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State of the FE devs?
screaming:
What's this mean?
--- Quote from: SirPoonga on September 14, 2006, 02:52:11 pm ---Almost
3a. Artwork built into emulator (snaps from F12).
--- End quote ---
SirPoonga:
I mean like snaps in mame. That's the only artwork that is "built in" to mame. It's the only artwork path in in the config file.
Sorry, artwork folder is there too, but that is for in game use.
headkaze:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on September 14, 2006, 09:04:22 am ---Read the post I made above. It's practically impossible to make it automatic. I hear a lot of people claiming that they can do it, but so far I don't see any results. There are various plugins and wizards that definately make it easier, but they are not automatic. Even assuming that someone were to tackle the problem it isn't a good use of the incredible amount of time that would have to be invested for such a minimal return. Yes it would make for an easier install, but are any of the fes out there that difficult to configure? I mean are users really losing sleep over how hard it is to get the psx emulator working in mamewah? I'm sure some of the ones that have trouble editing text files and reading instructions are, but you could give those individuals a single button that says "click to install" and they wouldn't be able to find the button. ;) I agree with what you are saying too, it isn't a good thing to make things too easy, you just end up with users that have no clue how the fe works.
And to put it blunty, either you force the users to install the fe a certain way and the roms a certain way (which is bad) or you have to ask them a bunch of questions. So it's down right impossible to make anything fully automatic. Due to end user agreements, we can't make a windows installer that includes all the emulators and the fe that automatically installs and sets them up. The user has to download the emu (and roms, aw ect) themselves and there in lies the problem. If the user has to do something manually then there is a margin for user error, and therefore a fool-proof turn-key solution is impossible.
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This thread is getting big fast. It's really strange that I started work on the GameEx Setup Wizard a week or so ago and there seems to be alot of talk about how to automate the setup of a FE. So I'm in the middle of working on code to automate the process as much as possible. When I first spoke to Tom about it I asked him "how deep does the rabbit hole go?" meaning how many options do we configure in the Wizard. So I decided to make it run from an XML file to make it as scalable as possbile. Of course some functionality is built in, but the built in methods are still called from the XML file.
Howard again you make valid points, and I think the only way to do things is to ask a lot of questions and automate as many things as you can. The user needs to be guided through the process and given suggestions and you need to check their selections (does the emulator folder/exe exist? etc.). It's not an easy problem to solve, and I don't think you can ever "solve" this problem, but you can certainly make it easier to setup a FE. Like you say there is no turn-key solution.
As for the "end-user agreements" of including emu's with the FE, I can understand that. But I wonder if automating the download of each emulator and installation/extraction to a folder is okay. What's your thoughts on doing something like that or do you think you can't have anything remotely like that?
Anyway, the GameEx Setup Wizard is nearly into testing stage, so release should be soon after that. So you guys will get to see a practical example of my ideas on automation. And I have alot of them but the GameEx approach is trying it's hardest to remove the "edit an ini file" way of configuration. While the ini file is obviously there for anyone with Notepad to edit, the config program itself has all the options available in a GUI. Adding another layer of configuration tweaking with the Wizard should help out the less computer savvy. At least I hope thats what it will do.
MYX:
I know that MW, DK and AFE are built to work on a CGA monitor. How hard is it in the build to add this type of output to the FE? I wanted the true arcade look. It is a major reason why I bought the monitor. It is a heck of a lot easier to just launch MAME into a SVGA monitor and be done with it. But I wanted the real look.
MinWah made the Res tool and this seems to work great once you zero in on a resolution that works. I am again just stuck in a situation where if I want to use the LEDWiz and 49 ways, I have to call NASA. My only gripe with the res tool is you have to go up to 640 x 480 to be able to get around the thing. The interlacing gives me a dagum headache.
AFE has a res selection for the FE, and it has a selector for users of the AVGA card. But where do I make changes per game or games of a similar resolution?
DK...Well I still can not make DK work :'( so I have no idea how this works.
An asside here, but at what resolution would I render home made movies out of after effects to go into the FE? 640 x 288? or could I make little movies and put them behind the text and one behind the snap.
youki:
--- Quote ---How hard is it in the build to add this type of output to the FE?
--- End quote ---
You mean the FE output directly 15hz? It is no at the FE level you have to do that.
If you do taht at the FE , only the FE will be at 15khz. and not the emulators..
the only way to do that, is to make a Video device driver outputing 15Hz. I started few month ago to do that. (i wanted to do a kind a Soft ArcadeVGA) . But the problem , despite the fact is not so easy to do and find hardware documentation ..etc..Etc.. , You can't make it "Generic" , you can't make a universal driver. Because you have to set timing , frequency etc.. for each resolution supported by your video card. All manufacturer have a different hardware.
The only thing we could do "generic" would be for standard VGA mode or MCGA. 320x200 256 colors, 640x480 16 color or 640x350 16 colors... So it means taht the FE must work in that resolution (which is very poor) and game you run too... if you change the resolution you come back to 31khz. No really usefull to implement that kind of driver.
ADVMAME trick the video card in the same way , but you have to do settings depending on your hardware , it is not generic too.
Under DOS ARCMON.SYS , only ouput 15khz for text mode , and 320c200 (and derived 320x400)graphic resolution.
It is why under dos you have to use the combination ARCMON.SYS + ADVMAME to have real Arcade rendering. With DMAME you play in 320x200 , if you want 15khz.
--- Quote ---AFE has a res selection for the FE, and it has a selector for users of the AVGA card. But where do I make changes per game or games of a similar resolution?
--- End quote ---
the problem you mix emulators and Front End. There is on one side the Front End settings.
And on the other side the emulators settings. 2 different world. I made the choice to not manage Emulators settings from my FE , to stay as generic as possible. So if you want change game resolution for mame use MAME tools , make .INI files or if you have an ArcadVGA use AVRes.exe it will generate all files for you.
--- Quote ---An asside here, but at what resolution would I render home made movies out of after effects to go into the FE? 640 x 288? or could I make little movies and put them behind the text and one behind the snap.
--- End quote ---
I'm not sure to really understand the question. But You can render you video as you want. Of it would be better to render it at the size it will be displayed (to avoid stretching and optimize size and quality). And in AtomicFE you can put the video where you want , behind text, behind snap , etc...
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