**Note:** This is a quite technical document intended for those that are interested in compiling EmulationStation from source code, or would like to customize the configuration. If you just want to start using the software, check out the [User Guide](USERGUIDE.md) instead!
The code has a few dependencies. For building, you'll need CMake and development packages for cURL, FreeImage, FreeType, libVLC, pugixml, SDL2 and RapidJSON.
Running multiple compile jobs in parallel is a good thing as it speeds up the build time a lot (scaling almost linearly). Here's an example telling `make` to run 6 parallel jobs:
It's important to know that this is not only the directory used by the install script, the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable also modifies code inside ES used to locate the required program resources. So it's necessary that the install prefix corresponds to the location where the application will actually be installed.
The home directory will always take precedence so any resources located there will override the ones in the installation path. It's not recommended to override any resources since they are by nature static. But combining this ability with the command line `--home` flag, a fully portable version of EmulationStation could be created on a USB memory stick or similar.
Anyway, after compiling the application, either run `make install` or copy or symlink the resources directory to `~/.emulationstation/resources`:
The same goes for the `themes` directory. Although ES can start without a theme, it would be pretty pointless as the application would barely be usable.
[FreeType2](http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.4.9.tar.bz2) (you'll need to compile)
[cURL](http://curl.haxx.se/download.html) (you'll need to compile or get the pre-compiled DLL version)
[RapisJSON](https://github.com/tencent/rapidjson) (you need to add `include/rapidsjon` to your include path)
Remember to copy the necessary .DLL files into the same folder as the executable: probably FreeImage.dll, freetype6.dll, SDL2.dll, libcurl.dll, and zlib1.dll. Exact list depends on if you built your libraries in "static" mode or not.
EmulationStation Desktop Edition ships with a comprehensive `es_systems.cfg` configuration file, and as the logic is to use a `%ROMPATH%` variable to locate the ROM files (with a corresponding setting in `es_settings.cfg`), normally you shouldn't need to modify this file to the same extent as previous versions of EmulationStation. Still, see below in this document on how to adjust the es_systems.cfg file if required.
Upon first startup of the application, if there is no es_systems.cfg file present, it will be copied from the template subdirectory inside the resources directory. This directory is located in the installation path of the application, for instance `/usr/local/share/emulationstation/resources/templates`.
When ES is first run, an example configuration file will be created as `~/.emulationstation/es_settings.cfg`. `~` is `$HOME` on Linux, and `%HOMEPATH%` on Windows. \
This file contains all the settings supported by ES, at their default values. Normally you shouldn't need to modify this file manually, instead you should be able to use the menu inside ES to update all the necessary settings.
The exception would be the ROMDirectory setting as ES won't start if no ROM files are found.
By default, ES looks in `~/ROMs` for the ROM files, where they are expected to be grouped into directories corresponding to the game systems, for example:
Keep in mind though that you still need to group the ROMs into directories corresponding to the system names. Well at least if you want to use the default `es_systems.cfg` file. See below how to customize that file, which gives you full control over the location of the ROMs.
When you first start EmulationStation, you will be prompted to configure an input device. The process is thus:
1. Hold a button on the device you want to configure. This includes the keyboard.
2. Press the buttons as they appear in the list. Some inputs can be skipped by holding any button down for a few seconds (e.g. page up/page down).
3. You can review your mappings by pressing up and down, making any changes by pressing A.
4. Choose "SAVE" to save this device and close the input configuration screen.
The new configuration will be added to the `~/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg` file.
**Both new and old devices can be (re)configured at any time by pressing the Start button and choosing "CONFIGURE INPUT".** From here, you may unplug the device you used to open the menu and plug in a new one, if necessary. New devices will be appended to the existing input configuration file, so your old devices will retain their configuration.
**If your controller stops working, you can delete the `~/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg` file to make the input configuration screen re-appear on the next run.**
As you can see above, you can override the home directory path using the `--home` flag. So by running for instance the command `emulationstation --home ~/games/emulation`, ES will use `~/games/emulation/.emulationstation` as its base directory.
The order EmulationStation displays systems reflects the order you define them in. In the case of the default es_systems.cfg file, the systems are listed in alphabetical order.
**NOTE:** A system *must* have at least one game present in its "path" directory, or ES will ignore it! If no valid systems are found, ES will report an error and quit!
`%BASENAME%` - Replaced with the "base" name of the path to the selected ROM. For example, a path of `/foo/bar.rom`, this tag would be `bar`. This tag is useful for setting up AdvanceMAME.
`%ROM_RAW%` - Replaced with the unescaped, absolute path to the selected ROM. If your emulator is picky about paths, you might want to use this instead of %ROM%, but enclosed in quotes.
As of the fork to EmulationStation Desktop Edition, game media information no longer needs to be defined in the gamelist.xml files. Instead the application will look for any media matching the ROM filename. The media path where to look for game art is configurable either manually in `es_settings.cfg` or via the GUI. If configured manually in es_settings.cfg, it looks something like this:
If at least one game in a system has an image (mix image, screenshot or box cover), ES will use the detailed view for that system (which displays metadata alongside the game list).
*You can use ES's [scraping](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping) tools to avoid creating a gamelist.xml by hand.* There are two ways to run the scraper:
* **If you want to scrape multiple games:** press start to open the menu and choose the "SCRAPER" option. Adjust your settings and press "START".
* **If you just want to scrape one game:** find the game on the game list in ES and press select. Choose "EDIT THIS GAME'S METADATA" and then press the "SCRAPE" button at the bottom of the metadata editor.
You can also edit metadata within ES by using the metadata editor - just find the game you wish to edit on the gamelist, press Select, and choose "EDIT THIS GAME'S METADATA."
The switch `--ignore-gamelist` can be used to ignore the gamelist and force ES to use the non-detailed view.
If you're writing a tool to generate or parse gamelist.xml files, you should check out [GAMELISTS.md](GAMELISTS.md) for more detailed documentation.
Themes
======
EmulationStation is not intended to be used without a theme. The default theme 'rbsimple-DE' is included in the emulationstation-de repository.
For additional themes, the following resources are recommended:
