WinUAE boxart question & request/suggestion.

[Mikerochip]

Hi all,
I'm just now getting around to adding boxart and screenshots to my games:
to that end, is there a bug with Winuae and just adding boxart?

I've added 3 games, added a title and screenshot to one game,
which works fine, added a box, title and screenshot to the second game,
which also works fine, and the third game I've just added boxart to.

(I mostly want to see what each option looks like, before I decide on including boxart)
But, it looks like if a game only has a ___Boxart.jpg file, the art window never opens.
Can anyone else confirm I'm not doing something wrong?
I'm pretty sure I'm correct, since the ___Boxart.jpg file works fine in the game that also has the title/screenshot.


Also, the request:
Now that there is an art screen, is there any chance maybe a file launcher button/label/placeholder image etc could launch a PDF or similar?

So, if there's, for instance, a ___manual.pdf or ___manual.txt in the game folder, you could launch that through the Winuae art screen.
Useful for games, I think, or even configs to store manuals/notes for non game configs.

And/or maybe a ___url.txt or something too, to launch a url to say the HOL associated page (or whatever website. LemonAmiga, Amiga Magzaine Rack, SPS, Archive.org, online codewheel, etc)

You could even have two windows:
The one on the right, to show pictures etc, a new one on the left, to allow launching manuals, notes, weblinks etc.

Or just a extended.txt with maybe file or url and then a title in it.
Each title will have it's own button / image?


Anyhow. That's my suggestion!

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Mikerochip

Hi all,
I'm just now getting around to adding boxart and screenshots to my games:
to that end, is there a bug with Winuae and just adding boxart?

I've added 3 games, added a title and screenshot to one game,
which works fine, added a box, title and screenshot to the second game,
which also works fine, and the third game I've just added boxart to.

(I mostly want to see what each option looks like, before I decide on including boxart)
But, it looks like if a game only has a ___Boxart.jpg file, the art window never opens.
Can anyone else confirm I'm not doing something wrong?
I'm pretty sure I'm correct, since the ___Boxart.jpg file works fine in the game that also has the title/screenshot.

Heya Mikerochip,

Yes, I can confirm that if you only just have a file named "___Boxart.png", then it won't get picked up by WinUAE.

It seems you need at least a "___Title.png" file also.

Originally Posted by Mikerochip

Also, the request:
Now that there is an art screen, is there any chance maybe a file launcher button/label/placeholder image etc could launch a PDF or similar?

So, if there's, for instance, a ___manual.pdf or ___manual.txt in the game folder, you could launch that through the Winuae art screen.
Useful for games, I think, or even configs to store manuals/notes for non game configs.

And/or maybe a ___url.txt or something too, to launch a url to say the HOL associated page (or whatever website. LemonAmiga, Amiga Magzaine Rack, SPS, Archive.org, online codewheel, etc)

You could even have two windows:
The one on the right, to show pictures etc, a new one on the left, to allow launching manuals, notes, weblinks etc.

Or just a extended.txt with maybe file or url and then a title in it.
Each title will have it's own button / image?


Anyhow. That's my suggestion!

Someone requested something similar previously.

Toni then added the "right-click on the Boxart panel" to open the <gamedir> directory. Personally, I think this works very well

...not sure how much effort it would be to do all the other custom things you've requested though.

Edit: and all these things are cosmetic. To be honest; I'm over the moon with the ability to display title / screenshots

Think back to when all you could see is only a text list of configuration files...

From my understanding / experience, Toni isn't trying to recreate a "Gamebase" feel and rightly so. He's more focused on improving the "real deal" i.e. even further Amiga accuracy

I might also mention that with the idea / implementation of the "Boxart" panel; which Toni executed so elegantly; I donated £400 in order for him to be interested; as it's something I really wanted

Yeah, I'm crazy like that sometimes, when it's something personal I feel will improve the overall user experience... and boy has title / screenshots done so in my mind.

[Mikerochip]

Hi DamienD

Yup, I sort of figured it wasn't going to be a request that's high on anyone's radar:
But, the more I thought about it, the more useful I thought it might be:
Adding notes, really, and having manuals on hand.

Anyhow! I just thought I'd bring it up

No harm in asking!

(Very impressed btw that you donated!)

I understand WinUAE isn't going to be an all singing dancing front end, its main focus is emulation after all.
But it's surprising how long I spend with the software open, just doing other bits.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Mikerochip

Hi all,
I'm just now getting around to adding boxart and screenshots to my games:
to that end, is there a bug with Winuae and just adding boxart?

