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[sotu]

How do you change the location of the previews to match up with the skins?  Also with this version I notice that the preview frame that the previews play inside of isn't showing up... ie the scroll that the previews play inside of in the zelda skin isn't showing.

[ressurectionx]

Here's a few tips I meant to say first about Gilles new skin.   First, I'm going to say that I can only speak in theory since I don't know the innards of the skin and emu, but the way the new skin presents itself is not normal and should be fixed by somebody who knows how.  As it is, this is what you'll have to do....

1) First, select the Super Mario skin (the default one, not the new dual view one).

2) Then you can select the Dual view one. (You need to do this because Gilles Dual View skin pulls the setup information from the previous skin you were using and the Super Mario one is the closest to what we want.  You may have noticed that if you had the Zelda one up first, that Yoshi's tounge moves from right to left on the bottom of the screen like Link did, or if you use the Metriod one first that Yoshi's tounge is in the top left corner where the Metroid was pulsating before.)

3) Find the commands in the GUI/Image options to resize/reposition the Sreenshot preview and use the joysticks to reposition it in one of the windows.  Then do the same for the Video preview.

You also might find at this point that some text doesn't line up perfectly at this point either.  That can be adjusted similarly within the GUI/Text area.

I also chose to make the ZSnesxbox logo smaller via this method too so it didn't block so much of the top preview.  You could choose to remove it altogether, but I like how it looks blocking the top window a bit.  Sweet looking skin with these new features.

Hopefully somebody can work out that little bug and the next release of ZSnesxbox can just come with the skin working properly on load.  Maybe do a Metroid and Zelda one with a dual window to go up there too.

Hope that gets you working,
~Rx


P.S.  Thanks so much again to nes6502, Horscht, madmab, Gilles and Sotu for everything they've done in the last few weeks.  When we get this all sorted out and presentable, we truly have an amazing thing to share with the community here.

This post has been edited by ressurectionx: Aug 1 2008, 07:22 AM

[madmab]

FYI if you haven't already it might be a good idea to credit the sources to those videos (emumovies).  I usually try to credit anyone and everyone I borrow code/ideas from.

When I get a chance I'll try an organize all the a800 vids I did myself and complete all the missing stuff for 5200, a800 cart and XEG games.  Since those are the highest profile.  Then I just need to allocate a little time to rebuild all the autoconfig information so I can re-issue atarixlbox.

[Dragon Ninja]

Here we go.

Are the screensize values still difficult to configure, like 9 digits for width and height? Which is mentioned here, btw.

[competes2win]

QUOTE(Dragon Ninja @ Aug 1 2008, 05:15 AM)

Here we go.

Are the screensize values still difficult to configure, like 9 digits for width and height? Which is mentioned here, btw.

I don't really find it difficult, per say, I listen to what cospefogo says on that link you put up and just follow it... it's not hard, it's just weird. And yes it's the same and NES said he looked into it but couldn't figure it out how to change it, so I guess it's not changing anytime soon.

[ressurectionx]

QUOTE(madmab @ Aug 1 2008, 09:25 AM)

FYI if you haven't already it might be a good idea to credit the sources to those videos (emumovies).  I usually try to credit anyone and everyone I borrow code/ideas from.

When I get a chance I'll try an organize all the a800 vids I did myself and complete all the missing stuff for 5200, a800 cart and XEG games.  Since those are the highest profile.  Then I just need to allocate a little time to rebuild all the autoconfig information so I can re-issue atarixlbox.

You're right.  Thanks to emu-movies.  They didn't make it as easy as it could have been because it was all .AVI files, but Horscht fixed that problem and made it more of a "waiting till it's done" thing instead of a "pull your hair out because this is going to take 5 years to convert them all" thing.

Thanks to EmuMovies for their invaluable help as well.

~Rx

[madmab]

They were .avi because they were meant for the PC platform.  But still alot of work went into them.  Leave it to Microsoft to come up with a proprietary format for the Xbox.  They could of at least used .wmv instead of having us jump thru a bunch of hoops.  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[ressurectionx]

I'm certainly not pointing fingers for the blame, but M$ works for me....

I know a ton of work must have gone into them.  I know some of the action on some is lazy to the point where it looks like a 2 year old is playing some of those games, but that doesn't seem to be the case with games that most people will actually play.  I love how on the more advanced systems the videos end with a shot of the titlescreen and what leads up to it as well.  Top notch stuff that most of us would be too lazy to do....

You should see the DVD's they sent me too.  Beautiful work on the covers for them.  I think some of us who haven't should donate some money to them.  I don't think they're really to strong about copyrights since I've seen dialogue where somebody was happy it was hosted in a private torrent forum, but even so, I still paid for the physical DVD's and access.  Even though we're doing a shit-ton of work on them, there was a lot of work done before us that we should be greatful for.....

Inadvertantly, I think that Emumovies is the reason that we have video previews on some XPORT emus, and we have dual previews on SNES today.....

Think about it...

If you were where I was sitting today and did the work that I've done on my end, having the conversations I've had here with the big players you might see how Emumovies contribution has lead up to all of the great breakthroughs of the last month after NES figured out the video thing on his emu.

He came to us with 45 videos.  All together, some still unreleased, there is over 900 SNES videos today including NES's videos.  That was only 2 or 3 weeks ago.  A lot of genius ideas from Horscht and others contributed greatly to the speed which we put this stuff out.  (Somebody with "Monkey" in their name gave me a great program which converts files in a folder to text or excel spreadsheets and that's been invaluable too.)

We're going to have a complete set of vids for all the major emus one day from that contribution.

Thanks for pointing out that I hadn't thanked them.

