ES-DE/THEMES.md

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Themes

EmulationStation allows each system to have its own "theme." A theme is a collection of display settings and images defined in an XML document.

ES will check 3 places for a theme, in the following order:

  • a theme.xml file in the root of a system's %PATH% directory.
  • $HOME/.emulationstation/%NAME%/theme.xml
  • $HOME/.emulationstation/es_theme.xml

Almost all positions, dimensions, origins, etc. work in percentages - that is, they are a decimal between 0 and 1, representing the percentage of the screen on that axis to use. This ensures that themes look similar at every resolution.

Colors are hex values, either 6 or 8 characters, defined as RRGGBB or RRGGBBAA. If alpha is not included, a default value of FF will be assumed (not transparent).

Example

Here's a theme that defines some colors, displays a background, and displays a logo in the top left corner:

<theme>
	<listPrimaryColor>0000FF</listPrimaryColor>
	<listSecondaryColor>00FF00</listSecondaryColor>

	<component>
		<type>image</type>
		<path>./theme/background.png</path>
		<pos>0 0</pos>
		<dim>1 1</dim>
		<origin>0 0</origin>
	</component>

	<component>
		<type>image</type>
		<path>./theme/logo.png</path>
		<pos>0 0</pos>
		<dim>0.4 0</dim>
		<origin>0 0</origin>
	</component>
</theme>

<!-- You can also optionally define a "basic" theme, which is used instead if ES is in the "basic" view (no box art) -->
<basicTheme>
	<listPrimaryColor>0000FF</listPrimaryColor>
	<listSecondaryColor>00FF00</listSecondaryColor>

	<component>
		<type>image</type>
		<path>./theme/background.png</path>
		<pos>0 0</pos>
		<dim>1 1</dim>
		<origin>0 0</origin>
	</component>

</basicTheme>

Themes can be defined with two tags: <theme> and <themeBasic>. You can define both a normal and basic theme in the same file.

If EmulationStation is running in "basic" mode, it will try to use <themeBasic>. If that doesn't exist or ES is running in "detailed" mode (a gamelist.xml is present), <theme> will be used.

Components

A theme is made up of components, which have various types. At the moment, the only type is image. Components are rendered in the order they are defined - that means you'll want to define the background first, a header image second, etc.

The "image" component

Used to display an image.

<path> - path to the image file. Most common file types are supported, and . and ~ are properly expanded.

<pos> - the position, as two screen percentages, at which to display the image.

<dim> - the dimensions, as two screen percentages, that the image will be resized to. Make one axis 0 to keep the aspect ratio.

<origin> - the point on the image that <pos> defines, as an image percentage. "0.5 0.5", the center of the image, by default.

<tiled /> - if present, the image is tiled instead of resized.

Display tags

Display tags define some "meta" display attributes about your theme. Display tags must be at the root of the <theme> tree - for example, they can't be inside a component tag. They are not required.

Game list attributes:

<listPrimaryColor> - the hex font color to use for games on the GuiGameList.

<listSecondaryColor> - the hex font color to use for folders on the GuiGameList.

<descColor> - the hex font color to use for the description on the GuiGameList.

<listSelectorColor> - the hex color to use for the "selector bar" on the GuiGameList. Default is 000000FF.

<listSelectedColor> - the hex color to use for selected text on the GuiGameList. Default is zero, which means no change.

<listLeftAlign /> - if present, the games list names will be left aligned to the value of <listOffsetX> (default 0.5).

<hideHeader /> - if present, the system name header won't be displayed (useful for replacing it with an image). If you're making a complete custom theme, you probably want to use this.

<hideDividers /> - if present, the divider between games on the detailed GuiGameList won't be displayed.

<listOffsetX> - the percentage to offset the list by. Default is 0.5 (half the screen). Will also move the selector bar.

<listTextOffsetX> - the percentage to offset the text in the list by. Default is 0.005. Only works in combination with <listLeftAlign />.

Game image attributes:

<gameImagePos> - two values for the position of the game art, in the form of [x] [y], as a percentage. Default is $infoWidth/2 $headerHeight.

<gameImageDim> - two values for the dimensions of the game art, in the form of [width] [height], as a percentage of the screen. Default is $infoWidth 0 (width fits within the info column). The image will only be resized if at least one axis is nonzero and exceeded by the image's size. You should always leave at least one axis as zero to preserve the aspect ratio.

<gameImageOrigin> - two values for the origin of the game art, in the form of [x] [y], as a percentage. Default is 0.5 0 (top-center of the image).

<gameImageNotFound> - path to the image to display if a game's image is missing. '.' and '~' are expanded.

Fast Select box attributes:

<fastSelectColor> - the hex color to use for the letter display on the Fast Select box.

<boxBackground> - path to a background image file. ~ and . are expanded.

<boxBackgroundTiled /> - if present, the background will be tiled instead of stretched.

<boxHorizontal> - path to the "left" border image file. It will be flipped for the right border. ~ and . are expanded.

<boxHorizontalTiled /> - if present, the horizontal image will be tiled instead of stretched downwards.

<boxVertical> - path to the "top" border image file. It will be flipped for the bottom border. ~ and . are expanded.

<boxVerticalTiled /> - if present, the vertical image will be tiled instead of stretched to the right.

<boxCorner> - path to the "top left corner" image file. It will be flipped for the top right, bottom right, and bottom left corners. ~ and . are expanded.

Fonts

Fonts are defined like so:

<fontTag>
	<path>./path/to/font</path>
	<size>0.05</size>
</fontTag>

You can leave off any tags you don't want to use, and they'll use the default. Size is defined as a percentage of the screen height. "." and "~" are expanded for paths.

Font tags:

<listFont> - font to use for the game list.

<descriptionFont> - font to use for description text.

Audio

Themes can also define menu sounds. These tags go in the root of the <theme> tree, just like Display tags. Sounds should be in the .wav format. The relative path operator (.) and home operator (~) are properly expanded.

<menuScrollSound> - path to the sound to play when the game list or fast select menu is scrolling.

<menuSelectSound> - path to the sound to play when the user selects something from the game list.

<menuBackSound> - path to the sound to play when the user "goes up" from a folder in the game list.

<menuOpenSound> - path to the sound to play when the user opens a menu (either the "main menu" or the fast select menu).

List of variables

Variables can be used in position and dimension definitions. They can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided. Parenthesis are valid. They are a percentage of the screen.

For example, if you wanted to place an image that covered the left half of the screen, up to the game list, you could use <dim>$infoWidth 1</dim>.

$headerHeight - height of the system name header.

$infoWidth - where the left of the game list begins. Will follow <listOffsetX>.

-Aloshi http://www.aloshi.com