EmulationStation mod

jacobfk20

UPDATE AT BOTTOM

I've decided to publish my modded version of ES that I've made in my free time over the past couple months. Just thought I'd like to know what people think :)

I've added the following things:

OSK (On Screen Keyboard)
Gamelist Gridview. (Gamelists views can now be manually changed in gamelist menu)
Wifi Scanning / connecting from within ES. (tied with OSK you can connect to a network without a keyboard)
Other network settings to view IP/MAC address of both eth0 and wlan0
View Storage from within ES
Toggle Systems to show or be hidden from the System View.
And a couple other small things such as Progressbars or see savegame count per system

Here is an Imgur link to a small album showing some of the things I've added. http://imgur.com/a/Kdoif

I'm still wanting to polish it a bit more, but I'd just like to know what other people think of it so far. below are the download links for the compiled version with some instructions on how to get it up and running. Thank you for taking your time for looking at this.

To install you need two files. the core EmulationStation program and for the wifi connect feature to work, you'll need it's tiny addon.

First make a backup of your current emulationstation file in /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation. Then move my version of emulationstation into that same folder. In order to have wifi connect you need to add the addon file to ~/.emulationstation/app/wifi (you'll have to create those two last directories, sorry it's weird.) After that, just reboot the pi and you'll be in my version.

If you want to compile it yourself, or check out the source you can at my github.

UPDATE 1: Test build available for themers
I've made available a test build for theme makers to build specific themes for grid view. You should be able to use it like this:
<view name="grid">
</view>

Grid View builds on Basic View. You should be able to change Rom Title "md_title" and Grid "md_grid"
<text name="md_title"></text>
<text name="md_grid"></text>
You should be able to set ALL configurations available. (size, pos, color, origin, etc...)

Get this latest test build from my google drive.

Common Problems:
It doesn't run on boot, or it says "Permission denied" when you try to run it:
You need give it permission to execute. This can be done with chmod +x emulationstation Be sure to be in the directory that emulationstation is in.

I'm open to suggestions and any feedback,
Thanks :)

mattrixk

That looks really cool, and I've read that quite a few people want the Grid view.

Have you considered adding things like being able to favourite games, or different sort options, like being able to sort by genre or number of players?

Have you made any changes to the System View? Being able to view the systems in a top to bottom list (instead of the big white carousel) would be great.

Also, how well does the Grid view play with existing themes? Would a theme maker have to design to the Grid view as well (along with the System, Simple and Detailed views)?

Edit: I also meant to ask, would this run on PC Emulationstation? Or Pi only?

SimonBelmont

I was just in the process of building the source code to add many of these same features when I saw your post. Talk about great timing!

I love the on screen keyboard but I wish both the top and bottom L and R keys registered. I use an SNES controller and found myself unable to backspace. I assume this is because I mapped my L button to bottom L and the OSK is looking for top L. It would be great if backspace could be its own button on screen so that even people using a 2 button NES controller could have full functionality. I don't know if this is even feasible but at the other extreme, it would be awesome if dual stick controller users could type like you do with a Steam controller with each stick controlling a cursor on each side of the keyboard.

Also loving grid view but it needs some tweaks for long titles. I found some of my titles were hidden behind the system logo. For instance, the S in "Sonic the Hedgehog" got pushed behind the logo.

Overall this is very impressive and I hope your changes gets rolled into the official Retropie releases!

PokeEngineer

@mattrixk

Pi only...

mattrixk

@RetroPieNerd Heh yeah, I read that at the bottom of the GitHub page just after I edited my answer to ask the PC question and was too lazy to re-edit my answer to remove it.

Thank you for answering though.

PokeEngineer

@BuZz

This looks awesome! You got to check it out for yourself!
It would be cool if this made it to the official 4.0 release! :)

jacobfk20

@SimonBelmont I could add bottom left and right buttons as space and delete buttons as well. I thought about adding a delete and space button on the button map right as I was wrapping this last build up, guess I should do it. I've noticed the issue with some long game names getting hidden behind some menus and I'm trying to figure out the best solution without just shrinking the font.

