New NotSoEpicNoir-Chiculeo Hybrid Theme

[CCFox]

Good Evening All

As previously posted on another topic I have been working on my own NotSoEpicNoir / Chiculeo Hybrid theme. I have taken the excellent layout of the NSEN and tweaked it to my own preference.

I have replaced the system text to show the system logo.
I have replaced the controller image to show the console/computer image instead.
I have replaced the poster artwork to Chiculeo's artwork. I do like hoover900's artwork but I felt that Chiculeo's was more family friendly

I also moved the up and down arrow's to the left slightly as they were not visible with some of the new artwork.

On the game list screens I have where possible kept the NSEN system's game list background. They are excellent and I wish I was able to do the rest of the system's myself. Any pointers would be gratefully recieved although I only have access to Paint Shop Pro X2. In the meantine I have blanked out one and replicated across the remaining systems.

Here are some screenshots of a few of the systems:

As you can see Amstrad CPC has a generic game list screen...I think it works...?

I have tweaked the following systems although not all have posters as yet (it's a long list):

3DO
Amiga 500
Amiga 1200
Amiga 1200
Amiga CD32
Amstrad CPC
Amsrad GX4000
Apple II
Apple IIe
Apple IIgs
Arcade
Atari 800
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Atari Jaguar
Atari Lynx
Atari ST
Commodore PET
Commodore VIC-20
Commodore 64
Commodore 16
Capcom CPS
Colecovision
Creativision
Daphne
Famicom
Famicom Disk System
Final Burn Alpha
Game And Watch
Sega Game Gear
Sega Mega Drive & Genesis
Sega Saturn
Sega 32X & Mega 32X
Sega CD & Mega CD
Sega SG-1000
Sega Dreamcast
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Color
Nintendo GBA
Nintendo Game Cube
Nintendo NES
Nintendo SNES
Nintendo Super Famicom
Nintendo 64
Nintendo DS
Nintendo Virtual Boy
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii U
MSX & MSX2
Neo Geo
Neo Geo CD
Neo Geo Pocket
Neo Geo Pocket Color
MAME
KODI
Odyssey2
PC/MS-DOS
PC88
PC98
PC386/MS-DOS i386
PC Engine
PC Engine CD
PC Engine Turbo Express
SuperGrafx
PC-FX
PORTS
Sony Playstation
Sony Playstation 2
Sony PSP
Sony PSP Mini's
Residual VM
Scummm VM
Retropie Config Screen
Steam
Supervision
TurboGrafx 16
TurboGrafx CD
Interton VC4000
Vectrex
Wonderswan
Wonderswan Color
Sharp X68000
Sinclair ZX Spectrum

These are the systems that I do not have posters for:

Amiga 1200
Amiga CD32
Apple IIe
Apple IIgs
Commodore 16
Commodore VIC-20
Commodore PET
Capcom CPS
Creativision
Famicom Disk System
Amstrad GX4000
Odyssey2
PC88
PC98
PC386/MS-DOS i386
PC Engine Turbo Express
Supergrafx
PC-FX
Supervision
Interton VC4000

I know that some of these systems are very obscure so can be trimmed away. Also there are probably duplications i.e. different systems names for different countries. Any pointers would be gratefully received. Also ideas for posters would be welcome (and where to find them...).

Like I said at the beginning of this post this is a tweak NOT a rewrite except to allow for the image file name changes in the theme.xml and the images themselves. Credit should always go to @hoover900 and @chiculeo.

Feedback Welcome (Dons tin hat)

Kind Regards

CCFox

[SP]

Is there a way to remove the arrows on top?

[CCFox]

@SP

Yes. The arrow.svg in the _art/var folder can be deleted. There is only one because the theme.xml file rotates one of them.

Rgds

CCFox

[CCFox]

Sorry which arrows? The ones on the system screen? if so then my previous post.

If on the game list screen they would need to be blanked out as the arrows form part of the picture.

Again regards

CCFox

[SP]

Yes, the ones on the gamelist. To the right of the system logo.

[CCFox]

@SP

They form part of the image. They can be blanked off easily in the generic game list (like the Amstrad CPC background) but it would be more difficult in the console image background (like the arcade background) as blanking it off would create a black area that would stand out. As I previously stated I only created the generic black screens not the console ones.

