Animated Screensavers

DarishZone

@darishzone But I have the same issue with the new ones :(

You mean the music stutter?

Malixx

@darishzone No no, I meant the black screen for 5 seconds between the screensavers and also it took a few seconds to start when I press select :/

DarishZone

Very odd. I have 2 seconds of black screen between fades, pretty standard, sounds like your pi is stressed by other process? or not properly ventilated? Seems a system exhaust to me.

Malixx

UPDATE (24/07/2018):

Added Chrono Trigger screensaver.
Added Donkey Kong Junior screensaver.
Added Dragon Quest screensaver.
Added Ecco the Dolphin screensaver.
Added GoldenEye 007 screensaver.
Added The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time screensaver.

lycros

There was a fix linked up above by @cyperghost where some of the steps to get it working were to create a video.txt file and then adding the video path though emulation station GUI metadata editor. Well you don't have to do that. Originally I had those same issues and editing metadata that way resolved it but the root cause was that I was using selph's scraper and my gamelists were stored in the roms folder but I was editing the files in /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/gamelists.

I started a new build and only used the built in ES scraper and it worked fine to add this code to the end of one of my systems gamelist.xml files.

<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Advance Wars.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Bomberman.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Breath of Fire III.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Castlevania.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Chrono Trigger.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Crash Bandicoot.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Donkey Kong Country.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Donkey Kong Junior.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Donkey Kong.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Dragon Quest.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Earthworm Jim.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Ecco the Dolphin.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/F-Zero.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Final Fantasy IV.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Final Fantasy VI.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/GoldenEye.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Joust.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Mega Man X.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Metal Gear Solid.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Metal Gear.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Metal Slug.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Metroid Fusion.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Metroid II - Return of Samus.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Metroid.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Pac-Man.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Pokemon.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Sonic the Hedgehog 3.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Sonic the Hedgehog.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Spyro the Dragon.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Star Fox.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Street Fighter II.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Super Mario 64.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Super Mario Kart.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Super Mario World.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Super Metroid.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Super Smash Bros.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Tekken 3.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Tetris.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/The Legend of Zelda.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Tomb Raider.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Turrican.mp4</video></game>
<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/UFO - Enemy Unknown.mp4</video></game>

chops888

@lycros this worked for me. thank you so much. and thank you to OP for providing these animated screensavers. they look amazing!

firemoth333

I got these screensavers up and running on my retropie and I was super inspired by them!

I thought I'd try to create one of my own for NES Dr. Mario. I've photoshopped most the elements I would need and tried them in a program I thought could animate them but it's not powerful enough. :/

Tomorrow I'm going to cut out and photoshop the last part (the 3 germs).

If I gave you all the finished pieces would you have some time to create a Screen saver animation like the others? I've attached a link to some screen shots of my progress and what I had in mind.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MfDMR2_c2iOWYHWHiYcVToKdazpK6RIH?usp=sharing

Brigane

@Malixx Oh my god, I totally forgot about this great thread. I would like to request a Bubble Bobble screensaver, if you're up for it.

firemoth333

@firemoth333 @Malixx
I've finished creating all the elements. Everything is sized well enough for 1920x1080. I just don't have a program that can animate that ken burns/netflix effect and spit out a MP4.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16pjbwCg7O8rWLEPymAKkoAZ2YcChQJUs/view?usp=sharing

firemoth333

@firemoth333 @Malixx

So it turns out I have After Effects. I didn't know because I don't know how to use it. So I taught myself how to build this in after effects. So here is my attempt at a Dr. Mario saver.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1chM9-1dgOhc-2-paG1IoSVzA_q3Ah467/view?usp=sharing

the original file is 1.2GB. I was able to knock it down to 20MB but I lose too much quality after that. So if anyone knows good settings for exporting from After Effects or converting to MP4 let me know.

Malixx

@Brigane I'd like to get back to it some day (I don't have so much free time lately) I have already started a Bubble Bobble one back then though!

@firemoth333 Well done I couldn't do it better, this is how I scale down the file:

I use Media Encoder CC with these preset settings:

Format: H.264
No Audio
1920x1080 (you can try 720p but the gain is not significant)
Frame Rate: Based On Source
Aspect: Square Pixels (1.0)
TV Standard: Based On Source
Encoding Settings:
Profile: High
Level: 4.2
Target Bitrate: 1
Maximum Bitrate: 2

But there is an alternative if you don't have this software, back then I was uploading the videos on YouTube and then when you download the screensaver from there you will get a decent scale down!

Brigane

@Malixx said in Animated Screensavers:

@Brigane I'd like to get back to it some day (I don't have so much free time lately) I have already started a Bubble Bobble one back then though!

Glad to hear that you are on the case, and no rush, just take your time. I'm just anxious to get a screensaver for my Bubble Bobble bartop someday, although a Bubble Bobble theme would be even better :)

Malixx

@Brigane - Added Bubble Bobble screensaver.

Brigane

@Malixx Wauw mate, this looks amazing! I have a cabinet like something near this bezel (except mine is a widescreen cabinet), would it be possible to change the background color to something close to this?

Malixx

@Brigane Sure ;) https://mega.nz/#!rXgEnCxa!-K_pwbRb0aUpxrffeyL2nRuigOhS3RMaFCZDv3bd7k8

Brigane

@Malixx Much appreciated, keep up the fantastic work! :)

clownnut

is this method still work for the newest retropie?
i am trying to get this to work, spend hours with no luck.
i have an mp4 file in RetroPie/ScreenSaver folder and
edit
opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/gamelists/retropie/gamelist.xml
with
<game><path /><video>~/RetroPie/ScreenSavers/ScreenSaver.mp4</video></game>
no luck
also try to edit
opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/gamelists/fba/gamelist.xml
add <game><path /><video>~/RetroPie/ScreenSavers/ScreenSaver.mp4</video></game>
no luck.
screen saver behavior set to random video.
i am running retropie on a laptop that run ubuntu.
any help will be great.

MrJordaaany

Yeah Ive done the post above me method. No luck. Anyone else have issues or any ideas to what i might be doing wrong?

skykid

@Malixx

I have this working to a degree, using @lycros 's code just above with the code appended to my megadrive gamelist.xml.

But the behaviour is weird. At 31 seconds the screensaver takes about 5 seconds to appear, then I saw the Tetris one play normally for the full duration. But then after that it took another 10 seconds of black screen before the next appeared, and when it did it only played for about 5 seconds before cutting out. And then this behaviour repeats.

I changed the screensaver settings duration to 30 seconds after seeing you mention similar issues above, but then nothing works at all (black screen only).

Any ideas?

Thanks for your great work!

steeeb

@skykid Ensure it's using OMX player, and go to Other Settings and turn on OMX HW acceleration.