HOW TO - batching .txt/.csv to create .png artwork layers for infopanel

[dark13]

Let's admit it: we already have GREAT htpc styled themes BUT all we miss something: INFOs. Hyperspin can show only "title" on one line and year/manufacturer on another line. Having "real" infopanels would be GREAT but it means preparing infopanels rom per roms, right? WRONG. In photoshop you can use VARIABLES to load a .txt or a .csv to batch text changes or/and png changes.

You can find an example on the FTP under Upload Here/dark13/Infopanel batch/. It has text variables (roms, title, title jap, title usa, title ue, manufacturer, year, genre, aama rating) and a .png variable (number of players).

What's the "real deal"? Once you have .txt/.csv file you can easily change layout and export data set into a new set of images (it seems to export only to .psd so later you have to batch a .psd to .png conversion). Databases can be shared trought themes. All you have to do is create the layout->export data sets->batch .psd to .png conversion. Files will be automatically named accordingly to the first variable (roms). In few words: modify a pre-made layout, take a coffee (results may vary depending on cpu power ) and enjoy your ready-to use infopanel artwork layers

More details about how to generate .txt or .csv here: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?36488-A-question-for-xml-dat-gurus&p=338443#post338443

A quick W.I.P. test for neo-geo infopanel set. Genre wheel is actually a test for main wheel. Consider that everything right now is SO WRONG, still need to find a decent background, tweaks aeon nox style and make a decent layout for infos Ah, it is "stretched" because I'm obviously designing it in 16:9 but my desktop monitor is still 4:3

[Unknown50862]

First the Flash conversion method and now this. It seems theme making has progressed leaps and bounds these past 6 months.

Also, I love the 2/4 player icon idea as well. I don't think I'll be able to fit the info panes, but I might go through and add that to my setup I still have an empty artwork layer and I've already separated the mulitplayer games into their own genre.

[Trnzaddict]

Dark, what I think should be focused on is game synopsis, not so much year/manufacturer/rating kinda stuff.

After thinking about this last night though, there is a potential problem if game synopsis png's were batch made. What happens if you get a long game synopsis that extends over what could be fit onto the png file? EG, XBMC will start to autoscroll down so users can read a description if it is longer than what could fit in the info pane.

HS won't know how to do that, unless Photoshop can resize all the text automatically to fit onto 1 png file.

Just a thought.

[dark13]

Oh, this is not a problem, you'll make scrolling lines for the whole emulation world entirety (btw you should do a tutorial for that, it looks great )

Ok, jokes apart I was already thinking to this issue. Sadly we can't batch scrolling in photoshop. Can we batch scrolling and .swf creation in flash?

As far as I know there is no option to resize fonts depending on text's lenght to fit a panel. In photoshop we can only use path/shapes to contain text and avoiding it going outside infopanel borders. Guess we'll have to find the longest synopsys for each database and use it as pre-fixed variable in layout .psd. so everybody can set fonts/infonapanel based on the longest description. Maybe a fake scrolling can be arranged using an artwork layer as mask and layer's moving options but I'm basically a noob with that stuff.

Synopsis will probably need some serious manul tweakings in the .csv, this work should be done by someone who natively speak english (a good english: a lot of italian would write a grammar apocalypse in italian, I guess there's the same problems with english/american/australian ) or we can track down a site with good and not too lengthy descriptions. Probably we should start out a project and keep contacts with the guys behind HL .ini and HS .xml for further updates. I think only mame would need a mantainer as other emulators are, more or less, "dead". You get some bread crumbs like gunlord and cheap brazilian rip-off but once batabases are ready I think only mame would need updates (even because sometimes they change rom's name like there's no tomorrow -.-)

[zero dreams]

So I haven't tried this yet but if an automated process can be used to generate this much info from a database and give me 16:9 while giving me the ability to tweak it in Photoshop, then I would turn off the HyperSpin text altogether and render my own text completely. Then HyperSpin and HyperLaunch text could match perfectly in my own choosing.

I'm a little slow but I'm definitely gonna give this a shot. Nice one as always!!!!!

