This guide is designed to inform you of the fundamentals of building themes for Maximus Arcade. The interface for the editor is defined by its four panels: Editor, Property Inspector, Tools, and Color Picker. Let’s start by describing the purpose and functionality of each panel.
The Editor panel is the rectangular area where you place graphic content, including imported vector art (flash), text boxes, and bitmap graphics when creating a theme. The information displayed in the title bar of the Editor panel is based upon the selected Emulator and Resolution. The Editor panel contains the menus: File, Edit, Resolution, Emulator, Sprite, Interface, Convert Layout, and Help. Also included in the descriptions below are additional key commands and sprite menu options available in the Editor panel.
EDITOR: FILE MENU
New - Closes an open theme and clears all sprite properties
Open - Opens an existing theme
Save - Save an open theme
Revert - Reverts open theme to its previously saved state
Import - Import an image into the sprite selected in the Editor panel
Exit - Exit the theme editor
EDITOR: EDIT MENU
Undo
Undo allows you to undo your last action
The level of undos can be modified in the Property Inspector>Settings
Changing the Interface or Resolution selection will purge the undo list
Redo
Redo reapplies the last action that was undone
Animate
Toggles the animation state of a sprite with an Adobe Flash asset
Visible
Toggles the visibility of the sprite selected
Changing the Interface will reset the sprite visible state
If you wish to hide a particular sprite you can do one of the following:
Move the sprite off the visible area of the Editor panel
Set the alpha of the sprite to 0, making it completely transparent
Link to an image that is completely transparent
Reset
Clears all sprite attributes and centers it in the Editor panel
Lock
Toggles the moveable state of the sprite selected
Changing the Interface will reset the sprite locked state
EDITOR: RESOLUTION MENU
CTRL+G to cycle through selections
Contains resolution settings supported by the frontend
All resolutions utilize the same image assets
Each resolution is a completely different sprite layout
EDITOR: EMULATOR MENU
CTRL+E to cycle through selections
Contains emulator setups supported by the frontend
List is hard coded as emulators are routinely added to the frontend
Emulators that are not setup with image assets will prompt a “missing image” alert box upon loading the theme in the frontend
EDITOR: SPRITE MENU
CTRL+P to cycle through selections
Contains available sprites within the current Interface selection
Choosing a sprite from the menu will select the sprite in the Editor panel
EDITOR: INTERFACE MENU
CTRL+F to cycle through selections
Contains the different interface screens that are available within the frontend: Logo, Emulator Selection, Game Selection, and Loading Screen
EDITOR: INTERFACE MENU: LOGO
Logo splash screen displayed when launching the frontend
Contains sprites: background, border_front, and logo_open
Sprite background and border_front retain the same sprite properties in all Interfaces of a selected resolution
EDITOR: INTERFACE MENU: EMULATOR SELECTION
Contains sprites: background, border_front, , _title, arrow_left, and arrow_right
Cycling through emulator selections in the Emulator menu will display images setup for sprites: and _title
The arrow sprites are commonly flash based arrow animations depicting the method for selecting different emulators
EDITOR: INTERFACE MENU: GAME SELECTION
Game selection screen based upon the selected emulator
Cycling through emulator selections in the Emulator menu will display images setup for sprites: _marquee and _screen
The _marquee sprite when in the frontend will be swapped if marquee images are available for import
Any marquee that is imported will inherit the alpha channel of the default _marquee sprite asset
The _screen sprite when in the frontend will be swapped if screenshots or movies are available for import
The border_wide sprite is actually 3 sprites in one
The 3 states of the border are available in Properties Inspector>Sprite>Border
The border sprite is used for framing the screenshot/movie. The multiple border options are mainly for MAME, as MAME has both portrait and landscape format screenshots. So a portrait and landscape border is required to frame those screenshots or movies.
