Khameleon front end 2nd public beta now available

[Cakemeister]

Get it here.

New features:
SVG images
Conditional skin elements
3-D models (.3ds file format)
Animated skin elements

I suggest installing the program, then running the konfig application and setting the artwork paths. Then you can run the demo program and look at the six skin samples I've created. I've added animations to four of the six.

Regards,
Cakemeister

[massive88]

Hah!  Last night I finally decided to try the first Khameleon beta (I use Mamewah currently).

Will definately check this out later this week.

One question I have, in my small experience with this FEr, is it possible to set up different artwork folders for each emulator to get screenies into the FE screens?  I could not see how to do that in my small time working with the previous.

For example, my screens directory structure looks like:
C:\Emulators\Atari\Snaps\5200\screens
C:\Emulators\Atari\Snaps\2800\screens
C:\Emulators\Nintendo\Snaps\NES\screens
C:\Emulators\Nintendo\Snaps\SNES\screens

But couldnt find where to specify those in the FE.

Thanks, and especially thank you for a newer version, looking forward to toying with it!

[Cakemeister]

Currently I don't have separate artwork directories per emulator.

I guess I can put that into the next release. It was much cleaner to make one artwork directory for all emulators.

[youki]

I just tried , that's nice.   

But on my machine, if i compare your AtomicFE layout and mine , the animation of yours is not as smooth.  I thought as, i think, your engine uses 3d video card acceleration it would be lot of more smooth.   Did you compare both on your machine?

 i tested also the layout in khameleon in 640x480 /16bit  as Atomic does. But not better.

[Cakemeister]

I just tried , that's nice.   

But on my machine, if i compare your AtomicFE layout and mine , the animation of yours is not as smooth.  I thought as, i think, your engine uses 3d video card acceleration it would be lot of more smooth.   Did you compare both on your machine?

 i tested also the layout in khameleon in 640x480 /16bit  as Atomic does. But not better.

I see what you are talking about.

Do you ever skip frames without displaying them? I am displaying all frames and maybe that is slowing other things down.

What kind of frames per second do you typically get?

[headkaze]

I see what you are talking about.

Do you ever skip frames without displaying them? I am displaying all frames and maybe that is slowing other things down.

What kind of frames per second do you typically get?

I'm not sure how AtomicFE works, but IMHO a tweening animation system should have a start frame and end frame and a duration. The animation system should calculate the quad's position based on time elapsed and updated each render frame. If each animation frame is the same as a render frame and not based on time then it will be "jerky" and the speed with change based on the FPS.

And BTW I noticed you added your "animated skin elements". Which skin example shows this in action?

[Cakemeister]

I think Youki's issue may be vsync. Vsync should probably be turned on.

The Atomic, Mamewah, Kymaera, and Ultrastyle skins now have animated skin elements.

[headkaze]

I think Youki's issue may be vsync. Vsync should probably be turned on.

The Atomic, Mamewah, Kymaera, and Ultrastyle skins now have animated skin elements.

I didn't notice any apart from some in the Atomic one, do I have to setup artwork folders to see the others?

[youki]

What kind of frames per second do you typically get?

On my machine , with default Atomic Layout displaying Video Snap , the frame rate is between 55 and 60 frame/s .

Can i see the framerate on my machine for Khameleon?

I think Youki's issue may be vsync. Vsync should probably be turned on.

It is possible, that's typically the kind of effect that happend when the vsync is wrong.
How can i turn it on?

[Cakemeister]

I use Fraps to check framerates.

I believe that you turn Vsync on in the control panel under your video driver, in the OpenGL section if there is one.

On my laptop the Atomic skin gets about 105 fps, measured with Fraps. I don't know how to measure Atomic's native frame rate.

[headkaze]

Great work btw Cakemeister. "Khameleon" really lives up to it's name because it can import so many different skins!

[Cakemeister]

Yep. It was vsync. I added a couple of lines to turn it on by default. I'll make it switchable so that slower skins can run as fast as possible. In the meantime, it should be possible to turn on vsync in the control panel or with whatever video card software comes with your driver.

[youki]

I just tried to turn vsync for openGL , but the result is not better in my case.  That's even better without the vsync.

The framerate on my machine using frag for khamelon is 152 FPS on Atomic Skin. (800x600x32)  If i switch to 640x480x16 , the FPS stays at 60FPS.

