The Dynamic Skins For All Xport Emus, Updated often, so come back to see what's new!!! Options

[gilles9999]

In fact i have already converted commercial spots for zsnexbox
from here (THE site for gamespots)
games ads

It is a 200% fun moment when i show the boxart and the commercial video at the same time ex
zelda commercial, street fighter 2 commercial, starfox,donkey kong commercial,

since not all the games have gamespots, i simply replace the in game videos of thoses games with
commercial videos

again,(in my opinion) it's a nice bonus (like in DVD )
perhaps a "commercial videos" folder should be welcome if it's not a big headache more for madmab if possible, simply display the "in game video first"(as always), then display the "commercial video"(if exists)

if madmab says it's too much chaos , we could propose thoses videos for the users who prefers them
(they just have to overwrite the new commercial videos over the old ones)

p.s.:"Super Video Splitter" is the best programm to convert all sorts of videos (and split the long intros sometimes) to wmv8.No bugs, my pc never crash with it, no synchro problems; just choose"convert to wmv8 broadbband ntsc 1400
And i have tested a lot of programs to convert to wmv8 (and be able to split the too longs videos)

This post has been edited by gilles9999: Oct 24 2008, 12:19 AM

[ressurectionx]

In fact i have already converted commercial spots for zsnexbox
from here (THE site for gamespots) games ads

Haha... I should have known man.

It is a 200% fun moment when i show the boxart and the commercial video at the same time ex
zelda commercial, street fighter 2 commercial, starfox,donkey kong commercial,

since not all the games have gamespots, i simply replace the in game videos of thoses games with
commercial videos

again,(in my opinion) it's a nice bonus (like in DVD tongue.gif )

Yeah, I bet it looks pretty cool. I don't want to remove the action videos myself though. Worst case scenario, I will just make the empty zips with the names of the commercials like I said earlier.

perhaps a "commercial videos" folder should be welcome if it's not a big headache more for madmab pop.gif if possible, simply display the "in game video first"(as always), then display the "commercial video"(if exists)

I never considered the possibility to play the commercial for the game. This idea does generate several other ideas..........

if madmab says it's too much chaos muhaha.gif , we could propose thoses videos for the users who prefers them
(they just have to overwrite the new commercial videos over the old ones)

I think I might include a commercial set with the Xtras naming conventions either way, now that I know it works. Too many possibilities with them not to.

p.s.:"Super Video Splitter" is the best programm to convert all sorts of videos (and split the long intros sometimes) to wmv8.No bugs, my pc never crash with it, no synchro problems; just choose"convert to wmv8 broadbband ntsc 1400
And i have tested a lot of programs to convert to wmv8 (and be able to split the too longs videos)

I'm comfortable with the AVI-to-WMV and the WMV-to-XMV batch files that NES and Horscht provided. That's all the video converting that I want to do myself with my slow computer and impatience when trying to teach myself something that doesn't have detailed and understandable instructions.

Hook me up with AVIs or WMVs and I'm ready to rock n roll.

Later,
~Rx

[madmab]

Well if you guys are crazy enough to (seems you are) convert all those movies, then I'm game. AVI files would be a bit much. Outside of the fact that .avi is just a wrapper and could have who know's what vid and audio compression. I think XBMC uses some technique to load .dll files but who knows how much memory that thing sucks up.

Anyways I was thinking maybe we could somehow incorporate it into the synopsis. For example tell the user to press "y" to view any commercials/promo's.

of course rez,
the work is already done,
we are just giving the "final touch" on the dynamic skins
i listenning your suggestions you and madmab (and the xbox scene members)
since you have generally good ideas
to developp the dynamic skin idea as far as i can

And your doing a good job too! I like to just point in a certain direction and let you do your thing!

[ressurectionx]

Yeah madmab.... We'll convert them. There's probably not as much as you think there is out there though.

That's why I don't know about the synopsis thing. I think it's fine if it's added there, but since there will be a generally small percentage of games with a commercial, it would probably be better if there was an option to run it either from the main menu, or from the "Utilities" section first.

[gilles9999]

run it either from the main menu, or from the "Utilities" section first.

yes, but if you are doing this, you wont be able to see the boxart at the same time,
plus there are already too much options in the main menu
i really think my solution is the more simple and easy:
show commercials videos:YES/NO,
if YES it will show the "commercial video" first, then the "in game video" second,easy no?

SECOND THING: THIS TIME i'm really satisfied with my atariXLbox dynamic skin!! (i've worked on it allday)
corrected:

-now the font,used and the font size is the same used in xbox media center pm3 (Trebuchet MS gras)
-all the sprites are named correctly!!
-animations corrected in all 14 settings
-buttons texts use the same font as XBMC project mayehm III
-avoiding the red color (since pure red is blurry on the standard tv)
-all the sprites are setted to avoid the overscan on the standard tv's
-sprites render well in HD, don't forget the XPORT emus skins are always 640*480 background, so i can't make miracles,no true hd background, but my 640*480 bg is optimized

here is my baby,
now all the dynamic skins will be similar to this one

DYNAMIC atariXLbox near final 24/10/2008

This post has been edited by gilles9999: Oct 24 2008, 09:06 PM

[ressurectionx]

yes, but if you are doing this, you wont be able to see the boxart at the same time,
plus there are already too much options in the main menu
i really think my solution is the more simple and easy:
show commercials videos:YES/NO,
if YES it will show the "commercial video" first, then the "in game video" second,easy no?

