New Comic Book Theme!

pjft

@jdrassa The collections themselves (i.e. the data) isn't regenerated, but the views will be.

...I see. You're covering the case where the starting theme would have, for example, a theme folder kidsgamesand the new one wouldn't - or vice versa.

I suppose whenever we load a new theme, I'll check for existing folders, and then I suppose I can do something like:

vector<string> unused_theme_folders;
vector<FileData> custom_collection_subfolders = custom_collection_filedata->getFilesRecursive(FOLDER);
vector<SystemData> game_collection_systems;

// check which ones have a dedicated folder and move them out of the custom collection games.
for each (entry in custom_collection_games)
{
   if (unused_theme_folders contains entry_name)
      create new system entry for this collection
}

// check which ones don't have a dedicated folder and move them into the custom collection games.
for each (collection_system in game_collection_systems)
{
   if (unused_theme_folders does not contain system name)
      add collection_system to custom_collection_games as a subfolder
}

Obviously, this is very rough, but I don't expect to have to do a "reload all" equivalent. Hopefully it'll be more of a "shift things around" kind of thing. In my naivety, I'm thinking it might be just a "change parent FileData" thing. But I'm not sure, would need to test it.

Do you think I'm missing something critical here?

Also, I was thinking about the theme variables, how do you see it helping this scale? I'm thinking of how to handle the different possible names - would they be plain text if the theme maker hasn't specified them?

Thanks!

EDIT: @jdrassa I just read your post in the other thread: "Part of that also included the concept of a default theme that would be applied if there was not a theme for the selected "system"."

Got it.

cyperghost

@pjft

...I see. You're covering the case where the starting theme would have, for example, a theme folder kidsgamesand the new one wouldn't - or vice versa.

I think that isn't an issue. It can be avoided if a theme change always restarts ES. That would be a new behaviour but in the real usecase... how much times do people change their theme? Or is my thinking just ignorant?

@pjft Can you please reopen a new topic? I don't want to SPAM @TMNTturtlguy thread

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy End of off-topic.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11321/theme-changes-attention-theme-makers-upcoming-game-collections-in-es

Thanks for the patience, you're very kind! You've done tremendous contributions for me and the community as well, so I always feel that "one more thing" is always a big request, as it comes out of your free time.

Hope your work travels have calmed down now - and looking forward to seeing pictures of that 4-player cabinet you've been setting up :)

Have a great weekend!

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft thanks! Great threads and explanations. I finally arrived from another 5 hour journey to my current location. No raspberry pi with me, but I have my computer so I should have some time to put into this. Hardest part is going to be deciding what the comic rip should be!

I took some photos of the cabinet before I left last night, one of the LED buttons light was dead on arrival so I have to change it out. It's nothing to special but I like it. It is my first cabinet I owned, dad bought it for us in the late 80's and we loved it. It of course stopped working years ago and was in my dads barn. After finding retropie I decided to resurrect it and change it into a 4 player cabinet. I will try to post a new thread with photos soon!

Have a great weekend and I hope you can spend some time with the family!

EDIT Here is a link to my new post about my arcade build Donkey-Kong-3-arcade-cabinet

TMNTturtlguy

New Comic Book Special Edition- Wheel Art Themes added to ES-Themes Download Menu!

2 new theme options have just been added to the ES-Themes menu. Be sure to update your retropie startup script to see these.

The new theme options are for Video View users only that have marquee or wheelart scraped and in their gamelist for all of their systems. You must have files in your <marquee> line of your gamelist. If you do not use video view and you do not have images in your marquee line, this theme will not work for you.

What does this new theme option do: This theme removes the system logos over the top of the video preview and instead displays your marquee or wheel art over the top of the video preview.

Why does this only work in video view: In the current ES build the marquee meta data only works with video view. There is an update working on resolving this, but until then you have to use video view.

Why is this a separate theme? The way current themeing works, the marquee has to be listed in the theme or it will break the theme. In order to make the theme work for users without wheelart scraped, I must hide the marquee off of the screen and display the system logo file over the video/image preview. When we want to show the wheel art, we need to move the location of the marquee and turn off the system logo. This can only be done by modify the main comicbook.xml and each theme.xml. Sorry for the long explanation, but I wanted to clarify for those who are interested.

Here are some screenshots i have taken, mostly from my 4:3 build. These where also shared in an earlier post.

@Nismo If you are still out there I hope you are doing well! You had asked for this about 3 months ago and here it is at last!

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft All versions of the ComicBook Theme have been updated with a custom-collection theme.

I don't have a pi to make screen shots, but here are the components:

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy wonderful! Thank you for the quick turnaround - and great job on the cabinet, which I just saw you had updated the post for with the link :)

I hope this will be available in the coming... Weeks, even if only for testing to begin with. I imagine it'll take longer to merge.