Edit: Yeah....you've obviously turned the font off in the video

[dark13]

I'm having SERIOUS problems making a tutorial... camstudio seems to crash. Maybe some issues while loading/closing openoffice or the file is too big to be saved as avi. Have to dig it -.- Meanwhile you can use the files uploaded to ftp to test it. There's also a little tutorial

This video helps understanding the basis of variable's use in photoshop http://tv.adobe.com/watch/software-cinema-for-photographers/working-with-variables/

@zero dreams

Aahahaha, yes, hyperspin info is turned off in the video, all the data you see is on a .png

For 4:3 to 16:9 you can include an image resolution change while batching .psd to .png. You can design stuff at 1080p so you'll have 1080p .psd then save all of them in .png at 1024*768.

[zero dreams]

So I took the SNES database and put in Excel, filtered out a few columns, saved it as a text (tab delimited), defined the variables in PS, process the data sets, batched the psd to png, and they look great.

Two questions:

1.) How did you process the names genrated from PS back to their title name?

2.) This is what the SNES database gave me but I presume a dat for each system would give me more or is this about right?

My little wip with that info.

Edit: Yes I do have the other layers turned off in the psd.

[dark13]

While opening .csv in openoffice/excel select "text" for the years column. I don't know what happens in excel but if you keep it as "numbers" openoffice will import 1980 instead of "1980".

While importing .csv in photoshop tick this option. It is something like "use first colum as data set name". Exported files will be named according to first column in .csv (it will skip .png extension in file's name if you're using image variables for first colum of .csv)

Are you using the .csv on the ftp? They has been automatically processed by ghutch92 with a script on hyperlaunch .ini. It is a good starting point but we must tweak it with as many info as we can Honestly I've still not checked each .csv on ftp, still working on my main menu wheel

p.s. nice layout

[zero dreams]

title, manufacturer, year, genre, rating, players, description

I'm basing title, manuf, year, and genre from the HyperSpin database and the players/description are coming from the tsv's. There are a few that I still have blank in my SNES spreadsheet but I've got at least 720 of 787 tagged together. I also found what I was doing incorrectly, I believe in the naming. I had the console name "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" in the first column. Which is another question, should I also have a column for the system name?

So before I start to tidy this, do you think these 7 columns should do for information needed or add the system name in there and/or what else?

Edit: Man it would be awesome to turn these descriptions into scrollers!! I'm gonna have to find some way to see if Trnz could automate that process into a flash.

Thanks for the tsvs ghutch

[zero dreams]

Example. Kinda hard to read I know.

[dark13]

Uhm, I think system name is not that useful as you're going to process system's .csv . Anyway you can always create a cell then paste it Maybe in mame would be interesting to have platform's name (es model2, cps2, system12, etc).

Which software are you using to create .csv? As far as I can see from the screenshot there are 2 problems related to openoffice export options. Years are aligned on the right, it means that it is not considered "text" but "year". Openoffice will save it as 1981 instead of "1981" that is what photoshop want. There are some empty cells, openoffice will skip empty cell so photoshop will give an error because in some lines there will be missing variables. Obviously if you open the file with nopad and you read "1981" for years and "" for empty cell it will work in photoshop. These are save options and may change depending to used software.

Remember:

The first line is the header. You cannot use "system name" but you have to use "system_name". Photoshop will not import the .csv if there are empty spaces between words in the header. The same problem is related to numbers, you cannot name a variable as "1", the first character of header's cells must be a letter.

[Trnzaddict]

title, manufacturer, year, genre, rating, players, description

I'm basing title, manuf, year, and genre from the HyperSpin database and the players/description are coming from the tsv's. There are a few that I still have blank in my SNES spreadsheet but I've got at least 720 of 787 tagged together. I also found what I was doing incorrectly, I believe in the naming. I had the console name "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" in the first column. Which is another question, should I also have a column for the system name?

So before I start to tidy this, do you think these 7 columns should do for information needed or add the system name in there and/or what else?