You could replace all the game list backgrounds with the black ones.

Rgds

CCFox

[hoover900]

@CCFox Awesome work man! I'm really digging what you're doing here, but I'd try to push it a little bit more. Mocked up something up really quick as to where I think you can take this theme.

There's a lot of negative space on the left side of the screen. Just moving the text, logo, and console image further to the left gives a better balance. I'd also make the poster image larger. Now looking at I think you could make the logos larger as well. one sec let me mock that up as well.

The multiple versions of the consoles, such as the genesis and psx, is a nice touch man. Let me know if you want the template of game list background image. I have a version that I made in Krita, but I think I can save it as a PSD.

keep up the good work

[hoover900]

ahh looking at it again the second mock up doesn't look as good as the first. The logo is too big now, but I think you can still make the logo a little bit bigger. like 1% 2% bigger.

[CCFox]

@hoover900

Thank you for your feedback. It is appreciated. I agree about the logo. I will look at making it little bigger.

As for the game list template that would be great. Is it partially transparent? Do you get a picture of the console then place the game list template over the top? Am I making sense 'cause when I read it back it sounds odd!

Again Kind Regards

CCFox

[hoover900]

What's your GitHub user name so I can give you access to the repo the template is in? Gamelist background is pretty much an overlay and I put it on top of the console images from the Tronky Fran theme by HerbFargus. I also used close up images of the consoles I found searching google.

[bmoxey]

I had a similar idea to combine 2 of the best themes in my opinion. Here are some screen shot of my console selection (all I have done so far). I decided I wanted to blend from the dark background to the character.

[CCFox]

@bmoxey

Now that is cool....A little beyond my expertise.

@hoover900

I don't have a GitHub user name but I will arrange and let you know.

KR

CCF

[CCFox]

Also I am loving the variations of this theme. The possibilities are almost infinite.

CCFox

[CCFox]

@hoover900

I am currently working on the theme and I have hit a snag and I was wondering if you could help?

I have moved the system logo and made it larger and I think it looks ok. I have also made the console image larger and I think that is ok too. I have also made the long description wider to match the same width as the logo area. Again looks ok.

Now for the snag.....

The short description (console 8-bit etc.) is a little harder because of the different widths of the texts. Is there a way to create an area and then place the text within it and justify it centrally?

Hope you know what I mean....

Again kind regards

CCFox

[CCFox]

This how far I have got...

KR

CCFox

[bmoxey]

@CCFox Within your text control you can add <alignment>center</alignment> (or left or right) to align the text within the defined text area.

[hoover900]

@CCFox There's a couple of things to take into account. I'm going to assume that you're making this for a standard TV which has an aspect ratio 16:9 and your standard TV dimensions are 1920x1080 px.

So we want to make the text centered at a certain point on the screen. With Emulation Station you can't just pick a pixel as say it's goes there. it's all percentage based, so we want look at your current layout and determine how big it is and then get the percentage change.

The green area is 630x980 px, so 630 + 100 / 2 (Adding 100px for the 50px margins on each side) gives us a horizontal center of 365.
1920 - 365 gives us 1555.
Now we need to remember our algebra and get the percent change.

so you want your horizontal text position to be set to 19.0104%

<text name="Your Text" extra="true">
    <alignment>center</alignment>
    <origin>0.5 0.5</origin>        <!-- Setting the origin to the center of the text node -->
    <pos>0.1901 "Replace with you vertical value"</pos>
    <size>0 0</size>

I hope this helps you out man

[AkiAfroo]

@bmoxey could you be so kind to share your theme . I love it!

[CCFox]

@hoover900 & @bmoxey

Got it!

I copied the size from the long description to the short description and the system info. Worked a treat. Understanding this a tiny bit better with your help. It is appreciated.

Just got to change the colour of the text and reduce the gap between the short description and the long description.

@bmoxey

I am still tweaking at the moment. I still have got the game list screens to do. I will be doing that later. Once I am happy then I will make it available to all if that is allowed. I don't want to tread on anybody's toes.

@hoover900

I will set up my GitHub in a mo so you can send me the game list template.

Again Kind Regards Both

CCFox

[CCFox]

sorry got confused with the request. It wasn't mine that was requested!!!

Apologies

Rgds

CCFox