Arcadeflow theme v 17.4 [Release] Updated 05 September 2024

[zpaolo11x]

Guys, how does one enable such Displays List? I've been going through the topic and seen the option in code, yet can't figure it out

This is the default displays list in Arcadeflow, how does it look on your system? The logos are automatically generated based on your display name, so if your display is named "Mame" you'll get the mame artwork, if it's "Amiga" or "Commodore Amiga" it will use the amiga logo etc.

[zpaolo11x]

Playback itself isn't heavy, I'm using vaapi, fps is constant, cpu usage low, it's the switching, and I'm assuming loading, especially without any delay as it tries to load it each time you're passing through the thumbs

Indeed, video thumbs loading is delayed to avoid excessive disk access and slowdowns especially on slow disks (not SSD). I'll see if I can add it for the background video too.

As I've mentioned, it's a common thing to do and I gave examples of other themes. I'm not asking you to do it exactly the same, just something alternate to reduce heaviness of the top.  I understand your arguments of course.
I'll try to augment it myself as I'd like it to fit with the rest of my stuff.

The rich top bar is a distinctive trait of Arcadeflow, but there's a "Clean Layout" option you can enable to simplify most of the UI elements. See if you like it

The theme seems to source wheels from the config folder, instead of the set path, Which is an issue for me since I'm using external scrapper. Is it intended?

Hmm I don't get it: the theme sources all artwork for games from the folders you set in the emulator settings in Attract Mode. It sources artwork for displays from the "menu-art" folder inside Attract Mode which is, AFAIK, the official place to store those data. If your scraper scrapes displays data and places it somewhere else you should move it to AM folder.

Maybe this is not the intended use of menu-art folder?

[tvsht]

Guys, how does one enable such Displays List? I've been going through the topic and seen the option in code, yet can't figure it out

This is the default displays list in Arcadeflow, how does it look on your system? The logos are automatically generated based on your display name, so if your display is named "Mame" you'll get the mame artwork, if it's "Amiga" or "Commodore Amiga" it will use the amiga logo etc.

Mine looks  like the one for games, row of thumbs. I'm testing it with consoles, SNES, SATURN
I'm on the latest version of everything

Is Displays List different form Displays Menu? Maybe I'm accessing it incorrectly or something...

[zpaolo11x]

Mine looks  like the one for games, row of thumbs. I'm testing it with consoles, SNES, SATURN
I'm on the latest version of everything

Go to Attract Mode settings, in Displays, Displays Menu Options, Menu Style Layout set to Default. Try and tell me if it works

[tvsht]

Mine looks  like the one for games, row of thumbs. I'm testing it with consoles, SNES, SATURN
I'm on the latest version of everything

Go to Attract Mode settings, in Displays, Displays Menu Options, Menu Style Layout set to Default. Try and tell me if it works

Lmao, that did it, I was setting it to Arcadeflow...
Thank you, it's glorious

[zpaolo11x]

Lmao, that did it, I was setting it to Arcadeflow...
Thank you, it's glorious

You're welcome I've coded a delay in the background video, even if on my system I don't see slowdowns when using the ususal setting. Please if you have time download it and see if it works for you, if it reduces slowdowns. You can get the beta verrsion here:

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF_WIP/BETAS/Arcadeflow_59_X.zip

[tvsht]

Lmao, that did it, I was setting it to Arcadeflow...
Thank you, it's glorious

You're welcome I've coded a delay in the background video, even if on my system I don't see slowdowns when using the ususal setting. Please if you have time download it and see if it works for you, if it reduces slowdowns. You can get the beta verrsion here:

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF_WIP/BETAS/Arcadeflow_59_X.zip

It's perfect now, fast scrolling through hundreds of thumbs without any noticeable drop in FPS.
Also it just looks damn cool when the box thumb plays in sync with the background.

Circling back on this:

The theme seems to source wheels from the config folder, instead of the set path, Which is an issue for me since I'm using external scrapper. Is it intended?

Hmm I don't get it: the theme sources all artwork for games from the folders you set in the emulator settings in Attract Mode. It sources artwork for displays from the "menu-art" folder inside Attract Mode which is, AFAIK, the official place to store those data. If your scraper scrapes displays data and places it somewhere else you should move it to AM folder.

Maybe this is not the intended use of menu-art folder?

What I meant is;
I have my SNES set as such, as I prefer everything to be keept with the rooms, for multiple reasons:

Code: [Select]

artwork    flyer           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/covers
artwork    snap            /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/screenshots;/home/gregory/RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/videos
artwork    title           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/wheels
artwork    video           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/videos
yet, If the logos aren't in the:
/home/.../.attract/scraper/Super Nintendo Entertainment System/wheel
the skin won't display them [ the logos above the snaps ]
[ I could actually symlink scraper folder to the rom's one which just dawned on me but it still is an annoyance ]

One other thing. I had to disable frosted glass effect for Displays List as it introduces noticeable delay when opening it, without it it's instant [ AMD VEGA APU, SSD PCIe disk ] and I'm assuming it's the reason why random screenshots kept appearing in my attract config folder
Irregardless of that there's a bug when Display List is set as first to open in Attract, it will open without any background or black one.


