RetroFE forums

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone. I've been very busy polishing some new designs I'm working on and have come up with a couple of ideas that could add more quality to RetroFE:

1-
It would be very good if apart from the 4 main sounds, you could customize some more, such as: Enter a menu or return to a previous menu, even with the option to customize from which menu you go another. Example:

<sound type="load" src="example1.wav" /> "when you load the layout"
<sound type="highlight" src="example2.wav" /> "when you move through the menu"
<sound type="select" src="example3.wav" /> "When select a game to play"
<sound type="unload" src="example4.wav" /> "when you close the layout"
 
the new additions

<sound type="menu_index0_select"    src="example5.wav" /> "when you select the menu item to enter a submenu"
<sound type="menu_index1_select"    src="example6.wav" /> "when you select the submenu item to enter a submenu 2"
<sound type="menu_index1_back"    src="example7.wav" /> "when you return from the submenu to the previous menu"

I have not included menu_index0_back, because it is the same as the "unload" sound

menu_index0_select to menu_index9_select for example
menu_index1_back to menu_index8_back for example

2-
When startCollectionEnter is yes, you select the first item from the main menu of the layout and load the submenu, this causes animations that are defined as onMenuEnter menuIndex = "1" to load.

I would like to be able to define the onEnter animations also with the possibility menuIndex = "0" and menuIndex = "1" so that in this way you can make different animations when you load that submenu for the first time or when you return to it after going through the main menu.

for example: When startCollectionEnter is yes, it would load the animation onEnter menuIndex = "1" instead of onMenuEnter menuIndex = "1". If while in the submenu, you go back to the main menu and select the item again to go to the submenu, in this case you would load onMenuEnter menuIndex = "1".

It's a bit complicated to explain, but I hope you understand.

Every so often I check the RetroFE repository for code changes. Today I have realized that the repository no longer exists. What happened?

1. I need full support to the Spanish language. Right now the accents, the letter ñ and others are not shown.
2. I need the information that is inside the info.conf file of a collection can also be used in the list of games.
    Now when you go from the main menu to the secondary, this information disappears even though you put alpha = 1.

When you create a <menu> tag and use <imageType> you are limited to displaying the image of a folder with the name of the system or game. Example:
If the game is called "fatal fury" it will load the image fatal fury.png that is inside the folder called logo.
<menu type = "custom" imageType = "logo" scrollTime = ".3" scrollAcceleration = ".15" orientation = "horizontal">
Now, if you wanted to show the image of the developer of the game so that it synchronized the animation along with the logo of the game using <menu> tag, the only way there is now is to create a folder called developer and create an image called fatal fury. png to put it like this:
<menu type = "custom" imageType = "developer" scrollTime = ".3" scrollAcceleration = ".15" orientation = "horizontal">
I would like to not be limited to show only the images in that way. I would like to use the <menu> tag to show the images / text of the game information that is saved in the meta folder or in the recent info files.

We could use <menu type = "info" imageType = "developer" ... like this example:
<menu type = "info" imageType = "developer" scrollTime = ".3" scrollAcceleration = ".15" orientation = "horizontal">
This could be used to synchronize animations between the elements of the menus and the animations of the system / game information. In this way we would give more consistency to the movement between the different elements of the menu. Afterwards, each one will use whatever works best for them, either <menu type = "info"... or <reloadableImage> / <reloadableImage>

DOWNLOAD

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GITHUB

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YOUTUBE

This is a layout in which I have put all my dedication for more than two years to make it a reality. Thank you all for the continued support.

This is not going to stay here, I will continue adding improvements and ideas that you are commenting on, to make this layout a reference in the world of FrontEnd emulation.

Thanks to RetroFE and very specially, thanks Pieter Hulshoff, that without his great contributions this would not have been possible.

SCREENSHOTS

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HOW TO START USING IT

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First download the latest version from this link. After this, you need to download emulator and get ROMs to play.

EMULATORS

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For arcade games RetroArch is used with the core final burn alpha by default. You can also use MAME if you prefer.

ARCADE (Using RetroArch)

• Download and put inside the emulators folder
• Open RetroArch and go to: Online Updater / core updater / and select Arcade (FB Alpha) to download de core.

ARCADE (Using MAME)

• Download and put inside the emulators folder
• Rename emulators/mame0204b_64bit folder to mame.
• In each game you want to use MAME you need to find settings.conf inside the game folder. In launcher section, you have to replace final burn alpha with mame same as in the code below:
  

• By default
  

  list.path	= collections/%ITEM_COLLECTION_NAME%
  list.extensions	= zip
  launcher	= final burn alpha
  media.system_artwork	= collections/%ITEM_COLLECTION_NAME%

• Using MAME
  

  list.path	= collections/%ITEM_COLLECTION_NAME%
  list.extensions	= zip
  launcher	= mame
  media.system_artwork	= collections/%ITEM_COLLECTION_NAME%

ROMs

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In Aura, the games are stored in packs, this is why everything related to each game has to go inside the folder of its respective folder, including its ROM.

• Put ddonpach.zip ROM inside dodonpachi folder.
• Put garou.zip and neogeo.zip ROMs inside garou mark of the wolves folder.
• Put mslug3.zip and neogeo.zip ROMs inside garou metal slug 3 folder.
• Put pbobblen.zip and neogeo.zip ROMs inside puzzle bobble folder.
• Put sfiii3.zip ROM inside street fighter 3 3rd strike folder.

HOW TO ADD MY OWN GAMES

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• Images
  When you add a game, you have to include six images in JPG. Why in JPG image format? Because RetroFE works more fluid using JPG compared to PNG.
• Cover Resolution: 460 x 690 pixels.
  Game artwork with logo.
• Fanart Resolution: 1280 x 720 pixels.
  Same Game artwork occupying the entire width.
• Fanart blur Resolution: 1280 x 720 pixels.
  Same Fanart image with 15% Gaussian blur.
• Screenshot 1 Resolution: ? x 220 pixels (Depends on the screen ratio).
  Title screen. The height has to be 220 pixels.
• Screenshot 2 Resolution: ? x 220 pixels (Depends on the screen ratio).
  First gameplay screenshot. The height has to be 220 pixels.
• Screenshot 3 Resolution: ? x 220 pixels (depends on the screen ratio).
  Second gameplay screenshot. The height has to be 220 pixels.

RELEASE NOTES

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Aura v1.0-beta 2

• Change the way to show the features of the game towards a more intuitive way in the main menu.
• Optimization of several images of the gamepad.
• Updated game loading system to use the default RetroFE system to load RetroArch and MAME ROMs.
• Added new game: Street Fighter III 3rd Strike.

Aura v1.0-beta 1

• First Release

TO DO

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• Add Arcade input version (Developing)
• Any suggestions?