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[seajay1221]

QUOTE(nes6502 @ Jun 22 2006, 11:34 AM)

Did you download 1.7 first and then overwrite it with the 1.8 files?
What is the contents of your Rompath.ini?
Does the RomBrowser start?
What video mode are you using?
Thanks

I upgraded to 1.8 as directed.  I did change Rompath.ini to F:\Emulators\snes\roms because that's where I keep them.  The directories have the same capitlization that I used in the path.  I'm in pal 4:3 but I wasn't even able to get into the program to change anything around.  The RomBrowser does not start.

[nes6502]

QUOTE(seajay1221 @ Jun 23 2006, 12:10 AM)

I upgraded to 1.8 as directed.  I did change Rompath.ini to F:\Emulators\snes\roms because that's where I keep them.  The directories have the same capitlization that I used in the path.  I'm in pal 4:3 but I wasn't even able to get into the program to change anything around.  The RomBrowser does not start.

Sounds like the RomPath.ini is what's wrong. That "should" be the only thing that will freeze the emulator on load. Try the Rompath.ini that came with the emulator and see if that works. Then try changing it again. Try hitting "Enter" at the end of the path in the RomPath.ini. Is your Xbox set to use PAL 60 or 50?

[guybird]

Nes, you think that you'll be able to make a skin layout that will display the Japanese box art correctly?  I'm seeing that the boxes are about 1/3 longer than US boxes.  Might be a bit of work to get it to fit in the screenshot panel.  Main reason I'm asking is I'm wondering what size to make them once I get my pack done.  The current US SNES covers are on average 200X140 where the average Japanese boxes are 200X400 (in their normal vertical positions).  So you'll have to allocate an extra 200X260 (or just about 2 US boxes stacked on top of each other).  One option I can think of would be to display US box front stacked on top of the back, and when a Japanese box is displayed, it would show the front and back side by side in the same space.  If you need some properly named shots to play with, let me know as I've been grabbing all of the HQ scans I could today so I have a good base already.

[nes6502]

QUOTE(guybird @ Jun 23 2006, 01:51 AM)

Nes, you think that you'll be able to make a skin layout that will display the Japanese box art correctly?  I'm seeing that the boxes are about 1/3 longer than US boxes.  Might be a bit of work to get it to fit in the screenshot panel.  Main reason I'm asking is I'm wondering what size to make them once I get my pack done.  The current US SNES covers are on average 200X140 where the average Japanese boxes are 200X400 (in their normal vertical positions).  So you'll have to allocate an extra 200X260 (or just about 2 US boxes stacked on top of each other).  One option I can think of would be to display US box front stacked on top of the back, and when a Japanese box is displayed, it would show the front and back side by side in the same space.  If you need some properly named shots to play with, let me know as I've been grabbing all of the HQ scans I could today so I have a good base already.

Yes. This feature will be in the next release. The way I am planning on doing it is to move things down a bit in the options panel to provide more vertical space. Then display the vertical screenshot (with a correct vertical dimension) instead of displaying it with a horizontal dimension.

It doesn't matter what size they are because my code will either stretch them up to fill the space or stretch them down to fit into the space (just like with horizontal). So any resolution that makes a file under 100K should load fairly quickly. If they are too big (in file size), the only negative is a slight delay while the Rom Browser loads them. I favor a higher image quality. The user can shrink them down if they cause too much lag and this will provide the sharpest preview image.

They will not display as wide as the horizonal previews because I don't have enough vertical space. But they will be wide enough to see them clearly (or I'll redesign the ROM browser). I wouldn't bother with resizing them unless they are over 100K (and this is even optional)


I'm also considering ading multiple previews at the same time. Like a cartidge scan, in game preview, and box art. They would all be smaller than the current preview, but I could redseign the ROM browser to show accomadate this. Is this even worth it? Are there many boxart and cart scans available?

[guybird]

Unfortunately unlike the NES, there aren't as many SNES art sites.  For the NES I've gotten 95% of all of the box art in HQ resolutions as well as cart scans and backs for all.  I've gotten all of the HQ SNES scans I can find from the sites I know of.  I'm still working on the Japanese boxes as this site has fronts and backs for 121 games, so thats gonna take a few hours.  From here out its gonna be a matter of googling, and hopefully finding another good site with a good stash.  In any case, the existing US box fronts almost complete, and can be used to fill in the gaps between the HQ scans.  Now I have a plan for NES, and now SNES to find a perfect cart scan, and use it as a template to paste the other carts labels onto so that they are all the same size and look great.  If nothing else most cart labels are nothing more than a cropped version of the box art, so any missing artwork could be filled in that way.