And the last one, attract mode is incredibly zoomed to the middle, it shows something like 16% of the snap? In case of the games which have dividers like Super Mario Kart from SNES, all it shows is a dvider [ 1920 x1080 res ]

I'm going through the code trying to figure out what is what
Thank you for your work

[zpaolo11x]

It's perfect now, fast scrolling through hundreds of thumbs without any noticeable drop in FPS.
Also it just looks damn cool when the box thumb plays in sync with the background.

Fantastic, I'll add it as an option in Arcadeflow 6.0. Of course if you move away from a playing thumbnail and quickly back the sync effect will be lost because background animations don't fade out the same way as thumbnail animations. Maybe this can be added but I still think it's a bit overkill

What I meant is;
I have my SNES set as such, as I prefer everything to be keept with the rooms, for multiple reasons:

Code: [Select]

artwork    flyer           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/covers
artwork    snap            /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/screenshots;/home/gregory/RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/videos
artwork    title           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/wheels
artwork    video           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/videos
yet, If the logos aren't in the:
/home/.../.attract/scraper/Super Nintendo Entertainment System/wheel
the skin won't display them [ the logos above the snaps ]

In this case the issue is that your artwork for wheels is named "title", while Arcadeflow expects wheel artwork to be in the wheel category. So in the options above just add something like:

artwork    wheel           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/wheels

and it should work.

One other thing. I had to disable frosted glass effect for Displays List as it introduces noticeable delay when opening it, without it it's instant [ AMDVEGA APU, SSD PCIe disk ] and I'm assuming it's the reason why random screenshots kept appearing in my attract config folder
Irregardless of that there's a bug when Display List is set as first to open in Attract, it will open without any background or black one.

Frosted glass is a dirty trick, it saves a screenshot and reload it back to apply effects, it seems there's some slowdown when your Attract Mode saves this screenshot. If everything works fine Arcadeflow will purge all the spurious screenshots so you should not find them in your folder, unless AF crashes of course

And the black background always happens when you enter the menu after coming back from attract mode options screen (which is black). I can't find a way to get rid of that, seems intrinsic in the way Attract Mode redraw the display.

And the last one, attract mode is incredibly zoomed to the middle, it shows something like 16% of the snap? In case of the games which have dividers like Super Mario Kart from SNES, all it shows is a dvider [ 1920 x1080 res ]

Can you paste a screenshot of the issue?

[tvsht]

In this case the issue is that your artwork for wheels is named "title", while Arcadeflow expects wheel artwork to be in the wheel category. So in the options above just add something like:

artwork    wheel           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/wheels

and it should work.

I wasn't aware that Attract is that flexible, this did indeed fix it. Thanks!

Here you have few of the more common snes games [chrono trigger, super mario kart, lemmings, invaders, final fantasy II, flashback, donkey kong III, the legend of zelda, a link to the past]
https://imgur.com/a/wgbAzHl

... Of course if you move away from a playing thumbnail and quickly back the sync effect will be lost because background animations don't fade out the same way as thumbnail animations. Maybe this can be added but I still think it's a bit overkill

I wasn't aware of that yet! xD Now you'll have to add fadeout to the background too

[zpaolo11x]

Here you have few of the more common snes games [chrono trigger, super mario kart, lemmings, invaders, final fantasy II, flashback, donkey kong III, the legend of zelda, a link to the past]
https://imgur.com/a/wgbAzHl

Oh got it, this is due to the way attract mode in Arcadeflow works:the video is first cropped square, then re-cropped to the actual layout aspect ratio. So let's say you have a 4:3 SNES video (for example a resolution of 320x240), only the central portion is cut out (240x240), and of this square portion only a 16:9 portion is shown (240x135). Another thing I can improve lol

[Aaron32]

Thanks to a recent modification made, it is now possible to manage custom images (fanart) with the title logos. Thank you for making this option possible zpaolo11x.

https://ibb.co/LQzY58f

PD: It's a beta image, I'm putting it together as I have time.

[zpaolo11x]

Arcadeflow 6.0 is out!

There are some new options for delaying the loading of background videos and an option to customize the artwork source for box art mode, but most important now the manufacturer images are in vector format.

I still have to vectorize 200 images from the 700 that were available before, so new upgrades will follow. Advantages of vector icons is that the archive is much smaller, the quality is better on any resolution, and there are no load times because the font is already loaded.

[Aaron32]

Excellent! I already download it.

[tvsht]

Arcadeflow 6.0 is out!

There are some new options for delaying the loading of background videos and an option to customize the artwork source for box art mode, but most important now the manufacturer images are in vector format.

I still have to vectorize 200 images from the 700 that were available before, so new upgrades will follow. Advantages of vector icons is that the archive is much smaller, the quality is better on any resolution, and there are no load times because the font is already loaded.

You're tearing me apart, Lisa!

( I can help with vectorizartion )

[arthurvalenca]

Big thanks zpaolo11x.