Kymaera settings

[Scoobie]

I am at a point where I'm trying a few different FEs.  Beyond the initial frustration of the different methods of setup, it's actually quite fun.  I take my hat off to all you dev's.  Your work brings hours of gaming joy to a whole lot of people. 

I have been able to get Kymaera set up with a main list for Mame.  What I haven't figured out, is how I can:

Turn on attract videos?
Make the mouse scroll through the games list faster?
Keep the FE at full screen after exiting from a game, back to the FE?   (the screen is reduced to about half the size of full screen and in the upper left corner of the screen)

Thanks and great work on the FE!

[PacManFan]

To answer your questions,
Attract videos are "on" by default. Place any videos you have in your snaps folder. The mouse only goes at one speed. (I need to fix that).

From what it sounds like, you see the emulator in a command prompt. try to create a shortcut to the emualtor, and specify "Full screen" in the options.

-PMF

[Scoobie]

So, I would place my videos in the same folder as my snaps?  By doing so, would my videos play in the FE when available, then default to a snap for those games without a video?

I'm not sure what you mean by seeing the emulator in a command prompt.  I so far have been launching the FE by clicking the Kymaera icon in the Kymaera folder.  I'll add a shortcut later on.  Where exactly do I find the option to specify "Full screen"?

Thanks!

[Salellron]

By "seeing the emulator in a command prompt" I think he means running the dos version "ky_dos.exe"? If so, when you create a shortcut for "ky_dos.exe" you can specify to run in Full Screen on the "Screen" tab under "usage". By default it sets it to "window"

[Scoobie]

I'm running the Windows version, so where would I specify "full screen"?

Also, when I quit a game and return to the FE, it sometimes is a quarter the size of the monitor (as listed below), and sometimes is blown up so big that most of the FE is cutoff the screen.  Will the '"full screen" option fix this?

[PacManFan]

I've never seen that problem before, I thought you were referring to the mame program running in a dos box. I'll look into it. Post a screen shot if you can.

-PMF

[ErikRuud]

I think I saw it happen once or twice with the oldest version.

It seemed at the time like windows was not switching back to the correct resolution after MAME had changed it for whatever game I played.

I have not seen it happen in a long time though.


To answer your other question, Kymaera will play the video if it is there, or show the snap if it is not.

[Scoobie]

Okay, I know I'll get a lot of crap for this one...
How do I save/post a screenshot of the FE?  When in the FE, the commands I press don't seem to work.   

[ErikRuud]

Try using HoverSnap.

It works very well, and I just tested it with Kymaera and it did get the screen shot.

[Scoobie]

Here are before and after screenshots.  Once I launch a game, then exit back to the FE, I get the "cutoff" shot.  The "before" shot is only on screen when I first start the FE.  It switches to the "cutofff" shot, once I launch a game, then exit back to the FE.

Any ideas?

[Scoobie]

And the "cutoff" screenshot:

Sorry for the small pics, still figuring out this feature.

[PacManFan]

I think I know what this is. The background screen is not being stretched to the full screen width. I think I fixed this problem with the latest release. Try upgrading to the 2.0.2 release version. Antother way to fix this is to set your resolution in KymaeraConfig to be 800x600 (the same size as the skin)

-PMF

[ErikRuud]

I did some checking with the previous release, and it seems to happen when the resolution on the first config screen is not the same as the skin.

[Scoobie]

Changing the resolution to 800x600 did the trick...on my test machine.

I'll try it on my cab this weekend.  The cab is using a TV for a monitor, so the resolution is set to 640x432.  Hopefully it will still work.

[Scoobie]

I found a different issue.  When I launch a game, I see the windows hour glass for a split second.  Is there a way to remove this completely?

Thanks!

[PacManFan]

That's a known issue right now, I'll see if I can changes the cursor and move it to the edge for the next release so it won't be visible.

-PMF

[Scoobie]

Changing the resolution to 800x600 did the trick...on my test machine.

