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Author Topic: Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread  (Read 4908 times)

ressurectionx

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #30 on: November 09, 2008, 08:27:00 AM »

All set madmab.  Got everything up there for ya!
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ressurectionx

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #31 on: November 10, 2008, 07:40:00 AM »

Hey Gilles!!!

I didn't mean to be shit talking about the skins earlier.  You've been AWOL man!  Hope I didn't effect your dedication to the project at all.   You were cranking out an average of 2 skin updates a day before my rant when my (brilliant) idea sank like an anvil.

Come back man.... We got a lot to get accomplished still, the three of us.

~Rx
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Cospefogo

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #32 on: November 11, 2008, 03:10:00 AM »

So...
Can you share some money too (besides the skins?)
Looks like you will get rich sooner!

Ha ha.
C.
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madmab

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #33 on: November 11, 2008, 06:02:00 PM »

Hrum hroom.

IPB Image
IPB Image

huh.gif

Well I got it going.  Seems about 60 characters per line is the best we are gonna get.  There is/was a little quirk with the centering code for the pop-up screen.  I fixed it, hopefully.
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gilles9999

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #34 on: November 12, 2008, 12:52:00 AM »

FANTASTIC madmab!!
Rock and roll attitude!I see you are using an old colecovision dynamic skin, be aware because on the new coleco dynamic skin, i used a thiner font for the sdtv settings
2* genre:, little bug or have i wrote it twice in the colecovision synopsis.txt?
As it is it's excellent, perheaps could we centered the text to the left?
AdamX is the best and most complete colecovision emu of the planet now smile.gif
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Cospefogo

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #35 on: November 12, 2008, 07:21:00 AM »

Superb indeed.
Superb!

Thanks for the good news, MadMad!
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ressurectionx

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #36 on: November 12, 2008, 08:10:00 AM »

Awesome guys!

I'll get that updated for you Gilles.
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Cospefogo

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #37 on: November 12, 2008, 10:15:00 AM »

Hey Madmab, talking about "virtual keyboard" - I wonder how the
actual virtual keybaord is built? Does it use some kind of PNG images
for the keys that are compiled/merged within the XBE on each build?

Or the virtual keyboard on Xport's emus is build dynamically from some
kind of file who dictate the color of the keys, color of the text,
borders, sizes, etc etc? (Just like the CSS file on a XHTML set)

Just curious...
(I really don't like that WHITE/GRAYSH virtual keyboard with SERIFED fonts.)

Thanks!
C.
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Cospefogo

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #38 on: November 12, 2008, 12:08:00 PM »

Great!
It will be a pleasure to present some proposal!
Can you send me the original one?
This way I can work over it and provide you a image 100% free of bugs
or problems.

PM...
Cospefogo.
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Cospefogo

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #39 on: November 12, 2008, 08:12:00 PM »

Hey guys,

I just arrived back home (it is past midnight here) and tomorrow I will
be able to create some new VIRTUAL KEYBOARD artwork proposals.

I will do it in the morning, as soon a possible, this way Madmab could include it
on the new compiles (if he finds out suitable, of course). I will make some
different proposals, colors, etc.

It could be perfect if the virtual keyboard could become part of the skin,
on the same way as all the other backgrounds and so on... just one idea.

(We are experts on suggesting things... ha ha ha!)
Cheers,
Cospefogo.
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ressurectionx

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #40 on: November 12, 2008, 08:48:00 PM »

QUOTE(madmab @ Nov 12 2008, 08:28 PM) View Post

Well after getting the synopsis stuff, my new keypad/keyboard code going.  I got the following to compile with the latest changes/updates.  AdamX (of course), Atarixlbox, A7800x, Z26, and MednaFen_Lynx.  Presumably MednaFen_NES and TG16 should work as well.

Of course the record/playback code will have to be tested on the Lynx, NES, and TG16.  But so far it has not seemed to create any issues with other emulators.


Hey madmab,

I've got a few questions for ya....

What order are you planning on releasing the emus in when ADAM is wrapped up?

Will all of the changes that you made be easy to bring to the other emus as well?  (Minus system specific stuff like the overlays, of course)


I'm just asking because I would like to add a few things to your release.  I wanted to add text files for each system that are formatted nicely for viewing within the emulators (however you decide this will work the best).  They're basically the Wikipedia history of the systems with the images and references stripped out, and the text formatted to look good in a standard .TXT file.  

