Share your Theme and ART - OPLv0.9 beta

[izdubar]

Ok here it is ... As this subject is currently being working on, you should use the latest revision to be sure to have all recent changes (currently you need revision 561)

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Some basics first

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OPL main GUI is composed of an ordered list of elements drawn starting from the element at index 0 to the last element (max num). The elements are named "main" followed by their order prefix:

main0
main1
...

The element numbering must be consecutive (i.e no missing number in the middle, or OPL will ignore your last elements).

The minimal layout must have at least a Background, and the ItemsList. If you omit them, they will be added automatically for you with default attributes. The Background must be the lowest element of the list ! If you try to add a Background at some other position, it will be ignored (and a new default Background will be create instead at position 0), so be sure sure to define your own background as first element.

Each elements have the same set of basic attributes, and then some have their own specific attributes. Basic attributes have default values, so you can (but it is not necessarily a good idea) omit to define them in your conf_theme.cfg. Any attributes declared in the conf_theme.cfg override the default.

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Attributes

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Let's start to describe the basic attributes (refers to the official OPL 0.8 guide for more information):

• enabled: Boolean, define if your element is enabled or not. Enabled by default.
• type: String value taken from the enumeration of available elements (see below). This attribute is mandatory, if it is not present or invalid (beware it is case sensitive) your element will be completely ignored.
• x: Integer, define the X position of your element, default is 0. If you want to dispose your element exactly in the middle of the screen, use the String value of "POS_MID".
• y: Same as above, but for the Y position.
• width: Integer, define the width of your element, default is to use the size of the element (image/text) itself. You can force/resize it with this attribute.
• height: Same as above but for height.
• aligned: Alignment mode, refer to original guide. Default is usually the expected value, so omit it.
• color: Color used for element that contains "text". Default is to use the "text_color" of your theme. String of type "#RRGGBB". Refers to original guide.
• font: Integer. Font used for element that contains "text". Can either use the theme default, or OPL default (set in the "Display settings"). Read more below.

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Elements

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Now the list of elements:

• MenuIcon: Top left menu icon. No specific attributes.
• MenuText: Top middle menu description. No specific attributes.
• ItemsList: Contains the list of items (games/apps).
  Attribute items: Integer, describe how many items you want to display at most. Same as the old theme setting "displayed_items". Default value is calculated depending of the screen height.
  Attribute decorator: String. You put here the pattern attribute of a GameImage element you have define in your conf_theme.cfg and you want to use as decorator for each items. This is to replace the old theme setting "items_list_icons" which was adding by default the Item Icon in front of each item. If no present, there will be no decoration.
• ItemIcon: Some alias to provide the old item icon functionality. This element is in fact a GameImage element with some hard-coded attribute values (pattern=ICO, default=disc, cache=20). Read below the GameImage description for specific attributes.
• ItemCover: Alias for old item cover functionality. This element is a GameImage element with hard-coded attribute values (pattern=COV, cache=10).
• ItemText: Display the current item startup elf. No specific attributes.
• HintText: Display the hints at bottom. No specific attributes.
• LoadingIcon: Display the busy icon. No specific attributes.
• Background: Define the background mode to use. Replace the old theme setting "background_mode". It is a "mutable" element, depending of the attributes you use, it will either be a StaticImage (for mode BG_PICTURE), or a GameImage (for mode BG_ART).
• AttributeText: Display a text string, corresponding of the specific value of the attribute for the current game. Can only be used in the information page.
  Attribute attribute: String. The attribute bound to this element. Currently you have these predefined internal attributes: #Media, #Format, #Name, #Startup, #Size.
• AttributeImage: Display a picture, whom path is based on the value of the attribute for the current game. Can only be used in the information page.
  Attribute attribute: String. The attribute bound to this element. Same as above.
• GameImage: An element that display an image depending of the current item selected (using the gamecode as prefix).
  Attribute pattern: String. This attribute is mandatory. It describe what suffix to append to the gamecode to find the image. Item icon/cover element above are using the default pattern of "ICO"/"COV" for example. You can add whatever you want ("SCR" for screen shot for example).
  Attribute count: Integer. Define how many image OPL will cache for this element. Item icon/cover element use by default 30/10. Default is only 1. Beware with this settings, as if you are using big image for this element and a big cache, OPL will undoubtedly crash in out of memory. Moreover if you use a lot of GameImage elements.
  Attribute default: String. Define the name of an optional picture to display when there is no corresponding picture for the current game. Without this attribute, there will be nothing drawn in that case. The picture is search inside your theme sub-folder. The name is without the extension (".png" and ".jpg" will be tried).
• StaticImage: An element that display a static image from your theme subfolder. Could be used as background, to include "frames" or to add any other fixed picture.
  Attribute default: String. This attribute is mandatory. Name of your picture (inside your theme sub-folder), without the extension (".png" and ".jpg" will be tried).

