Snaps not working in Mala148

[bobetko]

 Sorry I  created this post in General section then realized my mistake. It should be in Software.

I am in the process of building my first MAME arcade machine. For my front end I've chosen MaLa (ver. 148). I just lost 2 days trying to make screenshots (or snaps) of the game working, actually displaying within mala interface.

I followed any available guide I could find to set everything properly.

I used suggested folder structure:
C:/Emulators/mala
C:Emulators/Programs/mame (ver. 148)
C:Emulators/Programs/mame/roms
C:Emulators/Programs/mame/snaps

When I run games and when I push f12, screenshot gets generated in snaps folder under subfolder named identically as the running game. So, this part works fine. As a matter of the fact, I tried to run MAMEUIFX and snaps are working fine once I point MAMEUIFX to look into my snaps folder.

In Mala, initial standard layout doesn't have Snap/Title object, so I used MalaLayout editor to add it. Everything seems ok.
I also added Layout folder, for example, I have:

C:/Emulators/mala/Layouts/standard.mll
C:/Emulators/mala/Layouts/standard/standard_background.png

In Mala, I set my folder "Layouts" as layout folder, and my new standard.mll is selected.
I made sure to point mala to C:\emulators\Programs\mame\snaps

I even tried other layouts from mala website, but none of them wanted to show snaps.

Snaps simply won't show, no matter what I do. I checked every ini file in mala (including standard.mll), mame folders and made sure that all settings for Snaps are properly defined. Everything seems right, but images simply won't show.

Does anybody have idea how to make this damn thing to work.

Also, can anybody suggest me some alternative arcade friendly front? I am ready to give up on this.

Thanks

[drventure]

I've got a little older version of mame, but I doubt the snap support has changed.

With mame 129, I have

Mame
Mame/snap

ALL snapshots go in that snap folder, each named as the name of the ROM, usually with a PNG extension.

In Mala, on the pictures and videos config page, point to the above folder for snaps, and you should be good

If MAME is dumping snaps in subfolders, I'm pretty sure Mala won't look in subfolders to see them, so just move them up one level to the actual SNAP folder

[drventure]

For fonts, googling I came up with this list

http://www.fontspace.com/category/arcade

It's not complete, but it looks like a pretty good starting point.

[bobetko]

I've got a little older version of mame, but I doubt the snap support has changed.

With mame 129, I have

Mame
Mame/snap

ALL snapshots go in that snap folder, each named as the name of the ROM, usually with a PNG extension.

In Mala, on the pictures and videos config page, point to the above folder for snaps, and you should be good

If MAME is dumping snaps in subfolders, I'm pretty sure Mala won't look in subfolders to see them, so just move them up one level to the actual SNAP folder

Currently snaps are saved like this (example for phoenix and metal slug 3):

mame/snaps/phoenix/0000.png
mame/snaps/phoenix/0001.png
mame/snaps/mslug3/0000.png

I pointed mala to this mame/snaps folder and images are not displayed.

I modified mame.ini to save snaps directly in snaps folder, so I have them like this:
mame/snaps/phoenix0000.png
mame/snaps/phoenix0001.png
mame/snaps/mslug30000.png

(notice that folder with rom/game name is not created)
This doesn't work as well.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[bobetko]

Ok. Mistery solved.

mala expects romname.png files to be saved in snaps folder, and new mame is using different format  (adding subfolders and take number).
I downloaded a bunch of snaps from internet and dumped them into my snaps folder and now all of it just works.

I guess, if I in mame.ini change:

"snapname                  %g/%i"

into

"snapname                  %g"

I will be able to capture new snaps the way mala wants it.

 

[drventure]

Right, you just won't be able to capture more than one snap. It might work better (depending on what you're after) to leave mame's config alone, capture snaps into those subfolders, then find the one snap you'd like to use to represent the game in Mala and copy it up to the snaps folder, renaming it in the process to just the romname.png

My Mala addin, No18Engine, can rotate multiple snaps, marquees and other images, in a sort of slideshow within mala. But that's not something Mala can do natively.