlguy created all his extra subfolders.

TMNTturtlguy

@hansolo77 I created all the folders, but the user still has to edit their es_systems.cfg folder.

This is really easy for you, all you have to do is copy the psx entry in es_systems.cfg and paste it right below. Then in the last line just change the <theme> to whatever you named the theme folder. in your case <theme>America</theme>

Here is your entire entry:

<system>
    <name>psx</name>
    <fullname>PlayStation</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx</path>
    <extension>.cue .cbn .img .iso .m3u .mdf .pbp .toc .z .znx .CUE .CBN .IMG .ISO .M3U .MDF .PBP .TOC .Z .ZNX</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ psx %ROM%</command>
    <platform>psx</platform>
    <theme>America</theme>
  </system>

do the same for Asia

hansolo77

@TMNTturtlguy
Yup got it all fixed now! :) And thanks to raspi2png screenshots are forthcoming! Now I just need to figure out how to turn off the launch sound.

hansolo77

American Folder:
alt text

Japanese Folder:
alt text

European Folder:
alt text

Game Selection:
alt text

Things I still need to do:

Turn off "PLAYSTATION!" launching sound
Create a new RETROPIE Folder Icon
Figure out if I can, and change the bottom icons for O=A, X=B, etc (So people know what button to press for what function)
~~Change the "RIP" image for each folder...~~
Complain about ScreenScraper not having the boxarts for all the games :)
Create a Favorites Folder and Icon
Create a Hacks/Mods Folder and Icon (not sure if I really need this)
Create an Achievements Folder/Icon (if/when the RetroAchievments guys ever get it working!)

BTW!!! I just discovered the latest version of EmulationStation has a video screensaver! It works great!!! Thanks to all involved with that!! :)

mattrixk

@hansolo77 said in Want to build a new theme for PlayStation:

Figure out if I can, and change the bottom icons for O=A, X=B, etc (So people know what button to press for what function)

You could always just turn off/hide all of those buttons and then make the whole thing an image that is part of the background/border image. That way you can make it look however you want it to.

Other than that, I think the only way to change those icons is to dig into the code of ES itself.