[Theme] Art Book

alphatoanant

Hi @Spheronaut, in the theme.xml at the root there is a section like this...

<feature supported="carousel">
      <view name="system">
         <carousel name="systemcarousel">
            <type>horizontal</type>
            <color>14141400</color>
            <logoScale>1.9</logoScale>
            <logoSize>0.15625 0.097222222222222</logoSize>
         </carousel>
         <text name="systemInfo">
            <backgroundColor>14141400</backgroundColor>
            <color>666666</color>
            <fontPath>./_inc/fonts/Cabin-Bold.ttf</fontPath>
            <fontSize>0.0222222222222222</fontSize>
         </text>
         <image name="system-border" extra="true">
            <origin>0.5 0</origin>
            <pos>0.5 0.62</pos>
            <size>0.25 0.0027777777777778</size>
            <path>./_inc/images/space.png</path>
            <color>444444</color>
         </image>
         <text name="logoText">
            <fontPath>./_inc/fonts/ChangaOne-Italic.ttf</fontPath>
            <color>cccccc</color>
            <forceUppercase>true</forceUppercase>
         </text>
         <!--<image name="artwork" extra="true">
            <origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
            <pos>0.5 0.5</pos>
            <size>0.3 0</size>
            <path>./${system.theme}/_inc/art.svg</path>
         </image>-->
      </view>
   </feature>

See the commented out portion - <image name="artwork">?

<image name="artwork" extra="true">
 <origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
 <pos>0.5 0.5</pos>
 <size>0.3 0</size>
 <path>./${system.theme}/_inc/art.svg</path>
</image>

That's where I am experimenting with adding system art on the carousel in system view. You may be able to adapt that to your needs by changing the pos, origin and size properties to fit your artwork design.

Also check out the path property - see how it has the variable ${system.theme} in it? That variable allows you to make this change in one place in theme.xml and then add your artwork in the corresponding system theme folder (emulation station will handle the mapping automatically). For example if its artwork for NES emulation station will see ./${system.theme}/_inc/art.svg and map it behind the scenes to ./nes/_inc/art.svg. So keep that variable in place and then add your artwork to the corresponding system folder.

Let me know if this helps!

Spheronaut

@alphatoanant Thanks for that amazingly fast help! I already tried to get it done by adding a new "background command" to the theme.xml (in each system). That worked but also changed the background in the detailed view/gamelist to that background instead of the blank grey background.

I will try your solution and give you feedback.
Does your way also change the background in the detail view (gamelist) or really just the background for each system/collection in the carousel? (I'm really new to this. Thanks for your time and for this amazing theme you did!)

Spheronaut

@alphatoanant Your solution worked well for me.
Can you also tell me which part of the code I need to tweak to set an individual background to the gamelist? (the screen after a player chose the system/collection)

If you are interested I share some pics of my modified theme later.

alphatoanant

@Spheronaut to add custom background images to basic/detail/video view check out this section of theme.xml

<view name="system,basic,detailed,video">
      <helpsystem name="help">
         <pos>1 1</pos>
      </helpsystem>
      <image name="background" extra="true">
         <tile>true</tile>
         <origin>0 0</origin>
         <pos>0 0</pos>
         <size>1 1</size>
         <path>./_inc/images/space.png</path>
         <color>141414</color>
      </image>
   </view>

See the <image name="background" extra="true"> property?

What you'll likely have to do take that property and its setting and add it to this section of theme.xml..

<view name="basic,detailed,video">
<!-- add in here along side other properties -->
</view>

The rationale for that is you want the background on system view to remain as the dark gray and then you would override the setting on basic,detail,video only

Let me know if that helps you get started. If you have questions on the properties under the image background node I am glad to help with those too.

peligwe

Love the theme and planning on rescrapping all my games now that I have seen all the great features included. To that end, was wondering if you could add another system:

PSP Minins

alphatoanant

@peligwe yes that should be possible. Wondering what folder name would make sense for this. Is there one defined for psp minis already that I could use? (something like "psp-minis")

Created a quick logo this morning using online references

peligwe

Looking good, looking great! Eager for the final result. Based on the feedback from launchingimage.s, there was no 'theme.xml' file, so I guess no 'psp-minis' folder.

Now that I've thrown a new request into the bucket, I noticed something odd about the PSP logo. It has the registered trademark stamp. Is that required to use the logo or was it something you decided to keep?

I only ask because you did all the theme work, not them.

alphatoanant

Hi @peligwe, I just committed an update to the repo to add the custom theme for pspminis: https://github.com/anthonycaccese/es-theme-art-book/commit/6f5ca8924bdbb8e012406edd5cbe0db39d533835

I wasn't able to find a good reference point for the boxart orientation. So for now I matched the psp theme layout (which uses portrait orientation for boxart). Let me know how that looks on your end.

peligwe

Just updated theme today, looks great!!! And I also see you removed the trademark stamp. Thumbs up!!!

peligwe

Discovered one issue when generating launch images. The logo is cutoff.

alphatoanant

@peligwe I unfortunately don't currently have a test harness set up to check launching images. But I did compare the SVG and think I may have found the difference that is causing what you are seeing above. Just committed the change to github now. I hope that works - if not I'll see about getting a launching images setup going.

peligwe

Just did another update and your fix worked! Greatly appreciated.

alphatoanant

Awesome! Glad that worked out @peligwe

peligwe

Since I recently got an RPI4, I'm back into retro gaming and have been and new systems to my gaming setup. Looks like I got Philip's CD-I working and wanted to see if it could also be added to your theme?

alphatoanant

Hi @peligwe there is a folder for CDI in the theme called "cdi". Do you know what folder name emulationstation is looking for? If so I can update the name to that and it should work.

HurricaneFan

@alphatoanant According to another post it looks like "cdimono1" is the folder name. I also double checked what RetroHursty uses for his themes and that matches up to the folder above.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/12671/tutorial-cd-i-emulation-in-retropie-via-lr-mess-warning-slowdown-especially-during-fmv-but-surprisingly-playable

alphatoanant

thank you @HurricaneFan! Just updated the source folder name to match and merged to github. That should do the trick after updating @peligwe.

peligwe

@alphatoanant Sorry didn't get the chance to replay, family matters. Yes the cdimomo1 is the correct working folder. Will give it shot later today.

peligwe

@alphatoanant Just did an update and everything looks stellar. Once again thanks for the quick response.

celly

Man! You can’t beat the support here. Although the CD-i stuff doesn’t pertain to me, Art Book is by far my favorite theme for my RPi. Always. Thanks again a million times @alphatoanant