Box Art, Marquee and Video Snap simultaneously in themes.

Jimiga

Hi devs!

I'm learning theme creation, and love the idea of having Video playing with box art and marquee (wheel) art displayed simultaneously, like this mockup screenshot.

As I understand right now, you can add only one additional piece visual metadata; Marquee alone is commonly seen in themes like Carbon.

In several theme media folders I've researched, I see directories for wheel, image, videos, cover, etc. I know that these paths are set per-game in each system's gamelist.xml, and 'called' in the theme.xml. However currently, calling more than one image has no effect. I have a working version of this theme, but only the Marquee art and video show.

I think this would be a great addition, really opening up theme creator's options to have more design options than the common 3-image-group art, and I see from the older threads that this idea might be popular.

Thanks for all the great work, I've learned a ton from the community here! Stay safe and well out there!

mitu

It should be possible to have all 3 types shown at the same time - video, marquee and boxart (md_video, md_marquee and md_image). Carbon or SpaceOddity themes support it.
What version of EmulationStation are you testing/using ?

Jimiga

Thank you for your reply @mitu

I've just updated to latest ES and indeed this improves things! I can now call the image file in addition to the marquee.
However, the difference in what I'm attempting is that I'd like to call additional box art image. I've set video snap to display the 'image' file first then fade to the snap (I like this popular technique, using these lines in the theme.xml)

<showSnapshotNoVideo>true</showSnapshotNoVideo>
<showSnapshotDelay>true</showSnapshotDelay>

For this theme, I'm trying to call an additional image to display for box art, rather than displaying a repeat of the 'image' file

My gamelist.xml includes the following path entries (example for 1943 game):

<image>./media/images/1943.png</image>
<cover>./media/cover/1943.png</cover>
<marquee>./media/marquee/1943.png</marquee>
<video>./media/videos/1943.mp4</video>

Do you know if this it's possible to call in other images with different md_ tags? in some gamelist xml's I've researched I see these path options for 'cover' etc, and I'm really hoping I can utilise both the 'image' file (as a still screenshot displaying which fades to the video snap), as well as a separate box art file,

mitu

@Jimiga said in Box Art, Marquee and Video Snap simultaneously in themes.:

Do you know if this it's possible to call in other images with different md_ tags? in some gamelist xml's I've researched I see these path options for 'cover' etc, and I'm really hoping I can utilise both the 'image' file (as a still screenshot displaying which fades to the video snap), as well as a separate box art file,

No, the list is fixed. Have you tried to use md_thumbnail as a 4th image type (for the boxart) ?

Jimiga

@mitu Thanks - tried this and it gets me ALMOST where I need to be! Appreciate your help.

Calling the md_thumbnail works great in "Detailed" view.

In video view however, whilst it does call the artwork correctly, it changes the functionality of the image that shows in the main window before the video snap fades in:

<showSnapshotNoVideo>true</showSnapshotNoVideo>
<showSnapshotDelay>true</showSnapshotDelay>

this function is now showing my thumbnail image (which is my box art) instead of the Image art (my game screenshot)

Is there any way to force the image that shows before the video snap fades in to be the Image file, and not the Thumbnail?

I'll check my code again tomorrow, late here now and this could be my mistake! Thanks for your help.

Jimiga

@mitu Just to follow up with examples.

When in 'Detailed' mode, the theme behaves exactly as I would like:

Main window = Screenshot ('image' file)
Top Right = Marquee
Mid Right = Box art ('thumbnail' file)
as seen here:

However when in 'Video' mode, the image that now loads before the video snap in the main window is the Thumbnail image rather than the 'image' file (the screenshot)
as seen here:

I feel I'm so close to being able to design this as I'd like! I just need the video snap to show the screenshot 'image' file instead of the box art 'thumbnail' file. This way also when no video snap is available, we will see screenshot/boxart/snap, rather than doubling up the box art.

It feels like once the thumbnail folder and art is present, video snaps default to using the thumbnail as a 'snapshot' over the image file, which is what I'd like.
Do you know if it's possible to force video snaps to look for the image file snapshot prior to loading the video, instead of the thumbnail?

mitu

I'll check the source to see what is the intended usage of md_thumbnail and why it's different between the view modes.

Jimiga

@mitu Thanks for your help!

jlopezvl

@Jimiga Id like to test your theme.. Id like it to see it in the videos ... COuld you send me file to upload on my retropie?
Or maybe upload it yo es themes repository when it is ended ...
Anyway, it looks very well and id like to test it is you could send my the files here for example... ...

Jimiga

@jlopezvl Thanks for your interest! Right now it's really just a proof of concept, testing to see if it can work. It'll need quite a lot of refinement before it's a finished theme! Grateful for the help and the community here, I'll keep sharing as I develop things!

HurricaneFan

@Jimiga I think you have it reversed.

Image = box art
marquee = game logo
thumbnail = screenshot of gameplay that will then transition to video.

Jimiga

@HurricaneFan That did it!! Thanks so much, I don't know why I hadn't thought to try it that way but it didn't occur to me at all, so thanks for the nudge! Now... to get on with scraping all the right artwork after this test and expanding the test to other systems!

Thanks for your help!

mitu

I see that @HurricaneFan pointed you in the right direction, this is indeed how the thumbnail/image should be used.

HurricaneFan

@Jimiga Glad that did the trick. Have you thought of a name for your theme? I love the look of it.

Jimiga

@mitu Thanks for looking into this! Progressing now with learning how this can work across systems. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions!

Jimiga

@HurricaneFan Thanks for the help, indeed!
Right now, this is a proof-of-concept whilst I learn. My aim with this particular one is to pull together enough experience to attempt my own unique theme, so I do hope in the near future to be working towards that!

The last couple of years on the scene I've just been tinkering with others' themes which I like, and not really created anything I can call mine. I'd definitely like to use these ideas for something I can release into the wild someday though! Community help is great, and is helping me learn a lot. I'll be around, with things to share down the line!

dionmunk

@Jimiga You ought to start a thread for this theme. It looks great and I'd love to see where you go with it.

rilight

@Jimiga I would also love to see this theme in action, or at least get a look at the code to use it in modifying my own theme :D

dionmunk

@Jimiga So, I couldn't wait for you to come out with this and decided to take a stab at making a theme that takes inspiration for yours. I call it Focus since the main focus is on the game and not much else. I tried to put the minimum amount of information in there. It's focused on having a screenshot and video for each game with a CRT shaped overlay that goes over the screenshot/video (you have to use VLC for this to work correctly). I also have a proper CRT scanline overlay that goes over the game screenshot/video that looks pretty nice (very similar to the zfast_crt_standard shader) when running on a physical RetroPi. This screenshot is ES running on Windows, and it does some weird scaling that makes the scanline overlay look terrible.

Anyway, I appreciate your inspiration! I don't plan to release this theme without your permission since it is so similar to your work.

Focus

dre10g

@jimiga are you able to share your theme?
This is the exact type of theme I would like to use.