Where to put box art for Mame?

[thenoob]

Hello everything is going well on setup , consoles are good etc.

im using the base pack uploaded here and everything is well laid out. 
except for mame, I don’t know which artwork folder to put the game boxes.  The consoles are all labeled “put box art here”. Is it 1/2/3/4? And do I have to specify this in some MAME ini somewhere?

[thenoob]

Right now it’s all in artwork1 but how do I point mame to artwork1 for boxart like the other consoles that were setup this way? 

[Honosuseri]

MAME doesn't have boxart as they're arcade cabinets, so it's unlikely the themes you have will make use of artwork folders.

Any who...to answer your question. It's the actual system theme (Default.zip) that decides what is shown and where in the theme.xml file. Most have artwork 1 & 2 in the .zip file these are usually the video snap box border and a logo for the system. Artwork 3 & 4 can be your box and disc/cart artwork taken from your media folder. I'll give an example from a SNES theme.xml...

<Theme>
    <video w="408"
           h="417"
           x="312"
           y="427"
           r="0"
           rx="0"
           ry="0"
           below="false"
           overlaybelow="false"
           overlayoffsetx="0"
           overlayoffsety="0"
           forceaspect="both"
           time="0.5"
           delay="0"
           bsize="0"
           bsize2="0"
           bsize3="0"
           bcolor="0"
           bcolor2="0"
           bcolor3="0"
           bshape="square"
           type="none"
           start="none"
           rest="none"/>
    <artwork1 x="312" y="429" r="0" time="1" delay ="0.5" type="none" start="none" rest="none"/>
    <artwork2 x="512" y="102" r="0" time="1" delay ="0.5" type="ease" start="top" rest="none"/>
    <artwork3 x="750" y="435" r="0" time="0.5" delay ="0.2" type="bounce" start="top" rest="none"/>
    <artwork4 x="900" y="560" r="0" time="0.6" delay ="0.9" type="none" start="right" rest="none"/>
</Theme>

Artwork 1 is the video snap border box, artwork 2 is the SNES logo, these are assets within the .zip file. Artwork 3 is the boxart it drops down from the top of the screen and bounces when it lands, artwork 4 is the cartridge it slides in from the right of the screen. If you use Hyperspin on PC there is the Hypertheme software for creating your own themes. You can do it manually tinkering with the .xml file BUT you might struggle with those x and y co-ordinates, which position things on the screen.

You can be quite creative with it. I have a Mega Drive theme where Artwork 3 is an asset of the console in the .zip file, artwork 4 is the cartridges from the media folder, they lower down "slotting" into the console. THEN because of the "delay command" the video snap plays as if the console has loaded the game...looks pretty awesome!

[Creezz67]

3 hours ago, Honosuseri said:

MAME doesn't have boxart as they're arcade cabinets, so it's unlikely the themes you have will make use of artwork folders.

Any who...to answer your question. It's the actual system theme (Default.zip) that decides what is shown and where in the theme.xml file. Most have artwork 1 & 2 in the .zip file these are usually the video snap box border and a logo for the system. Artwork 3 & 4 can be your box and disc/cart artwork taken from your media folder. I'll give an example from a SNES theme.xml...

<Theme>
    <video w="408"
           h="417"
           x="312"
           y="427"
           r="0"
           rx="0"
           ry="0"
           below="false"
           overlaybelow="false"
           overlayoffsetx="0"
           overlayoffsety="0"
           forceaspect="both"
           time="0.5"
           delay="0"
           bsize="0"
           bsize2="0"
           bsize3="0"
           bcolor="0"
           bcolor2="0"
           bcolor3="0"
           bshape="square"
           type="none"
           start="none"
           rest="none"/>
    <artwork1 x="312" y="429" r="0" time="1" delay ="0.5" type="none" start="none" rest="none"/>
    <artwork2 x="512" y="102" r="0" time="1" delay ="0.5" type="ease" start="top" rest="none"/>
    <artwork3 x="750" y="435" r="0" time="0.5" delay ="0.2" type="bounce" start="top" rest="none"/>
    <artwork4 x="900" y="560" r="0" time="0.6" delay ="0.9" type="none" start="right" rest="none"/>
</Theme>

Artwork 1 is the video snap border box, artwork 2 is the SNES logo, these are assets within the .zip file. Artwork 3 is the boxart it drops down from the top of the screen and bounces when it lands, artwork 4 is the cartridge it slides in from the right of the screen. If you use Hyperspin on PC there is the Hypertheme software for creating your own themes. You can do it manually tinkering with the .xml file BUT you might struggle with those x and y co-ordinates, which position things on the screen.

You can be quite creative with it. I have a Mega Drive theme where Artwork 3 is an asset of the console in the .zip file, artwork 4 is the cartridges from the media folder, they lower down "slotting" into the console. THEN because of the "delay command" the video snap plays as if the console has loaded the game...looks pretty awesome!

There is an entire pack of MAME boxart on Emumovies (4,000+) like one below, and i think this is what he is looking to use.

I just sent him the default.zip file to use where the artwork goes in Artwork3 folder.

[Honosuseri]

3 hours ago, Creezz67 said:

There is an entire pack of MAME boxart on Emumovies (4,000+) like one below, and i think this is what he is looking to use.

I just sent him the default.zip file to use where the artwork goes in Artwork3 folder.

 I'm sure the theme you sent will be very helpful indeed.

OP asked how the artwork folders are used. That was the point of my post to help them understand why the artwork wasn't showing in some themes they may have. Teach a man to fish and all that Jazz

[Creezz67]

34 minutes ago, Honosuseri said:

 I'm sure the theme you sent will be very helpful indeed.

OP asked how the artwork folders are used. That was the point of my post to help them understand why the artwork wasn't showing in some themes they may have. Teach a man to fish and all that Jazz

Good point

[thenoob]

Yup got it all, working now appreciate it, the boxes are big, but I guess I can just adjust the artwork 3 size to like 1/2 of what it is? 
 

appreciate it, I have one more post, everything working well.  Even managed to get bezel project working in android 

[Honosuseri]

4 hours ago, thenoob said:

Yup got it all, working now appreciate it, the boxes are big, but I guess I can just adjust the artwork 3 size to like 1/2 of what it is? 
 

appreciate it, I have one more post, everything working well.  Even managed to get bezel project working in android 

Awesome!

Yes you can resize the artwork, there's free PC software called "Fotosizer" which can do the lot in a batch job. You will lose some picture quality using that though, maybe someone else knows of a better free tool for the job.