ChickenCoop is back (sort of) for RetroFE 0.7.19

[hundergrn07]

ChickenCoop was originally posted on the old forums about a year ago, sadly I haven't done much with it since then. Ill be honest and say I was holding out for the PHP support so I could finish it without splitting my head open with the random quirks that would crop up while making it originally. After completely forgetting about it, ChickenCoop sat on a still 3/4th's build quite happily chirping the 2 menu tune.

It still chirps the 2 menu tune, but now, thanks to psibash pm'ing me on the old forums, its back and working on 0.7.19. The menu indexing seems to have been fixed in RetroFE and in time I might be able to figure out the multiple submenu tricks and work that in.


Poor Video Demo:
https://youtu.be/yY5RxWNu8fo

Sorry for the bad video, blame window anniversary for and cell phone video. (anyone know any good tips for desktop capture that doesn't cost an arm?)

Please let me know if there are any issues with it (fix, drop, sleep... little testing). There seems to be a little lag in the transition on my computer. Might be changing the timing or event handling... anyways enjoy!
 

[Pieter Hulshoff]

I'll have a look, and let you know what I find.

What do you wish to do with the multiple sub menus exactly? Do you want a mix of 2 and 3 level menus or just a 3 level menu? What should the 2nd level look like?

[psibash]

Awesome! Will take a look when I have a chance! Many thanks! 

[hundergrn07]

Its mainly for the option of the people who want to use it.

The plan for myself, if I ever got around to digging in to the final trek would be a 2/3 tier mix without having excessive menu bobbing or digging.
1 tier - main menu = consoles - handhelds - arcade - pc
2 tier - system menu for console/handheld - era maybe for arcade - pc would probably be just games
3 tier - games (with the new favorites option, I would like to see if cycling fav lists is possible to go from bulk/fav to genre)

The layout for the 2nd tier.... I'm rather stumped on maybe center focused so the menus would go bottom-center-right or expanding the bottom up or keep the 1st tier style but add in an idle to expand out with system information for part of the time in between highlight and attract mode (2-3 seconds for desc to pop up, 30 sec to go back down for attract mode to  cycle)

All in all, just simple and clean while on the selecting, a bit of information while deciding,  and as little as possible for attract (2nd tier display no menu with just console and video, 3rd with console, boxart, and video). Ideally I would love the possibility of cycling between submenus separate from fav/genre but that's mostly netflix and plex eating into my brain and wanting everything accessible with in 1-2 tiers.

That's the full plan, most seems easier/able to do now with .7.xx release, just gotta dig in for the fun bits.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

The reason I asked about the menu structure is this:
If all your menus are 3 tier menus, you could solve it in one layout.xml.
If some are 2 tier menus, and some are 3 tier menus, and your level 2 and level 3 should look the same, you could solve it in one layout.xml.
If some are 2 tier menus, and some are 3 tier menus, and your level 2 and level 3 should look different for the 3 tier menu, you need to solve it via the layouts/ChickenCoop/collections/<collection name>/layout directory.

Basically, RetroFE does not check if your collection is a game collection or simply an intermediate menu. I could change that, but we currently also support mixed collections (e.g. my Main collection contains collections, Shutdown, and Kodi), and that would pose a problem then. As such, all layer 2 collections look the same, all layer 3 collections look the same, etc. If you want that differently, you need to go through the option of a layout for a specific collection.

I'll see how difficult it would be to change collections without going up a level. I'm not promising anything though.

[Pieter Hulshoff]

I had a quick look. Overall I think it looks very good, but I have a few questions:
- I see the system logo visible in the middle of the screen briefly when switching between systems.
- When entering the collection menu, the video reduces visibly.
- When leaving the collection menu, the video enlarges visibly.
- When entering the main menu, the selected logo moves to the center visibly.
Are these intentional?

[hundergrn07]

I had a quick look. Overall I think it looks very good, but I have a few questions:
- I see the system logo visible in the middle of the screen briefly when switching between systems.
- When entering the collection menu, the video reduces visibly.
- When leaving the collection menu, the video enlarges visibly.
- When entering the main menu, the selected logo moves to the center visibly.
Are these intentional?

Thank you for the quick look.
-I never noticed the system logo being briefly centered, Ill have to add in an animation or two to keep it off screen on transition. Same with selected logo..
-The video... while it wasn't an issue of the .6.xx build, there use to be a fade to hide the video refitting the menu transition.
-It was intentional for the video to resize, but not to be that noticable... the system menu is enlarged to fit the 16x9 width, while in collection select is suppose to be a more ratio pure representation of the game with bezel support.

Would a transition animation animation or fade work better for main to collection/main to sub be suitable? Time to see if I have the original work assets still buried in my digital horde.

EDIT:

Ok... so I completely forgot about the logo in the center. The center logo was intentional to sit on top of the system screenshot, but more of a temp for a console image or simplified logos like the super famicom color splash or gamecube cube.

Issues to fix now
Timing is off everywhere (easily fixable)
Menu transitions are spazy (timing and layer adjustment most likely)
Audio playing during video nop animation delay to fade in (kindof nice might keep it)
Video popping in a frame on transitions and cycling through selections (happening even with alpha set to zero)