fr0stbyt3

Hello everyone! We’ve been hard at work through May bringing a slew of updates and improvements to ThemeBuilder, HyperSpin, and HQ. Below is a complete roundup of what’s new, improved, and fixed this month.

 

New Features

• Flipbook Effect – A brand new way to animate your themes with classic flipbook-style visuals.

• Ripple SFX – Ripple effect is now live with adjustable settings.

• New Special Effects – Now available in ThemeBuilder:

  • Circle

  • Reveal Left

  • Reveal Right

  • Reveal Top

  • Reveal Bottom

  • Reveal (center out)

  • Swipe

  • Rays

  • Stripe

• Forum Auto-Posting (Coming Soon) – Publishing on HT will soon automatically post your theme to the forums with a direct link. Sharing made simple!

• User Profile UI Overhaul – Cleaned up and modernized user profiles.

• Log Out Button is Back – Back by popular demand!

• Improved Caching Logic – Moving between themes is now significantly faster.

Fixes

• MAME Themes Fix – You’ll need to edit the metadata, reselect the game name, and re-save & publish for fixes to take effect.

• Fixed Stroke Loss on Video Reload

• Fixed Errors in Older Themes

• Fixed Preview Pixelation When Adding SFX

• Fixed Theme Asset Duplication

• Fixed Long Load Times on Large Themes

• Fixed Project Load Errors for Many Older Themes

• Fixed Theme Delete Bug – Deleting a theme now correctly targets the selected project.

• Improved Logging – Better server-side logging helps us squash bugs faster.

Improvements

• Delete Animation Moved – It now appears at the bottom of all effects for better UX.

• Ripple SFX Fully Live – After a preview period, it's now fully integrated.

• HyperSpin v2.0.41 – Now supports all the latest ThemeBuilder features and special effects.

• HQ Now Supports MAME 0.277

Thank you to @yaron and his team for some brilliant suggestions and to the community for your continued support and feedback. Let us know what you think of the new features and stay tuned – more great things are on the way!

Don’t forget to edit, re-save, and re-publish your MAME themes to apply the latest fixes!

@rondar and @Roadrunner have been busy too!   
     

 

 

 

Hey everyone!

This week’s focus has been all about refining HyperTheme—both the web UI and the ThemeBuilder itself. We've polished controls, introduced powerful new tools for theme creation, and rolled out more visual upgrades across the board. Plus, thanks to some shader wizardry from @yaron and his team, we’ve added a whole new batch of effects to play with. Let’s dive in!

ThemeBuilder Updates

We’ve continued to improve the control system we introduced earlier, giving users more flexibility in how they build and style themes. One of the biggest additions this week: 12 new shaders.

New Shader Effects

• Stripes

• Stripes 2

• Blur

• Circle

• Rays

• Swipe

• Reveal Left / Right / Top / Bottom

• Pixelate

• Flag 2

Big thanks again to Yaron and his team for the insights—they made this possible, and there’s even more on the way.

Layer Grouping (Now Live!)

You can now group layers together, making it easy to apply animations or effects to multiple elements at once. This is the first major step toward our next-gen theme-building experience.

It also lays the groundwork for linked positioning—think wheels that automatically move with a car layer. You’ll start seeing more of this type of control in upcoming builds.

UI Upgrades Across HyperTheme

We’ve quietly been refreshing more of the HyperTheme site. You might’ve already noticed updates to:

• Login screen (with animated background)

• Media details pages

• Project creation screen (with animated background)

• ThemeBuilder UI

We’re not done yet—expect more visual polish and consistency improvements over the next few weeks.

HyperHQ Updates

• Updated EmuMovies support

• Emulator UI fixes

What’s Next

Work on the new controller base code is still moving forward. HyperTheme has been the main focus lately, but we’re ready to shift gears a bit and give the controller system the attention it deserves—starting next week.

More soon!
— fr0stbyt3

Theme Credit: @rondar

   

Hey everyone!

We’ve got a solid round of updates to share across HyperSpin, ThemeBuilder, and HyperHQ—with big improvements to performance, visuals, and workflow. Most notably: 3D Perspective support is in, themes now load faster, and a bunch of long-standing bugs have been squashed thanks to your reports.

Let’s break it down:

Theme Engine Updates

The latest ThemeBuilder beta includes:

• 3D Perspective Mode – Bring depth and dimension to your themes

• Improved UI Controls – Smoother workflows and better precision.

