Please test: Random Game selection/launch via Video Screensaver

pjft

@Zigurana Updated the PR. Would love yours and @jdrassa 's thoughts, so that hopefully we can close that. I'm happy to squash it to a single commit, but want the review first so I can ensure code consistency across the OMX build as well.

As for the favorites/kidsmode stuff, what do you mean by appending? Would you want me to add the metadata on my PR?

I'm happy to submit a second PR with adding just those two types of metadata, as well as filters for those (and yes, happy to have them be stored as an option). That being said, I don't have any intention in re-inventing the wheel you have so well invented so far, with the kiosk modes, the changes to the themes, etc, so just let me know if that single piece would help and I'm happy to take that on, using the exact same metadata types as you have in the past - but since you already have it done, I don't want to in any way duplicate work or take credit away from you.

Only if it helps.

Thanks!

Dominus

@pjft Will you be updating your ES to the latest version anytime soon? I just updated mine and I am loving some of the new features, so I'd hate to lose those.

pjft

@Dominus sure. Anything in particular you're looking for that's not yet in the build?

I might share a script to add to your RetroPie Setup so you can pretty much always install the latest version I have merged. I suspect I might not have provided a binary for the latest one.

Edit: here are the instructions:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/75541

You will want to quit emulationstation when you update it from source, as it may run out of memory otherwise. The latest code there should be 1 week old, hopefully nothing significant came up the last week that you're looking forward to?

Thanks.

The next steps here are actually to try and get this merged into the main ES, so expect that to be my main focus for this work in the coming months.

Dominus

@Dominus said in Please test: Random Game selection/launch via Video Screensaver:

version anytime soon? I just updated mine and I am loving some of

I haven't checked your current version, but I noticed that there was an option for "Surprise Me!" game selection, Filtering the roms by Genre, Players, Played etc..., also the system icons seem a bit different from the last time I updated as well. They are closer together and don't expand larger too much anymore when highlighted.

pjft

@Dominus most if not all of those should be there. Definitely filtering, as that was something I put together, and the Surprise Me one from @Zigurana made it to the build.

Unsure about what you're referring to in regards to the icons, but as I said the code there should be up to date with ES from a week or so ago. Just follow the instructions here in this post:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/75541

Dominus

@pjft After running the script do I still do this:

chmod +x emulationstation
sudo cp emulationstation /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/

EDIT:

Never mind I see no other work is needed! Thanks!

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft i believe that @Dominus is refering to the system logos and other art in the theme. I believe others have noticed this as well and I think it has to do with the new carousel updates. I don't understand all the ins and outs because I am so focused on my custom theme, but I believe with the new changes that allow for themers to change their size and number of logos may have slighlty modifies how some themes display their logos. I think I am talking in circles. Your build acts appropriately with the updates and matches the main build.

@Dominus you just update using the menu and it installs for you, no need to follow the old method.

Dominus

@pjft This is awesome! Thanks! I am wondering about the text in your video, that displays the game name. Mine doesn't show that, and obviously it could have been taken out after the fact. But is there a way to turn that on, or has it been disabled now?

pjft

~~@Dominus I believe that that's on the theme, there used to be a bug on that background and now it's fixed, meaning that some themes will now need to be corrected. What theme are you using?~~

Edit: sorry, completely misunderstood the question. It was late at night.

Dominus

@pjft Oh I am using my own, a variant of the carbon theme.

Dominus

@pjft Oh I found the option in the menu to turn that on. Works great! Thanks again!

pjft

@Dominus and did you solve the theme bar? @TMNTturtlguy Had to do the same thing in his theme - I believe it's the background color for one of the items?

Dominus

@pjft Everything looks fine on my end, I didn't have to change anything.

pjft

@Dominus good, sorry. It was quite late at night during our exchange, I must have misread what you meant. I thought you had mentioned that part of the theme had disappeared, but I can't seem to find any mention of that now in the morning. :)

Best.

Dominus

@pjft I just hooked my Pi up to my TV (Usually its on my computer monitor), and now my intro video and the Video Screensavers all go blank and off and on. I tried going into the boot/config.txt and forcing hdmi_drive=2 but its still having issues. Do you know what the fix is for this? I can put it in HDMI safe mode and they play fine, it just looks like garbage lol.

pjft

@Dominus should be related to overscan. Try to set disable overscan in config.txt - there's a previous post by someone else on that. Some particular resolutions and refresh rates mess up some TVs. Not much we can do.

Disabling the screensaver captions is also an option that others have mentioned.

Let us know if that helps!

Dominus

@pjft Yeah that worked! Thanks again! I will pass that info on to others who were asking as well.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft please forgive me in advance for this question as I have been spending a lot of time learning other aspects of retropie and previously did not have interest in favorites and kids mode. Now that I have been deeper into the system and my theme has become more complex and robust I have started to think about favorites. Also add in the thread about the favorite folder and how to theme it as well as this new web based app by @kixut and i am now thinking more about it.

What i think i know (but probably don't)

it was my understanding that kidmode needs to be installed through the experimental package?
I have also seen that the favorites is an ES Build by @Zigurana, again forgive me as this might have been incorporated into ES somewhere?
your current build with omx and random game selection/video screensaver does not support favorites? or does it and am I missing something?

As I said, forgive me as I should probably do more research on my own to figure this out. Please do not take to much time to go into detail. I think the basic confirmation that i am looking for is that favorites is not part of your current build. Thanks!

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy Hi!

No need to apologize whatsoever. Answers:

Yes, Kids-mode is a fantastic but separate ES fork that @Zigurana created a while ago. It has recently been rebased to match the latest ES builds. I was using it extensively before the launch of video support in the main ES. That has since been addressed, but as you know I'm using the OMX builds now.
Correct, same build. Had favorites and kids mode, as well as kiosk mode, random game selection... quite a few nice things! They are not in the main ES... yet. My addition of filter support has gotten @Zigurana to be motivated to bring those changes to the main ES. They are not there yet, but they are in progress, though still no ETA.
Correct yet again. fieldofcows' build was a fork of the main RetroPie ES, so it didn't have favorites and kids mode support. At one point I was considering merging Kids Mode into the OMX build as well, but thought against that, as it's already tricky enough to manage a single monster :)

So yeah: not present yet anywhere outside of @Zigurana's ES. Hopefully we'll have it in the short- to medium-term. Actually, you were in the thread about favorites, so you are aware of that taking place!

Hope that answers things.

On a side topic: if you update my ES version from the repository, it should now zoom in the Video Gamelist View. We cannot zoom to the videos, as the videos don't zoom, so I had to take some creative liberties there. We'll zoom to (in order of preference if they exist):

Marquee
Image
System Image
Video Location (though it will just show the background)

Have a great weekend!

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft Thanks for the confirmations! I thought I was tracking correctly but wanted to be sure! I am trying to add in some of the favorites features to the theme based off of knowledge of locations on the screen, I just don't have the heart to install another branch to test the icon locations right now!

I fully understand and appriate all of the hard work you and @Zigurana and others are putting into these amazing updates. Your OMX build meets all my needs and more, but I can't wait until all of these can be merged into the main ES, the system will be so robust....I can't even fathom it!

@pjft said in Please test: Random Game selection/launch via Video Screensaver:

if you update my ES version from the repository, it should now zoom in the Video Gamelist View.

What another awesome surprise, you have had some week with all your work. You better relax and enjoy your weekend! Enjoy the family and take care. -Best