Topic: The Dynamic Skins For All Xport Emus (Read 9589 times)

madmab · « **Reply #255 on:** January 18, 2009, 06:25:00 AM »

At the moment it's not anything.

Anyways.... No I'm not gonna combine them to the .xbe. That would just waste much needed memory.

gilles9999 · « **Reply #256 on:** January 18, 2009, 02:23:00 PM »

I will release the dynamic skin pack tomorrow or thuesday; with ALL the updated dynamic skins:
ADAMX,ATARI7800X,ATARIXLBOX,BLUEMSXBOX,MEDNAFENX LYNX,MEDNAFENX NES,MEDNAFENX PCE,MEKAX,NEOGENESIS,PCSXBOX,SNES9XBOX,VIRTUALBOYX,WINUAEX,WINSTONX and Z26X.

It's just longer than i expected, i have to change all the ini's because the sprites are smaller and haven't the same size.

I have optimized all the skins size to ~35% without quality loss to free up the always needed memory

madmab · « **Reply #257 on:** January 18, 2009, 05:33:00 PM »

No hurry... take yer time...

ressurectionx · « **Reply #258 on:** January 18, 2009, 09:56:00 PM »

Wow..... 35%, huh? That's pretty damn efficient there Gilles

Bummer you have to re-do the ini's though. Is that something you just have to do for one of them and can copy to all the others, or do you have to redo it for every emu? Is there a way you can set it up so you only have to do it once?

gilles9999 · « **Reply #259 on:** January 19, 2009, 12:27:00 AM »

For the emu with the same "missing boxart" (neogenesis, nes, master system,..

it's ok when i'm doing the sprites at the same dimensions, but for gba, pce, psx,lynx, snes, the missing boxart is a special dimension.
I always want to be able to display the boxart in the correct aspect ratio.

ressurectionx · « **Reply #260 on:** January 19, 2009, 12:58:00 AM »

Ah.... I see. That is important. I'll tell you that I went to great lengths to secure the boxart for every game, but some came up short. If you have the Xtras though, I can guarantee that if you don't have the boxart, you do have a screenshot or two. The only exception would be games that don't work that I couldn't find any artwork to. All other games I have will be covering this artwork.

It's a shame, since you spent time and effort doing this. I'm not saying you shouldn't do the work. That's really on you, and if the Xtras fade away and aren't available someday it will be valuable. I'm just sayin that I'll never actually see the missing boxart artwork you did after I'm done testing all the systems. (They look great now though

.

Later,
~Rx

gilles9999 · « **Reply #261 on:** January 19, 2009, 11:49:00 AM »

Exactly resX, when you have boxarts for each rom (highly recommanded now!!) youwon't see the "missing boxart" often, that's why i have decreased it's quality( the missing boxarts were really too bigs and ate too much memory) i prefer to save as much memory as i can, especially if mad' is adding some new cool stuff (like a 640*480 background to display synopsis/txt)

madmab · « **Reply #262 on:** January 19, 2009, 12:15:00 PM »

No need to worry about any memory used by our new synopsis "backgrounds" the emu uses and frees it each time a synopsis is displayed. So it isn't "always" using memory.

gilles9999 · « **Reply #263 on:** January 20, 2009, 02:04:00 PM »

WAOUH! 3 days for settings all the 14 settings in all the 14 settings, resizing the missing boxarts, resizing the logos, yeah!

I can't push the skins higher; Here are the 16 DYNAMIC skins, all of them are updated, correct sprites name/size/15 banners in each (except neogenesis has 10 banners for free up memory);
All of them have the system controller in the option menu, splash screen with the emu name and the madmab logo. Be aware it's a 85 meg download!

http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=HK77GOZQ

That's why i release a "banner pack" with 116 banners inside!! No excuse, you will find a banner to your tastes!
WARNING!!!! Don't put more than 15 banners in a dynamic skin (10 for neogenesis)or else you should encounter some freeze (xbox running out of memory)

http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=3ZI1ES7O

Dynamic skin isn't "just" a name, in a dynamic skin you can change almost everything!That's the idea, offering as most liberty as possible to the user to set the graphic interface.

p.s.: huge favour rezX, can you upload all the new updated dynamic skins in our thread? And test them with your games and extras? With my 2 tv (sdtv and hdtv), all is setting right.

ressurectionx · « **Reply #264 on:** January 20, 2009, 02:16:00 PM »

Great Work Gilles!

Testing as I go along won't be a problem, but uploading all 16 of them probably won't happen overnight.

