dark13

HS has pros and cons. The biggest pro is Flash and the biggest con is... well, Flash 😂 BBB created a very versatile thing in terms of skinning and you can run code in swf to add features. On the other side performance is erratic and it needs lots of cpu power and has memory leaking problem (well, that is not more a problem, a potato pc these days has 8gb). To be precise that skin uses 1.2gb of ram, the classic HS main menu uses 90mb lol. Honestly I don't think HS2 will happens, it should be build from the ground. Many staff member told me that actually there's a HS2 alpha but probably BBB stopped working on the thing as Flash was already dying some years ago and it is not suited for 1080p, let alone 4k. The fact is really simple: HS is highly customizable and really easy to use once configured. I had friends completely get lost in Kodi but no one has problems with HS...

Trust me, with 1080p resources inside a .swf you can have pretty crisp images in HS and do crazy stuff (for the video select 1080p 60fps in YT preferences) But yeah, joypad input is completely broken lol

I reported the thing some years ago, honestly I dont' know if it is a problem related to my softwares combination or whatever but I have the same problem on multiple machines. The problem is really simple: HS uses a truckload of CPU when it's hidden and an emulator is running. In this case I'm pushing a bit the things using a 1080p 120frames to loop the background (the file inside the theme loads a swf in dark13 folder as background swf inside a theme does not loop) but this happens also using a 1080p png inside a swf, you'll notice it on weak rigs. The situation is far from being ideal... Around 30% of an intel 4460 cpu time wasted in this case. Basically in these conditions you have to dedicate 2 cores/threads of your CPU to HS. Fun enough this happens also if I use code to remove the swf from stage or when I load it as a movieclip and stop it when HS goes off focus. This is simply crazy. HS is using cpu time to move stuff that is not even on stage or it is stopped. Well, I need more tests but I've found a simple workaround... Now cpu is just at 2% when HS is hidden and an emulator is running. The trick is really simple: you can set stage property from any swf on stage so I just used this code on an empty Artwork1 layer inside the theme. The swf can be used too on SpecialA1 layer stage.addEventListener( Event.DEACTIVATE, deactivateCb, false, 0, true ); stage.addEventListener( Event.ACTIVATE, activateCb, false, 0, true ); function deactivateCb(e:Event):void{ stage.frameRate = 1 } function activateCb(e:Event):void{ stage.frameRate = 60 } HS is using cpu time to move stuff and I can't prevent it to doing this so I just set the framerate of the stage to 1fps (0.1fps seems ok too) when HS goes off focus and set it back to 60fps when HS gain focus. Pushing stuff at 1fps requires very few cpu power. I know that BBB is not working on the thing but I also know that some people of the staff has the code and can compile a new version. Can a workaround like this be integrated in HS? Test Theme: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlvG-_GLw_qahBJa7zOErF3qUveD?e=Y8J8kw There's no relative path code, so HyperSpin.exe MUST be in C:\HyperSpin_1.5.1 folder and you need to put dark13 folder inside it.

Ok, now I need to see forza7 running on a 480p CRT 😛 Just curious, how did you connected the PC to the CRT? HDMI to something? What about input lag?

If you play a lot of MAME a VRR TV should help reducing input lag in MAME. You need at last an nvidia 3000 GPU as far as I remember, no idea about AMD. Never tried VRR but GSYNC works like a charm in MAME (not that good in RA, some cores like it, some don't).

LTSC does not have version upgrades, only security updates, it will prevent problems if the thing is online, version changes tends to create incompatibility. Moreover LTSC, like enterprise, can boot on black (you will see windows stuff only when it will install updates).

Well, flash is a good and a bad thing. Bad because it is bugged as hell and tends to steal cpu power when emulators are running, good because you can run code inside the swf. In my themes I use as3 to load an external xml into the thing to show game's info (text or images), aeon nox has even weather forecast 😛 Anyway it seems that is possible to make cool thing with attract mode, I need to check it out. HS seems can run a video and 2 1024x768 swf check it out, the background is a swf loading another swf as embedding a swf as background into the theme won't loop it. Do those mp4 have alpha channel? What software are you using to make the videos?

Just curious, how you did the thing? Cinematic theme with a full screen mp4? I noticed that HS tends to crash badly when you use a big SWF or a little SWF with too many frames of animation

Very cool, how do you do that? A single desktop divided on 4 screen?

Is statistics enabled in RL?

RocketLauncher keeps track of games played, time played per game, etc. Just look in RocketLauncher\Data\Statistics folder

I'm on w10 pro 21H1 and it works.

