Maximum Arcade Theme background issue

[GimmeClassics]

Hi everybody!

This is my first topic on GameEx. I recently bought the lifetime registered version of GameEx and I'm glad to join the community!

I'm trying to setup a nice theme and I really like the Maximum-arcade-theme.

I'm having a few issues setting op this theme and I'd really appreciate it if somebody could help me.

See attached examle-picture of Maximum arcade theme:

1) the gamelist has a blue background. With every game I select the background changes and I'd like to have this blue background as default, regardless of which game I select. For example: when I select Donkey Kong in my gamelist the background changes to a donkey-kong-like background *. I don't know where GameEx pull this image from? (I think from my flyers-folder) I just want the default blue background. How can I achieve this?

2) The marquee in the attached picture is nicely stretched to fit the cab. How can I accomplish this? My marquees don't stretch to fit the cab

* Because my marquee-pictures unfortunately don't stretch to fit the cab and a lot of movies (vertical games) don't fill the cabs screen the donkey-kong-like background (see above) is showing in part of the marquee- and screen-section of the cab. In the attached picture this problem does not occure.

Could anybody help me setting up this theme? I have tried to change settings using the GameEx Setup Wizard but with no succes.

Hope to hear from you!

Best regards from Dennis.

[Draco1962]

Welcome! The issues you mention are two-fold and not likely to be fixed via the Setup Wizard. What you need to do within the emulator screen for the game is select Change View in the Menu bar until the view shows the correct background and list configuration.

Second, once this is done, it will partially fix the marquee showing at the top of the machine in the background. I say partially as not all marquee images follow the same size requirements and will only stretch within GameEx so far. You can modify the height and width of the image2 by loading your theme in Theme Editor and saving the changes. This may help some, but not for all marquee images.

[GimmeClassics]

Welcome! The issues you mention are two-fold and not likely to be fixed via the Setup Wizard. What you need to do within the emulator screen for the game is select Change View in the Menu bar until the view shows the correct background and list configuration.

Second, once this is done, it will partially fix the marquee showing at the top of the machine in the background. I say partially as not all marquee images follow the same size requirements and will only stretch within GameEx so far. You can modify the height and width of the image2 by loading your theme in Theme Editor and saving the changes. This may help some, but not for all marquee images.

Hi Draco,

thank you for your quick reply. The Change View-option in the menu bar of GameEx unfortunately doesn't result in getting a default blue background with this theme.

Is it possible for GameEx to not show a marquee-picture with this theme and to not show a background other than the default blue background?

Hope to hear from you or anyone who has a solution...

Thank you in advance!

[Draco1962]

Not likely. You may need to click on the Change View option quite a few times for it to cycle to the correct background.

[GimmeClassics]

Not likely. You may need to click on the Change View option quite a few times for it to cycle to the correct background.

Hi Draco. I counted 40-times changing the "Change View"-option but with no result.

Just to be clear: the thing I would like to achieve is having the default blue background (see picture at begin of topic) instead of GameEx changing the background every time I choose a different game in the Gamelist. Should be achievable I think. Or is this definitely a no-go for GameEx or the theme-editor of GameEx? Would not be very flexible I think ;(

Hope to hear from the community.

Thank you

[u-man]

Either there is something wrong with your setup or you are not carefully watch the changes with the "Change-View" option. The Background is easily done. You will need to get familiar with the THEME-EDITOR. As it seems, you have not even setup a theme and therefore there is no way for GameEx to know, what background you want.

Other thing is the Marquee-stuff... it is like Draco said, the Marquees have different sizes and GameEx can NOT compensate all the different scales. Another thing is, as we dont have Marquees for all MAME games, you will get in trouble with games that dont have a Marquee... GameEx will showing up the next thing it can find (e.g. Flyer, Title, ControlPanel etc.) regarding the choosen game... sad but true.

The other problem will be the Snap-screens inside the cab. As MAME has horizontal and vertical Games, GameEx will only be able to show one thing correctly, either horizontal or vertical screens, but not both... sad but true.

I recommend to use horizontal screens for the start, as this will cover ALL console Games plus the MAME horizontal Games (approx. 2700).

If you dont like this, i suggest to post your wishes in the feature-request-thread, like many, many others allready did.

Its beyond my scope, why this is so hard to program, but it is like it is .

The good thing is, all the rest, can easily be done with a little practice

[GimmeClassics]

Hi u-man.

Thank you for your reply. I have carefully watched the change view and i have tried a theme. This is the reason i started this topic. But anyway, i will indeed check the theme editor more closely. I hope this wil get any results.

