mviars

I noticed something similar to this on my backglass after an upadte. It appears to be the topper image. In the wizard setup under the display settings page if you scroll down you will find a topper setting. Mine was already set to off. I deleted the image from the image folder as mentioned above but that just left a black screen in its place. I went into the pinballX config file and found the topper section at the bottom and noticed no enabled=(on or off) line. I went back into the setup wizard back to the display setting page topper section and enabled the topper moved onto the next page then back and changed to enabled NO again and it removed the image and all is well. It looks like some updates do not add the command line of enabled=off in [topper] section in the PinballX config file making it default to on.

Yeah I rermember having that exact problem before with a different emulator and so I had gone back and checked and it was off however enabling it still made no difference.

I still cant seem to get the info to show. I tried using the game ID in either the name or good name colums. I have the DB set for the steam emulator.

I see maybe thats my problem I seem to be having right now. I had already started using another DB as a template as you suggested and entered the info needed but have nothing showing in GameEx descriptions as of yet. I guess it may have something to do the the game ID as you have suggested. My emulator that I have setup for Steam is using a rom folder with the games actual shortcuts with their game names but you are saying that I need to have the game ID number somewhere in my database for that game as well.

Ahh yes thanks my Florida friends for the replies. RedDog: The SQlite browser was just what I was looking for as I was just looking into SQlite only and it seemed difficult to understand but this has a nice interface that I may be able to learn. Draco: While the built in Steam support in GameEx is an amazingly simple setup I really need more control over certain aspects like what games to include since I have over 800 on steam. Plus since it will be installed on an arcade machine I do not want people to have access to games that would just not play well on arcade controls like a first person shooter or RPG's. I do have Steam set up as an emulator and so far everything is worknig great so far except for game descriptions/info in which case you may be right about it being a bit of an undertaking but if I can get it going I think the only maintenance would be when I add new games right? Thanks again guys!

Am I correct to assume that the descriptions for any game is found in the corresponding database chosen for that games emulator? If so should I also assume that the database is either made or edited with a program like SQLight? Because if that is the case I dont believe I will be able to make one myself. So if all this is true is there a Steam database out there anywhere? I would just like to have the game info show in GameEx when highlighting the game because unlike most consoles and arcade game Steam indie and small developer games are unknown to most people.

So I am now doing OK with the Image 1 & 2 boxes and videos in the theme editor but the Description box is another story. I can never get it to populate in fact the only time I can read any game description is when I enable the show game information page in the editor features which I really do not want to use because I do not want to bring up another page before starting the game. Is there a way to show the game information in the description box? If so where do I place the files and what type of file and layout do I use?

Glad you got it going. As far as the video snaps I just used steam in a browser and right click on the video from the games store page and then save the video. I then used handbrake to convert to MP4 format as well as drop it down to 480P since its in a small window on the screen anyways and I save some HD space.

The program link is dead from the post above however if you scroll down to the next post below that one Tom put another link to the file if you would like to try it.

Thanks for the reply DazzleHP. I guess I dont remember seeing the screen shots and vids when using the built-in steam option. However my other problem could be that I really dont want to see over 800 steam games in my list. The way I perceived the built-in steam option is that it is super easy to set up(just login info) but no ability(that I know of) to modify any settings. If I am wrong please tell me. I tried mogorth32's method and other than killing the steam client it worked similarly to the way I first tried doing it myself however I still had the same problem with the game starting fine then going into the background and GameEX coming into focus. I dont think I like killing the client method I would rather kill the game process and keep the client logged in and running for faster loads especially since this will be on an arcade cabinet that many other people besides myself will be playing. After digging through the forums I did find an option that has worked great for me so far. I found it here.

I mean no disrespect to those that put their time into making the steam feature work I just wanted to have screenshots, gameplay video, game discriptions. Also sense this is still going into an arcade cab I only want a few of my steam game on the list anyways. Mainly platforms and 2D fighting games.