I've added 3 games, added a title and screenshot to one game,
which works fine, added a box, title and screenshot to the second game,
which also works fine, and the third game I've just added boxart to.

(I mostly want to see what each option looks like, before I decide on including boxart)
But, it looks like if a game only has a ___Boxart.jpg file, the art window never opens.
Can anyone else confirm I'm not doing something wrong?
I'm pretty sure I'm correct, since the ___Boxart.jpg file works fine in the game that also has the title/screenshot.

Originally Posted by DamienD

Heya Mikerochip,

Yes, I can confirm that if you only just have a file named "___Boxart.png", then it won't get picked up by WinUAE.

It seems you need at least a "___Title.png" file also.

Here's a trick I just did:

• Create an empty .TXT file using Notepad and save as "___Title.txt".
• Now rename this from "___Title.txt" --> "___Title.png".
• If you have the above file and "___Boxart.png" in the <gamedir>; when you load WinUAE and highlight the configuration, only the "___Boxart.png" image will be displayed.

[Mikerochip]

Ah! Excellent. I created 1 pixel white png Seems to work ok too!

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Mikerochip

Ah! Excellent. I created 1 pixel white png Seems to work ok too!

...but won't you have a "red" border around the 1 pixel image like so (look below the "Boxart" image):



Better to use my method as you won't get this; obviously due to the image not being able to render:

[Toni Wilen]

Don't do that, depending on undefined behavior is a bad idea..

[DamienD]

Ok, I've looked at the logs though and nothing bad occurring / errors:

<snip>

Possible boxart path: '.\Games\Agricola Hard Disk\Agricola.hdf'
Detected!
Possible boxart path: '.\Games\Black Dawn Rebirth\Black Dawn Rebirth.hdf'
Detected!
Possible boxart path: '.\Games\Bridge Strike\Bridge Strike (2019)(Project R3D)(Disk 1 of 2)[t +2 Flashtro].adf'
Detected!
Possible boxart path: '.\Games\CannonBall RTG\CannonBall.hdf'
Detected!
Possible boxart path: '.\Games\Dr. Fruit\Dr. Fruit (1987)(Softgang)[t+1 ross].adf'
Detected!

<snip>

Box art path '.\Games\Agricola Hard Disk\'
Image '.\Games\Agricola Hard Disk\___Boxart.jpg' loaded 640*775

<snip>

The above test is in my "Agricola" <gamedir>.

[Toni Wilen]

Point is that because it is undefined (and bad idea for a workaround), it may break in the future. Just don't do it.

[Toni Wilen]

One sub "window" (after last image) that shows "known good" files (files that are actual text or pdf or whatever files) probably would be good enough solution?

(I missed part of original suggestion): combining image with some txt/pdf/whatever file also works. (image + "data file")

EDIT:

To keep it as simple as possible (no extra description files), what about:

"___Data_document.txt_.png" would mean if this image is clicked, "document.txt" would be opened using default program that takes .txt files. (and so on)

[Mikerochip]

So, a __Data_ type would launch anything thats after that, with a normal shell execute etc I presume, and give the ability to show a png etc for the material, ie, the first page of the manual. Cool idea.

Or how about allowing clicking on an image in the image window instead / as well?
Or double clicking...

Actually, I'd probably use that exclusively then.. Eg
__data_manual.pdf_.jpg with a picture of the box, so clicking on the box would launch the manual.
__data_archive.url_.png with a title screen picture would launch a URL to bring me to my archive.org page
__data_hol.url_.png with a gameplay screenshot would launch the hol page.
__data_notes.txt_.png with a notepad icon would launch the notes!

You might need to allow more than 3 images in the image panel then Toni?

Should be easy enough to allow maybe a double click on a picture?
With maybe a blue border to denote picture can be double clicked?

[Mikerochip]

A bug I discovered:

If the first image isn't a PNG, the rest of the images don't load.

So, a config/disk with a ___Title.png and ___SShot.jpg will load fine, and display both pictures, but one with ___Title.jpg and ___SShot.jpg won't.

[DamienD]

You're better off using .PNG files than .JPG.

.JPGs use lossy compression so quality is not as good...

[malko]

Originally Posted by DamienD

[...] I might also mention that with the idea / implementation of the "Boxart" panel; which Toni executed so elegantly; I donated £400 in order for him to be interested; as it's something I really wanted [...]

Whaou ! Thanks DamienD .

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Mikerochip

A bug I discovered:

If the first image isn't a PNG, the rest of the images don't load.