I didn't manage to display framerate with frag for the real Atomic.

[Cakemeister]

Khameleon can call Mala plugins. I had to recompile the sample plugin to get it to work. The reason is that programs compiled with Macrosoft's compiler don't play well with programs compiled with MinGW. So I'll need either the source code so I can compile the plugin or someone else can compile their plugin with MinGW.


*************************************************************
EVENT: Game selected
Name: Frogger
Manufacturer: Konami
Genre: Maze
Year: 1981

*************************************************************
EVENT: Game selected
Name: Galaga
Manufacturer: Namco
Genre: Shooter / Gallery
Year: 1981

*************************************************************
EVENT: Game selected
Name: Galaxian
Manufacturer: Namco
Genre: Shooter / Gallery
Year: 1979

*************************************************************
EVENT: Game selected
Name: Gauntlet
Manufacturer: Atari Games
Genre: Maze / Shooter Large
Year: 1985

[RetroBorg]

Cakemeister,

I've given it a go and I'm really impressed so far, I loaded up all the skins and they all look great.

I did come across one problem though when I put in all the artwork directories and started up Khameleon the screen came up black and the program hung. After a bit of analysis I determined the culprit to be the movies folder, I removed that and everything ran okay. I thought maybe I was missing a codec for the movies but I can play them alright in media player, then I noticed the mplayer program in the directory, so I assume Khameleon uses that to play those files, perhaps that's where the problem lies for me, I wonder if anyone else has experienced the same problem?

Is there a way to make adjustments to the skins yet?

Anyway, keep up the great work.

[Cakemeister]

The mplayer was only used for the standalone demo, as a sort of "emulator". It is not used by the frontend, and I'll delete it out of the next distribution.

I would be interested in seeing the log for your problem. Go to konfig and turn on file logging then reproduce the problem with the frontend. Then email me the khameleon.log file to cakemeister at comcast dot net.

So far the only way to edit the skins is by hand. I'm working on that.

[RetroBorg]

I would be interested in seeing the log for your problem. Go to konfig and turn on file logging then reproduce the problem with the frontend. Then email me the khameleon.log file to cakemeister at comcast dot net.

Email sent.

So far the only way to edit the skins is by hand. I'm working on that.

No problems.

[ErikRuud]

I can't seem to get snaps to show show on the cube in the Ultrastyle skin or the larger preview box in the Kymeara skin.  In Kymaera it used to show the snap if there was no video.

[Cakemeister]

I guess the "Use snap if movie not available" option is broken. Thanks for your bug report.

[ErikRuud]

Is there some information available on the skin options?  I'd like to try and make a custom one.

[Cakemeister]

The screen coordinates go from 0 to 8191.

0,0 is the bottom left corner of the screen. 8192,8192 is the top right corner. Units are then scaled by the desired screen resolution so X coordinate 4096 will be halfway across the screen regardless of the resolution or the aspect ratio. The Z coordinate is scaled the same as the X component. The positive Z axis points out of the screen and negative Z points into the screen.

Speeds for scrolling and animations are in scaled units per second or degrees per second.

The basic skin elements are images, movies, shapes, text, and models. I am working on buttons that can be clicked on with a trackball/button combination, for jukebox skins.

Images can be static images or can depend on the current game. You can have marquees, cabinet images, and many other kinds of game-dependent images. I have support for png, gif, bmp, tga, jpg, and svg images.

Movies can either be static movies or gameplay movies. I currently support only avi movies. Mpeg movies are in the works and definitely will be in before the Linux release, because the Linux release may or may not support .avi movies.

For shapes I currently support rectangles, cubes, and teapots. I am working on circles, triangles, and roundrects. Rectangles and cubes can be wireframes, solid colors, or textured with an image or a movie. Teapots can only be wireframes or solid color. A rectangle shape textured with an image is functionally identical to having an image element.

Game lists can either be one contiguous block of lines of text that are the same size (a la Kymaera, Mamewah) or individual elements. Marquees can be displayed instead of text if desired, for the individual elements.

Sound effects can be played at various events, such as when the game list is scrolled, a game is selected, the frontend quits, and so on. I support only .wav files for sound effects.

The frontend can play sound in the background. Only .mp3 format is currently supported. You can create a list of songs and the frontend will randomly pick one to play in the background.

