u-man

Bad to hear that sad news I feel really sorry for bringing you my late condolences. I am really bad in saying useful things in such cases. Aaron I wish you all the power you need when you go through this hard time if a family member dies. All my best wishes for you.

But GameEx does this automagically after a update or a update list, where is the problem?

just read the manual carefully, i am sure that even the fire button can be mapped. just check it. and even if not, you can save your configs for j-pac and create new ones. if it is so much hassle for you, you can change configs manually by loading the right settings with their App. Who dares wins .

what ultimarc joystick do you use? and what Jamma to PC interface? If you have a a J-Pac or I-Pac you can use their Programmable Interface App: http://www.ultimarc.com/download.html The downside is, you would need to load your config-settings prior starting Spectrum-emu and loading default config-settings, after exit Spectrum-Emu. PS: did you read the tips from the manual? cant believe that this doesnt work, but ok, I cant check, cause i havent this emulator running in my system.

At least i would try it. This is also from the manual: To assign joystick buttons to Spectrum keyboard key presses, joystick directional movement or the main joystick fire button On the Tools menu, click Options. Click the Joystick tab and click Configure Button Mappings for either Player 1 or Player 2. Click the button in the list whose keyboard mapping you want to change. Choose one of: Press the key on the keyboard you want to assign. Move the joystick in the direction you want to assign. Press the same button again to map it to the main fire button. Tips You can also press the actual button on the game controller whose keyboard mapping you want to change, rather than clicking the button in the list.To map the directional controls to the Spectrum keyboard, use the Comcom programmable joystick interface. Note You can only assign keys that appear on the 48k Spectrum keyboard to joystick buttons. In particular, convience keys that map to more than one Spectrum key in Spectaculator cannot be chosen.

this is from the manual: Comcom programmable joystick interfaceThis interface allows you to map the joystick directional controls and fire button to any key on the Spectrum keyboard. Spectaculator emulates an enhanced version that allows you to map up to 32 buttons available on modern PC joysticks/gamepads. To setup Comcom joystick emulation Ensure the game controller you want to use is installed and configured correctly. On the Tools menu, click Options. Click the Joystick tab Choose the PC game controller (player 1 or 2) you want to use from the list. Choose Comcom programmable joystick from the list. To map the directional controls and fire buttons to the Spectrum keyboard Click Configure Button Mappings for either Player 1 or Player 2. Click the joystick control in the list whose keyboard mapping you want to change. Press the key on the keyboard you want to assign to it. Tip You can also press the actual button on the game controller (or move the directional control in the required direction) whose keyboard mapping you want to change, rather than clicking it in the list.

Sorry, no... not that I am aware of, but maybe something for the Featere Request thread. Question is, why would you do this? GameEx only restarts itself, after a update, which makes sense.

the text is still bad formatted.... i could use it at least, if it would be properly formatted. but your idea, is also not bad .

On this screenshot, you see what happen, if you press the Help / GameEx Logo button. The text has some bad formatting in the last view lines, so it doesnt fit into my list field properly. I think it is hardcoded, but it would be nice if Tom could change the formatting for the last lines for a perfect match. I dont think that this is to hard, to accomplish this and Tom would be doing a nice favor for me. It would be nice to see a better formatted text.... thanks in advance.

Yes Draco... i know, i know. here is the foreground layer: there is plenty transparent room. I suggest the place under the VCS Atari 2600. The bottom menue place so to say. Anywhere aside of the List-field (the right side of the listfield) on tranparent place. Thank you so much for this. PS: Off course, try it on the Atari Section please. As I dont know how the other sections look right at the moment.

OMG... yes you are right ( blush ) . naborneos Ambient Occlusion theme is 1 year old, that is 10 updates since then, maybe you are right. Ok, thats something i should forget ( meaning the buttons) entirely maybe. If i think more about it, they are not so important as the Back button, which is working allready. The Home and Exit would be a nice addon, but Back is crucial. Draco as you are allready tried some stuff, could you try the Listnum-field too? Can you place it somewhere else, without being hidden? Thats the only thing thats left and i would like to know, how other users are experiencing this. Please do me this favor and many thanks for your contribution allready.

Ok sounds legit Draco, but how have you make them working then in your latest theme? Or how has user naborneo make them working in his Ambient Occlusion theme? These are all new and recent themes.