Anyone know how to make steam start and stay in the foreground?

Well this way work similarly to the way I was doing it except it seems to take a little longer to set up the batch files however if killing and restarting steam every time is the best way to have less issues then I guess I am on board with that. It is unfortunate that we have to do this as it seems to take a little longer to have steam start up before playing each game but I guess this is an issue on steams side. But I digress even doing it this way I still have the problem with the game losing focus and just running in the background. Now I just get a black screen but if I kill GameEx I can get to the game. I think when I was not using a batch file I would have the GameEx menu still showing but the game still running in the back ground but I don't think it matters if I have a black screen or GameEx showing as my problem is just getting focus to the game.

I am trying yo run steam as an emulator instead of using GameEx's built in steam player so that I have more control over the display in my theme. I am getting surprisingly further than I thought I could with just about everything working with the theme showing what I want my problem is that when launching the game the focus returns to GameEx with the game running in the background. If I exit GamEx I can then access the game. I am thinking I need to do some advanced config file but not sure what it should look like. Anyone out there have an idea what I should do?

OK OK i think understand. So the image 1 is set to the emulator setup snap path selection? I am also assuming that it will look in the video snap files first and if missing default to the normal snap files correct? Is image 2 set to box art?? Lastly what is the description box set to?

NO luck

For what its worth I tried enabling the GameEx karaoke to see why exactly I decided not to use it and even though I was able to get video preview with sound it would not work when clicking the song. After checking the log it just says unable to open video. I also probably did it so that I could filter the file names as I have many songs that have [karaoke] in the file name.

I have win 10 but it may have been the upgrade from win7. i did install the k-light codec pack I mentioned above without any known issues however I would rely on the wisdom of Dazzle & Draco. The truth is other than what said above I cant really tell you why its working on mine and not yours. I do believe the first step is to get it working outside GameEx though.

Well I tried fiddling with mine just to see if I can get it to play in different ways but like you experienced I get two windows that pop up one that direct3D output which is strange because that does not happen when I just open the mp3. also the screen is black and I have to hit the windows key to even see the two windows. I do want to mention a few notes here i this may help us troubleshoot this. WMP with Karaoke 3 beta 3(Karaok for direct X) and k-lite codec 7.1 is what I believe got it working for me I did set this up as an emulator I think mainly so I could filter the names to just show the cdg file name in list and not double up the names with both .mp3 & .cdg when using WMP for karaoke I use the .CDG file not .mp3 when I try VLC I had to use the .mp3 file I can not seem to get VLC to play properly through GameEx. (I did associate the .cdg & mp3. files to VLC and told GameEX to run the .mp3 since thats what works outsde GameEx.) Here is some screenshots of my Karaoke emulator settings

I never used playcda to get mine working. I just did the k-lite codec pack 7.1 and the Karaoke 3.0 beta 3 I posted earlier. At least I pretty sure that's what I did. If your like me you wont quite till you figure it out. I think I got just about every emulator going in GameEx just to do it as i hardly ever use it but I think I just like troubleshooting and seeing things work perfectly or something.

Are you saying you got it to work with VLC. Mine doesnt it just shows the video. If you can then I would think that you just associate the CDG files to VLC and your done as I believe that the GameEx's Karaoke program just starts the CDG file not necessarily WMP however I could be wrong.

Sorry I meant to put this in the theme editor questions thread but wasnt paying attention where I was when I stated this and I cant seem to move or delete and start over. Sorry.

Thanks that was helpful.

How do I assign what get displayed in the image 1 or 2 as well as the description boxes. I have the image boxes had already been set but I may want to change the type of images go into them down the road. Say instead of snap I want to see a pic of carts as an example. Also I have a description box but no sure how to point it to the database I want displayed.

How and where do you implement game descriptions? Is there a database or file i can download? Where is it placed? I would like to have a game description or history info show in my theme as it is just blank now. Also can it be for each emulator like mame, nes, genesis, etc.?