MALA Game Lists - CLONES?

[FrizzleFried]

Why is it when I filter out the vertical clones I do drop from around 2000+ games to 901,  but there is STILL a boat-load of clones showing?  Multiple 1942's,  multiple Donkey Kongs,  hell,  even PAC MAN shows up and IT'S a clone!?

What's up with that and how do I fix it?

[loadman]

Why is it when I filter out the vertical clones I do drop from around 2000+ games to 901,  but there is STILL a boat-load of clones showing?  Multiple 1942's,  multiple Donkey Kongs,  hell,  even PAC MAN shows up and IT'S a clone!?

What's up with that and how do I fix it?

There are clones and there are versions   ... 
Does mame32 filter out those better.  You could possibly make a list in that and import that into MaLa via Malagamelist.exe

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

...  hell,  even PAC MAN shows up and IT'S a clone!?

I thought Pac-man was considered a child rom of the parent rom for Puckman?  Anyway, this seems like one of those times where it might just be better to go through it manually.  Depending on your preference, you might want a specific version of a particular game, you know? 

Yeah, sifting through several hundred games (even after filtering) is a chore, but really?  Oh woe is us(!) for having complete rom sets of over 5700 games... 

[shock_]

Mine was doing exactly that same thing but now it isn't - of course, I'm not sure exactly what I did differently to get it to work    I was all strung up on whether or not "parent" and "master" meant the same thing, which I believe they do.

Try ticking the box "only masters" (and only working, if you want) in the options, then exit MaLa.

Backup all your .mlg files, then delete your all games list and restart MaLa to recreate you a base file.

Just the other night I did this and it worked; I then went into MaLaGamelist, saved it as a new gamelist, then swapped Puck-Man for Pac-Man, added back in working bootleg of Choplifter, etc and stripped out everything in brackets for a nice clean gamelist

[FrizzleFried]

Is this "ONLY MASTERS" option somewhere other than in the Games List program under filters?

Also,  any idea how I can speed up my games list scrolling?  I have messed with the acceleration option,  I have messed with key repeat option...but always SLOW SLOW SLOW....

[shock_]

Is this "ONLY MASTERS" option somewhere other than in the Games List program under filters?

Also,  any idea how I can speed up my games list scrolling?  I have messed with the acceleration option,  I have messed with key repeat option...but always SLOW SLOW SLOW....

It's all in the Options dialog in the main MaLa program.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Also,  any idea how I can speed up my games list scrolling?  I have messed with the acceleration option,  I have messed with key repeat option...but always SLOW SLOW SLOW....

In general, don't bother setting your scrolling acceleration beyond 5 or 7.  A lot of folks, including myself, have noticed some funky things happen when you do that.  Possible bug there.

Also, in the options menu, under GUI-->Options, add display delay to anything that displays (marquees, screenshots/videos, etc.) as you scroll your list.  10ms is what I've set, I don't remember the default.  The affect is mostly imperceptible, unless you're purposefully scrolling through a very long list.  You'll see then that the scrolling starts at a normal pace, then ramps up quickly.

Hope that actually helps!

EDIT: Also, if you have a sound event that plays when you scroll a list, make sure you set an exception for GUI Sounds.  (You'll see exception options to the display delay in GUI-->Optioins.)  If you don't, you won't hear that event.  Learned that one the hard way.

[FrizzleFried]

I've played with the acceleration settings.  I can't mess with the delay setting as I have my front end pop up instantly with a marquee and screenshot,  then 1000ms later the screenshot is replaced with an animated preview.   

Thanks for the image with where to find the MASTERS only setting though.

Is there any way to set up a "GENERIC MARQUEE" and/or "GENERIC SCREENSHOT" for when there aren't one of either or both?

Thanks!

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

... I have my front end pop up instantly with a marquee and screenshot,  then 1000ms later the screenshot is replaced with an animated preview.   

Well damn, that's unique... how'd you go about doing that?

[FrizzleFried]

In the layout editor,  just set both the animation box and the screenshot box (I actually use the TITLE screens) at the same exact location.   Set the delay to 1000ms and then set the Title, Screenshot, sounds events, etc. as exceptions.  Those images appear instantly and then 1000ms (or whatever you want) later,  the animation screen pops OVER the screenshot (title) screen and away you go.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

I've played with the acceleration settings. 

