Development of a new menu

[VeraBecker]

This is a pre release:
https://github.com/ManiacVera/DreamShell...Dreamshell

Swat I also uploaded the code but I still want to make more adjustments before incorporating it into your branch

[pcwzrd13]

Gave it a quick test and it seems to work well. One request though: Can you add support for A-Z subfolders inside of the "Games" folder? This is the way I have all my games organized.

[VeraBecker]

(25.06.2024 05:56)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Gave it a quick test and it seems to work well. One request though: Can you add support for A-Z subfolders inside of the "Games" folder? This is the way I have all my games organized.

Hi!, Thank you, of course, I will make a note to attach it to the earrings, I hope I have time to make all the adaptations and an excellent menu will come out.

[pcwzrd13]

A minor thing I noticed while testing the menu today is that the CDDA music starts playing a bit too quickly. I'm guessing because of the animation it feels like the music starts playing before the game is highlighted. Maybe adding a 2 or 3 second delay would be good? For that reason and if you're scrolling through the games quickly, users probably don't want to hear a bunch of tracks being cut off as their scrolling.

[VeraBecker]

(25.06.2024 23:09)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  A minor thing I noticed while testing the menu today is that the CDDA music starts playing a bit too quickly. I'm guessing because of the animation it feels like the music starts playing before the game is highlighted. Maybe adding a 2 or 3 second delay would be good? For that reason and if you're scrolling through the games quickly, users probably don't want to hear a bunch of tracks being cut off as their scrolling.

Yes, I had already seen that, I have to put a delay because it will affect the performance later.

[pcwzrd13]

I was thinking, would it be possible to use the same metadata as OpenMenu for GDEMU for game info and covers? I don't know if you have plans to implement game info and descriptions (this would be cool) but it would make it a lot easier if it used the same files as OpenMenu. Maybe Megavolt can chime in on this?

[VeraBecker]

(27.06.2024 22:51)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  I was thinking, would it be possible to use the same metadata as OpenMenu for GDEMU for game info and covers? I don't know if you have plans to implement game info and descriptions (this would be cool) but it would make it a lot easier if it used the same files as OpenMenu. Maybe Megavolt can chime in on this?

Hi, I understand your point and I can do it but at the moment I don't have it planned for version 1, possibly in the future, but I added it to the wish list

[pcwzrd13]

Tested out the latest version from Github and it's working great with subfolders now!

Quick suggestion: Why not use the disc art included the GD if there's no custom art in the covers folder? Seems like that would be better than just using a generic cover.

[VeraBecker]

(10.07.2024 18:18)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Tested out the latest version from Github and it's working great with subfolders now!

Quick suggestion: Why not use the disc art included the GD if there's no custom art in the covers folder? Seems like that would be better than just using a generic cover.

1.- that version is obsolete but it will help you, the new one is in Swat but adjustments are still being made in other modules to be able to launch it.

2.- I already saw that topic, at the moment you cannot add that configuration because it greatly affects performance when reading pvrs from GDI, later we will see this topic to give you a solution.

[pcwzrd13]

I think I found an issue. Not sure if it's fixed with the newer version but it's not showing all my games. Previously I was only testing with a small CF card with about 20 games but now I'm using a much larger card with over 200 games and it seems to only show 25 of them. Any idea why?

[VeraBecker]

(10.07.2024 20:24)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  I think I found an issue. Not sure if it's fixed with the newer version but it's not showing all my games. Previously I was only testing with a small CF card with about 20 games but now I'm using a much larger card with over 200 games and it seems to only show 25 of them. Any idea why?

It is possible that you have it on a very long route, it should not exceed 255 (I can increase this a little). Please send me a game that I don't show you, with the full path including the game name.

[pcwzrd13]

(10.07.2024 20:37)VeraBecker писал(а):  It is possible that you have it on a very long route, it should not exceed 255 (I can increase this a little). Please send me a game that I don't show you, with the full path including the game name.

