Malatree Tutorial

[dungbeetle46]

first set up mala, emus, layouts and gamelists normally before making a tree.

Open Malatree and you will have a menu like shown below (make sure Malatree is in your
 mala folder.


On the right under Top Node this is the first screen to appear when using the tree, you can name this what you like and pick your layout to use from the drop down box


Now click on add menu, you will now see a + sign next to your main menu on the left, click the plus and it will have new node, click on new node, these nodes are your emus that will show under the main menu. now on the right name your new node, say 1st one is mame now pick the layout you wish to use when going to the next screen which will be where you choose which gamelist to launch.


Now click add gamelist and another + sign will appear which will be a new  node, click on new node now on the right name this what you want for the gamelist like All Games, Cocktail etc then choose your final layout, this will be the layout where your games will show up.

Then choose the emulator for this node and then choose the gamelist eg: All Games.mlg

Now click back on the top node the one right at the top on the left and click add menu and repeat all of the above for your other emus. as I said at the start make sure all your emus and gamelists are already setup otherwise they wont appear in the dropdowns in malatree

You can use a snapshot on each branch of the tree eg: N64 console on N64 branch etc these need to go in a folder which can be chosen under gui in mala options they need to be named like so, say you menu structure is top node=Mala menu and you mame emu is called mame the the snap to show on the mame branch needs to be named
Mala menu_mame.png
hope this helps

[Spinach]

Thank you Dung!  This is my second to next project after setting up NES/Fam.  I've wanted to look into this but have been tied up recently.  You have just saved me about 2 days worth of work!

[dkubarek]

What does a tree do?

[dungbeetle46]

A tree starts off showing all your emus in a menu instead of showing just mame or n64 etc, then you choose your emu from the list you want to play, this will take you to all the gamelists you have for that emu, pick your gamelist and you will go to the normal layout with your games in it. pressing escape will take you back to the previous screen where you can pick another gamelist or press escape again and go back to the main screen and choose another emu
cheers

[ivwshane]

I don't know why I'm having problems, I created a tree a while back and then deleted it.

I'm trying to create a basic tree that includes mame and snes. Each emu has one gamelist (all games).

I have:

mala menu
   mame
      all games
   snes
      all games

I can get each layout to display correctly if I don't select the tree option in mala. When I select the tree option only a dark scree comes up with a gamelist on it.

For the example above what should I name the layouts? I only have three layouts, system select, gamelist select, and game select.

[dungbeetle46]

when using a tree it doesnt matter what your layouts are called as long as you set your layouts correctly and have the directories pointing to your mala directory in malatree
File\ Directories\ C:\mame\MaLa\ etc
under each branch of the tree you will pick the layout you want to show from the dropdown list, as long as the layout shows up in the dropdown it should show in your tree.
let me know how you go

[ivwshane]

I figured it out

I thought I could name my tree what ever I wanted but it has to be called mala.mlt

[loadman]

Please update this (using your forum login) if you think it needs a little extra info:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mala_Tree

[ivwshane]

Please update this (using your forum login) if you think it needs a little extra info:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mala_Tree

Where was that page when I needed it?!

[loadman]

Please update this (using your forum login) if you think it needs a little extra info:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mala_Tree

Where was that page when I needed it?!

'twas there all along

[R0UNDEYEZ]

I gave up on trying to use a tree since it was not working right, Something I want to say should be added somewhere is how the tree has to be named mala.mlt like mentioned already.
also don't put it in the folder with your layouts..put it in the base directory with mala (which I  didnt know earlier)
I don't know if its normal,and it also doesnt matter a whole lot since im not using it anymore, but for curiosity sake i guess.. the problem i could never resolve would be the first load of mala would show my layout but no game list tree ,if i just hit start anyway it would load my first list, and when i would cancel out it would then show my list, but spaced sort of oddly. happen to anyone else?

[genree]

Thanks !