A question: did you consider calling it "collections"? I'm a non-native English speaker, so it might be my fault, but I mostly associate "customs" with customs, so I'm not sure of whether it's a language thing for me or not :)

Either way, the hard work is done, and that's what matters. Thank you very much, hope you're having a good weekend! When this is all done hopefully you'll be able to create your own collections on your cabinet without a need for internet or a keyboard. Hopefully :)

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft I can change the system logo out to say collections. I tried custom collections and it was to long! I will make the change and update the themes in the near future, certainly prior to your final release.

hooperre

This feels like an ok landing spot for this question as opposed to another topic. Say I wanted to rename some things in the es_configs to incorporate a custom collection type thing. How would I format that in es_configs.cfg? Specifically if it's not dedicated to a singular system.

  <system>
    <name>ryan</name>
    <fullname>Ryan's Favorites</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ryan</path>
    <extension>.sh .SH</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh %ROM%</command>
    <platform></platform>
    <theme>ryan</theme>
  </system>

TMNTturtlguy

@hooperre You are on the correct path with this. There are several threads on how to create custom collections right now. They are all "hacks" or work arounds. In my opinion they work well and should not be considered hacks, they just take some knowledge of how the system works. @pjft is working on getting something similar incorporated right into ES so it is more user friendly. Here are links to a few different ways of doing this. Post your questions in the associated threads.

@meleu 's method using symbolic links! This one is what I use on my systems, it is awesome: link to post

My method, which I only use on builds that don't have standard folders like NES, SNES, this is a good method if yo don't want to use symbolic links. post 589

@cyperghost my little favorite launcher - I have not used this, but @cyperghost is brilliant at code and scripts so I assume this is a great solution as well. link to post

hooperre

@TMNTturtlguy Thanks! For whatever reason, my searches didn't return anything. Thanks for pointing me in the correct direction!

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft I have updated all of the ComicBook Themes custom-collections folder with the My Collections logo.

0_1499023910325_my collections.png

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy This looks stellar. Thank you!

Hope you had a good weekend, and that this new week is a bit more relaxed with less travel for you. :)

Panther7

Awesome Theme. I actually made a bunch of matching splashscreens that I'll upload when I'm done with my build. However I just ran into a problem. After editing the gamelist XML for pcm, I got a bug where my descriptions are blacked over when I scroll. I can't seem to figure out how to fix this. I found a thread with you guys talking about the problem, but I didn't catch the solution. Any help?

TMNTturtlguy

@Panther7 yup, you need to update EmulationStation. There was a bug in an ES update a few months back. @jdrassa came up with a fix for it. Update ES and it will fix the issue! I would love to see your splash screens. I keep meaning to create system launching screens for the theme, but i have not had time. It is on my to do list.

Panther7

@TMNTturtlguy Awesome, thanks! It had sounded like you had it figured out, I just couldn't connect the dots...

Here is one of them:

I made about 30 of them with the built-in generator. A few had to be manually touched up. They might look bland at first glance, but they look really good in the theme. It draws your attention to your awesome art and just fits that "cartoony" comic feel.

Here's a few more while I wait for ES to update:

Panther7

As my thank you for the help (you did solve the problem), I went ahead and did it now. I'll likely add a few more by the time I'm done.

http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=07551040683414970278

TMNTturtlguy

@Panther7 These are awesome! Thank you so much, i think they are elegant and also very sharp! I will pull these down in a bit. Do you mind if we make a github repro for these? Either you can do it, or I can do it as well. I will of course give you all of the credit for them in the post.

TMNTturtlguy

@Panther7 WOW - i just downloaded them and again amazing work. So perfect, so simple and the colors are so vibrant! I was going to do something so much more complicated, I might put that on the back burner now that you have created these, I don't think I can beat them!

Panther7

@TMNTturtlguy You (or anyone else working on development of the theme) can do whatever you want with them. I don't know how to use github (I'm not a developer in any form). You can post them there if it helps people out. :)

If you need to make more, I actually just used the method posted here:

It's experimental package "launchingimages"; after installing it, go to the configuration section of the Retropie Setup Script

Settings were:
theme: Comic Book
system: (you must do it one by one if you want different colors)
extension: .png
loading_text: (unchanged)
press_button_text: (unchanged)
loading_text_color: Either white (for color screens) or black (for dark screens)
press_button_text_color: grey75 (to pair with white above) or black/grey10 (to pair with black above)
show_timeout: (doesn't matter)
no_ask: true (you can turn it on if you want to preview it)
no_logo: false
logo_belt: false
solid_bg_color: This is the key. I tried to pick the one that best fit the color of the text (usually the top color in the shader) A few multi-color systems needed a few tries to find something that worked.

This will generate you a screen in "/opt/retropie/configs/(systemname)/launching.png", which you can obtain through SFTP. If the image needed touchups (some will need background touchups), you can fix them with GIMP or PS, and then copy over the previous image.