Messages

196

Scripting / Re: Layout To Load Other Layouts

« on: February 08, 2019, 02:17:41 AM »

Hmmm... following your instructions and just changing startup to DISPLAYS MENU and then changing the DISPLAYS MENU to one of my themes (working) to test...

...I now load,  get attract mode video,  then crash to desktop.

I just realized that you might be missing the [Emulator] value in displaysmenu romlists. In Am/romlists/DisplaysMenu.txt the [Emulator] value for each item must be @

197

Scripting / Re: Launch before comand line Attract-Mode

« on: February 08, 2019, 02:15:53 AM »

Hello,
I am creating a series of .ini files to add together with DOFLinx to my cabinet with Attract Mode in Windows 10.
This will serve to have addressable LEDs in each game of MAME and when pressing a button, put coin or press start make a play of lights or show a message etc.
My problem arises that to be able to do this I need that every time a game is launched from the frontend, the following command line should be executed:
c:\directoutput\DOFLinxMSg.exe "SUP_ini=MAME\[gamename]"
Does anyone know how to do this?
On the other hand I also have doubts if the frontend calls each game [gamename] or [game] or [name].
I'm sorry for my English but I do not speak English very well.
I thank you very much and as soon as I can upload a video of the project.

I have a note just for that in OneNote .

For a rom at  D:\Games\Penny.bin

[name] = Penny
[romext] = bin
[rompath]= D:\Games
[romfilename] = D:\Games\Penny.bin

Note: use asteriks "" if space in name


As for launching a command with/before every game:
1- Elegant way would be to utilize AM's built-in ability to pass arguments to emulator from layout and go forward from there. Its discussed here > https://github.com/mickelson/attract/commit/593ddc387cf3c9e9ca8ff7cbe992fe9a4c7791d4. I never personally used it but I would start with something like this:

Code: [Select]

if ("set of value" == true) return fe.plugin_command_bg("cmd.exe /C"....
2- Use a batfile which runs mame and DOFLinxMSg.exe together, this will be done in AM/emulators/[emulator].cfg. This will work and I personally use something like this for one system. The cfg I am using is:

Code: [Select]

executable           cmd
args                 /c cd "D:\Tools\Controller Tools\Antimicro\Antimicro v2.23 (x32)" & start "" antimicro.exe --hidden "D:\Tools\Controller Tools\Antimicro\Antimicro Profiles\[name].gamecontroller.amgp" & start "" /wait "[romfilename]" & call "D:\Tools\Controller Tools\Antimicro\exit-antimicro.bat"

^ Code is a work of beauty if I say so my self

You can call the emulator.exe & start the DOFLinxMsg. @hermine.potter has some great scripts for these kind of setups, so searching Emulators (in related stuff) will be helpful

198

Themes / Re: RetroMode Theme

« on: February 08, 2019, 01:47:28 AM »

The main menu i like, but in the rest of layouts ... too much information ... impossible to achieve in some systems. 
And for 4:3 well neither ... 

Thanks, I am thinking of uploading this theme as a displaysmenu only theme for the moment, after I have upload Chicuelo Mix.

 4:3 is possible but would require the original videos from Nostalgia set. The original author (viking) has uploaded two sets 16:9 and 4:3. I took the pics from media player and applied some filters for a more grunge look via paint.net. I can share the details if you want to work on this.

199

Themes / Re: Chicuelo Mix Theme (Port of Chicuelo theme from EmulationStation) WIP

« on: February 08, 2019, 01:43:23 AM »

Very nice, I like it, awesome work 

Thankyou! the credit for theme goes to chicuelo and you are right his is amonsgt the very best themes on EmulationStation.

Soon I hope,      I love how Un cluterd it is.

Pretty much done with v1.0, just waiting for permission to share for some artwork assets.

200

Themes / Re: Chicuelo Mix Theme (Port of Chicuelo theme from EmulationStation) WIP

« on: February 06, 2019, 04:06:49 PM »

Checking two on_transition functions on Chicuelo Mix.

