Theme Editor Questions...

[electro]

Does CustomModuleLayouts work? It's not working for me. Please let me know if this is suppose to work. CustomEmulatorLayouts does work.

[Tom Speirs]

Headkaze, is it possible to change the theme editor so that the selected buttons on the menu strip can be different then the ones on the selection menu? When I put a pattern on the buttons they look great on the selection menu, but then when you move to the menu strip they resize to the text making the pattern look all distorted. I would like to be able to have separate selection buttons for the menu strip. Hope this make sense. Its hard to explain.

Hi,

Sorry its not currently possible.

[Tom Speirs]

Does CustomModuleLayouts work? It's not working for me. Please let me know if this is suppose to work. CustomEmulatorLayouts does work.

No, sorry its currently not implemented in GameEx.

[shumardw]

Hi,

Sorry its not currently possible.

Ok. Thanks for the response Tom.

[emphatic]

How do I set my theme to use "emubak.avi" instead of "emubak.png"? It works flawlessly for "startbak.avi" and "bak.avi" btw. Is this a bug?

Edit: I opened up my .ini file (gameex.ini) and replaced all references to emubak.png with emubak.avi, but still no luck. It's like the .png is chached in GameEx or something.

Emph

[Mangledmon]

Can I ask what might be a really stupid question?

I've recently upgraded my box and have enabled all the fancy effects in GameEx GUI. I notice that in all the V2+ themes that the selector bar will enlarge the currently selected item - i.e., if I select MAME on the front page, the selector bar will be enlarged compared to the rest of the items (looks like it gets zoomed slightly - looks really awesome). On my V2 theme I put together ages back (and that I still continue to use), I notice that it won't do this, and I'm not sure why. I've compared .ini files between my theme and other themes, and despite other themes now doing this cool effect since I've enabled all the eye candy on my new setup, my old V2 theme doesn't. Below is a cut and paste of my theme:

[General]

StartupVideo=THEMES\Game Centre Final\Intro Movie\Gameex Initialisation.mpg

Version=2

Width=800

Height=600

AniBak=False

AlphaBlendVideos=False

Font=Trebuchet MS

TitleFont=HandelGothic BT

DialogTextWhite=False

OutlineFonts=False

MediaCenterMode=False

DisplayBackgroundImage=True

TextColor=-1249281

OutlineColor=-16777216

XRESOLUTION=800

YRESOLUTION=600

ArcadeMode=False

AnimatedSelector=True

ShowButtons=True

ShowDateTime=True

TitleFontSize=43

DisplayTitleText=True

CustomEmulatorLayouts=False

CustomControlPanel=False

DisplayEmulatorMenus=True

RotatePlus90=False

CustomModuleLayouts=False

MainFontSize=14

LowerCaseTitleFont=True

[TaskBar]

MCEButtonOver=0,0,61,47

MCEButtonDown=0,0,61,47

BackButtonOver=61,0,41,47

BackButtonDown=61,0,41,47

HelpButtonOver=102,0,47,47

HelpButtonDown=102,0,47,47

MediaControl=624,0,148,46

MediaControlStop=624,0,148,46

TopBarLeft=0,0,149,47

TopBarMiddle=0,0,800,32

Window=772,0,28,46

[buttons]

ArrowDown=618,510,25,28

ArrowDownPressed=618,510,25,28

ArrowUp=654,510,25,28

ArrowUpPressed=654,510,25,28

HomeNoFocus=606,65,28,28

HomeFocus=606,65,28,28

ExitNoFocus=653,65,28,28

ExitFocus=653,65,28,28

ExitSelect=653,63,32,30

[Layout]

Title=94,52,142,76

Date=64,163,46,24

Time=57,186,49,24

List=270,164,271,386

SelectLine1=276,88,117,24

SelectLine2=276,111,117,24

ImageInfo=20,160,251,188

ListNum=549,535,81,24

Menu=22,212,197,162

Image=588,212,197,162

Info=20,160,251,159

Any help would be appreciated!! I'm running XP SP3 and the latest version of GameEx.

-Mangledmon-

[sWampy]

Is it possible to add your own custom buttons? I would like a more touch screen theme if possible. like putting up a mini keyboard on the bottom, I can't seem to get it to let me add custom objects/buttons.

