ES Gamelist Scroll Bug - Black boxes appear when rapidly scrolling through the game list

KazanTheMan

I just tested a version of my theme with no images included, so the only images being displayed were the ones that emulationstation itself forces display of, namely md_image, md_video, md_marquee, and system logos. Screenshot: http://imgur.com/duTH2SM

It happens with the simplebigart theme as well: http://imgur.com/QurXD5L http://imgur.com/Sz2oyDQ

At this point I don't believe it is an issue with my theme or my system as I can replicate it across multiple systems and themes. Interestingly, themes that hide metadata texts by placing them at 1,1 don't have this issue, likely because the artifacts seem to always render below and/or to the right of existing text. I'm going to submit an issue for this on github at this point.

TMNTturtlguy

@KazanTheMan I was also able to recreate this on all of my themes today on the newest updates. It only happens to my "md_description" the other metadata on mine is fine. The crazy thing is that once it happens, it stays there for that entire system, but not the others. Once you go back to the system, the shaded box is still there. Once you enter a game, and then exit, back to normal. Definitely something going on with the latest update.

jdrassa

@KazanTheMan I am working on a fix for this. Hoping to finish it up this weekend.

TMNTturtlguy

@jdrassa Just an update on this, you may already be aware this happens, but I am also getting the dark black overlay on the md_description randomly on exiting games. I can't put a finger on what causes it, but every 5th or 6th time i exit a game, the description gets the black overlay, just like when you scroll quickly. Thanks

jdrassa

The fix for this was merged into the RetroPie repository last night.

TMNTturtlguy

@jdrassa awesome! is this an ES update?

jdrassa

@TMNTturtlguy Yes. You may need to do an update from source though.

TMNTturtlguy

@jdrassa Thanks for doing this! Is there anyway that you could share the code with @pjft? Maybe if he has time in the future he can add the fix to his most current ScreenSaver/OMX build with Carousel support.

shamrock

@jdrassa Thanks for the quick fix. Props to you.

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy Thanks for the note.

There's no need to share the code - as soon as it's accepted to the main repository I'll just update from there.

Thanks.

EDIT: Oh, I see it's already accepted. I'll look into that in the coming days/weeks.

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy could you check if in the latest, updated from source, main ES the lower ribbon in system view is showing up (the background of the "xxx games available" text)?

It's not showing for me in your theme at the moment, after I merged the latest ES changes, so wanted to check if it's my merged version that's broken or the main one.

I know it used to show!

Thanks!

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft I will look at that when i get a chance and get back to you. I bet i know what the issue is....is the games available text in the comic book font?

I tried to implement the new carousel feature into the theme, but i couldn't figure out the <feature> tag for the carousel, since then i have a thread on how to do that, just haven't had time to implement it yet. SOOOO instead i worked with @modmaster who was running an older version of ES without carousel support. We found that i was able to modify the games available text line with a new font but not the color of the background. What happened was on my updated build, i see the comic font and the standard grey translucent bar. @modmaster would see the standard text with standard grey translucent bar. If i tried to change the color of the background of the bar to a white to match the background bar behind the system logo, it would work prefect on my build with carousel support, but on the previous version that @modmaster ran he would get the white screen block letter systems view.

Long post, sorry. I will test on my end later. In the mean time, you could go into the comic_book.xml and the following right below <text name="systemInfo">. this should correct the issue. Note, i believe 99 is the correct opacity for the bar, but you could try 90 instead.

  <backgroundColor>ffffff99</backgroundColor>

Here is the entire block

<text name="systemInfo">
    <backgroundColor>8d8d8d50</backgroundColor>
    <color>000000</color>
    <fontPath>./art/Shaka_Pow.ttf</fontPath>
    <fontSize>0.035</fontSize>
</text>

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy I see. Yes, it's that text, though Carbon still renders as expected. Could be that, then.

I can't test right now, but if you feel you may know what's happening, then I'll leave this here and you then let us know if it's happening in the main ES, and if that's the theme's problem, the main ES's problem or if it just happens on my merged version (which I haven't yet shared a binary of, but I may share with you a way to get it from the source, if it helps).

Thanks. Hope you're doing well.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft Test results using the posted version of my Comic Book Theme:

Running ES V2.1.6RP-OMX-MERGED from the Apr17 file - I have a grey bar that is transparent and has comic book style black words "XX GAMES AVAILABLE". So on your build prior to what you are modifying now, my theme code works correctly and the bar shows up. (doesn't mean that the code is the correct one to use though!)

I didn't have the updated ES from @jdrassa installed on my "testing" build yet, so i started an install from source. I have been stuck at 81% for about an hour now. Every 5 minutes or so the green light on the pi flashes a few times, otherwise it is just on solid. I am going to leave it run while i get some sleep and if it finishes i will update in the morning. If not, it looks like i will do a fresh install of everything and then let you know! (p.s. my test build is on one of the 128 cards i was working with before, so glad that I have converted my actual systems over to the smaller cards and USB!)

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy thanks for the time. If it's too much effort, don't worry, I'll test it out in the coming days. Thanks for looking into it!

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft No problem testing on my end. The update from source stalled out for 5 hours at 81%, but the good news is the card booted back up, so i am attempting it once again. 5 minutes in and we are at 23% and running. I am glad to do all the testing you need as you are more than overly helpful for with all my problems, issues, and requests! Keep the testing requests coming!

TMNTturtlguy

@jdrassa do you have any idea as to why my installation of emulationstation from source is stalling out. Yesterday I attempted an install and it stalled out at

[ 81% ] Building CXX object es-app/CMakeFiles/emulationstation.dir/src/GameList.cpp.o

Just now i have tried again to update from source and I am stalled at

[ 80% ] Building CXX object es-app/CMakeFiles/emulationstation.dir/src/SystemDatacpp.o

I am going to try to update my entire build next and then try to update ES from source after that. Any thoughts would be great.

Thank you

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy I had a similar experience recently, which I assumed was related to lack of memory/swap perhaps.

When I killed ES (F4) and ran it form the command line or SSH, via

cd ~/RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh

(I think those are the right folder and script) it worked well.

Don't unplug the Pi, but rather SSH into it and do sudo reboot now to restart it.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft Thanks! I am currently running the entire system update just to do it. It is my test card anyways so i am not concerned. Good to hear, i guess, that you had this issue as well. I will try your method if the install doesn't work.

As for unplugging, yes 100% never unplug, except when it has stalled out on me. For some reason, both times when it stalled I was unable to SSH in. At first i thought the stall was network related, but I am running the internet hardwire off the same connection as my computer, network is fine. It just wouldn't let me get into the pi to reboot. P.S. network connection is fine because as soon as i reboot it is connected and the entire update is running very smoothly so far.

Side note, how have you been lately? Hope you are doing well and your projects are coming along nicely.

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy Thank you very much for asking - I have been good. A bit busy at work, as well as with the kids at home - they're at an age where they're not yet particularly self sufficient (1 and 3) so I haven't had a lot of free time to work on side projects.

I was trying to push for a way to allow people to install and update the OMX ES version from RetroPie-Setup's experimental menu, but will probably be pursuing actually integrating it in the main ES, though that will certainly take a longer time. But at least it gives us some good outlook for the future!

Anyway, if you do want to download this emulationstation-omx.sh file and copy it to ~/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary, it should show up in your experimental packages as an option.

Be aware that it installs to a different folder by default (/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation-omx) rather than replacing your current installation. It shouldn't affect you in any way, as it's transparent for the user, but in case you decide to replace binaries in the future, you should first re-install the main ES for the shortcuts to all go back to "normal".

How are you doing sir? Hope you're doing well as well!

Cheers!