[NEWS] GameEx 12.45

[Tom Speirs]

Happy new year to GameEx users new and old. I am happy to release the first GameEx version of 2012.

• Theme/Skinning:
  
  • New static HTPC style list option in the theme editor. This gives an alternative list in the start page menus.
    
  • New theme editor option to not show the weather condition icon and just the temperature
    
  • Weather condition icons can now be loaded from a theme if in the [theme]mediaweather folder
    
  • The auto update image can be used with a theme if in the [theme]media folder. Change autoupdate1.png
    

  [*]Display and Emulators:

  • New game specific background snap folder for emulators and MAME. These images will be shown in the background when browsing the list when set.
    
  • If the above path is not specified there is a new display mode to show snaps in the background based on existing art paths.
    
  • Custom artwork paths for emulators now support videos.
    
  • The image ribbon display mode now support paging up and down.
    
  • Several minor cosmetic related bugs fixed.
    

  [*]Media:

  • GameEx can now act as a full UPNP/DNLA client. This is supported for all media including the jukebox, pictures, media library and Videos. In terms of the Jukebox, GameEx will try to load the entire library and act as it normally does displaying the entire collection. At the present time videos have to be download from the media server and do not stream. The client has been tested with Windows Media Player, Mezzmo and Serviio.
    
  • GameEx will now download and display artist pictures in the Jukebox and will display these if album artwork cannot be found.
    
  • New Get MetaData menu option for the Jukebox to download all artwork.
    
  • Better support of album artwork in the Jukebox.
    
  • With thanks, GameEx now uses the TMDb API for movie artwork and metadata. In addition it will now download movie ratings. TMDb has a very good search engine so matches appear to be quite accurate. Therefore with this release the movie database utility is legacy and no longer included with the install. Please consider contributing to TMDb.
    
  • For videos the create snaps menu option is now called Get MetaData since it now also retrieves box art, descriptions, year of release and rating.
    
  • Their are now three separate folders for videos so GameEx can properly identify metadata. That is Movies, TV shows and other videos. I am currently awaiting approval from theTVdb.com to do more with TV shows. Hopefully I will get it,.
    
  • Again, in my tests the matching is much more accurate than before.
    
  • GameEx will now display videos at the correct aspect ratio when they have a different display size.
    

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[Tom Speirs]

Just wanted to bump as didnt seem to post at top of forum.

[ehuonder]

That's quite the long list of updates!!! Thanks for all of the work Tom. I'm looking forward to playing with all of this... although you're outdating my theme work...

[Krakerman]

Thanks Tom installing now and look forward to checking it out.

Long delay when I ran it to the point I thought it crashed but then it stuttered then ran ok. When I ran again it stuttered then ran ok.

Also I noticed in the Setup Wizard very strange Weather Icon settings is displayed twice with also video options ???

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks Tom installing now and look forward to checking it out.

Long delay when I ran it to the point I thought it crashed but then it stuttered then ran ok. When I ran again it stuttered then ran ok.

Also I noticed in the Setup Wizard very strange Weather Icon settings is displayed twice with also video options ???

It searches for media servers in the background at startup, that might be what is causing the stutter. What sort of system do you have?

[Krakerman]

Win 7 x64 ATI 5870 card w/16gb system ram. Also I am not running any media servers currently.

Did you see the setup wizard issues under the HTPC settings?

[Tom Speirs]

Yes, I see the issue. Both issues should be addressed in 12.46

[Krakerman]

Thanks Tom Glad it wasn't just me

[fRequEnCy]

Thanks Tom!

[Krakerman]

D/l'ing and testing 12.46.

UPDATE!: The Setup Wizard HTPC options are now fixed and so is the loading. No longer delays or stutters.

Thanks Tom for the very fast fix update.

Will have more time tomorrow to play around with it. Those two issues have been fixed.

[Tom Speirs]

Thank you for testing

[Krakerman]

Always glad to help out

[Krakerman]

Ok Tom I'm a bit confused on the MAME game specific background snap feature. So this actually doesn't allow you to make a custom theme for each rom does it? All it appears it does is display a snap image.

I was kinda looking to create a custom theme for each game just like you do for emulators or am I missing something?

[Tom Speirs]

Just set the path, and change the view if necessary.

[Krakerman]

Well the view just shows a snap. I don't see where you can create a custom theme and go into the theme editor and move the boxes around to my liking for each game or was the feature not intended for that purpose?

