SOLVED> Putting actual text in the FE

[danny_galaga]

I see text box options, but they seem to be for specific things like 'number of players' etc. I would like to write in a block of text for instructions. Is this a silly question? Otherwise I'll have to write it up in bitmap editor or something and save it as a jpg. A bit annoying if I have to modify anything...

edit: I see you can write short sentences in the text boxes. That would work if I had enough boxes to spare 

[loadman]

Normally you would not put a ton of instructions on the actual layout screen.

You would use the 'Info Window', That can be brought up by a defined key when required.

Alternatively you could run CPWizard on game start

set options - mame config- control panel viewer

http://headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=cpwizard

[danny_galaga]

Ok, now I've found out all about the info window. Seems perfect for what I want, and I even get to throw in the history files too (",) . So is it possible to put a simple text file in there somehow? So I can toggle between 'history' and 'instructions'? The instructions are general and not game specific. I've been fiddling and trying to find info on the net, and I seem to be out of luck. I want the history and instructions page to look similar, so if I have to make my instructions into a jpg and insert as a 'definable' how do I match the colours of the history page? Also, can i change the colour of text and background in the info window?

I've only been using Mala for one day and I must say it's bloody brilliant! I have a rotating monitor and today I was thinking 'im sure i can make some sort of plug in thingo to rotate the menu'. Then I realised it's already built in! Glad I didn't start down that path before I started   Then it clicked why the layout kept turning to horizontal each time I opened it to edit- you have the two views to edit!

I actually turned to Mala because it was the one fe i tried this time around that worked straight away. I have had luck with atomic fe in the past, but not this time. Turns out Mala is just the ticket for rotating monitors (",)

[loadman]

So is it possible to put a simple text file in there somehow? So I can toggle between 'history' and 'instructions'? The instructions are general and not game specific. I've been fiddling and trying to find info on the net, and I seem to be out of luck. I want the history and instructions page to look similar, so if I have to make my instructions into a jpg and insert as a 'definable' how do I match the colours of the history page? Also, can i change the colour of text and background in the info window?

Your requests seems to be unique so your ideas seem feasible.

Using the MaLaLayout editor you can certainly chnage the colour of text and background in the info window 

[danny_galaga]

So is it possible to put a simple text file in there somehow? So I can toggle between 'history' and 'instructions'? The instructions are general and not game specific. I've been fiddling and trying to find info on the net, and I seem to be out of luck. I want the history and instructions page to look similar, so if I have to make my instructions into a jpg and insert as a 'definable' how do I match the colours of the history page? Also, can i change the colour of text and background in the info window?

Your requests seems to be unique so your ideas seem feasible.

Using the MaLaLayout editor you can certainly chnage the colour of text and background in the info window 

Thanks, found how to edit the colours (",)

What I'm liking about MaLa is that the answers mostly are in there, somewhere. Some things take a bit of getting used to. Editing the info window parameters is in a different format to editing, say the game list info for instance. So  when I go Layout- Info window i think "well, obviously that's not there to edit, it just a pop up with some latin joke on it" . I must have loooked at that a dozen times before I right-clicked on it 

[danny_galaga]

Ok, still slightly confused 

This is what I'm doing:

In options, I go to GUI-info window. I put in 'new page'. Then in 'type' I put in 'image. And image type 'definable1'.

But if I then go into the layout editor and enable 'definable1', yes I can edit it and put a pic of choosing, but it just sits it on the screen, much the same as 'custom'. If I then run MaLa, sure enough, the image 'definable1' is sitting there on the screen along with any others. If I press 'alt', I do get the new page along with 'history' etc, but it doesn't have my definable in it, which would be kinda useless if its jsut sitting there on permanently on the screen!

Is there some step I'm just not getting?

Edit: problem solved

[loadman]

Sweet. 

How did you end up solving?

[danny_galaga]

Sweet. 

How did you end up solving?

I bit the bullet. I did it the crude way. In the info window, I have cpanel selected. Then I made up a pic of my instructions and proceeded to rename 200 copies of it and put them in the cpanel folder instead of the original pics! Took about 45 minutes. Of course this won't be very feasible for anyone who has 1000+ games on their cab 

[nintendoid]

hi

I would like to add a custom text into the FE not displaying instructions but current highscores.

Just wondering if this could be done from a text file... i.e. I have a txt file called dkong.txt where I manual type the score in and then its displayed in a Text> Text3 option for example??

otherwise Ill make a jpeg and add it as say the control panel...

edit: on reading i saw this hi/ project.... I just need a simple/primative system. I created a folder called hi and then a file called dkong3.txt and typed a score... this now display in the info panel (alt) on mala is there a g_? command to load this on the main screen??