This is of course an option as well. Perhaps both could be done so you could either set it up so you see the game commercial before the game preview, and also view all of the commercials in their own special section in the "Utilities" menu. I really like the idea of being able to go through them separate, and the Utilities menu is hardly used so it would be a good option too.

In the utilities menu, the commercial could be viewed full-screen, instead of in the video preview box, like when you view the screenshots from the utilities menu.

What do you think madmab?




Looking forward to checking out your skins Gilles. I've been so busy working on the Xtras that I really haven't had a chance. The Gameboy/GB Color/GB Advanced is going to be the hardest system I've worked on. Bright side is, all the other systems that still need work should be easy compared to it. I think I have my next month of free time booked up with de-duping, testing and getting the artwork together.

I knew there was a reason that I saved this one and the Master System one for last (as far as the major emus go)

~Rx

[madmab]

p.s.: madmab, i see you prefer to see the controller on the gameselect screen...
that's the liberty of the dynamic skin

Yeah my thinking is. Your at the game select screen. You select a game to play. It's time to "pick up your controller and play!".

I suppose the flipsside is. Your at the game select screen. You select a game to play. You "plug the cartridge into your console" and play!.

I made a quick survey of that commercial site and here is my tally...

343 - NES
286 - SNES
511 - gba, 103 gbc, 122 gb (735 total for all )
56 - SMS, 42 GG (98 total for all)
140 - Genesis, 32 - sega CD (172 total for all)
6 - Wonderswan
1 - Vectrex
127 - Atari (various systems)
102 - Pc Engine
30 - Intellivision
14 - Colecovision
29 - Commodore (C64?)
3 - Spectrum

[ressurectionx]

Wow!

That's a lot more vids than I've ever found. I'm going to have to clear off some hard drive space. I'm almost running out.

~Rx

[GLiTcH]

r there hd versions of these skins .. im talking about the right size for 720p not something down sized (512x512,etc).. they dont look right in hd ..

[madmab]

Well I'm sure there are dup's in there, etc.

Glitch. When released the new dynamic skins will be HD ready for pretty much everything except the background screen which is still 640x480 (stretched on hd). Gilles9999 managed to get around alot of the problems by making alot of the stuff sprites. He made a special effort to line up the fonts so they look correct in HD.

[gilles9999]

Exactly, there are 7 "pre made" configs for the HD users(i don't forget them, since i have myself a hdtv)
BUT, use the last dynamic atarixl box (the only near 100% finished dynamic skin)
and rename any of the HD settings to "settings.ini" it will work.
Like madmab said, yes the background is upscaled 640*480 ,BECAUSE the xports emus can't display bigger backgrounds. EVEN the neverwill "hd" skins for zsnexbox are upscaled 512*512 backgrounds.

[Knomercy]

Sorry if this is a noob question, but I just starting using these skins so forgive me if i'm missing something simple.

I'm banging my head trying to figure out how to setup boxart on the game loading window.


I'm using the default ini, not sure what the configuration is with that. The bottom window shows screen shots properly, and i'm not sure what the top window is previewing, as its empty.

So if I want boxart in the top window, how would I modify the ini to do that? What folders and format would I need to save it to?

Thanks in advance, I couldn't find anything in any of the documentation or posts that talk about this.

[ressurectionx]

The windows are actually for all artwork in one and video previews in the other. This is a feature that will be released sometime in the near future but hasn't been implemented in the emus yet. (Just a beta right now on ADAMx and an official release for the Zsnesxbox)

I would be very interested in seeing a third window so Box/Carts could be in one, Title/Action could be in another, and video previews could be in the third. I think we've discussed that possibility before and it can't be done for one reason or another though.

Check out the thread by clicking the signature in my link to download the movies for the video previews on the systems that are complete. As soon as madmab releases the new version for that system, you will be able to preview all artwork in one box and the video previews in the other. Right now though, you can download the videos for SNES and see how the dual previews work with the newest version of ZSnesbox.

~Rx

[gilles9999]

Sorry if this is a noob question, but I just starting using these skins so forgive me if i'm missing something simple.
I'm banging my head trying to figure out how to setup boxart on the game loading window.

I apologize for some misunderstanding here
The first objective of the dynamic skins is to handle the dual boxart/videos stuff for the future madmab releases (dual boxarts/videos display is a source of BIG discussion about the best way to display them)
fortunatelly, dynamic skin can display them in amost all possible ways

BUT, if you want to use DYNAMIC skins with old xport's emus (wich is cool):
old XPORTS emus can display only one screenshot on the screen, SO
YOU will have to rename one of the followings settings:
- HDTV(or SDTV) boxarts only
- HDTV(or SDTV) med previews only
- HDTV(or SDTV) big previews only
to settings.ini

ONLY these pre-made settings are directly fully compatibles with old Xport's emus

This post has been edited by gilles9999: Oct 29 2008, 10:17 PM

[gilles9999]

Madmab, be sure to use them man,
I'm working on a better madmab edition logo at the moment
perheaps with the famous dragon from adventure, coming and eating the dot in the "edition" text
ATARIXLBOX
update (good fonts, bump in the logo, alternate atari logo possible)for:
DYNAMIC ATARIXLBOX 30/10/2008

ADAMX
update : good fonts,one bug in one of the HD settings,logo redone
r~x, could you put them in the new thread?
DYNAMIC ADAMX 30/10/2008

p.s.: madmab, have you succeed finding the very obscure bug that crash the emu if it has more than 25 sprites in the sprites folder,
because i have a lot of bonus sprites, especially for the dynamic atarixlbox

This post has been edited by gilles9999: Oct 31 2008, 12:38 AM