Attract-Mode Support Forum

Attract-Mode Support => Themes => Topic started by: zpaolo11x on January 15, 2018, 12:10:01 PM

Title: Arcadeflow theme v 17.1 [Release] Updated 22 March 2024
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 15, 2018, 12:10:01 PM
Arcadeflow is an horizontal scrolling, grid based theme for MAME, console and comptuer games, it supports multiple systems and is based on snapshots and game titles or on cartridge boxes / flyers.

Arcadeflow theme latest update

(https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow) (https://img.shields.io/github/release-date/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow)

You can download the latest version from within Arcadeflow, and you can also install it automatically if you have set so in Arcadeflow options!


Enjoy the new features and, as usual, if something goes wrong, please let me know ;)

There's a What's new file inside the archive, but I won't paste here the whole readme anymore so this post is going to be simpler.


AM notes:
From revision 16.2 Arcadeflow requires AM+ 3.0.6
From revision 12.0 Arcadeflow requires AM+
From revision 10.9 Arcadeflow requires AM daily build or AM+
From revision 10.0 Arcadeflow requires AM 2.6.1.
From revision 3.6 Arcadeflow requires AM 2.5.
From revision 5.9 Arcadeflow is compatible with AM 2.6.1

v7.8 on youtube, at last!
https://youtu.be/fevEcEoK--Q (https://youtu.be/fevEcEoK--Q) https://youtu.be/fevEcEoK--Q

You can see all layout options in readme.md
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: calle81 on January 15, 2018, 12:23:55 PM
Nice! GJ :)
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 15, 2018, 11:08:41 PM
Nice! GJ :)

Thank you, sorry for the giant screenshot, is there a better way to post screenshots? Because I have another theme with more screenshots and I don't want to do a mess :)
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: calle81 on January 16, 2018, 07:13:28 AM
I use www.postimg.org :)
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 17, 2018, 01:37:16 PM
Because my theme was starting to look a bit too much like Ambiance HD (and I swear I didn't see Ambiance HD before starting to work on mine :D) I've redone the graphics so that screenshots are in the correct aspect ratio :) I like the new soft shadows
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: verion on January 18, 2018, 11:52:40 AM
nooooo! :D

Roll back to the first version with square cropped screenshots - it was really good.
More elegant than the last one - in my opinion.

And don't worry about the similarities to any other theme. I'm sure this won't bother anyone.

---

ps: simplest way to post screenshot is to scale it down to 800px width
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: verion on January 18, 2018, 01:26:02 PM
I'm sure you've wanted it to look really minimal, but maybe adding some light semi-translucent background under the text could spice it up a little.
I've also added a little shadow under that title bar.
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: ryuuji on January 22, 2018, 03:04:22 AM
I'm sure you've wanted it to look really minimal, but maybe adding some light semi-translucent background under the text could spice it up a little.
I've also added a little shadow under that title bar.

yeah listes to the jedi master above ^
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 22, 2018, 10:29:48 PM
I'm sure you've wanted it to look really minimal, but maybe adding some light semi-translucent background under the text could spice it up a little.

Thank you for the comment, actually the kind of look you show in your mockup is exactly the first version of the theme I was working on, with lighter top band and drop shadow :D This is to say that, despite the fact that I like it, it's not fit with the kind of look I'm seeking right now: having a plain background gives more breath to the thumbnails IMO

I still have not decided if I like cropped or uncropped thumbs, uncropped has the advantage of immediately telling which games are vertical or horizontal... maybe I'll add it as an option :)

I'm also struggling with the Mac version of AM which sometimes behaves a bit different from the windows version, maybe it's also related to the hardware (the Windows machine is a 12 core Xeon with Quadro graphics card and PCIe4x SSD LOL, everything seems fast on that)
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: verion on January 24, 2018, 09:45:27 AM
Sure - that's your design.

As for the mac - from my experience mac version (especially when using surfaces) takes a greater toll on CPU - compared to win version. On my Macbook Air (1.3Ghz 2 cores) simple theme with just one surface hovers around 60% CPU - and the same theme without surface is around 20-30%.
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: Tapper on January 24, 2018, 06:37:03 PM
Looks pretty cool! Will try it out when released!
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: jedione on January 24, 2018, 06:46:34 PM

Personaly i hate it,,,  Dont work for me.  just kidding ::)   

would love to try!   waiting thanks

Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 25, 2018, 10:28:47 PM
As for the mac - from my experience mac version (especially when using surfaces) takes a greater toll on CPU

You are absolutely right, the latest version from mameonmodernmacs is a lot better than the official one though. In the past I noticed many times that using and updating multiple layered pictures as single entities instead of "packaging" them in a surface (like in my theme with the snaps and logos) was better (on the Mac).

Right now this doesn't seem to be an issue anymore, but for example "set_pos" to reposition and scale images takes a large toll and I'm trying to reduce it as much as I can
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 25, 2018, 10:38:21 PM
I've updated the theme with video snaps and other tweaks, right now it requires some preparation of snapshots (to avoid resizing pictures on the fly on my Mac) and the generating of fake blurred snapshots (dirty tricks, I know, but the crossfade effect is neat :D) but otherwise it's almost ready for release...

Preview video here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nse_PPJXXvbx-dsJWXCLcTtbTt1ZLp8y/view?usp=sharing

as usual a bit of stuttering is due to the capture software...
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: jedione on January 27, 2018, 06:33:31 PM
any new's   
 looks good.
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: tekn0 on January 29, 2018, 08:58:15 AM
This looks great, is it working on the Pi3?
 I would love to test it.
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: tekn0 on January 29, 2018, 08:59:26 AM
I'm sure you've wanted it to look really minimal, but maybe adding some light semi-translucent background under the text could spice it up a little.
I've also added a little shadow under that title bar.

This looks great. I much prefer the logos contained inside of the preview image.
Title: Re: My first theme! Smooth grid :) [Preview]
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 29, 2018, 10:22:22 PM
This looks great. I much prefer the logos contained inside of the preview image.

I'm ironing out some quirks and cleaning up the code before release, I have no idea of the performance on a Pi3 but it should work (I hope). The logos inside the snaps... I have to try it, since the snaps are all different orientations that would mean smaller logos, but I'll check if it looks better :)
Title: Re: My first theme! Arcadeflow v 1.0 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 01, 2018, 10:15:28 PM
The first release is online, go back to the first post of this message and try it :)
Title: Re: My first theme! Arcadeflow v 1.0 [Release]
Post by: jedione on February 02, 2018, 07:18:57 AM
wow,  i am impressed i think you have some talent here
i love this theme....thanks boss 8)
Title: Re: My first theme! Arcadeflow v 1.0 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 02, 2018, 11:07:14 AM
wow,  i am impressed i think you have some talent here
i love this theme....thanks boss 8)

Thank you so much! I just found an easier way to process the blurred backgrounds:

crop to 480x480
scale to 32x32
apply gaussian blur 9x9 pixels

this gives a result that's almost identical to the previous method, but the file size is way smaller (like 500 bytes instead of 15 KB).
Title: Re: My first theme! Arcadeflow v 1.0 [Release]
Post by: jedione on February 03, 2018, 09:45:35 AM
wow,  i am impressed i think you have some talent here
i love this theme....thanks boss 8)

Thank you so much! I just found an easier way to process the blurred backgrounds:

crop to 480x480
scale to 32x32
apply gaussian blur 9x9 pixels

this gives a result that's almost identical to the previous method, but the file size is way smaller (like 500 bytes instead of 15 KB).



this will be helpful for the pi i think....will try this theme on pi3 this weekend  and give you an update..thanks
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.1 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 11, 2018, 07:43:30 AM
Revision 1.1 is out with some tweaks and a couple of visual changes!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.1 [Release]
Post by: FrizzleFried on February 11, 2018, 12:59:50 PM
I wonder what I could be doing wrong.  I unzip to my LAYOUTS folder... when I select Arcadeflow Theme it simply shows a tanish background... a could of white highlighted boxes... and that is it.  No videos.  No snaps.  No marquees.  Etc.

Under Layout options there is nothing to change to vertical mode or any such thing.

Am I supposed to configure folder locations, etc or something somewhere?

Thanks!

EDIT: I just tried this in 3.811 by just dropping it in the LAYOUTS-ATTRACT folder on the BOOT drive (I'm using an ARpiCADE BTW)...

...nope.  It just crashes... essentially doing nothing but making the layout that was active prior "stick" ...

I am not sure if it's just incompatible with the Pi3?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.1 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 11, 2018, 02:04:03 PM
I wonder what I could be doing wrong.  I unzip to my LAYOUTS folder... when I select Arcadeflow Theme it simply shows a tanish background... a could of white highlighted boxes... and that is it.  No videos.  No snaps.  No marquees.  Etc.

Wow that is not good, not good at all. I'm not sure if the theme is compatible with the Pi, I can't check it, but have you followed the instruction for the creation of the "blur" art category, to obtain the blurred backgrounds? Maybe I can add it as an option so if you don't want/can't generate blurred backgrounds you can still use the theme with a simple background...

There is no option for vertical display because the theme should adapt automatically, at what resolution are you running it? Did you have the chance to try v 1.0 or only 1.1?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.1 [Release]
Post by: FrizzleFried on February 11, 2018, 02:47:33 PM
I wonder what I could be doing wrong.  I unzip to my LAYOUTS folder... when I select Arcadeflow Theme it simply shows a tanish background... a could of white highlighted boxes... and that is it.  No videos.  No snaps.  No marquees.  Etc.

Wow that is not good, not good at all. I'm not sure if the theme is compatible with the Pi, I can't check it, but have you followed the instruction for the creation of the "blur" art category, to obtain the blurred backgrounds? Maybe I can add it as an option so if you don't want/can't generate blurred backgrounds you can still use the theme with a simple background...

There is no option for vertical display because the theme should adapt automatically, at what resolution are you running it? Did you have the chance to try v 1.0 or only 1.1?

I only got to run 1.1... not 1.0.  I did NOT generate the backgrounds... I "assumed" it would simply run with a blank background (to test the theme of course).

I am running on an arcade monitor so the resolution is lower... 320x240, etc... the theme I've been using adapts to a few different low resolutions depending on the resolution of the game that was last played (I do believe). 

It just may not run on the Pi3...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.1 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 11, 2018, 11:41:23 PM
I only got to run 1.1... not 1.0.  I did NOT generate the backgrounds... I "assumed" it would simply run with a blank background (to test the theme of course).

That's what should happen, if the "blur" category is not defined it should work with a plain gray background. One thing to note is that inside the zip file there's a Arcadeflow_11 folder, that's the one you have to put in the layouts folder. If you unzip the archive you'll probably end up with a Arcadeflow_11 folder INSIDE another Arcadeflow_11 folder, which would not work. Sorry that was my mistake in building the zip archive.

I also tested it with a 320x200 window resolution and it works, so maybe the issue is with the Pi itself.

P.S. thanks to this low resolution test I found a small issue with thumbs zooming: since the zooming item is a surface, the image content is at the resolution of the small tiles, so it gets pixellated when zooming to larger. I'll tweak the theme with a prescaler so that the image looks crisp when zoomed, and scaled back to the smaller size. That will look much better for low res screens.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.1 [Release]
Post by: FrizzleFried on February 12, 2018, 07:25:08 AM
Yea,  at first I had the extra folder inside the folder...

...upon fixing that,  I can see some layout options (from my recollection from last night... I was testing a lot of layouts)... but yeah,  it locked up.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.1 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 12, 2018, 09:55:53 AM
Yea,  at first I had the extra folder inside the folder...

...upon fixing that,  I can see some layout options (from my recollection from last night... I was testing a lot of layouts)... but yeah,  it locked up.

I think this is caused by the Pi, maybe someone else can do a cross check...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.2 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 19, 2018, 12:17:55 AM
Updated to v 1.2! Download file in the first post...

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.3 [Release]
Post by: Deflektor on March 25, 2018, 03:01:20 PM
I'm seeing the same problem on my Pi3 also. Lots of white boxes everywhere, no art displayed, everything super laggy. Even text just appears as white blocks. I think that happens when a layout is too intensive for the Pi (maybe out of video memory?). I didn't generate any blurred images. Even when the menu only has ~12 things to display, it does this.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.3 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 26, 2018, 03:05:11 AM
I'm seeing the same problem on my Pi3 also. Lots of white boxes everywhere, no art displayed, everything super laggy. Even text just appears as white blocks. I think that happens when a layout is too intensive for the Pi (maybe out of video memory?). I didn't generate any blurred images. Even when the menu only has ~12 things to display, it does this.

It looks like my theme is not suitable for Pi3 then, that's not good but sadly I have no way to check it since I don't have a Raspberry Pi to play with. If someone can check the theme on a PC or Mac that would clarify if it's a general issue or a Pi related issue. I tried to keep the theme not so heavy but being a two rows grid requires loading and caching of more artwork.

As a side note, does the "Silky" theme work on your setup?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.3 [Release]
Post by: FrizzleFried on March 26, 2018, 08:45:57 AM
The missing artwork may indicate an issue with the naming of files...  the names have to be identical ("File" does not equal "file" or "FILE" ... they are all different names in the eyes of linux).

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.3 [Release]
Post by: Deflektor on March 26, 2018, 11:57:42 AM
As a side note, does the "Silky" theme work on your setup?

Yes, Silky works for me on the Pi. I just tested Arcadeflow on my PC and it works fine there (with the roms/art folders copied from my Pi).
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.3 [Release]
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 26, 2018, 10:10:37 PM
Yes, Silky works for me on the Pi. I just tested Arcadeflow on my PC and it works fine there (with the roms/art folders copied from my Pi).

It's a relief to see that AF works on your PC, it's a quite complex theme and although I tried to debug it I might have missed something (I'm not a programmer after all :D) ... I asked about Silky because both themes are based on the same carrier, but AF has a heavy layered surface structure and a wide grid (for two rows scrolling) that might be unfit for the Pi.

I'll check if naming and caps are ok, but developing on a Mac it should be quite like Linux... If I'll get my hands on a Pi (and I'll have some spare time) I'll try it there and see if something can be done.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 22, 2018, 10:46:33 AM
Updated Arcadeflow to version 1.4, see the first post for what's new!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: verion on April 23, 2018, 02:46:23 AM
Is there an option for original layout - the one with square snaps and smaller wheel logo?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 23, 2018, 06:29:51 AM
Is there an option for original layout - the one with square snaps and smaller wheel logo?

Not right now... Maybe I'll have it in the future, I know some like it that way. It shouldn't be much difficult on paper, but it will require a lot of code tweaking because the theme is now built around the idea of horizontal and vertical thumbs.

I'll see what can be done :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: tekn0 on May 06, 2018, 10:55:14 PM
Any updates on raspberry pi3 support? This looks really cool!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 07, 2018, 01:23:36 AM
Any updates on raspberry pi3 support? This looks really cool!

Since I don't own a pi3 it's quite difficult to code for it :/ I'm thinking of producing a version that doesn't use surfaces, provided that my guess that surfaces are messing with the pi3 is a good guess :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 24, 2018, 11:54:51 PM
I'm uploading here a stripped down version of AF theme that I hope someone can test with a Raspberry Pi and report if it works or not... In this version I stripped most bells and whistles to reduce the number of textures in memory...

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: millercentral on May 28, 2018, 11:24:38 AM
While it took me a minute to understand I needed to resize my snaps (thanks for the scripts!) - I now have this theme working great on my cab, including the very nice Pop background. I really love how fast it is and how easy it is to navigate through large lists. Thank you for all the work on this!

I do have an "advanced usage" question, that may or may not be supported:  I have 3-sided cocktail style cabinet, and I would like to be able to rotate the theme between Horizontal and Vertical orientations on demand.  Attract Mode supports this (both with "toggle_rotate_right" button assignment, and with the "RotationControl" plugin which rotates the theme based on the orientation of the last run game). However, when I rotate ArcadeFlow, it squeezes the Horizontal layout into the vertical dimensions, rather than reloading with the vertical-optimized layout.

Is there anyway to trigger ArcadeFlow to recognize the orientation change and reload for the current AttractMode orientation when Toggle_Rotate_Right (for example) is pressed?

Thank you again for this great theme, and for the helper scripts to make setup great.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 28, 2018, 12:39:08 PM
Thank you for the comments, I tried to reply to your messages but it seems that you have a full inbox. I'm glad you solved the issue of the white borders. I'd really like to make it work without having to resize the snaps but it got quite messy when I tried, that's why I put the scripts in the archive :D

Regarding rotation, I'll check what can be done. I am working on rev.15 right now I'll see if I can implement what you need. Right now AF gets its "rotation" from the screen resolution.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.4 [Release] Updated 22 Apr 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 28, 2018, 12:58:28 PM
I do have an "advanced usage" question, that may or may not be supported:

Investigated a bit and this is how things work right now: at the start of the layout I check the screen resolution and decide whether to implement the "vertical" or "horizontal" layout. The difference is in the way objects (tiles) are set up and updated. The way I thought to implement what you need was to add a key routine where it would first apply the screen rotation, then "reload" the layout so everything would be set up "vertically". Sadly though it seems it's not possible to "reload" a layout :(

I made it! It works on my test system. I'll upload the new revision ASAP, stay tuned :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: Giacomo1982 on May 28, 2018, 02:24:43 PM
This is awesome!

Adesso posso parlare italiano, complimenti per il tema è molto bello e pieno di funzioni interessanti.
Se puo esserti d'aiuto a me non visualizza correttamente il bordo bianco introrno alle snapshot, funziona solo per 4:3? Io ho provato su 16:9.

Richiesta senza impegno
Vorrei tanto inserire nel mio layout un carrier con i titoli che funziona bene come il tuo, ho provato a cambiare la variabile "rows" in 1 ma non riesco ad abbassare l'altezza

neanche cambiando la riga 143 in:
local carrier_h = 2*height+(2)*padding+padding*margin_scaler

mi daresti una mano?

grazie Paolo!!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 28, 2018, 10:19:35 PM
Se puo esserti d'aiuto a me non visualizza correttamente il bordo bianco introrno alle snapshot, funziona solo per 4:3? Io ho provato su 16:9.

Rispondo al volo a questa, poi ritpondo all'altra parte del messaggio... Prova a ri-scaricare la versione 15, ho fatto una piccola modifica che dovrebbe correggere un problema con i bordi bianchi (li vedi solo in verticale, giusto?). Se non funziona, prova a scaricare la versione PI2 dal mio commento precedente e dimmi cosa si vede sugli screenshot dei giochi, c'è un testo di debug...

Ciao!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: millercentral on May 29, 2018, 08:52:01 AM
New version works GREAT when using hotkeys to rotate left or right, thank you! The only thing not yet working is when RotationControl plug in auto rotates the layout when returning from a game based on that games orientation. To repro:


I'm no coder, but I assume adding a Transition.FromGame case in the transition callback would catch this edge case.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: jtslade on May 29, 2018, 09:05:49 AM
Very Cool looking theme.

Runs slow in VirtualBox so I'm going to try on my Vertical cocktail Cab (Running Groovy Arcade 2017)

How can I enable being able to select games with left and right on the joystick? Right now only up and down works.

Also I have a Arcade CRT so it runs in 3:4 (Vertical) at like 320x240 resolution. Can I set only like two rows of games?

Thank you!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 29, 2018, 10:46:53 AM

  • Enable the RotationControl plugin, and set it to Auto Rotate (I also disabled PreserveAspectRatio).
  • From a horizontal aspect ratio, launch a vertical game, then exit the game
  • AM comes back with the layout stretched vertically.

I'm no coder, but I assume adding a Transition.FromGame case in the transition callback would catch this edge case.

I see and I was able to reproduce the issue, I think you are right: some routine to reload the theme if there's been a screen rotation after coming back from the game should do the trick. I'll check what can be done, or I can try and bypass the autorotation plugin completely but that would be a bit overkill :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: Giacomo1982 on May 29, 2018, 12:26:05 PM
Se puo esserti d'aiuto a me non visualizza correttamente il bordo bianco introrno alle snapshot, funziona solo per 4:3? Io ho provato su 16:9.

Rispondo al volo a questa, poi ritpondo all'altra parte del messaggio... Prova a ri-scaricare la versione 15, ho fatto una piccola modifica che dovrebbe correggere un problema con i bordi bianchi (li vedi solo in verticale, giusto?). Se non funziona, prova a scaricare la versione PI2 dal mio commento precedente e dimmi cosa si vede sugli screenshot dei giochi, c'è un testo di debug...

Ciao!

Niente is vedono ancora in verticale

Ti ho inviato i miei 3 theme nella mail dagli un occhio!!  ;)

STRIPE è praticamente al 99.9% devo aggiungere le descrizioni e le foto di qualche console
HUD anche questo 99% anche qui mi mancano le console
STRIPE_2 è quello in cui implementare il tuo bellissiimo carrier
grazie dell'aiuto!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 30, 2018, 05:16:09 AM
How can I enable being able to select games with left and right on the joystick? Right now only up and down works.

Also I have a Arcade CRT so it runs in 3:4 (Vertical) at like 320x240 resolution. Can I set only like two rows of games?

When you run the theme on a vertical display it should apply the "vertical" theme, and you should be able to navigate the games using left-right (to switch column) and up-down (to switch rows). Does it work for you? Arcadeflow redefines the arrow keys with a custom routine I don't know if it can interfere with other controls...

As for the rows of games, you want just two (instead of three) so that thumbs are bigger? I'm refining the vertical layout getting more space for thumbs and reducing the title font, I'll see if a two rows option doesn't cut too much of the screenshots :) I'll check AF at low resolution to see how it goes, sadly my Mac is a retina model and many details (like text) are rendered at high resolution even if the layout width and height are 320x240 :/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.6 [Release] Updated 8 June 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 08, 2018, 07:58:30 AM
AF 1.6 is out!

Many of you will find useful tweaks and features requested on the forum, so if you want to try it and tell me if it's working as expected that would be greatly appreciated :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: jtslade on June 11, 2018, 09:30:08 AM
How can I enable being able to select games with left and right on the joystick? Right now only up and down works.

Also I have a Arcade CRT so it runs in 3:4 (Vertical) at like 320x240 resolution. Can I set only like two rows of games?

When you run the theme on a vertical display it should apply the "vertical" theme, and you should be able to navigate the games using left-right (to switch column) and up-down (to switch rows). Does it work for you? Arcadeflow redefines the arrow keys with a custom routine I don't know if it can interfere with other controls...

As for the rows of games, you want just two (instead of three) so that thumbs are bigger? I'm refining the vertical layout getting more space for thumbs and reducing the title font, I'll see if a two rows option doesn't cut too much of the screenshots :) I'll check AF at low resolution to see how it goes, sadly my Mac is a retina model and many details (like text) are rendered at high resolution even if the layout width and height are 320x240 :/



Awesome, Thank you.. Is this in the new version. I can test it on my Vertical 19" CRT cocktail Groovy Arcade Cab this week.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.5 [Release] Updated 28 May 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 11, 2018, 11:20:24 PM
Awesome, Thank you.. Is this in the new version. I can test it on my Vertical 19" CRT cocktail Groovy Arcade Cab this week.

Yes it is, maybe some fonts are still too small for such low resolution, but I can tweak it following your feedback :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 04, 2018, 11:36:15 PM
Updated to 1.7! New menu system and history plugin integrated. Have fun!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: jedione on July 05, 2018, 07:18:59 AM
Arcadeflow_17,   is broken for me  :-[

Arcadeflow_14  is working fine

im on windows 10 with latest AM build..

anyone else ?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 05, 2018, 07:30:52 AM
Arcadeflow_17,   is broken for me  :-[

Arcadeflow_14  is working fine

Ops, this is not good, can you be more specific? Also you can try one of the other releases from here:

https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow-AM-Theme/releases

1.7 is a pretty big update so maybe something went wrong along the way...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: verion on July 05, 2018, 09:11:46 AM
Looks really good - but I really miss the early version with square contained art+logo (see attachment).
Looks like there is no chance to bring that back, right?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 05, 2018, 02:12:03 PM
Looks really good - but I really miss the early version with square contained art+logo (see attachment).
Looks like there is no chance to bring that back, right?

I'm really thinking of a way to do it, without having to generate square snapshots with a script. It's one feature I'd like to implement but really complicated.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 05, 2018, 11:45:45 PM
Looks like there is no chance to bring that back, right?

You know what? I made it! I'm refining some details and I don't think I'll be able to release it until next week but I was able to crop snaps using surfaces (and used a trick to make it smoother), so in the end now it works. How did I not think about it before??

I just have to re-do some graphics (shadows mainly), decide if I like the dimensions of the snaps and then I'll release something as soon as possible ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: verion on July 06, 2018, 01:59:21 AM
Cool - that's a great news.
And the flexibility/responsiveness of that theme is great. Really good job!

I suppose that with "default" color scheme you can put any current-game-related artwork? Not just blurred snap?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 06, 2018, 02:13:48 AM
I suppose that with "default" color scheme you can put any current-game-related artwork? Not just blurred snap?

In theory if you want different artwork as background (game related artwork that is) you should just point the "blur" artwork label to something else. That said, AF expects this background to be in square format and I honestly don't remember if it will maintain the aspect ratio... I'll check and report later.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.7 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 06, 2018, 05:16:52 AM
Cool - that's a great news.

Arcadeflow 1.8 is out with square cropped thumbs. Please report any bugs ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.8 [Release] Updated 5 July 2018
Post by: verion on July 06, 2018, 05:20:49 AM
great I'll test it and let you know
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 25, 2018, 12:42:25 AM
Arcadeflow 1.9 is out and is 2.4 compliant! Please test it and let me know :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: pibuilder on July 25, 2018, 05:48:07 PM
Arcadeflow 1.9 is out and is 2.4 compliant! Please test it and let me know :)

 This looks pretty much exactly what I'd like to use in my RPI3B+ Curious to know if this updated version 1.9 will work with it ? How should the file structure be on the Rpi with all these files ? Do I keep it zipped / unzipped within the layouts folder ? I have a few other themes running right now but I really dig this particular layout. It's called Arcade Flow, as the name would suggest I would imagine most people are using these inside of cabinets only Ideally I'd like it to work on an rpi3b+.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 25, 2018, 11:25:19 PM
This looks pretty much exactly what I'd like to use in my RPI3B+ Curious to know if this updated version 1.9 will work with it ?

As you probably know if you've read the rest of the thread, AF is not really suited for the Raspberry Pi, at least this was true for Attract Mode 2.3, don't know if 2.4 is better. I'd really like to be able to tweak my theme to work with the Pi but testing is not easy since I don't own a Pi myself.

Quote
How should the file structure be on the Rpi with all these files ? Do I keep it zipped / unzipped within the layouts folder ? I have a few other themes running right now but I really dig this particular layout.

AFAIK you can use the archive as it is (zipped) or unzip it to a folder with the theme name and put it in the layouts folder.

Quote
It's called Arcade Flow, as the name would suggest I would imagine most people are using these inside of cabinets only Ideally I'd like it to work on an rpi3b+.

Well actually the name comes from the fact that the theme is intended for MAME users: it doesn't use flyers because not all arcade games have good flyers and it doesn't use game boxes art because of course arcade doesn't have boxes :) If I did it for other system I would make it different I think.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: pibuilder on July 27, 2018, 07:44:16 AM
So just an update on this when I used it on my rpi3b+ I got what I consider the WSOD aka White Screen Of Death. some of the fonts looked like lines weird things from a spaceship blocky weirdness nothing working etc /  nothing was showing no rom list / game list wasn't showing. No Snaps / Videos weren't showing.

As you probably know if you've read the rest of the thread, AF is not really suited for the Raspberry Pi, at least this was true for Attract Mode 2.3, don't know if 2.4 is better. I'd really like to be able to tweak my theme to work with the Pi but testing is not easy since I don't own a Pi myself.

Brand new Rpi3b+ is cheap ! They are about 50-60$ including a Power Supply / Heat sinks + depending on what size microSD memory card you go with. It's worth it just to tinker with one. I almost feel compelled to send you one so long as you can get this working on an rpi3b+ properly.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 30, 2018, 06:10:43 AM
I will try and look into AF RPi compatibility (again ;D) but my fear is that, as before, AF is to heavy for the Pi. And I know the pi is really cheap, what I lack though is the spare time to dedicate to it. I can play with code every time I have some spare time but playing with the Pi won’t be so straight forward I fear.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: ryuuji on August 10, 2018, 05:48:59 PM
on 4:3 monitor all my horizontal games snaps are cropped like the vertical ones :/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 11, 2018, 03:26:45 AM
on 4:3 monitor all my horizontal games snaps are cropped like the vertical ones :/

What emulator and what version? Have you updated your romlist recently? Can you post a screenshot?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: ryuuji on August 11, 2018, 03:33:23 AM
I m using Attract Mode 2.4 on Windows 10. AM runs on a 2nd monitor 4:3 aspect ratio. The layout interprets that all the games are vertical games so the horizontal game snaps are cropped.
sshot below

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 11, 2018, 11:16:43 AM
I m using Attract Mode 2.4 on Windows 10. AM runs on a 2nd monitor 4:3 aspect ratio. The layout interprets that all the games are vertical games so the horizontal game snaps are cropped.
sshot below

Hmm I see many things that are not how they should be in that screenshot... you don't have snaps? because all the tiles have no screenshots except the one that is zoomed in (probably playing a video). But that's not the main issue.

What puzzles me is the aspect ratio: while the screenshot resolution is undoubtedly 4:3, it seems that AF "thinks" it's a 16:9 and therefore stretches the thumbs. This shouldn't be the case, AF should adapt to the proper aspect ratio... Are you using AF 19? I'll prepare a debug layout to check what's going on. Also try re-downloading AF because there was a mistake in one upload

AF should adapt thumbs with respect to the Info.Rotation property of games, sometimes it's necessary to refresh the romlist to make it work.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: jedione on August 11, 2018, 12:38:00 PM
so i just put the script that zpaolo11x posted for a blur background  and this is what i get...

pretty cool i think     no need for blured image file,,   works with snaps or video.

if you want ill post it up,,  i just put it in its own layout and call it at the begining of the theme   "fe.do_nut("blur.nut");"

you tube....https://youtu.be/a5ARsBBMpTA (https://youtu.be/a5ARsBBMpTA)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 11, 2018, 12:41:56 PM
you tube....https://youtu.be/a5ARsBBMpTA (https://youtu.be/a5ARsBBMpTA)

Cool, I'm merging the effect in Arcadeflow right now (but together with many other changes that are slowing me down a bit), how did you do it? If you want you can send me the files to paolo.zago@gmail.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: jedione on August 11, 2018, 01:11:20 PM
you got it.....coming your way
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: calle81 on August 11, 2018, 03:35:06 PM
you got it.....coming your way

 :o :o  I want it too!  :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: ryuuji on August 11, 2018, 04:53:57 PM
I m using Attract Mode 2.4 on Windows 10. AM runs on a 2nd monitor 4:3 aspect ratio. The layout interprets that all the games are vertical games so the horizontal game snaps are cropped.
sshot below

Hmm I see many things that are not how they should be in that screenshot... you don't have snaps? because all the tiles have no screenshots except the one that is zoomed in (probably playing a video). But that's not the main issue.

What puzzles me is the aspect ratio: while the screenshot resolution is undoubtedly 4:3, it seems that AF "thinks" it's a 16:9 and therefore stretches the thumbs. This shouldn't be the case, AF should adapt to the proper aspect ratio... Are you using AF 19? I'll prepare a debug layout to check what's going on. Also try re-downloading AF because there was a mistake in one upload

AF should adapt thumbs with respect to the Info.Rotation property of games, sometimes it's necessary to refresh the romlist to make it work.

The current setup AM 2.4 started yesterday from scratch and yes I m missing the screenshots for games atm .... downloaded AF1.9 right now also still the same
screenshot using game_station layout + the AM cfg + window.am (if that helps anything ... looks ok I would say)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 11, 2018, 11:24:18 PM
Jedione I was looking at your video and it seems the theme is a bit stretched vertically, is it an artifact of the video or do you see it like that? Because that’s not good, I’ll have to check aspect ratios but not having an external display is a bit difficult. Do you use one or two monitors?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: jedione on August 12, 2018, 12:34:18 AM
it,s just AM in windowed mode pulled open quickly, and recorded with bandicam...

thats all. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 1.9 [Release] Updated 25 July 2018
Post by: qqplayer on August 12, 2018, 05:20:30 AM
so i just put the script that zpaolo11x posted for a blur background  and this is what i get...

pretty cool i think     no need for blured image file,,   works with snaps or video.

if you want ill post it up,,  i just put it in its own layout and call it at the begining of the theme   "fe.do_nut("blur.nut");"

you tube....https://youtu.be/a5ARsBBMpTA (https://youtu.be/a5ARsBBMpTA)

Awesome , I love the bg effect.

@zpaolo11x your theme is one of the best ever!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 17, 2018, 08:38:48 AM
Arcadeflow 2.0 is out!

It uses shaders instead of pre-generated artwork for shadows and blurred backgrounds, and I'm crossing my fingers that it's not exploding :D

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 19, 2018, 11:38:42 PM
Just checked AF2.0 on my Windows machine and the layout has some heavy slowdowns I don't see on my Mac. I suspect the culprit here is the nested surface used for logo shadows, I solved it in the past with some tricks so I'm positive I can solve it soon.

- UPDATE - solved the issue with the slowdowns, I'll re-check it on the Mac and then post the update to 2.1

In the meantime I wrote my own blur shader, but I discovered that a single pass 2D shader, even if it only requires one surface to apply, is overall slower than a dual pass 1D shader, which requires two nested surfaces to work.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: markoattract on August 20, 2018, 02:43:11 AM
Intanto congratulazioni Paolo per lo splendido tema ! :D

I have a little problem with this theme :
All is working great but i don't have the static screenshots. i have the wheel , but only a blanck rectangle under the game's logos ... When i select a game the video preview starts with no problem.

So maybe i have to change the folder name for static screenshots ?

Thanks for your help .

Grazie ! ;D

- Marco -

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 20, 2018, 06:00:32 AM
All is working great but i don't have the static screenshots. i have the wheel , but only a blanck rectangle under the game's logos ... When i select a game the video preview starts with no problem.

Well the theme gets the screenshot data from the "snap" category, in the default mame configuration on Attract Mode this category points to two folders: $HOME/mame/snap and $HOME/mame/video, if you have your snaps and videos in those folders it should work.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: markoattract on August 20, 2018, 10:46:38 AM
Quote
Well the theme gets the screenshot data from the "snap" category, in the default mame configuration on Attract Mode this category points to two folders: $HOME/mame/snap and $HOME/mame/video, if you have your snaps and videos in those folders it should work.

Thanks for the answer, but this didn't solve my problem... I have 2 folders named Snaps and video in my MAME folder ; how do i have to set the mame.cfg in Attract mode for the screenshot to works ?

Thanks again for your help ! :D

- Marco -
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: progets on August 20, 2018, 11:04:21 AM
Code: [Select]
artwork    snap      X:\<path>\Video;X:\<path>\Snap
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on August 20, 2018, 11:15:14 AM
This theme came out excellent! Simple, not flashy - but still fun to look at!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 20, 2018, 12:12:22 PM
Code: [Select]
artwork    snap      X:\<path>\Video;X:\<path>\Snap

That's the way I have my AM set and it works fine in AF, if it doesn't work there might be something else...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 20, 2018, 12:15:04 PM
This theme came out excellent! Simple, not flashy - but still fun to look at!

Thank you! I've learned a lot and had a lot of fun developing this theme, now I'm getting into shaders :D I also tried to make the theme very customizable, if you want it more flashy (flashyer? flashier? ) you can play with background overlay and logo customization ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.0 [Release] Updated 17 August 2018
Post by: PrettyPrincess on August 20, 2018, 09:29:31 PM
My goodness. This theme is so beautiful. This deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for art.

In the future, do you plan to add sounds for video previews? Currently, my 480p mp4 files don't play any sound. Unless I have to use a certain type of video format or enable sound somewhere?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 20, 2018, 11:37:26 PM
Updated to v 2.1!

Fixed some bugs and added some workarounds, improved blur shaders (now with programmable sigma)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 22, 2018, 02:14:05 AM
A small experiment I'm doing, to enhance readability for the titles in square tile mode, I tried adding a gradient of the average tile color. Seems to work quite nice.

It's a simple GLSL shader that samples the picture layer and adds an alpha gradient, it's fast but still operating on the full resolution snap is not ideal. There's probably a smarter way to do it (vertex shaders?) but let me know if you like the look...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: calle81 on August 22, 2018, 09:59:28 AM
The context menu is genius. Any chance you could make it into a module so that it could be used easily with other themes? The search function is amazing....
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 22, 2018, 10:34:37 AM
The context menu is genius. Any chance you could make it into a module so that it could be used easily with other themes? The search function is amazing....

Thank you! I got some feedback from a user who asked for more "joystick compliance", so I thought about the context menu :D Most of the cool features I added to the theme come from suggestions from the forum, which is great! And the search function, well that actually is the keyboard search module, but I had to bury it deep in the theme.

The context menu is pretty simple actually, just a picture that pops up and a custom routine in the on_signal function... I have no idea how to code modules, and most of all I fear it's too "intertwined" in the current layout :D (I'm a bad programmer, I know, my code is a mess)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: calle81 on August 22, 2018, 03:35:41 PM
I "borrowed" your ambiance code for a new background option in the HyperPie 2 theme. Hope that is ok otherwise I'll remove it!

Anyway, do you know if it is possible to reduce the flickering when using video snaps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeIaF-gl1jA&t=44s
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 22, 2018, 04:00:31 PM
I "borrowed" your ambiance code for a new background option in the HyperPie 2 theme. Hope that is ok otherwise I'll remove it!

No problem at all :) Are you using the GLSL shader or the "multiple scaling" code? In AM2.4 if you enable mipmap the latter will look definitely better.

Quote
Anyway, do you know if it is possible to reduce the flickering when using video snaps?

I don't think so, the flickering happens due to the downsampling of the image to a lower resolution. It might be better if the downsampling was smoother (maybe again enabling mipmap?). If I knew GLSL enough to write a shader that first downsamples the image with bilinear filtering and then apply the smoothing it would be much better
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: calle81 on August 23, 2018, 02:49:18 AM
Is it possible to change how much it down samples? Would like to get the effect Oomek has here https://youtu.be/XGQiUk5uwGw
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 23, 2018, 03:33:09 AM
Is it possible to change how much it down samples? Would like to get the effect Oomek has here https://youtu.be/XGQiUk5uwGw

Oomek shader is much better than mine, but if you paste the code you are using here I'll see what can be done. Essentially if you want a "less blurred" image you should change the size of the prescaled picture, and apply the same amount of blur...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: calle81 on August 23, 2018, 03:50:28 AM
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Really appreciate it :) I copy pasted the exact same values you have so it should be the same as in Arcade Flow:

I guess this is the size of the prescaled picture
local smallsize = 32
local blursize = 1/32.0

Is this where I set the amount of blur?

local shaderH1 = fe.add_shader( Shader.Fragment, "gauss_kernsigma.txt" )
shaderH1.set_texture_param( "source")
shaderH1.set_param("kernelZ", 11.0, 2.5)
shaderH1.set_param("offsetFactor", blursize, 0.0)
xsurf1.shader = shaderH1

local shaderV1 = fe.add_shader( Shader.Fragment, "gauss_kernsigma.txt" )
shaderV1.set_texture_param( "source")
shaderV1.set_param("kernelZ", 11.0, 2.5)
shaderV1.set_param("offsetFactor", 0.0, blursize)
xsurf2.shader = shaderV1
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 23, 2018, 05:01:00 AM
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Really appreciate it :) I copy pasted the exact same values you have so it should be the same as in Arcade Flow:

I guess this is the size of the prescaled picture
local smallsize = 32
local blursize = 1/32.0

Is this where I set the amount of blur?

local shaderH1 = fe.add_shader( Shader.Fragment, "gauss_kernsigma.txt" )
shaderH1.set_texture_param( "source")
shaderH1.set_param("kernelZ", 11.0, 2.5)
shaderH1.set_param("offsetFactor", blursize, 0.0)
xsurf1.shader = shaderH1

local shaderV1 = fe.add_shader( Shader.Fragment, "gauss_kernsigma.txt" )
shaderV1.set_texture_param( "source")
shaderV1.set_param("kernelZ", 11.0, 2.5)
shaderV1.set_param("offsetFactor", 0.0, blursize)
xsurf2.shader = shaderV1

Ok, so *smallsize* is the size of the prescaled surface (I guess I could use a vertex shader to do this, but I'm not sure :D ), this is important because it resamples the image and the resampling is a bit harsh, so if you want more detail in the blurred image you can start enlarging this. Also if you add some mipmap=1 parameters to the surface and artworks it should look better.

Then you can modify the parameters in "kernelZ": the first one is the number of samples (pixels) used for the blur, the second one is the sigma of the gaussian blur. Larger sigma means smoother blur because the average is done on more pixels, but to avoid clipping you should always keep the number of samples roughly 4x sigma (and an even number).

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: calle81 on August 23, 2018, 05:41:33 AM
Ok, awsome!

Got this using this code:

https://youtu.be/z2D9kZcrtWQ

if ( my_config["enable_bg"] == "Ambiance"){
// Picture background definition
local bgpic_x = 0
local bgpic_y = 0
local bgpic_w = flw
local bgpic_h = flh
local bgpic_ar = 1
// Apply color theme
local   themeoverlaycolor = 255
local   themeoverlayalpha = 100
local   themetextcolor = 255
local   themeshadow = 50
local shadeval = 255
local satinrate = 0.9
/// Display construction (BACKGROUND) 
local shadeval = 255
local   snapbg1 = null
local   snapbg2 = null
local xsurf1 = null
local xsurf2 = null
local bg_surface = null
local whitebg = null
local smallsize = 2048
local blursize = 1/256.0
local BGBLURRED = null
// Blurred backdrop definition
local bgx = 0
local bgy = (flh-flw)/2
local bgw = flw

xsurf1 = fe.add_surface(smallsize,smallsize)

snapbg1 = xsurf1.add_artwork ("snap",-smallsize*1/6.0,-smallsize*1/6.0,smallsize*4/3.0,smallsize*4/3.0)
snapbg1.set_rgb (shadeval,shadeval,shadeval)
snapbg1.alpha = 255
snapbg1.mipmap = 1
snapbg1.trigger = Transition.EndNavigation
//snapbg1.video_flags = Vid.ImagesOnly
snapbg1.smooth = true
snapbg1.preserve_aspect_ratio = true
::videoSound <- Vid.NoAudio;
snapbg1.video_flags = videoSound;

snapbg2 = xsurf1.add_artwork ("snap",-smallsize*1/6.0,-smallsize*1/6.0,smallsize*4/3.0,smallsize*4/3.0)
snapbg2.set_rgb (shadeval,shadeval,shadeval)
snapbg2.alpha = 255
snapbg2.mipmap = 1
snapbg2.trigger = Transition.EndNavigation
//snapbg2.video_flags = Vid.ImagesOnly
snapbg2.smooth = true
snapbg2.preserve_aspect_ratio = true
::videoSound <- Vid.NoAudio;
snapbg2.video_flags = videoSound;

xsurf2 = fe.add_surface(smallsize,smallsize)

bg_surface = fe.add_surface(flw,flh)



local shaderH1 = fe.add_shader( Shader.Fragment, "gauss_kernsigma.txt" )
shaderH1.set_texture_param( "source")
shaderH1.set_param("kernelZ", 11.0, 2.5)
shaderH1.set_param("offsetFactor", blursize, 0.0)
xsurf1.shader = shaderH1

local shaderV1 = fe.add_shader( Shader.Fragment, "gauss_kernsigma.txt" )
shaderV1.set_texture_param( "source")
shaderV1.set_param("kernelZ", 11.0, 2.5)
shaderV1.set_param("offsetFactor", 0.0, blursize)
xsurf2.shader = shaderV1

xsurf2.visible = false
xsurf2 = bg_surface.add_clone(xsurf2)
xsurf2.visible = true

xsurf1.visible = false
xsurf1 = xsurf2.add_clone(xsurf1)
xsurf1.visible = true

xsurf2.set_pos(bgx,bgy,bgw,bgw)

local bgpicture = null



   bgpicture = bg_surface.add_image(BGBLURRED,0,0,flw,flh)
   bgpicture.visible = false
   bgpic_ar = (bgpicture.texture_width*1.0) / bgpicture.texture_height

   if (bgpic_ar >= flw/(flh*1.0)){
      bgpic_h = flh
      bgpic_w = bgpic_h * bgpic_ar
      bgpic_y = 0
      bgpic_x = - (bgpic_w - flw)*0.5
   }
   else {
      bgpic_w = flw
      bgpic_h = bgpic_w / bgpic_ar*1.0
      bgpic_y = - (bgpic_h - flh)*0.5
      bgpic_x = 0
   }
   bgpicture=bg_surface.add_image (BGBLURRED,bgpic_x,bgpic_y,bgpic_w,bgpic_h)
   bgpicture.visible=true




   whitebg = bg_surface.add_text("",0,0,flw,flh)
   whitebg.set_bg_rgb(themeoverlaycolor,themeoverlaycolor,themeoverlaycolor)
   whitebg.bg_alpha = themeoverlayalpha
}
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.2 [Release] Updated 23 August 2018
Post by: calle81 on August 23, 2018, 05:44:21 AM
I still only understand fragments of the code however. :P

Thanks for the help!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.1 [Release] Updated 21 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 23, 2018, 05:58:16 AM
Ok, awsome!

Got this using this code:

https://youtu.be/z2D9kZcrtWQ


Looks pretty cool, the only thing I notice is that you put

Code: [Select]
local smallsize = 2048
local blursize = 1/256.0

This means that your texture will be 2048 x 2048 elements, then for each of this pixels the shader will calculate the smoothed value based on pixels that are not adjacent, but about 7 pixels away. This is not an issue in itself, it can generate some artifacts but it's not your case. On the other hand you are calculating way more pixels then necessary and you should try smallsize = 256 which should provide similar results with a lighter calculation.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.2 [Release] Updated 23 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 23, 2018, 05:59:02 AM
I still only understand fragments of the code however. :P

I have problems in understanding my code myself LOL :D

Anyway, AF2.2 is out! I love GLSL shaders :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.2 [Release] Updated 23 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 27, 2018, 02:15:55 AM
For the release of AF2.3 I have done a lot of tweaking of filters to improve performances. On my Mac the improvement is pretty good, on Windows I'm still trying to understand what sometimes slows down the system. Maybe GLSL shaders using OpenGL 1.2 are not suitable for recent cards?

Anyway I'm also playing with a new aesthetic, which will be optional of course, of adding a faded, pixellated game screen on the background. And it can be animated too. This is a bit outside the original spirit of this theme, but this screenshot looks so neat :D

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.2 [Release] Updated 23 August 2018
Post by: calle81 on August 27, 2018, 10:51:21 AM
Wow, that looks really cool!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.2 [Release] Updated 23 August 2018
Post by: jedione on August 27, 2018, 06:18:53 PM
i think the pixalated, looks great for an option.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.2 [Release] Updated 23 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on August 27, 2018, 07:57:22 PM
Great idea!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.2 [Release] Updated 23 August 2018
Post by: verion on August 28, 2018, 03:05:56 AM
pixelated bg looks really good
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 29, 2018, 07:48:40 AM
Just released Arcadeflow 2.3 with a lot of cosmetic improvements, see in the attachment how you can add glow around the thumbs or pixellated background. And also redesigned the options menu for more clarity...

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: crawlingpeter on August 29, 2018, 08:49:46 AM
I haven't had a chance to use this yet because my system isn't quite operational, but I had to post and say how awesome this looks! Can't wait to check it out!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on August 29, 2018, 09:07:19 AM
Dayum!!! Looks great!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: dukpoki on August 29, 2018, 05:18:14 PM
That glow is so sexy!   8)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 31, 2018, 01:42:33 PM
Whops there was a mistake in the latest archive, an old shader for the glow that didn't enable alpha channel. Corrected in the first post, now the archive is up to date.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: jedione on August 31, 2018, 06:09:07 PM
yaa this just got sweeter...i love the glow...thank you

their is one thing that i would like to change for my own view
and that would to bring up the two game rows a bit.

ill explor to see how i can do it,  if you have any quick help on wear to go in the script
that would be cool... thanx...

here is a pic of what i mean, just seems tight on the bottom and little dead space on top.

(http://i68.tinypic.com/18y812.png)

What do you think ?

after thought...your pics loo more even..  i think i might be missing som of the info to display?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: jedione on August 31, 2018, 06:21:44 PM
also was wondering went through the opitions,  and did not see how to use the new pixel back ground?
maybe im blind to it....  help?

man it looks sharp!

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 01, 2018, 12:57:57 AM
ill explor to see how i can do it,  if you have any quick help on wear to go in the script
that would be cool... thanx...

I see, just find in the layout.nut this two lines:

Code: [Select]
local header_h = 200*scalerate
local footer_h = 100*scalerate

They define the height of the header and footer, then the size of the thumbs is calculated accordingly. Consider that internally the theme considers a vertical size of 1200, so 200 for the header, 900 for the thumbs, 100 for the footer. Everything is then scaled to your screen resolution. Play with those two numbers.

Quote
after thought...your pics loo more even..  i think i might be missing som of the info to display?

I think you are missing some information about the games: the title name for example looks like the rom name, while it should be longer (and broken into two lines, therefore more even). Also manufacturer and year data is missing, try rescan your library from attract mode menus...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 01, 2018, 01:06:50 AM
also was wondering went through the opitions,  and did not see how to use the new pixel back ground?
maybe im blind to it.... 

The options is in the "BACKDROP" section: "Background snap" enables the pixelated snaps, "Animate background snaps" uses videos instead of static pictures. Let me know if it works

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: jedione on September 01, 2018, 04:29:22 AM
thanks,  working.....u rock...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: tekn0 on September 09, 2018, 07:06:44 AM
This looks so cool! Nice work!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on September 16, 2018, 01:19:47 PM
I tried the theme on my mac. Only artwork displayed is wheel. I assume it would play my snap artwork for the thumbnail. Am I doing something wrong?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 16, 2018, 10:07:38 PM
I tried the theme on my mac. Only artwork displayed is wheel. I assume it would play my snap artwork for the thumbnail. Am I doing something wrong?

The theme expects to have static screenshots and videos in the same category called "snap", I think this was the default settings in the "mame" emulator for Attract Mode. You don't see the artwork at all? What Mac are you running on? Also try disabling "gradient" on thumbnails and let me know if it changes anything
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on September 17, 2018, 02:14:27 AM
I tried the theme on my mac. Only artwork displayed is wheel. I assume it would play my snap artwork for the thumbnail. Am I doing something wrong?

The theme expects to have static screenshots and videos in the same category called "snap", I think this was the default settings in the "mame" emulator for Attract Mode. You don't see the artwork at all? What Mac are you running on? Also try disabling "gradient" on thumbnails and let me know if it changes anything

I have snaps and videosnaps paths both under the “snap” artwork for mame. What I’m seeing is similar to what some one else said they had seen in the beginning of this thread. I’m not sure if they resolved it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 17, 2018, 02:28:35 AM
I have snaps and videosnaps paths both under the “snap” artwork for mame. What I’m seeing is similar to what some one else said they had seen in the beginning of this thread. I’m not sure if they resolved it.

That issue at the beginning of the thread I think was due to use of the theme on a rPi (not suited because of the huge number of surfaces) or the lack of static snaps. In your case it's different, for example the artwork for wheels looks good. I see your mac has a discrete graphics card, maybe there's an issue with the shaders, could you run attract mode from terminal and see if any error message appears?

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on September 17, 2018, 02:35:09 AM
I always run from terminal. No errors.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 17, 2018, 02:38:49 AM
I always run from terminal. No errors.

This is very strange :/ since you are using AF 2.3, can you try using the layout_noshader.nut instead? You should at least see snaps on thumbnails.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on September 17, 2018, 05:43:11 AM
I always run from terminal. No errors.

This is very strange :/ since you are using AF 2.3, can you try using the layout_noshader.nut instead? You should at least see snaps on thumbnails.

Will try that tonight. Thank you.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 17, 2018, 05:55:14 AM
Will try that tonight. Thank you.

Just to be sure, since from the screenshots it really looks like the artwork is completely missing, are you sure your category is called "snap" and not "Snap" or "snaps" or any other spelling? :D I'm really puzzled
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on September 17, 2018, 02:09:14 PM
Will try that tonight. Thank you.

Just to be sure, since from the screenshots it really looks like the artwork is completely missing, are you sure your category is called "snap" and not "Snap" or "snaps" or any other spelling? :D I'm really puzzled

artwork is indeed labeled “snap”.

I renamed layout.nut to layout_shader.nut, and duplicated layout_noshader.nut to layout.nut. Video snap is shown! Snap images however do not.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 17, 2018, 10:34:29 PM
I renamed layout.nut to layout_shader.nut, and duplicated layout_noshader.nut to layout.nut. Video snap is shown! Snap images however do not.

Ok, I found why video snaps were not showing: I spelled "yes" instead of "Yes" in the default option. This was easy. The hard part is the snaps issue, I'm still struggling to see the reason, maybe a lack of video memory? I'll do some tests in my emulated environment to see if texture memory can affect this...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: Luke_Nukem on September 17, 2018, 11:28:24 PM
Would love a setting to permanently set the rotation. Can't figure out how to get AM to save it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 18, 2018, 01:08:29 AM
artwork is indeed labeled “snap”.

I checked with a virtual machine and even with 256 Mb of VRAM I could see textures , so that's not the issue. Can you check what kind of files you have in the snaps folder? Resolution, file type etc.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on September 18, 2018, 05:11:45 PM
artwork is indeed labeled “snap”.

I checked with a virtual machine and even with 256 Mb of VRAM I could see textures , so that's not the issue. Can you check what kind of files you have in the snaps folder? Resolution, file type etc.

MAME 0.200 EXTRAs/snap
AntoPISA's progetto-SNAPS MAME Snapshots
Pulled from complete set neogeo, vs unisystem, and nofiller2p
Average file size of snap directory 22879.6 bytes using
Code: [Select]
$ find ./ -ls | awk '{sum += $7; n++;} END {print sum/n;}'All images are PNG format
All image dimensions correlate to their games native resolution, mostly 320x224, 320x240, or some other 240p variation.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 21, 2018, 12:00:07 AM
All image dimensions correlate to their games native resolution, mostly 320x224, 320x240, or some other 240p variation.

Ok, AF expects the aspect ratio of snaps to be 4:3 or 3:4, I'll change it in a future release probably and yet I don't think this is going to be an issue... I know it's a lot of trouble but you could try downloading the previous versions of AF from my github and see if older versions work with your setup. https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow-AM-Theme/releases

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 21, 2018, 12:01:41 AM
Would love a setting to permanently set the rotation. Can't figure out how to get AM to save it.

I have no idea how to do it in AttractMode. My theme detects the screen orientation and changes accordingly, and you can then rotate the screen with the hotkeys. You have a cocktail cabinet?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: grendyzer on September 21, 2018, 03:14:32 AM
thanks, good color, good theme, il like.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 22, 2018, 06:15:15 AM
I have snaps and videosnaps paths both under the “snap” artwork for mame.

I've been able to replicate the issue: it seems my theme has issues if I link to the original snaps with no aspect ratio correction. Strange, investigating
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 27, 2018, 07:35:38 AM
Version 2.4 is out, and now it adapts the aspect ratio of thumbs automatically. This was a huge rewrite in many aspects (backgrounds etc) so if you see anything strange please let me know.

Also added CRT filters to the game preview in the history page!

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.4 [Release] Updated 27 September 2018
Post by: verion on September 27, 2018, 08:13:19 AM
Cool theme. I'm using it on my computer.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: Luke_Nukem on September 27, 2018, 04:40:32 PM
Would love a setting to permanently set the rotation. Can't figure out how to get AM to save it.

I have no idea how to do it in AttractMode. My theme detects the screen orientation and changes accordingly, and you can then rotate the screen with the hotkeys. You have a cocktail cabinet?

Something like this:

Code: [Select]
class UserConfig {
</ label="Screen Rotate", help="Swap X/Y dimensions for rotated screens",
options="Yes,No" />
rotated="No";
}

local layoutSettings = fe.get_config();

switch (layoutSettings["rotated"]){
case "No":
        fe.layout.width = ScreenWidth;
        fe.layout.height = ScreenHeight;
        fe.layout.orient = RotateScreen.None;
        break;
case "Yes" :
        fe.layout.width = ScreenHeight;
        fe.layout.height = ScreenWidth;
    fe.layout.orient = RotateScreen.Right;
        break;
};

How do I exit from the game history view? If I press excape while showing history, I get the Attract exit screen behind the history.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 27, 2018, 10:03:02 PM

Something like this:


Oh ok, actually what I meant was I don't know if AM has a setting for starting with a rotation, or just hotkeys. I'll implement the rotation in the next version.

Quote
How do I exit from the game history view? If I press excape while showing history, I get the Attract exit screen behind the history.

This is strange, if you press the escape key it should exit the history screen and go back to the main UI. Are you on 2.4 or some nightly build? I'll double check on Windows (AF 2.4 was tested on a Mac only) and see what's the issue.

[EDIT] Do you have the history plugin enabled? I think it might clash with the history implementation of AF
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 27, 2018, 10:04:19 PM
I have snaps and videosnaps paths both under the “snap” artwork for mame.

I've been able to replicate the issue: it seems my theme has issues if I link to the original snaps with no aspect ratio correction. Strange, investigating

I was mistaken: the reason why I replicated the issue is because I changed the snaps folder and it looked exactly like your screenshots. Could you try with Arcadeflow 2.4 if the issue is still there?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.3 [Release] Updated 29 August 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 28, 2018, 05:29:55 AM
Would love a setting to permanently set the rotation. Can't figure out how to get AM to save it.

Arcadeflow 2.5 is out (just one day after 2.4 LOL) because I wanted to implement this feature! Test it and let me if it works as you expected!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.6 [Release] Updated 2 October 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 02, 2018, 07:38:36 AM
Arcadeflow 2.6 is out with a new "frosted glass" menu background!

Enjoy and report any bugs!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.6 [Release] Updated 2 October 2018
Post by: Luke_Nukem on October 02, 2018, 03:25:42 PM
Another release! You're a machine!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.6 [Release] Updated 2 October 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 02, 2018, 10:39:20 PM
Another release! You're a machine!

LOL actually this should've been release 2.5, but I had the rotation option ready and I thought I was not going to fix frosted glass so soon... maybe I should use "minor" release numbers :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2018, 05:17:48 AM
Updated to 2.7 but it seems I'm unable to upload the archive... You can download it from github: https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow-AM-Theme/releases (https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow-AM-Theme/releases)

UPDATE: I was able to upload the correct file in the first post

Main new feature of this version: you can define a custom resolution independent from your screen resolution. Good for testing purposes or if for whatever reason you need a different aspect ratio. In the picture a 4:3 layout on a 16:10 screen (with black pillars)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 19, 2018, 05:11:52 AM
Updated to 2.8, I promise I'll slow down now :D I just wanted to release the new and improved cross-fade method so the background will "jump" less abruptly when you are changing game while the cross-fade is still going on.

Enjoy and report bugs or issues!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: dukpoki on October 19, 2018, 11:03:30 PM
It's very impressive how much work and updates you put into this theme but bro, how about a new original theme next?  Pretty please?   ;)  Seriously, you have amazing talent and I personally feel that it's a shame that you aren't making more varied themes!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 20, 2018, 01:06:52 AM
It's very impressive how much work and updates you put into this theme but bro, how about a new original theme next?  Pretty please?   ;) 

Aha thank you, actually I think Arcadeflow reached a point where only incremental updates are going to happen, so yes I'm thinking of a couple different concept for themes.

One is an old idea I had, of a row of arcade cabinets with all the games running together, and as in a real arcade you can hear the sound from the selected game, and lower volume sounds from the other games. This is not possible to do in current AM sadly because you can't change individual volumes of videos.

The other idea (which could be mixed with the former) is a dual layer parallax scrolling "carrier" with a row of thumbnails on the first layer and a row of larger images as the background layer. I have to modify Oomek carrier though because as it is you can't just put two carriers one on top of the other :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: verion on October 20, 2018, 02:48:07 AM
Not sure if it count as a bug... because I'm using AM 2.2 (mac) :D
But 2.7 and 2.8 crashes AM (on mac).
It was ok with 1.8

Code: [Select]
libc++abi.dylib: terminating with uncaught exception of type std::logic_error: basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid
/Applications/OnyxArcade.app/Contents/MacOS/launch.sh: line 3:  1159 Abort trap: 6           ./attract

I'll let you know iwhen I update AM (next week hopefully) if it fixes the problem.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 20, 2018, 09:42:42 AM
Not sure if it count as a bug... because I'm using AM 2.2 (mac) :D
But 2.7 and 2.8 crashes AM (on mac).

I'm almost sure you can have issues with the new versions on AM 2.2, it was tested on AM 2.3 up to Arcadeflow 2.5 (more or less), but now I can't test it on 2.3 anymore, and I remember I had issues in the past on AM 2.2.

Quote
I'll let you know iwhen I update AM (next week hopefully) if it fixes the problem.

I'm developing my theme on a Mac with AM 2.4.1 so everything should be fine, at least I hope...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: verion on October 21, 2018, 02:06:21 AM
Just like I thought... it must be my ancient AM version, not mac thing.
I'll report the success after I upgrade AM :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 28, 2018, 06:47:05 AM
Huge redesign coming in AF 2.9 (or should I step directly to 3.0? :D ), here is a sneak peek:

- Pixel art category icons
- Brand logos
- Smooth drop shadow under every UI text
- New streamlined logo and smooth background when loading

I cant't wait to iron out some bugs and release it :D


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: calle81 on November 28, 2018, 07:12:23 AM
Hell yeah! The new icons look super cool :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: Giacomo1982 on November 29, 2018, 11:02:18 AM
Now it's gonna be better than before! I really like your " genre icons"! Excellent work Paolo!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on November 29, 2018, 03:13:29 PM
Looks great!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.8 [Release] Updated 19 October 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 02, 2018, 08:17:53 AM
Released version 2.9 with all new main screen :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.9 [Release] Updated 2 December 2018
Post by: Giacomo1982 on December 03, 2018, 04:35:14 AM
On github the last version is 2.8
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.9 [Release] Updated 2 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 03, 2018, 05:03:09 AM
On github the last version is 2.8

I know, I still have to update that with all the artworks, but you can get 2.9 from the first post of this thread. I’ll uodate github asap
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.9 [Release] Updated 2 December 2018
Post by: gunthermic on December 08, 2018, 03:10:10 AM
On github the last version is 2.8

I know, I still have to update that with all the artworks, but you can get 2.9 from the first post of this thread. I’ll uodate github asap

I keep looking at first post and dont see,. I see link to github which is still 2.8.. I see no link on first pot to download 2.9??

Edit: Never-mind found it scrolling line by line. It's hidden between two images. Maybe sir, move it to bottom of post or to top? very, very hard to see it sir.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.9 [Release] Updated 2 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 08, 2018, 03:17:16 AM
Edit: Never-mind found it scrolling line by line. It's hidden between two images. Maybe sir, move it to bottom of post or to top? very, very hard to see it sir.

I was just going to point that out, I'm sad it's a bit hidden but I don't know how to move it on top or bottom without having to change the other uploads. I'll see if I can fix it, sorry for the inconvenience.. Ok, fixed, the link is now at the bottom
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.9 [Release] Updated 2 December 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on December 08, 2018, 10:32:45 PM
Hi Zpaolo11x! I am happy to say that I have arcade flow up and running on my mac without any issues! It even works nicely with the sequencer plugin. Cant wait to put it on the arcade machine. The only error I get is the following:

Code: [Select]
Uniform "maincolor" not found in shader
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 2.9 [Release] Updated 2 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 09, 2018, 12:27:59 AM
The only error I get is the following:

Code: [Select]
Uniform "maincolor" not found in shader

Good to know that it's working now! That message is a leftover of an alpha blending correction shader that is actually not used anymore, I forgot to remove the creation of the shader. It's not a real issue, I'll fix it in the next release.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.0 [Release] Updated 12 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 12, 2018, 07:14:32 AM
Version 3.0 is out with lots of bug fixes and smoother fading effects. Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.0 [Release] Updated 12 December 2018
Post by: FrizzleFried on December 20, 2018, 03:25:25 PM
Version 2.8 works for me ...

Version 2.9 I was unable to get before it was taken offline (still looking).

Version 3.0 crashes to the basic layout for me.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.0 [Release] Updated 12 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 20, 2018, 09:36:21 PM
Version 2.8 works for me ...

Version 2.9 I was unable to get before it was taken offline (still looking).

Version 3.0 crashes to the basic layout for me.

Can you share the console log when 3.0 crashes? You can get 2.9 from github, the link is in the first post. I know 3.0 has a bug when a game has no category data, I re-uploaded it here so if you want you can try re-downloading it for a check.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.0 [Release] Updated 12 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 20, 2018, 09:40:17 PM
Also be aware that 2.9 is designed for AM 2.4 and above, what version are you using?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.0 [Release] Updated 12 December 2018
Post by: FrizzleFried on December 21, 2018, 06:45:24 AM
Version 2.8 works for me ...

Version 2.9 I was unable to get before it was taken offline (still looking).

Version 3.0 crashes to the basic layout for me.

Can you share the console log when 3.0 crashes? You can get 2.9 from github, the link is in the first post. I know 3.0 has a bug when a game has no category data, I re-uploaded it here so if you want you can try re-downloading it for a check.

Will do...

EDIT: I just tried the newly uploaded ZIP (I assume...it's the file on original post) and it too does not work for me.  Stupid question... how do I generate a console log?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.0 [Release] Updated 12 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 26, 2018, 04:07:08 AM
Just updated to v3.1, with new icons and many bug fixes
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.0 [Release] Updated 12 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 26, 2018, 04:10:52 AM

EDIT: I just tried the newly uploaded ZIP (I assume...it's the file on original post) and it too does not work for me.  Stupid question... how do I generate a console log?

If you are on windows there’s a attract-console.ece executable you can launch to get the console output, on Linux or Mac OS just launch from the shell. I think the most important thing to know is the version of AM you are using, is it 2.4+?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.0 [Release] Updated 12 December 2018
Post by: FrizzleFried on December 26, 2018, 07:49:28 AM
Actually... its. 2.3... let me update attract mode when I have a little time and then give it another try.  I'm testing using my windows box.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on December 26, 2018, 04:37:35 PM
Error occurs, with a screenshot, and sometimes arcade flow utility menu pops up - when Up is held.

Code: [Select]
Keils-iMac:MacOS keiljr$ /Applications/Attract.app/Contents/MacOS/launch.sh
Attract-Mode v2.5.1 (OSX, SFML 2.4.2 +SWF +Curl)
avcodec 58.35.100 / avformat 58.20.100 / swscale 5.3.100 / avutil 56.22.100 / swresample 3.3.100

Config: /Users/keiljr/.attract/attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Arcade'
 - Loaded master romlist 'mame' in 7 ms (583 entries kept, 114 discarded)
 - Constructed 10 filters in 1 ms (5830 comparisons)
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: Unknown
 - Loaded layout: /Users/keiljr/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_31/ (layout.nut)
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: Unknown

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [rename() failed]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [tick2()] /Users/keiljr/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_31/layout.nut line [2948]

LOCALS
[grabdither] 0
[frost_surface] INSTANCE
[grabticker] 0
[grabpath0] "/Users/keiljr/.attract/screen1.png"
[grabpath] "/Users/keiljr/.attract/grab1.png"
[frost_pic] INSTANCE
[rotate90] false
[immediatesignal] false
[grabsignal] "up"
[overmenu] INSTANCE
[overmenuflow] 0
[surfacePos] 254.32191467285
[globalposnew] 1143.4403076172
[selectorwidth] 864
[overmenuwidth] 777.59997558594
[flowspeed] 25
[historyflow] 0
[history_surface] INSTANCE
[fg_surface] INSTANCE
[data_surface] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh] INSTANCE
[themeshadow] 70
[overlay_listbox] INSTANCE
[hist_title] INSTANCE
[hist_screen] INSTANCE
[noshader] INSTANCE
[logoshow] 0
[aflogo_surface] INSTANCE
[prf] TABLE
[tick_time] 12424
[this] TABLE
Script Error in tick function: tick2 - rename() failed
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: Unknown

Code: [Select]
input_map
custom1              R
custom2              F
select               Return
select               LControl
back                 Escape
down                 Down
up                   Up
configure            Tab
add_favourite        LAlt
next_filter          Space
next_display         LShift
intro                Num5
left                 Left
right                Right
default             back exit
default             up prev_game
default             down next_game
default             left prev_game
default             right next_game

One suggestion: some text is too small at 640x480 and smaller resolutions. Perhaps increasing size, or having option to remove some of these tiny elements? I only tested in windowed borderless mode on my mac. Gives an ok but not perfect idea of what it will look like on my arcade machine or pi with 15khz crt’s.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 26, 2018, 11:41:42 PM
Error occurs, with a screenshot, and sometimes arcade flow utility menu pops up - when Up is held.

I was able to replicate the issue, it is related to the "frosted glass" effect and happens when there are no screenshots in the .attract folder. I'll fix it in the next release, meanwhile you can try two workarounds:

- disable "frosted glass" effect from the theme options

- take a couple of screenshots so that you get at least a screen1.png image in your .attract folder, that should do the trick

Quote
One suggestion: some text is too small at 640x480 and smaller resolutions. Perhaps increasing size, or having option to remove some of these tiny elements? I only tested in windowed borderless mode on my mac. Gives an ok but not perfect idea of what it will look like on my arcade machine or pi with 15khz crt’s.

This is a good point, I'm thinking of some ways to adapt the theme better to low resolutions. One is, as you said, to enlarge the smaller items (main category text, counters on the scroller), the other would be to switch to a 1-row layout for the smaller resolutions so there's more room for text and thumbs are larger, but I got some issues with that.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 26, 2018, 11:49:53 PM
I only tested in windowed borderless mode on my mac. Gives an ok but not perfect idea of what it will look like on my arcade machine or pi with 15khz crt’s.

You know you can also set a custom lower resolution in the layout options to better simulate lower res?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 30, 2018, 03:22:00 PM

One suggestion: some text is too small at 640x480 and smaller resolutions.

What do you think, is this better? I enlarged some of the smaller elements...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on December 30, 2018, 03:35:07 PM
If there’s anything you want me to test tonight on my pi to crt at 640x480 or 320x240, email me a copy and I’ll return image with my phone. keilmillerjr@me.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: darkand on January 01, 2019, 09:23:36 AM
https://imgur.com/VMrx4ti


How do I set it up to be correct?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 01, 2019, 01:29:53 PM
https://imgur.com/VMrx4ti


How do I set it up to be correct?

It seems that the romlist is not correctly created, you have to go in the AM menu, emulators, mame, generate collection/romlist. This should add all the missing data to the theme. Then consider that Arcadeflow can't work with video snaps only, it also needs "static" snapshot artwork...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: tjhooker on January 02, 2019, 11:51:30 AM
I think this layout looks gorgeous, would it be possible to make a version that allows you to have one row.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 02, 2019, 03:04:47 PM
I think this layout looks gorgeous, would it be possible to make a version that allows you to have one row.

It should be easy since the number of rows is just a parameter, but for some reason when I enable a single row the thumbs are not centered correctly. I’ll try to find the issue and implement single row in a future release
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: tjhooker on January 02, 2019, 03:45:57 PM
That would be great, thanks
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.1 [Release] Updated 26 December 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 05, 2019, 01:45:47 AM
That would be great, thanks

Sneak peek, coming to 3.2 soon :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.2 [Release] Updated 5 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 05, 2019, 06:59:53 AM
Version 3.2 is out! Optimization in the drop shadow routine and new 1-row layout :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.2 [Release] Updated 5 January 2018
Post by: keilmillerjr on January 05, 2019, 09:59:56 AM
New ROWSxCOLUMNS is awesome option!

Does weird stuff with snapshots.

Sending next_game and previous_game signals set in my attract.cfg in single row format causes it to jump two games.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.2 [Release] Updated 5 January 2018
Post by: tjhooker on January 05, 2019, 09:37:02 PM
Version 3.2 is out! Optimization in the drop shadow routine and new 1-row layout :)

Thank you, it looks great  :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.2 [Release] Updated 5 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 06, 2019, 01:25:25 AM
Does weird stuff with snapshots.

Hmm can you elaborate? AF does some tricks using snapshots, namely every time you enter a menu AF takes a snapshot and rename it to use it for the frosted glass effect, once you exit it should delete all the renamed snapshots so it doesn't interfere with the usual snapshot count. I tested it on Win and Mac OS, hopefully it works also on Linux...

Quote
Sending next_game and previous_game signals set in my attract.cfg in single row format causes it to jump two games.

1-row is almost an hack right now, I already found a bug (the overlay menu is not aligned correctly) which is going to be fixed ASAP. Actually the theme has never responded very well to “next_game” and “prev_game” signals because it hijacks them to its own purposes. I’ll look into it anyway :)

[EDIT] I found that for some reason my theme sends fe.list.index ++ when it gets a "next_game" signal, thus the double step. I don't remember why that signal catch was in place (poor me, this theme is way too complex now :D ) but it seems I can strip that signal response and everything is working fine...

[EDIT 2] It was a "return true" missing, fixed and going to be released in 3.3
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.2 [Release] Updated 5 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 06, 2019, 01:32:23 AM
Version 3.2 is out! Optimization in the drop shadow routine and new 1-row layout :)

Thank you, it looks great  :)

Thank you, I'm sorry 3.2 is a bit bug-ridden, I'll try to fix everything ASAP and release 3.3 this evening (Italian time :D )
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.3 [Release] Updated 6 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 06, 2019, 10:27:53 AM
3.3 is out, hopefully it has less bugs than 3.2 :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.3 [Release] Updated 6 January 2018
Post by: tjhooker on January 08, 2019, 11:06:35 AM
3.3 is out, hopefully it has less bugs than 3.2 :D

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong but now whenever I press left or right to change to the next game it skips a full page ie 3 games on 1 row, 10 games on 2 rows and 21 games in 3 rows
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.3 [Release] Updated 6 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 08, 2019, 11:21:12 AM
Not sure if I'm doing something wrong but now whenever I press left or right to change to the next game it skips a full page ie 3 games on 1 row, 10 games on 2 rows and 21 games in 3 rows

How are controls mapped in your AM?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.3 [Release] Updated 6 January 2018
Post by: tjhooker on January 08, 2019, 11:58:11 AM
Not sure if I'm doing something wrong but now whenever I press left or right to change to the next game it skips a full page ie 3 games on 1 row, 10 games on 2 rows and 21 games in 3 rows

How are controls mapped in your AM?

Thanks, problem solved - left and right were set as prev page and next page. Strange it worked fine in 3.2 but not to worry its fine now
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.3 [Release] Updated 6 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 08, 2019, 10:22:02 PM
Thanks, problem solved - left and right were set as prev page and next page. Strange it worked fine in 3.2 but not to worry its fine now

In 3.2 there was no response routine for next_page calls, and response to next_game had a bug, therefore probably after processing the "left" and "right" signal nothing more happened. AF 3.3 has corrected this and processes next_page and next_game correctly, but if you map those on left and right of course it won't work correctly.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.3 [Release] Updated 6 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 25, 2019, 05:40:30 AM
Sneak peek of some effects I'm coding for 3.4...

- The glow behind the thumbnails get its colors from the actual thumbnail (still not working for animated thumbs, but soon...)
- In the history page there's a large CRT-like glow around the animated screenshot (sorry for the wild moiree effect, I'll see if I can reduce it :D ).
- The flat shaded area behind the game title on the thumbnail is not an average of the thumb colors but the actual thumbnail smoothed heavily.

I have to iron out some quirks before relasing it
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.3 [Release] Updated 6 January 2018
Post by: FrizzleFried on January 25, 2019, 06:48:54 AM
I'm digging this layout thus far... tons of options... lots to learn from... awesome!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 31, 2019, 10:32:00 AM
Updated to 3.4, enjoy and report bugs!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: calle81 on January 31, 2019, 11:45:35 AM
u
Updated to 3.4, enjoy and report bugs!

Where I can i download it? It's not available on github :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 31, 2019, 12:02:58 PM
u
Updated to 3.4, enjoy and report bugs!

Where I can i download it? It's not available on github :)

It’s in the first post, between the two images. On github tomorrow
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: calle81 on February 01, 2019, 06:26:32 AM
Thanks, unfortunately AM freeze when I try to enter a display using this theme. Really weird. I have to go into task manager in order to shutdown AM.

I'd really like to learn how to use the sub menu. It would be awesome to be able to add this to more themes. :P
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 01, 2019, 01:17:10 PM
Thanks, unfortunately AM freeze when I try to enter a display using this theme. Really weird. I have to go into task manager in order to shutdown AM.

You mean this latest version freezes or even older versions? What revision of Attract Mode are you using? And do you have a console log or it just hangs? That's really strange :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: calle81 on February 01, 2019, 02:00:01 PM
I'm running the latest version from the daily build. And yeah I can't get to the console when i freezes. If it's only I that have the problem it must be something on my end.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 01, 2019, 02:08:39 PM
I'm running the latest version from the daily build.

I meant if earlier versions of Arcadeflow were working, because the latest one has many changes and maybe some issue I didn't catch on my test systems.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 03, 2019, 03:42:10 AM
I've put together a simple website to gather old versions of my theme, together with some screenshots. I'll update it from time to time and hopefully one day I'll had a true "vademecum" to explain all the features and options of the current revision :D

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: SFNMutt on February 06, 2019, 08:21:21 AM
the new version added the context menu to game select which means you have to select the game & then select it again.  I'm setting up my system for a 6yr old so I'd like to simplify things.  is there any way for me to disable this so selecting a game goes straight to the game and the context menu back to being a custom button?

thanks, love the theme by the way
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 06, 2019, 08:48:57 AM
I'm setting up my system for a 6yr old so I'd like to simplify things.  is there any way for me to disable this so selecting a game goes straight to the game and the context menu back to being a custom button?

It's so ironic that I changed the way it worked to make things simpler :D Disabling the new way is not straightforward, but if you can wait a bit I'll add it as an option in the next revision. Meanwhile you can get the previous version from the archive.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: SFNMutt on February 06, 2019, 09:06:47 AM
WOW!  that was really quick.  I still have the older theme installed so I can totally use that. thank you!

by the way, the older version I was using is actually much older.  when I bumped up to the current version really love the icons in the upper left showing buttons & controls.  made me realize I had a couple games that required too many buttons.  :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.4 [Release] Updated 31 January 2018
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 06, 2019, 10:32:06 AM
made me realize I had a couple games that required too many buttons.  :D

I decided to code that icon because the first thing I do when launching a game I don't know is going into mame settings to see how many button it uses :D

Anyway I implemented what you asked for this way: in the layout options you can select (as it was before) the overmenu button, but this time you can also chose "select". So if you chose "select" it will work like 3.4, if you chose "custom1" or other custom button it will work as the old layout. Just give me some time to tweak again the glow effect and I'll release it lol
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.5 [Release] Updated 7 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 07, 2019, 03:35:34 AM
Updated to revision 3.5! Download link in the homepage or at http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.5 [Release] Updated 7 February 2019
Post by: SFNMutt on February 07, 2019, 05:14:38 AM
I can't believe you already updated it, thank you.  this is great. 

your site made it really easy for me to install 1/2 a dozen old versions of your theme.  thanks for that too.


I've run into an issue.  Not asking you to fix it.  Just letting you know about it.  on my laptop where I've been setting up AttractMode, AF3.5 runs awesome.  for some reason on my home & work PCs it runs really slow.  I've tried disabling everything I can in theme options & deleted all the vid snaps but there were no changes in speed.  Changing to any of the themes that come w/ AttactMode solves it.  Dropping back to AF2 & changing the layout to no shader helps a lot but still slower than the laptop.  all 3 machines are new / fast W10 PCs & have 4k screens.  not sure why 1 would run any diff than the other.  the laptop is ridiculously fast but the 2 PCs certainly aren't dogs.  Both are newer i7s w/ a ton of ram & decent vid cards.  both PCs are using large HDTVs for screens so maybe that's got something to do w/ it.  I tired running AM in a small window but it was no different.

this doesn't matter as long as it runs good on the PC I've yet to setup for my arcade1up pacman. even if it doesn't, v2 will be all that unit needs.

here's a vid showing it running slow at work.
https://youtu.be/YrtK0Stze40
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.5 [Release] Updated 7 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 07, 2019, 05:31:17 AM
your site made it really easy for me to install 1/2 a dozen old versions of your theme.  thanks for that too.

You are welcome! There are some releases prior to 2.0 that are not 100% correct since back then I didn't plan to track all the versions and I messed with some files :D

Quote
Dropping back to AF2 & disabling the shader gets it to run fine on those machines.  all 3 machines are new / fast W10 PCs & have 4k screens.  not sure why 1 would run any diff than the other.  the laptop is ridiculously fast but the 2 PCs certainly aren't dogs.  Both are newer i7s w/ a ton of ram & decent vid cards.

It seems the issue here is with OpenGL shaders, I've had some issues in the past with my test rig: a xeon workstation with fast SSD, 32 GB of ram and Quadro card. I had to implement some tricks to make the layout smoother, but then I discovered a setting in nVidia control panel that made all my layouts run at 60fps with no tricks needed, which was the expected behavior of such a "monster" rig.

Maybe there's an nVidia card on your PCs? Another issue could be the high resolution, you can try reducing the resolution in Arcadeflow options, there's a field where you can put WIDTHxHEIGHT, just try something radical like 640x400 or similar to see if it improves.

I'll check the setting of my Quadro card tomorrow and report back
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.5 [Release] Updated 7 February 2019
Post by: SFNMutt on February 07, 2019, 06:19:33 AM
YEAH! I have an update for you.  I decided to try it out on a different work computer w/ a human size monitor & the on board video card.  AF3.5 worked perfectly.  this means it's the big ass TV & high res.  disappointing that it won't run correctly on my 65" 4k tv but it's works perfectly on the 19" widescreen 1080p PC monitor which means I'm confident it'll be fine on my arcade machine.

when I get home I'll try dropping the resolution down on my home PC & see if that handles it.  i'll also try the AF res setting like you suggested.

thanks again
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.5 [Release] Updated 7 February 2019
Post by: SFNMutt on February 07, 2019, 07:45:32 AM
thanks once again.  setting the resolution in theme settings fixed the slowdown.  works perfectly now!!!!  as a bonus, now I can see it in vertical 3:4 the way it'll look in the cabinet.  love it! 

I'll be sure to grab a vid of it working correctly when I finish up the last of the wheel images & properly resize the snaps.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.5 [Release] Updated 7 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 07, 2019, 07:50:18 AM
thanks once again.  setting the resolution in theme settings fixed the slowdown.  works perfectly now!!!! 

Good to know, I'll see if there's a way to avoid this slowdowns: I always use fixed resolution buffers for shader effects (like 32x32 pixels or 200x200 pixels) which shouldn't have an impact since they won't depend on the resolution (the filtered image is then scaled to full size but that's not a very taxing process). The only shader that works at higher res is the one that applies the gradient blur on the thumbnails. Just as a proof, could you try disabling "color gradient" in Arcadeflow options and see if the slowdown is still present?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.6 [Release] Updated 14 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 14, 2019, 03:07:53 AM
Arcadeflow 3.6 is out!

Changed the CRT shader to Lotte's, and fixed some bugs with AM 2.5 (now Arcadeflow only works from AM 2.5)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.7 [Release] Updated 18 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 18, 2019, 05:43:50 AM
Released Arcadeflow 3.7 with revised look of history page and new CRT shaders based on Lotte but with some unique tweaks like vignetting.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.7 [Release] Updated 18 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 24, 2019, 12:39:00 AM
:) Hi zpaolo11x My name is James Castro and everyone in mugen community called me OldGamer
I wanted to take the time and make a Intro from your theme, because never came with one and I also Included the sound to go with intro and theme for Arcadeflow

This is cool! One suggestion: I see in the video you don't have "wheel" artwork for the game titles, in this case I suggest you go in Arcadeflow options and disable "Thumb Gradient" so you can see the thumb without the fade on top :)

I like the idea of an intro that stays there before one presses a button, maybe I'll embed it in AF in a future version, but your work is really nice! I'm thinking of a sort of attract mode for Arcadeflow, jumping from game to game (I already have all the routines for fading background and smooth shading ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.7 [Release] Updated 18 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 24, 2019, 12:40:22 AM
I'm doing some testing of the new AF 3.8 and I discovered something weird, it seems that, on my Macbook Pro at least, AF 3.3 and AF 3.4 are dramatically faster and smoother than subsequent versions. Can someone confirm this? Maybe on a modern powerful machine this is not noticeable, I'm trying to spot the issue...

EDIT: Oh right, forget it, my AF 3.4 was set to use 640x400 resolution instead of 1280x800, no wonder it was faster LOL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.7 [Release] Updated 18 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 25, 2019, 12:51:08 AM
hey zpaolo11x can you please show me and teach me on how did you add your logo on the screen like that can you show me and teach me how its really done like you had yours ?

It should be pretty easy: launch Attract Mode and go in the menu, go to the "Emulator", "Mame" section. After the "Pause Hotkey" entry there's a list of artwork entries, you should have already a "snap" entry. To use the game logos you have to create a "wheel" entry and point it to the folder where your logos are, then move down to "Generate collection/rom list" and refresh your list.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.7 [Release] Updated 18 February 2019
Post by: pkwillzinho on February 26, 2019, 04:37:53 PM
zpaolo11x, please, could you tell me where, in source code, do I edit for videosnaps to run faster when selecting a game?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.7 [Release] Updated 18 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 26, 2019, 10:19:53 PM
zpaolo11x, please, could you tell me where, in source code, do I edit for videosnaps to run faster when selecting a game?

What do you mean by "run faster"? You want to avoid the delay between selecting a game and the start of the video snap? In that case just look for the lines where "delayvid" and "fadevid" are defined and change them like this:

Code: [Select]
// Video delay parameters to skip fade-in
local delayvid = 0.95
local fadevid = 0.95

This will make videos start almost immediately with a slight fade-in, it might get some stuttering because of the video loading, but overall I like the effect. LEt me know if it works as you like.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.7 [Release] Updated 18 February 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 28, 2019, 02:59:52 AM
Sneak preview... I'm working on an "attract mode" for Arcadeflow. When enabled it will show the (customizable) logo, a (customizable) blinking text and a CRT-filtered random selection of game videos filling the screen. After an inactivity time the attract mode will kick in and you can customize the time each game will be on screen.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.8 [Release] Updated 1 March 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 01, 2019, 02:40:14 AM
Upgraded to 3.8 with new attract mode (disabled by default, look at theme options!)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.9 [Release] Updated 7 March 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 07, 2019, 05:31:35 AM
Version 3.9 is out with many many changes to the "attract mode" inside Arcadeflow. Look how crisp scanlines look in 320x200 with the new tricks!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.9 [Release] Updated 7 March 2019
Post by: dark1973 on March 08, 2019, 05:59:43 AM
Thanks. Great work.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 3.9 [Release] Updated 7 March 2019
Post by: keilmillerjr on March 08, 2019, 07:07:06 AM
A+ your turning out features quickly!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.0 [Release] Updated 1 April 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 01, 2019, 01:44:48 AM
Updated to 4.0, new transitions and some bug fixes!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 11, 2019, 02:11:12 AM
Updated to 4.1, biggest addition is a low resolution mode for very low resolution screens. See the attached screenshot for a (simulated) 320 x 240 resolution. The font is larger and the layout is cleaner. Of course if you like it you can enable it also in higher res screens :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: keilmillerjr on April 11, 2019, 05:35:15 AM
Thank you!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: jedione on April 12, 2019, 06:34:53 PM
also.... a big thanks your way ...good work
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2019, 06:33:35 AM
Inspired by the thread regarding progress bars... sneak preview of something that might go in next release. Curious to have feedback about that
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: jedione on April 16, 2019, 06:45:41 AM
 i like it,
the way its set up reminds me of a history timeline

the more and different bars the better, ;D

my personal prefrence would be just a clean #-z line

is their a way to do that with your existing code?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2019, 06:59:33 AM
the way its set up reminds me of a history timeline

That was the idea :D Also since I already have the proportional scrollbar it's a simple addition to the look of the theme.

Quote
my personal prefrence would be just a clean #-z line

is their a way to do that with your existing code?

Sure there is, actually that's how it started in the beginning because it's much simpler, but I found it a bit clashing with the horizontal scrollbar (that I wanted to retain). Of course I can be crazy enough to put all this variants as options in the theme LOL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: jedione on April 16, 2019, 07:53:43 AM
well then ill just wait till you release it , or post the code, so i can play...thanks and good work
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2019, 09:10:19 AM
well then ill just wait till you release it , or post the code, so i can play...thanks and good work

The code is a slight variation from the one posted here:

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2864.msg19796#msg19796

The plus of this code is you don't need to pre-create the labels table, but every time you change the table you have to hide the old one, which might be a performance hit in the long run if you keep changing filters (maybe :D)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: vicsidious on April 16, 2019, 12:00:58 PM
It's really sad that this theme won't work for raspberry pi 3! I would have used it for all my machines :(
Any way of making a lighter version, that the pi could run? All of us running Attract Mode on a Pi would be eternally greatful! :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: Dallinj on April 16, 2019, 04:36:46 PM
I know this theme is essentially mame-exclusive with regards to how it displays and handles data, but I was wondering if there was any way to force the aspect ratio of the game snaps to be horizontal. I'm trying to display snes games, but the boxart (which is all horizontal) is being squished into a vertical frames because there is no data telling the layout the orientation of the game. Any suggestions?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2019, 10:24:25 PM
I know this theme is essentially mame-exclusive with regards to how it displays and handles data, but I was wondering if there was any way to force the aspect ratio of the game snaps to be horizontal.

You are right, Arcadeflow is heavily tied to using Mame or arcades, and especially to use screenshots as artwork. The idea behind this theme was exactly to build some nice graphics for machine that don't have proper "box art" (flyers are nice but sometimes a bit messy and difficult to find).

Building an entirely new "Consoleflow" theme would be interesting: consoles have some advantages like proper box art (should just tweak the drop shadows to be dynamically generated and not "faked" like they are now :D ), screens are always horizontal, probably no need to use "logo" artwork in the grid layout etc. I'll think of it but I'm not so much into console emulation :D

To answer your question more directly, I can fix something on the fly to force Arcadeflow to always display horizontal aspect ratio tiles in the grid, but the theme will force the artwork to fit in an horizontal 4:3 box, so some stretching of box art might occur. What is the aspect of SNES boxes?

[EDIT] Have you tried previous versions of Arcadeflow? Up to 3.7 (I think) it used actual snap resolution to detect horizontal or vertical games and should work with box art too...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2019, 10:30:19 PM
It's really sad that this theme won't work for raspberry pi 3! I would have used it for all my machines :(
Any way of making a lighter version, that the pi could run? All of us running Attract Mode on a Pi would be eternally greatful! :)

I know, this is something I'd really like to do but there are some hurdles: first and foremost I don't own a Pi myself, I know the Pi is cheap and easy to get, but then the second point steps in: spare time :D I mostly code on my Mac at home or on my PC at coffee breaks at work, and in both cases it would be an issue to have to interact with the TV to check the Pi. If only there was a proper Pi "emulator" for testing code.
Also, on a technical standpoint, Arcadeflow relies heavily on GLSL shaders, and I'm still trying to find what can and what can't be done on the Pi. I don't want to return to using "pre-rendered" graphics for blurred backgrounds etc.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.1 [Release] Updated 11 April 2019
Post by: Dallinj on April 17, 2019, 05:12:11 PM
I know this theme is essentially mame-exclusive with regards to how it displays and handles data, but I was wondering if there was any way to force the aspect ratio of the game snaps to be horizontal.

You are right, Arcadeflow is heavily tied to using Mame or arcades, and especially to use screenshots as artwork. The idea behind this theme was exactly to build some nice graphics for machine that don't have proper "box art" (flyers are nice but sometimes a bit messy and difficult to find).

Building an entirely new "Consoleflow" theme would be interesting: consoles have some advantages like proper box art (should just tweak the drop shadows to be dynamically generated and not "faked" like they are now :D ), screens are always horizontal, probably no need to use "logo" artwork in the grid layout etc. I'll think of it but I'm not so much into console emulation :D

To answer your question more directly, I can fix something on the fly to force Arcadeflow to always display horizontal aspect ratio tiles in the grid, but the theme will force the artwork to fit in an horizontal 4:3 box, so some stretching of box art might occur. What is the aspect of SNES boxes?

[EDIT] Have you tried previous versions of Arcadeflow? Up to 3.7 (I think) it used actual snap resolution to detect horizontal or vertical games and should work with box art too...

Thanks for the response! The aspect ratio is just about 4:3, but I'll give an earlier version a try just to see what it does. You might not even need a consoleflow, because nes boxart looks pretty awesome as is  ;) https://imgur.com/a/P06i1sw


[EDIT] I tried and earlier version (3.7) and it's closer displaying fully, but the vertical gray box still remains https://imgur.com/a/Y3xOEcu

[EDIT 2] After trying some tweaking to the layout.nut, I realized the easy solution was right in front of me. Changing the actual game info is what fixed it. All SNES (and I assume other consoles as well) default to not having a rotation set, but setting the rotation to 0 made them look just like they should!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 02, 2019, 05:37:32 AM
Version 4.2 is out with many changes to the scrollbar! Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: jedione on May 02, 2019, 06:57:45 AM
thanks,, this has to be one of the best themes ever made....for shure...

but right now im getting this error: :-[

im on...Attract-Mode v2.4.1 (Windows, SFML 2.5 +SWF +7z)

Code: [Select]
C:\auraAM\layouts/ArcadFlow/layout.nut line = (2940) column = (42) : error invalid constant [Transition.ChangedTag]
Script Error in C:\auraAM\layouts/ArcadFlow/layout.nut - invalid constant [Transition.ChangedTag]
 - Loaded layout: C:\auraAM\layouts/ArcadFlow/ (layout.nut)
 - Layout is empty, initializing with the default layout settings

loads default layout....
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 02, 2019, 10:03:58 AM
Here the new release loads well (attract-mode 2.5.1) but I'm noticing some bugs related to alphabet scrollbar in timeline and LabelList when you press down and select the alphabet.
- Letter V before letter E.
- Many times, after you scroll to the right you get stuck and can't scroll back to the left side, only to the right.
- The Alphabet letters position don't correspond to where the games from that letter start when you scroll from letter to letter in the bar.

