Please Test: Creating Custom Collections

[pjft]

@lilbud @jdrassa implemented the option for theme makers to specify a default theme layout for systems that lack a folder, just that.

You can also create systems from unused theme folders, if your theme has them (some themes have folders for Mario, mega man, fighting games, etc). @TMNTturtlguy 's Comic Book theme is a good example of that as it has plenty such folders to play with.

I imagine creating themes for which you have no folder for now makes the experience quite suboptimal for the moment :/

[lilbud]

@pjft So I'd create a folder named default system? Or would I define it in the main theme.xml?

[TMNTturtlguy]

@lilbud read up a few posts, @jdrassa is going to post some instructions for us!

[jdrassa]

@TMNTturtlguy @lilbud I have added a page to the wiki with a details on how the default theme works. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/EmulationStation-Advanced-Theming

[TMNTturtlguy]

@jdrassa thanks so much! I will look into this after the kids are in bed!

[pjft]

@tmntturtlguy that's what they want you to believe... It's a trap though! :)

Quick question: have you had the chance to put together a custom collections folder in the most recent versions of the theme? Just curious as I'm going to start testing that soon and I was wondering if updating the theme would solve it. Don't worry, I can use other themes. I just wanted to check first.

Best.

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft Yes, the customs collections folder has been in that theme since i created the favorites, last payed, and all games. Should be good to go. Let me know if there are issues.

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft @lilbud @jdrassa @cyperghost Sorry for tagging all of you but i don't have a pie to test the ComicBook theme updates on, so I am hoping one of you might do the testing for me? i have updated all versions of the theme with the default theme.xml. I hope it works, but i am doing this "blind" without the ability to test. I think the only issue may be the size/location of the text on the gamelist view. The hope is that a generic comic book background appears with the blue retropie logo in the bottom left corner. The system name should be shown in the comic book text, black in color on the carousel. When going into the gamelist view, the system name should be in the top left corner in black comic book text. The top right corner should have a custom collections logo for the standard theme, the comic rip should be the megaman/mario hybrid character.

if you could test it out and let me know what happens I would appreciate it. If things are not showing correctly, a screenshot would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

[lilbud]

@tmntturtlguy This shows up before ES even starts

[TMNTturtlguy]

@lilbud Thanks man! Dumb error when copy pasting my .xml file. I just didn't remove the ./../ correctly when including the comicbook.xml

I have updated all the themes once again, i hope this should now resolve that issue.

[jdrassa]

@TMNTturtlguy I tested it out. Overall it looks pretty good, except the logoText is in the wrong place on the gamelist views. You are using the same position as the logo, but text components do not support origin (for now).

I made the following tweaks to get it to line up properly.

<pos>0.025 0.01</pos>
<fontSize>0.11</fontSize>

[lilbud]

@jdrassa Well damn, you caught it before me

@TMNTturtlguy Here is what the game list looks like

[TMNTturtlguy]

@lilbud @jdrassa thanks guys, @jdrassa i will make your updates and repost! Appreciate the help!

Edit: Updated! Thanks again

[ruckage]

@pjft said in Please Test: Creating Custom Collections:

@lilbud @jdrassa implemented the option for theme makers to specify a default theme layout for systems that lack a folder, just that.

You can also create systems from unused theme folders, if your theme has them (some themes have folders for Mario, mega man, fighting games, etc). @TMNTturtlguy 's Comic Book theme is a good example of that as it has plenty such folders to play with.

I imagine creating themes for which you have no folder for now makes the experience quite suboptimal for the moment :/

This sounds great, is this in the main release or just the beta for now? So this would mean for a simpler theme you could now easily create a complete theme with just a single theme folder and more complex themes won't have any missing system. Absolutely brilliant addition.

[pjft]

@ruckage That's in the main release for a few weeks now.

@jdrassa did a great job with it and deserves all the credit.

@jdrassa -- a bit of feedback there: maybe we should resize the text component depending on the title length, as it's quite common for the text to be appended "(...)" in the carousel as it's too long.

Unsure how to actually do that, but that would be ideal.

[ruckage]

@pjft
How did I miss that, so many great changes lately it's hard to keep up. I'll be adding default systems to all my themes now then, as then they will work fully for everyone and I can just add the unique sytem art at my own pace.

edit: Big thanks to @jdrassa :)

[ruckage]

@pjft said in Please Test: Creating Custom Collections:

@jdrassa -- a bit of feedback there: maybe we should resize the text component depending on the title length, as it's quite common for the text to be appended "(...)" in the carousel as it's too long.

Unsure how to actually do that, but that would be ideal.

That would be ideal, sort of a maxSize setting for text.

[HurricaneFan]

@pjft Dumb question here, Once I'm done adding games to a collection, how do I turn off the Y button add to collection option?

Also, with an unthemed collection, Is there a way to show the collection name instead of "My Collection..." at the top of the screen? I'm using Carbon theme at the moment in my testing.

[pjft]

@hurricanefan Thanks for testing and for the feedback.

A few comments then:

Dumb question here, Once I'm done adding games to a collection, how do I turn off the Y button add to collection option?

That was part of the reason why I didn't want to elaborate on things. Let me just say that "there is a way to do it". Where did you expect to find it, and what did you do? Or, now that you know it's possible, let me know if you can find it.

Don't take this the wrong way - I want to understand what your thought process was, and where you expected to find that. I'm happy to give an answer, but the truth is that most users won't come to the forums, so I want to understand your thought process and see if there's anything I can take from it. :)

As for the collection names, well spotted. My bad. I'll fix it now - that should definitely be the case :) Thanks!

[HurricaneFan]

@pjft I liked the idea that after I created a new collection that I could go and add games to it. Hitting Y button was super easy. Then I was curious what would happen when I had 2 collections. That's when I noticed Y only adds to the latest collection you just created. That's fine in my mind, but at the end of adding games. I'd want to turn off the press Y to add to my last created collection.

I'd imagine I'd turn the setting off in the collections setup menu somehow. Not sure the how or what that looks like. But once my pi is setup with all of the collections I want, I don't want the press Y to add to latest collection enabled because its confusing if you created that collection days or weeks or months ago.