Input needed: ES theming improvements

Zigurana

@dankcushions What in the name of the spirit of open-source SW development are you talking about?
First of all, the version I am working from still has a "share, edit and attribute" - type licence. If @Rookervik has changed it recently, that cannot retroactively affect all earlier versions.
Second, this is hardly the redistribution of of a complete theme that I now claim as my own. It is a single xml file, with specific additions to showcase the use of a new feature. I could have pasted the same thing as a code-block here in the forum, but I thought to make it easier for folks to go and test it out.
Finally, talking about unfair, I believe that creating original content for open-source projects gives you some right of ownership, for the images @Rookervik certainly has the copyright. But he does not completely own the handling of the xmls describing the system behaviour, not at least because these specific view elements were not there yet. So what right is there to claim for this file?

Now to be clear, I understand that licence violations are a sore point atm, but I kind of feel like I'm being put in the same corner as the scumbags that try to make money by selling Retropie SDs. That hurts.

TLDR: I do not think I did anything wrong.

dankcushions

@Zigurana the design and layout of a theme is still the theme. there's a non modifying clause on pixel and you modified it, and distributed the file. in the spirit of collaboration i would have asked first.

i'm not the theme police. do what you want. just raising the point.

FlyingTomahawk

I cannot speak for Rookervik but from what I understood was, he cares the most about his self-created graphical stuff (logos, system names, backgrounds) and not the code itself inside the xml file.
As far I know all themes have the same or similar code base otherwise they would not run, right?
As long @Zigurana doesn't add any logos or background files from Pixel he should be good. He also did not intend to sell or spread with bad intention, just used it as a sample code.

For future reference, @Zigurana if you need any file to play around or even graphical stuff do not hesitate to use my Futura theme. I do not mind at all if it is used to improve coding or ES in general so please go ahead and help yourself out. :-)

mattrixk

@FlyingTomahawk said in Input needed: ES theming improvements:

For future reference, @Zigurana if you need any file to play around or even graphical stuff do not hesitate to use my Futura theme. I do not mind at all if it is used to improve coding or ES in general so please go ahead and help yourself out.

Same goes for any of mine, present or future (except maybe MetaPixel, just in case :P ).

Nismo

@Zigurana My theme is your theme, you can use it for whatever you want.

Rookervik

@Zigurana You are quite right. I don't mind anyone using my positions in the XML. That's all I changed in the XML... positions. The graphics are what I would rather not others take and use as their own. There are not many themes (are there any?) that people drew all their own logos and consoles. So please, modify the xml and use it as much as you'd like.

TMNTturtlguy

@Rookervik I am currently creating a theme and would like to possibly use the controller art from your Carbon theme as a small part of the system page. I have seen it in other themes such as piterial, but would like your approval for use prior to sharing my theme with others. I completely understand if you prefer i do not use the controller art, i will come up with another solution. Thank you

mattrixk

@Rookervik I'm working on one that has custom console art... it's taking fooooooreeeeeeeeveeeeeeer

lilbud

@mattrixk 0_1490558978276_upload-540c28a0-c1c3-481c-bb37-4566aa77a1ab

Rookervik

@TMNTturtlguy Carbon was created by me, for the RetroPie project, to deal with the VRAM issues that EmulationStation had. It did take several weeks to create all the vector controllers and probably 1/2 of the logos. (About 1/4 were already in the Simple theme and another 1/4 were found online.)

So I can't really tell you if you can use the controllers or not. I don't really consider that my theme even though I made it. I took direction from Herb and Jools on how it would look. It's had it's art stolen many times already without permission. So I guess you can do with it what you want.

TMNTturtlguy

@Rookervik thanks! I will use it as a place holder for now during development and resting and work on something unique for the final release. Thanks again

jdrassa

@TMNTturtlguy Carbon license info is in the readme.txt included with the theme. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Here is a summary of the license directly from the readme.txt

ALLOWED:      - Share and duplicate as it is
              - Edit, alter, change it

REQUIREMENTS: - Attribution, give credit to the creator
              - Indicate changes to it
              - Publish the changes under the same license

PROHIBITED:   - Commercial distribution

As long as you follow the requirements of the license, you can use and change the theme as you like without the need to ask for permission.

TMNTturtlguy

@jdrassa thanks! Yes I did read that before and was aware of those rules and allowing their uses. I just saw this thread and thought I better be safe and ask.

herb_fargus

@jdrassa it's a common courtesy though which I'm sure rookervik appreciates considering all the work he has done for the project

mattrixk

@Zigurana Considering this was originally an ES theming improvement thread, I'm curious: is it possible to make the UI themeable? Or is that just not likely to happen?

masteryoer

@mattrixk

This was a work in progress. I'd be interested in working with somebody else on the project though to make it easier for theme designers to match UI to theme.

I was able to do it by rebuilding the source with the new assets, but the system already has some functionality in place for using external resources already.

If you want to work with me on it, since I need to do it with my xcade anyways, I'd be interested in sharing it with everyone.

mattrixk

@masteryoer It's cool that it's already part-way there, but I've no knowledge of the guts of ES. I can make themes okay, but I don't even know where to start with the actual programming.

masteryoer

@mattrixk

Well I just meant possibly helping lay out the theme structure to support the new additions. That way theme designers can build the UI along with their theme.

mattrixk

@masteryoer I would be curious to see what the innards look like, to know what would be the best way to name/use the UI theming elements. I wonder if anyone has written an "Idiot's Guide to Playing With the Guts of ES".

masteryoer

@mattrixk

They aren't very clean. It's basically just one element for the window frame, a separate svg for the button and help icons, and a splash screen.