Great first effort using the alphabet scrollbar :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Giacomo1982 on May 02, 2019, 10:08:15 AM
I appreciate your constant updating this great layout, but why not to create another one with a different layout? With your knowledge you can do anything you want.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 02, 2019, 12:53:14 PM
thanks,, this has to be one of the best themes ever made....for shure...

but right now im getting this error: :-[

im on...Attract-Mode v2.4.1 (Windows, SFML 2.5 +SWF +7z)


I'm sorry but starting from version 3.6 Arcadeflow is only compatible with Attract Mode 2.5 +

I've tried to make it backward-compatible but it didn't work well :/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 02, 2019, 12:56:29 PM
Here the new release loads well (attract-mode 2.5.1) but I'm noticing some bugs related to alphabet scrollbar in timeline and LabelList when you press down and select the alphabet.
- Letter V before letter E.
- Many times, after you scroll to the right you get stuck and can't scroll back to the left side, only to the right.

I was just able to replicate this issue, "label jump" is something I coded at the last minute and I need to debug it better it seems. Thank you for the feedback, hopefully I can sort it quickly.

Quote
- The Alphabet letters position don't correspond to where the games from that letter start when you scroll from letter to letter in the bar.

The letter should be in the middle between two tick marks, the marks are the start and end of the letter span area, and the letter is in the middle of the area, not at the beginning. Maybe it's a bit confusing... Also, when the tick marks are too close to each other no letter is shown.

That said, apart from the issues with the "label jump", is the letter order correct or you see them out of alphabetical order?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 02, 2019, 02:56:03 PM
Glad to help! :)

Out of alphabetical order. In these prints you can see the letter V before the E for example in both scrolling options.

You can notice also that in both prints when the letter is selected in the alphabetic bar it doesn't go to the first game of that letter.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 02, 2019, 11:59:27 PM

Out of alphabetical order. In these prints you can see the letter V before the E for example in both scrolling options.

You can notice also that in both prints when the letter is selected in the alphabetic bar it doesn't go to the first game of that letter.

Ok, this is very strange :D I have some questions if you don't mind to take some time to help me debug this:

- I see in the second pic a ' label, can you go to that label and tell me some game names for that label? I could incorporate that in the "#" label but this is a minor issue...
- Is your current filter sorted in some special way? Or is it just sorted by name?
- It's very strange not only that V is before E, but also that M is present twice in the list, gonna check the case of this letters. Also, what are the games in the "V" label? Any strangeness in their names?

I didn't have these issues on my test machine, but I got some issue on another machine with way more ROMs, so now I'm syncing my machines and already found and squashed some bugs, if you can help me wth this it will be greatly appreciated. I think the issue is in the way my theme generate the sort order, for some reason my routine places a "V" before an "E", but it didn't happen in my tests...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 03, 2019, 12:53:03 AM

You can notice also that in both prints when the letter is selected in the alphabetic bar it doesn't go to the first game of that letter.

Ok I think I fixed the "V" sorting issue: this was due to the fact that AttractMode ignores "The " and "Vs. " at the beginning of game names, my layout didn't consider "Vs. " so now it should be ok. Please if you can try the layout.nut attached to this message and tell me if it's fixed.

I can't tell if this will fix also the issue of the letter not showing the first game in the letter range, because I can't replicate that.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 03, 2019, 04:58:52 AM
Hi. :)

Testing with your new layout.nut

' label is because of games like '88 Games

I have these rules/filters:

global_filter       
      rule                 Category not_contains BIOS
      rule                 FileIsAvailable equals 1
   filter               All
      sort_by              Title

There's still some strange things going on with the letters/alphabet scroll selected. In timeline some letters are missing or out of place (letter V is fixed but you have the T before H, or missing the I, U and Z) like you can see in the pic with Salamander 2. You can also notice that position of the S, among others, is way out of place regarding where the letter starts. S games start near the P letter for example. Also gaming scroll still get's stuck there when I tried going back/left.

In LabelList you have all the letters it seems, but letter T is out of place. There's also the same weird jump problems scrolling the game list when the alphabet is selected. Gets stuck, jumps from several letters instead of going to the next (M going straight to P for example)

Hope this helps.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 03, 2019, 05:17:12 AM

Testing with your new layout.nut

' label is because of games like '88 Games


Ok, first of all let me thank you so much for your help, it would be almost impossible to debug all this without help. It seems that most issues (the V, the T etc) are related to some parts of the name that AM strips when sorting, and that my function is not stripping correctly. I don't have the same games you have (like '88 Games for example) so I can't see the issues directly.

On the other hand, the missing I and U are done on purpose: when the distance between ticks is too small the ticks are present but the letter is hidden, to avoid overlapping. I'll see if I can get a better solution because as it is the letter is hidden even if the space is enough (like, long space, short space, long space the letter should be visible...) .

I think the jumping too is related to the game names not being parsed correctly, may I ask you a very great favor? I prepared a custom layout you should run it and send me the console output of that, it should list all your game titles together with the letters my routine is using for sorting. Analyzing this list will help me fix all remaining issues hopefully... You can send the attachment to me via private message or to paolo.zago@gmail.com

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on May 03, 2019, 10:57:15 AM
@Enkak

Not sure if this will help your situation with this theme but I found that sometimes letters jump around because the rom list isn't in 100% abc order.  Go to attract/romlists and find your mame.txt.  Open it up and you will find that most likely it is sorted by the first letter of the roms named by Mame's naming scheme.  For example "openice" will be sorted into the "O" of the list, but the game is actually "2 On 2 Open Ice Challenge (rev 1.21)" which in turn should be in the "#" of the list instead.  (Also "Vs. Balloon Fight" is actually "balonfght" so that would explain why you see that "V" game in the "B" category.)  Therefore the whole list should really be resorted using the second name which is the full name of the game.  You can import the whole list into Excel (if you have it), and resort it via columns.  Or if you are using a 32 bits Notepad++ you can download a plugin that will let you sort it by columns as well.  I hope future versions of AM fixes this when you use the "generate romlist" for games (should be sorted by "Title" which is the 2nd column).
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 03, 2019, 11:13:00 AM
@Enkak

Not sure if this will help your situation with this theme but I found that sometimes letters jump around because the rom list isn't in 100% abc order.  Go to attract/romlists and find your mame.txt.  Open it up and you will find that most likely it is sorted by the first letter of the roms named by Mame's naming scheme.

AFAIK if your filter is sorted by "Name" then the list is sorted by the rom file name, but if the filter is sorted by "Title" then the actual game title is used. But while Mame sorts everything disregarding articles (The Simpson comes under the "T" on Mame64 GUI) Attract Mode strips the articles and some other particles like "Vs.". The problem is I don't know what other particles are filtered.

No need to tweak lists in excel, I just need some time to figure out how to correct all this stripping :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 03, 2019, 11:34:35 AM
@Enkak

Not sure if this will help your situation with this theme but I found that sometimes letters jump around because the rom list isn't in 100% abc order.  Go to attract/romlists and find your mame.txt.  Open it up and you will find that most likely it is sorted by the first letter of the roms named by Mame's naming scheme.  For example "openice" will be sorted into the "O" of the list, but the game is actually "2 On 2 Open Ice Challenge (rev 1.21)" which in turn should be in the "#" of the list instead.  (Also "Vs. Balloon Fight" is actually "balonfght" so that would explain why you see that "V" game in the "B" category.)  Therefore the whole list should really be resorted using the second name which is the full name of the game.  You can import the whole list into Excel (if you have it), and resort it via columns.  Or if you are using a 32 bits Notepad++ you can download a plugin that will let you sort it by columns as well.  I hope future versions of AM fixes this when you use the "generate romlist" for games (should be sorted by "Title" which is the 2nd column).

Thx for the help and idea. :) But since I use the filter to sort by "Title" to avoid using mame rom names the jump shouldn't happen I think.

@zpaolo11x

I will try doing it a little later today, using your custom layout and send an e-mail with the console output.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 04, 2019, 01:42:07 AM
@zpaolo11x

I will try doing it a little later today, using your custom layout and send an e-mail with the console output.

I saw the list, I found the culprit: it's "Vs. The Goonies", my routine strips the "Vs." but not the "The", therefore the error in sorting. If you can try with the attached layout it should fix it, hopefully it will fix also the game letter issue...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 04, 2019, 07:45:01 AM
Just tried but sadly the same problems seem to persist with letter T before H. In these prints, for example, the scroll simple refuses to go back/left after you reach the letter S.
I can also confirm that this issues seem to happen only with MAME. Tried using it in other system/romlist and everything seems to be working good, no problems at all. Even the alphabet picks always the first game of each letter as it should, etc.

Sorry giving you so much trouble. Maybe other people can replicate these issues with MAME?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Wenzon on May 04, 2019, 09:41:15 AM
I found a bug.

When you set this theme in the main menu having other systems, the listing gets banged.
The "Scrollbar Style LabelList" option does not appear in the main menu or when accessing other systems. (image1)

The organization comes back when you start selecting the system. But the problem of the ScrollbarBar Style LabelList continues when you access one of the systems. (Image 2 and 3)

Sorry my english.  :-[

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 04, 2019, 06:26:37 PM
Just tried but sadly the same problems seem to persist with letter T before H.

You are absolutely right: the fix was correct but in the incorrect order (long story short, it didn't fix anything). This time I'm pretty sure it's ok since I downloaded the Goonies rom just to test :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 04, 2019, 06:33:47 PM
I found a bug.

When you set this theme in the main menu having other systems, the listing gets banged.

I see the issues you mention, but I only use one system and one display so I never experienced that. Can you tell me how to configure AM for multiple systems like you have, so that I can debug it? Also when you launch AM with Arcadeflow, is there any error message on the console you can copy paste here for debug?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Cobra83 on May 04, 2019, 11:48:55 PM
zpaolo11x any chance you could upload the latest version of your theme to google drive or anywhere else? For some reason the link to your site won't work for me and it always times out, thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Wenzon on May 05, 2019, 03:01:45 AM
I found a bug.

When you set this theme in the main menu having other systems, the listing gets banged.

I see the issues you mention, but I only use one system and one display so I never experienced that. Can you tell me how to configure AM for multiple systems like you have, so that I can debug it? Also when you launch AM with Arcadeflow, is there any error message on the console you can copy paste here for debug?


Error message does not exist. I use only one monitor.

I put in the main menu the systems "Capcom I, Capcom II, Capcom III, NeoGeo, Atomiswave", among others. When I run the Attractmode the main menu appears messed up as reported. By going through the systems the listing returns to normal.

The "ScrollbarBar Style LabelList" option disappears when you access the main menu or some system.

I use the latest version of Attractmode. Here are the settings I use for your theme.


Code: [Select]
layout_config Arcadeflow
param                amchangetimer 10
param                amenable Inactivity only
param                ammessage  - PRESS ANY KEY -
param                amsound Yes
param                amtimer 120
param                amtune
param                audiovidhistory No
param                audiovidsnaps No
param                baserotation None
param                bgblurred
param                colortheme Dark
param                cropsnaps Square
param                customsize
param                darkpanel Dark
param                dat_path $HOME/mame/dats/history.dat
param                datashadowsmooth Yes
param                fpson No
param                frostedglass Yes
param                generate_index
param                historypanel White panel
param                horizontalrows 1
param                index_clones Yes
param                layersnap No
param                layervideo No
param                livesearch Yes
param                lowres No
param                newgame No
param                overmenubutton select
param                paramx1
param                paramx2
param                paramx3
param                paramx4
param                paramx5
param                paramx6
param                paramx7
param                paramx8
param                paramx9
param                paramxx0
param                paramxx1
param                paramxx2
param                paramxx3
param                paramxx4
param                paramxx5
param                paramxx6
param                paramxx7
param                paramxx8
param                paramxx9
param                scanlinemode Aperture
param                scrollertype LabelList
param                searchmeth Screen keys
param                snapglow Yes
param                snapgradient Yes
param                splashlogo Yes
param                splashlogofile
param                themeaudio Yes
param                thumbvideo Yes
param                verticalrows 1
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 05, 2019, 04:44:25 AM
zpaolo11x any chance you could upload the latest version of your theme to google drive or anywhere else? For some reason the link to your site won't work for me and it always times out, thanks in advance!

Sure, you can download the latest version here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oLCme-XK4We57y1mYwyzrAhpRPUoPdU1?usp=sharing

I'll add the other versions as soon as possible and I'll try to keep it updated with new releases
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 05, 2019, 10:22:23 AM
Just tried but sadly the same problems seem to persist with letter T before H.

You are absolutely right: the fix was correct but in the incorrect order (long story short, it didn't fix anything). This time I'm pretty sure it's ok since I downloaded the Goonies rom just to test :D

Everything seems to be fixed now, congrats!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Cobra83 on May 05, 2019, 07:26:01 PM
Thank you!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 06, 2019, 12:24:24 AM
I put in the main menu the systems "Capcom I, Capcom II, Capcom III, NeoGeo, Atomiswave", among others. When I run the Attractmode the main menu appears messed up as reported. By going through the systems the listing returns to normal.

Ok, I think I'm getting it, let me check if I got it right, each "system" is in fact a Display in Attract Mode configuration? And AM is starting in "Display Menu" mode, right? So basically my theme glitches when used as display menu? Sorry for the basic questions
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 06, 2019, 01:49:20 AM
Everything seems to be fixed now, congrats!

Fantastic news, hopefully there are no other names causing issues with the routine :D I'll publish the update ASAP for everyone
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: Wenzon on May 06, 2019, 02:07:36 AM
I put in the main menu the systems "Capcom I, Capcom II, Capcom III, NeoGeo, Atomiswave", among others. When I run the Attractmode the main menu appears messed up as reported. By going through the systems the listing returns to normal.

Ok, I think I'm getting it, let me check if I got it right, each "system" is in fact a Display in Attract Mode configuration? And AM is starting in "Display Menu" mode, right? So basically my theme glitches when used as display menu?

Perfectly.   :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.2 [Release] Updated 2 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 07, 2019, 12:55:36 AM

Perfectly.   :)

So, yesterday I played a bit with multiple displays, a thing I never did before. Basically my conclusion is that, as it stands, Arcadeflow is not good as a display menu theme, so if you don't want to have issues (like the first picture you posted with all the boxes overalpping) you should go in Displays -> Display Menu Options and select "Default" as "Menu style / Layout". With this setting you should have the display list in the usual overlapping menu, for some reasons the "frosted glass" effect is missing here, I'll see if it can be fixed.

Of course it would be much better to be able to use Arcadeflow for the displays too, but I think I'll have to recode it properly because it seems to have issues right now (which is expected because Arcadeflow is heavily tailored to Mame).

As far as the missing labels bar is concerned, could you test if, with Arcadeflow 4.3 and using the "Default" theme for display menu, the label list is working as expected?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: Wenzon on May 07, 2019, 02:20:08 AM
Quote
As far as the missing labels bar is concerned, could you test if, with Arcadeflow 4.3 and using the "Default" theme for display menu, the label list is working as expected?


It works as you suggested. But other way the problem persists.

Who knows in a next update you can fix this?  ;)

This theme is very beautiful. It's a beautiful job.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 07, 2019, 07:55:06 AM
Who knows in a next update you can fix this?  ;)

Honestly... I'm already working on it :D It seems the issue is in the generation of the labels, since the display menu doesn't have a proper order, the label is always "null" and that messes with everything. I'm trying to patch it, but I think I'll need your help for some beta-testing ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: Wenzon on May 07, 2019, 11:32:53 AM
Who knows in a next update you can fix this?  ;)

Honestly... I'm already working on it :D It seems the issue is in the generation of the labels, since the display menu doesn't have a proper order, the label is always "null" and that messes with everything. I'm trying to patch it, but I think I'll need your help for some beta-testing ;D

No problems!
You can count on my help.  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 08, 2019, 12:01:45 AM
You can count on my help.  ;D

I saw that you have "wheel" artwork and screenshot for the different displays, like "Capcom classics", "Capcom System I" etc, where do you get them and how do you configure AM to assign each of these to the displays?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 08, 2019, 01:56:13 AM
No problems!
You can count on my help.  ;D

I have investigated a bit the "Displays Menu" issue, first of all, I've done some tweaks to Arcadeflow so that it works with frosted glass if you use a "Default" layout for display menus, then I did some tweaks so that if you choose Arcadeflow as display menu layout, it doesn't crash and the timeline should still work. If you want you can check the attached layout.nut, so I can see how it looks when you use it as display menu.

I thought I could insert an option in Arcadeflow so that, when enabled, it would make the layout more fit to use as display menu, my idea was that the user could set the same layout (Arcadeflow) for all the displays and for the display menu, and tweak the settings of the display menu layout to enable that option. To my surprise though, if the same layout is used both as Display Menu Layout and as Display Layout, the options are shared, so this trick is a no go :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: Wenzon on May 08, 2019, 07:48:26 AM
Quote
I saw that you have "wheel" artwork and screenshot for the different displays, like "Capcom classics", "Capcom System I" etc, where do you get them and how do you configure AM to assign each of these to the displays?

Uooouuu !!!  :o
Many questions and inquiries for my poor English.  ;D

I'll try to explain. Wheel, artwork and screenshot, I basically found it on google.

In the Attractmode settings, both must have the same name in the "Emulators and Displays" (Image1 and Image2).

In "Displays Menu Options", "Style Menu / Layout", you have to select your theme (ArcadeFlow).
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 08, 2019, 07:56:14 AM
Many questions and inquiries for my poor English.  ;D

I'll try to explain. Wheel, artwork and screenshot, I basically found it on google.

In the Attractmode settings, both must have the same name in the "Emulators and Displays" (Image1 and Image2).

Got it. There's an issue with Attract Mode when you use the same layout for the Displays and as Display Menu, but I'm doing something like this: I'll develop an Arcadeflow theme with a "Display Menu" option. Just duplicate the theme folder and apply the copied layout as Display Menu layout, activating the option in the layout settings. In this way everything will work with no glitches and a nice appearance.

The "Display Menu" option will force some settings like:

- you'll always have square thumbs, because it's easyer :D
- no game data, button data ect will be loaded
- Scrollbar will have no labels because they don't make sense in that mode
- Overlay context menu will not work

I'm coding it right now, I'll share it as soon as ready...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: Wenzon on May 08, 2019, 08:33:46 AM
Quote
Got it. There's an issue with Attract Mode when you use the same layout for the Displays and as Display Menu, but I'm doing something like this: I'll develop an Arcadeflow theme with a "Display Menu" option. Just duplicate the theme folder and apply the copied layout as Display Menu layout, activating the option in the layout settings. In this way everything will work with no glitches and a nice appearance.

I was going to tell you about it now.  ;D

Quote
I'm coding it right now, I'll share it as soon as ready...
I will wait anxiously.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 08, 2019, 11:43:31 AM
Sneak preview of the new "Displays Menu" mode: first image is the new layout when used as a layout for displays menu; as you can see artwork is squashed and orientation of snaps is not good, plus lots of glitches in game data and scrollbar.

Enable "Displays Menu mode" from the options and, without having to change anything else, the theme looks like the second image. And you can still customize a lot of other aesthetic elements like in the standard theme (like going 1-row for example).
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 08, 2019, 12:12:42 PM
Oh this looks very nice as Display Menu, love that version with a single row. Could work wonderful in a custom build using only Arcadeflow. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 08, 2019, 12:14:57 PM
Oh this looks very nice as Display Menu, love that version with a single row. Could work wonderful in a custom build using only Arcadeflow. :)

Thanks, actually you'll have to use two instances of Arcadeflow, because the same layout can't have different options for Displays Menu and for single Displays right now. Easy fix: duplicate the entire thing LOL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.3 [Release] Updated 6 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 08, 2019, 01:02:25 PM
 ;D It happens with more layouts. No problem, the duplicate can be named "Arcadeflow - display menu" or similar ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 09, 2019, 07:23:58 AM
Arcadeflow 4.4 is out, Displays Menu is the new hot feature, so have fun and report bugs!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 09, 2019, 10:37:22 AM
Great news, downloaded and can't wait to try it later. :)

PS: Where can I find the square snaps that you used in your screenshots for display menu example?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 09, 2019, 12:00:34 PM
PS: Where can I find the square snaps that you used in your screenshots for display menu example?

I downloaded them from internet, looking for something like "Capcom wallpaper" etc. I can share them with you if you want. Also consider you don't need square snaps, the layout will crop them for you ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: spelunkyguy on May 10, 2019, 12:03:34 AM
Heya, great theme! I have some issues that are probably more related to not being too familiar with Attract Mode, but wanted to check here:

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 10, 2019, 12:50:27 AM
Heya, great theme! I have some issues that are probably more related to not being too familiar with Attract Mode, but wanted to check here:

Hi and thank you for the comments!

Most of the issues you are having are caused by the fact that Arcadeflow is tailored for use with MAME, so it gets the game data (categories, number of players, controllers, manufacturer) in a way that works with MAME and probably doesn't work with other emulators.

The same is true for the thumbnails and videos: Arcadeflow is designed to use game snapshots as main artwork, with the game title on top. And the orientation of the snapshot is decided from a property that I think only MAME games have (Orientation). If that property is not present the thumbnail is vertical (I should change that) but if you use box arts instead of snaps it will not work well and the artwork will be stretched a bit (to 4:3 or 3:4 aspect).

To make a long story short, Arcadeflow is not really suited for this use, I could try to rewrite some parts to be better when using console games, but right now it's mostly an arcade game layout.

EDIT: If you have game snaps (static, not video) you can use them as "snaps" artwork and Arcadeflow should work, but orientation will probably be a mess anyway :/ In that case I suggest using "Square" option
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: spelunkyguy on May 10, 2019, 01:50:11 AM
Wow, thanks for the fast reply! I do indeed have game snaps too, but these only work partially too: 4:3 stuff looks fine but wider ratios like GBA/PSP don't look right in either square *or* horizontal-vertical since they're landscape rather than portrait. I'm not sure how motivated you are to make AF more compatible for console emulation, but it'd be so cool if you could add some functionality to work with more varied artwork/aspect ratios :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 10, 2019, 02:43:56 AM
I do indeed have game snaps too, but these only work partially too: 4:3 stuff looks fine but wider ratios like GBA/PSP don't look right in either square *or* horizontal-vertical since they're landscape rather than portrait.

I see, this happens because Arcadeflow expects snaps to be of arcade games, that's why it corrects the aspect ratio to show them in 4:3 or 3:4 (eg: CPS1 games have a pixel resolution that's not 4:3, but CRTs used in arcade are always 4:3, therefore the correction) .When a game is cropped to be square, it is again the 4:3 or 3:4 adjusted version that is cropped.

For console games intended to be viewed on TV screens it should be fine (as long as it can get the correct orientation, but his is an easy fix for me), while handhelds like GBA or PSP, that have a different aspect ratio, it will be stretched badly even in square mode. Moreover as I said the vertical or horizontal orientation of the game is not taken from the snap size, but from the game data (in the past I used the snap size but for some reason it was trickier so I went back to orientation data)

Quote
I'm not sure how motivated you are to make AF more compatible for console emulation, but it'd be so cool if you could add some functionality to work with more varied artwork/aspect ratios :)

One issue is with the game data: I have no idea how to get all the game data for console games (I'm not that much into console emulation), but this can probably be fixed with a bit of study :D
Different aspect ratios... that's more tricky: the shadows effect under the snapshots are not "realtime": they are pre-rendered shadows in 4:3, 3:4 or square aspect ratios. So ther are two scenarios here:

 1 - If you want to use box art instead of snapshots for the thumbs I'll need to make the shadows dynamic. And see how it copes with the game titles, and check how it interact with video thumbnails kick in. Of course a simplified version of the thumbnails grid with just game box art, no title artwork (unnecessary since there's the box art) and no overlay videos could be a solution.
 2 - if you want to use screenshots as thumbs I'll just need to code something to disable the horizontal/vertical detection and the aspect ratio correction. Maybe there's a way to detect if a game list is Arcade or not...

I can't promise anything right now, but I'll think about it :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 10, 2019, 03:16:54 AM
PS: Where can I find the square snaps that you used in your screenshots for display menu example?

I downloaded them from internet, looking for something like "Capcom wallpaper" etc. I can share them with you if you want. Also consider you don't need square snaps, the layout will crop them for you ;)

Thank you for the hint. Ah great the crop detail, will try to play a little with it and some artwork then, thanks again :)

PS: I would be interested in the layout working with consoles games too. For the detection of type of game and infos maybe you can make it work also with xml lists? I use them generally for that purpose as import_extras.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 10, 2019, 03:27:48 AM
Regarding console games, I have crafted a hack that should work if you use snapshots for the thumbnails: this hack considers games horizontal if no "Orientation" data is found. It should work fine with console games made for TV (4:3). You can check it from this attachment.

As far as xml lists are concerned, and console in general, any hint you can give me as how to setup a nice console environment is good. I was able to configure SNES9X with a couple of ROMs, but how about snaps and box art? Where do you get them from? Scraping?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 10, 2019, 03:43:12 AM
Regarding console games, I have crafted a hack that should work if you use snapshots for the thumbnails: this hack considers games horizontal if no "Orientation" data is found. It should work fine with console games made for TV (4:3). You can check it from this attachment.

As far as xml lists are concerned, and console in general, any hint you can give me as how to setup a nice console environment is good. I was able to configure SNES9X with a couple of ROMs, but how about snaps and box art? Where do you get them from? Scraping?

Thx for the layout hack test, will see later how it works. :)

Regarding snaps and box art for consoles/emulators, normally I get them from EmuMovies (you can get almost everything from there in free version) or just searching in google for x game screenshot or boxart. I can get them for you also if you need.

Not sure if this helps, the part of my config related to media in AM is currently like this (I'm using a central folder with relative paths):

Code: [Select]
import_extras        meta\Super Nintendo Entertainment System (custom).xml
artwork    boxart          ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\boxart
artwork    cart            ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\cart
artwork    cover            ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\cover
artwork    flyer           ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\boxart
artwork    marquee      ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\logo
artwork    snap            ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\video;..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\snap
artwork    video            ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\video
artwork    wheel           ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\logo


The only problem AM is having at the moment with hyperlist xml lists (mine says custom because I'm adding manually some info missing) is scrapping the players number even with that information being in the lists. It's something related to source code thought to work with MAME format list at the beginning I think.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 10, 2019, 04:46:34 AM
The snapshots hack is working very good as you can see in the print, thx again. :) You can also notice that the theme is already picking info automatically from the xml list, good sign and that seems to be working already except the eventual logos that are missing but that is normal since the theme was made to work with mame originally and logos taken from that list.

With consoles probably could be a good idea for the layout to be able to pick the image in "manufacturer_images" or text from the xml lists since there's too many manufacturers and would be almost impossible to do images for all.

Also other idea/suggestion for the future if at all possible. Since consoles don't have an history.dat file, maybe the info in the history panel for those systems could be taken from Attract-Mode\scraper\insert system here\overview ?

Cheers.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 10, 2019, 04:54:19 AM
The snapshots hack is working very good as you can see in the print, thx again. :)

Good to know! The screenshot looks very nice indeed!

Quote
With consoles probably could be a good idea for the layout to be able to pick the image in "manufacturer_images" or text from the xml lists since there's too many manufacturers and would be almost impossible to do images for all.

Is "manufacturer_images" another artwork source? I think this can be done, but aesthetically you'll have a mix of white stylized logos and colorful logos. Maybe going with plain text would be a good alternative.

Quote
Also other idea/suggestion for the future if at all possible. Since consoles don't have an history.dat file, maybe the info in the history panel for those systems could be taken from Attract-Mode\scraper\insert system here\overview ?

I'll see if I can do it. I started getting artworks for a test environment, which is the pre-requisite to start experimenting with console stuff. Glad that the theme is reacting in a nice way with the current hack, there are still some icons missing (buttons, controllers and players) and of course it will not work for handheld consoles with non-4:3 aspect ratios, but it's a start :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 10, 2019, 05:35:16 AM
Is "manufacturer_images" another artwork source? I think this can be done, but aesthetically you'll have a mix of white stylized logos and colorful logos. Maybe going with plain text would be a good alternative.

Ah I meant the "manufacturer_images" folder in your theme where the layout normally picks the logos (like it's doing with Aero the Acrobat in the print) if there's the same name in the romlist. I like your logos monochromatic solution, but with consoles in the mix it can be too many manufacturers to make art/logos, so the plain text taken from a hyperlist/hyperbase xml list could be an alternative if there's no logos in the folder.
Similar to what we can do with media art paths maybe? That you can put 3 or more sources and the layout pick the source that has the media?

Quote
Also other idea/suggestion for the future if at all possible. Since consoles don't have an history.dat file, maybe the info in the history panel for those systems could be taken from Attract-Mode\scraper\insert system here\overview ?

I'll see if I can do it. I started getting artworks for a test environment, which is the pre-requisite to start experimenting with console stuff. Glad that the theme is reacting in a nice way with the current hack, there are still some icons missing (buttons, controllers and players) and of course it will not work for handheld consoles with non-4:3 aspect ratios, but it's a start :D

Yeah, and a good start :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 10, 2019, 06:25:22 AM
Similar to what we can do with media art paths maybe? That you can put 3 or more sources and the layout pick the source that has the media?

I can't do that for manufacturers because they don't come as artworks in my theme: the usual way to do manufacturer artoworks is a folder where for each game you have a gamename.png image of the manufacturer of that game. Lots of duplicated images. In my theme there's a parser fucnction that gets the manufacturer name from the romlist data and loads the proper image.

I've patched together a version that should show the name in plain text when no logo is present, would you like to test it? ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 10, 2019, 06:46:30 AM
Working and font choice merges good with the ones that have logos. ;)

Probably some manufacturer names will need some tweaks to font size. Thinking about the isolated "t" here and other cases, but working really good already, thx again :) 

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: spelunkyguy on May 10, 2019, 06:49:43 AM
Gave the new layout a shot, was a little unsure if the hack was applied to the horizontal-vertical layout or the square one,  but after testing both things are definitely improved!

Without wanting to spam the thread with too many pics, it looks like the h-v layout is working best:

(https://i.imgur.com/hdUXTAs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2Euedve.jpg)

It does look like a fair bit of the NES boxarts are being cropped, likely due to their portrait orientation vs the SNES's landscape boxart?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 10, 2019, 07:14:33 AM
Gave the new layout a shot, was a little unsure if the hack was applied to the horizontal-vertical layout or the square one,  but after testing both things are definitely improved!

[...]

It does look like a fair bit of the NES boxarts are being cropped, likely due to their portrait orientation vs the SNES's landscape boxart?

The hack is for both for the horizontal-vertical layout and the square layout, but it is intended for screenshots used as thumbnail artwork. Box arts will still be stretched or cropped incorrectly I fear, fixing that will require some more tricks or even a redesign of the carrier (I'm not saying I won't do it LOL)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: dark1973 on May 11, 2019, 08:59:40 AM
Hello.
I'm sorry for my bad English, I'm Italian.
I'm a fan of your theme. I would like to give you a suggestion. could you add an image with the arcade machine controls? like these...

If you want I can design the image with photoshop and send it to you
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 11, 2019, 02:16:29 PM
I'm a fan of your theme. I would like to give you a suggestion. could you add an image with the arcade machine controls? like these...

I'm Italian too :) I'll answer in english though because maybe the answer will be useful to other people.

Actually you can add that image yourself: if you create an image with transparent background, as big as your screen, with the icons for arcade controls (like the screenshots you attached to that post), you can go in the layout options and insert the path to the image in the "Custom BG Image" field, this will overlay your image on the layout.

Let me know if it works for you :)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 13, 2019, 01:50:15 AM
The snapshots hack is working very good as you can see in the print, thx again. :) You can also notice that the theme is already picking info automatically from the xml list

In my snes9x setup, how do I tell AM that it has to read the xml list file? And how do I generate it?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 13, 2019, 05:49:52 AM
A question for people using Arcadeflow as a console layout... sooner or later I'll implement a "boxart" version of the theme, I'm sure, but since then I'm tweaking it to fit console games better.

I need a way to sense if the current system is an arcade, a console or an handheld. My idea was to use the "System" field in the emulator setting. Is it feasible or how do you use that?

The idea is that if the System field contains "Arcade" then the theme will work as usual, if it contains "Console" it will sense the orientation of the screen from the snapshots (Vectrex I didn't forget about you) and adapt some parts of the UI, if it contains "Handheld" it will stop correcting the aspect-ratio of the screenshot since handhelds usually have square pixels.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 13, 2019, 07:06:55 AM
A question for people using Arcadeflow as a console layout... sooner or later I'll implement a "boxart" version of the theme, I'm sure, but since then I'm tweaking it to fit console games better.

I need a way to sense if the current system is an arcade, a console or an handheld. My idea was to use the "System" field in the emulator setting. Is it feasible or how do you use that?

The idea is that if the System field contains "Arcade" then the theme will work as usual, if it contains "Console" it will sense the orientation of the screen from the snapshots (Vectrex I didn't forget about you) and adapt some parts of the UI, if it contains "Handheld" it will stop correcting the aspect-ratio of the screenshot since handhelds usually have square pixels.

I don't mind working that way, specially because I intend to have later a custom build using only your theme. The "system" field was used before for the gamesdb scrapping information/meta data but since that isn't working so well (or at all) lately these days I use only the import extras for that purpose so for me the "System" field feels like a good idea. I already had "Arcade" in the main system field so it would be easy to change the others.

The snapshots hack is working very good as you can see in the print, thx again. :) You can also notice that the theme is already picking info automatically from the xml list

In my snes9x setup, how do I tell AM that it has to read the xml list file? And how do I generate it?

Here I created in AM root folder another called "meta" and put there all the xml files. Then you can use import extras field like this:

import_extras        meta\Super Nintendo Entertainment System (custom).xml

I downloaded the original (mine says custom because I'm adding manually the number of players missing in consoles lists) xml list from here: https://hyperlist.hyperspin-fe.com/

Some are outdated but you can get newer versions in their forums. It's good for testing.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 13, 2019, 07:42:02 AM
Here I created in AM root folder another called "meta" and put there all the xml files. Then you can use import extras field like this:

import_extras        meta\Super Nintendo Entertainment System (custom).xml

I downloaded the original (mine says custom because I'm adding manually the number of players missing in consoles lists) xml list from here: https://hyperlist.hyperspin-fe.com/

Some are outdated but you can get newer versions in their forums. It's good for testing.

Wow that worked, I got a nice SNES setup with all metadata and it looks pretty good. Most consoles look nice with the Arcadeflow style of snapshot + wheel artwork, with one notable exception: Game Boy :O All those grey snapshots look very uninspiring even with the game title overlayed :D I'll see how it looks if you load box arts instead of snapshots, and video snaps loaded later on, but a box-art mode is probably better for console games :/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 13, 2019, 07:51:21 AM
Here I created in AM root folder another called "meta" and put there all the xml files. Then you can use import extras field like this:

import_extras        meta\Super Nintendo Entertainment System (custom).xml

I downloaded the original (mine says custom because I'm adding manually the number of players missing in consoles lists) xml list from here: https://hyperlist.hyperspin-fe.com/

Some are outdated but you can get newer versions in their forums. It's good for testing.

Wow that worked, I got a nice SNES setup with all metadata and it looks pretty good. Most consoles look nice with the Arcadeflow style of snapshot + wheel artwork, with one notable exception: Game Boy :O All those grey snapshots look very uninspiring even with the game title overlayed :D I'll see how it looks if you load box arts instead of snapshots, and video snaps loaded later on, but a box-art mode is probably better for console games :/

Glad to hear that it worked :)

Share some screenshots when you can to see the evolution of it. :p

Not sure how box-art will look because of different dimensions and so on. I'm having some problems with it on some extra layouts for other theme because SNES are rectangular, others are squared, etc. For Arcadeflow screenshot + wheel artwork is looking really great and promising. Also makes everything balance and connect with arcade main theme of course. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 14, 2019, 02:44:03 AM

Share some screenshots when you can to see the evolution of it. :p

Not sure how box-art will look because of different dimensions and so on. I'm having some problems with it on some extra layouts for other theme because SNES are rectangular, others are squared, etc. For Arcadeflow screenshot + wheel artwork is looking really great and promising. Also makes everything balance and connect with arcade main theme of course. :)

Well I thought that my Layout could adapt to vertical/horizontal/square box art with some minimum cropping, but you are probably right I should stick with the Arcade look and feel...

Attached you can see the layout in SNES mode, looks pretty good with the horizontal screenshots. The other attachment is the Game Boy display... it's pretty bad, I thought using square thumbs would be a good idea but still the issue is that everything is grey grey grey :D At least if the screenshots had the "green LCD" color it would be a bit better...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 14, 2019, 07:00:13 AM
And this is a sneak sneak sneak preview of how it could be with box-art... I'm not sure I like it though...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 14, 2019, 07:09:10 AM
And this is a sneak sneak sneak preview of how it could be with box-art... I'm not sure I like it though...

Oh I like it, looks really good actually and can work as alternative displays if people don't want to use screenshots. And noticing there the new meta data icons. :)

I was writing a reply before your new one arrived. :D

I was testing using Display method for GBA to see the crop and it looked good, better than using square option in default layout. Small print attached. But your new version with Game Boy already look better :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 14, 2019, 07:34:42 AM
Smart idea using Displays mode to have better square crop ;) My version is better because it disables thumbnail smooth gradient and game wheel artwork, so you just get the plain box art. But then the question is, what about the game play video kicking in? In Arcade mode it looks cool, here it looks fine on the SNES (4:3 box art) or the game boy (box art is square and screen is almost square), but for the Genesis for example, with vertical box art, the display will be severely cropped.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 14, 2019, 07:58:52 AM
Smart idea using Displays mode to have better square crop ;) My version is better because it disables thumbnail smooth gradient and game wheel artwork, so you just get the plain box art. But then the question is, what about the game play video kicking in? In Arcade mode it looks cool, here it looks fine on the SNES (4:3 box art) or the game boy (box art is square and screen is almost square), but for the Genesis for example, with vertical box art, the display will be severely cropped.

Those look great. :)

For genesis or other cases maybe the best option is a different option in "General" section for vertical art? Unsure about the video snaps working on that though. :(

Controlling different boxart or flyers dimensions can be hard. I'm giving a little help to the Chicuelo port regarding some extra layout options for vertical art like flyers or boxart like the NES, Saturn, PS2, etc., other for SNES and one for square art. It can get tricky and hard. ;D

So probably best is to have extra layout options for anyone that wants them (similar to Display menu), with default one being the arcade version using snaps?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 14, 2019, 09:33:32 AM
For genesis or other cases maybe the best option is a different option in "General" section for vertical art? Unsure about the video snaps working on that though. :(

I plan to do something like this: a "dummy" hidden boxart will be used to get the proportions, if it's almost square then square mode is triggered, if it's horizontal or vertical then Arcadeflow will use horizontal or vertical thumbs.
I'll ditch videos in this case, but you'll see them in the "history" page.

Quote
Controlling different boxart or flyers dimensions can be hard. I'm giving a little help to the Chicuelo port regarding some extra layout options for vertical art like flyers or boxart like the NES, Saturn, PS2, etc., other for SNES and one for square art. It can get tricky and hard. ;D

So probably best is to have extra layout options for anyone that wants them (similar to Display menu), with default one being the arcade version using snaps?

It's not hard per se, it's just that I don't want to add another shader surface stack to dynamically generate shadows, and my shadows are only 4:3, 3:4 or square, but that should fit most cases :D

As far as options are concerned, I plan to do like this: Arcadeflow will always work in Arcade mode, showing console games in 4:3 aspect ratio (GameBoy will be cropped but it's ok). There will be an optional "boxart" mode that will make console games show boxarts, and arcade game won't be affected.

The issue is that ALL console displays will be affected by that choice, but I hope in the future we'll be able to have per-display layout settings.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 14, 2019, 10:25:29 AM
Sounds like a good plan :) And I guess that for consoles we can also use for now the duplicate method if needed to make some use boxart and other snaps.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 15, 2019, 01:50:45 AM
Is console games box art supposed to use the "flyer" artwork category by default?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 15, 2019, 03:18:15 AM
Is console games box art supposed to use the "flyer" artwork category by default?

It really depends on your system emulator settings. You can create/have a specific boxart artwork section, or duplicate it depending what some of the layouts code need to find.

SNES example here:

Code: [Select]
artwork    boxart          ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\boxart
artwork    cart            ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\cart
artwork    cover           ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\cover
artwork    flyer           ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\boxart
artwork    marquee         ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\logo
artwork    snap            ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\video;..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\snap
artwork    video           ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\video
artwork    wheel           ..\..\collections\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\logo
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 16, 2019, 01:25:35 AM
Sneak peek of Genesis console mode with vertical boxart. The code is dirty as hell, it's really driving me mad, but at least it works for horizontal and vertical boxes. I have to hack it even more to accomodate square boxes :D

PS: My idea of using a dummy artwork to get image size is not working since image size data is not available at the time of layout creation but only as transition_callback, so either I put all the layout creation as a function of a transition callback (a bit overkill) or I have to find a different way :O
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 16, 2019, 04:37:09 AM
Not bad at all :) :D

And then you have cases like the SNES and others where the Japanese boxes are completely different dimension wise, going from horizontal to vertical. Since there's many good translations for Japanese games things can get crazy if you have those mixed like I have. For those special cases I chose the default mode of the layout and begone with it before going mad trying to use alternative layouts that used the boxart.  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 16, 2019, 04:41:15 AM
I still have to check but since the horizontal and vertical box orientation is done “per thumb” it should mix horizontal and vertical boxes gracefully.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 16, 2019, 04:43:12 AM
Ah great to hear that. Similar to how the main arcade layout mixes vertical and horizontal games with snapshots?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 16, 2019, 04:50:44 AM
Ah great to hear that. Similar to how the main arcade layout mixes vertical and horizontal games with snapshots?

Exactly, the boxart is an adaptation of the standard layout. The square layout is a different story since in Arcade mode is generated when the theme is loaded so it won't mix (gonna change in the future of course).
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 19, 2019, 05:28:43 AM
Very curious as usual to see the final result of your theme with those new additions to console systems. Your Display menu solution is really looking great here after added some images to it. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: SFNMutt on May 19, 2019, 05:57:33 AM
thanks for the update
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 19, 2019, 08:58:08 AM
Very curious as usual to see the final result of your theme with those new additions to console systems. Your Display menu solution is really looking great here after added some images to it. :)

Looks good!

I'm still working on the box art mode, it now adapts to square boxes too, and even mixed square/horizontal/vertical boxes. But still there's a lot of work to do like checking the blurred background in this new mode, optimizing the gameplay snaps for handhelds, checking that the code, which is still a mess, is not breaking anything etc. Maybe I'll delay some tweaks and optimization for further releases, I can't wait to release the box art mode LOL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: qqplayer on May 19, 2019, 12:25:20 PM
You are a genius :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 20, 2019, 06:54:58 AM
Working on box art mode for rev 4.5 I found a bug in the scaling of thumbs that impacted versions from around 4.0, great, after much fiddling I think I fixed all that, now all the thumbs scale perfectly centered! This to say that box art mode still has a quite long way to go ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: verion on May 20, 2019, 10:25:39 AM
I must tell you - this is an AWESOME theme.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 20, 2019, 02:12:22 PM
Working on box art mode for rev 4.5 I found a bug in the scaling of thumbs that impacted versions from around 4.0, great, after much fiddling I think I fixed all that, now all the thumbs scale perfectly centered! This to say that box art mode still has a quite long way to go ;D

The work never ends :D Great news though on finding that bug. Also agree with verion that this is an awesome theme. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 21, 2019, 03:33:20 AM
Box art mode is ready and (hopefully) debugged. This is how it looks with vertical/horizontal/square boxes. Right now it's checking strictly for square boxes, maybe I'll need to add some fuzzyness (so if you have a 500x501 artwork it will consider it square)

I only need to polish the "handheld" mode, where the aspect ratio of the screen is not 4:3 or 3:4, there are many ways to fix this and I'm not sure which one I like most. Just a bit of patience and I'll release it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 21, 2019, 04:33:52 AM
Wow, this is looking really really good and makes the theme even more flexible but with a very persistent and balanced design. Can't wait. :)

Yeah, some handhelds can be a pain. Widescreen videos, not so widescreen videos. For some themes I had to convert the videos to 4.3 and hope for the best.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 21, 2019, 06:21:07 AM
Handheld will force square thumbs and crop the hell out of the screenshots :D Everything seems fine, except if you don't use Arcadeflow as Displays Menu layout, but the default displays menu (the list), emulator data is not updated so it messes handheld mode. I hate it >:(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 21, 2019, 10:11:44 AM
Handheld will force square thumbs and crop the hell out of the screenshots :D Everything seems fine, except if you don't use Arcadeflow as Displays Menu layout, but the default displays menu (the list), emulator data is not updated so it messes handheld mode. I hate it >:(

Tell me more regarding the emulator data problem. Maybe I can help in some way. It's because of how it handles meta data lists or something else?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 21, 2019, 10:33:16 AM
It’s something like this: when the layout is loaded some emulator data is read, so if the emulator has category Arcade, Console or Handheld the theme reacts accordingly and changes the way some parts of the UI are drawn. The problem is that when you change display, and the display layout is the same, the layout is not reloaded but only the list of games. Therefore everything that’s dynamically updated during tonewlist transition is updated, but the parts of the GUI that are set up during the layout startup are not changed.

I found a workaround: when a tonewlist transition is triggered and the display is not the same, the layout is reloaded. This is a bit slower but it works (i.e. 4.5 is going to be released before the end of the  week.

Another option would be to make the whole ui drawing dynamic. It’s not impossible and would mean faster display changes, but it’s a lot of work and I’m not going to do it now (or 4.5 will be delayed, and we don’t want that)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 21, 2019, 12:28:32 PM
It’s something like this: when the layout is loaded some emulator data is read, so if the emulator has category Arcade, Console or Handheld the theme reacts accordingly and changes the way some parts of the UI are drawn. The problem is that when you change display, and the display layout is the same, the layout is not reloaded but only the list of games. Therefore everything that’s dynamically updated during tonewlist transition is updated, but the parts of the GUI that are set up during the layout startup are not changed.

I found a workaround: when a tonewlist transition is triggered and the display is not the same, the layout is reloaded. This is a bit slower but it works (i.e. 4.5 is going to be released before the end of the  week.

Another option would be to make the whole ui drawing dynamic. It’s not impossible and would mean faster display changes, but it’s a lot of work and I’m not going to do it now (or 4.5 will be delayed, and we don’t want that)

Ah, the idea that you talked before using the "system" part of the emulator cfg file to load each kind of display (Arcade, Consoles, handhelds)?

Glad that you have found a middle-ground solution. Looking forward to 4.5 and how things will look and work. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.4 [Release] Updated 9 May 2019
Post by: spelunkyguy on May 22, 2019, 06:17:50 PM
This is looking super promising, can't wait for the release. You're an absolute legend zpaolo!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 23, 2019, 08:08:59 AM
Arcadeflow 4.5 is out, support for console games, box art, handheld snaps, bells and whistles, some new category artwork and hopefully not many bugs :D

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: blinkybill on May 23, 2019, 08:43:18 AM
Arcadeflow 4.5 is out, support for console games, box art, handheld snaps, bells and whistles, some new category artwork and hopefully not many bugs :D

Enjoy!
I registered to this forum just to say a huge thanks for this theme and the frequent updates. it was just what i was looking for.
if you need any Photoshop help, feel free to PM me. You saved me tons of work and i'll be glad to give back.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on May 23, 2019, 10:24:44 AM
hmm boxart isn't working for me.  I enable it in the options but I still get snaps with wheels over it.  I have my system cfgs pointing to "flyer" for artwork.  (which would be boxart for consoles and flyers for arcades).  Any ideas?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on May 23, 2019, 11:51:03 AM

I need a help, I would like to know how to put the boxes of the games to appear in the list of games, I did not quite understand how to do this.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 23, 2019, 11:57:56 AM
Sorry I wasn't precise enough in my explanation: to enable box art mode, you also need to go in the Attract Mode menu, "Emulators", select the emulator that needs box arts and then in the "System Identifier" field you need to add "Console". So if for example your Sega Genesis has a system identifier "Genesis; Megadrive" just make it "Genesis;Megadrive;Console" and it should work.

In a perfect world AM should be able to set "per-display" settings, when this happens you will be able to tune each display with its own settings, but until then I thought this was a good workaround, so if you add "Console" to system identifier you'll get boxart mode, plus if you add "Handheld" you'll get non-stretched snapshots
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on May 23, 2019, 02:34:52 PM
Sorry I wasn't precise enough in my explanation: to enable box art mode, you also need to go in the Attract Mode menu, "Emulators", select the emulator that needs box arts and then in the "System Identifier" field you need to add "Console". So if for example your Sega Genesis has a system identifier "Genesis; Megadrive" just make it "Genesis;Megadrive;Console" and it should work.

In a perfect world AM should be able to set "per-display" settings, when this happens you will be able to tune each display with its own settings, but until then I thought this was a good workaround, so if you add "Console" to system identifier you'll get boxart mode, plus if you add "Handheld" you'll get non-stretched snapshots


It worked perfectly, and it was very beautiful, thank you.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: spelunkyguy on May 23, 2019, 08:15:48 PM
Hmm, I must be doing something wrong on my end. After adding "Console" to the system identifier and enabling boxart mode, I do see the proper aspect ratio applied to all the boxarts, and it looks great. I'm no longer seeing video snaps for the currently selected game however. Right now I'm using flyer, snap and wheel for the art types, but I messed around with a few different combinations and couldn't make a change. Any ideas?

Thanks so much for your fantastic work so far, too!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: progets on May 23, 2019, 10:03:23 PM
In a perfect world AM should be able to set "per-display" settings

This has existed for a while. Configure-->Controls-->Layout Options=<your_button>. Go into a specific display and press <your_button> and any changes made here will apply to this specific display only (even if your using the same layout with other displays).

These same changes can also be modified globally the traditional way. Configure-->Displays--><system>-->Layout Options.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 23, 2019, 10:43:46 PM
This has existed for a while. Configure-->Controls-->Layout Options=<your_button>. Go into a specific display and press <your_button> and any changes made here will apply to this specific display only (even if your using the same layout with other displays).

These same changes can also be modified globally the traditional way. Configure-->Displays--><system>-->Layout Options.

I tried already and it actually doesn't work for me (at least on my Mac and AM 2.5.1). If the layout is the same for all displays the settings are shared.

But since the feedback from using "System Identifier" is good, I think I'll stick with that: shared settings and the options for the user to activate custom per-emulator options is nice. Per-display settings would mean the need to change all settings for every display if you want to apply a global change.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 23, 2019, 10:45:34 PM
Hmm, I must be doing something wrong on my end.

No you are not, in 4.5 I disabled videos overlay when in box art mode, it was too complicated to fit them to systems with vertical boxes like Genesis or Master System. I plan to put it back though, but before that I'm going to rewrite the whole tiles drawing routine so it can dynamically switch aspect ratios, and this will take a bit longer...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 23, 2019, 10:48:17 PM
It worked perfectly, and it was very beautiful, thank you.

Good to know, glad you like it!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: progets on May 23, 2019, 11:03:04 PM
This has existed for a while. Configure-->Controls-->Layout Options=<your_button>. Go into a specific display and press <your_button> and any changes made here will apply to this specific display only (even if your using the same layout with other displays).

These same changes can also be modified globally the traditional way. Configure-->Displays--><system>-->Layout Options.

I tried already and it actually doesn't work for me (at least on my Mac and AM 2.5.1). If the layout is the same for all displays the settings are shared.

But since the feedback from using "System Identifier" is good, I think I'll stick with that: shared settings and the options for the user to activate custom per-emulator options is nice. Per-display settings would mean the need to change all settings for every display if you want to apply a global change.

You don't see it because you haven't included it in your layout.nut file. You can read about it here https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/f55779e54ab04305c3604a3f0b894b5e95ce0888 (https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/f55779e54ab04305c3604a3f0b894b5e95ce0888).

I'm not suggesting you change your layout. I just want you to know that per display settings are possible. Knowledge is power whether you use it or not.

Another cleaver solution might be to have a layout.nut, arcade.nut, console.nut, handheld.nut in the same layout and toggle them per display to get your desired results. You can read about this here https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/7b1cc07f2274cca87d11e928a1fdc598d876bc6a (https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/7b1cc07f2274cca87d11e928a1fdc598d876bc6a).

Again, I'm not asking for any change. I just want people to understand all the options to help improve other/different future layouts.

P.S. I forgot that the layout.nut required the "per_display" option in the UserConfig parameters in my prior post.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 23, 2019, 11:49:36 PM
You don't see it because you haven't included it in your layout.nut file. You can read about it here https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/f55779e54ab04305c3604a3f0b894b5e95ce0888 (https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/f55779e54ab04305c3604a3f0b894b5e95ce0888).

Wait wait wait... this commit is a year old and I completely missed it! Thank you for the tip, this is great news (old news maybe :D ).

Quote
I'm not suggesting you change your layout. I just want you to know that per display settings are possible. Knowledge is power whether you use it or not.

Absolutely, I'm wondering how it will work when changing displays: right now if the layout is the same and I change display, the layout is not reloaded, only the list, so user options are not updated. Maybe having per-display parameters will force the layout to reload? Anyway this is something I absolutely want to test, especially since there are now "global" and "per-display" parameters, which is extremely good!

Quote
Another cleaver solution might be to have a layout.nut, arcade.nut, console.nut, handheld.nut in the same layout and toggle them per display to get your desired results. You can read about this here https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/7b1cc07f2274cca87d11e928a1fdc598d876bc6a (https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/7b1cc07f2274cca87d11e928a1fdc598d876bc6a).

This might be a good solution but I prefer to stuff my layout with thousands of code lines so it becomes a mess to maintain and edit LOL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: progets on May 24, 2019, 12:43:31 AM
This might be a good solution but I prefer to stuff my layout with thousands of code lines so it becomes a mess to maintain and edit LOL

You can keep your thousands of lines of code and just change a couple of words between arcade.nut and console.nut such as "flyer" to "boxart" or "advert" to "background".

Again, not asking for any changes but highlighting different ways that you could streamline things for most people vs. using a "per-display" setting.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 24, 2019, 12:48:45 AM
Again, not asking for any changes but highlighting different ways that you could streamline things for most people vs. using a "per-display" setting.

I see your point, I'll play with per-display settings a bit, I don't think I'll differentiate layouts though: I'm plannin to rewrite my tiles display routine and my snap/boxart/video cropping routine so its as "universal" as possible and doesn't need to reload the layout to accomodate different "flavors" of the layout itself. The more flexible the theme the better.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: progets on May 24, 2019, 12:55:18 AM
Thanks for the great layout! It's one of my favorites and I borrowed some of its code for my personal layout. I can't wait to see where it goes.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 24, 2019, 02:36:48 AM
Thanks for the great layout! It's one of my favorites and I borrowed some of its code for my personal layout. I can't wait to see where it goes.

Well thank you for the suggestions, the forum has been a source of invaluable inspiration, suggestions and tips :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 24, 2019, 09:58:10 AM
Just in time for the weekend, thank you for the new update. :) This is looking really really good. Noticed already the new genre icons for consoles games like RPG and others, nice touch and look great. Still have to test things further but loving it.

PS: Is there a way to use overview .txt files outside of Arcade collection since consoles or computers don't have an history file? Maybe there's an new option that I've missed. Or maybe for future updates of course :)

Also, with boxart mode enabled there's no video snaps playing anymore on consoles, is this the correct behavior or maybe some option that I did wrong? Nevermind, just saw your reply to another user regarding this. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: spelunkyguy on May 24, 2019, 12:09:06 PM
in 4.5 I disabled videos overlay when in box art mode

Ah, fair enough. In that case 4.5 is working perfect for me, and even without video snaps I think it's gonna be my main layout.

PS: Is there a way to use overview .txt files outside of Arcade collection since consoles or computers don't have an history file? Maybe there's an new option that I've missed. Or maybe for future updates of course :)

I'd also appreciate any info about this! :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 24, 2019, 02:10:29 PM
Just in time for the weekend, thank you for the new update. :) This is looking really really good. Noticed already the new genre icons for consoles games like RPG and others, nice touch and look great. Still have to test things further but loving it.

I will add more icons if I see them missing; I also found out that I can trick AM into thinking I have hundreds of roms just telling the emulator that .png is a rom extension :D

Quote
PS: Is there a way to use overview .txt files outside of Arcade collection since consoles or computers don't have an history file? Maybe there's an new option that I've missed. Or maybe for future updates of course :)

There is no way in the current layout, I'd love to implement it in the next releas but I need some overview .txt files to test. Is there some "pack" I can download somewhere?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 24, 2019, 02:12:32 PM
in 4.5 I disabled videos overlay when in box art mode

Ah, fair enough. In that case 4.5 is working perfect for me, and even without video snaps I think it's gonna be my main layout.

I think I'll try to implement it in a future release, but before that I'm rewriting a lot of stuff and it's not easy. Once the code is rewritten it will be easier to implement the videos.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 24, 2019, 05:22:57 PM
Just in time for the weekend, thank you for the new update. :) This is looking really really good. Noticed already the new genre icons for consoles games like RPG and others, nice touch and look great. Still have to test things further but loving it.

I will add more icons if I see them missing; I also found out that I can trick AM into thinking I have hundreds of roms just telling the emulator that .png is a rom extension :D

Quote
PS: Is there a way to use overview .txt files outside of Arcade collection since consoles or computers don't have an history file? Maybe there's an new option that I've missed. Or maybe for future updates of course :)

There is no way in the current layout, I'd love to implement it in the next releas but I need some overview .txt files to test. Is there some "pack" I can download somewhere?

That's crazy the .png extension trick  :D

Strategy icon at least I know it's missing for games like Fire Emblem, Shining Force, Advance Wars, etc. Will let you know if I find more. :)

You can use these from RetroFE. They are close related to hyperlists and work good for testing. ;)

https://github.com/billyc999/RetroFe-Game-info/tree/master/RetroFE%20Story%20Files (https://github.com/billyc999/RetroFe-Game-info/tree/master/RetroFE%20Story%20Files)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 25, 2019, 01:23:27 PM
Strategy icon at least I know it's missing for games like Fire Emblem, Shining Force, Advance Wars, etc. Will let you know if I find more. :)

I just updated the icons with Strategy and other (mostly duplicate with a different name). Next release will have most icons, and maybe I'll add some manufacturer images.

Quote
You can use these from RetroFE. They are close related to hyperlists and work good for testing. ;)

Ok, sorry if I keep asking, where do I have to put this files? The list is quite complete, I'll be able to implement them hopefully in 4.6
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 25, 2019, 01:36:22 PM
Strategy icon at least I know it's missing for games like Fire Emblem, Shining Force, Advance Wars, etc. Will let you know if I find more. :)

I just updated the icons with Strategy and other (mostly duplicate with a different name). Next release will have most icons, and maybe I'll add some manufacturer images.

Quote
You can use these from RetroFE. They are close related to hyperlists and work good for testing. ;)

Ok, sorry if I keep asking, where do I have to put this files? The list is quite complete, I'll be able to implement them hopefully in 4.6

Great to hear about the new icons. :) Not easy to track all the missing icons or others that have the icons but not the genre written below the icons because of how each list or game is listed.

No problem, glad to help anyway I can. For overview files (I only learned it recently too using the Chicuelo theme), go to the scraper folder in AM root and create there a folder for each system if there isn't already. And inside each system folder another named "overview". Similar to this: ..\scraper\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\overview

Then put the .txt files there. :)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 26, 2019, 08:07:23 AM
Great to hear about the new icons. :) Not easy to track all the missing icons or others that have the icons but not the genre written below the icons because of how each list or game is listed.

Don't worry about that, now that I can fake a whole list of ROMs I have a simple layout that lists all the missing genre icons ;)

Quote
No problem, glad to help anyway I can. For overview files (I only learned it recently too using the Chicuelo theme), go to the scraper folder in AM root and create there a folder for each system if there isn't already. And inside each system folder another named "overview". Similar to this: ..\scraper\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\overview

Thanks again, here is a preview: when history.dat fails it reverts to overviews :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 26, 2019, 09:55:06 AM
That looks great :) And now we get anxious again for next version :D
Oh, that trick about the roms listing all the missing icons sounds genius and really helpful for this. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 27, 2019, 01:01:35 AM
I have a question for you guys: in my project of expanding Arcadeflow to support all kind of consoles I found that most snaps found on emumovies are rescaled. For example I got the Game Boy static snap pack and the resolution of snaps is 534 x 480, while the native GB resolution is 160 x 144. This is not a showstopper but messes a bit with the CRT shaders and especially messes with the LCD shader I was starting to develop. And it's also a bilinear filtered rescale so it's not easy to revert it back to "unfiltered" state.

Do you know if there's a native resolution snap/video pack for consoles, like there is for mame games? Maybe there's something since mame can now simulate consoles but I never tried this aspect of mame myself.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: keilmillerjr on May 27, 2019, 06:19:02 AM
I have a question for you guys: in my project of expanding Arcadeflow to support all kind of consoles I found that most snaps found on emumovies are rescaled. For example I got the Game Boy static snap pack and the resolution of snaps is 534 x 480, while the native GB resolution is 160 x 144. This is not a showstopper but messes a bit with the CRT shaders and especially messes with the LCD shader I was starting to develop. And it's also a bilinear filtered rescale so it's not easy to revert it back to "unfiltered" state.

Do you know if there's a native resolution snap/video pack for consoles, like there is for mame games? Maybe there's something since mame can now simulate consoles but I never tried this aspect of mame myself.

Progretto-Snaps is the „unofficial“ resource that the „team“ uses. Snaps are taken is original size from mame. I don’t think they are included in the extras torrent yet maybe because there is more demand on arcade side of things.?

http://www.progettosnaps.net/softwareresources/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 27, 2019, 06:43:30 AM

Progretto-Snaps is the „unofficial“ resource that the „team“ uses. Snaps are taken is original size from mame. I don’t think they are included in the extras torrent yet maybe because there is more demand on arcade side of things.?

http://www.progettosnaps.net/softwareresources/

Thank you, I got my arcade snaps from Progettosnaps but couldn't find this page where all the other systems snaps are listed. This are proper snapshots at last! The only issue now is that all these use the mame naming convention, while all the other media I have for consoles uses the "emumovies" naming convention and hyperlist xml files.

I'm wondering if people into console emulation use mostly mame or specific emulators, or if there's a way to mix both worlds. Is there an xml file for the progettosnaps files?

Sorry for the noob questions but up until now I was mostly into mame arcade emulation :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: keilmillerjr on May 27, 2019, 06:56:40 AM

Progretto-Snaps is the „unofficial“ resource that the „team“ uses. Snaps are taken is original size from mame. I don’t think they are included in the extras torrent yet maybe because there is more demand on arcade side of things.?

http://www.progettosnaps.net/softwareresources/

Thank you, I got my arcade snaps from Progettosnaps but couldn't find this page where all the other systems snaps are listed. This are proper snapshots at last! The only issue now is that all these use the mame naming convention, while all the other media I have for consoles uses the "emumovies" naming convention and hyperlist xml files.

I'm wondering if people into console emulation use mostly mame or specific emulators, or if there's a way to mix both worlds. Is there an xml file for the progettosnaps files?

Sorry for the noob questions but up until now I was mostly into mame arcade emulation :D

Yeah, dude. Thats why i stay away from hyper anything.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on May 27, 2019, 10:26:48 AM
I'm wondering if people into console emulation use mostly mame or specific emulators, or if there's a way to mix both worlds. Is there an xml file for the progettosnaps files?

Definitely separate, specific emulators.  Mame is really only good for the arcade side of things.   A good starting point of understanding the state of general emulation can be found here (https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/wiki/index).  The gold standard of naming convention is Redump (http://redump.org/) for disc based systems and No-intro for cartridge.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 27, 2019, 10:29:27 AM
I have a question for you guys: in my project of expanding Arcadeflow to support all kind of consoles I found that most snaps found on emumovies are rescaled. For example I got the Game Boy static snap pack and the resolution of snaps is 534 x 480, while the native GB resolution is 160 x 144. This is not a showstopper but messes a bit with the CRT shaders and especially messes with the LCD shader I was starting to develop. And it's also a bilinear filtered rescale so it's not easy to revert it back to "unfiltered" state.

Do you know if there's a native resolution snap/video pack for consoles, like there is for mame games? Maybe there's something since mame can now simulate consoles but I never tried this aspect of mame myself.

You can download the SQ quality snaps in EmuMovies to see if things improve because they have less resolution. The HQ quality sometimes mess things up for frontends, between the higher resolution and framerate (60 instead of 30).
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 27, 2019, 10:45:55 AM
Definitely separate, specific emulators.  Mame is really only good for the arcade side of things.   A good starting point of understanding the state of general emulation can be found here (https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/wiki/index).  The gold standard of naming convention is Redump (http://redump.org/) for disc based systems and No-intro for cartridge.

Ok, I already found the No-intro stuff. I will stick with separate emulators even if emumovies snaps and videos are not pixel perfect
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 27, 2019, 10:57:35 AM
You can download the SQ quality snaps in EmuMovies to see if things improve because they have less resolution. The HQ quality sometimes mess things up for frontends, between the higher resolution and framerate (60 instead of 30).

I already downloaded the SQ snaps and video snaps, but they are all "480p" images stretched with bilinear filtering :( I don't see the point of doing that, they take up a lot of space (gameboy snaps 60 MB instead of 8 MB!) and look worse when filtered.
Right now I scaled back and recolored gameboy snaps but I can't do it easily for videos :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: keilmillerjr on May 27, 2019, 11:36:32 AM
I'm wondering if people into console emulation use mostly mame or specific emulators, or if there's a way to mix both worlds. Is there an xml file for the progettosnaps files?

Definitely separate, specific emulators.  Mame is really only good for the arcade side of things.   A good starting point of understanding the state of general emulation can be found here (https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/wiki/index).  The gold standard of naming convention is Redump (http://redump.org/) for disc based systems and No-intro for cartridge.

Mame is actually good at many consoles. You can read the source for drivers on github. They often document whats left to tackle. Redump has a good naming convention, but not good for indicating different dumps and doesnt follow dos 8.3 standard. Might be important for some.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: spelunkyguy on May 28, 2019, 12:41:48 AM
FWIW I use RetroArch (http://"https://www.retroarch.com/") as a multi-emulator solution. Personally I'm not interested in arcade emulation, but RetroArch has a MAME core too. I haven't messed with MAME in a long time but from memory it only handled older systems, whereas RA covers PSP, Wii and 3DS among others (I still use standalone emulators for PS2/3 and WiiU though). As far as video snaps go I mostly use ScreenScraper (http://"https://www.screenscraper.fr").
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 28, 2019, 03:30:13 AM
As far as video snaps go I mostly use ScreenScraper (http://"https://www.screenscraper.fr").

I didn't know this site, is it possible to download entire packs from there? Do I need to register?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 29, 2019, 06:02:50 AM
Working to streamline v4.6 and on my universal scale/crop/adapt routine, here are the first results for handheld games: Game Boy Advance is horizontal, it's cropped in a 4:3 ratio, Game Boy is squarish and is cropped into a square aspect ratio. The title is now "popping" over and not inside the square thumb. The new look is intended to be homogeneous between arcade games, TV console games and handheld games.

The "Square" thumbs mode with cropped thumbnails and title inside the box will still be available, and applied throug all systems (arcade, console, handheld).

Of course boxart mode will be available too, this was only for thumbnails mode.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 29, 2019, 08:57:42 AM
This is what I mean by "flexible" routine: in this romlist there are Genesis games, SNES games and GameBoy games. The layout happily mixes horizontal and squarish screens in "snapshot" mode, while in "boxart" mode horizontal, vertical and square game boxes are shown correctly. All this will be released in Arcadeflow 4.6 as soon as I check all the minor details :)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on May 31, 2019, 01:57:23 PM
Looking good the new previews. :) I like that everything is working homogeneous and automatic between the systems for thumbnails versions, and having also the extra option for boxart of course. So undecided here of which using between the two versions for consoles/handhelds. And for now not thinking much about the option of using flyers for Arcade since that can complicate things maybe. ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on May 31, 2019, 02:21:36 PM
Like it a lot but I have two ideas/suggestions...perhaps wishes  ;D

1.  Instead of having two different modes.  I would just do boxart mode from the start.  Then when you hover over a game after a second, the box transitions to a snap and starts playing the video or snapshot.  I understand though that this may get too complicated because unlike how you have pictures of snaps transitioning to playing the video, you'll have different aspect ratios for box arts transitioning to the snaps.

2.  Have an option for a simpler UI.  I would love an option to disable most of the text on top.  I personally would just keep the Name/title of the game and the region for a cleaner look.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 01, 2019, 01:55:32 AM
So undecided here of which using between the two versions for consoles/handhelds. And for now not thinking much about the option of using flyers for Arcade since that can complicate things maybe. ;D

I'm not a fan of arcade flyers because they are usually huge and slow down the layout a bit, but with the new routine they look good and are rendered with the proper aspect ratio.

I have made some changes in 4.6: you can add "CRT" or "LCD" to System Identifier so the layout will adapt snapshots and filters accordingly, this makes a lot of sense since CRT display or LCD display is something that's bound to the emulator itself.

Box art mode on the other hand is now available for all systems, not only consoles, but is a global setting. I think the best option would be to make it a "per-display" setting (struggling a bit with that) instead of binding it to the emulator system identifier. I could add a "BOX" entry to the emulator system identifier to enable box art mode on a "per emulator" basis, but that would imply that on mixed romlists you'll have a mix of screenshots and box arts, gotta check if it works and I don't know if I like it :D

By the way, there's a nice addition in 4.6: you can use a menu or a custom button to switch from screenshots to box art on the fly, no need to enter layout options, no need to reload the layout, push a button and it switches, I'm so proud of that :O
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 01, 2019, 03:31:47 AM
Like it a lot but I have two ideas/suggestions...perhaps wishes  ;D

I like suggestions, they make me go into directions maybe I didn’t think myself

1.
I won’t make box art default because Arcadeflow was born with a distinct look using snaps and popping titles, but your suggestion for snaps is good. It can actually be done pretty easily if the overlaying video has no border, glow effect or drop shadow, but that would look pretty dire imo.
It would be great to be able to morph the box art into a snapshot changing aspect smoothly but that would require dynamic shadows and glows while now they are fixed. I tried dynamic shadows in the past but it was very slow. I’ll think about it though.

2.
This can be done easily, I can implement a “game title only” mode that hides icons and other data
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 01, 2019, 10:57:34 AM
So undecided here of which using between the two versions for consoles/handhelds. And for now not thinking much about the option of using flyers for Arcade since that can complicate things maybe. ;D

I'm not a fan of arcade flyers because they are usually huge and slow down the layout a bit, but with the new routine they look good and are rendered with the proper aspect ratio.

I have made some changes in 4.6: you can add "CRT" or "LCD" to System Identifier so the layout will adapt snapshots and filters accordingly, this makes a lot of sense since CRT display or LCD display is something that's bound to the emulator itself.

Box art mode on the other hand is now available for all systems, not only consoles, but is a global setting. I think the best option would be to make it a "per-display" setting (struggling a bit with that) instead of binding it to the emulator system identifier. I could add a "BOX" entry to the emulator system identifier to enable box art mode on a "per emulator" basis, but that would imply that on mixed romlists you'll have a mix of screenshots and box arts, gotta check if it works and I don't know if I like it :D

By the way, there's a nice addition in 4.6: you can use a menu or a custom button to switch from screenshots to box art on the fly, no need to enter layout options, no need to reload the layout, push a button and it switches, I'm so proud of that :O

oh so many great news, I love that you put an option for changing between snaps or box art on the fly. It will look wonderful on the build here since I'm preparing the systems to have all the artwork available to do that switch. :)

My doubt and thinking about Arcade flyers is really only because of coherence. I love the original Arcadeflow idea with the screenshots, logos and video snaps playing after, but since we have now the possibility to use boxart for all systems that got me undecided. Using art and losing the ability for video previews or using the original theme idea? But since we will have now the quick switch that solves most doubts. :D

I'm curious to see how the "CRT"/"LCD" system identifier will work. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 02, 2019, 06:20:03 AM
I’m now studying how fe.nv works, if everything goes as expected once you switch the display from snapshots to box art the setting will be saved. That’s the ideal way for me.

Box art vs screens is a huge debate I’m thinking even of a “peek mode” where only the selected game switches, that would be an abrupt switch but it might be useful.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 03, 2019, 05:47:21 AM
I'm noticing some weird behavior in boxart mode with a few systems, specially ones that use approximate square dimensions (GBA, NDS, PC-Engine CD...), probably because of some of the automatic settings/crops. For example if the boxart dimensions are 600 x 600 it works good. But if the file is like 600 x 598 you get some kind of stretch with extra elements in the thumbnail. Hard to explain so here's a print of Saturn (Japanese games boxes are square) and other of GBA.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2019, 05:57:56 AM
I'm noticing some weird behavior in boxart mode with a few systems, specially ones that use approximate square dimensions (GBA, NDS, PC-Engine CD...), probably because of some of the automatic settings/crops.

This is a known bug, already fixed. I'm going to publish 4.6 later today and it should have no issues like that.

EDIT: 4.6 is out, you can check if issues are solved
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.5 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2019, 06:26:12 AM
Arcadeflow 4.6 is out!

Better effects, more flexible and solved a small bug that caused unnecessary tiles rewrites. Hope you enjoy it and since this update is touching critical aspects please let me know if everything works fine!

PS: "Square" mode is still pesent, and will adapt to sytems as well

PPS: @dukpoki "cleaner" main screen will come in 4.7...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 03, 2019, 12:59:00 PM
Just downloaded it. :) Getting several weird issues when changing from 4.5 to 4.6 though. Display menu items disappear if I chose version 4.6 for Display menu. Also, left or right instead of moving between anything in display menu makes it enter a collection. o_O.
Then if I use 4.5 again to see the collections to be able to choose one, trying to enter a system that has version 4.6 makes AM quit without warning. This in a build that only has Arcadeflow 4.5 in it. I can try making one with only version 4.6 to see if anything behaves differently.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: matt92 on June 03, 2019, 01:03:09 PM

how to install the complete theme you have a tutorial thank you
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 03, 2019, 01:12:07 PM
More bugs to join the ones above. In LabelList, when you go to each letter or scroll till a new one sometimes it shows something like a code "! game letter" instead of the letter itself like in previous versions. And after you scroll a little AM just quits.
I think something broke in version 4.6 sadly. :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2019, 02:14:20 PM
Getting several weird issues when changing from 4.5 to 4.6 though. Display menu items disappear if I chose version 4.6 for Display menu. Also, left or right instead of moving between anything in display menu makes it enter a collection. o_O.

Ok, maybe I didn't test 4.6 enough as display menu layout but I never had this issues. I will do some investigation asap, I suggest though you don't mix 4.5 and 4.6 though, they are very different especially in managing displays.

Quote
I can try making one with only version 4.6 to see if anything behaves differently.

If you can make a version like this, and maybe post some console log when Arcadeflow crashes that would help me a lot.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2019, 02:15:45 PM
More bugs to join the ones above. In LabelList, when you go to each letter or scroll till a new one sometimes it shows something like a code "! game letter" instead of the letter itself like in previous versions. And after you scroll a little AM just quits.
I think something broke in version 4.6 sadly. :(

:( I'll check this issue tomorrow, does it happen only in LabelList? I spent a lot of time to find and fix a bug in labels and maybe I touched something that's causing problems. Again if you run attract-console and send me a log it will be helpful
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 03, 2019, 03:41:18 PM
Ok, the issues persist in an AM build with only 4.6. :( From the log attached there seems to be some errors in the layout.nut just launching AM without even doing anything. So maybe that's the reason for the Display menu issues and others.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 03, 2019, 07:24:39 PM
It doesn't matter if it's boxart mode or screenshot mode, it crashes every time I change to "Arcade" display (ps2, snes, etc all work fine).  The thing with my "Arcade" display is that it's a combination of multiple romlists (http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1165.0).  I.e.  I have scanned Mame->generated romlist.  Then I have scanned Naomi->generated romlist.  Then the same for Model 2 and Model 3, etc.  Finally I have combined all those into one single giant master romlist named "Arcade".  So it's hitting some type of error there.  Note that I had no error on previous versions opening up "Arcade".


For some reason using attract-console doesn't automatically generate a log.  So I had to screenshot the command window.

Here's the screenshot (https://i.imgur.com/jAQY95l.jpg).


PPS: @dukpoki "cleaner" main screen will come in 4.7...

Haha cool!  And thanks!  But don't worry just take your time.  These bugs are more important to fix at the moment.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2019, 10:22:35 PM
Ok, the issues persist in an AM build with only 4.6. :( From the log attached there seems to be some errors in the layout.nut just launching AM without even doing anything. So maybe that's the reason for the Display menu issues and others.

Thanks for the log and screenshot: I was able to replicate the bug, it's the routine to detect LCD games that messes with displays menu. If you want you can try this patched layout and tell me if it works...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2019, 10:28:48 PM
For some reason using attract-console doesn't automatically generate a log.  So I had to screenshot the command window.

From the screenshot it seems a bug related to the function that grabs the game starting letter, but this might be the consequence of some other bug before. To provide a complete log you should run attract-console.exe from a command prompt, like
Code: [Select]
attract-console.exe > crashlog.txt
and share the crashlog.txt
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 03, 2019, 10:33:26 PM
Seems to be the same crash even with the new layout.nut file.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2019, 10:45:51 PM
Seems to be the same crash even with the new layout.nut file.

Perfect, I don't know if this fixes the bug, but you can check with this new layout.nut file
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2019, 11:55:45 PM
Seems to be the same crash even with the new layout.nut file.

Sorry that layout wasn't meant to fix this error but the one on the displays menu. And the fix I sent to you later won't work either, I'm looking into the log and it seems the issue starts at the very beginning of the function, would you be so kind to run the attached layout and share the log as before? I added some debug code (this will not solve the issue)

Weird thing I noticed: I'm noticing issues with "compoud" romlists but only if I run attract-console.exe, while attract.exe seems to work fine. This is bad because without console I can't do a proper debug, and since attract.exe works it's very difficult to find what's wrong :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 04, 2019, 03:27:12 AM
Ok, the issues persist in an AM build with only 4.6. :( From the log attached there seems to be some errors in the layout.nut just launching AM without even doing anything. So maybe that's the reason for the Display menu issues and others.

Thanks for the log and screenshot: I was able to replicate the bug, it's the routine to detect LCD games that messes with displays menu. If you want you can try this patched layout and tell me if it works...

With this patched layout or the newer one you posted for dukpoki at the beginning AM didn't open. It tried but closed immediately. Then I persisted and it opened. Display menu scrolling went back to normal but still no items/pictures there (they are in the menu art folder as they were in version 4.5). Entered Arcade collection, changed the switch from art to screenshots, clicked exit and AM just quit/crash. Same thing happened when I tried to change the options for Display menu to have one row instead of the 2 horizontal rows default. There's some errors in the log so maybe these help track the issue.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 04, 2019, 03:34:12 AM
With this patched layout or the newer one you posted for dukpoki at the beginning AM didn't open. It tried but closed immediately.

I thought I had some issues on my test rig since sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, if I copy the executable and rename it it works, if I run the old executable it doesn't. I really don't know how to debug this, because all the errors make AM crash without a useful log.

Quote
There's some errors in the log so maybe these help track the issue.

What is the layout you were using when this log was generated? Would you try with this other revision I'm attaching?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 04, 2019, 04:20:30 AM
If I'm not mistaken the log was from the version for dukpoki since your first version with the display menu fix wasn't launching so decided to try that one too.

Now for the revised version. Took a long time for AM to launch with this one. Always closed immediately. When it finally launched I still don't have pictures in the display menu. I entered some collections, changed Arcade boxart switch to screenshots. Out, entered SNES, scrolled a little, out. Entered Mega Drive/Genesis, started scrolling, got that letter code error and AM quit/crashed. Log attached.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 04, 2019, 04:57:52 AM
Now for the revised version. Took a long time for AM to launch with this one. Always closed immediately. When it finally launched I still don't have pictures in the display menu. I entered some collections, changed Arcade boxart switch to screenshots. Out, entered SNES, scrolled a little, out. Entered Mega Drive/Genesis, started scrolling, got that letter code error and AM quit/crashed. Log attached.

When you say "Out" do you mean you go back in the menu, or that attract mode crashes? :D I was able to replicate the issue you had in the previous log, but in the latest log there's no hint of what went wrong so I'm trying a last time with a revised revised layout. If this still has issues I'll have to go back to 4.5 and see step by step what works and what makes AM go crazy.

Oh, for the display images, that's probably due to the fact that the layout was looking for flyers and not snaps, but that should be fixed too in this latest layout. I don't think it will work 100% though, this update was really complicated, I need to check it on my Mac too.

[EDIT] I've been playing a bit with the new layout and it seems to work, I had no crashes up to now... I'll check better this evening
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 04, 2019, 06:03:10 AM
Now for the revised version. Took a long time for AM to launch with this one. Always closed immediately. When it finally launched I still don't have pictures in the display menu. I entered some collections, changed Arcade boxart switch to screenshots. Out, entered SNES, scrolled a little, out. Entered Mega Drive/Genesis, started scrolling, got that letter code error and AM quit/crashed. Log attached.

When you say "Out" do you mean you go back in the menu, or that attract mode crashes? :D I was able to replicate the issue you had in the previous log, but in the latest log there's no hint of what went wrong so I'm trying a last time with a revised revised layout. If this still has issues I'll have to go back to 4.5 and see step by step what works and what makes AM go crazy.

Oh, for the display images, that's probably due to the fact that the layout was looking for flyers and not snaps, but that should be fixed too in this latest layout. I don't think it will work 100% though, this update was really complicated, I need to check it on my Mac too.

[EDIT] I've been playing a bit with the new layout and it seems to work, I had no crashes up to now... I'll check better this evening

Ah sorry, with "Out" I meant back to menu.

With this new version the Display Menu shows finally the pictures and logos but I still have issues entering and back to menus sadly. Normally entering the first collection works good then you go back and AM closes. Or you enter a collection, go back, try to enter another collection and AM closes. It can happen also after you change the switch from art to screenshots and going back to menu.
Also, first time with the new layout.nut AM launched normally without issues. Second time didn't launch. Third time launched normal again.  ???

Sorry for all the trouble, I understand this was a big and delicate update.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 04, 2019, 06:12:17 AM

Sorry for all the trouble, I understand this was a big and delicate update.

No no I have to thank you for the feedback, it helped me a lot, it's difficult because I can't get a proper error log so I suspect that something I did doesn't play nice with Attract Mode. In 4.5 when changing displays the theme was always reloaded, one of the main features of 4.6 was that it did not need to reload, and just jump into the new display, but maybe this is not the intended behavior. I'll try to switch back and clean up everything. At the moment I can only suggest you don't use 4.6 :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 04, 2019, 06:22:06 AM

Sorry for all the trouble, I understand this was a big and delicate update.

No no I have to thank you for the feedback, it helped me a lot, it's difficult because I can't get a proper error log so I suspect that something I did doesn't play nice with Attract Mode. In 4.5 when changing displays the theme was always reloaded, one of the main features of 4.6 was that it did not need to reload, and just jump into the new display, but maybe this is not the intended behavior. I'll try to switch back and clean up everything. At the moment I can only suggest you don't use 4.6 :(

No problem, glad to help in anyway I can. :) I have a build with 4.5 and another one with 4.6 just to help testing and see potential issues. Thank you again for your work.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 04, 2019, 06:53:24 AM
No problem, glad to help in anyway I can. :) I have a build with 4.5 and another one with 4.6 just to help testing and see potential issues. Thank you again for your work.

Just a final test, could you test 4.6 using the "Default" Displays Menu layout? I suspect most of the issues are generated when using AF as displays menu layout... It also seems to work without issues using keys to go to next/previous display :O
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 04, 2019, 08:30:07 AM
Seems to be the same crash even with the new layout.nut file.

Sorry that layout wasn't meant to fix this error but the one on the displays menu. And the fix I sent to you later won't work either, I'm looking into the log and it seems the issue starts at the very beginning of the function, would you be so kind to run the attached layout and share the log as before? I added some debug code (this will not solve the issue)

Weird thing I noticed: I'm noticing issues with "compoud" romlists but only if I run attract-console.exe, while attract.exe seems to work fine. This is bad because without console I can't do a proper debug, and since attract.exe works it's very difficult to find what's wrong :(

Here you go.  Same crash again switching to "Arcade".
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 04, 2019, 08:34:46 AM

Here you go.  Same crash again switching to "Arcade".

I see. To save my mind from a nervous breakdown I've cooked a layout that disables completely all features related to using Arcadeflow as Displays Menu. I suggest you try this new stripped down layout, set your displays menu layout as "Default" in the options, and set Attract Mode to start in "Last selected (Default)" instead of Displays Menu.

Please let me know if, at least, this solves the Arcade library issue (you might need to run it a couple of times)

EDIT: I see something strange in your log: it seems the selected filter index is 2, but the filters array is of size 2, so filter index should only be 0 or 1, not 2. I don't know how this can happen but I'll add a check to avoid it
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 04, 2019, 08:41:43 AM
No problem, glad to help in anyway I can. :) I have a build with 4.5 and another one with 4.6 just to help testing and see potential issues. Thank you again for your work.

Just a final test, could you test 4.6 using the "Default" Displays Menu layout? I suspect most of the issues are generated when using AF as displays menu layout... It also seems to work without issues using keys to go to next/previous display :O

That seems to solve the other issues for now at least. :) And I like that the boxart/screenshot switch saves your choice per system, really nice.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 04, 2019, 09:29:16 AM

Here you go.  Same crash again switching to "Arcade".

I see. To save my mind from a nervous breakdown I've cooked a layout that disables completely all features related to using Arcadeflow as Displays Menu. I suggest you try this new stripped down layout, set your displays menu layout as "Default" in the options, and set Attract Mode to start in "Last selected (Default)" instead of Displays Menu.

Please let me know if, at least, this solves the Arcade library issue (you might need to run it a couple of times)

EDIT: I see something strange in your log: it seems the selected filter index is 2, but the filters array is of size 2, so filter index should only be 0 or 1, not 2. I don't know how this can happen but I'll add a check to avoid it

Okay perhaps there was a communication error.  I have not been using Arcadeflow as a display menu.  I have always had it disabled i.e. it was always at "Last selected (Default)"--that is if we are talking about Tab->General->Startup Mode->Show Last Selection (Default).  What I have been doing was going all the way up past the flyers, then the "Utility Menu" comes up and then I switch systems via the "Display" option.

Good news is with the new layout.nut (the one where you disabled "all features related to using Arcadeflow as Displays Menu"), switching to Arcade via that Utility Menu seems to work now without crashing.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 04, 2019, 01:46:20 PM
Okay perhaps there was a communication error.  I have not been using Arcadeflow as a display menu.  I have always had it disabled i.e. it was always at "Last selected (Default)"--that is if we are talking about Tab->General->Startup Mode->Show Last Selection (Default).  What I have been doing was going all the way up past the flyers, then the "Utility Menu" comes up and then I switch systems via the "Display" option.

I know, but most of the issues are related to code that I added to manage displays menu, so I wanted to strip it to the bare bones.

Quote
Good news is with the new layout.nut (the one where you disabled "all features related to using Arcadeflow as Displays Menu"), switching to Arcade via that Utility Menu seems to work now without crashing.

Well that's a relief, now I only need to rewrite all the displays menu part of the code :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 04, 2019, 01:47:40 PM
That seems to solve the other issues for now at least. :) And I like that the boxart/screenshot switch saves your choice per system, really nice.

Great, believe it or not, I'm testing 4.6 on my Macbook Pro and it works flawlessly in displays menu mode. Well I'll rewrite the displays menu portion anyway
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2019, 06:19:50 AM
Working on a new displays menu for AF 4.7, without having to use the layout as displays menu layout, but wanting something a bit richer than a bland list, I've coded this draft: the usual displays menu with a scrolling artwork list, which uses titles and artwork from the menu-art folder.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 05, 2019, 07:34:06 AM
Looks better than the default menu. :) Hopefully you can also solve the issues with Display Menu code because it looks great here in 4.5 with the option of 1 row horizontal. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2019, 07:37:31 AM
Looks better than the default menu. :) Hopefully you can also solve the issues with Display Menu code because it looks great here in 4.5. with the option of 1 row horizontal. :)

Well that will be very hard, it seems I'm having lots of issues when the layout is reloaded (even in 4.5 sometimes), for example when reloading the layout after rotation toggle :/ If I can get an option to switch displays without reloading the layout I'll implement something that looks like AF for displays but is in fact something overlayed on top of the layout itself. That would be faster and safer.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2019, 08:00:08 AM
If someone is interested in beta-testing the new displays menu layout it can be loaded here, just substitute the 4.6 layout.nut with this one
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 05, 2019, 08:09:13 AM
First 11 systems the image show up on the right. The next 11 (I have 22 including the exit AM one) don't show the picture on the right.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2019, 08:11:44 AM
First 11 systems the image show up on the right. The next 11 (I have 22 including the exit AM one) don't show the picture on the right.

Well it's 50% good :D Can you tell me the file names of the pictures not showing? Right now it expects the wheel to be a .png file, while the snapshot can be a ".jpg" (which is cropped square) or a ".png" which is centered...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 05, 2019, 08:31:51 AM
The snaps are all ".jpg" and named the same as the systems inside \menu-art\snap. The wheels are ".png" in \menu-art\wheel. Basically they stop showing up at 50% of the displays order. ??? The last one that shows the picture is Sony PlayStation, then Sony PlayStation 2 and all the others next don't show. Maybe something in the code is limiting the number, like show at most 11 systems pictures only?

In 4.5 Display Menu it shows good both the snap+wheel for all displays. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2019, 08:44:54 AM
Maybe something in the code is limiting the number, like show at most 11 systems pictures only?

"Maybe" I used the wrong index to loop through the displays so it only rendered half of them, but didn't notice because I only had images for the first in the list :D Fixed
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 05, 2019, 09:00:13 AM
First time all seemed good except the "Exit Attract-Mode" snap+wheel not showing but that is probably on purpose in the code? Now, after exiting AM the first time it didn't launch anymore. :o Then after some more tries launched again and next time stopped launching again. ??? Crazy stuff ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2019, 10:34:26 AM
Crazy stuff indeed, even the stripped down version sometimes crashes, even on my Mac. I’ll have to check previous versions, the only thing that changed is the way snaps are updated: not with index offset or rawest index offset, but with explicit file_name calls and get_art functions. Maybe this is stressing attract mode too much. I’ll look into it deeply
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 05, 2019, 10:58:04 AM
In version 4.5 things seems to be working good without those crash issues or others. The only thing I notice compared to other themes is that Arcadeflow taxes the CPU/GPU more. Main computer handles the theme well, but on a older computer here Arcadeflow moves in slow motion but it could be a drivers problem since it's not my computer and has an older AMD card.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 05, 2019, 10:59:36 AM
So i was messing around with the different options.  I didn't even realize you could do a single row until Enkak mentioned it earlier.  It's great...except for one fact:  you can only have 3 games showing at one time.  What that means, is all the pictures are gigantic.  Is it possible to have 5 games on the screen for a single row, the same way a double row would look?

Here's a mockup screen I did.  I also added white borders to the unselected games and minimized the on screen texts so it's way less cluttered.  I would personally love a minimal design option like this but what are your thoughts on it?  P.s. I know it makes it look more and more like "Ambience" especially once it transitions to playing a video file but since it doesn't look like Oomek will ever release it, you would be doing a favor for the whole community designing a similar alt version considering how many people are clamoring for it.  :P

(https://i.imgur.com/IboUlG9.jpg)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2019, 01:25:41 PM
Is it possible to have 5 games on the screen for a single row, the same way a double row would look?

It shouldn’t be difficult to add both the small thumbnails single row and the minimalistic layout. There will be a lot of empty space (that Oomek used to show filters) but I think it might look good. I like your mock-up, let's see how it will look on Arcadeflow. For sure my layout and oomek’s one are still very different, even with this change. I’ll leep the option for giant thumbnails though since that's the main reason why I was asked to add the single row in the beginning :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2019, 03:34:29 AM
In version 4.5 things seems to be working good without those crash issues or others. The only thing I notice compared to other themes is that Arcadeflow taxes the CPU/GPU more.

Yes, Arcadeflow is very demanding, mostly for two reasons: loading of a lot of artworks, even off-screen so the list smoothly scrolls, and using a lot of surfaces and glsl filters. While I tried to optimize filters as much as I can, surfaces stacks can be a real pain. I'm thinking of some radical change as far as surface stacks and shadows are concerned, but you see what happened last time I did some "radical change" to the theme lol

On my late 2013 retina 13" macbook pro AF runs quite well at 1200x800, but it's silky smooth only at lower resolution. You can force a "fake" lower resolution in the options to see if it improves the performance on older systems.

PS: Today I removed "Overview" support from 4.6 and for absolutely no reason it seems to work better. Of course if I try again this evening it will be back to continuous crashes :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 06, 2019, 04:20:48 AM
I will try that option of low resolution in the older computer later. Probably it needs some driver update too now that you say that about the glsl filters. :)

Sorry about the suggestion of "Overview" option for consoles ;D

I guess 4.6 was a big "radical change" in many ways and normally that introduces some possible bugs but hopefully a learning step for next version. :) 4.5 still running with no problems on main computer, seems very stable. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2019, 04:51:55 AM
I guess 4.6 was a big "radical change" in many ways and normally that introduces some possible bugs but hopefully a learning step for next version. :) 4.5 still running with no problems on main computer, seems very stable. :)

It would be a learning step if I was able to track down what is causing the problem :( I'll give myself some more time to test, and if I can't come up with an explanation I'll throw 4.6 in the trash and go back to 4.5 (and rewrite box art mode again LOL)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 07, 2019, 05:46:29 AM
4.5 still running with no problems on main computer, seems very stable. :)

Could you please try this layout.nut and tell me if it works and if it's robust? This is a 4.5 layout I'm changing step by step to incorporate 4.6 functionality. As it is it SEEMS to work flawlessly on my PC (no crashes)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 07, 2019, 06:26:28 AM
Keeping my fingers crossed but it seems I found the culprit: a glsl shader assignment to the history page surface was doing some mess, don't know if the issue is in the assignment or in the shader itself, but I already found a workaround.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 07, 2019, 10:55:57 AM
I tried in a isolated build and for now seems to be working good as systems menu. :) But it doesn't have the Displays menu option and boxart switch yet correct?

Or do you want me to mix this test layout in the 4.5 build?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 09, 2019, 04:03:47 AM
So i was messing around with the different options.  I didn't even realize you could do a single row until Enkak mentioned it earlier.  It's great...except for one fact:  you can only have 3 games showing at one time.  What that means, is all the pictures are gigantic.  Is it possible to have 5 games on the screen for a single row, the same way a double row would look?

