Working with HyperTheme questions...

[BluepointVance]

So,

I'm trying to create a new "system theme" for my personal setup. I'm calling it a system theme because I want it to appear on the main menu wheel -- but really it's just supposed to be a list of my favorite fighting games.

So I get my .png files ready. Get a .flv of street fighter for the video. Put it together in Hyper Theme...

And I just can't get it to work.

First off, the FLV file I've got is considerably smaller than the ones I see in Hyperspin already (i.e. the ones for Daphne or MAME) so I resize it in HyperTheme... But then when I play it back in HyperTheme, it gets reduced to it's original size. Even if I choose to leave it like that, when I finally export it -- the FLV never shows up anyway. I check the xml file, and it has an entry for video. But it just wont show up in Hyperspin.

Also, when I export, the FLV file is not placed in the VIDEO folder for my theme. In fact, HyperTheme doesn't make a VIDEO folder at all. I've tried to make one manually, and then add the FLV file but this doesn't seem to help.

I'm also a little fuzzy on how you set up a theme to function as a "system theme" as opposed to a regular "game theme."

By scanning through other system themes, I've figured out that you must place the them under the MEDIA/MAIN MENU directory. And then add an entry for it into the Main Menu.xml... But I'm not really sure how to get it to launch a sub-wheel of my favorite games from there...

Is there a tutorial somewhere that guides people through the creation of "system themes"? I can't seem to find one anywhere on the forum.

Any suggestions appreciated,
BluepointVance

P.S. I really like this front end. Seems like it will be worth the work to customize it.

[BluepointVance]

Also, when I export, the FLV file is not placed in the VIDEO folder for my theme. In fact, HyperTheme doesn't make a VIDEO folder at all. I've tried to make one manually, and then add the FLV file but this doesn't seem to help.

Figured this part out... I didn't think to rename the FLV to the name of my system theme (in this case it's called "Fighters.")

Once I did that I could get the video to show up. It still won't resize it though. Think I'm just gonna find a FLV that is already the size I need (probably the best approach anyway.)

Still confused about the other stuff... But I'll keep plugging away at it!

[Dazz]

It sounds like the flv you are trying to use doesn't have the necessary Meta Data. There is a way to inject the meta data required, but I don't recall how. Perhaps one of the other guys can chime in and give more info on that.

Videos should never be included with a theme (out of respect for Circo's EmuMovies), so HyperTheme will not include the FLV when exported. HT will only created a VIDEO folder when you have a .png image as a video border. This is normal functionality of HyperTheme.

Setting up a theme to be a system theme is fairly simple... The theme images/xml files needs to be placed in the Media\Main Menu folders in their correct folders. Next you would need to edit the file called Main Menu.xml that is located in the Databases\Main Menu folder.

<game name="MAME" />

Change MAME to whatever you named your theme:

<game name="FIGHTERS" />

This will tell HyperSpin to load your system theme if it is located in the Media\Main Menu folder.

[BadBoyBill]

Also in case anyone didnt know this you can now export system themes from HyperTheme, you can make a file called default.xml and put it into the media/main menu/themes/ folder and it will override all ini settings. The reason I did this is so you dont have to submit an ini file with your system themes.

[BluepointVance]

Okay, I think I'm still lost here.

I can get a wheel image on the main menu for my system theme. And I can get it so that when I select it, Hyperspin takes me to a list of games that I've defined in the DATABASE directory...

I can even get video to show up for the games in that list that I have .FLVs for.

But I can't get a background image in there. I can't get any kind of animation or theme in there (just a blank screen.) And sometimes when I try to navigate the list of games, instead of going to the next game on the list when I push up or down, hyperspin decides to shrink or expand the NAME of the game I'm currently on. (i.e. I have "STREET FIGHTER" selected. I hit up to navigate to the next game. But it stays on "STREET FIGHTER" and the text start to get bigger or smaller. This happens totally randomly.)

I can't seem to find any information about creating a default theme like the one I'm trying to do here. As near as I can tell (from scanning through other default theme files,) my .INI file in the SETTINGS folder must be missing something. But I have no idea what.

Love this Front End. Got Neo Geo working 100%. But I'm just stuck on creating my own sub-sets of games off the main menu.

Any help appreciated. I'm more than willing to read any manual, tutorial, whatever and do this myself... I just can't find any.

Thanks,
BluepointVance

[Dazz]

Okay, I think I'm still lost here.

I can get a wheel image on the main menu for my system theme. And I can get it so that when I select it, Hyperspin takes me to a list of games that I've defined in the DATABASE directory...

I can even get video to show up for the games in that list that I have .FLVs for.

But I can't get a background image in there. I can't get any kind of animation or theme in there (just a blank screen.) And sometimes when I try to navigate the list of games, instead of going to the next game on the list when I push up or down, hyperspin decides to shrink or expand the NAME of the game I'm currently on. (i.e. I have "STREET FIGHTER" selected. I hit up to navigate to the next game. But it stays on "STREET FIGHTER" and the text start to get bigger or smaller. This happens totally randomly.)

