NEW THEME: "My Games for MCE"

[amos_82]

Hi people,

here's another theme i've been working on. Its meant to be launched from 'my games' in Windows Media Center. Its a version 1 theme & it uses a flat page system, by default most things are disabled to reduce loading times when moving from mce to gameex. Is it MCE'ish?...i hope so.

Anyway here's some screens:

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full size snap (updated):

About:

There is some setting up required for this theme...but its worth it Gameex loads much faster without some items enabled. Features will need to be enabled / disabled to suit personal taste, for instance the game databases have been disabled to speed up page loading.

Changes can be made by editing the 'theme.ini', or by using the 'blank theme.ini' and using the config app.

See the 'instructions.txt' for a quick guide on this.

Alternatively you can setup multiple 'gameex.ini's (this is the method i am using) It allows you to start this theme from mce, and another theme with different config settings from a desktop shortcut.

See here for more info: http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=2005

Whats in the pack:

- Instructions

- Backgrounds for all emulators

- Plus a photoshop file for making more backgrounds

- A 'blank theme.ini' which only contains the basic information for the theme (there are no enable/disable options in this file)

I wasn't quit sure how to package this one, (its hard to make a light theme, because the options wont suit everybody) So any feedback is appreciated

Download:

Default - My Games for MCE.zip (8.99 MB)

[TimeBandit]

Amos,

This is simply great for us folks that like to keep that consistent theme between MCE and GameEX. Great job!

Now I'm tempted to try the theme editor to see if I can create one with the Vista MCE. I've attached some of my screenshots of the new MCE. Not sure how close I'll be able to recreate a consistent theme.

[amos_82]

Looks like it would be quite difficult, it would have to be a version 2 setup.

I think the database/category box could be a problem, sometimes it dominates the page.

I wish there was an option to disable it for mame, that would take us both a step closer to looking like mce & vista

[TimeBandit]

Looks like it would be quite difficult, it would have to be a version 2 setup.

I think the database/category box could be a problem, sometimes it dominates the page.

I wish there was an option to disable it for mame, that would take us both a step closer to looking like mce & vista

Oh well, all in due time. Well I'm still amazed at the screenshot for your theme and am going to give it a shot.

[amos_82]

There's one other thing...The Mame background doesnt appear, i think Marker0077 spotted this bug.

If anyones desperate for a quick fix, replace the 'bak.png' with the 'MAMEBak.png'. (The only downside is that the mame background will be used for pages without a specific background like the favourites, page & others)

[emphatic]

Nice initiative, Amos! I don't use MCE (yet, using MediaPortal right now, but it's kinda buggy on my computer) but here's my input:

You've included a dump of MCE, and looking at it I feel that I would

1) Enable the clock and the buttons(Home & Exit) in GameEx and put them where the MCE buttons are, mimicking MCE even more and even put the MediaCenter logo next to the homebutton for continuity.

or 2) Not use the buttons but have the mce buttons as part of the background, but semi-transparent/greyed out.

I know that MediaCenter is a copyright of MS etc, so maybe it's all dangerous to do it. So this could be your own private version. But if you put the GameEx logo up there or just write the "Game" part with Arial and use Arial Black for the "Ex" in white, that would look cool as well. See my Photoshopped example below.

Edit: I would also make the selector bars transparent in 'not selected' mode (in theme editor, select that image and make it black) to match MCE. Now if only Tom could make the first and last item in the lists fade like in MCE...

Hope you'll find my comments useful, because I'm not bashing you.

Emph

[amos_82]

No worries Emph, i wanted some opinions

I like the buttons you've drawn up they look at home there, pretty clever & nice and discreet.

But im not sure about some of the changes, because the start page is quite different to the rest of mce. The shutdown button, microsoft logo, transparent selector and time only appear on the startpage. The rest of mce is quite plain, so its probably best to make it look like a normal page

You've reminded to change the home/shutdown buttons though, at the moment they are black, so if they are enabled they wont be visible...woops!

thanks Emph

[EDIT] Download has been updated, for some minor changes:

- new unselected bar

- improved button behaviour

- new intro sound, (same as launch sound)

- home & exit buttons are no longer black, so can be seen if enabled.

[emphatic]

No worries Emph, i wanted some opinions

I like the buttons you've drawn up they look at home there, pretty clever & nice and discreet.

But im not sure about some of the changes, because the start page is quite different to the rest of mce. The shutdown button, microsoft logo, transparent selector and time only appear on the startpage. The rest of mce is quite plain, so its probably best to make it look like a normal page

You've reminded to change the home/shutdown buttons though, at the moment they are black, so if they are enabled they wont be visible...woops!

thanks Emph

Okay, but how about moving GameEx fields in Theme Editor to match MCE? I've posted two screens from Theme Editor below along with the Layout Code here:

[Buttons]
ArrowDown=685,525,21,24
ArrowDownPressed=685,525,21,24
ArrowUp=710,525,21,24
ArrowUpPressed=710,525,21,24

[Layout]
Title=445,25,160,82
Date=264,84,30,15
Time=264,105,31,15
List=264,129,466,372
SelectLine1=264,30,75,15
SelectLine2=264,53,75,15
Menu=45,128,194,247
Image=41,454,167,125
ListNum=580,526,53,15

Basically, I took your MCE dump, opened it in Theme Editor and moved/resized the fields so they matched your MCE music screen. I guess that some other MCE screens might look different, but you get what I'm getting at, don'tcha?

and that gave me this (using the standard GameEx background):

See where I'm going with this? You could at least try the code in your current .ini for that theme and see how it looks. (I figured this was an 800x600 theme).