The frontend can play movies when the frontend starts, when a game is launched, or when the frontend exits.

Text is always drawn at the font size specified. So skins will appear different at different resolutions because the text will be a different size, even though the images are not. I wonder if I should change this. There's an appeal to having the skin appear the same regardless of the resolution.

Elements with images have a blend mode. I support the following modes:
1) One image overlaying another with no blending, I call this "superimpose" mode.
2) Full blending with alpha channel
3) Blending with a fixed alpha value
4) Blending with a "key" value. All "key" values become transparent.
5) "Corner" alpha. The pixel in the bottom left corner becomes the transparent key color.
6) "Pulse" alpha. The alpha value goes from 0 to 1 and back again in a cycle.

Please let me know what skin options you are looking for.

[ErikRuud]

Thanks.

I was able to figure out some of it by looking at the included skins.  The rest if the information is very helpful.

One specific question would be what is the subtype for a snapshot?

[Cakemeister]

Thanks.

I was able to figure out some of it by looking at the included skins.  The rest if the information is very helpful.

One specific question would be what is the subtype for a snapshot?

For images the subtype for a snapshot is "Snapshot".

For movies the subtype is "Gameplay".

Currently the subtypes are case sensitive. I really should change that.

[ErikRuud]

Got it. Thanks!

I had tried Snap, Snaps, SNAP, SNAPS, etc. 

[Cakemeister]

I think I have reproduced RetroBorg's problem, and I've fixed the "Use Snap if Movie not available" problem. I also put in a switch to turn off Vsync (on by default now) and I also implemented a per-emulator artwork path.

The search order for movies will be: emulator-specific path, default path, emulator-specific parent, default parent. Then if Use snap if Movie not available is checked, it will then search up to four possible places for the snapshot.

There will be a bugfix release soon.

[RetroBorg]

I think I have reproduced RetroBorg's problem, and I've fixed the "Use Snap if Movie not available" problem. I also put in a switch to turn off Vsync (on by default now) and I also implemented a per-emulator artwork path.

There will be a bugfix release soon.

Well done! 

[Cakemeister]

Okay, the bugfix release is out. Just install the new one over the old one.

Download link

Mala plugins are disabled for this release.

[RetroBorg]

Okay I've downloaded the new one and I have the same problems as before when using the movies. 

Hopefully it's just my computer and it'll work fine on other peoples.

I did notice one improvement when I got rid of the movies folder and that was the snaps are now displaying and rotating in the rotating cube using the Ultrastyle skin.

I did notice the cube is shaped funny, the front of the cube is smaller than the back, it should perhaps be the other way around I think or perhaps all the same size.

In Dragon King the featured marquee the one in the middle is sometimes distorted/blurred/has streaks running through it and other times displays perfectly even on the very same marquee, all the marquees to the left and right always display perfectly.

Anyway keep up the good work.

Phil

[Cakemeister]

Okay,

When marquees are displayed instead of text, the "PreserveAspectRatio" tag is currently ignored. This can cause some display weirdness for marquees such as Metal Slug that aren't roughly the same aspect ratio as a normal marquee.

The cube's shape and size are, obviously, dependent on its current rotation value. You can see this a little better by changing the <XRot> value of the rotating cube skin element from 20 to zero. Then you can run the frontend and press 9 to toggle the display grid. Hopefully you should see that the cube is the same size in X and in Y.

Unless you are running a screen which does not have a 4:3 aspect ratio. Then the cube will appear wider than it is tall and deep.

[ErikRuud]

Bug Report...

I finally have gotten around to testing the newest release.

I had some problems with launching emu's but they seem to have gone away now.  I had to explicitly add the rompath for O2em as a literal in the launch command.  It did not appear to be utilizing (ROMPATH) correctly.  It may have been easier to figure out if the  actual command line was displayed in the log file.

The "Background Music Playlist" does not stop when a game is launched. 

On my cab the Snaps/Movies function seems to be working correctly.  On my T60 laptop some snaps only show as a solid color.  Some of the movie get skewed about 30 degrees to the right.

The Mala skin a layering/blending issue that leaves a portion of the upper left corner of the snaps visible.


Overall I am very happy with it.  I had given up on using video snaps because they slowed kymaera down too much.

Mouse input for scrolling the list might be nice.

Is it possible to have a wheel or list for Categories and Emulators?