So, a config/disk with a ___Title.png and ___SShot.jpg will load fine, and display both pictures, but one with ___Title.jpg and ___SShot.jpg won't.

It is by design. It only does single check and file called ___Title.png must exist or config gets ignored. Minimizes time used for checking.

Originally Posted by Mikerochip

So, a __Data_ type would launch anything thats after that, with a normal shell execute etc I presume, and give the ability to show a png etc for the material, ie, the first page of the manual. Cool idea.

Or how about allowing clicking on an image in the image window instead / as well?
Or double clicking...

Actually, I'd probably use that exclusively then.. Eg
__data_manual.pdf_.jpg with a picture of the box, so clicking on the box would launch the manual.
__data_archive.url_.png with a title screen picture would launch a URL to bring me to my archive.org page
__data_hol.url_.png with a gameplay screenshot would launch the hol page.
__data_notes.txt_.png with a notepad icon would launch the notes!

Done. Mostly.

EDIT: __data_something.., then ___data2_somethingelse.., ___data3 and so on on. It also sets order of images because alphabetical order isn't always best choice.

You might need to allow more than 3 images in the image panel then Toni?

Max bumped to 10

Should be easy enough to allow maybe a double click on a picture?
With maybe a blue border to denote picture can be double clicked?

Currently single click opens the file if it has file attached (overriding normal single click feature).

Any other change requires more comments

EDIT: some way to reorder images probably is needed (currently they are always ordered by type of image first, then index of image)

[Mikerochip]

OK! This is amazing. It's in B2, and working!

So, just to make sure I know the rules then:

1) a file called ___Title.png must exist or config gets ignored.
2) Pictures are shown in the order: Boxart, Title, Screenshot, Misc, Data
3) to launch an external data file, you need a picture file called ___data<FILENAME>.png and then <FILENAME> in the folder. Windows will then attempt to launch <FILENAME> with the associated program.

Seems good here!

Testing Beta2.

The only thing I can't work out then, is, how to show more than 2 pictures on screen. Does it depend on the size of the pictures originally?

So, if I make the window pane smaller, it automatically resizes the pictures, but, no extra ones show up.

*edit* ok, I tried smaller pictures, but nothing other than title and sshot show up, even if misc, data etc exists.

If I have Boxart, Title, SShot, data, only Boxart and Title show up.

I tried with 320x272 images, and my screen is 1440 pixels high, so, no height restrictions there.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Mikerochip

So, if I make the window pane smaller, it automatically resizes the pictures, but, no extra ones show up.

*edit* ok, I tried smaller pictures, but nothing other than title and sshot show up, even if misc, data etc exists.

If I have Boxart, Title, SShot, data, only Boxart and Title show up.

I tried with 320x272 images, and my screen is 1440 pixels high, so, no height restrictions there.

When it was just title / sshot / boxart; I believe this is how it worked:

<Left Mouse Button> in the boxart panel; toggle between 1, 2 or 3 images.
<Right Mouse Button> in the boxart panel; toggle through title / sshot / boxart images.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Mikerochip

The only thing I can't work out then, is, how to show more than 2 pictures on screen.

ArtImageCount=<number> "hidden" parameter in registry/winuae.ini.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

ArtImageCount=<number> "hidden" parameter in registry/winuae.ini.

Interesting

Mine is always set to 2; title / sshot:

[Mikerochip]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

ArtImageCount=<number> "hidden" parameter in registry/winuae.ini.

Thank you! This is awesome

Originally Posted by DamienD

Interesting
Mine is always set to 2; title / sshot:

Hi DamienD!


You could though, set maybe 4 in total?
For any entries that have 2, only 2 will show.
But! What if you made a new png/icon yourself?
One for Notes or readme, one for manual/PDF?
So, you could then include some notes, maybe controls, etc.
Or notes for anyone to make on the game.
Maybe cheats?

Or launch a url?
If you create a url file, say, call it HOL.URL, and set it to the URL for the game in HOL,

and rename your sshot.png to ___data_hol.url.png
You still show 2 pictures, but, clicking the screenshot now will bring you to the HOL entry for the game!
Nifty!
(Obviously, you could make a URL icon/image too, with a HOL logo on it, etc)

If you wanted to be real fancy, you could include a manual:
Say, call it manual.pdf
Then, take a screenshot of the cover manual, and call it ___data_manual.pdf.png
and now, in WinUAE, clicking on the picture manual will launch the PDF


For Monkey Island, you could launch url to an online code wheel, using a picture of the codewheel!


Something like this: Obviously the txt button at the bottom is quick and dirty. New WinUAE Example