~Rx

This post has been edited by ressurectionx: Aug 1 2008, 12:11 PM

[DZIAD]

Another update of my best emulator  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

Thank you!

[madmab]

QUOTE(ressurectionx @ Aug 1 2008, 07:37 AM)

I know a ton of work must have gone into them.  I know some of the action on some is lazy to the point where it looks like a 2 year old is playing some of those games, but that doesn't seem to be the case with games that most people will actually play.

That was my biggest gripe about the a800 movies I mentioned earlier.  Best I could tell they either didn't know how to play the game, did not understand the implementation of the original controls, did not turn on artifacting, or recorded a game that is uncontrollable in an emu (good example Turbo on the colecovision).  Actually it is playable but I guess they didn't realize that.  

Anyways no problem.  I'm just trying to save you some trouble in case someone somewhere gets upset.

They actually had about 700 SNES videos but I guess due to Nintendo they are no longer "available".  

But yeah it is alot of work and you guys are working rather rapidly.  I was surprised at how many Atari ones I redid considering it felt like I did less.

[sotu]

Thanks for bringing it up, I wasn't going to mention it unless you did first.  

Just my opinion but I feel that they did most of these in one go and didn't do many 2nd takes.  After making a few of these I've learned that the 1st take usually isn't the best and a 2nd or 3rd take is usually necessary to get a good preview.  

Previews of demos are also really easy to make and don't show the true spirit behind the person making the preview.  It's when there's no demo to hide behind and you have to roll up your sleeves and get to work making a preview of your own gameplay that you can see how much pride they took doing their job.  This is where I feel the emumovies previews fall short of our standards.   Horschts previews should be the bar by which all these previews are measured.  

Just my 2 cents.

[competes2win]

QUOTE(sotu @ Aug 1 2008, 07:59 PM)

Thanks for bringing it up, I wasn't going to mention it unless you did first.  

Just my opinion but I feel that they did most of these in one go and didn't do many 2nd takes.  After making a few of these I've learned that the 1st take usually isn't the best and a 2nd or 3rd take is usually necessary to get a good preview.  

Previews of demos are also really easy to make and don't show the true spirit behind the person making the preview.  It's when there's no demo to hide behind and you have to roll up your sleeves and get to work making a preview of your own gameplay that you can see how much pride they took doing their job.  This is where I feel the emumovies previews fall short of our standards.   Horschts previews should be the bar by which all these previews are measured.  

Just my 2 cents.

lol so are you doing all 900 or so games over yourself?

In my opinion any preview video is good enough for me, as long as it shows what the game is all about. i don't intend to watch all 900 videos, let alone over and over and over again... Although I do feel they are necessary in the sense that you can't have blank spaces, in order to maintain continuity. I find the videos useful in determining what a game is all about, since there are so many games i have access to on the emulator, I'm always trying new games out.

[Horscht]

QUOTE(sotu @ Aug 2 2008, 01:59 AM)

Horschts previews should be the bar by which all these previews are measured.  

wow, I realy feel honhoured/honored (not discriminating british/american people ) by this.

 I indeed almost always like my preview videos, because I felt they show how the game would be played by a "casual gamer". Not a hardcore gamer that knows how to time jump pixel perfect, but a person who only "suspects" the game's next reaction. I personaly don't like previews that show "tricks" or "professional gameplay" or perfect runs of a level. That's also the reason why I sometimes die in the preview videos (sometimes even on purpose, to shorten the preview time). I always did the recording at least on the second run of a level, never the first, sometimes even on the third or forth). I made myself comfortable with the level and then recorded a run on which in felt I "knew" the level. That was all because that's how i liked my previews: short (at least that's how they felt) and focused on the core gameplay. (mainly talking about platfomrers here)

For RPGs I appologize for any possible spoilers, but often RPGs don't stick out due to their gameplay. For RPGs Story is the most important value. That's also the reason I don't like playing untranslated RPGs, as they don't  "pull me in(to)" the game, I don't know the motivation behind my actions.

Puzzler preview videos will *never* be spoiler free, unless they only show a black screen.

Also, despite my first intention of having a "title shot" in every video, i decided against it. Title shots realy only focus on the visual skills  of a game, which is not what a game should be judged upon ("never judge a book by its cover").



Yours seem to go similar approach: i.e. whosing core, not advanced gameplay or perfect runs, more of a "this is what is expecting you" preview.

*disclaimer: if any of this sounds cocky, it is due to me being drunk .

also: keep in mind, that none of this would have been possible without nes6502's great port! Also, thanks to emumovies.com, who did the other original  movies and Rx for provifing them as well.

[madmab]

I think what horscht said pretty much sums up how I felt about the atari 800 previews and how I handled doing my own.  I would almost always do a quick play-thru to get an idea of how the game play would go.  I'd time myself so I could keep the video short and in some cases even allow myself to die.

[sotu]

This project imo isn't for any one of us it's for Zsnes and the emulators.  We've all been able to sit and leech these emus without ever adding anything.  Lately we're finally having an opportunity to give back.  In doing previews for these emulators we're paying tribute to the creators who did the work so that we can enjoy these new features.  I can guarantee you that they weren't happy with just "anything". We honor them by taking pride in our work and caring what our previews look like.  

I'm very thankful for Rez and Horscht, they're invaluable and this project wouldn't be happening without them so much props to those two.  I'm just not sold on Emumovies is all and like I said, Horscht is making the best work.  My challenge is to not be satisfied with their work and to find a niche and fill it with your own previews and to give it your all as your own personal stamp on this emu scene.  It's your chance to bring a smile to the faces of the emu developers by making their baby sing!