EmuLoader 4.9.8 released

[Robert]

Front End

 

March 20, 2007

 

Finally, I got some free time to put this online! Several fixes and updates to the frontend, including full support for latest MAME v0.113u2.

One interesting addition is the tray icon. It will appear when running games (if enabled), and when EL is doing some long task.

Another great news is that now you can place the auto game docs panel at any position, not just above the screenshots preview. There is a new tool bar (that can also be hidden) in the auto game docs panel.

And for those who want to compile EL on your own, know that the "jkSpinEdit" component is removed from the project, and a new component is added: "CoolTrayIcon" (see "How to Compile" section).

 

version 4.9.8 change log [March 20, 2007]

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.fixed: Range check error bug when saving audit results to HTML file

 

.fixed: MNG video recording is always done in "Game Snapshot" folder (MAME based emulators), so EL now points to that folder automatically when recording videos. NOTE: MNG folder settings on preferences screen is never used! No need to set folders there

 

.fixed: Audio recording updated, also bug fix

 

.fixed: Emulator version info detection was bugged

 

.fixed: Emulator version in "MAME Settings" screen was not being set on EL's 1st time run

 

.fixed: Slow emulators start/quit when running games (mostly MAME, compressed with UPX)

 

.fixed: Odd memory leak on favorites profile editor

 

.fixed: Added all 3 image naming formats to the "Scan For Misisng Images" feature

 

.fixed: Some UI texts, displaying wrong / old information

 

.fixed: Custom columns profile not being read on frontend's first run or when "EmuLoader.ini" is not found on startup

 

.changed: The "Show Automatic Game Info" feature now support all systems. Also, the window / text box will not be hidden anymore when no info is found. NOTE: for systems other than MAME, the same info from MAME will be used, eg: "sfex" from ZiNc, since MAME have a game with same name

 

.changed: Updates to the "MAME Settings" screen

- several UI modifications

- added all settings for latest MAME v0.113u1

- removed all settings not used by latest MAME build v0.113u1

- Screen [all, 0, 1, 2, 3] settings rewritten, removed the color depth setting (bpp)

 

.changed: Renamed "MNG Videos" label to "MNG Playback" (preferences screen). NOTE: since MAME use game snapshots folder to save .mng files, this setting is useless, and will probably be removed on a future release since EL cannot play back .mng files (

 

.changed: Delphi components updates:

- Graphic32 v1.8.2

- My new components "TGaugeBar2" updated to latest Graphics32, on "uGR32Extras.pas" file

 

.changed: All settings related to game documents and auto game documents are not stored in a new section called "[GameDocuments]" (EmuLoader.ini file)

 

.changed: Some more changes in the directory structure (icons directories)

 

.removed: My custom component "jkSpinEdit" does not work very well when using float values and is not worth trying to fix this problem. This component is removed from the project, replaced by "TGaugeBar" / "TGaugeBar2" from Graphics32 library

 

.removed: Support for MAME Plus! is gone. Too much work and no feedback from users. Feature was WAY outdated and nobody complained!

 

.removed: Settings (You cannot choose customized icons sets anymore... edit the ones available)

- "Frontend Icons Folder"

- "Standard Game Icons Folder"

 

.optimized: Merged some functions to reduce duplicated lines of code

 

.added: Two Delphi 7 library files with some changes / fixes: "ComCtrls.pas" and "ImgList.pas" needed to fix limitations of some Delphi 7 components. Both files are now part of Emu Loader's source code (meaning, original .dcu files from Delphi 7 are NOT used)

 

.added: New setting: "Enable Game Play Time and Times Played". These two features are now optional. They are used to display how many times you played a game and for how long (games columns). Note that enabling it, after quiting a game the frontend might freeze for 2 or 3 seconds.

 

.added: New component used: "CoolTrayIcon", made by Troels Jakobsen [troels.jakobsen@gmail.com]

 

.added: New setting: "Minimize Frontend To Tray When Running Games ... this fixes the slow MAME start... hopefully

 

.added: Tray icon ballon message when scanning for games... 1st atempt (MAME based emus only) )) NOTE: Feature available only for Win2000 and newer OS

 

.added: New, but not so useful, main menu items:

- "Reload Frontend Icons" : reload all icons in the frontend

- "Reload Games List Icons": reload default EL icons on the games list

 

.added: Keyboard shortcut to display all game documents: Shift+F3 ...main menu "View" / "Game Documents" / "Show All"

 

.added: Automatic game documents tool bar with the following:

- New menu item: "Enable Tool Bar", located at "View" / "Game Documents" main menu use this to show/hide the docs tool bar

 

- 4 different layouts. Now you can put the auto game docs window anywhere ... each layout setting is saved on "EmuLoader.ini"

 

- Font selector, so you can change the font used on the text window

 

NOTE: this tool bar does not work with the "Open In A Window" setting, except "Font" button

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