Pardon me if I'm being dense, but does that mean you now have list scrolling working as speedily as you want it to?  If yes, ignore the rest of this...

In the layout editor,  just set both the animation box and the screenshot box (I actually use the TITLE screens) at the same exact location.   Set the delay to 1000ms and then set the Title, Screenshot, sounds events, etc. as exceptions.  Those images appear instantly and then 1000ms (or whatever you want) later,  the animation screen pops OVER the screenshot (title) screen and away you go.

Gotcha!  (D'uh... should've figured.  Smart idea.)  Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's the delay exceptions that are causing your list to scroll slowly.  It seems like it would be pretty easy to implement an individual display delay per visual element ... but you gotta ask swindus for that! 

[FrizzleFried]

Still slow...and i tried to turn off all the exceptions...same speed.  I guess I am just used to MAMEWAH where the scrolling is fast...

[loadman]

Still slow...and i tried to turn off all the exceptions...same speed.  I guess I am just used to MAMEWAH where the scrolling is fast...

Ehhh?  You should be able to scroll as fast as you want

Is there any way to set up a "GENERIC MARQUEE" and/or "GENERIC SCREENSHOT" for when there aren't one of either or both?

Yes. You set it in your Layout using the editor

[loadman]

Is this "ONLY MASTERS" option somewhere other than in the Games List program under filters?

Also,  any idea how I can speed up my games list scrolling?  I have messed with the acceleration option,  I have messed with key repeat option...but always SLOW SLOW SLOW....

It's all in the Options dialog in the main MaLa program.

Dang 

Nice arrows...

Dude,    How much do I have to beg you to help with the MaLa Wiki in the Layouts section     You were born to help   
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mala_Wiki (A work in progress)

[shock_]

Dude,    How much do I have to beg you to help with the MaLa Wiki in the Layouts section     You were born to help   
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mala_Wiki (A work in progress)

You have to beg me lots and lots! And you probably also have to paste it all in for me, too.

Going away for Easter (don't rip off my house, dude!!) so will try and get something sorted when I et back.

Sorry to hijack the thread, FrizzleFried!

[Konrad]

Still slow...and i tried to turn off all the exceptions...same speed.

I also had this problem. Turned out that I had to raise the delay for displaying screenshots/videos.
If the delay is too small it loads and displays every screenshot, resulting in lower scrolling speed.
With a higher delay it will skip loading some screenshot while scrolling. But who needs to see every screenshot while scrolling fast anyway ? Anyway, it won't load every screenshots directly while scrolling (i.e. won't load them), which increases scrolling speed.

[FrizzleFried]

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong...but I just went through and tried acceleration at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 and frankly...I can't tell a difference between all 7 settings....the game list flows equally slow?!?

[FrizzleFried]

Still slow...and i tried to turn off all the exceptions...same speed.

I also had this problem. Turned out that I had to raise the delay for displaying screenshots/videos.
If the delay is too small it loads and displays every screenshot, resulting in lower scrolling speed.
With a higher delay it will skip loading some screenshot while scrolling. But who needs to see every screenshot while scrolling fast anyway ? Anyway, it won't load every screenshots directly while scrolling (i.e. won't load them), which increases scrolling speed.

Unfortunately this won't work for me as there doesn't seem to be a way to set two different delays (see my posts above regarding my videos popping up after the screenshot).   Mamewah displays the marquees and screenshots instantly but the flow of the gamelist is night and day compared to MALA?!

[Konrad]

I've set the display delay to 1000. Works fine for me.

[FrizzleFried]

I've set the display delay to 1000. Works fine for me.

Unfortunately with my custom layout this is impossible for me as I too ALSO have my deplay set at 1000...but my screenshots and my marquees have to be an exception.   See,  the way my layout works is that the marquee and screenshot appear instantly,  then 1000ms later my animated preview pops OVER the screenshot (which is actually the title screen) and away it goes.  I would need to somehow get a 2nd delay setting so I could set the screenshots and marquees for,  say 200ms and then my previews for 1200ms.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong...but I just went through and tried acceleration at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 and frankly...I can't tell a difference between all 7 settings....the game list flows equally slow?!?