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About overlay

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The three main elements displaying image (GameImage, StaticImage and later AttributeImage) support the use of overlay. Read the original guide to see what it is exactly.

To add an overlay to your element, you just have to add these specific attributes:

• overlay: String. The name of the picture to use as overlay, located into your theme sub-folder. The name is without the extension, and only ".png" are accepted.
• overlay_ulx, overlay_uly, overlay_urx, overlay_ury, overlay_llx, overlay_lly, overlay_lrx, overlay_lry: Integer, same as before with a little bit renaming (ul=upper left, ur=upper right, ll=lower left, lr=lower right).

About Information page

Before running a game, you can display an information page about the game. To define what is displayed, use the same syntax as for the "main menu", but use the "info" keyword instead:

info0:
        type=Background

info1:
        type=AttributeText
        attribute=#Name
        x=POS_MID
        y=25

...

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About background

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Here some example to help you defining your type of background.

To have the default (old) background displaying Art (BG_ART), using the filename pattern of "SLUSXXX.YY_BG.png/jpg", and if case of failure using "background.png/jpg", just ... don't add any Background element to your config theme, OPL will add it automatically.

To have a background displaying Art but using another ART pattern and another default picture, use this:

main0:
        type=Background
        pattern=FANART
        default=mycoolbackground

To have a background displaying only one static picture, use this:

main0:
        type=Background
        default=mycoolbackground

To have the old plasma background, use this:

main0:
        type=Background

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About fonts

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As this feature of Volca is also only present since the beta, it's the right place and moment to explain how it works.

By default all text elements of the GUI are using the global font setting of OPL. Now when loading a theme, you can override this global font with the theme attribute default_font. Now, this font will be used by your elements. You can even define other multiple fonts, and assign them to specific elements only, using the font attribute of each element.

Here is a snippet showing how to define the fonts of your theme, using the default_font attribute and an ordered list of filenames (this time it's a full path with extension) relative to your theme sub-folder:

default_font=mymainfont.ttf
font0=fontformenu.ttf
font1=fontforhint.ttf

[...]

main3:
        type=MenuText
        font=0

main4:
        type=HintText
        font=1

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Notes

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When using "StaticImage", those later are affected by the screen ratio (wide-screen mode or not), which is usually a good thing. But when putting a "frame" layer on top of the background, in this case you would like to have it enlarged exactly like the background.

To achieve this result, you should use a picture of the same resolution as your background (eventually with empty - alpha - region), and force it's size to "infinite" using the specific values "-1". Example:

main0_type=Background

main1:
        type=StaticImage
        default=frames
        width=-1
        height=-1

There is no "background_alt_mode" theme setting anymore ... and there may be no solution in the future ...

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Collection of Themes for OPL v0.9

Click on the name of the theme to be able to download from the post where the author had posted his theme). Keep in mind that some of these themes are just for testing, while others are full complete versions. So do take note on the dates, the most current dates, the more advance their finished look is and compatible with the most latest version of OPL.

