Main Menu Changer

[knewlife]

Main Menu Changer

View File

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New Version: Main Menu Changer 0.0.1.2 [bETA 3]

BETA 3 IMPORTANT CHANGE:

Now you can use the new MMCLauncher app to launch all your apps including HyperSpin, this fix various issues and is the recommended way to use MMC now.

1- Edit MMCLauncher.ini with your Hyperspin path.
2- Add more apps fallowing the same format if you need. This way the apps you need run once and not every time MMC relaunch HyperSpin.
3- Delete any app from HyperHQ startup app. (Yes, quit killExplorer as start app And let MMCExit as exit app)
4- Run MMCLauncher every time you need to run HyperSpin, so all needed operations like changing wallpaper or kill Explorer.exe, occur before Hyperspin launch.

This change is not present it Video Tutorials or other Documents, so the old setups are still possible for retro-compativility.
If you setup is working fine, don't touch it

Windows 10 aparently don't need Wallpaperchange enabled, just RestoreExplorer will kill windows explorer and hidde the wallpaper.
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This app lets you change your main menu, filtering the entries stored in one XML file and allow you to create multiple level setups (HyperSpin allows a 2 leves setup normally).

Note: The setup and MMCHQ part of the program needs more testing, as the version says it's still BETA, please fallow the setup tutorials and report any problems in the support topic.

This app Works in 3 modes:

 

MODE 1 - Normal Mode:

A subwheel contains all the Filter Items, you can chose to Close Hyperspin Automatically or just configure the Main Menu with the selected filter and go back manually using normal FE controls.

MODE 2 - SubWheels Mode:

The filters are in the main menu Wheel and HS is closed and open again to load the results of the filtering process. You must scroll until you found a "BACK" item that will lead you to the previous main menu.

 

MODE 3 - SubWheels Mode with NO "BACK" entry:

The filters are in the main menu Wheel and HS is closed and open again to load the results of the filtering process. You can use the Frontend back key to go back, no special item need to be added to databases.

What's New

MainMenuChanger HQ: New app that let you edit xml files with diffrent apps and take care of save the modifications to the correct places.

MainMenuChanger "First Run" Wizard: If you are making a new install of MMC, the app will copy the necesary files and tell you what needs to be done to make MainMenuCHanger work.

Wallpaper Change: Change the wallpaper by a black one and back to a file of your choise on HS launch/close.

Ini version check: If you are updating from 2016-04-04 version, the new ini options will be added and, so you current ini should work with this 0.0.1 version.

Wheels and art included (Some wheels by spotUP)

Setup:

• Download MainMenuChanger_0.0.1.1_BETA.7z
• For all setup modes.
  1. Set Antivirus exeptions.
  2. Set all exes included to run with administrator provileges (right click -> propieties -> compativility -> run as administrator)
  3. Set all exes as secure (in propieties) so Windows dont ask before execute any of them.

  [*]Mode 1 and 2 have diffrent video tutorials.
  Mode 3 setup is almost identical to mode 2 with the fallowing diferences:

  1. In settings you must select mode 3, not mode 2 ( )
  2. In setings you must set RestoreExplorer to True (This kills and restore windows explorer to avoid the desktop to flash for a seccond when you go back a level of wheels)
  3. Optionally you can set the option WallpaperCHange to true to change you wallpaper to a black one on HS launch.

   

Tutorials

 

Mode 3 Tutorial (By maabus)

Here is a text based instructions on how to setup sub wheels in Mode 3 with no back button. I only went over one level of wheels and sub wheels, and one category. Just follow the steps again to add more. It looks like a lot of work, but it really isn't. It should only take about 5 minutes to setup at least on category. I tried to explain what everything does to my understanding so that also added to the length of the instructions. Try out the instructions and let me know if anything is not clear.