I'll try it on my cab this weekend. The cab is using a TV for a monitor, so the resolution is set to 640x432. Hopefully it will still work.

Okay, I tried it on my cab, and I now need to tweak some things for it to run properly.  The only way I can see the entire window of any dialog box on my cab, is if the resolution is set to 640x480 (640x432 is the exact resolution I am using, but not all software can run at this size).

I would like to use the default skin/background for Kymaera, because I like how it looks, and also I've never used Photoshop or other graphics software.

When I open the Configuration tool, the bottom half of the box is cutoff on my screen.  Is there a way to change the resolution of the Configuration screen?

Next, I need to change the skin and/or background size to 640x432 (idealy), however 640x480 would look okay.  If I can do this, Kymaera won't shrink or blow up the size of the FE after exting back from a game.

Any help on this is most apreciated!

[PacManFan]

The configuration really needs to be run at 1024x768 or better. You might want to try creating a 640x432 skin on another machine that can support a higher resolution, and then copying over the new skin.

You can probably resize the background to be 640x432 and tweak the positions of the elements on the screens to match.

-PMF

[Scoobie]

How do I resize the background?

[PacManFan]

Use Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (free trial), or if you must, use MSPaint to resize the image. To resize the skin, you'll probably have to create a new skin and re-create it, or if you want, open the skin up in notepad and change the XRes and YRes variables manually at the top of the skin.

-PMF

[Scoobie]

I resized the image (using Paint Shop Pro), and also tried recreating the background and skin.  The setup seemed to be okay, but every time I run Kymaera, it crashes.  This seems to only happen when I select a resolution of 640x432 (what I need to run on my cab).  It works with the basic resolutions, i.e. 640x480, 800x600 & 1024x768.

Is there something that can be done to accomodate this resolution?  I seem so close...

[PacManFan]

Well, there are 2 things going on, You can set the resolution that Kymaera uses (Screen Mode), and you can set the resolution of the Skin. Kymaera will stretch the skin to fit the resolution it's being run at, but for best performance, use a skin that's the same size as the screen res.

Did you set the screen res on the main config screen? Is that the problem with it crashing?, Or is it crashing after you changed the skin resolution? Try to isolate what's making it crash, and I'll see if I can help.

-PMF

[Scoobie]

I did change the screen res on the main config screen.  When I select a res of 800x600 or 640x480, it runs (although the screen orientation is still not quite right).  However, when I change the res on the main config screen to 640x432 (what I need), Kymaera crashes when launched.  This looks like the problem.  It would seem that Kymaera won't run at an odd res like this.  Is this possible, and can it be changed?

I have tried several things:

I changed the .skn file's XRes and YRes to 640 and 432
I changed the "Background" name for X2 and Y2, to 640 and 432
I placed my newly created 640x432 size background .jpg as the only .jpg in my default "skins" folder

After trying each item, then backing out of each, I found it really doesn't like the 640x432 res in the main config screen.  The other changes don't cause it to crash.

[PacManFan]

If the video card supports 640x432 in windows through directX, Kymaera should be able to support it. Try this, Right click on your desktop and go to your properties->display settings. Is 640x432 listed out as a resolution in the slider?

What kind of video card and OS are you using? I'll try and test this out.

-PMF

[Scoobie]

My video card does support 640x432.  This resolution is not listed in the desktop slider, but is my current resolution.  I select this resolution from a list of options by clicking the ATI icon on the taskbar.  640x432 is listed there and I have tried changing this to other resolutions as well.  Unfortunately, 432 seems to be the best vertical resolution on my set.

When I make a new skin and resize the background on my test machine (running at 1024x768), then transfer these files to my cab, it doesn't work.  I either get a blank screen with sound in playing, or I get an empty skin.  It's as if the skin was never made.

However, if I make a skin and background at 640x480 resolution, it runs fine.

I'm not sure what else to try.  Any thoughts?