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Messages - ryback2501

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1
Themes / Re: TendoMode (A Nintendo Classic Mini like theme) [WIP]
« on: June 27, 2020, 03:16:03 AM »
Beta 0.3 released.

Changes:
  • Added bar with information about the current controls.
  • Added button images.
  • Removed simultaneous multiplayer images.
  • Fix in README.md file.
  • Added configuration options for button images.
  • Selector jump effect improved.
  • Refactor the GameList class in definitions file.
  • Added miniature list
  • fe.list.index changes in layout.
  • Artwork max size properties are now injected.

Get link to latest version at the first post of this thread.

2
Scripting / Re: WAFAM (Workarounds for Attract Mode)
« on: June 27, 2020, 02:46:17 AM »
Beta 0.3 released.

Changes:
  • Added support for sprite animations.
  • Some refactoring in Animate and Interpolate modules

Get link here.

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Scripting / Re: WAFAM (Workarounds for Attract Mode)
« on: June 22, 2020, 04:23:22 AM »
[...]

Interesting, I found the same: sometimes playing with visibility is better. I'm wondering, how many images do you have to load in your layout? Do you keep all of them and change visibility? Because for my case, with MAME romlists of thousands of games, I fear that would be overkill...

It would, of course, because with this method you would load all the related artwork at the same time. Yo could still load artwork on themand, but you would end up having all of them loaded if you runn along all the list of games.

It would be great that AttractMode had the possibility to unload an object inside a layout and free the memory it was using.

For now, for my collection, I limit the number of games I show on a screen and I reduce the artwork size with an image editor. I'm testing this only on a PC, I don't know how this would perform on a RaspberryPi or a similar SBC.

Also, the Mini consoles have limitations on the number of games you can add to a screen, sometimes for limitarions in resources and sometimes because their software does not support long lists of games. This is not an excuse, btw.  ;D

4
Scripting / Re: WAFAM (Workarounds for Attract Mode)
« on: June 22, 2020, 02:22:42 AM »
zpaolo11x explains it pretty well. I'm making a theme that emulates the Nintendo Classic Mini interface (you can check TendoMode on the Themes section of the Forum). I tried to use the normal artwork and I managed to make the automatic refresh unnoticed, but it was invoked every time I changed the selected game and that produced framerate falls all the time.

Now I use the artwork module instead, but I don't refresh the artwork, because I've seen that if you replace an image by another with different proprtions strange things start to happen (and in Famicom not every boxart has the same proportions). So it's better to load everything at the beginning, play with the visibility property and control what to move on every moment.

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Themes / Re: TendoMode (A Nintendo Classic Mini like theme) [WIP]
« on: June 19, 2020, 06:09:23 AM »
Do you mean the Flat and Classic Mini Consoles theme (link)? Thanks!

6
Themes / Re: DontAttract (A Nintendo Classic Mini like theme) [WIP]
« on: June 18, 2020, 04:00:07 PM »
Hi, why did you call it "DontAttract"? it suggests that the theme is unattractive, which does not seem to be true  :)

Thanks for your reply. You made me give it a thought and I changed the name. It's not wonderful, but not negative at least.

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Themes / Re: DontAttract (A Nintendo Classic Mini like theme) [WIP]
« on: June 18, 2020, 11:51:26 AM »
Yeah, that's true. I tried to make a joke with the SEGA ad that had the sentence GENESIS DOES WHAT NINTENDON'T.

So... Nintendon't... DontAttract.

Guess which console I had as a kid. ;)

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Themes / TendoMode (A Nintendo Classic Mini like theme) [WIP]
« on: June 18, 2020, 10:06:50 AM »
TendoMode
A Nintendo Classic Mini like layout[ WIP ]


I'm working on my version of the Mamicom/NES Classic Mini consoles' interface layout. This layout is far from being finished, but it is functional now, so you can use it. I'm trying to keep it as faithful as possible to the original interfaces, but differences may appear in the future. My intention is to keep them minimal.