What i would like to know: is there no theme that wil show vertical AND horizontal movies (downloaded from emumovies) correctly?

[Draco1962]

This might be a good time to ask for a copy of your gameex.ini, log.txt, and theme.ini files to avoid further confusion regarding the background images. As for displaying the images correctly, I think you may need to qualify that with a little more information. GameEx does a pretty good job trying to keep the videos proportionate, however, no frontend is going to switch the displays back and forth to perfectly crop from horizontal to vertical. The only way possible would be to, perhaps, have two MAME setups going for example, one with all vertical games (and the foreground masking for that setup to crop as closely as desired) and the same for horizontal.

[u-man]

Regarding the Frontends and the horizontal and vertical screens... this is not true. Maximum Arcade is capable of doing both, horizontal and vertical screens.

This Frontend uses 2 different masks, depending on the kind of game.

The problem is, that GameEx dont use centered image scaling for the image fields . If GameEx would use this, than all images would be treated the same way and you could make a correct screen-display with a simple alpha mask (ok, some border would be cropped, but the illusion would be looking right).

Anyway Draco, i like your approach or workaround for this problem.

@:GimmeClassic: Yeah, you need to understand the Theme-Editor for your approach. Its not enough, just to choose a default theme and expect that this theme, will work with your background.

GameEx will offcourse show the movies from Emu-movies in a correct way, but not in the way you want it. Not inside a screen AND with a Marquee.

[headkaze]

Are you making the theme from scratch or are you using my Maximum Arcade theme?

[Draco1962]

@u-man - not sure you understand what I am saying regarding how it treats the images. If the foreground mask is set to optimize for horizontal, then vertical movies will have the bars on either side. GameEx (nor any other FEs I am aware of for that matter) can switch foreground "masks" based upon the ROM's display orientation. You may be thinking of the Bezel feature where, per the GameEx documentation, "Enable and have GameEx use Bezel artwork for Vertical games on a horizontal display. You can modify the images used by changing mame.png and mask.png in the GameEx\Media\Bezel folder. Registered version feature."

[GimmeClassics]

First of all > Draco, here are my gameexe.ini, log.txt and theme.ini (see attachements) as you requested. Hope this will help.

GameEx.ini

log.txt

Theme.ini

[u-man]

@u-man - not sure you understand what I am saying regarding how it treats the images. If the foreground mask is set to optimize for horizontal, then vertical movies will have the bars on either side. GameEx (nor any other FEs I am aware of for that matter) can switch foreground "masks" based upon the ROM's display orientation.

Draco I absolutely understand what you mean, but the Maximus Arcade Frontend can switch foreground "masks" based upon the ROM's display orientation. How this Frontend achieve this... i dont know.

If you dont believe, you can watch this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-xVc0U2LyY'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-xVc0U2LyY

Also the Marquees always fit perfectly AND if there is no image available, than a standard MAME Marquee is displayed. The same is true for the snapshots. The only way to achieve this in GameEx, is to get rid off of ALL your other media for MAME, like Titles, Flyers, CPs etc.

This is really sad and a main reason, why in every GameEx-Theme you will see a simple, plain display of Snapshots and Titles... which is boring.

As we have allready the option to filter horizontal or vertical games, i think it can not be so hard to switch foreground "masks" based upon the ROM's display orientation. This would be a big relief for every Theme-Creator.

This is really a thing I dont understand, as GameEx is mainly a Frontend and at its best to use it in a real Arcade-Cab. But the focus (e.g. updates) is not there. We get really nice features, no doubt, but GameEx would have much more fans and customers, if the focus would be on a nice, nifty and beautiful interface, as this is what a customer most want and expect from a Frontend.

Here is the culprit, as we get features no one request and the features that are requested especially for theme-creation are only on a "to do" list.

My biggest hope is the announced Theme-Editor Upgrade , as GameEx is superior in all other aspects for a Frontend.

I can only recommend, to have a look at the Theme-Editor of Maximus Arcade. Its simple, nicely organized, have a .swf import (with this alone, you could do unbelievable stuff), usage of more than 2 fonts etc. etc. Its just the stuff, every Theme-Creator would like to see in GameEx .

[Draco1962]

This is not Maximus Arcade Frontend, it is the Maximum Arcade Theme for GameEx that the OP is requesting information regarding!

If he was asking for assistance with Maximus Arcade I probably would not have responded.

[u-man]

Yeah i know, that GimmeClassic asked for the GameEx Maximus Arcade Theme, but you said that no frontend is capable of switching foreground masks and i showed you only, that this is not true.... thats all.

I think some constructive critic is not bad at all and dont hurt anyone . I like GameEx very much, i wouldnt buy a license if it would not be that reason.

