Print

[Cospefogo]

Gentlemen,

Since Dr. Madmab is working on new builds of Xport emulators I had
the idea of suggesting a new "virtual keyboard" layout for the upcoming versions.

Here are the proposals:

1 - Black with full white characters




2 - Black with white characters and colored ENTER/BACKSPACE




3 - Beige Simple




4 - Beige Bold as Love




5 - Beige Satin Dress




6 - Gray Cold as a Stone




7 - The original bundled keyboard (actually in use on all emus)



My vote goes to #1.
Dark as black magic.
 

Cospefogo.

[ressurectionx]

Nice work.

I voted for 1 as well.

[Cospefogo]

Thanks guys for the feedback.
Madmab, please make use of them on your tests.
Be my guest.

Regards,
Cospefogo.

[ressurectionx]

Something I just thought of was that with the black the transparency might not work out so well.  I don't know how much that matters to you guys.  Something to think about.....

[+ T +]

Why not make the virtual keyboard the same colour as the original keyboard on the system being emulated? That would be cool.

Though generally speaking I like 1 the best.

[Cospefogo]

QUOTE(+ T + @ Nov 13 2008, 03:04 PM)

Why not make the virtual keyboard the same colour as the original keyboard on the system being emulated? That would be cool.

Though generally speaking I like 1 the best.

Hey +T+...
Nice to hear from you!
Your suggestion is okay for me.

I just need some help to figure out what are the different colors for the different systems
and then I can try to reproduce the feeling. I can try also to include some special chars
reflecting the respective special chars that some of the older systems could have.
C64 has Commodore key, isn't it? Where is it placed?

Let me browse Google for some refreshing information.
Regards,
Cospefogo.

[+ T +]

This a pretty good pic of the C64 keyboard:



The keys were a dark brown colour.

[Cospefogo]

The RESTORE button is actually the same as the DELETE button, right?

Madmab, a question:

On the actual Keyboard PNG --- May I add some extra "area" outside the keyboard keys?
This way I can try to reproduce a nice "real" commodore 64 device, for example.
At least a "shell" outside our current keys. And yes, I will NOT change keys positions
or things like that. Just create some dead borders outside the set...

Cospefogo.

[Cospefogo]

I think it will be just a facelift.
It's up to Medmab, the brain behind the actual works.

C.

[Mega Man (?)]

Cool stuff Cospefogo,

I'm with madmab, I like (1)  but I'm also liken the gray (6)

I agree with seeing which one looks best on the box first also.

EDIT: OK damn... I like them all!

[madmab]

QUOTE(+ T + @ Nov 13 2008, 03:55 PM)

This a pretty good pic of the C64 keyboard:



The keys were a dark brown colour.

I just realized that the bottom keyboard may be possible to use with my hacked 130xe keyboard code.  

[FrankMorris]

Cospe has done a great job with the keyboard. My test only just proves, that it support PNG transparency.

So, maybe Cospe will make some shadow effect for it, if there's interest? I think the keyboard may not even need it.. It looks clearer without it.

Test was a success, though.



EDIT: Hard to say about the color too. I like them all. Choose whatever and it's fine for me atleast..

[Cospefogo]

Hey guys,

I am glad you ressurectedX (ha ha) my keyboard proposals.
It will be a pleasure to see one of them working on the new emulators.

If you want a shadow under it, I can do it.
But, I will need to save the file as PNG24Bits, is this not a problem for the emulator?

Will we not have the same problems as we have on the gradient colored skins?
The one I mentioned few time ago, when we get a lot of dithering problems
in images using gradients.

Best,
C.

[FrankMorris]

QUOTE(Cospefogo @ May 12 2009, 12:30 PM)

If you want a shadow under it, I can do it.
But, I will need to save the file as PNG24Bits, is this not a problem for the emulator?

Will we not have the same problems as we have on the gradient colored skins?
The one I mentioned few time ago, when we get a lot of dithering problems
in images using gradients.

Could you make one with shadow, that madmab can see hows it look?
If we have shadow, it looks the best with "stone cold" right?

About the dithering: I don't see any? but it's hard to say for sure, because madmabs
screenies above are JPG shots. PNG24Bits intrinsically is not a problem.

[madmab]

Should I save the screenshots as a different format?  The screenshot utility for the xbox devkit saves to .bmp and I then convert them.

As much as I like the black keyboard it seems like it is a little difficult to see on darker screens..

If the sample Frank sent was PNG24Bits then the format should be no problem.  Cause the one he sent me was fine.  Although it uses a bit more memory than the default and the stone cold ones.