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Slight Mala Frustation

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swindus:

--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on February 12, 2007, 01:11:40 am ---I now have another small issue (or not).  Does MALA support "generic" screenshots for games missing screenshots?   Same question in regards to marquees.  If so,  what do I name the files (and I imagine I also put them in the same directory as my background artwork?)

--- End quote ---
Sure!

MaLa does support a default image for snaps, marquees and control panel pictures when no picture for the selected image is found. Have a look in the layout editor and load a picture into the 'default image' field in the object properties dialog of your snap, marquee or control panel object. Then copy/place those images in the layout folder.

One hint: In the current version of MaLaLayout is a bug which doesn't save the name of the default image in the layout  file (*.mll). So you have to add the filename of your image without a path by hand in the mll file, just use a text editor and search the line 'MarqueeDefault=' in the [Vertical] and/or [Horizontal] section.

FrizzleFried:
Thank you Swindus...

...any suggestions on how to learn to use the TEXT,  DEFINABLE & ANIMATION options in the layout editor?

Are there any docs anywhere for these?

swindus:
With the text objects you can display various text information for the selected game, the selected gamelist and more. There is a popup menu in the text object properties dialog where you can choose from a lot of placeholder:

Game values:
- Buttons (~g_buttons) Button count
- Clone of (~g_cloneof): Name of master
- Coins (~g_coins): Coin count
- Control (~g_control): Controller type
- Description (~g_description): Name of the game
- Genre (~g_genre): Genre of the game
- Orientation (~g_orientation)
- Players (~g_players): Player count
- Manufacturer (~g_manufacturer)
- Resolution (~g_resolution) XPixel x YPixel
- Screen (~g_screen): Raster or Vektor
- Year (~g_year)

Gamelist values:
- Count (~l_count): Count of games
- Filter flag (~l_filtered): Filter flag (displays (F))
- Name (~l_name): Name of list
- Position(~l_position): Current position in the list

and so on ....

An example: to display the current position and the count of games in a text object enter the following:
'~l_name: ~l_position of ~l_count selected' will result in: All games: 3 of 200 selected

To display the manufacturer and the year of a game:
'~g_manufacturer, ~g_year' will result in: Atari, 1979

The definable images can display images like the snap or marquee objects. The advantage here is that you can change the naming used by MaLa to find an image in various ways. For example if you use 'Buttons' for the naming MaLa is searching the image 1.ext, 2.ext and so on depending on the player count of the selected game (ext = jpg, png, gif or bmp) which makes it possible to display the count of players with an image. If you use 'Rom (default)' as naming the definable acts like the snap or marquee object to display a rom name based image (cabinet, flyer, whatever).
Here is an example of the use of 3 definables (player, controller, button) in a layout:


The animation ojects are fullscreen images which can move to a direction over the screen.

Maybe its a good idea to download and try different layouts from this page:
http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/layouts.html
Load the layouts in the layout editor and check the text and animation objects to get an idea.
VCP03 -> use of definables
retroGUI -> use of animation objects

FrizzleFried:
I looked at RetroGUI already but couldn't figure out where the animated file is?  I found the image of the space invaders,  but it wasn't animated?

Perhaps I am using the wrong application to view it?  What would you suggest (freeware if at all possible)?

...and thanks for the help.   It's sort of a pain in the ass to tinker with the cabinet standing there holding a wireless keyboard...I think it's time to clone that drive and bring it here to work on (while I can sit).

swindus:
You need to watch the layout with MaLa, not with the editor to see the animation. MaLa itself moves the image, the image is a non animated one.

You can also view a small preview in the layout editor. Menu View -> Preview

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