u-man

your command-line is wrong i think: you have now: -triplebuffer -nowindow -joy -skip_gameinfo try it only with this in gameex setupwizard: -skip_gameinfo -readconfig in your Mame32 folder, there must be a ini-folder. there you will find the mame.ini file. open it with text-editor and check the very first following lines: # # CORE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS # readconfig 1 writeconfig 0 make sure that you have a 1 in readconfig, if not change it and save the .ini-file. this way gameex will read the configuration of your MAME32, instead of using commands within gameex. as you said everything looks fine under MAME32, there should be absolutely no difference in gameex now. here we go

i would like to know, how you even get that cool style with your font . is this a registered feature or what? as far as i know, you can only use 2 sizes with 2 different fonts. i dont understand how you achieved that cool effect (i know how you maked the shadow for the depth ). try the kaceyrayclare advice...

you are talking about this card: http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainf.html the main advantage is to drive a arcade-tv-monitor, which you cant with a "normal" grafics-card. i would not recommend to use soft32 unless you are exactly knowing what are you doing. because you can destroy your equipment with wrong settings and this can happen really fast . a other advantage is your allready mentioned native resolution, which result in crisper grafics, as seen on the homepage. you can achieve nearly same results, with bilinear filtering and a pre-scale higher than 4. so unless you plan to build your own arcade-cab with a arcade-tv in it, i would say you dont need it.

if you click here 3D Cabinets you will see that there are allready some 3D-consoles and Computers. maybe your request is answered .

what kind of MAME do you use? the original or some MAME+user interface like MAME UI? if you use original MAME then open your MAME.ini (its inside your MAME folder) in a text-editor and change this lines: # # CORE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS # readconfig 1 writeconfig 0 # # CORE ARTWORK OPTIONS # artwork_crop 1 use_backdrops 1 use_overlays 1 use_bezels 1 use_cpanels 1 use_marquees 1 # # WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS # video d3d numscreens 1 window 0 maximize 1 keepaspect 1 prescale 1 waitvsync 0 syncrefresh 0 menu 0 # # DIRECT3D-SPECIFIC OPTIONS # d3dversion 9 filter 1 # # FULL SCREEN OPTIONS # triplebuffer 1 switchres 0 full_screen_brightness 1.00 full_screen_contrast 1.0 full_screen_gamma 1.0 save your MAME.ini. in GameEx change your command-line to this: -skip_gameinfo -readconfig in the Use Bezel option, choose Dont use Bezel, if you want to use and see the artwork (your downloads from emu-movies for example). if you want to use the GameEx bezel then turn this option back to Use Bezel for vertical games, this has the advantage, that you have at least a bezel for EVERY vertical based game. if you dont like the GameEx bezel, create your own bezel, as you can modify the images used by changing mame.png and mask.png in the GameEx\Media\Bezel folder. here we go

i would like to have the logos in an editable format for sketchup. if you "deliver" them in the ".x"-file format, you cant further change things, you can only use them as "finished" work. you said that this could be possible, but you would need to delete the reflections maps and textures you used... for me that would not be a "drama", as long as i can change stuff myself (like including a rotation-animation or a more "less" extruded version of the logos, or a fix for your mentioned light problems). you would make me happy, if i can use your logos in Sketchup . cant wait to have your great theme . i read the the thread twice . but what i found out is, that you can not easily convert a .x-file back to a useable Sketchup-format . and my most important questions, how the animations and lighting in the 3D-cabinets are done, are not answered in the thread. i guess you do that in Sketchup. its not a big problem for me, but i dont like a 360 degree rotation on the cabs, as 99% are looking dull from the back . i wouldnt show the backside of the cabs at all, a forth and back animation of a 180 degree rotation, would look nicer in my opinion. the same thing applies to the logos in this thread. i would like to have them in an editable-format . thanks anyway for answers and helping

you can not play fullsized MAME games on a Full HD screen WITHOUT the games being stretched. MAME games are mostly in 4:3 aspect ratio proportions, but most modern tvs today are 16:9. so you will have black borders on left/right side, IF you play the games in their original aspect ratio. you WILL get fullscreen MAME-games, but they will be stretched, loosing the aspect ratio. i would not recommend this, but this is personal taste thing. the games will not look "original". in my opinion it is better to use the artwork BUT with "cropped" checkmark (important, if not checked you would play the games in original resolution, which is very small on a full-hd-tv), this way you play the games fullscreen (at least in height ) and the left/right sides are filled with bezel artwork. bad for games that have no artwork (+2800) . if you use this option, you will also loose the benefits of direct x, as you will use directdraw, which has no tripple buffering and bilinear filtering, as far as i know.

