PS2 cover art for OPL new gui loader

[windrider42]

Ok I have no problem compiling the new loader or playing ISO games off the network with the new gui loader
But I do have a problem with the Cover art

I made a partition on my hdd and named it +OPL

Put a folder in there named 'ART"
Then added the PS2 covers

Now what I am not sure of is the size of the jpeg/png files should be

I just downloaded some PS2 covers and put them in there.

I also added the line
background_mode=3
in my conf_theme.cfg file

Does the conf_theme.cfg file go in OPL folder, or should it be in the thm_CFG_only folder

I am a little confused on all this, but I am trying.

[izdubar]

Some stuff here is temporary, and may be changed along the dev (I mainly think about bakground_mode option that may become a global paremeter instead of theme param), also there are of course remaining bugs, so be warned.

As you speak from both ETH and HDD, I just remind, that Art are loaded from the same device as the games, so your Art in HDD will be for the games in HDD, same for ETH.

The folders:

hdd0:+OPL/ART/
PS2SMB:ART/
USBRoot:ART/

The content can either be:

• icons, suffix is _ICO, ex: SCES_554.34_ICO.jpg
• covers, suffix is _COV, ex: SCES_554.34_COV.jpg
• background, suffix is _BG, ex: SCES_554.34_BG.jpg

Default sizes used by OPL:

Icons are 64x64
Covers are w=140 x h=200
BG are w=640 x h=480 universal or specifically (640x448 NTSC) (640x512 PAL)

You can use bigger (but max size for any picture is 640x512) or smaller size if you want, just beware bigger picture takes more memory and can crash you're system.

Here are some recommended options when saving jpg:

quality level between 75-80, optimize, no progressive, subsampling pattern "2x2 1x1 1x1 (smallest file)", DCT integral, no embedded thumbnail.

With these values, and with cover of 140x200 (this is a "default", but yes you can use bigger one if you want), you should obtain covers between 6k to 13k.

You should know that the texture have a linear filter applied, so the eventual artefact are smoothed, and even LCD TV doesn't render the picture as optimal, so you should better try instead on judging on your PC display.

Finally, you can also use PNG if you want, for those picture that need transparency.

[JNABK]

For Images, PNG and JPG are currently supported.

Icons are 64x64
Covers are w=140 x h=200
BG are w=640 x h=480 universal or specifically (640x448 NTSC) (640x512 PAL)

Does the conf_theme.cfg file go in OPL folder, or should it be in the thm_CFG_only folder

it goes in the thm_folder to be specific for that theme. You can use the conf_opl.cfg in the OPL folder to specify general settings like bg color or text color when a theme isnt used.

[izdubar]

Icons are 64x64
Covers are w=140 x h=200

That are the "defaults", that we encourage to use, but technically you can use any other size (smaller, bigger).

Just be aware that using other size (a lot bigger) may cause crash due to memory consumption, as OPL cache a certain amount of covers/icons.

It's up to you for making tests

[windrider42]

Thank you both for your replys. I will give those sizes a try. I am sure that is my only issue also.

I am learning a bit more c++ in my spare time. I figured since I can follow directions on how to compile, I wanted to learn more about the whole process.

[windrider42]

There I edited the size of the .png files in Photoshop and the covers are working fine now.
Thanks again for your help. This is so cool.

I know on my Wii it looks nice to have cover art and stuff on my usb drive. So now same for the PS2.

[Pacolin]

Could someone be so kind to help a confused person like me with the covers on an OPL 0.6 with cover art support (well it's not the official release but a compiled version of a beta revision) and/or on an OPL 0.7?

With the OPL 0.6 rev I've managed to display a cover from the USB (a RGB32 .raw named as the executable of the game, placed in a COV/ dir on the USB) but the official 0.7 don't displays it (does it actually support the cover art because the "enable cover art" in the settings is missing?).

And here comes the hard one - using covers with the internal HDD. I've tried with OPL partition in which I placed the same .raw in the root +OPL/ and in two dirs in the partition - COV/ and ART/ (may sound a little bit desperate and it is ) but without any success in displaying the cover. A friend of mine gave told me that the covers should be placed in the HDLoader Settings partition on the HDD - well they don't show up from there neither (again tried with dirs in the hdl settings partition - ART/ and COV/).

What am I doing wrong? I just can't get it Should I make a JPG/PNG image and place a _COV suffix before the extension? Any help greatly appreciated!

[sealhealy]

Cover art is not supported in official 0.7
Hopefully the merge will happen before next stable release and hopefully not too far away

Also covert art is now in png or jpg with different naming convention.

[Pacolin]

Thanks for the info concerning the official 0.7 release, but what about the pre-0.7 revisions or so called "old GUI" (which is the current stable one) with the covers?

For the "new GUI" (which is a beta and isn't stable at all - don't know if it runs games from the HDD already, because the last one which I've tested - the rev 332 - don't/can't list/find my games on the internal HDD in HDL format) I've found enough info - the covers/icons/backgrounds must be placed in +OPL/ART/ and named after the executable with the _COV/_ICO/_BG suffix just before the extension. But as this new/beta GUI doesn't actually work properly I'm "sticking" with the old one... I loved the covers/icons feature but could someone with more experience with the old GUI + cov support who also uses a NA + internal HDD give me some advice what exactly should I do to get the covers showing up?

[JNABK]

We have completely removed the .raw format and gone to PNG and JPG formats for the images. The locations/names have changed too and this was done back in revision 315, so i dont know what you have been doing since that revision.

This is the main reason we keep telling people not to bother with the GUI revisions just yet, as they are not ready for anyone to use , other than the development team. Its only there for those who read the changes, understand whats changed over time and could possibly help with the development.

Only the GUI development fork supports any cover art, not the main repository or the stable releases.