We Need Better Defaults,, Xport Options

[Far Beyond Driven]

Xport, your emulators play the games great and I've got not problems with that but things need updating for fresh builds.

Here's a few things that could be imrpoved:

1) Better control schemes by default
Is anyone happy with the UI defaults? We all modify the controls, right?
I think there's better ways of setting up the UI - too much to explain now, but for volumes and fast forwarding, music menu and pausing the emulator mainly. Take out the virtual keyboard for all consoles that don't use it and give all the same controls for all players.
Let's find out what everyone likes and use the most popular as the one.

2) Better screen setup by default
Cospefogo sorted all that out. Can we have his settings in fresh builds? Also, the adjustments for screen calibration + screen resoultion + pixel aspect raito.. are confusing. My telly is standard def and the 480i or p? seems better than choosing 720x576. Can we chop this down/tidy it up some?

2.5) Auto-game setup and config
Changing screen sizes for all games and setting up the options could be done with one option..

3) Skinning updates
I think a few people will have been put off making skins for your emulators because the UI doesn't let you do what you need. There's a lot of options in there, but the main thing we need is screen calibration for the UI itself. I've messed around loads and can't get it right (images are always cut off). Another thing is when you use a gradient in your artwork it does look like pure ass (to quote a forum member ) - does the colour depth need to be increased? Letting us use better resoultion images would be great too. 640x480 is a little small. One more thing - option to create settings.ini in the skin folder insted of dragging it out of E/Saves ect.

Anyone agree?

This post has been edited by Far Beyond Driven: Jan 12 2008, 05:29 PM

[gilles9999]

1)yes you are right , ESPECIALLY the screen calibration for the UI
(i really love the xport UI, near perfect, really) but there is a lot of skins i can t use because my tv overscan the default UI screen

2)sure the default shortcuts, could be changed a bit: ESPECIALLY the fast forward mapped in the R trigger, all my friend push instinctivelly the R trigger ; i always remove that shortcut

3) concerning the screen default, you can (by pressing start in the screen calibration menu) have the choice between custom, tv, console native, etc...;BUT it only need a correct screen screen aspect ratio option
the only emu to propose this option is snes9xbox i think
ex the original nes output a 224*256 screen, so to have a correct screen with non distorded pixel; the best think to do is to draw a 448*512 on your tv (224*2 and 256*2)
so we need a "original aspect ratio option" for all consoles, it would be fantastic. COSPEFOGO should explain this better than me thought

4)you are wrong, if you play a game in youre rom browser for the first time, the emu will remember the last screen setup you have done for the last game you have played and apply it to the new game

5)arf too bad, the xport emus were really near perfect too bad we haven t posted this thread a few month ago
we really need a xports full emus last update+

[Far Beyond Driven]

4)you are wrong, if you play a game in youre rom browser for the first time, the emu will remember the last screen setup you have done for the last game you have played and apply it to the new game

I know, but say you let your mates have a go and they screw up your settings. It should be clever enough so we don't have to confirm on ever newly played game.

5)arf too bad, the xport emus were really near perfect too bad we haven t posted this thread a few month ago we really need a xports full emus last update+

Yeah, well if we beg for these (sorely needed) updates then he proberbly won't be able to sleep knowing they aren't finished. You're not retired yet, Xport

[Cospefogo]

My turn:

1) Better control schemes by default

Since the UI controller options are FULLY customizable, I really really don't see a point here!
You can open any Xport emulator and set up the things to what you find out better!

2) Better screen setup by default
Cospefogo sorted all that out. Can we have his settings in fresh builds? Also, the adjustments for screen calibration + screen resoultion + pixel aspect raito.. are confusing. My telly is standard def and the 480i or p? seems better than choosing 720x576. Can we chop this down/tidy it up some?

I use my Xbox in a standard CRT television with component cables. I hate the filter effects.
But I know that most of the people out there are switching to LCD televisions, high definition
screens and so on - and - 99% of every Xbox emulator users LOVE the smoothing and
blurring filters - So I think the things should stay as they are now.

My only suggestion could be to have the 10x11 pixel aspect ration turned on by default
and the screen size by default on the correct aspect ratio (for the classic pixel effect)

And, in the last versions Xport did correct some bugs that were present in the past ones,
like the "MINUS 2" bug (if you did read my tutorial, you know what I am talking about --- I still need to UPDATE my page!)

2.5) Auto-game setup and config
Changing screen sizes for all games and setting up the options could be done with one option..

It is done by a single option! When you change anything outside the IN GAME menu, you change
for all! Of course, a isolated game MUST not have its own separated config already set up.
But you can press BLACK in the romlist and erase the particular settings for that game anytime.

Again the things are perfect now, in my humble opinion!