The “Default” state shows the border sprite when no screenshot or movie is available
The “Landscape” state shows the border sprite when images near 4:3 ratio are available for swapping
If both movies and screenshots are available, a slight delay will occur while swapping the screenshot to movie
The movie will retain the dimensions of the screenshot
The “Portrait” state shows the border sprite when images near 9:16 ratio are available for swapping
If both movies and screenshots are available a slight delay will occur while swapping the screenshot to movie
The movie will retain the dimensions of the screenshot
The _screen sprite will also have 3 different dimension settings based on the border state selected
Bar_rom is the sprite used for highlighting the current game selected
Rom_list is the sprite which contains the list of games
Attributes such as font, font size, font style, font color, alignment, leading, and lines visible
Rom_list_shadow is a duplicate of sprite rom_list which can be used for a shadow or other purposes
Rom_title is the sprite which contains the name of the currently selected game list
Attributes such as font, font size, font style, font color, alignment, leading, and lines visible
Rom_title_shadow is a duplicate of sprite rom_list which can be used for a shadow or other purposes
EDITOR: INTERFACE MENU: LOADING SCREEN
Loading screen displayed before launching a game
Contains sprites: background, border_front, and screen_load
The loading screen is an optional interface that must be activated on a per emulator basis in the preferences panel of the frontend
EDITOR: CONVERT LAYOUT MENU
Convert Layout calculates all sprite properties of the current resolution over to the resolution that was selected from the pull down menu
This works great for quickly converting a desired sprite layout to other resolutions
Example: If you are working in 640x480 resolution and you select 800x600 in the Convert
Layout menu, you will overwrite the 800x600 layout with the layout based on your current 640x480 resolution
Converting from a non-vertical resolution to a vertical resolution
If working in 640x480 and then choosing to convert the layout to 640x480 vertical, the sprites will be rotated 90° and placed to a comparable position
EDITOR: WINDOW MENU
Windows within the theme editor application
EDITOR: HELP MENU
This documentation.
SPRITE POPUP MENU (right-mouse click on sprite)
#sprite: - Name of sprite selected
Import - Import an image asset into the sprite selected
Convert Sprite - Same methodology as Convert Layout except instead of the entire layout converted to the selected resolution, just the selected sprite is converted to the selected resolution
Transform - Methods for setting rotation and shape parameters to a sprite
Arrange - Methods for adjusting Z-Depth of a sprite
Align - Methods for adjusting the location of a sprite based on the current resolution dimensions
Alpha - Method for adjusting the opacity of a sprite
Animate, Lock, Visible, Reset - Same functionality as Editor>Edit
KEY COMMANDS
UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT - Moves a sprite 1 pixel in the desired location
SHIFT + UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT - Moves a sprite 10 pixels in the desired location
CTRL + UP/DOWN - Adjusts the font size of a font sprite 1 point
CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT - Adjusts the width of a font sprite 1 point
PROPERTY INSPECTOR
The Property Inspector simplifies modification by making it easy to access the most commonly used attributes of the selected sprite. You can make changes to the sprite or theme attributes in the Property Inspector without accessing the menus or panels that also control these attributes. Depending on the media of the selected sprite, the Property Inspector displays specific information and settings.
Sprite
Manage sprite attributes
Animate, Lock, Visible, Reset buttons - Same functionality as Editor>Edit
Animation - Direction the sprite is animated on and off the screen in the
Emulator interface
Sub-tabs
Font - Font family, font style, alignment, leading, size, and lines visible
Border - Described under Interface>Game Selection
Defined Images - Additional sprites for Emulator and Game Selection interfaces
Sound
Select, import, and play interface sound effects
Info
Personalized information of the them
Preview image of theme for viewing in the frontend preferences panel
Resolutions that have been setup and that will be saved in the them
Settings
Level of undos
Log
Report generated when saving a them
TOOLS
The tools in the Tools panel allow you select, scale, and rotate sprites located in the Editor panel.
Move - Move a sprite on X/Y axis
Scale - Proportionately scale a sprite
Rotate - Rotate a sprite 0-360°
COLOR PICKER
The Color Picker allows the changing of color for text sprites. You may enter RGB values through the input fields, adjust the slider bar arrows to select a color, or sample a color from the color bar with the eyedropper cursor.
DEFINITIONS
Flash - A multimedia authoring and playback system from Adobe. Launched in 1996 by Macromedia, which was acquired by Adobe in 2005, Flash became popular for its animated graphics. Responsible for much of the animations, advertisements and video components found on today's Web sites, the Flash Player is a free client application that works with popular Web browsers.
Image Assets - Image file types that are compatible for import into the theme editor (PNG, JPEG, GIF, and SWF).
Skew - The angle to which the vertical edges of the sprite are tilted (skewed) from the vertical. Negative values indicate a skew to the left; positive values indicate a skew to the right. Values greater than 90° flip an image vertically.
Sprite - A sprite is an object that controls when, where, and how image/font assets appear in the frontend. Sprite properties include the sprite’s size and location, file assigned to the sprite and the sprite’s name. Different properties can alter the appearance of a sprite. You can rotate, skew and flip sprites without affecting the assigned file.
Z-Depth - Sprites appear in the Editor panel layered according to the Z-depth in which they are assigned in the Property Inspector. Sprites with larger Z-depth values appear in front of sprites with lower values.
Download customized Maximus Arcade portrait and landscape boot screen images for use in a MS Windows shell replacement program such as