I can't seem to find any information about creating a default theme like the one I'm trying to do here. As near as I can tell (from scanning through other default theme files,) my .INI file in the SETTINGS folder must be missing something. But I have no idea what.

Love this Front End. Got Neo Geo working 100%. But I'm just stuck on creating my own sub-sets of games off the main menu.

Any help appreciated. I'm more than willing to read any manual, tutorial, whatever and do this myself... I just can't find any.

Thanks,
BluepointVanceThis really sounds like you do not have the Database matching your images/rom names.

[BluepointVance]

This really sounds like you do not have the Database matching your images/rom names.

When you say "Database" are you referring to the XML file in the DATABASES directory? As far as I can figure out, that should just be a list of the games available to that particular system... This XML file was one I generated with MAMEFilter.exe... If I switch it out with, say, the default mame.xml I get the same results.

Or are you referring to the INI file under the SETTINGS directory?

EDIT:

Okay. So I copy-pasted the neogeo.ini file in the SETTINGS directory -- renamed it -- and used it to replace the INI for my default system theme... Then copied over all the neo geo media files, too.

So I got it working (looking exactly like the NEO-GEO default theme.) Good. I then replaced the default background... That's good now.

But when I look at the INI file, the settings seem different than what gets output by the HYPERTHEME creator... For example in the [VIDEO] section, all the variables are named differently and the values no longer have quotes around them...

So basically, HYPERTHEME does not output in a format compatible with a default theme's INI file -- is that correct? Is there a guide anywhere that explains how to set up a default theme INI file?

Again, any help appreciated--
BluepointVance

[Dazz]

When you say "Database" are you referring to the XML file in the DATABASES directory? As far as I can figure out, that should just be a list of the games available to that particular system... This XML file was one I generated with MAMEFilter.exe... If I switch it out with, say, the default mame.xml I get the same results.

Or are you referring to the INI file under the SETTINGS directory?

EDIT:

Okay. So I copy-pasted the neogeo.ini file in the SETTINGS directory -- renamed it -- and used it to replace the INI for my default system theme... Then copied over all the neo geo media files, too.

So I got it working (looking exactly like the NEO-GEO default theme.) Good. I then replaced the default background... That's good now.

But when I look at the INI file, the settings seem different than what gets output by the HYPERTHEME creator... For example in the [VIDEO] section, all the variables are named differently and the values no longer have quotes around them...

So basically, HYPERTHEME does not output in a format compatible with a default theme's INI file -- is that correct? Is there a guide anywhere that explains how to set up a default theme INI file?

Again, any help appreciated--
BluepointVanceLet me get this correct... You are trying to create a default theme using HyperTheme, but you want the output to be that of your settings file .ini? Configuring the default theme options in the ini files is no longer needed for a default theme. With the last build Bill added in the ability to have default themes now.

If you are creating a default theme for a system... Just create a theme in HyperTheme and name it Default when you go to export it. This will create a default.xml, name all of the images default as well, just place the default.xml and images in the correct folders and HyperSpin will use that default theme as the default for that specific system.

[BluepointVance]

Let me get this correct... You are trying to create a default theme using HyperTheme, but you want the output to be that of your settings file .ini? Configuring the default theme options in the ini files is no longer needed for a default theme. With the last build Bill added in the ability to have default themes now.

If you are creating a default theme for a system... Just create a theme in HyperTheme and name it Default when you go to export it. This will create a default.xml, name all of the images default as well, just place the default.xml and images in the correct folders and HyperSpin will use that default theme as the default for that specific system.

Got it. Thanks. That worked perfectly. Sorry if I'm too obtuse to find this information in the forum... I guess I never quite know what exactly to search for.

Last question, has anyone else encountered this problem with the text resizing itself while you're trying to scroll through game lists? Any suggestions for what might be causing it..? It's damn weird.

[BluepointVance]

Last question, has anyone else encountered this problem with the text resizing itself while you're trying to scroll through game lists? Any suggestions for what might be causing it..? It's damn weird.

Think I figured this out. I re-installed Hyperspin from scratch and ran it. Everything worked fine again... But when I went into hyperhq and changed the default text settings (color, font type) on a particular wheel, the text on that wheel started acting screwy... So at least I know what's causing it... As for a fix -- I guess just using wheel images for everything for now...

[Dazz]

Think I figured this out. I re-installed Hyperspin from scratch and ran it. Everything worked fine again... But when I went into hyperhq and changed the default text settings (color, font type) on a particular wheel, the text on that wheel started acting screwy... So at least I know what's causing it... As for a fix -- I guess just using wheel images for everything for now...Can you please give us the exact settings that you input to duplicate this? We'll need to be able to duplicate it before Bill can look into it to fix it.

[BluepointVance]

PM sent. :itsme: