[PLUGIN] Game Tagger

[Draco1962]

I had selected a jpg which does not preserve transparency. Converted the avatar to .png and all is now golden!

[DazzleHP]

nice tag loving how it looks embedded into the forum it all gels well and dat font!...

[stigzler]

The card looks great, Draco.

Who's next?

[Adultery]

I just wanted to say thanks again guys for all your help. This is coming along nicely. I couldn't make everything work without all your help in the testing. Kudos!

[GimmeClassics]

I've also created an account at DracLabs. I can't wait to create a nice looking game tagger

I don't have much spare time so I need a couple of days to come up with something.

Great work with the game taggers so far !!

[stigzler]

Heh. Followi9jng on from a theme (great idea, Daz) Made this 'widescreen tag):

Don't think I'll stick with it though - small monitors chop it up! Really proof of concept - and the overlay function works brill, Adultery (glass letters over the game info)

I Wonder what's next?

[Adultery]

I like the amount of thought you guys put into these. Makes it all worthwhile.

My tag uses like 5 layers, and I can swap stuff out for quick changes. It was indeed a great idea! Thanks Dazz!

[stigzler]

So... I think the template may be a little out. I had to make some adjustments + produced an amended template if useful to anyone. Attached.

Set my mind whirring..

Adultery, I don't know if this is possible. Is there any way to make the overlay graphics dynamic? An example would be this in the xml:

<bgl4img>Avengers\[system].png</bgl4img>

then your plugin would insert the name of the system passed by GE, which would produce something like:

<bgl4img>Avengers\playstation2.png</bgl4img>

You get where I'm going with this, right?

tag_template.xcf

[Adultery]

I get it yeah, but no that isn't possible at this time.

Maybe in the future though...

not that it's terribly difficult, mind you. Just that I won't get to that for a while.

[stigzler]

No worries - just an idea. Thanks for all your hard work on this plugin! It's fab.

[Adultery]

I like the idea, I just have to come to a place where I need to finish the stuff thats started before I add more.

But then again, it's not that hard to add that functionality, so you might see that if I have to update the back-end again. Probably one small function, and I can add system, game, and maybe manufacturer variables.

So yeah, you'll probably get it. The question is when.

[stigzler]

Oooo - developer/manufacturer logos too! I'd be interested to know what variables you can get from GE...

Here's what I'm picturing (with the text over the console, of course)...

[Adultery]

Well basically, I can pass emulator name, developer, game name, rom name, category, and year.

I will probably utilize all of these variables if I decide to add it in, and it will just ignore the layer if that image isn't found since there are more than enough layers to play with already.

[Adultery]

It was just too good an idea to not go ahead and do it... So thanks for the tip stigzler! Hopefully you'll get what you're after... I spent the last few hours making new system layers for my tag. It looks nice I must admit!

UPDATED TO 1.0.5:

• Added wildcard support for all layers
• Use the following variables for dynamic files:
  • [emulator] -> passes the emulator name as the image file name
  • [game] -> passes the database game name as the image file name
  • [rom] -> passes the rom file name as the image file name
  • [developer] -> passes the developer name as the image file name
  • [category] -> passes the game category as the image file name
  • [year] -> passes the release year as the image file name
• If an item specific file is not found, the data will be subbed out for a default value for that category (using png as an example):
  • [emulator] -> emulator.png
  • [game] -> game.png
  • [rom] -> rom.png
  • [developer] -> developer.png
  • [category] -> category.png
  • [year] -> year.png
• NOTE: If an image is not found, the layer will not be loaded!
• Added Member Titles to the plugin (mostly for internal use, also a framework for a possible future enhancement)
• NOTE: These can only be set by an administrator on the DracLabs Tagger site!
• Image positioning, for the last time (I promise!)
  I really did this more for an exact layout where everything aligns perfectly. The locations of the images are like so:
  • ​TEXT LINE 1: X=178px; Y=15px; W=437px; H=25px
  • TEXT LINE 2: X=178px; Y=40px; W=437px; H=25px
  • TEXT LINE 3: X=178px; Y=65px; W=437px; H=25px
  • TEXT LINE 4: X=178px; Y=90px; W=437px; H=25px
  • TEXT LINE 5
    : X=178px; Y=115px; W=345px; H=25px
  • TEXT LINE 5
  • GAME SNAP: X=8px; Y=8px; W=160px; H=134px
  • GAME SNAP [vertical]: X=36px; Y=8px; W=100px; H=134px
  • AVATAR: X=2px; Y=80px; W=68px; H=68px
    