Is this something you would like? I raised the scrollbar a bit, maybe I'll lower the title a bit too...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 09, 2019, 07:28:41 PM
Is this something you would like? I raised the scrollbar a bit, maybe I'll lower the title a bit too...

Yup!  That looks great!  Maybe just shrink the game title a bit though.  The lower bar looks great and perfect the way it is.  At the end of the day, make it how you like it.  If anything, I could always play with the text size in the layout nut i'm sure.

P.s  Now that I think of it.  I would say System and Filter are pretty important info to have for anyone with multiple consoles/displays I would think.  I would try adding those too!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2019, 04:30:19 AM
P.s  Now that I think of it.  I would say System and Filter are pretty important info to have for anyone with multiple consoles/displays I would think.  I would try adding those too!

Well System is already present: it's in the smaller line under the game title. I'll add back the filters data, maybe in a different place instead of the bottom.
I've almost finished polishing 4.7, hopefully it will be less a disaster than 4.6 :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.6 [Release] Updated 24 May 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 10, 2019, 07:07:40 PM
Well System is already present: it's in the smaller line under the game title. I'll add back the filters data, maybe in a different place instead of the bottom.
I've almost finished polishing 4.7, hopefully it will be less a disaster than 4.6 :D

Okay good luck!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 12, 2019, 03:35:47 AM
Arcadeflow 4.7 is out, mostly to get rid of bad bugs in 4.6! Please let me know it works as expected :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 12, 2019, 07:58:19 AM
ah just saw it, forum didn't send me the usual email notification. -_- Time to test and will let you know later.  :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 12, 2019, 09:39:00 AM
Okay so there's still bugs in this version, unfortunately.  I have recorded some videos to help show what I'm encountering.  Please note that all of these bugs were also happening back in the 4.6 version.

Video 1 (https://youtu.be/06xODMoqKqw)
You can see in this video, that I load up AM and it goes straight into PS1 display.  From there, I open up the "Displays Menu" (note that the actual list is not centered), and select Arcade.  It loads Arcade games, but has mixed it in with the pictures of the last display which was the PS1.  If you look closely, you can see that the Fatal Fury Special wheel is over Need for Speed 3's screenshot, etc.  I scroll left and right, and the wheels disappear (?).  Once I scroll even further across right, you can see boxart/flyers pop up for some Arcade games, starting with Garou Mark of the Wolves (screenshots with boxarts?).   I'll also note, that this is a new fresh attract.cfg with no changes to any layout options i.e. it's all at default settings.

Video 2 (https://youtu.be/cZML70fPD7o)
In this second video, it's mostly the same problems as the last video but the big takeaway is at the end.  First I start off in Arcade display, then go to Sony Playstation 2, which loads fine, it's defaulted into boxart.  Then i go to Sony Playstation 1, and it loads fine, but it's defaulted to snaps (?).  Then finally, I go back to Arcade, and there is a random SNES boxart (3 ninja's kickback) there over what seemingly should be Fatal Fury 3 (arcade)!  What? lol

Question.  When I go to Layout Options I see one of the options being "Show boxart or flyer mode" and the choices are "Yes" or "No".  What does that mean.  Also it's set to No by default.  How does this play a role in some systems being in boxart mode, like PS2 and arcade but then you have some systems like the ps1 in screenshot mode?  I'm assuming this is a bug?

I'm so sorry that there's still problems which persist with this version.  I'm sure you worked hard on it and have endured a lot of headache trying to squash these bugs.  I'm taking my time to record videos to help out much as possible to be detailed in portraying what's going on.  Hopefully you have an idea on what's going on/wrong.  Hey one good news though is there's no more crashing with this version like there was in 4.6!


Edit:  Oh and one more thing.  I don't see any option for "Small Thumbnails" in the Layout options.  If I switch "Rows in Horizontal" from 3 to 1 then I still get large 3 thumb rows. 

Edit2:  Just want to report that "Clean Layout" works and it looks GREAT!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 12, 2019, 10:18:08 AM
After playing a little with the new version everything seems to be way more stable and with no crashes. Great job :)

The Display menu here is working good but normally I use the theme as display menu and not default menu so maybe this helps track some of the bugs that dukpoki found. Meanwhile I tried it also using the default menu instead but didn't encounter the same issues for now.

The only "major" bug that I've found for the moment is the video snaps sound not stopping when you change from one game to the next. I always put "on" the options of audio in videos in thumbs and history. In 4.5 it worked normal. Scroll to a game, screenshot goes out and video starts playing. Change to other game the sound of the one before stops and you only hear the video sound of your current selection. In 4.7 both in the games list or in the history panel, the sound of the game before doesn't stop when you scroll to other game.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 12, 2019, 02:05:17 PM
Okay so there's still bugs in this version, unfortunately.  I have recorded some videos to help show what I'm encountering.  Please note that all of these bugs were also happening back in the 4.6 version.

Thank you for all the work you did with the videos! I hope I can help fixing these issues, let me some time to study them, and maybe I'll need your attract.cfg file to proper debug it. I never saw this issues in my tests with mixed romlists.

Quote
Question.  When I go to Layout Options I see one of the options being "Show boxart or flyer mode" and the choices are "Yes" or "No".  What does that mean.  Also it's set to No by default.  How does this play a role in some systems being in boxart mode, like PS2 and arcade but then you have some systems like the ps1 in screenshot mode?  I'm assuming this is a bug?

The setting "Show boxart or flyer mode" should be renamed because it's confusing: it's not a selection of boxart vs flyers, actually boxart and flyers are the same thing in AM. So despite the bad wording, if it's set to "Yes" then boxart (or flyers for arcade) are shown, if it's set to "No" then screenshots are shown. But this is just a "default" setting. Each display can have its own setting, just set a hotkey (by default Custom3) or use the utility menu to switch each display as you like it.

Oh and the non-centered displays menu is by design, the right portion of the screen should be artowrk put in the menu-art folder. I'll make an option to enlarge the menu if no artwork is needed.

Quote
Hey one good news though is there's no more crashing with this version like there was in 4.6!

Edit:  Oh and one more thing.  I don't see any option for "Small Thumbnails" in the Layout options.  If I switch "Rows in Horizontal" from 3 to 1 then I still get large 3 thumb rows. 

Good to know that at least crashes are no more! The small thumbnails is an option in Horizontal Rows: the option is now 1-Small, 1, 2, 3 and the first one is what you should set to see small thumbs
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 12, 2019, 02:08:12 PM
After playing a little with the new version everything seems to be way more stable and with no crashes. Great job :)

It took me a week to find the single line of code that worked up to 4.5 but completely broke 4.6 LOL

Quote
The only "major" bug that I've found for the moment is the video snaps sound not stopping when you change from one game to the next. I always put "on" the options of audio in videos in thumbs and history. In 4.5 it worked normal. Scroll to a game, screenshot goes out and video starts playing. Change to other game the sound of the one before stops and you only hear the video sound of your current selection. In 4.7 both in the games list or in the history panel, the sound of the game before doesn't stop when you scroll to other game.

There's now a slow fade-out of the video instead of an abrupt stop, but I can't fade out the audio. I didn't check it (my bad) but maybe the old video keeps playing a bit longer and then stops? Or it never stops? I'll check the issue with the history page too, thank you for the heads up
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 12, 2019, 02:15:44 PM
It never stops both in the gaming list or history panel, so you can imagine the sound chaos after selecting 3 games or more  :D
In 4.5 when you changed the game selected the video sound always stopped for the next one to start. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 12, 2019, 05:52:33 PM
The setting "Show boxart or flyer mode" should be renamed because it's confusing: it's not a selection of boxart vs flyers, actually boxart and flyers are the same thing in AM. So despite the bad wording, if it's set to "Yes" then boxart (or flyers for arcade) are shown, if it's set to "No" then screenshots are shown. But this is just a "default" setting. Each display can have its own setting, just set a hotkey (by default Custom3) or use the utility menu to switch each display as you like it.

Apparently I'm an idiot.  Not only did I read that question in the wrong manner, I also for some reason thought it was asking between flyer/boxart vs screenshot.  (Looks like I need glasses.  8))

Quote
Good to know that at least crashes are no more! The small thumbnails is an option in Horizontal Rows: the option is now 1-Small, 1, 2, 3 and the first one is what you should set to see small thumbs

Okay I didn't scroll down far down enough.  And I just tested it out.  Looks and works great!

Some other things:
1. You can scratch the random SNES boxart showing up off the list of things to fix.  That one was my fault.  I just checked my snap folder and for reason I had a single snes jpeg in there named as fatal fury 3.  So sorry!

2.  After putting it on 1-Small, going back and forth between displays for some reason is bug free.  Going from PS1 to Arcade results in proper boxarts to the game name.  I confirmed it by setting it to 2 again and then things got wonky again.  So the problem looks to be when when there are multiple rows.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 12, 2019, 10:59:46 PM
It never stops both in the gaming list or history panel, so you can imagine the sound chaos after selecting 3 games or more  :D
In 4.5 when you changed the game selected the video sound always stopped for the next one to start. :)

I see that the thumbs videos are not stopping as expected: if you let a video fade in, then move to another thumb, wait for the old video to fade out, then you move again to the old thumb the video is not restarting from the beginning. This is probably the reason why it keeps playing the audio. I'll fix this ASAP and check the history page too.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 13, 2019, 01:15:41 AM
It never stops both in the gaming list or history panel, so you can imagine the sound chaos after selecting 3 games or more  :D

Can you check if the issue is solved in this layout, now the sound stops as soon as the fade out finishes. There might be some mixing of both sounds during fade out but it should work. Oh and the history page should work too...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 13, 2019, 01:59:33 AM
Video 1 (https://youtu.be/06xODMoqKqw)
You can see in this video, that I load up AM and it goes straight into PS1 display.

I'm looking into this video... what happens is that PS1 is loaded correctly, but when you change display only wheel (logos) artwork is updated, while no screenshots are updated. As you move then wheel art disappears, and further images are boxart and not screenshots. So it seems that Arcade is loaded in boxart mode, but the layout can't correctly update the thumbnails. I'll try to replicate the issue

Please check some things in your setup:
- Are you using the same layout for all your displays? Don't mix 4.7 with previous versions.
- Do you have a script.nv file in your AM folder? If yes, please share it here so I can check it
- Can you share your attract.cfg and cfg files in the Emulators directory?

Also if you can run the same as video 1 using attract-console --loglevel debug and paste the output here it might help.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 13, 2019, 06:00:10 AM
It never stops both in the gaming list or history panel, so you can imagine the sound chaos after selecting 3 games or more  :D

Can you check if the issue is solved in this layout, now the sound stops as soon as the fade out finishes. There might be some mixing of both sounds during fade out but it should work. Oh and the history page should work too...

Working perfectly now in game list and history panel, thanks again :)

There's a small bug that I just found related to this but I can live with it. Lets see if I can explain it:
Select a game (Bubble Bobble for example, can be any other), video starts playing, click button for context menu and chose history panel. There, scroll to left or right to other games, the video behavior with sound working perfect, etc. Now go back to the gaming list again. If you go the game you first selected to access the history panel and all the others you scrolled there before the last one you will notice that those videos start playing but now always without sound.

In other matter, I noticed that with Mame romlist if the list has the players numbers like "2P sim", "2P alt", "1P" and so on that will not appear in the players icon in the theme on top. Maybe this will help you if you want the code to check possible alternative entries in the lists.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 13, 2019, 06:14:24 AM
There's a small bug that I just found related to this but I can live with it. Lets see if I can explain it:
Select a game (Bubble Bobble for example, can be any other), video starts playing, click button for context menu and chose history panel. There, scroll to left or right to other games, the video behavior with sound working perfect, etc. Now go back to the gaming list again. If you go the game you first selected to access the history panel and all the others you scrolled there before the last one you will notice that those videos start playing but now always without sound.

Found and fixed, there are so many places where things are changed now that it's difficult to track and fix them all, I really need to cleanup and rationalize the code.

Quote
In other matter, I noticed that with Mame romlist if the list has the players numbers like "2P sim", "2P alt", "1P" and so on that will not appear in the players icon in the theme on top. Maybe this will help you if you want the code to check possible alternative entries in the lists.

What version of mame has this? I will try a blind fix (I don't have this kind of player data), but if you really want to try something to help me, go in the "players_images" folder inside Arcadeflow, it should be enough to duplicate, for example

players_1.png

and rename it

players_1P.png

You can also duplicate and rename players_2.png to "players_2P sim.png" while I come up with an icon for "2p alt" ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 13, 2019, 08:18:45 AM
There's a small bug that I just found related to this but I can live with it. Lets see if I can explain it:
Select a game (Bubble Bobble for example, can be any other), video starts playing, click button for context menu and chose history panel. There, scroll to left or right to other games, the video behavior with sound working perfect, etc. Now go back to the gaming list again. If you go the game you first selected to access the history panel and all the others you scrolled there before the last one you will notice that those videos start playing but now always without sound.

Found and fixed, there are so many places where things are changed now that it's difficult to track and fix them all, I really need to cleanup and rationalize the code.

Quote
In other matter, I noticed that with Mame romlist if the list has the players numbers like "2P sim", "2P alt", "1P" and so on that will not appear in the players icon in the theme on top. Maybe this will help you if you want the code to check possible alternative entries in the lists.

What version of mame has this? I will try a blind fix (I don't have this kind of player data), but if you really want to try something to help me, go in the "players_images" folder inside Arcadeflow, it should be enough to duplicate, for example

players_1.png

and rename it

players_1P.png

You can also duplicate and rename players_2.png to "players_2P sim.png" while I come up with an icon for "2p alt" ;D

Yeah, theme is complex and with so many things I bet its not easy to track them all. We're here to help. :)

Regarding MAME list, you can get a list like that here: http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/lista_mame.php
Then chose options, export the results. There you have the option for Attract-Mode list. It exports automatic with those values for players numbers.

I use that site and function to get a fullset list to use after with AM Global filter rule: rule                 FileIsAvailable equals 1
This can avoid the need to generate a new romlist everytime you add or delete games for example

Oh nice trick regarding the .png files, thx. :) I went with notepad++ route before since it can make easier to replace lots of similar entries with others.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 13, 2019, 08:25:39 AM
Regarding MAME list, you can get a list like that here: http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/lista_mame.php
Then chose options, export the results. There you have the option for Attract-Mode list. It exports automatic with those values for players numbers.

I use that site and function to get a fullset list to use after with AM Global filter rule: rule                 FileIsAvailable equals 1
This can avoid the need to generate a new romlist everytime you add or delete games for example

Oh good to know, I only got my game data from catver.ini and generated romlist inside AM which, as far as I understand, is dependent on MAME version. My MAME is 0.185, but I think the "1P" naming started around mame 0.192. I don't want to fix my roms so I'm sticking with 0.185 but an "updated" romlist will help in the debug.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 13, 2019, 12:57:01 PM
Not sure when they started doing that but I checked just now nplayers.ini and noticed it uses that system so maybe its related.
PS: On that site you can also select the mame version before exporting the file if needed. ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 13, 2019, 08:48:47 PM
Are you using the same layout for all your displays? Don't mix 4.7 with previous versions.
Yes.  Deleted 4.6 along time ago.

Quote
Do you have a script.nv file in your AM folder? If yes, please share it here so I can check it
Can you share your attract.cfg and cfg files in the Emulators directory?

Done.  Attached in zip form.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 13, 2019, 08:57:36 PM
Even in 1-Small mode, I'm getting problems when I switch to "Arcade".

When I switch Display mode to Arcade, the last display's boxart is there.

I've attached the log.   Hopefully you can get to the bottom of this.  Would having my romlists, at least for all my arcade lists, help?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 14, 2019, 12:15:06 AM
I've attached the log.   Hopefully you can get to the bottom of this.  Would having my romlists, at least for all my arcade lists, help?

The log was very helpful: Arcadeflow is throwing an error, and that's the reason why you see that inconsistent and strange behavior. It's the same kind of error you had in the past, there are two very similar functions in Arcadeflow, one for game sorting used to populate the labels, one for extracting the first letter of the name. Basically one was patched and the other not.

If you want you can try this patched layout.nut, and tell me if it works better...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 14, 2019, 08:03:06 AM
I've attached the log.   Hopefully you can get to the bottom of this.  Would having my romlists, at least for all my arcade lists, help?

The log was very helpful: Arcadeflow is throwing an error, and that's the reason why you see that inconsistent and strange behavior. It's the same kind of error you had in the past, there are two very similar functions in Arcadeflow, one for game sorting used to populate the labels, one for extracting the first letter of the name. Basically one was patched and the other not.

If you want you can try this patched layout.nut, and tell me if it works better...

With the patched layout nut, so far so good.  I'll play with it some more and report if anything changes.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 17, 2019, 03:15:19 AM
Arcadeflow 4.8 is out with bug fixes and support for recent mame romlists (I was stuck with mame 0.185 :D)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 17, 2019, 03:25:41 AM
Oh great news, thank you again :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on June 18, 2019, 09:43:17 AM
simply wonderful, I use only this theme in my AM, for being the most complete and functional. but I would like to leave here an idea, I use it with the mame and boxart, I would like to see if after the box image has appeared it will wait for 2 seconds and start to run the video, just like it and by default. another details that I'm encountering and with the part where the letters are down there, we have the following scenario, starts with ', A there he jumps to T and later he repeats the letter T.

(http://i67.tinypic.com/2zqt1r7.png)

Big Thanks.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 18, 2019, 01:15:54 PM
Another details that I'm encountering and with the part where the letters are down there, we have the following scenario, starts with ', A there he jumps to T and later he repeats the letter T.

This was an old issue, strange to see it again, it's due to games starting with "The" or "Vs.". Can you send me your mame romlist so I can check? You can find it in the attract mode folder, romlists subfolder. If you don't want to attach here send it to paolo.zago@gmail.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on June 18, 2019, 03:12:33 PM
Thank you for the attention I will be putting my romlist here so you can download.

Download:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/i2973wgvs9g4i9f/Arcade_Romlist.txt/file (https://www.mediafire.com/file/i2973wgvs9g4i9f/Arcade_Romlist.txt/file)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 18, 2019, 11:06:58 PM
Thank you for the attention I will be putting my romlist here so you can download.

I just checked with your romlist and it seems to work fine on my rig, so the issue is somewhere else, if you want you can share the mame.cfg and attract.cfg from your setup. Also, if you can run from console

attract-console --loglevel debug

and share the log, that would be helpful.

It seems it's a problem related to the sorting of your romlist/filter.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 19, 2019, 03:13:16 AM
simply wonderful, I use only this theme in my AM, for being the most complete and functional. but I would like to leave here an idea, I use it with the mame and boxart, I would like to see if after the box image has appeared it will wait for 2 seconds and start to run the video, just like it and by default.

This is something I'm thinking about, but there are some issues, for example if the box-art or flyer is vertical (like arcade or Genesis), the gameplay video would be severely cropped, or the tile will have to change shape from vertical to horizontal, which can't be done easily in current AF implementation.

I'll see what can be done, adding cropped videos is not difficult in this case, if the cropping doesn't look too bad I'll do it. Shape-shifting box art and thumbs would be a drastic change and require a rewrite which I'm already thinking about, but that will take much more time.

EDIT: This is an implementation of the cropped video thumbs for boxart mode, it's still rough and not tested thoroughly but you can have a look at it and see if you like it...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 19, 2019, 04:23:05 AM
Thank you for the attention I will be putting my romlist here so you can download.

I just checked with your romlist and it seems to work fine on my rig, so the issue is somewhere else, if you want you can share the mame.cfg and attract.cfg from your setup. Also, if you can run from console

attract-console --loglevel debug

and share the log, that would be helpful.

It seems it's a problem related to the sorting of your romlist/filter.

A test that I just did. If you delete all the filters (including "All" and Favourites") the arcade collection LabeList will appear messed up for example so maybe that's related to arthurvalenca issue if some of the main filters that AM creates by default were deleted.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 19, 2019, 05:14:58 AM
A test that I just did. If you delete all the filters (including "All" and Favourites") the arcade collection LabeList will appear messed up for example so maybe that's related to arthurvalenca issue if some of the main filters that AM creates by default were deleted.

Wow you nailed it, in the past I fixed the routine so that if no filters were present it still worked, but I never tested it if you removed also the "Global Filter". I'll fix this asap
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 19, 2019, 05:21:23 AM
You can try this layout.nut, this should fix most issues when you don't have filters
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.7 [Release] Updated 12 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 19, 2019, 05:22:39 AM

With the patched layout nut, so far so good.  I'll play with it some more and report if anything changes.

I've made some changes with this temporary layout, could you test it on your romlist and tell me if it has the issue or not? That would be really helpful
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on June 19, 2019, 06:36:45 AM
Oh my god!

this layout.nut that you sent was perfect, you solved the problem of the letter orders and still put the video to work after the selection of the game, it was simply wonderful, your work and very professional, only one question could put a greater delay to when I select the box, I think that about 2 seconds would be ideal, thanks for the help.

(http://i63.tinypic.com/2qj9k5i.png)

*Letters fix.
*Watching videos in boxart mode ok.

Big Thanks!!!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 19, 2019, 06:45:32 AM
this layout.nut that you sent was perfect, you solved the problem of the letter orders and still put the video to work after the selection of the game, it was simply wonderful, your work and very professional, only one question could put a greater delay to when I select the box, I think that about 2 seconds would be ideal, thanks for the help.

Thank you for the good comments, happy you like Arcadeflow :) I think I can add the delay, maybe I'll put an option for that in the layout options so anyone can tune it to their needs.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on June 19, 2019, 06:52:19 AM
Actually I do not see problems in putting the videos even if they cut, because the layout has the option to predict the game, but on the main screen I found the videos and the boxes to be the same size, it does not disturb me at all. I really have abandoned all the other consoles to use only MAME, but this thema I will always use, in my opinion is the best and most complete.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 19, 2019, 12:20:23 PM
The modified layout you've made for arthurvalenca is wicked!  I think the crop actually looks good!

Thank you for making the "clean" mode.  It's very minimal and nice.  There is one thing I do wish you could modify though and that is for your region info to have more detection.  Is there any way to make it so that every parenthesis (and not just the first) in the title can be detected and displayed?

For example, let's say I have four different roms of the same game:

1.  Final Fantasy VI (USA)
2.  Final Fantasy VI (Japan)
3.  Final Fantasy VI (Japan) (English Translated)
4.  Final Fantasy VI (USA) (Beta) (Hacked)

Currently..  It only shows USA for 1 & 4 and Japan for 2 & 3.


I use a code like this for my own layouts and it works fine:

Code: [Select]
function trimmed_name( index_offset ) {
    local s = split( fe.game_info( Info.Title, index_offset ), "(" );
    if ( s.len() > 0 )
        return s[0];

    return "";
}

// gets the second part of the game name, after the "("
function subname1( index_offset ) {
local s = split( fe.game_info( Info.Title, index_offset ), "(" )
local s2 = ""
if ( s.len() > 1 ) {
s2 = split(s[1],")")
return s2[0]
}
return ""
}

// gets the third part of the game name, after the "("
function subname2( index_offset ) {
local s = split( fe.game_info( Info.Title, index_offset ), "(" )
local s3 = ""
if ( s.len() > 2 ) {
s3 = split(s[2],")")
return ", " + s3[0]
}
return ""
}

// gets the fourth part of the game name, after the "("
function subname3( index_offset ) {
local s = split( fe.game_info( Info.Title, index_offset ), "(" )
local s4 = ""
if ( s.len() > 3 ) {
s4 = split(s[3],")")
return ", " + s4[0]
}
return ""
}

// Any blank--if no text after parenthesis, then sends N/A
function subname4( index_offset ) {
local s = split( fe.game_info( Info.Title, index_offset ), "(" )
local s5 = ""
if ( s.len() > 1 ) {
s5 = split(s[1],")")
return ""
}
return "N/A"
}


local region_text =fe.add_text("",100, 100, 500, 22 )


fe.add_transition_callback( "update_game_info" )
function update_game_info( ttype, var, ttime )
{
    if ( ttype == Transition.StartLayout || ttype == Transition.ToNewList || ttype == Transition.EndNavigation )
    {
region_text.msg = subname1 (var) + subname2 (var) + subname3 (var) + subname4 (var) ;

    }
    return false;
}



I'm sure though there might be a better way than I have implemented.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 19, 2019, 02:38:04 PM
For some pics there are some weird aspect ratio/not-fitting-properly problems going on.

Here is an example:

(https://i.imgur.com/WHZ85Kr.jpg)


Look at the left of the Policenauts boxart.  I've attached the original boxart image which is 800x672.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 19, 2019, 10:56:59 PM

1.  Final Fantasy VI (USA)
2.  Final Fantasy VI (Japan)
3.  Final Fantasy VI (Japan) (English Translated)
4.  Final Fantasy VI (USA) (Beta) (Hacked)

Currently..  It only shows USA for 1 & 4 and Japan for 2 & 3.


I see, thank you for telling me, I never thought about this because I started with Mame where you only have one "( )" group after the main name. I think it's pretty easy to solve, also thank you for the code, I'll see what's the best way to implement this and come up with a temp layout to check before releasing.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 19, 2019, 11:03:50 PM
For some pics there are some weird aspect ratio/not-fitting-properly problems going on.

Got it, this happens because the image is "horizontal" (width > height) but aspect ratio is "more square" than 4:3, so the cropping is wrong. Thanks for spotting this!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 20, 2019, 02:08:47 AM
For example, let's say I have four different roms of the same game:

1.  Final Fantasy VI (USA)
2.  Final Fantasy VI (Japan)
3.  Final Fantasy VI (Japan) (English Translated)
4.  Final Fantasy VI (USA) (Beta) (Hacked)

You can try the attached layout: it should fix the cropping of box art, and use all the notes in parenthesis. Please let me know if it works for you
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 21, 2019, 05:21:58 PM
You can try the attached layout: it should fix the cropping of box art, and use all the notes in parenthesis. Please let me know if it works for you

Yes that fixes everything!  Here is a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mdYcJC6HS8) of it in action. The boxart stretch is fixed and the titles show up properly.  I also see that you've fixed the titles in the game details section.  This works perfectly because for the extra long titles, you can just go into that menu and read the full title.  I appreciate all you have done.  Thank you so much.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: jedione on June 21, 2019, 05:48:11 PM
i haven't used the theme for a bit now,    and just tryed the latest..and wow

this theme has relay formed into a great front end theme...amazing work  thanks

i will be using this on the 64 inch tv in the living room....how cool :)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 25, 2019, 08:50:01 AM
I'm working on 4.9 right now, incorporating most of the fixes of the latest draft shared here (crops, aspects etc), but with lots of code rewriting and cleanup. Most important, I don't use artworks with index_offset or rawset_index_offset anymore for image loading, but direct get_art statements. This is a huge change and fixes a lot of issues I had, for example with keyboard search when some artwork was not updated correctly. I'm still trying to understand what I can simplify and what is still needed, therefore if you want to try this layout and report any bugs before release it'll be greatly appreciated :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 26, 2019, 02:58:39 AM
Started to test it in a separate build and so far seems to be very stable. :) I forgot to tell that I also like how overview info/story files shows up now if you don't have history.dat, thank you so much for that too ;)

A question for the display menu. Would be possible an option to deactivate there only the splash effect when you reach a new letter? I ask because I like that effect very much on the gaming lists but normally on Display menu my systems aren't in alphabetical order (more like eras/time or type).
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 26, 2019, 05:21:36 AM
Started to test it in a separate build and so far seems to be very stable. :)

Good, did you notice any slowdown? Just a bit of extra cleanup and I'll release it next week.

Quote
A question for the display menu. Would be possible an option to deactivate there only the splash effect when you reach a new letter?

Sure, this can be done easily, you can check the attached layout...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.8 [Release] Updated 17 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on June 26, 2019, 05:40:40 AM
Thank you so much for the updated layout, works wonderful the display menu no splash letter option. :)

Regarding the speed or slowdown. Generally it feels very fast, even now in the Display Menu with some bigger cover files. It only hangs a little if I chose boxart in Arcade and the flyers are too big/heavy of course. Even more "complicated" systems like Nintendo DS with its vertical style snaps screenshots+video combo show up very good now, impressive. :)

Nintendo DS art crops a little on the sides, just like it happens with some vertical art, but nothing serious.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 26, 2019, 07:31:44 AM
Arcadeflow updated to 4.9!

New method for loading artwork means less glitches, better crops, fixed many bugs and added gameplay videos in box art mode! Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on June 26, 2019, 08:00:26 AM
There is a bug for me in 4.9.

Here's the steps to reproduce it.

1.  Open AM.
2.  Select the very first game in the list and go to the details menu (the menu with the screenshot and game description).
3.  From here, scroll all the way to the very last game in the list but go in reverse i.e. hit left once.
4.  Press Esc and go back to the main menu.

You will see upon hitting Esc, that the current game in question is not selected.  At least that's what happens to me.

Edit:  I've tried it with the previous version and the same thing happens.  So it's not something that came about from 4.9.  Looks like it's all versions.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 27, 2019, 03:12:50 AM
You will see upon hitting Esc, that the current game in question is not selected.  At least that's what happens to me.

I see, I was able to replicate the issue... this happens also if you use "prev game" hotkey from the very first item in the list, and its due to the fact that AF should not "cycle" the game list jumping from first to last item. I'll look into it but probably the easiest way to solve the issue is to prevent jumping like that
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on June 27, 2019, 10:39:19 AM
There is a bug for me in 4.9.

Here's the steps to reproduce it.

1.  Open AM.
2.  Select the very first game in the list and go to the details menu (the menu with the screenshot and game description).
3.  From here, scroll all the way to the very last game in the list but go in reverse i.e. hit left once.
4.  Press Esc and go back to the main menu.

You will see upon hitting Esc, that the current game in question is not selected.  At least that's what happens to me.

Edit:  I've tried it with the previous version and the same thing happens.  So it's not something that came about from 4.9.  Looks like it's all versions.


It was fantastic, thank you for creating and keeping this wonderful theme always updated and improving every day. So I would like to put one more opinion, maybe in its next update could develop the same theme with compatibility to machines that have weaker hardware, so they can also run the smooth theme free of crashes. But so far my opinion for my machine works very well in every way.
Thank you!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 01, 2019, 12:57:30 AM
There is a bug for me in 4.9.

Here's the steps to reproduce it.

Should be fixed in this layout.nut, with the side effect that you can't wrap around the list in history view or when going next_page/game, prev_page/game with hotkeys. At least it doesn't break the list.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 01, 2019, 01:03:52 AM
It was fantastic, thank you for creating and keeping this wonderful theme always updated and improving every day. So I would like to put one more opinion, maybe in its next update could develop the same theme with compatibility to machines that have weaker hardware, so they can also run the smooth theme free of crashes. But so far my opinion for my machine works very well in every way.

Thank you for the comments. I know Arcadeflow is very demanding, and in the past all the tests we did on the forum to adapt it to lower spec machines like the Pi were unsuccessful. There are a couple of things that make low specs machines struggle: the number of (nested) surfaces used by the thumbnail grid, and the number of GLSL shaders and effects used in Arcadeflow. While I can strip back GLSL effects somehow, and even reduce the surfaces, that would change a lot the look of the theme. I'm wondering if the new Pi4 has enough power to run AF, but I don't have a Pi myself to test.
There are some settings in the layout that can be used to disable some effects and hopefully improve performance, but the surface issues still remains.
I've been thinking of a way to streamline the layout for some time, one of the options is, instead of using surfaces for each tile, to use a single surface as big as the screen and apply dynamic shadows to that, but I fear that would be a heavy GLSL shader for lower spec GPUs
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: blinkybill on July 02, 2019, 05:11:10 AM
in display-menu mode i couldn't enable video thumbs from the settings.
i had to change it in this line:
   prf.THUMBVIDEO = false

on the layout.nut

is it just me?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 02, 2019, 05:41:55 AM
in display-menu mode i couldn't enable video thumbs from the settings.
i had to change it in this line:
   prf.THUMBVIDEO = false

If I got it right from your description this is the intended behavior: when you use AF as displays menu layout, video thumbs are disabled because usually you don't have video thumbs for displays artwork. But then if you enter a display you should see the video thumbs for your games.

What you want is to have video thumbs in the displays list? I can enable it in the next version so you don't have to tweak the layout.nut
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: dukpoki on July 02, 2019, 08:37:59 PM
There is a bug for me in 4.9.

Here's the steps to reproduce it.

Should be fixed in this layout.nut, with the side effect that you can't wrap around the list in history view or when going next_page/game, prev_page/game with hotkeys. At least it doesn't break the list.

That fixes it so it doesn't glitch out.  Thanks.  I like that you can zoom through the games by just holding down a direction even though page up/page down is disabled.  You've made this theme so polished.  Good job!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: blinkybill on July 03, 2019, 09:19:30 AM
in display-menu mode i couldn't enable video thumbs from the settings.
i had to change it in this line:
   prf.THUMBVIDEO = false

If I got it right from your description this is the intended behavior: when you use AF as displays menu layout, video thumbs are disabled because usually you don't have video thumbs for displays artwork. But then if you enter a display you should see the video thumbs for your games.

What you want is to have video thumbs in the displays list? I can enable it in the next version so you don't have to tweak the layout.nut
that will be awesome, as emumovies has nice system videos.
another issue i have is random crashes when inactive, but im still not sure if it's AM thing or a theme thing, still checking. any suggestions?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 04, 2019, 05:10:43 AM
that will be awesome, as emumovies has nice system videos.
another issue i have is random crashes when inactive, but im still not sure if it's AM thing or a theme thing, still checking. any suggestions?

I'll add the modification to AF 5.0, I'm working on it but I need to squash a bug in the cropping of smoothed backgrounds, this theme is so complex now that sometimes I think it works in a way but it doesn't :D

As for the crashes, does they appear during the attract mode when videos are played? It would be helpful if you could run it as attract-console.exe and send me the output when it crashes.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 04, 2019, 07:32:26 AM
Added a "colorization" filter for Game Boy games that have black and white videos or snaps... Code could be cleaner (and will be cleaned soon hopefully) but looks good...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on July 06, 2019, 06:55:50 AM
Great job but I have noticed that when I use in my 19 'inch motif from 4.3 in 1280x1024 resolution I enable the low resolution function with only one horizontal line, I notice that the central art box sits on top of the scrollbar , and also does not give me the option to put the 3 horizontal lines for games, even though I put the maximum resolution of my monitor in Resolution WxH, it still does not give me more game viewing boxes.

PS:Without enabling low resolution it becomes normal.

PS1:Wonderful job for game boy!!!!

(http://i68.tinypic.com/30ccfvn.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: tasio on July 08, 2019, 11:56:56 AM
It was fantastic, thank you for creating and keeping this wonderful theme always updated and improving every day. So I would like to put one more opinion, maybe in its next update could develop the same theme with compatibility to machines that have weaker hardware, so they can also run the smooth theme free of crashes. But so far my opinion for my machine works very well in every way.

Thank you for the comments. I know Arcadeflow is very demanding, and in the past all the tests we did on the forum to adapt it to lower spec machines like the Pi were unsuccessful. There are a couple of things that make low specs machines struggle: the number of (nested) surfaces used by the thumbnail grid, and the number of GLSL shaders and effects used in Arcadeflow. While I can strip back GLSL effects somehow, and even reduce the surfaces, that would change a lot the look of the theme. I'm wondering if the new Pi4 has enough power to run AF, but I don't have a Pi myself to test.
There are some settings in the layout that can be used to disable some effects and hopefully improve performance, but the surface issues still remains.
I've been thinking of a way to streamline the layout for some time, one of the options is, instead of using surfaces for each tile, to use a single surface as big as the screen and apply dynamic shadows to that, but I fear that would be a heavy GLSL shader for lower spec GPUs

I have installed this nice theme in a i7 machine with a 970 graphic card and works fine but if I enable the FPS counter I can see that moving through the game library can go under 30 FPS.
I tried it as well in a laptop with integrated graphics and even disabling all I could the FPS still below 10 and GPU usage 100 even if I'm not doing anything. Does it make sense to use that much GPU even when nothing is moving and no video playing?
(https://i.imgur.com/pz51hH8.jpg)
I understand that the requirements for this theme are high but I got the impression that when nothing seems changing or moving GPU should be more relax so I decided to write this post in case it helps with fixes or improvements  ;D
By the way other themes I tested seems working fine but I haven't test many and I would love to use this one or something with a similar grid view
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 09, 2019, 01:27:30 AM
Great job but I have noticed that when I use in my 19 'inch motif from 4.3 in 1280x1024 resolution I enable the low resolution function with only one horizontal line, I notice that the central art box sits on top of the scrollbar , and also does not give me the option to put the 3 horizontal lines for games, even though I put the maximum resolution of my monitor in Resolution WxH, it still does not give me more game viewing boxes.

The overlapping issue is a known one, it wasn't an issue before adding the labels list because it didn't actually overlap the scroll line, but in labels list mode it is an issue. I'll check it thoroughly and update v5.0 to avoid it.

In low resolution mode there's only one row, this is by design, the idea being that in low resolution screen more rows won't be clearly visible. Now that I think of it, I should leave it as an option...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 09, 2019, 02:03:33 AM
I have installed this nice theme in a i7 machine with a 970 graphic card and works fine but if I enable the FPS counter I can see that moving through the game library can go under 30 FPS.

This usually happens because while you scroll through the library thumbnails need to be updated and images need to be loaded. The larger the files (snapshots can be pretty small, box art are way larger) the slower the update. On my Macbook I moved most of the snaps to a RAM disk to improve scrolling performance since the SSD was slowing down things a bit. Also consider that when you enable FPS count there's a hit on the CPU since the screen is continuously redrawn to calculate FPS, so don't keep it on all the time unless you like the sound of fans at max power ;D

Quote
I tried it as well in a laptop with integrated graphics and even disabling all I could the FPS still below 10 and GPU usage 100 even if I'm not doing anything. Does it make sense to use that much GPU even when nothing is moving and no video playing?

Thank you for the heads up regarding GPU usage, I did not know you could check that in Win10 (I'm a Mac user at home, and Win7 user at work). I'll do some tests but 10 fps seems pretty low. What are the specs of that laptop? My MacbookPro late 2013 with integrated graphics card can do better than that and on i5 (2018) and i7 (2017) with integrated cards it works pretty well around 30 fps (but as I said, I'll check it better).

Now let's discuss performance and why AF is so demanding... Grid themes are inherently more demanding because they show and update more thumbnails each time you move to a new selection. AF in 2 rows mode usually shows 10 tiles on screen, plus 8 off screen as safeguard areas during scrolling. All the tiles need to be updated each time you change selection, and a couple of snaps needs to be loaded from disk when you move. I continuously try to streamline the code, reduce the need for updates etc but this is intrinsic in themes with many tiles on screen. For example if you turn AF to single row layout, it will be incredibly faster because the number of tiles is cut by half. On the contrary in vertical layout with three rows it's a bit slower.

When nothing is moving it should be less hungry but if, for example, you keep video snaps turned on then something is always moving and that will require resources (on my Macbook where AM doesn't support hardware decoding videos push the fans to hurricane blast mode :D)

Now the GPU issue. I'll check with the resource monitor on Win 10, but AF uses GLSL shaders _a lot_ in a way most themes don't do. Shadows under the logo artwork are generated with GLSL, blurred backgrounds are GLSL shaders, there are multiple nested surfaces that can tax a GPU, plus glow effects, colorizing effects, some of the artwork cropping are done with GLSL shaders. For some reason even the visualization of letters in the scroll list and the visualization of genre icons, players icons etc use GLSL shaders to obtain some effects.
When I add some glsl shader to something I always check that the system is not severely affected, but with the growth of the theme I may have missed something, the resource meter in Win 10 will be helpful in this regards.

This long answer is not because I was offended by your considerations, on the contrary, I always try to improve AF, so please keep using and checking it, the feedback from the group was very important to improve AF. If you have poor performance let me know the specs of your system.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 09, 2019, 02:18:02 AM
I tried it as well in a laptop with integrated graphics and even disabling all I could the FPS still below 10 and GPU usage 100 even if I'm not doing anything. Does it make sense to use that much GPU even when nothing is moving and no video playing?

Ok, just tested this on a Win 10 laptop. When no video is playing (Video Thumbs disabled from AF options) I get 0% GPU usage in AF. When video is playing (or something else is moving) it goes to 100%. If you turn on FPS counter, that pushes the load to 100% again but you should not keep it on by default.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: tasio on July 09, 2019, 04:22:32 AM
Ok, just tested this on a Win 10 laptop. When no video is playing (Video Thumbs disabled from AF options) I get 0% GPU usage in AF. When video is playing (or something else is moving) it goes to 100%. If you turn on FPS counter, that pushes the load to 100% again but you should not keep it on by default.

That makes sense, was the FPS counter what set the GPU to 100%.
Still to heavy for my laptop even without the FPS but now at least it makes sense, it wasn't a bug.
I found another themes that might be enough for my setup but I think your views on design and UX are great :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 09, 2019, 04:59:47 AM
Still to heavy for my laptop even without the FPS but now at least it makes sense, it wasn't a bug.
I found another themes that might be enough for my setup but I think your views on design and UX are great :)

Thank you, there are some things that can be disabled to make it less heavy but they are not game changers. I'm thinking of implementing a "reduced" version with less effects and maybe less surfaces to boost performance on lower spec systems.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: rand0m on July 09, 2019, 05:53:00 AM
Still to heavy for my laptop even without the FPS but now at least it makes sense, it wasn't a bug.
I found another themes that might be enough for my setup but I think your views on design and UX are great :)

Thank you, there are some things that can be disabled to make it less heavy but they are not game changers. I'm thinking of implementing a "reduced" version with less effects and maybe less surfaces to boost performance on lower spec systems.

Showing snaps which start playing vid after a second (if selected) might be less taxing on systems.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 09, 2019, 06:09:05 AM
Showing snaps which start playing vid after a second (if selected) might be less taxing on systems.

That's how it works right now (you can choose the video loading delay from the options), but I think the most taxing element is the large number of nested surfaces. A simplified edition with no more than one surface per tile could be much faster, reducing drop shadows.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 10, 2019, 06:32:53 AM
Still to heavy for my laptop even without the FPS but now at least it makes sense, it wasn't a bug.
I found another themes that might be enough for my setup but I think your views on design and UX are great :)

I've tried to strip Arcadeflow of many visual effects. On my laptop this brings the framerate from 44 fps to 60 fps. There's still a lot to change and tweak but if anybody interested in a low spec version could check this layout and report feedback that would help a lot.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: markoattract on July 10, 2019, 07:06:07 AM
Hello everyone ! Awesome work with this theme ...

I have a little problem :
When i start Attract mode on Arcadeflow theme for MAME, i don't have issues and all run at 60fps ...But when i quit the game and back to the frontend, the framerate go to 25 - 30 fps . If i exit Attract-Mode and restart it , all back to 60 fps ... maybe my NUC not has enough power for Arcadeflow ??

 I'm running Attract mode on an Intel NUC I5 with 8 GB ram.

thank you for your answer :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 10, 2019, 07:09:54 AM
When i start Attract mode on Arcadeflow theme for MAME, i don't have issues and all run at 60fps ...But when i quit the game and back to the frontend, the framerate go to 25 - 30 fps . If i exit Attract-Mode and restart it , all back to 60 fps ...

Are you using version 4.9 of AF? This is a strange issue, I'll check if I can replicate it ASAP. Does it happens even if you start the game and quit it after a very short amount of time, or only when you keep it running?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on July 11, 2019, 06:58:58 AM
I'm getting a weird problem, maybe a bug that noticed just now. When I click the "exit picture" from AF display menu, instead of exit frontend it loads the system/romlist that exists before the "exit picture". On the log there's an error there that gives an hint of the possible issue:

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [remove() failed]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [on_transition()] D:\Attract-Mode - Arcadeflow\layouts/Arcadeflow_49/layout.nut line [3615]


When I check that line in the layout, it seems to be related to the Exit command because it's part of the code starting with line:

// cleanup frosted glass grabs when exiting AM
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 11, 2019, 07:53:23 AM
I'm getting a weird problem, maybe a bug that noticed just now. When I click the "exit picture" from AF display menu, instead of exit frontend it loads the system/romlist that exists before the "exit picture".

Found this, it was my mistake. I'd share an updated layout but I changed so much working for 5.0 so it's better that you change it yourself: look for this code snippet:

Code: [Select]
   if ((sig == "select") && ((prf.DISPLAYMENUON) ) ) {
      fe.set_display(fe.list.index)
      return true
   }

and change it with this:

Code: [Select]
   if ((sig == "select") && ((prf.DISPLAYMENUON)) ) {
      if (fe.list.index < fe.displays.len())
         fe.set_display(fe.list.index)
      else
         fe.signal("exit")
      return true
   }

Quote
On the log there's an error there that gives an hint of the possible issue:

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [remove() failed]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [on_transition()] D:\Attract-Mode - Arcadeflow\layouts/Arcadeflow_49/layout.nut line [3615]


When I check that line in the layout, it seems to be related to the Exit command because it's part of the code starting with line:

// cleanup frosted glass grabs when exiting AM

Hmm let me know if with the modification you still get the error, it's something that happens when Arcadeflow cleans the temporary snaps used for frosted glass effect. Maybe you have some snapshots with non-sequential progressive numbers?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on July 12, 2019, 03:20:00 AM
Working good here with your code change, thx so much again. :)

Looking forward to 5.0. :)

I'm getting a weird problem, maybe a bug that noticed just now. When I click the "exit picture" from AF display menu, instead of exit frontend it loads the system/romlist that exists before the "exit picture".

Found this, it was my mistake. I'd share an updated layout but I changed so much working for 5.0 so it's better that you change it yourself: look for this code snippet:

Code: [Select]
   if ((sig == "select") && ((prf.DISPLAYMENUON) ) ) {
      fe.set_display(fe.list.index)
      return true
   }

and change it with this:

Code: [Select]
   if ((sig == "select") && ((prf.DISPLAYMENUON)) ) {
      if (fe.list.index < fe.displays.len())
         fe.set_display(fe.list.index)
      else
         fe.signal("exit")
      return true
   }

Quote
On the log there's an error there that gives an hint of the possible issue:

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [remove() failed]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [on_transition()] D:\Attract-Mode - Arcadeflow\layouts/Arcadeflow_49/layout.nut line [3615]


When I check that line in the layout, it seems to be related to the Exit command because it's part of the code starting with line:

// cleanup frosted glass grabs when exiting AM

Hmm let me know if with the modification you still get the error, it's something that happens when Arcadeflow cleans the temporary snaps used for frosted glass effect. Maybe you have some snapshots with non-sequential progressive numbers?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: markoattract on July 12, 2019, 04:38:41 AM
hello Zpaolo11x ! Thank you for the answer !

It does happens on both times : If i launch a MAME game for a little and if i play for long time ...

It's strange that if i exit  arcadeflow and enter again all back to normal ... it's like as something running on th background ... but i've checked the task manager and all processes are closed ...

-- Update ! ---

On another PC with I7 and GTX 1080 works like a charm ... so i think the problem is my NUC that has no power enough ... :(


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 12, 2019, 04:54:01 AM
It's strange that if i exit  arcadeflow and enter again all back to normal ... it's like as something running on th background ... but i've checked the task manager and all processes are closed ...

-- Update ! ---

On another PC with I7 and GTX 1080 works like a charm ... so i think the problem is my NUC that has no power enough ... :(

The only thing that can kick in after some time in Arcadeflow is the "attract mode", that is the layout starts showing random videos of games. You can try disabling it in Arcadeflow options.

Glad that it works better on your other system but if it runs at 60 fps on the NUC it's really strange that it slows down so much, maybe it's a thermal throttling problem?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 12, 2019, 05:03:31 AM
Working good here with your code change, thx so much again. :)

Looking forward to 5.0. :)

Very good! 5.0 is almost ready, but following the latest feedbacks regarding performances I'm experimenting a bit with the shaders. It seems I found a shader that can reduce the fps from 60 to 45, I'll try to fix it if possible. I'll be on vacation from the 20th of this month so hopefully I'll release 5.0 next week and then go to the sea lol
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: Enkak on July 12, 2019, 09:57:43 AM
Working good here with your code change, thx so much again. :)

Looking forward to 5.0. :)

Very good! 5.0 is almost ready, but following the latest feedbacks regarding performances I'm experimenting a bit with the shaders. It seems I found a shader that can reduce the fps from 60 to 45, I'll try to fix it if possible. I'll be on vacation from the 20th of this month so hopefully I'll release 5.0 next week and then go to the sea lol

Ah interesting. When 5.0 release happens I will try it in the other less powerful computer where Arcadeflow with normal settings runs almost in slow motion :D

Sea vacation sounds great. ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 12, 2019, 11:08:26 AM
Ah interesting. When 5.0 release happens I will try it in the other less powerful computer where Arcadeflow with normal settings runs almost in slow motion :D

You can try the attached layout.nut file, it should improve a lot the performaces (at the expense of most visual effects)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 13, 2019, 01:47:49 AM
So, performance wise, I reduced the impact of the shaders to the minimum, the only one that was slowing down the system was the one working at native screen resolution while all the others work on low res surfaces. Now this shader had an impact on my Quadro equipped rig because I pushed the resolution to 5000 x 3000 to have fps less than 60 :D
On other rigs where the resolution is more "normal" the impact of this shader is not so heavy and the real issue are the multiple surfaces. I'll see if it can be improved a bit.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 4.9 [Release] Updated 27 June 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 17, 2019, 05:31:10 AM
What is your favorite Game Boy screen? Pocket? Classic? Or Light? In Arcadeflow 5.0 you'll be able to chose the color correction you prefer ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 18, 2019, 02:01:34 AM
Arcadeflow 5.0 is out, list wrap around, low spec mode, game boy colorizer. Enjoy and report bugs!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on July 18, 2019, 07:41:54 PM
Perfect!!!! Big thanks for release.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: markoattract on July 19, 2019, 12:25:30 PM
Zpaolo11x I have to Thank you for your new release !!

now all is perfect on my NUC ! No more lags , no more framedrops !! xD

THANK YOUUUUUUU !!!!

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: Enkak on July 19, 2019, 01:27:44 PM
+1 regarding general performance and speed improvement. Even more impressive now. Thank you again for all the hard work :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: dark1973 on July 19, 2019, 10:04:16 PM
Sei un grande! Grazie mille per il tuo immenso lavoro. Ora il mio cabinato avrà una veste grafica impeccabile
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 20, 2019, 07:46:03 AM
Thank you all guys for the comments and positive feedback, I”m glad 5.0 is working better! Now I can relax on the beach while I think of new features and improvements :D

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: markoattract on July 20, 2019, 01:10:31 PM
Ciao Paolo !

Complimenti e grazie ancora per il lavoro svolto ! volevo informati che grazie alle impostazioni specifiche per la paerformance che hai inserito nell'ultima versione, sono riuscito ad isolare qual'era la caratteristica che rallentava il display : Era La "logo smooth shadow" !!

Magari questa informazione puo' esserti utile .

Grazie ancora e buone Vacanze !!!

Eng Ver.

Hi Paolo !

Thank you again and compliments for your work ! I want to inform you that with the new settings for performances on the latest version, i've just found the issue that did slow-down the GUI on my NUC :

That was the "Logo smooth shadow" option ! Maybe this information can be usefull for you !

thank you again and  have a nice holidays !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: keilmillerjr on July 22, 2019, 12:41:38 PM
Setting up a disk for a friend with an lcd. 10hrs left of transferring data. Considering arcadeflow. Friend has a 4:3 bezel over a 16:9 monitor. Does this theme work well if i restrict layout dimensions to 4:3?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 22, 2019, 10:17:07 PM
Setting up a disk for a friend with an lcd. 10hrs left of transferring data. Considering arcadeflow. Friend has a 4:3 bezel over a 16:9 monitor. Does this theme work well if i restrict layout dimensions to 4:3?

Yes it should work. There’s an option in the performance settings where you can set a custom resolution, so if you have, for example, a full hd lcd just set 1440x1080 and it will only use that area in 4:3
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 31, 2019, 12:28:55 AM
That was the "Logo smooth shadow" option ! Maybe this information can be usefull for you !

Hey, thank you for the feedback and sorry for the late reply, your report confirms what I saw in my tests, it's a bit system dependent but logo shadows are the thing that slows the layout most, because there are THREE nested surfaces (two for the smooth shadow effect, and one is the base tile). I'm planning to experiment with a different approach where a 2D shader is used, this will imply more calculations per frame (n*n instead of n+n) but only two nested surfaces and should be way faster
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 31, 2019, 02:20:12 AM
Ciao Paolo !

Just for check, can you try this layout on your NUC? I've changed the shader, it should be faster when logo shadows are enabled (maybe, it's not that faster on my system)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: markoattract on August 02, 2019, 09:33:43 AM
Ciao Paolo !

Just for check, can you try this layout on your NUC? I've changed the shader, it should be faster when logo shadows are enabled (maybe, it's not that faster on my system)

Hi Paolo !! Sorry for the late answer.
I have tested your script, but when i was set the "logo smooth shadow" option back to "ON" i had the same framesdrop problem... :(

Anyway, i can check other solutions if you need, so don't esitate and send me other solutions if you want . ;)

Ciao !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: harpiufof on August 02, 2019, 03:42:56 PM
Amazing Layout!! Congratulations Paolo!!

Although if you allow me, I would like to give you a suggestion. It would be great if there could be an option, where you can choose the number of rows according to a certain number of games on the list.

I am not an expert on this, but to give an example, I imagine something like the following:

Code: [Select]
if ( fe.list.size <= my_config["number_of_games_low"] )
{
rows_low = my_config["horizontalrows_low"]
}

if ( fe.list.size <= my_config["number_of_games_medium"] )
{
rows_medium = my_config["horizontalrows_medium"]
}

if ( fe.list.size <= my_config["number_of_games_high"] )
{
rows_high = my_config["horizontalrows_high"]
}

I consider that with 3 variants it is more than enough.

I hope you can take my suggestion into account. Otherwise, no problem. You did a great job anyway!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 03, 2019, 01:30:33 AM
Anyway, i can check other solutions if you need, so don't esitate and send me other solutions if you want . ;)

I suspected it was not a solution, on my test system it improves only at very low resolution but each GPU react differently. I have two more layout to check, just deploy the content of this zip in your Arcadeflow 50 folder. But I don't think they will improve too much...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: markoattract on August 05, 2019, 07:44:10 AM
Anyway, i can check other solutions if you need, so don't esitate and send me other solutions if you want . ;)

I suspected it was not a solution, on my test system it improves only at very low resolution but each GPU react differently. I have two more layout to check, just deploy the content of this zip in your Arcadeflow 50 folder. But I don't think they will improve too much...

Hi Paolo ! I've tried the two files but as did you say, it didn't improve :(

I have noticed , also, that with EXTERN .nut there is a white box around the logos and no shadows at all.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.0 [Release] Updated 18 July 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 05, 2019, 12:09:38 PM
Hi Paolo ! I've tried the two files but as did you say, it didn't improve :(

I have noticed , also, that with EXTERN .nut there is a white box around the logos and no shadows at all.

Thank you for the feedback, the white box is probably caused by a missing shader I forgot to put in the zip file :D By the way good to know that none of this workarounds is effective, I’ll leave shadows as they are and release 5.1 in a couple of days with an important bug fix
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.1 [Release] Updated 07 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 06, 2019, 11:32:47 PM
Arcadeflow 5.1 is out with a bug fix on the tile update routine. If you saw strange issues in the thumbnails update when scrolling to next/prev game this should fix it :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 16, 2019, 12:39:02 AM
Released Arcadeflow 5.2: 70 new manufacturer icons and new options! Enjoy and report bugs!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 16, 2019, 03:32:32 AM
Great news and thx again. Will do it :)
PS: love the new manufacturer icon additions already like Codemasters. ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 16, 2019, 10:50:30 AM
PS: love the new manufacturer icon additions already like Codemasters. ;)

:D I'm adding more in the next release, admittedly some of them are not very detailed but it's difficult to find good source material... if you have any brand you need added to the list let me know
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 16, 2019, 11:05:44 AM
Will do. ;) Noticed also some more Amiga manufacturer favorites like Psygnosis and others. :)

From the first tests new version is working very good. There's a possible (maybe it's meant to be this way, unsure) minimal bug with the overlay when changing display option. It works flawless if you use a shortcut button/key to change instant the display/system. But if you use AF Display menu to change/select displays the splash never appears when you enter one.

Also, theme folder is missing the AF logo files (for splash and for display menu near version number). I copied them from other AF version but just in case I wanted to let you know. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 17, 2019, 12:21:45 AM
There's a possible (maybe it's meant to be this way, unsure) minimal bug with the overlay when changing display option. It works flawless if you use a shortcut button/key to change instant the display/system. But if you use AF Display menu to change/select displays the splash never appears when you enter one.

If you mean the displays menu inside AF (not AF used as display theme) it should show the display overlay, and actually it does in my test rig, can you run attract-console.exe and see if there's some error message when you switch displays that way?

Quote
Also, theme folder is missing the AF logo files (for splash and for display menu near version number). I copied them from other AF version but just in case I wanted to let you know. :)

Wow, thank you for noticing! I uploaded 5.2 layot.nut on top of 5.1, but for some obscure reason the folder of 5.1 was missing some files. I have re-uploaded the layout so you can check it out again from the website, because I fear other files were missing...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 17, 2019, 03:47:18 AM

If you mean the displays menu inside AF (not AF used as display theme) it should show the display overlay, and actually it does in my test rig, can you run attract-console.exe and see if there's some error message when you switch displays that way?

Ah sorry for the confusion, I meant AF used as display theme.

Wow, thank you for noticing! I uploaded 5.2 layot.nut on top of 5.1, but for some obscure reason the folder of 5.1 was missing some files. I have re-uploaded the layout so you can check it out again from the website, because I fear other files were missing...

No problem :) I will download the layout again and test it. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 19, 2019, 01:30:26 PM
Ah sorry for the confusion, I meant AF used as display theme.

Well this is intended: when AF is used as display theme the layout is reloaded when you select a theme, and at the time of layout loading there's no display name overlay (or it will be there every time you launch the layout).

Speaking of manufacturers icons, do you have an xml list for Amiga games? I got one from the web but with no manufacturer information...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 19, 2019, 02:12:57 PM
Ah sorry for the confusion, I meant AF used as display theme.

Well this is intended: when AF is used as display theme the layout is reloaded when you select a theme, and at the time of layout loading there's no display name overlay (or it will be there every time you launch the layout).

Speaking of manufacturers icons, do you have an xml list for Amiga games? I got one from the web but with no manufacturer information...

Ah I see, thank you for the explanation.

Regarding the xml list for Amiga, try this one attached. :)
It says custom because I'm adding number of players and scores to the games with time since those were missing originally, similar to other systems lists.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 20, 2019, 01:32:05 AM
Regarding the xml list for Amiga, try this one attached. :)

Thank you, wow that's a huge number of developers, even considering only the ones with more games... I already did some logos, I don't know how many use AM to manage computer emulation but the Amiga is the Amiga, I have to do it :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 20, 2019, 02:51:46 AM
Regarding the xml list for Amiga, try this one attached. :)

Thank you, wow that's a huge number of developers, even considering only the ones with more games... I already did some logos, I don't know how many use AM to manage computer emulation but the Amiga is the Amiga, I have to do it :D

I use it for Amiga and Spectrum. :) Without surprise, both have a huge list of games so a lot of work :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 20, 2019, 03:46:36 PM
I'm playing with some options to make Arcadeflow more suitable for computer games too... the first issue is that most computer games artwork packs don't feature "Wheel" artwork, at least I couldn't find them for Amiga on EmuMovies. This doesn't look good because you'll see a screenshot with the smooth gradient on top. There are two ways to solve this:

1 - When there's no Wheel art, the gradient is not applied, and you can then see the full snapshot
2 - Add a "text caption" instead of the wheel artwork, but that won't probably look very good...

I have coded the first option (see attachment) but I'm still thinking if the second one is better or not...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: rand0m on August 20, 2019, 10:49:32 PM
I'm playing with some options to make Arcadeflow more suitable for computer games too... the first issue is that most computer games artwork packs don't feature "Wheel" artwork, at least I couldn't find them for Amiga on EmuMovies. This doesn't look good because you'll see a screenshot with the smooth gradient on top. There are two ways to solve this:

1 - When there's no Wheel art, the gradient is not applied, and you can then see the full snapshot
2 - Add a "text caption" instead of the wheel artwork, but that won't probably look very good...

I have coded the first option (see attachment) but I'm still thinking if the second one is better or not...

Wonderful work on this theme zpaolo!

You'll run into this problem (lack of wheel artwork) with many consoles too, one way could be to use a font for rendering title so it gives a wheel/ logo vibe. For example check how the font "Road Rage" is being used in this excellent theme (Pandora) for emulationstation > https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/20380/pandora-theme
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 20, 2019, 11:13:52 PM
You'll run into this problem (lack of wheel artwork) with many consoles too, one way could be to use a font for rendering title so it gives a wheel/ logo vibe. For example check how the font "Road Rage" is being used in this excellent theme (Pandora) for emulationstation > https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/20380/pandora-theme

This is a very good suggestion, and nice font! I did a test with my standard theme font and it looks really bland and uninspiring, I'll check with a couple of custom fonts like the one you linked. I think there will be a problem for loner titles, maybe a font size scaling with the title length could solve this.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 21, 2019, 02:32:42 AM
For amiga wheel/logo pack, try this one: https://emumovies.com/files/file/3100-commodore-amiga-logos-pack/

Regarding the issue when there's no wheel art. Since your theme already shows the game title on top left (invaluable hint and help, especially when you add Japanese games and others to the mix where you don't know which game is looking at the logo) I think both options can work, with second one using a custom font like random suggested.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 21, 2019, 02:36:23 AM
For amiga wheel/logo pack, try this one: https://emumovies.com/files/file/3100-commodore-amiga-logos-pack/

Oh cool, will have a look at that. Meantime I spent a coffee break stitching some dirty code together, and this is the end result using an arcade font I already had. Looks interesting, maybe I should add more fonts and chose them randomly
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 21, 2019, 02:41:30 AM
Looks good :) And definitely better now on the new print instead of the other one without anything on top of the screenshot. Maybe the no logos/wheel art on top of the screenshots/snaps can be an extra theme option.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 21, 2019, 04:39:02 PM
Still evolving the idea of custom titles, I'm using a fixed width font now, revised word wrap routine and added a trick so that titles with few letters per line are larger than longer titles. Starts to look pretty good :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 22, 2019, 04:38:05 AM
Agree, starting to look very good for when you don't have logos. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 24, 2019, 04:09:23 AM
Regarding the xml list for Amiga, try this one attached. :)

Enkak, regarding the list you shared, where can I find snapshots that match? I got snaps from emumovies but, for example, Prince Of Persia is "v3.0" while in your snap it's 3.1 so it doesn't match... The list from Hyperspin matches but there's no manufacturer info
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Enkak on August 24, 2019, 07:09:39 AM
That's the main big problem regarding Amiga lists. :(

Many games have few different versions and some lists reflect that, depending if they are older or newer. It's almost impossible to have a unified Amiga list because of it. :( So the only way is really editing manually the lists to reflect the games and media that you have. Or editing manually the media files from sites like emumovies to reflect the game file name that you got.

For example, just checked 2 sites that have Amiga files. First one normally has more recent versions and Prince Of Persia there is "v3.1". On the other site, they usually have older versions and the names reflect older hyperspin list names, so Prince Of Persia there is "v3.0".
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Jate on August 27, 2019, 07:13:42 AM
Congratulations, you have done an amazing job with this theme.

I wanted to make a comment:

I want to put an image as a background (in "custom bg image") but if I want to use this theme as a Display Menu and General Menu, the position of the text is not the same and it looks bad. Can't I use a background image for the Display Menu and a different one for the General Menu?

In Display Menu

(https://i.ibb.co/rsp3M0T/screen1.png) (https://ibb.co/rsp3M0T)

In General

(https://i.ibb.co/xmR04MV/screen2.png) (https://ibb.co/xmR04MV)

And one detail, the counter that exists, in the menu display has no separation line

Thanks
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 27, 2019, 07:24:29 AM
I want to put an image as a background (in "custom bg image") but if I want to use this theme as a Display Menu and General Menu, the position of the text is not the same and it looks bad. Can't I use a background image for the Display Menu and a different one for the General Menu?

Of course this is something I can add in the next release but I'm wondering if the difference in the position is due to the different number of thumbnails... In your screenshots the layout is in "1-row small thumbs" for the main layout, and in "1-row" for the displays menu. I'll check the code and let you know...

Quote
And one detail, the counter that exists, in the menu display has no separation line

Gotta check it out, I think that's still related to the different rows, can you share the Arcadeflow layout settings you are using so I can replicate?

[EDIT] Ok, just replicated the issue: the "1-row small thumbnails" mode raises the scrollbar area, so if you mix and match this mode with others (2 rows etc) it won't fit. Sadly in displays mode "1- row with thumbnails" is not available but I'll add it in the next release. That would make the different background not needed anymore

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: Jate on August 27, 2019, 07:53:23 AM
I see it...

Thanks, That would be perfect.  :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: alucard on August 27, 2019, 11:34:09 PM
Tank you for this amazing theme.
You have pushed Attract-Mode to a new level!

I would suggest to anyone to batch processing covers and snaps, for example with ImageStone, to limit width to max 350px (and optionally convert to jpg). The average result size is 40KB, without visible degradation. In this way display switch is fast and scrolling is very smooth.

Grazie ancora zpaolo11x, sei un grande!  ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.2 [Release] Updated 16 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 28, 2019, 12:37:23 AM
I would suggest to anyone to batch processing covers and snaps, for example with ImageStone, to limit width to max 350px (and optionally convert to jpg). The average result size is 40KB, without visible degradation. In this way display switch is fast and scrolling is very smooth.

This is a good advice, but not for mame snaps: keep them at their nominal resolution which should be the actual pixel resolution of the game, so all crt shaders will work fine.

Another trick would be to use a ramdisk but that's not suitable if you have many box arts ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 28, 2019, 07:32:15 AM
Arcadeflow 5.3 is out! Many new features and subtle changes, hope you enjoy it!

Added even more manufacturer icons, a new visual tag indicator, generation of title artwork when missing and lots of fixes. Also, 1-row with small thumbnails is now available in Displays Menu mode, while the "standard" display menu has a new scrolling routine.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on August 30, 2019, 05:20:05 AM
Hello, I have a little problem, when I select Labellist the system skips letters forward, but not coming back the letters can only move forward and not back the letters, I also noticed that the letter "Q" is repeating 2x, please check . in the previous version it was normal.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 30, 2019, 05:35:46 AM
Hello, I have a little problem, when I select Labellist the system skips letters forward, but not coming back the letters can only move forward and not back the letters, I also noticed that the letter "Q" is repeating 2x, please check . in the previous version it was normal.

This is usually caused by some issue in the routine that pulls the first letter from the game name... you say it worked in version 5.2? Or do you know precisely in which version it works?
Also, if you could run attract-console.exe and paste or send me the output it would be helpful to catch the bug.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on August 30, 2019, 07:26:08 AM
yes in version 5.1 it works normally, i can jump the letters back and forth normally, the letters also become normal and not duplicate.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 30, 2019, 08:02:38 AM
yes in version 5.2 it works normally, i can jump the letters back and forth normally, the letters also become normal and not duplicate.

Ok, I'll look into it, I didn't think I changed something in the letter jump routine, but who knows :D Anyway, in 5.3 when you jump letters, you get error messages in the console?

[EDIT] Also it would be very helpful to have your romlist, you can find it in attract mode folder in the romlist subfolder, that would allow me to replicate a situation similar to yours...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on August 30, 2019, 09:52:14 AM
trying to go back simply does not come back, in console nothing comes up because it does not perform the back function, the romlist is the same as I used in version 5.1.
In version 5.2 i have the same problem as 5.3.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 31, 2019, 12:49:56 AM
Replicated the issue with your romlist, although I see it also in 5.1... please check with the attached layout.nut, just drop it in place of the old one
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on August 31, 2019, 08:01:21 AM
Replicated the issue with your romlist, although I see it also in 5.1... please check with the attached layout.nut, just drop it in place of the old one

yes 5.3, now it works wonderfully well, everything is perfect, the letter in labellist is no longer duplicated, and the jump to the previous letter also works perfect, thanks for the support, AF and the best and most complete theme I will ever use.

PS: I still see another problem, is not working the star of favorites and the tag of compled, it only works when I go out and open the AM there it appears.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: dark1973 on August 31, 2019, 10:09:57 AM
Hello. If you can implement the insertion of an overlay image (both in the main menu and in the history) I have an arcade cabinet it could be useful to visualize the controls of the bridge

Ciao. Se puoi implementa l'inserimento di un'immagine in sovraimpressione (sia nel menu principale che nell'history) io ho un cabinato arcade potrebbe essere utile visualizzare i comandi della plancia
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 02, 2019, 08:04:22 AM
PS: I still see another problem, is not working the star of favorites and the tag of compled, it only works when I go out and open the AM there it appears.

Going back to the history of Arcadeflow I see that this is a recurring issue, mainly because "ChangedTag" transition doesn't work as expected... I'm sharing a beta of the new version, you can check it, it should fix the stars and tags issue.

It seems that the first time you add a new tag the artwork is not correctly updated, but the next time you add the same tag it works. I don't know why, since the debug output is the same, same transitions triggered, same code executed. I suspect it's related to the screen where you enter the tag name, probably Arcadeflow tries to update the tag artwork when the screen is still showing and no actual tag has been added.
To overcome this, I've forced the tags to refresh as soon as you move to a new game, that should at least mitigate the issue... Hopefully :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 02, 2019, 08:08:05 AM
Ciao. Se puoi implementa l'inserimento di un'immagine in sovraimpressione (sia nel menu principale che nell'history) io ho un cabinato arcade potrebbe essere utile visualizzare i comandi della plancia

Dovrebbe essere già possibile: nelle opzioni di Arcadeflow c'è "Custom BG image", se come immagine carichi una PNG con i tuoi comandi su sfondo trasparente dovrebbe visualizzarli in sovrimpressione. Fammi sapere se funziona
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on September 02, 2019, 05:06:46 PM
PS: I still see another problem, is not working the star of favorites and the tag of compled, it only works when I go out and open the AM there it appears.

Going back to the history of Arcadeflow I see that this is a recurring issue, mainly because "ChangedTag" transition doesn't work as expected... I'm sharing a beta of the new version, you can check it, it should fix the stars and tags issue.

It seems that the first time you add a new tag the artwork is not correctly updated, but the next time you add the same tag it works. I don't know why, since the debug output is the same, same transitions triggered, same code executed. I suspect it's related to the screen where you enter the tag name, probably Arcadeflow tries to update the tag artwork when the screen is still showing and no actual tag has been added.
To overcome this, I've forced the tags to refresh as soon as you move to a new game, that should at least mitigate the issue... Hopefully :D

he seems to break the theme, after putting in AF-5.3 it seems there is no thema
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 02, 2019, 09:57:12 PM
he seems to break the theme, after putting in AF-5.3 it seems there is no thema

Hmm, not good... can you paste the console output with the error message?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 03, 2019, 05:33:53 AM
Ciao. Se puoi implementa l'inserimento di un'immagine in sovraimpressione (sia nel menu principale che nell'history) io ho un cabinato arcade potrebbe essere utile visualizzare i comandi della plancia

Dovrebbe essere già possibile: nelle opzioni di Arcadeflow c'è "Custom BG image", se come immagine carichi una PNG con i tuoi comandi su sfondo trasparente dovrebbe visualizzarli in sovrimpressione. Fammi sapere se funziona

purtroppo non funziona. l'immagine finisce sullo sfondo. Con la versione 4.0 funzionava. Grazie mille e continua cosi'
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 03, 2019, 06:12:06 AM
purtroppo non funziona. l'immagine finisce sullo sfondo. Con la versione 4.0 funzionava. Grazie mille e continua cosi'

Si in effetti l'immagine finisce sullo sfondo, ma non dovrebbe essere così stretchata... dovresti usare un'immagine tutta trasparente alla stessa risoluzione dello schermo, con gli elementi che ti interessano posizionati già dove li vorresti. Ovviamente finirebbero _dietro_ agli altri elementi, ma davanti allo sfondo principale
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 04, 2019, 06:25:12 AM
purtroppo non funziona. l'immagine finisce sullo sfondo. Con la versione 4.0 funzionava. Grazie mille e continua cosi'

Questo è il modo in cui puoi mettere una specie di overlay (che in realtà finisce dietro la roba). Prepara un'immagine come quella in allegato, dove metti i controlli dove vuoi, e poi la imposti come sfondo. Ho usato la versione "1-row small" in modo da aver molto spazio intorno alle miniature. Pensi che così possa andare bene per te? Altrimenti implemento una "foreground image" nella nuova versione, che stia sopra a tutto (compresi gli screenshots)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 04, 2019, 06:27:24 AM
he seems to break the theme, after putting in AF-5.3 it seems there is no thema

Found an issue when no filter data is available, you can try this new temporary layout.nut to see if it is fixed. If not, you can send me your attract.cfg file to my email so I can have a look at it...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on September 04, 2019, 05:21:10 PM
he seems to break the theme, after putting in AF-5.3 it seems there is no thema

Found an issue when no filter data is available, you can try this new temporary layout.nut to see if it is fixed. If not, you can send me your attract.cfg file to my email so I can have a look at it...

Hello,the completed tag works fine now, once I select it already appears in the layout, but I still have problems with the star, when I select it does not appear on time, I have to start the game and paste to layout there it appears.

Attract CFG:

Code: [Select]
# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.5.1
#
display Arcade
layout               AF-5.3
romlist              Arcade
in_cycle             yes
in_menu              yes

sound
sound_volume         100
ambient_volume       100
movie_volume         100

input_map
back                 Escape
up                   Up
down                 Down
left                 Left
right                Right
select               Return
configure            Tab
add_favourite        F
add_tags             T
edit_game            F1
custom1              Divide
custom2              Multiply
custom3              Subtract
default             back exit
default             up prev_game
default             down next_game
default             left prev_display
default             right next_display

general
language             en
exit_command         
exit_message         
default_font         arial
font_path            %SYSTEMROOT%/Fonts/
screen_saver_timeout 600
displays_menu_exit   yes
hide_brackets        yes
startup_mode         default
confirm_favourites   no
confirm_exit         yes
mouse_threshold      10
joystick_threshold   75
window_mode          window
filter_wrap_mode     default
track_usage          yes
multiple_monitors    no
smooth_images        yes
selection_max_step   128
selection_speed_ms   40
move_mouse_on_launch yes
scrape_snaps         yes
scrape_marquees      yes
scrape_flyers        yes
scrape_wheels        yes
scrape_fanart        no
scrape_videos        no
scrape_overview      yes
hide_console         no
video_decoder        software
menu_prompt          Displays Menu
menu_layout         

layout_config AF-5.1
param                amchangetimer 10
param                amenable Disabled
param                ammessage  - PRESS ANY KEY -
param                amsound Yes
param                amtimer 120
param                amtune
param                audiovidhistory No
param                audiovidsnaps No
param                baserotation None
param                bgblurred
param                boxartmode Yes
param                cleanlayout No
param                colortheme Dark
param                cropsnaps Horizontal-Vertical
param                customsize
param                darkpanel Dark
param                dat_path D:\Attract-Arcade\emuladores\Mame\history\history.dat
param                datashadowsmooth Yes
param                dmhorizontalrows 1
param                dmverticalrows 3
param                fpson No
param                frostedglass Yes
param                gbgreencolor Classic
param                generate_index
param                historypanel White panel
param                horizontalrows 1
param                index_clones Yes
param                layersnap No
param                layervideo No
param                lcdmode Half Resolution
param                livesearch Yes
param                logoshadow Yes
param                lowres No
param                lowspecmode No
param                newgame Yes
param                overmenubutton custom1
param                paramx1
param                paramx10
param                paramx2
param                paramx3
param                paramx4
param                paramx5
param                paramx6
param                paramx7
param                paramx8
param                paramx9
param                paramxx0
param                paramxx1
param                paramxx10
param                paramxx2
param                paramxx3
param                paramxx4
param                paramxx5
param                paramxx6
param                paramxx7
param                paramxx8
param                paramxx9
param                scanlinemode Aperture
param                scrollertype LabelList
param                searchmeth Screen keys
param                showsysname Yes
param                snapglow Yes
param                snapgradient Yes
param                splashlogo No
param                splashlogofile
param                switchmodebutton custom2
param                themeaudio Yes
param                thumbvidelay 1
param                thumbvideo Yes
param                verticalrows 3

layout_config AF-5.3
param                amchangetimer 10
param                amenable Disabled
param                ammessage  - PRESS ANY KEY -
param                amsound Yes
param                amtimer 120
param                amtune
param                audiovidhistory No
param                audiovidsnaps No
param                baserotation None
param                bgblurred
param                boxartmode Yes
param                cleanlayout No
param                colortheme Pop
param                cropsnaps Horizontal-Vertical
param                customsize
param                darkpanel Standard
param                dat_path D:\Attract-Arcade\emuladores\Mame\history\history.dat
param                datashadowsmooth Yes
param                dmhorizontalrows 1
param                dmmissingwheel Yes
param                dmverticalrows 3
param                fpson No
param                frostedglass Yes
param                gbgreencolor Classic
param                generate_index
param                historypanel White panel
param                horizontalrows 1
param                index_clones Yes
param                layersnap No
param                layervideo No
param                lcdmode Half Resolution
param                livesearch Yes
param                logoshadow Yes
param                lowres No
param                lowspecmode No
param                missingwheel Yes
param                newgame Yes
param                overmenubutton custom1
param                paramx1
param                paramx10
param                paramx11
param                paramx2
param                paramx3
param                paramx4
param                paramx5
param                paramx6
param                paramx7
param                paramx8
param                paramx9
param                paramxx0
param                paramxx1
param                paramxx10
param                paramxx11
param                paramxx2
param                paramxx3
param                paramxx4
param                paramxx5
param                paramxx6
param                paramxx7
param                paramxx8
param                paramxx9
param                scanlinemode Aperture
param                scrollertype LabelList
param                searchmeth Screen keys
param                showsysname Yes
param                snapglow Yes
param                snapgradient Yes
param                splashlogo No
param                splashlogofile
param                striparticle No
param                switchmodebutton custom3
param                tagname
param                tagshow Yes
param                themeaudio Yes
param                thumbvidelay 1
param                thumbvideo Yes
param                utilitymenubutton custom2
param                verticalrows 3

layout_config hello-nintendo-master
param                bg2Type original
param                gridArt flyer
param                hItemGrid 300
param                optToons mario-group
param                selectorIcon controller
param                totalXGrid 3
param                totalYGrid 2
param                wItemGrid 208
param                xPadGrid 38
param                xsGrid 513
param                yPadGrid 21
param                ysGrid 141

intro_config
param                detect_aspect Yes
param                layout_rotation none
param                play_intro No
param                video_16x9 intro.mp4
param                video_3x4 intro_3x4.mp4
param                video_4x3 intro_4x3.mp4
param                video_9x16 intro_9x16.mp4
param                video_default intro.mp4


plugin ResFix
enabled              yes
param                emulators
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 04, 2019, 11:16:57 PM
Attract CFG:

Ok, I think the star issue is due to your config missing the "Starred" filter. At the beginning your config looks like this:

Code: [Select]
display Arcade
layout               AF-5.3
romlist              Arcade
in_cycle             yes
in_menu              yes

while it should look like this:

Code: [Select]
display Arcade
layout               AF-5.3
romlist              Arcade
in_cycle             yes
in_menu              yes
filter               All
filter               Starred
rule                 Favourite equals 1

Incidentally the missing filters caused the "No theme" issue you saw before, but I fixed that with a check. Try adding the two filters (or at least the Starred filter) to your cfg, it should fix the favourites issue.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 05, 2019, 02:18:29 AM
Updated Arcadeflow to 5.4, many bug fixes and a revamped "More of the same..." menu allowing to look for the same tags, favourite states etc.

Lists that are sorted taking articles into account should work now, and of course I added more manufacturer logos :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: Yaron2019 on September 06, 2019, 07:42:49 AM
Updated Arcadeflow to 5.4, many bug fixes and a revamped "More of the same..." menu allowing to look for the same tags, favourite states etc.

Lists that are sorted taking articles into account should work now, and of course I added more manufacturer logos :D

Your work on this theme is admirable. It is on the verge of evolving into a front end of its own!  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 06, 2019, 07:53:07 AM
Your work on this theme is admirable. It is on the verge of evolving into a front end of its own!  ;D

Thank you! It's a lot of work but also fun... right now I'm doing some experiments with the holy grail of list management: on-the-fly sort order change :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: jedione on September 06, 2019, 11:23:53 AM
on-the-fly sort order change,      bring it on,      please make it into a module!    ;D

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 07, 2019, 08:15:14 AM
on-the-fly sort order change,      bring it on,      please make it into a module!    ;D

Right now I have a demo layout where the fe.list is copied into a new array, the array can be sorted by some of the game data (manufacturer, year, title etc) and next/prev letter/year/manufacturer are created on the flight.

When the user changes games or goes to prev/next letter this "fake" list is used instead of the standard one, so new magic tokens are needed to manage game data, and when a game is launched the fe.list.index is updated according to the current fake list game. I think if the fe.list.index is updated each time the user changes games on the fake list, standard magic token could be used.

The problem now is transition callback: since games are not in the right order, the "var" value is completely incorrect. A good idea would be to define a global "fakevar" to use in the transition instead of the actual "real" var. Could work... gonna play with it
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: jedione on September 08, 2019, 05:51:56 PM
would be nice to try,   this code out...does this mean that am can be compiled with the new tokens?  off brand

and at some time committed,,,, ::)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 08, 2019, 11:19:43 PM
would be nice to try,   this code out...does this mean that am can be compiled with the new tokens?  off brand

and at some time committed,,,, ::)

This is just a layout code, no change to AM code. It's still very preliminary, dirty and unoptimized... right now you can see in the top part of the screen the game data with usual magic tokens, in the bottom part with the custom magic tokens. They are the same because I'm updating fe.lsit.index at each game change. They de-sync when loading a new gamelist (eg favourite filter) but it's only cosmetic, under the hood everything seems good.

You can check the on the fly reorder using custom1 (sort by year reverse) and custom2 (sort by manufacturer). Again, this is just some code I stitched together in the weekend :D

[EDIT] You can check prev/next game and prev/next letter, they should work. Also right now the "secondary ordering" is taken from the previous state, so if the list was sorted by manufacturer and you sort by year, games with the same year will be sorted by manufacturer. I don't know if I should consider this a but or a feature :O
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 11, 2019, 06:03:12 AM
Work on the custom sort is going on, it's bolted on Arcadeflow right now and seems to work pretty well, but I had to tweak so many things under the hood that I need some more time to debug it...

One question for all the users: how do you think "next letter/prev letter" should work? I mean, by default in Attract Mode if you are at letter G, and you go to next letter, it brings you to the first item of the "H" letter, and if you go to prev_letter it brings you to the LAST item in the F. I tweaked Arcadeflow so that it always bring you to the first item of each letter, but maybe this is not intuitive. What do you think?

And what if the list is reversed in order? Should it work the same? Or change?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: Enkak on September 11, 2019, 06:35:30 AM
I also prefer when you click "next letter/prev letter" that it goes to the first item of each letter. More intuitive (and logical?) that way personally. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 11, 2019, 10:24:13 AM
I also prefer when you click "next letter/prev letter" that it goes to the first item of each letter. More intuitive (and logical?) that way personally. :)

That's my idea too, I'll see if I can implement it and how it works with reversed lists.

If someone wants to play with a VERY preliminary layout, it's a bit slowed down by the huge amount of debug it prints on the console, but should work. Sorting is done in the "utility menu", "nosort" lists should work correctly, there's a layout option to decide if you want to sort by title stripping articles.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 13, 2019, 06:20:34 AM
Arcadeflow 5.5 is here and, you guess it, you can now sort your games lists on the fly! And save the new sort order through sessions! While the code works, it still needs a lot of polishing and improvements, but from my tests it's fast and reliable. You can access the "Sort by..." menu from the "Utility menu" of Arcadeflow. Maybe a hotkey would be nice, who knows, maybe in a future revision :D

Hope you won't find too many bugs, if so, please report them together with any improvement suggestion!

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on September 13, 2019, 11:12:44 AM
Arcadeflow 5.5 is here and, you guess it, you can now sort your games lists on the fly! And save the new sort order through sessions! While the code works, it still needs a lot of polishing and improvements, but from my tests it's fast and reliable. You can access the "Sort by..." menu from the "Utility menu" of Arcadeflow. Maybe a hotkey would be nice, who knows, maybe in a future revision :D

Hope you won't find too many bugs, if so, please report them together with any improvement suggestion!

Enjoy!

Big thanks!!!!!

but the theme for me is broken it appears that way
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 14, 2019, 10:20:06 PM
!
but the theme for me is broken it appears that way

I have your rom list data so I should be able to replicate and fix the issue, do you see some errors on the console when running attract-console.exe? I’ll have a look at it today and report back
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 15, 2019, 01:14:51 AM
but the theme for me is broken it appears that way

Try the attached layout.nut, it should fix the issue.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on September 15, 2019, 11:49:37 AM
!
but the theme for me is broken it appears that way

I have your rom list data so I should be able to replicate and fix the issue, do you see some errors on the console when running attract-console.exe? I’ll have a look at it today and report back

Here console.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on September 15, 2019, 11:59:13 AM
but the theme for me is broken it appears that way

Try the attached layout.nut, it should fix the issue.

Hello Dear!

Even after I put the new layout.nut still encounter some problems, in the images below I marked some.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 15, 2019, 10:28:48 PM
Even after I put the new layout.nut still encounter some problems, in the images below I marked some.

The history bug completely flew under my radar, I don't know what happened, apparently reordering file calls fixed the bug. You can check the attached layout (you'll probably miss the "tag" icon because I changed the PNG name)

The blank space above the "TITLE" sorting hint is due to the fact that there you'd see the "filter" name of the current filter. Usually displays have at least a "All" and "Starred" filters, but your display doesn't have any so I'm sorry it won't show anything there. [EDIT] I'll change the code so that if no filter name is available that area will only show the sort order. I'm also adding some nice glyphs that will be much better than ">" and "<" :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 17, 2019, 05:35:29 AM
Ciao. Se puoi implementa l'inserimento di un'immagine in sovraimpressione (sia nel menu principale che nell'history) io ho un cabinato arcade potrebbe essere utile visualizzare i comandi della plancia

Dovrebbe essere già possibile: nelle opzioni di Arcadeflow c'è "Custom BG image", se come immagine carichi una PNG con i tuoi comandi su sfondo trasparente dovrebbe visualizzarli in sovrimpressione. Fammi sapere se funziona

Ciao. Ho fatto qualche prova. Ti posto le immagini. Per lo sfondo del main screen come mi hai detto, va benissimo. L'unico intoppo e' la schermata history. Se riuscissi nelle prossime versione a differenziare gli screen di sfondo te ne sarei molto grato.

p.s. lavoro discretamente con Photoshop, se ti piace lo sfondo con bezel o hai altre richieste (es. pulsanti o alto), fammi sapere. Ciao e Grazie
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 17, 2019, 06:38:33 AM
Ciao. Ho fatto qualche prova. Ti posto le immagini. Per lo sfondo del main screen come mi hai detto, va benissimo. L'unico intoppo e' la schermata history. Se riuscissi nelle prossime versione a differenziare gli screen di sfondo te ne sarei molto grato.

Sto implementando il doppio sfondo, ma mi è venuto un dubbio: il problema è la sfumatura sotto lo screenshot nella pagina della history? Il tuo bezel ha il centro trasparente?

Perché nell'implementazione che sto facendo lo sfondo della history si posiziona _sopra_ la sfumatura ma _sotto_ il pannello bianco del testo, che però può essere eliminato. In questo caso se lo sfondo ha una trasparenza però vedresti sempre dietro la sfumatura verticale. Aggiungerò un'opzione per toglierla, anche se a quel punto il doppio sfondo è superfluo, ma ormai l'ho inserito e lo teniamo :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 17, 2019, 10:50:09 AM
Si. Trasparenza leggera. Simula il vetro di un vecchio crt
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 18, 2019, 01:03:30 PM
Si. Trasparenza leggera. Simula il vetro di un vecchio crt

Ok, sto lavorando all'implementazione. Purtroppo ho scoperto che la nuova routine di ordinamento ha un sacco di piccoli bug difficili da scoprire, sto fixando il più possibile, se tutto va bene venerdì esco con la nuova versione :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.5 [Release] Updated 13 September 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 20, 2019, 01:32:12 AM
Si. Trasparenza leggera. Simula il vetro di un vecchio crt

Ok, sto lavorando all'implementazione. Purtroppo ho scoperto che la nuova routine di ordinamento ha un sacco di piccoli bug difficili da scoprire, sto fixando il più possibile, se tutto va bene venerdì esco con la nuova versione :D


Il lavoro che stai facendo è immenso. Asptterei anche settimane. Grazie di nuovo e buon lavoro

The work you do is remarkable. I am willing to wait even weeks. Thanks again and good work
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2019, 02:20:55 PM
Another week, another revision! Arcadeflow 5.6 is out, many bugs in the sorting feature are fixed, there are a new sort menu, and revamped menu systems with nice glyphs. New options for gallery backgrounds and an option to sort "by System" for multi-system romlists which is something you can't usually do in Attract Mode ;D

Keep me updated if you find some bugs, and enjoy the new version!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: tigers on September 21, 2019, 12:49:42 AM

Ciao. Ho fatto qualche prova. Ti posto le immagini. Per lo sfondo del main screen come mi hai detto, va benissimo. L'unico intoppo e' la schermata history. Se riuscissi nelle prossime versione a differenziare gli screen di sfondo te ne sarei molto grato.

p.s. lavoro discretamente con Photoshop, se ti piace lo sfondo con bezel o hai altre richieste (es. pulsanti o alto), fammi sapere. Ciao e Grazie

La visualizzazione dei comandi dovrebbe essere di serie, le scorciatoie sono comode ma difficili da ricordare e non sempre l'emulatore lo uso io che magari le posso ricordare.
Puoi condividere la tua immagine coi comandi?

Commands layout should be there by default, the shortcuts are hard to remember and I'm not always the one using the emulator.
Could you share your backgrond?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: tigers on September 21, 2019, 12:53:22 AM
Hi, attract mode looks great to me, but I'm having problems only with this theme, that otherwise I like very much.
Even after activating the low-end machine option it's quite slow and unresponsive, and the screenshots take ages to load (I have to wait even 30 seconds just to see the game I currently selected, I think I never saw the non selected ones with screenshots...).
The PC is not very fast but it's a AMD E6750 dual core with a ATI 2600 HD, and every Attract Mode Theme is very fast and works perfectly apart from this one.
Is there something I have to setup?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 21, 2019, 01:32:08 AM
Commands layout should be there by default, the shortcuts are hard to remember and I'm not always the one using the emulator.

I don't like shortcuts myself, actually shortcut compatibility was added to Arcadeflow only in later releases. That's the reason why I developed the contextual menu, that pops up when you press "enter" and gives you a lot of option, and the multi-functional scrollbar that can be used both for next/prev "page" jumps and for next/prev "letter". The only element of Arcadeflow that's a bit hidden is the utility menu you engage when going up, but overall the idea behind the theme was that just using a joystick and a single button you could use all the features of the theme.
A "sticky" overlay is a bit too much for most users, maybe I'll come up with something subtler like hints and popups help for the first run... but I like my layout cleaner :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 21, 2019, 01:57:29 AM
Even after activating the low-end machine option it's quite slow and unresponsive, and the screenshots take ages to load (I have to wait even 30 seconds just to see the game I currently selected, I think I never saw the non selected ones with screenshots...).

I'm sorry AF runs so slow on your machine, from what I can see, it seems that the "culprit" here is the graphics card. I run my test rig on an Intel Iris 5100 that has a gpumark of around 700, Arcadeflow runs at about 25 to 30 fps there, so not at the top speed, and your card seems to have a gpumark around 300, which is even lower.

Sadly even in low-spec mode Arcadeflow uses a lot of GLSL shaders, the only thing you can try is setting in arcadeflow options a custom resolution that's lower than your screen resolution, like 640x360 (for 16:9 screens) or similar, this should improve a bit.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.3 [Release] Updated 28 August 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 21, 2019, 01:59:43 AM

Ciao. Ho fatto qualche prova. Ti posto le immagini. Per lo sfondo del main screen come mi hai detto, va benissimo. L'unico intoppo e' la schermata history. Se riuscissi nelle prossime versione a differenziare gli screen di sfondo te ne sarei molto grato.

p.s. lavoro discretamente con Photoshop, se ti piace lo sfondo con bezel o hai altre richieste (es. pulsanti o alto), fammi sapere. Ciao e Grazie

La visualizzazione dei comandi dovrebbe essere di serie, le scorciatoie sono comode ma difficili da ricordare e non sempre l'emulatore lo uso io che magari le posso ricordare.
Puoi condividere la tua immagine coi comandi?

Commands layout should be there by default, the shortcuts are hard to remember and I'm not always the one using the emulator.
Could you share your backgrond?

Certo. Preparo 2-3 sfondi sia per il main screen che per l'history (1920x1080). In lingua inglese. Se hai preferenze sui colori per stick o pulsanti fammi sapere.

Sure. I create 2-3 backgrounds for both the main screen and the history.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: tigers on September 21, 2019, 09:09:46 AM
Even after activating the low-end machine option it's quite slow and unresponsive, and the screenshots take ages to load (I have to wait even 30 seconds just to see the game I currently selected, I think I never saw the non selected ones with screenshots...).

I'm sorry AF runs so slow on your machine, from what I can see, it seems that the "culprit" here is the graphics card. I run my test rig on an Intel Iris 5100 that has a gpumark of around 700, Arcadeflow runs at about 25 to 30 fps there, so not at the top speed, and your card seems to have a gpumark around 300, which is even lower.

Sadly even in low-spec mode Arcadeflow uses a lot of GLSL shaders, the only thing you can try is setting in arcadeflow options a custom resolution that's lower than your screen resolution, like 640x360 (for 16:9 screens) or similar, this should improve a bit.
I modified the resolution and it helped, much smoother now. Still didn't fix my main problem: I can see only one screenshot at a time, from the currently selected game. As soon as I select another one it slowly fades and I see only the one selected. Is this expected behaviour?