• New Flag Shader – Adds ripple motion for more dynamic effects

• Updated Spritesheet Handling – More responsive and accurate

• Save Project Fixes – No more corrupted saves or lost work

These updates also speed up theme loading in HyperSpin itself—everything feels snappier and more responsive.

Coming Soon

We’re working on even more tools to boost creativity and streamline theme building:

• Element Grouping – Easily organize and manage related elements

• Group-Based Animations – Animate multiple elements together

• Expanded Shader Support – More ways to enhance your themes

These features are already in development and coming soon.

HyperHQ Beta (v2.0.59)

The latest HyperHQ beta is now available:

• Sync Settings – Sync ui updates - more updates to come

• Dropdown UI Fixes – Cleaned up behavior across the board

• Download Safeguard – Prevents accidental overwrites

• Emulator Overrides – Back online and functioning as expected

Please give it a spin and let us know if anything still feels off.

Wrapping Up

We’ve got a few more updates coming out as they’re completed, but we’ll be shifting to a bi-weekly release cycle very soon. That schedule should give us a good rhythm—enough time to focus on bigger features while still staying responsive to your feedback.

As always, huge thanks to everyone building themes, testing builds, and sharing ideas—it’s been awesome seeing the community come alive again, and your input is driving everything we’re doing.

More cool stuff on the way. Stay tuned!

First off, a huge thank you to everyone who’s been testing, reporting bugs, and sharing feedback. Your input has been invaluable, and I really appreciate the patience as we work through everything.

I know we didn’t have a launch last week, and I wanted to address that. Some core systems—especially the cache system and UI updates—needed more work before they were ready. Rather than pushing out something unfinished, we took the extra time to make sure things were in a better state before releasing. It’s still a beta, so expect some rough edges, but we feel this build is in a much better place than it would have been last week.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve overhauled the UI in all settings pages, made system setup smoother, optimized downloads, and added MUGEN support. You can now add multiple systems at once, pick multiple folders when selecting game directories, and we’ve made major improvements to cache handling, controller support, and error logging.

Here’s what’s new:

HyperHQ

• RetroArch Core Selector – No more manual typing! Select the core from a dropdown, and we’ll handle the command. For customization, click Advanced.
• System Setup Improvements – Automatically creates all override folders when adding new systems.
• New System Support – Added support for systems without a complete game list.
• Media Sounds Bug Fixed – Prevented duplicate downloads.
• Download Improvements
  • EmuMovies video downloads are now optimized.
  • Fixed issue where new downloads were not set as active.
• ROM Management Fix – Deleted games will no longer reappear.
• New Refresh Option – Added the ability to refresh overrides.
• MUGEN Support Added – Clear your system cache in the cache menu for the best experience.
• Updated System Add Component – Now supports adding multiple systems at the same time.
• Updated LED Blinky Support.
• Fixed Launching Error Logs.
• Multiple Folder Selection – Now possible when selecting game folders.

Cache & Log System Improvements

• Updated Cache Service – Dozens of tweaks to fix corruption and errors.
• Updated Log System – More logs added for cache tracking.
• Updated UI for Cache Page – Improved settings menu for better navigation.

UI Updates

• Updated UI for All Settings Pages – Improved design, layout, and usability across all settings menus.
• Updated UI for Intro & Outro Videos – Enhanced layout and functionality.
• Updated Plugin Page UI – Improved design and usability.

HyperSpin

• Controller Fixes – Resolved issues where the main menu wasn’t responding to controllers.

HyperTheme

• ThemeBuilder Fix – Fixed a double-select error.
• Profile Management Fix – Resolved errors when deleting a client.
• Collection Theme Errors Fixed – Various improvements for a smoother experience.

In the Works: Revamped Controller Support

One of the biggest things we’re working on right now is revamped controller support with direct HID input control. The goal is to eliminate the remaining controller issues and provide a more seamless, native experience. This is still in development, but early testing looks promising. More details soon!

Thanks again for all your support, testing, and feedback. I know waiting an extra week for this one wasn’t ideal, but we wanted to make sure things were in a better place before pushing it out. As always, let me know if you run into anything, and we’ll keep making it better.

Happy gaming!

Hey everyone!

Important Installation Notice
Due to the level of changes in this update, we highly recommend performing a clean installation to avoid compatibility issues. Please follow these steps:

1. Uninstall your current version of HyperHQ and HyperSpin.
2. Delete the following directories manually:
   • C:\Users\[your_username]\.HyperHQ
   • Your HyperSpin install directory
3. Install the latest version fresh from our official source.

This will fix issues for users who installed in custom directories and ensure that all settings and media comply with the latest version.