[Sibby]

I bit the bullet. I did it the crude way. In the info window, I have cpanel selected. Then I made up a pic of my instructions and proceeded to rename 200 copies of it and put them in the cpanel folder instead of the original pics! Took about 45 minutes. Of course this won't be very feasible for anyone who has 1000+ games on their cab 

This is the exact issue I'm running into.  What I'm trying to do is have a single image display in the info window for other EMUs like NES, SNES, etc.  I thought about doing what you did and taking that single image and renaming it to the name of each rom, that would work.  But I think a more elegant solution would be to have an option when this image loads.  The logic would be, if a romname.jpg is not found, then look for a enuname.jpg image and display that.  This would keep the existing logic in place but eliminate the need to have to copy 200+ roms (or however many roms you have for that enu).  Look at my post here http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=108987.0 for more details.

Loadman, is this something that's possible?  Or is danny's workaround what we'll have to do in this situation?

[loadman]

I bit the bullet. I did it the crude way. In the info window, I have cpanel selected. Then I made up a pic of my instructions and proceeded to rename 200 copies of it and put them in the cpanel folder instead of the original pics! Took about 45 minutes. Of course this won't be very feasible for anyone who has 1000+ games on their cab 

This is the exact issue I'm running into. 
Loadman, is this something that's possible?  Or is danny's workaround what we'll have to do in this situation?

That does not sound the same to me.  

I think Danny wanted separate images for each game for specific instructions where it sounds like you want the same one to display for every game right?

If that is true what would need to happen is the ability to specify a default image if a specific rom image is not found.

Am I on track with my thinking here?

[Sibby]

Yes a default image would work perfectly.  In my case I would simply not specify a game image so it would work for me, but for others, they may want some type of image to display if the game image was not found.

[danny_galaga]

Nope, Sibby is right. I didn't want to ask too many stupid questions at once, so to fix it, I copied the exact same image 200 or so times, put them in the cpanel folder, renaming it for each rom (see atached pics  ) What I was hoping could be done was that there would be a default image, just like in mame32 snapshot. If it doesn't find the snapshot of the rom, it loads a default image. I would have liked to make a similar setup with the info window. IF NO IMAGE FOR INFO, THEN DEFAULT, to put it in a more boolean manner.

[loadman]

OK right....

Well all the images in the Layout you can set a default image using the Layout Editor

But currently there is no concept of default image in the info window.

Should no be too hard to do just takes time.

I have a few MaLa things to do before I think about this and the real world is hasting me :-(

So remind me in a few weeks about this ok?

[ivwshane]

Loadman, although I don't see myself using this, you are awesome!

That is all!

 

[danny_galaga]

OK right....

Well all the images in the Layout you can set a default image using the Layout Editor

But currently there is no concept of default image in the info window.

Should no be too hard to do just takes time.

I have a few MaLa things to do before I think about this and the real world is hasting me :-(

So remind me in a few weeks about this ok?

Sure will! As soon as I did all 200+ images, I thought 'Oh, I should change that letter'. That would mean making another 200+ images! So I won't fix up any typos until there's a default image option (or option to write your own text into the info window) 

[loadman]

What image are we using for this?

snap
marquee
control panel
defianbles 1 -5 ?

[danny_galaga]

What image are we using for this?

snap
marquee
control panel
defianbles 1 -5 ?

I am using 'control panel' as it's one of the folders I didn't care about displaying. I definitely didn't want to use the SNAP folder as that's one of the few I did care about. I could also have used 'marquee' I suppose. At the time, I couldn't see how I could use the 'definables' option. My mame pc is in pieces waiting for a friend to help me get xp registered so I can't double check on that...

[Sibby]

Any updates on this one?  I would use this default images as well for displaying a static control mapping image for other emus like NES, SNES, Atari, etc...

[Gray_Area]

What image are we using for this?

snap
marquee
control panel
defianbles 1 -5 ?

I suggest using the last definable. Since there is no 'cabinets' box, I use Def 1 for that.

[Sibby]

So to reiterate the current issue here, there is not a way to set a default image in Mala.  One so that for every rom, the info window would display the same image.  Currently the only way to do that is to rename the same image, one for each rom name.  The problem is that's pretty tedious, as we needed to do it manually (as danny_galaga found out).  Well I broke down tonight and created a little app to do this.  It's pretty self explanatory.  Just takes a source image, you point to a rom folder and specify whatever file ext your roms use, and it will split out the same image, but renamed for each rom.

I know there are more pressing fixes in Mala so until then you can use this.  It's written in .NET 2.0, so if you don't have the framework installed, you'll need it first to run.

Good luck!

[danny_galaga]

So to reiterate the current issue here, there is not a way to set a default image in Mala.  One so that for every rom, the info window would display the same image.  Currently the only way to do that is to rename the same image, one for each rom name.  The problem is that's pretty tedious, as we needed to do it manually (as danny_galaga found out).  Well I broke down tonight and created a little app to do this.  It's pretty self explanatory.  Just takes a source image, you point to a rom folder and specify whatever file ext your roms use, and it will split out the same image, but renamed for each rom.

I know there are more pressing fixes in Mala so until then you can use this.  It's written in .NET 2.0, so if you don't have the framework installed, you'll need it first to run.

Good luck!

Cool idea! Might be useful in other circumstances too. I'll definitely save that for Ron. I've finally got the OS on my mame cab registered and everything, so this forum can expect a raft of new silly questions soon