Theme Editor problems

[u-man]

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

[Draco1962]

I split out your post to a new thread as it appears that you are having some problems that are not directly Theme Contest related.

[Adultery]

All due respect, you're nit picking. Its like saying you won't drive a Chevy Caprice since it doesn't run on diesel, so screw the chance to win one unless the do it your way. Obviously you aren't gonna be able to get every single thing the way you want it but if you had the ambition you would make due with what's available instead of pointing out what's not.

There is plenty of documentation for the theme editor all over the forum, not to mention lurking themers willing to help. If anything your themeing abilities are greater than the flexibility so why not even try?

/my 2c.

[Draco1962]

Agreed. You've been a member of the forums for 12 days, not sure if you have been using GameEx much longer. If you have need of assistance, then please ask. As Adultery said, there are people here that have been doing this for a while and will be glad to help if your heart and attitude are in the right place.

The Theme Editor in its present state is best used for placing items within the theme, setting fonts, etc. Most of the work you will need to do outside of Theme Editor using Paint, GIMP, Adobe PhotoShop, or other image creation/editing programs. No amount of formal documentation is going to take the place of rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty with the details. No documentation is going to give you the creative spark you will need to put together a skin that is going to knock everyone's socks off.

Again, if you can provide us with a specific problem you are having, please let us know. You say that you "dont want to flame" so don't! We have some of the most helpful forum members and some of the most passionate about the hobby - which means you don't want to come off as insulting. If you do, I can't fault them for not lending you a hand.

[Chaos.Tiki]

I've been here for almost a month and everyone has been very helpful to me for creating my theme. If there isn't an answer to your question, you would just have to work around it. And if there is no work around or solution, try making a request for that option. It might just get changed.

[u-man]

All due respect, you're nit picking. Its like saying you won't drive a Chevy Caprice since it doesn't run on diesel, so screw the chance to win one unless the do it your way. Obviously you aren't gonna be able to get every single thing the way you want it but if you had the ambition you would make due with what's available instead of pointing out what's not.

There is plenty of documentation for the theme editor all over the forum, not to mention lurking themers willing to help. If anything your themeing abilities are greater than the flexibility so why not even try?

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.

Agreed. You've been a member of the forums for 12 days, not sure if you have been using GameEx much longer. If you have need of assistance, then please ask. As Adultery said, there are people here that have been doing this for a while and will be glad to help if your heart and attitude are in the right place.

The Theme Editor in its present state is best used for placing items within the theme, setting fonts, etc. Most of the work you will need to do outside of Theme Editor using Paint, GIMP, Adobe PhotoShop, or other image creation/editing programs. No amount of formal documentation is going to take the place of rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty with the details. No documentation is going to give you the creative spark you will need to put together a skin that is going to knock everyone's socks off.

Again, if you can provide us with a specific problem you are having, please let us know. You say that you "dont want to flame" so don't! We have some of the most helpful forum members and some of the most passionate about the hobby - which means you don't want to come off as insulting. If you do, I can't fault them for not lending you a hand.

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 .

[Draco1962]

Will be glad to see some sharing of your experience. As for what makes for an official theme (emulator specific backgrounds, etc.), there is no such guideline. I generally recommend covering for the core background images (MAME, Daphne, Library, DVD, etc), everything else is icing on the cake. I lean more towards minimal background files while letting the logos display for the specific systems/emus. Just a personal preference. You may wish to provide .psd (PhotoShoip) or .xcf (GIMP) files with your theme submission so that the end-user can add to or modify at their leisure any background or foreground images they requires specific to their setup.

Full alpha support so far as I am aware - be it snaps, videos, foreground or background images.