Messages

61

Themes / Re: PanAndScan module v1.0 release

« on: March 13, 2016, 08:11:19 PM »

Script Error in /home/toothpick/.attract/layouts/Panning/layout.nut - wrong number of parameters

Ahh, there was a typo in my post.  use this line instead:

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my_art.set_zoom(2.5, 0.0002);
ie: get rid of the "true" param and you should be sweet!

62

Themes / Re: My custom layout for use on a 640x480 31Khz arcade monitor

« on: March 13, 2016, 03:20:20 PM »

I've just released the module! 

63

Themes / PanAndScan module v1.2 release

« on: March 13, 2016, 03:18:58 PM »

Code: [Select]

CHANGELOG
    Version 0.1     (8th December 2015)     - Initial release (included in Blastcity layout)
    Version 1.0     (14th March 2016)       - Complete rewrite to extend PreserveArt module
    Version 1.1     (14th March 2016)       - Added start_scale and randomize_on_transition
    Version 1.2     (22th March 2016)       - Fixed bug with bounce animation when art is smaller than surface

After a bit of prodding from Verion (ouch!), I finally got around to rewriting the PanAndScan module I included with my previous Blastcity layout!

This version of the module extends liquid8d's excellent PreserveArt module.  I have included the most recent version (1.0) of his module in the archive.  You can find this and his other projects hosted at his github repo.

With liquid8d's module you can define an arbitrary space on the screen and place an art or image object in there, either scaled to fit within the space, or to fill it, while preserving the original aspect ratio.

My module extends this functionality by adding a "Pan and Scan" style animation to it.  This allows you to either scroll the art/image object side to side, up and down, or in all four directions.  It also allows you to zoom in to the image to a desired scale (happy now Verion? ).

Example usage:

Code: [Select]

fe.load_module("pan-and-scan");

local my_art = PanAndScanArt("flyer", 0, 0, 640,480);

my_art.set_fit_or_fill("fill");
my_art.set_anchor(::Anchor.Center);
my_art.set_zoom(4.5, 0.00008);
my_art.set_animate(::AnimateType.Bounce, 0.07, 0.07)
my_art.set_randomize_on_transition(true);
my_art.set_start_scale(1.15);


Breakdown of each command:

First thing we load the module into the layout...

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fe.load_module("pan-and-scan");
Then create an instance of the module class. Arguments are: art type, x pos, y pos, surface width, surface height
(Also, you can replace PanAndScanArt() with PanAndScanImage() if you want to use an image in your layout directory)

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local my_art = PanAndScanArt("flyer", 0, 0, 640, 480);
Tell the module whether you want to make the loaded art/image "fit" the size of the surface you've created, or to "fill" the surface.  I'd recommend sticking with "fill" for the purpose of this module, though you may find a use for "fit" in some cases.

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my_art.set_fit_or_fill("fill");
Configure the anchor point for the art/image.  When you have zooming and scrolling going on, I find Center to be the best option here. Other choices for the ::Anchor table include .Left, .Top, .Center, .Centre (same as .Center), .Right, and .Bottom.

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my_art.set_anchor(::Anchor.Center);
Here is where the fun stuff starts (no offence to liquid8d!).  Arguments are: zoom scale, zoom speed
For the scale, note that 1.0 is the actual art/image scale displayed on the surface prior to zooming. So, if you want to end up with the image doubled in size at the end of the zoom animation, you'd enter 2.0

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my_art.set_zoom(2.5, 0.0002);
This sets the pan and scan animation.  Arguments are: animation type, x/y speed, [y speed].
Choices for the ::AnimateType table include .Bounce, .HorizBounce, and .VertBounce.  If using Horiz or Vert, only 1 speed argument is needed.

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my_art.set_animate(::AnimateType.Bounce, 0.1, 0.1)
Enabling this will randomize the pan animation direction when transitioning to another list item.

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my_art.set_randomize_on_transition(true);
Alter the starting scale of the image after it has been processed by PreserveArt.  I found this helps to remove some of the initial "wiggle" as the pan animation bounces from side to side at the beginning.