  • LAYERS: X=0px; Y=0px; W=625px; H=150px
  • Started framework for uploading user history to the site (This isn't ready yet, but be on watch for it!)
  • Code tuning to make upload times much faster and smoother
  • More logging for fixing those pesky bugs!!

  You can download it from the usual place, of course.
  
  I have also completed the database and the code for uploading themes to the site, and added a theme for an example of how it will look. The game tag templates are also available there for those that need them (although they will need to be updated now that everything is precisely where it needs to be). Soon you will see the controls to upload themes in your User CP page. So all you creative nuts, this is a call to feel free to get rocking on some content. The time will come soon where these will come in handy, and I would really appreciate the contributions. I will probably handle all the compression and packaging server side, you will just need to upload a few files from your machine, type some descriptions, and let the code handle the rest.

  Obviously I understand some of your tags are for personaluse (I probably won't release my Zelda tag anytime soon), and I can respect that. But if some of you would be willing to bang out some tag designs to share, I would greatly appreciate that.

  I mentioned it up there, but I also added a new Member Title feature to the game tags. This is reserved for admins right now, but I may roll it out for everyone after some testing. I'm really using this more to give shouts to some users that stand out and staff members at GameEx. You can view your member title in your information panel in the User CP.

  I have also completed the database table for your personal history, which I will soon be rolling out. I am also about 1/2 way through the personal messaging system... More about those features later.

  I think that about covers it. Thanks for your continued support! If you have any more ideas, I'd like to hear them, so far you guys have been a wealth of awesome ideas for making the tag pretty much the most flexible, best looking system on the interwebz.

[stigzler]

Ahhhhh!!! Perfect! Cheers Adultery! Yer a star. How do you make the best, better?!! This is fantastic.

Is it possible to have a "System" wildcard too? I see it gets put on your card, so guess you can get it from GE?

So, left with a task of pulling together a bank of pngs for systems, emulators, developers and catagories. This feels like a bit of a mammoth task and wonder if it's a job for the wonderful GE community? I wonder whether someone would help pitch in?

My idea would be this. Have a centrally stored area for these pics - on the GE FTP server - then everyone can access, add and edit. I'm not sure if there's any copyright issues to this + how Tom would feel about it. If too much of a prob, could knock something together on google docs or dropbox.

Proposed file structure something like this:

>System

>Large pics (full size versions)

>Size 1 (dunno - like 200px width or something?)

>Size 2 (etc etc)

> User submitted variations

>Stigzler

>Adultery

>Developer

etc etc

Guess would have to pull together list of all possible systems, developers and emulators too. Should be easy to do from the DATA folder in GE

I also guess this may be useful for other things too.

Anywhooos - cheers Adultery - yer a star as ever, and all my real-world plans to be productive today have just gone out the window!! Bring out the GIMP

[Adultery]

I figured I'd make a set for the theme I'm using... So here's an example of one:

Pretty basic, but suits my needs.

I'm probably not gonna distribute them though... Gotta have a little something you can't find anywhere else. LOL!

And yeah, the GameEx logo is my system.png layer, it's the default for situations where no logo is found (mostly menus and whatnot). I thought about adding colsole icons too, but it was just a bit too busy, so I went this route.

[stigzler]

Ah, OK. So just trying to get my head around it... is there anyway to have a dynamic graphic based on the "System:" text of the card? For e.g. "System: Atari 7800" and having an overlay display a pic of the 7800 console as in example above?

That Genesis image is sharp, btw

[Adultery]

I'm not sure what you mean...

