New Comic Book Theme!

[dizmodawg]

So any progress on the 4x3 theme update? or is the theme not available any more?

[TMNTturtlguy]

@dizmodawg 4:3 is still available at the github link. It will be getting a small update in the next few days. It will have all system logos, but will not have updated system backgrounds, just the generic as i have to recreate each system from scratch for the 4:3 layout. In the end it will be updated exactly like the 16:9 version. It just takes a lot of time! I assure you that I am working very hard on both versions of the theme. I have made the decision to stop releasing small updates and instead release larger updates as I think it is better for users to only have to go update once in awhile instead of every other day.

[fatelvis1]

@TMNTturtlguy Sorry only just seen this as i have been reading all the utter nonsense below. So i did a bit of digging and testing and have solved the issue but not how i would have thought. I started by checking all the settings on my display and as thought it was set to 4:3 as is the standard for ratio for it.

I double checked (re downloaded) the 4:3 theme and reinstalled and still the same issue persisted. I would just like to add that this was only with the systems menu and not the games select menu.

I then decided i would install the 16:9 theme to get the benefit of the additional hard work you guys have put in and just live with a windowed appearance on my setup for the time being.

However after installing the 16:9 theme my display is not windowed, nothing appears to be cut off and the theme is displayed in all its glory in full screen.

To be honest I'm not sure how or why this has worked but i am not going to tempt fate by changing anything now (until another update is released.

thank you for all your hard work and everyone else that has been helping to get this to the point where it is now. i wish i could help but my skills with image editing and creating are just not at your level. i do make a mean cup of tea though if your after one.

keep up the great work and ignore the haters what ever reason they give.

[TMNTturtlguy]

@fatelvis1 glad it is working well! I will test on my end as well. To be honest I have never tried the 16:9 version on my 4:3 monitor!

[EmulatorMan]

Hallo there i am new on the forum ..

i´ve download this theme and adapted to batocera 5.6 pc .. it works well ..

i have to make some changes to get this working proprietly on batocera ..

on the file theme.xml i just delete the A before the theme .

and on file comic_book.xml i deleted the lines of video .
view name="video

Some systems folder i changed the name to the same name as the roms folder systems .. and i dont get white screen anymore on some systems .

but i have a problem and i cannot resolve this ..

the theme works very good and very stabil but the cover games or videos dont show on the games infos .

and if i dont erase the video line it shows a withe theme .

and i choose the theme it shows everything white ..

ahh and its possible to have a comic icon for fba libretro ? i´ve see that foulder is not there i´ve created one by myself with the name fba_libretro and copied the files from fba theme to the libretro . Already created a png icon for fba libreto but it dont coincide wiht others one :(

here the icon i created my self :( very poor for the nice theme .

thanks for the help and sory for my bad english .

[TMNTturtlguy]

@EmulatorMan Hello and thanks for trying out my theme, glad you like it. I will try to respond to your comments. So this response does not get long I am not going to quote your questions.

First off, i am not sure what batocera is, so forgive me, but glad you can make it work. As for the A before theme, not sure how that got there, Must have been and accident. It doesn't appear to do anything when running on retropie on my raspberry pi, but I don't think it should be there. I will delete if for the next update.

Video View - I am also going to look at adding the feature tags to the video and carousel for the next update. Right now I am not using the feature tag, so this means that your system needs to have video previews enabled. Does batocera run emulationstation? From your white screen description it sounds like your system does not support video preview and that is why this is happening. Again, i am not sure what batocera is. If you want to delete the video view you need to delete lines 79-97, the entire video section.

<view name="video">

	<video name="md_video">
		<pos>0.67 0.4</pos>
		<origin>0.5 0.5</origin>
		<maxSize>0.3 0.408</maxSize>
		<delay></delay>
		<default></default>
		<showSnapshotNoVideo>true</showSnapshotNoVideo>
		<showSnapshotDelay>false</showSnapshotDelay>
	</video>
	
	<image name="md_marquee">
		<pos>1 1</pos>
		<maxSize>0 0</maxSize>
		<origin>0 0</origin>
	</image>
	
</view>

You also need to look through the entire file and delete all instances of the video from the file.