Okay, I understand what you're doing with your layout, so I'm just asking this to be thorough:

...with all the delay exceptions OFF, and acceleration set to 7... there's NO change in the scroll speed?  On my comp, with similar settings, the list will start to scroll at it's usual slow speed, but after 3 or 4 games, it starts to ramp up in speed pretty significantly - I can get through my favorites list (100 games) in a few seconds.  Are you really getting no change at all?    Or are you just looking for an instantaneous change in the scrolling speed?  I've never used MameWAH so I have no comparison...

[loadman]

have my deplay set at 1000...but my screenshots and my marquees have to be an exception.

Ahh that makes sense then...  If you have to have your screeshots and marquess displaying 'on the fly using exeptions' then it will go slower:

  I understand wht you doing but a way around it is you could go itnto the layout editor and set a generic background considering you have the video popping up over it anyway after 1000 

[loadman]

OK I just tested this with a fresh MaLa install.  I will post this in the Wiki Too

To make MaLa scroll fast straight away you need to have the following set
1) Options-Controller-Keyboard-Options (Key repeat set to ..say.. 10)
2) Options-Controller-Options (Use scrolling acceleration set to ....say...5)
3) Options-Gui-Options (Enable display delay and have no exceptions checkbox's ticked)

This should make MaLa Scroll very fast pretty much straight away...

If speed acceptable you can allow exceptions items to the display delay (Test individually)
The effect will vary depending on your PC speed.. Q) Why? A) Displaying things like snaps and videos will effect the scrolling speed. So delaying them from loading until you have been on a selected item for a while will speed things up

[FrizzleFried]

OK I just tested this with a fresh MaLa install.  I will post this in the Wiki Too

To make MaLa scroll fast straight away you need to have the following set
1) Options-Controller-Keyboard-Options (Key repeat set to ..say.. 10)
2) Options-Controller-Options (Use scrolling acceleration set to ....say...5)
3) Options-Gui-Options (Enable display delay and have no exceptions checkbox's ticked)

This should make MaLa Scroll very fast pretty much straight away...

If speed acceptable you can allow exceptions items to the display delay (Test individually)
The effect will vary depending on your PC speed.. Q) Why? A) Displaying things like snaps and videos will effect the scrolling speed. So delaying them from loading until you have been on a selected item for a while will speed things up

Unfortunately this will not work for me.  Why?  As described above,  each time a game is selected,  a snapshot appears...then a couple seconds later the animated preview starts.  If I set NO EXCEPTIONS,  the animated preview would simply run and the screenshot (actually titlescreen,  but that is here nor there) wouldn't be displayed at all.  I would,  somehow,  need to be able to set TWO delays... one delay for about 200ms,  with no exceptions,  then another delay at 1200ms which would then show my animated previews.  ALSO,  by setting no exceptions to a delay,  menu navigation sound is delayed and it just doesn't sound right (the sounds would be delayed until after movement making it look/sound strange).

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

...ALSO,  by setting no exceptions to a delay,  menu navigation sound is delayed and it just doesn't sound right (the sounds would be delayed until after movement making it look/sound strange).

I mentioned this earlier.  For some reason, setting the delay exception for that sound event doesn't affect the speed of scrolling, at least not on my setup.  It does, however, stutter the sound event until you stay on one selection long enough for the whole sound to play.

EDIT: Also, if you have a sound event that plays when you scroll a list, make sure you set an exception for GUI Sounds.  (You'll see exception options to the display delay in GUI-->Optioins.)  If you don't, you won't hear that event.  Learned that one the hard way.

Dude, we're all going in circles with this.  The only solution that's going to give you precisely what you're looking for is if swindus puts in individual delay options for display elements.  That's it, end of story.

Sorry... 

[FrizzleFried]

Dude, we're all going in circles with this.  The only solution that's going to give you precisely what you're looking for is if swindus puts in individual delay options for display elements.  That's it, end of story.

Sorry... 

Uh...don't get your panties in a bunch.  I was responding to Loadman who has been helping me via PM and who directed me back to this thread to a response he made of which I quoted. 

 

[loadman]

Dude, we're all going in circles with this.  The only solution that's going to give you precisely what you're looking for is if swindus puts in individual delay options for display elements.  That's it, end of story.

Sorry... 

Uh...don't get your panties in a bunch.  I was responding to Loadman who has been helping me via PM and who directed me back to this thread to a response he made of which I quoted. 

 

 

[loadman]

If you want a default image on your layouts you use set it in the Layout Editor