"Polygon" Widescreen Theme Development (HTPC / UNIVERSAL) [W.I.P] (UPDATED 08/20)

[tcmt]

UPDATE 08/02

 

i put together a quick package for beta-testing my system theme layout. if you are willing to test this out and give me feedback how it looks and more importantly how it performs, your help would be greatly appreciated.

 

the beta-test package includes assets/media for the first 20 or so games in the Super Nintendo Entertainment Library according to the newest official xml database.

the contents of the zip file itself can be just copied into the hyperspin folder itself (MAKE A BACKUP FIRST OR MAKE A SEPERATE NEW INSTALLATION).

 

DOWNLOAD: Link

 

here is a list of what is included:

 

• info panel media (./polygonvideos/Super Nintendo Entertainment System/*.flv)
• settings .ini file for the SNES system (./Settings/*.ini) [!make sure to backup your original!]: this file provides the wheel positioning information etc.
• custom background-videos with videosnaps from emumovies (./Media/Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Video/*.mp4)
• a default theme zip  (./Media/Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Themes/default.zip): includes controller info and an custom arrow animation
• wheel images (preconverted to fit 16:9 resolutions)
• backgrounds to make switching games seamless
• artwork1 .swf files that call up the info panel .flv movie files in ./polygonvideos/Super Nintendo Enterainment System/*.flv

 

depending on your installation you may need to remove any additional artwork/media that is not part of this package to display the theme correctly. you also need to make sure to activate "Animated Backgrounds" including "Level 1 Backgrounds" and "Special Backgrounds" as well as "Animated Artworks" plus the "Level 1 Artworks" and "Level2  Artworks" in hyperHQ. additionally you may want to try different settings for "app quality" depending on your PC.

 

ok i hope i didn't forget anything

let me know of any issues or problems you may encounter.

 

thank you all for your time!

 

cheers

tim

[tcmt]

Are you using netstream now? It seems a better method than flvplayer, here's the code I'm testing (luxman suggested me some tweaks for looping, still need to test). 

var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
nc.connect(null);

var ns:NetStream = new NetStream(nc);
ns.addEventListener(AsyncErrorEvent.ASYNC_ERROR, asyncErrorHandler);
ns.play(HSpath + "/Media/" + SystemName + "/Video/" + RomName + ".mp4");
function asyncErrorHandler(event:AsyncErrorEvent):void
{
    // ignore error
}

 ns.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, loop);
function loop(event:NetStatusEvent):void{
    switch (event.info.code){
    case "NetStream.Buffer.Empty":
ns.seek(0);
}};
var vid:Video = new Video();
vid.attachNetStream(ns);
addChildAt(vid, 0);
vid.y = 0;
vid.x = 0;
vid.width = 1024;
vid.height = 768;
//vid.smoothing = true;

var videoVolumeTransform:SoundTransform = new SoundTransform();

videoVolumeTransform.volume = 0;

ns.soundTransform = videoVolumeTransform;

Trying to find a decent method to load and parse hyperspin's settings.ini to automatically set keys to close listeners and streams. I know how I can do with only .split but that would be a freaking coding nightmare, I'm searching for a better solution...

 

 

hey dark13,

 

your (or luxmans) code works great. the loop is alot more seamless than with flvplayback. sadly it doesn't solve my performace issues. i'm applying a blur filter onto the videos, to make my text more readable like this:

import flash.filters.BlurFilter;

var bfInstance:BlurFilter = new BlurFilter();
bfInstance.blurX = 8;
bfInstance.blurY = 8;
bfInstance.quality = BitmapFilterQuality.LOW;

vid.filters = [bfInstance];

and even on the low setting for the filter hyperspins really struggles (runs at about 10-15 fps instead of 60). Without the filter it works great (even the sound doesn't desync between the swf and hyperspin video), but then my text is quite hard to read. now i could prerender all the gameplay clips with a blur filter applied but then i don't think that i'm allowed to share those videos (since they originate from emumovies). 

 

let me know how the code is working for you and if you find out anything more! thanks again for the code!