Ok, one of them is:

Games\A\Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare\D1\Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare v1.000 (2001)(Infogrames)(NTSC)(US)(Disc 1 of 2)[!].gdi

I think that's one of the longest paths but even that isn't even close to 255.

I also noticed when I first open the Games menu it just shows a blank page until I press one of the trigger buttons. Not sure if that's a clue.

[VeraBecker]

(10.07.2024 21:48)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  

(10.07.2024 20:37)VeraBecker писал(а):  It is possible that you have it on a very long route, it should not exceed 255 (I can increase this a little). Please send me a game that I don't show you, with the full path including the game name.

Ok, one of them is:

Games\A\Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare\D1\Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare v1.000 (2001)(Infogrames)(NTSC)(US)(Disc 1 of 2)[!].gdi

I think that's one of the longest paths but even that isn't even close to 255.

I also noticed when I first open the Games menu it just shows a blank page until I press one of the trigger buttons. Not sure if that's a clue.

Thanks, I'm going to simulate this game as is, see what happens.

[VeraBecker]

(10.07.2024 22:04)VeraBecker писал(а):  

(10.07.2024 21:48)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  

(10.07.2024 20:37)VeraBecker писал(а):  It is possible that you have it on a very long route, it should not exceed 255 (I can increase this a little). Please send me a game that I don't show you, with the full path including the game name.

Ok, one of them is:

Games\A\Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare\D1\Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare v1.000 (2001)(Infogrames)(NTSC)(US)(Disc 1 of 2)[!].gdi

I think that's one of the longest paths but even that isn't even close to 255.

I also noticed when I first open the Games menu it just shows a blank page until I press one of the trigger buttons. Not sure if that's a clue.

Thanks, I'm going to simulate this game as is, see what happens.

You found a bug, the game name only accepted 79 characters in length. thanks for the report , I already solved it, you just need to wait for the version to be released within the official Dreamshell GIT.

These types of reports are what benefit us, it is difficult to find all the details by ourselves.

[pcwzrd13]

Ah interesting. I actually just tried copying the game to my other CF card to see if it would show up and it actually showed the first disc: "Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare v1.000 (2001)(Infogrames)(NTSC)(US)(Disc 1 of 2)[!]" but not the 2nd one "Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare v1.000 (2001)(Infogrames)(NTSC)(US)(Disc 2 of 2)[!]". Does the bug just cause it to stop loading games when it encounters one with a long filename?

[VeraBecker]

(10.07.2024 22:40)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Ah interesting. I actually just tried copying the game to my other CF card to see if it would show up and it actually showed the first disc: "Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare v1.000 (2001)(Infogrames)(NTSC)(US)(Disc 1 of 2)[!]" but not the 2nd one "Alone in the Dark - The New Nightmare v1.000 (2001)(Infogrames)(NTSC)(US)(Disc 2 of 2)[!]". Does the bug just cause it to stop loading games when it encounters one with a long filename?

When it is a memory problem, it can have strange behaviors.

[pcwzrd13]

I went and renamed any games that had really long file names and now everything loads. There were only a few of them but obviously a few too many. Haha.

[VeraBecker]

(11.07.2024 01:58)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  I went and renamed any games that had really long file names and now everything loads. There were only a few of them but obviously a few too many. Haha.

Perfect, in the new version I doubt you will have to change the name of any game.

[pcwzrd13]

I have another suggestion that maybe you can implement. Having a large library of games, it would be nice to be able to skip to a specific letter. I was thinking maybe you could use the analog stick for this. Pressing it could maybe bring up letters that you could select from and it would skip to the first page of games that starts with the letter you select.

[VeraBecker]

(12.07.2024 01:52)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  I have another suggestion that maybe you can implement. Having a large library of games, it would be nice to be able to skip to a specific letter. I was thinking maybe you could use the analog stick for this. Pressing it could maybe bring up letters that you could select from and it would skip to the first page of games that starts with the letter you select.

I have already considered that for a long time but it will be for another version.

Later I will share the pending list for the second version, for now I am going to focus on solving bugs in the first.