Draco1962

Enhancements? What kind?

I am going to mark this as [RESOLVED] as I believe the issue was with the folder depth within the them itself as I previously noted. @massop - can you correct this and coordinate with Tom to replace the current copy with the corrected copy?

There were several parts to what I had reported as they all appear to coincide. The first was the issue with the database switching intermittently between the good name and file name. The second was continued issues with the emulator assignments not updating correctly after a sort when custom menus are in use. If I make any sort changes in GameEx, I have to load the Menu Editor and correct the assigned logos, emulator #, etc. Sometimes I have to go back and forth between the two several times as there will be other discrepancies in the executable assigned within a specific emulator or other path changes that were part of the previous emulator assignment for that number. In trying to manually correct the second issue within the gameex.ini itself, a 3rd issue became apparent to me. As I was trying to locate the necessary data elements within the ini to change, I noticed that the order of data elements was not consistent from emulator to emulator listed. Ben had noted to me that this was OK and that it wasn't meant to be read (by human eyes I am assuming), but as part of troubleshooting, human eyes have to read these entries and if there is not a prescribed order that the data is listed, this makes it confusing and more difficult to troubleshoot and easier to miss something to resolve an error.

Please accept my apology for any confusion created as I misspoke about the theme with regards to aspect ratio. Tom is correct in that GameEx in its current form will preserve the 4:3 ratio regardless of the aspect ratio of the video. This would be an excellent feature enhancement request to allow for the selection of aspect ratio on a "per emulator" basis or as part of the display options to allow for dynamic aspect ratio based upon that of the video and will fit the video to the window within the theme (which, if the window is such that it is normally configured for 4:3 videos, a 16:9 or other aspect ratio video would letter box with the bars on top or bottom - depending on the ratio of the video exceeding 4:3 standards, much the same as on an older television. Regards, Mike

Danke!

Tom - Are you thinking that he may be experiencing some issues as a result of custom menus and possibly related to the issue I had initially reported that Ben confirmed?

Sounds like the initial issue you reported is resolved. If some ROMs are not showing, it could be a filter issue or the ROM is not compatible with the version of MAME that you are using. If you load MAME are you able to play Arkanoid? Is it only through GameEx you cannot play it?

You may wish to use the Setup Wizard as the Advanced Configuration Editor is no longer supported. Please try your changes there and provide us with a copy of your complete log.txt file and gameex.ini file if you are still having problems after. Let us know if using the Setup Wizard resolves your issue. Thanks!

Topic moved!

A lot depends on the theme you are using. Keep in mind that most of the themes are geared towards cabs or lower end HTPC so the "windows" for displaying the usual videos are going to lean more towards the 4:3 aspect ratio. What I would recommend is, once you get a little more comfortable with GameEx is consider exploring the creation of your own theme. You may want to look at an existing theme using the Theme Editor to familiarize yourself with the layout. From there you can either create a new theme altogether or modify an existing one to fit your needs with the snaps you are using.

@Mesk - Is this occurring when running Setup Wizard from within GameEx or outside of GameEx?

You are correct. In Theme Editor, you can add the RSS feed through the Scroller option. From there you will be presented with the GameEx areas and emulators so that you can tailor the feed to the screen (i.e. MameDev RSS feed for MAME Screens, Nintendo RSS feeds for Nintendo screens, GameEx RSS feed for Start screen, etc.). I believe that this feature is only available for themes > Version 1 so if the theme is a default theme, it may need to be up-converted to a newer version and saved as a separate theme. I think there is also a utility on the GameEx.com site that will also convert themes without having to load in Theme Editor, however, I have never used it.

Um, I'm not sure, let me ask me and get back to you...

I know! I'm psychotic!

He might like to get a PM if you are interested as I am sure he has added more to the theme since that was submitted. Drop him a line and say hello!

Did someone say Star Wars?

I tried it out on my side with the startbak.png file provided by Adultery and have no issues with it starting up or with navigation thus far. Correct me if I am wrong but shouldn't GEX pull from the default theme if it cannot find a file, whether it is a background or a logo missing in the selected theme? EDIT: One thing I noticed when opening this theme is that the folder containing the theme Dark Champion - Carbon 720p is nested within another folder named Darkchampion - Carbon 720p. @Mesk - did you extract this folder from within Darkchampion - Carbon 720p so that it is immediately following \gameex\themes\Dark Champion - Carbon 720p ? This may explain why GEx is not finding the startbak.png file because it needs to find the file under \gameex\themes\Dark Champion - Carbon 720p and not \gameex\themes\Darkchampion - Carbon 720p\Dark Champion - Carbon 720p.

???

If that function is disabled in the setup wiz then it should boot I would think.

Try downloading and installing the latest version 11.84 from the gameex.com site.

CCS64 appears to be preferred by AlphUMI and others.

He is running XP SP3. It is possible that there could be an issue with recent "hot fixes" for XP SP3 that were initiated 6/16 per this TechNet article. Not that all hot fixes should be held suspect, but I have seen where a hot fix applied to a file that was previously installed incorrectly or not at all will cripple functionality of another application. This would probably be reaching as diagnosing OS issue without direct access to the system is problematic and vague at best.

A reinstall may not be a bad idea. It appears from what you have posted that there are permissions issues preventing you from updating registry entries, etc. I am not sure that there is much anyone can do to resolve those types of issues as it then becomes a matter of troubleshooting the OS and not GameEx. If the reinstall does resolve the issue or you find a resolution in troubleshooting the OS, please let us know as this is something new to us and will help us to help steer someone else towards a resolve of their issue.

I'd like to know what process logger you will be using as I have had a few hiccups on my end that I would like to investigate. If I can think of anything else for you to shoot down as a possible cause I will post it! The joys of troubleshooting from the 2nd person perspective!

OK, one other thing - are any files being loaded from an external or secondary hard drive? If an internal secondary drive, make sure that there are no settings in Windows that would cause the drive to spin down after a certain amount of time and that indexing service is disabled for all drives. Both of these will cause latency. Not sure how you would control spin-down on an external drive. I may have better luck pissing on a spark plug, but wanted to make sure that was ruled-out as a possible cause.