 

cheers

tim

[thatman84]

Speak to someone at emumovies and maybe upload them there if you can't solve the problem.

That way the vids will still come from emumovies.

Great theme btw.

[tcmt]

Speak to someone at emumovies and maybe upload them there if you can't solve the problem.

That way the vids will still come from emumovies.

Great theme btw.

 

 

already pm'd circo about it a couple of days ago but sadly he hasn't replied yet

 

and thanks btw

[dark13]

hey dark13,

 

your (or luxmans) code works great. the loop is alot more seamless than with flvplayback. sadly it doesn't solve my performace issues. i'm applying a blur filter onto the videos, to make my text more readable like this:

import flash.filters.BlurFilter;

var bfInstance:BlurFilter = new BlurFilter();
bfInstance.blurX = 8;
bfInstance.blurY = 8;
bfInstance.quality = BitmapFilterQuality.LOW;

vid.filters = [bfInstance];

and even on the low setting for the filter hyperspins really struggles (runs at about 10-15 fps instead of 60). Without the filter it works great (even the sound doesn't desync between the swf and hyperspin video), but then my text is quite hard to read. now i could prerender all the gameplay clips with a blur filter applied but then i don't think that i'm allowed to share those videos (since they originate from emumovies). 

 

let me know how the code is working for you and if you find out anything more! thanks again for the code!

 

cheers

tim

 

As far as I know blur filter on video is really taxing in terms of resources. Probably you should use a less cpu intensive method as semi-trasparent layer on video or shadow on text.

Anyway I've come up with some code to read HS settings.ini and autoassign key used in HS (useful to close listeners and other stuff on keypress). Still have to try it inside HS and I should addd p2 controls but meanwhile if you want to test here's the code.

 

var myFileName:String;
var HSpath:String ;
var mypath:String ;
var SystemName:String ;
var HSsettingLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var SettingsTXT:Array ;
var VariablesAssigner:Array ;
var VariablesAssigner2:Array ;
var HSStart:Number ;
var HSExit:Number ;
var HSUp:Number ;
var HSDown:Number ;
var HSSkipUp:Number ;
var HSSkipDown:Number ;
var HSSkipUpNumber:Number ;
var HSSkipDownNumber:Number ;
var HSHyperSpin:Number ;
var HSGenre:Number ;
var HSFavorites: Number

/*myFileName = this.loaderInfo.url;
mypath = myFileName.split(String.fromCharCode(92)).join("/");
SettingArray = mypath.split("/Media/");
HSpath = myFileNameArray3[0] ;
*/


HSsettingLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoadedHSsetting);

function onLoadedHSsetting(e:Event):void {
SettingsTXT = e.target.data.split("[P1 Controls]") ;
VariablesAssigner = SettingsTXT[1].split("[P2 Controls]");
VariablesAssigner2 = VariablesAssigner[0].split("\r\n").join("").split("Start=").join("&").split("Exit=").join("&").split("SkipUpNumber=").join("&").split("SkipDownNumber=").join("&").split("SkipDown=").join("&").split("SkipUp=").join("&").split("Up=").join("&").split("Down=").join("&").split("HyperSpin=").join("&").split("Genre=").join("&").split("Favorites=").join("&").split("&") ;

HSStart = VariablesAssigner2[1];
HSExit = VariablesAssigner2[2];
HSUp = VariablesAssigner2[3] ;
HSDown = VariablesAssigner2[4] ;
HSSkipUp = VariablesAssigner2[5] ;
HSSkipDown = VariablesAssigner2[6] ;
HSSkipUpNumber = VariablesAssigner2[7] ;
HSSkipDownNumber = VariablesAssigner2[8] ;
HSHyperSpin = VariablesAssigner2[9] ;
HSGenre = VariablesAssigner2[10] ;
HSFavorites = VariablesAssigner2[11] ;
    
trace(HSStart, HSExit, HSUp, HSDown, HSSkipUp, HSSkipDown, HSSkipUpNumber, HSSkipDownNumber, HSHyperSpin, HSGenre, HSFavorites);

}



stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, myKeyDown);

function myKeyDown(e:KeyboardEvent):void {
if (e.keyCode == HSUp) {    
 trace("ok")
     }
 }
 
 // HSsettingLoader.load(new URLRequest(HSpath + "/Settings/Settings.ini");
HSsettingLoader.load(new URLRequest("W:/Hyperspin test/Settings/Settings.ini"));

Autoreading code is disabled for flash debugging and loader is pointing to an hardcoded path, in this case "up" key trace "ok" to test the thing in the debuggers.