EDIT: my bad, I had somehow selected Box-art mode (and I don't have any boxart)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: Enkak on September 21, 2019, 09:22:23 AM
Starting to test version 5.6 :)

Got a bug when starting AM and using AF as Display menu. At the beginning you see it like in the print attached. Only when you scroll a while for left or right you get the menu and pictures to show normal.

From the log attached I guess the "AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index '-1' does not exist]" messages could be related.

Will try next to see if there's issues on the games menus with the new version (still have there version 5.4).

Cheers. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 22, 2019, 01:24:30 AM
Starting to test version 5.6 :)

Could I release a new version without breaking the displays menu mode? Of course not :D Please try the attached layout.nut, it should fix the issue you see when starting in displays menu mode.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 22, 2019, 03:14:51 AM
Ciao. Ho trovato un bug. se inserisco le immagini di sfondo (main e history), andando sulla schermata history l'immagine main non sparisce
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 22, 2019, 03:53:47 AM
Ciao. Ho trovato un bug. se inserisco le immagini di sfondo (main e history), andando sulla schermata history l'immagine main non sparisce

Giusto, perché se l'immagine di sfondo della galleria ha una trasparenza, sotto si vede l'immagine di sfondo principale... non ci avevo pensato, un bel problema. Credo che la soluzione migliore sia inserire dei veri e propri overlay, lasciando la gestione sfondi così com'è. Ci guardo...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: Enkak on September 22, 2019, 04:39:44 AM
Starting to test version 5.6 :)

Could I release a new version without breaking the displays menu mode? Of course not :D Please try the attached layout.nut, it should fix the issue you see when starting in displays menu mode.

ahah :D Main issue seem to be solved, thx again. :)

Noticed one thing regarding the starting counter on both display menu mode and games. You can see the list number starts at zero instead of 1. I guess the logical way would be for the counting to start at 1?

Another small thing just saw. Even with option to display system name to off, some systems like Amiga and others still show the system anyway.  :o

PS: First test with 5.6 on systems lists gave me a blue screen of death when scrolling on a smaller one  :o but that seemed to be a random computer thing for now. :)

PS2: Tried to put here 2 small attachments to example the issues but forum is giving me errors for now.
"An Error Has Occurred!
The upload folder is full. Please try a smaller file and/or contact an administrator."
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 22, 2019, 07:17:29 AM
Noticed one thing regarding the starting counter on both display menu mode and games. You can see the list number starts at zero instead of 1. I guess the logical way would be for the counting to start at 1?

Another small thing just saw. Even with option to display system name to off, some systems like Amiga and others still show the system anyway.  :o

Replicated both issues, both should be fixed in attached beta version. Thanks again for your debug help!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: Enkak on September 22, 2019, 02:54:15 PM
Noticed one thing regarding the starting counter on both display menu mode and games. You can see the list number starts at zero instead of 1. I guess the logical way would be for the counting to start at 1?

Another small thing just saw. Even with option to display system name to off, some systems like Amiga and others still show the system anyway.  :o

Replicated both issues, both should be fixed in attached beta version. Thanks again for your debug help!

Thank you so much for the beta version, it fixed both issues. :) And glad to help in anyway I can. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: rand0m on September 23, 2019, 12:24:13 AM
on-the-fly sort order change,      bring it on,      please make it into a module!    ;D

Right now I have a demo layout where the fe.list is copied into a new array, the array can be sorted by some of the game data (manufacturer, year, title etc) and next/prev letter/year/manufacturer are created on the flight.

When the user changes games or goes to prev/next letter this "fake" list is used instead of the standard one, so new magic tokens are needed to manage game data, and when a game is launched the fe.list.index is updated according to the current fake list game. I think if the fe.list.index is updated each time the user changes games on the fake list, standard magic token could be used.

The problem now is transition callback: since games are not in the right order, the "var" value is completely incorrect. A good idea would be to define a global "fakevar" to use in the transition instead of the actual "real" var. Could work... gonna play with it

Sort Value has been added today > https://github.com/mickelson/attract/issues/558, I have not tested it yet but I think we should be able to directly call sort value with desired parameter now (Year, Player etc). Wonderful work with this theme btw :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 23, 2019, 12:50:48 AM
Ciao. Ho trovato un bug. se inserisco le immagini di sfondo (main e history), andando sulla schermata history l'immagine main non sparisce

Giusto, perché se l'immagine di sfondo della galleria ha una trasparenza, sotto si vede l'immagine di sfondo principale... non ci avevo pensato, un bel problema. Credo che la soluzione migliore sia inserire dei veri e propri overlay, lasciando la gestione sfondi così com'è. Ci guardo...

Se l'aggiunta di overlay è problematica, secndo me puoi lasciare stare per ora. Ho risolto inserendo per l'history un'immagine senza trasparenza. L'effetto finale è bellissimo. ciao
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.4 [Release] Updated 5 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 23, 2019, 12:56:22 AM
Sort Value has been added today > https://github.com/mickelson/attract/issues/558, I have not tested it yet but I think we should be able to directly call sort value with desired parameter now (Year, Player etc). Wonderful work with this theme btw :)

I just saw the commit, but as far as I can tell, this is not related to changing the sort order of an existing game list from the layout. The change allows you to read the "sort key" from game data, for example if the game is Golden Axe from 1992 made by Sega and the sort order is "by Year", the game_info sort value is "1992". That's a nice addition (I asked for that myself) I have to see if it allows me to simplify part of my code :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 23, 2019, 12:58:10 AM
Se l'aggiunta di overlay è problematica, secndo me puoi lasciare stare per ora. Ho risolto inserendo per l'history un'immagine senza trasparenza. L'effetto finale è bellissimo. ciao

Per ora sto risolvendo tutti i piccoli nuovi bug della 5.6, magari la versione 5.7 la rilascio semplicemente come bugfix, e per le nuove feature aspetto la prossima... Hai un paio di screenshot da caricare? Sto ripulendo gli attach di questo thread eliminando i miei più vecchi perché pare che lo spazio di upload fosse pieno :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 24, 2019, 01:39:02 AM
Se l'aggiunta di overlay è problematica, secndo me puoi lasciare stare per ora. Ho risolto inserendo per l'history un'immagine senza trasparenza. L'effetto finale è bellissimo. ciao

Ho fatto un po' di modifiche... ora praticamente gli sfondi, anche semitrasparenti, della history e principale sono indipendenti e uno dovrebbe coprire comunque l'altro. dovrebbe risolvere il tuo problema, se hai tempo e vuoi provare questo layout beta, la cosa che più mi interessa è (a parte se funziona :D) se c'è un degrado nelle performance (lo sto testando su una scheda che rallenta solo a risoluzioni sopra 6400x4800 quindi è poco significativo)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 24, 2019, 05:46:39 AM
provo e ti faccio sapere
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on September 24, 2019, 03:54:54 PM
zpaolo11x t his version 5.6 of AF was a show here worked everything perfect thanks for your work and for sharing this beautiful theme.  :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on September 24, 2019, 04:10:29 PM
I would like to give you an idea, in the description menu of the games, could have a text scrolling up automatic would look spectacular, it's just an idea.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: dark1973 on September 26, 2019, 05:30:21 AM
provo e ti faccio sapere

Nessun rallentamento all'apparenza (ho un i5 2500k e una gtx970) sto tra i 108-113fps. rallenta un po' quando parte il video (circa 80)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: 8bitsdeep on September 30, 2019, 01:22:24 PM
This is truly incredible theme. Bravo, zpaolo11x, for this impressive feat.

I have one question. How hard would it be to alter the direction the grid flows?  I'd love to use this, but I find the way the grid is ordered somewhat bizarre.

Currently, it seems to flow like this:
Code: [Select]
1  3  5  7
2  4  6  8
<-- (scrolling horizontally) -->

This would feel much more intuitive to me:
Code: [Select]
1  2  3  4     ^
5  6  7  8     v
(scrolling vertically)


Apologies if this has been addressed somewhere, but this is one huge thread.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 01, 2019, 02:33:48 AM
This would feel much more intuitive to me:
Code: [Select]
1  2  3  4     ^
5  6  7  8     v
(scrolling vertically)


I see the point, and it's definitely a good point, but let me do a bit of history here... attached is a screenshot of an early version (never published) of my Attract Mode layout. The scrolling and arrangement was as you suggest, the first iteration had a very simple grid layout where tiles would just change with no scrolling whatsoever, the second one (the one in the picture) used the conveyor module to have a decent scrolling. Then I saw Oomek work on Silky theme, Ambiance HD and the carrier.nut module, and decided I wanted something different, smoother, more "modern looking".

Arcadeflow was born adapting the look of Plex Media Player and the look of a mockup someone made on Hyperspin forums, both these had horizontal scrolling tile rows. There are two reasons why it works better in horizontal than in vertical: aesthetically I wanted a very clean look, and vertical scrolling would've interfered with the title block (which is actually opaque in the first mockups with tiles sliding behind). Also there's a technical reason: to be smooth carrier module needs to pre-load some pictures outside of the screen, and update them accordingly. With two rows, I add some out of screen columns to the left and right, and things are pretty snappy. Scrolling vertically with 4 or 5 tiles per row means that to have three rows out of screen I'll have to add 4 (or 5) x 3 = 12 (or 15!) tiles per side (top and bottom) which can be a bit overkill on many systems (including my poor macbook pro :D)

In the end, who knows what future will bring? In the past I've said many times I was not going to implement something, and actually changed my mind a week later :D But changing Arcadeflow to incorporate vertical scrolling would be a very large overhaul of the whole layout which I don't whink will happen so soon...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 04, 2019, 08:05:09 AM
I'm delaying a bit the release of AF 5.7... I just implemented a couple of bug fixes and some improvements, but I'm taking some more time because I'm expanding the folder for manufacturer images. I got a bit carried away: first MSX (my first personal computer), Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Apple II. Then there's the IBM PC with its 6000 games (I started loading rom lists from HyperSpin or from Mame). And now I'm adding manufacturers for japanese computers like NEC PC-88 and 89, FM Towns, X68000. I made a huge excel worksheet to track my progress, it lists more or less 30'000 games, and my artwork covers around 14'000 which is not bad at all :D
It's a nice run down the memory lane finding and fixing logos from obscure ZX Spectrum developers, or discovering that a large amount of PC-98 games in these lists are soft-core games :P

If you have a system you love and you want it included, please let me know. I'm also thinking of adding systems logos for the Displays menu, but that's a whole different story :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: 8bitsdeep on October 04, 2019, 07:42:57 PM
I appreciate the detailed response!  Makes a lot of sense.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.6 [Release] Updated 20 September 2019
Post by: SFNMutt on October 09, 2019, 03:17:26 PM
man, I'm really out of date.  think i'm still on 3.8.  can't wait to see what's been added. thank you for all your work!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2019, 06:16:10 AM
Arcadeflow 5.7 is out! Some bugs fixed, and lots of manufacturer images added to the library :) Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: jedione on October 13, 2019, 11:45:01 AM
ahh weekend.....time ,,,   all try it....thanks ....
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: yxiie on October 21, 2019, 10:41:14 AM
Is it possible to disable popup menu on the game, so I don't have to press again to launch the game? Haven't found an option like this. Parhaps somewhere in source files?
Edit: NVM, figured it out
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: connconn1 on October 28, 2019, 10:38:19 AM
This theme is awesome! Only gripe is that I have some newer systems (like PS3) that I want to use it with. How would I go about adjusting the alloted size of the box art? currently mine is being cut off
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 28, 2019, 11:02:25 AM
This theme is awesome! Only gripe is that I have some newer systems (like PS3) that I want to use it with. How would I go about adjusting the alloted size of the box art? currently mine is being cut off

Can you attach a screenshot, or maybe one if the box art files you are using? If you can’t attach here send me a pm or an email to Paolo.zago(at)Gmail.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: connconn1 on October 28, 2019, 11:21:10 AM
Thanks for such a speedy response!

Here is an image I'm talking about showing how for example Wii games and PS3 games are cut off: (https://i.imgur.com/PSKEH7n.jpg)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: connconn1 on October 28, 2019, 11:27:19 AM
This theme is awesome! Only gripe is that I have some newer systems (like PS3) that I want to use it with. How would I go about adjusting the alloted size of the box art? currently mine is being cut off

Can you attach a screenshot, or maybe one if the box art files you are using? If you can’t attach here send me a pm or an email to Paolo.zago(at)Gmail.com

Also here are the exact pictures I used in the screenshot above:

(https://i.imgur.com/21IUc1Q.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/WgAk2v4.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 29, 2019, 01:54:57 AM
Also here are the exact pictures I used in the screenshot above:

Ok, I see the issue but that's the way Arcadeflow works and there's no easy solution right now.

Arcadeflow was born as a screenshot-driven layout, mostly aimed to arcade games, therefore while it seems to adapt to different aspect ratios even for box arts, in fact Arcadeflow only fits 3:4, 4:3 and 1:1 aspects. This happens because the shadow effect under the thumbnail is fake, and limited to those ratios. For screenshots or box arts that don't perfectly fit with those aspects, the artwork gets cropped to avoid stretching, and that's the issue you are reporting here.

There's an idea that has been floating in my mind for a while, to completely rewrite Arcadeflow so that all shadows are generated "on the fly", which could allow fitting each aspect ratio, simplifying part of the code and solving the cropping issue, but there are many drawbacks and I'll need a lot of time for that.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: markoattract on October 29, 2019, 12:20:12 PM
Hello guys !

Like always , thanks to zpaolo11x for the great work !!

I have a problem : I'm using AM on WIN 10, and i want to use the retroarch's FINAL BURN NEO core lo launch arcade roms . The prolem is that i can't read the game's name ut it sows only the rom name .

With MAME i don't have any prolem with the correct MAME.XML file , but with Final burn NEO from Retroarch it doesn't ...

I just tried to rename MAME.xml to GAMELIST.xml but still dont works ... I tried to place the files on the root of the AM directory but no results ...

Any help or suggestions ?? Thank you very much ! :D   

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 30, 2019, 04:12:24 AM
I have a problem : I'm using AM on WIN 10, and i want to use the retroarch's FINAL BURN NEO core lo launch arcade roms . The prolem is that i can't read the game's name ut it sows only the rom name .

As far as I know this is due to a missing romlist file. You should find the proper xml list (here https://hyperlist.hyperspin-fe.com/index.php there are many but not for final burn neo) and once you have that you can set Attract Mode to read that.

Go to the emulator settings and in "Additiona import files" put the complete path to the xml file. Then rescan the romlist, it should work. At least that's what I do for console games
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: markoattract on October 30, 2019, 11:43:13 AM
Thank you paolo but it didn't works :(

On raspberry using "the scraper" i have solved the problem, but on Windows is not simple ... maybe i could import file gamelist.txt from the Raspy ...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 31, 2019, 03:30:36 AM
Arcadeflow 5.8 is out!

Compatibility with Attract Mode 2.6.0, and some new ways to display the displays menu list inside Arcadeflow: simple list, simplet list with menu-art artwork, and both of the above can be enhanced by new vector based systems logos that are automatically chosen depending on your display name.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.7 [Release] Updated 11 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 31, 2019, 07:03:06 AM
Thank you paolo but it didn't works :(

Hmm what setting you have in "Info source/scraper"? I have it blank when I use external xml files. And yes you should be able to bring the list from raspberry to windows, but I have never done it...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: Enkak on November 01, 2019, 05:34:31 PM
Thank you again for the great update. Loving the detail of font and system logo under game titles. :) Regarding that, I guess you will create more in the future. Thinking about PC Games/PC appearing currently as msdos instead of PC, Windows or Steam for example.

A quick question. Is there a way to disable only the part below game titles that show the region/version and so on after system name/logo for all the systems to appear like Amiga in the print attached?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 02, 2019, 01:47:06 AM
A quick question. Is there a way to disable only the part below game titles that show the region/version and so on after system name/logo for all the systems to appear like Amiga in the print attached?

There is no option right now but it should be pretty easy to do, i’ll add it in the next release.
As for different system logos, I’ll add more, I’m still trying to find a good logo for “PC” so I used ms-dos instead. Oh and I’m also starting to convert in vector format all the manufacturer images, well maybe not all 900 of them, but the most common at least. This is so ironic since for most of them i started from a bitmap, used vecrormagic and then grabbed a screenshot :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: Enkak on November 02, 2019, 12:21:49 PM
Thx again!

I feel you, not easy regarding a PC Games logo. On some themes I use one like this attached.

Great news about the new manufacturer logos. Not only they look great on AF besides being another nice detail of course, but they are helping me too filling some blanks. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: Wenzon on November 03, 2019, 06:02:22 AM
I have a problem with the Display Menu. Every time I set this option to enable in the general layout menu, the screen goes totally black. The system displays do not appear. I used attract-console and enjoyed this message.

Attract-Mode v2.6.0 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 + SWF + 7z + Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: D: \ ARCADE \ $ \ attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Atomiswave'
 - Loaded master romlist 'atomiswave' in 0 ms (14 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (28 comparisons)
 - Loaded layout: D: \ ARCADE \ $ \ layouts / Arcadeflow / (layout.nut)
 - Constructed 1 filters in 0 ms (5 comparisons)
 - Loaded layout: D: \ ARCADE \ $ \ layouts / Arcadeflow / (layout.nut)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index '-1' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
* FUNCTION [tick ()] D: \ ARCADE \ $ \ layouts / Arcadeflow / layout.nut line [5540]

LOCALS
[tags] TABLE
[newfocusindex] 14
[offseTable] ARRAY
[snapzTable] ARRAY
[prf] TABLE
[disp] TABLE
[uifonts] TABLE
[displayselected] -1
[display_surface] INSTANCE
[themeT] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[bgs] TABLE
[vidszTable] ARRAY
[attract_snap] INSTANCE
[snd] TABLE
[attract_text2] INSTANCE
[attract_text] INSTANCE
[flowT] TABLE
[squarizer] true
[count] TABLE
[spdT] TABLE
[fade] TABLE
[letterobj] INSTANCE
[lettersize] TABLE
[displayname] INSTANCE
[tiles] TABLE
[tilesTableZoom] ARRAY
[glomxTable] ARRAY
[noshader] INSTANCE
[bd_mxTable] ARRAY
[tilesTable] ARRAY
[widthpadded] 432
[selectorwidth] 648
[vidszTableFade] ARRAY
[vid2zTable] ARRAY
[dat] TABLE
[surfacePos] 0.5
[surfacePosOffset] 1512
[tilesTablePos] TABLE
[globalposnew] 0
[vidpos] ARRAY
[delayvid] 9940
[vidindex] ARRAY
[regsys] TABLE
[fadevid] 9920
[frg] TABLE
[pixelpic] INSTANCE
[frost] TABLE
[rotate90] true
[overmenu] INSTANCE
[overmenuwidth] 583.20001220703
[hist_screensurf] INSTANCE
[hist_glow_pic] INSTANCE
[scrollreset] true
[vertical] true
[hist_screenT] TABLE
[historypadding] 26.799999237061
[hist_direction] 0
[flh] 1080
[shadowsurf2] INSTANCE
[histglow] TABLE
[shadow] TABLE
[flw] 1920
[hist_text] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bot] INSTANCE
[hist_title] INSTANCE
[hist_titleT] TABLE
[hist_titletxt_bd] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt] INSTANCE
[hist_title_top] INSTANCE
[aflogo_surface] INSTANCE
[data_surface] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh] INSTANCE
[fg_surface] INSTANCE
[attract_surface] INSTANCE
[attract_black] INSTANCE
[layoutblacker] INSTANCE
[hist_textT] TABLE
[hist_screen] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf1] INSTANCE
[hist_text_surf] INSTANCE
[history_surface] INSTANCE
[tick_time] 890
[this] TABLE
Script Error in tick function: tick - the index '-1' does not exist
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: explorer.exe (8940)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 03, 2019, 10:30:04 PM
I have a problem with the Display Menu. Every time I set this option to enable in the general layout menu, the screen goes totally black. The system displays do not appear. I used attract-console and enjoyed this message.

Thanks for the report, I know what happened, gonna fix it soon.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 03, 2019, 10:31:50 PM
I feel you, not easy regarding a PC Games logo. On some themes I use one like this attached.

This is a nice and evocative logo, but I still have to find a more compact version to use inline with text in the game "sub-name". I'll see what I can do. Recently I discovered the excellent svg logos from THK, they are helping me a lot in converting my library of logos, and even add more logos for systems.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 05, 2019, 05:35:27 AM
Arcadeflow 5.9 is out, mostly a bug fix with some new system logos added. It'll take some time to get to 6.0, which will probably boast the new vector based manufacturer logos, so stay tuned, enjoy Arcadeflow and report bugs ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 05, 2019, 10:31:59 PM
I have a problem with the Display Menu. Every time I set this option to enable in the general layout menu, the screen goes totally black. The system displays do not appear. I used attract-console and enjoyed this message.

This bug should be fixed in Arcadeflow 5.9, let me know if it works for you :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: Enkak on November 06, 2019, 06:47:31 PM
Thank you so much for the update and new option to hide version/region. Final result can look really clean and great with the recent system name logos below title. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.8 [Release] Updated 31 October 2019
Post by: dark1973 on November 06, 2019, 10:21:28 PM
I have a problem with the Display Menu. Every time I set this option to enable in the general layout menu, the screen goes totally black. The system displays do not appear. I used attract-console and enjoyed this message.

This bug should be fixed in Arcadeflow 5.9, let me know if it works for you :)

Controllato. per me problema risolto. Avevo anche un piccolo problema con i video (in alcuni casi con bordi indesiderati). Ora tutto è ok. Grazie.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: Aaron32 on November 13, 2019, 06:21:52 AM
Excellent work, very good and complete. Is there any possibility of placing in the artwork (box theme) the titles of the games (wheel) at the top of the image? I am using artworks instead of flyers for that section, since those of Neo Geo are cut due to the resolution in which they are.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: yxiie on November 17, 2019, 01:40:37 PM
How to disable sorting in ArcadeFlow? It does not respect Attract Mode sort setting in filter and there is no option to select sort to none in ArcadeFlow itself. I want to make auto-generated last played games romlist and sorting breaks it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 18, 2019, 10:11:34 AM
How to disable sorting in ArcadeFlow? It does not respect Attract Mode sort setting in filter and there is no option to select sort to none in ArcadeFlow itself. I want to make auto-generated last played games romlist and sorting breaks it.

AF 5.8 used the "none" sorting when no sorting option was set, but the current 5.9 revision doesn't, because other part of the layout didn't work well mixing sorting and "none" sorting, so basically now Arcadeflow doesn't consider the original sorting of a display and only applies its own. I will look into it, maybe I can fix the "none" sorting for the future release.

A better option would be to add a sorting option "By last played" but there's no such info I can leverage. How do you generate those romlists?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 18, 2019, 10:25:33 AM
Excellent work, very good and complete. Is there any possibility of placing in the artwork (box theme) the titles of the games (wheel) at the top of the image? I am using artworks instead of flyers for that section, since those of Neo Geo are cut due to the resolution in which they are.

Working on it but rather slowly because of the puppy dog we just bought :D Stay tuned
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: yxiie on November 18, 2019, 01:21:04 PM
How do you generate those romlists?

I wrote my own game launcher script in Python which picks appropriate emulator and settings depending on platform and launches it. This script also checks romlist of appropriate platform and looks for the game name being launched. If it is found, it will take whole line from that romlist and adds that line on top of "Last Played Games.txt" romlist.

For now I have sort of solved the problem by having a copy of Arcadeflow layout assigning it to Last Played Games display only and commenting out z_listsort calls in it.

Kudos for making this theme. It is the best option for having something like modern colsole look and feel - minimalistic and modern. I am trying to assemble something like a superconsole attached to large TV and this theme fits right in.

BTW, loading large romlists are rather slow, i.e. 25000 flash games from Flashpoint, or generated All Games combined romlist. This can easily take 5+ seconds if not longer. I am wondering if this is because of ArcadeFlow or Attract-Mode itself?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 19, 2019, 01:04:11 AM
I wrote my own game launcher script in Python which picks appropriate emulator and settings depending on platform and launches it. This script also checks romlist of appropriate platform and looks for the game name being launched. If it is found, it will take whole line from that romlist and adds that line on top of "Last Played Games.txt" romlist.

Would it be useful if I added an option to sort a display by last played game? I'm thinking of a way to do it using "non volatile" Attract Mode settings.

[/quote]
BTW, loading large romlists are rather slow, i.e. 25000 flash games from Flashpoint, or generated All Games combined romlist. This can easily take 5+ seconds if not longer. I am wondering if this is because of ArcadeFlow or Attract-Mode itself?
[/quote]

I have to check, I don't have such large romlists but yes ARcadeflow does some romlist calculations at startup so it may slow down a bit.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: dmmarti on November 19, 2019, 07:31:06 AM
For loading times of large romlist files, I did a quick test on my Windows PC build.

I took all of my current romlist files for all systems (which alot were Hyperspin XML imported conversions) and merged them into a single large romlist file.

I don't have all of the games within the romlist (it ended up being around 90,000 or so games listed) - i only have around 33,000 games available.

I made a new display called All to use it and set it up to use the Basic theme/layout and setup a Filter to show only games available.

It took several seconds before the switch from the main display into the newly created All display I made.  I do have video video snaps for them all also (not sure that matters or not).

I think with that many games, having to parse the romlist and cache which games are available, having a large romlist for a single display just takes some processing by the computer to do it.  So I'd say it's not really Attract Mode (nor theme) related, but more computer related.

Just my quick test though ..... so others may do better tests than I did.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: yxiie on November 19, 2019, 11:13:15 AM
I think with that many games, having to parse the romlist and cache which games are available, having a large romlist for a single display just takes some processing by the computer to do it.  So I'd say it's not really Attract Mode (nor theme) related, but more computer related.

Just my quick test though ..... so others may do better tests than I did.

Thanks for your testing effort, but in terms of computation, loading the file and parsing 30000 or even 1000000 entries is not that big of a deal, even in scripted language, especially since its a simple comma-separated text file (no fancy syntax or heavy SQL  requests), so it's definitely either ArcadeFlow or Attract-Mode. Flyers / Snaps should have no difference as only the first few that are displayed on the screen are loaded right away, the rest are loaded when you scroll, so they are constant overhead regardless of romlist size.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: yxiie on November 19, 2019, 11:22:37 AM
Would it be useful if I added an option to sort a display by last played game? I'm thinking of a way to do it using "non volatile" Attract Mode settings.

I don't think it would all that useful as it is still necessary to generate romlist somehow and naturally you want to have in that list games from all romlists, not specific one, so it's a little bit more complex task, something that should be implemented in Attract-Mode itself.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: yxiie on November 19, 2019, 11:27:55 AM
Ok, I have switched to "Basic" layout for my Flash games display and it loads lightning fast, so it's definitely ArcadeFlow. Perhaps you are doing some allocations / computations for all romlist elements right away instead of doing it on demand like with loading flyers?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: SFNMutt on November 19, 2019, 09:16:56 PM
Just upgraded from 3.6 to 5.9 & it was super smooth.  everything is working great!

here's a digital leisure logo for the manufacturer folder.  they made Dragon's Lair.

in the sort menu, is there any way to have them not sorted?  I like to have them in the order I put them in my romslist file. i assumed I was just missing an option but not seeing it.  thanks
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: SFNMutt on November 19, 2019, 09:18:57 PM
How to disable sorting in ArcadeFlow? It does not respect Attract Mode sort setting in filter and there is no option to select sort to none in ArcadeFlow itself. I want to make auto-generated last played games romlist and sorting breaks it.

AF 5.8 used the "none" sorting when no sorting option was set, but the current 5.9 revision doesn't, because other part of the layout didn't work well mixing sorting and "none" sorting, so basically now Arcadeflow doesn't consider the original sorting of a display and only applies its own. I will look into it, maybe I can fix the "none" sorting for the future release.

A better option would be to add a sorting option "By last played" but there's no such info I can leverage. How do you generate those romlists?

sorry, guess I should have read thru the other replies before asking this same sorting question.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 20, 2019, 12:30:40 AM
here's a digital leisure logo for the manufacturer folder.  they made Dragon's Lair.

Wow that's great, thank you very much. Do you have it in vector format? Arcadeflow 6.0 will feature vector based manufacturer artwork so if you have one it will be even better :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: Aaron32 on November 20, 2019, 02:11:04 AM
I'm trying to find fonts where the Neo Geo System, Capcom Play System, Naomi or Taito Type X logos appear among other arcades emulators. I like it for the emulator selection menu, but so far I could only find domestic consoles. I'll see if I can put together my own fountain these days and I'll share it here.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 20, 2019, 12:14:29 PM
I'm trying to find fonts where the Neo Geo System, Capcom Play System, Naomi or Taito Type X logos appear among other arcades emulators. I like it for the emulator selection menu, but so far I could only find domestic consoles.

You are right, at the moment the logos are only for consoles and computers, arcade and mame have their own logo but just that. I'm going to add more arcade systems logo, but at the moment I'm super busy vectorizing the manufacturer logos. Just out of curiosity, how do set up AM to use different arcade systems? It's not in the mame romlist, AFAIK
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: yxiie on November 20, 2019, 12:23:42 PM
Just out of curiosity, how do set up AM to use different arcade systems? It's not in the mame romlist, AFAIK

Personally I have written python script which exports mame listxml to separate attract mode romlists, but it's only at initial stage (only sega, taito, and namco machines supported). The biggest problem is not technically exporting it, but rather categorize arcades by platforms correctly. Many arcade machines don't even have their own name, let alone logo. I.e. "Namco Galaga Hardware", "Taito Ninja Warriors Hardware", which featured some other games apart from Galaga and Ninja Warriors respectively.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: Aaron32 on November 20, 2019, 01:11:56 PM
I, for example, create an emulator called Neo Geo System and link it to M.A.M.E. In the romlist of this system I load all the corresponding games such as Fatal Fury, Metal Slug, etc. Then, I create another one called Capcom Play System I and link it again to M.A.M.E. with their respective games and so I do with each one except Naomi, Atomiswave and Taito Type. This method is what I use, maybe a bit complex, but I like to have a more exact order.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 21, 2019, 01:15:32 AM
A quick update on the vector brands progress. Attached you can see the result of using the new vector logos (left) versus the old PNG 1Bit logos (right). There's a great improvement in clarity and anti-aliasing. AS far as file size is concerned, I've now converted around 500 logos and the resulting font is 600 KB. Compare this with the old manufacturer images, they were around 900 with a file size of 2.95 MB. If all goes well I should be able to convert all the logos in a font that's less than 1 MB.
I'm now fixing the update routines and shadow filters, after that I'll release AF6.0 with the reduced set of images
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 21, 2019, 09:39:53 AM
A quick update on the vector brands progress. Attached you can see the result of using the new vector logos (left) versus the old PNG 1Bit logos (right). There's a great improvement in clarity and anti-aliasing. AS far as file size is concerned, I've now converted around 500 logos and the resulting font is 600 KB. Compare this with the old manufacturer images, they were around 900 with a file size of 2.95 MB. If all goes well I should be able to convert all the logos in a font that's less than 1 MB.
I'm now fixing the update routines and shadow filters, after that I'll release AF6.0 with the reduced set of images


Looking great!


I can't figure how to setup this theme though, is it for MAMe or works with other consoles i.e. SNES, SEGAS? I'm using AM 2.6 theme version 5.9. And when changing to this layout nothing happens, just default AM look.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 21, 2019, 10:17:07 AM
I can't figure how to setup this theme though, is it for MAMe or works with other consoles i.e. SNES, SEGAS? I'm using AM 2.6 theme version 5.9. And when changing to this layout nothing happens, just default AM look.

Arcadeflow works with mame, console games and home computer games. Can you run attract-console.exe and provide the output log with the error messages? I'll see what's wrong and try to fix it
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 21, 2019, 10:27:15 AM
I can't figure how to setup this theme though, is it for MAMe or works with other consoles i.e. SNES, SEGAS? I'm using AM 2.6 theme version 5.9. And when changing to this layout nothing happens, just default AM look.

Arcadeflow works with mame, console games and home computer games. Can you run attract-console.exe and provide the output log with the error messages? I'll see what's wrong and try to fix it

I was too fast... Just debugged it, and the bug was on my side, missing module.
It's amazing theme, I'm going through it for the first time
Thank you


I'm working with graphics, especially vector ones, so If I can be of any use feel free to ping me
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 21, 2019, 10:57:35 AM
I can't figure how to setup this theme though, is it for MAMe or works with other consoles i.e. SNES, SEGAS? I'm using AM 2.6 theme version 5.9. And when changing to this layout nothing happens, just default AM look.

Arcadeflow works with mame, console games and home computer games. Can you run attract-console.exe and provide the output log with the error messages? I'll see what's wrong and try to fix it

Video previews aren't activating for some reason, I have them scrapped and they're visible in different theme. Made sure that everything is enabled in layout options too.  Nothing in debug log
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 21, 2019, 01:42:25 PM
Could someone with working videos, zip their config folder for me?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: Aaron32 on November 22, 2019, 01:56:06 AM
Could someone with working videos zip their config folder for me?

I can't watch the videos of the games? There is an option called "Thumbs videos" which must be "yes" to be played. There is also a waiting time with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5. You will find all this in the layout options.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 22, 2019, 02:26:34 AM
Could someone with working videos zip their config folder for me?

I can't watch the videos of the games? There is an option called "Thumbs videos" which must be "yes" to be played. There is also a waiting time with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5. You will find all this in the layout options.

Thank you but I know that :) I checked everything multiple times, even started toying with layout.nut per other posts suggestions.
The thing is, it works in two other themes I've used.

AF 5.9 AM 2.6

Guess I'll check older versions now to narrow it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 22, 2019, 02:30:42 AM
Video previews aren't activating for some reason, I have them scrapped and they're visible in different theme. Made sure that everything is enabled in layout options too.  Nothing in debug log

For Arcadeflow to work properly you should have videos and snapshots under the same artwork category, which is "snap". Either you copy your videos in the same folder as snapshots, or you set in your emulator the snap artwork with both folders:

artwork    snap            x:\mame\snaps;x:\mame\videos
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 22, 2019, 02:45:19 AM
Video previews aren't activating for some reason, I have them scrapped and they're visible in different theme. Made sure that everything is enabled in layout options too.  Nothing in debug log

For Arcadeflow to work properly you should have videos and snapshots under the same artwork category, which is "snap". Either you copy your videos in the same folder as snapshots, or you set in your emulator the snap artwork with both folders:

artwork    snap            x:\mame\snaps;x:\mame\videos

Ohh, thank you. I was suspecting something along these lines but couldn't figure it out.
It works!
Is it standard, or was it noted somewhere and I've missed it?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 22, 2019, 04:20:39 AM
Small issue, when animated bg is enabled it plays immediately, which causes slowdon when scrolling and the reason why thumbs have delay I presume? Also it's a bit weird when thumb is out of sync with bg while they both play.
Video fade-out on scroll seems too slow also causing slowdowns.
Allow disabling of letters popup overlay when scrolling?

A request/proposal. Would you consider moving game info/title into the bottom of the thumb-frame? [ and elide long titles ], maybe as an option? It's quite busy now especially when the title is long. Similar to how it's done here:
 (https://i.imgur.com/xzPwNcR.png)\

Sidenote: I'm totally in love with your theme
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: Aaron32 on November 22, 2019, 05:37:29 AM
Small issue, when animated bg is enabled it plays immediately, which causes slowdon when scrolling and the reason why thumbs have delay I presume? Also it's a bit weird when thumb is out of sync with bg while they both play.
Video fade-out on scroll seems to slow also causing slowdowns.
Allow disabling of letters popup overlay when scrolling?

That image is from a layout that Oomek is developing. Apparently, he plans to continue with the project, which is excellent news.

PD: I leave you an image of a layout (Nevato) that I have been putting together for some time.

https://ibb.co/5MxTYn2
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 22, 2019, 06:32:08 AM
Small issue, when animated bg is enabled it plays immediately, which causes slowdon when scrolling and the reason why thumbs have delay I presume? Also it's a bit weird when thumb is out of sync with bg while they both play.
Video fade-out on scroll seems to slow also causing slowdowns.
Allow disabling of letters popup overlay when scrolling?

That image is from a layout that Oomek is developing. Apparently, he plans to continue with the project, which is excellent news.

PD: I leave you an image of a layout (Nevato) that I have been putting together for some time.

https://ibb.co/5MxTYn2

It is, that said, info under thumbnail is quite common [ usually partially covering it ] I'm using Zephyr 2 theme in Kodi which has similarities to both Arcadeflow and Ambience that's why I've asked and that's why I'm interested in these themes.
I'm following Magnus theme development too.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 22, 2019, 11:15:50 AM
Small issue, when animated bg is enabled it plays immediately, which causes slowdon when scrolling and the reason why thumbs have delay I presume?

I'll check into it, of course video playback on the background is a bit heavy on the system. I'll check if something changed in the latest revisions...

Quote
Video fade-out on scroll seems too slow also causing slowdowns.
Allow disabling of letters popup overlay when scrolling?

Video fade out doesn't slow down my system, but I'll do more checks. Of course there might be cases where multiple videos are loaded and keep playing slowing the system down.

Quote
A request/proposal. Would you consider moving game info/title into the bottom of the thumb-frame? [ and elide long titles ], maybe as an option? It's quite busy now especially when the title is long. Similar to how it's done here:
 (https://i.imgur.com/xzPwNcR.png)\

Sidenote: I'm totally in love with your theme

Well I know this is Oomek theme, I still remember when I first saw it, I was developing my own and changed some bits of that to avoid being too similar to the one Oomek was doing. I don't think I'll put titles in the tiles as in Ambiance theme, the clean snapshots and data in the header is a characteristic of Arcadeflow, changing that will make it acompletely different theme.

Thank you for the good comments, I'll check the performance issues related to videos as soon as possible :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 22, 2019, 11:45:31 AM
Small issue, when animated bg is enabled it plays immediately, which causes slowdon when scrolling and the reason why thumbs have delay I presume?

I'll check into it, of course video playback on the background is a bit heavy on the system. I'll check if something changed in the latest revisions...


Playback itself isn't heavy, I'm using vaapi, fps is constant, cpu usage low, it's the switching, and I'm assuming loading, especially without any delay as it tries to load it each time you're passing through the thumbs

Well I know this is Oomek theme, I still remember when I first saw it, I was developing my own and changed some bits of that to avoid being too similar to the one Oomek was doing. I don't think I'll put titles in the tiles as in Ambiance theme, the clean snapshots and data in the header is a characteristic of Arcadeflow, changing that will make it acompletely different theme.

As I've mentioned, it's a common thing to do and I gave examples of other themes. I'm not asking you to do it exactly the same, just something alternate to reduce heaviness of the top.  I understand your arguments of course.
I'll try to augment it myself as I'd like it to fit with the rest of my stuff.

The theme seems to source wheels from the config folder, instead of the set path, Which is an issue for me since I'm using external scrapper. Is it intended?

Thank you for your work and the response.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 24, 2019, 12:46:26 AM
Guys, how does one enable such Displays List? I've been going through the topic and seen the option in code, yet can't figure it out

(http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/screens/AF58.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 24, 2019, 02:07:55 AM
Guys, how does one enable such Displays List? I've been going through the topic and seen the option in code, yet can't figure it out

This is the default displays list in Arcadeflow, how does it look on your system? The logos are automatically generated based on your display name, so if your display is named "Mame" you'll get the mame artwork, if it's "Amiga" or "Commodore Amiga" it will use the amiga logo etc.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 24, 2019, 02:12:04 AM
Playback itself isn't heavy, I'm using vaapi, fps is constant, cpu usage low, it's the switching, and I'm assuming loading, especially without any delay as it tries to load it each time you're passing through the thumbs

Indeed, video thumbs loading is delayed to avoid excessive disk access and slowdowns especially on slow disks (not SSD). I'll see if I can add it for the background video too.

Quote
As I've mentioned, it's a common thing to do and I gave examples of other themes. I'm not asking you to do it exactly the same, just something alternate to reduce heaviness of the top.  I understand your arguments of course.
I'll try to augment it myself as I'd like it to fit with the rest of my stuff.

The rich top bar is a distinctive trait of Arcadeflow, but there's a "Clean Layout" option you can enable to simplify most of the UI elements. See if you like it

Quote
The theme seems to source wheels from the config folder, instead of the set path, Which is an issue for me since I'm using external scrapper. Is it intended?

Hmm I don't get it: the theme sources all artwork for games from the folders you set in the emulator settings in Attract Mode. It sources artwork for displays from the "menu-art" folder inside Attract Mode which is, AFAIK, the official place to store those data. If your scraper scrapes displays data and places it somewhere else you should move it to AM folder.

Maybe this is not the intended use of menu-art folder?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 24, 2019, 03:56:58 AM
Guys, how does one enable such Displays List? I've been going through the topic and seen the option in code, yet can't figure it out

This is the default displays list in Arcadeflow, how does it look on your system? The logos are automatically generated based on your display name, so if your display is named "Mame" you'll get the mame artwork, if it's "Amiga" or "Commodore Amiga" it will use the amiga logo etc.

Mine looks  like the one for games, row of thumbs. I'm testing it with consoles, SNES, SATURN
I'm on the latest version of everything

Is Displays List different form Displays Menu? Maybe I'm accessing it incorrectly or something...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 24, 2019, 04:24:23 AM
Mine looks  like the one for games, row of thumbs. I'm testing it with consoles, SNES, SATURN
I'm on the latest version of everything

Go to Attract Mode settings, in Displays, Displays Menu Options, Menu Style Layout set to Default. Try and tell me if it works
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 24, 2019, 05:50:44 AM
Mine looks  like the one for games, row of thumbs. I'm testing it with consoles, SNES, SATURN
I'm on the latest version of everything

Go to Attract Mode settings, in Displays, Displays Menu Options, Menu Style Layout set to Default. Try and tell me if it works
Lmao, that did it, I was setting it to Arcadeflow...
Thank you, it's glorious
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 25, 2019, 02:20:27 AM
Lmao, that did it, I was setting it to Arcadeflow...
Thank you, it's glorious

You're welcome :D I've coded a delay in the background video, even if on my system I don't see slowdowns when using the ususal setting. Please if you have time download it and see if it works for you, if it reduces slowdowns. You can get the beta verrsion here:

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF_WIP/BETAS/Arcadeflow_59_X.zip
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 25, 2019, 07:19:27 AM
Lmao, that did it, I was setting it to Arcadeflow...
Thank you, it's glorious

You're welcome :D I've coded a delay in the background video, even if on my system I don't see slowdowns when using the ususal setting. Please if you have time download it and see if it works for you, if it reduces slowdowns. You can get the beta verrsion here:

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF_WIP/BETAS/Arcadeflow_59_X.zip

It's perfect now, fast scrolling through hundreds of thumbs without any noticeable drop in FPS.
Also it just looks damn cool when the box thumb plays in sync with the background.

Circling back on this:

Quote
The theme seems to source wheels from the config folder, instead of the set path, Which is an issue for me since I'm using external scrapper. Is it intended?

Hmm I don't get it: the theme sources all artwork for games from the folders you set in the emulator settings in Attract Mode. It sources artwork for displays from the "menu-art" folder inside Attract Mode which is, AFAIK, the official place to store those data. If your scraper scrapes displays data and places it somewhere else you should move it to AM folder.

Maybe this is not the intended use of menu-art folder?

What I meant is;
I have my SNES set as such, as I prefer everything to be keept with the rooms, for multiple reasons:
Code: [Select]
artwork    flyer           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/covers
artwork    snap            /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/screenshots;/home/gregory/RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/videos
artwork    title           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/wheels
artwork    video           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/videos

yet, If the logos aren't in the:
/home/.../.attract/scraper/Super Nintendo Entertainment System/wheel
the skin won't display them [ the logos above the snaps ]
[ I could actually symlink scraper folder to the rom's one which just dawned on me but it still is an annoyance ]

One other thing. I had to disable frosted glass effect for Displays List as it introduces noticeable delay when opening it, without it it's instant [ AMD VEGA APU, SSD PCIe disk ] and I'm assuming it's the reason why random screenshots kept appearing in my attract config folder
Irregardless of that there's a bug when Display List is set as first to open in Attract, it will open without any background or black one.


And the last one, attract mode is incredibly zoomed to the middle, it shows something like 16% of the snap? In case of the games which have dividers like Super Mario Kart from SNES, all it shows is a dvider [ 1920 x1080 res ]

I'm going through the code trying to figure out what is what
Thank you for your work
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 25, 2019, 07:38:16 AM
It's perfect now, fast scrolling through hundreds of thumbs without any noticeable drop in FPS.
Also it just looks damn cool when the box thumb plays in sync with the background.

Fantastic, I'll add it as an option in Arcadeflow 6.0. Of course if you move away from a playing thumbnail and quickly back the sync effect will be lost because background animations don't fade out the same way as thumbnail animations. Maybe this can be added but I still think it's a bit overkill :D

Quote
What I meant is;
I have my SNES set as such, as I prefer everything to be keept with the rooms, for multiple reasons:
Code: [Select]
artwork    flyer           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/covers
artwork    snap            /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/screenshots;/home/gregory/RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/videos
artwork    title           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/wheels
artwork    video           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/videos

yet, If the logos aren't in the:
/home/.../.attract/scraper/Super Nintendo Entertainment System/wheel
the skin won't display them [ the logos above the snaps ]

In this case the issue is that your artwork for wheels is named "title", while Arcadeflow expects wheel artwork to be in the wheel category. So in the options above just add something like:

artwork    wheel           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/wheels

and it should work.

Quote
One other thing. I had to disable frosted glass effect for Displays List as it introduces noticeable delay when opening it, without it it's instant [ AMDVEGA APU, SSD PCIe disk ] and I'm assuming it's the reason why random screenshots kept appearing in my attract config folder
Irregardless of that there's a bug when Display List is set as first to open in Attract, it will open without any background or black one.

Frosted glass is a dirty trick, it saves a screenshot and reload it back to apply effects, it seems there's some slowdown when your Attract Mode saves this screenshot. If everything works fine Arcadeflow will purge all the spurious screenshots so you should not find them in your folder, unless AF crashes of course :D

And the black background always happens when you enter the menu after coming back from attract mode options screen (which is black). I can't find a way to get rid of that, seems intrinsic in the way Attract Mode redraw the display.

Quote
And the last one, attract mode is incredibly zoomed to the middle, it shows something like 16% of the snap? In case of the games which have dividers like Super Mario Kart from SNES, all it shows is a dvider [ 1920 x1080 res ]

Can you paste a screenshot of the issue?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: tvsht on November 25, 2019, 08:03:49 AM

In this case the issue is that your artwork for wheels is named "title", while Arcadeflow expects wheel artwork to be in the wheel category. So in the options above just add something like:

artwork    wheel           /home/.../RetroPie/roms/snes/assets/wheels

and it should work.


I wasn't aware that Attract is that flexible, this did indeed fix it. Thanks!

Here you have few of the more common snes games [chrono trigger, super mario kart, lemmings, invaders, final fantasy II, flashback, donkey kong III, the legend of zelda, a link to the past]
https://imgur.com/a/wgbAzHl



... Of course if you move away from a playing thumbnail and quickly back the sync effect will be lost because background animations don't fade out the same way as thumbnail animations. Maybe this can be added but I still think it's a bit overkill :D


I wasn't aware of that yet! xD Now you'll have to add fadeout to the background too :P
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 25, 2019, 11:09:58 AM
Here you have few of the more common snes games [chrono trigger, super mario kart, lemmings, invaders, final fantasy II, flashback, donkey kong III, the legend of zelda, a link to the past]
https://imgur.com/a/wgbAzHl

Oh got it, this is due to the way attract mode in Arcadeflow works:the video is first cropped square, then re-cropped to the actual layout aspect ratio. So let's say you have a 4:3 SNES video (for example a resolution of 320x240), only the central portion is cut out (240x240), and of this square portion only a 16:9 portion is shown (240x135). Another thing I can improve lol

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: Aaron32 on November 26, 2019, 01:44:35 PM
Thanks to a recent modification made, it is now possible to manage custom images (fanart) with the title logos. Thank you for making this option possible zpaolo11x. :D

https://ibb.co/LQzY58f

PD: It's a beta image, I'm putting it together as I have time.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 02, 2019, 07:15:21 AM
Arcadeflow 6.0 is out!

There are some new options for delaying the loading of background videos and an option to customize the artwork source for box art mode, but most important now the manufacturer images are in vector format.

I still have to vectorize 200 images from the 700 that were available before, so new upgrades will follow. Advantages of vector icons is that the archive is much smaller, the quality is better on any resolution, and there are no load times because the font is already loaded.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: Aaron32 on December 02, 2019, 08:11:48 AM
Excellent! I already download it. 8)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: tvsht on December 02, 2019, 01:27:44 PM
Arcadeflow 6.0 is out!

There are some new options for delaying the loading of background videos and an option to customize the artwork source for box art mode, but most important now the manufacturer images are in vector format.

I still have to vectorize 200 images from the 700 that were available before, so new upgrades will follow. Advantages of vector icons is that the archive is much smaller, the quality is better on any resolution, and there are no load times because the font is already loaded.


You're tearing me apart, Lisa!

( I can help with vectorizartion )
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: arthurvalenca on December 02, 2019, 04:17:29 PM
Big thanks zpaolo11x. ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: yxiie on December 06, 2019, 11:23:20 AM
Unfortunately large romlist loading is still slow. It took 30 seconds to load romlist with 60000 games. When I use "Basic" theme instead of Arcade Flow it only takes couple of seconds.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 07, 2019, 02:36:34 AM
Unfortunately large romlist loading is still slow. It took 30 seconds to load romlist with 60000 games. When I use "Basic" theme instead of Arcade Flow it only takes couple of seconds.

I'm going to investigate this issue next week, sadly I don't have such a large romlist. Can you share your romlist text file (it's in the romlist folder inside Attract Mode folder) to my personal email?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: yxiie on December 07, 2019, 03:24:04 AM
I have added large romlist as an attachment to this post. Let me know if you need anything else.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 07, 2019, 11:06:38 AM
I have added large romlist as an attachment to this post. Let me know if you need anything else.

Thank you, with Arcadeflow 6.0 I have a 18 second "boot" delay, which is a bit too much admittedly. It seems that Arcadeflow up to 5.4 was much faster, I'll check what changed meanwhile. You can try an older version of Arcadeflow to see if it's better.

The culprit seems to bee the sorting algorithm, that's the main change between 5.4 and 5.5...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: Yaron2019 on December 07, 2019, 12:29:54 PM
I have added large romlist as an attachment to this post. Let me know if you need anything else.

I have found the problem: "Weekend Pussy Hunt 03"  ;D  ;D

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: yxiie on December 07, 2019, 01:36:56 PM
You can try an older version of Arcadeflow to see if it's better.

I have tried 5.4 and it took only 4 seconds to load the same romlist.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 08, 2019, 01:08:52 AM
I have tried 5.4 and it took only 4 seconds to load the same romlist.

Because 5.4 didn't use sorting... Please if you have time try this layout.nut file, it should reduce the startup time by about half. If you can post the log output it would be helpful
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: yxiie on December 08, 2019, 12:01:36 PM
I have tried 5.4 and it took only 4 seconds to load the same romlist.

Because 5.4 didn't use sorting... Please if you have time try this layout.nut file, it should reduce the startup time by about half. If you can post the log output it would be helpful

Should I use it in 6.0 version?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 08, 2019, 01:23:17 PM
Should I use it in 6.0 version?

yes it replaces the previous layout.nut
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: yxiie on December 09, 2019, 11:22:31 AM
Here is the requested log

This version took 20 seconds to load.
I have also tried to comment out two z_listsort() calls in code and it was reduced down to 15 secons, so if it's sorting it's not sorting alone which causes slowdowns.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 09, 2019, 02:00:46 PM
This version took 20 seconds to load.
I have also tried to comment out two z_listsort() calls in code and it was reduced down to 15 secons, so if it's sorting it's not sorting alone which causes slowdowns.

Well the function you commented does the actual sorting, but there's another function that prepares the whole list, getting all the data from multiple fe.game_info calls. From the logs this  step takes around 13 seconds in your setup. I've prepared a new layout where this function is reduced to the minimum, instead of loading all the data it loads only what is needed for other sorting.
I'm sorry sorting seems not well suited for such large lists, and on your system the performance hit is pretty severe. But right now sorting is so deep and pervasive in Arcadeflow that I can't honestly remove it altogether :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: yxiie on December 10, 2019, 09:37:31 AM
I'm sorry sorting seems not well suited for such large lists, and on your system the performance hit is pretty severe. But right now sorting is so deep and pervasive in Arcadeflow that I can't honestly remove it altogether :(

Can you hint on what else should I comment to remove sorting altogether? I don't need sorting, the romlists are sorted anyway and sorting without articles A/The is not worth such a slowdown. I can write my own sorting script with articles for romlists in case of urgency.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 11, 2019, 12:19:41 AM
Can you hint on what else should I comment to remove sorting altogether? I don't need sorting, the romlists are sorted anyway and sorting without articles A/The is not worth such a slowdown. I can write my own sorting script with articles for romlists in case of urgency.

It's not so easy: the sorting implementation means that the fe.list is "duplicated" and all calls that refer to the fe.list, like getting artwork, getting fe.game_info etc refer to this list instead of the usual fe.list. The easiest way to get rid of sorting is to use the version of Arcadeflow that didn't have that implemented, which is 5.4 if I'm not mistaken.

By the way, you can also try this layout for arcadeflow 6.0 which should reduce even more the loading delay.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: Sea Monkey on December 15, 2019, 02:02:31 PM
In layout.nut, Ln 63 and 64, you have misspelled 'Displays' as 'Displyas'. Also, all instances of

Code: [Select]
options = " ",
can be removed with no perceived ill effects.  It still doesn't fix the fact that the dividers have selectable options, but so far, I don't know how to fix that.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 15, 2019, 10:27:38 PM
In layout.nut, Ln 63 and 64, you have misspelled 'Displays' as 'Displyas'.

Oh thank you for spotting that! Gonna fix it for 6.1 :)

Quote
Also, all instances of

Code: [Select]
options = " ",
can be removed with no perceived ill effects.  It still doesn't fix the fact that the dividers have selectable options, but so far, I don't know how to fix that.

I don't know if there's a way to fix that too, dividers in the option panel are a hack that I used to make the list more readable, it's not something officially supported.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: Sea Monkey on December 16, 2019, 04:24:30 PM
I use Skyscraper with the screenscraper module, which returns multiple comma-delimited categories for many games.  The result is that these games don't display any category image.  It would be neat if the theme could parse these and cycle through the relevant category images for these games.  Alternatively, and probably much easier to implement, you could have it omit everything after the first comma thereby only using the image for the first category listed.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: tvsht on December 17, 2019, 02:32:29 AM
I use Skyscraper with the screenscraper module, which returns multiple comma-delimited categories for many games.  The result is that these games don't display any category image.  It would be neat if the theme could parse these and cycle through the relevant category images for these games.  Alternatively, and probably much easier to implement, you could have it omit everything after the first comma thereby only using the image for the first category listed.


Yup, same issue from me, didn't know the reason yet, thank you for solving that for me
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: Sea Monkey on December 18, 2019, 10:41:02 PM
I made the mistake of defining Arcadeflow 6.0 as the layout type for the Displays menu and realized that this did not set it to the auto-generated list, but rather the default Arcadeflow layout used by the systems themselves.  I eventually figured out that the fix was to edit attract.cfg and set menu_layout to undefined (no text after 'menu_layout'). Noting this here in case anyone else runs into the same issue.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: yxiie on December 19, 2019, 03:17:26 AM
Any plans on supporting arbitrary aspect ratios? Many box covers like Wii U and PSP look ugly right now.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 20, 2019, 02:32:45 AM
I use Skyscraper with the screenscraper module, which returns multiple comma-delimited categories for many games.  The result is that these games don't display any category image.  It would be neat if the theme could parse these and cycle through the relevant category images for these games.  Alternatively, and probably much easier to implement, you could have it omit everything after the first comma thereby only using the image for the first category listed.

I'm attaching you an updated file to put into Arcadeflow 6.0 folder. I have to warn you that substituting this file will mess with manufacturer logos because it's a work in progress of Arcadeflow 6.1, so use it just for test to see if it solves your issues with categories. What it does is that it extract only the first category from the comma separated list.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 20, 2019, 02:34:16 AM
Any plans on supporting arbitrary aspect ratios? Many box covers like Wii U and PSP look ugly right now.

Not at the moment: arbitrary aspects would be cool but it would be a complete rewrite of the theme, so it's not something I'll do so quickly. PSP box art will be severely cut in 3:4, but WiiU shouldn't look so bad... can you share a screenshot just to check that there's not something else going on?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 20, 2019, 02:44:58 AM
I made the mistake of defining Arcadeflow 6.0 as the layout type for the Displays menu and realized that this did not set it to the auto-generated list, but rather the default Arcadeflow layout used by the systems themselves.

Yes that's the intended behavior in Attract Mode when using a layout as "displays" layout.

Quote
I eventually figured out that the fix was to edit attract.cfg and set menu_layout to undefined (no text after 'menu_layout'). Noting this here in case anyone else runs into the same issue.

You can obtain the same result in the menu where you set ARcadeflow as displays menu, just set the value to "Default" and it will use the list as displays menu
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.0 [Release] Updated 2 December 2019
Post by: Sea Monkey on December 20, 2019, 06:27:12 PM

Quote
You can obtain the same result in the menu where you set ARcadeflow as displays menu, just set the value to "Default" and it will use the list as displays menu

Strangely enough, this set it back to the Basic layout and editing the config was the only way I managed to get it back.  I haven't experimented with it further, but I figured whatever function ArcadeFlow uses to generate the Displays menu doesn't run every time a system is loaded, but rather only when ArcadeFlow is set as the theme for a system.  I could be completely wrong.  I was just happy I figured out how to fix it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 23, 2019, 11:59:39 AM
Arcadeflow 6.1 is out! Mostly bug fixes and a larger number of vector manufacturer logos!

Enjoy, report bugs and happy holidays!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: dark1973 on December 23, 2019, 02:12:12 PM
Grazie per la nuova versione e tanti auguri!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: Jate on December 31, 2019, 05:42:50 AM
In display menu you can't watch videos, is that correct? Only work in systems?

And I have another problem, GameGear videos look bad in Boxart mode

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/2caf15b7c339011147c8ab8b76fbba32o.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 31, 2019, 10:39:41 AM
In display menu you can't watch videos, is that correct? Only work in systems?

You want videos to play when using Arcadeflow as displays menu layout? I have to check, I'm not sure if videos are disabled. You must put your system videos in the menu-art folder...

Quote
And I have another problem, GameGear videos look bad in Boxart mode

Oh this is bad... the situation is similar to Genesis (vertical box art and horizontal screenshots) and I'm sure that it works in that case, so the issue may be related to the LCD nature of the Game Gear... I'll have a look at the code next year :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: Jate on January 01, 2020, 03:56:23 AM
Quote
You want videos to play when using Arcadeflow as displays menu layout? I have to check, I'm not sure if videos are disabled. You must put your system videos in the menu-art folder...
Yes, I do it but it doesn't work

Quote
Oh this is bad... the situation is similar to Genesis (vertical box art and horizontal screenshots) and I'm sure that it works in that case, so the issue may be related to the LCD nature of the Game Gear... I'll have a look at the code next year :D

Thanks , in genesis/megadrive games go well. Only fail in gg and neogeo pocket

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/e7e265663ea4d5e182338a1c70232819o.png)

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/90bfcaef4ab5643218909e7d564e02e8o.png)


And one suggestion, could you make the active video scale to the standard aspect ratio (4: 3 or 16: 9)?
or that the video is extended as in the theme Ambience HD (by Oomek)?

(https://i.postimg.cc/C59J3vpD/Ambience-HD-1.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 01, 2020, 04:35:20 AM
Quote
You want videos to play when using Arcadeflow as displays menu layout? I have to check, I'm not sure if videos are disabled. You must put your system videos in the menu-art folder...
Yes, I do it but it doesn't work

Ok, this is by design. I think you can fix this going to line 589 in layout.nut and remove the line that says:

Code: [Select]
prf.THUMBVIDEO = false
or change it to

Code: [Select]
prf.THUMBVIDEO = true
Quote
Thanks , in genesis/megadrive games go well. Only fail in gg and neogeo pocket

And one suggestion, could you make the active video scale to the standard aspect ratio (4: 3 or 16: 9)?
or that the video is extended as in the theme Ambience HD (by Oomek)?


I found the bug and I'm fixing it, I'll share a beta as soon as it's ready.

As far as the expanding video is concerned, that's a good idea even if I didn't implemented it from the beginning because that would make the theme too similar to Oomek's layout... But I'll think of something...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: katarak on January 02, 2020, 05:30:37 PM
Hi zpaolo11x,

Arcade flow is the best looking layout I've seen so far, and I'm really enjoying using it.

I tend to use Box-Art Tiles instead of the default Snap Tiles, and I've noticed 2 inconsistencies which I would fix (even if just on my end) if possible. I just wouldn't know where to start and where to look.
When using Snap Tiles, the game title is ritten if a Wheel image is not found. However in Box-Art Mode. the game title isn't written if a box-art isn't available (making it hard to cycle through the games). Further more Wheel images are never used. I understand that normally box art would have the game name in giant text, but I donno, I figured it might look good and I wanted to try :P

I really like how the system names come out as logos, but I haven't figured out the necessary naming for the systems to ensure they always come out with the logo. Is there a list somewhere we can use to ensure your system names are always correct?

Thank you for this amazing layout.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 02, 2020, 11:56:14 PM
When using Snap Tiles, the game title is ritten if a Wheel image is not found. However in Box-Art Mode. the game title isn't written if a box-art isn't available (making it hard to cycle through the games). Further more Wheel images are never used. I understand that normally box art would have the game name in giant text, but I donno, I figured it might look good and I wanted to try :P

There's an option in Arcadeflow "Display game title over box art" that enables wheel artwork in box art mode. If you turn it on all box art will have wheel artwork on top and box art with no wheel artwork will have generated names. I know this is not exactly what you need, if it's not enough I'll try to add an option to show the game name on the missing box art.

Quote
I really like how the system names come out as logos, but I haven't figured out the necessary naming for the systems to ensure they always come out with the logo. Is there a list somewhere we can use to ensure your system names are always correct?

If you look inside layout.nut at line 181 there's a list of system names that are recognized and used to define logos and resolutions. A blank line separates groups of systems that share the same artwork and data. You can check there if your system is present and what naming is recognized.

Hope this helps and thank you for the good comments. I'm really starting to think that an option to see game names when no box art is available should be implemented. I just need to complete 10 manufacturer logos then I'll be able to dedicate some time to this issue...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: katarak on January 05, 2020, 02:47:42 PM
Worked flawlessly,

Thank you for your help. It's looking good now :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 06, 2020, 11:54:23 PM
Worked flawlessly,

Thank you for your help. It's looking good now :)

Good to know, thanks to your suggestion I'm working on a "fake box art" option where, if there's no box art for a game, a square box art with a faded category logo will be used, with the game title on top (I don't think I'll use the wheel artwork here, just a generated chunky title). I'll post some previews when it's ready :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 07, 2020, 03:18:34 AM
WIP of the pseudo-boxart automatically generated...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 13, 2020, 04:26:51 AM
Arcadeflow 6.2 is out!

Many bug fixes and some cropping issues solved, added a self-generated artwork for missing box art. I also tweaked the glow effect so if you see some slower performance with respect to 6.1 please let  me know :)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on January 13, 2020, 07:52:21 AM
I am NOT installing your theme until you implement an AI based algorithm that creates 3D missing box art on the fly and under 0.7 seconds per system no matter the rom list size. Sorry.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 13, 2020, 07:54:30 AM
I am NOT installing your theme until you implement an AI based algorithm that creates 3D missing box art on the fly and under 0.7 seconds per system no matter the rom list size. Sorry.

Well Arcadeflow 7.0 will have an algorithm that create the games you don't have... LOL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on January 13, 2020, 09:50:54 AM
Well Arcadeflow 7.0 will have an algorithm that create the games you don't have... LOL

Amazing! I was not aware that such a possibility exist  :o
I can even envision a day that we will be able to use this FE to scrap metadata from TheGamesDB!!!!  :o :o :o
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: katarak on January 18, 2020, 10:09:20 AM
Awesome Additions! I wouldn't mind a wheel with the fake box art though :P

Also I found a bug in your systems listing.
you have wAnderswan, but it's wOnderswan.

I edited it on my side and the logo comes out well
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: arthurvalenca on January 19, 2020, 06:14:22 AM
Hello zpaolo11x, Big thanks.


I'm having some difficulty with the theme in different versions of the AM, in the latest version 2.6.1 of the AM the AF-6.2 theme appears in pixel form the background and outline of the flyers, but when I use it in version 2.6.0 it works normally, is that something configuration? can help me I didn't like the image in pixel format very much, below I send the images.


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 19, 2020, 12:31:09 PM
I'm having some difficulty with the theme in different versions of the AM, in the latest version 2.6.1 of the AM the AF-6.2 theme appears in pixel form the background and outline of the flyers, but when I use it in version 2.6.0 it works normally

This is very strange, can you run attract-console.exe and post the log here or send it to me? There should be no pixellated effect and actually I don't see it in my test systems. It is true that 6.2 changed something in the shaders used for the background and glow but nothing that justifies the pixels (that look a bit like when you set "smooth = false" in an image. Let me know if the logs show errors and I'll check better tomorrow
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: arthurvalenca on January 19, 2020, 03:05:45 PM
I'm having some difficulty with the theme in different versions of the AM, in the latest version 2.6.1 of the AM the AF-6.2 theme appears in pixel form the background and outline of the flyers, but when I use it in version 2.6.0 it works normally

This is very strange, can you run attract-console.exe and post the log here or send it to me? There should be no pixellated effect and actually I don't see it in my test systems. It is true that 6.2 changed something in the shaders used for the background and glow but nothing that justifies the pixels (that look a bit like when you set "smooth = false" in an image. Let me know if the logs show errors and I'll check better tomorrow

Code: [Select]
Attract-Mode v2.6.1 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +SWF +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: D:\Attract-Mode Coins\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Arcade'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Arcade' in 96 ms (2665 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (5330 comparisons)
 - Loaded layout: D:\Attract-Mode Coins\layouts/AF-6.2/ (layout.nut)

*** Initializing display: 'Arcade'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Arcade' in 100 ms (2665 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (5330 comparisons)
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: explorer.exe (1992)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 19, 2020, 10:35:16 PM
Code: [Select]
[quote author=arthurvalenca link=topic=2068.msg22697#msg22697 date=1579475145]
*** Initializing display: 'Arcade'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Arcade' in 100 ms (2665 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (5330 comparisons)
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: explorer.exe (1992)
[/quote]

No errors here, just verify in your attract.cfg that "smooth_images" is set to yes. There are a couple places inside the layout where I used "smooth = 0" and "smooth = 1" instead of "smooth = true" and "smooth = false" but it shouldn't be a problem...


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: arthurvalenca on January 20, 2020, 02:08:35 PM
Thanks Solve.

I had in attract.cfg:

Code: [Select]
smooth_images       no
then I changed it to:

Code: [Select]
smooth_images       yes

after changing everything working normal.
that big thank you !!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 20, 2020, 10:27:45 PM
Thanks Solve.

Oh this is such a relief, I hate debugging glsl scripts :D Now I can concentrate on vectorizing obscure NEC-PC98 and X68000 game developers logos lol
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: Enkak on January 21, 2020, 07:06:04 AM
I think AM version 2.6.1 broke something or it's conflicting with the horizontal navigation of Arcadeflow. With other versions I can scroll endless keeping a button pressed. On 2.6.1 keeping the button pressed doesn't work so you have to scroll one by one.  :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 21, 2020, 10:24:12 AM
I think AM version 2.6.1 broke something or it's conflicting with the horizontal navigation of Arcadeflow. With other versions I can scroll endless keeping a button pressed. On 2.6.1 keeping the button pressed doesn't work so you have to scroll one by one.  :(

I don't see this issue in AF 2.6.1, maybe something in attract.cfg? Are you using a nightly build or the official version?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: Enkak on January 21, 2020, 10:27:08 AM
I think AM version 2.6.1 broke something or it's conflicting with the horizontal navigation of Arcadeflow. With other versions I can scroll endless keeping a button pressed. On 2.6.1 keeping the button pressed doesn't work so you have to scroll one by one.  :(

I don't see this issue in AF 2.6.1, maybe something in attract.cfg? Are you using a nightly build or the official version?

This seems to happen in any 2.6.1 version. Maybe it's a conflict in attract.cfg that happens when using this version? I just tested changing back to 2.6.0.exe and the scroll instant goes back to normal as before.  ???
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 21, 2020, 10:36:08 AM
This seems to happen in any 2.6.1 version. Maybe it's a conflict in attract.cfg that happens when using this version? I just tested changing back to 2.6.0.exe and the scroll instant goes back to normal as before.  ???

My mistake, I mis-labeled attract mode 2.6.0 and 2.6.1, you are right I can replicate the issue, I'll try to fix this
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: Enkak on January 21, 2020, 10:40:31 AM
Thx again!

Maybe it's related to these introduced in v 2.6.1, unsure:

* Issue #586 - fix EndNavigation transition when signal handled by script
* Issue #586 - trigger Transition.EndNavigation with fe.signal()
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 21, 2020, 12:13:02 PM

* Issue #586 - fix EndNavigation transition when signal handled by script
* Issue #586 - trigger Transition.EndNavigation with fe.signal()

I don't know exactly what "fix EndNavigation transition" mean, I'll look into the commit, while I don't see how the trigger of endnavigation could impact. From a quick debug it seems that if the "right" key is kept pressed no further "right" signals are triggered...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: Enkak on January 21, 2020, 12:17:24 PM

* Issue #586 - fix EndNavigation transition when signal handled by script
* Issue #586 - trigger Transition.EndNavigation with fe.signal()

I don't know exactly what "fix EndNavigation transition" mean, I'll look into the commit, while I don't see how the trigger of endnavigation could impact. From a quick debug it seems that if the "right" key is kept pressed no further "right" signals are triggered...

yeah, I'm just speculating because those 2 commits seem related to navigation. Here when I press "left" or "right" the results are the same. But vertical navigation is normal like you can see in the Utility menu, where keeping a button pressed scrolls to the end.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: arthurvalenca on January 21, 2020, 02:35:47 PM
In AM-2.6.1
yes, i have the same problem, keeping the key pressed right or left it does not scroll the images, just one by one

In AM-2.6.0 normal scroll. :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 21, 2020, 11:56:51 PM
In AM-2.6.1
yes, i have the same problem, keeping the key pressed right or left it does not scroll the images, just one by one

Yes, there was a change in the way Attract Mode manage "left" and "right" signals that are now non-repeatable, it was not clearly stated in the release notes and I missed that completely.

I'll see if there's a way to reimplement scrolling in Arcadeflow with the new way, although I fear it won't be so easy and probably different from what it is now. At the moment it seems that in my layout even "prev_game" "next_game" "prev_page" and "next_page" hotkeys are non repeatable for some reason :(

The only suggestion I can give is to stick with 2.6.0 while this get fixed if you really like Arcadeflow.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.3 [Release] Updated 22 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 22, 2020, 02:04:59 AM
Arcadeflow 6.3 is out, mostly to warn users that there are issues with AM 2.6.1. I'll work on them and see if a solution can be found...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.2 [Release] Updated 13 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 22, 2020, 05:57:10 AM
yeah, I'm just speculating because those 2 commits seem related to navigation. Here when I press "left" or "right" the results are the same. But vertical navigation is normal like you can see in the Utility menu, where keeping a button pressed scrolls to the end.

Well you can download Arcadeflow 6.3 and then substitute the layout.nut with the attached one. Let me know if it fixes your issues, it seems to work in both 2.6.1 and 2.6.0 but I'll have to check more
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.3 [Release] Updated 22 January 2020
Post by: Enkak on January 22, 2020, 10:07:27 AM
Thank you so much again! :) Just tried it and with the layout.nut attached, AF v6.3 and AM 2.6.1, the scroll is back to normal from what I see.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.3 [Release] Updated 22 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 22, 2020, 02:20:50 PM
Thank you so much again! :) Just tried it and with the layout.nut attached, AF v6.3 and AM 2.6.1, the scroll is back to normal from what I see.

Very good... if you want to try, this layout.nut implements "acceleration" in the scrolling so it starts a bit slower than before and then get a bit faster as you keep pressed. I'm not sure I like it thogh...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.3 [Release] Updated 22 January 2020
Post by: Enkak on January 22, 2020, 11:21:41 PM
Just tried and I like it. :) Here didn't make as much difference the slower and faster process because, normally, AF already started slower, like caching things first 1, 2 or 3 seconds, then after that getting faster and faster. So this new layout attached works very similar and maybe smoother at first boot since it let's things stabilize and get fast really quick.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.3 [Release] Updated 22 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 23, 2020, 02:47:11 AM
So this new layout attached works very similar and maybe smoother at first boot since it let's things stabilize and get fast really quick.

Thank you for the feedback, greatly appreciated. The fact that it starts slower on purpose makes it probably a bit smoother and gives less stuttering. I'll keep this change in 6.4, hopefully released tomorrow or beginning of next week :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.3 [Release] Updated 22 January 2020
Post by: Enkak on January 23, 2020, 09:50:19 AM
My pleasure, glad to help. AF is one of my personal favorites as you know. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.3 [Release] Updated 22 January 2020
Post by: arthurvalenca on January 23, 2020, 04:30:38 PM
So this new layout attached works very similar and maybe smoother at first boot since it let's things stabilize and get fast really quick.

Thank you for the feedback, greatly appreciated. The fact that it starts slower on purpose makes it probably a bit smoother and gives less stuttering. I'll keep this change in 6.4, hopefully released tomorrow or beginning of next week :)

Big Thanks! the best AF!!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.4 [Release] Updated 24 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 24, 2020, 06:54:09 AM
Arcadeflow 6.4 is out! The layouit is now compatible with AM 2.6.1, the solution is not the most elegant but it works and as fare as I can see there are no slowdowns.

Enjoy and report bugs, your help is greatly appreciated!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.4 [Release] Updated 24 January 2020
Post by: arthurvalenca on January 24, 2020, 05:02:23 PM
Arcadeflow 6.4 is out! The layouit is now compatible with AM 2.6.1, the solution is not the most elegant but it works and as fare as I can see there are no slowdowns.

Enjoy and report bugs, your help is greatly appreciated!


version 6.4 works like a candy here, thanks !!!! everything is perfect here.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.4 [Release] Updated 24 January 2020
Post by: dark1973 on January 28, 2020, 08:40:59 AM
Come sempre ottima release.
Forse ho trovato un piccolo bug nell'ultima versione. se sono nella history e premo sinistra o destra, non cambia gioco ma cambia filtro. Ho verificato con la versione 6.2 e li funziona diversamente.

Forse e' troppo (capisco le difficolta' della programmazione) ma se fosse possibile creare una versione del layout tradotta in italiano? (o eventuale possibilita' di editare lingue)
Scusami in anticipo e grazie mille per il tuo lavoro
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.4 [Release] Updated 24 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 28, 2020, 01:01:51 PM
Forse ho trovato un piccolo bug nell'ultima versione. se sono nella history e premo sinistra o destra, non cambia gioco ma cambia filtro. Ho verificato con la versione 6.2 e li funziona diversamente.

Ho fatto delle modifiche alla routine che gestisce i segnali e penso che sia un effetto collaterale... Questa cosa succede con AM 2.6.1 o anche con 2.6.0?

Quote
Forse e' troppo (capisco le difficolta' della programmazione) ma se fosse possibile creare una versione del layout tradotta in italiano? (o eventuale possibilita' di editare lingue)
Scusami in anticipo e grazie mille per il tuo lavoro

Questa è una buona idea, devo pensare a come implementarla... e trovare qualcuno che mi faccia le traduzioni in altre lingue ;D Comunque non c'è niente di cui scusarsi, è grazie ai suggerimenti del forum che Arcadeflow è diventato il mostro (nel senso buono del termine) che è ora ahaha
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.4 [Release] Updated 24 January 2020
Post by: dark1973 on January 29, 2020, 06:10:04 AM
Ho provato ora. Sia con 2.6.0 che con 2.6.1 stesso risultato.

Secondo me gli sviluppatori di Attract Mode dovrebbero mettere un video con il tuo layout in home screen
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.4 [Release] Updated 24 January 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 29, 2020, 06:12:01 AM
Ho provato ora. Sia con 2.6.0 che con 2.6.1 stesso risultato.

Ho trovato il problema, stranamente sul computer su cui sviluppo non lo faceva, boh... comunque ho risolto, ma verrà pubblicato insieme ad AF 6.5 perché ci sono anche altri cambiamenti e non posso semplicemente condividere il layout.nut
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 07, 2020, 01:11:33 AM
Arcadeflow 6.5 is here! With multi-language support, bug fixes, 900 (!) manufacturer logos and other improvements under the hood.

Please check if everything is fine, and let me thank in advance the people who are contributing to translate this layout.

Have fun!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: Jate on February 07, 2020, 11:44:13 AM

I have arrived late... :-[
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 07, 2020, 01:13:21 PM
I have arrived late... :-[

No no, don't worry, I wanted to release this version so I can take all the time needed for the new options system, in the meanwhile I'll share the new language files as soon as they get ready, so thank you again!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: Jate on February 08, 2020, 01:27:08 AM
Ok  ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: markoattract on February 09, 2020, 10:25:35 AM
Hello @Zpaolo11x and congrats for your work as always !!

i was searching on the forum about how to have categories on the main menu of attract mode, ut i was stunned y the amount of code that i need to know to do that ... So my question is :

There is a solution (without coding) to have categories on the main mnu using your theme ???

Thank you for your answer and have a nice evening :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: Jate on February 09, 2020, 10:32:06 AM
Quote
You want videos to play when using Arcadeflow as displays menu layout? I have to check, I'm not sure if videos are disabled. You must put your system videos in the menu-art folder...
Yes, I do it but it doesn't work

Ok, this is by design. I think you can fix this going to line 589 in layout.nut and remove the line that says:

Code: [Select]
prf.THUMBVIDEO = false
or change it to

Code: [Select]
prf.THUMBVIDEO = true

Sorry @zpaolo11x,

this option must be changed with each update right? Do not leave it by default?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 10, 2020, 12:47:07 AM
Translation to Spanish thanks to Jate from the forum is now available. You don't need to wait for the next release, just take this file and drop it in the Arcadeflow_64 folder, it will overwrite the current language file.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 10, 2020, 12:49:39 AM
i was searching on the forum about how to have categories on the main menu of attract mode, ut i was stunned y the amount of code that i need to know to do that ... So my question is :

There is a solution (without coding) to have categories on the main mnu using your theme ???

That's a good question, and you are right, a lot of code is needed because one basically needs to generate the whole list of categories from the romlist. So the short answer is no, there's not an easy way to have categories in a main menu in Arcadeflow, it's something I was thinking to add but not in the immediate future...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 10, 2020, 06:20:40 AM
this option must be changed with each update right? Do not leave it by default?

At the moment, yes. After I have finished the new options system I'll have to add an option for that...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.1 [Release] Updated 24 December 2019
Post by: Jate on February 10, 2020, 07:28:05 AM
this option must be changed with each update right? Do not leave it by default?

At the moment, yes. After I have finished the new options system I'll have to add an option for that...
Ok, thanks.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 11, 2020, 01:49:17 AM
Sneak preview of the new preferences system, instead of switching to the "Options" page of Attract Mode you can set all the options from within Arcadeflow, using a cascaded menu and visual previews of the changes. Still polishing the layout (the preview down there is pretty awful :D) but the underlying mechanics seem to work fine...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: Hojo on February 15, 2020, 04:22:18 AM
Is there any way to include story details (overviews of the games) in the history menu? The menu looks rip for adding in extra details about the game (difficulty, length, story, etc.)

It reminds me a lot of wiiflow where one had a large menu to see all the games and a indepth menu to explain more about the game.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 15, 2020, 04:25:17 AM
Is there any way to include story details (overviews of the games) in the history menu? The menu looks rip for adding in extra details about the game (difficulty, length, story, etc.)

The history page if correctly configured should show the history.dat information for arcade games on mame, while if no history.dat data is found it should show the overview data from Attract Mode (if present). How does your history page look?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: dark1973 on February 18, 2020, 07:02:36 AM
Ciao. Forse ho trovato un piccolo bug (non so se ne eri a conoscenza o ti era gia' stato comunicato)
In fase di ricerca e su schermata principale compare in basso al centro una parentesi quadra con il dopppio carattere iniziale.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 18, 2020, 07:45:58 AM
Ciao. Forse ho trovato un piccolo bug (non so se ne eri a conoscenza o ti era gia' stato comunicato)
In fase di ricerca e su schermata principale compare in basso al centro una parentesi quadra con il dopppio carattere iniziale.

Questo in realtà non è un bug, la doppia iniziale è fatta per cercare contemporanemante maiuscole e minuscole, e viene aggiunta alla chiave di ricerca che l'utente ha inserito. In effetti potrei differenziare le due cose e mostrare lì sotto non la chiave di ricerca effettiva (doppia maiuscola) ma la frase inserita dall'utente... ci devo guardare, è una delle cose più vecchie del layout, sarà divertente cercare di capire come funziona ahaha
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.6 [Release] Updated 23 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 23, 2020, 01:03:19 AM
Aradeflow 6.6 is out!

There are new translations, a new options system and also a file browser (!) for choosing your custom artwork. Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.5 [Release] Updated 07 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 27, 2020, 12:11:28 AM
In fase di ricerca e su schermata principale compare in basso al centro una parentesi quadra con il dopppio carattere iniziale.

Dovrebbe essere risolto nella nuova versione 6.7 :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.7 [Release] Updated 27 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 27, 2020, 12:12:33 AM
Arcadeflow 6.7 is out, mostly a bug fix, added some new options and french translation thanks to katarak from the forum.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.7 [Release] Updated 27 February 2020
Post by: dark1973 on February 27, 2020, 09:17:14 AM
Grazie per la modifica alla funzione di ricerca.
Sto provando a caricare il file history ma mi da errore (nelle versione 6.5 funzionava), non so se e' un bug. nel file pref_layouoptions e' inserito correttamente ( |DAT_PATH|D:\arcade/mame/History.dat| )
Ciao e grazie
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.7 [Release] Updated 27 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 27, 2020, 10:43:57 AM
Sto provando a caricare il file history ma mi da errore (nelle versione 6.5 funzionava), non so se e' un bug. nel file pref_layouoptions e' inserito correttamente ( |DAT_PATH|D:\arcade/mame/History.dat| )

Riesci a lanciare attract-console.exe > log.txt e mandarmi il file di testo? Intanto faccio qualche prova...

EDIT: Ho appena provato e a me funziona, che tipo di errore ti da? Hai fatto "regenerate index" dopo aver scelto la posizione del file?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.7 [Release] Updated 27 February 2020
Post by: dark1973 on February 28, 2020, 05:55:05 AM
sul pannello delle history: "There was an error loading game data, please check history.dat preferences in the layout options"
ho anche fatto il regenerate index.

*** Initializing display: 'Arcade 3015 Giochi'
 - Loaded master romlist 'MAME' in 57 ms (3682 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 22 filters in 22 ms (81004 comparisons)
 - Loaded layout: C:\am241\layouts/Arcadeflow_67/ (layout.nut)
Uniform "remap" not found in shader
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: attract-console.exe (7936)

...ho scoperto che sull'emulatore del commodore, usando il rockelauncher, tutto funziona bene.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.7 [Release] Updated 27 February 2020
Post by: Sea Monkey on February 29, 2020, 11:35:37 AM
Extracted 6.7 archive to ~/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow 6.7
Fired up AM
Opened Displays
Changed one of my systems to use 6.7
Went to Layout Options and...

(https://i.imgur.com/s6NupuG.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.7 [Release] Updated 27 February 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 29, 2020, 11:15:54 PM
Went to Layout Options and...

Does it work in 6.6? From version 6.6 there's a new options system so there are no more options in the standard options page. Can you send a log obtained running
Code: [Select]
attract-console.exe > log.txt

You should not see that menu but the new options menu both using hotkeys or you can try from the layout to go in the utility menu (up) and from there layout options.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 02, 2020, 08:21:57 AM
Arcadeflow 6.8 is out!

Bug fixes, bug fixes and... well.. bug fixes :D Plus a new custom button to recall the history page directly :)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: Jate on March 03, 2020, 11:35:26 AM
Arcadeflow 6.8 is out!

Bug fixes, bug fixes and... well.. bug fixes :D Plus a new custom button to recall the history page directly :)

Enjoy!

Thanks!  :D

I don't know if it happens to someone else...
In display menu, in playstation appears logo PSP...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 03, 2020, 11:38:02 AM
I don't know if it happens to someone else...
In display menu, in playstation appears logo PSP...

I'll check it out, probably there's been a mistake in the sorting of logos inside the font.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 03, 2020, 01:13:58 PM
In display menu, in playstation appears logo PSP...

Should be fixed now, I re-uploaded the archive... you can check it out.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: Jate on March 05, 2020, 07:13:34 AM
In display menu, in playstation appears logo PSP...


Should be fixed now, I re-uploaded the archive... you can check it out.
Fixed, thanks !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: Jate on March 11, 2020, 09:08:37 AM
Hi Paolo

I have a couple of suggestions to see if it's possible:

- When you start AM and the Dysplay Menu appears, the music of the game that was selected the last time I used AM plays. Could you pause that music and leave only the layout music?

- Someone asked if you could organize by categories: consoles, arcades, portables, etc. Have you looked if it can be done? is that the Menu display becomes very long.

Thanks
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 11, 2020, 10:45:12 AM
- When you start AM and the Dysplay Menu appears, the music of the game that was selected the last time I used AM plays. Could you pause that music and leave only the layout music?

Oh that's probably the thumbnail video kicking in while you are browsing the menus, I'll make a tweak so that video stops playing when you enter the menu

Quote
- Someone asked if you could organize by categories: consoles, arcades, portables, etc. Have you looked if it can be done? is that the Menu display becomes very long.

Hmm yes I think it could be done, one way is adding "console" "arcade" etc to the system definition, but then it will probably mess with the current system logos and the user will have to edit all the systems himself, which I don't think is a good idea.

Oh wait, I have a better idea: I can add an "identifier" to my systems database so Arcadeflow knows that "Game Boy Color" is a portable, "Naomi" is arcade, "snes" is a console and so on. This is easy. What is not easy is coding a multi-level displays menu... which is pretty complex because right now the displays menu with logos works together with the default displays menu. But you know, I like the idea! It's something I've never seen in layouts...

I'll look into it :D Maybe it will work only for the "list with logos" displays menu option though ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 12, 2020, 04:42:23 AM
Arcadeflow 6.9 is out!

While I think about how to mess everything in next version (categorized systems menu? maybe ;) ) here is the new revision with bug fixes and more manufacturers logos...

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: PSOGene on March 12, 2020, 08:04:39 AM
this theme does looks very promising but can I ask you what resolution does its support ? because I scared to test this to my jamma cutie capcom arcade  :-[

if you dont know about my arcade cabinet here a link to the model
https://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Capcom_Mini_Cute
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 12, 2020, 11:36:52 AM
this theme does looks very promising but can I ask you what resolution does its support ? because I scared to test this to my jamma cutie capcom arcade  :-[

Wow I like the capcom mini cute cabinets :D My layout supports all aspect ratios and all resolutions, it should adapt fairly well. There are some options for low resolution systems... if you want I can run it in a window at your cab native resolution and show you the results :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: Jate on March 12, 2020, 11:46:41 AM
Arcadeflow 6.9 is out!

While I think about how to mess everything in next version (categorized systems menu? maybe ;) ) here is the new revision with bug fixes and more manufacturers logos...

Enjoy!

Thanks!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: PSOGene on March 12, 2020, 12:50:21 PM
this theme does looks very promising but can I ask you what resolution does its support ? because I scared to test this to my jamma cutie capcom arcade  :-[

Wow I like the capcom mini cute cabinets :D My layout supports all aspect ratios and all resolutions, it should adapt fairly well. There are some options for low resolution systems... if you want I can run it in a window at your cab native resolution and show you the results :)
:o wow you do that for me wow because my resolution is 690 x 500 I really love to see that happen if some way you tell me how its done I can start mounting it on my CC Arcade :o
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 13, 2020, 01:38:05 AM
my resolution is 690 x 500 I really love to see that happen if some way you tell me how its done I can start mounting it on my CC Arcade :o

This is how Arcadeflow looks on your resolution, it seems pretty good to me, all fonts are large enough to be readable and resolution is not too high so performance should be good. If you have issues you can send me a personal message and I'll try to help :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 13, 2020, 06:36:42 AM
- Someone asked if you could organize by categories: consoles, arcades, portables, etc. Have you looked if it can be done? is that the Menu display becomes very long.

Well after some further investigation I don't think I'll do it at the moment, mostly for one reason: when you select a new display from the displays menu there's a very quick display change, that doesn't involve reloading the whole layout. I like it, it's fast and makes changing displays a breeze in Arcadeflow. But if I have to rewrite the displays menu as a cascaded one, then I'll have to use fe.set_display(n) to change to the right display, and when you do this the layout is reloaded from scratch (technically it's a full reload instead of a "to new list" transition), which is slower and time consuming.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: PSOGene on March 14, 2020, 06:43:13 AM
my resolution is 690 x 500 I really love to see that happen if some way you tell me how its done I can start mounting it on my CC Arcade :o

This is how Arcadeflow looks on your resolution, it seems pretty good to me, all fonts are large enough to be readable and resolution is not too high so performance should be good. If you have issues you can send me a personal message and I'll try to help :)
omg your right I tested on my capcom cute mini without doing no adjustmen and fit perfect on my screen and work perfectly. after very long time of search for a the perfect AM theme that can match with my cutie mini capcom cabinet. I finally found the one IO really loved and I love how you made it so perfect for my super cute Canbinet that matching its style and look  ;D

also question how do I go about to get this screen menu ?
(http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/screens/AF68.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.7 [Release] Updated 27 February 2020
Post by: Sea Monkey on March 14, 2020, 07:54:55 AM
Went to Layout Options and...

Does it work in 6.6? From version 6.6 there's a new options system so there are no more options in the standard options page. Can you send a log obtained running
Code: [Select]
attract-console.exe > log.txt

You should not see that menu but the new options menu both using hotkeys or you can try from the layout to go in the utility menu (up) and from there layout options.

I went in through the utility menu and got the new config screen.  Thanks!

Here's the log (https://pastebin.com/wu7Gd349) if you still want to look.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 14, 2020, 10:07:29 AM
omg your right I tested on my capcom cute mini without doing no adjustmen and fit perfect on my screen and work perfectly. after very long time of search for a the perfect AM theme that can match with my cutie mini capcom cabinet. I finally found the one IO really loved and I love how you made it so perfect for my super cute Canbinet that matching its style and look  ;D

Well I'm glad you like it and everything is working fine :)

Quote
also question how do I go about to get this screen menu ?
(http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/screens/AF68.png)

This is the Displays Menu, you can call it using an hotkey or you can go "up" for the utility menu and call it from there. In Arcadeflow if your Displays have names of systems (like "Sega Genesis", "MAME" etc) a logo is used instead of the usual font. Just name your displays accordingly and it should work
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: katarak on March 18, 2020, 05:59:42 PM
This is all out on context, but Stay Safe zpaolo11x

and that goes for everyone.

Thanks for all the hard work you've been putting into AF. It's my fav theme, and I use no other at this point.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.9 [Release] Updated 12 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 19, 2020, 04:40:51 AM
This is all out on context, but Stay Safe zpaolo11x

Thank you katarak, everybody keep safe and don't run useless risks. I'm working from home thankfully, I only go out to walk the dog (and they closed most parks around here so it's always a short walk, poor puppy).

I'm also working on new features for Arcadeflow, the new menu system will be great, it's almost ready ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.0 [Release] Updated 21 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 20, 2020, 02:21:59 PM
Arcadeflow 7.0 is out!

This is another important release, featuring a new menu system that has many advantages:
- lists are centered in the menu window and will scroll smoothly when the end of the screen is reached
- selected items have transparent text on solid background (it was fake before)
- drop shadows, yes we all love them ;D
- more "glyph" icons in the menus
- more information in some menus like filters that now shows the number of games in each filter

As usual, since this is a pretty large change, report any bugs and performance issues you should have. All this special features can be disabled anyway.

Keep safe from COVID-19 and enjoy retro gaming! Have fun!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.0 [Release] Updated 21 March 2020
Post by: Jate on March 21, 2020, 05:17:42 AM
Arcadeflow 7.0 is out!

This is another important release, featuring a new menu system that has many advantages:
- lists are centered in the menu window and will scroll smoothly when the end of the screen is reached
- selected items have transparent text on solid background (it was fake before)
- drop shadows, yes we all love them ;D
- more "glyph" icons in the menus
- more information in some menus like filters that now shows the number of games in each filter

As usual, since this is a pretty large change, report any bugs and performance issues you should have. All this special features can be disabled anyway.

Keep safe from COVID-19 and enjoy retro gaming! Have fun!

Thanks, but it gives me error

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/89b3c4bd953a489ff5c676a585d78d8eo.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.0 [Release] Updated 21 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 21, 2020, 06:44:04 AM
Thanks, but it gives me error

Uh, this is not good.. can you run attract-console.exe > log.txt and share the log? Thank you
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.0 [Release] Updated 21 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 21, 2020, 07:08:27 AM
Thanks, but it gives me error


Wait, does this happen if you use Arcadeflow as displays menu layout? That might be the issue...

EDIT: You can try the attached layout.nut should solve the issue
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.0 [Release] Updated 21 March 2020
Post by: Jate on March 21, 2020, 09:41:55 AM
Wait, does this happen if you use Arcadeflow as displays menu layout? That might be the issue...

Yes, and now it´s solved. Thanks. ;)

A question: on the AF display, now you can't select between list and list with image, right?


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.0 [Release] Updated 21 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 21, 2020, 10:35:03 AM
A question: on the AF display, now you can't select between list and list with image, right?

Exactly, and you can't chose if you want the systems logos or not. There was something in the list with image that clashed with the new menu system but, due to some last minute changes, I can maybe re-implement that. Let's see if I can do something for AF7.1 ;)

PS I'm also re-evaluating the grouped display, I don't like how it will reload the full layout just to change display, but maybe as an option it will be nice
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.0 [Release] Updated 21 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 22, 2020, 07:48:34 AM
A question: on the AF display, now you can't select between list and list with image, right?

So... attached is a preview of how it might look with the images back on. It works, it's nice but honestly I think there's no point in replicating the system name over the artwork, it's redundand and even smaller than the one in the main list :O

 
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 24, 2020, 04:25:54 AM
Arcadeflow 7.1 is out!

