A couple of alternate dynamic skins for MednafenX Madmab Edition.

CBAGY_CAB
CBAGY_HDTV

PS. 720P only.

Hey man.. I will give these a shot when I get a chance. I've been reaaaaaal busy since the release.

Mind posting a few pics up here of them so people can see them before downloading/ftping them. I feel bad nobody's commented on these yet since I'm sure you put a lot of work into them. Maybe a few screenshots would help generate a better/quicker response.

Later,
~Rx

did think as much RX, however the main emulator thread really needs to be paramount. Plus ive tidied a few more bits so things have moved on really. Will do later.

The links in the first post will be dead now.
I have polished the skins a bit and tightened a few things.
Links tonight or tomorrow.

CBAGY_CAB


CBAGY_HDTV

And for Standard Definition Users

Early CAB skin without elements.

Finished the skins for MednafenX NES Madmab Edition.
Added a 480 version too.

CBAGY CAB HD


CBAGY HDTV HD


CBAGY CAB SD


Download Links.
CBAGY CAB HD
CBAGY HDTV HD
CBAGY CAB SD

Upgraded CBAGY_CAB_HD. Added text dialogue mask n other bits.
New link. CBAGY_CAB_HD

nice. i like the arcade cabinet idea (but for a nes?) Whatever, keep up dynamic skinning.

Didn't really think about this till now. Maybe a "VS" system would be a good alternative...

My sentiments exactly on the cab for NES. Seems a bit quirky i know but it was done with what graphics i had plus it was more for onscreen presentation of the ResXtras really. Still a wip though. Have to admit i like the HDTV one better anyway (which is being re-done tonight).

@Madmab, youve lost me with "VS". please explain as im not really into the NES so have no idea. Do you mean a versus cab ?

Yeah... VS games are really NES games in an arcade cabinet right? I'm sure there are some good pics of a VS cab around somewhere. At least it would make some sense in context of the emulator.

Ahh the playchoice and Playchoice-10 cabinet?

Yo cbagy...
haven't replyed yet but...
Your skins aren't dynamic at all man, i don't understand why you are calling them like that?
There's not any pre made configs; and you can't set/enable/disable the differents elements of the skin (border, boxart,buttons,whichever element...)
No offence man, i just don't want confusion for the users (a dynamic skin must support all the possible "dual boxart/screenshot/videos" or "single boxart/screenshot/videos" )

i see, ok

Nice job either way.

I haven't checked it out since I'm neck deep in things I've been meaning to catch up on and a surprise for madmab. This will make it in any "all incompassing" releases that I put out when the project gets to that point. It's in my to-do folders.

Later,
~Rx

Well it still is a bit of a work in progress. So maybe Dual preview would be a more acurate description at the moment. But I don't see him claiming them to be dynamic either... Or did I miss something?

Either way I've seen numerous skins on that xbox skins website (does it even still exist?) that were incomplete or didn't cover all "aspects" of the old style x-port skins.

Anyways now that I think about it. To take full advantage of the new system cbagy you can actually combine the three skins into one and create "configurations" for each seperate one to accomodate your set-ups (CAB HD, HDTV HD, and CAB SD). Obviously the disadvantage is the user will have to download files they may not be interested in using.

But the whole idea of the "configuration load" and "configuration save" screens is to help eliminate the redudancy of having seperate skins. On the other hand.... One has to be careful about memory useage. As we have found out with some of the more "memory hungry" emulators.

It's a bit of a balancing act.

Anyways just keep on tweakin'!!

Yeah. He said it in the first post, but it's cool. He's just learning about this stuff. We've all known what Dynamic Skins were using them for months but probably couldn't explain it to somebody who is just now seeing what can be done.

Cbagy's (Work in Progress) Dynamic Skins...

Kinda like all them college kids that manage to get a job today and learn that they'd be just as good at their job as the kid right off the street, even after all those years of learning. The only way you really learn how to do a job is to just do it.

I hope you think the options are as awesome as we did cbagy, and I hope you make the most of them. If you have suggestions for making something easier or improving something, please let the man know. It's been my experience that if Madmab could do it he's done it.