it depends on how big the field (for the snaps, videos etc.) in your graphic is. i see that you are switching your theme from 800x600 to 1920x1080. you should be aware that the aspect ratio changes, because you choosed a non compatible resolution. you can test this for yourself, if you make a perfect circle in a 800x600 picture and you scale the picture up to 1920x1080, then you will see that the circle is not perfect anymore... it is stretched. the same happens with your borders if you scale them up. the proportions of your borders will change, maybe to such a degree, that your snaps, videos, flyers etc. wont fit so perfect anymore. you need to understand what aspect ratio means. the "image 1+2" is aspect ratio related. a quadratic "image" will remain quadratic, even if your "image" is a rectangle in your theme-editor. it will scale, but the proportions will remain. you will have just a bigger quadrat. if you change your background, by changing the resolution of your theme, than the background will be "stretched" to fill the whole background. this way you CAN loose your proportions of the background-image if you choose a non-compatible resolution. 800x600 is a 4:3 proportion 1920x1080 is a 16:9 proportion hope that helps

Draco1962 is right... the image is "scaled" with the aspect ratio of the viewed snap,video etc. otherwise the image would be stretched and then it would be even harder to find the right choice . so if you make borders for your images, you need to keep in mind the aspect ratio of your snaps, videos etc. its easy if you have only one size for all pictures (true for most of the emus), but in MAME for example, you have horizontal and vertical images, so if you want a perfect fit into your borders, than either left and right sides of the horizontal snaps will be cutted, or top and bottom for your vertical snaps. yeah thats some point, i dont like too. its ok, when the image is floating free on your theme, then you get a somehow shadow-fx of the image. but it can look ugly, if you want to "skin" the image. dont like that at all

looks really nice... how did you achieve the fx with the fonts on post #67??? anyway, excellent work.

oh..ok.. but that would be good news then. i dont really understand, how the 3D cabs are working in gameex. the mview app is just a viewer or i am wrong? so where would i make the 360 degree rotation animation of the cab for example? where i would set the light, textures etc? is this all done in Sketchup? how can i convert a .x-file back to a Sketchup-file?

exactly... maybe i am wrong but the problem with 3D logos would be the thing, how they can showup in gameex? the 3D-cabinets show up only when a MAME-game is selected and a 3D-cabinet (for that game) exists in your predefined folder for 3d-cabinets.so if you want to show up the logos, you would need to technicaly change their names in to a MAME-game-name. i didnt try this, but i think the 3D-stuff works only in this way. thats why i think a 3rd "image" in theme-editor would be nice, just for 3D stuff off course is cinema 4D superior in terms of rendering, so you can create nicer images, but the 3D engine in game-ex is realtime, it would be possible to do nice fx, like pumping emulator logos in e.g.i dont know if you can save something like "light"-situations within your 3D-object or do you control the light over the 3D-engine used in game-ex? if it is controled by engine, then only Tom can change the lntense of the light e.g. as i said, i dont know how exactly this thing work, i cannot test it at the moment, but i will soon. but the idea is really cool...

logos SHOULD be bmp or jpg IF you want them to use by the setup-wizard or the theme-editor. this option does not support 3D files. BUT if you use the logos like a 3D cabinet, you can use them off course, thats why i was bagging for a 3rd "image" in the theme-editor (and for my own theme-creating ). sad to hear from naborneo that he is not satisfied with the look. it seems that i want to have a further look in to the "light"-story thing. would you maybe submit your 3D files....please, with sugar on it (i would like to give it another try). this could really look great.... i am on it

like the look very much... but for the smaller subtitles, i would not extrude them so much... more convenient for reading . nice job done here. how about making "real" 3D objects of them? they could be used like the 3D-cabinets.... mmh.. like that idea more and more . Tom should make a 3rd "image" for 3D objects in the themes-editor.... oh that would be sooooo nice .

