Trying to get Black Knight Layout working in MaLa-need help

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I've downloaded the MaLa front end, and I'd have to say it's my favorite of the front ends. I tried downloading and applying the Black Knight layout to MaLa, but none of the layout design will appear. As an example of my problem, I included a screenshot of the problem I'm experiencing.

[drventure]

You sure you have your files in the right places.

Normally in mala the MLL file goes in \LAYOUTS and the supporting files (images etc), goes in \LAYOUTS\{layoutname}

There is an option in Malas config where you can instead tell it to assume all files are in one place (the \LAYOUTS folder) but if you might use more than one layout, that can get pretty confusing pretty quickly because all files for all layouts have to go in that one folder.

[ArcadeSeeker962]

You sure you have your files in the right places.

Normally in mala the MLL file goes in \LAYOUTS and the supporting files (images etc), goes in \LAYOUTS\{layoutname}

There is an option in Malas config where you can instead tell it to assume all files are in one place (the \LAYOUTS folder) but if you might use more than one layout, that can get pretty confusing pretty quickly because all files for all layouts have to go in that one folder.

What folders count as the "\Layouts folder" and \Layouts\{layoutname}? I looked in the wiki, and it mentioned something about a directory where the MLL file goes, but I became a little confused on where the directory is located...

[drventure]

So, you'll typically put MALA in

c:\Games\Mala

So the layout MLL (mine is n018.mll) file will go in

c:\Games\Mala\Layouts

and then there will be another folder

c:\Games\Mala\Layouts\no18

that will contain any images referenced by the MLL file.

At least, that's how I've got mine setup

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I tried that, but it still wouldn't recognize the layout. Could it be that the layout is not compatible with the newest version of MaLa?

[drventure]

It's possible. I don't know what kind of compat mala has among versions. Can you load it up in the layout editor at all?

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I'm able to. I guess I might be setting up wrong.

[BadMouth]

My guess is that the path to the background image is wrong.

Open MalaLayout.exe,
 open the layout,
double click on the background,
fix the path to the background image.

 

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I got the layout to work. Here's a list of things that I noticed that I was doing wrong:

1). I didn't let the GUI menu check for an .MLL file

2). The screen resolution wasn't set at the right resolution(in other words, not the fixed resolution).


Thank you for your help, drventure and BadMouth. 

[drventure]

Ahh.. Yeah I've never really understood when would be a good time to use a variable res layout, unless you were publishing a layout for use by a lot of people. But really, I think it's better to just hang onto hires versions of your images and tailor them to your specific screensize.

Still, glad you got things sorted!

[ArcadeSeeker962]

Thank you for the tip, drventure. I'll look for some other layouts that will suit my needs that are in high resolution. 

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I was mistaken about the term I used. I discovered that the Black Knight layout can be switched to full-screen, making it perfect for my bartop cabinet(when I start building it). I just unchecked the box in the Options/Configurations that said "used fixed size layout". Thank you very much though, Badmouth and drventure.