Edit: Man it would be awesome to turn these descriptions into scrollers!! I'm gonna have to find some way to see if Trnz could automate that process into a flash.

Thanks for the tsvs ghutch

Automate in flash? Believe me if there was any sort of automation file import/export I would of been done with this theme set about 3 weeks ago.

Without tweaking the template scrolling file I use in flash, every description would have to be the same exact length as the synopsis paragraphs I wrote.

So....say it was longer, the description would just dissappear if it scrolled past the keyframe I use to end the motion tween. If it was shorter, it would take a longer than usual time to restart the scroll.

It would be a nightmare.....

[dark13]

Animating in photoshop trought batch and importing in flash is not viable either as flash crashes like an old b***h while trying to import .png/bmp/jpg sequences.

[Iggy]

Hi Dark, thank you for the information on the infopanels! I was able to come up with my own for my themes.....the batch processing in photoshop makes it a cinch!

[dark13]

This is why i'm asking for help with the .csv, they will be useful in every retrogaming art project

Ah, remember that if all you need are infos contained in hyperspin's .xml I have uploaded a java parser on the ftp. Drop the xml in the same folder of the .jar, rename it to db.xml and click the .jar. Open output.txt anda make the header or rename to .csv and import in openoffice for further modifications I tested it with mame .xml (it will take a bit to convert such monstrosity ).

[Iggy]

For the .tsvs, how are you getting the game scraping? (Ie how are you getting the game info for the particular platform?) Trying to

scrape thegamedb.net and is pulling but 10% of the games. Working on Famicom and pc engine at the moment.

[dark13]

I'm using the java parser to get hyperspin xml's info. Ghutch92 converted for me the hyperlaunch .inis that have more information. Basically i'm manually merging with openoffice the 2 files (hyperlaunch .inis do not have all games listed in official XMLs and sometimes rom's naming is different from hyperspin's XML). I'ts not funny at all -.-

[bartmarley]

sorry to ask but i just can't convert my xml or ini to csv, how did you guys do this? i tried your mame psd it work great, but now i wanna try this with my own databases or game systemes ini but when i try to convert the bases to csv, photoshop just dont like it and dont load it into variables photoshop box.

even if i just open my official xml with openoffice i have a error message, if you guys have a simple hyperspin database xml to photoshop working csv file & hyperspin game database ini to photoshop working csv i will me mre than greatful ^^

ps : i tried your jar parser but even with this photoshop dont like the created csv.

[RodentVienna]

Example. Kinda hard to read I know.

dude, where'D you fetch all the info from into excel? e.g. #players for snes??

thanks!

/A

[dark13]

@bartmarley

You must have the exact amount of variables in photoshop and on your .csv, and the name MUST be the same (case sensitive).

When converting with the java parser you must add an "header" with variables' name. It is better to rename output.txt to output.csv and open it with openoffice (import everything as "text" or you'll have problem with year column). Delete the columns you don't need (es CRC) and add a row at position n1. Create your header on this row. The names used in this row Will be the variable names you need to link in photoshop. Export as .csv using "edit filters" and use (TAB) as separator and tick "quote all cells text".

[bartmarley]

thx dark!! now it's working

how can you do the same with ini files? and the much more infos within?

[dark13]

On the FTP in Upload Here/dark13/from ghutch92/ there are some files ghutch92 converted for me from hyperlaunch's .ini. Rename them to .csv and use the correct filtering while importing them in openoffice. The problem is in these files there's not the rom's name used in hyperspin. So, basically it is needed to use the parsed HS xlm as base and copy/pasting lines from ghutch92's files, that is basically what I, FrankyRizzo and MR. Black Arm are doing to prepare Aeon's Nox XIII artwork layers

[itoh]

how i can create my csv from my xml list? i try but doesn't work, any tutorial?

[JonahUK]

You can open the XML with Excel, it will show each tag as a seperate column which you could then export as a CSV.

Not the best way but it works.

[BakerMan]

Might be a dumb question, but is there any way to upload these "for example" to google drive or any cloud service and make game info instantly available to all with a network connection?