high TSpeirs, my feature requests belongs only to the theme-editor. it would be nice to have a 3rd image (for 3D cabinets i.e.). the image and image2 should always use centered images, right now this belong only to one image and the other have a left-top-anchor. also good and essential would be full control of what image and image2 is displaying. so if i choose image2 and say display marquees, then it should only do that and if it cant find one, display nothing instead of title, box etc. the view where you can only scroll horizontal, should be centered. i mean the box which select stuff should not wander to left or right, it should stay centered and the other stuff is moving... this would look much nicer in my opinion. the menu item should be sizeable again, like in v1 or v2 themes. more control over fonts and usage of more fonts. maybe more fx and some control over them. i know these are many points, but i am happy, if just one of them find the way in to the theme-editor. i am fine with all other stuff in GameEx. great frontend and great job done here.

the only stuff regarding the theme-editor i found was this: http://www.gameex.com/Support/Tutorials.aspx ...and there the basic theme editor usage pack. if there is more, why not collect the posts and make a sticky? you are right and i will keep continuing my theme, but there is nothing wrong with my aspect too, if i say how all of you are expecting more themes in the competition, without a manual to keep beginners happy from the start . its just a suggestion. in particular, i would like to know what the differences are, in V4 and V2 themes. and second, in the theme-editor are the fields "image" and "image2". why in one field are the pictures/avi´s centered and in the other not? and why is this not changeable to keep consistency throughout the theme-editor? for me this doesnt make sense. it would be much better (especially in my case) if both fields would work the same, with pictures being centered. i am more a artist than a programmer. i have seen you coded much apps, so i am suggesting, you maybe can make this editor more useable and intuitive. i appreciate the way, that we all need to work more together, to make GameEx a even more better frontend as it allready is. dont wanted to blame you or other people here in the forum. i have no problems at all, with using external editors (i.e. photoshop). in fact, i earn my money with stuff like this...it is my job. i am using GameEx since version 10.? , back in these days i thought: "hey, this is a really cool front-end (and i think it was the only one, beside MESS) and i will keep an eye on it". now i have more time, looked at the changes from all the years and decided to make my contribution to this frontend, which i liked so much in the past. so here i am . i am glad to see people like you, who are really helping (i want to help too). i.e. there are much more emu´s with ready to go maps and configurations, but they are hidden in the forums. ok at least, the last update of GameEx changed some stuff. for example the vectrex-emu ParaJVE (i am in contact with the author of this great emu) is not implemented in the GameEx settings. ParaJVE is superior to MESS and i can say with no doubt, that this is the best vectrex-emu available, its nearly like the real thing, especially since version 0.7. the glowing shaders are awesome and i wish we could see the same stuff in AAE for example (and i am on it), but ok this is another story (i would like to help ), back to topic: i like to rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty with the details. thats why i recently joined the forum . in fact, i always try to find out a solution myself, before asking "stupid" questions. the theme-editor support a alpha now, can i use a movie with a alpha too? the member Chazz in this post has a really cool gamelist, how he did achieve that, is this even possible to do? what is the minimum everyone should do for the theme-competition? i mean what aspects need to be done, to be a "official" theme. looking at Krakerman and his awesome Retro-theme, i can say this would need plenty of time for me to achieve this. how many emus needs to be done to have a good theme? the other stuff i have in mind, will go to the theme-editor-suggestions thread .

dont get it, why my last post is deleted. too much harsh critic or what? i want to be a good member, so please tell me what was wrong, so in the future i can keep my mouth shut up.

congrats.... well done. looks really nice. probably one of the most comprehensive retrothemes i have ever seen. there are some console-stuff i have never heard off . cant wait to see what will come next. ..... and of course .... THX

i am doing a new theme, but i think i cant finish it, because i cant do things in the theme-editor like i wish do . so some stuff is looking just ugly . hope that some update regarding the theme-editor will come. yeah GameEx is highly skinnable (great to have a alpha), but with poor control over important items like snapshots, marquees.... dont want to flame, but the fun goes away then, while creating a new theme. in other words, you cant create new stuff, its always bounded to the existing layout with nearly no control over it. ok you can place stuff, but thats it. sure it works well for many available themes, but in my case it gets frustrating. and beside all of this, there is still no good manual for the theme-editor. how can you all expect that people will create new themes? like i said, dont want to bash. i love GameEx in many ways, but this are just my 50cent

