General Questions about Hyperspin

[Visitor Q]

What happens when there is no theme for a rom, how is it displayed?

Does HyperSpin use the same video files and snaps Maximus and Game Ex does?

All the themes seem very well done and of high quality, can I expect the same though out all game systems that will be emulated?

Thanks.

Jason

[billpa]

If there is not a theme, it goes to a default set of artwork. Currently we use a placeholder png file that is pretty boring BUT you could easily create a default theme that looks great!

HS uses FLV for video files. This allows us to animate the video as well (as you see in some of the examples on YouTube). These will be available through Circo's EmuMovies website. As far as snapshots, you should be able to use current sets although we are doing an overhaul on boxarts for emualtor sets...like NES, Super NES, N64 etc. etc. Alot of these will be available in time for public release....and they are way better than most of the artwork sets that are currently available!

You will expect the same quality for everything from the HS team once it is created. I do expect to see some more theme creators once it goes public. There will be download sections for both Team HS and User submitted themes.

Hope that answers all of your questions.

billpa

[Visitor Q]

Hey Bill,

From NE PA, High Five!

Will Hyperspin focus mostly on Mame Themes at first?

When this goes public in August, about how many themes can I expect to see released with it at first?

Are there any features that Hyperspin will offer over Game Ex or say Maximus Arcade?

Will Hyperspin some of the extras that are found in Game Ex?

Thanks so far.

Jason

[billpa]

Hey Jason,

Good to see another PA person. I swear it seems like everyone else is from CA...hehe.

As far as focusing on themes...I think that a lot of people dont realize (probably because we havent advertised it) that we have quite a few console themes completed. With console themes, the background stays the same...ie NES system on starry background for the NES. The backgrounds are really nice looking and they have a place for the video preview. Each wheel image is the actual logo for the game (sometimes they have a nifty rounded button) plus a pseudo snapshot...actually box art since you dont need a snapshot with a video preview. If you browse the Theme Announcement section, you will see some stuff. Check out posts from amchine.

in the Graphic and Theme Creation forum you can see some other examples. For example, check out BBB's post in this thread

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111&page=3

Getting back to focusing on what themes...it all depends on who is creating them. And when HyperTheme comes out, it will be it uber easy for other people to create themes...trust me! So really it all depends on what others want to create. I am a big MAME fan so I focus on that...although I have been helping out with restoring NES boxart as well. There are close to 1K NES games (I think) so thats a lot of work for the 2 or 3 people doing it :)

As far as features go, I will leave that question to the tech guys. I just make pretty pictures.

Thanks,
Bill

[brian_hoffman]

Fetaures: Im an avid user of gameex and HS isnt as feature rich.
Gameex is a multimedia and gaming FE with dvd playback pictures, Karoke etc..

HS has support for many emus. It has support for launch before and after and will launch your programs.. It does what its supposed to... A Front End.

I have played with maximus but found its somewhat limiting. Youll be happy with HS... It doesnt do all gameex does but its not in the scope of what HS needs to accomplish.

Is there any feature your reffering to in general?

[Visitor Q]

Cool Bill.

Not sure if you can touch on this but all the current snaps, flyers etc. I use with Mame, will they no longer serve a roll here? Is everything being recreated at this point?

I understand that all the video previews are being redone because of format but what about the rest of the control panel pictures and what not?

Jason

[brian_hoffman]

We dont use Snaps,Pcb,Marquees, etc... Other FE's use those as it helps sow you the game your on in a visual way.. EG the text based FE's

there is no snap path so it swows on screen..

We are going to arcadeflyers or any where and d/l hi res art and cutting out images and logos and putting them together for a theme. Then using a video of gameplay.

[Visitor Q]

Fetaures: Im an avid user of gameex and HS isnt as feature rich.
Gameex is a multimedia and gaming FE with dvd playback pictures, Karoke etc..

HS has support for many emus. It has support for launch before and after and will launch your programs.. It does what its supposed to... A Front End.

I have played with maximus but found its somewhat limiting. Youll be happy with HS... It doesnt do all gameex does but its not in the scope of what HS needs to accomplish.

Is there any feature your reffering to in general?

Honestly I am some what new to this. Infact I am building a PC this week just for the sole purpose of a Media Center/ Emulation PC. It will be used on my TV and not in a cabinet but it is going to serve strictly for those two purposes. I did install Game Ex on my current PC as well as Maximus. I like the looks of Max. but some of the features of Game. I really don’t know enough about all their features to tell you what one does and not the other but I do like the audio play back that Game Ex offers and can see me using that.