So here it is, the theme uploaded... for Draco... Sry I am late, but it was too hot here in Germany, to sit in front of a PC. Hope he can find the issues I have and solve this puzzles. Thank you, Dude. _MAGNUM.zip

So here is a video preview: sry to have it in zip format, so you need to download it first, as it seems i dont have permissions to upload a video directly . PS: While capturing the video, I noticed that GameEx in a window, doesnt represent the intended resolution The resolution you choose is represented with the addition of the OS Windows pixels. In my case I wanted 800x600 but the actual video is only 784x562... that is not good. Especially for accurate items placing like fonts etc., because it will differ slightly if you see your theme in fullscreen afterwards (without the windows borders) . Is it possible to have a resolution setting for GameEx in a window, without the additional pixels from the window itself? @: Draco ... I will try to make you a package of my theme this evening, so you can give it a try. Just need to do a little cleanse, as some stuff would be confusing and big sized right now. GameEx 2014-06-11 12-30-15-99.zip

definitely coming soon.... if somebody can tell me a freeware for capturing desktop

Many THX Draco, i will take a brief look into this, so even if I have no hope that this will work, cause I allready have tried to use a source of a theme, which should have those buttons working, I dont see them. Even if I just simply want to use a default theme with those buttons working, they are not there. But no matter what, I will try it . PS: I have extended my text very much now, describing my problems hopefully accurate enough, to be understandable.

Hello Artists and Arcademics, So here is my theme so far. This is just a Preview of the Atari 2600 Section. I hope I can include over 20 beautiful animated Backgrounds. Some of them are my own artwork and some are free-to-use clips. All of them are very nice and fit very well into any retro-based themes. They are in 16:9 aspect, 720p and are from 5-40 MB each in size. However my theme will be a 4:3 based Theme, mainly because i want to support more Cab or Bartop-friendly themes, as i think there are not many outthere, which have a modern style. It is 1440-1080 in pixelsize to assure the maximum possible Quality, as downgrading afterwards is never a problem. So dont be fooled by the current size Screenshots. Thats basically only for me to preview, how it will look on a real CRT. This theme have a lot more detail than the screenshots can present. The lights around the List-Field are fully animated to attract the List-field more. The lights are affecting the logo-banners with shading and lighting, so basically the logos are animated too, i.e. the color bar under the logo, changes the color over time to create another interesting affect. The b/w background of the tv is animated and looks like no channel is found. The Foreground have scanlines to create the illusion of an old CRT-tube. So even you cant see it in the pictures, there is a lot animated stuff for attraction and a overall nice look and feel and this is only the Atari section So far so good, but I am struggling with some problems I have, especially the buttons. The Exit and Home buttons doesnt exist for me. They are simply gone. It doesnt matter if I use a allready done Theme i.e. the default ones ( and I mean those, which use these buttons) or my own theme. I cant select them in the Theme-editor either. If I select them, it just jumps to the last selected item, as if these buttons are locked or something like this. I manually changed the coordinates for those buttons in the .ini file, cause I cant select them, they still are not showing up. I use the default pictures of them and like I said, even with a theme that should use them, they are not there. I know that you need to setup this properly in the setup-wizard and enable the taskbar and so on, but if you look at the screens, you see that I have done this, otherwise I wouldnt have the other buttons which are showing up. I want those buttons baaaadly, as they are crucial for my theme intentions, as I dont like the way to long menue bar with the Back and Exit options ALWAYS being the last options to choose from, in the menue bar. It confuses the users on a Cab / Bartop a lot, as they dont know how to change into another section. In my eyes not very intuitive, thats why I want those damn Exit and Home buttons. If you look closely into the screenshots, you will see, that the Fullsize / Maximize Button, dont align properly, but this is something I solve myself I think. The thing is, that this button sometimes align properly and sometimes not. WTF? you think.... Ok, I try to explain, whenever I make changes and SAVE the stuff in the theme-editor, it will allign properly for ONE time. If I start GameEx again, it will look like in the screenshots now. It seems that this button is always aligned to the straight right edge. So I will create a new button, which has the edge of the bottom menue included, to solve this... this should work I hope. Next problem is the MediaControls button with a similar behaviour, sometimes it is aligned properly, sometimes a little left offset, like in the pictures right now. Maybe the same solution as for the Maximize button will work, I will see. All other buttons, are working fine and are always aligned properly. They all have a nice rollover-effect and change the color into green if you hover with your mouse over them, except the Help button (in my case the GameEx Logo) which is just glowing. If you press them, they change into Red color, but the effect is barely seen, as it is happening to fast. On the first screen, you see what happen, if you press the Help / GameEx Logo button. The text has some bad formatting in the last view lines, so it doesnt fit into my list field properly. I think it is hardcoded, but it would be nice if Tom could change the formatting for the last lines for a perfect match. I dont think that this is to hard, to accomplish this and Tom would be doing a nice favor for me. So lets start with the last problem I have... the Listnum-field. I cant put it whereever I like. It needs to be in the horizontal range of the List field, this is really odd. I.E. I cant put it below the Atari 2600. It is clipped and becomes invisible. This happens with every other theme too, no matter which one I try. So this is no error or a foreground-layer mistake from my side. I would call it a bug. The other problem with the Listnum field is, if you look closely the "of" is gone, instead I have a seperator which looks badly like the number one. So i.e. it looks like "31503" instead of "3 of 503". I know that this problem is caused by the font I use. As with the default Font it shows properly the "of" sign. My question here is, could someone alter my Font here, to include either a vertically larger seperator (to differ from the number 1) or even better include the "of" sign, as I have no clue how to alter my choosen Font. I would be so happy and thankful, if someone could do this for me, or at least tell me, how I can achieve this myself. So we are coming to the end.... as I have seen many times, that I am the only one, having the described problems here, as everyone else can use the stuff like intended. I am asking myself why? The only difference to other users, is my different OS language. I have three different setups and in all of them, I have the same errors. It reminds me on the "interrupt" error, where I couldnt choose a animated Background / Video anymore. At this time I spend a waaaay to much time to solve this, including a complete reinstall of the OS even in english language. Happily after some time, Tom could solve this problem for me ( a big thanx again on this side), as he changed some code and the option did work again.... what a relief . So my thoughts here are that all my problems seem to have a code related problem again. Maybe I am wrong with this, but the last time I wasnt wrong too. And before I start some ridiculous stuff like installing new OS and stuff like this again (gives me headaches only thinking about it), I would rather please Tom, to maybe overlook this stuff. Maybe there are some dependencies he is only aware of. Like I said, three different systems, all with the same described problems. If you all think my theme is something worth off, I would be pleased greatly for any help on this. As my lust to advance and go further with my theme is nearly zero at the moment, because of the described problems. I will rather wait then for Evolution and pray / hope that these problems will vanish then. Thanks to all people, who read this rather long text and to anyone who is contributing and helping me. your ( uuh-man

