GameEx Theme Layout like this

[kingb33]

I REALLY would love to build a GameEx theme or even better download a theme that is pretty much exactly like this.

with the:

Marquee on top

Video in middle

Control Panel on bottom

so it looks like the actual arcade cab

anyone know the best or easiest way to do this? or know of an existing gameex theme like this?

ive tried using the gameex theme editor but I am having lots of problems with it.

Thanks!

[bkenobi]

As things are now, I don't think you can have more than 2 pieces of media displayed at once (one is typically, but possibly not required to be a video). I do have one thought on a work around though. It might be possible to build a composite image of the control panel and the marquee and display that behind the video. To do this, I would think Tempest would be the best one to help since he's built a tool that does just this (Marquee Magician). Before you start anything, I suggest you find out if it's possible to have an image displayed behind a video in a GameEx theme. The easiest way to check would be to load up a v4 theme in the Theme Editor. Then, simply shift things so the media overlaps. If it looks ok, you should be good to go!

[Tempest]

With the Marquee Magician, you could have the secondary monitor look like that easily (I've never tried rotating my monitor, but if it's done with the hardware, I would think it would work) I haven't incorporated it working in the game list yet, but the way I have written it, it is a matter of just adding to it, not re-writing the whole thing. I planning on supporting Lists, but ATM, I'm a little tired of it, and am working on other things. I would be encouraged if more people had an interest...

Also, I do think it is " possible to build a composite image of the control panel and the marquee", and when I say possible, I mean an automated way of doing it.

[bkenobi]

Right, I only consider it a workable solution if it were automated. I was envisioning a script that ran through your MAME roms and for each one took the marquee and control panel (probably a snap too incase there's no video), added them to a black background of a certain size, then saved the composite image to a new directory. Then, you simply point GameEx to that directory. I'm not sure how well it would work though since I think GameEx is set up to rotate through your extra content in the second image for V4 themes. That would mean that the image might look right once in a while, but not the rest of the time. Also, you would lose one of your media types when you go to the game info screen. You could certainly turn off the other types of media, but I don't think that would be an improvement.

Anyway, I just tossed you under the bus since your program can build composite images like this. I wasn't necessarily saying you should build the script since I don't know if this is feasible or even something anyone would use. Building software is educational, but if noone want's the app, then that's all it is...