Theme Editor Questions...

[u-man]

i dont know where to start.... i am really, really sad now

i can not believe why this kind of stuff is only belonged for registered users . i dont understand this, as you can do this for every other emulator. you were right in any way, as i tried this with my ParaJVE vectrex-emulator and it works.

of course this is set in the setup-wizard and i go through it all the way, but i could not find this function for MAME.

i may buy a license, but i would like to know this for sure, if this really will solve my problem.

[Draco1962]

You haven't bought a license yet? You really need to do so! After about 1 month of the nag screen I had to dig under sofa cushions and shake my kids down for their lunch money to get a lifetime license and it was worth it!

I just recalled from an old post the location where you can create and place a NO_IMAGE.png to place in the theme's logos path (i.e. \gameex hemes\your theme name here\logos\) that fits with your theme or logo style. MAME will pull from this location if no snap is available.

[AlphaUMi]

Thank you u-man!!! Thank you Draco!!! Thank all of you for your clarifications!

[u-man]

glad that we could help you out.

You haven't bought a license yet? You really need to do so! After about 1 month of the nag screen I had to dig under sofa cushions and shake my kids down for their lunch money to get a lifetime license and it was worth it!

HAHAHA, that really maked my day. laughed my ass off .

you are totally right, but at the moment i am so broke, i dont even have a bank account anymore and live from the social welfare office. you know, bad things happen all at the same time... one of your parents die, loose your job, loose your home and finally your girlfriend. now i am in a kind of burn-out-syndrome and barely can pay my internet-bills .

i am happy for every joke, i can laugh and you maked this really possible .

I just recalled from an old post the location where you can create and place a NO_IMAGE.png to place in the theme's logos path (i.e. \gameex hemes\your theme name here\logos\) that fits with your theme or logo style. MAME will pull from this location if no snap is available.

ok back to topic:

yes, this works, but i thought that gameex handle this in a different way. i have all the stuff for MAME (thx to emumovies) and gameex handles the image stuff in this way, that if he can not find a snap, he looks for a title, if he can not find a title, he looks for a marquee and so on. that in my case leads to, if he cannot find a marquee, he displays the title and not the NO_IMAGE.png.

as he will always found something, i am left with my problem. i dont understand why it goes that way, as this has no meaning for me. you can always view the stuff when you click a game and have the info-stuff enabled. so why the hack it goes that way?? i see no logic behind this. the image and image2 stuff should belong for theme-ing only and nothing else. no automation here would be making much more sense. maybe the only exception would be the 3D-cabinets, but all the other stuff ???

in my case i have the titles twice on my theme (one title in the list-view and one if he can not find a marquee ), that is really sad and i dont have a solution for this. the only solution would be, to use the list for only showing names and to disclaim the titles, flyers, controls etc. at all, what i dont appreciate.

do you know, if the new theme-editor refurbish is still in progress?

but anyway, thank you soo much, for your help.

[Draco1962]

Sounds like you may need to submit a new feature request here as GameEx will look for the next available image for the rom in question should the primary snap not be found. Sorry to hear that you are having a tough run of it. Have been there myself so I can empathize with your predicament. At least you have your health and sense of humor and that is always a good thing!

[KRC]

Is there anyway to integrate animation into a theme, for arguments sake a foreground image containing flashing stars.

[Draco1962]

No. Only through Change View and that would be overridden by whatever video snaps you may have for certain ROMs or background images.

[KRC]

No. Only through Change View and that would be overridden by whatever video snaps you may have for certain ROMs or background images.

Ok, thanks for letting me know.

[Krakerman]

I put in a request for the possibility to add animations to our themes.

[KRC]

I put in a request for the possibility to add animations to our themes.

I second that !

[headkaze]

I put in a request for the possibility to add animations to our themes.

You might just get your wish to come true

[KRC]

You might just get your wish to come true

Do you know something

[headkaze]

Do you know something

Maybe

[Adultery]

Ben *is* something! Super top secret theme editor creator/heavy duty GameEx contributor/helluva nice guy.

I bet you tire of this easy stuff Ben... Here's a challenge for ya: How about adding a cheeseburger generator to the theme editor! Now THAT would be DA SHIZZ! LOL!

[KRC]

Im getting excited, or are you just toying with me

[u-man]

You might just get your wish to come true

it took me a while, to find out that headkaze in fact is a alias for Ben. i wished i would know it earlier. i am very excited about this news and looking forward regarding this.

if you need any help, suggestions or anything else helpfull, then i would like to contribute. how about a nice chat-session, where we could talk about the theme-editor? now that would be very cool.

i want to make a tutorial for the current theme-editor and have some unanswered questions regarding this. questions where i think, you are the only one who can answer them. now in the end, i am asking myself if this is really necessary, if something NEW is around .

OMG i am so excited, cant wait to see this.

anyway best wishes.... u-man

[8trek]

Have noticed some themes will start playing a random game at startup, how do i disable this?

Duplicate: The answers to all this (and more!) can be found here.

Edited July 27, 2012 by nullPointer
Duplicate question in two different threads

[Necromancyr]

Can someone explain to me how the please wait bar animation is determined? Just want to make sure I get it right. (e.g., has to be that resolution, frames all go sequentially from left to right, how many frames are on the screen at once, etc.)

[Draco1962]

Can someone explain to me how the please wait bar animation is determined? Just want to make sure I get it right. (e.g., has to be that resolution, frames all go sequentially from left to right, how many frames are on the screen at once, etc.)

I believe it is hard-coded for the location on the screen and sizes are all relative. I would use one of the default themes to determine the exact dimensions of the Please Wait box and placement of the place holder for the please wait bar. The # of frames for the bar I do not believe are static, however the height and width are.

[Necromancyr]

Ok. I basically got it working, but wasn't sure if I was missing something or some other possibilities. Thanks!

[Draco1962]

Ok. I basically got it working, but wasn't sure if I was missing something.

One other question - is there a way to have the missing screenshot for an emulator be something other than the emulators logo?

Within each emulator configuration (via Setup Wizard) you can assign a custom background for each emulator. Custom logos can be assigned if you are using Custom Menus and are assigned at the Item level.

[Necromancyr]

Ok...additional question.

Normally for an emu you set a logo for the system and that is what's shown when there's no image. However, if you have MULTIPLE images being shown (in my instance, the cartridges are being shown) it still is showing the logo for that piece of art. So, for the Snap it shows the 'no image found' image you set, but for the cart it shows the logo for the emulator.

Any to stop this - or have it just not show a 'image missing' image at all?

[Draco1962]

Sounds like you might be dealing with an image path issue. Can you give an example of the emu in question and provide a copy of your emulator config (and customemenu.ini file if using custom menus)?

[Necromancyr]

Ok, fixed it and found the bug/issue causing it.

I'm not sure if this only happens w/custom menus or what, BUT if you have a logo set for an emulator, the image not found image only replaces "image" in a theme/screen, it does not replace Image 2, etc., if they aren't found.

To get around this, using custom menus, you set a custom menu item to have a logo for the emulator and then do not set a logo for the emulator itself in the emulator config screen. The image not found image will only appear, however, for "Image" - additional images on a screen just don't appear if not found.

[Draco1962]

That would be WAD.