You and Gilles work in an area of XPORT that I don't venture much. Perhaps a second head to make suggestions would be welcome.

Later,
~Rx

Yes, right on the nail Madmab. Was combining them tonight with new interface skin. Will be a 10 in 1 by the time im finished. Definately keeping my eye on the number of sprites i use. "Less is more" , "KISS" etc. Playfull but functional is what im after.

You must understand its been over 10 yrs since i used a graphics program and then again i wasnt that much an expert. I really threw the skins out there to either inspire someone or for them to pinch ideas from the work. Every piece of work has ideas in them. Even mine i suppose (lol). More skins = more ideas. Pinch the best bits, combine them and we have a winner. How many of the best XBMC skins are essentially the same ?

Besides "Mislabeling" the skins pobably hasnt hurt the exposure of the emulator.

We shall see what the rest of the week brings.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with cbagy.

Since it's an arcade theme, maybe you could use different Marquee's on the arcades for each emu.

I think that the icons that Gilles made for my Xtras thread would work great for that. Just plug them in the sprites and put it over the marquee for the skin...

That's the idea behind the Dynamic Skins. The ability to make a skin for every one of the XPORT emus by just changing a little sprite here and a background image there once the basic layout is complete.

Good luck,
~Rx

yes, i already was using different marquee's for the cab skin. Built Neogenesis one last week. was playing around last night. I have 4 themes, all with different backgrounds and graphics. It covers standard definition 4:3, 16:9 widescreen and of course 720p

the thread was called "alternate dynamic skins", and so on for the files.
I wish to see more "complete" dynamic skins, you know like me it is hard to cover all the situations with the new "dual" stuff (some users want dual screenshots/boxarts; some want dual screenshot/videos, some want only boxarts, some want only videos, etc... ) I garantee big headache to answer the maximum of all this (plus there is some others problems like "the fucking overscan"(that's also for this reason we have decided to let the user be able to move each element of the gui),and be also aware of the "red" color, especially on the old crt tv, the red color become flashy and look like puke (damn grandm'ma tv);and finally, the memory issues problems !:popcorn: (if there is too much sprites, chances are your emu will turn out of memory!)
Just be sure to take all this in consideration cbagy, keep up the work man!

Yes Gilou9999 the overscan. Unfortunately thats one of the un-tidiest things to have to look at. Not many pixels are wasted but on a SD TV we need all the space we can get.

That's sure THE overscan...
I think it was Cospefogo who speak about it some years ago, and he is right, i'm totally agree with him:
There is a lot of older skins for the Xport's emus we can't simply use because on our crt tv, the GUI is cut off!, it means the screenshots preview was cut off in some skins, and sometimes it was the rombrowser:
Yeah the xbox emu skinning can easilly become a nightmare, believe me, it's more easy to let the user be able to move the border/buttons/rombrowser to be sure THERE WON'T be that fucking overscan problem;
plus, all the tv's are differents! in my old crt tv:big overscan; on my brother most recent crt tv: little overscan
fortunatelly, for now, no user has complained about overscan or dual/single stuff problems with the dynamic skins;so our solution seems stable...
- the only complaints are the users who don't like the pm3 theme , not a big deal, impossible to satify everyone, pm3 theme is just... neutral... my future dynamic skins will be themed, but same thing, there s a lot of people who don't want to see the mario face each time they launch the "madmab edition emu"

I love your skins man!

I preferred the 360 skin to the PM3 one but I've switched to PM3 because everything is neutral, professional and alike now.

All links should now be dead.
A new update, with pics, will be available within 24 hrs.
A dynamic skin with all definitions covered ie- SD, Wide and HD.
Multi-themed ie- Standard, CAB and TV.

That's really turning out to be a sweet looking skin there cbagy.

Maybe you should ask Gilles for permission to use his help screen pics in your skin. They're pretty much universal images and when the Madmab Edition emus start coming out, it will be nice to pull up those screens in a variety of skins.

Later,
~Rx

its out there for testing at the minute so we shall see.

So the links at the top of the page work for them then?

I would have tried it myself, but I don't want to download old skins.