I tried to fix all the small bugs in 7.0 and re-introduced the display list with images.

Enjoy and report bugs!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: Dexther on March 26, 2020, 03:02:37 AM
Dear Zago i'm Simone from Rome.
I like your arcadeflow end i'm a need to use arcadeflow to replace Motion Blue Unifield

MBU are in category Compute, Arcade ecc ecc. (look this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxea1_GCLH4 )
I want to trasform all in arcadeflow.
Can help me ?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 26, 2020, 08:00:01 AM
Ciao Simone, io sono di Milao, se vuoi possiamo scriverci tranquillamente in italiano... mandami un messaggio privato così vediamo di capire cosa vorresti fare ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 27, 2020, 07:35:31 AM
Work in progress on the new glyphs and options menu...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: StitchzPT on March 29, 2020, 02:28:07 PM
I really like this theme, and it works very nicely in my PC/mame setup.

In my retropie setup I haven't been successful in getting ArcadeFlow working. I can run Attractmode just fine, but what need to be done next?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 29, 2020, 02:33:58 PM
In my retropie setup I haven't been successful in getting ArcadeFlow working. I can run Attractmode just fine, but what need to be done next?

I'm sorry but as far as I know there are a lot of issues with Arcadeflow on Raspberry Pi: Arcadeflow uses a lot fo nested surfaces and open gl shaders, that don't work well with the Pi. I don't have a Pi myself to test, but in the past some people on the forum tried to make it run with no success. I'm sorry
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: Dexther on March 30, 2020, 02:25:51 AM
i hope we resolve a problem if wont to use this thme on other system like hyperpie 2 or other whit use them category.

Paolo ti mandato un messaggio. ma non ho ricevuta risposta.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 30, 2020, 02:31:05 AM
Arcadeflow 7.2 is out with new glyphs, and a completely "decorated" options menu :)

Enjoy and stay home!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 30, 2020, 02:42:12 AM
i hope we resolve a problem if wont to use this thme on other system like hyperpie 2 or other whit use them category.

AFAIK it's not possible to solve this unless I re-code most of Arcadeflow, and even doing that, it will loose most of the special effects that make Arcadeflow what it is :( It seems the Pi4 could support more features needed for the layout but preliminary tests seem to prove the contrary.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.1 [Release] Updated 24 March 2020
Post by: StitchzPT on March 30, 2020, 03:09:18 AM
In my retropie setup I haven't been successful in getting ArcadeFlow working. I can run Attractmode just fine, but what need to be done next?

I'm sorry but as far as I know there are a lot of issues with Arcadeflow on Raspberry Pi: Arcadeflow uses a lot fo nested surfaces and open gl shaders, that don't work well with the Pi. I don't have a Pi myself to test, but in the past some people on the forum tried to make it run with no success. I'm sorry

Thanks for the reply! No worries :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: dark1973 on March 30, 2020, 05:05:00 AM
Ciao. Migliora ogni giorno che passa.
Una domanda; come faccio a sovrascrivere la versione 7.1 con la 7.2 senza perdere le impostazioni? se copio solo il file layout.nut mi azzrea tutte le preferenze?
Grazie
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 30, 2020, 05:20:54 AM
Una domanda; come faccio a sovrascrivere la versione 7.1 con la 7.2 senza perdere le impostazioni? se copio solo il file layout.nut mi azzrea tutte le preferenze?

Eh purtroppo questo è un punto spinoso: quando cambia il formato del file di preferenze (perchè magari ci sono voci nuove nel menù o altre sono cambiate), per sicurezza viene tutto resettato :( Sto cercando di pensare a un sistema che mantenga le opzioni che non sono state modificate, ma ci vorrà un po' per implementarlo.

Come soluzione tampone (che potrebbe però dare dei problemi) apri il file pref_layoutoptions della versione 7.1 e modifica la prima riga in modo che sia 2.8, in questo modo non verranno resettate
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 6.8 [Release] Updated 02 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 30, 2020, 07:43:21 AM
- Someone asked if you could organize by categories: consoles, arcades, portables, etc. Have you looked if it can be done? is that the Menu display becomes very long.

Quick update: "nested" displays menu will come in Arcadeflow 7.3 ;D I found a workaround that makes it faster to switch displays, so I just need to add some polish, some logos and it'll be ready. At first it will be only for the text list (or logo list), I'll have to change something more to make it work in the "list plus images" version.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 31, 2020, 02:16:58 AM
Sneak preview of the categorized displays menu...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: PSOGene on March 31, 2020, 02:29:48 AM
  :'( Im having HUGE problem I went and updated to version 72 and not showing or displaying on my Arcade machine, I even try to do fresh install and still wont show the display  :'(

(https://i.imgur.com/hTK3DsF.png)

and you can see I have on ArcadeFlow_72
(https://i.imgur.com/8zaXQw5.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 31, 2020, 02:32:36 AM
  :'( Im having HUGE problem I went and updated to version 72 and not showing or displaying on my Arcade machine, I even try to do fresh install and still wont show the display  :'(

Can you run
Code: [Select]
attract-console.exe > log.txt and share the log file so I can debug it? If you can't share it here send an email to paolo.zago@gmail.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: PSOGene on March 31, 2020, 02:55:58 AM
  :'( Im having HUGE problem I went and updated to version 72 and not showing or displaying on my Arcade machine, I even try to do fresh install and still wont show the display  :'(

Can you run
Code: [Select]
attract-console.exe > log.txt and share the log file so I can debug it? If you can't share it here send an email to paolo.zago@gmail.com

LOCALS
[prefs] TABLE
[linearray] ARRAY
[line] "coleco vis,CD32,CRT"
[tempcell] TABLE
[sysfile] INSTANCE
[syspath] "D:\Arcadeflow_72\layouts\Arcadeflow_72\data_systems.txt"
[sysinc] 22
[sysdata] TABLE
[unilogos] ARRAY
[this] TABLE
[orderdatalabel] TABLE
[transdata] ARRAY
[prf] NULL
[DEBUG] true
[TLNG] "EN"
[prefs] TABLE
[AFVERSION] TABLE
[vargv] ARRAY
[this] TABLE
Script Error in D:\Arcadeflow_72\layouts/Arcadeflow_72/layout.nut - cannot convert the string
 - AudioMode plugin: found 1 file(s) in: D:\Arcadeflow_72\sounds
 - Loaded layout: D:\Arcadeflow_72\layouts/Arcadeflow_72/ (layout.nut)
 - Layout is empty, initializing with the default layout settings
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 31, 2020, 03:22:15 AM
[line] "coleco vis,CD32,CRT"

This line doesn't sound good, but that's not the whole log, I need the part where it says in what line the error is located. Also maybe your attract.cfg could help.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: PSOGene on March 31, 2020, 03:36:28 AM
 :'( I dont how to find it can you pretty please send me picture so I know where this attrack.cfg is located so I kno what to send you pretty please
also here a video how she behaving to give an idea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QsRsR05U-M
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 31, 2020, 04:03:31 AM
:'( I dont how to find it can you pretty please send me picture so I know where this attrack.cfg is located so I kno what to send you pretty please

Don't worry the video was perfect, it seems there's a problem when creating the table with all the systems data. It seems there's something wrong in your data_systems.txt, maybe you can send it to me? Or try putitng the attached file in your layout folder...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: PSOGene on March 31, 2020, 04:08:07 AM
:'( I dont how to find it can you pretty please send me picture so I know where this attrack.cfg is located so I kno what to send you pretty please

Don't worry the video was perfect, it seems there's a problem when creating the table with all the systems data. It seems there's something wrong in your data_systems.txt, maybe you can send it to me? Or try putitng the attached file in your layout folder...
sure thing here you go, also keep in mind Im no expert on these thing because I dont anything about these kind of stuff. I hope you can find a solution of this issue for ver72
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 31, 2020, 06:06:01 AM
sure thing here you go, also keep in mind Im no expert on these thing because I dont anything about these kind of stuff. I hope you can find a solution of this issue for ver72

Well... this is weird. For some reason on Windows there's an error while reading the txt file, this doesn't happen on my Mac. I have no idea why it happened but it seems that adding a colecovision clone item fixed that for me. Try the attached data_systems.txt file and let me know if it fixes the issue for you too
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: PSOGene on March 31, 2020, 09:43:53 AM
 
sure thing here you go, also keep in mind Im no expert on these thing because I dont anything about these kind of stuff. I hope you can find a solution of this issue for ver72

Well... this is weird. For some reason on Windows there's an error while reading the txt file, this doesn't happen on my Mac. I have no idea why it happened but it seems that adding a colecovision clone item fixed that for me. Try the attached data_systems.txt file and let me know if it fixes the issue for you too
;) *hug* its working so perfect.I did what you said and working so wonderful now. here the Picture
ps: Im going keep on testing your Arcadeflow72 if I find any other issue <3
(https://i.imgur.com/05xZ32b.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.2 [Release] Updated 30 March 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 31, 2020, 09:46:24 AM
ps: Im going keep on testing your Arcadeflow72 if I find any other issue <3

The help you guys give me in debugging all the small issues in Arcadeflow is invaluable! I think I found the root cause of the problem in some "tabs" used in the systems file instead of blank lines, that was difficult to spot :O

Everything will be definitely fixed in 7.3, hopefully
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 01, 2020, 03:27:51 AM
Arcadeflow 7.3 is out, with the new categorized displays menu and a more forgiving options system that doesn't wipe all your prefs each time something changes in the preferences structure :D

Enjoy!

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: PSOGene on April 01, 2020, 11:46:47 PM
 :'( I having another problem again I give the system logo are not going by the systen name logo
here a video to show you what I mean. when I go to My Nintendo 64 its saying its Neo Geo and when I go to My Super Nintendo its saying its Nintendo entertainment system and also is incorrect. because Nintendo entertainment system is the 8 bit console not the 16 bit and same for the Nintendo 64 its not really is Neo Geo logo.  also turbo express the handheld for the HU card for the TurboGrafx-16 is not Handheld even tho they share the same company its still incorrect logos for them  :'(

here the video and see for your self
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzx2WIxJTwo
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 02, 2020, 12:22:44 AM
:'( I having another problem again I give the system logo are not going by the systen name logo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzx2WIxJTwo

Are you on 7.3? There's probably an issue with sorting of the systems list, let me know exactly what version you are using and if a clean install doesn't fix that I'll have to look into it... All systems are wrong or only some of them?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: PSOGene on April 02, 2020, 01:35:27 AM
:'( I having another problem again I give the system logo are not going by the systen name logo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzx2WIxJTwo

Are you on 7.3? There's probably an issue with sorting of the systems list, let me know exactly what version you are using and if a clean install doesn't fix that I'll have to look into it... All systems are wrong or only some of them?
I will try again and make a new install and and if give me the same issue I will show a new video that I did used version 73.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: PSOGene on April 02, 2020, 02:07:44 AM
I made new fresh install, I type Mame and Nintendo 64 when I scan the game and change the display. Mame became something else and Nintendo 64 became Neo Geo here a video to show you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ba7p-SWRg
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 02, 2020, 03:30:36 AM
I made new fresh install, I type Mame and Nintendo 64 when I scan the game and change the display. Mame became something else and Nintendo 64 became Neo Geo here a video to show you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ba7p-SWRg

I can see in the "groups" list there's "XBOX" instead of "Arcade" which means there's a mistake somewhere in the systems file. I'll check later on my Windows laptop to see if it's still an issue regarding line breaks. Stay tuned
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 02, 2020, 05:51:46 AM
I made new fresh install, I type Mame and Nintendo 64 when I scan the game and change the display. Mame became something else and Nintendo 64 became Neo Geo here a video to show you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ba7p-SWRg

Try with the attached file, should be fixed... I still don't completely understand what's wrong and why it happens only on windows, but let me know if this works.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: PSOGene on April 02, 2020, 07:41:17 AM
I made new fresh install, I type Mame and Nintendo 64 when I scan the game and change the display. Mame became something else and Nintendo 64 became Neo Geo here a video to show you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ba7p-SWRg

Try with the attached file, should be fixed... I still don't completely understand what's wrong and why it happens only on windows, but let me know if this works.
:) that thank you so mush its working now. Im going to keep testing and see if I find any more bugs for the version 73
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 02, 2020, 08:01:03 AM
:) that thank you so mush its working now. Im going to keep testing and see if I find any more bugs for the version 73

Perfect, it seems there's something not correct in the function used to read lines from files, so I wrote my own and it seems to work fine now. Arcadeflow 7.4 should not show this kind of bugs anymore hopefully
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: markoattract on April 04, 2020, 07:43:20 AM
Hello Zpaolo !!! As always , thanks for your awesome work !!

Please can you help me to use the " group " option ??? i just selected Arcadeflow_74 for the "Display menu" by the main menu of AM, but i still see only single systems , not grouped ... What i have to do ??

thank you for your answer !! :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 04, 2020, 07:47:18 AM
Please can you help me to use the " group " option ??? i just selected Arcadeflow_74 for the "Display menu" by the main menu of AM, but i still see only single systems , not grouped ... What i have to do ??

Grouped displays doesn't work if Arcadeflow is used as Displays Menu layout. You have to select "Default" as Displays Menu layout, then when you call the displays menu you'll see the grouped systems. I'm working to an option for having the displays menu run at startup if someone is interested...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: markoattract on April 04, 2020, 07:56:02 AM
Thank you for the quick Answer !! Ok, i did follow your instructions, but still i have single machines ( psx , snes , neogeo...) and not grouped ( arcade , Consoles , Computers ...) What's my fault ?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 04, 2020, 08:01:55 AM
Thank you for the quick Answer !! Ok, i did follow your instructions, but still i have single machines ( psx , snes , neogeo...) and not grouped ( arcade , Consoles , Computers ...) What's my fault ?

Have you set the "grouped displays" option in "displays menu page" section in Arcadeflow options?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: markoattract on April 04, 2020, 08:17:54 AM
the option "display menu page" is no longer available after i set "default" on display menu of ATTRACT MODE ... :(


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: markoattract on April 04, 2020, 08:24:35 AM
maybe i need to do something with the settings of Attract Mode ? I have set Cosmo systems for the single systems ... Maybe i need to set Arcadeflow for every system ??
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 04, 2020, 03:08:21 PM
maybe i need to do something with the settings of Attract Mode ? I have set Cosmo systems for the single systems ... Maybe i need to set Arcadeflow for every system ??

Oh ok, I understand... If you set Arcadeflow as Displays Menu layout in AM options you won't have the grouped displays but only the usual look of Arcadeflow with displays instead of games. If you want to use the "menu page" with the grouped displays you have to set Arcadeflow as the layout of all your displays, and "Default" as displays menu layout.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: markoattract on April 05, 2020, 02:37:51 AM
Grate , Zpaolo !!! Now all is clear !!

What i want is a grouped menu as "display menu" when i start AM ... Your theme do this but only INSIDE Arcadeflow, not for the "MAIN DISPLAY MENU", so i have to set Arcadeflow for every system ! IT WORKS !!! :D :D

Only one more thing : When i call  the menu display , i have the grouped items, but are Wrong ... For example, i have "X-BOX" item and inside i have MEGADRIVE... And if i choose "ARCADE" i found "PC-Engine and PSX " in side of it ...

any solution ???

Anyway, This is a GREAT THEME !! I love it !!! THANKS !!!
 
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: dark1973 on April 05, 2020, 02:49:54 AM
Ciao. Ho sostituito il file data sysytem perche' avevo i display sballati. Ho ancora 1 display errato, Game Boy Advance e' diventato Game Boy Light. Buona domenica
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 05, 2020, 09:48:04 AM
Ciao. Ho sostituito il file data sysytem perche' avevo i display sballati. Ho ancora 1 display errato, Game Boy Advance e' diventato Game Boy Light. Buona domenica

Only one more thing : When i call  the menu display , i have the grouped items, but are Wrong ... For example, i have "X-BOX" item and inside i have MEGADRIVE... And if i choose "ARCADE" i found "PC-Engine and PSX " in side of it ...

Guys, I'm sorry all these issues are due to two factors: something not working as expected in the file module read line routine, and some mistakes I made in the systems logos font. I can fix something but since I already rewrote the whole routine I suggest you be patient a little and wait some days until 7.4 is released, it should be error free (hopefully)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 06, 2020, 03:46:18 AM
Ho ancora 1 display errato, Game Boy Advance e' diventato Game Boy Light.

Only one more thing : When i call  the menu display , i have the grouped items, but are Wrong ... For example, i have "X-BOX" item and inside i have MEGADRIVE... And if i choose "ARCADE" i found "PC-Engine and PSX " in side of it ...

I have a beta version of Arcadeflow 7.4, which you can try here. It would be really helpful if you could do a bit of beta testing and check if those issues are solved. There are some new options for the Displays Menu page you can play with if you want...

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/layouts/Arcadeflow_74.zip

Thank you!

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: dark1973 on April 06, 2020, 05:25:13 AM
Grazie per la versione beta.
Io ho 12 Emulatori e ora sono tutti esatti sul display menu.
Bella idea quella di implementare altre funzioni nel display menu.

- Ho riscontrato un problema con i glifi che spariscono nel menu opzioni e nell'uscita da attract mode. (era presente anche nella versione precedente)
Quando premo il pulsante specifico per entrare nel menu e seleziono una voce; quando torno indietro i glifi diventano tutti quadrati vuoti.
Se dal menu display seleziono la voce "Chiudi Atract Mode" la finestra di conferma non ha i glifi (x e v) Premendo invece il tasto Uscita (Conferma) di attract mode e' tutto regolare

- Se seleziono una immagine di sfondo principale e poi entro nel menu display, l'effetto vetro opace non funziona

ps ho ridotto gli screenshot
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: dark1973 on April 06, 2020, 05:50:01 AM
my new AM home screen from my arcade cabinet :)

thanks zpaolo11x
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 06, 2020, 06:39:30 AM
- Ho riscontrato un problema con i glifi che spariscono nel menu opzioni e nell'uscita da attract mode.

Assurdo, sul Mac tutto funziona perfettamente, su Windows anche a me dà questo problema... ci guardo, dovrebbe essere facilmente risolvibile... Grazie per la segnalazione
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: Tapper on April 09, 2020, 10:56:11 AM
Just updated to Arcadeflow 7.3 and attract-v2.6.1-win64.

When I go to layout options, there are no options. I only see these:

Name                 Arcadeflow 7.3
Back

In old versions of Arcadeflow there were options. What am I doing wrong? Thank you.

EDIT: nevermind, I figured it out. I had to keep pressing up to show the options. Seems odd to work like that but I haven't used AF since 4.2 so lots to catch up on.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 10, 2020, 08:47:46 AM
EDIT: nevermind, I figured it out. I had to keep pressing up to show the options. Seems odd to work like that but I haven't used AF since 4.2 so lots to catch up on.

This is a pretty recent addition, you should be able to enter the options menu using an hotkey if you have one defined in Attract Mode. Oh I'm sorry to tell you that 7.3 has some issues with menu fonts and system logos, my bad, I'm re-writing the whole stuff but it will take a bit longer...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.3 [Release] Updated 1 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2020, 12:55:58 AM
Arcadeflow 7.4 is out!

A new menu system (because it's fun to change that every release, right!?!?) and more options for the Displays Menu Page, that should ease the pain of not having the Displays Menu mode anymore...

To make everything work smoothly set Displays Menu Layout to "Default" and Attract Mode startup option to "Show Last Selection (Default)". You can change all the options you need in Arcadeflow options page instead.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: Jate on April 17, 2020, 10:15:23 AM
Hi

I think there is a problem, when you activate the categories, menu display type does not work (list + image)

And INDIE system is in Category : Other, but we are pc games.

And a suggestion, could the image on the Menu display be a video?

- list
- list with image (image or video)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 17, 2020, 10:22:09 AM
I think there is a problem, when you activate the categories, menu display type does not work (list + image)

This is how it works at the moment, 7.5 is already supporting images for categorized displays lists

Quote
And INDIE system is in Category : Other, but we are pc games.

I know what you mean, if you create a Display called, for example, "80's Arcade" it will go into "OTHER" and not "Arcade" because it's not a system. I'm thinking of a way to allow people to chose in which category they want "non-system" dysplays. Maybe with a token in the name like "Indie#Computer"

Quote
And a suggestion, could the image on the Menu display be a video?

Should be easy, let's see if I can make it for 7.5 ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 20, 2020, 02:03:13 AM
I think there is a problem, when you activate the categories, menu display type does not work (list + image)

And INDIE system is in Category : Other, but we are pc games.

And a suggestion, could the image on the Menu display be a video?

If you want to test it before release, here is a beta of Arcadeflow 7.5 that features what you asked: you can name your layout like "name of your layout#category" to make it appear in the category folder, the part after the "#" will be stripped.

You can now use mp4,avi or mkv files as display menu list with images artwork, this is very preliminary and all the videos will play together (with no sound obviously) so if you have many of them it might be slow... Let me know how it works for you ;)

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/layouts/Arcadeflow_74_X.zip
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 20, 2020, 02:11:30 PM
Hi !

First of all, thanks for this awesome theme, which had found its way on my Vewlix cabinet :)

I have two questions for you, and I don't know if it is possible in 7.4 or in a future version :
 - how can i have an "all systems" to the display menu ? I can have grouped (arcade, consoles,others), or no categories at all, but it is possible to have an "all" category, which list every rom in every system you have configured ?
 - is possible to have categories ? like shoot'em up, and it shows every game listed as shoot'em up regarding its system (for example, it will list axelay (snes), 1941 (mame), ikaruga (gamecube) etc ...)
If not possible, isit possible to do so via filters systeem ? (i'm new to AttractMode ...)

Thanks in advance !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 20, 2020, 11:39:55 PM
- how can i have an "all systems" to the display menu ? I can have grouped (arcade, consoles,others), or no categories at all, but it is possible to have an "all" category, which list every rom in every system you have configured ?

What I can do at the layout level, is add an "All displays" to the displays menu with categories, so that when you select it you'll see a list of all your displays uncategorized. This won't bring you to a romlist with all your games, but to the list of all your displays/systems.
What you want to do is a romlist that gathers all the roms and systems you have, and this can't be done at layout level (I can't generate romlists in the layout), but Attract Mode allows you to do it: just go into attract mode menu (TAB button), "Emulators", "Generate collection/romlist", here you can select the romlists you want to add to your "all games" romlist. Then you can see this as a Display in Arcadeflow Displays Menu.

Quote
- is possible to have categories ? like shoot'em up, and it shows every game listed as shoot'em up regarding its system (for example, it will list axelay (snes), 1941 (mame), ikaruga (gamecube) etc ...)
If not possible, isit possible to do so via filters systeem ? (i'm new to AttractMode ...)

There are many ways to do this, both for single system displays/romlists and for multiple systems displays/romlists.

Arcadeflow doesn't have a "Categories" menu, I can do it and maybe I'll do it sooner or later, but consider that sometimes different systems use different conventions for category names. In my Mame romlist categories are like this: "main category/sub category" (perfect for a nested menu, ain't it?), other systems only show one category, others like GBA show them as "sub category/main category", so using this in a multi-systems romlist will be a bit of a mess.

Another way to have category menu is to create Attract Mode filters for the categories, this is very flexible and works in all sort of Displays. Since you know how your games are categorized then this is usually better than the layout solution.

Last but not least, and this is a feature of Arcadeflow, if you are on a game (like Street Fighter 2 which is a "fighter/versus" category) you can select "more of the same..." from the context menu and automatically filter games with the same category or sub-category, or even year, decade, manufacturer etc.

Or, still in Arcadeflow, you can sort your collection by Category on the fly, without the need to create a filter, and jump from a category to the other with hotkeys or the scrollbar....
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: Jate on April 22, 2020, 04:14:21 AM

If you want to test it before release, here is a beta of Arcadeflow 7.5 that features what you asked: you can name your layout like "name of your layout#category" to make it appear in the category folder, the part after the "#" will be stripped.

You can now use mp4,avi or mkv files as display menu list with images artwork, this is very preliminary and all the videos will play together (with no sound obviously) so if you have many of them it might be slow... Let me know how it works for you ;)

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/layouts/Arcadeflow_74_X.zip

Sorry for the delay.

Video work well in Display menu, thanks.
I have tried and everything is fine:

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/6b8f57984631132063481a5ab56b2153o.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?6b8f57984631132063481a5ab56b2153o.png)
(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/5498be09521630576252545eb96b6608o.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?5498be09521630576252545eb96b6608o.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 22, 2020, 05:54:25 AM
Video work well in Display menu, thanks.
I have tried and everything is fine:

Fantastic, good to know that everything runs fine! I'm almost ready with 7.5, I'm just tweaking a new feature under the hood that will monitor your system framerate and scale timings accordingly, so on slower systems you won't get slower effects and scrolling, but just a bit choppier :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 23, 2020, 12:12:42 AM
Thanks a lot for all the answers, I'll go with filters for categories 😊
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 23, 2020, 01:12:18 AM
Arcadeflow 7.5 is out!

Enhanced the menu system and effects, plus now Arcadeflow will adapt to your system performance. All effects that are updated frame by frame will take into account the actual framerate of your system and tweak accordingly, so if you can't get 60fps you won't see the scrolling and fading slower, but just a bit less fluid.

Hope everything works as expected, enjoy and report bugs!!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.4 [Release] Updated 16 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 24, 2020, 02:10:26 AM
Thanks a lot for all the answers, I'll go with filters for categories 😊

I'm currently implementing a category menu for Arcadeflow, if you want to check it out I can share a beta with you ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 24, 2020, 02:43:56 AM
I'll be glad to help and test your beta 😊
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 24, 2020, 07:10:46 AM
I'll be glad to help and test your beta 😊

Well thanks to you then, you can download the beta here:

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/layouts/Arcadeflow_75_X.zip

bear in mind it's still in beta but I was able to fix most of the issues with search strings and special characters. Right now there's an hardcoded control button (Custom1) that you can use to call the category screen, or you can launch it from the "Utility menu".

Consider that categories are applied in the form of a search string, so you won't have history of the selected game. And you can't do searches in a category because it's already a search, but you can sort the list. Also if you enter a category where the current game is present, it will keep the game selected for you. When you go back from a category to "All" categories (that is no search filter applied) it will bring you back to the game that was selected at the beginning (do you think it would be better to keep the last selected game... selected?)

Let me know how it goes ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 24, 2020, 10:48:53 AM
Thanks a lot ! I'll try it asap and makes my report as well !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 25, 2020, 07:42:03 AM
Hi !

I've tried your beta version, and the categories are working great ! thanks a lot !
I just don't manage to have a picture or a video snap in my system list but I will manage, I'm sure :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 25, 2020, 08:21:52 AM
I've tried your beta version, and the categories are working great ! thanks a lot !

You're welcome :) The only thing missing is that when you change category it doesn't remember the last game you had selected there (like in filters). I think I can fix that... although I'm also working on a "real time multi filter" where you can select features (like year, or more years, category, manufacturer etc) and see the results in realtime on the current romlist. So if you want to filter "Platform games from 1991 and from 1992 manufactured by Taito" you can do that.

Quote
I just don't manage to have a picture or a video snap in my system list but I will manage, I'm sure :)

You have to put artwork in the menu-art/snaps folder inside attract mode folder (where attract.exe is containted) and the name of the artwork must match the Display name
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: dark1973 on April 25, 2020, 11:04:27 AM
tried version 7.5. everything works fine. I also put videos on the display screen. (mp4 file res. 720x720)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 26, 2020, 01:32:33 AM
Thanks, I put them in wheel folder and not in snap. Everything is ok in snap folder :)

Just a last question : in my categorized display, the systems are not in alphabetical order, and I didn't find how to sort them. I've managed to sort the games in each system, but not the systems themselves. How can you do it ?
EDIT : just found, I manually re-ordered my display in attract.cfg and all is sorted !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 26, 2020, 06:12:59 AM
Just a last question : in my categorized display, the systems are not in alphabetical order

Good point, I think I'll add this, maybe as an option...

Oh, I'm almost confident I can do the "multi filter", so when it's ready I'll use the same technology to chose categories, that will allow you to do searches inside a category, which is neat :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 26, 2020, 10:21:40 AM
Sneak preview of what 7.6 will bring to the table: this is a "smart filter" (in search of a better name...). In the screen you can see all Capcom and Sega games from 1991 in my collection.

This is not a "Filter" and is not a search string applied. This is a new feature implemented thanks to my parallel game list (I used that for sorting). You can define the filter right inside the Layout, and change the filter on the fly (still have to develop a nice interface for this) and since this is not a search, once the filter is active you can even search within results!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 26, 2020, 10:46:33 AM
Nice !

Question : how can I add a system, like Cave, in order to have a real logo and not juste "Cave" written with the default font ? I tried to add it in data_systems.txt but it was a mess at the start of AttractMode :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 26, 2020, 11:22:15 AM
Question : how can I add a system, like Cave, in order to have a real logo and not juste "Cave" written with the default font ?

In short, you can't: system logos are coded in a custom font. To add a custom one you'll have to change data_systems.txt adding the new system data and, in the same order, add the graphics in the custom font and in the default Arcadeflow font. I know, it's a bit of a mess... If you want I can try to add the system myself... do you have a logo to share?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 26, 2020, 01:07:05 PM
Ok, I understand  :D
If you have time, it is this one : https://cavedb.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/CAVE-logo.png

It's an arcade system specialized in bullet hell shoot
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 26, 2020, 11:44:52 PM
If you have time, it is this one : https://cavedb.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/CAVE-logo.png

I already have this in vector format for manufacturers, it's a good idea to add developers that are also manufacturers to the Systems logos, like Cave, Capcom, Sega they all had their own boards so I can add them as generic display logos. I'll see if I can do it in time for 7.6.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on April 27, 2020, 11:34:56 AM
I thank you again for your work and quickness to react and add functions on your already really great theme !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 29, 2020, 02:59:10 AM
Video preview of the "multifilter" in action:

https://youtu.be/YTndnJOioaY

Still a bit confusing the fact that the numbers beside the entries (and the entries themselves) don't get updated when you narrow the romlist, but always refer to the full romlist. I'll see if it can be fixed, plus I have to add more entries like orientation, favourite state etc.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on May 02, 2020, 12:14:15 PM
Hi Zpaolo11x !

I've found a little bug :)
I've set Cave to be part of Arcade Systems (with the #arcade in attract.cfg)
But when I exit the Cave System, in Display Menu the option selected is others, and not Arcade (whereas when I exit CPS1/2/3 or Mame, the option selected is Arcade as it should be)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 04, 2020, 12:43:02 AM
I've found a little bug :)
I've set Cave to be part of Arcade Systems (with the #arcade in attract.cfg)
But when I exit the Cave System, in Display Menu the option selected is others, and not Arcade (whereas when I exit CPS1/2/3 or Mame, the option selected is Arcade as it should be)

Oh I see, the "#" stuff is interfering with other portions of the code, should be fixed now, you can try this beta that has many other bugs fixed...

Also, in the beta there's the new "multifilter" menu, so if anyone wants to beta-test it a bit... The multifilter allows dynamic filtering of your romlist. This version works, I'm not a fan of the way it is implemented because I started with an idea, then changed it along the way and now, while it still works, the backend is messy. I'm going to rewrite it completely for 7.7 but for 7.6 it will be released as is :D

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/layouts/Arcadeflow_75_X.zip

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.5 [Release] Updated 23 April 2020
Post by: adu on May 04, 2020, 04:11:39 AM
Thanks ! I'll give a try asap !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.6 [Release] Updated 4 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 04, 2020, 08:25:00 AM
Arcadeflow 7.6 is out!

Featuring the first incarnation of the "Multifilter", allowing you to filter your romlist using different fields (like Year, Category, Manufacturer etc) and getting the filtered romlist in realtime, no search involved, no need to define Attract Mode filters for this.

This will evolve in something even better in 7.7 with a more compact menu and more filtering categories, but I wanted to release it to test your feedback and get your invaluable bug reports ;)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.6 [Release] Updated 4 May 2020
Post by: adu on May 08, 2020, 05:56:42 AM
ArcadeFlow 76 on my cab works perfectly ! Thanks !  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.6 [Release] Updated 4 May 2020
Post by: pilou75 on May 08, 2020, 07:32:57 AM
Hello, i upgraded my 7.5 version to 7.6.
It works fine.
Great work. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.7 [Release] Updated 11 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 11, 2020, 10:51:57 AM
Arcadeflow 7.7 is out!

I worked mostly on the multifilter because, honestly, I LOVE this new feature :D The new version of the multifilter is much better, the menu is more clear, aesthetically it's more pleasing and is also saved between sessions.

The only negative aspect is that I had to cut some of the code I put to reduce slowdowns when sorting large romlists, I'm sorry, I don't know if I'll be able to add it again so right now if you have 20'000 or more games in a romlist you might experience delays when loading the layout or adding/removing favourites.

Other than that I think this is a great improvement over the latest version, so enjoy!


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.7 [Release] Updated 11 May 2020
Post by: adu on May 12, 2020, 02:01:31 AM
Thanks for adding so much cool stuff :D

I have an other problem with ArcadeFlow :
 - I've set an exit command in AM (to shutdown my computer/arcade cabinet when I quit) but it seems that ArcadeFlow doesn't pay any attention to this command. Have you tried to put one in yours and does it work ?
 - Or maybe you can add an option to add the choice to add a new menu entry to shutdown the computer ? Especially useful for ones who have an arcade cabinet and doesn't want to use a keyboard or moues to shut it down ? :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.7 [Release] Updated 11 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 12, 2020, 02:34:32 AM

I have an other problem with ArcadeFlow :
 - I've set an exit command in AM (to shutdown my computer/arcade cabinet when I quit) but it seems that ArcadeFlow doesn't pay any attention to this command. Have you tried to put one in yours and does it work ?
 - Or maybe you can add an option to add the choice to add a new menu entry to shutdown the computer ? Especially useful for ones who have an arcade cabinet and doesn't want to use a keyboard or moues to shut it down ? :)

Interesting... it seems that the "exit command" is executed after the choice to exit the layout. Everything works fine if the layout uses the default overlay menu to do this, but Arcadeflow has its own exit menu, and uses fe.signal(exit_to_desktop) to leave the layout. I'll see if there's a way to overcome this. Stay tuned ;)

Oh, what is exactly the command you use to shutdown?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.7 [Release] Updated 11 May 2020
Post by: adu on May 12, 2020, 05:43:10 AM
I'm using what is given here : http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=506.0

shutdown -s -t 00
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.7 [Release] Updated 11 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 12, 2020, 06:30:13 AM
I'm using what is given here : http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=506.0

shutdown -s -t 00

I made some changes to Arcadeflow so it should run the command when you exit, you can check with this beta layout, just put it into Arcadeflow 7.7 folder... Let me know if it fixes the issue.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.7 [Release] Updated 11 May 2020
Post by: adu on May 12, 2020, 09:50:07 AM
The fix is working ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.7 [Release] Updated 11 May 2020
Post by: PSOGene on May 16, 2020, 09:36:16 PM
 :o omg we now at version 7.7, time to test and try it out :o
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.7 [Release] Updated 11 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 17, 2020, 01:06:15 AM
:o omg we now at version 7.7, time to test and try it out :o

Maybe the versioning is a bit misleading, I increase point version at every release and major version every 10 dot versions... yet the latest revisions added the "Multifilter" which is a neat feature you should try ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 19, 2020, 02:03:44 AM
Arcadeflow 7.8 is out!

Bug fixes, bug fixes, bug fixes and some new features for the history page that's more informative now even if you are using overview data.

Oh I was able to publish a short video on youtube, more will follow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fevEcEoK--Q

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on May 20, 2020, 11:47:35 PM
Arcadeflow 7.8 is out!

Bug fixes, bug fixes, bug fixes and some new features for the history page that's more informative now even if you are using overview data.

Oh I was able to publish a short video on youtube, more will follow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fevEcEoK--Q

Enjoy!

I bet this is the most sophisticated, feature rich theme available on any front end, not just attract mode. Amazing work.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 21, 2020, 12:35:30 AM
I bet this is the most sophisticated, feature rich theme available on any front end, not just attract mode. Amazing work.

Thank you! It's great to see people appreciate this work :) Honestly the user interface of Arcadeflow is getting a bit confusing, I'm thinking of some changes but I'm not even sure what to do :D Before that, I'm also investigating some new features for users with a keyboard, like instant multi-field search when you start typing something, or instant jump on the sorted lists.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on May 21, 2020, 01:09:12 AM
Thank you! It's great to see people appreciate this work :) Honestly the user interface of Arcadeflow is getting a bit confusing, I'm thinking of some changes but I'm not even sure what to do :D Before that, I'm also investigating some new features for users with a keyboard, like instant multi-field search when you start typing something, or instant jump on the sorted lists.

Everything can be improved and bug fixed forever, especially software, but I don't think that Arcadeflow is confusing. The multitude of options, settings, data and the smooth execution are what makes Arcadeflow a 'Power user-Theme' or a 'Power-Theme' and this is exactly what front end "power users" are seeking.
At the end of the day, it is what it is and it's doing it superbly!

That being said, if you feel that things are getting complicated, it's a good idea to take a step back from development and just use AF, without changing anything, for a week or two. Temporarily go user side 100%. This will give you a broad view of the current situation, let your mind time to evaluate and process ideas for version 8.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 22, 2020, 01:11:10 AM
Everything can be improved and bug fixed forever, especially software, but I don't think that Arcadeflow is confusing.

Good to know :) But you are right, everything can be improved forever, and that's the fun part of all this :D

Quote
That being said, if you feel that things are getting complicated, it's a good idea to take a step back from development and just use AF, without changing anything, for a week or two. Temporarily go user side 100%. This will give you a broad view of the current situation, let your mind time to evaluate and process ideas for version 8.

Excellent advice, that's exactly what I did in the past, and it helped me develop some nice feature like "more of the same..." and later the "multifilter" menu. I've been just playing games for the last week using AF, and found that I kept using the multifilter a lot instead of searches. It basically covers what "more of the same" and "categoy menu" do, that's why I'm thinking of revisiting a bit the UI.

I also noticed that I don't like the on-screen keyboard when I have a physical keyboard on my laptop, so I'm doing some changes there too, the on screen keyboard will react to "physical" keyboard too, while all the function that now require a physical keyboard (like some options) will use the same on screen/physical UI too.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 25, 2020, 03:14:48 AM
Speaking of new features and things that makes your gaming life easier... I was wondering wether the current search menu is a bit too overwrought. I mean, you have to chose where you want to search (title, manufacturer year etc) and only then enter or type your search.

Wouldn't it be much better to call the search function and just start typing your search term, and the layout will show you all the results of a multi-search done by year, manufacturer and title? The issue is there's no way I can show results grouped by search field, so if you search for "capcom" you'll have "Capcom vs Street Fighter" together with all other games that have capcom as manufacturer.

What do you think?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: jedione on May 25, 2020, 06:21:08 AM
hmm,  lets think,,,  yep your right...

one button push ,,,type.   sounds great
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: adu on May 26, 2020, 02:04:49 AM
Speaking of new features and things that makes your gaming life easier... I was wondering wether the current search menu is a bit too overwrought. I mean, you have to chose where you want to search (title, manufacturer year etc) and only then enter or type your search.

Wouldn't it be much better to call the search function and just start typing your search term, and the layout will show you all the results of a multi-search done by year, manufacturer and title? The issue is there's no way I can show results grouped by search field, so if you search for "capcom" you'll have "Capcom vs Street Fighter" together with all other games that have capcom as manufacturer.

What do you think?

I think it's an excellent idea, because if you categorized precisely your games as I do (puzzledrop, puzzle, puzzlematch, puzzlemaze), you have multiples choices currently. But with the system you told us, I cna type puzzle and got all the games listed above !

By the way, can you make the filter search clear itself when you quit AM ? Because the next launch after I put a filter, I was searching for about 10 minutes a game which was masked by the filter, and Iwondered why I can't find my game before I remember I have put a filter the day beore ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 26, 2020, 02:59:54 AM
By the way, can you make the filter search clear itself when you quit AM ? Because the next launch after I put a filter, I was searching for about 10 minutes a game which was masked by the filter, and Iwondered why I can't find my game before I remember I have put a filter the day beore ;)

Oh right, it happens to me all the time :D I'll put an option for that...

In the new version I'm cleaning up the category menu too, I'm decoupling it from searches so you can both select a category from the menu _and_ do a search in the resulting list. There will be a clear visual clue for that, so you won't forget you have search or category enabled :O

Of course you can also add multifilter to the mix.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 26, 2020, 09:47:11 AM
I think it's an excellent idea, because if you categorized precisely your games as I do (puzzledrop, puzzle, puzzlematch, puzzlemaze), you have multiples choices currently. But with the system you told us, I cna type puzzle and got all the games listed above !

Filter frenzy preview: in the picture I first selected a "more of the same manufacturer" (from a Konami game), then applied a multifilter to select a year, then chose from the category menu "Shooter / Flying Horizontal". And on top of that the quick search for the "TH" terms.
I have a beta almost ready ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 28, 2020, 02:25:20 AM
I like the new on-screen keyboard so much that I decided to delay a bit the new release to try and create a new tag management system where Arcadeflow will interact directly with the attract mode folders. That will allow you to enter new tags without using a physical keyboard!

Maybe I should release 7.9 as is, and wait 8.0 for the new tags :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.8 [Release] Updated 19 May 2020
Post by: adu on May 28, 2020, 02:27:56 AM
We can wait for an awesome 8.0, AF is already amazing:)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 29, 2020, 08:29:56 AM
Arcadeflow 7.9 is out!

Lots of changes in user experience and under the hood. A new on-screen keyboard that works on every text entry, new smarter search with no need to specify the search field, better display of active search/filter terms in the UI. Plus, a new tags management that always gives you the possibility to add "Completed" tag, and lets you add new tags using an on-screen keyboard... which doubles as a text entry field for real keyboards.

So many changes, hopefully not so many bugs, but I'm sure you'll be quick in reporting them so we can squash them to death :D

Enjoy!

P.S.: and while you enjoy the sweet version 7.9, I'm already working on a couple of new features for 8.0... "sort by last played" and "sort by last favourite". I can't wait :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: adu on May 29, 2020, 11:06:49 AM
This man is a real machine  ;D

Arcade Flow 7.8 installed on my cabinet, the virtual keyboard is a really great addition !!! (but you don't love AZERTY ? :D)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 29, 2020, 11:21:12 AM
(but you don't love AZERTY ? :D)

Hmm never thought about that :D I like onscreen keyboards in alphabetical order but I can always add AZERTY as an option in 8.0 :D :D :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: adu on May 29, 2020, 11:51:44 AM
For French people like me it will be a nicer layout ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 01, 2020, 02:30:42 AM
What would user think of a layout that warns you when updates are available? And maybe offers you the chance to update to the latest version "automatically"? Just thinking of what could be done with the System command and some wget trickery...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: adu on June 02, 2020, 08:08:11 AM
Whereas a notification for an update IS a real plus, an autouodate is not necessary for me, I'd rather control when I update and if I want to update 😉
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 03, 2020, 03:10:22 AM
Whereas a notification for an update IS a real plus, an autouodate is not necessary for me, I'd rather control when I update and if I want to update 😉

That's right, I'm not planning a real "silent" autoupdate, more of a popup that gives you details of the new version and allows you to download (and install?) the new version if you want.

I'm just thinking if the right place for the "check for updates" entry should be the "utility menu" or the "options menu"... maybe the options menu is better, there you could also enable/disable automatic notification.

Right now most of these works: I can check the status online, get the updated "what's new" notes and display them. I can also let the user download the correct zip file. For installing, that's a different beast... easiest way would be to just deploy the new file on the old folder, that won't touch user preferences, but may keep some junk from older version. More convoluted, but much better IMO, would be to create a new versioned folder, deploy the new zip there, transfer preference files and after all this edit the attract.cfg to substitute all the references to the old version to the new one. That would be something :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 04, 2020, 02:58:37 AM
Quick update on the auto-update. It will work in different modes:

- all systems with the curl command will be able to check for updates and get the what's new list, they could also decide to download the new layout file in their home directory ($HOME)
- systems that support curl and tar will be able to deploy the new layout, transfer preference files to the new folder and automatically modify attract.cfg to use the new layout
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: ulihox on June 05, 2020, 12:34:32 AM
Great theme!!

Would it be possible to add Xicat Interactive, Hucast Games, Hasbro Interactive, Rockstar Games, Crazy Games and Spike manufacturer logos?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2020, 09:49:05 AM
Would it be possible to add Xicat Interactive, Hucast Games, Hasbro Interactive, Rockstar Games, Crazy Games and Spike manufacturer logos?

Sure, maybe not in the next release, which is almost ready and already has many changes and improvement, but stay tuned :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2020, 12:04:49 AM
Arcadeflow 8.0 is out!

This version adds some new nice features for sorting and improves on screen keyboard, but most of all it introduces a way to update Arcadeflow directly from its own menu!

You can check for updates, download the new update (it will be saved inside the current Arcadeflow folder, sorry I had issues with saving to $HOME folder :( ), or if you have tar installed you can also download and install Arcadeflow. It will unpack to the proper directory, transfer your own preference files and even modify attract.cfg to poit to the new revision. (Just to be sure, I sueggest you backup your attract.cfg before, I did not have any issues in my tests, but YMMV :O )

For check for updates to work you'll need the cron command in your system, and to install the new version you'll need tar. Windows 10, Linux and macOS already have this. If you don't see anything happen when you use the feature it might be because you don't have the commands, or there's no update available yet. I'll add more feedback to the user in later versions...

Hope everything runs smooth, let me know if it gives you troubles!

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on June 06, 2020, 12:29:28 AM

...but most of all it introduces a way to update Arcadeflow directly from its own menu!

You can check for updates, download the new update (it will be saved inside the current Arcadeflow folder, sorry I had issues with saving to $HOME folder :( ), or if you have tar installed you can also download and install Arcadeflow. It will unpack to the proper directory, transfer your own preference files and even modify attract.cfg to poit to the new revision.


If I'm wrong, and I'm never wrong - this is the first time a THEME has a feature that the front-end itself doesn't have! HA!  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2020, 12:58:59 AM
If I'm wrong, and I'm never wrong - this is the first time a THEME has a feature that the front-end itself doesn't have! HA!  ;D

:D I think you are right, but I see this as a strength of Attract Mode: you can do so much with Attract Mode layouts that it's easy to get carried away :O

EDIT: BTW, all this auto update thing is pretty scary, when you start messing with other people setups you get cold shivers down the spine :O
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on June 06, 2020, 01:48:04 AM
:D I think you are right, but I see this as a strength of Attract Mode: you can do so much with Attract Mode layouts that it's easy to get carried away :O

EDIT: BTW, all this auto update thing is pretty scary, when you start messing with other people setups you get cold shivers down the spine :O

They doomed us all once they decided to let creative people use code to build the themes. As long as the autoupdate feature is turned OFF by default people can only blame themselves for using it and we can continue to have fun. But.... the question is.... is it turned OFF by default Mr. Zago?!?!?  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2020, 01:56:12 AM
But.... the question is.... is it turned OFF by default Mr. Zago?!?!?  ;D

:D Well... somewhat :D The check is turned on by default, but the check itself doesn't mess with anything ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on June 06, 2020, 01:58:28 AM
But.... the question is.... is it turned OFF by default Mr. Zago?!?!?  ;D

:D Well... somewhat :D The check is turned on by default, but the check itself doesn't mess with anything ;D


Oh I see that it notifies you and asks so it's ok I guess.

OMG I found a horrible bug in the autoupdate system! "if you dismiss one update you won't be notified until the nest one" nest??  I told you it was a dangerous idea!

Dude, you're a beast.  :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2020, 03:31:03 AM
Would it be possible to add Xicat Interactive, Hucast Games, Hasbro Interactive, Rockstar Games, Crazy Games and Spike manufacturer logos?

Found and converted all the logos, but I'm not sure about Crazy Games, what is their logo or website?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: keilmillerjr on June 06, 2020, 03:32:09 AM
Love the idea of auto updating. Oomek and I have been talking about having attract as a whole update. Mentioned you on this git issue. Keep up the good work! https://github.com/mickelson/attract/issues/622
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2020, 03:58:36 AM
OMG I found a horrible bug in the autoupdate system! "if you dismiss one update you won't be notified until the nest one" nest??  I told you it was a dangerous idea!

Lol! Don't worry, this will be fixed in the auto-update to the new release :D :D :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: Neosys on June 06, 2020, 06:28:28 AM
Hi!

I use the theme layouts from Yaron2019.

Is it possible to implement the virtual keyboard in the layout of zpaolo11x in the layouts on Yaron2019?

Thank you.

(https://s12.directupload.net/images/200606/temp/y4aqxhis.png) (https://www.directupload.net/file/d/5842/y4aqxhis_png.htm)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on June 06, 2020, 08:11:11 AM
Hi!

I use the theme layouts from Yaron2019.

Is it possible to implement the virtual keyboard in the layout of zpaolo11x in the layouts on Yaron2019?

Thank you.

(https://s12.directupload.net/images/200606/temp/y4aqxhis.png) (https://www.directupload.net/file/d/5842/y4aqxhis_png.htm)

Zago you can do it!  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: Neosys on June 06, 2020, 09:58:27 AM
Sorry. Can you help me please.

I have no idea how I could do it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 7.9 [Release] Updated 29 May 2020
Post by: ulihox on June 06, 2020, 03:32:21 PM
Found and converted all the logos, but I'm not sure about Crazy Games, what is their logo or website?

Amazing!! You can find the logo here: https://segaretro.org/Crazy_Games (https://segaretro.org/Crazy_Games)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 09, 2020, 07:59:09 AM
Arcadeflow 8.1 is out!

Mostly a bugfix and some minor improvements, plus more manufacturers and system logos.

If you try the auto update, and eventually the auto-install, tell me if everything goes smooth!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: O.T.T. on June 09, 2020, 11:26:46 AM
Arcadeflow 8.1 is out!

Mostly a bugfix and some minor improvements, plus more manufacturers and system logos.

If you try the auto update, and eventually the auto-install, tell me if everything goes smooth!

I tried the auto-update with auto-install option: the whole process went smoothly! I also confirm that now the "blinky" shell issue originally caused by the auto-update is resolved  ;)

Well done!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: Enkak on June 10, 2020, 04:34:47 AM
Hi zpaolo11x, long time. :) Still trying to get my head around the new features and major work that you have been doing. Missing a little the older display menu but trying now to adapt to the new AF one. So, with that, a couple of requests/questions. ;)

Some extra systems logos for the display menu:
Nintendo 3DS for handhelds
Sega CD for consoles (similar to how you have genesis and mega drive)

Future Pinball
Pinball FX3

Now, the pinball systems can be found in the "OTHER" category of course, but maybe could be a good idea to implement a specific "PINBALL" category for displays menu?

--//--

Is there a way to display the systems in the menu on the specific order we have instead of being alphabetically, similar to how you have the categorized menu? Maybe I missed an option.
I ask this because most times I use more a non categorized menu with a custom order.

--//--

I noticed, in the history panel, that computer fans noise ramp up now, even with low spec mode option to "yes". Is that normal?
Also, in that panel, is there a way to have a similar option to show also less info without the region like in games menu?

Cheers and many thanks again in advance!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2020, 05:08:19 AM
Missing a little the older display menu but trying now to adapt to the new AF one. So, with that, a couple of requests/questions. ;)

I know, even if I didn't personally use that feature, I was very disappointed when I discovered that it could not coexist with the new way I manage the displays menu. Maybe I'll think of something different to get the old feature back, but that will be very very difficult :(

Quote
Some extra systems logos for the display menu:
Nintendo 3DS for handhelds
Sega CD for consoles (similar to how you have genesis and mega drive)

Future Pinball
Pinball FX3

Now, the pinball systems can be found in the "OTHER" category of course, but maybe could be a good idea to implement a specific "PINBALL" category for displays menu?

Good suggestion, there is a Nintendo DS logo but no 3DS, and only Mega CD which is the european/japanese name AFAIK, so it will be nice to have the US one too).
A Pinball category... If I can find a good font and some nice glyphs I'll add that too ;)

Quote
Is there a way to display the systems in the menu on the specific order we have instead of being alphabetically, similar to how you have the categorized menu? Maybe I missed an option.
I ask this because most times I use more a non categorized menu with a custom order.

There is no option at the moment, but it can be implemented pretty easily

Quote
I noticed, in the history panel, that computer fans noise ramp up now, even with low spec mode option to "yes". Is that normal?
Also, in that panel, is there a way to have a similar option to show also less info without the region like in games menu?

In my system fan noise ramp up every time videos are playing, so I'm not sure if there's a difference in the history panel. I didn't change that too much in later versions except adding more data, so not really sure.
I'll check if the "less info" option can be implemented ;)

EDIT: It seems that the playing thumbnail video is not stopped when you enter history page, so you'll have two videos playing. I don't know if past versions were different, I'll check the code...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: Enkak on June 10, 2020, 05:20:45 AM
Ah maybe that's the reason for history panel appearing to be more demanding, the 2 videos at same time.

Thank you again so much for all the work. :) Don't worry about the older display method, forward is the way to go. ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2020, 07:56:30 AM
Ah maybe that's the reason for history panel appearing to be more demanding, the 2 videos at same time.

Also, history panel enables Lotte CRT shaders, modified by me, so it's probably another cause of performance hit :D
PS: Look, isn't the "Pinball" logo nice?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: Enkak on June 10, 2020, 09:55:44 AM
Ah maybe that's the reason for history panel appearing to be more demanding, the 2 videos at same time.

Also, history panel enables Lotte CRT shaders, modified by me, so it's probably another cause of performance hit :D
PS: Look, isn't the "Pinball" logo nice?

Really nice indeed! Thx again and hopefully the history panel or the suggestions aren't giving you too much trouble. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2020, 10:54:34 PM
Really nice indeed! Thx again and hopefully the history panel or the suggestions aren't giving you too much trouble. :)

For the history, I was thinking of a "history only" option where you don't have the first lines with the game name and data, but just the history/overview text under the game title artwork.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: Enkak on June 11, 2020, 01:09:51 AM
Hmm, maybe an option that keeps the game name (without the info in brackets) at least can be a good idea. I'm thinking more about Japanese releases or translated games where the logo may be not enough.
For Arcade/MAME usually "history only" would be enough since the history.dat file already has the game title but overview files normally only have the game info.

PS: With the option enabled to show AF display menu, when we enter the theme I'm noticing the intro sound (woosh) plays 3 times instead of only one. ???
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 11, 2020, 01:29:37 AM
PS: With the option enabled to show AF display menu, when we enter the theme I'm noticing the intro sound (woosh) plays 3 times instead of only one. ???

Hmm weird, what are your options like? In my setup with everything set to default and only enabled display menu at startup I get just one woosh
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: Enkak on June 11, 2020, 06:23:47 AM
what's the best file for you to check theme options, pref_layoutoptions.txt, or other?

I know that I enabled audio for thumbs and history, besides enabling getting back to display menu when exit a system, for example.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 11, 2020, 06:37:58 AM
what's the best file for you to check theme options, pref_layoutoptions.txt, or other?

Yes that would be perfect, you can email me at paolo.zago@gmail.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 5.9 [Release] Updated 5 November 2019
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 11, 2020, 06:51:47 AM
Here you have few of the more common snes games [chrono trigger, super mario kart, lemmings, invaders, final fantasy II, flashback, donkey kong III, the legend of zelda, a link to the past]
https://imgur.com/a/wgbAzHl

Well it took me a lot of time to fix (or better, to remember to fix!) this issue but I think I got it: normally the "attract mode" inside Arcadeflow selects only a portion of scanlines to display, which is fine, but if you have "oversized" video snaps (like 480p or 720p) that might cause excessive zooming as in your pictures, because each pixel line in the video is much smaller than a real scanline.

But worry no more! The forthcoming 8.2 version will fix this for systems recognized by Arcadeflow: it will be able to adapt the rendered resolution to the intended game resolution, so if you have a 720p snap of a SNES game, it will be treated as if it had 224 lines.

See attached image for a preview of the improvement
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.1 [Release] Updated 9 June 2020
Post by: Enkak on June 11, 2020, 12:28:59 PM
what's the best file for you to check theme options, pref_layoutoptions.txt, or other?

Yes that would be perfect, you can email me at paolo.zago@gmail.com

Sent! :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.0 [Release] Updated 6 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 12, 2020, 03:27:36 AM
I tried the auto-update with auto-install option: the whole process went smoothly! I also confirm that now the "blinky" shell issue originally caused by the auto-update is resolved  ;)

May I ask you to send me your attract.cfg file after the auto-update? There's something wrong when I do updates on my system but apparently nothing too scary. If you can share it send it to paolo.zago@gmail.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 16, 2020, 06:17:13 AM
Arcadeflow 8.2 is out!

Besides the usual bug fixes and under the hood improvements, in this release you can enable/disable individual "Utility Menu" entries to reduce clutter. There's also a new "Pinball" display category. Have a look at the what's new online and enjoy the new release!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: Enkak on June 16, 2020, 07:33:08 AM
Many thanks for the update and new features! Can't wait to test it. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 17, 2020, 02:32:04 AM
Time to work on the "History Page"... I'm implementing a new calculation for the panel size and content, so the panel will maintain the same aspect ratio for every resolution (see attached example for horizontal resolution, but it will work in vertical also). There will be an option to chose the proportion of the panel, so you can see more history at the expense of the screenshot, or have larger screen but cramped history.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: Jate on June 18, 2020, 11:38:44 AM
@zpaolo11x

the last link is Arcadeflow_82.tar.gz

Don't zip them up?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 18, 2020, 01:20:49 PM
the last link is Arcadeflow_82.tar.gz

Don't zip them up?

They are gzipped now because this works better for the auto-update and auto-install feature. Is this an issue on your os?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: Jate on June 20, 2020, 03:43:03 AM
No problem, with 7zip I can open it  ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 24, 2020, 02:46:38 AM
Sneak preview of another feature in 8.3: game panel overlay, with button hints if you have data in your command.dat mame file. Still polishing, but promising
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: tvsht on June 27, 2020, 02:46:02 AM
I'd love to have option to disable context menu and have it's functions moved to game panel, as normal buttons under description. Which would make for more traditional browse mode. This would make the theme almost perfect for me.

Either way, it's just getting better and better, great work
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 27, 2020, 03:31:52 AM
I'd love to have option to disable context menu and have it's functions moved to game panel, as normal buttons under description. Which would make for more traditional browse mode. This would make the theme almost perfect for me.

I see what you mean, right now you can disable the context menu, and set the history so that when you press Select on a game it will show. Of course this way you'll lose the context menu function, unless you map that to a different custom button.

The idea of adding those functions to the history panel is good though, I'm thinking how to do it, because navigation in that panel is a bit complicated. Maybe I can add an option like this: when you are in history mode and you press "UP" from the topmost row of the history, the context menu pops up and you can use those functions...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: tvsht on June 27, 2020, 04:29:36 AM
That would work for me :)
Yes I know that you disable it altogether but it takes you straight into game then.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.2 [Release] Updated 16 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 27, 2020, 05:56:54 AM
Yes I know that you disable it altogether but it takes you straight into game then.

True, but if you set the Select button for the History page, it will bring you to the games panel instead or running the game.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 30, 2020, 01:51:47 AM
Arcadeflow 8.3 is out!

Featuring a new, complete Spanish translation by Jate from the forum (thanks a lot!) and many customization options. Filter and sort the utility menu as you like, and also the multifilter menu can be heavily customized.
Improved the way text panel is rendered in History page, plus the support for command.dat allows you to see the function of each button.

Update, report bugs, but most of all... have fun!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: Jate on June 30, 2020, 09:22:43 AM
Arcadeflow 8.3 is out!

Featuring a new, complete Spanish translation by Jate from the forum (thanks a lot!) and many customization options. Filter and sort the utility menu as you like, and also the multifilter menu can be heavily customized.
Improved the way text panel is rendered in History page, plus the support for command.dat allows you to see the function of each button.

Update, report bugs, but most of all... have fun!

Theme doesn´t work me  :-\
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 30, 2020, 12:57:23 PM
Theme doesn´t work me  :-\

I know! Stupid bug I discovered just today by chance, I'll update tomorrow morning :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 01, 2020, 12:05:10 AM

Theme doesn´t work me  :-\

I re-uploaded the archive with a fix, you can try it, or just download the nut_fileutil.nut attached here and place it in your AF folder... let me know if it's fixed
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: Jate on July 01, 2020, 04:38:53 AM

Theme doesn´t work me  :-\

I re-uploaded the archive with a fix, you can try it, or just download the nut_fileutil.nut attached here and place it in your AF folder... let me know if it's fixed

Yes, only with new nut_fileutil.nut work again
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: Jate on July 02, 2020, 05:26:17 AM
I have another problem, when I choose an AF system it opens another one.

And when you enter the system, a black box appears on the first selected game.

I put a video for you to see.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/y2qcov3gxuwwibn/2020.07.02-14.11.mp4/file (https://www.mediafire.com/file/y2qcov3gxuwwibn/2020.07.02-14.11.mp4/file)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 02, 2020, 05:46:57 AM
https://www.mediafire.com/file/y2qcov3gxuwwibn/2020.07.02-14.11.mp4/file (https://www.mediafire.com/file/y2qcov3gxuwwibn/2020.07.02-14.11.mp4/file)

I see that when you chose the Dreamcast display, Arcadeflow restarts. This is not the expected behavior, check if you have set attract mode start behavior ad "Show last selected (default)". If you want to start with displays menu you can set it in AF options, not in AM options.

The "black square" issue is creeping like a creepy thing, I saw it a couple times, and another user saw it too, but it's not repeatable in my setup. Check if the startup options are correct and tell me if you see the black box again. Is it after you change display?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: Jate on July 02, 2020, 10:37:58 AM
I see that when you chose the Dreamcast display, Arcadeflow restarts. This is not the expected behavior, check if you have set attract mode start behavior ad "Show last selected (default)". If you want to start with displays menu you can set it in AF options, not in AM options.

"Show last selected (default)" It is the option that I have checked.

I have configured the Dysplay Menu from AF and whenever I change my system, AF restarts.
I have tried several options and it always happened the same.

The only option I have found has been to download Attract Mode and the latest AF again and reconfigure the emulators. :(
I have tried and now it seems that everything is fine and I have not seen any black box.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/bv3shk9gh31snx5/2020.07.02-19.16.mp4/file (https://www.mediafire.com/file/bv3shk9gh31snx5/2020.07.02-19.16.mp4/file)

I don't know what the problem was, maybe so many updates and tests?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 02, 2020, 11:15:07 AM
I don't know what the problem was, maybe so many updates and tests?

The video shows things how they are intended to be, I'm sorry you had to go through all that to fix it, maybe it was because of the old auto-update routine which had some issues. It's strange that the previous configuration worked that way, I think since you have updated everything now it's not possible to see the console output anymore right?

Hopefully next revisions will be more smooth...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 03, 2020, 12:24:16 AM
https://www.mediafire.com/file/y2qcov3gxuwwibn/2020.07.02-14.11.mp4/file (https://www.mediafire.com/file/y2qcov3gxuwwibn/2020.07.02-14.11.mp4/file)

On a side not, I got a similar behavior on my Windows rig, and I noticed that some displays had am older version of Arcadeflow set in the attract.cfg file, so that's another possible cause of issues
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: clockman on July 03, 2020, 08:11:52 PM
I now have this theme in my arcade cabinet and i want to know how i disable this overlay? I just want to enter directly into the game.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 03, 2020, 10:46:15 PM
I now have this theme in my arcade cabinet and i want to know how i disable this overlay? I just want to enter directly into the game.

Go in the layout utilities, buttons, context menu button and chose “disabled” or any button that is not “select”
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: clockman on July 04, 2020, 07:29:21 AM
Thank you that worked but one more question. How do I make it so on name games the wheel doesn't show? It takes up to much of the video preview box or can I move the wheels a little?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 04, 2020, 07:44:02 AM
Thank you that worked but one more question. How do I make it so on name games the wheel doesn't show? It takes up to much of the video preview box or can I move the wheels a little?

I don’t remember if there’s an option in the thumbnails section to hide game names, I can’t check at the moment. You can change your artwork options so that game names are not listed as “wheel” artwork. I can add an option in the next release...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: XLRT on July 04, 2020, 08:15:36 AM
"Introduced new options for the displays menu list:
List can be a simple displays name list, or it can show artwork from the menu-art folder"

This doesn't work in my set-up. What's the exact filenames/pathnames to get the images for consoles?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 04, 2020, 09:22:45 AM
"Introduced new options for the displays menu list:
List can be a simple displays name list, or it can show artwork from the menu-art folder"

This doesn't work in my set-up. What's the exact filenames/pathnames to get the images for consoles?

Inside the menu-art folder (which is in attract home directory, there should be a “snap” folder. Inside you must put a png or jpeg image with the exact name of your display
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: hedergim on July 05, 2020, 05:36:33 AM
Congratulations on your work,

When you have some time, could you decrease the presentation time of the videos?

I feel that the videos take too long to start playing,

Multiplier could be:
[-3x, -2x, -1x, 0, 1x, 2x, 3x]

congratulations thank you
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: Jate on July 05, 2020, 11:28:58 AM
Hi Paolo

I have a suggestion today.

I'm doing tests and I want to use a single horizontal line (1-small)

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/2e11126cebeb2f4054f195169523b795o.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?2e11126cebeb2f4054f195169523b795o.png)

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/f9283c21e2585a25a885de396df86ba9o.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?f9283c21e2585a25a885de396df86ba9o.png)

but I wanted to see how it works with 1 single normal line and I think that maybe the images are too big and it's very close to the scroll bar ... Maybe once it could be reduced a little, what do you think?

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/a48330aa21b76dc9dcdfea32a24d66cdo.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?a48330aa21b76dc9dcdfea32a24d66cdo.png)

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/ee47a85eefbd2a640cc783fe50d0af00o.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?ee47a85eefbd2a640cc783fe50d0af00o.png)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: Dexther on July 06, 2020, 06:22:38 AM
i like !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 07, 2020, 02:13:17 AM
but I wanted to see how it works with 1 single normal line and I think that maybe the images are too big and it's very close to the scroll bar ... Maybe once it could be reduced a little, what do you think?

Hmm you know, I really like those gigantic 1-row thumbnails :D but it's true they are a bit overwhelming, and also cover up a bit of the scrollbar. It would be fairly easy to reduce the size of the "zoomed" thumb, a bit more difficult for the "non zoomed" ones. I'll play with the settings and see if I can find a good compromise...

In the meantime, if you dare, you can change the zoom ratio yourself ;D look for this line in the code

Code: [Select]
local selectorscale = (rows == 1 ? (vertical ? 1.15 : 1.45) : ((prf.SCROLLERTYPE == "labellist") ? 1.4 : 1.5) )

selectorscale is the target zoom ratio of the current thumbnail. To translate my obscure variable system, if there's a single row in the layout, scale is 1.45 (in an horizontal layout like yours), otherwise, if the scrollbar is with labels it's 1.4, while the "default" is 1.5. Try to play with this number, puttins like 1.3 instead of 1.45 and see what happens.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 07, 2020, 02:17:42 AM
I feel that the videos take too long to start playing,

I can add an option to reduce it by half or something like that. At the moment, the delay is used to prevent the video from being loaded while scrolling through the list of games. Maybe I can find a better way to implement this (like load the video only when you stop scrolling) who knows why I didn't make it like that in the beginning :D

BTW, stay tuned for the delay reduction in the next release ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 07, 2020, 02:58:08 AM
Thank you that worked but one more question. How do I make it so on name games the wheel doesn't show? It takes up to much of the video preview box or can I move the wheels a little?

There will be an option for that in 8.4 :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: hedergim on July 07, 2020, 06:17:15 AM

Videos take a long time to play,

Any solution for videos to play faster?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: Jate on July 07, 2020, 10:10:52 AM
but I wanted to see how it works with 1 single normal line and I think that maybe the images are too big and it's very close to the scroll bar ... Maybe once it could be reduced a little, what do you think?

Hmm you know, I really like those gigantic 1-row thumbnails :D but it's true they are a bit overwhelming, and also cover up a bit of the scrollbar. It would be fairly easy to reduce the size of the "zoomed" thumb, a bit more difficult for the "non zoomed" ones. I'll play with the settings and see if I can find a good compromise...

In the meantime, if you dare, you can change the zoom ratio yourself ;D look for this line in the code

Code: [Select]
local selectorscale = (rows == 1 ? (vertical ? 1.15 : 1.45) : ((prf.SCROLLERTYPE == "labellist") ? 1.4 : 1.5) )

selectorscale is the target zoom ratio of the current thumbnail. To translate my obscure variable system, if there's a single row in the layout, scale is 1.45 (in an horizontal layout like yours), otherwise, if the scrollbar is with labels it's 1.4, while the "default" is 1.5. Try to play with this number, puttins like 1.3 instead of 1.45 and see what happens.

I've tried on 1.4, and I think shifting the row up a bit I think would be enough. It's possible?
Taking as reference the image brightness I think that there is not the same distance between the image and the text above and below
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 08, 2020, 12:38:51 AM
I've tried on 1.4, and I think shifting the row up a bit I think would be enough. It's possible?
Taking as reference the image brightness I think that there is not the same distance between the image and the text above and below

You know, I'm looking deep into this issue and I can't figure out if everything is correct or not, but sure it seems artwork is not centered vertically in the "text free" area... I'll keep checking this old part of the code until my head burns out.

In the meantime, you can go in this section of the code:

Code: [Select]

local header = {
h = (prf.LOWRES ? 260*scalerate : 200*scalerate ) // content
h2 = (prf.LOWRES ? 330*scalerate : (((rows == 1) && (!prf.SLIMLINE))? 250*scalerate : 200*scalerate)) //spacer
}
local footer = {
h = (prf.LOWRES ? 150*scalerate : 100*scalerate ) // content
h2 = (prf.LOWRES ? 150*scalerate : (((rows == 1) && (!prf.SLIMLINE)) ? 150*scalerate : 100*scalerate)) //spacer
}

It's pretty complicated but for your point, you just need to change the "//spacer" portions. Default header ratio is 200, default footer is 100, so if you want to shift cells up just reduce header and increase footer. In the meantime I'll figure our if everything is fine or not...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 08, 2020, 02:48:05 AM
I've tried on 1.4, and I think shifting the row up a bit I think would be enough. It's possible?

Well there was a bug after all! Two routines that applied the same correction to tile position resulted in tiles being too low, look at the attachment for "1 row" layout: the intended design (right) has no overlap on the title and on the scrollbar. Going to fix this in 8.4
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: Jate on July 08, 2020, 03:44:47 AM
Thanks!  ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 08, 2020, 08:46:24 AM
Thanks!  ;)

Thanks to you! I found the bug originated around version 4.5! It completely went under my radar (it is very subtle though, just a slight positioning of the tiles by 8 pixel on a 1280x800 display :D )
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: hedergim on July 08, 2020, 04:43:23 PM
Thanks!  ;)

Thanks to you! I found the bug originated around version 4.5! It completely went under my radar (it is very subtle though, just a slight positioning of the tiles by 8 pixel on a 1280x800 display :D )



The videos in this layout should run in the original format of the video, and not in the format of the Flyer.

in addition, videos take a long time to start, they should be faster,

can you solve this in the next version?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 09, 2020, 01:46:43 AM
The videos in this layout should run in the original format of the video, and not in the format of the Flyer.

This won't probably ever happen, sorry. That would require a lot of rewriting and changes in the code. Plus I'm not sure it will look good.

Quote
in addition, videos take a long time to start, they should be faster,

I know, as already mentioned, next version will add an option to reduce video load delay.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: tvsht on July 09, 2020, 03:34:37 AM
The videos in this layout should run in the original format of the video, and not in the format of the Flyer.

This won't probably ever happen, sorry. That would require a lot of rewriting and changes in the code. Plus I'm not sure it will look good.


It's the sole bothersome thing that's left for me now.

I really really love how it's done in "Ambience HD' in that  thumbs transform into proper video ratio, wouldn't it be possible to borrow that code?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 09, 2020, 05:43:13 AM
It's the sole bothersome thing that's left for me now.

I really really love how it's done in "Ambience HD' in that  thumbs transform into proper video ratio, wouldn't it be possible to borrow that code?

Ambiance HD turns a cropped square thumbnail in the proper aspect ratio, but this is done with snaps, not flyers. I can see how that might look good, it's a bit more difficult for me to imagine a vertical flyer or box art that transforms in a 4:3 gameplay video without looking weird.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 13, 2020, 06:31:03 AM
Arcadeflow 8.4 is out!

Bug fixes, some tweaks to the tiles appearance, and new option to stretch backgrounds and to remove the game title over the artwork completely. Also, new options to reduce the delay before loading videos, set it to 0.25x and it's almost immediate without slowing down the scrolling.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on July 15, 2020, 11:51:42 AM
Arcadeflow 8.4 is out!

Bug fixes, some tweaks to the tiles appearance, and new option to stretch backgrounds and to remove the game title over the artwork completely. Also, new options to reduce the delay before loading videos, set it to 0.25x and it's almost immediate without slowing down the scrolling.

Enjoy!

The real question my talented friend is - what next?
- Quantum shaders?
- Neural network based real time sorting?
- COVID-19 Vaccine!  :o

Laughs aside - what do you think is the next step for AF?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: Enkak on July 15, 2020, 06:44:30 PM
Arcadeflow 8.4 is out!

Bug fixes, some tweaks to the tiles appearance, and new option to stretch backgrounds and to remove the game title over the artwork completely. Also, new options to reduce the delay before loading videos, set it to 0.25x and it's almost immediate without slowing down the scrolling.

Enjoy!

Many thanks again for your work! New version seems to be working smooth over here. :)

A small request for a few more extra system logos if possible, in this case 3 arcade systems: Sammy Atomiswave, Sega Model 2 and Sega Model 3.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 16, 2020, 12:38:06 AM
Laughs aside - what do you think is the next step for AF?

You know, this is a really good question and something I've been thinking a lot lately... well one easy answer would be: a complete rewrite of the layout, with completely "free" aspect ratio for videos and especially box art (which is forced to 4:3, 3:4 or square right now), but there are some technical limitation that would make this extremely complex at the moment (namely, there's no way to alter the z-order of elements inside a surface, so it would be difficult to do the zooming with proper drop shadows).

More realistically there are some things I still want to add or fix:

- Add an option to save a "preference set" so you can load them quickly and change all customizable aspects all at once
- Fix the "black box of death" that sometimes happens when starting AF, I put together a brand new rig to test this and I found the cause, so maybe It will be fixed in 8.5 :D
- Increase the number of system and brands logos to infinity and beyond
- Find some magic way to improve glsl shaders performance so it runs at 60 fps on old hardware (don't count on it :D )

These are, though, just incremental improvements... I need some time to just play games with the layout so I'll be inspired to add new features, but still the greatest source of inspiration for features is the forum so hopefuly people will keep using AF and asking for things I never thought of (like the command.dat integration!)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: dark1973 on July 16, 2020, 12:53:06 AM
Ho provato la nuova versione ed è fenomenale.
Ho un dubbio; per aggiungere o rimuovere i preferiti nella nuova versione (io ero fermo alla 7.otto) non compare più la finestra di conferma. E' normale o è un bug?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 16, 2020, 04:00:30 AM
Ho un dubbio; per aggiungere o rimuovere i preferiti nella nuova versione (io ero fermo alla 7.otto) non compare più la finestra di conferma. E' normale o è un bug?

E' "normale" nel senso che non ho implementato più il menu di conferma. Se è un problema posso guardarci ma ho cambiato il sistema di gestione dei preferiti e l'ho dovuto eliminare :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: dark1973 on July 16, 2020, 05:54:48 AM
No, grazie. Volevo solo una conferma. Hai gia' inserito moltissime funzioni.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: Jate on July 16, 2020, 10:10:11 AM
Hi

I have seen that you have added the option to hide the game title about the snapshot, but not when you are in boxart mode

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/6c2c5d389e3dd570091fbe64eb45447ao.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?6c2c5d389e3dd570091fbe64eb45447ao.png)

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/1dfce69b705040d8d395dc800e5901f6o.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?1dfce69b705040d8d395dc800e5901f6o.png)

By the way, it would be nice to be able to see the title of the game about the snapshot only for a few seconds and then it disappears. So when the video starts it wouldn't bother.

Something like that (photoshop):

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/2e7a1db2e98832c42c667abc1d288c4co.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?2e7a1db2e98832c42c667abc1d288c4co.png)

And another thing, does the option to update the layout from the layout itself work?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 17, 2020, 12:58:52 AM
I have seen that you have added the option to hide the game title about the snapshot, but not when you are in boxart mode

Somthing's wrong here: there's an option in the "General" section: "Game panel over box art" that should be set to "No" by default, and that's the intended default behavior. Check if maybe you set it to "Yes" instead...

Quote
By the way, it would be nice to be able to see the title of the game about the snapshot only for a few seconds and then it disappears. So when the video starts it wouldn't bother.

Interesting suggestion, the title could fade out when the movie fades in... I'll see if this can be done...

Quote
And another thing, does the option to update the layout from the layout itself work?

It should :D It's a bit hard to test on my rigs because I don't have a "clean" install of Arcadeflow but a lot of work in progress versions.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 17, 2020, 01:01:30 AM
I have seen that you have added the option to hide the game title about the snapshot, but not when you are in boxart mode

Now that I look carefully... you have square thumbs _and_ box art... that should not be the case: box art should always be at the right aspect ratio even if you set your layout thumbs to "square" :O
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 17, 2020, 10:20:07 AM
By the way, it would be nice to be able to see the title of the game about the snapshot only for a few seconds and then it disappears. So when the video starts it wouldn't bother.

Something like that (photoshop):

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/2e7a1db2e98832c42c667abc1d288c4co.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?2e7a1db2e98832c42c667abc1d288c4co.png)

I'm working on this as an option... what about the favourite, new game, tag and completed indicators? Should they fade out too or not? The code seems pretty easy to implement (strange :D )
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.4 [Release] Updated 13 July 2020
Post by: Enkak on July 17, 2020, 01:06:10 PM
Really like that option too, of elements to fade out/disappear when video starts. I would go for all indicators to fade out when video starts unless they are small and discreet. :) Maybe only the favourite indicator is more distracting since it gets in the way of the video because it's a little bigger than the others.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.3 [Release] Updated 30 June 2020
Post by: tvsht on July 18, 2020, 02:55:13 PM
It's the sole bothersome thing that's left for me now.

I really really love how it's done in "Ambience HD' in that  thumbs transform into proper video ratio, wouldn't it be possible to borrow that code?

Ambiance HD turns a cropped square thumbnail in the proper aspect ratio, but this is done with snaps, not flyers. I can see how that might look good, it's a bit more difficult for me to imagine a vertical flyer or box art that transforms in a 4:3 gameplay video without looking weird.

Yeah, I meant snaps, other stuff is in it's proper ratio already, at least in the box mode which I'm using most of the time
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.5 [Release] Updated 20 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 20, 2020, 04:06:52 AM
Arcadeflow 8.5 is out!

This version adds some new options and fixes some bugs, plus some new system logos... I don't think there will be other frequent updates for a while since I'm going on vacation at the end of the week. Hopefully there are no huge bugs to fix or I'll have to work on the beach LOL!

Enjoy the new revision!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 21, 2020, 01:14:01 AM
Arcadeflow 8.6 is out!

A day after 8.5? Well yes, there was a big and stupid bug in the automatic update routine, so if you download 8.6 (which is identical to 8.5 for everything else) you should be able to update with no issues when new versions come out.

Have a nice retrogaming summer!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: Enkak on July 21, 2020, 04:16:45 AM
Many thanks again for the update and efforts! Enjoy your vacation :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 23, 2020, 06:04:42 AM
Future steps... So I've been thinking of the issues most people have with Arcadeflow...

Someone mentioned cropping of videos in box art mode, I'll see if I can think of something, but at the moment I think the worst issue is the cropping of (artwork box arts or snaps) in the main UI. Currently all displays are adapted to 4:3, 1:1 or 3:4, but this means a bit of cropping for Lynx or Game Boy Advance for example.
As mentioned, it would be great to add proper AR independence, but that might need huge rewrites or compromises. At the moment I plan to just add _more_ ARs, so that many displays won't be cut at all, and less cutting will be needed.

I've come down to select 7 AR: 1:1, plus 3 horizontal and 3 vertical. The horizontal ones are 4:3, 3:2 (GBA) and 10:9 (Game Boy). I've done some evaluations of ARs of many system and it seems this would be a good fit for many box arts too... The chart shows dots for the real AR, crosses where the new AR are. Pretty close to many solutions, to the point that maybe I could even use "non cropped" box arts...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: markoattract on July 23, 2020, 07:27:42 AM
Hello Paolo and congrats for your work as always !!

one question: i don't want the Arcadeflow's display menu to appear, because i have another theme for the main display of AM, and Arcadeflow overrides it when i press esc or the "back  button on the arcade stick...

how can i do that ??

thank you and have a nice holyday :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 23, 2020, 08:37:38 AM
how can i do that ??


Hmm you are right this can be a problem. There no easy way to do it at the moment, but I’ll add an option to disable the display menu completely in the next version...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: markoattract on July 24, 2020, 01:23:42 AM
Thank you Paolo !!!

It would be great ! :D 
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: verion on July 24, 2020, 07:56:19 AM
Someone mentioned cropping of videos in box art mode, I'll see if I can think of something

I'm not 100% sure if this is the same problem that you want to solve, but you may want to see my approach for auto-generating boxart-like "sets" using videos

Basically it's:
1. crop the video a little in width
2. add a gradient to the top
3. add a game logo on top to fill the space at the top

Here is a video:
https://www.facebook.com/ONYXarcade/videos/883129301862589/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: verion on July 24, 2020, 08:01:06 AM
other approach is to add an overlay looking like a box/case over the video



here is the hi-res version:
https://www.facebook.com/ONYXarcade/photos/a.562943047214551/886013561574163/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: tvsht on July 30, 2020, 09:42:35 AM
please don't, or only as an option, I love cleanliness of Arcadeflow that you are able to achieve
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: verion on July 31, 2020, 02:46:24 AM
I'm not talking about steering towards skeuomorphic pseudo-realism.

I'm talking about a procedurally generated boxart - from snaps or videos + wheel/logo.
It can be in a clean Arcadeflow style.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 31, 2020, 03:07:10 AM
That’s a good idea, everyone stay sure I won’t ever do radical changes to AF that are not just options (because everybody loves options ;) ).
Actually the whole point of Arcadeflow was to generate a box art looking artwork for arcade games that usually have flyers that are not so beautiful (my personal opinion of course). If you set AF to “cropped” thumbnails you’ll get exactly that look: square portion of the screenshot faded with title overlay.
For systems that have proper box arts I like to use box art artwork and I don’t want to generate pseudo box art that’s too similar to the “snapshot” version. Actually if no box art is present, a fake one is generated using category artwork and custom colo schemes.

But I digress... the thing I’m trying to fix is that, at the moment, if the box art is vertical (genesis for example) the game video or snap is severely cropped. I’m almost ready to implement a way to smoothly cross transforms fon one aspect to the other, but I’ll dive deep into coding this after this weekend:D

Also the idea to generate fake box art that resembles real box art (with SNES or genesis template) is intriguing...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: tvsht on August 01, 2020, 02:03:46 AM

But I digress... the thing I’m trying to fix is that, at the moment, if the box art is vertical (genesis for example) the game video or snap is severely cropped. I’m almost ready to implement a way to smoothly cross transforms fon one aspect to the other, but I’ll dive deep into coding this after this weekend:D

Also the idea to generate fake box art that resembles real box art (with SNES or genesis template) is intriguing...

Yeah, I've mentioned that before, cross-transform is what I've meant, Ambience HD does it like that doesn't it? Genesis, Saturn, some early PSX, Wii/U, Amiga... verticals.

btw. Is that of any use for the theme? https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/afbfc96435df45cd487d2caf89e7b60b285bd3f1
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 01, 2020, 02:51:32 AM

Yeah, I've mentioned that before, cross-transform is what I've meant, Ambience HD does it like that doesn't it? Genesis, Saturn, some early PSX, Wii/U, Amiga... verticals.

btw. Is that of any use for the theme? https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/afbfc96435df45cd487d2caf89e7b60b285bd3f1

Ambience HD is a smart theme: it uses snaps that are cropped square and then "uncropped" to the original aspect. It does it in a very smart and smooth way running around attract mode limits without smashing into them.

With Arcadeflow I'm trying to morph a vertical box art into an horizontal snap or video, i found it requires a deeper code rewrite that I originally thought but I think it will be worth it. If the routine is good enough it could also enable smooth transition when you switch from box art to snaps... Maybe :D

The problem with my layout is that tiles are overlapping when scaled, an headache which Ambience HD avoided, and that puts limitation on how easy I can do things.

And yes I think background artwork loading will help a lot in making my layout smoother
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 10, 2020, 04:05:01 AM
August is not a month for relaxing, but for working hard! Here is a sneak preview of what the new Arcadeflow will bring: free aspect ratio of _everything_ (no more cropping) and smooth morphing of box arts into videos. No artwork stretching, with proper glow and shadow following the morph...

https://youtu.be/jnS8-g5jE2Y
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: dark1973 on August 10, 2020, 05:08:06 AM
bellissimo e fluido! :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on August 11, 2020, 12:55:18 AM
Aspect ratio freedom is the purpose of democracy!!  :D
Looking forward to seeing it in action
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: hedergim on August 11, 2020, 06:25:21 AM
I noticed a small bug,

when you add a game to a favorite, you will always be a favorite.

no matter how many games you add to favorites, when you take them out, there will always be 1 in favorites, the last one never goes out of favorites.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 11, 2020, 06:48:15 AM
no matter how many games you add to favorites, when you take them out, there will always be 1 in favorites, the last one never goes out of favorites.

This is true if you are using a filter with favourites, and it's a consequence of the way Arcadeflow manages favourites which is not exactly what Attract Mode does. In my tests if I add or remove favourites the filter is not correctly updated until I restart Arcadeflow. I'll see if I can fix that...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: alucard on August 15, 2020, 07:34:05 AM
August is not a month for relaxing, but for working hard! Here is a sneak preview of what the new Arcadeflow will bring: free aspect ratio of _everything_ (no more cropping) and smooth morphing of box arts into videos. No artwork stretching, with proper glow and shadow following the morph...

https://youtu.be/jnS8-g5jE2Y

Many thanks for the efforts!
Exactly as expected  8)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: tvsht on August 16, 2020, 11:37:35 AM
August is not a month for relaxing, but for working hard! Here is a sneak preview of what the new Arcadeflow will bring: free aspect ratio of _everything_ (no more cropping) and smooth morphing of box arts into videos. No artwork stretching, with proper glow and shadow following the morph...

https://youtu.be/jnS8-g5jE2Y


What a beauty!
What I would like to see is to have buttons with proper states, with active, pressed, etc, let's say a favorite/star button and moving between them. Is that possible in attract even? I know that the way attract handles inputs restricts many things.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on August 16, 2020, 07:17:04 PM
When this works, it's beautiful. It occasionally will just show big text, and most of the time I have to go to the right about 3 pages of games before the display looks correct.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 17, 2020, 12:33:52 AM
When this works, it's beautiful. It occasionally will just show big text, and most of the time I have to go to the right about 3 pages of games before the display looks correct.

This is not good, when does it happen? Maybe when you change a display? When you launch Attract Mode with Arcadeflow does it work correctly?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 17, 2020, 12:45:32 AM
What I would like to see is to have buttons with proper states, with active, pressed, etc, let's say a favorite/star button and moving between them. Is that possible in attract even? I know that the way attract handles inputs restricts many things.

I get your point, I think it should be feasible, but I'm not sure where this could be useful in Arcadeflow... maybe on the on-screen keyboard? Or generally for every item you can select, like the pop-up context menu?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on August 17, 2020, 12:18:41 PM
When this works, it's beautiful. It occasionally will just show big text, and most of the time I have to go to the right about 3 pages of games before the display looks correct.

This is not good, when does it happen? Maybe when you change a display? When you launch Attract Mode with Arcadeflow does it work correctly?

I want to do a fresh install and see if it still happens. Where do you go via Arcadeflow to configure all the controls...like the navigation left right up down....I didn't see that option.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 18, 2020, 01:06:37 AM
I want to do a fresh install and see if it still happens. Where do you go via Arcadeflow to configure all the controls...like the navigation left right up down....I didn't see that option.

You can open Arcadeflow options going "up" from the first row of icons and then selecting from the menu, or use the "Layout Options" shortcut of Attract Mode directly.
You can't customize the navigation controls: left/right on the joystick/keyboard will always move left and right, same with up and down. You can customize these in Attract Mode but Arcadeflow will override that setting. You can customize special buttons though, to call menus or activate box artwork...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 18, 2020, 01:50:18 AM
Arcadeflow 8.7 is out!

As anticipated, the most important new feature is "aspect ratio freedom" and smooth morph between box art and game snap. This implied huge changes under the hood so I hope there are not too many bugs...

Actually, for reasons related to the manage of custom sized shadows, aspect is limited from 0.25 to 4.0, then it will be cropped, but 4.0 is wide enough that most Mame marquees will fit, if you'll ever want to use them as box art :D The animation from vertical to horizontal aspect is as smooth as I could get it, using a "squircle" like path to move between aspects.

Hope you'll enjoy the new version, have fun!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: tvsht on August 18, 2020, 12:58:46 PM
What I would like to see is to have buttons with proper states, with active, pressed, etc, let's say a favorite/star button and moving between them. Is that possible in attract even? I know that the way attract handles inputs restricts many things.

I get your point, I think it should be feasible, but I'm not sure where this could be useful in Arcadeflow... maybe on the on-screen keyboard? Or generally for every item you can select, like the pop-up context menu?

Yep, you've got what I meant. But ultimately, I would love to have something on the edge to move between systems, vertically, not via popup menu. Even just some dots.

Just tested the newest version, that snap transformation feature is amazing, just the animation when it returns back is too slow for me.

Also, video/snap previews are bugged in history panel, they play fine for some and for some they're corrupted ort stop right after starting, they all play fine in grid. [ might be my sys though, upgraded mesa recently, gonna check ]
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.6 [Release] Updated 21 July 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 19, 2020, 12:50:34 AM
Just tested the newest version, that snap transformation feature is amazing, just the animation when it returns back is too slow for me.

I agree, that happens because at the moment transformation is tied to fade in/out of the video, I plan to "decouple" it so that the transformation has its own timing

Quote
Also, video/snap previews are bugged in history panel, they play fine for some and for some they're corrupted ort stop right after starting, they all play fine in grid. [ might be my sys though, upgraded mesa recently, gonna check ]

What kind of corruption do you see? Also if you can share one of the videos that gives the problem I can have a look at it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on August 19, 2020, 05:53:04 PM
Uniform "enabled" not found in shader

Not sure what's causing the above error, but I thought I'd share.

Is there an option for overview text to be justified?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 20, 2020, 03:29:14 AM
Uniform "enabled" not found in shader

This is a glsl shader error, probably something I forgot along the way, that's not so important and shouldn't impact performance. Debugging glsl shaders is a nightmare :D

Quote
Is there an option for overview text to be justified?

Hmm I don't think there's such an option in Attract Mode... maybe I should write my on justification routine... maybe NOT :D :D :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on August 20, 2020, 03:47:09 AM
The overview text is displayed centered at the moment, I figured it was just something like changing a C too a J.

Thanks for this theme by the way. It's really the first theme I've used that is screen agnostic.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: markoattract on August 21, 2020, 03:57:20 AM
Hello Paolo, first of all THANKS for the big work as always ...

I have a little question : every time i start AM, Arcadeflow generate screenshots named "frostgrab1.png" in AM main folder ... So i delete the pics , but when i restart again AM the pics are generated again ...

So i have tried to deselect Arcadeflow and AM don't generate the pics ...

It's a bug or something ?? anyway, it's not important, your Layout is AWESOME !!!

have a nice day !!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 21, 2020, 04:01:12 AM
I have a little question : every time i start AM, Arcadeflow generate screenshots named "frostgrab1.png" in AM main folder ... So i delete the pics , but when i restart again AM the pics are generated again ...

This screenshots are generated to create the frosted glass effect behind menus. They should be deleted when you exit Attract Mode, if everything works as expected. Also at the launch of Arcadeflow spurious frostgrab files are purged. If you see them then there might be some issue with file access, do you see errors in the log when running attract-console.exe?

If you disable frosted glass effect from the options menu of Arcadeflow you won't see them anymore.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: markoattract on August 21, 2020, 04:55:00 AM
Hello paolo and thanks for the fast answer !!

Yes, on the console i can see 2 errors with the same content :

"Error opening file for reading: P:\Emulation\FRONTEND\attract mode\attract-v2.6.1-win64\layouts\Arcadeflow_87\pref_layoutoptions.txt: cannot open file"

then i have checked on the arcadeflow folder for the file but i didn't found it. but if these pictures are necessary for the layout to work correctly is good ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Zel on August 21, 2020, 09:22:59 AM
Hi guys,

While I was searching for a good MAME frontend on linux, I've discovered Attract mode and immediatly loved it. Then Arcadeflow become my default theme!
So, I'm super noob about almost everything, sorry for the dumb question, I've tried to search but without results :(

Is there a way to let Arcadeflow show rom titles instead of snapshot? I've created the "titles" source on mame configuration inside AM, the source is pointing to the folder which contains the titles collection but I don't understand if it's possibile to set Arcadeflow to display titles.

I know that I can point the snap to titles directory but I would like to have both of them configured.

Am I missing something?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 21, 2020, 10:36:25 AM
I know that I can point the snap to titles directory but I would like to have both of them configured.

Am I missing something?

Hi Zel, at the moment that's the only option to get titles in Arcadeflow, to map them as "snaps". If you have your videos in a different folder, then you can map both the titles and videos folder to "snaps", it will show static titles and then fade to videos.

I think it might be a good idea to add an option to use "titles" instead of snaps, so you'll see titles, and then they will fade into gameplay snaps or videos. I'll add the option to the next release ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Zel on August 22, 2020, 03:22:44 AM
Grazie Paolo per la risposta super veloce :)

I love arcadeflow and I really appreciate your work here!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 23, 2020, 01:05:23 AM
Grazie Paolo per la risposta super veloce :)

I love arcadeflow and I really appreciate your work here!

Preview of the feature in 8.8 ;) Sorry for the bland Game Boy pocket colors, it's the only system for which I have titles artowrk :D Looks good if you remove the game logo too...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Jate on August 23, 2020, 09:21:43 AM
Hi Paolo

Online update run?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 24, 2020, 01:53:31 PM
Online update run?

