TinyLauncher 3+ released

[lolafg]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

For s-s load: Check this thread. This should help.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=65981

Just tried Kick Off 2 Return to Europe. I got a black screen at the first start in TL too. But after starting it first via WB icon it runs fine in TL as it seems.

Tryed it again and all is working , i probably made something wrong the first time...

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by kolla

That is called a path, not a "drive letter".
Also, I keep my games in a partition, not a directory.

If you don't use a directory for Games, then use another launcher. Thanks.

[kolla]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

If you don't use a directory for Games, then use another launcher. Thanks.

That is probably the weirdest limitation I ever saw on any Amiga software.

[Retro-Nerd]

You mean you put them all into the root of your partition? For now TL doesn't support that. Older versions could scan the root of partitions though. I will nag Gibs at some point if he can implement it again. But seriously, where is the trouble to move all your games or A-Z folders into another folder and scan it then?

[kolla]

I have a dedicated partition for games, I always had a dedicated partitions for games on my systems, always thought that was the obvious thing to do. So when I point TinyLauncher to my "Games:" partition, and it pops up an error message that looks like something out of MSDOS, I am not sure what to believe.

But no worries, I am probably not exactly the kind of person that this software targets.

[oissery77]

Originally Posted by StatMat

Okay, so the second version of the PAL pack is now up on the FTP (305mb - TinyLauncher-Screenshots-v0.2.7z). I have chosen the Sierra Lite dithering algorithm in preference to Floyd-Steinberg or others as I believe the results are very similar or better in some cases, not to mention it's quicker. The dithering has unsurprisingly increased the overall size a little, but yes should be fine on a 4GB CF card. Have a look and see what you think.

Thanks for the up, i will test it first on winuae and after on my 500, i will post a feedback

[oissery77]

Originally Posted by StatMat

Cool thanks for the info. The OCS palette conversion may make colours a little different (hardly surprising when there's 16 shades per primary colour instead of 256! ). But it wouldn't affect overall quality such the extra noise (which hey that is what dithering does!).

I think to make it a fairer comparison, maybe I could grab a few of the source images Gibs used, perhaps for Turrican II and Battle Squadron for example. They don't seem to have come from Exotica by the looks of things. Then I can convert using my method and we can compare. I'm definitely up for finding improvements where we can.

Interesting point, i'm curious to see the result of the comparaison with Gib's images.
For now, it's already a great job done with the current pack.

[StatMat]

Okay, so indeed the PhotoShop dithering and quantization was producing better results (surprise, surprise! ). Therefore I have modified my original approach to more closely match PhotoShop as follows:

1. I am now using Floyd-Steinberg dithering
2. I have introduced a 25% reduction in the dithering error propagation to more closely match the default Diffusion dither with an amount of 75% in PhotoShop
3. I am now using a selective palette for the dithering based on each image rather than using a general purpose palette

Whilst my results do not match PhotoShop exactly (this is always going to be difficult given the number of variables involved and closed nature of the product), I believe it's now producing significantly better results than before that are rather comparable to PhotoShop. For example, here are the Turrican II and Battle Squadron images from before and after alongside Gibs original PhotoShop images:

StatMat (Before):



StatMat (After):



Gibs (PhotoShop):



StatMat (Before):



StatMat (After):



Gibs (PhotoShop):



This time I have uploaded a new pack to the FTP containing just the boxart and a combined v0.3 complete pack. Again, this is still PAL only at the moment. Let me know what you all think.

[Retrofan]

I tried TL a couple of days ago and I found a problem with the lenght of the name of the path to where my mods are (Sys:Utilities/EaglePlayer/Modules).

It doesn't let me use it.

[Retro-Nerd]

Great job, condering the sometimes too blurry pics from the FS-UAE database you've used. And the Turrican 2 and Battle Squadron covers are pretty much equal now.

[Tarzin]

@Reto-Nerd, Statmat

Gibs's pictures have been sent by myself and are were originally providen with AmiGame.
You can use them but I'll appreciate if a mention to AmiGame can be done in a readme file or something like that. ;-)
[I was a really hard work, to collect, scan, correct and rename pictures]

I've a second pack to send to Gibs.

[StatMat]

So far the packs I have produced have been sourced from the openretro database. However as Retro-Nerd has indicated, Gibs has been using your cover images for his pack and quite a lot of yours seem to be better quality. I am sure Gibs will credit you in the readme.

Do you have your set renamed to match the WHDLoad slave names? I am thinking if you can share (perhaps on the FTP?) I will perhaps be able to convert them all using my new script. I know Gibs has done conversion work already, but I'm not sure if he's finished this yet and it could save everyone some time. That way we could perhaps have an alternative boxart pack.

[StatMat]

So I have now created the NTSC pack which I have uploaded to my folder on the FTP (TinyLauncher-Screenshots-And-Boxart-NTSC-v0.3.7z). Enjoy.

[ma693541]

Originally Posted by Tarzin

@Reto-Nerd, Statmat

Gibs's pictures have been sent by myself and are were originally providen with AmiGame.
You can use them but I'll appreciate if a mention to AmiGame can be done in a readme file or something like that. ;-)
[I was a really hard work, to collect, scan, correct and rename pictures]

I've a second pack to send to Gibs.

And where can we download AmiGame?, not from AmiGame and if we go to the site in your contact info Tarzin, my browser claim's that your site is a dangerous website. I have tried both the new version's of Firefox and Waterfox.

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by StatMat

Do you have your set renamed to match the WHDLoad slave names? I am thinking if you can share (perhaps on the FTP?) I will perhaps be able to convert them all using my new script. I know Gibs has done conversion work already, but I'm not sure if he's finished this yet and it could save everyone some time. That way we could perhaps have an alternative boxart pack.

Sadly the covers don't have the names we need for TinyLauncher. But Gibs said he could maybe write a script and rename them to the slave names. But mainly he prefers coding on TL instead of doing this. We,ll see. Sure, an alternative cover pack would be nice since the FS-UAE database pack has app. 1000 more compared to Tarzins pack (due to different versions, languages etc). Both have their right to exit. Well the Exotica pack would be nice too. Never found it as a pack though. Not sure if we could rip them easily.



btw: scanning the root for game folders/game folders inside A-Z folders is working now in the latest beta.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Sadly the covers don't have the names we need for TinyLauncher. But Gibs said he could maybe write a script and rename them to the slave names.

I have time on my hands so could do that if you like?

Just need the following which I assume you can get from a "dir /b /s > list.txt" from a command prompt:

a) A list of the cover names.
b) A list of the correct slave names.

I'll create a batch file afterwards

[Retro-Nerd]

They are not identical in numbers. But here are both lists. Tarzin Covers and the filenames from StatMats FS-UAE database covers rip.

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

I tried TL a couple of days ago and I found a problem with the lenght of the name of the path to where my mods are (Sys:Utilities/EaglePlayer/Modules).

It doesn't let me use it.

Gibs said the MOD path length is limited to 32 characters. Use the Assign then.

Assign path tlmods:

[lolafg]

Hello , does the path for Demos works the same as the one for games ?

I ask because when i put dh0:demos (foder A to Z from classic workbench) and then press F1 i don't see the "stateofTheArt" text but if i press ENTER then the demo is launched...

Thanks

Edit : found (didn't read enough) , must be at least 2 objects....

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

They are not identical in numbers. But here are both lists. Tarzin Covers and the filenames from StatMats FS-UAE database covers rip.

Alrighty, leave it with me...

Thought it would be a relative quick job but considering you've said the numbers aren't identical, I'll need to do some manual adjustments.