 

Copy MainMenuChanger to Hyperspin folder
Go to the MainmenuChanger folder
Run MMCHQ.exe

 

MMC First time wizard will launch. Click ok.
Change MMCMode to 3
Change HSClose to true
Change ReLaunchPath to your hyperspin folder path
Change MainMenuDatabasePath to your Hyperspin\Database\Main Menu path
Leave loading screen to 0 until everything is set up correctly.
Change SearchReLaunchPath if you are using it
Change SearchSettingsPath to your Hyperspin\Settings path
Change HSExitApp to your Hyperspin\MainMenuChanger\MMCExit path
Change RestoreExplorer to True
Change WallpapterChange to True
Change HyperHQPath to your Hyperspin\HyperHQ.exe path
Change HyperLaunchHQPath to your Hyperspin\RocketLauncher\RocketLauncherUI\RocketLauncherUI.exe path
Change MinimizeAll to true
Leave all other settings alone for now.
Click Save

MainMenuChanger will backup your Main Menu Database folder, and the Settings Folder. Click OK
MainMenuChanger will copy your Main Menu.xml file to All.xml click ok
All.xml, Categories.xml, and Main Menu.xml will be created in your Main Menu Database folder.
Click OK to notice about adding metadata to All.xml
You can add your own metadata to your All.xml file, or you can copy the All.xml file from your HyperSpin\MainMenuChanger\Example XML files\Mode 3\Databases\Main Menu folder. You will need to verify that all of your current systems are in the example All.xml file. Otherwise you will need to add them into the example file, and add the metadata yourself. Metadata consists of the following
<genre>Consoles</genre>
<year>1990</year>
<manufacturer>Amstrad</manufacturer>
Close All.xml file.
You must create your own Categaories. You can not just copy the example categories file. Only use the example file for ideas on how to categorize.

Adding Catagories
Main Menu Changer HQ will start.
Click on Edit Catagories
Click on Main Menu Wizard
Click on Add new item to the main menu
Type in your category name (ie. Consoles) then click next
Click Yes for is this menu item an executable program
Click on dummy, and then click add after, then Click ok
Click Continue with Wizard

Locate your executable.
Click on the browse folder, and go to your hyperspin\mainmenuchanger folder, and double click on mainmenuchanger.exe
Enter any optional parameters
put in _XML_Consoles (this is for a subwheel.. you can use a normal filter here as well)
click NO to do you want to use HyperLaunch to launch this file.
Click Wheel settings, then click Main Menu Wizard again
Click on Remove item from Main Menu
Click on dummy
click on fully remove from install then click ok
click on wheel settings
click on the dropdown box and select your Consoles wheel
Click on Winstate dropdown box and change to Hidden
close Hyper HQ
click Yes to save your changes

To add more categories just follow the steps in Add Categories again.

Copy the Images and Themes directory from HyperSpin\MainMenuChanger\Media\Mode3\Main Menu and paste it into HyperSpin\Media\Main Menu

Create a subwheel (Sort Consoles by manufactuer)
Start Main Menu Changer HQ
click on create New XML
Make sure you are in your Hyperspin Database Main Menu
Name it as what your category is. (ie. Consoles)
Click yes to edit the XML

Click Main Menu Wizard
Type sub wheel name (ie. Nintendoc) ! If you are going to sort by manufactuer in multiple wheels you need to name each wheel a different name. In this example the c at the end of nintendo specifies that it is for consoles. If you dont name it differently any changes will effect your other wheel.
Click yes to is this menu item an executable program
highlight dummy and click add after
Click Continue with wizard
Locate your executable.
Click on the browse folder, and go to your hyperspin\mainmenuchanger folder, and double click on mainmenuchanger.exe
Enter any optional parameters
put in genre='Consoles'_AND_manufacturer='Nintendo' and click Continue
Click no to do you want to use HyperLaunch to launch this file.
Click Wheel Settings, then Click Main Menu Wizard again
Click remove Item from Main Menu
Click on dummy then click on Fully Remove From Install
Close HyperHQ
Click Yes to Save xml file

Launch HyperSpin. You should see only one item in your Main Menu (Consoles)
Select Consoles
You will see the Nintendoc wheel
Select Nintendoc
All items that have the <genere> Consoles</genre> and <Manufactuer>Nintendo</Manufactuer> Tag should be visible
Press escape to go back to the "Consoles" Main Menu
Press escape to go back to the "Categories" Main Menu
Press escape again to exit Hyperspin. (Make sure you always quit hyperspin correctly) if you quit hyperspin incorrectly the next time you start it, it will load the last list you were in, instead of your catagorie list. If this happens just press ESC until you get to the Category list, or exit all the way out of hyperspin.

