Grid tile content (image, text, or more ...)

jdrassa

I give a bit more importance to keeping it simple for the user over keeping it simple for the developers.

Someone said this recently in an unrelated PR and I think it applies here as well. A little bit of code duplication would simplify things for users and theme developers.

@a12c4 said in The Grid View need your opinion:

While a unique and modular game view would solve both this problems (messy code and different metadata) at the same time.

This is true, but there is no guarantee this will happen anytime soon. When video support for first added, there was discussion about adding md_marquee to detailed view. The reason we didn't at the time was because their was discussion about overhauling the game view that would fix this "right way". Nothing ever came of it and support for md_marquee was never added to detailed view.

@a12c4 said in The Grid View need your opinion:

EDIT : What about md_marquee ? What about md_image ?

Ideally we should have consistent metadata available to all views.

@a12c4 said in The Grid View need your opinion:

Should we really spend time duplicating code all around instead of refactoring as this should have been done a long time ago ? I don't think so and I don't want to do that, if you want to, then go ahead and do it, but I don't support that.

Look I was not saying that you had to implement md_name support in all views, I was just pointing out that it was possible to do so without breaking existing themes. That being said, your statement about why you don't want to do it, could apply to the grid view in general. There was a bunch of code duplication involved. Maybe you should have held off until everything was refactored into the perfect solution. Maybe we should have rejected some of your PRs for the same reasoning. You didn't and we didn't. This just seems like a wierd arbitrary point to decide to draw the line.

lilbud

@a12c4 said in The Grid View need your opinion:

Beside that, on the original image, is the "white space" under the selected tile something you wanted to do on purpose ?

I honestly don't remember, its easily been years since I worked on this theme, or with gridview at all.

A12C4

@jdrassa

Someone said this recently in an unrelated PR and I think it applies here as well. A little bit of code duplication would simplify things for users and theme developers.

Ahahahah nicely seen. You won that point ;)

Look I was not saying that you had to implement md_name support in all views, I was just pointing out that it was possible to do so without breaking existing themes. That being said, your statement about why you don't want to do it, could apply to the grid view in general. There was a bunch of code duplication involved. Maybe you should have held off until everything was refactored into the perfect solution. Maybe we should have rejected some of your PRs for the same reasoning. You didn't and we didn't. This just seems like a wierd arbitrary point to decide to draw the line.

I have 3 things to say about this.

Firstly, I will do it for the md_name since it's on my way, but here I wasn't only talking about the md_name, but all metadata elements. Because if I start to do it for the md_name, I'm 200% sure someone will ask why I didn't do the same for the others.

Secondly, yes I had to duplicate a lot of code for the grid view (all the detailed view metadata stuff), and I didn't like it, but I did it because at that time I didn't know well enough the game view code back then to start a big refactoring which would have just lead me into a wall, and the grid view would have never happened. Now, things are different.

Ultimately, I'm doing this on my free time, I'm not being paid for doing that, so nobody should be able to order me to do something I don't want to. I do it because I have fun programing complex stuff and learning, if it can help the RetroPie community along the way, then it's even better, but I won't prioritize the second over the first.

I don't like this last argument, but well, you triggered me with the "Maybe we should have rejected some of your PRs for the same reasoning" and " This just seems like a wierd arbitrary point to decide to draw the line." ahahahah

A12C4

Ok I added a scrollDirection parameter to the theming syntax, where its value is vertical by default, but can be set to horizontal if needed.

Was kinda easy to do actually.

jdrassa

@a12c4 said in The Grid View need your opinion:

Ultimately, I'm doing this on my free time, I'm not being paid for doing that, so nobody should be able to order me to do something I don't want to. I do it because I have fun programing complex stuff and learning, if it can help the RetroPie community along the way, then it's even better, but I won't prioritize the second over the first.
I don't like this last argument, but well, you triggered me with the "Maybe we should have rejected some of your PRs for the same reasoning" and " This just seems like a wierd arbitrary point to decide to draw the line." ahahahah

No worries. I recognize we all are contributing in our free time. Hopefully, I didn't trigger you too much. I was a bit worried it may come across as harsh, which wasn't my intent. I appreciate the effort that you have put into this and especially the effort to break things down into smaller chunks which definately helps with reviews and testing.