LEGEND:
Name: Name of Theme
Artist: Name of creator or (modifier of theme)
INFO Page: Theme that includes the new secondary page in OPL, you must enable this feature in your Display Settings.
Date: Date the theme was published.
OPL Version: The OPL compatibility version of the Theme. Keep in mind that since OPL keeps changing, some older themes will not support all the latest renovations.

NAME:	ARTIST:	INFO Page:	DATE:	OPL Version
Black On...Themes Collection	Jay-Jay	Yes	07-28-2012	r640
Blacktheme.rar	mrcordas	Yes	03-29-2012	r636
Chrome.zip	emerson3x	Yes	07-11-2012	r623
Civil_Parchment_09Beta.zip	JNABK	-	02-22-2011
Skyline_09Beta.zip	JNABK	-	02-23-2011
template.7z	juggalomars	-	02-20-2011
Theme Universe 9	CodemasterShock	Yes	09-02-2012	r640
thm_AngrybirdsSW.rar	Sav3r	Yes	01-28-2013	-
thm_Batman_TDKR.rar	Sav3r	Yes	01-28-2013	-
thm_JNABKGLUE.zip	juggalomars	-	02-28-2011
thm_MySupernewtheme.rar	Dimsok	-	03-02-2012	r518
thm_N-JOY V1.7z	fresh	Yes	02-22-2012	r623
thm_N-JOY V2.1.7z	fresh	Yes	02-24-2012	r623
thm_N-JOY V2.2.7z	fresh	Yes	02-25-2012	r623
thm_N-JOY V2.3.7z	fresh	Yes	02-25-2012	r623
thm_N-JOY V2.4.7z	fresh	Yes	02-26-2012	r623
thm_N-JOY V2.5.7z	fresh	Yes	03-03-2012	r623
thm_N-JOY V2.6 final.7z	fresh	Yes	03-05-2012	r624
thm_N-JOY V2.6.1 final.7z	fresh	Yes	03-17-2012	r624
thm_N-JOYV1mod 2.rar	Dimsok	-	03-02-2012	r518
thm_N-JOY_mod.zip	hominem.te.esse	Yes	03-06-2012	r624
thm_NJoy16_9_Glass.zip	wazup640	Yes	05-10-2012	r623
thm_NJoy16_9_Plastic.zip	wazup640	Yes	05-10-2012	r623
thm_NJoy_by_Charaf.zip - Update	charaf	Yes	01-05-2013	-
thm_No_Name_v9.rar	Sav3r	Yes	01-28-2013	-
thm_PSXButtonsLG.zip	MonkeyGlue	-	02-26-2011
thm_Revision 584.zip	JNABK	-	04-17-2011	r584
thm_template.zip	hominem.te.esse	-	01-14-2012
thm_test3.zip	izdubar	-	02-12-2011
thm_test4.zip	hominem.te.esse	Yes	02-25-2012
thm_test4.zip - update	charaf	Yes	01-05-2013	-
thm_test4_SRC2.zip - update	charaf	Yes	01-05-2013	-
thm_test5.zip	izdubar	-	?
thm_test5_by_Charaf.zip - update	charaf	Yes	01-05-2013	-
thm_Test Theme2.zip	JNABK	-	02-20-2011
thm_XMB-Alpha 0.1 [16-9][OPL0.9].zip	hominem.te.esse	Yes	03-27-2012	r624
uN-JOY V2.5.rar	kadorna2	Yes	03-03-2012	r590
uN-JOY V2.5 fix1.rar	kadorna2	Yes	03-03-2012	r590

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OPL 8 to OPL 9 Theme Conversion

For those that want to continue using the older OPL 8 themes, a member taught us how to do the conversion and also did a few of them for us to use. Here is the link for more info about these: http://psx-scene.com/forums/f150/sha...ml#post1000193 (Share your Theme and ART - OPLv0.9 beta)

[volca]

So far it looks good!