You guys rocks it very hard and i thank you all for your effort to make the best MAME frontend.

[DazzleHP]

Hi there, in regards to your background problem please refer to this post.

It may well solve your issue too

[GimmeClassics]

Are you making the theme from scratch or are you using my Maximum Arcade theme?

@headkaze: I'm using your Maximum Arcade Theme (which is amazing btw)

Hi there, in regards to your background problem please refer to this post.

It may well solve your issue too

@dazzleHP:

Thank you for your link. I'm now getting there

My workaround:

backgroundsnap: clean path in game-ex wizard (thanks dazzleHP)

Result > default blue background. It prevents GameEx showing a “game-background” with every game you select and showing that “game-background” in part of the marquee and screen-section (which doesn't look good)!

3d cabinets: clean path in game-ex wizard

Result > prevents GameEx showing a rotating 3d-cabinet in the marqueesection when you select a game. It wil show the marqueepicture instead.

Marquees are not enterily stretched across the marquee section of the cab, but it's good enough. With every Mame-game I select i now get a video in the screen-section (vertical: with black bars on the right and left; not too bad || horizontal: fits nicely on the screen) and the marquee-picture in the marquee-section.

Still trying to accomplish....:

My menu-structure is:

Start screen, consisting of submenu's: arcade / console / pc / handheld

In my 'start-screen' GameEx shows the default blue marquee. I'm trying to make GameEx show a custom marquee. I have not yet accomplished this.

In my 'start-screen' GameEx is also showing a mame-logo in the screensection which doesn't fit nicely. Stil have to fix this...

Startscreen > arcade

In my 'arcade-screen' GameEx is showing a random video in the marqueesection. I'm trying to make GameEx show a custom marquee. I have not yet accomplished this. In my 'arcade-screen' GameEx is also showing a mame-logo in the screensection which doesn't fit nicely. Stil have to fix this...

Startscreen > arcade > mame

In my 'mame-screen' GameEx is showing a random video in the marqueesection. I'm trying to make GameEx show a custom marquee. I have not yet accomplished this. In my 'mame-screen' GameEx is also showing a mame folder-icon in the screensection. I want to change this in an other picture. Still have to fix this.

Startscreen > arcade > mame > mame games

When I scroll the list of games I get - with every game - a default blue blackground, marquee in the marquee-section and a video in the screen-section. This works very well.

Startscreen > arcade > mame > mame games > mame game selected

When I have selected a game and thereby entered the menu with the option "Play this game" i also get the default blue blackground, marquee in the marquee-section and a video in the screen-section.

However, on another computer of mine I get at this point a "game-background" and showing that background in part of the marquee and screen-section (?) So, I was wondering which setting in GameEx triggers the blue default background or the game-background in this particular menu (mame-game selected) ? >>> SOLVED THIS: opened my gameex.ini and almost all of the variables "displaybackgroundimageemu" were stating "false" except one of these. Changed this to false and that was it.

Hope somebody can help me with the things I'm still trying to accomplish / fix

Hope to hear from you

[Draco1962]

First of all > Draco, here are my gameexe.ini, log.txt and theme.ini as you requested. Hope this will help.

If I got it right I have to past it in my reply, so here you go.

Right now I have to go to work, so I will read the other replies later this day.

I'm very glad I receive so much help. Thank you all so far!

EDIT:

I did paste all of the text of my gameeexe.ini / log.txt and theme.ini in this topic, but it took up so much space.

I do not know how to attach the files...: maybe someboy could help me out?

Sorry to get back to you so late. When you post back to attach the files, look to your lower right of the post you are starting and click on "More Reply Options." Your screen will change and you should be in the full editor with Attach Files option to the lower left. Click that and browse to the files needed. You can attach them one at a time or, if you have made copies and moved them to a separate folder elsewhere, send them up by selecting them one at a time holding down your Ctrl key while left-clicking on each file.

[GimmeClassics]

Sorry to get back to you so late. When you post back to attach the files, look to your lower right of the post you are starting and click on "More Reply Options." Your screen will change and you should be in the full editor with Attach Files option to the lower left. Click that and browse to the files needed. You can attach them one at a time or, if you have made copies and moved them to a separate folder elsewhere, send them up by selecting them one at a time holding down your Ctrl key while left-clicking on each file.

Hi Draco, I've attached my gameex.ini, log.txt and theme.ini in post #12.

>>> The things I'm still trying to accomplish / fix are written down in post #17. I hope somebody has an idea how I get the wanted results

Thank you so much for all your help so far

Hope to hear from you...