runcommand launching images for ANY theme

[meleu]

@lilbud could you show me an image as an example?

[meleu]

@liquidzoo Done and (partially) done.

The script now looks for themes in $HOME/.emulationstation/themes too.

And to use it over SSH you have to edit the script and set the yes_flag to true (I'm assuming you're comfortable to edit a script). I know it's ugly, I've made this way as a fast solution to make it usable for you. I'll polish the code later.

[liquidzoo]

Fantastic! And yes, I can edit the script myself, thanks for adding the option.

Looks like I need to make some modifications to my theme, though (or add in some sort of a background file). Right now I don't have a separate entry in my xml for a per-system background and it gave some errors. Going to look into it and see what I can come up with.

[meleu]

@liquidzoo is your theme available somewhere? I would like to know what's wrong.

or add in some sort of a background file

I'm planning to add an option to make the background as a solid color. It would be useful when there's no background image file.

Another problem is that my script currently looks for the data it needs in the [SYSTEM_THEME]/theme.xml, and if not find, it looks in the file that is <include>d in the theme.xml. I need to improve this searching method (e.g. the @mattrixk 's IO theme use yet another <include> inside the io/io.xml and my script is currently unable to look at it).

[lilbud]

@meleu

[liquidzoo]

Mine isn't anywhere to view yet. It's a homebrew combination of Carbon and nbba with a little added flair (it also has Genesis and TG16 rather than MegaDrive and PCEngine)

It does have a background defined in the overall theme.xml rather than the individual systems, but I don't know if the script is picking it up.

From the theme.xml (called test.xml):

	<image name="background" extra="true">
		<!---<tile>true</tile>--->
		<size>0 1</size>
		<pos>0.5 0.5</pos>
		<origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
		<path>./_art/whitehex.jpg</path>
	</image>

And the error:

WARNING: No background found for "snes" system.
The launching image for "snes" was NOT created.

Repeated for each system (though not every system I have ROMS in, for example it is not there for either PCEngine or TG16)

[meleu]

@lilbud I'm not sure if I convert any logo to a white version it will look good... Some logos has several colors. Example:

If the white logo is provided by the theme it's OK, but I'm not sure if applying a color to a logo would be cool...

[meleu]

	<image name="background" extra="true">
		<!---<tile>true</tile>--->
		<size>0 1</size>
		<pos>0.5 0.5</pos>
		<origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
		<path>./_art/whitehex.jpg</path>
	</image>

Good that you posted that code snippet! The problem is there!!

To get the XML data in my script I use a tool named xmlstarlet. This tool takes the XML Specification very seriously. :-)

According to the comments section of XML Specification: "the grammar does not allow a comment ending in --->". And the xmlstarlet doesn't recognize this string as closing comment string.

That's the why my script is unable to create images for the pixel theme. I've submitted a PR fixing it, but @Rookervik needs to approve it.

[liquidzoo]

@meleu

That fixed it, for sure. I deleted that comment and it worked, mostly.

Launching image for "fba" created with success!
Launching image for "fds" created with success!
Launching image for "gamegear" created with success!
Launching image for "gb" created with success!
Launching image for "gba" created with success!
Launching image for "gbc" created with success!
Launching image for "mastersystem" created with success!
Launching image for "megadrive" created with success!
Launching image for "n64" created with success!
Launching image for "neogeo" created with success!
Launching image for "nes" created with success!
Launching image for "pcengine" created with success!
Launching image for "ports" created with success!
Launching image for "psx" created with success!
Launching image for "sega32x" created with success!
Launching image for "segacd" created with success!
Launching image for "sg-1000" created with success!
Launching image for "snes" created with success!

Am I correct in thinking that it's only looking for the systems that have emulators installed, and even then only certain naming structures (megadrive over genesis, pcengine over tg16)?

[lilbud]

@meleu

[meleu]

@liquidzoo said in runcommand launching images for ANY theme:

Am I correct in thinking that it's only looking for the systems that have emulators installed, and even then only certain naming structures (megadrive over genesis, pcengine over tg16)?

It looks for the systems present in /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg and ignores retropie (for retropiemenu).

I don't know the trick to use genesis rather than megadrive...

[liquidzoo]

That makes sense to me, thanks.

The trick for using one naming convention over the other has to do with the platforms.cfg file (that doesn't exist normally), but the es_systems.cfg file still only has one valid <name> section per emulator. Makes sense as to why it's only doing certain ones.

Not a concern to me, but I know that emulationstation itself looks for ~/.emulationstation/ entries before those in /etc/emulationstation/ Just an idea for your next update.

Thank you for the great work! Now to tweak to make sure the text will show up on my background (thank you for including valid color names there! Huge help!)

[meleu]

@lilbud those white logos are from which theme?
I mean, the script takes the logos from the system's theme.xml.

[lilbud]

@meleu Material theme. It was a pain to make them.

[meleu]

@lilbud said in runcommand launching images for ANY theme:

@meleu I was thinking that the system color, would be the background, and the logo would be white

Done! It results in some cool images, like these:

master system

megadrive

Update the script and run it with material. You'll see the images. ;-)

[Rookervik]

@meleu Ahhh, that's why you want me to make my theme XML compliant, even tho it's already ES complaint. I was wondering why you wanted me to make changes even tho there's no issues with ES. :P Considering I'd rather people not use my graphics since I've spent hundreds of hours on them, I may leave that change out. If I had just used someone elses' assets I'd fix it right up.

[meleu]

@Rookervik No problem bro. I was just making tests with my script with several themes and noticed that with the pixel xml files. Your launching images for pixel theme are far better than the generated ones. ;-)

Thanks for all your artwork!

[tronkyfran]

Please, use the proper aspect ratio for the tronkyfran theme images , they look weird stretched ;)

[meleu]

@tronkyfran OK. I will fix it. Thanks.

[meleu]

@tronkyfran The resulting image has the 4:3 proportion. Are you OK with cropped images?