I would also like to add a skin configuration or two for the skins, and if Gilles doesn't mind, I'd like to re-do his sprite folders a bit (Like using capital letters and also grouping them somewhat, probably by name, so similar types of images can be found next to each other).


Oh... speaking of that, I don't think you answered this question I had earlier.  When I was testing the spacing out of images, I had hundreds of empty place holders between each other.  Although there were a ton of empty placeholders, I couldn't find any other problems (such as pauses, lock-ups or any other memory issues).

So I was hoping there could be a way to make the emu automatically skip through empty placeholders if there is no folder.  (Say, if you went from 1_, 2_, 3_ to 11_, 12_, 13_ with no current folders for 4_ through 9_).  I was thinking this is a good compromise and fix, given that we can't make the skins system as sophisticated as I proposed before without a major rewrite in code.  This way, we could have 10 or 20 empty placeholders between "sprite type" where we could add new artwork to an existing Dynamic skin without having to rename every folder that comes after the ones that you added.  (Since you've already encountered the problem of memory issues just by having artwork, you'd be the best judge at how many sprites a skin can ultimately use before there are memory issues).

I'll try that out sometime this weekend.  I'm going house hunting, so I don't know how much I'll get around to this weekend.

Later,
~Rx
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Cospefogo

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #41 on: November 13, 2008, 02:59:00 AM »

QUOTE(ressurectionx @ Nov 13 2008, 02:24 AM) View Post

(...)
I'm just asking because I would like to add a few things to your release.  I wanted to add text files for each system that are formatted nicely for viewing within the emulators (however you decide this will work the best).  They're basically the Wikipedia history of the systems with the images and references stripped out, and the text formatted to look good in a standard .TXT file.  
(...)


Sounds delicious.
Tasty... Yammmy...

Great, RX.
Just great. I like it.

Cospefogo.
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ressurectionx

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #42 on: November 13, 2008, 05:16:00 AM »

QUOTE(madmab @ Nov 13 2008, 06:21 AM) View Post

No particular order but most likely it would be AdamX, A7800x, then Atarixlbox (out of the ones I worked on).  Once I add a few new things to those.

I still have a good ways to go for Z26.  A few things for WinstonX, Kegs, Oddysey and BlissX.  A minor thing for DosXbox.  Have not decided what to do about Winuaex.  I have something I wanna do but that puppy has memory constraints.

Outside of re-working the rewind system and possible new mappers for the NES (someone asked about that)?  I don't have anything particular I wanted to do to the Medna stuff.  So they should be easy to kick out the door.

As far as adapting other emu's.  It only took me less than an hour to do Medna so it should not be too bad once the time comes.  Although I have noticed I usually endup re-arranging things in init_console.  Something I have not documented real well.


I see you're releasing a few first that I haven't touched in the Xtras department.  Maybe I'll get around to looking at them when you get to that point.  Glad it should be easy for you to carry over the new stuff you've done that isn't system specific.  

Just let me know when something is just about ready for a release and I'll get you those text documents.  I've probably got about 10 of them almost done.  Just need to clean them up a bit.

QUOTE
Well that's because I really don't know.  The memory management of C is a complete mystery to me.  I do not know where in memory these un-initialized variables are pointing at.  So if I change them (to keep track of which ones are empty) I could be altering part of the program itself.

Memory allocation is not something I know a whole lot about in C.  But I do know if your not careful it is very easy to overwrite other sections of memory which can cause weird things to happen, lock-ups, and general chaos.


I'm not asking for you to change anything like that internally in the code or anything.  I realize that messing with that could cause a ton of other unforseeable problems.  I'm just asking you to put a simple little code in the front end that will automatically scroll to the next folder.  So if there is no 4_ through 9_, it will skip from 3_ to 10_ without making you scroll through 7 empty slots.  The slots are still there, and you're not doing anything to change that, you've just put a simple mask in the front end that skips the numbers for empty folders when creating your skins.

QUOTE
Although I do see the benefits of spacing things out.  I'm not sure if it will be easily possible.  I suspect this is why X-port was very specific in his instructions about keeping the folders and any animated sprites in a very strict numeric order.


Most of this would be done by hand by Gilles and I.  If the mask was put in, it would be easy for us to set up the skins in a way where there are empty placeholders that would be utilized only when the folder was used.  I've tried it myself and it doesn't seem to cause any problems.  The only problem seems to be that when there is no folder for a specific number, you have to scroll through all of those empty sprites by hand until you get to the next number.  

