EmulationStation allows each system to have its own "theme." A theme is a collection **views** that define some **elements**, each with their own **properties**.
An *element* is a particular visual element, such as an image or a piece of text. You can either modify an element that already exists for a particular view (as is done in the "description" example), like this:
"Extra" elements will be drawn in the order they are defined. When they get drawn relative to the pre-existing elements depends on the view. Make sure "extra" element names do not clash with existing names.
*Properties* control how a particular *element* looks - for example, its position, size, image path, etc. There different types of properties that determine what kinds of values you can use - you can read about them below in the "Reference" section. Properties are defined like this:
It is recommended that if you are writing a theme you launch EmulationStation with the `--debug` and `--windowed` switches. This way you can read error messages without having to check the log file. You can also reload the current gamelist view with `Ctrl-R` if `--debug` is specified.
Notice that properties that were not specified got merged (`<fontPath>`) and the `snes/theme.xml` could overwrite the included files' values (`<color>`). Also notice the included file still needed the `<version>` tag.
- This is a background image that exists for convenience. It goes from (0, 0) to (1, 1).
*`text name="headerText"` - ALL
- A header text, which displays the name of the system. Displayed at the top center of the screen. Centered by default.
*`image name="header"` - ALL
- A header image. If a non-empty `path` is specified, `text name="headerText"` will be hidden and this image will be, by default, displayed roughly in its place.
*`textlist name="gamelist"` - ALL
- The gamelist. `primaryColor` is for games, `secondaryColor` is for folders. Centered by default.
- This is a background image that exists for convenience. It goes from (0, 0) to (1, 1).
*`text name="headerText"` - ALL
- A header text, which displays the name of the system. Displayed at the top center of the screen. Centered by default.
*`image name="header"` - ALL
- A header image. If a non-empty `path` is specified, `text name="headerText"` will be hidden and this image will be, by default, displayed roughly in its place.
*`textlist name="gamelist"` - ALL
- The gamelist. `primaryColor` is for games, `secondaryColor` is for folders. Left aligned by default.
* Metadata
* Labels
*`text name="md_lbl_rating"` - ALL
*`text name="md_lbl_releasedate"` - ALL
*`text name="md_lbl_developer"` - ALL
*`text name="md_lbl_publisher"` - ALL
*`text name="md_lbl_genre"` - ALL
*`text name="md_lbl_players"` - ALL
*`text name="md_lbl_lastplayed"` - ALL
*`text name="md_lbl_playcount"` - ALL
* Values
* All values will follow to the right of their labels if a position isn't specified.
*`image name="md_image"` - POSITION | SIZE
- Path is the `image` metadata for the currently selected game.
*`rating name="md_rating"` - ALL
- The `rating` metadata.
*`datetime name="md_releasedate"` - ALL
- The `releasedate` metadata.
*`text name="md_developer"` - ALL
- The `developer` metadata.
*`text name="md_publisher"` - ALL
- The `publisher` metadata.
*`text name="md_genre"` - ALL
- The `genre` metadata.
*`text name="md_players"` - ALL
- The `players` metadata (number of players the game supports).
*`datetime name="md_lastplayed"` - ALL
- The `lastplayed` metadata. Displayed as a string representing the time relative to "now" (e.g. "3 hours ago").
*`text name="md_playcount"` - ALL
- The `playcount` metadata (number of times the game has been played).
*`text name="md_description"` - POSITION | SIZE | FONT_PATH | FONT_SIZE | COLOR
- Text is the `desc` metadata. If no `pos`/`size` is specified, will move and resize to fit under the lowest label and reach to the bottom of the screen.
- This is a background image that exists for convenience. It goes from (0, 0) to (1, 1).
*`text name="headerText"` - ALL
- A header text, which displays the name of the system. Displayed at the top center of the screen. Centered by default.
*`image name="header"` - ALL
- A header image. If a non-empty `path` is specified, `text name="headerText"` will be hidden and this image will be, by default, displayed roughly in its place.
- A header text, which displays the name of the system. Displayed at the top center of the screen. Centered by default.
*`image name="header"` - ALL
- A header image. If a non-empty `path` is specified, `text name="headerText"` will be hidden and this image will be, by default, displayed roughly in its place.
* image name="system" - ALL
- A large image representing the system (usually a picture of the system itself).
* NORMALIZED_PAIR - two decimals, in the range [0..1], delimited by a space. For example, `0.25 0.5`. Most commonly used for position (x and y coordinates) and size (width and height).
* PATH - a path. If the first character is a `~`, it will be expanded into the environment variable for the home path (`$HOME` or `%HOMEPATH%`, depending on platform). If the first character is a `.`, it will be expanded to the theme file's directory.
* BOOLEAN - `true`/`1` or `false`/`0`.
* COLOR - a hexidecimal RGB or RGBA color (6 or 8 digits). If 6 digits, will assume the alpha channel is `FF` (not transparent).
Common to almost all elements is a `pos` and `size` property of the NORMALIZED_PAIR type. They are normalized in terms of their "parent" object's size; 99% of the time, this is just the size of the screen. In this case, `<pos>0 0</pos>` would correspond to the top left corner, and `<pos>1 1</pos>` the bottom right corner (a positive Y value points further down). `pos` almost always refers to the top left corner of your element. You *can* use numbers outside of the [0..1] range if you want to place an element partially or completely off-screen.
The order you define properties in does not matter.
Remember, you do *not* need to specify every property!
- The image will be resized as large as possible so that it fits within this size and maintains its aspect ratio. Use this instead of `size` when you don't know what kind of image you're using so it doesn't get grossly oversized on one axis (e.g. with a game's image metadata).
*`origin` - type: NORMALIZED_PAIR.
- Where on the image `pos` refers to. For example, an origin of `0.5 0.5` and a `pos` of `0.5 0.5` would place the image exactly in the middle of the screen.
*`path` - type: PATH.
- Path to the image file. Most common extensions are supported (including .jpg, .png, and unanimated .gif).
*`tile` - type: BOOLEAN.
- If true, the image will be tiled instead of stretched to fit its size. Useful for backgrounds.
EmulationStation borrows the concept of "nine patches" from Android (or "9-Slices"). Currently the implementation is very simple and hard-coded to only use 48x48px images (16x16px for each "patch"). Check the `data/resources` directory for some examples (button.png, frame.png).
