Custom Emulator Backgrounds not loading Consistently?

[rtkiii]

Ok So I followed advice from another thread and set "Custom background" to certain image files. They are working..sort of. They seem to load the first time but if you go into a game menu for that particular emulator(say SNES) it shows my custom background...but then if I back out to my custom menu and go back to say "NES" it loads a default emubak...disregarding my custom background all together.

I thought maybe my emuback and emuselectbak were getting in the way so I renamed them to .old so GameEx would not see them. But all that does is remove all backgrounds for emulators all together. I triple checked my settings in the emulators advanced options to verify I have those emulators are to go to the correct BG I created but alas...nothing. If I reboot the PC then they come back...but again only for a short time...what the heck am I doing wrong?

thanks rich

[Draco1962]

Are you running custom menus? If so, you might want to post your custommenu.ini file so we can take a look at it as well. Depending on your structure, it may be loading the emubak file correctly.

[DazzleHP]

Are you running custom menus? If so, you might want to post your custommenu.ini file so we can take a look at it as well. Depending on your structure, it may be loading the emubak file correctly.

Absolutely, also i wouldn't discount the advice i gave you on a previous thread regarding cache files

[rtkiii]

here are the two that come up...2nd one is under users in the gameex folder

CustomMenu.ini

CustomMenu.ini

[rtkiii]

I searched for the cache files for GameEx and the only ones that came up had to do with other Themes. I also renamed both the files above(one at a time) to .old and the custom menu changes but the issue remains where some of the custom BGs load(genesis and turbographix 16 mostly) and others don't(nes/SNES mostly) - but again sometimes NES loads for one load then I go back to main emulator menu and then back into nes and it is gone. bizarre. Maybe I'm missing another setting in the advanced emulator setup?

[rtkiii]

I tested these again on my Win 7 PC at work and I do not have the issue with the BGs disappearing. I can go in out of my emulators just fine over and over again...I do not have custom menus on this PC but with testing I did at home I'm not seeing that to be the issue. So again another setting on my home Cabinet. Blah...what a bother.

One thing I noticed while doing some minor testing Friday is when the BGs load correctly they popup in the menu super fast. But when they don't and it defaults to the "emubak" file it pauses and the "loading" screen pops-up and then after about 3 seconds the "emubak" BG appears.

[DazzleHP]

Hmmm this is curious, one thing that's ringing bells for me is that you mentioned a "users" folder in your GameEx directory? I do not have such a folder which makes me wonder if you have GameEx installed for more than one user. This could certainly be a viable reason for inconsistencies between your machines. Things might also get messy if say for instance you alter a background for one user but not the other, then alter a different background for the second user and not the 1st etc. Unfortunately my experience with multiple user accounts, or how GE works with such a setup is zero I only ever have one user on my machines, i am after all, the only one allowed to tinker with it in any shape or form

[Draco1962]

I would recommend disabling the Users plugin until you get it sorted if you are using it at all.

[rtkiii]

To my knowledge I only have the one user on the PC itself. I'll remove that folder.

I'll check around for the User Plugin as well in GameEx Setup wiazrd

[Draco1962]

You shouldn't have to remove any user profiles on the PC itself. Just check to see if you have the user plugin enabled.

[rtkiii]

You shouldn't have to remove any user profiles on the PC itself. Just check to see if you have the user plugin enabled.

I wasn't going to remove the windows Profile just the "users" folder in my GameEx folders.

[Draco1962]

OK, gotcha.

[rtkiii]

While just messing around with mame BG and FG I did find once you create a new emulator in GameEx it actually adds a BG andFG under emuBG and emuFG in theme editor. I found if I put a FG and BG image in those it over writes the "Use Custom BG" option in GameEx. Good Possibility something is mucked up there on my XP PC. I will check that out as well. I'll post my results sometime this week.

[rtkiii]

It's been awhile but I finally got some time to try this out and alas...no dice! STILL HAVING ISSUES!!!!

What I know is happening for sure now is when the damn thing chooses not to load my custom backdrops(which I have now set in the theme editor itself) it is loading the emubak file. I thought maybe if I removed this file from the theme folder the application would have no choice but load the files I have set for each emulator in the theme editor...but no. It choose to just load the emubak page with no image.

I am seriously stumped. I have tried enabling the image in the setup wizard for custom backdrop, same issue. I tried removing those same custom backdrops and hard coding them in the theme editor...same result. INCONSISTENT LOADING OF MY IMAGES.