Prerequisites
This layout needs the WAFAM modules to be added to Attract Mode. They can be downloaded from their own GitHub repository here.

The WAFAM project was created to add the functionality required by this layout (and because of my inhability to deal with the animation module  :'( ) and will be extended as long as this layout and others I want to create in the future need more functionality.

Download
You can download Beta 0.3.

Observations
The original Classic Mini consoles' menus work in a 1280x720 pixels resolution and they have a pixelart style in which each pixel has its size multiplied by 3 (each pixel is 3 pixels wide and 3 pixels tall) to enhance the retro style of the consoles.

In my first attempt I tried to create a layout with the same resoltuion, but with FullHD monitors you can see that Attract Mode filters the uneven pixels that appear when the screen is scaled. 1920x1080 = 1280x720 * 1.5, so the 3x3 pixel scale becomes a 4.5x4.5 when scaling.

I didn't like that, so I decided create a 1920x1080 resolution layout and convert the images in a 4x4 pixel scale. The images are 1/9th smaller in proportion and now there are 5 games fully visible at the same time on the screen instead of the 4 that appear on the original consoles. You can appreciate that on the screenshots.

Customizations
This layout is prepared to have a different look and feel depending on the active filter.

The idea was to create filters for the games, each one for a different region, and show the games of a region with the look and feel of the corresponding console for that region. The game versions released in Japan would have the Famicom look and feel and the game versions released in USA or Europe, the NES look and feel.

I haven't included all the media files in the repository to avoid copyright problems, but they are available in this post. There are links under the screenshots. None of the images are the original images, because I had to resize and adapt them, but prevention is better than cure.

How to add customizations?
  • Create a folder inside the UI folder of the layout with all the images (as in the Nintendont folder already included).
  • If you need to, add a flag image in the UI/Flags folder of the layout.
  • Open the definitions.nut file with a text editor
  • At the begining of the file, add a line inside the Regions table. It should look like this:
    Famicom = { platform = "Famicom", flag = "JAP" },
    The value of platform is the name of the folder and the value of flag is the name of the image file of the flag without extension.

TODOs
  • Background music and sound effects.
  • Functionality to the menu icons.
  • A better placement for flags.
  • Game information in games lists (number of players)
  • Game Information panel
  • Game Saves panel (not sure about this)
  • Make some values customizable

Screenshots


Nintendon't (included in the project)


Famicom (Download media files here)


NES (Download media files here)

Also, you can download the original menu icons here.

Updates log
[2020-06-18] First beta release

9
Scripting / WAFAM (Workarounds for Attract Mode)
« on: June 18, 2020, 03:48:04 AM »
W A F A M
WorkArounds For Attract Mode


WAFAM is a project I have been working on in the last weeks. It started as a bunch of workarounds to make my life asier when using the animate scripting module includded in Attract Mode, but things have gone beyond and now it contains independent modules.

Latest release: Beta 0.3
It is a beta version because I will add more modules and more functionality, but the modules it contains are fully functional.

All the documentation about how to install and use the modules included in it is on the Readme file of the project.

The project includes the following modules:
- animate: This module can be used to animate property values of objects. It uses the interpolate module to make the animations run. It usport animation for properties and sprites.
- animate_old: This is an old version of the animate module. It uses the animate module included in Attract Mode and makes it easy to play animations on demand. I've decided to keep it because I didn't want it to get lost (like tears in the rain  :'( )
- artwork: This module loads artwork into image objects instead of artwork objects. With this you prevent the aoutmatic reloading of artwork when changing the selected game.
- interpolate: A module to interpolate calculations through time. It contains the class that controls the interpolation of other objects and classes to be used as a base classes when creating objects with interpolable logic.

This project is still work in progress. As I said, I will keep adding new functionality to it because I am creating layouts that rely on it to work, but ideas and requests are always wellcome, so feel free to propose. :)

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