Hypertheme guide

[jedah]

Hi all,

 

I have been scouring the forums and can't find a guide on how to use this software. I am hopeless at creating art. The reason I want to use it is to modify the way certain themes are animated or positions they display each artwork etc.

 

For some of my wheels I can't find default system themes so I figured I could modify some main menu ones to use. Obviously doing this without editing has caused a few problems (artwork appearing in front of the game wheel etc.) I just can't seem to find a guide that could show me how to do this.

 

Also, is it the themes xml that decides on the size of cart and box art and whether or not it is displayed on the default theme's wheel? I have quite a few themes where this doesn't seem to be enabled.

 

Cheers.

 

J.

[NewYears1978]

HyperTheme is mostly self explanatory once you mess with it. If all you want to do is change the way items animate in a theme you can even easily do that by hand.

 

 

As for HyperTheme if you load it up, then load a theme you can figure out fairly easy how it works.  You basically have a layered artwork system, kind of like Photoshop (sorta, but not really).

 

Background layer

Artwork1

Artwork2

Artwork3

Artwork4

Video Overlay (Don't remember if this one is actually shown in HyperTheme or not, am at work cannot check)

Video

 

You also have special artworks and such which are the images/swf that show the little Press Start and Joysticks. But those are not shown in HyperTheme.

 

 

However just say you had a theme and you simply wanted to change the way a little character animated you could load the theme up, at the top there are little icons for each of the above mentioned images you can click and it will autoselect that art.  Once you select it you can see your animation options on the left.

 

Let's say by default it was set to starting position left and set to animation fade. It would come from off the screen left and fade in. You could change that to top and bounce for instance.  This is a very primitive example, but I'm at work so I can't write a detailed guide but I would be glad to help you on a one on one basis or answer any questions.

 

I am always in the chat room, or you can even PM me. Can chat over IM, or Teamview, or PM system or whatever.

 

 

Also, is it the themes xml that decides on the size of cart and box art and whether or not it is displayed on the default theme's wheel? I have quite a few themes where this doesn't seem to be enabled.

 

 

 

The artwork sizes for like Artwork1-3, video, etc are in the actual theme's "theme.xml" (Created with HyperTheme OR manually) file but the size of the wheels actually stored in the systems setting ini file.

 

HyperHQ controls the wheel sizes and spacing if you want to do it with GUI, or manually those files are in Hyperspin/settings/systemname.ini

 

So take the following into consideration:

 

HyperHQ (HyperSpin/settings/[systemname].ini) for:

 

Wheel Art 

Pointer Image

Specials Art

 

HyperTheme (HyperSpin/Media/Themes/ and theme's theme.xml) for:

 

Artwork1-4

Video overlay

Video

[jedah]

This is fantastic. I am sure this will enable me to tweak the themes to my liking. Thanks you so much for this.

[NewYears1978]

This is fantastic. I am sure this will enable me to tweak the themes to my liking. Thanks you so much for this.

 

You're welcome, but hey PM me or hit me up in chat if you need help.  

[Spawk]

Helped me understand the basics too... however at one point he inserts a "video template". He doesn't mention what it is or where to get/create it. Some help with that would be great.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[NewYears1978]

Helped me understand the basics too... however at one point he inserts a "video template". He doesn't mention what it is or where to get/create it. Some help with that would be great.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

A video template is really anything you make of it.

 

In HyperTheme the video part is really only a placeholder to show where the video will be and what size. You can simple make an image in photoshop any size you want. Say you want your video to be 340x200 (random number I made up) you can simply make a black square in photoshop size 340x200. When imported as video in HyperTheme this is merely a "placeholder" 

 

If you include a video.png file in your theme this will automatically be an overlay for the video either above or below it. I can't remember if HyperTheme has a section for video overlay (at work right now) because I have always done that manually.

 

So the template is basically a placeholder, that's a good way to describe it.

 

Generally a theme creator, or at least myself, would create a theme in Photoshop first to get the layout how I wanted it. This would include making say a video overlay layer and sizing my stuff how I wanted it and see how it looks. Then I would export each image out.  Now my method is a little more advanced because I actually save artwork at full canvas size which makes spacing easier for me. I also process through flash for image smoothing and to keep proper size rations (my template are in 1080p and they look like 1080 in HyperSpin instead of looking like stretch images) It's all too hard to briefly explain really.

 

But the template is just to show in Hypertheme where your video would be so you can position the other stuff above or below it properly. When you export the them your template won't show up but only the settings for X, Y, animation, Size etc will get saved in the theme file. THe black square image itself wouldn't be saved in other words.

[Sorn]

A video template is really anything you make of it.

 

In HyperTheme the video part is really only a placeholder to show where the video will be and what size. You can simple make an image in photoshop any size you want. Say you want your video to be 340x200 (random number I made up) you can simply make a black square in photoshop size 340x200. When imported as video in HyperTheme this is merely a "placeholder" 

 

If you include a video.png file in your theme this will automatically be an overlay for the video either above or below it. I can't remember if HyperTheme has a section for video overlay (at work right now) because I have always done that manually.

 

So the template is basically a placeholder, that's a good way to describe it.

 

Generally a theme creator, or at least myself, would create a theme in Photoshop first to get the layout how I wanted it. This would include making say a video overlay layer and sizing my stuff how I wanted it and see how it looks. Then I would export each image out.  Now my method is a little more advanced because I actually save artwork at full canvas size which makes spacing easier for me. I also process through flash for image smoothing and to keep proper size rations (my template are in 1080p and they look like 1080 in HyperSpin instead of looking like stretch images) It's all too hard to briefly explain really.

 

But the template is just to show in Hypertheme where your video would be so you can position the other stuff above or below it properly. When you export the them your template won't show up but only the settings for X, Y, animation, Size etc will get saved in the theme file. THe black square image itself wouldn't be saved in other words.

 

I was looking for the answer to this question, so thank you.

 

Could someone please explain to me how you position a .mp4 in your /Media/Video folder so that it correctly aligns with your video template in HyperTheme?

I also dont understand the player mechanism behind it in HS either, because I created a theme, and used nintendo 64 as my test. I created a Nintendo 64.zip, and put a Nintendo 64.mp4 in my /Media/Video folder, 

 

But when I go to Nintendo 64 on my HS, it shows my background and I hear the music playing from the video, but not the video itself? Is that because some part of the theme has been put "in front" of the video? 

 

I've been searching for a good tutorial on hypertheme, but the best one I found was a out of sync audio. Any advice is helpful, looking to contribute, thank you.