Great work man,
~Rx

EDIT: Come to think of it, I think the videos that are complete now that I haven't added are "GBC - Halloween Racer" to "GBC - Zidane - Football Generation".

If I remember right....

No. Im sorry RX i think we have wires crossed. There are "no" valid links on X-Scene yet. You know where to find it though. It will appear here on X-Scene probably later.

CBAGY_Singularity
Dynamic skin for MednafenX NES Madmab Edition.
Well here we go guys. A sort of a pre release.
Im looking for things ive missed, stuff not implimented correctly.
As far as design goes im not that bothered yet.
So do me a favour and give it a whirl and see if ive missed something
as its been over 4 weeks since i looked at it properly.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jyymdozxwlz






http://www.mediafire.com/?jyymdozxwlz

I built this using a large HDTV so some of the fonts for different TV's may be too small or too large so let me know silly things like that.
True HD isnt supported properly in Xport emulators. So some graphics may look a little grainy after being resampled by the xbe.
Features ... No Mario/Luigi. No Yoshi. No fucking twinkly Japanese style tunes composed on a handheld Casio keyboard. No talent or forethought was used or harmed during the making of this skin.

Sorry but it appears i have included the older emulator splash screen - emuloadbkg.jpg
Below is a small download revised versions for HD and SD users.
Just extract and overwrite the 2 old files.

http://www.mediafire.com/?vizngjzwnzh

Wow dude. That's a great looking skin.

My only suggestion is to get preview images for the configurations and the skin itself (model the names after how Gilles did it).

Oh... and on a few of the configs it seems like you didn't cut the text off early enough and the long filenames "bleed" off the box into the rest of the skin.

Other than that, top-notch work man.

Personally, I like having a very large video preview screen. Maybe you can make one with that in mind. Also, with the Enhanced Xtras, you can take advantage of having 1 video and 2 artwork settings. So you'll be able to have a video, Boxart, and titleshot up there all at the same time.

Later,
~Rx

Thanx RX well spotted, will make a plug-in with large previews.
About the enhanced xtras along with the emulator. I have asked elsewhere but got no reply.
Has Madmab implimented the seperation of boxart and cart art ?
ie- seperate preview locations can now be plotted. I have the emulator v.1.5b

No separation of boxart and cartart at this time.

I'm not exactly sure how he does it, but the title/action shots show up in one box and the Box/Cart show up in the second one.

I'd love seeing a way to choose what images show up in which box, but I don't know how easy that would be. Having 4 different settings for pictures would probably me such a memory hog that it would affect performance, but it would be nice to be able to choose which artwork you show in the two boxes we have.

On my rig I have a configuration for Gilles' skins called "~FULL TILT DX" which gives about the maximum space available to the video on the left and on the right there is 2 boxes. The top one shows the boxart and cart art alternating and the bottom one shows the title shot and action shot alternating.

Dont quote me but, i dont think it matters about adding extra preview windows
as the skin graphics are loaded into memory at skin boot up.
Now whether this extends to previews .. i dont know.

On this skin, the configs have the original "screenshots" co-ordintes.
Then Madmab added 2 more values to his xbe.
Previews 1 (title,action)
Previews 2 (boxart,cartart).

Im guessing the idea will be to add more values
ie- Preview 3 , Preview 4 etc.

In my skin the original screenshots, enhanced artwork or video occupy the top preview window at the same time. The user will only see the video preview or enhanced artwork depending on their setup in the emulator options. Even if one sets it up to show enhanced artwork and video at the same time only the video will be visible in the top window. I made it this way because the top preview enhanced artwork is Title then Action shot. However if one has video preview then Title and Action shots are redundant because each video starts with a title shot then plays the action.The reason i did it like this so i avoided making a shit load of configs relevant to possible pack downloads and setups. Now depending on the end user some configs would be a waste of space and my effort and time. My setup works with whatever packs you have, there will be a preview of some sort for everyone in all definitions regardless of theme.
This way it keeps the shared resources (themes, sprites) down to a minimum. Thus avoiding the dreaded memory hogging.

PS. Regarding previews for the configs. Im a bit stuck, i asked elsewhere but got no joy. I haven't a clue how to get some screencatures for the config.ini's. Its something the skin is really missing. Any ideas ?