I guess the one limiting feature of your program that I see so far is that it does not use a lot of the formats that are currently available. I say this only because of the video previews and I am still gather the other information so I maybe a little out of term here.

I know the one good thing you guys have going for you is looks, AMZING! Plus the staff so far he has been great and I have only asked but a few questions. =]

Jason

[Visitor Q]

We dont use Snaps,Pcb,Marquees, etc... Other FE's use those as it helps sow you the game your on in a visual way.. EG the text based FE's

there is no snap path so it swows on screen..

We are going to arcadeflyers or any where and d/l hi res art and cutting out images and logos and putting them together for a theme. Then using a video of gameplay.

So what you are saying is the "theme", video preview and wheel image is all you will be displaying? All the rest that is used with other front ends will be tossed?

If that is the case, it's clean looking, professional, all from what I have seen so far.

Jason

[billpa]

However this is not to say that you cannot use any of these images. You will begin to understand more once you have a chance to sit down and play with HS and understand how art works and where it is kept.

Some people may be satisfied with the current sets of snaps, marquees, etc. for their artwork...or perhaps as a temporary solution for some games that do not currently have a theme. Some people may create a default theme in addition to using snaps/marquees. And then there will be the people who are creating from scratch. You can count on HS art to be the last of those three. BBB has set a pretty high standard for official HS artwork and I believe everyone will be blown away with the level of artwork that we will be creating. Once you see it for yourself, everything else will look pretty drab :D

[brian_hoffman]

Well HS has to use FLV's as AVI want to be on TOP all the time and the themes would work correctly.. Plus in FLV format they can be twisted skewed and streched. So again its more for theming.

If your going for a HTPC media centre go gameex.. You wont be disappointed and thier support is bar none the best.

If your going for an arcade FE... HS all the way... it is very beautiful.

[Visitor Q]

However this is not to say that you cannot use any of these images. You will begin to understand more once you have a chance to sit down and play with HS and understand how art works and where it is kept.

Some people may be satisfied with the current sets of snaps, marquees, etc. for their artwork...or perhaps as a temporary solution for some games that do not currently have a theme. Some people may create a default theme in addition to using snaps/marquees. And then there will be the people who are creating from scratch. You can count on HS art to be the last of those three. BBB has set a pretty high standard for official HS artwork and I believe everyone will be blown away with the level of artwork that we will be creating. Once you see it for yourself, everything else will look pretty drab :D

Just from the video, I know... It looks GREAT!

Jason

[Visitor Q]

Well HS has to use FLV's as AVI want to be on TOP all the time and the themes would work correctly.. Plus in FLV format they can be twisted skewed and streched. So again its more for theming.

If your going for a HTPC media centre go gameex.. You wont be disappointed and thier support is bar none the best.

If your going for an arcade FE... HS all the way... it is very beautiful.

Can I run both to switching back and forth?

Jason

[brian_hoffman]

Sure!

[Dazz]

The way HS is setup you can have it display snaps, marquees, and flyers if you want. You would simply place these items in to the various Artwork folders and tell the theme where you want these to display. Video will have to be in .flv format, but we have the support of Circo from EmuMovies. All of the EmuMovie collections will eventually be in .flv format and downloadable from the EmuMovies FTP/Torrents.

I have been running Maximus for a long time. I tried to use GameEX, but it was just way to PC looking for an arcade cabinet. It was also quite a bit more difficult for my children to use. Maximus on the other hand is great, very easy to setup and get running, and very easy for my kids to navigate. HyperSpin might not have as many features as the other front ends do, but what HyperSpin does it is really good at.

[Visitor Q]

I know the one thing I saw in MA that I did not like was you could only pick one dir for roms in Mame. At this time, my CHDs are on one HD and my roms are on other.

Will HS support multi rom paths for one emu?

Jason

[BadBoyBill]

Its going to but not just yet, I have it somewhat implimented but I have alot of other things Im doing right now that might be a tad more important, but it is on the list 'O' things to add.

[Visitor Q]

Its going to but not just yet, I have it somewhat implimented but I have alot of other things Im doing right now that might be a tad more important, but it is on the list 'O' things to add.

Will it support sub folders under the main dir rom path?

Jason

[BadBoyBill]

Not yet but it could do that also.

[Visitor Q]

Not yet but it could do that also.

Yikes! Yeah ya better add that to the list as all my CHDs are in sub folders as well.

Just an idea but it would certainly help in my set up to have those two features.

What about backround music between selecting games, does it support that? Not as important but still kinda cool IMO.

Jason

[BadBoyBill]

yes music backgrounds are supported

[Visitor Q]

yes music backgrounds are supported

Sorry for all the questions but will it support like a track list or one mp3?

