Grid view scroll sound and more navigation sounds support

[A12C4]

Currently EmulationStation sound support is very limited and this is one of the most asked feature from theme designers. Theses changes aim to add scroll sound support to the grid view but also adjust navigation sounds globally. There is some points on which I'm not 100% sure yet so tests and feedbacks would be highly appreciated.

You can download this modified version of EmulationStation here

You can test it with a modified version of Material Theme from @lilbud available here, but I encourage you to try it out by yourself, the theming syntax is the following:

<view name="basic, detailed, video, grid">
	<sound name="scroll">
		<path>./game_scroll.wav</path>
	</sound>
	<sound name="launch">
		<path>./game_launch.wav</path>
	</sound>
	<sound name="back">
		<path>./game_back.wav</path>
	</sound>
</view>
<view name="system">
	<sound name="scroll">
		<path>./system_scroll.wav</path>
	</sound>
	<sound name="launch">
		<path>./system_launch.wav</path>
	</sound>
</view>

Full changelog for those who are interested:
Current behavior in normal text. Changes in bold. Suggestions in italic.

• Game list views
  • The Basic/Detailed/Video views use TextListComponent's own property scrollSound. It is not removed. If both are defined, the global scroll sound is used. Add scroll sound support to the Grid view. Maybe games views could use the SYSTEM scroll sound when using quick system change
  • ES already play the launch sound when launching a game. Now it also do when entering a folder. Maybe entering a folder should use the scroll sound instead.
  • ES already play the back sound when exiting a folder. Now it also do when going back to system view.

.

• System view
  • Add scroll sound to the system view
  • Add launch sound when a system is chosen

[paffley]

Hi @A12C4 hope your well, long time no see! This looks great, I'll hang tight for it to be on emulation-dev before I test these out. It looks so easy and simple from your syntax, great work on this. This will be a game changer! :) Thank you.

[A12C4]

@paffley Yes it's been a while. This need some testing now, as I need input from users and theme designers before it is too late to be changed.

[ruckage]

Hi @A12C4
Really sorry I haven't had chance to test this yet, I've been really busy. I'll try and find some time this weekend to give a test.

[A12C4]

@ruckage Sure, thank you for taking time to try it out and give input. As you can see this doesn't got as much attention as I thought.

[ruckage]

@A12C4 said in Grid view scroll sound and more navigation sounds support:

@ruckage Sure, thank you for taking time to try it out and give input. As you can see this doesn't got as much attention as I thought.

I'm sure it will do, I think it sometimes takes a while for people to notice new additions like this. Most people who visit here are probably end users rather than theme developers but they appreciate these additions once the themes incorporate them and I certainly appreciate all your work.

[paffley]

I only work on pi's and not pc, so as soon as its added to emu-dev I'll test the hell out of it :)

[ruckage]

@A12C4
Sorry for the delay. I've had chance to give it a test now, I've added sounds to the 'Neo Geo Mini' theme and have uploaded it to mega so you can try it for yourself: NeoGeo-Mini - Sound Test mega.nz

For the most part it's working great but I have noticed a couple of bugs and also have a suggestion that I think would improve it.

Bugs:
Scroll sound isn't played on the system select when you hold down the direction button to continually scroll, not sure if by design but the scroll sound is played when holding down a direction in grid view.

The launch sound isn't fully played when launching a game - it's cut off so only a very brief snippet is played. I'm assuming that the closing of ES would need to be delayed until sounds have finished playing.

Suggestion:
At the moment you'll notice with the neo geo mini theme the scroll sound is quite bad when continuously scrolling but a very short sound like a quick click for example would likely sound perfect.
An extra sound for when holding down a direction would be very beneficial - something like <sound name="scroll-continuous">. This could either be left blank if the the developer wanted no sound to be played when continuously scrolling or they could use a shorter sound effect that is suited to fast scrolling.

[A12C4]

@ruckage Thank for the input and the time you took to try it out.

Scroll sound isn't played on the system select when you hold down the direction button

That seems like a bug, good job for finding it !

The launch sound isn't fully played when launching a game - it's cut off so only a very brief snippet is played. I'm assuming that the closing of ES would need to be delayed until sounds have finished playing.

That's sad, I'm not sure if it's possible to delay it until the sound have finished playing. I will take a look but I can't promise anything.

At the moment you'll notice with the neo geo mini theme the scroll sound is quite bad when continuously scrolling but a very short sound like a quick click for example would likely sound perfect.

The sounds I used are very short but I noticed the same problem. I think the way audio is handled in ES make it so that only one sound is played at a time. If you move the cursor, the sound is played ONLY if another sound isn't already played. This need to be changed, I need to see how the sounds work with the SDL library.

An extra sound for when holding down a direction would be very beneficial - something like <sound name="scroll-continuous">. This could either be left blank if the the developer wanted no sound to be played when continuously scrolling or they could use a shorter sound effect that is suited to fast scrolling.

That sound like an interesting idea, but first let's see what we can do with better sound handling.