To create items on the first wheel when you start HyperSpin add them to the categories xml.
Then create XMLs based on your catagories by creating new XML
Add your <tag> filters to your new XML file as a wheel using the paramaters for your filter.
You can also add a system as you normally would without subwheels to a any of your wheels.

Main Menu HyperHQ explinations
Settings – change your paths and other setup info for Main Menu Changer
Run Wizard Again – Runs the setup wizard, and will backup and create All.xml, and Categories.xml

Create New XML – creates an xml file with a dummy entry. Used for creating the catagory list wheels (Console, Handhelds, Computers etc...)

HyperHQ
Edit Game System All.xml – Loads your All.xml file into Hyper HQ. This is where you would add new systems to Hyperspin. This is the equivelent of your default Main Menu.xml if you were not using Main Menu Changer. You will need to add your metadata tags to any new system.

Edit Categories – Loads your Categories.xml into Hyper HQ. This temporarly turns Categories.xml into Main Menu.xml. When you start Hyperspin this is the first list you will se. Use this to add your Categories to the first page. (Consoles, Handhelds, 1990, Nintendo)

Edit Other XML Files – this will load your subwheel xml file into HyperHQ. This temporarly turns your sub wheel xml into Main Menu.xml. This would be used to further organize your wheels. (ie. Console wheel from categories -> Nintendo -> lists all systems that have the tags <console> and <nintendo> in the All.xml

HyperLaunchHQ / RocketlauncherUI
Edit Game Systems [all.xml] – this will launch RocketlauncherUI with your All.xml file. If you normally use Rocketlauncher to add systems use this. This is the equivelent of your default Main Menu.xml if you were not using Main Menu Changer.You will need to add your metadata tags to any new system.

Manual XML Editing – just loads the xml files in your text editor specified in Main Menu Changers settings. If you want to manually change your xml files you can use this.

All.xml – Your main xml file. This contains all your systems. This is the equivelent of Main Menu.xml before using Main Menu Changer. NOTE: This list does not get loaded. The other xmls read from this list to build thier lists.

Categories.xml – This gets turned into the Main Menu when you start Hyperspin. This is the first list that gets loaded.

Other xml files – These are your subwheels.

 

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• Submitter
  knewlife
• Submitted
  03/20/2016
• Category
  Other
• Credits

 

[Spawk]

Very cool! A little too much manual editing for the average user but still ingenious. You were doing stuff real fast too, maybe a written tutorial outlining the things that need to be done would help. Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[knewlife]

Very cool! A little too much manual editing for the average user but still ingenious. You were doing stuff real fast too, maybe a written tutorial outlining the things that need to be done would help. Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

A well writen tutorial will consume so much time as I'm not an English speaker. And yes I do things fast try to avoid that but is how I do things for good or bad

Maybe I can do it easier in the future but doubt the XML editing can be avoided

[ninja2bceen]

Maybe include the xml you use in the file so there is a jump start? Having one or two systems is a nice example though

Thanks

[wesfranks]

Thanks Knewlife. Lots of activity on this topic and similar. I appreciate your contribution.

[knewlife]

Maybe include the xml you use in the file so there is a jump start? Having one or two systems is a nice example though

Thanks

good point. I think i include something before but is a good idea to include a examples folder with all the XML i use.

[knewlife]

Ok new version ready, please post any problem. If only Hyperspin had a way to update the main menu without close an reopen hyperspin that will be perfect but well this is the best i can do for a subwheels system 

[ninja2bceen]

are the intro videos effected at all?

[knewlife]

are the intro videos effected at all?

 

EDIT: I Upload a new file with the video thing a little modified to be more easy, so also modify the explanation here:

 

This setting is left untouched normally but if you set HSIntroAuto=1 and HSIntro=1 in the mmc.ini file then the videos are disabled automatically when the app runs (so you dont see the video when is not correct) and enabled again when you exit hyperspin (so you see the intro when launching hyperspin)..

 

This is not covered in the tutorials as i add this at to last minute. Hope i can explain this a little more later.

[ninja2bceen]

Thanks. I have the randomizer exe that launches to play a random video each time at launch. The ideal solution would be to run the randomizer exe file at launch of your program to play a video, then after selecting a category like console, you wouldn't see the intro video again. It may work like this already I just havnt tried it yet

[knewlife]

Thanks. I have the randomizer exe that launches to play a random video each time at launch. The ideal solution would be to run the randomizer exe file at launch of your program to play a video, then after selecting a category like console, you wouldn't see the intro video again. It may work like this already I just havnt tried it yet

I shuold work like that now

[ninja2bceen]

Perfect, this is my next to do then thank you!