Yeah, it works on 64bit w10 21h1 but you need to put this dll inside HS folder

Windows updates has become a plague, everytime the thing is updated something stopped working. I install new windows versions only when the support cease, infact I updated to 2004 this week. I was asked to uninstall virtualbox and the system uninstalled cpu-z. No problem at all, after the update I installed the new versions of virtualbox and cpu-z but just think to a place where virtualbox is used ro run old software and there are no people who knows how to fix the thing... On the HTPC I just installed W10 LTSC, 10 years of security updates without version change 😛

Some users reported that old sxs.dll into HS folder works also on 20H2, please try it and check windows defender exception, with version change it may tends to reset rules.

Can someone please link me HyperSpin.exe 1.5, the first version working on w10 1809? I'm doing some tests but I don't have that version, thank you very much.

Someone has reported problems with windows 1903

That skin runs around 1600 lines of actionscript3 code. In flash you can read the full path of the opened .swf, so you get something like C:/Hyperspin/media/Sega Genesis/Images/Artwork1/3 Ninjas Kick Back (USA) once you have this you run some string manipulation to get the name of the rom, the system and the installation path of hyperspin. At this point you can load the system's xml, get the descrition of the rom, remove the double line breaks of windows files, display and animate it. You don't need to create a .swf per rom, it's always the same .swf renamed with rom's name (you can batch .bat renaming script once you have N copies of the file with names turned into numbers with something like "lupas renamer"). The downside is I havent' found a way to load an external font so it needs to be embedd (anyway embedd font is faster), the scrolling text size can be configurable directly in the .xml. I can release a .swf that makes the magic right now (to use it in a theme you'll have just to open the .fla in flash, change the font (optional) and change settings in the .xml) but the .xml files are not ready yet. BBB says as3 coding into a .swf can cause memory leaking but fortunately this issue has not been reported (probably because PCs have lots of ram right now). Technically ram usage is surely a problem in flash but time by time flash reader runs garbage collector to flush every unused items from ram, the problem is sometimes it can't really flush it (memory leaking problems have been spotted in flash itself, not only in HS)

No, it can convert only .png. As far as i remember you can load .swf into flash and set 75% on x axis for the imported .swf and export a new .swf (not sure about that). TBH as far as i remember you can force HS to 16:9 using stage properties inside a .swf but wheel centering become f***ed up...

Install adobe flash and use my scripts (link in signature), they can massively transform 4:3 assets to 16:9 assets, they actually embedd 4:3 assets in a .swf and tell flash to display the asset 75% on x axis. It also add "smooth" flag, the artwork will look better than a resized .png in photoshop. You can simply open them with notepad to do modification, you can design at 4k and let the script resize the artwork for 1024*768 (not a good idea to use 4k assets in flash TBH, it can handle 1080p). You can also use photoshop's actions for resizing: just record a resizing then launch the action on the whole assets folder p.s. as far as i know RL can use assets of its own, is this wrong?

The only way to "prevent" is creating a 4:3 theme and a 16:9 theme, background really needs 2 different assets as the "logic" of spacing is different . The problem is most themes were made before quick methods to support crisp looking 16:9 were discovered (basically you need to have flash to deal with the ratio conversion itself), so theme creators haven't done 16:9 themes. Using Adobe flash and my .jsfl scripts it is possible to convert a theme to 16:9 without any knowledge of flash BUT backgrounds need to be redone.

Flash itself is terrible: it has framerate issue, performance issue, security issue but it allows as3 coding to add features. This is hyperspin, not kodi (info is pulled in real time from a .xml. not a simple pre-made .swf movie) Kodi's layout is great for HTPC gaming FE BUT Rom Browser Collection has problem with huge games lists (mame). There's a good project for artwork and stuff but it is not really usable unless they haven't fixed the list loading problem and make systems/games browsing easier.

Not joking. He was checking my movies collection, he launched a video then he returned to the menu without stopping the movie, in this case video runs in the background and everything started to crawl as the rig was underpowered (p4 3ghz, 1gb drr400, 9800gtx+, still ok for h264 1080p thanks to dvxa/cuda). At this point he didn't know how to stop the freaking video and was distressling floating trought the menus cursing lol. Kodi is a great piece of software BUT it's not intuitive. Too many advanced user features even in kiosk mode.

Yeah, there are more modern FE but let me tell a thing: I had friends got lost in xbmc/kodi just lo launch a movie but i've never seems someone got lost into hyperspin.Hyperspin is the mostly customizable FE and the most intuitive FE. The strong and weak point of HS is flash itself: you can do great things with it BUT performance is poor, so you need a beefy machine. Just an example: HS support yahoo! weather forecast, the software was never inteded to do so (obviously it support weather forecast as i did some as3 coding in the .swf). HS probably could support 16:9 themes with little changes BUT themes would need to be redone, it's the same on every FE (at last if you want them to look GOOD)

Honestly I haven't tested if .swf wheels looks better but anyway I had quickly updated my .jsfl batch scripts to support conversion for .png to .swf wheelset (with the old scripts wheels would appear not centered, the new scripts should fix the problem).