Arcadeflow theme v 17.4 [Release] Updated 05 September 2024

[zpaolo11x]

Everything can be improved and bug fixed forever, especially software, but I don't think that Arcadeflow is confusing.

Good to know But you are right, everything can be improved forever, and that's the fun part of all this

That being said, if you feel that things are getting complicated, it's a good idea to take a step back from development and just use AF, without changing anything, for a week or two. Temporarily go user side 100%. This will give you a broad view of the current situation, let your mind time to evaluate and process ideas for version 8.

Excellent advice, that's exactly what I did in the past, and it helped me develop some nice feature like "more of the same..." and later the "multifilter" menu. I've been just playing games for the last week using AF, and found that I kept using the multifilter a lot instead of searches. It basically covers what "more of the same" and "categoy menu" do, that's why I'm thinking of revisiting a bit the UI.

I also noticed that I don't like the on-screen keyboard when I have a physical keyboard on my laptop, so I'm doing some changes there too, the on screen keyboard will react to "physical" keyboard too, while all the function that now require a physical keyboard (like some options) will use the same on screen/physical UI too.

[zpaolo11x]

Speaking of new features and things that makes your gaming life easier... I was wondering wether the current search menu is a bit too overwrought. I mean, you have to chose where you want to search (title, manufacturer year etc) and only then enter or type your search.

Wouldn't it be much better to call the search function and just start typing your search term, and the layout will show you all the results of a multi-search done by year, manufacturer and title? The issue is there's no way I can show results grouped by search field, so if you search for "capcom" you'll have "Capcom vs Street Fighter" together with all other games that have capcom as manufacturer.

What do you think?

[jedione]

hmm,  lets think,,,  yep your right...

one button push ,,,type.   sounds great

[adu]

Speaking of new features and things that makes your gaming life easier... I was wondering wether the current search menu is a bit too overwrought. I mean, you have to chose where you want to search (title, manufacturer year etc) and only then enter or type your search.

Wouldn't it be much better to call the search function and just start typing your search term, and the layout will show you all the results of a multi-search done by year, manufacturer and title? The issue is there's no way I can show results grouped by search field, so if you search for "capcom" you'll have "Capcom vs Street Fighter" together with all other games that have capcom as manufacturer.

What do you think?

I think it's an excellent idea, because if you categorized precisely your games as I do (puzzledrop, puzzle, puzzlematch, puzzlemaze), you have multiples choices currently. But with the system you told us, I cna type puzzle and got all the games listed above !

By the way, can you make the filter search clear itself when you quit AM ? Because the next launch after I put a filter, I was searching for about 10 minutes a game which was masked by the filter, and Iwondered why I can't find my game before I remember I have put a filter the day beore

[zpaolo11x]

By the way, can you make the filter search clear itself when you quit AM ? Because the next launch after I put a filter, I was searching for about 10 minutes a game which was masked by the filter, and Iwondered why I can't find my game before I remember I have put a filter the day beore

Oh right, it happens to me all the time I'll put an option for that...

In the new version I'm cleaning up the category menu too, I'm decoupling it from searches so you can both select a category from the menu _and_ do a search in the resulting list. There will be a clear visual clue for that, so you won't forget you have search or category enabled :O

Of course you can also add multifilter to the mix.

[zpaolo11x]

I think it's an excellent idea, because if you categorized precisely your games as I do (puzzledrop, puzzle, puzzlematch, puzzlemaze), you have multiples choices currently. But with the system you told us, I cna type puzzle and got all the games listed above !

Filter frenzy preview: in the picture I first selected a "more of the same manufacturer" (from a Konami game), then applied a multifilter to select a year, then chose from the category menu "Shooter / Flying Horizontal". And on top of that the quick search for the "TH" terms.
I have a beta almost ready

[zpaolo11x]

I like the new on-screen keyboard so much that I decided to delay a bit the new release to try and create a new tag management system where Arcadeflow will interact directly with the attract mode folders. That will allow you to enter new tags without using a physical keyboard!

Maybe I should release 7.9 as is, and wait 8.0 for the new tags

[adu]

We can wait for an awesome 8.0, AF is already amazing:)

[zpaolo11x]

Arcadeflow 7.9 is out!

Lots of changes in user experience and under the hood. A new on-screen keyboard that works on every text entry, new smarter search with no need to specify the search field, better display of active search/filter terms in the UI. Plus, a new tags management that always gives you the possibility to add "Completed" tag, and lets you add new tags using an on-screen keyboard... which doubles as a text entry field for real keyboards.

So many changes, hopefully not so many bugs, but I'm sure you'll be quick in reporting them so we can squash them to death

Enjoy!

P.S.: and while you enjoy the sweet version 7.9, I'm already working on a couple of new features for 8.0... "sort by last played" and "sort by last favourite". I can't wait

[adu]

This man is a real machine 

Arcade Flow 7.8 installed on my cabinet, the virtual keyboard is a really great addition !!! (but you don't love AZERTY ? )

[zpaolo11x]

(but you don't love AZERTY ? )

Hmm never thought about that I like onscreen keyboards in alphabetical order but I can always add AZERTY as an option in 8.0

[adu]

For French people like me it will be a nicer layout

[zpaolo11x]

What would user think of a layout that warns you when updates are available? And maybe offers you the chance to update to the latest version "automatically"? Just thinking of what could be done with the System command and some wget trickery...

[adu]

Whereas a notification for an update IS a real plus, an autouodate is not necessary for me, I'd rather control when I update and if I want to update 😉

[zpaolo11x]

Whereas a notification for an update IS a real plus, an autouodate is not necessary for me, I'd rather control when I update and if I want to update 😉

That's right, I'm not planning a real "silent" autoupdate, more of a popup that gives you details of the new version and allows you to download (and install?) the new version if you want.

I'm just thinking if the right place for the "check for updates" entry should be the "utility menu" or the "options menu"... maybe the options menu is better, there you could also enable/disable automatic notification.

Right now most of these works: I can check the status online, get the updated "what's new" notes and display them. I can also let the user download the correct zip file. For installing, that's a different beast... easiest way would be to just deploy the new file on the old folder, that won't touch user preferences, but may keep some junk from older version. More convoluted, but much better IMO, would be to create a new versioned folder, deploy the new zip there, transfer preference files and after all this edit the attract.cfg to substitute all the references to the old version to the new one. That would be something