[spotUP]

oh, video problem solved, NICE!

 

Just the back button left then.. it would rock if the real cab button would work like back here as well, but that really sounds hard to implement.

[knewlife]

oh, video problem solved, NICE!

Just the back button left then.. it would rock if the real cab button would work like back here as well, but that really sounds hard to implement.

is implemented as well but not covered in the tutorials. you can see it working in the second demo. Later will add that tutorial.

[spotUP]

O_O wow! Awesome work! I never thought that would work!

[knewlife]

O_O wow! Awesome work! I never thought that would work!

I have to change the exit app and the exit menu options every time the app is executed... That way I can disable the video and the exit menu whe you enter in your game systems... When you press back hyperspin is closed and mmc is launched again, activating the exit menu and restoring the categories before launch hyperspin again. And finally mmcexit.exe restores your video intro for the next time you enter hyperspin

[FrankyRizzo]

I tested this addon and so far I like it and it has a lot of promise.  I am able to group things up with (Arcade) (Atari) (NEC) (Nintendo) (Sega) (Sony) etc....

 

The only issue that I have right now is when the loading screen comes up the bottom of my screen where the task bar should be shows the desktop.  Are there any settings to fix this?

[FrankyRizzo]

When it switches between menus you will see what im talking about.  Also is it possible to change the dimensions of the loading image?  No matter what image I add its always the same size.  

 

[knewlife]

When it switches between menus you will see what im talking about. Also is it possible to change the dimensions of the loading image? No matter what image I add its always the same size.

https://youtu.be/L9oIR-dRpB4

mmm you are right... I use the taskbar hidden thats why i dont see this problem... Now I'm in trouble as I set the size of the window to the full screen resolution but apparently windows don't allows me to cover the task bar area. Rocketlouncher does this so it may be possible with ahk. Will investigate this.

[spotUP]

Explorer is visible for a second here when backing out to the category selector.

I solved it by killing explorer in a startup script, but i can't restore it again as the exit app always gets set to your exit app...

 

Maybe explorer can be killed from and restarted from EDS instead.. hmm

[knewlife]

Explorer is visible for a second here when backing out to the category selector.

I solved it by killing explorer in a startup script, but i can't restore it again as the exit app always gets set to your exit app...

Maybe explorer can be killed from and restarted from EDS instead.. hmm

yes this is inevitable when no using the "back" entry as im only able to run mmc once hyperspin as exit. You can set the actual exit App of hyperspin in mmc ini so you can put your own compiled script here to restore explorer... But it must call MMCExit.exe so everything Works as it should whit mmc.

You can even set a background app that covers the desktop with a black window. Launch it at Hs boot. I can try that and send you the app if you wish to test it.

[FrankyRizzo]

I would be interested in this.  I love the idea of this addon.  Just an OCD freak and the task bar at the bottle makes me go crazy hahaha.  But great work.  

 

Is it possible to edit the AHK file for this addon to not limit the size of the loading image gif?  I am not great with AHK or programming. 

[knewlife]

I would be interested in this. I love the idea of this addon. Just an OCD freak and the task bar at the bottle makes me go crazy hahaha. But great work.

Is it possible to edit the AHK file for this addon to not limit the size of the loading image gif? I am not great with AHK or programming.

yes I can make that an option so you can set the width and height in pixels. Taking notes to made changes

[FrankyRizzo]

yes I can make that an option so you can set the width and height in pixels. Taking notes to made changes

 

Thats awesome.  Thats a lot and keep up the good work.

[sevenseal]

Explorer is visible for a second here when backing out to the category selector.

I solved it by killing explorer in a startup script, but i can't restore it again as the exit app always gets set to your exit app...

Maybe explorer can be killed from and restarted from EDS instead.. hmm

yes, eds can do that

select cmd.exe as your app then put in this line as your parameter

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

event with just a 1

close filter with just a 2

make another app entry

cmd.exe as your app then your parameter should be put in as

start explorer.exe

event with just a 2

close filter as blank