Author Topic: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA  (Read 4780 times)

FrizzleFried

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"Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« on: June 24, 2019, 06:13:53 PM »
Hi...

For a while I was asking about how to easily create a "now loading" type of screen after game selection.  Evidently there wasn't a very simple solution out there... at least I couldn't find one.

I happened across some code (yes,  I am a hack!) that I found did exactly what i wanted. 

Me, being who I am,  couldn't leave well enough alone.  I've put together this ALPHA-stage plugin... I've literally done minutes of testing on it... but it seems to work MOSTLY.

I am having problems with the screen popping up during the Animated Attract intro.  I don't care frankly... I don't use the animated intro... but I would really love some help preventing it from doing that so I don't ruin a lot of people's days...

Aside from that... it seems to be working well... for me.

Opinions??  Help with preventing it from screwing up intros would be great! 

AGAIN... THE ACTUAL CODE WAS PILFERED... will update this post when i find the author.
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FrizzleFried

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2019, 10:30:13 PM »
Oh... I should probably mention it's currently only configured for horizontal... I could do vertical if people like it.

:)
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bundangdon

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2019, 01:39:57 AM »
That's a pretty neat plugin! Just wondering, how can I make the image full screen? (1920x1080)

Update: Oops! I figured it out fairly easily enough  ;D


But what would be really nice is if you could change the image, based on which system or game is being loaded
« Last Edit: June 25, 2019, 02:27:28 AM by bundangdon »

FrizzleFried

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2019, 07:40:34 AM »
That's a pretty neat plugin! Just wondering, how can I make the image full screen? (1920x1080)

Update: Oops! I figured it out fairly easily enough  ;D


But what would be really nice is if you could change the image, based on which system or game is being loaded

Yeah,  the images are currently 640x480 ... though they can be swapped out for larger images or you can just scale the smaller sized images.  Just change the images to whatever you wish and then inside the plugin there are size settings.  I "may" adjust the code to allow for size entry from within the front end settings... not sure yet. 

To be 100% honest,  this already does EXACTLY what I was looking for it to do (but with 10 different skins)... so I am not sure if I will investigate in to how to add different images for different systems.  It certainly SHOULD be possible...

Right now I need to figure out how to NOT interrupt the intro animation... again... no big deal for me as I don't run an intro animation,  but I am sure some folks do and this pretty much kills it by sticking the LOADING screen dead center while it plays...


« Last Edit: June 25, 2019, 07:42:34 AM by FrizzleFried »
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FrizzleFried

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2019, 08:08:21 AM »
Here is a quick video of the NOW LOADING plugin "in action"...

;)


https://youtu.be/gNOSOwKBcAE

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FrizzleFried

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2019, 06:47:07 AM »
One thing I may look in to (since I already have the code that SHOULD work if I implemented it in this plug in... perhaps...) is the option for a different "loading screen" for each "genre" of game.  So,  for example,  if you click on a "fighter",  perhaps a CAPCOM themed loading screen pops up.  If you click on a "maze" game,  perhaps a PAC themed laoding screen comes up, etc...

The code I have pulls info from the ROMLIST.   This idea may work for different platforms too as the platform being used is also stored in the ROMLIST,  no?  At least the emulator is... right?

First...to figure out how to prevent the screen from popping up during the intro animation....

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bundangdon

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2019, 07:32:22 AM »
That's a pretty neat plugin! Just wondering, how can I make the image full screen? (1920x1080)

Update: Oops! I figured it out fairly easily enough  ;D


But what would be really nice is if you could change the image, based on which system or game is being loaded

Yeah,  the images are currently 640x480 ... though they can be swapped out for larger images or you can just scale the smaller sized images.  Just change the images to whatever you wish and then inside the plugin there are size settings.  I "may" adjust the code to allow for size entry from within the front end settings... not sure yet. 

To be 100% honest,  this already does EXACTLY what I was looking for it to do (but with 10 different skins)... so I am not sure if I will investigate in to how to add different images for different systems.  It certainly SHOULD be possible...

Right now I need to figure out how to NOT interrupt the intro animation... again... no big deal for me as I don't run an intro animation,  but I am sure some folks do and this pretty much kills it by sticking the LOADING screen dead center while it plays...

I certainly agree with your approach, in that it's better to keep things simple. But if the plugin for this is similar to the way the code works for themes, then it should definitely be possible. Also, this would make a lot of users happy, especially those who rely on rocketlauncher for their loading screens. Actually, I tried to change the code with this plugin by adding a folder and adding [emulator] in the line where the image rests, but totally failed, at least for now :o

FrizzleFried

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2019, 07:42:36 AM »
Yeah,  plugins seem to work like layouts... but they appear to be persistent...so they are always loaded up.  So that loading screen is actually always present ... it just fades in to view when a game is selected and then fades away from view when system returns from an emulator.

I've not done enough hacking/playing around to know much more thus far.

:)
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FrizzleFried

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2019, 07:43:49 AM »
EDIT: Thank you for moving this to the proper forum...

;)

I am up to 18 different "LOADING" skin options... and I still haven't figured out how not screw up the intro animation ... yet.


« Last Edit: June 26, 2019, 06:01:26 PM by FrizzleFried »
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FrizzleFried

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2019, 10:02:31 AM »
I managed to figure out how to prevent the plugin from breaking the intro animation!

I now have TWENTY different LOADING screens to choose from and it appears that it works both in horizontal and vertical mode (vertical mode appears to stretch the images a bit but not too terrible)...

I'll be uploading shortly...
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arthurvalenca

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Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2019, 11:57:40 AM »
cool thanks for sharing, I'd really like to use your plugin in my AM.