Emulator info in skin: A Quick Question
#1
While Revising the xtv skin for my personal use I came up with an idea: I would like to have my emulators section set up with info, similiar to the info you would get from a scrapper. However, since there is no scrapper for such a thing I was wondering how I could get certain text to show up and possibly scroll just like the episode/movie info. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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#2
I don't know too much about skinning, but is there anything preventing me from just making one big label that changes as the focus changes from emulator button to button?
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#3
You could possibly write a python plugin for the PROGRAMS section of XBMC (there is already two existing python script, called "Retro-X" and "EmuLauncher", that could maybe be ported into a plugin).

Plugin python directory services for XBMC:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=28031
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=29911
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=30351

If you made a python plugin for XBMC's plugin python directory services then the the emulator games would be listed just as music, movies, and TV-Shows in XBMC, you could also have information on each emulator and each game grabbed from the internet similar to a scraper (but using python instead). Since it is a plugin which uses XBMC's own directory services it would also work with all skins for XBMC.
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#4
I added links to my emulators using the following instructions:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=610146

However, I just added shortcuts to each emulator program with custom names and thumbnails (i.e. Super Nintendo, Game Boy Advanced, etc) rather than links to each individual game. Personal preference.
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#5
NotShorty Wrote:I added links to my emulators using the following instructions:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=610146

However, I just added shortcuts to each emulator program with custom names and thumbnails (i.e. Super Nintendo, Game Boy Advanced, etc) rather than links to each individual game. Personal preference.

Ya, I used that tutorial as well, but did actually go through with linking to the individual games. It worked well. But I deleted all that, it was nice but for whatever reason I decided it wasn't worth keeping. All I'm after is having a nice looking emulator section that shows system info for the systems emulated. I would love this... If I could have that with the ability to boot individual games that would be even better.

I have no prior experience with python coding, or any coding for that matter. Even still I couldn't even get those scripts to work for me. The Retro-x one scans everything after I add an emulator but then the whole script shuts down. The other one I can add an emulator and boot it, but I can't get it to load individual roms. The emulator I tried was Zsnexbox, which should be supported. The screen goes black and the xbox freezes.

I wonder why no one has yet made one of those scripts into a plugin? Just not in demand I suppose?
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#6
Anyhow, I got that retro x script to work... just needed to add a "games" folder in the script directory.

I don't think this thread belongs to the skinning section anymore... sorry... Unless someone can give me a skin related solution to putting emulator info into a skin... perhaps a .txt or nfo file i create myself?

It would be nice though if someone could port that script to be a plugin... Not saying I'd necessarily be up to the task, but hypothetically speaking, how much work would it be for a complete novice to learn enough python to simply make a script into a plugin?
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#7
you need a view to display the info, what would work now is.

1. the view with text, labels, image controls all set similar to: <info>Property(emudesc)</info>

2. plugin to list a directory and read a local file or scrape a website for the info and setProperty("emudesc", "the description")

3. might have to set the url back to the plugin, then have the plugin launch the emu with the args.

so it's both a plugin/skin issue.

plugins are pretty simple, there are plenty of examples to learn from, the plugin maker script is a good example of how to create a plugin that lists a directory, could be modified easily enough for what you need.
For python coding questions first see http://mirrors.xbmc.org/docs/python-docs/
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#8
Nuka1195 Wrote:you need a view to display the info, what would work now is.

1. the view with text, labels, image controls all set similar to: <info>Property(emudesc)</info>

2. plugin to list a directory and read a local file or scrape a website for the info and setProperty("emudesc", "the description")

3. might have to set the url back to the plugin, then have the plugin launch the emu with the args.

so it's both a plugin/skin issue.

plugins are pretty simple, there are plenty of examples to learn from, the plugin maker script is a good example of how to create a plugin that lists a directory, could be modified easily enough for what you need.

hmmm... sounds complex. I tried looking up what you were talking about, the plugin maker script, but I was unable to find what you meant. Can you point me in the right direction please? Also, my apologies for my ignorance, but am I right in assuming that your solution requires a plugin to read the emudescription files I want to add? Thanks for the reply by the way.
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#9
yes you would need the plugin to read the descriptions and any info you want displayed.

the script is in the scripting svn http://xbmc-scripting.googlecode.com/svn...in%20Maker

the main file you want for the plugin is http://xbmc-scripting.googlecode.com/svn.../plugin.py

in there is a basic way to list a directory, you would need to add the file or http scraping for each rom information.
For python coding questions first see http://mirrors.xbmc.org/docs/python-docs/
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Emulator info in skin: A Quick Question0