Here are the art sites I have found and grabbed what I could:
http://www.gamengai....em=superfamicom  Japanese fronts & backs
http://vgrebirth.org...ons=3&x=28&y=16 All regions front, backs, and cart scans, although at what I would consider a medium quality.  They seem to have every game listed, so this will be a catch all to fill in the gaps after all HQ scans have been grabbed.
http://www.gamescanner.org/   A nice collection of VERY NICE HQ scans for many systems, I have already grabbed all of these.
http://www.vgmuseum....scans/snes.html  Nice scans but few and far between, already grabbed these.
http://www.yiu.co.uk/snes/?page=boxart  Nice set, already grabbed these.

Seems to me that there isn't going to be one site to end all for HQ scans.  VG Rebirth is a nice base, but I want a higher resolution pack to start with.  If ANYONE finds a nice site with 20 or more HQ scans (over 200x200 resolution) either post it here or PM me and I will add them to my set.  Regardless of the resolution we decide upon for the final display, I will be keeping all of the original HQ scans at their original resolutions so we can have a LQ small file size pack (probably like the existing one) and a HQ larger file size pack.

[Harlock_Gbase]

Great release, works perfect. Just where do i save the preview shots?

[nes6502]

QUOTE(Harlock_Gbase @ Jun 23 2006, 03:46 PM)

Great release, works perfect. Just where do i save the preview shots?

E:\ZsnexBox\prev

[Diontae18]

QUOTE(yankefish @ Jun 23 2006, 12:09 PM)

Is there anyway to make xport emulators to make automatic screenshots without having to select everygame

This is a discussion thread on nes6502's emulator, not Xport's.

[XaRaNn]

Guybird : nice. I've been enjoying your packs and i think it's great we'll get an ever better one for snes

since SNES art is all scattered i guess it's best to get what you can higher res and fill up with the lower one from your previous pack, for usa at least. for japanese release i guess its whatever you can get your hands on.

this "template" you are talking about tho. Since nes6502 said the emu will auto resize and fit the preview, wouldn't it be best to just leave whatever preview you find in there original resolutions? or at least make 2 packs and leave it as an option?
Since many of the stuff you'll find on the web is in JPG, resizing implies a loss of quality. I would rather have the original previews and leave the emulator to do the resizing, at least in my personnal preference.

[guybird]

Resizing IS necessary at times.  Like a lot of the NES scans I got were like 1,000x1,300 resolution.  AFTER I sized them down to a standard resolution was was DOUBLE what my existing NES pack was, just the fronts were over 100mb.  At 400x550 when they were displayed in 1080i, there was no qualty loss.  Anything below that though and they started distorting.  Right now with JUST the US fronts, the original artwork for 75 boxes is at 35mb.  Still have another 700 titles to go.  Not to mention the backs.  Or the Europe or Japan fronts and backs.  As you see, I will have to resize.  Its just a matter of finding that happy medium between quality and file size.

BTW, for the most part until now we had been using the screenshot archive packs for the source images for our art packs.  Once I seen how ugly the existing pack looked on my tv, I realized it was time to make new source packs for the systems.  I've already done this with the NES, and as stated on well on my way now with SNES.  I will be keeping the original artwork in their original resolutions, so I will be able to make packs of any resolution and size.  I really wish I had a site to upload these original packs to as the Xbox Emulation Repository only deals with the xbox converted artwork.

If anyone wants to know the steps to take to make the artwork match the rom names, here's the process I'm using:

1) Rename your roms using the latest GoodGui and with the latest SNES plugin (don't have the versions right off the top of my head).
2) Copy the folder of the region you want to work on (USA, Japan, Europe) to a new folder that you'll be storing the artwork in.
3) Assuming they're already zipped/rarred, use Winrar to extract all roms to their own folders.
4) Delete all of the roms in those new folders (search for *.smc)
5) You now have a template for the names of the roms.  You can now duplicate this entire folder including all of the rom folders and call it "backs", and another for "carts".  Then rename the original folder "fronts".  That way you can keep track of them all seperately.
6) Now just save the pics you find into the correct folders.  For multiple versions of the same rom, just copy the artwork to the other versions as well.
7) Finally you'll run some batch files to rename, resize, and resave the pics to *.png.  ***Nes does your gui only accept png files like Xport's, or will it accept jpg's?

[nes6502]

QUOTE(guybird @ Jun 23 2006, 07:01 PM)

Resizing IS necessary at times.  Like a lot of the NES scans I got were like 1,000x1,300 resolution.  AFTER I sized them down to a standard resolution was was DOUBLE what my existing NES pack was, just the fronts were over 100mb.  At 400x550 when they were displayed in 1080i, there was no qualty loss.  Anything below that though and they started distorting.  Right now with JUST the US fronts, the original artwork for 75 boxes is at 35mb.  Still have another 700 titles to go.  Not to mention the backs.  Or the Europe or Japan fronts and backs.  As you see, I will have to resize.  Its just a matter of finding that happy medium between quality and file size.