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my_art.set_start_scale(1.15);

I think I've covered everything.  Have a play around with it and see what you think.  I mostly created this to have animated backgrounds, zooming and panning around large flyer images and such.  Let me know if you manage to break it some how and I'll take a look, or if anyone has some suggestions for improvements then I'm all ears!

64

Themes / Re: My custom layout for use on a 640x480 31Khz arcade monitor

« on: March 12, 2016, 08:37:18 PM »

Are you planning to add zoom option to that pan-and-scan module?

I am actually in the process of working on a new version of the pan-and-scan module to fix some bugs and add support for zooming

65

Themes / Re: My custom layout for use on a 640x480 31Khz arcade monitor

« on: March 11, 2016, 07:52:13 PM »

Hi Jason,

Apologies for the late reply, I'd been working on some other projects recently and wasn't checking these forums.

It sounds like your graphics card is running out of video RAM because of the very large background image I used in my theme.  The machines I use here have multiple gigabytes of VRAM so I never had a problem with it.

I've attached an archive with a couple of background variants that you could try out.

default-2048x896.png - resized the original image.  This one will bounce up and down more frequently.

default-2048x1512.png - cropped the original image.  This one will bounce from side to side more frequently.

Just extract this archive in the blastcity layout directory, then delete the original "default.png" and rename one of the above files to "default.png".

Hope this helps!


[attachment deleted by admin]

66

Themes / Re: [download] NEVATO theme

« on: March 11, 2016, 12:19:04 AM »

Fantastic work Verion!

I've been watching this thread as you've been developing this theme and it has clearly been a labor of love, congratulations on getting it released!

Looking forward to checking out your new projects in the future

67

General / Re: Merged ROM Sets

« on: March 10, 2016, 10:50:31 PM »

Firstly, apologies for the necro.

I was looking for a way to get a complete Attract Mode Romlist while having merged ROM sets for MAME and came across this post.

I'm not quite sure if the command line that raygun provided actually worked in a previous version, however I can confirm that it does not work as you would expect with the current 2.0 release candidate.

The following command line generates a list of 10954 entries (current 0.171 build of MAME).

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attract --build-romlist mame --full
This only includes parent ROMs, not the clones inside the merged ROM files.

However, if you manually create a MAME listxml file first using the following command line:

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mame -listxml > mamelist.xml
then use the import-romlist option instead of build-romlist, it will generate a full list of 32965 entries.

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attract --import-romlist mamelist.xml mame --full
Not quite sure why manually creating a listxml file and then importing is treated differently than letting attractmode run the mame executable to generate the listxml automatically, it seems like it's applying a hardcoded filter to discard clones (or it's ignoring the --full argument).

Anyway, I hope this helps any other folks that maintain merged sets!

68

Themes / Re: [wip] MODERN CAB theme

« on: December 08, 2015, 08:12:48 PM »

very cool!

69

Themes / Re: My custom layout for use on a 640x480 31Khz arcade monitor

« on: December 08, 2015, 03:53:11 PM »

Behind the flyer layer is a large image of arcade manufacturer logos (if you look in the layouts/blastcity directory, it's the default.png image).. I have kept it kinda subtle, perhaps too subtle if you don't see it!  Try fiddling with the .alpha property of the flyer layer, dropping it down to 100 or so and it should be more apparent.

70

Themes / Re: My custom layout for use on a 640x480 31Khz arcade monitor

« on: December 08, 2015, 03:14:21 PM »

I'm definitely seeing the animation speed change as I alter the values and then restart the layout in Attract Mode, so it's strange that you are not seeing the same thing.

Note that the flyer layer animates separately from the bg one, so you will need to change that one too.

If you still don't see any change, perhaps try checking the console window to see if Attract Mode is reporting any errors.

71

Themes / Re: My custom layout for use on a 640x480 31Khz arcade monitor

« on: December 08, 2015, 02:50:27 PM »

I'm not that great with code to add zoom to your module

No worries, I plan to tweak and make additions to the layout over time.  I'll look into adding support for zooming the background in the coming days.