? Do you mean if it works? Well it should :/ Did you have issues with the update?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Jate on August 25, 2020, 07:45:20 AM
Online update run?

? Do you mean if it works? Well it should :/ Did you have issues with the update?
Yes, I do not see any message that warns that there is a new version. In the main menu it puts updates, but if I select nothing happens. I have configured "Download and install" and I have also tried "Download only"
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 27, 2020, 03:09:10 AM
Yes, I do not see any message that warns that there is a new version. In the main menu it puts updates, but if I select nothing happens. I have configured "Download and install" and I have also tried "Download only"

Aw, this auto-update feature is a nightmare :( Do you have any error messages in the logs? I'll check if something wrong and fix it in the next release, you'll have to manually update in the meantime :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Zel on August 27, 2020, 03:23:58 AM
Grazie Paolo per la risposta super veloce :)

I love arcadeflow and I really appreciate your work here!

Preview of the feature in 8.8 ;)

wow, amazing :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 27, 2020, 03:26:27 AM
wow, amazing :)

Thanks, the background though is still taking its artwork from the snapshot. Maybe that needs to be changed too but it's nice when the title artwork fade into the gameplay.

I'm also fixing all the "aspect ratio" engine so that every game has its own pixel AR taken into account (like Game Gear with non square pixels, or CRT consoles with strange resolutions). I'm getting obsessed with all this AR thing LOL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 28, 2020, 03:27:32 AM
Another sneak peek: titles thumbnails with matched background, vertical snaps for WonderSwan and other consoles with no "Orientation" property, and a new "HIDDEN" tag that, when set, hides your rom from the list, but you can show them in transparency :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Jate on August 28, 2020, 03:28:23 AM
Yes, I do not see any message that warns that there is a new version. In the main menu it puts updates, but if I select nothing happens. I have configured "Download and install" and I have also tried "Download only"

Aw, this auto-update feature is a nightmare :( Do you have any error messages in the logs? I'll check if something wrong and fix it in the next release, you'll have to manually update in the meantime :(

this works?
I see the pref_update.txt file is missing

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/5ce9c619c5ccfc74fc1f4a00d3dce567o.jpg)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 28, 2020, 03:41:36 AM
I see the pref_update.txt file is missing

Going through the error messages in that log...

Many "Error opening file for reading" are not really errors: there are some preference files or favourite date files that are not created by default, and there's no way to catch that error because the files module catches it by itself and gives that message.

The error that counts is the "curl" related one, it seems curl can't get the "latest_version.txt" from the web, but since curl is run in "silent" mode it's difficult to debug it. If you want to help me debug it, please open layout.nut and remove the "--silent" options everywhere you find it, then try running the update again.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Jate on August 28, 2020, 04:30:12 AM
I have deleted all the "--silent" from layout.nut and nothing new happens

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/50ed5f22a65556df545cfd5311d645e5o.jpg)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 28, 2020, 05:39:57 AM
I have deleted all the "--silent" from layout.nut and nothing new happens

I have found an issue: when using "curl" in Windows the output is very different than on Unix systems and options are different too...

Try substituting "--output" in the layout.nut with "-o" that should make it work (I hope)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Jate on August 29, 2020, 03:47:21 AM
I have deleted all the "--silent" from layout.nut and nothing new happens

I have found an issue: when using "curl" in Windows the output is very different than on Unix systems and options are different too...

Try substituting "--output" in the layout.nut with "-o" that should make it work (I hope)

No, sorry:

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/d8a35c80e16a95a284ef781ad3bdedf7o.jpg)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 29, 2020, 07:50:53 AM

No, sorry:


I just noticed your shell window is from windows 7/vista, not win10. I think curl is not pre-installed on early versions of windows and that might explain ehi it doesn’t work :O I think you can install curl manually but I’m not sure if the current command line will work. I’ll also check if I can package curl with the new revision but I had issues with that
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: Jate on August 29, 2020, 10:59:23 AM
Yes, I use windows 7.
I don't know how Curl works, so I'll update arcadeflow manually.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 31, 2020, 02:34:29 AM
Yes, I use windows 7.
I don't know how Curl works, so I'll update arcadeflow manually.

Well this is the last resort: you can download curl.exe from here: http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/tools/curl.exe and place it in your Arcadeflow folder. This should work with the layout command line, hopefully.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 03, 2020, 04:11:30 AM
Preview of 8.8: color correction for GBA games, no more orange reds ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: clockman on September 06, 2020, 04:50:53 PM
Am i doing something wrong, the videos are only showing for the game i am high lighted on. The previous and next game are blank.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.7 [Release] Updated 18 August 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 07, 2020, 12:25:00 AM
Am i doing something wrong, the videos are only showing for the game i am high lighted on. The previous and next game are blank.

This is the expected behavior, you need to define some "static" artwork for the other games, either you add static snaps to your "snaps" category, or "titles" artwork or "flyer" artwork. The theme will use snaps by default, but you can set in the options to use titles artwork. Or you can se the "boxart mode" in the options to use flyers and box art instead of game snapshots.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 10, 2020, 11:34:29 PM
Arcadeflow 8.8 is out!

Hope you like it, it's faster, more stable, with better LCD effects and some new options. Also, CURL.EXE is included in the archive to allow windows users to enjoy automatic updates without issues (hopefully!).
Since I completely rewrite the sorting routines and list management routines, fixing issues with favourites etc, please tell me if something is not working as expected!

Oh, one last thing (LOL): you can now hide games that you don't want to see in your list!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Enkak on September 10, 2020, 11:41:04 PM
Always amazing work. :) I'll try the new version as soon as the error on website disappears when trying to download v.8.8.  ;)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 11, 2020, 12:19:25 AM
Always amazing work. :) I'll try the new version as soon as the error on website disappears when trying to download v.8.8.  ;)

 ::) My bad, I put the archive in the wrong folder... should be ok now :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Enkak on September 11, 2020, 08:33:39 AM
Download working good now. :)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Jate on September 13, 2020, 10:06:19 AM
Hi Paolo,
sorry for not answering earlier.

It doesn't work with the curl.exe file in Arcadeflow:

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/65b49cc84e75bda003593cb7d3b50038o.png)

but I have done it manually from the command line and it works fine:

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/23b505fdd35d97e41d319c43be417372o.png)

The problem must be running the command with curl.exe.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 16, 2020, 06:51:50 AM
The problem must be running the command with curl.exe.

I see, sadly I can't do tests on Windows 7, I only have Win 10 on my PCs... I think the issue now is the path: in Win 10 if curl.exe is in the Arcadeflow directory it gets launched even if I don't explicitly put the whole path. In Win 7 probably it needs the whole path in the command line :( I tried in the past but that gave me issues with some characters in the path. BTW I'll see what can be done.
Other than that, did you manage to install 8.8? Any issue with that?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Jate on September 17, 2020, 04:02:53 AM
I have copied the files: Arcadeflow_88.tar.gz and latest_version.txt to the Arcadeflow folder.

I start AM and I get that there is a new version, I select download and install and I get this:

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/4aaa745a4bf4e7b158a46829f9674791o.png)

But when starting again it tries to load the Arcadeflow_88 layout and as it does not exist it does not load any layout.

Sorry
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 17, 2020, 04:26:38 AM
But when starting again it tries to load the Arcadeflow_88 layout and as it does not exist it does not load any layout.

Yep, auto update assumes you are not changing the Arcadeflow folder name, so Arcadeflow_87 should be your current folder, and it will be upgraded to Arcadeflow_88, and the attract.cfg will be updated accordingly.
There's an alternative though: make a backup copy of your current Arcadeflow directory just to be sure, and simply extract the new archive "on top" of the old one. It should not touch your preference files!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Jate on September 17, 2020, 05:03:35 AM
Yep, auto update assumes you are not changing the Arcadeflow folder name, so Arcadeflow_87 should be your current folder, and it will be upgraded to Arcadeflow_88, and the attract.cfg will be updated accordingly.


I have done a test and I have put the layout as Arcadeflow_87 and I have assigned it to the emulators.
This is how it should be, right? although the problem is the same

(https://fotos.subefotos.com/9eb8b5eddb7b4240cb8736ce339bf710o.png)


There's an alternative though: make a backup copy of your current Arcadeflow directory just to be sure, and simply extract the new archive "on top" of the old one. It should not touch your preference files!

I do so normally and no problem ;)

PD: Are you still working on more news and layout changes? I prefer to wait to update the Spanish translation (I have seen new things)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 18, 2020, 02:04:46 AM
I have done a test and I have put the layout as Arcadeflow_87 and I have assigned it to the emulators.
This is how it should be, right? although the problem is the same

Hmm can you try giving this command from a shell?
Code: [Select]
mkdir "D:\AM\TESTTESTTEST/"and see if it works? It should create a TESTTESTTEST folder inside your AM folder.

Quote
PD: Are you still working on more news and layout changes? I prefer to wait to update the Spanish translation (I have seen new things)

I think it's better to wait a bit, I'm adding new sorting options to the displays menu list, and I still need to translate to italian the new text added in latest versions. Let me do it in 8.8, then you'll be able to do the translation more easily
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Jate on September 18, 2020, 08:22:18 AM

Hmm can you try giving this command from a shell?
Code: [Select]
mkdir "D:\AM\TESTTESTTEST/"and see if it works? It should create a TESTTESTTEST folder inside your AM folder.

Yes, work

(http://thumbs.subefotos.com/526cd46b76cd4176003bd16bb54e1327o.jpg) (https://subefotos.com/ver/?526cd46b76cd4176003bd16bb54e1327o.png)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Enkak on September 19, 2020, 02:16:18 PM
Noticing with new version that each time I enter AF, when I select a collection the layout seems to hang a little until it enters like it's processing something. It feels slower than before because of that. Doesn't seem related to size of collection or romlists.

PS: Is there a way to add a global favorite collection (that has all the favorites since I'm using a master romlist), like a system, to display menu? I tried it but on AF each time I selected it, the layout hanged a little then went to first collection in display menu instead. ???
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 02:19:15 AM
Noticing with new version that each time I enter AF, when I select a collection the layout seems to hang a little until it enters like it's processing something. It feels slower than before because of that. Doesn't seem related to size of collection or romlists.

When you say a "collection" you mean a display built from a romlist generated aggregating romlists using Attract Mode "Generate Collection / Rom List"? There might be a delay when changing displays because of the way Arcadeflow scans the displays list to switch to the correct one without restarting the layout, but that's not changed in latest versions so it shouldn't be slower than previous AF. Can you run attract-console.exe and see if you have error messages when changing to a collection?

Quote
PS: Is there a way to add a global favorite collection (that has all the favorites since I'm using a master romlist), like a system, to display menu? I tried it but on AF each time I selected it, the layout hanged a little then went to first collection in display menu instead. ???

Is your master romlist created through Attract Mode usual menus, or did you hack your romlist files to create it? There's probably some bug here, let's see first if there are error messages when running it from the console.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 02:51:47 AM
Noticing with new version that each time I enter AF, when I select a collection the layout seems to hang a little until it enters like it's processing something.

I just noticed another possible issue: if you hide layouts from the displays menu it should work flawlessly, unless you hide them from the cycle too. Basically Arcadeflow will freak out if some layouts are not in the cycle list :/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on September 20, 2020, 05:45:06 AM
This is a consistent crash on my win10 pc. A fresh copy of AF_88, AM 2.6.1 of course.
https://youtu.be/r9Tp7kf7EDE

Switching from 2 rows to 1 and then from 1 and 2 rows?

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Enkak on September 20, 2020, 05:54:32 AM
When I said a collection I meant like a normal system, say SNES or Dreamcast or other.  ;)

The master romlist is created from all the collections/systems available and the romlist appears like this:

#System name 1
games

#System name 2
games


Running attract-console (needs to be from stable 2.6.1, daily version gets issues with AF) only see this error at launch, with several entries with this:

Uniform "enabled" not found in shader


Regarding favorites, now that you mentioned that about AF not liking layouts hiding from the cycle, I had it hide when tested because I wanted for it to be available only in the displays menu. Tried unhide cycle and works good after that. ??? Thanks for the hint.  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 07:05:30 AM
When I said a collection I meant like a normal system, say SNES or Dreamcast or other.  ;)

The master romlist is created from all the collections/systems available and the romlist appears like this:

#System name 1
games

#System name 2
games


I'm not familiar with this setup: I usually define a display for each emulator, and each emulator has the "System" field filled accordingly, then I generate a collection if I need a multi-system romlist, but I think it's different from a master romlist. Do you create it manually?

I'm fixing the bug with displays not in cycle list, and also increasing the display switching speed, but a bit of hiccup before changing display is unavoidable (alternative would be reloading the entire layout which will take much longer)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 09:02:03 AM
This is a consistent crash on my win10 pc. A fresh copy of AF_88, AM 2.6.1 of course.
https://youtu.be/r9Tp7kf7EDE

Switching from 2 rows to 1 and then from 1 and 2 rows?

Hmm this is weird... does it crash only when you turn on the audio in thumbnails? When you change the options from 1 row to 2 rows the layout reloads, so there should be no interference between one and the other, each time it reloads from scratch.

The errors I see in the log are not really errors, just warnings, but just to be sure can you share the content of the D:\arcade\attract\romlists\mame.favdate file? If it exists obviously...

Trying to figure out what could've gone wrong, the first thing I suspect is an issue with audio, so if you can try with no audio in the thumbnails to see if it crashes anyway.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 09:04:41 AM
Switching from 2 rows to 1 and then from 1 and 2 rows?

But before anything else, try disabling the "automatically check for update" feature from the "Update" options menu... just in case something weird happens when the layout tries to auto update
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Enkak on September 20, 2020, 09:30:23 AM
When I said a collection I meant like a normal system, say SNES or Dreamcast or other.  ;)

The master romlist is created from all the collections/systems available and the romlist appears like this:

#System name 1
games

#System name 2
games


I'm not familiar with this setup: I usually define a display for each emulator, and each emulator has the "System" field filled accordingly, then I generate a collection if I need a multi-system romlist, but I think it's different from a master romlist. Do you create it manually?

I'm fixing the bug with displays not in cycle list, and also increasing the display switching speed, but a bit of hiccup before changing display is unavoidable (alternative would be reloading the entire layout which will take much longer)

Many thanks again for your help and effort.  :)

At first I started doing the master romlist using AM feature for that, to generate a romlist using all the ones available (putting "YES" on all the systems) then save it with a different name, like "all games" or other. But found that it got me some issues on systems like arcade/mame when doing that. Also didn't like how it didn't separate so well the systems in the romlist file like the example I gave before.

Plus, I'm using a global filter rule on all the systems with "FileIsAvailable equals 1" together with full sets romlists (generated by AM using xml lists) to avoid the need to ever generate a romlist with any game that I might add. This way the games instant appear in the frontend when you add any if they follow the no intro naming. And this also got me a specific issue when using AM auto generating a master romlist since it only puts there the games available at the time, not the full sets lists. So, basically, I had to do a mix of auto and manual. Auto for all the systems individually, then copy/paste manually all the systems romlists to the master one. :P

A master romlist can also be very useful for the favorites and custom collections generated by AM filters too (Mario, Sonic, etc) because that way they can appear and used globally from all the systems in a build instead of being connected only to single systems.

Looking forward to test the new fixes and improvements as usual. :)

PS: Maybe you can create also a favorites logo (with the star or other solution you prefer) with the text font like the systems if we want to have them in the display menu?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 09:33:30 AM
Plus, I'm using a global filter rule on all the systems with "FileIsAvailable equals 1"

Ah, global filter rules! I don't even know if AF can work with that :D Gotta check out how it fares with my custom list management...

Quote
PS: Maybe you can create also a favorites logo (with the star or other solution you prefer) with the text font like the systems if we want to have them in the display menu?

That would be a nice idea, adding a "Favourites" system with proper logo
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Enkak on September 20, 2020, 09:42:50 AM
Plus, I'm using a global filter rule on all the systems with "FileIsAvailable equals 1"

Ah, global filter rules! I don't even know if AF can work with that :D Gotta check out how it fares with my custom list management...

Quote
PS: Maybe you can create also a favorites logo (with the star or other solution you prefer) with the text font like the systems if we want to have them in the display menu?

That would be a nice idea, adding a "Favourites" system with proper logo

Many thx again!

It works in AF quite well. ;)

Having a master romlist and global rule filters and others can be great since it allows stuff like this print, showing here a global favorites collection spreading from all the systems that you have instead. Then the fun starts with custom collections too, using AM filters to find automatically any street fighter game, any (insert title), or show only games from specific emulator/system... The possibilities can be endless since filters are one of the best AM features. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on September 20, 2020, 09:46:07 AM
But before anything else, try disabling the "automatically check for update" feature from the "Update" options menu... just in case something weird happens when the layout tries to auto update

Ok, it's the auto update for sure.

As for the mame.favdate file - it was empty and after after deleting it it still crashed.
Changing from 1 to 2 rows and back doesn't crash the layout and audio on/off works as well.

Only when I enable auto update it crashes.

If it's not a bug, you didn't make it idiot proof. So let's make sure I am using the layout properly:
I am unzipping it and copying the Arcadeflow_88 folder to my layouts folder. That's basically it   :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 10:09:39 AM
Only when I enable auto update it crashes.

If it's not a bug, you didn't make it idiot proof. So let's make sure I am using the layout properly:
I am unzipping it and copying the Arcadeflow_88 folder to my layouts folder. That's basically it   :D

I think you are using it properly, it's auto update that is giving me headaches. I'll try to replicate the issue in Windows 10 (that's your system, right?), the main problem with auto update is that it uses external software I have few control on, and if something goes wrong it can mess with attract mode and hang it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on September 20, 2020, 10:59:24 AM
I think you are using it properly, it's auto update that is giving me headaches. I'll try to replicate the issue in Windows 10 (that's your system, right?), the main problem with auto update is that it uses external software I have few control on, and if something goes wrong it can mess with attract mode and hang it.

Yes, I'm using windows 10 v1903. I didn't know that the auto update was an external API - this can be a real issue if it's a black box. What are you using?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 01:06:14 PM

Yes, I'm using windows 10 v1903. I didn't know that the auto update was an external API - this can be a real issue if it's a black box. What are you using?

I'm using curl to get latest version info and download the file from my web space, then mkdir to create folders and tar to unpack everything. The problem is that curl in windows is just an alias for a different command so I packed curl.exe in the archive but it seems there are still issues.
Since all these depends on the user system it is very difficult to debug and to make it failsafe...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 20, 2020, 11:59:38 PM
It works in AF quite well. ;)

Having a master romlist and global rule filters and others can be great since it allows stuff like this print, showing here a global favorites collection spreading from all the systems that you have instead. Then the fun starts with custom collections too, using AM filters to find automatically any street fighter game, any (insert title), or show only games from specific emulator/system... The possibilities can be endless since filters are one of the best AM features. :)

This is very interesting. I've always thought of implementing a "global favourite" function in my layout, but it's not possible, or better it's possible if the layout scans all the romlists and build an internal custom list, but then it won't be able to launch games.
I also thought that if the user can make a romlist merging all the systems romlists, then Arcadeflow can treat it as a single huge list filtering by systems etc, substituting "displays menu" with a self buils Systems menu that actually filters the huge list, but that's really overkill: Arcadeflow will struggle in sorting and especially realtime filtering such a list.

On the other hand the use of master romlists for each system, with default filter works flawlessly, I feared that it would slow down Arcadeflow but it doesn't because when you load them into the layout Attract Mode applies the filter very quickly.

I have a question on how it could work, because I got from your post that you work with separated romlists for each system and one master romlist, but in this way I don't know if you have to generate the master romlist anytime something changes in the single romlists.

You said that you had to build the master romlist yourself, the one with all the master romlists from the various systems, right? Well maybe the layout could do it for you :O

My idea is this:

- create master romlists for each system
- stitch them together so you can create a huge master romlist
- create a Display for each system, adding a filter like "available = true & system = SNES"
- create custom displays for cross-system favourites or collections etc
- create custom displays "per category", for example one with all consoles, all computers etc

In this way all the changes you make to one display list are reflected in all the other lists. Is this what you are doing?

At the moment if you want to add an "All Consoles" display in Arcadeflow you can do it: just create a merged romlist (or filtered master romlist) and name it "All Consoles#CONSOLE". Bear in mind though that if you remove a display from the cycle list, Arcadeflow won't be able to jump to that :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 21, 2020, 12:03:02 AM
Plus, I'm using a global filter rule on all the systems with "FileIsAvailable equals 1" together with full sets romlists (generated by AM using xml lists) to avoid the need to ever generate a romlist with any game that I might add.

Can you explain me how it is done? Very interested in this feature :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: Enkak on September 21, 2020, 12:48:28 AM
Plus, I'm using a global filter rule on all the systems with "FileIsAvailable equals 1" together with full sets romlists (generated by AM using xml lists) to avoid the need to ever generate a romlist with any game that I might add.

Can you explain me how it is done? Very interested in this feature :D

Sure  :)
First step is using hyperlist kinda xml lists for AM to generate a full set romlist.

You can do it opening a command line and:
attract --import-romlist <source_file> [emulator name]
or
attract --import-romlist "system name list.xml" "system name"

Then in attract.cfg file, Spectrum example to show any game automatically when added to the roms path:

Code: [Select]
display Sinclair ZX Spectrum
layout               Arcadeflow_88
romlist              Sinclair ZX Spectrum
in_cycle             yes
in_menu              yes
global_filter       
rule                 FileIsAvailable equals 1
filter               All
sort_by              Title


Mind you that your files or the user ones need to have the same name as those lists of course, that usually follow no intro name, with the exception of mame and a few other arcade systems.

It works in AF quite well. ;)

Having a master romlist and global rule filters and others can be great since it allows stuff like this print, showing here a global favorites collection spreading from all the systems that you have instead. Then the fun starts with custom collections too, using AM filters to find automatically any street fighter game, any (insert title), or show only games from specific emulator/system... The possibilities can be endless since filters are one of the best AM features. :)

This is very interesting. I've always thought of implementing a "global favourite" function in my layout, but it's not possible, or better it's possible if the layout scans all the romlists and build an internal custom list, but then it won't be able to launch games.
I also thought that if the user can make a romlist merging all the systems romlists, then Arcadeflow can treat it as a single huge list filtering by systems etc, substituting "displays menu" with a self buils Systems menu that actually filters the huge list, but that's really overkill: Arcadeflow will struggle in sorting and especially realtime filtering such a list.

On the other hand the use of master romlists for each system, with default filter works flawlessly, I feared that it would slow down Arcadeflow but it doesn't because when you load them into the layout Attract Mode applies the filter very quickly.

I have a question on how it could work, because I got from your post that you work with separated romlists for each system and one master romlist, but in this way I don't know if you have to generate the master romlist anytime something changes in the single romlists.

You said that you had to build the master romlist yourself, the one with all the master romlists from the various systems, right? Well maybe the layout could do it for you :O

My idea is this:

- create master romlists for each system
- stitch them together so you can create a huge master romlist
- create a Display for each system, adding a filter like "available = true & system = SNES"
- create custom displays for cross-system favourites or collections etc
- create custom displays "per category", for example one with all consoles, all computers etc

In this way all the changes you make to one display list are reflected in all the other lists. Is this what you are doing?

At the moment if you want to add an "All Consoles" display in Arcadeflow you can do it: just create a merged romlist (or filtered master romlist) and name it "All Consoles#CONSOLE". Bear in mind though that if you remove a display from the cycle list, Arcadeflow won't be able to jump to that :(

Regarding romlists, what I usually do is generate first the full set one for any system individually. Then I just copy paste it after to the global master romlist with:
#System name
copy paste all games from the system individual full set romlist

When I need to edit something in the lists (score, number of players, etc), normally I do it first again in the single system romlists, then just copy paste again/overwrite the system in the global master romlist. Sounds like lot of work but it's really just a minutes process.  :-*

Yeah, had to do it manually (copy paste all systems romlists, separated with #System name) due to issues when using AM menu generate process.

Your idea is similar to what I've been doing manually so a more automatic process would be great of course.

I use also another global filter rule for AF to show only a specific system per display together with the global master romlist, that works similar to what you are describing. Here's again a Spectrum example:

Code: [Select]
display Sinclair ZX Spectrum
layout               Arcadeflow_88
romlist              All Systems
in_cycle             yes
in_menu              yes
global_filter       
rule                 FileIsAvailable equals 1
rule                 Emulator equals Sinclair ZX Spectrum
filter               All
sort_by              Title


Regarding custom displays, I have some similar to this, spreading from all romlists and organize by year in this case:

Code: [Select]
display Mario
layout               Arcadeflow_88
romlist              All Systems
in_cycle             yes
in_menu              yes
global_filter       
rule                 FileIsAvailable equals 1
rule                 Title contains Mario|Luigi
filter               
sort_by              Year

Or just about any genre, title and whatever we want basically.  ;D

Thanks you for the hint about the "All Consoles" example. :)
Usually, unless the layout has artwork, a way to generate it or if I can make something, I don't have these kind of custom collections in cycle or menu because of that. Thankfully AF at least always show the title in display menu so it's great.  :D

Like the "Favorites" example, using a global master romlist opens some interesting possibilities for any kind of global displays and custom collections. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on September 24, 2020, 07:06:10 AM
Are you able to include a blank transparent png that would scale to the screen so one could replace that transparent png with their own of an image of a controller with the buttons showing the commands in the position they decide?

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 24, 2020, 08:18:26 AM
Are you able to include a blank transparent png that would scale to the screen so one could replace that transparent png with their own of an image of a controller with the buttons showing the commands in the position they decide?

At the moment you can include a custom transparent background for main screen and history page, but of course this will be beeyond the snap tiles. What tou want instead is an overlay that sits on top of everythimg, always in the same position, right? I can make it for the next release ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.8 [Release] Updated 10 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on September 24, 2020, 08:37:29 AM
Yes, that would be AWESOME!!!

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 25, 2020, 02:18:52 AM
Arcadeflow 8.9 is out!

From now on, the auto-update routine for windows should definitely work (fingers crossed!) but there are many other changes and fixes in this version: new colors for the game boy snapshots, a new zoom-out effect when leaving the tiles area, the option to add an overlay (look for the option in the background settings section) and you can now sort the displays menu in different ways!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on September 25, 2020, 09:19:09 AM
Arcadeflow 8.9 is out!

From now on, the auto-update routine for windows should definitely work (fingers crossed!)

Here I come! 0_0

EDIT: Works! I mean the auto update doesn't crash when it's on. Next release we'll see if it updates. I've set it on download and install 0_0
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on September 25, 2020, 09:34:36 AM
Well, I may have a bug for you for the next version.
AF's main menu sends me to the wrong system:
https://youtu.be/rW6QDfAycdI

It consistently sends me to either the last system (In my case Game&Watch), or to the second system after AF which is Sega Model 2.
attached is my attract.cfg
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 25, 2020, 10:16:10 PM
Well, I may have a bug for you for the next version.
AF's main menu sends me to the wrong system:

I think this is caused by the way Arcadeflow switches displays: if you are not using Arcadeflow for all your displays then it will not work as expected. Did it work in the previous version, with the same configuration? Basically what AF does is it triggers "next_display" or "prev_display" signals until it reaches the right display, then updates all its data. This means that, if the display layout is always Arcadeflow, the layout is never reloaded when switching displays. But if a display is _not_ Arcadeflow, all this trick will fail. I can add an option to use the "old" display load system in the next release.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on September 25, 2020, 11:22:32 PM
I think this is caused by the way Arcadeflow switches displays: if you are not using Arcadeflow for all your displays then it will not work as expected. Did it work in the previous version, with the same configuration? Basically what AF does is it triggers "next_display" or "prev_display" signals until it reaches the right display, then updates all its data. This means that, if the display layout is always Arcadeflow, the layout is never reloaded when switching displays. But if a display is _not_ Arcadeflow, all this trick will fail. I can add an option to use the "old" display load system in the next release.

That would be great as I don't see a reason why AF's navigation feature should not work with other themes.
I think that one of the strengths of AM is that we can mix whatever we want - it's super cool IMO to mix my great themes collection with arcadeflow and hyperspin (pcca) and I need to navigate between them of course. It's a legit prerequisite.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on September 26, 2020, 02:12:50 PM
8.9 Custom Transparent Overlay Feature

Thank you for adding this! It makes it so seamless to allow people to know what the buttons are going to do.

I just need to make the custom image in a higher resolution next time....
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 27, 2020, 06:56:27 AM
That would be great as I don't see a reason why AF's navigation feature should not work with other themes.

There is a precise technical reason: there's a difference in the way attract mode reacts when you change a display between displays that use the same layout file: using fe.set_display() function the romlist is loaded and the layout is reloaded, but when you use an hotkey or the displays menu only the romlist is loaded, and it's much faster because since the layout is the same, it doesn't reload.
Now Arcadeflow by default doesn't use the normal Displays Menu, so I wanted to use a trick to avoid layout reloading not only when going to next/prev, but also jumping to a selected display in _my_ menu: instead of using fe.set_display I trigger a number of next_display signals until the right display is reached. Of course if meanwhile there's a display that uses a different layout, everything stops because in that case the new layout is always reloaded.

Quote
I think that one of the strengths of AM is that we can mix whatever we want - it's super cool IMO to mix my great themes collection with arcadeflow and hyperspin (pcca) and I need to navigate between them of course. It's a legit prerequisite.

There will be an option to disable "fast display switching" altogether, although I'm also thinking of a way to use one or the other method depending whether there's a "non Arcadeflow" layout along the path
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on September 28, 2020, 12:00:01 PM
Can you identify a non arcadeflow display?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 28, 2020, 12:14:34 PM
Can you identify a non arcadeflow display?

Yes, fe.displats items have a "layout" property with the layout used by the display, in theory I could scan the "display jumps" and if there's a non-arcadeflow display jump directly to the target display
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 30, 2020, 01:05:23 AM
Can you identify a non arcadeflow display?

I think in the end I found a good workaround: when changing display Arcadeflow will scan the list forward and backward, if there is a different layout in one of the two directions it will chose the other direction even if the jumps needed are more, but if there's a different layout in both directions, then it will use the "old style" layout switching with the layout reload, even if the target is another Arcadeflow.

This, together with the new "progressive animated frosted glass" (https://youtu.be/2_BBAXQF4Bw) will be in AF 9.0 ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 06, 2020, 04:13:29 PM
When selecting manufacturer in the multifilter there aren't enough characters displayed to be meaningful.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 06, 2020, 10:45:59 PM
When selecting manufacturer in the multifilter there aren't enough characters displayed to be meaningful.

That happens because manufacturers are grouped by initial letter, if you enter each submenu you should see the list of manufacturer names starting with each letter. It was done to avoid having to scroll through a huge list of names. Not sure if I can add an "ALL" at the top to browse all together
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 07, 2020, 02:22:59 AM
Arcadeflow 9.0 is out!

Now let's see if automatic update from 8.9 works or not :D
The new version is more polished, fixes some bugs and implements a new frosted glass effect that's much nicer than the old one.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 10, 2020, 09:37:21 AM
When I try to add my pinball emulator (vpx) and keep the arcadeflow as the display it messes up...meaning even navigation stops working, it will hang...I have to exit the whole thing and rerun...

If I change the theme for the pinball it still messes up when I return to the layout menu...

Is there something I could send you to help troubleshoot?

Running v9.0

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on October 10, 2020, 10:37:30 AM
So I reinstalled v8.9 to see if the update works.
If the update settings is set to "Download Only" it downloads the theme and I get an Ok message and I can carry on.
But if it's set to "Download and Install" it freezes on the update screen.
Attached is my console screenshot after the freeze + the update screen it freezes on. The console shows both tries of "Download only" then "Download and Install" with the final error message when it freezes.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on October 10, 2020, 10:49:32 AM
Interestingly, after multiple attempts, it finally Downloaded and installed on its own but this is the result:

The first screen is the new AF9.0
The second screen shows that the display is set to Arcadeflow_90
AM's console reports "! Error opening layout: Arcadeflow_90"
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on October 10, 2020, 10:53:28 AM
It appears that AF failed to create the new directory for AF9 as Arcadeflow_89 is still intact in the layout folder and Arcadeflow_90 is not.
I've set the layout back to v8.9, tried the "Download and Install" operation again and it froze this time.

Furthermore: after manually installing v9.0, when I try to go to another display it always brings me to my Capcom Classics display, no matter what I choose - same as in v8.9
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 10, 2020, 12:21:11 PM
If I change the theme for the pinball it still messes up when I return to the layout menu...

Is there something I could send you to help troubleshoot?


Well first you can try running attract-console.exe and see what error messages you get, this will halp me understand what's going bad.
Also, can you share your attract.cfg?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 10, 2020, 01:08:04 PM
Furthermore: after manually installing v9.0, when I try to go to another display it always brings me to my Capcom Classics display, no matter what I choose - same as in v8.9

Let's start with the (hopefully) easier part: there's a new option in the didplay menu page section where you can disable fast display switching. That should fix the display change issue completely, whole I try to understand why the "smarter" workaround is not working on your setup
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 10, 2020, 06:28:25 PM
Script Error in transition function: on_transition - the index 'pinball' does not exist

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index 'pinball' does not exist]



If I change the theme for the pinball it still messes up when I return to the layout menu...

Is there something I could send you to help troubleshoot?


Well first you can try running attract-console.exe and see what error messages you get, this will halp me understand what's going bad.
Also, can you share your attract.cfg?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on October 10, 2020, 10:32:57 PM
Let's start with the (hopefully) easier part: there's a new option in the didplay menu page section where you can disable fast display switching. That should fix the display change issue completely, whole I try to understand why the "smarter" workaround is not working on your setup

Yes, this solved the display navigation issue.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2020, 01:08:01 AM
Script Error in transition function: on_transition - the index 'pinball' does not exist

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index 'pinball' does not exist]


Ok, I will look more into it later, but the first thing I notice is that the layout folder is called "af". It's better that you keep the proper name for Arcadeflow folder, that is "Arcadeflow_XX" or at least something that starts with "Arcadeflow", otherwise some features won't work properly...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2020, 03:28:35 AM
So I reinstalled v8.9 to see if the update works.
If the update settings is set to "Download Only" it downloads the theme and I get an Ok message and I can carry on.

Well at least this part works :D

Quote
But if it's set to "Download and Install" it freezes on the update screen.
Attached is my console screenshot after the freeze + the update screen it freezes on. The console shows both tries of "Download only" then "Download and Install" with the final error message when it freezes.

There's an error when creating the Arcadeflow_90 folder, as you already found out. the "freezing" might be caused by that. If you give the same command from command line, does it work?

Code: [Select]
mkdir "D:\Arcade\attract\layouts/Arcadeflow_90/"

what if you give the same command with "\" instead of "/", or without the final "/"?

It always seems I'm so close to make it work :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2020, 03:30:16 AM
Let's start with the (hopefully) easier part: there's a new option in the didplay menu page section where you can disable fast display switching. That should fix the display change issue completely, whole I try to understand why the "smarter" workaround is not working on your setup

Yes, this solved the display navigation issue.

Good, but the issue shouldn't be there at all... can I have a look at your attract.cfg file? Just to better understand what's preventing my genius workaround from working as expected LOL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Jontox on October 11, 2020, 04:04:46 AM
This theme is really a masterpiece, keep up the great work !

The only thing I can't succeed to use is the command.dat settings available in the History settings.
The command.dat path and generation have been setup successfully, but then how am I suppose to display it within the frontend ?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

N.B.: History.dat displays successfully by the way.

Thanks in advance

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2020, 04:09:51 AM
The only thing I can't succeed to use is the command.dat settings available in the History settings.
The command.dat path and generation have been setup successfully, but then how am I suppose to display it within the frontend ?

You should see control graphics overlayed on the history page, like in this picture. Many games don't have "per button" information so you'll just see the controller type and number of buttons.
If you don't see this, you can send me your command.dat file and I'll take a look, since there are a couple different syntax to take care of... if you can't share the file here, my mail is paolo.zago@gmail.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on October 11, 2020, 04:13:35 AM
Good, but the issue shouldn't be there at all... can I have a look at your attract.cfg file? Just to better understand what's preventing my genius workaround from working as expected LOL

attached
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2020, 04:17:19 AM
Good, but the issue shouldn't be there at all... can I have a look at your attract.cfg file? Just to better understand what's preventing my genius workaround from working as expected LOL

attached

There's no display using Arcadeflow here, am I right? :O Then I think I got it: if Arcadeflow is used in one layout only, my workaround will probably not work and you have to use the option I told you before.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on October 11, 2020, 05:13:42 AM
Oh crap, sorry I replaced AF with At-The-Arcade because I was doing some work on the themes. I apologize.
Here it is again, this time with AF 9.0. I checked it again and the display navigation behaves the same as I reported, ie - I need to disable fast navigation to get the correct result.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Jontox on October 11, 2020, 07:43:41 AM
Thanks zpaolo11X,

You should see control graphics overlayed on the history page, like in this picture. Many games don't have "per button" information so you'll just see the controller type and number of buttons.
If you don't see this, you can send me your command.dat file and I'll take a look, since there are a couple different syntax to take care of... if you can't share the file here, my mail is paolo.zago@gmail.com

So this is indeed working.

I think my expectations were to high, I though I would see a complete command list as in the Mame Tab menu.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/6kQbZ-TktRUl5R2uGrMs3FYuGbOYRLx6w1Nvr3MilD9idMogrg-eAXXTLFVtewF7CKerWzy22OxF59CsWnloWvyWbA-lCG3KmD4ry-fiDCZq6ZzWQTQMfKDbr5MwIrTz3ZbJGDG9yg)

Another question, is it possible to suppress or make the Arcade Flow logo moving during attract mode (screensaver).
On CRT screen this is better to avoid any screen burns.

How is attract mode (screensaver) working ? Are videosnaps displayed in random order ?
On my side, it seems videosnaps are zoom in exesssively and there no way to even guess which games it is.

Many thanks in advance for all your replies and I am really impress by all the work done on arcadeflow.
 


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2020, 09:11:32 AM
I think my expectations were to high, I though I would see a complete command list as in the Mame Tab menu.

I know, that would be great. I'll take it into account if I decide to revamp the history page, that's something I'd like to do sooner or later.

Quote
Another question, is it possible to suppress or make the Arcade Flow logo moving during attract mode (screensaver).
On CRT screen this is better to avoid any screen burns.

At the moment the only way to hide logo from the screensaver mode is to disable the logo completely from the layout options. I should add an option to disable it selectively for the screensaver! Nice idea for version 9.1

Quote
How is attract mode (screensaver) working ? Are videosnaps displayed in random order ?
On my side, it seems videosnaps are zoom in exesssively and there no way to even guess which games it is.

It plays videos from the current romlist/filter in random order. It's zoomed because each game shows only a certain number of scanlines from the middle of the screen. Sometimes this can be an issue if your videosnaps have an higher resolution than what was the original game resolution (e.g. mame snaps in full HD resolution, for console games it should be correct). Can you share a screenshot of the zoomed-in view, and some details about your video file? BTW a bit of zooming is "by design".
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 11, 2020, 05:00:14 PM
Thanks. I did rename it to Arcadeflow_90 and changed the cfg to match. Still getting the index error.

Script Error in transition function: on_transition - the index 'pinball' does not exist

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index 'pinball' does not exist]


Ok, I will look more into it later, but the first thing I notice is that the layout folder is called "af". It's better that you keep the proper name for Arcadeflow folder, that is "Arcadeflow_XX" or at least something that starts with "Arcadeflow", otherwise some features won't work properly...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2020, 10:18:08 PM
Thanks. I did rename it to Arcadeflow_90 and changed the cfg to match. Still getting the index error.

Then I need some more info, can you run
Code: [Select]
attract-console.exe > log.txt
you'll find a "log.txt" file in attract mode folder, can you share it with me? Also, the prefs_layoutoptions.txt from Arcadeflow folder will be helpful.
I tried to replicate the issue using a cfg like yours but I can't...

Oh I just noticed another thing: your layout is set to start as "display_menu", do you use a display menu lauout? You should set the AM startup to its default value, if you want to start with the display menu page in Arcadeflow you can set it in its own options
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Jontox on October 12, 2020, 05:20:06 AM
It plays videos from the current romlist/filter in random order. It's zoomed because each game shows only a certain number of scanlines from the middle of the screen. Sometimes this can be an issue if your videosnaps have an higher resolution than what was the original game resolution (e.g. mame snaps in full HD resolution, for console games it should be correct). Can you share a screenshot of the zoomed-in view, and some details about your video file? BTW a bit of zooming is "by design".

I do confirm this is what it's occurring, I've got Mame video snaps in full HD resolution.
Unfortunately, a screenshot is not obvious to take during attract mode screensaver, but it is exactly as you described.

Is there any work around this issue ?
Or it is how the attract mode screensaver was coded ?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 12, 2020, 05:23:51 AM
I do confirm this is what it's occurring, I've got Mame video snaps in full HD resolution.
Unfortunately, a screenshot is not obvious to take during attract mode screensaver, but it is exactly as you described.

Is there any work around this issue ?
Or it is how the attract mode screensaver was coded ?

For console games I coed the real game resolution in the layout, so even if the video is HD the filter is applied at the original console resolution. For MAME it's a bit more difficult, because each game has a different resolution, and this data is not in the romlist, so I usually get that from the game snap.
At the moment there's no solution, but just in case, do you have static snaps too? Are those in the original game resolution? Because I'm thinking of a workaround I can code for the new revision...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Jontox on October 12, 2020, 10:07:45 AM

For console games I coed the real game resolution in the layout, so even if the video is HD the filter is applied at the original console resolution. For MAME it's a bit more difficult, because each game has a different resolution, and this data is not in the romlist, so I usually get that from the game snap.
At the moment there's no solution, but just in case, do you have static snaps too? Are those in the original game resolution? Because I'm thinking of a workaround I can code for the new revision...

All my video snaps are coming from emumovies FTP source.
These are HQ ones for Mame and the resolution is 640*480 (Horizontal) or 480*640 (Vertical).

The Gameplay snaps or screenshots (still from emumovies FTP source) are on the contrary in the game original resolution.

I.e.: 3countb rom does have:
- a gameplay snap of 320*224
- a video snap of 640*280


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 12, 2020, 11:00:20 AM
All my video snaps are coming from emumovies FTP source.
These are HQ ones for Mame and the resolution is 640*480 (Horizontal) or 480*640 (Vertical).

The Gameplay snaps or screenshots (still from emumovies FTP source) are on the contrary in the game original resolution.

I.e.: 3countb rom does have:
- a gameplay snap of 320*224
- a video snap of 640*280

Cool, I got my mame videos from here: http://www.progettosnaps.net/videosnaps/ and they are at the correct pixel resolution with correct display aspect ratio, but since you have pixel perfect snaps I can fix the layout to make it work with your videos ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 12, 2020, 11:22:45 AM
Thanks. I did rename it to Arcadeflow_90 and changed the cfg to match. Still getting the index error.

Then I need some more info, can you run
Code: [Select]
attract-console.exe > log.txt
you'll find a "log.txt" file in attract mode folder, can you share it with me? Also, the prefs_layoutoptions.txt from Arcadeflow folder will be helpful.
I tried to replicate the issue using a cfg like yours but I can't...

Oh I just noticed another thing: your layout is set to start as "display_menu", do you use a display menu lauout? You should set the AM startup to its default value, if you want to start with the display menu page in Arcadeflow you can set it in its own options
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 12, 2020, 11:23:36 AM
Thanks for spending the extra time troubleshooting.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Jontox on October 12, 2020, 12:10:24 PM
Cool, I got my mame videos from here: http://www.progettosnaps.net/videosnaps/ and they are at the correct pixel resolution with correct display aspect ratio, but since you have pixel perfect snaps I can fix the layout to make it work with your videos ;)

That sounds like music to my ears, thanks a lot !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 12, 2020, 11:12:25 PM
Thanks for spending the extra time troubleshooting.

I've put together a patched layout.nut, you can try putting this into your Arcadeflow folder and see if it fixes the problem with your configuration.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 13, 2020, 02:32:38 PM
Hello, I tried the new layout.nut.

Still locks up attractmode, displays other system images for a moment...

No difference that I could detect.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 13, 2020, 06:14:04 PM
I think it has something to do with visual pinball being obscure compared to the others.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 13, 2020, 10:45:50 PM
I think it has something to do with visual pinball being obscure compared to the others.

I noticed a couple of things in your attract.cfg that we can try to change:

   startup_mode         displays_menu
   menu_layout          af

It seems you are starting Attract Mode in "Show displays menu" mode, and using AF as a menu layout. This will not work, AF is no more good as a Display Menu layout. You should change the startup mode to the default value (last selected I thing) and as menu layout set "Default" which means no menu layout is used.
I'd try this first to see if it fixes, then you can enable display menu at boot in AF options.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 14, 2020, 02:45:55 PM
Thanks, I did change those, but still have the same error.

I think it has something to do with visual pinball being obscure compared to the others.

I noticed a couple of things in your attract.cfg that we can try to change:

   startup_mode         displays_menu
   menu_layout          af

It seems you are starting Attract Mode in "Show displays menu" mode, and using AF as a menu layout. This will not work, AF is no more good as a Display Menu layout. You should change the startup mode to the default value (last selected I thing) and as menu layout set "Default" which means no menu layout is used.
I'd try this first to see if it fixes, then you can enable display menu at boot in AF options.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 14, 2020, 11:15:06 PM
Thanks. I did rename it to Arcadeflow_90 and changed the cfg to match. Still getting the index error.


I tried replicating the error with your prefs file and configuration file, but it still seems to work. Are you using the stock 2.6.1 or a nightly build? Also, at this point I think I'll need an archive with your emulators and romlists folders (the ones inside attract mode folder), so I can actually have a sort of mirror of your system :O
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 15, 2020, 01:14:02 AM
It appears that AF failed to create the new directory for AF9 as Arcadeflow_89 is still intact in the layout folder and Arcadeflow_90 is not.

Believe it or not, I think I finally sorted it out and now, from my tests, auto-update works! If you want to try it, I  crafted a "dummy" layout.nut with 8.9 version (but it is in fact a 9.1 beta LOL) so you can check if it happily updates to 9.0...

Of course, if the update works, 9.0 won't be able to update to 9.1 because it still has the old layout.nut :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 15, 2020, 02:02:26 AM
Cool, I got my mame videos from here: http://www.progettosnaps.net/videosnaps/ and they are at the correct pixel resolution with correct display aspect ratio, but since you have pixel perfect snaps I can fix the layout to make it work with your videos ;)

That sounds like music to my ears, thanks a lot !

If you want to beta-test the feature, you can try with this attached layout: just put it inside your Arcadeflow folder. But before doing that make a copy of the current layout.nut just in case.
This version should use the static snap resolution to set the video resolution so you should be able to see a bit more of your video :)
If you want to see even more, look for the line:

   scanrows = 180.0

and increase it, be careful though that if a game has less than the lines you put there, it will look pretty bad.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 15, 2020, 04:07:07 AM
Is anyone using arcadeflow with future pinball or visual pinball?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 15, 2020, 04:10:17 AM
Is anyone using arcadeflow with future pinball or visual pinball?

I'm not sure, but future pinball and visual pinball are both supported by AF as far as system identifier and other data are concerned. I don't think that's the issue, but if you remove the pinball display does it work?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 15, 2020, 06:33:54 AM
Yes.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 15, 2020, 06:35:47 AM
Yes.

Then I need the emulator con fig file from AN emulator folder, that could be helpful
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 15, 2020, 03:23:29 PM
Yes.

Then I need the emulator con fig file from AN emulator folder, that could be helpful

If I change the layout for the VPX to something besides ArcadeFlow the interface remains usable.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 15, 2020, 10:21:18 PM
Yes.

Then I need the emulator con fig file from AN emulator folder, that could be helpful

If I change the layout for the VPX to something besides ArcadeFlow the interface remains usable.

Great! I was able to replicate the issue, now I'll be traveling all day so I'll need time to patch a definitive solution, but for the moment try this: in your .cfg file change the line

Code: [Select]
system Pinball
to

Code: [Select]
system Visual Pinball
this should fix it for the moment.

EDIT: Fixed! It was easy, and I'm an idiot: do you remember the patched layout.nut I prepared for you? In that patch I put a workaround but forgot to comment out the old line of code causing the error :D I'll implement it in 9.1 soon
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 19, 2020, 01:11:01 AM
If you're able to have the overlay go over the system select menu, that would be a nice addition.

Hmm I just checked and the overlay should go over the system menu... Are you sure you used the option "Background"->"Custom Overlay" to set the overlay?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 19, 2020, 05:16:06 AM
Yes. You can see in the picture how the overlay is there, but the system menu is on top of that overlay.
The image was so big it looked obnoxious in the forum so I deleted it. I'll repost another tonight.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 19, 2020, 06:21:19 AM
Yes. You can see in the picture how the overlay is there, but the system menu is on top of that overlay.
The image was so big it looked obnoxious in the forum so I deleted it. I'll repost another tonight.

Don't worry, I saw the picture, no need to re-upload that. I was just asking because I tried with my setup and the layout is correctly "on top" of the displays menu. It may be an issue with z-order, I'll look into it but it is difficult if I can't replicate the issue.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.1 [Release] Updated 21 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 21, 2020, 12:46:55 AM
AF version 9.1 is out!

Featuring yet another iteration of the auto update - auto install routine that _should_ work... from next version we'll see :D
Mostly bug fixes and usability improvements in this version.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.1 [Release] Updated 21 October 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 21, 2020, 04:59:11 AM
I'm trying your auto install update for the first time. A windows popped up and the download was successful, but I'm just getting a circle at mouse cursor within attractmode...how  much time should I give the install?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.1 [Release] Updated 21 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 21, 2020, 05:49:50 AM
I'm trying your auto install update for the first time.

If you are upgrading from 9.0 to 9.1 I have to warn you that the auto-install function doen't work as expected yet. It should be fixed in 9.1, so you could auto-update and auto-install when 9.2 is out.

Quote
A windows popped up and the download was successful, but I'm just getting a circle at mouse cursor within attractmode...how  much time should I give the install?

That's probably the auto-install getting stuck, I suggest you only use auto-download when running 9.0. I know this auto-update thing is a nightmare, because every change takes effect to the NEXT version...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 30, 2020, 01:28:46 AM
Arcadeflow 9.2 is out!

With support for bestgames.ini and series.ini, plus speed improvement when filtering large romlists.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Yaron2019 on October 30, 2020, 06:52:21 AM
Arcadeflow 9.2 is out!

Congratulations my friend, your update & install finally works. Updated from 9.1 to 9.2.
This is not an easy thing to achieve, bravo!
 :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 30, 2020, 07:27:31 AM
Congratulations my friend, your update & install finally works. Updated from 9.1 to 9.2.
This is not an easy thing to achieve, bravo!
 

I was crossing all the fingers I have waiting for your feedback :D Great to know that, finally, it works!

Thank you for the feedback ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 30, 2020, 02:43:32 PM
The autoupdate seemed to work, but I'm getting weird backgrounds now with no game list...if I change back to 91 it shows correctly.


Also, but unrelated, I see the joystick and buttons when looking and game info, but not the description of the action that the button does...like your MK example with block and high / low kick/punch. What do I need for that to be included.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 31, 2020, 12:50:23 AM
The autoupdate seemed to work, but I'm getting weird backgrounds now with no game list...if I change back to 91 it shows correctly.

This is super weird, can you run attract-console.exe > log.txt and share the log so I can see what's going on?

Quote
Also, but unrelated, I see the joystick and buttons when looking and game info, but not the description of the action that the button does...like your MK example with block and high / low kick/punch. What do I need for that to be included.

Command instructions are not avilable for all games, anyway you need to configure the command.dat path (this is in the MAME folder)  in Arcadeflow options, in the History section. Configure the path and generate the index, then it should work
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 31, 2020, 06:13:14 AM
Here is the log.txt

Thanks for the info about command info. I'll do that right after this issue is resolved...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 31, 2020, 08:42:01 AM
Here is the log.txt

Found the issue, is related to the customized multiflter menu, you customized those entries, right? Sadly I discovered there's a bug also in the routine to adjust the multifilter menu, so the only thing I can suggest is, until I fix everything, go in Arcadeflow options, reset them to default and don't customize the multifilter menu :/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 31, 2020, 08:58:03 AM
Thanks so much for the quick replies, and your work on this great theme and its added functionality it brings.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 31, 2020, 09:21:19 AM
Thanks so much for the quick replies, and your work on this great theme and its added functionality it brings.

Look, I just found the error in the code: if you want to fix it you can open layout.nut, search for this line:

   foreach (i, item in outname){

and replace outname with outnames

That should fix most of the issues
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: bionictoothpick on October 31, 2020, 11:06:17 AM
I did make the outname change, but I can't seem to clear the multifilter info because I'm still getting that same strange background.

I'll use 9.1 for until the next release.

Indexing the command.dat worked perfectly.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Enkak on November 01, 2020, 03:46:19 AM
Finally was able to update AF to 9.2. Generally seems to be working great and smooth. :) Noticed only 3 odd things for now:
 
1. I enable add Exit Arcade Flow to display menu but in this version that exit entry never appears in the display menu. :o

2. The generating logo for systems in display menu isn't working for the Favourites collection in this version.

3. Thumbnails and video aspect ratio doesn't seem to be working on version 92. Thumbnails and videos always appear as square instead of respecting original aspect ratio like vertical, horizontal and so on. ???

edit: prints attached from af 88 and 92 to compare.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 01, 2020, 09:00:00 AM
Hi,

I have a question. What does it mean when are red cross symbols on the list of games? If i click on them, they work fine. I have this issue only for game boy game list.
Thanks a lot for your attention.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 01, 2020, 09:23:05 AM
I have a question. What does it mean when are red cross symbols on the list of games? If i click on them, they work fine. I have this issue only for game boy game list.

The red cross should be visible when the game is "not available", there's a game parameter for that in Attract Mode scripting language. If the cross is visible but the game is playing normally then there's something wrong... I'll take a deeper look at the code. Does it happen in a romlist only?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 01, 2020, 09:44:52 AM
Yes, only for the Game Boy game list. For the other game platform no problem. I noticed also that the Atari 5200 isn't recognised as a console, and it is visible in OTHER section.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 01, 2020, 09:46:37 AM
I noticed also that the Atari 5200 isn't recognised as a console, and it is visible in OTHER section.

Atari 5200 is not recognized by Arcadeflow yet (it will be in the next release hopefully), but you can force it into the Console section by adding #CONSOLE at the end of the display name.

As far as the cross issue is concerned, I'll see if I can craft a custom layout to check it
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 01, 2020, 09:48:53 AM
Ok, thanks a lot  :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 01, 2020, 09:56:33 AM
Yes, only for the Game Boy game list. For the other game platform no problem. I noticed also that the Atari 5200 isn't recognised as a console, and it is visible in OTHER section.

I just saw the picture, there's something wrong in the size of those "X"s, I think something is not right, can you run

Code: [Select]
attract-console.exe > log.txt
and share the output file so I can see if there are errors?

BTW, are you italian?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 01, 2020, 10:42:32 AM
Yes, I'm italian (from Rome). I'm using your beautiful theme on macOS, therefore have not any attract-console.exe. I don't know how to help you  :-\
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 01, 2020, 11:52:33 AM
Yes, I'm italian (from Rome). I'm using your beautiful theme on macOS, therefore have not any attract-console.exe. I don't know how to help you  :-\

No problem, sono italiano anch’io (da Milano), e anche io ho un Mac :D Non so se sei pratico del terminal di MacOS, comunque dovresti aprire una finestra del terminale e dare questo comando:

cd /Applications/Attract.app/Content/MacOS

E poi lanciare il comando

./attract

Dovresti vedere eventuali messaggi di errore sul terminale, puoi copiare e incollare i messaggi.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 01, 2020, 12:58:11 PM
Ecco cosa mi tira fuori il terminale:

Attract-Mode v2.6.1 (OSX, SFML 2.5.1 +FontConfig +SWF +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: /Users/Matteo/.attract/attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Nintendo Game Boy'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Gb' in 2 ms (361 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (722 comparisons)
Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file
AudioMode plugin error: no source directory configured
Error opening file for reading: /Users/Matteo/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_92/pref_thumbtype.txt: no data left to read
Failed to load image from stream. Reason: Image not of any known type, or corrupt
Error opening input file: /Users/Matteo/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_92/pics/
ERROR loading video: /Users/Matteo/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_92/pics/
AudioMode plugin error: no source directory configured
 - Loaded layout: /Users/Matteo/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_92/ (layout.nut)
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: Unknown
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 02, 2020, 12:56:48 AM
Ecco cosa mi tira fuori il terminale:

Ok, questa riga:

Code: [Select]
Error opening file for reading: /Users/Matteo/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_92/pref_thumbtype.txt: no data left to read
è strana, pensi di riuscire a mandarmi il contenuto di quel file? Puoi visualizzare il contenuto direttametne dal terminale con il comando:

Code: [Select]
cat /Users/Matteo/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_92/pref_thumbtype.txt
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 02, 2020, 09:12:01 AM
Ecco cosa mi tira fuori il terminale:

Ok, questa riga:

Code: [Select]
Error opening file for reading: /Users/Matteo/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_92/pref_thumbtype.txt: no data left to read
è strana, pensi di riuscire a mandarmi il contenuto di quel file? Puoi visualizzare il contenuto direttametne dal terminale con il comando:

Code: [Select]
cat /Users/Matteo/.attract/layouts/Arcadeflow_92/pref_thumbtype.txt

Il file pref_thumbtype.txt è vuoto, non ha nessun contenuto
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 04, 2020, 12:01:02 AM
Il file pref_thumbtype.txt è vuoto, non ha nessun contenuto

Questa versione mi sta facendo impazzire :D Allora, per fare un bel debug mi servirebbero il file attract.cfg (lo trovi nella cartella .attract nella tua home folder), il file di configurazione dell'emulatore game boy (lo trovi in emulators nella stessa cartella .attract) e il file della romlist del gameboy che si trova nella cartella romlist, sempre in .attract.
Se non vedi .attract nella tua home, premi "command maiusc ." per farlo comparire o scomparire
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 04, 2020, 09:26:32 AM
Il file pref_thumbtype.txt è vuoto, non ha nessun contenuto

Questa versione mi sta facendo impazzire :D Allora, per fare un bel debug mi servirebbero il file attract.cfg (lo trovi nella cartella .attract nella tua home folder), il file di configurazione dell'emulatore game boy (lo trovi in emulators nella stessa cartella .attract) e il file della romlist del gameboy che si trova nella cartella romlist, sempre in .attract.
Se non vedi .attract nella tua home, premi "command maiusc ." per farlo comparire o scomparire

Ciao Paolo,

grazie per il tuo interessamento. Eccoti i file che mi hai richiesto.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 04, 2020, 09:46:38 AM
grazie per il tuo interessamento. Eccoti i file che mi hai richiesto.

Ho provato a inserire i tuoi file nel mio sistema ed effettivamente ho la "croce rossa" su tutti i giochi... ma i giochi funzionano. Secondo me c'è un problema nella romlist: se vado nel menu di Attract Mode, Emulators, Gb e lancio "generate collection/romlist" mi aggiorna la lista e la croce sparisce.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 04, 2020, 10:38:07 AM
grazie per il tuo interessamento. Eccoti i file che mi hai richiesto.

Ho provato a inserire i tuoi file nel mio sistema ed effettivamente ho la "croce rossa" su tutti i giochi... ma i giochi funzionano. Secondo me c'è un problema nella romlist: se vado nel menu di Attract Mode, Emulators, Gb e lancio "generate collection/romlist" mi aggiorna la lista e la croce sparisce.

Ok, I've understood the problem. Rom names are different than name of scraping elements (snap, video and logo) for the region, that are explicit in the rom names. I deleted the region and the red crosses are disappeared.
Thanks a lot for your help!  ;) :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 04, 2020, 11:38:08 AM
Ok, I've understood the problem. Rom names are different than name of scraping elements (snap, video and logo) for the region, that are explicit in the rom names. I deleted the region and the red crosses are disappeared.
Thanks a lot for your help!  ;) :D

Fantastic, good to know that everything is working now.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 06, 2020, 11:57:57 AM
Hi Zpaolo,

in these days I used much your theme, and it's very awesome, congratulations.
I've noticed an issue with psp collection, i.e. video snap don't start correctly when mouse pass over the items.

Any idea about that?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 06, 2020, 12:19:34 PM
Hi Zpaolo,

in these days I used much your theme, and it's very awesome, congratulations.
I've noticed an issue with psp collection, i.e. video snap don't start correctly when mouse pass over the items.

Any idea about that?

This is a known issue that I already fixed for 9.3, hopefully I'll release it this weekend or on Monday.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 06, 2020, 01:55:59 PM
Hi Zpaolo,

in these days I used much your theme, and it's very awesome, congratulations.
I've noticed an issue with psp collection, i.e. video snap don't start correctly when mouse pass over the items.

Any idea about that?

This is a known issue that I already fixed for 9.3, hopefully I'll release it this weekend or on Monday.

 :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: Sea Monkey on November 08, 2020, 12:13:56 AM
Where are the system logos stored that are used by the Displays menu? I can't seem to find them.  Also, Could you please add Neo Geo CD as a recognized console?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.2 [Release] Updated 30 October 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 08, 2020, 12:30:45 AM
Where are the system logos stored that are used by the Displays menu? I can't seem to find them.  Also, Could you please add Neo Geo CD as a recognized console?

The system logos are part of a custom font to reduce size and improve display quality. If you need them I can export svg or png files for you. This means it's not easy to add your own systems, but in the next revision I'll add more systems including Neo Geo CD
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 09, 2020, 04:16:37 AM
Arcadeflow 9.3 is out!

It should fix most of the bugs discovered in 9.2, plus it adds more systems logos and also some stock systems images to use in the displays menu page.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: Enkak on November 09, 2020, 10:13:12 AM
Thank you for the new update! All the previous bugs or odd behaviors seem to have been fixed in this version, thanks again. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 09, 2020, 10:43:05 AM
I confirm, it is practically perfect. Congratulations, one of the most beautiful themes of Attract Mode.  ;) :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 10, 2020, 05:30:40 AM
Thank you all for the positive feedback, but everything is _not_ perfect: I just found out a stupid "copy & paste" bug related to the next/prev letter hotkey jump routine (maybe no one is using this feature :D ) That'll be fixed soon, and in the meantime I'll add a "Jump to" menu to jump to letters, something I "borrowed" from EmulationStation ;D
I'm also thinking about a great menu overhaul for 9.4 or 9.5...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: Jontox on November 11, 2020, 07:49:46 AM
I wanted to give my feedback, on the modification hereunder based on 9.3 which is already out (impressive work!).

- Setting to turn off logo Arcadeflow from the screensaver is working. That is Great for all CRT users
- Autoupdate is working like a charm... that is awesome !
- I tested the attached layout.nut, that improved a little bit, but then try the videosnaps from progettosnaps on original layout.nut and it was even better. So let's forget emumovies HD videosnaps.


I now do understand that for Mame roms set which all have their proper resolutions, this is not a perfect solution.
Base on your explanation you do take a number of row up and down which ever the rom (game) resolution is and zooming to fill in the screen ?
That's why some rom (game) are more recognizable than others based on the frontend resolution.

Why not take into account the information stated in the resolution.ini for example here attached (This is from category.ini also from progettosnaps).
It would allow you to find out the proper resolution for each rom/game.
Would that allow you to adapt the screensaver resolution of Arcadeflow ?

Thanks again

Cool, I got my mame videos from here: http://www.progettosnaps.net/videosnaps/ and they are at the correct pixel resolution with correct display aspect ratio, but since you have pixel perfect snaps I can fix the layout to make it work with your videos ;)

That sounds like music to my ears, thanks a lot !

If you want to beta-test the feature, you can try with this attached layout: just put it inside your Arcadeflow folder. But before doing that make a copy of the current layout.nut just in case.
This version should use the static snap resolution to set the video resolution so you should be able to see a bit more of your video :)
If you want to see even more, look for the line:

   scanrows = 180.0

and increase it, be careful though that if a game has less than the lines you put there, it will look pretty bad.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 8.9 [Release] Updated 25 September 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 12, 2020, 12:21:33 AM
I now do understand that for Mame roms set which all have their proper resolutions, this is not a perfect solution.
Base on your explanation you do take a number of row up and down which ever the rom (game) resolution is and zooming to fill in the screen ?
That's why some rom (game) are more recognizable than others based on the frontend resolution.

Yes, that's more or less the point. Arcadeflow selects a certain number of rows so that all games look "similar" during screensaver, and the CRT filter effects look good. But if a game has an higher resolution you'll see less of the screen during screensaver. Another issue is that for vertical games the selected rows are still horizontal, so they will look a bit different (probably less zoomed out).

Quote
Why not take into account the information stated in the resolution.ini for example here attached (This is from category.ini also from progettosnaps).
It would allow you to find out the proper resolution for each rom/game.
Would that allow you to adapt the screensaver resolution of Arcadeflow ?

Good suggestion, I could implement a parsing routine like the one that gets ratings and series data, of course this would work only for MAME but MAME is also the only one that has this wide resolution changes.

At the moment Arcadeflow gets the resolution from a static snap, static snaps are usually at the proper pixel resolution, so it should work much better for MAME, but I'll look into implementing the resolution.ini parsing.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: Enkak on November 12, 2020, 10:29:45 AM
Something crazy for the future. I'm in the process of checking manufacturer logos missing (just noticed Shiny Entertainment, for example) and will try to compile later a list for you. ;D ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 12, 2020, 11:11:46 AM
Something crazy for the future. I'm in the process of checking manufacturer logos missing (just noticed Shiny Entertainment, for example) and will try to compile later a list for you. ;D ;)

Oh there are lots of logos missing: I used hyperlists as a reference but if I scrape my nointro romsets there are many more games and many more manufactuers... so yes feel free to compile a list! I'll do my best to add them :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: Enkak on November 12, 2020, 11:18:21 AM
Something crazy for the future. I'm in the process of checking manufacturer logos missing (just noticed Shiny Entertainment, for example) and will try to compile later a list for you. ;D ;)

Oh there are lots of logos missing: I used hyperlists as a reference but if I scrape my nointro romsets there are many more games and many more manufactuers... so yes feel free to compile a list! I'll do my best to add them :D

Yeah I'm just going to what I have here and noticed just scrolling by luck that Shiny logo was missing on Earthworm Jim games. So OCD kicked in and thought why not going through all systems setup in AF and see what more could be missing. :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 13, 2020, 01:28:06 AM
Yeah I'm just going to what I have here and noticed just scrolling by luck that Shiny logo was missing on Earthworm Jim games. So OCD kicked in and thought why not going through all systems setup in AF and see what more could be missing. :D

Hmm I could build a custom layout.nut that lists all the manufacturers that are not present in the data file... I think I already did something like that in the past. That would be much faster ;D
Also, the problem is that some romlists use "developers", other use "publishers" that may be the reason of some important "manufacturers" missing...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: Enkak on November 13, 2020, 01:57:09 AM
Yeah I'm just going to what I have here and noticed just scrolling by luck that Shiny logo was missing on Earthworm Jim games. So OCD kicked in and thought why not going through all systems setup in AF and see what more could be missing. :D

Hmm I could build a custom layout.nut that lists all the manufacturers that are not present in the data file... I think I already did something like that in the past. That would be much faster ;D
Also, the problem is that some romlists use "developers", other use "publishers" that may be the reason of some important "manufacturers" missing...

Ah yes, that could speed things a lot for sure. :D

Yep, very true regarding the romlists. Not easy to have consistency. Then on some regions the developer is also the manufacturer, then on others other company released the games and so on. I will probably take note only of certain "important" names and check and edit the romlists where the name of the publisher was swapped to developer.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 17, 2020, 10:43:28 PM
Sneak peek: AF 9.4 is getting close to the release date, and the new menu system is the main improvement :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: Jontox on November 20, 2020, 11:58:59 AM
teasing :)

That looks promising...

In the coming months, I will receive and test my configuration with attractmode and Arcadeflow in an arcade machine
I will for sure propose some improvement if suitable, for all CRT 15 kHz users...

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 20, 2020, 12:02:31 PM
In the coming months, I will receive and test my configuration with attractmode and Arcadeflow in an arcade machine
I will for sure propose some improvement if suitable, for all CRT 15 kHz users...

Fantastic, I'll be glad to listen to your suggestion, and I'll help you to configure Arcadeflow for the CRT, there are so many options that you might miss something useful :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 24, 2020, 06:09:09 AM
I have created a Discord server to discuss Arcadeflow issues, suggestions etc, since sometimes it's quite difficult to interact here, and this thread is getting larger and larger, if you want you can reach me on this server:

https://discord.gg/kPnwXjGhvs

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.3 [Release] Updated 09 November 2020
Post by: crawlingpeter on November 27, 2020, 07:30:52 AM
Just wanted to say a huge thanks for all the continued updates on this amazing theme!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.4 [Release] Updated 27 November 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 27, 2020, 07:49:16 AM
Thank you guys for all your support here and on Discord, good news: Arcadeflow 9.4 is out!

This version brings a new menu system with different look and visible highlights for selected options. There are some bug fixes here and there, new systems and manufacturers logos and new fade routines.

If you find any bugs, please let me know here or on discord, but most of all, enjoy the new release :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.4 [Release] Updated 27 November 2020
Post by: Damon-HP on November 27, 2020, 09:55:55 AM
more and more beautiful and complete. Bravo! ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.5 [Release] Updated 06 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 06, 2020, 06:28:29 AM
Arcadeflow 9.5 is out!

Not many new features (you can now define your own display categories, just add #CATEGORYNAME to your display name and it should create a category entry), but mostly bug fixes, aesthetic improvements in the menus, and now you can chose options using left and right instead of entering the submenu.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.5 [Release] Updated 06 December 2020
Post by: Enkak on December 08, 2020, 01:38:29 PM
Many thanks for new release updates! Time to check them out. ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.5 [Release] Updated 06 December 2020
Post by: blinkybill on December 17, 2020, 07:37:22 AM
hands down the best frontend theme ever. thank you for all the updates over the years. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.5 [Release] Updated 06 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 20, 2020, 10:37:00 PM
:-\ when I add the NEC TurboGrafx 16 to the list. took it to the "OTHER" section and not taking in the NEC console section section.
and also there anyway to get rid this annoying Command promp ? because when I scan my roms keep popping up

The Turbografx-16 is a known bug of AF 9.5, should be fixed in 9.6, in the meantime you can try placing the attached file in Arcadeflow folder to see if it fixes the issue.
I'm trying to avoid the command window popup, the only workaround at the moment is disabling auto-update feature.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.5 [Release] Updated 06 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 21, 2020, 08:11:56 AM
thank you so mush for replying to me I will do that now and give you an update

Regarding the command window popup, does it stick there, or it disappears after finishing execution? Because I've found a sort of workaround where the window "flashes" in the sense that it quickly opens and closes. No way at the moment to make it completely invisible.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.5 [Release] Updated 06 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 24, 2020, 03:23:59 AM
:o also how come you did not post your discord link on the front page ?
also everything is working great :D on windows 10 pc version

Good to know that everything works. I forgot to add the discord link on the front page, I'll edit it. Also I'm a bit late with update 2.6, don't know if I'll be able to release it today.

Quote
also will there a future plans for the Retropie version ?

Arcadeflow has always had issues with the Pi, only recently with the Pi4 there are some progress, but not having a Pi myself it's very difficult to develop and test for that too. On the other hand, if you mean a version of Arcadeflow as a theme for EmulationStation, there's no plan for that, I just played a bit with ES on my RG351P and I don't like the theming at all, I think it will be very difficult to port AF to that.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 24, 2020, 09:04:20 AM
Arcadeflow 9.6 is out!

Many bug fixes, some improvements under the hood... not much more, this is mostly a release to fix all the bugs of 9.5 and replace some fade routines with more robust ones.

Have fun, and merry Christmas :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: katarak on December 29, 2020, 02:00:55 PM
Hey zpaolo11x,

I haven't been on here for almost a year, and just saw your progress and WOW, Bravo.
AF remains my favourite theme and I don't think I'll ever try another one.

I'm writing a tool to convert Emulation Station Gamelist XML into the ones from Attract Mode, plus the overview files at the same time.
I'm running into some issues with the Genres/Categories.

I get the metadata when I scrape ScreenScraper.fr using Skraper UI, but what they put in that field can be very convoluted, and sometimes have multiple caterogies. such as: Role playing games-Action-Action / Adventure
I was going to build a conversion table for my tool, but I wanted to know where can I get the data that Arcade Flow uses to show the icons?

I looked through layout.nut and found some stuff around Line 3840, I even made a few changes and that didn't seem to affect anything. I was able to change Role Playing to RPG just by changeing the name if of the icons seen is AF/category_images and AF/category_images_10 (Not sure why 2 folders for those icons though)

Where is the best place to find the correct naming for the genres of the games?

Also, if you're looking for a feature request.... Plug in Manuals :)

I hope you had a good Xmas and have been staying safe. Happy New Year.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 30, 2020, 01:04:51 AM
I haven't been on here for almost a year, and just saw your progress and WOW, Bravo.
AF remains my favourite theme and I don't think I'll ever try another one.

I'm writing a tool to convert Emulation Station Gamelist XML into the ones from Attract Mode, plus the overview files at the same time.

Hey nice to know you still enjoy Arcadeflow, your comments are greatly appreciated. I'm doing "something" with XML lists too, I use skraper and it gets a lot of data, my project is to implement a parser and allow Arcadeflow to get data directly from XML lists. You'll still have to generate the usual romlist from your roms, but the XML file will be managed by Arcadeflow. This will allow to add ratings etc, and also import the game descriptions without having to convert them. I'm still experimenting and I hope it will be fast enough! (actually I'm facing some delays because I somehow screwed my Windows external disk for my mac that now doesn't mount anymore, but it works on a PC so... I don't know :D)

Quote
I'm running into some issues with the Genres/Categories.

I see, well I don't know exactly how Skraper stacks multiple categories, Arcadeflow category icons are made for MAME format, that is "Main Category/Sub Category". While the filtering system of Arcadeflow supports coma separated multiple categories, the images does not. The code is not in the layout.nut itself, but it's a function in the external file nut_picfunctions.nut, still in ARcadeflow home folder.
To make a long story short, the function strips the category name of all special characters and makes it lowercase, so for example "Action" category will point to "action.png", "Shooter/Flying-Vertical" to "shooterflyingvertical.png"

If you need further advice, please let me know! Oh and just now I was able to mount my Windows disk so... on with the XML integration :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: edekoning on January 02, 2021, 07:31:35 AM
What a great theme, I like it a lot!

As I only have 27 games on my arcade cabinet, I made some tweaks to get an even cleaner look:
- removed the scrollbar at the bottom
- removed all the rom details from the top
- removed the letter object that shows when selecting a game with a different first letter
- scaled the tiles, to make use of the new empty space

Other than the above, the only real option I am missing is the ability to use wheel images in box art mode. Note that this is possible with the default Grid layout of Attract Mode.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 02, 2021, 10:09:23 AM
Other than the above, the only real option I am missing is the ability to use wheel images in box art mode. Note that this is possible with the default Grid layout of Attract Mode.

Very nice "clean" version! You did a lot of editing and you did it right, which is great, considering the intricacy of the code :D
By the way the option you want is already in Arcadeflow: go to the Options menu, Thumbnail section and enable "Game title over box art", this will show the wheel art on top of box art.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: edekoning on January 02, 2021, 10:45:45 AM
Hehe, yeah the code is quite complex, and I did not want to spend too much time on trying to understand it all  :P. So all the changes I did were mainly setting the visibility of various things to false, and preventing the down key to select the timeline. And finally changing the header and footer spacers, to give the thumbnails more space. So not that much work really 8)

I think you misunderstood me. What I am looking for, is being able to just display wheel images, as shown in image I took in the standard Grid layout. So wheel image centered in the thumbnail area, with a nice dropshadow, and retaining the option to morph into a snap video.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 02, 2021, 10:50:27 AM
I think you misunderstood me. What I am looking for, is being able to just display wheel images, as shown in image I took in the standard Grid layout.

Oh now I get it, well... at the moment this is not possible: wheel artwork with its own drop shadow is overlayed and doesn't morph into snaps, you could hide snaps completely but then wheel won't be centered correctly. The thing most similar to what you intend is using "Titles" as source for thumbnail artwork. Of course you can try using wheel source for thumbnails but you'll get a white or grey backdrop behind it because thumbs drop shadows are fake, not calculated in realtime
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 06, 2021, 03:23:05 AM
I get the metadata when I scrape ScreenScraper.fr using Skraper UI, but what they put in that field can be very convoluted, and sometimes have multiple caterogies. such as: Role playing games-Action-Action / Adventure

Back on topic: my XML converter for Arcadeflow is ready, and I'm clashing with the absurd genre tag produced by Skraper. Notable example: "Action / Adventure-Action-Puzzle-Game" is this "Action/Adventure", fine, but then why Action is separated by a "-" and "Puzzle-Game" has the same "-" in the category name?!? XML scraped from EmulationStation directly are much cleaner with only one genre per game, or at least separated by a ",". There's the genreID tag that should fix the issue but I have no idea how it works and no one seems to have a clear explanation.
At the moment my plan is to parse the genre field looking for "cascaded" categories ("/" separated) and use that if it's present, otherwise I'll try splitting multiple categories by "," or "-" fixing "Puzzle-Game" which hopefully is the only one with this absurd naming!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: katarak on January 08, 2021, 05:33:12 PM
Yeah, That's exactly right... they add so many different tags.

I did notice the Genre id as well but I don't know what they are attributed to. Did you try asking in the screenscraper forums or discord? I haven't asked, but it's an idea.

I will probably take, either the first or last tag only from the absurd genre tags and go with that.
Last time you mentioned you created images for all the mame categories. Is there a list somewhere on the web of what those are? I'd base myself on that so make sure I use a tag which is recognised from that list.
(I have such a hard time understanding all the associated files for Mame. I'll be setting up that emulator last :P)

I also want to build in to my tool to merge 2 EmulationStation Gamelist into 1 AM list. For NGPC as an example. I'll try to add that this weekend
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 09, 2021, 01:00:13 AM
I did notice the Genre id as well but I don't know what they are attributed to. Did you try asking in the screenscraper forums or discord? I haven't asked, but it's an idea.

I asked, but got no answer, maybe because I asked in english and most people there seems to speak only french (or pretend they can't speak anything but french :D )

Quote
Last time you mentioned you created images for all the mame categories. Is there a list somewhere on the web of what those are? I'd base myself on that so make sure I use a tag which is recognised from that list.

You can open the catver.ini from mame folder and you'll find there all the category combinations. I actually didn't create icons for all of them, just the most used. At the moment I'm adjusting some icons names to adapt to RetroPie category names. I don't really understand why anyone would use a different naming scheme since MAME was there ages before RetroPie and all the other scrapers...

Quote
I also want to build in to my tool to merge 2 EmulationStation Gamelist into 1 AM list. For NGPC as an example. I'll try to add that this weekend

Nice idea. Next version of AF will be able to import RetroPie romlists with descriptions, ratings etc, I'm thinking of something similar to create "All Handhelds" collection but it's not so easy since I'll have to create displays too...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: katarak on January 09, 2021, 04:34:51 AM
I can see why people don't appreciate the MAME categories now that I've looked into it a little bit.

It we take Beat'em Ups they show up in the "Fighter" Category.
Kungfu in Fighter / 2D
Final Fight in Fighter / 2.5D
and Art of Fighting in Fighter / Versus.

I think the console market came out with different terms for the genres than the arcade world and that's probably creating a lot of confusion.
For example I've always seen it this way

Final Fight -> Beat'em Up
Art of Fighting -> Fighter
Super Smash Bros -> Brawler

I'll have to keep thinking about the best way to do this.

Mame also does Role-Playing instead of RPG (your icons also don't respond to RPG I had to rename them :P)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 09, 2021, 04:48:33 AM
I can see why people don't appreciate the MAME categories now that I've looked into it a little bit.

It we take Beat'em Ups they show up in the "Fighter" Category.
Kungfu in Fighter / 2D
Final Fight in Fighter / 2.5D
and Art of Fighting in Fighter / Versus.

I think the console market came out with different terms for the genres than the arcade world and that's probably creating a lot of confusion.
For example I've always seen it this way

Final Fight -> Beat'em Up
Art of Fighting -> Fighter
Super Smash Bros -> Brawler

The mame implementation makes much more sense to me: Kungfu, Final Fight and Art of Fighting are all fighting games, so they end up in the same "main category", and 2D, 2.5D and Versus are perfectly clear indication of the type of games we are talking about. Beat'em up, fighter and brawler are more difficult to tell apart, and most of all they all fall in different categories, instead of one macro category, which is much easier to organize.

That said, I'm not native english speaker but even in italian we used to tell apart subgenres within the main "picchiaduro" genre.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 10, 2021, 02:48:29 AM
Arcadeflow 9.7 is out!

Introducing the new tool to import RetroPie XML lists into Attract Mode romlists. Handle with care, make a backup of your lists just in case something bad happens... The tool takes the xml path from your emulator configuration file, if it's in RetroPie format it will process it and substitute your romlist with the new one, otherwise it will leave your romlist alone and safe :)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: wivelden on January 18, 2021, 12:58:56 PM
Hi,
I installed Retropie on my Raspberry Pi 3 and also installed attract mode and fully updated the whole system. I went to install this them but all I get is the games list as text vertically on the screen with a snap image background for each game. I tried another theme and that worked fine. Am I missing something here as I would love to get this theme working as I love the grid layout on my Arcade1Up Street Fighter cab.
Do you install this the same as the other themes for attract mode?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: mahuti on January 18, 2021, 06:06:21 PM
Welcome to the board Wivelden.  Unfortunately this is one of the few layouts that won't run on a Pi. Even the 4 is a touch underpowered and won't fully run this theme at this time... but almost. On the 4 it loads and runs but upon returning from a game won't display any text or graphics.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 19, 2021, 12:09:16 AM
Hi,
I installed Retropie on my Raspberry Pi 3 and also installed attract mode and fully updated the whole system. I went to install this them but all I get is the games list as text vertically on the screen with a snap image background for each game. I tried another theme and that worked fine. Am I missing something here as I would love to get this theme working as I love the grid layout on my Arcade1Up Street Fighter cab.
Do you install this the same as the other themes for attract mode?

As mahuti explaind in his answer, Arcadeflow has issues with PI systems, and AFAIK it doesn't work on a PI3. The fact that you see only a list of names with background is a bit strange though, there was an error in the packaging of the latest version, so you can try re-downloading it from the website. That said, don't expect it to work much better, but at least it should launch and not bring you to that kind of screen.
Not working with the PI is a big issue for AF, but it's a very GPU intensive layout so it's very difficult to make it work on the Raspberry which has some limitation in its GPU design :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: mahuti on January 26, 2021, 12:16:09 PM
A temporary hack "fixes" the problems on a Raspberry Pi 4 as shown below. Obviously this disables some functionality I'm sure, but if you really wanna use this on a Pi4... it's something I'm trying anyway just for fun.

Find this:
Code: [Select]
function on_transition( ttype, var0, ttime ) {

if (ttype == Transition.FromGame) {

change to this:

Code: [Select]
function on_transition( ttype, var0, ttime ) {

    if ( ttype == Transition.FromGame )
    {
       fe.set_display(fe.list.display_index) /*  Zpaolo11x offered this workaround, similar to Oomek's suggestion */
        return false
    }

if (ttype == Transition.FromGame) {

On the AM discord channel a similar problem came up which led to this from Oomek:

Quote
Seems like shaders and textures are being destroyed with the context
The only way I can think of is to reload the layout after exiting the game

if ( ttype == Transition.FromGame )
{
    fe.signal("reload")
    return false
}

Carrier does not need [a] workaround when I add the above to the main layout.nut transition
So it's a problem with AM, not with carrier or my layout....

[The Raspberry Pi 4] DRM version destroys the OpenGL context while launching a game
That brings a lot of collateral damage to drawables and shaders
The only way of fixing it atm is as I said to reload on FromGame trasition

So... try it, but beware. It may cause unforseen problems. YMMV.

You'll want to disable the splash logo, otherwise you'll see it every time you exit a game.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: adu on January 28, 2021, 02:45:23 AM
Hello zpaolo11x

Again, thanks a lot for this theme and all your updates so far !

I got a question, maybe it's a dumb one ...
I'm currently making a Tate Cabinet ... Is your theme working on a Tate display ? (Is there an option to rotate the display when it is started, but let the Win Desktop in a yoko mode) ?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 28, 2021, 05:33:06 AM
I'm currently making a Tate Cabinet ... Is your theme working on a Tate display ? (Is there an option to rotate the display when it is started, but let the Win Desktop in a yoko mode) ?

Yes the theme can work in tate mode, you can use the Attract Mode hotkeys to check what happens when you rotate the screen, but this is temporary. You can go in Arcadeflow options/general and set the rotation to "left", "right" or "flip" without affecting Windows screen orientation.

AF has some tweaks to fit better on vertical screens, but that's a configuration I don't use so much, so if you find any strange behavior or inconsistency, or if you need some feature, let me know I'll be glad to help ;)

[EDIT] Added a screenshot to show how AF looks when "rotated" on a screen where the OS is still in landscape orientation.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: adu on January 28, 2021, 05:42:32 AM
Thanks a lot for your answer, I'll let you know if I run into strange behavior !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.7 [Release] Updated 10 January 2021
Post by: hedergim on January 28, 2021, 05:28:09 PM
I'm sorry to interrupt,
I'm just an admirer of your beautiful work,

I want to know if it is possible to create a theme in AttractMode with 2 incredible features that I saw in that theme:
Youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srqus9JPhZs&feature=youtu.be

1- Video opening and closing effect;

2- The Wheels have very beautiful movements, recoil, when selected it goes down to the bottom, this incredible movement of Wheels.

I would really like to see a theme like this in AttractMode, and you are very smart in theme programming,
sorry to bother.

be well.





Desculpe interromper,
sou apenas um admirador do seu bonito trabalho,

quero saber se é possível criar um tema no AttractMode com 2 características incríveis que vi nesse tema:
Link Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srqus9JPhZs&feature=youtu.be

1- Efeito de abrir e fechar  Video;

2- As Wheels tem movimentos muito bonito, recolhimento, quando selecionada ela desce até em baixo, incrível esse movimento de Wheels.

Eu gostaria muito de ver um tema desse no AttractMode, e você é muito inteligente na programação de tema,
desculpe incomodar.

passar bem.



Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.8 [Release] Updated 29 January 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 29, 2021, 07:14:37 AM
Arcadeflow 9.8 is out!

This version has some huge new features: you can import XML data for romlists AND for collections, and Arcadeflow will now propagate simple romlists data to collections (like favorites, tags etc), and viceversa, if you change favorites in a collection you'll see that change in the original romlist too.

One of the new feature is... the possibility to DELETE your roms from the UI :D It will just move them to a "Deleted" subfolder, but anyway HANDLE WITH CARE! Also, not sure what happens if you have multiple paths in your rompath, I still have to check it :O

Enjoy the new revision and try not to delete your whole disk while using the "red button" :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.8 [Release] Updated 29 January 2021
Post by: ulihox on February 01, 2021, 02:34:40 AM
Could it be possible to add an option to show a list with 3d boxes? This option would need to remove the black background that you can see in the attached picture.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.8 [Release] Updated 29 January 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 01, 2021, 02:39:51 AM
Could it be possible to add an option to show a list with 3d boxes? This option would need to remove the white border and the black background that you can see in the attached picture.

This is not possible at the moment, because of the way AF builds the thumbnails and adds the shadows. It will require a lot of changes to the code, so I can't tell if it will ever become a feature, sorry.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.8 [Release] Updated 29 January 2021
Post by: ulihox on February 01, 2021, 02:52:56 AM
This is not possible at the moment, because of the way AF builds the thumbnails and adds the shadows. It will require a lot of changes to the code, so I can't tell if it will ever become a feature, sorry.

Ok, I hope that someday that could be possible. Thank you!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.8 [Release] Updated 29 January 2021
Post by: markoattract on February 07, 2021, 06:35:47 AM
Hello Paolo !

First of all , thank you for your great work , like always .

My question is : Is possible to have different layout settings per display ?

For example , is possible to change the number of rows in MAME display to "2" and set "1" rows in PLAYSTATION display, using the same layout ?

Thank you and have a nice day ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.8 [Release] Updated 29 January 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 07, 2021, 07:08:28 AM
My question is : Is possible to have different layout settings per display ?

Well at the moment there are some technical limitation, for example in the options you can enable per-display backgrounds, And you can have per display sorting, box art mode etc because these features can be enabled or disabled "at runtime". The layout itself (like number of rows etc) is defined at the layout start and can't be changed after launch, and in Arcadeflow when you change display the layout is not reloaded so, at the moment, I'm sorry but it's not possible to change the tile layout per display
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.8 [Release] Updated 29 January 2021
Post by: markoattract on February 08, 2021, 01:04:48 AM
Quote
Well at the moment there are some technical limitation, for example in the options you can enable per-display backgrounds, And you can have per display sorting, box art mode etc because these features can be enabled or disabled "at runtime". The layout itself (like number of rows etc) is defined at the layout start and can't be changed after launch, and in Arcadeflow when you change display the layout is not reloaded so, at the moment, I'm sorry but it's not possible to change the tile layout per display

Thank you for the answer Paolo !!!

Ok, i solved copying the layout and renaming it !! Well done !! :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.8 [Release] Updated 29 January 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 08, 2021, 01:06:55 AM
Ok, i solved copying the layout and renaming it !! Well done !! :D

I was just going to suggest this as a workaround :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.9 [Release] Updated 22 February 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 21, 2021, 10:18:30 PM
Arcadeflow 9.9 is out!

Performance improvements in many areas: shaders are lighter and faster to load, no more slowdowns at display change, improved effects "stack" on the thumbnails. Also I added new quite obscure system logos and images :D

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.9 [Release] Updated 22 February 2021
Post by: Maccy on March 06, 2021, 03:38:24 AM
Hi everyone,

I'm trying to make ArcadeFlow running with latest GroovyArcade (2021.01): I can't understand why I get only a list of titles with very big fonts.

No issue if I switch to a standard layout.

Attached pictures of standard layout and ArcadeFlow. I'm using ArcadeFlow 9.9.

Any suggestion?

Thanks, regards
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.9 [Release] Updated 22 February 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 06, 2021, 07:13:25 AM
I'm trying to make ArcadeFlow running with latest GroovyArcade (2021.01): I can't understand why I get only a list of titles with very big fonts.

This happens when something _really_ wrong happens and the layout can't load. You can try running attract-console.exe and share the console output here, or the last run log from attract mode directory. That will help me understand what's going wrong.

Also, did you unpack Arcadeflow from the website? Check the content of the Arcadeflow_99 directory, there might be some issues with tar.gz on windwos...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.9 [Release] Updated 22 February 2021
Post by: Maccy on March 06, 2021, 11:54:46 AM
Nevermind, I fixed that, it was a permission issue (chmod -R arcade:arcade ArcadeFlow/ did the trick)

I copied ArcadeFlow from another PC with root account but the default user for GroovyArcade is "arcade".

Thanks, anyway you pointed me in the right direction
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.9 [Release] Updated 22 February 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 12, 2021, 09:36:24 AM
Quick update for what's going on behind the scene, mostly for people that are not on the Discord channel...

Arcadeflow 10.0 is shaping up pretty well, this will be a huge update release.

First of all the archive format will change from .tar.gz back to .zip; you'll receive a notification when it's available, but you'll have to manually download and unpack it, just for this version.

The greatest addition will be an internal scraping engine based on screenscraper.fr, this will allow you to get metadata and/or media for your romlists, in a format that's Attract Mode and Arcadeflow friendly. I'm ironing out the many quirks that a process like this can have, so stay tuned for the final release :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.9 [Release] Updated 15 March 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 15, 2021, 01:12:59 AM
Arcadeflow 10.0 is out!

You can now scrape metadata and media for your romlist directly from Arcadeflow options page, using screenscraper.fr database. Be careful since this is an initial release for the feature, and consider that it's at the moment tailored for console and computer games, not all arcade metadata will be scraped.

Because of a change in the update routine, this will not auto-download or auto-install, you should manually download and unpack the zip from the website: http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/#100

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 25, 2021, 08:22:01 AM
Arcadeflow 10.1 is out!

Scraping of arcade games is now supported, together with crc based database match. Also, now scraping should work on Windows too :D Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 25, 2021, 08:22:16 AM
Arcadeflow 10.1 is out!

Scraping of arcade games is now supported, together with crc based database match. Also, now scraping should work on Windows too :D Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: markoattract on March 31, 2021, 12:34:53 PM
Hello Paolo !!! As always , thank you for your work !!

I want to inform you about a bug (maybe) ... I had selected an mp3 track for bgm and when the track end , AM crash ... Ive just tried with some other tracks and i had same result ...

anyway your work is awesome ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 31, 2021, 02:32:47 PM
Hello Paolo !!! As always , thank you for your work !!

I want to inform you about a bug (maybe) ... I had selected an mp3 track for bgm and when the track end , AM crash ... Ive just tried with some other tracks and i had same result ...

anyway your work is awesome ;)

Thank you for spotting that issue, I'll see if it can be replicated, I know there may be an issue with looping sounds. Let me have a look at it :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 01, 2021, 01:02:20 AM
I want to inform you about a bug (maybe) ... I had selected an mp3 track for bgm and when the track end , AM crash ... Ive just tried with some other tracks and i had same result ...

This happens on my test rig too, the end of the mp3 crashes AM with a "Bus error: 10" error. This is related to the loop property of the audio, if I disable that everything works fine, but of course the audio stops after a while. I thought I could use the .time and .duration properties to intercept the end of the mp3 and avoid the crash, but it seems both return "0" so I have no way to manage this at the moment. As a safety measure I'll disable the loop for background music, even if it makes no sense :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: markoattract on April 02, 2021, 01:10:40 AM
Hello Paolo !!! Thanks for your eplanation, but for me is an alien language :D :D

anyway for me that issue is not important because i solved with a modified mp3 track in loop for 30 minutes ... So i have all the time for select a game and when i return to the layout the music restarts !

Thank you for your attention ! :D :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 02, 2021, 01:14:45 AM
anyway for me that issue is not important because i solved with a modified mp3 track in loop for 30 minutes ... So i have all the time for select a game and when i return to the layout the music restarts !

Actually I was able to solve the issue with a bit of help from Yaron2019 :) AF 10.2 will loop without crashing, hopefully it will be out next week
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: ScherzKeks on April 02, 2021, 02:16:58 PM
Do you think it would be possible to integrate the possibility to randomize the BGM music? e.g. shuffle an m3u list or play a random file from a BGM music folder?
I'm using a rather large (>60min) mp3 and have some more files I'd love to add as BGM music to the theme. For now I always hear more or less always the same part of that file.

