Feutilities.exe


NB! also needed in the same folder crc.exe and arcadetemp.cst
NB! if you get script errors place Feutilities.exe, crc.exe and arcadetemp.cst in the root folder of the fe were fe3darcade.exe is also located...

With feutilites you can create animated backgrounds from a set of images. Create gamelists (also music, video etc lists) based on the contents of a folder. And create gamelists for visual pinball based on the contents of a folder and using vplauncher's dat file to check for crc's and add information from the datfile to the created gamelist.
Close feutilities by hitting the escape key.


1. How to create animated backgrounds
2. How to create a gamelist (also music, video etc lists) from the contents of a folder
3. How to create a gamelist from the contents of a folder for visual pinball


1. How to create animated backgrounds

-put the bitmaps for the animation in an empty folder.
-run feutilities.exe and choose Create background animation...
-feutilities will popup a select folder dialog box. Choose the folder were your bitmaps are located and then press ok.
-feutilities will then create the animation file and when that is done will popup a save dialog box. Choose a name and location were you want the animation to be saved. then press ok. done!


2. How to create a gamelist (also music, video etc lists) from the contents of a folder

-run feutilities.exe and choose Create a gamelist...
-edit the fields:
	-Gamelist name, the name you want to give to the new gamelist.
	-Emulator short name, the shortname of the emulator these files will be used with. ie the name of the cfg file in cfg/emulators/ for example for cfg/emulators/femame.cfg the shortname is mame.
	-Emulator type, see fereadme.htm for an explanation: arcade (only for mame), console (when the emulator or application will run fullscreen), app (when the emulator or application will run in a window), arcmusic (for mp3 to be played in the fe for example on a jukebox model), arcmovies (for rm videos to be played for example on a moviescreen model), pinball (when you want the special launching mode for visual pinball to be used. If you are creating a vp gamelist and set this to app to use the normal launching method then set I suggest you set 3d model to Pinball so that the default pinball model will show up.)
	-3d model, when you want that all items for the created gamelist will show the same 3d model you can point to it here. Be warned this model will be used for all items in this gamelist even when there is a specific model available based on the name of an item!
	-directory games filter, *.* will add all files in a folder to the gamelist! If you only want to add specific files use their extension to filter them out. For example for atari 2600 bin files use *.bin*
	-include file extension yes or no, this is really importent! some emulators need the extension to run a game. for example z26.exe asteroid.bin will run z26.exe asteroid will not run. for emulators that need the extension set this to true. For arcmusic lists set this to true and for arcmovies lists set this to false.
-after editing the fields press start.
-feutilities will popup a select folder dialog box. Choose the folder were the roms/files are located and then press ok.
-feutilities will then create the gamelist file and when that is done will popup a save dialog box. Choose a name and location were you want the gamelist to be saved. then press ok. done!


3. How to create a gamelist from the contents of a folder for visual pinball

-run feutilities.exe and choose Create a visual pinball gamelist...
-edit the fields:
	-Gamelist name, the name you want to give to the new gamelist
	-Emulator short name, the shortname of the emulator these files will be used with. ie the name of the cfg file in cfg/emulators/ for example for cfg/emulators/fepinball.cfg the shortname is pinball
	-Emulator type, see fereadme.htm for an explanation: arcade (only for mame), console (when the emulator or application will run fullscreen), app (when the emulator or apllication will run in a window), pinball (when you want the special launching mode for visual pinball to be used. If you are creating a vp gamelist and set this to app to use the normal launching method then set I suggest you set 3d model to Pinball so that the default pinball model will show up.)
	-3d model, when you want that all items for the created gamelist will show the same 3d model you can point to it here. Be warned this model will be used for all items in this gamelist even when there is a specific model available based on the name of an item!
	-directory games filter, keep this to *.vpt*
	-include file extension yes or no, this is really importent! if you are going to use the special method of lauching vp games set this to no. When you are going to use the normal way of laucnhing games set this to yes.
-after editing the fields press start.
-feutilities will popup a select folder dialog box. Choose the folder were the vplauncher datfile is located, select the datfile and then press ok.
-feutilities will popup a select folder dialog box. Choose the folder were your the vpt files are located and then press ok.
-feutilities will then create the gamelist file. When you have got a lot of games this can take a while because the crc checking is slow.  When that is done will popup a save dialog box. Choose a name and location were you want the gamelist to be saved. then press ok. done!