3) Skinning updates
I think a few people will have been put off making skins for your emulators because the UI doesn't let you do what you need. There's a lot of options in there, but the main thing we need is screen calibration for the UI itself. I've messed around loads and can't get it right (images are always cut off). Another thing is when you use a gradient in your artwork it does look like pure ass (to quote a forum member ) - does the colour depth need to be increased? Letting us use better resoultion images would be great too. 640x480 is a little small. One more thing - option to create settings.ini in the skin folder insted of dragging it out of E/Saves ect.

Anyone agree?

Since I am a standard CRT user, the actual size is perfect. I never tried my Xbox on a hi-def television
to see how my skins look like. Regarding the skins settings, you can store it anywhere, now you
have the option to set up the saves directory to any directory in the Xbox HD, just go to SETTINGS.

And the gradients look horrible, I also did notice that. Maybe it is because I use my FLICKER FILTER
in ZERO, I don't know... But a nice thing could be the possibility to two different flicker filters, one
for the UI environment (you UI always super smooth) and another one for the IN GAME enviroment.
Man, this could be really NICE.


AND...
XPORT is gone! He told everybody that was retiring himself from the Emulators task, this is
why he released the source code. Let's wait for someone able to work on it to develop interesting
things in the future.

Regards,
Cospefogo.

[Far Beyond Driven]

Since the UI controller options are FULLY customizable, I really really don't see a point here!
You can open any Xport emulator and set up the things to what you find out better!

Nah, a load of the default settings are hit by accident with new players. Fast forwarding, save states (loading/saving/chaning the slot)? - they're the worst and saving a screenshot. They all should be hidden.

I use my Xbox in a standard CRT television with component cables. I hate the filter effects.
But I know that most of the people out there are switching to LCD televisions, high definition
screens and so on - and - 99% of every Xbox emulator users LOVE the smoothing and
blurring filters - So I think the things should stay as they are now.

The majority of people are still in standard def. The default flicker filter is on 5 and the best seems to be 3 for SD.

My only suggestion could be to have the 10x11 pixel aspect ration turned on by default
and the screen size by default on the correct aspect ratio (for the classic pixel effect)

Yeah, totally. And if the PAR is the correct way of veiwing the old games, why not enable it and remove the option?

It is done by a single option! When you change anything outside the IN GAME menu, you change
for all! Of course, a isolated game MUST not have its own separated config already set up.
But you can press BLACK in the romlist and erase the particular settings for that game anytime.

And that's the snag - if it's been set up already, it's not gonna get changed. It's not very practical to use the back button to delete your settings on every single game. How long would that take?

Regarding the skins settings, you can store it anywhere, now you
have the option to set up the saves directory to any directory in the Xbox HD, just go to SETTINGS.

I might be wrong, but I don't think that would affect making skins on the Xbox itself. It's hard to explain, but when you're moving sprites/changning text colours and alignment through the configuration settings... There's nothing to say "save my settings". Right now, you gotta get the skin_settings.ini from E:/ rename to settings.ini and put that inside your skin's folder. Can you see how that would put anyone off skinning if they didn't know?

And I know he's retired. But I want him back for another round

[alf4_n1n54]

I have a CRT-HDTV and every thig looks great! I have it runing in 720p. all i had to do was set
the screen position, and make the menue fonts bigger. I dont know why any one is haveing big
problems.

[Far Beyond Driven]

I have a CRT-HDTV and every thig looks great! I have it runing in 720p. all i had to do was set
the screen position, and make the menue fonts bigger. I dont know why any one is haveing big
problems.

I'm glad you could afford your HDTV.

[gilles9999]

it isn t because you haven t any problem, that everybody doesn t have problems;
your opinion isn t "universal"!
i have a standard tv (excuse me), and a lot of my friends too; and we can t ajust the user interface screen
and it is boring because by default it cut the screenshots and some texts in a lot of skins
our tv don t fit correctly the UI screen, excuse us

[Cospefogo]

it isn t because you haven t any problem, that everybody doesn t have problems;
your opinion isn t "universal"!
i have a standard tv (excuse me), and a lot of my friends too; and we can t ajust the user interface screen
and it is boring because by default it cut the screenshots and some texts in a lot of skins
our tv don t fit correctly the UI screen, excuse us

To solve the problem of SCREEN CROPPED on left and right sides
why you guys don't try to TURN ON the 10x11 Pixel Aspect Ratio,
or, the 720x480 mode?

Maybe it can help.

Cospefogo.

[gilles9999]

thanks cospefogo, i have tried this too, but each time the skin is cropped
even with the 10*11 pixel ratio. too bad because the Xport ui is excellent
and we can t appreciate the skin appearance

[Far Beyond Driven]

To solve the problem of SCREEN CROPPED on left and right sides
why you guys don't try to TURN ON the 10x11 Pixel Aspect Ratio,
or, the 720x480 mode?

Of course I've tried this. The best I can get it is with settings of 480i + pixel aspect raio ON. The sides look OK but the top and bottoms are cut off quite a bit. It should be better suited with 720x576 (PAL) but it didn't looks as good.