Question about folder hierarchy

[MydknyteStyrm]

New to AM, recent Hyperspin refugee. So far things seem to be coming together except I can’t understand the naming convention and the folder placement for the artwork.

For example. I name the system Nintendo Entertainment System, set up the emulator and concert my xml to txt and everything works. The artwork, I scrape from the available options, and it puts all of the art in the scraper folder. I type in the full address to that folder and I’m having trouble getting it to work. Am I supposed to move the art to another folder or create my own, and how do I know what to name the folders? Also, some themes use things like marquee, icon, snap, wheel, etc.

Can someone just give me a basic idea of where AM looks for the artwork, how do I set it correctly, and what I may be doing wrong? Thanks!

[rand0m]

All artwork (for roms) is setup in the emulator.cfg file in /emulators (so e.g. genesis.cfg for Sega Genesis system). A basic emulator.cfg is something like this:

Code: [Select]

executable           D:\path\to\emulator
args                 arguments usually [name] or [romfilename]
rompath              D:\path\to\roms
romext               extension like .bin
system               System Name (to id system while scraping online sources)
exit_hotkey         key or combination of keys to exit emulator
pause_hotkey          key or combination of keys to pause emulator (this ones a hit or miss)
artwork    flyer           D:\path\to\Images\flyer
artwork    snap            D:\path\to\Images\Images\snap
artwork    title           D:\path\to\Images\Images\title
artwork    video           D:\path\to\Images\video
There is no hard cap on number or name of artworks you can add anything else like wheels, logos, fan-made etc. You can name the artwork anything. One thing to remember is that in the layout the artwork is called via the name it is entered in emulator.cfg so in above example calling title will look in the path given against title. Secondly all artwork items are checked against their rom-names not rom-titles by default.

If just starting on AM, you can make life a bit easier by making a structure folder in some place and copy it whenever you add new system. Secondly there is a template of emulators in root of AM called default-emulator.cfg edit it so it matches the items you want in your layout. This template is applied whenever a new system is added so makes it easier to add systems.

[progets]

By default AM looks for artwork for the Displays Menu in
/attract/menu-art/flyer
/attract/menu-art/marquee
/attract/menu-art/snap
/attract/menu-art/wheel

By default AM looks for artwork for each Emulator in
/attract/scrapper/<emulator_name>/flyer
/attract/scrapper/<emulator_name>/marquee
/attract/scrapper/<emulator_name>/snap
/attract/scrapper/<emulator_name>/wheel

You can can also set any path to artwork for each emulator in the /attract/emulators/<emulator_name>/emulator.cfg. This can be done in the GUI using Configure-->Emulators--><emulator_name>. You can also define additional artwork fields named anything you want here.

All artwork names must match the romnames (obviously with a different extension).


Do you have HyperSpin on the computer you're using AttractMode on? If yes, you can make symbolic links to all of your HS artwork in the AM folder structure or you can configure you emulator.cfg files to point to the HS artwork folders. This would allow you to use both HS and AM with one set of artwork.

If HS is on your computer and you are using RocketLauncher you might want to look at this thread http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2401.msg16418#msg16418.

Take a look at this thread too http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1791.msg12578#msg12578.

[progets]

I should also mention that you can define multiple paths to artwork that are separated by a semicolon ";".

This can work on layouts (themes) two different ways.

1) just multiple paths for the same thing.

2) transitions from a still image to a video. These are used in some of the best AM layouts in my opinion. In these layouts you need to use something like "artwork    snap            \<artwork_path>\<emulator_name>\videos;\<artwork_path>\<emulator_name>\snap"


Also understand that "title" and "video" can be defined but they are not default AM names. These names need to match the naming in the layout you choose (or you can modify them). For example, some layouts use "box" or "boxart" verses "flyer" (which are usually only for arcade games).

My best suggestion is to try out these options and let us know if you have additional questions. The folks here are always willing to help and point you in the right direction.

[MydknyteStyrm]

Thanks a bunch. It started me on the right path.