@mattrixk Yes, adding a favorites list is on my todo. I haven't thought of changing the sorting method but I could look into that. I haven't made any changes to the system view besides the ability to hide systems from it. I'm not sure how themable GridView is. for right now, to have the most compatibility, Grid View is seen as either a detailed or basic game list to a theme-- but this can easily be changed to be just themed differently from basic and detailed views. I'd love to talk to a theme maker to get it working perfectly though.

This version of ES will not run on Windows, but it will run on ANY linux distro. I could make it run on Windows but will have to omit some features.

lilbud

@jacobfk20 Just wanted to know. Can the game title be moved out of the header? Because in my Material Theme and the Turtle Pi Theme. The logo covers it. I wanted to know how to move it.

jacobfk20

@lilbud I'm not sure how themes work, but I did add the options for theme makes to change the game title's font, size, and position. GridView is seen as a Detailed gamelist (this is for compatibility right now) and the game's title is labeled "md_title". I hope this helps...

Rookervik

This could be a game changer <3

meleu

@jacobfk20
Where were you all this time?!?!

Other guys showed willingness to improve emulationstation here (example: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2250/emulationstation-fork). But you came with some cool stuff ready!

herb_fargus

Grid view?! You've made all my dreams come true! That was the last thing I've wanted with RetroPie for it to be complete in my mind (and the BBC micro but that's in the plans) I reallllllly like the grid view. On screen keyboard is quite cool as well. Good work.

Though in terms of your source code it would have been nicer if you'd have forked the original source and had a more complete history of your changes so if we wanted to incorporate certain pieces of your code it would be easier.

Arcuza

@jacobfk20 Oh my god, this is awesome!!! Is this mod compatible with all existing themes, or do the Pixel theme need to be updated to support this modded ES?

lilbud

@Arcuza I am trying to update the Material theme. Pixel and Turtle Pi have to be fixed. Pixel's simple view has a centered logo and Turtle Pi has a centered logo theme wide. The logo is covering the Game Name in grid view. I can't seem to find how to move the game name. When I figure it out. I will post here.

herb_fargus

@lilbud another idea is to have the grid view be modified to have the game name right under the image for each game kinda like kodi, don't know how that would work code wise though. (Or you could just remove the gamelist altogether if all games are scraped)

lilbud

@herb_fargus I was trying to move the game title with no success. Maybe a rectangle under the header would be the game name

mattrixk

@jacobfk20

Themes.md makes mention of a Grid View. If you could get that running theme makers could create separate layouts just for Grid View instead of using the Detailed View. I know the Detailed View of my theme MetaPixel won't look any good with your Grid View, but it would only take a few minutes to whip up a decent Grid View layout.

lilbud

@mattrixk I tried to add a grid view in the theme.xml files. But ES will not see it, or crash.

If someone could try this code posted above.

jacobfk20

@mattrixk I can easily make Gridview report as Gridview instead of detailed view. All themes will have to be updated after changing that.

@herb_fargus I actually would like to do it how Kodi does it. It is possible. Also, sorry I kinda just dumped the whole thing onto github... If you would like to add or remove anything I'd be glad to do it. Just about everything I added is modular and can be removed.

@lilbud I will look into how themes work fully today to make sure they work as they should and move the game title.

lilbud

@jacobfk20 when I tried to make a change under detailed. Nothing happened. Adding a grid view in the theme.xml did nothing. I am trying things on my theme to see exactly what needs to be done. The md_title you mentioned does not exist in any theme. Or anywhere for that matter. If you need anything tested. Get in touch with me. 3 - 4 themes are unusable in some state due to the logo overlapping the game title. If you could make the grid have the game title under each box art like herb mentioned. That would be best to fix some issues