1- Arrows Blink effect on transition

2- More interesting, Video overlay on snaps also on_transition. Ideally would need snap and video to match. I know we can do the same via [emulator].cfg but I wanted to do it purely through layout.

(PS: Thanks to Keil who helped a *lot* in coding of arrow effect & thanks to liquid8d whose code I modified for Video overlay)

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZELn0bi3U

201

Themes / Chicuelo Mix Theme (Port of Chicuelo theme from EmulationStation) WIP

« on: February 05, 2019, 11:56:14 PM »

deleted

202

Scripting / Easy way of forcing Uppercase text

« on: February 04, 2019, 01:06:17 PM »

I found an easy way to utilize uppercase characters for things like [Title], [Overview] etc. Right now the goto methods are:

• Use a font which is all uppercase. Its the easiest way but if you want to keep uniformity in theme you have to go all capitals, else need to use more then one font which is not desirable in most cases.
• Save the said text in Uppercase e.g. use Excel to change all titles to Capitals. This also works but you will be stuck with a single theme, moving would mean redoing it all again.
• Use a function and use .toupper() with text, A great way to do things (you retain single font) but utilizing things like [Title] in shuffle, after the function can become complicated.

I found another way to do the needful, there is an app "fontforge" for creating and editing fonts. Make a copy of font you are using in theme (e.g. Ariel Medium), open the copy in fontforge. Now select and delete the small letters (a -z), copy capital letters (A - Z) and paste them in place of small letters. Go to generate font and save the file naming it something like Ariel Medium Uppercase (save as true type i.e. TTF) . Use this font in places where you want text in all capitals and place it in /layout dir. Couple of things:

• Most fonts are copyright so only share the modified versions where you are sure font is open source/ or licensed such as to allow modified sharing.
• Portable version of fontforge is available plus its available on all platforms (Win, *Nix, Mac)
• Fontforge may show errors when generating font, try saving the font without any modifications if the same errors are reported then can be ignored.

Links:
Github: https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/
Sourceforge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/fontforge/

Select & Clear lowercase:


Select & Paste Uppercase in-place of lowercase:


Original Source (ctrlcctrlv 's post): https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/issues/2418

203

Scripting / Anyway to Auto-generate Shuffle (plugin) List Size

« on: February 02, 2019, 01:05:18 PM »

Hi currently I am using the Shuffle Plugin as follows:

Code: [Select]

local list = [];
list.push(fe.add_text("[Title]", 120, 400, 400, 60));
list.push(fe.add_text("[Title]", 120, 480, 400, 60));
list.push(fe.add_text("[Title]", 120, 560, 400, 60));
list.push(fe.add_text("[Title]", 120, 640, 400, 60));
list.push(fe.add_text("[Title]", 120, 720, 400, 60));

Is there anyway I can auto-generate Shuffle "local list = [];" by linking it with magic token [ListSize]? So there are no hardcoded slots but slots are generated according to the items in a romlist.

204

General / Re: Scraping images

« on: February 02, 2019, 10:57:52 AM »

gamesdb are in the process of upgrading how apps scrap data, most scrapers utilize gamesdb and won't be of any help. Universal XML utilizes screenscraper website so will work but its relatively complicated and requires manual inputs. It can be found here > https://github.com/Universal-Rom-Tools/Universal-XML-Scraper

205

General / Re: How to add a sorting option based on tag list order

« on: February 02, 2019, 10:51:25 AM »

Thank you!

So just to update this: the "no sort" option doesn't work for me. Even if I put Forgotten Worlds at the very top in the list in the cps.tag it ends up sorting the games by alphabetical order and not by rom file name order which is what seems to happen when going to "name". For example in the case of CPS games if I go by "name" 3 wonders appears at the top since the rom is called 3wonders.zip, but in "no sort" it starts with Alien VS Predator iirc.

From my testing leaving it to "no sort" puts them in alphabetical order based on the name in the database instead of file name, so 3 wonders goes to "T" as Three Wonders.

I'm going to try the Extra category and try putting in full release dates to the Mame.txt

Also thanks Progets for those lists, those will come in handy!