[thatman84]

already pm'd circo about it a couple of days ago but sadly he hasn't replied yet

 

and thanks btw

Np, I spotted him online at EM the other day and instant messaged him there with success. Busy guy I guess

[BakerMan]

I seriously think the best method for playing video would be to build your own dynamic flash player and stream either from netconnection or a flash media server.

[botiquinazul]

Hi there!!! your work it´s simply amazing...

Just 4 request plis...

Colecovision

MSX

Commodore 64

Zx Spectrum

 

just main menu

Can you?

[tcmt]

can do buddy! still working on my universal game/system-themes at the moment. after that i'll do some more main menu themes including your requests.

 

cheers

tim

[tcmt]

UPDATE 08/20

 

 

i finished my concept and ironed out all the technical stuff for my system menu themes. i redesigned pretty much all the technical aspects of it. the big one is that every layer of this theme now is independent (meaning you got your background video layer, metadata info layer, controller info layer etc. all separate), whereas they were all one layer before. all this allows for much quicker and easier customization of the theme.

 

a few features / highlights:

• 16:9 widescreen HTPC universal theme look
• custom animated controller info bar at bottom completely independent of the rest; loops indefinitely
• same goes for the little custom arrow animation you see over the wheel bar; loops independently and indefinitely as well
• custom metadate panel (showing title, description, publisher, developer, year of release, #players, rating, genre and boxart); all custom animated 
• background video is called up from hyperspin's own video folder; no need for extra folders or configurations; prevents audio glitches as well
• complete metadata panels with spell-/grammar-corrected texts (see here for further details on that: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/27568-edited-spellchecked-and-formatted-versions-of-billyc999s-database-sheets/ )
• custom artwork for genre, #player and rating icons
• relatively easy to customize

 

Here is the standard version I've been working on the most. This now includes the whole SNES library; to adapt this theme to further game systems is relatively hassle free and quite quickly done (automatic rendering takes the longest time).

 

 

as i said before, it is very easy to customize. so if you for example like a bit more color, here you go:

 

 

Now for the release. This theme works best with blurred background video as all texts are directly on top of it and readability really suffers when not blurred. Blurring the video directly in realtime through the .swf is possible but the performance drop in immense (like 15-20fps instead of 60) so the only solution is to pre-apply the blur filter and pre-render all videosnap files, which i did for this demonstrations. as those video snaps come from emumovies.com i have no permission to redistribute those videos (yet?) even with the blur filter applied. 

I contacted Circo about this a couple of weeks ago asking for permission to redistribute the blurred versions of the video snaps but even though he apparently read my message he hasn't answered yet unfortunately. Of course i could go and just release this without the video snaps so you can use your own video snaps (with blur applied or whatever you like) and put those in your video folder but i'd rather release a "as-complete-as-possible" and "care-free" and "easy-to-install-by-just-drag-and-drop" package than some half decent solution. 

 

so i'll try to make this happen and get permission. and depending on my success with it i'll release it with or without the processes videosnaps soon. but again i want to delay the release just a little bit longer and see if i can get permission for the snaps.

 

 

thanks everyone for your interest and all your great feedback. i hope you enjoy this as much as i do.

 

i hope you all have a wonderful day and see you soon!

 

cheers

tim

 

 

[FrankyRizzo]

This is an incredible theme.  Is each game its own video with everything built right into the video?  Or is it like AeonNox where coding is built into the video and it pulls all the covers and players and game type images from a folder and pulls the game information off an xml file?  I am also curious how you will layout the systems like PS2 since the covers are a different shape.

