Emu Launcher

[greendots]

Ive started to work on a emulator launcher for the pandora. My goal is to have a very intuitive and nice looking interface using svgs. There will be smooth transitions between screens as well as scaling into portions of an svg. The effect I would like to achieve is something like: start up launcher => cover style selection of rom with system in background => selected rom => cartridge spins around and pops into system => zooms into screen as game starts. Don't like controls? Change them in menu and a controller svg will pop up and let you change control scheme, etc.

I can write better then that ^... I really wanted to see what people thought of the renders so far One last thing, I dont plan to start any programming until I get my pandora but Ill be working on the graphics for now. Maybe they will be useful to wiz/dingoo owners.

Inkscape cut off my shadows so Ill post the svg in a few days if any one would like to use for an icon or something.

 

[dflemstr]

Soo... how is this different from PEF (Pandora Emulator Frontend)?

Link to the latest layout screenshot (afaik) here

Oh and that thread is from back when the forum was borked, so expect to see lots of ''

 

[greendots]

How is it different? Both are front ends so they would have similar function of course... But I don't plan to have a menu driven interface. Something similar to cover flow for rom selection. I would like to skin the emulators that are available so it doesn't distract from the experience. I didn't think I expressed my idea that poorly in the first post.

 

[dflemstr]

How is it different? Both are front ends so they would have similar function of course... But I don't plan to have a menu driven interface. Something similar to cover flow for rom selection. I would like to skin the emulators that are available so it doesn't distract from the experience. I didn't think I expressed my idea that poorly in the first post.

I understand what you're after, but (and the following is just my opinion of course) why create a completely new system just to attain a specific gimmick, when there already is a system that is semi-mature, actually usable, and supported by masses of people, and when the gimmick you're after isn't anything that most people would consider important enough to give up all of the features and extra productivity you'll have with the PEF?

I mean, it would be cool to have cover-flow browsing of ROMs, but then what? How do you go deeper than that? How do you make the interface actually usable? If you do what you propose, a very large part of the screen real-estate will be wasted since it'll be filled with white background or the images of emulators/covers/animations/anything.

What if I as a user want to organize my ROMs so that I don't have to scroll through hundreds of covers just to get to a specific one that I could have sorted in a category/folder/favorites list in PEF? What if I as a user want to have some information, such as game information, TINXL network information, savestate choice menus or anything that I actually am able to interact with around the game screen when launching games? Or maybe I want to use as much of the Pandora screen as possible for the actual game (stats, infos, screenshots, reviews, whatever)? Why would I want to put the "frame" of the real console around the game screen; I probably haven't forgotten what it looks like if I'm playing a game for it?

It's a nice idea and all, but I fear that after a while it'll just get in the way and people will think "Well, stop the dang animation already, and start my game!" or "Oh darn, now I'll have to scroll through all those old ROMs again just to find ***"

Also, why start a new project when PEF already "works". If I were you, I would at least create a new menu system that would be optionally turned on for the PEF system or something; not create a completely new project.

 

[greendots]

I haven't looked into the coding aspect at all yet I will likely use what ever source I can. I don't plan on cutting features to have it look nice though I'd be lying if I said I had it all planed out. Sorting in alphabetical order and a favorites list should be pretty easy. Also...a frame would only present around a game to keep correct aspect ratio and would only be an option. I think you may be over thinking it this early; it should end up being a clean, fast, and intuitive front end. In case it come up... yes I do code.

 

[(naw)mcx]

I'll give you one thing, those icons and logos look nice.

 

[dflemstr]

I haven't looked into the coding aspect at all yet I will likely use what ever source I can. I don't plan on cutting features to have it look nice though I'd be lying if I said I had it all planed out. Sorting in alphabetical order and a favorites list should be pretty easy. Also...a frame would only present around a game to keep correct aspect ratio and would only be an option. I think you may be over thinking it this early; it should end up being a clean, fast, and intuitive front end. In case it come up... yes I do code.

I never said nay to the whole thing; I just don't think that it's worth it to make a complete competing system to PEF, (to some extent splitting the community, creating incompatibilities, not having a standard launcher app that just works and would be the reference app), just because you want to have a different GUI for an application that essentially does exactly the same thing as PEF.

If YOU think it's worth it, however, I'm all thumbs up.

 

[PandoraRox]

Greendots, PEF will have plugin support in a later version (i think?). If you want to be a part of PEF, i think that AimlessE would have no objection to that.

 

[Aimless_E]

PandoraRox is right, I plan (once everything is finalized) to allow for complete control over the visuals for PEF. Including placement,images,animations,loading screens, etc. If you want it to behave differently than the way it does now you would only need to take the time to setup a new theme. I would encourage everyone to use PEF as a base for whatever interface they would like to create. Given that it achieves the same goal of course.

 

[dflemstr]

PandoraRox is right, I plan (once everything is finalized) to allow for complete control over the visuals for PEF. Including placement,images,animations,loading screens, etc. If you want it to behave differently than the way it does now you would only need to take the time to setup a new theme. I would encourage everyone to use PEF as a base for whatever interface they would like to create. Given that it achieves the same goal of course.

Hmm, I wonder...
Would it be possible for PEF to not only support plugins in the front-end direction, but also in a backend-ish direction? I realize that at the moment, it only starts (launches) emulators (as separate programs) after a ROM has been selected, but what if it would be possible to write engines directly for the PEF, each of which would support methods like "getScreenContents()", "setInputState()", "showSettingsDialog()", "pauseGame()" etc (well, not really those methods but you get the idea), so that games could be played with the same interface for all emulators? Maybe something for the 13.574.610 release?