1- After "No Sort" your system entry in "attract.cfg" should not have any "sort_by          Name/Title/Year" entry. If there is one you can delete it then check again. (Plz make a backup of attract.cfg just in case)

2- Declare and call [Extra] in layout, write something/ anything in extra field and call it.

Code: [Select]

local extras = fe.add_text ("[Extra]", 100,100, 200,200); 

FYI - I created a new thread for MAME tagging. You can find it here http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2767.msg19147#msg19147. It might help for what you are trying to accomplish by simply reordering the file names or using the "Extra" field of the romlist as described above.

Those lists will be of great help to rest of the community progets, thanks.

206

General / Re: How to add a sorting option based on tag list order

« on: February 01, 2019, 11:10:46 PM »

1. You can use "No Sort" so AM will display the games in same order as in tag-list. That will require manually placing the items in list.
2. You can use [Extra] and use that for sorting, That will still require to manually add the data (say release date in numbers 10/jan/2010 becomes 2010-01-10)

207

General / Re: Attract Mode and the Unified Videos not working correctly

« on: January 31, 2019, 09:50:45 AM »

I had this problem with a few videos in EmuVideos set. Try re-encoding one video via handbrake or some alternative and check again.

PS:Usually 30fps is recommended for least effect on performance.

208

General / Re: Trim off Excess Roms That Don't Have Wheel & Video Art?

« on: January 31, 2019, 09:40:36 AM »

In FatMatch* use artwork folder as rom, and rom as artwork - run the program at best match (should be 100% match in results which match). Ok to rename which will move the correct roms to a new folder. Move the rest of roms somewhere else (don't delete before checking) and matched roms back to its original position

209

Scripting / Re: Layout To Load Other Layouts

« on: January 31, 2019, 03:41:09 AM »

DisplaysMenu is inbuilt into AM

1) Go to AM > Settings > Startup Mode > select 'Displays Menu'

2) Then go to AM > Settings > Displays > 'Displays Menu' Options > Menu Style (select layout) select some other layout/ theme then your main.

Now you can change the look/ feel/ code of layout theme for Displays Menu - your systems will be listed here and will operate in the manner you listed above in opening post. displaysmenu will list all systems in attract.cfg, there is some other fine tuning but that can wait.

PS: I got a working displaysmenu in here (only the last part, sega saturn is a different layout): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEAhZQLsCho 

PS: I think like me you mix-up between displaysmenu and displaymenu too

I have tried this on the ARpiCADE on my PI3B, and it never changes the DisplayMenu.. I change to all other kinds of themes(layouts) and it never changes.

That shouldn't be happening, does console register any errors (or last_run.log)

210

Scripting / Re: Layout To Load Other Layouts

« on: January 30, 2019, 08:00:47 PM »

1- In your attrcat.cfg, systems should be listed like this:

Code: [Select]

display Atari 2600 (Stella)
layout               Chicuelo-WIP
romlist              Atari 2600 (Stella)
in_cycle             yes
in_menu              no
filter               ALL
sort_by              Title
If the parts about in_cycle and in_menu are missing then add them (please make a backup of attrcat.cfg before that) and check.

2- In the video, looks like collections are being used, you can do that in two ways. DisplaysMenu and using Tags/Displays. Displays Menu is discussed ^ For tags/Displays you have to:

a) Open MAME and create a tag on any CPSI game (Tags control can be Configured from AM > Controls). Tag can be named anything, lets name it CPSI. This will create a file in AM\Romlists\[MAME]\CPSI.tag. Opening this file will show you the [NAME] of file you created tag for.

b) go to AM > Displays > Add new dsiplay > Name it anything (like CPSI). Then fill the rest of details, in Collection/Romlist Select your main MAME romlist (exactly as you have named it - as it is in AM\romlists\[MAME].txt). In global filter > rule > Target = Tags, Comparison = contains, Filter Value = CPSI.

c) This should create a new Display CPSI, which will list a single game you tagged. If the game is there and display is working as expected you can use an app like romlister to make txt files of all CPSI titles (or get a list from internet) the .tag file only lists a single [NAME] in single line. If you like the results you can add the rest of displays following the same method.