Make a layer with the same name as your emulator's title page (ie sega genesis.png) Point the xml at a directory in your theme folder with that image in it, like say: systems/[emulator].png

Every time you run a game from the Sega Genesis list, the plugin will sub that wildcard out and look for 'systems/Sega Genesis.png'

If it doesn't find that, it will look for 'systems/emulator.png'

If it didn't find that either, it won't load the layer.

The only thing to remember is you need to name the layer the same as the emulator if you want it to find that layer. Make sense?

[Adultery]

Oh and two things to remember: The case doesn't matter, ie Sega Genesis.png and sega genesis.png are the same.

The plugin also strips illegal characters, so if your emulator shows up in the list as Sega: Genesis, since the colon isn't a valid filename char, it will search for Sega Genesis instead, dropping the colon.

It's simple really...

In your case, you would:

Make a file called Atari 5200.png

Add the wildcard to the xml -> <bgl4img>[emulator].png</bgl4img>

When you run Atari 5200, it loads that layer.

Here's my XML:

<tagger>

<theme name="Zelda: A Link To The Past" author="Adultery">

<desc>A GamerTag skin tribute to Zelda 3 for SNES!</desc>

</theme>

<images>

<bg>zelda3\tag-bg.png</bg>

<bgl2img>zelda3\bg-textbox.png</bgl2img>

<bgl3img>zelda3\bg-triforce.png</bgl3img>

<bgl4img>zelda3\systems\[emulator].png</bgl4img>

<l2img>zelda3\border.png</l2img>

<l3img>zelda3\fairy.png</l3img>

<midl2img>zelda3\zelda.png</midl2img>

<noimg>zelda3\no-img.png</noimg>

<avatar>zelda3\avatar.png</avatar>

</images>

<font>

<outline>437C17</outline>

<outline_argb>128,67,124,23</outline_argb>

<fill>FFFFFF</fill>

<fill_argb>255,255,255,255</fill_argb>

<path>zelda3\zelda3.ttf</path>

</font>

</tagger>

My system images for each emulator are in GameEx->Plugins->GameTagger->Themes->zelda3->systems

It loads the system's layer when I play a game on it.

[stigzler]

Ah! Derp! Thanks

I was thinking the Emulator variable matched the actual emulator you were using - e.g. Project64 or PCSX2!!

But it matches the system name!?

To make sure name my layers correctly, precisely which field does the [emulator] variable match? Is it the first or second column in my emulator setup:

(btw - on an aside - this has produced a new problem - how come some of my emus don't have anything in the "System" column? - Can't find anywhere in the emulator setup menus to set this!)

Sorry to keep pestering, but enthusiastic for your plugin and want to use it to its full potential!

[Adultery]

When you browse the emulator list in GameEx to play a game, whatever is displayed in that list where you select the emulator from the list of all the emulators is the name of the system.

I think it's the Start Page Name in the emulator's setup menu. I don't know which one it is there in that list, but I'm guessing it's the NAME column.

PS: I don't mind, teach a man to fish and whatnot.

[Adultery]

Oh and a PS: You can see exactly what the plugin is searching for if you add the wildcard and check the plugin log after running an emulator, which is located in GameEx->Plugins->GameTagger->GameTagger.log

Here's a snippet of mine:

6/1/2014 4:21:12 AM : Checking for theme...

6/1/2014 4:21:12 AM : VAR CHECK: Found emulator wildcard!

6/1/2014 4:21:12 AM : EMU PATH OUT: c:\gameex\plugins\gametagger\themes\zelda3\systems\mame.png

6/1/2014 4:21:12 AM : Loading theme...

[stigzler]

Cheers - that'll be helpful.

heh @ "teach a man to fish".... and he'll stop bothering you for bloody fish.

Is the right version linked in the OP? Saying 1.0.5 on there, but unless I'm doing something wrong, the one Io download and instal is 1.0.4? Probably my mistake.

[Adultery]

My bad, I forgot to change the version number. Snag it again.

[stigzler]

Nope still Version 1.0.4 from the OP. Just wondering whether the version number on the zip filename or a small readme in the plugin folder itself with the version number could be helpful?

Versioning = nightmare!

Update: just tried via Plugin Downloader too - lists 1.0.5 as the version, but still at 1.0.4 following install.