EmulationStation Toolkit - Theme Making Helper

herb_fargus

@mattrixk I'd like to streamline the testing as much as possible.

I wrote up a guide on installing a portable ES here
https://github.com/HerbFargus/Portable-Game-Station/wiki/Manual-Installation

But for your testing repo I'd like to:

get automated test builds for retropie ES (I'll see if I can do that this weekend)
add rookerviks theme helper (I'll ask him)
make a quick guide on installation

Then I would also like a wiki page of sorts on integrating video view for ES (perhaps may be a nice addition to your theme making guide) and then also would be nice to have a guide on scraping videos

backstander

@robertybob

I had a quick look at this last night and found that upon attempting to load the .bat files, Emulationstation didn't load and a Windows "Emulationstation is not respondnig" messahe appeared (there was an error message too but I forgot to c&p it somewhere). Do they work ok for everyone else?

I haven't used this toolkit yet but I have used @herb_fargus Portable EmulationStation build and I had the same issue with the .bat files and after some troubleshooting, I discovered it was because of spaces in the directory name(s) so I just moved everything to C:\EmulationStation\ and after that I didn't have these issues.

robertybob

@backstander

Awesome, thanks for letting me know :)

mattrixk

@herb_fargus Sounds like the beginnings of a plan. I'll see what I can do on my end. I have a Pi on the way , so I'll be able to test out video preview on the latest image properly. Once I've wrapped my head around exactly what can and can't be done with videos, then I'll update the How-To guide.

I have some time off coming up next month, and I plan on spending at least part of it with RetroPie* (I may even spend some time playing games, which I don't actually do very often).

* I eventually want a single portable unit with LED, power button, fan and hard drive, but I'll be happy with just a power button to start.

Edit: Thanks @backstander, that's good to know. I've made a note of it in the README.md file.

lilbud

@mattrixk said in EmulationStation Toolkit - Theme Making Helper:

playing games, which I don't actually do very often

Same here. I spend more time with themes and experimenting with the pi.

robertybob

@mattrixk

I copied my ES folder from program files into C:\Emulationstation and ran the .bat files... Emulationstation didn't crash, but it did say my systems weren't set up, or some bullshit, so I gave up :( I don't know why it would say that when the .emulationstation folder hadn't changed or moved.Ah well.

*Edit If everything was working fine when the ES folder was in Program Files then I'm stumped why it would now not work when moved to a different location.

herb_fargus

@robertybob you need to download the portable version and extract it. It isn't the same as the installed version on windows

mattrixk

@robertybob I just added some links to various ES builds in the Toolkit README.md. They were supposed to be there already, but I guess I missed them when I was making the kit.

FlyingTomahawk

I created a folder on my desktop and first put in the files of the beta version ES that has the video support. Then I start the emulationstation.exe file and it gives me the no system error message. At the same time it will create the .emulationstation folder.
Then I copy and paste all the files from this ES toolkit into that new created .emulationstation folder and overwrite the 2 existing files too.
Then I copy and paste one of the windowed bat files, in my case 1280x720, and put that in the same place where the emulationstation.exe file is.
Done!
Double click on the bat file and voila.

That is how I did it and it works for me.

mattrixk

That's a perfect step-by-step of how it's supposed to work @FlyingTomahawk. I started writing one for the Toolkit, but I got distracted. I'll have to get back to it.

herb_fargus

@mattrixk I'm getting a release ready that you can throw up on GitHub if you like based on @jdrassa binary

mattrixk

@herb_fargus I'm not sure how to do that. I can create a Repo and add files to it, but that's about it. I don't know anything about releases.

Also I'm curious, wouldn't you just put the release up on your github? Or do you want it on mine so it's together with the Toolkit?

herb_fargus

@mattrixk I would love to put it up on yours. would you mind making me a collaborator on your repo so I have push access?

I'm also going to simplify some of the code a bit just so its more portable, but I'll submit a PR for review.

mattrixk

@herb_fargus said in EmulationStation Toolkit - Theme Making Helper:

would you mind making me a collaborator on your repo so I have push access?

Done.

herb_fargus

@mattrixk Ok sounds good. I'm just running a few tests before I package it up. I've added @Rookervik theme helper as well to the release package (this is me asking permission) if he wants me to remove it I will.

You'll notice I also released Portable Game Station 1.5 ;) can't vouch for quality as I did it in a hurry but its based on retroarch 1.5 now and includes the latest retropie ES and the carbon with video support.

herb_fargus

@mattrixk is this supposed to be blank?

https://github.com/mattrixk/es-toolkit/blob/master/emulationstation/gamelists/gb/gamelist.xml

mattrixk

@herb_fargus woot! I made a release https://github.com/mattrixk/es-toolkit/releases/tag/v1.0.

I thought with the addition of your stuff there might be some big changes coming to the Toolkit, so I wanted this release for posterity. It's my first release and shall always hold a special place in my heart.

I'll have to have a go of 1.5, but it will have to wait until after work. I probably shouldn't download over 200MB for personal use (it's not the biggest file I've done, but I should probably not do it too often. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to work).

herb_fargus

@mattrixk Ok I've submitted a pull request with substantial changes.

Feel free to review at your leisure. I just want to make sure the source is somewhat in parity with what we release in the binaries before we release them as a package to be downloaded.

I know that its currently windows only but I don't really use windows so I'll have a think about any possibilities for adaptation to linux, though as far as ES goes that can all very easily be handled through retropie, it would just be a matter of sorting configs/ creating theme helpers/ video gamelists etc.

mattrixk

@herb_fargus

I've submitted a pull request with substantial changes.

I'll have a look when I get the chance. I looked at your "refactoring" branch before I left work. I noticed you've put all the media and gamelists into the Roms folder, which I think is a good idea. I'll have to make some changes to the UXS profiles so the gamelists all point to the right place.

One advantage of the existing Toolkit is, I think most of it would work on PC, Mac and Linux. The .bat files might not, and the UXS stuff maybe not too (I don't know if that's a windows only program), but the Media, Gamelists and fake Roms (which are the heart of the Toolkit) shouldn't have a problem.

herb_fargus

@mattrixk uxs and rookerviks theme helper are windows only. The only platform agnostic piece is the configs related to emulationstation, which I think is the main benefit of the toolkit