A12C4

@jdrassa No problem, let's keep moving ahead together.

If I can't figure out, in a reasonable amount of time, how to properly refactor the game views into one single, modular game view, then I will add all the missing metadata elements to all the views.

But for now, please let me try my solution first.

I don't like to stupidly copy/paste stuff around, I feel like a bad IT student who just discovered stackoverflow.

A12C4

@jdrassa Btw, what's @BuZz policy for stable and master branches ? We are getting close to the version 1 of the grid view, so I wanted to know how I can plan ahead.

jdrassa

@a12c4 I wouldn't presume to speak for Buzz, but my understanding is that he will move changes to stable when he determines them to be stable. The stable/master split is a relatively new thing, and came about after a few contributions required fixes shortly after being accepted.

That being said, I would expect grid view to live on the master branch for a while before being moved to the stable.

PittStone

@jdrassa I have a Problem with Custom Collections if i Use Portable Emulationstation with the portable.bat Can you help me? https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/9094/updated-emulationstation-for-windows/97

A12C4

@ectoone Ok I added a md_title element to the theming syntax for all the views with metadata (grid, detailed and video).

By default it is positioned offscreen, beside that, I kept the name md_title and the default parameters (font size, color, ...) used by the grid view of @jacobfk20 to ensure maximum compatibility with existing themes.

I lost so much IQ points by copy/pasting stuff around that I want to start the hashtag #makeESgreatAgain

A12C4

@EctoOne @lilbud @Shadowron @herb_fargus @chicuelo @Clyde @afiction @paffley @jdrassa

We are getting close to the version 1 of the grid view, it only miss a few things (default image, folder image, dynamic texture loader so the grid can handle big game collections), so it's time to open the gates to more testers.

You can test out latest version of the grid view, by cloning my git repository, I will keep the master branch updated with all the latest changes as soon as they are stable enough.

https://github.com/Koerty/EmulationStation

CAUTION : after trying my version of EmulationStation, if you go back to the stable version of EmulationStation of RetroPie, the "Gamelist view style" option in "UI settings" will be empty, set it back to either "Basic", "Detailed", "Video" or "Automatic". If you enter the "UI settings" menu and leave it while "Gamelist view style" is empty, ES will crash. It doesn't know about the "Grid" view yet.

Hex

@A12C4 Currently it works as shown in the screenshot (names bellow images). The initial goal is to get it running. Prettifying can be done later.

A12C4

@hex What do you mean ? You want the game names below the images ?

It run right now, beside the dynamic image loader all the core features are here.

Hex

Get it running in the hands of users, themers and devs.

Ideally i would like the image to be shown and a dark (low alpha) background and text on top. I am searching for the eg. image that i did long ago.

paffley

@A12C4 great work.

If themed correctly, can this display the md_marquee tag vertically in a single column? Basically like the current System Carousel?

A12C4

@paffley No marquee nor thumbnails, only images for now, idk for the future I need to take a look at how marquee and thumbnails work first.

But yes, you are be able to do a single column grid if you want to.

paffley

@a12c4 said in The Grid View need your opinion:

@paffley No marquee nor thumbnails, only images for now, idk for the future I need to take a look at how marquee and thumbnails work first.

But yes, you are be able to do a single column grid if you want to.

That's great thank you! I can just move the marquee images into the image folder no problem for now. :)

Keep it up!

paffley

@A12C4 one more little question, if the grid view is enabled, can we still use the video tag elsewhere on the page. so basically you would have the image grid displayed and the video displayed in a different section (but the video is not part of the grid), if that makes sense?

I'm just thinking from a themers point of view. I can draw you up a example if you like me to?

A12C4

@paffley No video support as already stated previously and no plan for video support in the future. I need to take a deeper look into the code of the video view to see possible solutions.

paffley

@a12c4 said in Grid tile content (image, text, or more ...):

@paffley No video support as already stated previously and no plan for video support in the future. I need to take a deeper look into the code of the video view to see possible solutions.

No problem! thanks for the reply. :)