I've tried it and it looks cool (with hi-res also).
Animation is little to fast for my taste and "animate_speed" variable doesn't have any effect on speed.

Glad to hear it works well at higher resolutions.  Regarding the animation speed, it is configurable via the "animate_speed" property.  If you want it to be slower you will need to work with smaller values.

Try changing

Code: [Select]

bg.animate_speed = 0.4; to

Code: [Select]

bg.animate_speed = 0.04; and you should notice a difference.

72

Themes / Re: My custom layout for use on a 640x480 31Khz arcade monitor

« on: December 08, 2015, 01:46:07 PM »

Great work!

That pan-and-scan module is something I was looking for. Thanks!
I was planing to make a theme with background image moving similar to Ken Burns effect - that is slow zoom-in and pan.

If I can see correctly from your video - it only pans (without zooming)? Right?
I'll install it tomorrow to check.

Thanks!

Yeah, right now the module just bounces around the dimensions of the image.  I planned to add scaling to it but haven't got around to it yet

Feel free to download it and modify the code to suit your own needs if you want to use it as a base for your own thing!

73

Themes / My custom layout for use on a 640x480 31Khz arcade monitor

« on: December 08, 2015, 05:31:44 AM »

Hey gang,

I've been working on a pretty simple custom layout for use on my arcade cabinet (Sega Blast City with MS2930 monitor) and have got to the point where I'd like to show it off

It's loosely based on the layout that Cools created (nice work man!).  This is only a couple of days work so far, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

I've designed it specifically for use in 640x480 on a horizontal arcade monitor, and the layout nicely handles previews for both horizontal and vertical games.

Vertical game:


Horizontal game:


In the background it scrolls an image I have included with the layout (brazenly stolen from Rocketlauncher, sorry guys!).  It also shows flyers overlayed over the top of the background.  Both layers scroll independently which looks pretty cool I think.  As not all games have a flyer, I have set up the flyers in my MAME config to also include snaps.  The layout will automatically scale the snaps so they are 1.5x larger than the screen so they can scroll around (albeit a bit chunky looking).

Here's a YouTube video of it running on my cabinet, please excuse the shaky cam!

I have not made any effort to test this layout at higher video resolutions, so for all I know it might not look so nice if you're not at 640x480! Word of warning!

Oh also, in the archive I've included a module I wrote that the layout relies on called "pan-and-scan".  This module is pretty straightforward, somewhat based on the FillArt module that Liquid posted on the forums recently.  This is what I use to display and animate the background and flyers.  If anyone want's to use it in their own layouts, be my guest!

Hope someone finds this useful for use in their own setup.  I will likely make additional changes and post them to the forums as I progress.

Finally, thanks to Raygun and all of the contributors for this awesome frontend! I've had a lot of fun noodling around with it

74

Announcements / Re: Version 1.6.2 Released.

« on: December 07, 2015, 04:03:48 PM »

Thanks!

75

Emulators / Re: Mame setup for windows

« on: December 07, 2015, 01:18:31 PM »

They have their "own version" of mame? I thought it was plain mame just crammed into an "linux arcade" distro....

You're thinking of GroovyArcade, which is a Linux distro with GroovyMAME and other programs for use on an arcade cabinet.

GroovyMAME itself is simply a custom build of MAME with additional code called "SwitchRes" which replaces the default code in MAME for handling video resolutions.  It is in active development (new builds and added features are generally released within hours of the MameDev team's releases on the last Wednesday of each month).

For the best results with GroovyMAME, you will want to be using "CRT_EmuDriver", which is a "hacked" ATI Radeon video driver that includes support for outputting  suitable video signal to a 15/24/31 Hz arcade monitor.  It is similar in principal to how the ArcadeVGA cards from Ultimarc work, but with support for a much wider range of video modes and refresh rates.  Just note that this video driver is currently limited to working with older Radeon cards (up to HD 4890), and only for Windows XP (32/64bit) or 7 (64bit).

Calamity is currently working on supporting newer versions of Windows (8 and 10) and newer video cards.  He has had some success, there are just a few more hurdles to deal with before releasing something for people to try in the coming months.