Mamewah layout Res??

[lettuce]

I have the latest verion of Mamewah Config program, and it has lots of quality layouts you can upload, but the lowest res for these layouts are 640x480!. I understand that its best to set the res for mame using an arcade monitors is 640x288 or 360x240. So is there any layouts at these resolutions?, as if i have a 640x480 layout then it shall not fit the screen shall it?, or is there a easy way to resize these layouts?

[Stobe]

I've seen one or two layouts at that resolution at the screenshot website.  I've got mine at 640x480 right now, and it works ok.  Not the best text.  I will probably convert some of them to 640x288 and see if it helps.  If I come up with a set that looks good, I'll be glad to share.

-Stobe

[lettuce]

Thanks mate

[Minwah]

There should be a 640x288 one supplied.  640x480 should work fine too, but will flicker as the mode is interlaced.

Edit: I think there is a 368x240 layout supplied too - this is the resolution I use.

[Stobe]

Edit: I think there is a 368x240 layout supplied too - this is the resolution I use.

Do you have a screenshot of your own display?  Does a resolution that low allow for much space for all the great features the program supports?

-Stobe

[Minwah]

Do you have a screenshot of your own display?  Does a resolution that low allow for much space for all the great features the program supports?

Heh, not really   I just have one (title) screenshot, games list and title of the games list.  I like it, nice & simple.  You can just about make it out in the top photo here:

http://mamewah.mameworld.net/cabinets.htm

[Midnight Tboy]

are there any general guides or tips when it comes to converting any existing 640x480 (or higher) layouts down to 640x288.

I know one obvious one is the resize of the main image itself...but I expect there'll be more to it such as changing the coordinates of where each menu should be.

I'm getting near the final stages of my cabinet now and next task is to sort out the front end to make it nice and crystal clear..but using some of the cool layouts I've found for dl hopefully

cheers,
Tuck

[Minwah]

You need to resize the background image, then set the background size in the Layout Designer and finally move/resize the objects accordingly.

[Midnight Tboy]

ok thanks, I'll have a try at converting one a bit later....have the dentist to face shortly

[lettuce]

Any luck??

[Midnight Tboy]

with the dentist?  no - they did a root canal

heh,

yeah I did a quick test with the main mame layout from the cpviewer website.

resized the main pic to 640x288 and copied it over to the arcade pc.

now when it ran obviously the boxes where the names were written were in the wrong place.....so I loaded them up in mamewah's layout tool.

one problem though, the layout tool is setup to work at a higher res - so I had to increase resolution for the desktop in order to use it properly.

once that was done, it was as simple as just dragging the boxes and resizing them to a new size, done in the same way as you draw boxes in photoshop etc etc..so easy as anything.

When you resize the image in photoshop btw, aswell as in the layout tool don't worry about it looking daft and stretched....your TV/monitor, will show it back in its usual 4:3 and it looks great

cheers,
Tuck

[lettuce]

One quick question, how do u open a JPEG image in the mamewah layout program it only alows *.lay files??

[Midnight Tboy]

errr well I didn't load it in myself.

because I had the filenames the same it auto loaded the background jpg for me.

ie.

mame.lay
mame-main.jpg

picked it up auto

however I did notice, that in a folder with umpteen layouts it loaded the wrong jpg...so if needs be, copy the layout and pics to a temp folder while you play about

[lettuce]

I dont uderstand how u managed to change the layout of your new resized background image in mamewah layout tool. As u open the image in photoshop resize the image have to save it as a Jpeg etc, and then u cant load the image in mamewah layout tool, as it doesnt accept jpeg files?? So how did you do it?

[Midnight Tboy]

the mamewah layout tool itself doesn't (as far as I know) allow you to open jpgs that you choose - however it will auto load one of them.

so use that auto loaded one as your background for your guide line to draw your bounding boxes around, then have a look at it inside mamewah to see the final difference