Modify / add more game information at the bottom bar?

[rloxley]

Hey folks :-)

I am using the vintage collection original theme and really like to stay with it. But it provides not as much detailled game information on the "bottom bar" like others often do, like the "motion blue" frontend for example. Please see attached pictures, 1. is the one i use and like to modify, second is the example.

Can you give me a hint or a detailled howto on how to achieve that? Which file/s to modify in which way?

These additional game informations also have to be added to the gamlist first to show up, i think...

thanks in advance :-)

[dmmarti]

That information is programmed into the layout.nut file usually.

You can add code into it that will display various information wherever on the screen you want it to show up.

Here's some examples of code you can put into that theme's layout.nut file to show information .. you will probably have to adjust the X and Y position and the width/height parameters though to fit that theme.

Sample layout.nut code:
-------------------------------

local flx = fe.layout.width;
local fly = fe.layout.height;
local flw = fe.layout.width;
local flh = fe.layout.height;

// emulator text info
local textemu = fe.add_text( "Emulator: [Emulator]", flx* 0.1625, fly*0.5, flw*0.6, flh*0.025  );
textemu.set_rgb( 255, 255, 255 );
textemu.align = Align.Left;
textemu.word_wrap = false;

// year text info
local texty = fe.add_text("Year: [Year]", flx*0.1625, fly*0.525, flw*0.13, flh*0.025 );
texty.set_rgb( 255, 255, 255 );
texty.align = Align.Left;

// players text info
local textp = fe.add_text("Players: [Players]", flx*0.25, fly*0.525, flw*0.13, flh*0.025 );
textp.set_rgb( 255, 255, 255 );
textp.align = Align.Left;

// played count text info
local textpc = fe.add_text("Played Count: [PlayedCount]", flx*0.35, fly*0.525, flw*0.13, flh*0.025 );
textpc.set_rgb( 255, 255, 255 );
textpc.align = Align.Left;

// display filter info
local filter = fe.add_text( "Filter: [ListFilterName]", flx*0.45, fly*0.525, flw*0.2, flh*0.025 );
filter.set_rgb( 255, 255, 255 );
filter.align = Align.Left;

// manufacturer filter info
local manufact = fe.add_text( "Manufacturer: [Manufacturer]", flx*0.1625, fly*0.55, flw*0.25, flh*0.025 );
manufact.set_rgb( 255, 255, 255 );
manufact.align = Align.Left;

// display game count info
local gamecount = fe.add_text( "Game Count: [ListEntry]-[ListSize]", flx*0.41, fly*0.55, flw*0.5, flh*0.025 );
gamecount.set_rgb( 255, 255, 255 );
gamecount.align = Align.Left;

For the genre icon .. that's another section of code that usually exists in the layout.nut file to match up what is in a romlist file (Category field) to a PNG picture file for display.  But you have to make sure to have the PNG files to go along with it.

[dmmarti]

The information, as you mentioned, does need to exist in the Attract Mode romlist file.

To populate a romlist file, there's a few different ways to do it.

You can use the built-in scraping feature of Attract Mode (need to get the latest 2.6.1 update with the fix) to scrape a system against thegamesdb.  That should populate the romlist fields.

You can also import from another front-end like Hyperspin's XML database files.  That would populate those fields - but your rom filenames would need to match what's in the Hyperspin XML file.

I'm not aware of any 3rd party scraper that will generate an Attract Mode formatted romlist file - although there may be one that exists, not sure.

[rloxley]

Thank you both so much for the really fast and detailled informations... fantastic!

I will try later on and pretty sure coming back to you :-) :-)