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[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Weavus @ Dec 10 2002, 05:23 AM)

QUOTE (BenJeremy @ Dec 10 2002, 04:51 AM) Apparently, in the "auto-config" mode, the system will find dashupdate.xbe before it locates default.xbe, as I discovered tonight. Ouch! Nasty bug there. I hope nobody ran into this problem in the field. Makes me glad I didnt try the auto-config much yet. Just waiting for the extra screens and longer description before I release my skin (In 5 exciting colors!). I might do a simpler one before that to try and show people how to use/configure MXM.

                                    Yeah, I think it's fine if you delete the offending files. I'm going to check it this morning in an HD test (tired of burning DVD coasters).

[Weavus]

BTW, did you change the font in the new version? It seems to look better on my skin but I couldnt find any information in the readme about a font change.

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Weavus @ Dec 10 2002, 09:01 AM)

Hi, I have an great idea for MXM that needs the co-operation of other xbox scene developers. I was thinking that I'd like to use MXM as a launcher for my favorite Mame Roms and other emulated games. Each emulator comes with its own launcher but they are never configurable and I like to use the facilities of MXM to browse my favorites so I can have screenshots, boxshots etc. What we would need is the authors of other xbox programs to allow them to be launched with parameters to indicate which game to load and skip the inbuilt menu list. Do you have any contact with other developers and could suggest this idea BenJeremy? Of course, you wouldnt want the whole 3000 mame roms in MXM but for your favorite 50 or so it would be great. What do you think?

                                    Excellent idea... for all homebrew developers.

I will include full "params" support in the 1.0 release. This means I will pass an ASCII string to the application via the LaunchInfo structure, if the entry has one to pass.

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Weavus @ Dec 10 2002, 09:09 AM)

BTW, did you change the font in the new version? It seems to look better on my skin but I couldnt find any information in the readme about a font change.

                                    Nope, no real change, except that I removed the 12pt (wasn't using it).

I hope to get to dealing with the font issues soon. The "complex" skins will have a resource element of "font" so you can define your own fonts (.xpr files) and use them for any text-based layout elements. Text-based layout elements will also give you tighter control over the presentation of those fonts, too.

[BenJeremy]

Ghost Recon and MechAssault with preview videos playing in the screen shots.

[BenJeremy]

How about a QUICKIE™ tutorial on making videos for use in MXM?

Starting with a *.bik file, which is a Bink video. These are horribly WASTEFUL video files - I don't understand why developers are using that over WMV/XMV, but whatever...

Get the radtools from www.radgametools.com - they're free.

Pull up the Rad Video Tools and select the BIK file you wish to use.

Convert to AVI - don't do anything else to it, just convert it, preferably using Cinepack as the codec.

While it's in AVI, edit it as you desire (chop it up, add to it) and make sure it has PCM audio attached to it (needed, at the moment). The PCM audio can be something like a silent audio clip, and can be of low quality, since it won't actually be heard.

Now, you must use Windows Media 8 Encoding tools.

At the command prompt:

wm8eutil -input attract.avi -output Mech.wmv -v_mode 2

The above is an example of converting the attract.bik file (from MechAssault), converted to attract.avi to make Mech.wmv

Then drop the resulting file somewhere on your compilation and point your Game Entry "Media" value to it.

The BIK started out as a 22MB file, converted to a 106MB AVI, then down to a 9MB WMV file, unedited.

[BenJeremy]

Just a note: New releases are being announced inthe new "Homebrew" forum now...

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (6d6a6 @ Dec 12 2002, 03:16 AM)

Sup everyone, Thx BenJeremy for this awsome program, it goes nicly with the new evox dashboard.   I am just curious u said u wanted the source code for the IGR.  Why?? You have the in app reset, and if u have evox loaded it works on the games too, so I don't see why you would need to add this feature to ur menu?? Just curious... Keep up the good work, and love the new system, the older version with txt files froze up a little on me while changing through game titles but the newest release has no problems at all. Thx

                                    Well, in my test, IGR did not work on MXM-launched games on DVD. I haven't tried HD-based MXM-launched yet.

[Cornholio]

QUOTE (BenJeremy @ Dec 10 2002, 02:21 PM)

Starting with a *.bik file, which is a Bink video. These are horribly WASTEFUL video files - I don't understand why developers are using that over WMV/XMV, but whatever...

                                    Gotta agree with you on that

As for the EvoX IGR, funny, but the only thing I actually tried with that so far was a disc I made, using MXM 0.8 (I think). IGR was working fine. Thinking about it now, I'm not entirely sure why it WOULD work... maybe some investigation is in order

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Cornholio @ Dec 12 2002, 08:23 AM)

QUOTE (BenJeremy @ Dec 10 2002, 02:21 PM) Starting with a *.bik file, which is a Bink video. These are horribly WASTEFUL video files - I don't understand why developers are using that over WMV/XMV, but whatever... Gotta agree with you on that As for the EvoX IGR, funny, but the only thing I actually tried with that so far was a disc I made, using MXM 0.8 (I think). IGR was working fine. Thinking about it now, I'm not entirely sure why it WOULD work... maybe some investigation is in order

                                    Thanks, I look forward to your knowledgable feedback.  