I saw the theme config and it occured to me it would help if there was a grouping possible - so I added it to the config reader.

It simply prefixes the all keys with the "prefix_" for lines that are whitespaced and prefixed with a prefix. Starting a line without whitespace cancels the previous prefix.

It looks like this (translated your example theme config):

# izdubar test - GOW 3 - Kratos 0.1 by Monkey Glue
bg_color=#6E0303
sel_text_color=#FF0000
ui_text_color=#FFFFFF
text_color=#E0E619


main0:
        type=Background
        pattern=BG
        default=kratos

main1:
        type=StaticImage
        name=frames

main2:
        type=MenuIcon

main3:
        type=MenuText

main4:
        type=ItemsList
        x=30
        y=205
        items=10
        color=#FFFFFF

main5:
        type=ItemCover

main6:
        type=ItemText
        color=#FFFFFF

main7:
        type=HintText
        color=#FFFFFF
        y=-60

main8:
        type=LoadingIcon

[izdubar]

@Volca

Great, a lot easier to read

On another subject, but related to theme too, I'd like to start discussing about memory concern ... I think I can find a post about this in our forum, to list approximately how many megs we use ...

Just to have an idea it we have room, or on the opposite we are becoming short ...

The fatty I have in mind and that begin to scare me are the backgrounds cache, default background texture, fonts (if I remember well, gsKit can only allocate at min a 64x64 area for each glyphs, so for 60 character - lowerase/uppercase/number - we are already at 1Mo per font), ...

[volca]

I'm planning (If I find time) to implement texture atlas for fonts - since the font rendering should then improve in speed, the rendering problems should finally vanish and we would also save memory.

I have started to get rid of gsKit but after some time it occurred to me It may be a lot of work for nothing - so I think I'll start by fixing the current rendering

[Sp1ke]

So, 0.9beta is 0.8 r560? Because none of the available themes work with r560

[JNABK]

So, 0.9beta is 0.8 r560? Because none of the available themes work with r560

Every revision AFTER the 0.8 release (tagged R503) is a 0.9 Beta Revision, since it will be the next release version. But the Themes configurations changed as of R558, as mentioned in the first post. This thread was created for the differences of current themes/art to not be confused with those older revisions/releases before r558.

So themes/art anyone makes for these new revision gets placed/shared here in this thread and not the 0.8 one.

[izdubar]

So, 0.9beta is 0.8 r560? Because none of the available themes work with r560

Try this one

[JNABK]

I just checked out R560 with your 'test3' theme and thats a very nice improvement!!

Maybe i'll get back to making all my BG art again, now i can actually use them. I'll work on a single Theme for R560 until more upgrades come out.


Very nice so far izdubar!!

[MonkeyGlue]

I just checked out R560 with your 'test3' theme and thats a very nice improvement!!

Is r560 displaying the new theme structure different to r558 or something?

I need to clean up my desktop, it's getting somewhat cluttered...

I'm guessing your OPL java preview program is not going to support this???

Edit

Ah ok so I guess you need r560 to enable grouping within configs which is why test3 does not display in r558

[volca]

I've commited a first stab at the font atlas implementation. It may still contain bugs so beware - but it works on my ps2, and is a helluva faster than the old approach - now vsync does not drag the GUI to knees as it did, I have stable 25FPS. Also we're now only holding one glyph bitmap, not two as previously, so we're probably saving quite some of memory.

I'll continue on this by fixing bugs as those occur. I'll also optimise a bit more, namely by reducing branching and implementing CLUT for the atlas, which'll also free up some VRAM and RAM...

On the visual side, nothing changed.

Edit: Izdubar: I do not have time for further investiagation but it seems the new theme system breaks on old themes - maybe we could introduce a flag in the theme file to decide how to load the thing?