Again I think my theme is fine because I do not have this issue on my Win7 PC that I built the theme on but holy crap I cannot get this to work on my WinXP PC I use for my primary cabinet/ I'm seriously stumped.

[rtkiii]

I also just noticed that my other Mame Versions I have (129 and 147) have the same issue. They are setup as Emulators and not under the main Mame Config section.

The main Mame portion works 100%...there has to be something I am missing with Emulators....BLAST!

[Riffman81]

I've been having this issue as well, I believe I've posted several threads on this with no real results getting a proper fix. You mention that all is well on your Windows 7 machine? I have this problem on both XP and 7...

[rtkiii]

I've been having this issue as well, I believe I've posted several threads on this with no real results getting a proper fix. You mention that all is well on your Windows 7 machine? I have this problem on both XP and 7...

Yeah Win7 works fine but any of my themes on XP are having various issues. Might be time for a re-install of GameEx,..if I KNEW for sure that would fix it, just because of all the configurations I'll need to redo.

Maybe I'll wait for the "Evolution" but I don;t like I can't figure this out.

[DazzleHP]

Hey man,

One thing about your issue is bouncing around my head - that you built your theme in W7, and you get trouble when moving to your XP machine. I don't know if there is any substance to this (i only recently upgraded from XP to W7 myself) but maybe there are some permissions being set on your W7 machine that are causing problems on your XP machine?

The reason i'm thinking that is because i had some trouble awhile back, when helping Adultery test his HiScore plugin. For some reason, my XP PC absolutely refused to alter a key file that he created on his W7 machine. This lead me to believe that there were permissions on this file that XP didn't understand (after all, they have gotten more complex between OS's). Adultery ultimately changed his plugin to solve the issue but i wonder if something similar is happening here with your images?

[rtkiii]

I guess that could be a possibility, Dazzle but I appear to have the same issue with other Themes if I remember correctly. To me it seems like there is an .ini file or something that is out of whack...but that is just a random guess. I hoping someone can give me some info on a file I need to go look at. I did look at the Custom Menu file suggested early on but that did not help as the issues continues without custom menus in place.

It's is werd though from time to time it works...better to where I think "It FIXED!" but then I go to a different emulator and BOOM! Broken I mix could be to make a cool looking emubak file to where when it does not work correctly at least it displays a rockin BG...but again that is just a work around.

[Riffman81]

The thing I notice with this paticular issue is that if I choose a system, say NES and the custom BG image fails to load on intially entering the game list, if i go ahead and select a game to play, and then exit the emulator, the Custom BG will then be present... There are rare instances where GE will crash and report a DirectX error. I've tried reinstalling/updating the DirectX runtimes both through Windows Update and manually, this does not correct the issue. I've also installed and ensured all my video card drivers are current and up to date... still no luck. I'm at a loss with this but hopefully we can figure something out as to why this happens. It only happens with a select few of themes for me. The default themes seem to work fine. I'm working on a revamp of the default theme currently, with custom BG's and such, nothing major, just something simple for my cab. I will see if I have the same issues once I have it up and running.

[rtkiii]

I had never actually tested launching a game from the emulator. I would just see my BG was not there and I would back out to the previous screen. I'm curious if it does the same for me.

[Riffman81]

I had never actually tested launching a game from the emulator. I would just see my BG was not there and I would back out to the previous screen. I'm curious if it does the same for me.

Yes, I'd be interested in seeing if you get the same result.

[rtkiii]

That is deffinately what is happening. If it loads the emubak instead of the custom BG like it should and then I go into a game in that emulator, then back out the correct BG is there. Until I back out of that menu and go back in. then it loads the emubak again. Weird. Looks like we have the same exact issue

[Adultery]

Yeah that's too be expected, if there's a problem loading the custom bak for whatever reason, it defaults to the emubak. This happens sometimes to me as I mentioned before.

[rtkiii]

One thing new I noticed today was that I found a "enable custom layouts for emulators" or something of that nature in the Theme editor options. I thought I'd enable that thinking that would fix the issue...but apparently that is to allow you to have a different layout of image1, image2, description, scroller, etc. So it jacked up my emulator pages.

After I removed that check mark to disable that change the layout remains all jacked up but all other pages use the layout I created as the default for the theme.. Even though it looks perfectly fine in the theme editor.

Something must not be carrying over from the theme editor to GameEx ...to me this has to be related to the funky emulator BG issue as well. Is there an.ini file that I can edit or look at that pushes the changes I make in Theme Editor to GameEx?