[Jolu42]

Hi, I have searched throughout the entire forum and haven't found anyone with the same issue as me. I want to create my own theme and whenever I choose a source theme to modify it doesn't allow me to change anything. I watched the tutorial on the theme editor and when they selected the theme there was a "Start" in the Background collapse menu. Whenever I try to start with the background menu it gives me a "new page" icon and only "Loading" and "No Image" are available. I can't even begin anything. I hope I explained myself good enough....I can post screenshots of my problem if needed. Thanks!

[Jolu42]

Anybody?

[fetts]

I really like the theme layout of MCE Glossy 3. There's one particular layout for the NES emulation where videos play on the middle left, the title screen is right under it, and all the games are thumb nailed. Instead of the thumb nails being title screens again, i want to change it to display box art. I tried to do it myself by creating a new template based off the one i want to change, but couldn't figure out how to do it.

Is there a way to do this?

[fetts]

Im going over the theme i mentioned above trying to figure out how, in the right view setting, to have the games list with box art pictures instead of title pictures, while still keeping the title pictures on the lower left hand corner. I can not figure it out. I tried to use the theme editor but couldn't figure that out. I went through advanced configuration and changed the title art path to the box art path. While that made the boxes appear in the list, it also replaced the title pictures on the lower left hand corner.

Is there something im missing? I know in the editor if you open a new file with the MCE Glossy 3 source theme, you can see how the the emulator (in this case the NES) is layed out. However, i cant figure out how it knows in the "list" section to display the games in title art format. Is it in a text file somewhere or is it hard wired into the theme itself>

[dungbeetle46]

can anyone tell me how to add the music bars that goe up and down to the beat of the music to my layouts, it works alongside the name of the song but I am wondering if it can be added to the start page etc when background music is playing.

[fishermast]

I'm in the process of creating my custom theme and would like to make the layout of the list, title, etc. for the jukebox UI different than the default layout. I can change the background by updating the "Mod Background" tree selection. Within the Theme Editor Options page, there is a checkbox labeled "Customer Emulator Layouts". I was hoping that this would allow me to do what I want to do. It was my hope that by checking this that I could then manipulate the jukebox layout listed in the "Object Browser" section of the theme editor, but moving the fields around in that view seems to do nothing. How do I have the theme reflect the layout of the fields defined in the "Jukebox" entry of the object browser rather than the "Layout" entry? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[headkaze]

I'm in the process of creating my custom theme and would like to make the layout of the list, title, etc. for the jukebox UI different than the default layout. I can change the background by updating the "Mod Background" tree selection. Within the Theme Editor Options page, there is a checkbox labeled "Customer Emulator Layouts". I was hoping that this would allow me to do what I want to do. It was my hope that by checking this that I could then manipulate the jukebox layout listed in the "Object Browser" section of the theme editor, but moving the fields around in that view seems to do nothing. How do I have the theme reflect the layout of the fields defined in the "Jukebox" entry of the object browser rather than the "Layout" entry? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Tom never ended up implementing support for "Custom Module Layouts" and infact asked me to remove the option from the last release of the Theme Editor. So you can't do that for now I'm afraid.

[Brenry]

Trying to edit these pre-set themes. Can I just simply delete fields.. as in.. all together? I really do not want a media center.

Here's my plan. Have a simple corny simple centered text menu with early 90's arcade text style. And lets say I select mame. Well break to full screen video previews. I dont want time, FE taskbar, game text windows, info... none of that. at all. Just the video playing, with the game logo overlayed, and a blinking gif image below saying .. oh .. "PRESS 1P START". And by moving the joystick (as if there was a menu visibile but not to the user), it would simply change the video and on to the next game logo.

I'm really just going for a minimalistic near-authentic arcade look with the video full screen playing, no menus, dumb animations.. nothing. Just something like you walked up to a game and it's blinking at you press start.

Possible? Because I cannot delete or disable objects. Just move the fields around. I know you can do full screen by manually changing view with fe loaded, but I can't find out how to edit THAT part of the theme and get rid of all the menus/text.