i think it is the only thing, where GameEx suffers comparing to other frontends. everything else is superior comparing to others. thats what i liked it for all the years. outthere now, are a whole lot of pretty nice themes in other frontends, thx to the community. they have nice fx too and that i am missing in GameEx. by the way i liked Retro-theme and your MegaMame-theme the most, especially your theme in your cab ... i hope my dream will come true soon.... i dont get it, why there are so many objects in the object-browser. for what do i need the whole stuff, if it all do nothing? its a pain to always browse up and down, i a tiny window, which i cannot resize. if they are useless, why dont get rid of them? it would be far more easier editing if i only have the layout, back and foreground, the buttons etc.... but what is the other stuff: Jukebox, Radio, Pictures etc. hope everone understand me, i am talking about the Object Browser window in the theme-editor. __> EDIT: i found out how to use different layout settings. you need to enable this, in the theme-editor... go to edit menue: --> select options and in the following dialog go to --> settings and check custom module layouts... this way, you can have different layout-ordering for objects for each menue avalaible in the object-editor window. that helped a lot, now i have only the problem with the centered picture, which seems a bug, because one "image" centers all pictures and other "image" dont. so i ask here, if this can be fixed, as it exists allready for one "image". for a extra "image", where you can put 3D-cabs... i can wait and live with the state, how it is. hope that helped someone by the way: how can i make the fonts used like in post # 232 ?? that look like a nice wheel...... i want to have that too

sad to hear that.... but THX for reply ;-) @ answer 2: i do not understand, why in one "image" my snapshots are centered and in the other "image" not? can not believe, that this is such a hard task to do... to say where one image belongs and to place that. and in 6 years no approach to use different lay-outs.... thats sad too. i do not want to bitch here, but with these 2 options alone, you can do a whole bunch of different style, with the theme editor. but ok, at least i know that i am not missing something important here. by the way, what are the differencies between v2 and v4 themes?? what more can i do in v4?? enough said and THX anyway

sad.... nobody can help? in search for manuals, i found the Basic Theme Editor Usage Pack. in the second movie (of six), there is mentioned that you can have different layouts for selected entries, maybe in a future release (state 2006). for example, i want to place image and image 2 in a different place in the "Mame" and "Mame select" entries. how can i achieve this? my problem is, i want a picture view for my game-selection in the field "List", but when i do this, "Image" and "Image2" change the linking to their object (i.e. where the marquee should be, there is my videosnapshot and vice versa). if i would have 2 different layouts, this could be easily fixed. i started with the "Default - Default" Theme, assuming this is version 4 and best place to start with, but i have only one layout for the whole frontend. THIS IS WHAT I WANT (and get) IN SELECTED MAME : BUUUUUT, THAT CHANGES MAME AND I WANT THIS VICE VERSA: AND THE SNAPSHOTS IN MAME SELECTED ARE NOT CENTERED LOOKS UGLY FOR HORIZONTAL GAMES the strange thing is, if i would use the "Image" that is used for the marquees and put the snapshots there, then the snapshots are centered and both vertical and horizontal snaps are centered and looks right. but if i do this, i have no marquees anymore .... very sad LAST THING..... IS THIS POSSIBLE ???? what are the differences between V2 and V4 themes? which theme is best to start off, if you want 1920 resolution and most flexible options? it would be sooo much easier, to have the option to say, where "Image" and "Image2" belongs too. please help me with my questions, i would like to make a new theme.

Hello skinning-dudes, i like gameex very much and after years of usage, i wanted to start my own skinning project. so looking at the theme-editor, i must say, i have no clue how to use it properly (no documentation or manual leads to trouble-postings ). i think i understand the layering and i can manage basic things. i startet to use the RETRO-theme as my default, cause i like the 1920 format . my first question is, how can i display marquee and snapshot simultaneously? i did a small cab, where i want to display the snapshot and over it, the marquee. how i supposed to do that? where can i see, what action a button, line or pict do? are there more fx than zoom and where i can control them? what is really annoying is the nag-screen, for the not registered.... like me. it would be much better, if the screen would show up, when you start your first game or something like that. if you want to see the changes, it takes a long time for it. what changes can i do, while gameex is running? ok, thats enough for the start i think.... more to come