I've heard some people say the screenshots are redundant if you have videos before.

I don't know if I agree with that though. I'd say the action shot is redundant, but since most videos play anywhere from 15 seconds to about 45 seconds before going to the title sequence, I think it's nice having the Title shot up there too.

Just my two cents...

Now before i say anything, you know me and the way i express myself. OK. So no boxing gloves.
BUT !!! That config is a bad one for me, dead wood. No need for title/action on the same config as video. They both do the same thing. Except the video is better.

PS. You posted before me so this post is redundant. doh !

F.A.O. RX
Is this the sort of config you were after ?
Excuse the blurred pic, im shit with this camera.

wow dude that is fuckin sick. I also have all 3 different views but not like that. I have the boxart/cartart on the bottom left of the screen while I have the title/action shot on the left big square and the video on the right big square and the romlist bottom middle. I manually moved the boxart/cartart to the lower left cuz I personally would like to see all 3 too. Excellent work man, is this still bein tweaked by u? or is it already available to have as a working skin?

yeah its available, see top of this page !!

Im just tweaking some more configs, will upload later today
with new link for WIP2.

Still cant find info on getting a screen capture of configs for MednafenX.
Anyone at least point me in the right direction ?

Yeah... if that skin stays on the title shot and alternates the box and cart while the video plays, it's pretty much like my DX skin on Gilles' work. You can always rename the "Action" folder so those images never come up. That way, they don't work with the skin and you don't have to delete them either in case you ever wanted them for some reason.

I agree 100% that the action shot is 100% redundant, but I still think that he Title shot is still 100% relevant and welcome in a skin configuration.

What do you think, now that you've seen it?

~Rx


P.S... oh yeah... what's wrong with the image you posted for a skin configuration image for the preview? If it looks like shit close up that may be a problem down the line, but as it is, that preview image couldn't be more than 5" on my 51" TV. I don't think you'd notice it.

Anyways.... Gilles would be the man to ask. It's an interesting question. I always assumed he just took a screenshot in the emu somehow.

I did initially use Giles files when they were first released.
I would reccomend anyone to download and test those skins.
I tried all the configs to get a feel of the emulator. Brilliant work.

But as with most folk, i have a different slant on what i like.
I think the full config looks tidier and very pretty. Have a bit of an issue
with the limited rombrowser count but hey i dont have to use it, even my own stuff.
Freedom of choice and all that. Just finishing up the other definition configs
for full previews.

I suggest no-one download from any of the links above as things have changed.
I will make the wip 2 version with more configs available later.

In fact i will remove the old (2 days) files anyway.

Thanks for pointing things out for me and dont be afraid to mod or comment
on changes or requests for configs. I'll either say "yes" or "balls to that".

PS. It would also be nice to see some other skins or mods from other users.
Come on chaps get your thinking caps on !

Hey cbagy
I like your stuff.
your newest image looks interesting and opens some cool possibilities.
keep up the good work.

and Yes, I would love to see more skinners as well, just to see what different people come up with.
cheers everyone.

No not yet. I need to add that in as well as "introduction" video support at some time. Plus I need to finish up the media browser options. Just have not had time to really concentrate on that. I had a pretty good run for a while there and did a bunch of work on Atarixlbox, but even that has been sitting the last couple weeks.

Oh and as far as the configuration previews. I'm not sure how gilles creates his. I'm guessing he just makes them in photoshop or something. If your running a debug BIOS there is a screen capture option in the Xbox neighborhood if you have that setup on a PC.

Yes Mabmab, didn't think extra preview options had been added yet otherwise im supposing we would have known about it by now.

Dont have debug machine or the PC setup anymore. Had to build a new machine weeks ago and stuff like that never got re-installed. If im to be honest it probably won't either. Ive made do with camera pics for now.
Keep up the good work Madmab your a star.

You are right in my pm3 dynamic skin, there are previews for each pre made config....
what's my secret? No secret, i have build from scratch each config with photoshop (like it looks in the config file)then "save as -config name-.png"
that's why there is 0 quality loss in them

Thanks Gilou. That was my next step. As it seemed logical.