Mala Layout Editor Questions

[Dustin Mustangs]

A have been messing around a bit trying to make my own mala layouts.  I have been peeking at the layouts that others have done to get an idea of how to do one myself.  I have noticed that some layouts will have a different background image for each emulator and then the actual layout file is not emulator specific.  It won't show an actual background in the layout editor and if you double click the background, it just shows, for example, bg.jpg with no path.  I assume this is a generic file that is different for each emulator and Mala knows to look for a bg.jpg in the corresponding emulator's folder and displays that when the layout is called from mala.

I tried to set this up for my own layout and couldn't get it to work.  What I want to do is similar, but a bit different.  I want to have two different generic layouts, one for the tree type view and then one for the gamelist type view where an actual gamelist is shown.  Then I want to use a series of these generic images to make each emulator's view unique to itself.    How would I go about doing this??  I tried using the definable objects in the editor and then just putting in a generic file name with no path and it wouldn't stick.  When I went back into the objects properties the field that I entered the filename in was blank.

Is there a way to do what I want?  Is there a better way to accomplish what I am trying to do that is easier??  It seems like this would be the easiest way because you'd only need two layout files and you'd also know all your layouts would be identical minus the images that make them unique. 

Thanks for any help you can provide!        

[swindus]

Sorry not possible at the moment. You need to make a copy of the layout (mll file, folder with all images) for every emulator and name the layout properly. But it is on my todo list.

[Dustin Mustangs]

Oh, ok.  Well, let me just say that this would be a VERY useful feature for someone like me who wants all their layouts to be coordinated with just small differences between them.  It would save time and disk space!!  It would also be nice to be able to do this per gamelist also, not just per emulator.   



Thanks for the reply and for the great FE swindus!

    

[Dustin Mustangs]

Just another thought on this if you are still out there swindus...

This would be even cooler of a feature if you could also specify a directory instead of just a file per emulator/gamelist.  The FE could then randomly select one of the files in the directory to display.  Say for example you have a lightgun gamelist for mame.  You could take the cabinet photos (or whatever) of your favorite mame lightgun games and put them all in that directory.  Then each time you called up that gamelist one of the pictures is selected at random and displayed. 

Now you'd be adding bells and whistles to this already awesome FE !!   

Ok, back to making layouts...

 

[shock_]

Don't forget to post up your layout(s) when you're done... lots of hardware/woodwork photos on this board, and almost none of the software by comparison

[loadman]

This would be even cooler of a feature if you could also specify a directory instead of just a file per emulator/gamelist.  The FE could then randomly select one of the files in the directory to display.  Say for example you have a lightgun gamelist for mame.  You could take the cabinet photos (or whatever) of your favorite mame lightgun games and put them all in that directory.  Then each time you called up that gamelist one of the pictures is selected at random and displayed. 

or.... Custom layout file options could be set via a Plug-in if Swindus was to add that power to do so in an upcoming version?