The end result is if we find out in the future this doesn't work, after you've put in that small bypass code, we just won't space out the folders and you wouldn't even have to change any code back since we wouldn't be spacing out the folders anymore.  


QUOTE
It ultimately depends on each emu.  Some emu's consume more memory than others.  As far as I know dosxbox and Winuaex are the two big memory monsters.  Unfortunately like I said I barely understand how all the memory allocations stuff works.  I slept thru that part of my C course...... Oh wait a minute. I never took a C course.  laugh.gif


Guess we'll have to trial and error it then.  I took a C class about 10 years ago at a Jr College.... not sure if that counts.

~Rx


EDIT:  Here's the Colecovision FAQ

When I use "View Text File" option in the "Utilities" menu, it does word-wrap the document, but quite a bit is cut off on the edges.  I can move the end of the right border in or out, but all that does is black over more of the text (it doesn't re-word-wrap).  I couldn't seem to find a way to fix the way that the text viewer displayed the files.  

Any ideas madmab?



Gilles,

Any chance you can hook me up with the synopsis that you've done so far?  I can't test out the new synopsis code without it.


EDIT 3:  Wow.... I'm trying to make new skins now with the new names and it's really a bear.  Now I'm more convinced than ever that we need to have this feature in the skins because re-organizing sprites after adding new ones is MUCH more work than simply renaming them and FTPing them over.  You basically have to rebuild from scratch.  I'm going to be working on a prototype, but it won't be quick.  I'm not nearly as familiar with this stuff as Gilles is.  I have a new appreciation for how much work he's put into this, besides just the photoshop stuff.

Later guys,
~Rx
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ressurectionx

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #43 on: November 15, 2008, 02:04:00 AM »

QUOTE(madmab @ Nov 15 2008, 02:49 AM) View Post

Well I was really just listing the status of everything.  It does not really matter to me what order we release them in.  Although I still have to add documentation and commercial viewing, etc.
The problem is not reading the "empty" indexes.  It's writing to those indexes so that I know they are not in use that is the problem.  A write can easily corrupt memory.  A read does just that.  It reads a memory location.


I'll be here working any way you want to do it.

QUOTE
But I'm still looking into it.


I'll upload my skin (an alteration of Gilles ADAM) when I get it as far as I can go with it.  That should make testing easier if you can see firsthand what I'm talking about.

QUOTE
I have not really looked at the view text file code.  I assume you have your text file screen sized properly to fit your tv??


As far as I know, yes.  I looked everywhere I could find for editing the text size of the screen.  Also, the "blackness" immediately comes from the right of the screen when I move the right joystick, leaving me to believe that the text is sized perfect for my TV, but more of the text bleeds into the blackness.  

If you get some time, download the system FAQ I posted above and try it out for yourself.

~Rx
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madmab

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Madmab And Gilles' New Releases Thread
« Reply #44 on: November 15, 2008, 03:40:00 AM »

QUOTE(ressurectionx @ Nov 15 2008, 04:40 AM) View Post

I'll upload my skin (an alteration of Gilles ADAM) when I get it as far as I can go with it.  That should make testing easier if you can see firsthand what I'm talking about.

ok after reading up on MFC CArray classes which is what the sprite routines use I think I figured it out.  I guess this makes my first lesson in C++ and the Microsoft Foundation Class library.  laugh.gif

Anyways if you could send me this experimental skin you are working on I'll run memchecks on it while it is loaded to see how much RAM it is sucking up.  Since these are "dynamic" arrays it should be ok.  Just dont go picking ridiculously high upper ranges.  The size of the array is gonna equal the highest value used.  Luckily it does not allocate too much RAM.  Maybe 100-200 bytes per entry (whether it is used or not).

QUOTE(ressurectionx @ Nov 15 2008, 04:40 AM) View Post

As far as I know, yes.  I looked everywhere I could find for editing the text size of the screen.  Also, the "blackness" immediately comes from the right of the screen when I move the right joystick, leaving me to believe that the text is sized perfect for my TV, but more of the text bleeds into the blackness.  

If you get some time, download the system FAQ I posted above and try it out for yourself.

No need.  I have a sneaky suspicion that the code that calculates how much space a font uses is slightly flawed.  Seems the longer a line the less accurate it is.  laugh.gif  I ran into this problem when working on the synopsis code.
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