BTW, for the most part until now we had been using the screenshot archive packs for the source images for our art packs.  Once I seen how ugly the existing pack looked on my tv, I realized it was time to make new source packs for the systems.  I've already done this with the NES, and as stated on well on my way now with SNES.  I will be keeping the original artwork in their original resolutions, so I will be able to make packs of any resolution and size.  I really wish I had a site to upload these original packs to as the Xbox Emulation Repository only deals with the xbox converted artwork.

If anyone wants to know the steps to take to make the artwork match the rom names, here's the process I'm using:

1) Rename your roms using the latest GoodGui and with the latest SNES plugin (don't have the versions right off the top of my head).
2) Copy the folder of the region you want to work on (USA, Japan, Europe) to a new folder that you'll be storing the artwork in.
3) Assuming they're already zipped/rarred, use Winrar to extract all roms to their own folders.
4) Delete all of the roms in those new folders (search for *.smc)
5) You now have a template for the names of the roms.  You can now duplicate this entire folder including all of the rom folders and call it "backs", and another for "carts".  Then rename the original folder "fronts".  That way you can keep track of them all seperately.
6) Now just save the pics you find into the correct folders.  For multiple versions of the same rom, just copy the artwork to the other versions as well.
7) Finally you'll run some batch files to rename, resize, and resave the pics to *.png.  ***Nes does your gui only accept png files like Xport's, or will it accept jpg's?

I can make it read anything. I am only going to support png saving, but I can add read support for jpg, bmp, tga (I think), png, pix (I think), and maybe more. I can provide a complete list of supported formats if you want. If this would be helpfull I can add it.

I have a prsonal request. I don't know if there is a way to do this with the current screenshot packs, but can the previews have spaces?

i.e. Not: SuperMarioWorld(U)(!).png
but Super Mario World (U) (!).png

This is really the only reason I don't use many of the packs available because I don't like to rename my roms without spaces. Or is there a way to go back and forth?

[nes6502]

Here is another option. You could leave them in a high resolution or off them at a high resolution. I could add a new feature that let the user view the image fullscreen, zoom in, zoom out, scroll up and down, etc...(like XBMC). Then they could actually read the backs of the boxes. You could also off a high res and a low res version. I could load the low res version for rom browsing and the HQ version for the fullscreen version.

Thiscould also be used for HQ scans of walkthroughs, maps, etc... There are many HQ scans of SNES manuals on the net. This would allow the viewing of these as well.

[guybird]

Yes you can have spaces in them, its all dependent on your rom names.  The only time a space affects the art displaying is when your FATX renamed roms have a space at the end of their names.  For Example say "Super Mario Kart (U) (!).zip" got cut off to "Super Mario Kart (U) .zip" after FATX renaming.  Note the space at the end of the name?  Windows won't allow for a folder to have a space at the end so it would chop it off.  So in Xport's emu's, this is a big problem.  Since your previews aren't stored in seperate folders per rom, this won't be a problem with ZSNES.

I have been making my packs match the rom names perfectly, and I have a renaming tool that you can run to output to XPort standards.  It also can strip out rom tagging ( (U)  (J) (!) ) etc if you want.  Here's the nice thing though, XPorts standards required that each picture be named 000*.png, so you'd have to go through and rename the png's accordingly.  If you're going for the whole deal, I would personally reccomend the MAME standard of having seperate folders for the different artwork.  So instead of previews you'd have "box fronts", "box backs", "carts", and "snaps".  That way the art file can be named to the rom, and there'd be no confusion or renaming needed to make it work.  

If this is the way to go, then I'd also reccomend looking at Surreal's ini/dat file usage.  This would allow a user to have their rom named: "SMK.zip", "Super Mario Kart.zip", "Super Mario Kart (U) (!).zip" or even "1.zip" and your gui would display "Super Mario Kart" and the proper artwork regardless of the file name.  You could then also implement box art icons or cart scan icons with the box art still displayed as normal.  That would require you to decide on the internal mechanics of it, and then the ini to be created.  Once you layed out the format, anyone could work on the ini and it could be a group project as well.  This would take the burden off of you, and make for a very quick turnaround.

[nes6502]

QUOTE(XaRaNn @ Jun 23 2006, 08:16 PM)

Wow, this would be pretty damn cool. There's load of snes manuals in pdf at places like replacmentdocs.com
it probably would be trivial to .png what you need to a decent quality.

There are tools that will convert the pdf into the original HQ jpgs which I could load. I found several old issues of Nintendo Power that I converted to HQ jpegs and I use XBMC to read them page by page.

[guybird]

Alright I've grabbed everything I could from the listed sites, and have about 80 HQ US and 200 Japanese boxes.  Its time to Google and hope I find another good site.