[PLUTO 3.14]

I am just trying to get started to make multi game DVD compulations with the latest Media X Menu.......  Thankx...

[Weavus]

QUOTE (PLUTO 3.14 @ Dec 12 2002, 03:49 PM)

Hey BenJeremy is there any complete tutorial for dumbasses for u'r latest Media X Menu  If so can I have the link to it....  Thankx....  Or is the only one the MXM Readme.txt ??

                                    Some people are making a tutorial. Check the Homebrew forum as all talk of MXM has moved there.

[headstrong]

what is the contents of the MXM_Entry.xml that should be included in each game folder?

is it the same as MXM.xml or this?

<Item_1>
<Title>ToeJam and Earl III</Title>
<Description>Platforming classic returns!</Description>
<Media>TOEJAM3.png</Media>
<Dir>TOEJAM</Dir>
</Item_1>

I may be able to create a user friendly win app to create these xml files, but I need to understand how MXM uses them.

Thanks

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (headstrong @ Dec 12 2002, 07:39 PM)

what is the contents of the MXM_Entry.xml that should be included in each game folder? is it the same as MXM.xml or this? <Item_1> <Title>ToeJam and Earl III</Title> <Description>Platforming classic returns!</Description> <Media>TOEJAM3.png</Media> <Dir>TOEJAM</Dir> </Item_1> I may be able to create a user friendly win app to create these xml files, but I need to understand how MXM uses them. Thanks

                                    It should look like this:

<Config>
<Item>
<Title>ToeJam and Earl III</Title>
<Description>Platforming classic returns!</Description>
<Media>TOEJAM3.png</Media>
</Item>
</Config>


Of course, TOEJAM3.png would sit in the game directory in this case, or alternately, you could leave that tag off and rename the file MXM_SS.png in the game directory.

[BenJeremy]

OK....

<Config>
<Main>
<DiscTitle>Games DVD#1</DiscTitle>
<DiscSubtitle>Game Collection</DiscSubtitle>
<Theme>1</Theme>
<TitleDelay>20</TitleDelay>
<SaverDelay>30</SaverDelay>
<MenuPath></MenuPath>
</Main>
<Item_1>
<Title>Chase Hollywood stunt driver</Title>
<Description>By Bam!</Description>
<Media>chase.png</Media>                          <--------Put this image in the root directory
<Dir>chase</Dir>
</Item_1>
<Item_2>
<Title>Rocky</Title>                             <--------You forgot the title here
<Description>By Ubi Soft</Description>
<Media>rocky.jpg</Media>                   <--------Put this image in the root directory
<Dir>rocky</Dir>
</Item_2>
<Music>
<UseMusic>on</UseMusic>
<Directory>MUSIC</Directory>
<Global>on</Global>
<Random>off</Random>
</Music>
</Config>

Burned to DVD-RW like this

default.xbe
mxm.xbe
mxm.xml - shown above

\mUSIC - have one music file
\MEDIA - stuff that was in it
\CHASE - GAME1 With MXM_Entry.xml, PNG file is also in the folder
<Config>    <---------------------------------- You already have entries in the main file. You don't need this one.
<Item>
<Title>Chase Hollywood stunt driver</Title>
<Description>By Bam!</Description>
<Media>chase.png</Media>
</Item>
</Config>
\ROCKY - GAME2 with MXM_Entry.xml PNG file is also in the folder
<Config>
<Item>
<Title>Rocky</Title>
<Description>By Ubi Soft</Description>
<Media>rocky.jpg</Media>
</Item>
</Config>


The MXM_Entry.xml files work with "Auto-config" - then the screenshots are also relative to the location of the file.

Actually, you should be getting SOMETHING coming up. I'd suspect you'd get "Chase Hollywood stunt driver", "", "Chase Hollywood stunt driver", and "Rocky" in that order.

The missing title might be somehow screwing things up, though (not sure why). You could try removing the <Item_xx> nodes from the MXM.xml file.

As a general rule, I've been using the MXM_SS.* method for loading screenshots, but I've just burned a disk with Ghost Recon, using one of the WMV videos in a subdirectory:

<Config>
<Item>
<Title>Ghost Recon</Title>
<Description>Stealth Soldier</Description>
<Exe>default.xbe</Exe>
<Media>D:\GHOSTRECON\video\attract.wmv</Media>
</Item>
</Config>


Here's the MXM.xml form that disc:

<Config>
<Main>
<DiscTitle>DVD #34</DiscTitle>
<DiscSubtitle>December 2002</DiscSubtitle>
<Theme>1</Theme>
<TitleDelay>20</TitleDelay>
<SaverDelay>60</SaverDelay>
<MenuPath></MenuPath>
</Main>
<Music>
<UseMusic>on</UseMusic>
<Directory>MUSIC</Directory>
<Global>on</Global>
<Random>off</Random>
</Music>
</Config>