[Alpha17x]

Perhaps this is already covered, but a search did not yield an answer;

Is it possible to use a video file as a theme background? For example in the 'start' area the background will be one video file, going through a loop, and then if you were to enter the MAME section, it would change to another video file?

This is not a reference to avi snap files, the avi snaps would play in their usual location while the background video continued to loop, much like the way the 'Dreamscene' functionality in windows Vista works/worked.

[Tom Speirs]

Perhaps this is already covered, but a search did not yield an answer;

Is it possible to use a video file as a theme background? For example in the 'start' area the background will be one video file, going through a loop, and then if you were to enter the MAME section, it would change to another video file?

This is not a reference to avi snap files, the avi snaps would play in their usual location while the background video continued to loop, much like the way the 'Dreamscene' functionality in windows Vista works/worked.

Yes, just specify an avi file as the background.

[chustin]

Yes, just specify an avi file as the background.

and how i do that because i tell to the theme editor to use it as background and then i open gameex i it shows me a normal bakcground (it's and xvid avi file)

[BSebastian01]

Hey everyone. I'm not sure if this is a 'Theme Editor' question, but thought I'd ask here since my question involves a custom theme. I'm running a custom, and since the latest GameEx release, I have two black lines that run vertically across the taskbar. i can't find a way to get rid of them. i know it's just a custom theme, but the lines weren't there prior to this latest version of GameEx and other custom themes don't have those lines. Any advice? thanks everyone.

[Drakendoder]

Hi, i was wondering wether the following is possible. I made my own custom theme and took the template from Deep Purple as to work from. Everything worked out great, but there is this tiny nagging last thing that i'm unable to do so far. The selectionbar that is highlighting both roms and menubar is the same. However when highlighting an option from the menu, there are brackets around the text where there isn't when i highlight a rom. If possible, i would like to remover the brackets all together but i'm unable to find where to change this.

Also, it is possible to give a different color to the selectionbar when it highlights the menu bar as opposed to the color green that i'd like to keep for the roms?

Last but not least, but this may be a configquestion, not a themeone. Inside an emulatormenu i get a whole lot of options in the menubar. Wether i want to see 'developer', 'year', 'system' and what not. I would like to keep some of these, but eliminate most. Is this possible?

Thanks in advance for any responses, its much appreciated

[frosty-theaussie]

How can I disable elements such as the "date" or delete images I've added? RMB doesn't open a context menu and delete doesn't seem to work on anything.

[headkaze]

Hi, i was wondering wether the following is possible. I made my own custom theme and took the template from Deep Purple as to work from. Everything worked out great, but there is this tiny nagging last thing that i'm unable to do so far. The selectionbar that is highlighting both roms and menubar is the same. However when highlighting an option from the menu, there are brackets around the text where there isn't when i highlight a rom. If possible, i would like to remover the brackets all together but i'm unable to find where to change this.

There is currently no way to customize the selector bar like this, although you can create a custom one using the Theme Editor's Selector Bar Editor.

Also, it is possible to give a different color to the selectionbar when it highlights the menu bar as opposed to the color green that i'd like to keep for the roms?

Sorry this is not possible

Last but not least, but this may be a configquestion, not a themeone. Inside an emulatormenu i get a whole lot of options in the menubar. Wether i want to see 'developer', 'year', 'system' and what not. I would like to keep some of these, but eliminate most. Is this possible?

I don't think you can customize this. Really the Theme Editor only adds features that are customizable in GameEx aswell.

[headkaze]

How can I disable elements such as the "date" or delete images I've added? RMB doesn't open a context menu and delete doesn't seem to work on anything.

Go into the Edit->Options->Settings tab you will see "Show Date/Time". The reason its like this is because when you release a theme some people may like to have the Date/Time. So you need to place it somewhere even if you don't show it.

[Drakendoder]

There is currently no way to customize the selector bar like this, although you can create a custom one using the Theme Editor's Selector Bar Editor.

Sorry this is not possible

I don't think you can customize this. Really the Theme Editor only adds features that are customizable in GameEx aswell.

thanks, at least i have found peace now

[Draco1962]

Are there any good resources regarding using foreground images for V4?