help please with mamewah 1.5 layout

[brihoo2k]

I keep seing the great screens that people have made for mamewah and I for the life of me cant seem to figure out how to get them to work for me. I have configured my computer to boot up to miss pacman start up sound and go right into mamewah. Ieven got my bootup screen in win xp pro to say mame instead of windows xp. I know its probably plain as the nose on my face but I'm missing something somewhere. Any help would be greatly appreciated thank you in advance

[SpamMe]

Can you be a bit more specific about the problems you're having?

[brihoo2k]

I just need to know how to get mamewah skinned right. The frontend is got to be the best thing Ive seen so far. I just dont want the black screen

[Wizard of DelRay]

Provided it works like MAMEWAH .97, let's see if this works.

1.  Copy the layout and background files that you want to use to the folder that is the size you will be using (Classic 800x600, for example.)

2.  Make sure that you rename the files that you copied over to emu1.lay and emu1-main.jpg.  Delete files already named this first if you have to.

3.  In your MAMEWAH.CFG file (it's under MAMEWAH/FILES) make sure that under ;MISC OPTIONS that your layout name is the size you're using (for example, Layout Name = CLASSIC 800x600.)

[brihoo2k]

It's totally different than mamewah .97. It's 1.51. I would like to have a screen like one of these http://mamewah.mameworld.net/screenshots.html. but instead I have a screen like the one attached

[Crazy Cooter]

MinWAH, as always, feel free to use this in any FAQ or whatever.  I'll break this post into seperate parts so I can attach an image where needed.

For MameWAH 1.51 Layouts:

1) You need to create a folder in the layout folder for your new set.  I'm working on a JungleKing cab, so I called it "jking_cab".

2) You need a default layout called "layout.lay" that can be created with the "MAMEWAH Layout Designer.exe" included with the MAMEWAH download.  This will define where each variable (game list, artwork image, game description, etc.) goes and what images are shown.  I wanted layouts specific to each emulator that I have setup so far, so I created different layout and background files for each.  My arcade comp is fast enough that I used .bmp files for the background and kept my .psp (Paint Shop Pro 7) files so I could edit them easily.  I used a seperate layer for each portion of the images so it is easy to edit.

See attached pic.

[Crazy Cooter]

Using the "MAMEWAH Layout Designer.exe" is pretty straight forward once you start poking around.  There are 4 "screens" to set up.  We'll start with the quickest ones (for me).  Run "MAMEWAH Layout Designer.exe" and open the layout file for the resolution you will be running your monitor in.  Immediately save it as "layout.lay" in a new folder.  I opened the 800 x 600 and saved it in "jking.cab"as shown in the above pic.  This will prevent you from screwing up the default files on accident.

1) Screen Saver Form
This allows you to adjust how the screensaver is displayed.  Under [display objects], you can check what image/information is shown.  I pretty much left this alone.

2) Message Form
This menu is for when messages are displayed.  I just adjusted the color scheme.

3) Options Form
Similar to Message Form.  I adjusted the color scheme.

4) Main Form
The fun one.  This is what is displayed while you are choosing what title to play.  I did quite a bit here.  You can choose what images/information is shown under the [display objects] menu and set the properties of that object under the [object properties] menu.  Easy enough right?  Since I used my own background image, (I selected it under the [background] menu) I set the object properties of everything to transparent.

*Note:
The artwork will not be displayed until you "tell" MAMEWAH where it is located.  This is done in the .ini file for each emulator.  You will also need to tell MAMEWAH what your layout is called before it will try to use it.  This is done in the mamewah.ini

(bathroom break)

[Crazy Cooter]

The .ini Files:

The .ini files hold initialization information for MAMEWAH.  When MAMEWAH first starts, it will look to the mamewah.ini file in your mamewah folder.  In my case, it's C:\Games\mamewah\mamewah.ini These files can be edited with Notepad.  We need to open it and tell MAMEWAH what your layout file is called.  The only part I changed is under the ### Misc Options ### heading.  I changed the layout "variable" to point to the layout folder I created:
layout                      jking_cab
Save it and exit.  Now when MAMEWAH starts, it will look in my jking_cab folder for a file called layout.lay.  Get it?  That's what I created above.  Now I can see what the basics look like with my background image.

Now we need to tell MAMEWAH where all the roms & images are.  Go to your ini folder.  In my case it's C:\Games\mamewah\ini and open the mame.ini file.  Under the ### List Generation Settings ###, this is what I changed mine to:
rom_path                                  C:\Games\Arcade\roms
rom_extension                             zip
dat_file                                  C:\Games\Arcade\mame.dat
nms_file                                  
catver_ini_file                           C:\Games\Arcade\catver.ini
list_generation_method                    rom_folder_vs_dat_file
For me, I looked at the  C:\Games\mamewah\docs\ini.txt file for an explanation of what I needed to set each to.  Now all my ROMS show up in the list.  Next, I needed to display the artwork.  I reopened the mame.ini file and under ### Artwork Locations ###, I changed:
artwork_1_image_path                      C:\Games\Arcade\snap
artwork_2_image_path                      C:\Games\Arcade\marquees
artwork_3_image_path                      C:\Games\Arcade\control_panel
When you did our layout, it allowed you to show several artwork files.  I figured I wanted a snapshot of the game and the marque to show.  Since I am building a modular control panel, I also wanted to show anyone playing what controls they needed to have in place in order to play the game.  So I started creating control panel pics for each title.  Those files i saved in the C:\Games\Arcade\control_panel folder.  This might change now that I found out about the controls project where it can be displayed ingame.  Each emulator will need its own .ini file that will tell MAMEWAH where to find the information needed.

Anyhow, that's the basics of how I set it all up.  It takes a little while, but is worth it IMO.  Here's a quick pic of what I've got so far.  It's a wip, but you get the idea.

[Sylentwulf]

Here's the very obvious thing that I missed....
If your emulator is called Z26, then you need your layout to be called Z26-main.jpg and Z26.lay

[brihoo2k]

Thank you very much I finally got it . The main thing I was missing was the system files. After downloading them And running the batch file it was a piece of cake. This frontend really rocks thanx Minwah for making it