Jason

ps. I gave ya a thanks. heh

[brian_hoffman]

Mp3's

[Visitor Q]

Cool... So like a track list or no?

Also, is there a list of what emu's it will support?

Jason

[brian_hoffman]

It will support any emu that supports command line . All the configs are givin in the release for all emus shown in the video.. Music is supposed to be per game and used in conjuction with the theme.. Not to be confused with a mutimedia engine type setup..

So yes mp3 no playlist...

[Visitor Q]

It will support any emu that supports command line . All the configs are givin in the release for all emus shown in the video.. Music is supposed to be per game and used in conjuction with the theme.. Not to be confused with a mutimedia engine type setup..

So yes mp3 no playlist...

I was thinking more along the lines of ambience noise.

Jason

[BadBoyBill]

I personally dont like ambience noise, gets to annoying after a minute or two. Instead we make HS have lots of random game sounds when spinning the wheel which in a way creates its own ambience, when not turning the attract mode sounds from the emumovies is enough for me to listen to. I might only add this feature if theres enough demand for it but I wouldnt use the feature myself.

[The Loafer]

Hi folks,

Great job so far, looking forward to August 6th.

Question: So far, what do you estimate is the total size of the relevant downloads for the release? ie: app and themes. I understand there will (hopefully!) be new themes released on a regular basis, but on launch day, what do you expect to be the total size if someone wants to get everything.

Also, I'm not fully familiar with the flv format. How does it compare size wise to the current emumovies?

edit: I noticed in the no-intro SNES thread it's mentioned the FLV's are a little smaller.

Thanks again,

Loaf

[BadBoyBill]

flv size is questionable, depends on the settings, which program for encoding and who does the videos. So it could be larger or smaller.

As for your question about the download, the torrent download is going to be pretty big because were going to include just about everything we've done so far into one download. I'm not postive but I'm guessing it might be 400 meg+, thats because we will include flv videos for the themes to get you started plus boxart and other artwork collections. It might be smaller because Im thinking about leaving a few things out that you can just get from the site.

[The Loafer]

400 megs isn't that bad at all actually, that's for about 40 mame games plus the generic console stuff? Hmmm, it will be interesting to see what an average game theme size will be (theme plus flv). I'm sure these vary, not asking, will see for myself soon enough.

Be very careful about leaving too much to download here, I suspect your server may be hit harder than you think :).

[brian_hoffman]

Thats why we are going to be closing sections of the download section and providing a torrent.
Theme+flv = 4 to 7 meg

[The Loafer]

Smart move and that's not a bad size at all her game.

edit: "her game"??? I really needed to go to sleep! LOL

[Circo]

As far as video size I would assume that in the end it will average +/- 10% of the originals, most sets are getting a makeover so they might increase inside because they are more complete than the previous sets.

[Visitor Q]

Yeah I don't feel 400 megs is big either.

Jason

[Visitor Q]

Will there be any complete system theme's offered with the public beta?

Jason

[joebells]

do you mean a theme for every game a system has or a theme for the main wheel for every system?

[Visitor Q]

York, PA!

Damn you guys are getting close!! =]

Yes, I mean is there a complete set of themes for one system done so far, every game.

I assume the main wheel is done for atleast Mame?

Jason

[Dazz]

York, PA!

Damn you guys are getting close!! =]

Yes, I mean is there a complete set of themes for one system done so far, every game.

I assume the main wheel is done for atleast Mame?

JasonNo, we don't have any complete sets as far as individual game themes go. For default themes we'll have some sets with complete boxart and the video, but these are some of the smaller sets like Neo Geo, Neo Geo Pocket, N64 and I think they are currently working on NES box art right now.

[Visitor Q]

No, we don't have any complete sets as far as individual game themes go. For default themes we'll have some sets with complete boxart and the video, but these are some of the smaller sets like Neo Geo, Neo Geo Pocket, N64 and I think they are currently working on NES box art right now.

How will the updated themes be distrusted, in packs?

Jason

[Dazz]

How will the updated themes be distrusted, in packs?

JasonIn packs or you should be able to download from here individually.

[Visitor Q]

Will this work fine outputed to my TV? Meaning will it fit a WS format?

Jason

[joebells]

yep I run it at 1280x720 on my tv. It looks just a tiny bit jagged on some things since its stretching everything

[Visitor Q]

Cool... Some what off topic here but what Dreamcast Emu do you think would work best with HyperSpin?

Jason

[joebells]

I don't have personal experience with any dreamcast games as I don't have any but as of a few months ago I read nulldc was a good one to use(in regards to good dreamcast emulation) really hyperspin should work well with most emulators