Emph

[headkaze]

BTW Emphatic your running an older version of the Theme Editor, check out the Theme Editor sticky at the top of the forum, attached is an exe to a newer version. Hopefully the save bug has been fixed.

About the MameBak and Bak image files, we will have to report this to Tom, it seems he's having a break so we'll have to wait until he surfaces again and let him know.

Nice work there btw Amos.

[amos_82]

I get ya Emph I was just quite keen to keep it as a V1, so gameex can be run in a window like mce, but i'll give it a go.

[headkaze]

I get ya Emph I was just quite keen to keep it as a V1, so gameex can be run in a window like mce, but i'll give it a go.

I hope Tom fixes this with V2 themes, hopefully so that there are no benefits to using a V1. I'm curious how the two types function differently in GameEx to make resizing so difficult. I don't see how hard coded values could differ that much from values stored in the ini file. Obviously there is something going on that makes this difficult.

[amos_82]

I cant wait for the custom layouts to be implimented It should make all sorts of things possible, the jukebox page could really benefit, you could do something like this:

I looked into making it a V2, it does look a bit more like mce, but at a cost, the mame database cant be disabled, so the images for the whole theme would have to be reduced in size & placed at the bottom of the page. In the ideal position, the game snaps appear to be under the menu box on the left..

i think its best left as a v1, i'll update it in the future when some more stuff is implimented.

[emphatic]

Headkaze: I haven't seen the new beta, thanks!

Amos82: I totally understand your point.

Emph

[Marker0077]

Nice theme amos, I do have 1 small request... in MCE, I have my start page shortcut named "GameEx" not "My Games", would you be willing to add a secondary background in the theme & name it bak_gameex please?

GameEx does more than games so naming it "My Games" seems a little inappropiate. Hopefully we'll get to use custom bak's for mame & the emulators menu in the next version of GameEx.

[amos_82]

Sure thing, its a good idea to give people the option. Here you go:

The first one is in lower case like the rest, the second is in upper & lower.

Its funny, i think the emu.bak is working in this theme, it might have something to do with flat menus... who knows

P.S. There is a photoshop file included to make more backgrounds...but if people don't have access to photoshop, or want the images translated to another language, im happy to make some more.

(the download has been updated to include the images above)

[Marker0077]

JOoC, what font did you use?

[amos_82]

"Segoe Media Center" is the font used by microsoft, i used 'myriad web' which is identicle, although i'll check

[Edit: Myriad's a bit chunkier, i'll do an update]

[Marker0077]

FYI, with the different .ini file, that's great if you are using the same database but not if you want to have multiple game lists for MAME.

In other words, I have 2 copies of GameEx, ones for big kids & the other is a clean version. Having 2 copies of GameEx in different paths didn't ideally work out configuration-wise, so I used a dos command called "subst" which basically makes fake drives out of folders. So my GameEx path is "X:\GameEx" & whatever copy is used is chosen on that users startup. I also set up a shortcut to automounts whichever copy so I can modify the configuration settings.

To get a basic 2 copy set up is easy. The way I have it is a little more work but so worth. Anyways, just letting you know on another method of skinning that cat.

[amos_82]

Thanks for that Marker, sounds a bit complicated for a simple boy like me

Ive made more changes & am quite happy to call it a final update.

Changes:

- Font & backgrounds changed to official MCE Font (Segoe Media Center)

- Font colour improved

- Up/down arrows improved (still disabled by default)

- Loading screen updated (still disabled by default)

old version................new version

Temporary Download (updated):

Default - My Games for MCE.zip (8.99 MB)

Unfortunately i cant pack the 'Segoe Media Center' font for legal reasons, but i suspect everyone with MCE or Vista should have it anyway. If not...then try using 'Segoe UI' which is the same essentially. 'Frutiger' is a good substitute, so there is an extra theme.ini for it in the pack.

Night...if your not too busy would you do me a favour by hosting it?

[night]

Thanks for that Marker, sounds a bit complicated for a simple boy like me

Ive made more changes & am quite happy to call it a final update.

Changes:

- Font & backgrounds changed to official MCE Font (Segoe Media Center)

- Font colour improved

- Up/down arrows improved (still disabled by default)

- Loading screen updated (still disabled by default)

old version................new version

Temporary Download (updated):

Default - My Games for MCE.zip (8.99 MB)

Unfortunately i cant pack the 'Segoe Media Center' font for legal reasons, but i suspect everyone with MCE or Vista should have it anyway. If not...then try using 'Segoe UI' which is the same essentially. 'Frutiger' is a good substitute, so there is an extra theme.ini for it in the pack.

Night...if your not too busy would you do me a favour by hosting it?

Its added now to the Theme-Site

[amos_82]

Sweet...thanks again Night

[amos_82]

Alternative start page:

If anyone decides to use these; i'd change the "ShowLastGame=True" to false in the theme.ini. As the the last game's image interferes a bit.