Especially great would be that an BGM mp3 keeps playing even if you switch from one Display to another, as long you have the same BGM configured for that Display
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 05, 2021, 10:30:42 AM
Do you think it would be possible to integrate the possibility to randomize the BGM music? e.g. shuffle an m3u list or play a random file from a BGM music folder?

Shouldn't be too difficult to implement... what's the best option for you? Shuffle through the mp3s in a folder, or shuffle a m3u file?

Quote
Especially great would be that an BGM mp3 keeps playing even if you switch from one Display to another, as long you have the same BGM configured for that Display

If you use ARcadeflow for all your displays music should not stop when changing display
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: ScherzKeks on April 05, 2021, 02:47:36 PM
I guess shuffling mp3's in a folder would be the very easiest way.

Seems that on my machine it stops/restarts audio on some certain screens. I'll investigate that further and let you know.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.1 [Release] Updated 25 March 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 06, 2021, 03:02:53 AM
I guess shuffling mp3's in a folder would be the very easiest way.

Seems that on my machine it stops/restarts audio on some certain screens. I'll investigate that further and let you know.

I've implemented an option like this: you set a bgm mp3 as usual, if you enable the "randomize background tune" option then the layout will scan the folder from where you added the mp3 and play a random mp3 from that folder. Seems to be working fine.

As for the displays if you see the AF logo and the whole layout is reloading, then for some reason it couldn't "quick change" the display, and the music will restart
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 08, 2021, 08:04:29 AM
Arcadeflow updated to version 10.2!

This new version adds German translation, plus speed improvement related to scraping and media download.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: adu on April 15, 2021, 01:02:53 PM
Hi zpaolo11x !

Long time no post from me, because I wasn't on my arcade cabinet for a while !
I decided to update my ArcadeFlow (I was on ArcadeFlow 9.0  ::)
Just install the new version and the features you added are awesome ! Again, thanks for your work !

But I got a strange bug ( ;D)
When I open my Steam section, every game is marked as unavailable, and I can't launch them.
If I choose ArcadeFlow 9.0 to display my Steam Games, everything is fine, no more unavailable games and I can play them (without any change in my Steam emulator config)
Do I miss something with Steam category now ?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2021, 07:08:52 AM
But I got a strange bug ( ;D)
When I open my Steam section, every game is marked as unavailable, and I can't launch them.
If I choose ArcadeFlow 9.0 to display my Steam Games, everything is fine, no more unavailable games and I can play them (without any change in my Steam emulator config)
Do I miss something with Steam category now ?

It's not the first time I see such a bug, but can't remember who had it... I can try to replicate the issue if you send me (paolo.zago@gmail.com) your attract.cfg file, the emulator .cfg file you are using for steam, and the romlist file for steam games. How are the games run, via a script? I mean, what's in the "rom folder" for steam games?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: adu on April 16, 2021, 09:35:18 AM
I have sent you the files you requested !

The games are run as I've found in the forum, I got a steam emulator with :
Code: [Select]
# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.6.1
#
executable           C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe
args                 -applaunch [name]
rompath              D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps
romext               .acf
system               PC
info_source          steam
nb_mode_wait         10
artwork    marquee         
artwork    snap            D:\Aroms\steam\Snap
artwork    wheel           D:\Aroms\steam\Wheel

And it launch the .acf files located in my steamapps directory, with the help of the romlist file :
Code: [Select]
#Name;Title;Emulator;CloneOf;Year;Manufacturer;Category;Players;Rotation;Control;Status;DisplayCount;DisplayType;AltRomname;AltTitle;Extra;Buttons;Series;Language;Region;Rating
263880;Aqua Kitty - Milk Mine Defender;steam;;2014;Tikipod;shooter;2;;joystick (8-way),joystick (8-way);;;;Aqua Kitty;Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender;;4;;;;
263300;BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger;steam;;2014;arc;fighter2d;2;;joystick (8-way),joystick (8-way);;;;BlazBlue Calamity Trigger;BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger;;8;;;;
388750;BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend;steam;;2016;arc;fighter2d;2;;joystick (8-way),joystick (8-way);;;;BlazBlue Chronophantasma Extend;BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend;;8;;;;
285440;Crimzon Clover  WORLD IGNITION;steam;;2014;Degica Games;shooter;1;;joystick (8-way);;;;Crimzon Clover;Crimzon Clover World Ignition;;2;;;;
261180;Lethal League;steam;;2014;Team Reptile;sports;2;;joystick (8-way),joystick (8-way);;;;lethalleague;Lethal League;;2;;;;

The steamapps contains file named : appmanifest_45760.acf, appmanifest_263880.acf and so on, one for each game, generated by Steam itself.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2021, 09:39:46 AM
I see what's the issue here: while the stam.cfg uses the -applaunch number to launch the app, and that number is saved in the romlist, in the directory you actually have a file called appmanifest_number.acf. Arcadeflow expects the "rom" filename to be the same as the entry in the romlist, to check if such file is present, so the check fails in this case.

There's no easy way I can fix this, the best option is to disable the file availability check in Arcadeflow options, Thumbnails, Decorations section. The decoration is just that, it doesn't prevent a game from being launched, so it should work well after you remove the red cross :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: adu on April 16, 2021, 09:42:32 AM
As I just replied to you by email, I try disabling the unavailable decoration, the red cross is no more on my game, but I still can't launch them, AttractMode does nothing, the video is still playing and the game is not launched.

With the ArcadeFlow 9.0 version everything is running fine, with this configuration. But with AF 10.2, the Steam games work no more.

EDIT : on this topic, you can see that I've followed the guide to configure how Steam work : http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=503.0
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 16, 2021, 09:53:44 AM
This is the fix for this issue: normally AF doesn't run non-available games, but with this change AF will launch any game if you disable the red cross decoration in the options. I'll post the solution here so that anyone with a similar issue knows what to do while the new version is released

open layout.nut and look for this line:

Code: [Select]
   if (z_list.gametable[z_list.index].z_fileisavailable != "1") return true
and change it to this:

Code: [Select]
   if (prf.REDCROSS && (z_list.gametable[z_list.index].z_fileisavailable != "1")) return true
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: adu on April 16, 2021, 09:57:22 AM
Everything is ok with your fix, thanks !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.2 [Release] Updated 8 April 2021
Post by: SFNMutt on April 19, 2021, 07:08:45 AM
finally time to work on my machine again & thrilled to see big improvements to the theme.  excited to start playing w/ it. thank you!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.3 [Release] Updated 3 May 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 03, 2021, 07:37:54 AM
Arcadeflow 10.3 is out!

This took a lot more than expected because I kept finding bugs and tried to fix them all! The scraping engine, well I'm going to be bold and say that now it works fine on Windows, but I'm sure some more issues will pop up :D :D

Enjoy the new release and report any (other) bugs :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.3 [Release] Updated 3 May 2021
Post by: dark1973 on May 07, 2021, 02:10:08 AM
Buongiorno.
Questo layout sta diventando sempre più completo e dalle mille funzioni!
Ho riscontrato un piccolo problema sulla creazione dei giochi preferiti (windows 10). Se premo il tasto funzione di aggiunta/rimozione, il gioco in automatico acquista o perde la stella ma la lista dei giochi in basso a destra resta invariata(non si aggiorna).
Ciao e di nuovo grazie.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.3 [Release] Updated 3 May 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 07, 2021, 02:13:16 AM
Ho riscontrato un piccolo problema sulla creazione dei giochi preferiti (windows 10). Se premo il tasto funzione di aggiunta/rimozione, il gioco in automatico acquista o perde la stella ma la lista dei giochi in basso a destra resta invariata(non si aggiorna).

Sei in un display con un filtro che mostra solo i preferiti? In questo caso AF ha qualche problemino a tenere sincronizzato il tutto, ci devo guardare bene. Se invece sei in un normale display aggiungere e togliere i preferiti non dovrebbe modificare i numeri in basso a destra che riguardano l'intera lista
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.3 [Release] Updated 3 May 2021
Post by: dark1973 on May 07, 2021, 02:37:02 AM
Si esatto, sono nel display dei preferiti. Non lo avevo specificato.  ;D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.3 [Release] Updated 3 May 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 07, 2021, 02:42:26 AM
Si esatto, sono nel display dei preferiti. Non lo avevo specificato.  ;D

Hai perfettamente ragione: non solo quando togli un preferito non viene aggiornata la lista, ma se sei nel display con filtro "all" e aggiungi un preferito, non viene immediatamente aggiunto al filtro "preferiti". E' un problema dovuto al fatto che il mio layout gestisce i preferiti "a modo suo" ma pensavo di averlo risolto :O ci guardo con calma in questi giorni...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.4 [Release] Updated 1 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 01, 2021, 02:39:21 AM
Arcadeflow 10.4 is out!

It took almost a month but there are a lot of updates: a new scraper for arcade games (ADB), improved tile scrolling and smoother movement overall, and cleaner surface stack that should improve performance too.

Oh, and the .vbs files that are needed for scraping on Windows are actually in the archive now :D

Enjoy and report any bugs!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.4 [Release] Updated 1 June 2021
Post by: katarak on June 05, 2021, 02:48:52 PM
Hey zpaolo11x,

I just downloaded 10.4 and am trying to scrape my 3D0 list and it does not seem to work at all.  :(

I set my SS account and Password, and configured so all roms are scraped, only missing media is downloaded, and even disabled the CRC check (so only names matter)
I also tried it the 7800 with CRC checks and full overwrite and the result is the same.

It clears the romlist and puts a status page to say: 3DO 0/0
So I'm not sure if there's a setting somewhere that's wrong, maybe?
Also, is there a way to configure what to download? for example I use Box2Dfront, manual, screenshot, wheel for all my consoles.

Is it maybe because I don't keep my roms in the usual spot? (I don't remember if AM has a default rom folder), but all my emulators are configured with their paths, but it's outside the usual place, if any. I keep the all the scrape data in a folder next to all the rom files.

Hope we can debug this :)

K
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.4 [Release] Updated 1 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2021, 12:10:23 AM
I set my SS account and Password, and configured so all roms are scraped, only missing media is downloaded, and even disabled the CRC check (so only names matter)
I also tried it the 7800 with CRC checks and full overwrite and the result is the same.

It clears the romlist and puts a status page to say: 3DO 0/0
So I'm not sure if there's a setting somewhere that's wrong, maybe?

You have your roms path in the emulator .cfg file, and all the media paths in that file too? Because AF scraper takes that data to find the roms and to chose what media to download. Also, since it says 0/0, there might be an error blocking the scraper, can you run attract-console.exe and share the console output? It would be helpful also to have the emulator .cfg file you are using. You can share them here or to my personal email paolo.zago@gmail.com or on the discord channel of Arcadeflow https://discord.gg/kPnwXjGhvs

Quote
Also, is there a way to configure what to download? for example I use Box2Dfront, manual, screenshot, wheel for all my consoles.

At the moment AF scraper chose what to download depending on your artowrk settings in the .cfg files, but won't download manuals since they are not used in the AF UI, I can tweak it to incorporate manuals too...

Quote
Is it maybe because I don't keep my roms in the usual spot? (I don't remember if AM has a default rom folder), but all my emulators are configured with their paths, but it's outside the usual place, if any. I keep the all the scrape data in a folder next to all the rom files.

That shouldn't be a problem as long as the path is indicated in the .cfg file, if you can share the files I mentioned above it will help me debug the issue. The scraper is a complex beast so any error and bugs report is very useful!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 08, 2021, 11:16:43 PM
Arcadeflow 10.5 is out!

This was fast :D Mostly bug fixes, a tweak in sounds and the addition of a "Power menu" to suspend/reboot/shutdown your machine when exiting AF.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: lixoman100 on June 09, 2021, 03:03:05 PM
Hello. I'm using AttractMode with ArcadeFlow, looks great. But on my CRT TV, parts of the interface are cut-off because of overscan. Is there a way to configure it so the interface is a bit smaller and everything fits on the screen? Like adding some padding around the entire window?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 09, 2021, 10:45:22 PM
Hello. I'm using AttractMode with ArcadeFlow, looks great. But on my CRT TV, parts of the interface are cut-off because of overscan. Is there a way to configure it so the interface is a bit smaller and everything fits on the screen? Like adding some padding around the entire window?

This is not possible at the moment, but I'll see if I can add an overscan option for the next release
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2021, 01:34:11 AM
Hello. I'm using AttractMode with ArcadeFlow, looks great. But on my CRT TV, parts of the interface are cut-off because of overscan. Is there a way to configure it so the interface is a bit smaller and everything fits on the screen? Like adding some padding around the entire window?

The easiest way, and one that I can implement right away, is to reduce the actual layout real estate to some portion in the middle of the screen, keeping black outside. If you think this is not "nice", I can try and reduce the meaningful parts of the layout without affecting the background, so the background will bleed and fill the whole screen.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2021, 06:24:35 AM
Hello. I'm using AttractMode with ArcadeFlow, looks great. But on my CRT TV, parts of the interface are cut-off because of overscan. Is there a way to configure it so the interface is a bit smaller and everything fits on the screen? Like adding some padding around the entire window?

So, it turned out to be not so hard actually... you can see attached a screenshot where the resolution is pal overscan (768x576) but the actual data is in an area of 640x512. I let the tiles slide into the overscan so they don't look truncated, and the background of the history page overflows to the overscan too.

Now the question is... how to define this in options? Considering that the layout opens at the screen resolution, would it be enough to define a "underscan" resolution, that is in this case 640x512? Or do you prefer a percentage, but in this case it might be useful to have a x and y percentage... Just let me know, it's a matter of personal preference :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: lixoman100 on June 10, 2021, 06:44:57 AM
That looks great! Indeed, the tiles should overflow to the sides. That implementation seems perfect.

As for configuration, my preference would be x and y percentages, rather than hard resolution values. I use another, high-resolution screen to set everything up before starting AM on the CRT TV and with percentages it would work on both displays with the same settings. Plus it's... simpler with percentages, I guess?

Thanks for such quick development and for the great stuff you make!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2021, 07:32:07 AM
As for configuration, my preference would be x and y percentages, rather than hard resolution values. I use another, high-resolution screen to set everything up before starting AM on the CRT TV and with percentages it would work on both displays with the same settings. Plus it's... simpler with percentages, I guess?

Got it, so here is a modified AF 10.5 with the overscan options. You can find them under "Performance and FX". Hopefully I didn't break anything else in the process :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: lixoman100 on June 10, 2021, 08:37:20 AM
I'm probably being dumb, but I tried several values - 90, 80, 50, 5 - and none seemed to change anything.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2021, 08:39:26 AM
I'm probably being dumb, but I tried several values - 90, 80, 50, 5 - and none seemed to change anything.

My mistake, version check was probably resetting the option... try with this one.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: lixoman100 on June 10, 2021, 08:48:44 AM
Fantastic, it is working great! I'll let you know if I find any breakage elsewhere.

While I have your attention, I was wondering about the fact that videos in attract mode are really zoomed in, I can only see the center of the video. I have "fixed" it locally by changing
Code: [Select]
scanrows = 180 to
Code: [Select]
scanrows = 280 on line 10541, but I was just wondering if I'm missing something elsewhere.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 10, 2021, 09:04:34 AM
While I have your attention, I was wondering about the fact that videos in attract mode are really zoomed in, I can only see the center of the video. I have "fixed" it locally by changing
Code: [Select]
scanrows = 180 to
Code: [Select]
scanrows = 280 on line 10541, but I was just wondering if I'm missing something elsewhere.

The intended behavior is to "sample" 180 scanlines from a game and use that portion to create the attract "screensaver". This means that it can be zoomed in depending on the resolution of the original game. I've been thinking of another solution but not sure if I'm going to change it, BTW the edit you did is correct if you want to see more of the game
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: lixoman100 on June 11, 2021, 05:15:44 PM
I found an issue with the new overflow feature. When the vertical overflow is lower than 100 (tested at 90), and you move the cursor down to the letters, the glow is shown ABOVE the bar instead of being at the same vertical position as the letters.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.5 [Release] Updated 9 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 12, 2021, 12:15:36 PM
I found an issue with the new overflow feature. When the vertical overflow is lower than 100 (tested at 90), and you move the cursor down to the letters, the glow is shown ABOVE the bar instead of being at the same vertical position as the letters.

Thank you for spotting it, fixed but will be released with 10.6, coming soon.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.6 [Release] Updated 14 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 14, 2021, 06:26:04 AM
Arcadeflow 10.6 is out!

This version adds overscan support, new Nintendo arcade systems and some bug fixes that you were so great at spotting.

Thank you all and enjoy the new release :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 9.6 [Release] Updated 24 December 2020
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 21, 2021, 11:15:14 AM
I think you misunderstood me. What I am looking for, is being able to just display wheel images, as shown in image I took in the standard Grid layout. So wheel image centered in the thumbnail area, with a nice dropshadow, and retaining the option to morph into a snap video.

Not sure if you are still using AF and interested to this, but I'm thinking of implementing a "wheel only" mode in AF so it will look almost as you mentioned in this post...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.6 [Release] Updated 14 June 2021
Post by: cybermat on June 23, 2021, 06:16:00 AM
For people using Windows 7 64 bit (my setup) , if you want auto update feature you should download https://curl.se/windows/ and put the files of 64 bit version under system32 directory (i put under syswow64 and was not working)

In this way AM will be able to execute command to update itself (for automatic update you should flag on this feature under AM's options)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.6 [Release] Updated 14 June 2021
Post by: clockman on June 27, 2021, 01:09:14 PM
Does this theme work on the rasberry pi 3?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.6 [Release] Updated 14 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 27, 2021, 11:50:59 PM
Does this theme work on the rasberry pi 3?

AFAIK, but I don't have a Pi to test, no it doesn't work. I think it might work on the Pi4 but probably not at full speed.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.7 [Release] Updated 28 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 28, 2021, 12:32:27 AM
Arcadeflow 10.7 is out!

Just a couple new cosmetic options in this revision, hope you enjoy it :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.7 [Release] Updated 28 June 2021
Post by: adu on June 28, 2021, 12:56:05 AM
We do enjoy every release ! Thanks a lot for the awesome work !!!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.7 [Release] Updated 28 June 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on June 28, 2021, 12:23:32 PM
this theme is the most amazing for attract, congratulations! I have a little problem; when I use windows 10 or Arch linux I can download the arts and videos by scrape and xml import normally. But when I use windows 7 X64 I can't download anything from scrape. It gets stuck in the search screen. Are there any special procedures I should do? Do you have any idea how I can fix this?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.7 [Release] Updated 28 June 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 28, 2021, 02:16:27 PM
this theme is the most amazing for attract, congratulations!

Thank you :)

Quote
I have a little problem; when I use windows 10 or Arch linux I can download the arts and videos by scrape and xml import normally. But when I use windows 7 X64 I can't download anything from scrape. It gets stuck in the search screen. Are there any special procedures I should do? Do you have any idea how I can fix this?

This happens because AF uses curl to access internet, but curl is not available in Windows 7. You can try what @cybermat from the forum did some days ago: downloading curl.exe for your version of windows and put it in a path folder. From @cybermat message: "if you want auto update feature you should download https://curl.se/windows/ and put the files of 64 bit version under system32 directory (i put under syswow64 and was not working)"
I don't have a Win7 test system, but hopefully that will fix the issue...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 12, 2021, 02:19:35 AM
Arcadeflow 10.8 is out!

No outstanding new features in this release, just new manufacturer logos to improve the visuals :)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: joacoza on August 22, 2021, 06:19:05 PM
Hello.
How do I change the sorting method AF uses? I want to sort my list using the romlist file but nothing i do seems to change it.
Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 22, 2021, 11:46:16 PM
How do I change the sorting method AF uses? I want to sort my list using the romlist file but nothing i do seems to change it.

You can change the sort order in the utility menu of Arcadeflow, but at the moment there's no way to keep the sort order of a "custom ordered" romlist. It shouldn't be difficult to code a "sort as romlist" option, so I'll try to add it in the next release, although I think it will clash a bit with the letters markers at the bottom of the scroll bar. But that's a minor annoyance... so stay tuned :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 23, 2021, 12:13:22 AM
How do I change the sorting method AF uses? I want to sort my list using the romlist file but nothing i do seems to change it.

In the meantime for a quick and dirty workaround, and if you don't mind some file editing, you can open the layout.nut file inside arcadeflow folder, search for this line:

Code: [Select]
z_listsort(z_list.orderby,z_list.reverse)
and comment it changing it to:

Code: [Select]
// z_listsort(z_list.orderby,z_list.reverse)
This will disable AF sorting completely and should show your list in the order you have it saved in the romlist file.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: joacoza on August 23, 2021, 08:52:53 AM
Wow! That did the trick, thank you so much!
This theme is amazing, keep up the good work!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 03, 2021, 06:27:51 PM
Loving the theme so far! I'd like to make a feature request if possible. I'm building a vertical cabinet using a monitor tilted on its side. It would be great to use arcade machine images as the preview images. But even in vertical adaptive mode, the images are still squished. I think the images would basically be 16:9 but vertical flipped. This allows for the marquee, bezels, and controllers or coin doors to be shown on screen. It would be awesome to use this image format as previews with ArcadeFlow!

Here are some examples of some of the screenshots I am looking to use.
https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5f4087b85a9aeff39cc88fcb/60318d4cc10889b3307a881a_altbeast-cpo-p-500.jpeg
https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5f4087b85a9aeff39cc88fcb/5f8e681164543991671f4012_baddudes3.jpg

Here is a video overview of the project, and the website. All of the full arcade machine bezels are in 4k with retroarch and mame layout files.
https://youtu.be/fQYMinPhmdg
https://www.verticalarcade.com/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 04, 2021, 01:20:38 AM
Loving the theme so far! I'd like to make a feature request if possible. I'm building a vertical cabinet using a monitor tilted on its side. It would be great to use arcade machine images as the preview images. But even in vertical adaptive mode, the images are still squished.

Interesting request! Actually I think the images are squished because the layout try to adapt them to 4:3 or 3:4 recognizing you are in an arcade romlist. I'll see if I can add a switch to force disable the AR adaptation, but I think the best way should be this: configure AM so that those images are used as "flyer" artwork instead of snap, and switch Arcadeflow to boxart mode, this should stop trying to adapt the AR...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 05, 2021, 07:40:19 AM
Interesting request! Actually I think the images are squished because the layout try to adapt them to 4:3 or 3:4 recognizing you are in an arcade romlist. I'll see if I can add a switch to force disable the AR adaptation, but I think the best way should be this: configure AM so that those images are used as "flyer" artwork instead of snap, and switch Arcadeflow to boxart mode, this should stop trying to adapt the AR...

That worked. Thank you! Once I get everything set up, I might have a few suggestions or small feature requests (things like closer zoom options) to really help this format shine using your amazing theme!

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 08, 2021, 03:17:49 PM
I tried playing with the padding ratios in the layout.nut file, but I was unable to create something like I made in this photoshop mockup.

Would it be possible to do some slight modifications to the layout.nut to create something like the image attached? All of these cabinet screenshots are the exact same size, some might look slightly off because of my terrible Photoshop work. Thank you so much for any assistance! :)

I have added a bunch of cabinet images in a zip for testing if that is helpful: https://file.io/Qnt5ipG2WU9w




Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 08, 2021, 11:24:33 PM
I tried playing with the padding ratios in the layout.nut file, but I was unable to create something like I made in this photoshop mockup.

I see what's the point here: Arcadeflow is built for flexibility so in order to accomodate different aspect ratios for games screens or box art, each "tile" has a square area that can be used to draw the actual screenshot/box-art. Depending on the aspect ratio, which is limited to a range from 1:2 to 2:1 (wider aspects are cropped) the actual "corners" of the artwork follow a squircle curve, so when different aspects are mixed together on screen, they all look with a similar area. This means though that very "tall" aspects, like 9:16 in your case, will have a large padding on the left and right and at the moment this can't be fixed because the tile real estate is, as I said, square.
I can see if changing the aspect ratio of the tile might mitigate the issue, but that's a deep change and will probably take some time, unless I do some dirty trick like altering the tile spacing. So let me think a bit about it and I'll get back with a solution (hopefully :D )
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 09, 2021, 09:23:33 AM
Thank you for helping me understand! That would be amazing if you had any suggestions or even a quick fix! A dirty trick is just fine! :) I really think this could be the ultimate theme for a vertical cabinet build with this layout!


Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 09, 2021, 10:44:59 PM

I have added a bunch of cabinet images in a zip for testing if that is helpful: https://file.io/Qnt5ipG2WU9w

Can you please re-upload the archive?

Nevermind, I just downloaded some overlays and I'm using them to test. It's still buggy in the positioning of the selector, but it's shaping up quite well...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 10, 2021, 01:47:19 AM
Thank you for helping me understand! That would be amazing if you had any suggestions or even a quick fix! A dirty trick is just fine! :) I really think this could be the ultimate theme for a vertical cabinet build with this layout!

I think it's done: I tweaked the margins so that on a 9:16 screen you'll see 9 snapshots without other tiles being cut at the edges of the screen, you can still activate video thumbs with morphing AR if you want, or you just disable them.

Everything is ready to release but since I've changed many things in this version, and most of all it will require AttractMode+ to run, it might take a while to release... I can pack a beta release for you if you want to check it out
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 10, 2021, 12:34:31 PM
This is amazing and looks fantastic! Thank you so much. :) I would love a beta release. That way I can help test it as well. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Also, I'm sorry about that file.io link going down so fast. I thought it would last at least a week or two.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 10, 2021, 11:49:58 PM
This is amazing and looks fantastic! Thank you so much. :) I would love a beta release. That way I can help test it as well. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Here it is, you can download the beta from here: http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/layouts/Arcadeflow_109BETA.zip it is pre-configured in a way that should work fine with vertical arcade artwork (9:16 correction enabled, moderate tile zooming, boxart mode), let me know if you have issues. This beta requires either attract mode nightly build for Windows or attractplus executable to work, I mean, it works also with 2.6.1 but with some issues in shadows.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 11, 2021, 07:57:47 AM
I am so excited to try this. Thank you! I will have to grab a nightly build of attract mode for testing. I am unable to find a windows compiled binary for AttractPlus on oomeks GitHub https://github.com/oomek/attractplus. Unless there is a thread on here somewhere with it posted for download?

Again, I really appreciate your help and support in adding these features. I can't wait to report back after testing. :)





Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 11, 2021, 02:20:14 PM
Here it is, you can download the beta from here: http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF/layouts/Arcadeflow_109BETA.zip it is pre-configured in a way that should work fine with vertical arcade artwork (9:16 correction enabled, moderate tile zooming, boxart mode), let me know if you have issues. This beta requires either attract mode nightly build for Windows or attractplus executable to work, I mean, it works also with 2.6.1 but with some issues in shadows.

Just an update, everything is working perfectly on my Windows 10 system! Using the newest attract more daily build from the forum and your 109BETA. Everything is smooth and looks great!. Fantastic work. Thank you again. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 11, 2021, 11:30:00 PM
Just an update, everything is working perfectly on my Windows 10 system! Using the newest attract more daily build from the forum and your 109BETA. Everything is smooth and looks great!. Fantastic work. Thank you again. :)

Glad that everything is working fine :) Can you share a screenshot to see how it looks with a complete system?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 12, 2021, 08:21:57 AM
Absolutely! Here is an image of it up and running on the 32-inch TV I've been testing with. Once I get the rest of the images renamed to match my ROM list, I can post some more! I generated a romlist with around 300 or so games that have cabinets. In hopes to streamline the set up.

This is it running from attract mode daily, and your beta. :)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 12, 2021, 10:18:08 AM
This is it running from attract mode daily, and your beta. :)

Looks neat :) I was thinking while coding the fix... at the moment the blurred background comes from the "cabinet" artwork, so probably it will be dark and not very colorful in this case, maybe it would be even better if the background was the actual snapshot of the game blurred, while the thumbnail artwork is the 9:16 cabinet.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 12, 2021, 06:41:38 PM
That is a cool idea as well! Although in this case, I actually turned the background from Pop to Dark on purpose. My eyes are sensitive to light sometimes, so I like to keep things dark when possible. The vertical cabinet idea is fantastic, but it is basically a whole screen turned vertically in your face depending on how close you are. That can get a bit bright over time. So keeping your theme on dark mode helps as a nice pallet cleanser for the eyes.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 22, 2021, 07:57:47 AM
When you had mentioned that your theme requires the latest version of attract mode, or attract mode plus. Does that have anything to do with asynchronous loading?

On my mid-range emulation system, scrolling through three columns seems to be a bit slow. Changing things to full-screen mode in attract mode general options sped things up slightly. But it's still very noticeable. I was just wondering if there are any workarounds that you might be able to suggest? Everything looks fantastic and is perfect otherwise. Thank you for any further assistance!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 22, 2021, 08:35:19 AM
When you had mentioned that your theme requires the latest version of attract mode, or attract mold plus. Does that have anything to do with asynchronous loading?

No, asynchronous loading is buggy in AM and not yet implemented in AM+, the need for AM daily or AM+ is related to surface effects.

The issue you get can be caused by the large size of thumbnails, what is the resolution and average file size of the images you are using as "boxart" in the layout? Another issue could be if your GPU is not powerful enough for rendering the complex structure of Arcadeflow: on my late 2013 MBP AF doesn't run at 60 fps in fullscreen because of that.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 22, 2021, 11:21:01 AM
No, asynchronous loading is buggy in AM and not yet implemented in AM+, the need for AM daily or AM+ is related to surface effects.

The issue you get can be caused by the large size of thumbnails, what is the resolution and average file size of the images you are using as "boxart" in the layout? Another issue could be if your GPU is not powerful enough for rendering the complex structure of Arcadeflow: on my late 2013 MBP AF doesn't run at 60 fps in fullscreen because of that.

Thank you for clarifying, also are there any other benefits to attract mode plus? I still am unable to find a precompiled binary for windows. So I am using attract mode daily from the sticky thread.

The flyer/boxart images I am using are directly from that vertical arcade website, I spent an evening downloading and renaming them all. So they are 4K JPEG's. I could probably use a batch process to convert them to a lower resolution and try that. Thank you for the suggestion.

The computer I'm currently using is an Alienware alpha R1, with an Nvidia GTX 970 GPU. My goal is to try to get this running on a pi4 at 1080P. I was actually able to get things running on the Pi4 using retroarch/FBNEO with run ahead at 2 frames while using the Zfast Curved shader. I could have cooked food on the Pi4 it was so hot, but it was stable at 60fps. :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 23, 2021, 12:22:36 AM
The flyer/boxart images I am using are directly from that vertical arcade website, I spent an evening downloading and renaming them all. So they are 4K JPEG's. I could probably use a batch process to convert them to a lower resolution and try that. Thank you for the suggestion.

Well you should definitely try, 4K images are so large they can really slow down the system. For comparison I can clearly see a performance hit when using "flyers" from mame instead of snaps, or even if compared to console box artwork since those are usually 500x500 while mame flyers are much higher res. I suggest you try scaling the 4K pics to something around 500 on the long edge (or something more if you see blurryness)

Quote
The computer I'm currently using is an Alienware alpha R1, with an Nvidia GTX 970 GPU. My goal is to try to get this running on a pi4 at 1080P. I was actually able to get things running on the Pi4 using retroarch/FBNEO with run ahead at 2 frames while using the Zfast Curved shader. I could have cooked food on the Pi4 it was so hot, but it was stable at 60fps. :)

Well the Alienware sounds more than powerful enough to run AF at full speed, so the issue is probably in the file size. As far as the Pi4 is concerned, did you run AF on that? Wondering how it will run...

As for the AM+ binaries, you can download them only if you are logged in to Github, you can create an account and if you have issues please let me know
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 23, 2021, 12:17:45 PM
I suggest you try scaling the 4K pics to something around 500 on the long edge (or something more if you see blurryness)

As far as the Pi4 is concerned, did you run AF on that? Wondering how it will run...

As for the AM+ binaries, you can download them only if you are logged in to Github, you can create an account and if you have issues please let me know

I will definitely try lowering the resolution on the images. I also upped the attract mode cache size to a few gigabytes. I do notice when I change the columns from 2 to 3 the response is smoother. I also can't decide if I like 2 columns or 3. They both look great!

I do not have arcade flow for running on the pi yet, but I do have attract mode running in retropie on my other arcade cabinet. In the future, I will definitely share my progress on that as well testing Arace Flow!

Thank you for the suggestion on github, I do have an account, I will try to login and download it there. I was looking at the documentation and I can't find any information on what is different from the mainline attract mode.

Again, this theme is so awesome. With your recent updates in this beta, it is a dream come true for this new vertical arcade style. Here is another image of the beta running. Sorry about the low image quality but the forum limits the file size.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 12 August 2021
Post by: tekn0 on September 25, 2021, 09:28:32 AM
Some more images from the new beta with vertical arcade support! :)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 28, 2021, 11:31:53 PM
Arcadeflow 10.9 is out!

This new version requires AM daily build or AM+ current build, it's been tweaked to take advantage of improvements that are not present in AM "classic".

New features include support for VerticalArcade cabinets with an option to have less spacing between snapshots, a new contextual menu and most important a brand new metadata editor that allows you to change the metadata of your games (it's non destructive and won't touch your romlist!)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on September 29, 2021, 03:07:49 AM
I'm looking forward to testing the new features, but on the site it looks like it has a little problem, clicking on the version 10.9 link is downloading version 10.8. And once again, thank you so much for this wonderful theme!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 29, 2021, 03:10:12 AM
I'm looking forward to testing the new features, but on the site it looks like it has a little problem, clicking on the version 10.9 link is downloading version 10.8. And once again, thank you so much for this wonderful theme!

Thank you for the heads up, fixed!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on September 29, 2021, 10:22:34 AM
I tested version 10.9 and it seems to have some error; when I press the button selecting some screen, the screen transition doesn't happen immediately, it needs a second key command to make the transition happen. Or could this be some error here on my PC? I did a fresh install of the theme, I didn't update it automatically.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 29, 2021, 12:44:14 PM
I tested version 10.9 and it seems to have some error; when I press the button selecting some screen, the screen transition doesn't happen immediately, it needs a second key command to make the transition happen. Or could this be some error here on my PC? I did a fresh install of the theme, I didn't update it automatically.

You mean when you press “enter” on a screenshot? Can you run attract-console.exe and share the output when you do that button press? Also, what version of Attract Mode are you using?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on September 29, 2021, 04:26:39 PM
I don't know commands to use in attract-console, but I did some prints, maybe you can identify here. I can try to make a video also showing the problem...

https://imgur.com/gcsOaD0

https://imgur.com/UuVgtxO

https://imgur.com/8KjgQxb

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 29, 2021, 09:28:26 PM
I don't know commands to use in attract-console, but I did some prints, maybe you can identify here. I can try to make a video also showing the problem...

The console should output errors when you use AF, so if you do what you said is not working right there should be some error message there. Can you please try to make a video?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on September 30, 2021, 02:42:42 AM
Note that when I hit ''enter" the screen transition doesn't happen right away, I need to hit another key to show me what I've selected.
I hope you can see from the video. I also tested it on another PC and the same thing happens.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMYtGUeYoM
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 30, 2021, 02:52:27 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMYtGUeYoM

Very clear, I see what's going on and I was able to replicate it on my Windows rig: you are running Attract Mode 2.6.1, but this version of AF requires newer builds.

You can try with AM daily builds, available here: http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2324.0 that should fix the issue, but if you want to be double sure, you should switch to Attract Mode Plus.

If you have a github account you can download the latest build of attract plus (that is the one I use for development and debugging) from here: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions/runs/1194184396 download the windows "static" executable and just place it in your existing AM folder. This build of AM+ is mostly a cleanup of AM daily with many issues corrected and some tricks for complex layouts like mine, so check it out.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 10.8 [Release] Updated 28 September 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on September 30, 2021, 03:44:25 AM
Now everything works normally, I didn't even know about the existence of these daily AM compilations, thank you very much!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 11.0 [Release] Updated 07 October 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 07, 2021, 12:15:46 AM
Arcadeflow 11.0 is out!

This is mostly a bufix for the metadata editor that had issues when changing romlist, plus some improvements on file management and new features on the metadata editor and keyboard.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 11.0 [Release] Updated 07 October 2021
Post by: darkand on November 01, 2021, 01:44:45 PM
https://ibb.co/BBp24xH

Hi. I have two steam games problems. The first one is related to those "x" that I can't open the games. The second is related to the aspect ratio of videos that should be 16:9 but are 4:3. thanks
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 11.0 [Release] Updated 07 October 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 02, 2021, 07:15:05 AM
https://ibb.co/BBp24xH

Hi. I have two steam games problems. The first one is related to those "x" that I can't open the games. The second is related to the aspect ratio of videos that should be 16:9 but are 4:3. thanks

The red cross appears when AF can't find the file of the "rom", maybe in this case there's no rom file so you can disable that going in Options, Thumbnails and disable "Game not available indicator"

As far as the aspect ratio is concerned, it's a mistake I made in the system configuration file: you can edit the "data_systems.txt" file, look for the steam entry which is like this:

Code: [Select]
steam,0,0,STEAM,CRT,NONE,4,3,COMPUTER,Steam,null,Steam,null,null,null,null
And change it to this so the aspect will be derived from the video/snapshot:

Code: [Select]
steam,0,0,STEAM,CRT,NONE,0,0,COMPUTER,Steam,null,Steam,null,null,null,null
or this to force the aspect to 16/9:

Code: [Select]
steam,0,0,STEAM,CRT,NONE,16,9,COMPUTER,Steam,null,Steam,null,null,null,null
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 11.0 [Release] Updated 07 October 2021
Post by: tvsht on November 07, 2021, 07:21:43 PM
Is it possible to switch displays with triggers?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 11.0 [Release] Updated 07 October 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 07, 2021, 09:54:13 PM
Is it possible to switch displays with triggers?

In AM options you can customize controls and assign hotkeys to "prev_display" and "next_display" signals, so it should be possible to assign them to triggers (you mean like L2/R2 shoulder buttons?)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 11.0 [Release] Updated 07 October 2021
Post by: tvsht on November 08, 2021, 11:43:36 AM
Is it possible to switch displays with triggers?

In AM options you can customize controls and assign hotkeys to "prev_display" and "next_display" signals, so it should be possible to assign them to triggers (you mean like L2/R2 shoulder buttons?)

Yup, L2/R2, I'll try it later, thanks.

Btw. this hue color frame option hard freezes AM+, and I couldn't find how to revert it manually in files so I had to reset everything.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 11.0 [Release] Updated 07 October 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 09, 2021, 04:28:50 AM
Btw. this hue color frame option hard freezes AM+, and I couldn't find how to revert it manually in files so I had to reset everything.

Well that's not good, sorry for that. The value of hue should be a number between 0 and 358, and it should be robust enough as to fix errors in the entry values, but of course something went wrong in your case :( The easiest way to recover AF is to delete the prefs_layoutoptions.txt file, that will restart AF with "clean" default settings.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 29, 2021, 02:08:19 AM
Arcadeflow 12.0 is out!

This version changes a lot of things in the game data management and is very "radical" therefore I suggest backing up your attract folder because, even if nothing bad should happen, better safe than sorry :D
The new features are an improved data management that allows propagation of all data (metadata and run data) from normal displays romlists to collection romlists, better scraping engine, better metadata editor.

Enjoy and report bugs!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on December 01, 2021, 03:18:24 PM
Thanks for always updating this theme, it's my favorite. In this new version many bugs are occurring when adding more games and generating a new list, I almost always see this buggy screen. So I have to delete the romlist files and generate the list again to fix. Glad I followed your advice to make a backup of the attract mode folder hehehe

https://ibb.co/wJ3TQrT
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 01, 2021, 09:56:44 PM
Thanks for always updating this theme, it's my favorite. In this new version many bugs are occurring when adding more games and generating a new list, I almost always see this buggy screen. So I have to delete the romlist files and generate the list again to fix. Glad I followed your advice to make a backup of the attract mode folder hehehe

https://ibb.co/wJ3TQrT

Thank you for the report, I'm investigating the issue but first of all, are you on Attract Mode or Attract Plus? Because at the moment there are issues with AM "classic" while AM+ should work better.
As far as adding or removing games to an _existing_ romlist, instead of going to AM menu and generate collection/romlist from there, you can go into Arcadeflow options and "refresh" the romlist, that will add games without messing with the new database system (hopefully). I'm still trying to figure out what happens with a new romlist, it gives me the same screen you get, but if I relaunch AM everything is back to normal...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 01, 2021, 10:25:58 PM
So I have to delete the romlist files and generate the list again to fix. Glad I followed your advice to make a backup of the attract mode folder hehehe

https://ibb.co/wJ3TQrT

If you have the time and will to test it, I've prepared a beta layout.nut that should fix the issue when creating a new romlist. The only scenario that is still giving issue at the moment is if you delete manually the romlist .txt file and you start the layout in the same display using that romlist. I'm gonna fix it too hopefully...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on December 02, 2021, 05:30:07 AM
I'm using attract mode plus, from this link you posted here a few days ago.I tested the new option ''refresh romlist "and the list goes back to normal after the screen error I reported. I will test this layout.nut you posted to see what happens. Thank you for your support.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on December 05, 2021, 01:39:40 PM
I tested the layout.nut that you sent, sometimes the error in the list of roms still happens, but just refresh the romlist and it is corrected. Another feature that I tested here and didn't work for me is to delete roms, the red X appears in the romlist, and the "deleted folder" is created in the roms folder, but the rom is not moved there.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 05, 2021, 02:33:07 PM
I tested the layout.nut that you sent, sometimes the error in the list of roms still happens, but just refresh the romlist and it is corrected.

I know, some scenarios are not fixed in the layout you have, but I hope I fixed it completely in my latest development version, going to release it soon...

Quote
Another feature that I tested here and didn't work for me is to delete roms, the red X appears in the romlist, and the "deleted folder" is created in the roms folder, but the rom is not moved there.

I see, that might be a Windows issue (I develop and debug mostly on mac), if you run attractplus-console.exe you see some messages in the console when you delete a rom?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on December 05, 2021, 03:22:58 PM
Look, on 2 different pcs, both with windows 10 x64

https://ibb.co/3BJMb7y
https://ibb.co/6DSswdL
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 06, 2021, 01:46:01 AM
Look, on 2 different pcs, both with windows 10 x64

https://ibb.co/3BJMb7y
https://ibb.co/6DSswdL

It seems the layout can't find the proper rom path, can you share the emulator .cfg file for that display? You can share it here, on the discord channel or send me an email to paolo.zago@gmail.com...

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on December 06, 2021, 02:51:26 AM
here are the cfgs of the emu that i tried to erase the roms.
1- mario kart
2- yoshis island

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 08, 2021, 01:31:38 AM
here are the cfgs of the emu that i tried to erase the roms.
1- mario kart
2- yoshis island

I found the issue: I forgot to use "fe.path_expand" on the command lines used to delete files, so in Windows they have the "/" level separator instead of "\". I'll have to carefully check the whole layout to find all the "non expanded" paths :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: Dexther on December 08, 2021, 02:48:17 PM
sai che il tuo tema e usato anche nel progetto rgbuntu ?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 08, 2021, 02:59:40 PM
sai che il tuo tema e usato anche nel progetto rgbuntu ?

È un progetto che non conosco, gli darò un’occhiata. Grazie per la segnalazione:)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on December 18, 2021, 01:43:55 AM
I don't know if it's been suggested before... many games have the sound volume too high and others too low, so I think a sound volume control panel would be very practical. Something like there is in "maximus arcade" ; press a button and sound sliders appear.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 18, 2021, 11:36:58 AM
I don't know if it's been suggested before... many games have the sound volume too high and others too low, so I think a sound volume control panel would be very practical. Something like there is in "maximus arcade" ; press a button and sound sliders appear.

You mean the volume for games videos or for actual games that are played? In the first case there's no way that I know of to change the video volume in squirrel (I'd love to do it), for played games it depends on the system and on the emulator... I'll think about it :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on December 18, 2021, 03:44:00 PM
I meant the main sound volume of the OS (windows for example), in this case thinking about solving the volume problem of the volume variation of the games, even in MAME for example there are games with different volumes, (Donkey Kong and Hyper Street Fighter 2 for example). I think if we could have quick access to this volume control before getting into the game it would solve this problem.
https://ibb.co/sQ32WRr

maximus arcade example;
https://ibb.co/1Gg6Xzf
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.0 [Release] Updated 29 November 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 20, 2021, 12:05:35 AM
Arcadeflow 12.1 is out, just in time for Christmas!

This version will fix some issues and add new "all games collections" for last played and favourite games.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: alucard on December 22, 2021, 11:00:16 AM
Hi zpaolo11x,
I downloaded the new version, but the screen is frozen on startup with AF logo.

attract-console shows this

Code: [Select]
*** Initializing display: 'SNES#CONSOLE'
 - Loaded master romlist 'SNES' in 57 ms (2166 entries kept, 1068 discarded)
 - Constructed 1 filters in 0 ms (2166 comparisons)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index '17' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [portromlist()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [3889]
*FUNCTION [getallgamesdb()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [5969]
*FUNCTION [main()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [13482]

Script Error in C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut - the index '17' does not exist
 - Loaded layout: C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/ (layout.nut)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 24, 2021, 02:16:25 AM
Hi zpaolo11x,
I downloaded the new version, but the screen is frozen on startup with AF logo.

I'm sorry but it seems there's a lot of bugs in 12.1, I'm trying to debug it, in the meantime you can try this substitute layout.nut and see if it's better. Also try disabling all games collections...

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: motaromk9 on December 24, 2021, 01:01:40 PM
It seems to me that the option to delete roms in windows 10 hasn't been fixed yet. And I also don't understand how to appear in the display list the ''collections'' just like you posted in this last photo.
Thank you very much for the continued support of this fantastic theme.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 25, 2021, 03:02:55 AM
It seems to me that the option to delete roms in windows 10 hasn't been fixed yet. And I also don't understand how to appear in the display list the ''collections'' just like you posted in this last photo.

There are some severe bugs in 12.1 that I'm going to fix soon, in the meantime you can try with the attached fix, just unpack the files in the AF folder, it should at least fix the missing "Collections" artwork...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 27, 2021, 02:01:48 AM
Hi zpaolo11x,
I downloaded the new version, but the screen is frozen on startup with AF logo.

If you are stuck with a grey screen and AF logo, try this: go to the romlist folder and delete all .db1 files, unpack this fix attached to this message in the AF layout folder and run AF again. Let me know if it gets better...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: alucard on December 29, 2021, 06:54:31 AM
If you are stuck with a grey screen and AF logo, try this: go to the romlist folder and delete all .db1 files, unpack this fix attached to this message in the AF layout folder and run AF again. Let me know if it gets better...

Same error, but I have no db1 file on my disk.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 29, 2021, 07:14:03 AM

Same error, but I have no db1 file on my disk.

Can you share the output from attractplus-console.exe?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: alucard on December 29, 2021, 10:34:33 AM
Can you share the output from attractplus-console.exe?

Code: [Select]
Attract-Mode v2.6.1 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +SWF +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: C:\Games\Attract-Mode\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'SNES#CONSOLE'
 - Loaded master romlist 'SNES' in 57 ms (2166 entries kept, 1068 discarded)
 - Constructed 1 filters in 0 ms (2166 comparisons)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index '17' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [portromlist()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [3889]
*FUNCTION [getallgamesdb()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [5969]
*FUNCTION [main()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [13486]

LOCALS
[AF] TABLE
[z_fields1] TABLE
[ap] """
[z_fields2] TABLE
[emudata] TABLE
[listfields] ARRAY
[listline] "Alien Breed;Alien Breed;Amiga;;1991;Team 17;Shooter;1-2;;;;;;;;;"
[listfile] INSTANCE
[listpath] "C:\Games\Attract-Mode\romlists\Amiga.txt"
[cleanromlist2] TABLE
[cleanromlist] TABLE
[taglist] ARRAY
[hiddentable] TABLE
[completedtable] TABLE
[tagtable] TABLE
[playclist] ARRAY
[playctable] TABLE
[favfile] INSTANCE
[favtable] TABLE
[romlist] "Amiga"
[this] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[@ITERATOR@] 2
[item] "Amiga.cfg"
[i] 1
[itemname] "Amiga"
[file] ""
[emulatordir] ARRAY
[emulatorpath] "C:\Games\Attract-Mode\emulators\"
[emulatorarray] ARRAY
[this] TABLE
[labelcounter] TABLE
[labelorder] ARRAY
[sortticks] TABLE
[sortticksarray] ARRAY
[sortlabels] TABLE
[sortlabelsarray] ARRAY
[fps] TABLE
[user_fg] NULL
[aflogoT] TABLE
[aflogo] INSTANCE
[attractitem] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[zmenu_surface] INSTANCE
[shader_tx2] TABLE
[zmenu_sh] TABLE
[zmenu_surface_container] INSTANCE
[disp] TABLE
[disp0] TABLE
[hist_over] TABLE
[hist_screen] INSTANCE
[hist_screensurf] INSTANCE
[shadowshader] TABLE
[kerneldat] TABLE
[blursizeglow] TABLE
[hist_glow_shader] INSTANCE
[hist_glow_pic] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_1] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_2] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[shadow] TABLE
[histglow] TABLE
[gradshader] INSTANCE
[hist_text] INSTANCE
[hist_text_surf] INSTANCE
[shader_lcd] INSTANCE
[pixelpic] INSTANCE
[shader_lottes] INSTANCE
[LCDprf] TABLE
[CRTprf] TABLE
[hist_titletxt] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bd] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bot] INSTANCE
[hist_title_top] INSTANCE
[hist_title] INSTANCE
[hist_white] INSTANCE
[histgr] TABLE
[history_surface] INSTANCE
[hist_curr_rom] ""
[historypadding] 26.400001525879
[shadowscale] 0.025000000372529
[hist_textT] TABLE
[hist_screenT] TABLE
[hist_titleT] TABLE
[hist] TABLE
[keyboard_text] INSTANCE
[kb] TABLE
[keyboard_surface] INSTANCE
[fb] TABLE
[prfmenu] TABLE
[overmenu] INSTANCE
[overmenuwidth] 521.30401611328
[txtoalpha] INSTANCE
[bwtoalpha] INSTANCE
[game_subnameT] TABLE
[game_mainnameT] TABLE
[game_yearT] TABLE
[game_manufacturerpicT] TABLE
[game_maincatT] TABLE
[game_butpicT] TABLE
[game_ctlpicT] TABLE
[game_plypicT] TABLE
[game_catpicT] TABLE
[blsize] TABLE
[letterobj] INSTANCE
[letterobjsurf] TABLE
[displayname] INSTANCE
[displaynamesurf] TABLE
[labelsurf] INSTANCE
[labelstrip] INSTANCE
[scroller2] INSTANCE
[scroller] INSTANCE
[scrollineglow] INSTANCE
[scrolline] INSTANCE
[separatorline] INSTANCE
[filternumbers] INSTANCE
[filterdata] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_1] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_2] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_rt] INSTANCE
[shader_tx] TABLE
[sh_scale] TABLE
[shaders] TABLE
[gradscaler] 1
[gradsizer] 8
[logo] TABLE
[greenshader] TABLE
[gr_vidsz] INSTANCE
[gr_snapz] INSTANCE
[gradsurf_1] INSTANCE
[gradsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[logosurf_rt] INSTANCE
[logosurf_1] INSTANCE
[txbox] INSTANCE
[txt2z] INSTANCE
[txt1z] INSTANCE
[txshz] INSTANCE
[loshz] INSTANCE
[snap_grad] ARRAY
[snap_glow] ARRAY
[surfacePosOffset] 1398.1333007812
[tiles] TABLE
[vidbgfade] ARRAY
[vidposbg] 0
[corrector] 0
[vidindex] ARRAY
[vidpos] ARRAY
[aspectratioMorph] ARRAY
[gr_vidszTableFade] ARRAY
[tilesTableZoom] ARRAY
[tilesTableUpdate] ARRAY
[tilesTablePos] TABLE
[tilez] ARRAY
[z_disp] ARRAY
[picture] TABLE
[shader_bg] TABLE
[bglay] TABLE
[shader_fr] TABLE
[flipshader] NULL
[frost] TABLE
[frost_picT] TABLE
[frostpic] TABLE
[overlay] TABLE
[categorytable] TABLE
[regsys] TABLE
[data_surface] INSTANCE
[nolist_blanker] INSTANCE
[search] TABLE
[searchdata] INSTANCE
[multifilterglyph] INSTANCE
[mf] TABLE
[boxtitle] NULL
[logotitle] NULL
[all_scrape] TABLE
[all_meta_original] TABLE
[all_meta_edited] TABLE
[meta_original] TABLE
[meta_edited] TABLE
[metadata] TABLE
[yearnames] TABLE
[catnames_SS] TABLE
[catnames] TABLE
[focusindex] TABLE
[z_fields2] TABLE
[z_fields1] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[dispatchernum] 0
[dispatcher] ARRAY
[keyboard_entrytext] ""
[key_selected] ARRAY
[key_sizes] ARRAY
[key_rows] ARRAY
[key_names] TABLE
[scroll] TABLE
[bgpicT] TABLE
[bgT] TABLE
[scrollersize] 17
[footermargin] 210
[lettersize] TABLE
[fadevid] 9905
[delayvid] 9940
[vidstarter] 10000
[spdT] TABLE
[centercorr] TABLE
[deltacol] 3
[selectorwidth] 579.22668457031
[whitemargin] 0.15000000596046
[selectorscale] 1.4500000476837
[carrierT] TABLE
[pagejump] 14
[cols] 9
[verticalshift] 9.9866666793823
[widthpaddedmix] 399.46667480469
[widthmix] 299.60000610352
[width169padded] 287.11666870117
[width169] 187.25
[heightpadded] 399.46667480469
[widthpadded] 399.46667480469
[padding] 49.933334350586
[width] 299.60000610352
[height] 299.60000610352
[padding_scaler] 0.16666667163372
[footer] TABLE
[header] TABLE
[scalerate] 0.83999997377396
[rotation] TABLE
[fl] TABLE
[scr] TABLE
[uifonts] TABLE
[vertical] true
[rows] 2
[gbrgb] TABLE
[colormapper] TABLE
[srfposhistory] ARRAY
[filtersw] ARRAY
[filterw] ARRAY
[impulse2] TABLE
[surfacePos] 0
[globalposnew] 0
[count] TABLE
[snd] TABLE
[satin] TABLE
[themeT] TABLE
[squarizer] false
[column] TABLE
[backs] TABLE
[search_base_rule] "Title"
[noshader] INSTANCE
[flowT] TABLE
[z_var] 0
[var] 0
[dat] TABLE
[bgs] TABLE
[bgvidsurf] NULL
[dir0] TABLE
[commandtable] TABLE
[huecycle] TABLE
[displaystore] 3
[SORTTABLE] TABLE
[DISPLAYTABLE] TABLE
[prfzero] TABLE
[system_data] TABLE
[orderdatalabel] TABLE
[z_info] TABLE
[transdata] ARRAY
[menucounter] 17
[multifilterz] TABLE
[umvisible] true
[umpresel] 0
[umtable] ARRAY
[selection_pre] NULL
[prf] TABLE
[DBGON] false
[z_af_collections] TABLE
[TLNG] "EN"
[zmenu] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[IDX] ARRAY
[ratetonumber] TABLE
[ap] """
[elapse] TABLE
[vargv] ARRAY
[this] TABLE
Script Error in C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut - the index '17' does not exist
 - Loaded layout: C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/ (layout.nut)
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: None
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 29, 2021, 11:05:45 AM
Can you share the output from attractplus-console.exe?

Code: [Select]
Attract-Mode v2.6.1 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +SWF +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: C:\Games\Attract-Mode\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'SNES#CONSOLE'
 - Loaded master romlist 'SNES' in 57 ms (2166 entries kept, 1068 discarded)
 - Constructed 1 filters in 0 ms (2166 comparisons)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index '17' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [portromlist()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [3889]
*FUNCTION [getallgamesdb()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [5969]
*FUNCTION [main()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [13486]

LOCALS
[AF] TABLE
[z_fields1] TABLE
[ap] """
[z_fields2] TABLE
[emudata] TABLE
[listfields] ARRAY
[listline] "Alien Breed;Alien Breed;Amiga;;1991;Team 17;Shooter;1-2;;;;;;;;;"
[listfile] INSTANCE
[listpath] "C:\Games\Attract-Mode\romlists\Amiga.txt"
[cleanromlist2] TABLE
[cleanromlist] TABLE
[taglist] ARRAY
[hiddentable] TABLE
[completedtable] TABLE
[tagtable] TABLE
[playclist] ARRAY
[playctable] TABLE
[favfile] INSTANCE
[favtable] TABLE
[romlist] "Amiga"
[this] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[@ITERATOR@] 2
[item] "Amiga.cfg"
[i] 1
[itemname] "Amiga"
[file] ""
[emulatordir] ARRAY
[emulatorpath] "C:\Games\Attract-Mode\emulators\"
[emulatorarray] ARRAY
[this] TABLE
[labelcounter] TABLE
[labelorder] ARRAY
[sortticks] TABLE
[sortticksarray] ARRAY
[sortlabels] TABLE
[sortlabelsarray] ARRAY
[fps] TABLE
[user_fg] NULL
[aflogoT] TABLE
[aflogo] INSTANCE
[attractitem] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[zmenu_surface] INSTANCE
[shader_tx2] TABLE
[zmenu_sh] TABLE
[zmenu_surface_container] INSTANCE
[disp] TABLE
[disp0] TABLE
[hist_over] TABLE
[hist_screen] INSTANCE
[hist_screensurf] INSTANCE
[shadowshader] TABLE
[kerneldat] TABLE
[blursizeglow] TABLE
[hist_glow_shader] INSTANCE
[hist_glow_pic] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_1] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_2] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[shadow] TABLE
[histglow] TABLE
[gradshader] INSTANCE
[hist_text] INSTANCE
[hist_text_surf] INSTANCE
[shader_lcd] INSTANCE
[pixelpic] INSTANCE
[shader_lottes] INSTANCE
[LCDprf] TABLE
[CRTprf] TABLE
[hist_titletxt] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bd] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bot] INSTANCE
[hist_title_top] INSTANCE
[hist_title] INSTANCE
[hist_white] INSTANCE
[histgr] TABLE
[history_surface] INSTANCE
[hist_curr_rom] ""
[historypadding] 26.400001525879
[shadowscale] 0.025000000372529
[hist_textT] TABLE
[hist_screenT] TABLE
[hist_titleT] TABLE
[hist] TABLE
[keyboard_text] INSTANCE
[kb] TABLE
[keyboard_surface] INSTANCE
[fb] TABLE
[prfmenu] TABLE
[overmenu] INSTANCE
[overmenuwidth] 521.30401611328
[txtoalpha] INSTANCE
[bwtoalpha] INSTANCE
[game_subnameT] TABLE
[game_mainnameT] TABLE
[game_yearT] TABLE
[game_manufacturerpicT] TABLE
[game_maincatT] TABLE
[game_butpicT] TABLE
[game_ctlpicT] TABLE
[game_plypicT] TABLE
[game_catpicT] TABLE
[blsize] TABLE
[letterobj] INSTANCE
[letterobjsurf] TABLE
[displayname] INSTANCE
[displaynamesurf] TABLE
[labelsurf] INSTANCE
[labelstrip] INSTANCE
[scroller2] INSTANCE
[scroller] INSTANCE
[scrollineglow] INSTANCE
[scrolline] INSTANCE
[separatorline] INSTANCE
[filternumbers] INSTANCE
[filterdata] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_1] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_2] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_rt] INSTANCE
[shader_tx] TABLE
[sh_scale] TABLE
[shaders] TABLE
[gradscaler] 1
[gradsizer] 8
[logo] TABLE
[greenshader] TABLE
[gr_vidsz] INSTANCE
[gr_snapz] INSTANCE
[gradsurf_1] INSTANCE
[gradsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[logosurf_rt] INSTANCE
[logosurf_1] INSTANCE
[txbox] INSTANCE
[txt2z] INSTANCE
[txt1z] INSTANCE
[txshz] INSTANCE
[loshz] INSTANCE
[snap_grad] ARRAY
[snap_glow] ARRAY
[surfacePosOffset] 1398.1333007812
[tiles] TABLE
[vidbgfade] ARRAY
[vidposbg] 0
[corrector] 0
[vidindex] ARRAY
[vidpos] ARRAY
[aspectratioMorph] ARRAY
[gr_vidszTableFade] ARRAY
[tilesTableZoom] ARRAY
[tilesTableUpdate] ARRAY
[tilesTablePos] TABLE
[tilez] ARRAY
[z_disp] ARRAY
[picture] TABLE
[shader_bg] TABLE
[bglay] TABLE
[shader_fr] TABLE
[flipshader] NULL
[frost] TABLE
[frost_picT] TABLE
[frostpic] TABLE
[overlay] TABLE
[categorytable] TABLE
[regsys] TABLE
[data_surface] INSTANCE
[nolist_blanker] INSTANCE
[search] TABLE
[searchdata] INSTANCE
[multifilterglyph] INSTANCE
[mf] TABLE
[boxtitle] NULL
[logotitle] NULL
[all_scrape] TABLE
[all_meta_original] TABLE
[all_meta_edited] TABLE
[meta_original] TABLE
[meta_edited] TABLE
[metadata] TABLE
[yearnames] TABLE
[catnames_SS] TABLE
[catnames] TABLE
[focusindex] TABLE
[z_fields2] TABLE
[z_fields1] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[dispatchernum] 0
[dispatcher] ARRAY
[keyboard_entrytext] ""
[key_selected] ARRAY
[key_sizes] ARRAY
[key_rows] ARRAY
[key_names] TABLE
[scroll] TABLE
[bgpicT] TABLE
[bgT] TABLE
[scrollersize] 17
[footermargin] 210
[lettersize] TABLE
[fadevid] 9905
[delayvid] 9940
[vidstarter] 10000
[spdT] TABLE
[centercorr] TABLE
[deltacol] 3
[selectorwidth] 579.22668457031
[whitemargin] 0.15000000596046
[selectorscale] 1.4500000476837
[carrierT] TABLE
[pagejump] 14
[cols] 9
[verticalshift] 9.9866666793823
[widthpaddedmix] 399.46667480469
[widthmix] 299.60000610352
[width169padded] 287.11666870117
[width169] 187.25
[heightpadded] 399.46667480469
[widthpadded] 399.46667480469
[padding] 49.933334350586
[width] 299.60000610352
[height] 299.60000610352
[padding_scaler] 0.16666667163372
[footer] TABLE
[header] TABLE
[scalerate] 0.83999997377396
[rotation] TABLE
[fl] TABLE
[scr] TABLE
[uifonts] TABLE
[vertical] true
[rows] 2
[gbrgb] TABLE
[colormapper] TABLE
[srfposhistory] ARRAY
[filtersw] ARRAY
[filterw] ARRAY
[impulse2] TABLE
[surfacePos] 0
[globalposnew] 0
[count] TABLE
[snd] TABLE
[satin] TABLE
[themeT] TABLE
[squarizer] false
[column] TABLE
[backs] TABLE
[search_base_rule] "Title"
[noshader] INSTANCE
[flowT] TABLE
[z_var] 0
[var] 0
[dat] TABLE
[bgs] TABLE
[bgvidsurf] NULL
[dir0] TABLE
[commandtable] TABLE
[huecycle] TABLE
[displaystore] 3
[SORTTABLE] TABLE
[DISPLAYTABLE] TABLE
[prfzero] TABLE
[system_data] TABLE
[orderdatalabel] TABLE
[z_info] TABLE
[transdata] ARRAY
[menucounter] 17
[multifilterz] TABLE
[umvisible] true
[umpresel] 0
[umtable] ARRAY
[selection_pre] NULL
[prf] TABLE
[DBGON] false
[z_af_collections] TABLE
[TLNG] "EN"
[zmenu] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[IDX] ARRAY
[ratetonumber] TABLE
[ap] """
[elapse] TABLE
[vargv] ARRAY
[this] TABLE
Script Error in C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut - the index '17' does not exist
 - Loaded layout: C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/ (layout.nut)
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: None

Can you share the Amiga.cfg from the emulators folder and the Amiga.txt from the romlists folder?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: alucard on December 29, 2021, 11:21:10 AM
Can you share the Amiga.cfg from the emulators folder and the Amiga.txt from the romlists folder?

I have attached the required files.

I have read some previous posts and noticed that a special version of AM is required.
I'm using classic 2.6.1 and previous ArcadeFlow version was 10.5
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 30, 2021, 12:09:36 AM

I have attached the required files.

I have read some previous posts and noticed that a special version of AM is required.
I'm using classic 2.6.1 and previous ArcadeFlow version was 10.5

Ok, first thing is that your Amiga romlist has some issue, I see every line there's a blank line with just a ";", and the number of entries in each list item is too low, probably because you are using AM 2.6.1 "classic", not attractplus or the daily builds. I'll see if I can add an error check in the code for this scenario, otherwise the only way is to update your AM to the latest daily or to attract plus and regenerate all romlists.

If you want to try with AM+, you can get it here: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 30, 2021, 02:16:16 AM
I have read some previous posts and noticed that a special version of AM is required.
I'm using classic 2.6.1 and previous ArcadeFlow version was 10.5

You can try this layout fix, should work with your romlists
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: alucard on December 30, 2021, 08:41:31 AM
If you want to try with AM+, you can get it here: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions

I'm interested to this new AM version. How can I download a release from this link?

Furthermore, is there a command to execute to convert the current rom lists?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 30, 2021, 08:44:04 AM
I'm interested to this new AM version. How can I download a release from this link?

Furthermore, is there a command to execute to convert the current rom lists?

You have to log in to github to download the attractplus artifacts, while for regenerating the romlist, it is not strictly necessary but you can use the AM generate collection/romlist menu
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: alucard on December 30, 2021, 09:39:53 AM
Ok, first thing is that your Amiga romlist has some issue, I see every line there's a blank line with just a ";", and the number of entries in each list item is too low, probably because you are using AM 2.6.1 "classic", not attractplus or the daily builds. I'll see if I can add an error check in the code for this scenario, otherwise the only way is to update your AM to the latest daily or to attract plus and regenerate all romlists.

Ok, I took a look at this post
http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=3141.msg22112#msg22112

At this point I think it is correct to adapt my old romlists
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: alucard on December 30, 2021, 10:11:02 AM
Ok now it works.

For your information, this strange SNES game title breaks list initialization:
Odekake Lester: Lelele no Le (^^;

I removed the "(^^;" part

Thank you @zpaolo11x
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 31, 2021, 02:09:36 AM

I removed the "(^^;" part


Well a ";" in the game name is going to cause issues even with the standard AM romlists because they are ";"-separated lists. Thank you for the heads up, I'll see if I can add a check for ";" in names when they come from the scraper.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: alucard on January 01, 2022, 03:24:06 AM
Hi zpaolo11x,

Is it possible to map a key that directly brings up system menu bypassing utility menu?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.1 [Release] Updated 20 December 2021
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 01, 2022, 04:21:06 AM
Hi zpaolo11x,

Is it possible to map a key that directly brings up system menu bypassing utility menu?

Yes, just map the “Display Menu” shortcut in Attract Mode input options
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 07, 2022, 09:30:02 AM
Arcadeflow 12.2 is out!

First version of 2022, with a lot of bugs fixes and issues solved that plagued 12.1. Hope this release goes smoothly so I'll be able to concentrate on new fetaures ;)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: alucard on January 09, 2022, 08:23:29 AM
Hi @zpaolo11x
and thank you for this new release.

I am trying to introduce environment variables in the emulator configuration files.
For example

Code: [Select]
executable           %GAME_HOME%\RetroArch\retroarch.exe
args                 -f -L %GAME_HOME%\RetroArch\cores\bsnes_mercury_accuracy_libretro.dll "[romfilename]"
rompath              %GAME_HOME%\Roms\snes

but doing so all games are shown as missing.

AM seems to support this type of notation
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: Mark Norville on January 09, 2022, 08:32:30 AM
Hi @zpaolo11x
and thank you for this new release.

I am trying to introduce environment variables in the emulator configuration files.
For example

Code: [Select]
executable           %GAME_HOME%\RetroArch\retroarch.exe
args                 -f -L %GAME_HOME%\RetroArch\cores\bsnes_mercury_accuracy_libretro.dll "[romfilename]"
rompath              %GAME_HOME%\Roms\snes

but doing so all games are shown as missing.

AM seems to support this type of notation

Your args do not seem correct, I only have

executable = emulation\RetroArch\retroarch.exe
arguments = -L "cores\WHAT EVER SYSTEM CORE_libretro.dll" "%ITEM_FILEPATH%"

I have not used this skin, so I do not know anything about it, but I would not use &Game_Home% that is possibly why they are not showing.

Regards

Mark
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 09, 2022, 09:33:23 AM
I am trying to introduce environment variables in the emulator configuration files.
For example

Code: [Select]
executable           %GAME_HOME%\RetroArch\retroarch.exe
args                 -f -L %GAME_HOME%\RetroArch\cores\bsnes_mercury_accuracy_libretro.dll "[romfilename]"
rompath              %GAME_HOME%\Roms\snes

but doing so all games are shown as missing.

AM seems to support this type of notation

Is %GAME_HOME% an environment variable you set on your system? Are you using Windows? AF should "expand" all paths to get the proper folder structure when using % variables, but I'll check it out, maybe I missed something in the code. So the game is marked like "missing" but if you run it, does it work?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: alucard on January 09, 2022, 09:39:27 AM
Is %GAME_HOME% an environment variable you set on your system? Are you using Windows? AF should "expand" all paths to get the proper folder structure when using % variables, but I'll check it out, maybe I missed something in the code. So the game is marked like "missing" but if you run it, does it work?

Code: [Select]
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.1440]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\root>echo %GAME_HOME%
C:\Games

If I try to launch a game, it doesn't start but doesn't print anything in console
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: Mark Norville on January 09, 2022, 09:43:25 AM
I don't think that console works,

just use attract and then in the folder look for last_run.txt

As I have said, I would not use %Game Home% unless you are using this on a Pi? If you are, then I apologise, I know nothing about Pi's apart from eating them.

If you are using it on a PC just put the full path in and the arguments that I gave.

I bet I could have it set up in two minutes.

Regards

Mark
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: alucard on January 23, 2022, 08:51:26 AM
Hi,

I changed emulator for one game in Playstation.txt romlist.

Code: [Select]
...
Metal Gear Solid (USA) (v1.1);Metal Gear Solid (USA)(v1.1);Playstation;;1998;Konami;Shooter, Action;1;;;;;;;;;;
Oddworld - Abe's Oddysee (USA) (v1.1);Oddworld : Abe's Oddysee (USA)(v1.1);Playstation;;1997;GT Interactive;Adventure, Platform;2;;;;;;;;;;
Parasite Eve (USA);Parasite Eve (USA);Playstation-hw;;1998;Squaresoft;Adventure / Survival Horror, Adventure;1;;;;;;;;;;
...

in emulators folder

Code: [Select]
...
Playstation.cfg
Playstation-hw.cfg
...

end the two cfg differ only in retroarch launch command.

I deleted the .db1 file, but AF shows "Empty list"
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 23, 2022, 11:02:04 AM

I changed emulator for one game in Playstation.txt romlist.

I deleted the .db1 file, but AF shows "Empty list"

Ok, this is one of those edge scenarios where things can go pretty wrong, I helped another user debug a multi-emulato arcade romlist so let's see what we can do here... first of all, after you deleted the .db1 file, did AF recerate it, and did you see one for playstation and one for playstation-hw?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: alucard on January 24, 2022, 10:23:32 AM
... first of all, after you deleted the .db1 file, did AF recerate it, and did you see one for playstation and one for playstation-hw?

AF recreates the db1 file for Playstation only.
Code: [Select]
*** Initializing display: 'Playstation#CONSOLE'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Playstation' in 37 ms (13 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (26 comparisons)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index 'Playstation-hw' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [z_listboot()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [6037]
*FUNCTION [on_transition()] C:\Games\Attract-Mode\layouts/Arcadeflow/layout.nut line [13669]

In Playstation.db1 file for Parasite Eve

Code: [Select]
"Parasite Eve (USA)" : {
      z_manufacturer = "Squaresoft"
      z_title = "Parasite Eve (USA)"
      z_filename = ""
      z_resolution = ""
      z_control = ""
      z_players = "1"
      z_year = "1998"
      z_inmfz = null
      z_fileisavailable = true
      z_emulator = "Playstation"
      z_commands = []
     ...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 25, 2022, 10:17:54 PM
... first of all, after you deleted the .db1 file, did AF recerate it, and did you see one for playstation and one for playstation-hw?

AF recreates the db1 file for Playstation only.

Ok, I was able to replicate the issue, and it is related to the way AF creates its database, maybe I'll find a fix in the future, but right now I have a workaround: let's say you want to use a romlist for playstation games, and you have two emulators you want to use, let's call them PSX-EMU1 and PSX-EMU2, ok? You need your setup like this:

Emulator folder:
Here you must have the two emulator config files, let's call them PSX-EMU1.cfg and PSX-EMU2.cfg, pointing to the same rom folder.

Romlist folder:
Here you need THREE romlists:
- PSX-EMU1.txt with all the games, all with PSX-EMU1 set as emulator
- PSX-EMU2.txt with the same games, but all set to PSX-EMU2 as emulator
- PSX.txt this is the "merged" romlist where you set the emulators to your liking, some with PSX-EMU1, some with PSX-EMU2

At this point if your Display points to PSX.txt as romlist, everything should work fine, scraping included.

Basically, for AF to work correctly, there should always be a romlist with the same name as the emilator, where all the games have the same emulator. So if you want to  create a "mixed" romlist you'll need first to create romlists with each single emulator pointing to the same roms. Then you can create the mixed romlist which must have a name that's different from the emulator name.

Let me know if this fixes your issue, whie I try to implement a real solution for mixed emulator romlists that have the same name as an emulator ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 28, 2022, 09:44:00 AM
Arcadeflow 12.3 is out! Two new outstanding features: a "similar games" list you can trigger from the contextual menu of a game, and a new look for the systems menu that has a new serie of more than 150 wallpapers of famous arcade, computer, console and handheld system.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.2 [Release] Updated 7 January 2022
Post by: JonahUK on January 28, 2022, 11:55:33 AM
Arcadeflow 12.3 is out! Two new outstanding features: a "similar games" list you can trigger from the contextual menu of a game, and a new look for the systems menu that has a new serie of more than 150 wallpapers of famous arcade, computer, console and handheld system.

Enjoy!

Nice work as usual fella.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.4 [Release] Updated 10 February 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 09, 2022, 10:14:07 PM
Arcadeflow 12.4 is out!

I fixed some bugs that will make life easier for MAME users, plus added lots of new systems with logos and walls images :)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.5 [Release] Updated 23 February 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 22, 2022, 11:17:23 PM
Arcadeflow 12.5 is out!

New features include decentering screen options, custom font color, new systems support, a new boot logo and various under the hood improvements.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.5 [Release] Updated 23 February 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 12, 2022, 10:24:45 AM
Arcadeflow 12.6 is out!

The new history panel shows metadata in a cleaner way and is more "responsive" with respect to screen size.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.7 [Release] Updated 23 March 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 23, 2022, 06:12:39 AM
Arcadeflow 12.7 is out! Minor improvements, lots of new "arcade" systems (including Naomi variants) and tweaks to the appearance of clean layout.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.8 [Release] Updated 31 March 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 31, 2022, 12:20:35 AM
Arcadeflow 12.8 is out!

Added sliders and graphical feedback for options
Added option to multifilter by region
Fixed bug in rating multifilter
Fixed bug in sorting by rating

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 12.9 [Release] Updated 08 April 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 08, 2022, 06:00:28 AM
Arcadeflow 12.9 is out, with lots of bug fixes!

- Fixed bug in scraped media folders
- Fixed slow display changing with collections
- Fixed bugs in Region multifilter
- Made multifilter routines more robust

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.0 [Release] Updated 19 April 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 19, 2022, 07:06:36 AM
Arcadeflow 13.0 is out!

- Added 11 new systems images and logos
- Fixed bugs in display change routine
- Fixed naming of XBox backgrounds
- Fixed bug with non categorised display menu

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.1 [Release] Updated 02 May 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 02, 2022, 08:41:43 AM
Arcadeflow 13.1 is out!

- Fixed crc scraping not working when HOME in rompath
- Fixed "slash" breaking game name
- Added warnings for attract.cfg options

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.2 [Release] Updated 11 May 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 11, 2022, 12:01:38 AM
Arcadeflow 13.2 is out!

- Scraping matches roms regardless of WHDLoad version
- Fixed bug with customised utility menu

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF#132
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.2 [Release] Updated 11 May 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 19, 2022, 01:33:13 AM
Arcadeflow 13.3 is out!

This version will be the last to update through my own website, I've moved 13.2 and all new releases to a GitHub repository so, from now on, updating will work through that. Hopefully everything goes smoothly... The old "history" website will stay online and I'll keep that updated, because it's just nice looking with all the archives and images.

- Added new GitHub based update routine
- Reorganized code and folder structure
- Code cleanup
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.5 [Release] Updated 30 May 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 30, 2022, 04:43:27 AM
Arcadeflow 13.5 is out!

Fixed issues with the new update workflow on Windows, plus a new version of the website is online at https://zpaolo11x.github.io/Arcadeflow/
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.5 [Release] Updated 30 May 2022
Post by: jackson99 on May 31, 2022, 10:35:44 PM
You're amazing. Thanks for updating us on what AF can do, which really does more than a theme. I like how it can scrape the entire romlist. Would you mind showing me how to review metadata? By the way, thanks for replying to me on Youtube where I asked you how to install AM+. My honor to talk to a creative creator like you.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.5 [Release] Updated 30 May 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 31, 2022, 10:39:37 PM
You're amazing. Thanks for updating us on what AF can do, which really does more than a theme. I like how it can scrape the entire romlist. Would you mind showing me how to review metadata? By the way, thanks for replying to me on Youtube where I asked you how to install AM+. My honor to talk to a creative creator like you.

Thank you for your comments :) The metadata editor embedded in AF can be accessed through the "context" menu. On a game press "select" (usually it's enter on a keyboard or the A button on a pad) to show the cross shaped context menu, go "up" to enter a submenu, then you'll see "Edit metadata". You can use this menu to change metadata for the selected game. For some data you'll need a real keybord while most are editable even with the on screen keyboard or menu selections. You can always "reset" the metadata to the default value.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2022, 11:32:06 PM
Arcadeflow 13.6 is out!

- Added new systems: GP32, Game Master
- Reorganized project files

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: adu on June 06, 2022, 05:36:01 AM
Hi !

It's been a long time since I had a question for you :D
First, thanks for your awesome updates on this theme, it gets better each time !
And do you know if your theme is compatible with a second screen which is here only to display the marquees ?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2022, 05:44:32 AM
And do you know if your theme is compatible with a second screen which is here only to display the marquees ?

Hi, thank you for the positive comments :) As far as multi-monitor configuration is concerned, I really have no idea because I never considered it (I don't even have a multi monitor setup for tests :/ ). Not sure if having a second monitor for marquees require rewriting some of the layout code, or if there's a plugin that can do that. If you have the chance to try, I'll be glad to give support :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: adu on June 06, 2022, 05:46:24 AM
Ok, I'll give a try as soon as possible, and will post here the result :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 06, 2022, 08:13:38 AM
Ok, I'll give a try as soon as possible, and will post here the result :)

For what is worth, I did some preliminary tests using AF on Ubuntu with a dual monitor setup. Some prerequisites to using multiple monitors are:
- set your AM to fullscreen or fillscreen mode
- enable support for multiple monitors in the "general" AM options tab

After that I tried enabling the multimon plugin which should help in configuring the output for the multiple monitors, but at that point when I run AM with AF I get a segmentation fault. Notice that everything works fine with, for example, the Basic layout and MultiMon plugin, and everything still works fine with AF if I code something to show artwork on the secondary screen.

What is causing trouble is AF with MultiMon plugin. Let me know if you experience the same crash, I'll see if I can do something to alleviate the issue...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 07, 2022, 12:30:25 AM
Progress on multimonitor support... I implemented a second display to show marquee or wheel artwork, I had this crazy idea to add the blurred background when wheel art is used but that's overkill. Doable but not so easy at the moment. So I'll stick to images on a black background, but artwork will cross fade the same way as the other elements of the Arcadeflow UI.

What option do you need for the external monitor? I think I'll ad a selection for the monitor to use, source of artwork and correct aspect ratio. Anything else?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: jackson99 on June 07, 2022, 11:33:41 PM
My Displays Menu has two categories Arcade (Arcade, Hikara, Atomiswave and Naomi) and Others (Cave 3rd, Gaelco and Model 3). How do I do so thoes "Others" will go to Arcade?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 08, 2022, 05:16:14 AM
My Displays Menu has two categories Arcade (Arcade, Hikara, Atomiswave and Naomi) and Others (Cave 3rd, Gaelco and Model 3). How do I do so thoes "Others" will go to Arcade?

AF recognizes categories based on the display name, there's a list of systems with supported names in data_systems.txt, names are not case sensitive. Now looking at that file I can see this:

- "Cave 3rd" is not in the list, but there are entries for "Cave", "Cave 68000" and "Cave cv1000". You can rename your display and it should be recognised.
- "Model 3" should work, try "sega model 3" instead but it's strange, I'll do some further tests.
- "Gaelco" is not supported yet so it will not be recognised because it's not in the list, I'll add it in a future release.

That said, if you just want a way to put those displays in the Arcade category without messing with the names, just append "#ARCADE" to the display name and it should do the trick.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: jackson99 on June 08, 2022, 04:18:23 PM
Thanks for sharing the trick. "Sega Model 3", "Gaelco #ARCADE" and "Cave CV1000" worked. You just made my collection look much organized. Here comes my another question: How do I get rid of Arcade layer if I wanna see all of the layouts regardless of arcade or consoles?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 08, 2022, 06:26:27 PM
Hi! Thank you for the great work on this theme, it's easily my favorite and I'm glad that you're still actively working on it. I know Big Box is what's hot now but I like the look of AM with ArcadeFlow a great deal more.

Right now I'm struggling a little bit in getting rom info to display correctly for my systems that aren't MAME. Something that interested me about ArcadeFlow is the Romlist Management and being able to import XML files into each display. Is there info on how to go about doing that?

With AttractMode itself I know how to import extra files (even if I can only get it to work with MAME) but for instance I'm trying to get my Sega NAOMI display to pull information from catver.ini and get nothing. Any advice?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.6 [Release] Updated 06 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 09, 2022, 01:03:02 AM
Right now I'm struggling a little bit in getting rom info to display correctly for my systems that aren't MAME. Something that interested me about ArcadeFlow is the Romlist Management and being able to import XML files into each display. Is there info on how to go about doing that?

XML list import works just by adding the XML data into the import_extras field of the emulator. AM by itself imports data from hyperspin lists, Arcadeflow adds support for Retropie lists too.

Quote
With AttractMode itself I know how to import extra files (even if I can only get it to work with MAME) but for instance I'm trying to get my Sega NAOMI display to pull information from catver.ini and get nothing. Any advice?

Not sure if catver.ini is supported by AM, as usual you should put the filename into the import_extra field, if you have more than one file you can separate with ";".

Also, if you want to try a different path, Arcadeflow has its own scraper based on Arcade Database Italia for arcade games, and ScreenScraper for other systems and media. You just have to specify a proper system identifier in your emulator setup with the name of the system, and go into Arcadeflow options to set your SS username and password. That should populate all the metadata and media you need. Not sure if it's exactly what you want, but I suggest you give it a try.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 14, 2022, 02:38:19 AM
Arcadeflow 13.7 is out!

- Added support for multi-monitor setups
- Fixed issue with CRC check of large files on Windows
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 15, 2022, 08:15:47 PM
Thanks Zpaolo, I'll give it a try with the scraper and see how it goes!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 15, 2022, 09:24:51 PM
I added my credentials to the program, and then tried to run the scraper for an individual game. Arcade Flow then gets hung up and the console had the following info:

Quote
*** Initializing display: 'Sega Genesis'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Sega Genesis' in 0 ms (9 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (18 comparisons)

WARNING: some options in attract.cfg clash with Arcadeflow

 - Loaded layout: C:\Attract Mode\layouts/Arcade Flow/ (layout.nut)
'layouts\Arcade' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
ID:0 DISPATCH (table : 0x0000000016aae850)
ID0-getromdata C:\Attract Mode\emulators\Sega Genesis\roms\Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Hyperstone Heist (USA).md
ID0-getromdata call createjson 1
ID0-createjson
ID0-createjson suspend
ID0-getromdata suspend 1
ID0-scrapegame2 suspend

I wasn't sure if there is something I'm doing wrong here but if you've got any insight, let me know! Worst case the non-mame systems don't have info, I honestly adore the theme so much outside of it that I could put up with it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 16, 2022, 11:08:15 PM
I added my credentials to the program, and then tried to run the scraper for an individual game. Arcade Flow then gets hung up and the console had the following info:


Sorry for the late reply... it seems there's something that stops the process while waiting for an answer from screenscraper. What OS are you on? Can you share your attract.cfg (you can email me at paolo.zago@gmail.com or on the discord server)? Sometimes this happens when screenscraper server is overloaded, or if your OS doesn't support curl for fetching data online. You can also try opening a console window and typing "curl" to see if the command is supported...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: jackson99 on June 17, 2022, 04:17:53 PM
May I know why the attached romlist downloaded from Arcade Database would result in Empty List but still show number of games in Filter? I also verified that the same romlist would show games correctly in other layouts.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 18, 2022, 02:23:05 AM
May I know why the attached romlist downloaded from Arcade Database would result in Empty List but still show number of games in Filter? I also verified that the same romlist would show games correctly in other layouts.

AF stores game data in an external database file, look in the romlist folder, you should find a .db1 and .db2 file, same name as your name romlist. Try deleting them and then relaunch attract mode, AF should rebuild the database based on your romlist data.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: jackson99 on June 18, 2022, 04:11:29 AM
I can see there's db1 and db2 for other rom lists but not for the rom list I downloaded. I restarted AM+ multiple times and still don't see db1 and db2.
May I know why the attached romlist downloaded from Arcade Database would result in Empty List but still show number of games in Filter? I also verified that the same romlist would show games correctly in other layouts.

AF stores game data in an external database file, look in the romlist folder, you should find a .db1 and .db2 file, same name as your name romlist. Try deleting them and then relaunch attract mode, AF should rebuild the database based on your romlist data.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 18, 2022, 05:55:51 AM
I can see there's db1 and db2 for other rom lists but not for the rom list I downloaded. I restarted AM+ multiple times and still don't see db1 and db2.

I think the problem is that the romlist has a different name than the emulator. Usually when you create an emulator in AM and generate the romlist, the romlist has the same name. Try renaming your rom list with the same name of the emulator .cfg file, and correct the display in attract.cfg accordingly, that should fix the issue with AF that only analyses romlists named the same as the emulator (at the moment)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: jackson99 on June 18, 2022, 06:44:06 AM
You're amazing. You just figured out a solution that works perfectly. Thanks a million.
I can see there's db1 and db2 for other rom lists but not for the rom list I downloaded. I restarted AM+ multiple times and still don't see db1 and db2.

I think the problem is that the romlist has a different name than the emulator. Usually when you create an emulator in AM and generate the romlist, the romlist has the same name. Try renaming your rom list with the same name of the emulator .cfg file, and correct the display in attract.cfg accordingly, that should fix the issue with AF that only analyses romlists named the same as the emulator (at the moment)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 20, 2022, 09:03:12 PM
I'm running Windows 10 on my machine and gave the curl command a whirl from CMD without any particular issues. It's of note that AttractMode used to be able to pull data from TheGamesDB but even outside of ArcadeFlow I have some issues. Attached is my config file!

Is there anything in the firewall I may need to configure as well, or elevated permissions to use when running the scraper?

Sorry for the late reply on my end too.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 20, 2022, 10:05:49 PM
Is there anything in the firewall I may need to configure as well, or elevated permissions to use when running the scraper?

I'm not that familiar with the Windows firewall, I think a good test could be to completely disable it and see if the scraping goes well. Other than that I noticed some settings in the attract.cfg that clash with the way Arcadeflow works:

- Arcadeflow is set as displays menu layout, this is something that doesn't work well: you need to set the displays menu layout to default.
- Attract Mode is set up to start in displays menu, but if you are using AF there's no need to use this setting, and will actually be a problem You should set the startup mode to default, and then if you want AF to start in the displays menu list, there's an option in AF for that.
- I suggest you enable "power saving", it should reduce a lot the load on your system because AF can be a bit heavy :D

That said, none of those should impact the scraping process, did you enter your screenscraper credentials in AF options?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 21, 2022, 02:23:06 PM
I took your advice and modified my settings to change the display menu layout, startup behavior, and power saving mode - thank you!

Within Arcadeflow I have my Screenscraper credentials entered, yes. I actually use the Skraper program outside of Attract Mode to get my information, and I see that a [system].dat gets created at least. I honestly don't mind using a different program to scrape for info, but is it possible to import this .dat file into the gamecube emulator for Arcadeflow to see it? If so, I may just do that.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 21, 2022, 10:00:39 PM
Within Arcadeflow I have my Screenscraper credentials entered, yes. I actually use the Skraper program outside of Attract Mode to get my information, and I see that a [system].dat gets created at least. I honestly don't mind using a different program to scrape for info, but is it possible to import this .dat file into the gamecube emulator for Arcadeflow to see it? If so, I may just do that.

Well AF should be able to import EmulationStation xml and that dat looks quite similar, I'll do some tests and report back.

On the other hand, it would be much better if we could fix the scraper issue in AF ;) Can you share the emulator .cfg file of the system you are scraping? Maybe I can try to replicate your setup and test it better
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 22, 2022, 07:32:01 PM
Here's my Sega Genesis config - I use RocketLauncher to load systems with my setup right now. I did try setting Retroarch as the emulator and then scraping, and unfortunately ended up with the same result I've been getting so far.

Other than my Screenscraper credentials, can you confirm the scraper settings I should have set?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 22, 2022, 09:55:05 PM
Here's my Sega Genesis config - I use RocketLauncher to load systems with my setup right now. I did try setting Retroarch as the emulator and then scraping, and unfortunately ended up with the same result I've been getting so far.

Other than my Screenscraper credentials, can you confirm the scraper settings I should have set?
  • CRC Check = No
  • Rom Scrape Options = Missing Only
  • Scrape Error Roms = No
  • Media Scrape Optiosns = Only Missing

Your settings look fine, I was looking at the .cfg and I'm wondering why artwork paths like this:

Code: [Select]
artwork    flyer           C:\Attract Mode\emulators\Sega Genesis\media\flyer\roms
end with "\roms", is that correct? I mean, this way you'll have those media saved in a folder called roms inside the flyer etc.

One other thing you can try is disable media scrape, so set "media scrape options" to "no media scrape", and try like that. Also try enabling CRC check, that might do some difference.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 23, 2022, 08:59:09 PM
Quote
end with "\roms", is that correct? I mean, this way you'll have those media saved in a folder called roms inside the flyer etc.

Yes, this is correct - I think the way I set the paths in Skraper (which uses Screen Scraper), it looks at my main emulator folder and then sees the games within the rom folder. So it's like "C:\Attract Mode\emulators\Sega Genesis\roms", and the media folder creates a roms folder to match the structure... I think. Could easily be fixed but I don't mind that lol!

I turned on CRC check and disabled media scraping, and decided to try and scrape the entire romlist for Sega Genesis instead of one game. Below is what came from the console window - it seems that something is happening for it to at least recognize that it should attempt the next game. What that is, I'm not sure.

I'm going to attempt a clean install of AF and see if that helps! I will update shortly
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 23, 2022, 09:12:35 PM
No dice on reinstalling the layout I'm afraid.

And just to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong with AttractMode, but Attract Mode Plus runs in the root of the Attract Mode install correct? I had regular attract mode and switched to plus so I could use AF
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 26, 2022, 08:30:52 AM
After couple of years I am back to emulation and trying to use attact mode + arcade flow again (last version I was using was 6.0) and I can't get version 13.7 to work.
I have downloaded latest version of AttractPlus and Arcadeflow, but when I switch layout to Arcadeflow-13.7 the display just shows big black and white "arcadeflow" logo fitting the whole screen and nothing else.
In the consolde there is an error:

Script Error in G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.7/layout.nut - expected '='
 - Loaded layout: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.7/ (layout.nut)

any ideas?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: jedione on June 26, 2022, 09:58:34 AM
he has his own Discord channel for the theme...  hit him up their...
https://discord.gg/TkxZp6CX (https://discord.gg/TkxZp6CX)

 ;)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 26, 2022, 02:50:03 PM

I turned on CRC check and disabled media scraping, and decided to try and scrape the entire romlist for Sega Genesis instead of one game. Below is what came from the console window - it seems that something is happening for it to at least recognize that it should attempt the next game. What that is, I'm not sure.

I'm going to attempt a clean install of AF and see if that helps! I will update shortly

Sorry, I thought I answered to your latest message but I see now the answer never get through... from the log I see some errors related to the path of your Arcadeflow layout: I'll look into it and see if I can fix it, but I think the issue is that your Arcadeflow folder has a "space" in the folder name. Could you try renaming the layout folder to "Arcadeflow" instead of "Arcade Flow", update your displays definition in attract.cfg with the new name, and see if it fixes the scraper issue?

I'll do further tests tomorrow.... but 99.9% this is the main source of the problem.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 26, 2022, 02:52:10 PM
I have downloaded latest version of AttractPlus and Arcadeflow, but when I switch layout to Arcadeflow-13.7 the display just shows big black and white "arcadeflow" logo fitting the whole screen and nothing else.
In the consolde there is an error:

Script Error in G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.7/layout.nut - expected '='
 - Loaded layout: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.7/ (layout.nut)

any ideas?

I need more detail to debug this, can you provide the full output of the console, or the last-run log? That would help me in identifying the problem.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: ruthlessrabbid on June 26, 2022, 05:48:02 PM
You were 100% correct; removing the spaces instantly made the scrape work. I cannot believe I didn't think of that sooner... Crisis averted and all the information is now appearing! I've spent a few hours on this but I'm glad it is behind me now lmao!

Thank you for your help and patience. You seem like an awesome person, and I appreciate your work
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 27, 2022, 12:09:18 AM
I need more detail to debug this, can you provide the full output of the console, or the last-run log? That would help me in identifying the problem.