ok, i will open a extra-thread for my troubles, but please come, visit and maybe help me in this issue. To answer at least DazzleHP and Draco... i tried every possible combo in the setup-wizard. i checked the coordinates more than twice and they are fine. i mean i could change the coordinates only manually in the .ini file, as i cant select them in the theme-editor. AND to answer the last thing.... i tell you once more... even if i pick a default theme, where you expect that it should work everything like intended.... it doesnt. i am really lost in this.... if i wouldnt be such a bullhead, i would give up a long time ago. but i live with some quirks and try to change my theme accordingly EVERYTIME, sometimes i am even happy with the results and sometimes not. sry that i hijacked again a thread, but you achieved something, what myself would also like to achieve and i just wanted to know, how you did this Draco... sry and back to topic.

i did that.... believe me. hack, i cant see them in a allready done theme, if i select it. there are gone... not visible. i cant select them in the theme-editor for example. i cant them place left (or anywhere else) like Draco did in this theme for example . I would think, you need at least to select them to achieve this, which i simply cant in the theme-editor. If i do this, it just jumps to the last selected item of the theme-editor, somehow like its locked if you know what i mean. there are really some strange bugs, at least for me, involved with the theme-editor. I have no explains for this here or i.e. the listnum field, that is clipped as soon as you move it out of the range of the listfield (it gets invisible/ clipped). i wouldnt say anything, if that would happen only on one machine, but on three different tested setups, its everywhere happen, no matter if i use default themes or my own. maybe its a language OS setup thing or something else, i dont know. its very frustrating, i can assure and my only hope lies on Evolution.

Nice idea so far.... really interested how you achieved the back and exit buttons. I am struggeling here... i tried everything, from v2 to v4 versions, from default to my own converted theme... no way to get them seen in a theme, its like they vanished.... i would like to have them so baaaadly in my own theme, but cant achieve them or select them in the theme-editor. It would be so kind, if anyone could help me on this. its bugging me now for weeks . they are VERY important for me... but to no available choice i can get them to work. it makes me sad and mad, simultaniously.

deserved a long time ago.... more than me, i would say . Our everytime welcome theme-artist. When i remember, how it started and what kind of stuff you are now producing... expert level.

I hope and pray that the publisher, developer etc. stuff, becomes their own category in GE Evolution and that they are not placed in the menue anymore, that would be a relief for any serious 4:3 theme creation. Even the approach of DB-Guru greatflash, would be a better option, than the current state of the navigation-menue. By the way greatflash, is there any database-stuff, where i could help? i know that you are busy, but give me a pm, i would really like to help out.

One solution would be to turn off the standby mode. some manufacturers have a option to do this. if you have not this option, then you could try to mount the drive as a internal drive (unfortunatily you would need to put the drive out of the enclosure and connect it like a internal drive to your pc), then you can turn off the standby-mode.

you need to point your pathes that belong to title screenshots to point at the gameboxes. you can do this in the setup-wizard of GameEx. So instead of pointing to Titles, you point to the Gameboxes instead. Hope it was clear enough. aslo read this topic: http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/14574-theme-editing-question/

Nice to hear that it will be resolved....