We’ve been hard at work making improvements to HyperHQ and HyperSpin, focusing on performance, usability, and bug fixes. Below is a breakdown of the latest changes.

HyperHQ Updates

MAME Enhancements

• Player count is now a preference, not a filter – Selecting “2 players” will prioritize 2-player versions of games but won’t exclude playable 4-player games.
• Support for 'imperfect' ROMs – These are now recognized as playable and will no longer be filtered out.
• Improved clone detection – Enhancements to ensure better ROM organization.

ROM Handling & Downloads

• Duplicate handling improvements – Games from multiple regions, languages, and sets are now properly merged.
• Video download updates – Fixes matching errors for more accurate media retrieval.
• Memory utilization improvements – Downloads are now more efficient and less memory-intensive.

Cache System Overhaul

• New UI for cache progress – You can now track cache building progress in real time in HQ.
• Faster cache builds – Expect 60-70% faster cache build times compared to previous versions.
• Media override fixes – Bugs affecting media verification and overrides have been resolved.

Auto Import & System Performance

• Improved auto-import logic – More refinements coming in future updates.
• Performance boosts – Faster system loading times and smoother navigation.
• UI Enhancements – The title bar now uses background assets where applicable.

Logging & Debugging

• HQ logs moved to a dedicated folder – Now located in /logs within the HyperHQ directory.
• New log viewer – Access it via Settings > HyperHQ > Logs.

ROM Details & Media Fixes

• UI refinements – Smoother experience when viewing ROM details.
• Bugfix for media apply state – Ensures proper display of applied changes.

HyperSpin Updates

Media Improvements

• Updated music support – Enhancements to in-game music handling.
• Intro/Outro bug fixes – Resolved issues affecting intro and outro sequences.

Cache Enhancements

• Full support for new cache improvements – Includes all performance and UI updates from this build.

Controller Fixes

• Navigation improvements – Controller input handling has been refined for a smoother experience.

Final Notes

These updates bring significant improvements to usability, speed, and overall functionality. As always, we appreciate feedback from the community—let us know if you run into any issues or have feature suggestions!

Happy gaming!

We’re back!

Thank you all for your patience while we finalized the new cache system this week. After a long week of travel, testing, and refinements, we’ve made significant improvements, fixed some stubborn bugs, and introduced new features based on your feedback. A few of you already spotted the early release, but here’s what to expect:

Cache System Improvements

• The _cache folder is gone—freeing up space and eliminating unnecessary files.
• No more waiting for cache rebuilds in the wheel manager!
• Full cache rebuilds now take about 20 seconds per system.
• Smaller, more optimized cache files for better performance.
• Full support for overrides in the cache system.
   

After updating, opening HyperHQ will automatically start the cache build process. The initial build takes about 20 seconds per system, but don’t worry—this is a one-time process. It won’t repeat every time you open the app. Once the cache is fully built, the blue message box will turn green, indicating everything is ready to go. From that point on, any newly added systems will build their cache dynamically in just a second or so, ensuring a smoother and faster experience.

New Features & Fixes

• Custom system support – bypass match-making and add whatever you want.
• The setup wizard now lets you name your system—useful for managing multiple setups.
• Steam updates now support more media types.
• Fixed the default theme downloads bug.
• Auto-login for EmuMovies when you get logged out.
• Ability to remove collections in the manager.
• The HQ update dialog is no longer blocked by downloads.
• Fixed a plugin system bug for smoother HyperSpin updates.
• Applied a Bezel Project patch for better functionality.
• Increased download speeds across the board.

We’re still working through a few remaining issues from internal testing. For example, cart and disk artwork isn’t displaying correctly in some themes—we expect to have this resolved early next week.

@RetroHumanoid is at it again this week! Here is just a small sample of the awesome work I've been testing. 

This weekend, we’re focusing on polishing any remaining community-reported issues in HQ and implementing a few additional quality-of-life improvements.

Thanks again for all the feedback—keep it coming, and enjoy the update!

Hey everyone!

First off, a huge thank you to everyone who reported bugs, shared comments, and threw in suggestions over the past week. I’m doing my best to keep up, but it’s clear we’ve got an amazing group of testers who are leaving no stone unturned. You all rock!

So, it’s been a week—where’s the next beta?! Well, here’s the scoop: we went back to the drawing board on the cache system. Based on your feedback and the discussions here, we realized we needed something more robust and foolproof. The good news? The updated cache system is in internal testing right now. During the final round, we uncovered a few extra things that need fixing before it’s ready to roll out. While we expect a few hiccups here and there, our goal is to have fewer issues than the current build. That’s why we’re holding off until next week.