I think I noticed a bug.... I'm hoping these skins take care of it. I have some GBA games freezing on me. Primarily the Videos (Like Cartoon Network Episodes). I know I used to be able to watch these on here, but now the XBox freezes when I try any of them (I haven't tried all of them, but every one so far makes me have to get up and reset the Box). There were also a few games that froze the box too...

gilles9999 · « **Reply #265 on:** January 20, 2009, 02:34:00 PM »

I have really spent a lot of time to free up as much memory as i can,
With all my roms, (from~2005) i don't have any freeze with xboyadvance now,
but be sure to use these new skins

http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=HK77GOZQ

a simple test, try your roms with the default skin before judging the dynamic skins

They are all working with all my roms and all my systems now, there is absolutely no reason to have some bugs caused by my skins now. The only emu wich gave me some problems was neogenesis, and xboyadvance.
Now all is looking ok, don't put more than 15 banners in your sprites folder

FrankMorris · « **Reply #266 on:** January 20, 2009, 02:55:00 PM »

QUOTE(gilles9999 @ Jan 18 2009, 11:59 PM)

I have optimized all the skins size to ~35% without quality loss to free up the always needed memory

That is something you can call an Optimize.

QUOTE(gilles9999 @ Jan 19 2009, 09:25 PM)

Exactly resX, when you have boxarts for each rom (highly recommanded now!!) youwon't see the "missing boxart" often, that's why i have decreased it's quality( the missing boxarts were really too bigs and ate too much memory) i prefer to save as much memory as i can, especially if mad' is adding some new cool stuff (like a 640*480 background to display synopsis/txt)

Well.. There is a one way, how you can keep full-size no-quality-loss "missing boxart" images with 0 bytes of memory used. (If somehow you are STILL running with low memory

)

Join "missing boxart" to gameselect screen.

You need to do more gameselect screens for various aspect ratios and lay-outs.
The boxart appears above the "missing boxart" like before, but now totally free of mem, cause there are no sprites. (more optimize)
After that, you have more files on you skin.rar, but the file won't get much bigger, cause your JPG images now have more white data and that affects on file size.

I think it's going to be worth it..

Mega Man (?) · « **Reply #267 on:** January 20, 2009, 03:01:00 PM »

Hey Frank,
You seem to have some great info to add here. I am glad to see more "helpful minds", working towards this project.
Welcome aboard!

Great work guys.

gilles9999 · « **Reply #268 on:** January 20, 2009, 03:24:00 PM »

QUOTE(FrankMorris @ Jan 20 2009, 11:31 PM)

Well.. There is a one way, how you can keep full-size no-quality-loss "missing boxart" images with 0 bytes of memory used. (If somehow you are STILL running with low memory

)
Join "missing boxart" to gameselect screen.
You need to do more gameselect screens for various aspect ratios and lay-outs.
The boxart appears above the "missing boxart" like before, but now totally free of mem, cause there are no sprites. (more optimize)
After that, you have more files on you skin.rar, but the file won't get much bigger, cause your JPG images now have more white data and that affects on file size.
I think it's going to be worth it..

No

That means i'll have to do 14 differents "gameselect.jpg"
useless and painfull

The way i have done it is better, with only two "missing boxart" (sdtv and hdtv) sprites,
it's better for the user, that way he can set the size/position to display the boxart exactly where he want, he can even disable the missing boxart if he wants!
It's garantee 100% you won't have freezes caused by the skin itself with these new dynamic skins.
No quality loss with the "missing boxarts" pics finally, they have their original quality,
The only thing i repeat it now, and for the future users: Don't put more than 15 sprites in the sprites folder (10 for neogenesis for safety)

http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=HK77GOZQ

http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=3ZI1ES7O

p.s.: don't forget to download the 116 banners pack it has a Barack OBAMA banner and a SARKOZY banner inside

FrankMorris · « **Reply #269 on:** January 20, 2009, 03:49:00 PM »

QUOTE(gilles9999 @ Jan 21 2009, 01:00 AM)

No

That means i'll have to do 14 differents "gameselect.jpg"
useless and painfull

The way i have done it is better, with only two "missing boxart" (sdtv and hdtv) sprites,
it's better for the user, that way he can set the size/position to display the boxart exactly where he want, he can even disable the missing boxart if he wants!
It's garantee 100% you won't have freezes caused by the skin itself with these new dynamic skins.
No quality loss with the "missing boxarts" pics finally, they have their original quality

Ah, you are right. Didn't remember ability to move boxart freely. (disabling the missing boxart won't be a problem.)
Anyway, glad to hear that your skins are working perfect now!

QUOTE(Mega Man (?) @ Jan 21 2009, 12:37 AM)

Hey Frank,
You seem to have some great info to add here. I am glad to see more "helpful minds", working towards this project.
Welcome aboard!

Thank you, but just writing what I'm thinking at the moment, and I can be wrong. (piece of evidence above. ^)

Author Topic: The Dynamic Skins For All Xport Emus (Read 9589 times)