[Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver

SuperFromND

Per request of pjft, here's a quick disclaimer from him:

Just to clarify, this is effectively a workaround for people who don't have videos in their metadata, to add a single video for the screensaver purpose. This way a random video out of a collection of one will always be the same.

It might be important to clarify that to manage other people's expectations :)

-@pjft

After making my Retropie-Themed Video Splash, I figured I should follow it up with a screensaver variant.

====[ Installation Instructions ]====
Step 0/Preparation: Go to Retropie Setup and update the "emulationstation" package. As of June 22nd, this should put you on ES version 2.3.1RP. Make sure you have no other videos in your gamelist.xml files. This is the only way I could get this screensaver to consistently show, since right now ES only allows for random video selection.

Step 1: Download the video file from the bottom of this post, and place it wherever you'd like. (In my case, I'm placing it in /home/Pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/video.mp4)

Step 2: Open up home/pi/.emulationstation/gamelists/retropie/gamelist.xml and link the video file. If you put the video file in /home/Pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/video.mp4 like I did, then append this line:

<video>./icons/video.mp4</video>

Then simply save the gamelist.xml.

Step 3: Go to EmulationStation, press start to bring up the settings menu, then go to UI Settings and set the screensaver option to "Random Video" if you haven't already. Then, from UI Settings, change Show Gamelist View to Detailed instead of Auto. This way, EmulationStation won't show the video in the game selection menu.

Download the screensaver here!

pjft

Just to clarify, this is effectively a workaround for people who don't have videos in their metadata, to add a single video for the screensaver purpose. This way a random video out of a collection of one will always be the same.

It might be important to clarify that to manage other people's expectations :)

Thanks for sharing it!

Syhles

@pjft
Really great point, before I entered this thread I thought it was going to allow us to theme the random screensaver, choosing the size of the video, showing the name of the game, adding the metadata (description, stars, players, genre, etc.), showing what system it's for. This I would be super into.

SuperFromND

Added Pjft's post as a disclaimer. :)

pjft

@SuperCatFooz Thanks!

By the way, I downloaded the pack but couldn't see which of the videos you suggest using as screensaver - they all look better suited as intro splash videos, or which one are you referring to?

Still, very well done videos, thanks for putting them together :)

SuperFromND

@pjft Oh, I messed up the download link, LOL.
It's supposed to link to this isolated MP4. Fixed.

cyperghost

@pjft said in [Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver:

Just to clarify, this is effectively a workaround for people who don't have videos in their metadata, to add a single video for the screensaver purpose. This way a random video out of a collection of one will always be the same.

It might be important to clarify that to manage other people's expectations :)

Thanks for sharing it!

Even if this thread is very old ... I comment just for completeness to the topic...

If you follow my code blocking here then all videos are played in an endless loop. It is important to use tags of <game> and <video>
In this thread is also a nice collection of screensavers available!

All in all a nice hack ;) and thanks for sharing ;)

<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Tetris (NES) Screensaver for RetroPie.mp4</video></game>

TitQuentin

Hi All !

I try to install screensaver but I result a Black Screen.
I have emulationstation v2.6.2RP and i put a video in "/home/Pi/RetroPie/Screensavers/The Legend of Zelda (SNES) Screensaver for RetroPie.mp4"

Here my gamelist.xml

My config in Emulation Station :

UI Settings

Screensaver after : 1m
Screensaver behavior : Random Video
Gamelist View Style : Detailed

Video Screensaver Settings :

Swap Video after 30s
Use OMX Player for Screensaver ON
Screensaver Controls ON
Show Game info on Screensaver NEVER
Strech Video on Screensaver OFF

Other Settings :

Vram Limit 120mb
Power Saver Mode DISABLE
Use OMX Player (HW Accelerated) ON

Thank for help guys!

TitQuentin ;)

SuperFromND

@titquentin Hmm, try disabling OMX Player.
I had a similar issue with ProgettoSnaps video clips, probably due to the way they're encoded, and disabling OMX seemed to fix it.

cyperghost

@titquentin Did you check case sensitivity on your commands? This is mandatory for right use. In my config I setted video in head of the xml files... but this isn't the keyfault imho :)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gameList>

<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Tetris (NES) Screensaver for RetroPie.mp4</video></game>

    <game>
        <path>./retronetplay.rp</path>
        <name>RetroArch Net Play</name>
        <desc>Set up RetroArch Netplay options, choose host or client, port, host IP, delay frames, and your nickname.</desc>
        <image>/home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/retronetplay.png</image>
    </game>

TitQuentin

Hi guys ! Thx for your reply! ^^

@supercatfooz

I'm trying to disable OMX player but doesn't fix my problem...

@cyperghost

I check my case sensitivy on my commands. Everything is correct.
I also try to download your video "vidscreen.mp4" but I still have a black screen.

alt text

Here 3 pictures of ES :
https://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/53723520170910091740.jpg
https://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/33370220170910091754.jpg
https://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/62140920170910091810.jpg

Graphicsgod

Thank you guys for figuring this out for me!! Now I have a (just one) working screensaver on my EmulationStation!! You guys are awesome!

Now if I wanted to add more videos to my screensaver, all I have to do is add more lines for the video links right?

Ex.

<game>
<video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/video_01.mp4</video>
<video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/video_02.mp4</video>
<video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/video_03.mp4</video>
</game>

Graphicsgod

Also is it possible to disable background music playing while screensaver is playing?? I have mine set to low volume, but even when the screensaver plays, I can still barely hear it. Or not currently possible..

cyperghost

@graphicsgod Well ...
I made suggestion here - I doubt that only one game tag can include several videos.

Yes it is possible to disable background music - that's not difficult in theorie.
via pgrep-command look if there is a instance of omxplayer running.
If yes then STOP background player, if not then CONT player.... it will work fine with mpg123 as mp3 player ;) Then just check the state every 1s ... but this is by no means effective!

blonqe

@titquentin did you ever get this working? im also just getting a black screen

AnalogHero

@blonqe I also never got this working. For me it seems that the gamelist.xml from the retropie menu doesnt get parsed for videos. What i did is to put the video tags to actual games, for example snes. You can even do this in ES: Select a game, choose to edit this games metadata, and put the full path in the video line.

blonqe

@analoghero

Thanks for getting back to me, did you have to rename the video files to match the game you were editing?

AnalogHero

@blonqe No. I named them a bit shorter and all lowercase. sonic.mp4 marioworld.mp4 castlevania.mp4 and so on. I put them in /home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/. Note that if you do it this way, it will launch the game you attached the video to if you press the a button during the screensaver is displayed.

blonqe

@analoghero said in [Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver:

@blonqe No. I named them a bit shorter and all lowercase. sonic.mp4 marioworld.mp4 castlevania.mp4 and so on. I put them in /home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/. Note that if you do it this way, it will launch the game you attached the video to if you press the a button during the screensaver is displayed.

Thanks @AnalogHero

I opened my own thread on the situation too and finally came to the same conclusion.

[https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16228/screensavers-not-working-just-black-screen]

Working now though so I nearly have my setup as I want it :)

Cheers

cyperghost

@pjft said in [Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver:

Just to clarify, this is effectively a workaround for people who don't have videos in their metadata, to add a single video for the screensaver purpose. This way a random video out of a collection of one will always be the same.

Sad but true! The latest version of ES that was able to handle this neat hack is/was ES 2.6.2

All version > 2.6.2 - the videos have to be linked to real existing ROM files!
You may use the old binary provided here - use at your own risk and you'll miss some new features like KIOS mode and preselection of game system!