The next issue you will have is that currently the theme pulls in "md_Video" to the large black box and "md_image" to the small box where animaniacs shows. You must have at least 1 video in each system. When at least 1 video is present, if the other games don't have a video the md_image will show in the black box. If no video is present, it will look the way you have it. Right now i don't have a work around for this. The theme is built for video preview. When we complete the entire theme, i will be making a "special Edition" theme. This theme will have a revised .xml file and will allow users with wheel art and marquees to display more art. Unfortunately i think the large black box will still be for vidoes as i beilive most users have their box art as "md_image" and that will still be in the lower right hand corner. I hope this makes some sense?

As for FBA - there is already a logo created. It is in the folder FBA, just rename that folder to match the theme folder your es_systems file points to and it should work. It does not say libretro though.

[EmulatorMan]

@TMNTturtlguy hi thanks for the answer ..

Batocera is a recalbox adapted for windows ..

wich format need videos to have ?
and i need to put in the same folder than the roms or in the forlders from theme ?

[TMNTturtlguy]

the videos are .mp4 format. You can put them wherever you point to in your gamelist.

[EmulatorMan]

@TMNTturtlguy already did it and injected wiht powershell and nothing happen !!!!!wath i am doing wrong ?

[TMNTturtlguy]

@EmulatorMan because of what you described about getting a completely white screen when you use the theme with video code in it, i am assuming that the version of eumulationstation station you are using does not support video preview. I am sorry that I cannot support you further, but your unique case is beyond my knowledge and I am unable to test on the platform you are running.

[TMNTturtlguy]

Updates coming soon! Just wanted to post a few of the updates that will be landing soon

Changed SNES from Blue to Classic Purple - Thoughts?

Here are a few of the system logos

And here are a few new system backgrounds
CPS I

Game and Watch

scummVM

[ETAPRIME]

wow! I'm really digging this. great job

[pjft]

@TMNTturtlguy wow. Love these backgrounds. The purple also looks neat!

A question: would you be able to create name logos for the two different MAME folders to be distinguishable? I don't know if it's themable or not but both show up as just MAME.

Either way, looking great!

[celly]

@TMNTturtlguy love that ScummVM background!

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft If you let me know what mame folders you use, i can create a unique logo for you! The issue is that you can have just about any folder named anything as long as it is in your es_systems.cfg and links to the folder in theme. My default es_systems.cfg had 4 different mame folders set, and all 4 folders called out the "mame" folder as the theme. So no matter what mame folder i loaded roms into, it always pulled the default MAME logo.

Right now the theme has the following mame folders as options for your es_systems.cfg. What folders are you currently using?

Mame
mame-advmame
mame-libretro
mame-mame4all

Not sure I want to create logos for all 4 of them as the names are really long so the logos won't look great. A lot of users like myself just use the Arcade folder for all their mame roms as well.....

Let me know what logo you want and if you have thoughts on colors, how you want it to read and i will work it up today! I also updated the zx spectrum background per your request a while back.

[pjft]

@TMNTturtlguy Oh, thanks. I was just referring to the default ones that are created, though I didn't know they'd call the mame folder as theme. If that's the way it is, then that's the way it is - it is not a big problem by any stretch of the imagination!

Thanks!

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft I may have over explained! I just need to know what folders you place your mame roms into and what you want the second MAME icon to read!

[pjft]

@TMNTturtlguy No, no - I got that. :)

It's just, if that's what other themes are also doing by default, then I don't think it's worth changing - I thought they'd have different sections, and you were the one just using the same for all 4. Just that. :)

I'll likely move it to the arcade folder as well, you are right - no need to have several folders around. It was more of a heads up in case other themes did it.

I am currently using mame-libretro and mame-advmame, but I'll likely be moving the advmame into the arcade folder, it was just to try out advmame. So, in that sense, don't change anything, really. :) The background art can certainly be exactly the same as the arcade folder. And if the names become big and ugly (which they may) you can follow an approach similar to the "Hacks" one, where it's just "MAME" and the emulator on top of it.

But really, it's not a big issue - as I said, it was more of a heads up. If other themes don't differentiate it, I don't expect you to change anything here either.

Thanks!

[fatelvis1]

@TMNTturtlguy loving the Game & Watch one. so many themes neglect it but its one of my favorites

[TMNTturtlguy]

@pjft I like your thought of treating it like the hacks logos! I will take a look. I think several themers include the different MAME folders. It is more about how your es_system.cfg points to the themes. I will come up with some logos, take a look at your es_systems and make sure that each mame system points to its corresponding theme folder. More to come in a few hours!