I guess I just have to create a new background image for the rom and name it the same as the rom file, but the image windows and list (ect ect that you setup in the Theme Editor) have to stay in the default locations that you setup in that emulator/MAME. Is that what I have to do?

[Tom Speirs]

It just shows it as the background image. That's it.

[ehuonder]

Tom - Is there a mapping for the Weather icons? If I look in the GameEx/Media/Icons/Weather directory, there are images 0.png - 47.png. Looking at those, there are a lot of images that either are the same, or look very similar... Is there a text description of what each icon represents somewhere?

Thanks!

[Tom Speirs]

Can't help with that I am afraid.

[Krakerman]

Ok thanks.

[Tom Speirs]

Something else in this release I forgot to mention. Individual background images for start page menu items based on the theme. Look at the default theme for example.

[hansolo77]

Thanks for the great work Tom!

[Draco1962]

Tom - Is there a mapping for the Weather icons? If I look in the GameEx/Media/Icons/Weather directory, there are images 0.png - 47.png. Looking at those, there are a lot of images that either are the same, or look very similar... Is there a text description of what each icon represents somewhere?

Thanks!

The complete list, courtesy of Adultery, is included in the spoiler below. This will allow users to adapt images (edit/rename/etc.) of their choice to replace the stock images for further theme customization. The icons must be named as noted - Image 0.png, etc. - in order to work correctly.

Image 0.PNG - Thunderstorms

Image 1.PNG - Windy/Thunderstorms

Image 2.PNG - Windy/Heavy Thunderstorms

Image 3.PNG - Heavy Rain/Thunderstorms

Image 4.PNG - Thunderstorms/Lightning

Image 5.PNG - Snow/Rain Mix

Image 6.PNG - Rain/Hail Mix

Image 7.PNG - Snow/Rain Mix (Icy)

Image 8.PNG - Light Rain (Icy)

Image 9.PNG - Light Rain

Image 10.PNG - Heavy Rain (Icy)

Image 11.PNG - Rain

Image 12.PNG - Heavy Rain

Image 13.PNG - Light Snow

Image 14.PNG - Snow

Image 15.PNG - Snowflakes

Image 16.PNG - Heavy Snow

Image 17.PNG - Thunderstorms

Image 18.PNG - Hail

Image 19.PNG - Dust

Image 20.PNG - Fog

Image 21.PNG - Hazy

Image 22.PNG - Smoke

Image 23.PNG - Windy (Night)

Image 24.PNG - Windy (Day)

Image 25.PNG - Frigid

Image 26.PNG - Cloudy

Image 27.PNG - Mostly Cloudy (Night)

Image 28.PNG - Mostly Cloudy (Day)

Image 29.PNG - Partly Cloudy (Night)

Image 30.PNG - Partly Cloudy (Day)

Image 31.PNG - Clear/Fair (Night)

Image 32.PNG - Sunny (Day)

Image 33.PNG - Mostly Clear (Night)

Image 34.PNG - Mostly Sunny (Day)

Image 35.PNG - Thunderstorms

Image 36.PNG - Hot Sunny Day

Image 37.PNG - Isolated T-Storms (Day)

Image 38.PNG - Scattered T-Storms (Day)

Image 39.PNG - Scattered Showers (Day)

Image 40.PNG - Heavy Rain

Image 41.PNG - Heavy Snow (Day)

Image 42.PNG - Heavy Snow

Image 43.PNG - Windy/Snowy

Image 44.PNG - Partly Cloudy (Day)

Image 45.PNG - Rain (Night)

Image 46.PNG - Snow (Night)

Image 47.PNG - Scattered T-Storms (Night)

Image 48.PNG - Heavy Rain (Day)

Image -.PNG - N/A

Edited January 3, 2012 by Draco1962
Complete Weather Icons Schema courtesy of Adultery

[Adultery]

Ohh pumped! This will be great with my new 2nd monitor plugin...

...teaser...

Thanks Tom and happy new year!

[Adultery]

Happy new year to GameEx users new and old. I am happy to release the first GameEx version of 2012.

• Theme/Skinning:
  
  • The auto update image can be used with a theme if in the [theme]media folder. Change autoupdate1.png
    

Didn't we have this already? Or did you mean STATS.PNG?

[flocke28]

hello,

gameex 12.47 shows only a black screen.. without an menu.. after 5 minutes i have break gameex over the taskmanager.. the logfile shows Starting Search for UPNP Media Servers.. how can i disable this feature? i can't find a entry in setup wizard..

thanks