Chicuelo Theme
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Great to see all of the continuing work going on with this theme. I'm still tinkering with it and I was scrolling up and came to changes made by Wildfire and thought i'd give it a go. How do you make the image appear in front of the background (in Wildfire's theme, Ryu 'pops' off the screen). With my limited skills, I tried editing the theme.xml, but with no luck. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanking all of you!
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@rajbhalsod I don't quite understand your question. The characters and their background are just two layers in one image on top of the default blueish/white background.
So you need to create those images or if you want to separate the characters from the background you need to add an extra image element in the theme.xml and set the order with the zIndex tag. -
@EctoOne thanks for getting back to me, after posting the message, I realised its two layers in one image! any ideas as to how it that image has been made to overlap/appear outside of the space it is in? Sorry for not being clearer, finding it difficult to put into words! Thanks
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@rajbhalsod Uhm not sure, I assume it's just a bigger transparent canvas than the background layer and the characters are overlapping the transparent area.
Using such an image might require to adjust the positions/sizes in the theme.xml then.Edit: Since you need to use png images for that, you also have to change the extension in the theme.xml because the ones made by chicuelo are jugs. And in this case ALL character images needs to be png, because they are embedded using variables and there is no way to mix different filetypes without making huge changes to the code.
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Hi @rajbhalsod when I modified the theme I created new artwork for each system as a transparent png featuring the character and background. Then all I had to do was scale and position the artwork to be in line with the system information box.
As for putting the character in front, I think emulationstation respects the order of the code. So you can either use z-index to order the layers or make sure the system artwork element is below the system information element in the coding and it should work automatically.
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@Wildfire thank you for your response, I will give it go. I need to learn how to use photoshop! I tried putting the code in the correct order/place but it didn't work, i'll try again tonight. Finally, did you scale and position the artwork within photoshop or in the theme.xml? Sorry for so many questions, your theme mod looks incredible!thank you again.
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@rajbhalsod I took the artwork from the Chicuelo theme into Photoshop, added a background for the system, then I changed the canvas size to create the transparent area and add the character.
Then scale the artwork in the theme.xml so the background meets the system information box. If you keep all your artwork in the center of your canvas from photoshop you shouldn't have to re-position the artwork in your theme files.
I'll have another look at my theme.xml file when I finish work and see what I did to get the artwork in front. From what I remember it had to do with re-ordering the code but I could have used z-index for system view.
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@Wildfire Thank you so much for all your help! looking forward to hearing from you this evening, hopefully I can by then get some image work done in Photoshop. Have a good day!
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@Wildfire
I asked many months ago but thought you may have left the forums or this section at least, but could you possibly share your modified theme please? Thank you. -
Hi @pootis-spencer, sorry I missed your last message. I've made a lot of changes since my last post, the system view hasn't changed much but the game list view is completely different. Much more like the artbook theme as the layout changes based on system cover art (see link below)
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11728/theme-art-book
Those changes work well for the way my build is setup but the Chicuelo game list view will cover more builds.
I'm happy to share the modded theme as long as @chicuelo doesn't mind me doing so. But I'm tempted to modify the theme again and this time just change the system views.
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@Wildfire if you are sharing your modded theme (with chicuelo's permission) please do it before making any changes to it!!
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That's stunning work! Great theme!!! Thanks for sharing!
It looks so nice, simple and stylish at the same time. -
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@Wildfire hi there. So I've managed to create transparent backgrounds, add characters, and re-ordered them to appear correctly. Just need to work on scaling the artwork now in the theme.xml. Could you provide your settings for <pos> and <size> tags please? Your advice has been an immense help and I've learned a thing or two too! Thanks!
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@Wildfire Its ok for me! just send me a preview and we update the repo
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thanks @chicuelo, I'm making a few changes to the theme this week so I'll post my modified theme this weekend
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@Wildfire Can we have a preview of the theme as it stands now?
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I also worked on that theme for months, community gave me great advices for improve it and adapt for my builds, i have also made a C64 variant.
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Hi @pootis-spencer, I'm still working on the theme to neaten up the code, make detailed view look better (as I mainly use video view) add more systems and generally make improvements to layout and performance.
As mentioned before though this theme requires a certain setup of the gamelist.xml files and game media:
e.g. player number has to be one number so it works with the player count font (1-2 players would not work because it looks incorrect) also all of the md_image elements are fixed size so they look uniform when scrolling, this may work for flat artwork but 3D artwork could look stretched.I have created "loose" templates too which uses the "maxSize" scaling which would work with most builds but I prefer the fixed size as it looks better and suits the build I've put together.
Below are a few screenshots from the gamelist view to show the responsive design inspired by the Art Book theme. I've also included a screenshot of the Power and Kodi system and gamelist views as they feature a special layout too.
NES Video View
NES Detailed View
As you can see I'm now using a lighter background for the system view but I may change this back to the darker theme. I'm also thinking about changing play count and last played to publisher and developer, still not sure just yet...
I was planning to upload this weekend but I still want to make some changes and get it right before I do so, hopefully won't be too long now.
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@Wildfire said in Chicuelo Theme:
er (as I mainly use video view) add more systems and generally make improvements to layout and performance.
As mentioned before though this theme requires a certain setup of the gamelist.xml files and game media:
e.g. player number has to be one number so it works with the player count font (1-2 players would not work because it looks incorrect) also all of the md_image elements are fixed size so they look uniform when scrolling, this may work for flat artwork but 3D artwork could look stretched.
I have created "loose" templates too which uses the "maxSize" scaling which would work with most builds but I prefer the fixed size as it looks better and suits the build I've put together.
Below are a few screenshots from the gamelist view to show the responsive design inspired by the Art Book theme. I've also included a screenshot of the Power and Kodi system and gamelist views as they feature a special layout too.It looks like a totally different theme to me, I think you can upload it with a new name or a chicuelo improved one :)
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