Media Panel: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:29, 28 November 2017

Overview

The media panel is a way of viewing asssets associated with a ROM. The media panel can automatically display images, and if any video,sound, or ANY other files are found then these can be launched in the default system viewer. For example you can set up a directory to contain all your game guides or other related documents, and if Quickplay is set up to search this directory then it will show these documents in the other media found panel, and by double-clicking on them you can load then in your systems default viewer

Setup

To setup the media panel, you select a system, then you select which type of media you want to display. You can make your own tab for a system by clicking the plus button and selecting a tab type for the new tab, and delete one of the preconfigured types for the system you have currently selected with the minus button. Yes I know its called the 'media panel', but it isn't really setup for video or audio, this is intended as a catalogue, not an attract screen, but you can link to audio and video files in a file-type tab, which when clicked will play with the systems default media player.

In fact, although you can collage a number of different screenshots for a game in the screenshots tab for instance, sometimes just a single screenshot looks much better - its job is to tell you whether you might want to play the game, or not.

There are various types of media search - by default QuickPlay will only display media that matchs the ROM's filename exactly (with a difference only in file extension). However there are 2 other modes of search which can be configured from the main preferences screen (TOOLS, PREFERENCES). You can specify that the media must start with the ROM's filename so -

Search Type

Type 1 - the filenames must match

ROM name - mario.zip

Media name - mario.jpg

Type 2 - The media filename must start with the ROM filename

ROM name - mario.zip

Media name - mario_12.jpg

Type 3 - the media filename must include the ROM filename, so:

ROM name - mario.zip

Media name - super_mario_world.jpg

For MAME clones use Parent ROM for scan

If enabled media searchs for MAME roms will use the parent ROM (only applicable if you scanned ROMs using the 'scan merged roms'). you usually want this on for MAME/Arcade systems so that if an asset can't be found by the rom's mamename, it gets found by asking its parent if it has an asset. (For non-MAME systems, it doesn't really hurt to have it on)

Include ROM directory in search

If this is enabled then the media searching routine will also search the directory of the ROM. This may find some files (save states etc), that it shouldn't so I recommend disabling this option and creating a specific ROM media directory.

MAME Setup

There are a number of pre-configured media panel tabs for MAME, ranging from cabinet images to help about which combo-buttons do certain moves in certain games. These are usually found in your MAME/Extras directory (in many of the subdirectories).

MAME Info Text Files Setup

See MAME DAT Setup

Disabling

To disable the media panel simply go to the 'View' menu and click 'Hide Image Panel'. This will disable the image panel until you turn it back on by using the 'Show Image Panel' menu. By disabling the media panel QuickPlay will also work quicker.

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 == Overview ==
 The media panel is a way of viewing asssets associated with a ROM. The media panel can automatically display images, and if any video,sound, or ANY other files are found then these can be launched in the default system viewer. For example you can set up a directory to contain all your game guides or other related documents, and if Quickplay is set up to search this directory then it will show these documents in the other media found panel, and by double-clicking on them you can load then in your systems default viewer
-Setting up the Panel
 == Setup ==
-Setting up the media panel is fairly straightforward. It is set up on a folder by folder basis. So for example you can set up search paths for a MAME ROMs folder, and have different search paths for a SNES ROM folder. Also as a default the directory which contains the ROM itself is also searched, so if all your images and ROMs are together in one directory you don't need to do any configuration!
-===Searching===
+[[Image:media_panel_config.png|500 px]]
-To set up search paths either right-click on a folder in the folder-listing in QuickPlay and click on 'Folder Options', or click on a folder and click the 'Folder Options' button on the toolbar above the folder listings. A new screen will appear, and media search paths can be entered in the bottom left of the form. Simply add in your chosen directories and press 'OK' when u have finished.
+To setup the media panel, you select a system, then you select which type of media you want to display. You can make your own tab for a system by clicking the plus button and selecting a tab type for the new tab, and delete one of the preconfigured types for the system you have currently selected with the minus button. Yes I know its called the 'media panel', but it isn't really setup for video or audio, this is intended as a catalogue, not an attract screen, but you can link to audio and video files in a file-type tab, which when clicked will play with the systems default media player.
+In fact, although you can collage a number of different screenshots for a game in the screenshots tab for instance, sometimes just a single screenshot looks much better - its job is to tell you whether you might want to play the game, or not.
+There are various types of media search - by default QuickPlay will only display media that matchs the ROM's filename exactly (with a difference only in file extension). However there are 2 other modes of search which can be configured from the main preferences screen (TOOLS, PREFERENCES). You can specify that the media must start with the ROM's filename so -
+===Search Type===
+====Type 1 - the filenames must match====
+ROM name - mario.zip
+Media name - mario.jpg
+====Type 2 - The media filename must start with the ROM filename====
+ROM name - mario.zip
+Media name - mario_12.jpg
+====Type 3 - the media filename must include the ROM filename, so:====
+ROM name - mario.zip
-There are various types of media search - by default Quickplay will only display media that matchs the ROM's filename exactly (with a difference only in file extension). However there are 2 other modes of search which can be configured from the main preferences screen (TOOLS, PREFERENCES). You can specify that the media must start with the ROM's filename so -
+Media name - super_mario_world.jpg
-ROM = mario.zip
+===For MAME clones use Parent ROM for scan===
-Media = mario_1.jpg
+ If enabled media searchs for MAME roms will use the parent ROM (only applicable if you scanned ROMs using the 'scan merged roms'). you usually want this on for MAME/Arcade systems so that if an asset can't be found by the rom's mamename, it gets found by asking its parent if it has an asset. (For non-MAME systems, it doesn't really hurt to have it on)
-Is a valid result
+===Include ROM directory in search===
-Alternatively you can tell Quickplay that as long as the ROM filename appears in the media name anywhere to return it as a result - obviously this will return a lot of incorrect entries particularly if a ROM has a short file name.
+If this is enabled then the media searching routine will also search the directory of the ROM. This may find some files (save states etc), that it shouldn't so I recommend disabling this option and creating a specific ROM media directory.
-==Image Formats Supported==
+== MAME Setup ==
-The following file formats will automatically be displayed in QuickPlay's image viewer, all other file formats can be located in the 'other files found' box and launched by double-clicking on them.
+[[Image:media_panel_sshot.PNG|500 px]]
-'.png', '.gif', '.jpg', '.jpeg', '.jpe', '.jif', '.jfif', '.bmp', '.dib', '.rle', '.tiff', '.wmf'
+There are a number of pre-configured media panel tabs for MAME, ranging from cabinet images to help about which combo-buttons do certain moves in certain games. These are usually found in your MAME/Extras directory (in many of the subdirectories).
-Turning the Media Panel off
+=== MAME Info Text Files Setup ===
+[[Image:media_panel_text.PNG|300 px]]
+See [[MAME_DAT_SETUP|MAME DAT Setup]]
 ==Disabling==
 To disable the media panel simply go to the 'View' menu and click 'Hide Image Panel'. This will disable the image panel until you turn it back on by using the 'Show Image Panel' menu. By disabling the media panel QuickPlay will also work quicker.
+[[category:User_Guides]]