240P Theme (WIP)

numotiv

I am currently in the process of creating a 240p theme. My goal is for it to feel retro and work well on a crt tv. I am currently in the mock up stage but will soon progress into creating the actual theme. I will update as I go.

Here is the default view when you have no videos scraped. (Won't move so quickly)
Imgur
Here is the view when you do have a video (Will move full speed)
Imgur

I have been bouncing back and forth between having/not having meta. Currently the only meta is how many players a game is. Maybe once I get the actual theme working in emulationstation I can look into more views.

Feedback/comments are welcome and encouraged.

alphatoanant

@numotiv nice work! I like the direction.

Are you looking for displaying this theme on a CRT (say 14 inches diagonal and above) or a smaller TFT screen (say around 2.2 to 3.2 inches diagonal).

If it's a CRT...
I would say the 1st mockup would be nice as you would have more screen real estate to work with. For the 4x3 version of the CRT theme, I designed it at a 4x3 ratio to get a feel for layout and the amount of text displayed on-screen (example here: http://i.imgur.com/9hqpKPz.png) and then tried sitting away from it at a few different distances to make sure text was still readable. Once you get a good feel there ES does a decent job at scaling the design proportionally based on the screen size so that could be a good foundation.

Where if its a TFT...
I think the 2nd mockup might work best (I like keeping the amount of info displayed limited at that size). Though the 2nd mockup could work nicely for a CRT screen as well =)

I'll be glad to help as you work on these so please tag me for questions if you like.

numotiv

Wow, thank you ^^ It will be used on a 27" CRT actually. I don't have my cable yet for my pi (on its way) to see how any theme will react with it. Was basically just guess work at this point.

numotiv

UPDATED FIRST POST.

Pupsenlalala

This looks SUPER AMAZING. Hope it's ready soon, so I can try it out on my BVM and PVM

TMNTturtlguy

@numotiv These look really neat. Since you are using overlays you will need to run the VLC video option. His means you will need to compress your video size. This may also cause overheating issues because VLC does not handle video very well. I wouldn't let that stop you, just something to keep in mind.

ohmycommodore

@numotiv Like the B&W theme someone posted recently, I don't mind having a simple theme for a simple setup that is... well, simple all around. I set my Pi up on my old small Commodore monitor from time to time, which is a decent size to play these old games, but overloading the screen with text won't do much (even with a proper 240p update that renders the text a lot more readable). Your mockup is a great start. I like the star field idea.

Pietze

Yes, yes, yes! I wanted to do one myself, but your start looks promising already!

I would start without meta and after finishing with a basic one, try a variation of that theme with meta on top. My CRT makes it really hard to read the Emulation Station HD themes :(

edmaul69

@numotiv how do you do motion backgrounds?

Capeman

Hes using videos as the backgrounds by maxing out their size and layering them at the bottom, using the older video codec (VLC i think) that allows for layering over video (the new one doesnt) - this might cause some heating issues though.

Pietze

Any news here?

numotiv

Sorry guys I have been gone for a while. I may continue this I haven't decided 100% yet though.