[ErikRuud]

I forgot to mention that I am building game lists for O2em.  There is no good way to do it automatically, so I will bundle them up for whoever needs them when I am done.

[Cakemeister]

There is no .dat file for O2em? If there is, then konfig should be able to build a game list. If not, then I can include your generated game list in the distribution. Just email it to me at cakemeister at comcast dot net.

Also, I've reproduced your problem with the ($ROMPATH).

Do you have an example of a snap that shows as a solid color? Or a movie that gets skewed?

[ErikRuud]

Here are some screenshots.  I can send the actual files if you need.  They open normally in WMP or Paint Shop Pro.  These images and videos do not work in any skin on my laptop.  They seem to be fine on my cabinet.

[ErikRuud]

O2em does not have a dat file of any sort.  It uses CRC numbers internally.  If you do a screeshot, they are saved with the CRC as the file name.

There is a front end for it that has a gamelist.ini but it uses the CRC numbers to id the roms.  The rom files can be named anything at all.

Here is a snippet of the .ini

Code: [Select]


[864A79F8]
NAME=Alien Invaders - Plus! (Grimlick's Blackarachnia hack)
NOME=Alien! (Grimlick's Blackarachnia hack)
MANUAL=Alien Invaders Plus.txt
YEAR=1980
MANUF=North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp.

[DDBA0ED2]
NAME=Alien Invaders - Plus! (hack)
NOME=Alien! (hack)
MANUAL=Alien Invaders Plus.txt
YEAR=1980
MANUF=North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp.

[4663C4B6]
NAME=Alpine Skiing!
NOME=Esqui nos Alpes!
MANUAL=Alpine Skiing.txt
YEAR=1979
MANUF=North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp.
The number in square brackets is the rom id, but not the name of the rom file.

[ErikRuud]

Here is the Mala layering problem.  Actually I think it's related to the alpha blending.  Too much of the mask appears to have been trimmed for the transparent color.

[Cakemeister]

Erik,

Please send me the files in question. The stargate file is an image and the warrior file is a movie, or vice versa? Also, what OS are your laptop and cabinet running?

The Mala skin issue is actually a problem with the skin rather than with the frontend. Mala displays a background image, then the video, then an overlay image over that. If the video is drawn to the full extent of the space allocated for it, then it will protrude from under the edge of the overlay.

You can mostly correct for this by changing the "PreserveAspectRatio" flag for the movie, which I will change in the next release. A better fix would be to slightly shrink and move the area allocated for the movie.

Since I never heard of O2em before today I am going to place support for it on the very low priority list.
But I will include the game list in the distribution if you send it to me.

[ErikRuud]

Yes, Stargate is a picture and Warrior is a movie.

I'll send you an email shortly.

The T60 laptop(work issued) is running Win XP Pro SP 2.  The cabinet is also running Win XP Pro SP2. 

O2em is pretty much the only emulator for the Odyssey2 console.  I have had an Odyssey2 since 1980 but I prefer to play the games on the cabinet.  I didn't expect you to provide much support for it, that is why I offered to give you the game lists.

[Cakemeister]

I've added mouse input for scrolling the list and for other events. Should the mouse input scrolling be disabled if "Hide Mouse" is checked? Currently it is not.

The problem with enabling mouse input scrolling if "Hide Mouse" is checked is that the user may expect the list to scroll when the cursor is stuck at the top or bottom of the screen and isn't moving.

With Kymaera, the list kept scrolling so long as the user kept moving the mouse. I guess Allegro and SDL handle mouse input differently.

[headkaze]

Cakemeister: I notice the game lists are very touchy with a keyboard. If your trying to land on a specific game it can skip past it easily unless you tap the key to get there.

Also something to note is that older IPAC's don't have a key repeat. So you will only get a keydown event when they hold the joystick down, then a keyup event when they let go. AFAIK With newer IPAC's and regular keyboards there is a key repeat. So when they hold down the joystick it will key getting a keydown/keyup event over and over. I'm not sure if you have taken this into account because I haven't tested Khameleon on my MiniPAC yet.

[Cakemeister]

You can play with the key repeat delay in the Advanced options in konfig.

I don't know what will happen with the older Ipacs. It might or might not work. I have an Ipac but I don't know how old or what model it is. What model(s) of Ipac don't have a key repeat?