 

UPDATE 08/20

 

 

i finished my concept and ironed out all the technical stuff for my system menu themes. i redesigned pretty much all the technical aspects of it. the big one is that every layer of this theme now is independent (meaning you got your background video layer, metadata info layer, controller info layer etc. all separate), whereas they were all one layer before. all this allows for much quicker and easier customization of the theme.

 

a few features / highlights:

• 16:9 widescreen HTPC universal theme look
• custom animated controller info bar at bottom completely independent of the rest; loops indefinitely
• same goes for the little custom arrow animation you see over the wheel bar; loops independently and indefinitely as well
• custom metadate panel (showing title, description, publisher, developer, year of release, #players, rating, genre and boxart); all custom animated 
• background video is called up from hyperspin's own video folder; no need for extra folders or configurations; prevents audio glitches as well
• complete metadata panels with spell-/grammar-corrected texts (see here for further details on that: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/27568-edited-spellchecked-and-formatted-versions-of-billyc999s-database-sheets/ )
• custom artwork for genre, #player and rating icons
• relatively easy to customize

 

Here is the standard version I've been working on the most. This now includes the whole SNES library; to adapt this theme to further game systems is relatively hassle free and quite quickly done (automatic rendering takes the longest time).

 

as i said before, it is very easy to customize. so if you for example like a bit more color, here you go:

 

Now for the release. This theme works best with blurred background video as all texts are directly on top of it and readability really suffers when not blurred. Blurring the video directly in realtime through the .swf is possible but the performance drop in immense (like 15-20fps instead of 60) so the only solution is to pre-apply the blur filter and pre-render all videosnap files, which i did for this demonstrations. as those video snaps come from emumovies.com i have no permission to redistribute those videos (yet?) even with the blur filter applied. 

I contacted Circo about this a couple of weeks ago asking for permission to redistribute the blurred versions of the video snaps but even though he apparently read my message he hasn't answered yet unfortunately. Of course i could go and just release this without the video snaps so you can use your own video snaps (with blur applied or whatever you like) and put those in your video folder but i'd rather release a "as-complete-as-possible" and "care-free" and "easy-to-install-by-just-drag-and-drop" package than some half decent solution. 

 

so i'll try to make this happen and get permission. and depending on my success with it i'll release it with or without the processes videosnaps soon. but again i want to delay the release just a little bit longer and see if i can get permission for the snaps.

 

 

thanks everyone for your interest and all your great feedback. i hope you enjoy this as much as i do.

 

i hope you all have a wonderful day and see you soon!

 

cheers

tim

[vermin]

Yo.

 

The Polygon theme is awesome But..
It has no background music. 
Is that intentional?

I love your SNES theme, So I downloaded the Youtube video of Yours and added that as Main Menu/Videos/SNES.mp4 . 

Also your Game theme for SNES looks very similar to launchbox, but more awesome!

Are you working on the game theme and/or can I now download it?

[vermin]

I also Notice some issues. 

1. Background music is to low. 
2. The quality of video in Hyperspin is lower compared to mp4 file.

[Styphelus]

So...this theme is like Launchbox for Hyperspin?

[jameslit28]

This theme is truly excellent work.

 

 

Jamie.

[egatimra]

Amazing theme, ive set up the main menu from the download on your other thread. looks the mutts nuts tbh.

 

Are you planning on releasing other systems for  the main menu?

 

Also are there system themes? if so where can I find them?

 

like I said truly amazing, and just gives it that look like no other

[cowgod]

Not to be a nuisance, but where are you on this project @tcmt?  I'm just so impressed with it that I am eager to set it up on all my systems ASAP!  Could we possibly get a rough ETA on when the system menus will be available? 

[zerohex]

@tcmt - by far the best and cleanest looking theme I have come across on hyperspin or front ends in general.  I am currently in the process of building a Nintendo themed Cab "for my kids".  I know this is a WIP but I am also new to the Hyperspin world so, please forgive my ignorance.  Is there a way to spread this theme across all the platforms universally?