Fun Facts Splashscreens

hiulit

If I end up adding this new feature (creating splashscreens with Fun Facts! for each system using runcommand-onend.sh) in Fun Facts! Splashscreens, maybe it's time to start thinking about using tags for the facts somehow?

I think it would be better if the facts are related to the system the user is about to use.

What do you think?

hiulit

What I have right now is:

The runcommand-onend.sh placed in /opt/retropie/configs/all:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# runcommand-onend.sh

"/home/pi/RetroPie-Fun-Facts-Splashscreens/fun-facts-splashscreens-runcommand-onend.sh" "$1"

Actually, the fun-facts-splashscreens.sh script will have an option to enable/disable runcommand-onend.shusing something like this to add/remove this line:

"/home/pi/RetroPie-Fun-Facts-Splashscreens/fun-facts-splashscreens-runcommand-onend.sh" "$1"

The script will check if runcommand-onend.sh already exists.
If it does, it will add/remove that line.
If not, it will create the file and add that line.

The fun-facts-splashscreens-runcommand-onend.shfile:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# fun-facts-splashscreens-runcommand-onend.sh

readonly RP_CONFIG_DIR="/opt/retropie/configs"
readonly SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)"
readonly SYSTEM="$1"

[[ -f "$RP_CONFIG_DIR/$SYSTEM/launching.png"  ]] && rm "$RP_CONFIG_DIR/$SYSTEM/launching.png"

"$SCRIPT_DIR/fun-facts-splashscreens.sh" --create-fun-fact "$SYSTEM"

What it does is very simple. Basically it takes the system variable $1 and it passes it to --create-fun-fact. All the heavy lifting is done in fun-facts-splashscreens.sh in the create_fun_fact() function.

If --create-fun-fact doesn't have any argument, it creates a boot splashscreen.
If the argument passed to --create-fun-fact is "all", it will create splashscreens for each system. This is a good option to run the first time (it takes a while) to have splashscreens for all the systems ready to use.
If the argument passed to --create-fun-fact is "$1"(megadrive, nes, snes, etc.) it will only create a splashscreen for that specific system.

hiulit

Some examples of system launching images with box art.

Everything is positioned based on percentages of the screen resolution.

The logo is 60% wide and 20% tall and is positioned 5% from the top.
The box art is centered and 35% tall.
The Fun Fact! is 60% wide and 15% tall and is positioned 15% from the bottom
The "Press any button..." text is 60% wide and 5% tall and is positioned 5% from the bottom.

cyperghost

@hiulit That looks beautiful.

The creation is incredible fast. So why not using /dev/shm and create the screens with runcommand-onstart?

hiulit

@cyperghost I don't know what you mean by using /dev/shm.. :P

cyperghost

@hiulit That's a RAM drive ... Don't know if it's available on the x86 versions. The Rapsberry gots that

hiulit

@cyperghost I have that folder. How does it work? How can we use it to create splashscreens?

cyperghost

@hiulit Create the splashscreen in this folder and make a symlink into system folder? Maybe @meleu can tell more?

hiulit

@cyperghost hmmm.. Ok! :) I'll take a look. Thanks!

hiulit

BTW, @meleu , how did you manage to cover all the themes? I mean, I've look at some of the popular themes and they don't seem to have a naming convention for folders or graphics :S

meleu

@hiulit
You ended up reminding me of an item on my ToDo list: https://github.com/meleu/generate-launching-images/blob/c55e61ee0066438068cf5b72c62430337bb1e3d5/generate-launching-images.sh#L403

Actually my script isn't able to deal with ALL themes. I made it deal with most of them using an or, as you can see on the lines below that one I linked above.

About the art location, I get the paths from the xml files using xmlstarlet.

cyperghost

@hiulit Just one suggestion! May you can introduce a second parameter where the theme that should be used can be entered ;)

hiulit

@cyperghost We already grab the current theme being used :) https://github.com/hiulit/RetroPie-Fun-Facts-Splashscreens/blob/24cddbe8e69dee7939dcc74ddc99e9bfbd03c59a/fun-facts-splashscreens.sh#L383

hiulit

@meleu As always, I'll end up using your amazing scripts ;) Thanks!

cyperghost

@hiulit I sended you a pull request .... Nevertheless I can't integrate into your script - it's to huge :(

But I hope you now understand ;)

I would create a switch --set-theme "$MANUAL_SET_THEME"
if it's empty then ... like you did, try to select it via emulationstation.cfg
If there is a fail, set to "carbon"
Hope it is clear now ;)

hiulit

@cyperghost Hey, thanks for the PR ;)

But I would prefer not to add any more arguments to fun-facts-splashscreens-runcommand-onend.sh. You see, --create-fun-fact calls check_config() were all those checks are made.

I like the idea of adding --set-theme, though. And as we are at it, maybe add --set-font as well ;)

Thanks for the idea :D

hiulit

Some progress...

Now, the create_fun_fact() function is divided into 2 separate functions:

create_fun_fact_boot(): It creates a boot splashscreen.
create_fun_fact_launching(): It creates launching images.

create_fun_fact_launching detects if the game has boxart (scraped images).
If it does, the launching image looks like this:

If it doesn't:

All the launching images are created using runcommand-onend.sh.

CapNinja

Er... Hi, noob here. And I did some mistake...
running retropie 4.4.2 in a raspberry pi 3, I'd installed the zerojay stuff to access this splash screen awesomeness, but even following the rules I didn't quite understand what to do. And in my improvise I messed up.
searching for a way to activate this splash screen I selected "start on boot - enable" or something like this and now emulation station did not open anymore. The splash setup can't initialize and I can't type anything.
help, please?

Edit: still with this problem, but what I want to ask is another thing. One tutorial more like that "explain like I was 5", you know? This is good, please dont misundertand me, just another one.

hiulit

@capninja Hi there! It's weird that my script would mess with the emulationstation startup process, but it could be possible. Sadly, I don't know how to fix this problem for you. You could try and look up 'emulationsation doesn't launch on startup' (or open a new thread in the forum) or something like that.

hiulit

@capninja On the 'explain like I was 5' tutorial, I'll be releasing a new and more stable version of the script, with a simplified GUI so it will be easy to use. A new documentation will come with this news version that hopefully will be more friendly :)