Ops, didn't notice there is a call stack way above that error, sure, here is the log:
Code: [Select]
Attract-Mode Plus v2.6.2 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Sega Genesis'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Sega Genesis' in 12 ms (906 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (1812 comparisons)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [expected '=']

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [getallgamesdb()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.7/layout.nut line [6195]
*FUNCTION [main()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.7/layout.nut line [14586]

LOCALS
[fl] TABLE
[prf] TABLE
[uifonts] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[@ITERATOR@] 4
[item] "Adobe Flash.cfg"
[i] 3
[itemname] "Adobe Flash"
[file] ""
[emulatordir] ARRAY
[emulatorpath] "G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\emulators\"
[emulatorarray] ARRAY
[text_charsize] 185.6
[text_ratio] 0.6
[numchars] 12
[textobj] INSTANCE
[logopic] INSTANCE
[this] TABLE
[labelcounter] TABLE
[labelorder] ARRAY
[sortticks] TABLE
[sortticksarray] ARRAY
[sortlabels] TABLE
[sortlabelsarray] ARRAY
[fps] TABLE
[user_fg] NULL
[aflogoT] TABLE
[aflogo] INSTANCE
[attractitem] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[zmenu_surface] INSTANCE
[shader_tx2] TABLE
[zmenu_sh] TABLE
[zmenu_surface_container] INSTANCE
[disp] TABLE
[disp0] TABLE
[hist_over] TABLE
[hist_screen] INSTANCE
[hist_screensurf] INSTANCE
[shadowshader] TABLE
[kerneldat] TABLE
[blursizeglow] TABLE
[hist_glow_shader] INSTANCE
[hist_glow_pic] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_1] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_2] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[shadow] TABLE
[histglow] TABLE
[gradshader] INSTANCE
[hist_text] TABLE
[hist_text_surf] INSTANCE
[shader_lcd] INSTANCE
[pixelpic] INSTANCE
[shader_lottes] INSTANCE
[LCDprf] TABLE
[CRTprf] TABLE
[hist_titletxt] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bd] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bot] INSTANCE
[hist_title_top] INSTANCE
[hist_title] INSTANCE
[hist_white] INSTANCE
[histgr] TABLE
[history_surface] INSTANCE
[hist_curr_rom] ""
[historypadding] 38
[shadowscale] 0.025
[hist_textT] TABLE
[hist_screenT] TABLE
[hist_titleT] TABLE
[hist] TABLE
[keyboard_text] INSTANCE
[kb] TABLE
[keyboard_surface] INSTANCE
[fb] TABLE
[prfmenu] TABLE
[overmenu] INSTANCE
[overmenuwidth] 826.152
[txtoalpha] INSTANCE
[bwtoalpha] INSTANCE
[game_subnameT] TABLE
[game_mainnameT] TABLE
[game_yearT] TABLE
[game_manufacturerpicT] TABLE
[game_maincatT] TABLE
[game_butpicT] TABLE
[game_ctlpicT] TABLE
[game_plypicT] TABLE
[game_catpicT] TABLE
[blsize] TABLE
[letterobj] INSTANCE
[letterobjsurf] TABLE
[displayname] INSTANCE
[displaynamesurf] TABLE
[labelsurf] INSTANCE
[labelstrip] INSTANCE
[scroller2] INSTANCE
[scroller] INSTANCE
[scrollineglow] INSTANCE
[scrolline] INSTANCE
[separatorline] INSTANCE
[filternumbers] INSTANCE
[filterdata] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_1] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_2] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_rt] INSTANCE
[shader_tx] TABLE
[sh_scale] TABLE
[shaders] TABLE
[gradscaler] 1
[gradsizer] 8
[logo] TABLE
[greenshader] TABLE
[gr_vidsz] INSTANCE
[gr_snapz] INSTANCE
[gradsurf_1] INSTANCE
[gradsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[logosurf_rt] INSTANCE
[logosurf_1] INSTANCE
[txbox] INSTANCE
[txt2z] INSTANCE
[txt1z] INSTANCE
[txshz] INSTANCE
[loshz] INSTANCE
[snap_grad] ARRAY
[snap_glow] ARRAY
[surfacePosOffset] 2215.7333333333
[tiles] TABLE
[vidbgfade] ARRAY
[vidposbg] 0
[corrector] 0
[vidindex] ARRAY
[vidpos] ARRAY
[aspectratioMorph] ARRAY
[gr_vidszTableFade] ARRAY
[tilesTableZoom] ARRAY
[tilesTableUpdate] ARRAY
[tilesTablePos] TABLE
[tilez] ARRAY
[z_disp] ARRAY
[picture] TABLE
[shader_bg] TABLE
[bglay] TABLE
[mon2] TABLE
[shader_fr] TABLE
[flipshader] NULL
[frost] TABLE
[frostpic] TABLE
[overlay] TABLE
[categorytable] TABLE
[regsys] TABLE
[data_surface] INSTANCE
[nolist_blanker] INSTANCE
[search] TABLE
[searchdata] INSTANCE
[multifilterglyph] INSTANCE
[mf] TABLE
[boxtitle] NULL
[logotitle] NULL
[all_scrape] TABLE
[all_meta_original] TABLE
[all_meta_edited] TABLE
[meta_original] TABLE
[meta_edited] TABLE
[metadata] TABLE
[yearnames] TABLE
[catnames_SS] TABLE
[catnames] TABLE
[focusindex] TABLE
[z_fields2] TABLE
[z_fields1] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[dispatchernum] 0
[dispatcher] ARRAY
[ratetonumber] TABLE
[keyboard_entrytext] ""
[key_selected] ARRAY
[key_sizes] ARRAY
[key_rows] ARRAY
[key_names] TABLE
[scroll] TABLE
[bgpicT] TABLE
[bgT] TABLE
[scrollersize] 27
[footermargin] 333.33333333333
[lettersize] TABLE
[fadevid] 9905
[delayvid] 9940
[vidstarter] 10000
[spdT] TABLE
[centercorr] TABLE
[deltacol] 2
[selectorwidth] 917.94666666667
[whitemargin] 0.15
[selectorscale] 1.45
[carrierT] TABLE
[pagejump] 10
[cols] 7
[verticalshift] 15.826666666667
[widthpaddedmix] 633.06666666667
[widthmix] 474.8
[width169padded] 455.01666666667
[width169] 296.75
[heightpadded] 633.06666666667
[widthpadded] 633.06666666667
[padding] 79.133333333333
[width] 474.8
[height] 474.8
[padding_scaler] 0.16666666666667
[footer] TABLE
[header] TABLE
[scalerate] 1.3333333333333
[rotation] TABLE
[fl] TABLE
[scr] TABLE
[vertical] true
[rows] 2
[gbrgb] TABLE
[colormapper] TABLE
[srfposhistory] ARRAY
[filtersw] ARRAY
[filterw] ARRAY
[impulse2] TABLE
[surfacePos] 0
[globalposnew] 0
[count] TABLE
[snd] TABLE
[satin] TABLE
[themeT] TABLE
[squarizer] false
[column] TABLE
[backs] TABLE
[search_base_rule] "Title"
[noshader] INSTANCE
[flowT] TABLE
[z_var] 0
[var] 0
[dat] TABLE
[bgs] TABLE
[bgvidsurf] NULL
[dir0] TABLE
[commandtable] TABLE
[system_data] TABLE
[orderdatalabel] TABLE
[huecycle] TABLE
[displaystore] 0
[SORTTABLE] TABLE
[DISPLAYTABLE] TABLE
[prfzero] TABLE
[z_info] TABLE
[transdata] ARRAY
[menucounter] 18
[multifilterz] TABLE
[umvisible] true
[umpresel] 0
[umtable] ARRAY
[selection_pre] NULL
[prf] TABLE
[DBGON] false
[z_af_collections] TABLE
[uifonts] TABLE
[zmenu] TABLE
[gh] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[IDX] ARRAY
[ap] """
[elapse] TABLE
[vargv] ARRAY
[this] TABLE
Script Error in G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.7/layout.nut - expected '='
 - Loaded layout: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.7/ (layout.nut)
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: explorer.exe (2204)

Apparently I have romlist in .txt format, but don't have .db1 or .db2 files for it. What should I do to generate them?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 27, 2022, 12:30:29 AM
Apparently I have romlist in .txt format, but don't have .db1 or .db2 files for it. What should I do to generate them?

It seems AF crashes when trying to create db1 and db2, or at least trying to read from them. It happens on the "Flash Games" romlist, can you share the emulator .cfg file and the romlist .txt file for that system? Sometimes special characters in romlists cause issues with the db creation :(
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 27, 2022, 06:54:46 AM
It seems AF crashes when trying to create db1 and db2, or at least trying to read from them. It happens on the "Flash Games" romlist, can you share the emulator .cfg file and the romlist .txt file for that system? Sometimes special characters in romlists cause issues with the db creation :(

Sure, see attached.
Indeed, that file has unicode characters in UTF-8, however old versions of ArcadeFlow (6.0) were working fine with them
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 27, 2022, 10:35:51 PM
Sure, see attached.
Indeed, that file has unicode characters in UTF-8, however old versions of ArcadeFlow (6.0) were working fine with them

Found the issue: in this romlist the buttons and series fields are used in a different way: buttons has a description of the buttons used, not just the number of buttons, and series has a short description of the game. Both descriptions include ", and this messes with the database. I check for " in other fields but not in this, added the check and now everything work.

Since I'm about to launch 13.8 later today or tomorrow, I won't build a patch for this issue and it will be fixed when 13.8 is released :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.7 [Release] Updated 14 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 28, 2022, 12:00:58 AM
Thanks a lot! Looking forward to that  :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 28, 2022, 12:38:14 AM
Arcadeflow 13.8 is out!

- Added support for pixel perfect fonts
- Correct UI elements alignment with pixels
- Fixed issue with number of rows in menus
- Fixed issue when converting romlist to db
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 28, 2022, 01:21:19 PM
Arcadeflow 13.8 is out!

- Added support for pixel perfect fonts
- Correct UI elements alignment with pixels
- Fixed issue with number of rows in menus
- Fixed issue when converting romlist to db

New crash now:

Code: [Select]
Attract-Mode Plus v2.6.2 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Sega Genesis'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Sega Genesis' in 13 ms (906 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (1812 comparisons)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index 'snap' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [getemulatordata()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/layout.nut line [2872]
*FUNCTION [getallgamesdb()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/layout.nut line [6276]
*FUNCTION [main()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/layout.nut line [14674]

LOCALS
[workdir] ""
[artworktable] TABLE
[mainsysname] "Apple Bandai Pippin"
[extras] ""
[romextarray] ARRAY
[romext] ".chd"
[gamepath] "16t (Japan)"
[rompath] "G:\Games\Apple Bandai Pippin/"
[inline] ARRAY
[infile] INSTANCE
[out] TABLE
[emulatorname] "Apple Bandai Pippin.cfg"
[this] TABLE
[fl] TABLE
[prf] TABLE
[uifonts] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[@ITERATOR@] 7
[item] "Apple Bandai Pippin.cfg"
[i] 6
[itemname] "Apple Bandai Pippin"
[file] ""
[emulatordir] ARRAY
[emulatorpath] "G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\emulators\"
[emulatorarray] ARRAY
[text_charsize] 185.6
[text_ratio] 0.6
[numchars] 12
[textobj] INSTANCE
[logopic] INSTANCE
[this] TABLE
[labelcounter] TABLE
[labelorder] ARRAY
[sortticks] TABLE
[sortticksarray] ARRAY
[sortlabels] TABLE
[sortlabelsarray] ARRAY
[fps] TABLE
[user_fg] NULL
[aflogoT] TABLE
[aflogo] INSTANCE
[attractitem] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[zmenu_surface] INSTANCE
[shader_tx2] TABLE
[zmenu_sh] TABLE
[zmenu_surface_container] INSTANCE
[disp] TABLE
[disp0] TABLE
[hist_over] TABLE
[hist_screen] INSTANCE
[hist_screensurf] INSTANCE
[shadowshader] TABLE
[kerneldat] TABLE
[blursizeglow] TABLE
[hist_glow_shader] INSTANCE
[hist_glow_pic] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_1] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_2] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[shadow] TABLE
[histglow] TABLE
[gradshader] INSTANCE
[hist_text] TABLE
[hist_text_surf] INSTANCE
[shader_lcd] INSTANCE
[pixelpic] INSTANCE
[shader_lottes] INSTANCE
[LCDprf] TABLE
[CRTprf] TABLE
[hist_titletxt] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bd] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt_bot] INSTANCE
[hist_title_top] INSTANCE
[hist_title] INSTANCE
[hist_white] INSTANCE
[histgr] TABLE
[history_surface] INSTANCE
[hist_curr_rom] ""
[historypadding] 38
[shadowscale] 0.025
[hist_textT] TABLE
[hist_screenT] TABLE
[hist_titleT] TABLE
[hist] TABLE
[keyboard_text] INSTANCE
[kb] TABLE
[keyboard_surface] INSTANCE
[fb] TABLE
[prfmenu] TABLE
[overmenu] INSTANCE
[overmenuwidth] 828
[txtoalpha] INSTANCE
[bwtoalpha] INSTANCE
[gamed] TABLE
[blsize] TABLE
[letterobj] INSTANCE
[letterobjsurf] TABLE
[displayname] INSTANCE
[displaynamesurf] TABLE
[labelsurf] INSTANCE
[labelstrip] INSTANCE
[scroller2] INSTANCE
[scroller] INSTANCE
[scrollineglow] INSTANCE
[scrolline] INSTANCE
[separatorline] INSTANCE
[filternumbers] INSTANCE
[filterdata] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_1] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_2] INSTANCE
[data_surface_sh_rt] INSTANCE
[shader_tx] TABLE
[sh_scale] TABLE
[shaders] TABLE
[gradscaler] 1
[gradsizer] 8
[logo] TABLE
[greenshader] TABLE
[gr_vidsz] INSTANCE
[gr_snapz] INSTANCE
[gradsurf_1] INSTANCE
[gradsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[logosurf_rt] INSTANCE
[logosurf_1] INSTANCE
[txbox] INSTANCE
[txt2z] INSTANCE
[txt1z] INSTANCE
[txshz] INSTANCE
[loshz] INSTANCE
[snap_grad] ARRAY
[snap_glow] ARRAY
[surfacePosOffset] 2212
[tiles] TABLE
[vidbgfade] ARRAY
[vidposbg] 0
[corrector] 0
[vidindex] ARRAY
[vidpos] ARRAY
[aspectratioMorph] ARRAY
[gr_vidszTableFade] ARRAY
[tilesTableZoom] ARRAY
[tilesTableUpdate] ARRAY
[tilesTablePos] TABLE
[tilez] ARRAY
[z_disp] ARRAY
[picture] TABLE
[shader_bg] TABLE
[bglay] TABLE
[mon2] TABLE
[shader_fr] TABLE
[flipshader] NULL
[frost] TABLE
[frostpic] TABLE
[overlay] TABLE
[categorytable] TABLE
[regsys] TABLE
[data_surface] INSTANCE
[nolist_blanker] INSTANCE
[search] TABLE
[searchdata] INSTANCE
[multifilterglyph] INSTANCE
[mf] TABLE
[boxtitle] NULL
[logotitle] NULL
[all_scrape] TABLE
[all_meta_original] TABLE
[all_meta_edited] TABLE
[meta_original] TABLE
[meta_edited] TABLE
[metadata] TABLE
[yearnames] TABLE
[catnames_SS] TABLE
[catnames] TABLE
[focusindex] TABLE
[z_fields2] TABLE
[z_fields1] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[dispatchernum] 0
[dispatcher] ARRAY
[ratetonumber] TABLE
[keyboard_entrytext] ""
[key_selected] ARRAY
[key_sizes] ARRAY
[key_rows] ARRAY
[key_names] TABLE
[scroll] TABLE
[bgpicT] TABLE
[bgT] TABLE
[scrollersize] 27
[lettersize] TABLE
[fadevid] 9905
[delayvid] 9940
[vidstarter] 10000
[spdT] TABLE
[centercorr] TABLE
[deltacol] 2
[carrierT] TABLE
[pagejump] 10
[rotation] TABLE
[fl] TABLE
[scr] TABLE
[UI] TABLE
[gbrgb] TABLE
[colormapper] TABLE
[srfposhistory] ARRAY
[filtersw] ARRAY
[filterw] ARRAY
[impulse2] TABLE
[surfacePos] 0
[globalposnew] 0
[count] TABLE
[snd] TABLE
[satin] TABLE
[themeT] TABLE
[squarizer] false
[column] TABLE
[backs] TABLE
[search_base_rule] "Title"
[noshader] INSTANCE
[flowT] TABLE
[z_var] 0
[var] 0
[dat] TABLE
[bgs] TABLE
[bgvidsurf] NULL
[dir0] TABLE
[commandtable] TABLE
[system_data] TABLE
[orderdatalabel] TABLE
[huecycle] TABLE
[displaystore] 0
[SORTTABLE] TABLE
[DISPLAYTABLE] TABLE
[prfzero] TABLE
[z_info] TABLE
[transdata] ARRAY
[menucounter] 18
[multifilterz] TABLE
[umvisible] true
[umpresel] 0
[umtable] ARRAY
[selection_pre] NULL
[prf] TABLE
[DBGON] false
[z_af_collections] TABLE
[uifonts] TABLE
[zmenu] TABLE
[gh] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[IDX] ARRAY
[ap] """
[elapse] TABLE
[vargv] ARRAY
[this] TABLE
Script Error in G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/layout.nut - the index 'snap' does not exist
 - Loaded layout: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/ (layout.nut)

Supposed romlist and cfg that causes crash attached.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 28, 2022, 10:02:10 PM

New crash now:

Supposed romlist and cfg that causes crash attached.

I think the issue is that in your .cfg file there's the "snap" artwork defined, but it's empty. I'll add a security check for that in new releases but just to be sure, try adding a path to the snap artwork and see if it fixes the issue...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 29, 2022, 12:25:54 AM
I've changed the line 2872 from
Code: [Select]
    if (artworktable.snap.find(";") != null){to
Code: [Select]
    if ("snap" in artworktable && artworktable.snap.find(";") != null){and it loaded up fine.

I have a question about .db1 / .db2 files - are they automatically refreshed when .txt romlist changed? Some of my .txt romlists are generated by external scripts.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 29, 2022, 12:47:31 AM
I've changed the line 2872 from
Code: [Select]
    if (artworktable.snap.find(";") != null){to
Code: [Select]
    if ("snap" in artworktable && artworktable.snap.find(";") != null){and it loaded up fine.

That's exactly the change I had in mind to fix the issue definitely :)

Quote
I have a question about .db1 / .db2 files - are they automatically refreshed when .txt romlist changed? Some of my .txt romlists are generated by external scripts.

Hmm no, they are not. At the moment you can use the "Refresh Romlist" command from AF options menu, that will do the following:

- regenerate the current romlist using AM command line
- go through the refreshed romlist and add to the database any game that is not yet in the database
- db metadata for the new games will be derived from the romlist fields
- db metadata for existing games won't be affected

this works as long as you usually generate romlists through AM, if you build your romlists in a different way that will not work. I can add an entry in the menu to reset/refresh just the database, it could work like this:

- refresh database will scan the romlist (without regenerating it through AM) and add new games to the db
- reset database will wipe the database and all scraped data, rescan the romlist without regenerateing it through AM, and then populate the new db with data from the romlist.

I think these two options will cover all the use cases, even when the db gets corrupt and you can regenerate it from scratch
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 29, 2022, 01:33:43 AM
What if I will delete .db1 and .db2 files when generating new .txt? Would that force regeneration up to date .db1 and .db2 files?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 29, 2022, 02:04:13 AM
What if I will delete .db1 and .db2 files when generating new .txt? Would that force regeneration up to date .db1 and .db2 files?

Yes, sure. Brute force but still effective :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 29, 2022, 07:48:45 AM
Then it suits me, no need to add anything :)
Btw, great improvements since version 6.0 - love how much faster it became after initial load.

However I have tried to load my largest romlsit for Flash Games that has 25k items and Arcadeflow failed to load - displayed the empty list. Here is the crash info:

Code: [Select]
*** Initializing display: 'Adobe Flash'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Adobe Flash' in 406 ms (24667 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 1 ms (49334 comparisons)
 - Loaded layout: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcade Flow 5.4/ (layout.nut)
Writing config to: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Adobe Flash'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Adobe Flash' in 352 ms (24667 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 1 ms (49334 comparisons)


WARNING: some options in attract.cfg clash with Arcadeflow

 - Loaded layout: G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/ (layout.nut)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index 'Memory Game' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [z_listboot()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/layout.nut line [6367]
*FUNCTION [on_transition()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/layout.nut line [14826]

LOCALS
[z_list] TABLE
[meta_edited] TABLE
[meta_original] TABLE
[all_meta_edited] TABLE
[all_meta_original] TABLE
[metadata] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[system_data] TABLE
[i] 20040
[currentsystem] "adobe flash"
[ifeindex] 20031
[this] TABLE
[prf] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[focusindex] TABLE
[tilez] ARRAY
[transdata] ARRAY
[flowT] TABLE
[snd] TABLE
[vidposbg] 0
[vidstarter] 10000
[bgs] TABLE
[vidbgfade] ARRAY
[AF] TABLE
[multifilterglyph] INSTANCE
[searchdata] INSTANCE
[search] TABLE
[z_var] 0
[var] 0
[logotitle] NULL
[boxtitle] NULL
[attract] TABLE
[displayname] INSTANCE
[displaystore] 14
[prfzero] TABLE
[DISPLAYTABLE] TABLE
[zmenu_surface_container] INSTANCE
[zmenu_sh] TABLE
[noshader] INSTANCE
[zmenu] TABLE
[tiles] TABLE
[corrector] 0
[column] TABLE
[UI] TABLE
[letterobj] INSTANCE
[mon2] TABLE
[dat] TABLE
[surfacePos] 0
[centercorr] TABLE
[impulse2] TABLE
[ttime] 0
[var0] 0
[ttype] 6
[this] TABLE
Script Error in transition function: on_transition - the index 'Memory Game' does not exist
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: explorer.exe (4240)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index '0' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [attractupdatesnap()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/layout.nut line [12869]
*FUNCTION [tick()] G:\SuperConsole\AttactPlus\layouts/Arcadeflow-13.8/layout.nut line [15395]

LOCALS
[z_list] TABLE
[attractitem] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[system_data] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[randload] 0
[this] TABLE
[prf] TABLE
[huecycle] TABLE
[snap_glow] ARRAY
[focusindex] TABLE
[tilez] ARRAY
[snd] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[dispatchernum] 0
[z_list] TABLE
[dispatcher] ARRAY
[kb] TABLE
[timescale] TABLE
[pixelpic] INSTANCE
[spdT] TABLE
[delayvid] 9933
[vidstarter] 10000
[fadevid] 9894
[count] TABLE
[overlay] TABLE
[zmenu] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[disp] TABLE
[bgs] TABLE
[attractitem] TABLE
[flowT] TABLE
[squarizer] true
[letterobj] INSTANCE
[letterobjsurf] TABLE
[fl] TABLE
[displayname] INSTANCE
[displaynamesurf] TABLE
[tilesTableUpdate] ARRAY
[noshader] INSTANCE
[tilesTableZoom] ARRAY
[UI] TABLE
[aspectratioMorph] ARRAY
[var] 0
[gr_vidszTableFade] ARRAY
[dat] TABLE
[mon2] TABLE
[impulse2] TABLE
[srfposhistory] ARRAY
[filtersw] ARRAY
[tiles] TABLE
[surfacePosOffset] 2044
[tilesTablePos] TABLE
[globalposnew] -1547
[surfacePos] 0
[vidposbg] 0
[vidbgfade] ARRAY
[corrector] 0
[vidpos] ARRAY
[vidindex] ARRAY
[overmenu] INSTANCE
[overmenuwidth] 763.2
[frost] TABLE
[keyboard_surface] INSTANCE
[themeT] TABLE
[frostpic] TABLE
[zmenu_sh] TABLE
[prfmenu] TABLE
[zmenu_surface_container] INSTANCE
[hist_screensurf] INSTANCE
[hist_glow_pic] INSTANCE
[hist] TABLE
[hist_screenT] TABLE
[historypadding] 38.2
[shadowsurf_rt] INSTANCE
[histglow] TABLE
[shadow] TABLE
[hist_over] TABLE
[hist_titletxt_bot] INSTANCE
[hist_title] INSTANCE
[hist_titleT] TABLE
[hist_titletxt_bd] INSTANCE
[hist_titletxt] INSTANCE
[hist_title_top] INSTANCE
[aflogo] INSTANCE
[user_fg] NULL
[hist_screen] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_1] INSTANCE
[shadowsurf_2] INSTANCE
[hist_text_surf] INSTANCE
[history_surface] INSTANCE
[tick_time] 132625
[this] TABLE
Script Error in tick function: tick - the index '0' does not exist

I have opened "Adobe Flash" romlist which had Arcadeflow 5.7 assigned for it initially, and loaded it up fine, then I switched it to Arcadeflow-13.8 in attract mode displays options and got this crash
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 29, 2022, 08:14:12 AM
I have opened "Adobe Flash" romlist which had Arcadeflow 5.7 assigned for it initially, and loaded it up fine, then I switched it to Arcadeflow-13.8 in attract mode displays options and got this crash

Strange error, related to the "screensaver" in Arcadeflow. Not sure what's going on here, maybe it's still the missing snaps artwork? Try disabling AF screensaver (which is, ironically, called "attract mode" in AF options :D). And if you can pack romlist and .cfg I'll look into it
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 29, 2022, 09:39:15 AM
I have disabled screensaver but it didn't help. The error happens right after the progress bar with "arcadeflow" text fully fills in.
The romlist and cfg I have posted earlier in attachment to this message: http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2068.msg29741#msg29741
Snap artwork is there, but maybe it's filename encoding issue? That romlist has some hieroglyphs in game names.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 29, 2022, 10:00:38 PM
Snap artwork is there, but maybe it's filename encoding issue? That romlist has some hieroglyphs in game names.

Yes, the issue is with a game named
Code: [Select]
'Elephants Never Forget!' Memory Game whose title is
Code: [Select]
"Elephants Never Forget!" Memory Game. Let me see how I can fix it, because I don't want you to change the rom name, so I need to find a way to parse it correctly...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 30, 2022, 01:02:41 AM
Snap artwork is there, but maybe it's filename encoding issue? That romlist has some hieroglyphs in game names.

This almost drove me crazy at a certain point, but the issue is somewhere in the interaction between AM and AF. The offending item is the Elephants Never Forget rom, where the "title" entry is
Code: [Select]
"Elephants Never Forget!" Memory Game The " in the game title messes the AM romlist, not sure if and how it worked on old AF versions.

The only workaround I could find is remove at least one " from the romlist entry. Sorry for not having a better solution. I was the issue was in the rom name with ' but it doesn't seem to be the case. General rule is  you should never put " in a romlist txt file.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 30, 2022, 08:03:08 AM
Makes sense. I have replaced " with ' in the romlist and it started to work. Thanks for the clarification!
Will fix my tools that generate romlists to replace " chars there
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 30, 2022, 08:14:34 AM
I have another question.
I have over 200 romlists in attract mode - they are configured to use Arcade Flow 6.0
I am trying to switch them to latest version by replacing "Arcade Flow 6.0" with "Arcadeflow-13.8" in attract.cfg, however when I do it the romlist hangs the attract mode when I try to open it.
When I switch layout in the config all is file. Is there any other data that needs to be copied/edited for this to work? I don't want to manually change layout for all 200 romlists. I assume latest version of Arcade Flow stores some extra data somewhere.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 30, 2022, 08:41:58 AM
I have over 200 romlists in attract mode - they are configured to use Arcade Flow 6.0
I am trying to switch them to latest version by replacing "Arcade Flow 6.0" with "Arcadeflow-13.8" in attract.cfg, however when I do it the romlist hangs the attract mode when I try to open it.

That's what I do for tests, simply replace the name of the layout in all the entries in attract.cfg. Maybe it hangs because of some issue with the database once you enable the new version? you get error messages? Or maybe it seems to be hanging but is in fact just taking a lot of time to generate dbs? Try changing the layout name of just a couple of displays.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 30, 2022, 10:51:31 AM
No error messages, just "attract mode not responding". All the .db1/.db2 files are present in the romlist dir so I don't think it generates them.
Even when I change only 1 romlist layout in attract.cfg it still hangs when opening that romlist
The console says:

*** Initializing display: 'Sega SG-1000'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Sega SG-1000' in 17 ms (43 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (86 comparisons)

And that's it. I have been waiting for 10 minutes and nothing - still in hung state.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 30, 2022, 12:39:53 PM
No error messages, just "attract mode not responding". All the .db1/.db2 files are present in the romlist dir so I don't think it generates them.
Even when I change only 1 romlist layout in attract.cfg it still hangs when opening that romlist
The console says:

*** Initializing display: 'Sega SG-1000'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Sega SG-1000' in 17 ms (43 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (86 comparisons)

And that's it. I have been waiting for 10 minutes and nothing - still in hung state.

Hmmm at this point I should take a look at your attract.cfg and the pref_layoutoptions file from Arcadeflow folder…
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 30, 2022, 12:58:11 PM
Please see attached
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: yxiie on June 30, 2022, 01:05:50 PM
Is there a place to download old versions? Github page only shows 13.2 as the lowest and your website links are dead.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.8 [Release] Updated 28 June 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 30, 2022, 01:27:40 PM
Is there a place to download old versions? Github page only shows 13.2 as the lowest and your website links are dead.

First things first, there was a bug in the Arcadeflow website, now you can go here https://zpaolo11x.github.io/Arcadeflow/history.html and download old versions from the old repository.

Then I'm looking into your attract.cfg, the first thing you need to change is:
Code: [Select]
startup_mode         displays_menu
Arcadeflow should not be used with display menu startup mode, you should change this value to "default". You can run the displays menu at start changing options in Arcadeflow.

You also have this set:
Code: [Select]
menu_layout          Arcade Flow 5.7but for the same reason stated above, you should not set AF as menu layout, just leave this field empty.

Maybe this changes are enough to fix the issue... another thing I notice from your attract.cfg is that you have a lot of "collection" romlist like "last played", "console" etc. With the new database system AF is a bit picky for collection romlists: let's say you have a collection romlist that has games from multiple emulators. Everything will work fine only if there are also single romlist for each emulator. So if you have a "console" collection romlist with all games from SNES and Genesis, and you have SNES.cfg and Genesis.cfg, AF will be happy only if you have also the romlists SNES.txt and Genesis.txt. I know it's complicated, but working around this is even more complicated :D

Consider that AF already categorizes systems (console, computer ecc) automatically, and you can even enable "all games collections" in AF options menu. These are auto-updating collections for all games, latest played, favourite and system categories. The difference between AM collections and AF collections is that AF collections are "live": if you add a tag to a game in the SNES display, you'll see the same game starred in the "All Console Games" collection, or in the "Last Played" collection etc.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 13.9 [Release] Updated 11 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 11, 2022, 07:37:07 AM
Arcadeflow 13.9 is out!

And it should work with master romlists setup now, so enjoy!

- Added support for new AM+ display loading
- Category collection not shown if there's only one display
- Added an option to make AF compatible with master romlist setups
- Reorganized options menu main page
- Fixed issue when snaps are not defined
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 19, 2022, 02:38:32 AM
Arcadeflow 14.0 is out!

Apart from some minor improvements and bug fixes, this version introduces a huge performance boost for lower spec systems. By suspending surfaces redraw when not needed, this version made my N5105 with integrated GPU run at 60 fps at 1080p (instead of 720p as before). You'll need the latest build of Attract Mode Plus to enjoy the improved performance.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 24, 2022, 10:44:54 AM
Hello,

I try to download it but I found only the source code, PLEASE HELP ME
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 24, 2022, 10:51:42 AM
I try to download it but I found only the source code, PLEASE HELP ME

You can download 14.0 from here: https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow/releases/tag/14.0 download the "Source code (zip)", unpack it in its own folder and place it into Layouts folder.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 24, 2022, 12:41:09 PM
Thank  you a lot!! it's just a little bit slow with me.

Just a question 2 questions :

- Arcadeflow ask me to set at 0 'image_cache_mbytes '. Do you know why?

- The list is empty and I don't know why! I tried with game boy roms (861 roms):

# Generated by Attract-Mode Plus v2.6.2
#
executable           M:\RetroArch\retroarch.exe
args                 -L M:\RetroArch\cores\vbam_libretro.dll "[romfilename]"
rompath              M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms
romext               .gb;.zip;.7zip;.rar
system               Nintendo Game Boy
info_source          thegamesdb.net
artwork    boxart          M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms\boxart
artwork    cartart         M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms\cartart
artwork    flyer           
artwork    marquee         
artwork    snap            M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms\snap
artwork    wheel           M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms\wheel

I attached the config file and the last run! Thank you for your help!!!



Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 24, 2022, 02:05:42 PM
- Arcadeflow ask me to set at 0 'image_cache_mbytes '. Do you know why?

Well, image cache in Attract Mode has some issues, for layouts that use a lot of graphics and loads them often, keeping it enabled gives a lot of errors like disappearing fonts and images, so it's better to disable it by setting that parameter to 0.

Quote
- The list is empty and I don't know why! I tried with game boy roms (861 roms):

There's an "Error opening romlist: Game Boy" in your log, even before loading AF, so it seems there's something wrong in your setup. Maybe you can share the romlist .txt file so I can take a look. Also you can try deleting .db1 and .db2 files in the romlist folder to restart the AF database creation.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 24, 2022, 03:11:43 PM
Thx!

I'll set it to 0. I'll see if AF leaks.

I'll delete the dB file too. To generate the dB file again I have juste to generate the rom list in AF?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 24, 2022, 07:58:24 PM
Thx!

I'll set it to 0. I'll see if AF leaks.

I'll delete the dB file too. To generate the dB file again I have juste to generate the rom list in AF?

Db files are regenerated at launch if they are missing .
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 25, 2022, 02:09:20 AM
Hi,

thx it's works!
It's just strange because the snap and title don't display (see the sreenshot)

Nevertheless I mentionned them in my config :
# Generated by Attract-Mode Plus v2.6.2
#
executable           M:\RetroArch\retroarch.exe
args                 -L M:\RetroArch\cores\vbam_libretro.dll "[romfilename]"
rompath              M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms
romext               .gb;.zip;.7zip;.rar
system               Nintendo Game Boy
info_source          thegamesdb.net
artwork    boxart          M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms\boxart
artwork    cartart         M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms\cartart
artwork    flyer           
artwork    marquee         
artwork    snap            M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms\snap
artwork    wheel           M:\Roms\Nintendo Game Boy\roms\wheel
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 25, 2022, 06:06:36 AM
Maybe I forgot the "" in the path!
Shame on me!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 25, 2022, 09:42:43 AM
don't work always the same!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 25, 2022, 12:09:37 PM
don't work always the same!

So the list is populated but no artwork is loaded? Does it work with other layouts?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 25, 2022, 01:09:19 PM
It'd OK now I just but the fanart sir in attractplus/scrapes
And the sir snap and wheel in roms/systems/roms/snap or wheel.

Everything works but the edge box art png file are not transparent in AF!

In the theme I want to display the cartbridge in the selected game page. Do you know how to do?

Thx a lot
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.1 [Release] Updated 27 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 27, 2022, 07:19:30 AM
Arcadeflow 14.1 is out!

- Reorganised fonts files
- Fixed issue when rom name contains ";"
- Tags menu show tags from all romlists
- Added an option to enable/disable game hiding

This new revision requires the latest attractplus build with font folders support

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.1 [Release] Updated 27 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 28, 2022, 12:09:10 PM
Hi,

Great update! I juste found a bug , it's maybe only me.
There is may last_run file :
Attract-Mode Plus v2.6.2 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: M:\attractplus\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'Nintendo Game Boy'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Nintendo Game Boy' in 9 ms (557 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 1 filters in 0 ms (557 comparisons)
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_Roboto-Bold.ttf
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_CPMono_Black.otf
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_Roboto-Allcaps-EXT3X.ttf
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_CPMono_BlackBorder2.otf
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_glyphs.ttf
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_Roboto-Condensed-Bold.ttf
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_manufacturers.ttf
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_Roboto-Regular.ttf
Error loading font from file: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/font_CQMono.otf
 - Loaded layout: M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141/ (layout.nut)


When I copy the fonts directly in :
M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141
it's work fine!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.1 [Release] Updated 27 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 29, 2022, 05:09:42 AM

When I copy the fonts directly in :
M:\attractplus\layouts/Arcadeflow_141
it's work fine!

Are you using the latest build of attractplus? Because folder support for fonts is a recent implementation…
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.1 [Release] Updated 27 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 29, 2022, 07:39:48 AM
I used the version 14.0 without problem and tha'ss append just after the update.
Do you know wich file where  have to modify the path of the fonts?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.1 [Release] Updated 27 July 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on July 30, 2022, 08:14:15 AM
I used the version 14.0 without problem and tha'ss append just after the update.
Do you know wich file where  have to modify the path of the fonts?

The new fonts locations are coded into layout.nut so you should change all paths starting with “fonts/“ and remove that part. Or you can go to attractplus GitHub page and download the latest binary (look into Actions) that will work fine with 14.1
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.1 [Release] Updated 27 July 2022
Post by: tom75000 on July 30, 2022, 03:43:16 PM
Thx
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.2 [Release] Updated 4 August 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 03, 2022, 10:53:36 PM
Arcadeflow 14.2 is out!

This revision boosts performance even more than 14.1, suspending redraw of all tiles that are not actually updating, not just off-screen tiles.

There's a strange interaction with power saving mode on macOS that I'm still investigating but might not impact your configuration, in case you see menu stuttering or jumping disable power saving from AM options.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.3 [Release] Updated 14 August 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 14, 2022, 01:26:04 AM
Arcadeflow 14.3 is out!

Bug fixes, code cleanup and 4 new systems supported (Nintendo PlayChoice-10, Nintendo Super System, Sega Mega-Tech and Sega Mega-Play).

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.4 [Release] Updated 18 August 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on August 18, 2022, 08:32:49 AM
Arcadeflow 14.4 is out!

Fixed GBA logo issues
Fixed labels update when sorting
Fixed number of columns in scraper messages
Added pixel font on scrape screen
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.5 [Release] Updated 8 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 07, 2022, 11:26:20 PM
Arcadeflow 14.5 is out!

A couple new systems and some improvements and bug fixes. Enjoy!

- Added option to show controls overlay only on arcade games
- Added two new systems: Sega Pico and Acan
- In multifilter menu you can skip void entries with "right"
- Fixed issue with controls overlay
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.0 [Release] Updated 19 July 2022
Post by: erzak on September 18, 2022, 08:41:28 AM
Thx!

I'll set it to 0. I'll see if AF leaks.

I'll delete the dB file too. To generate the dB file again I have juste to generate the rom list in AF?

Hi, I am getting this message after updating AF (from 11 to 13.3 or later), where do you go to set this value to 0?  I could not find it in the options.  Is it somewhere in a config file that I need to manually update?  Thanks.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.5 [Release] Updated 8 September 2022
Post by: erzak on September 18, 2022, 11:21:01 AM
So I have had AF installed on my cabinet for a while, it was running version 11.0.  I didn't realize that I hadn't turned on the auto-update option, so when it would prompt me that there was a new version available, it would be downloaded but not installed.  I tried to update to 14.5, and all I see on the screen is black.  Thinking I'd hosed something up, I copied my entire AttractMode folder to a backup location, and started from scratch, newly unextracted AM 2.62, .exe files for AM+, and a new download of AF 14.5, but the same thing happens, when I select AF as my display, all I see is a black screen with a couple of white spots.  If I select the Basic or Cools, or some other theme, they work.  Any thoughts on what I'm going wrong?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.5 [Release] Updated 8 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 19, 2022, 04:43:37 AM
So I have had AF installed on my cabinet for a while, it was running version 11.0.  I didn't realize that I hadn't turned on the auto-update option, so when it would prompt me that there was a new version available, it would be downloaded but not installed.  I tried to update to 14.5, and all I see on the screen is black.  Thinking I'd hosed something up, I copied my entire AttractMode folder to a backup location, and started from scratch, newly unextracted AM 2.62, .exe files for AM+, and a new download of AF 14.5, but the same thing happens, when I select AF as my display, all I see is a black screen with a couple of white spots.  If I select the Basic or Cools, or some other theme, they work.  Any thoughts on what I'm going wrong?

You are probably using the "release" version of AM+, while you should download the latest stable build. If you already have a github account you can get it from here:

https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions/runs/2985758087

Scroll at the bottom of the page and you should see download links for the artifacts. Don't use the old folder structure: AM+ will recreate that when you run the executable. If you can't access that section on github you can download the latest windows build here:

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF_WIP/WindowsMXE-static.zip

New versions of Arcadeflow are developed with the latest stable build of AM+ in mind, taking advantage of all the new features implemented. Let me know if this fixes your issues :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.6 [Release] Updated 19 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 19, 2022, 04:53:03 AM
Arcadeflow 14.6 is out!

I think the main new feature here is RetroArch integration. AF will allow you to change the core associated with an emulator, and edit the .cfg file accordingly. It should work on every system as long as you keep RA installed in its default directory, or you can specify RA and cores custom folders.

Enjoy!

What's new:
- It is now possible to change RA cores from AF UI
- Added option to enable RetroArch integration
- Fixed issue with multifilter jumps
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 23, 2022, 05:56:50 AM
Arcadeflow 14.7 is out!

New RetroArch folder options to work better with any configuration, plus new options to cleanup and manage the games database.

Enjoy!

## What's new in v 14.7 #

- Added option to reset database without affecting romlist
- Added new option to remove unused entries in games db
- Added support for RA 32 Bit in Windows
- Added new options for RetroArch custom folders
- Fixed deleted tags showing in list
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on September 28, 2022, 07:05:09 PM
Hello. Is it possible to leave the videos in vertical format (9:16)?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 29, 2022, 12:18:13 AM
Hello. Is it possible to leave the videos in vertical format (9:16)?

I'm not sure I get what you mean by leaving the videos in vertical formats: it should adapt the video thumbnail to the video aspect ratio. If you mean you are using a "vertical arcade" cabinet with 9:16 thumbnails, there's an option to optimize the layout for this situation, I think it's under the "Thumbnails" section
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 01, 2022, 07:26:41 PM
Videos are not in the correct aspect ratio.
garou example:

https://ibb.co/bvJH7wq
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 02, 2022, 06:57:52 AM
Videos are not in the correct aspect ratio.
garou example:

https://ibb.co/bvJH7wq

Oh, now I get it! Your videos are vertical with the same aspect as the snaps. But AF gets the aspect of videos from the system data, and in the case of arcade it adapts them to the orientation. I'll see if I can add an option in the new version, but at the moment you can do a quick patch: open the file data_systems.txt and look for a line that has your system name (it should be arcade or mame or fbneo depending on your emulator setting)

The line should look like this:

Code: [Select]
arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,-4,3,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null
change it into this:

Code: [Select]
arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,0,0,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null
That will prevent auto-adapting the aspect to 4:3 based on the orientation, and just use the snaps/video file aspect.

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 02, 2022, 07:55:08 AM
Videos are not in the correct aspect ratio.
garou example:

https://ibb.co/bvJH7wq

In your setup, you are using the vertical snapshot as "boxart", right? I don't remember how the trick worked :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 02, 2022, 03:05:41 PM
In your setup, you are using the vertical snapshot as "boxart", right?
yes.


arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,0,0,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null and
arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,9,16,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null
Don't work.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 02, 2022, 10:08:43 PM
In your setup, you are using the vertical snapshot as "boxart", right?
yes.


arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,0,0,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null and
arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,9,16,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null
Don't work.

Ok, I'll need a deeper debug then, can you share the .cfg file of the emulator you are using for vertical arcade?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 02, 2022, 10:17:06 PM
In your setup, you are using the vertical snapshot as "boxart", right?
yes.


arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,0,0,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null and
arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,9,16,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null
Don't work.

Also, try this change and tell me if it works: look for this line

Code: [Select]
tilez[i].AR.vids = getAR(tilez[i].offset,tilez[i].vidsz,0,false)
and change to

Code: [Select]
tilez[i].AR.vids = 9.0/16.0
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 03, 2022, 04:01:19 PM
In your setup, you are using the vertical snapshot as "boxart", right?
yes.


arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,0,0,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null and
arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,9,16,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null
Don't work.

Ok, I'll need a deeper debug then, can you share the .cfg file of the emulator you are using for vertical arcade?



# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.6.1
#
executable           F:\MAME\MAMEUI\MAMEUI.exe
args                 [name]
rompath              F:\MAME\Roms\
romext               .zip;.7z
system               Arcade
info_source          listxml
import_extras        F:\Attract-Arcade\extras\MAME.xml;F:\Attract-Arcade\extras\catver.ini;F:\Attract-Arcade\extras\nplayers.ini
exit_hotkey          Escape
artwork    fanart          F:\Attract-Arcade\layouts\MAME\machines
artwork    fanart2         F:\Attract-Arcade\fanart2\MAME
artwork    fanart3         F:\Attract-Arcade\fanart3\MAME
artwork    flyer           F:\Attract-Arcade\flyer\MAME
artwork    marquee         
artwork    snap            F:\Attract-Arcade\videos\MAME
artwork    wheel           F:\Attract-Arcade\wheel\MAME
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 03, 2022, 05:09:49 PM
In your setup, you are using the vertical snapshot as "boxart", right?
yes.


arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,0,0,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null and
arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,9,16,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null
Don't work.

Also, try this change and tell me if it works: look for this line

Code: [Select]
tilez[i].AR.vids = getAR(tilez[i].offset,tilez[i].vidsz,0,false)
and change to

Code: [Select]
tilez[i].AR.vids = 9.0/16.0

It didn't work again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npL9FuG2eVM
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 04, 2022, 08:33:46 AM
In your setup, you are using the vertical snapshot as "boxart", right?
yes.


arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,0,0,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null and
arcade,0,0,ARC,CRT,NONE,9,16,ARCADE,Various,null,Arcade,75,rom,null,null
Don't work.

Also, try this change and tell me if it works: look for this line

Code: [Select]
tilez[i].AR.vids = getAR(tilez[i].offset,tilez[i].vidsz,0,false)
and change to

Code: [Select]
tilez[i].AR.vids = 9.0/16.0

It didn't work again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npL9FuG2eVM

Is there a site where I can download some of those videos to do tests?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 04, 2022, 08:01:43 PM


Is there a site where I can download some of those videos to do tests?

https://uploadnow.io/pt/share?utm_source=NYwQ836
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 05, 2022, 12:23:26 AM
Is there a site where I can download some of those videos to do tests?

https://uploadnow.io/pt/share?utm_source=NYwQ836

Thanks, this topic made me realize there were a couple of bugs in the cropping and scaling of videos when box art are enabled. Plus my workaround for the 9:16 snaps was not complete. I think I fixed everything now, but it's a lot of changes, it will be released with the new version. Which is due these days.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 05, 2022, 05:49:32 AM
Arcadeflow 14.8 is out!

- Added new systems: PC Engine LT, SNES and NES new designs
- Added option for Vertical Arcade video snaps
- Increased line spacing in history page description
- Manufacturer logos are now differentiated by year
- Moved ScreenScraper login data to ss_login.txt file
- Fixed manufacturer multifilter to be case-insensitive
- Fixed SS issue when scraping games with dot in the name
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 05, 2022, 04:05:01 PM
Arcadeflow 14.8 is out!

- Added new systems: PC Engine LT, SNES and NES new designs
- Added option for Vertical Arcade video snaps
- Increased line spacing in history page description
- Manufacturer logos are now differentiated by year
- Moved ScreenScraper login data to ss_login.txt file
- Fixed manufacturer multifilter to be case-insensitive
- Fixed SS issue when scraping games with dot in the name

thank you. now it worked.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 07, 2022, 06:04:26 PM
Arcadeflow 14.8 is out!

- Added new systems: PC Engine LT, SNES and NES new designs
- Added option for Vertical Arcade video snaps
- Increased line spacing in history page description
- Manufacturer logos are now differentiated by year
- Moved ScreenScraper login data to ss_login.txt file
- Fixed manufacturer multifilter to be case-insensitive
- Fixed SS issue when scraping games with dot in the name

A question: It's possible to have a command to rotate the video? for example:
tilez.AR.vids = prf.VID169 ? 9.0/16.0 : getAR(tilez.offset,tilez.vidsz,0,false)
snap.rotation = 90
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 08, 2022, 08:09:51 AM
A question: It's possible to have a command to rotate the video? for example:
tilez.AR.vids = prf.VID169 ? 9.0/16.0 : getAR(tilez.offset,tilez.vidsz,0,false)
snap.rotation = 90

It is possible for sure, the .rotation property does exactly that, but do you need to rotate _all_ the snaps or only some of them? And you need it for both the static artwork used as boxart and the videos, or just one of the two?

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 08, 2022, 09:14:48 AM
A question: It's possible to have a command to rotate the video? for example:
tilez.AR.vids = prf.VID169 ? 9.0/16.0 : getAR(tilez.offset,tilez.vidsz,0,false)
snap.rotation = 90

It is possible for sure, the .rotation property does exactly that, but do you need to rotate _all_ the snaps or only some of them? And you need it for both the static artwork used as boxart and the videos, or just one of the two?

I need it for all videos only.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 09, 2022, 01:07:36 AM
A question: It's possible to have a command to rotate the video? for example:
tilez.AR.vids = prf.VID169 ? 9.0/16.0 : getAR(tilez.offset,tilez.vidsz,0,false)
snap.rotation = 90

It is possible for sure, the .rotation property does exactly that, but do you need to rotate _all_ the snaps or only some of them? And you need it for both the static artwork used as boxart and the videos, or just one of the two?

I need it for all videos only.

Ok, I'll work on that on Monday when I'm back at the PC where I have the "vertical arcade" setup. Is it better to have a separate option for video rotation, or when you enable 9:16 videos it can switch rotation too? I mean, all vertical arcade videos are rotated?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 09, 2022, 06:26:49 AM
A question: It's possible to have a command to rotate the video? for example:
tilez.AR.vids = prf.VID169 ? 9.0/16.0 : getAR(tilez.offset,tilez.vidsz,0,false)
snap.rotation = 90

It is possible for sure, the .rotation property does exactly that, but do you need to rotate _all_ the snaps or only some of them? And you need it for both the static artwork used as boxart and the videos, or just one of the two?

I need it for all videos only.

Ok, I'll work on that on Monday when I'm back at the PC where I have the "vertical arcade" setup. Is it better to have a separate option for video rotation, or when you enable 9:16 videos it can switch rotation too? I mean, all vertical arcade videos are rotated?
all vertical arcade videos are rotated.
example:
https://uploadnow.io/pt/share?utm_source=8bmRrV0
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 11, 2022, 06:02:01 AM
all vertical arcade videos are rotated.
example:
https://uploadnow.io/pt/share?utm_source=8bmRrV0

Please try with the attached layout.nut, should add fixed 90 degrees rotation to all vertical arcade videos...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.7 [Release] Updated 23 September 2022
Post by: darkand on October 12, 2022, 07:12:09 AM
all vertical arcade videos are rotated.
example:
https://uploadnow.io/pt/share?utm_source=8bmRrV0

Please try with the attached layout.nut, should add fixed 90 degrees rotation to all vertical arcade videos...

thank you very much, it worked very well. Soon I will post a video of how it is going.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.8 [Release] Updated 5 October 2022
Post by: darkand on October 15, 2022, 11:56:07 AM
My project Attract-Mode + Arcadeflow + MAME + Vertical overlay


https://youtu.be/vL_SQryVLbU
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.8 [Release] Updated 5 October 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 16, 2022, 03:14:48 AM
My project Attract-Mode + Arcadeflow + MAME + Vertical overlay


https://youtu.be/vL_SQryVLbU

Well it looks fantastic! Thanks for sharing :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.9 [Release] Updated 3 November 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 03, 2022, 08:58:56 AM
Arcadeflow 14.9 is out!

- Added progress bar for long filtering operations
- Added timeout check to avoid hanging scraping operations
- Fixed vertical arcade videos
- Increased buttons and players number in metadata editor

This version introduces a lot of tweaks and fixes for the scraper to make it more robust, please report any strange behavior. Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.9 [Release] Updated 3 November 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 05, 2022, 04:23:21 AM
I try to install it it but dont freaking work at all ....... :-[
here a video show you and Im getting a black sceen.... :'(

Im using windows 10 and with attract plus 2.6.2
here look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mD0o9Jj8rg

log text error located here as well

You have to download the latest attract mode plus build, AF is using the redraw property that is not available in older builds
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.9 [Release] Updated 3 November 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 05, 2022, 01:57:17 PM
:o I dont unsderstand is the AM+ IS RIGHT ONE OR NOT ? ? https://github.com/oomek/attractplus

can you provide me the right link because Im trying so hard to figure this stuff out.

If you have a github account you can download the latest build from here: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions/runs/3274365977 scroll down to the bottom of the page, in the Artifacts section you can get the latest binaries.

If you have problems downloading from there, let me know and I'll upload to my server. You are on Windows, right?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 14.9 [Release] Updated 3 November 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 09, 2022, 10:06:36 PM
yeah I dont understand all this stuff... so complicated for this old man and yes Im window 10. is there anyway I can have the exe with out this complex things.. and I want to thank you for helping with this. I really loved your frontend when was 12.3

No problem, you can download the latest Windows build from here:

http://www.mixandmatch.it/AF_WIP/attractplus/Windows-MXE-static.zip

unzip the artifact folder, inside you'll find the new attractplus.exe and attractplus-console.exe. Move them to your attractplus folder and it should work.

Let me know how it goes ;)

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.0 [Release] Updated 17 November 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 17, 2022, 05:32:08 AM
Arcadeflow 15.0 is out!

- Added menu entry to install specific versions or branches
- Added new manufacturers logos
- Removed option to rotate screen, it's in AM options
- Improved aspect ratio correction for vertical handhelds
- Improved smoothness of video transition for background
- Video background can be enabled even without background snaps

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.0 [Release] Updated 17 November 2022
Post by: darkand on November 17, 2022, 12:16:32 PM
manufacturers logos suggestions:

netherrealm studios
oddworld inhabitants
focus home interactive
xbox games studios
rocksteady studios
cd projekt
dotemu
505 games
gungho online entertainme
studio mdhr
chucklefish
gearbox publishing
drinbox studios
coffe stain studios
aquiris game studio
saber interactive
team cherry
coffee stain studios
fdg entertainment
limited run games
inin games
nightdive studios
crt games
modus game
lizardcube
playtonic games
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.0 [Release] Updated 17 November 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 18, 2022, 07:13:23 AM
manufacturers logos suggestions:

Added :) They are in the "New-Logos" branch, but I am NOT suggesting that you try the new branch install feature to see if they work :D
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 01, 2022, 03:52:30 AM
Arcadeflow 15.1 is out!

- Added new manufacturers logos
- Added animation for download and install
- Fixed issue when a romlist entry is not in the db

Enjoy :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: Jklstudio on December 06, 2022, 11:41:42 AM
 I'm sorry to bother, may I ask where could I find a tutorial please?

I were able to fully configure my AM install, but if I try this (awesome) layout all I get are 2 tiny white dots.
Nothing else.
I think I have a decent understanding of the AM basics, since I also modified some layouts to my linking replacing assets.

I installed AM+ from GitHub (the static one) on my root AM folder but no change.
It's pretty obvious I'm missing something essential..  :-[

Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 06, 2022, 12:29:01 PM
I were able to fully configure my AM install, but if I try this (awesome) layout all I get are 2 tiny white dots.
Nothing else.

Can you share a screenshot? Or if you can run AM from the console using attract-console.exe you might see error messages that could help.

Quote
I installed AM+ from GitHub (the static one) on my root AM folder but no change.
It's pretty obvious I'm missing something essential..  :-[

Did you get the latest build from the "Actions" tab on github?

Let me know, I'm here to help as much as possible :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: Jklstudio on December 07, 2022, 03:09:03 AM
Hi thanks for helping me!

I got executables from AM+ github, attract-2.6.2-attract-Windows.MXE-static-x86_64.7z.
The shared ones won't work and throw errors on launch.

Using the static versions I can launch it with my usual settings.
If I select arcadeflow as layout all I get is a black screen, with two dots, one of which is pulsing.
Pressing "esc" makes my list appear, with fullscreen snap underneath.

These errors appear in the log:

Error decoding video (receiving frame): End of file
Error loading font from file: T:\My Emus\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow-15.1/font_Roboto-Condensed-Bold.ttf
Error loading font from file: T:\My Emus\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow-15.1/font_Roboto-Bold.ttf

Thanks for your help!

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: Jklstudio on December 07, 2022, 03:23:30 AM
Thanks to your hint I took a look at mt log, and disabling history.dat plugin let arcadeflow launch (with error and missing assets, and asking me to set image cache to 0 at launch), I can see my list and filters and most of the interface is there.
So I'm definitely missing something..!  :'(

EDIT: looks like simply unzipping AFlow source code from GitHub to my layouts folder makes it unfunctional. Manually moving files from subfolder to AFlow root makes something work, at least I can see some kind of interface, after setting 0 as cache.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 07, 2022, 03:48:14 AM
Thanks to your hint I took a look at mt log, and disabling history.dat plugin let arcadeflow launch (with error and missing assets, and asking me to set image cache to 0 at launch), I can see my list and filters and most of the interface is there.
So I'm definitely missing something..!  :'(

EDIT: looks like simply unzipping AFlow source code from GitHub to my layouts folder makes it unfunctional. Manually moving files from subfolder to AFlow root makes something work, at least I can see some kind of interface, after setting 0 as cache.

I think part of the issue might be related to the AF build you are using: did you install the “release” version? That is not up to date, you should go in the “actions” tab on GitHub and download the latest artifact for the master branch. You’ll need a GitHub account to do this though
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: Jklstudio on December 07, 2022, 08:59:40 AM
Of course you were right!

There should be something wrong with my current config and Arcadeflow, but starting from scratch (and moving specific folders manually, as the "scraper" one) seems to work pretty well.

The only things I can't get are:
1) at every startup it asks me to set the cache at 0. Can it be avoided?
2) even if in the options the system name is enabled it doesn't seem to show it under the game name
3) I have seen it recognizes many systems, but how could I force the identification if it fails? I mean in the system menu, let say it recognizes something as "others" while I want it to be "handheld". Can it be done by manually changing something?

Many thanks for your hints!


EDIT:
4) I've seen that menu banners are read from the system_bgs folder, thus populating that folder with an image with proper name I can have the banner as I want. But where are read the system Logos?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 07, 2022, 10:57:09 AM
There should be something wrong with my current config and Arcadeflow, but starting from scratch (and moving specific folders manually, as the "scraper" one) seems to work pretty well.

Not sure why you had to move folders around, there might be something wrong but it's difficult to debug from here. You can join the discord server so we can share .cfg files...

Quote
The only things I can't get are:
1) at every startup it asks me to set the cache at 0. Can it be avoided?

Yes, you have to set image cache size to 0 in the Attract Mode options. This should be zero by default, but some installation have this not zero. Putting it to zero is the only safe way to completely disable AM image caching, which is broken and causes all sorts of issues on media heavy layouts.

Quote
2) even if in the options the system name is enabled it doesn't seem to show it under the game name

Hmm you see "dots" or nothing at all?

Quote
3) I have seen it recognizes many systems, but how could I force the identification if it fails? I mean in the system menu, let say it recognizes something as "others" while I want it to be "handheld". Can it be done by manually changing something?

There is a file data_systems.txt where you can see all the systems and their aliases that are recognised. If you need other systems to be added, let me know and I'll make them for the next release :)

Quote
4) I've seen that menu banners are read from the system_bgs folder, thus populating that folder with an image with proper name I can have the banner as I want. But where are read the system Logos?

System logos are embedded in a font and mapped to the data_systems.txt file. I suggest you don't edit them yourself, but if you need systems added let me know :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.1 [Release] Updated 1 December 2022
Post by: Jklstudio on December 07, 2022, 11:27:28 AM
At first thank you for your help.

I'm sorry I wasn't too good in my explanation, I had to move around folders because I began from scratch to have the frontend working, and then I manually moved folders from my old setup to import preconfigured data and assets.
So far so good.

I'll let you know if I need further help.

Thanks again for your help as well as this awesome layout, by far my favorite.
Getting it working is absolutely worth it.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.2 [Release] Updated 14 December 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 14, 2022, 12:03:44 AM
Arcadeflow 15.2 is out!

Improvements to the custom metadata management and to the background music management.

Enjoy!

## What's new in v 15.2 #

- Added per display background music
- Show specific manufacturer year logo by adding _number to the name
- Fixed case sensitive manufacturer name match
- Fixed issue with metadata saved to game database
- Fixed memory leak when playing random bgm
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.2 [Release] Updated 14 December 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 19, 2022, 12:31:22 AM
Arcadeflow 15.3 is out!

There was a severe bug in metadata management that crashed AF on some installs, this is fixed now.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.4 [Release] Updated 27 December 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 27, 2022, 01:56:12 AM
Arcadeflow 15.4 is out!

- Added transparent background to boxart mode
- Added option to enable/disable white border around thumbnails
- Ambient volume set in AM option affects AF background music volume

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.4 [Release] Updated 27 December 2022
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 05, 2023, 01:58:57 AM
Arcadeflow 15.5 is out!

Changed spacing of menu entries
Added option for 1 line small thumbs in vertical
Added option to show 3D box art
Enabled scraping of 3D box art
Fixed bug related to menu sizing
Minor bug fixes

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.5 [Release] Updated 05 January 2023
Post by: darkand on January 05, 2023, 04:20:41 PM
Hi, where do I download box arts 3d?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.5 [Release] Updated 05 January 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 06, 2023, 08:22:14 AM
Hi, where do I download box arts 3d?

There are basically three ways to get them:

1. Download a pack from websites like emumovies
2. Use a scraper that support this kind of format
3. Define a box3d artwork in AM and let AF scrape the media from Screenscraper
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.6 [Release] Updated 20 January 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 20, 2023, 02:13:49 AM
Arcadeflow 15.6 is out!

- Added Virtual Console logo
- Fixed wheel animation
- Fixed issue with auto update
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.7 [Release] Updated 03 February 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 02, 2023, 11:49:31 PM
Arcadeflow 15.7 is out!

- Background music stops in history page
- Fixed Sega CD and Sega 32X logos crashing in 4K

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.7 [Release] Updated 03 February 2023
Post by: adu on February 13, 2023, 04:41:07 AM
This guy is amazing and unstoppable !
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.8 [Release] Updated 08 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 08, 2023, 12:21:22 AM
Arcadeflow 15.8 is out!

This release fixes an issue with CRC scraping on ScreenScraper, and also adds support for 12 new computer systems:

- Camputers Lynx
- Colour Genie
- Exelvision EXL100
- Jupiter Ace
- Mikrosha
- NABU PC
- Pecom 64
- Aamber Pegasus
- SOL-20 Terminal Computer
- Philips VG5000
- Windows 3x
- Windows 9x

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.8 [Release] Updated 08 March 2023
Post by: clockman on March 12, 2023, 06:56:38 AM
Where do I download AM+ at? I only see the regular attractmode.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.8 [Release] Updated 08 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 12, 2023, 10:33:16 PM
Where do I download AM+ at? I only see the regular attractmode.

You'll need a github account, the latest build can be downloaded from here:

https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions/runs/4054858529

scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll find pre-compiled binaries for many systems.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 23, 2023, 01:10:44 AM
Arcadeflow 15.9 is out!

- Added new manufacturer logos
- Updated German translation (thanks ScherzKeks)
- Fixed progress bar with overscan
- Code cleanup

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: allactiondan1 on March 27, 2023, 07:31:54 PM
I'm having a hard time loading the theme.  If I set it as the "displays menu" theme I get a large message saying "don't use arcade flow as the displays menu layout".  When I set it as my theme for NES,  I get a large arcadeflow logo with a gray loading screen type of screen.  If I press "L" to get into the layout options menu,  all I get is the layout file name tab. 
I didn't see any special instructions in the read me file, so I put the arcadeflow folder into the themes folder. Im using AM+ with Windows 10. Anyone have any suggestions?

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 28, 2023, 04:38:40 AM
I'm having a hard time loading the theme.  If I set it as the "displays menu" theme I get a large message saying "don't use arcade flow as the displays menu layout".  When I set it as my theme for NES,  I get a large arcadeflow logo with a gray loading screen type of screen.  If I press "L" to get into the layout options menu,  all I get is the layout file name tab. 

First you don't have to set Arcadeflow as "display menu" layout, at least that's not recommended. AF already has its display menu UI so you can use that without setting it as display menu.

The other issue seems related to the version of AM+ you are using, is it the latest build from github? You can get it from here:

https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions/runs/4054858529

scroll to the bottom of the screen and you'll be able to download binaries (you need to be logged with a github account).

If you still have issues, I'll need a log or the console output to debug.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: frikidaguel on March 28, 2023, 07:09:04 AM
zpaolo11x your work is amazing!

 I am celebrating the option "- Added option to enable/disable white border around thumbnails " but I would be even happier if there was the possibility to see the images and videos in full screen, or at least increase their size.

 I have tried to change values ​​randomly within the layout but have not achieved anything. I would be very grateful if you tell me what code I should touch, because I spent a lot of time looking for spectacular images for each game, and I want to see them bigger.

Very grateful for your great work, greetings and excuse my English from the google translator.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: allactiondan1 on March 28, 2023, 07:13:20 PM


If you still have issues, I'll need a log or the console output to debug.
[/quote]
I got the newest AM+ (ver201) as you suggested but it did not help.  I still have the same error.
 I attached the last run log file. There is a line saying "WARNING: some options in attract.cfg clash with Arcadeflow"

I have a nested type system so I don't know if that is causing issues.
AM starts at "all displays". From there consoles, arcade, hand helds, PC games, ect... can be picked.
once in a menu (ie consoles), then a sub category can be selected. (ie NES). Then a game can be picked.

Let me know if you want the attract.cfg file also.

Thanks for taking the time to look into this.

Dan
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 28, 2023, 10:29:03 PM
I see in the log AF fails to construct its internal game database, this might happen if you have a layered attract mode structure. If you plan to use AF alone as a theme, then that layered structure may be not needed as AF already categorizes games by console/computer/handheld etc. To better understand the situation it will help if you can send the attract.cfg file. I'll have a look at it :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: allactiondan1 on March 29, 2023, 04:45:59 PM
I tried a different CFG file, but still got the same loading screen error.  Attached is my CFG file.
 I setup my system to do the layered structure is by having only consoles, arcade, handhelds, ect.. show up in the main screen.  Each of those goes to a rom list with the same name.  From there, those rom lists go to each systems rom lists.  I don't know if i explained this in a way that makes sense.
Displays menu=>Consoles menu(ROM list)=>Nintendo(ROM list)=>Game

dan
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 30, 2023, 08:32:55 AM
I tried a different CFG file, but still got the same loading screen error.  Attached is my CFG file.
 I setup my system to do the layered structure is by having only consoles, arcade, handhelds, ect.. show up in the main screen.  Each of those goes to a rom list with the same name.  From there, those rom lists go to each systems rom lists.  I don't know if i explained this in a way that makes sense.
Displays menu=>Consoles menu(ROM list)=>Nintendo(ROM list)=>Game

You have a non standard configuration, it can be made to work with AF with a bit of work :) Do you think you can share the romlists files? At least some of them so I can try to build a similar setup on my machine? I see you are also using a sort of "master" romlist approach for some displays. If the files are too much to share here, you can send me a PM on the discord server, or an email at paolo.zago@gmail.com
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: allactiondan1 on March 30, 2023, 08:30:28 PM
 I don't mind sharing my setup, but its late and I want to go to bed.  I'll email you some of my rom list files tomorrow so you can have a look. 


Dan
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: allactiondan1 on March 31, 2023, 05:01:42 PM
I sent you an email with some of my rom lists. My email is allactiondan @ gmail.  Check your junk box if you don't see it.  If you need more info, let me know.

Dan
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: Flash85 on April 02, 2023, 07:01:52 AM
I am using the latest version of GroovyArcade which includes AM+.  I am using this on a real arcade CRT monitor connected through a J-PAC.  All of the themes I have tried work as they should… except Arcadeflow.  I have changed my cache to 0.  However when I try to use the theme all I see is large white text that takes up the whole screen for the rom list and the video snaps playing in the background.  Is there a setting I am missing or a fix for this?  In case it makes a difference, the way I installed this was by downloading the latest source from the GitHub and copying it to the layouts folder for attract mode.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: erzak on April 07, 2023, 05:37:22 PM
I have ArcadeFlow 15.1 running, and at launch it tells me that version 15.9 is available.  However if I scroll down to "download and install" and then press enter, it launches whatever game is highlighted in the background.  If I hit escape, the game exits, and I see a circle of dots with "Installing" above them, but it just sits there and never does anything.  Any ideas how to make the auto-install work?  If I hit escape again, it seems to cancel the process, and I don't find a new AF archive anyplace, at least not in downloads folder, or the folder where I have AF installed. Thanks!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 08, 2023, 12:05:01 AM
I have ArcadeFlow 15.1 running, and at launch it tells me that version 15.9 is available.  However if I scroll down to "download and install" and then press enter, it launches whatever game is highlighted in the background.  If I hit escape, the game exits, and I see a circle of dots with "Installing" above them, but it just sits there and never does anything.  Any ideas how to make the auto-install work?  If I hit escape again, it seems to cancel the process, and I don't find a new AF archive anyplace, at least not in downloads folder, or the folder where I have AF installed. Thanks!

I can try to debug the issue if you have a last run log with the error, or you can manually update to 15.9. Download the release here: https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow/archive/refs/tags/15.9.zip then do a backup copy of your current arcadeflow folder just in case something goes wrong, and unpack the new release on top of the old release. The release won't touch your config files and should work fine once you run it again.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: erzak on April 09, 2023, 08:32:18 PM
I have ArcadeFlow 15.1 running, and at launch it tells me that version 15.9 is available.  However if I scroll down to "download and install" and then press enter, it launches whatever game is highlighted in the background.  If I hit escape, the game exits, and I see a circle of dots with "Installing" above them, but it just sits there and never does anything.  Any ideas how to make the auto-install work?  If I hit escape again, it seems to cancel the process, and I don't find a new AF archive anyplace, at least not in downloads folder, or the folder where I have AF installed. Thanks!

I can try to debug the issue if you have a last run log with the error, or you can manually update to 15.9. Download the release here: https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow/archive/refs/tags/15.9.zip then do a backup copy of your current arcadeflow folder just in case something goes wrong, and unpack the new release on top of the old release. The release won't touch your config files and should work fine once you run it again.


Thank you, I can certainly do the manual update, but would be nice to be able to get the auto install working in the future.

Below is the contents of last_run.log

Attract-Mode Plus v2.6.2 (Build 163) (Windows, SFML 2.6.0 +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: C:\AttractMode\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: 'MAME'
 - Loaded master romlist 'MAME' in 365 ms (665 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (1330 comparisons)
! NOTE: Setting base_rotation is deprecated. Use toggle_rotation or Screen Rotation in General Settings.
 - Loaded layout: C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/ (layout.nut)
 - Loaded layout: C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/ (layout.nut)

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index 'redraw' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [bar_cycle_update()] C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/layout.nut line [330]
*FUNCTION [unknown()] NATIVE line [-1]
*FUNCTION [unknown()] NATIVE line [-1]
*FUNCTION [afinstall()] C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/layout.nut line [12787]
*FUNCTION [unknown()] C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/layout.nut line [12992]
*FUNCTION [on_signal()] C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/layout.nut line [17938]

LOCALS
[AF] TABLE
[redraw] true
[command] "== Info:   Trying 140.82.113.6:443...
"
[this] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[ap] """
[newaffolderTEMP] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159TEMP/"
[newaffolder] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159/"
[nameiteration] ""
0
[afname] "Arcadeflow_159"
[zipball] "15.9"
[this] TABLE
[textarray] ARRAY
[ver_in] "15.9"
[prf] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[gh] TABLE
[ap] """
[newaffolderTEMP] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159TEMP/"
[newaffolder_noslash] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159"
[newaffolder] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159/"
[newafname] "Arcadeflow_159"
[out] 4
[this] TABLE
[zmenu] TABLE
[prf] TABLE
[snd] TABLE
[count] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[prfmenu] TABLE
[key_rows] ARRAY
[key_selected] ARRAY
[kb] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[flowT] TABLE
[ap] """
[umvisible] true
[umpresel] 18
[disp] TABLE
[overlay] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[search] TABLE
[backs] TABLE
[pagejump] 10
[scroll] TABLE
[tilesTableZoom] ARRAY
[focusindex] TABLE
[tilesTableUpdate] ARRAY
[data_surface] INSTANCE
[UI] TABLE
[scroller2] INSTANCE
[scrollineglow] INSTANCE
[labelstrip] INSTANCE
[corrector] 0
[sig] "select"
[this] TABLE
Script Error: the index 'redraw' does not exist

AN ERROR HAS OCCURED [the index 'redraw' does not exist]

CALLSTACK
*FUNCTION [bar_cycle_update()] C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/layout.nut line [330]
*FUNCTION [afinstall()] C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/layout.nut line [12793]
*FUNCTION [unknown()] C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/layout.nut line [12992]
*FUNCTION [on_signal()] C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/layout.nut line [17938]

LOCALS
[AF] TABLE
[redraw] true
[command] NULL
[this] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[ap] """
[newaffolderTEMP] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159TEMP/"
[newaffolder] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159/"
[nameiteration] ""
0
[afname] "Arcadeflow_159"
[zipball] "15.9"
[this] TABLE
[textarray] ARRAY
[ver_in] "15.9"
[prf] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[gh] TABLE
[ap] """
[newaffolderTEMP] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159TEMP/"
[newaffolder_noslash] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159"
[newaffolder] "C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_159/"
[newafname] "Arcadeflow_159"
[out] 4
[this] TABLE
[zmenu] TABLE
[prf] TABLE
[snd] TABLE
[count] TABLE
[AF] TABLE
[prfmenu] TABLE
[key_rows] ARRAY
[key_selected] ARRAY
[kb] TABLE
[attract] TABLE
[flowT] TABLE
[ap] """
[umvisible] true
[umpresel] 18
[disp] TABLE
[overlay] TABLE
[z_list] TABLE
[search] TABLE
[backs] TABLE
[pagejump] 10
[scroll] TABLE
[tilesTableZoom] ARRAY
[focusindex] TABLE
[tilesTableUpdate] ARRAY
[data_surface] INSTANCE
[UI] TABLE
[scroller2] INSTANCE
[scrollineglow] INSTANCE
[labelstrip] INSTANCE
[corrector] 0
[sig] "select"
[this] TABLE
Script Error in signal handler: on_signal - the index 'redraw' does not exist
 - Working directory: c:\emulation\mame/
*** Running: mame.exe daraku
 - Loaded layout: C:\AttractMode\layouts/Arcadeflow_151/ (layout.nut)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 10, 2023, 10:18:37 AM
Thank you, I can certainly do the manual update, but would be nice to be able to get the auto install working in the future.

Below is the contents of last_run.log


The error I see is caused by the version of Attract Mode Plus which is not the latest build, that's why it fails. you have to download the latest artifacts from here: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions/runs/4659031912 you'll need a github account to download them at the bottom of the page.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: erzak on April 10, 2023, 01:27:15 PM
Thank you, I can certainly do the manual update, but would be nice to be able to get the auto install working in the future.

Below is the contents of last_run.log


The error I see is caused by the version of Attract Mode Plus which is not the latest build, that's why it fails. you have to download the latest artifacts from here: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/actions/runs/4659031912 you'll need a github account to download them at the bottom of the page.

Ah, okay, I will fix that as well.  Is that as simple as extracting the new archive contents over the existing?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on April 11, 2023, 11:40:09 PM
Ah, okay, I will fix that as well.  Is that as simple as extracting the new archive contents over the existing?

As far as I remember, the archive has the attractplus executable to place in the old location, should be as simple as that.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: Kaizen777 on May 04, 2023, 01:19:14 AM
Hello, is it possible to have this scroll vertically instead of horizontally?  Thanks!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 15.9 [Release] Updated 23 March 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on May 05, 2023, 10:53:41 PM
Hello, is it possible to have this scroll vertically instead of horizontally?  Thanks!

This has been requested many times before, but it's not gonna happen soon. The whole idea of Arcadeflow is based on the horizontal scrolling, inspired by Plex Media Player (before the 2.0 redesign). Converting AF to vertical scrolling will require some large redesign of the UI, which is the reason why I say it's not gonna happen "soon", since I'm in the process of rewriting some of the internal code. Might happen in the future? Only if I find a UI/UX solution that is satisfactory and flexible enough :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.0 [Release] Updated 05 June 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 05, 2023, 12:00:11 AM
Arcadeflow 16.0 is out!

For this version that has an evocative number, a lot of code has been refactored to be more robust and efficient. Lots of new features under the hood but also a new menu look.

## What's new in v 16.0 #

- Added option for fullscreen tiles
- Added option for scrape timeout
- Added new zoom rate options
- Redesigned help images for options
- Improved More of the Same menu
- Improved support for multi emulator romlists
- Fixed bug with More of the Same menu
- Fixed zoom ratio for slimline layout
- Fixed support of redirect romlists

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.0 [Release] Updated 05 June 2023
Post by: Kaizen777 on June 10, 2023, 08:46:54 PM
Wow, great work!  There is a VERY significant performance boost on my machine.
Question - is it possible to get this to show all of the videos at the same time like the "grid" layout does?
This is so much more functional than that layout, but I have to admit I do like seeing all of the videos.  ; )
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.0 [Release] Updated 05 June 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 11, 2023, 02:13:27 AM
Wow, great work!  There is a VERY significant performance boost on my machine.
Question - is it possible to get this to show all of the videos at the same time like the "grid" layout does?
This is so much more functional than that layout, but I have to admit I do like seeing all of the videos.  ; )

Technically it's possible, but I think it will have an hit on performance. My idea was to enable this feature with the new sound engine, so I could lower the volume of "non selected" videos, creating that background noise typical of an arcade full of games.

I'll see how it fares with all the videos enabled, maybe I can manage the performance.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.0 [Release] Updated 05 June 2023
Post by: Kaizen777 on June 11, 2023, 11:10:46 AM
It will definitely have a hit on performance...
But wow, that is an amazing idea to have all of the audios going at a background level.
Very ambitious!  =D

Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.0 [Release] Updated 05 June 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 11, 2023, 12:15:07 PM
It will definitely have a hit on performance...

Not just because of the multiple playback, but also because the movies need to be loaded and that is a blocking process. AF tries to load the video only when nothing is happening (not during scrolling for example), but with many videos to load a bit of stuttering during sudden movements will be unavoidable.

Quote
But wow, that is an amazing idea to have all of the audios going at a background level.
Very ambitious!  =D

At the moment it would be quite easy to let the movies play while the video is on screen, and then stop them when it's off-screen, I think I'll have time to do some tests next week.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.0 [Release] Updated 05 June 2023
Post by: Kaizen777 on June 13, 2023, 06:15:49 PM
I approve!  =D

Quote
At the moment it would be quite easy to let the movies play while the video is on screen, and then stop them when it's off-screen, I think I'll have time to do some tests next week.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.1 [Release] Updated 20 June 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on June 20, 2023, 04:54:44 AM
Arcadeflow 16.1 is out!

- Fixed similar games videos not playing
- Fixed crash when exiting to desktop
- Fixed scrape hanging on macOS

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.2 [Release] Updated 18 September 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on September 18, 2023, 08:25:48 AM
Arcadeflow 16.2 is out!

This was a long wait, but finally 16.2 is here! You'll need the latest AM+ 3.0.6 to make it work, there are a lot of changes both on the surface and under the hood. Hope there are not many bugs though.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.3 [Release] Updated 06 October 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 06, 2023, 12:43:52 AM
Arcadeflow 16.3 is out!

Mostly bug fixes and a new warning system for options that AF doesn't "like" :D

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.4 [Release] Updated 16 October 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on October 16, 2023, 05:25:04 AM
Arcadeflow 16.4 is out!

Added option to show only power menu
Added report message for romlist refresh
Fixed volume menu jumping

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.5 [Release] Updated 17 November 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on November 17, 2023, 02:20:21 PM
Arcadeflow 16.5 is out!

- Fixed bugs in the scraper that caused hanging
- Fixed collections update with master romlist
- Fixed CRC extraction from zip files

Enjoy :)
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.5 [Release] Updated 17 November 2023
Post by: tekn0 on December 08, 2023, 01:07:24 PM
I just wanted to log back in and say thank you so much for your continued support of this amazing theme. I really appreciate all of your time and effort on this.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 13, 2023, 01:33:29 AM
Arcadeflow 16.6 is out!

Added Sega Model 1, PGM, PGM2 and Namco System 2x6
Added Pippin, Wondermega, Genesis CDX, Multi-Mega, V Smile, CreatiVision, Action Max and uZebox
Added N-Gage, Game Pocket Computer, Pocket Challenge V2, Gamate, GameKing
Added MSX 2+, C 65, ZX80, Alice, ABC80, MicroBee, Videoton TVC
Added per-display overlay
Fixed issues with overlay z-order

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on December 15, 2023, 11:56:42 PM
In the Utility Menu, Categories only show Unknown, Music and Casino while my filters are working just fine and the Category column in romlist shows the right information as well. Is there any reason why Catogories don't work properly?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 16, 2023, 02:02:40 PM
In the Utility Menu, Categories only show Unknown, Music and Casino while my filters are working just fine and the Category column in romlist shows the right information as well. Is there any reason why Catogories don't work properly?

Do you have any filter or multifilter set? Is this an arcade or console romlist? Also, if you can run attractplus-console.exe, we can check if there are any error messages when you enter the category menu...
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on December 17, 2023, 10:05:15 PM
In the Utility Menu, Categories only show Unknown, Music and Casino while my filters are working just fine and the Category column in romlist shows the right information as well. Is there any reason why Catogories don't work properly?

Do you have any filter or multifilter set? Is this an arcade or console romlist? Also, if you can run attractplus-console.exe, we can check if there are any error messages when you enter the category menu...

I didn't have any filter or multifilter set. Didn't see error message.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 18, 2023, 03:18:23 AM
In the Utility Menu, Categories only show Unknown, Music and Casino while my filters are working just fine and the Category column in romlist shows the right information as well. Is there any reason why Catogories don't work properly?

Do you have any filter or multifilter set? Is this an arcade or console romlist? Also, if you can run attractplus-console.exe, we can check if there are any error messages when you enter the category menu...

I didn't have any filter or multifilter set. Didn't see error message.

If instead of the Category menu you enter the Multifilter, and then the category section, do you see all the categories there?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on December 18, 2023, 03:54:13 AM
In the Utility Menu, Categories only show Unknown, Music and Casino while my filters are working just fine and the Category column in romlist shows the right information as well. Is there any reason why Catogories don't work properly?

Do you have any filter or multifilter set? Is this an arcade or console romlist? Also, if you can run attractplus-console.exe, we can check if there are any error messages when you enter the category menu...

I didn't have any filter or multifilter set. Didn't see error message.

If instead of the Category menu you enter the Multifilter, and then the category section, do you see all the categories there?

After deleting (EmulatorName).db1 and (EmulatorName).db2 and generating new romlist, everything works the way intended. My new question becomes, the History would only show "There's an error loading game data. Please check history.dat preferences in the layout option." which I did but couldn't figure out what went wrong. Any idea?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 18, 2023, 06:28:55 AM
After deleting (EmulatorName).db1 and (EmulatorName).db2 and generating new romlist, everything works the way intended. My new question becomes, the History would only show "There's an error loading game data. Please check history.dat preferences in the layout option." which I did but couldn't figure out what went wrong. Any idea?

Ok, so deleting db1 and db2 was the right thing to do, but you could also refresh the romlist and db from the options. Deleting the file is equally fine though.

As far as history.dat, maybe you usually use the history.dat plugin, but AF has its own implementation of that plugin so you have to setup the history.dat path in AF options, and regenerate the database from there.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on December 18, 2023, 06:39:40 AM
After deleting (EmulatorName).db1 and (EmulatorName).db2 and generating new romlist, everything works the way intended. My new question becomes, the History would only show "There's an error loading game data. Please check history.dat preferences in the layout option." which I did but couldn't figure out what went wrong. Any idea?

Ok, so deleting db1 and db2 was the right thing to do, but you could also refresh the romlist and db from the options. Deleting the file is equally fine though.

As far as history.dat, maybe you usually use the history.dat plugin, but AF has its own implementation of that plugin so you have to setup the history.dat path in AF options, and regenerate the database from there.

Right. After selecting History.dat location, everything works like a charm. I went back to emulator again. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.7 [Release] Updated 21 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 21, 2023, 06:20:46 AM
Arcadeflow 16.7 is out!

- Added Namco arcade systems logos
- Fixed issue with letter fading when AA is enabled

Most important change is a fix that avoids issues when anti aliasing is enabled.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on December 28, 2023, 04:49:53 AM
After deleting (EmulatorName).db1 and (EmulatorName).db2 and generating new romlist, everything works the way intended. My new question becomes, the History would only show "There's an error loading game data. Please check history.dat preferences in the layout option." which I did but couldn't figure out what went wrong. Any idea?

Ok, so deleting db1 and db2 was the right thing to do, but you could also refresh the romlist and db from the options. Deleting the file is equally fine though.

As far as history.dat, maybe you usually use the history.dat plugin, but AF has its own implementation of that plugin so you have to setup the history.dat path in AF options, and regenerate the database from there.
All of a sudden, I couldn't find where I can set history.dat path. Moreover, may I know how how to set game video? I already set video path in Attract Mode Emulator.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 29, 2023, 01:21:37 AM
All of a sudden, I couldn't find where I can set history.dat path. Moreover, may I know how how to set game video? I already set video path in Attract Mode Emulator.

You have to set it up in Arcadeflow options, Scrape and Metadata, there's a section for setting up mame datafiles that AF will use.

As per the video path, how did you set it up in your emulator .cfg file?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on December 29, 2023, 05:27:11 AM
All of a sudden, I couldn't find where I can set history.dat path. Moreover, may I know how how to set game video? I already set video path in Attract Mode Emulator.

You have to set it up in Arcadeflow options, Scrape and Metadata, there's a section for setting up mame datafiles that AF will use.

As per the video path, how did you set it up in your emulator .cfg file?

Thanks. May I know how to load MAMEInfo.dat and History.XML to AF? Mame loads them just fine.

Below is my artwork setup for the emulator.
artwork    snap            am/files/snap
artwork    video           am/files/videos

The only way I know to load the video is to set the video folder as the snap folder. May I know how I should set it up so I can have snap only when browsing the games and vidoe when I on the specific game history page?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 30, 2023, 02:10:54 AM
Thanks. May I know how to load MAMEInfo.dat and History.XML to AF? Mame loads them just fine.
Not 100% sure, what is in mameinfo.dat? Usually Attract Mode imports mame xml data if you generate the xml in mame and you set info_source listxml in the emulator .cfg

Quote
Below is my artwork setup for the emulator.
artwork    snap            am/files/snap
artwork    video           am/files/videos

The only way I know to load the video is to set the video folder as the snap folder. May I know how I should set it up so I can have snap only when browsing the games and vidoe when I on the specific game history page?

Remove those two lines and set it up like this:

artwork    snap            am/files/snap;am/files/videos

that should do the trick and setup both static and videos under snap
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on December 31, 2023, 04:19:16 AM
Thanks. May I know how to load MAMEInfo.dat and History.XML to AF? Mame loads them just fine.
Not 100% sure, what is in mameinfo.dat? Usually Attract Mode imports mame xml data if you generate the xml in mame and you set info_source listxml in the emulator .cfg

Quote
Below is my artwork setup for the emulator.
artwork    snap            am/files/snap
artwork    video           am/files/videos

The only way I know to load the video is to set the video folder as the snap folder. May I know how I should set it up so I can have snap only when browsing the games and vidoe when I on the specific game history page?

Remove those two lines and set it up like this:

artwork    snap            am/files/snap;am/files/videos

that should do the trick and setup both static and videos under snap

Mameinfo https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/39gi33/mameinfodat_and_mame_listinfos_are_your_friends/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/39gi33/mameinfodat_and_mame_listinfos_are_your_friends/)

Looks like AF only accepts History.DAT as opposed to History.XML. May I know if that's the not case?

The semicolon works. May I know if there's another menu to display other artworks, such as flyer, control panel and cover?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on December 31, 2023, 07:49:08 AM

Looks like AF only accepts History.DAT as opposed to History.XML. May I know if that's the not case?

The semicolon works. May I know if there's another menu to display other artworks, such as flyer, control panel and cover?

Correct, AF only supports history.dat, I wasn't aware that history.xml exist so I'll have to add support for it if history.dat is getting obsolete.

As far as other artwork, AF can switch between snap mode and box art mode, in box art mode you'll see box art or flyers instead of the game screen (artwork name: flyer). Control panel artwork and other kind of media are not currently supported, even marquees are not unless you have it setup for live marquee.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on January 01, 2024, 06:18:21 AM

Looks like AF only accepts History.DAT as opposed to History.XML. May I know if that's the not case?

The semicolon works. May I know if there's another menu to display other artworks, such as flyer, control panel and cover?

Correct, AF only supports history.dat, I wasn't aware that history.xml exist so I'll have to add support for it if history.dat is getting obsolete.

As far as other artwork, AF can switch between snap mode and box art mode, in box art mode you'll see box art or flyers instead of the game screen (artwork name: flyer). Control panel artwork and other kind of media are not currently supported, even marquees are not unless you have it setup for live marquee.

Thanks. Looking forward to seeing https://docs.mamedev.org/plugins/data.html and artworks on https://www.progettosnaps.net/index.php being accepted by AF.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 06, 2024, 06:11:14 AM
Thanks. Looking forward to seeing https://docs.mamedev.org/plugins/data.html and artworks on https://www.progettosnaps.net/index.php being accepted by AF.

I'm doing something different: AF uses a mix of ADB and ScreenScraper scraping for arcade games, but I'm adding an option that will scrape only from ADB. Since ADB is updated with the latest data that's already in progettosnap and history.dat/history.xml, access to those won't be needed anymore and the scraper will take care of all the metadata.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.8 [Release] Updated 12 January2024
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 11, 2024, 10:45:04 PM
Arcadeflow 16.8 is out!

Added options to select a scraper engine for arcade media and history data
Added options to maximise or remove history text panel
Fixed glitch when AA is enabled on macOS
Added MTX, Tomy Tutor, Exidy Sorcerer, Sharp MZ-2500, Sord M5
Added Vector-06C, Apogee BK-01, Olivetti PC1 and PC128
Added RCA Studio II, Othello Multivision, Nuon, VC 4000, Hector HRX
Added Hyper Neo Geo, Sega Nomad
Added Light Gun#ARCADE and Light Gun#CONSOLE wallpaper

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on January 18, 2024, 06:38:14 AM
Thanks. Looking forward to seeing https://docs.mamedev.org/plugins/data.html and artworks on https://www.progettosnaps.net/index.php being accepted by AF.

I'm doing something different: AF uses a mix of ADB and ScreenScraper scraping for arcade games, but I'm adding an option that will scrape only from ADB. Since ADB is updated with the latest data that's already in progettosnap and history.dat/history.xml, access to those won't be needed anymore and the scraper will take care of all the metadata.

I see. Scraping takes a lot more time than simply downloading history.xml
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 20, 2024, 01:25:59 AM
I see. Scraping takes a lot more time than simply downloading history.xml

That's true but the new ADB only scraper for arcade is blazing fast if you only need to scrape metadata and not media (because you already scraped them or you already have them). It's ScreenScraper handshake that slows down the scraper.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on January 29, 2024, 06:15:02 AM
I see. Scraping takes a lot more time than simply downloading history.xml

That's true but the new ADB only scraper for arcade is blazing fast if you only need to scrape metadata and not media (because you already scraped them or you already have them). It's ScreenScraper handshake that slows down the scraper.
May I know how to use the new ADB to only scrape metadata in ArcadeFlow?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 29, 2024, 07:05:22 AM
May I know how to use the new ADB to only scrape metadata in ArcadeFlow?

In the scraper options you can select the metadata scraper to be "ADB Only", and then disable media scraping so that only metadata is scraped.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on January 30, 2024, 04:19:59 AM
May I know how to use the new ADB to only scrape metadata in ArcadeFlow?

In the scraper options you can select the metadata scraper to be "ADB Only", and then disable media scraping so that only metadata is scraped.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 30, 2024, 08:57:45 AM

Is it stuck?
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: jackson99 on January 31, 2024, 05:26:41 AM

Is it stuck?
Yes. It’s stuck. Scraping metadata for a particular rom works.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.6 [Release] Updated 13 December 2023
Post by: zpaolo11x on January 31, 2024, 05:35:11 AM
Yes. It’s stuck. Scraping metadata for a particular rom works.

Hmm not good, can you share your pref_layoutoptions file from Arcadeflow directory? You can send it to my email paolo.zago@gmail.com or come to AF discord server where it's easier do follow the debug discussion... I'll do more tests tonight by the way.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.8 [Release] Updated 12 January2024
Post by: jackson99 on February 01, 2024, 06:19:26 AM
Yes. It’s stuck. Scraping metadata for a particular rom works.

Hmm not good, can you share your pref_layoutoptions file from Arcadeflow directory? You can send it to my email paolo.zago@gmail.com or come to AF discord server where it's easier do follow the debug discussion... I'll do more tests tonight by the way.
Sure. 'stanleyyeh0205" on discord uploaded pref_layoutoptions.
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 16.9 [Release] Updated 12 February 2024
Post by: zpaolo11x on February 12, 2024, 05:11:55 AM
Arcadeflow 16.9 is out!

- Added support for history.xml file
- Revamped MAME xml, dat and ini file management
- Message box text now always fills the screen
- Fixed bug in the systems data file
- Fixed bug with history metadata parsing

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 17.0 [Release] Updated 01 March 2024
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 01, 2024, 05:38:20 AM
Arcadeflow 17.0 is out!

- Added option to disable scanlines in screensaver
- Improved rendering of shadow of history title
- Fixed bugs in game history page
- Fixed issue when emulator is not correct
- Cleaned up documentation
- Minor bug fixes

Enjoy!
Title: Re: Arcadeflow theme v 17.1 [Release] Updated 22 March 2024
Post by: zpaolo11x on March 22, 2024, 01:05:09 AM
Arcadeflow 17.1 is out!

- Added option to change menu and UI font size for larger screens
- Added Apple III system
- Added visual hint for edited options entries
- Added Build And Management category icon

Enjoy :)