I made some really cool custom screenshots/covers for a couple of systems i'd like to share. I made a post some years ago about it and even found another member asking for a solution on github i think ? If you google "quickplay frontend screenshots" i can find this picture as the first result from a not so long ago reddit post, now thats funny...
and then there is this thread in the help forums "multiple screenshots at once" where this screenshot is also. So, i'm that guy who made that "mock-up"
So if there is interest, i would happily share them all, here are a few exaples, including the metal gear one (the file dates back to august 29th in 2013, wow). The only downside might be that they are not all in english and if someone wants them to use. The filenames are all based on redump/nointro/goodset. You can check it out on github if it matches your filenaming.
Here are a few examples. They are all in "jpg", i used to have them as "png" to retain the quality but i found it was consuming too much space, so i converted them into jpg.
I have not all systems with those kind of screenshots. It is a very time consuming experience. But i also have some covers for n64 & snes merged together, see here:
Not every rom (as in collections/sets) is covered but it is quite a bunch of screenshots and i could give exact instructions on how to achieve those to maybe complete your own collection or take your own screenshots (bc you want it in english or another native language) and merge them accordingly. It is super easy to do, just takes time & dedication.
I have my own criteria for those screenshots, for example all mame/fba/arcade stuff is with scanline shaders (i used the crt-royal in retroarch for all the shmups but in hindsight i like the lottes shader more but i did not have the energy to redo them but they still look ok), ps2 games are upscaled 3x and so on. I still work on some stuff like gameboy/color/advance and would also share the ones i already have but it is not much for now.
It all started with playstation 1. Back then i figured out i could use the screeshots from https://psxdatacenter.com/ and merge them with the front cover. But all the other systems, i had to make the screenshots by myself because there was no source with ready to use screenshots. Those screenshots on the back covers were a little small, thats why i did it in the firstplace. Looks also nice on a 4k tv.
And for quickplay itself, it would be cool if you could build that kind of look with the media panel, but i understand that it might take a lot of work or is difficult to do, so thats one way to customize.
Thanks for reading. Just let me know if i should share them and i will.
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Thanks to AFaustini, i opened a github - project for those custom pictures. My preference is, as you seen above, to have a somewhat simple integration on media in quickplay.
Here is the Link to the project: https://github.com/stoniemahonie/QPCCP
I already uploaded a few systems and keep updating/expanding them. Some systems are combined under mamefba, cps 1,2,3 and neogeo, so you need to pick them if you have it sorted differently locally.
I'm a german guy, so there are quite some german covers or screenshots from german versions of ps2/gamecube/wii games if the game is in pal and has that language. But there are also lots of ntsc/us/gb covers in the mix and those custom screenshots are also often in english.
To do it yourself you can use the freeware image tool "https://www.irfanview.com/"
Then you can use the "Image->Create panorama image" function. In the options dialog you can either merge pictures horizontal or vertical. In the field "Spacing" i use the number 6 (pixels). And the "Space color" is the grey backround color of quickplays media panel.
Here is a little screenshot for the color values:
I change the width always to 640 in irfanview (Image->Resize/Resample image). That way, you can have a crisp/sharp look if you move the media panel size in the right spot as shown in the samples. And for those ingame title- and/or gameplay shots, i mostly use riva statistics tuner and make a lot of screenshots from a game and then pick the one/s i like most and merge it with the title/cover-screenshot. When saving the final merged picture, i use jpg with the 80 % quality slider option in the save dialog. I might use 100 % going forward because some things don't look that great with 80 % but thats ofc personal preference. Having those in lossless png quality takes quite some space.