Here’s what you can expect in the new beta:

• No more _cache folder—saving you time and disk space.
• No waiting for cache rebuilds in the wheel manager.
• Faster cache rebuilds—our early metrics show it’s taking about 2 seconds per system.
• Smaller, more efficient cache files with better performance.
• Full support for overrides in the cache.

We’re aiming for a Friday release! I’ll be out of town for a work event (yes, I’d rather be here with you all, but bills don’t pay themselves). While I’m away, the team will be wrapping up some final bugs in both HQ and HyperSpin. Here’s a short list of what’s on their plate:

• Wheel images show instead of text where possible in the system view.
• Custom system support: bypass match-making and add whatever you want.
• Name your system during the setup wizard.
• Steam updates to support more media.
• Fixed the default themes download bug.
• Auto-login added for EmuMovies when you get logged out.
• Option to remove collections in the manager.
• HQ update dialog no longer gets blocked by downloads.
• Bugfix for the plugin system to improve HyperSpin updates.

Bezel project patch applied for smoother functionality.
And let’s not forget our incredible content creators—they’ve been absolutely crushing it. If you haven’t already, check out @RetroHumanoid's latest themes—they’re amazing! And a massive shoutout to @baddeolvfor his work on the default HyperSpin set. He’s been tirelessly covering almost every core system we support, and the results speak for themselves. Plus, we’ve got a few new artists jumping in and experimenting with the updated toolset. The feedback and the flood of stunning new themes are a joy to see!


 

After the next release, we’re diving into updates for the theme builder, focusing on bug fixes and workflow enhancements to make it even smoother. Future releases of the theme builder will introduce support for shaders, groups, and so much more. I can’t wait to get started!

As always, thanks for all your support, feedback, and enthusiasm—it’s what keeps us going. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Stay awesome,
-fr0stbyt3

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to give a huge shout-out to all our amazing beta testers for an awesome first week. We’re already 6 builds in with 12 new features and over 80 fixes—talk about a busy week! None of this would’ve been possible without you all taking the time to test and give feedback.

Over the next few weeks, we’ve got a bunch of big changes planned for our backend systems—starting with our caching. Right now, we cache a lot of data to keep HyperSpin running fast, but rebuilding that cache whenever something changes isn’t as speedy as we’d like. Thanks to your input, we’ve gone back to the drawing board and completely redesigned it! By the end of next week, we’ll have a new setup that’s quicker, smarter, and doesn’t rely on the old _cache folder. This should squash a bunch of issues you’ve been seeing, like missing or default-reverting themes and wheel images that just won’t update.

In the meantime, if you want to test HyperSpin after making changes, the best trick is to open the wheel manager, move a wheel (or make any small tweak), and let the cache rebuild. Depending on how big your setup is, it might take a few minutes.

We also heard your feedback loud and clear after our first livestream—you wanted media overrides, and now you’ve got ‘em! We delayed them at first to focus on our new media distribution system, but I’m excited to say you can now override wheels, boxes, carts, and more. We’ve even added video marquees and video themes. For the main menu, just name the file after the system; for games, use the same name as the ROM. After the cache rebuilds, all your overrides should be good to go.

One more thing: a big shoutout to the content creators making amazing themes this week— @RetroHumanoid, @baddeolv, John, and @yaron. You guys have made some truly stunning artwork. I’m using themes that are sometimes only a few hours old, and it really brings everything together in a big way!

A quick note on video themes: they do use more memory. A typical theme might be around 10MB, while some video themes can hit 1GB. I’ll share more details on performance and trade-offs in another post. For now, here’s a quick demo to show them off in action!
   

Thanks again for all your support, everyone. Your feedback is what keeps us going, and we can’t wait to show you all the cool stuff that’s still in the pipeline. I’ll be taking it easy this weekend to rest up before another big week ahead—stay tuned!

HQ

• Plugin refresh issue fixed. This would create "duplicates" after an update
• Fixed Intro outro video does not play if the videos are the same
• Media delete bug fixed
   

HS (2.0.28)

• Fixed javascript error on close
• Fixed wheel not being available after some change types
• Controller support updated
• Fixed Snap images going outside of bounds of the frame
• Fixed issue where the "selected" wheel item index was not centered
• Letter hop errors fixed
• App can now be closed with alt+f4 without throwing an error
• Marquee allows video overrides (requires HQ 2.0.35)
• Wheel opacity bug fixed