* There is no longer a concept of "layers" - there are only screens and elements.
* Elements are now instantiated with <element ref="...">
* Screens and elements can have explicit blending mode specified with blend="..."
* Default blending mode for screens is "add" and default for other elements is "alpha"
* Other supported modes are "none" and "multiply"
* This removes the options to enable/disable layers individually - use views instead
* Legacy layouts can still be loaded, and support won't be removed for at least a year
The current artwork model is over-stretched. It's based on a Space
Invaders cabinet model, and isn't applicable to a lot of the systems
MAME emulates now. The fact that MAME has to switch to an "alternate"
mode to deal with games like Golly! Ghost! without requiring pre-matted
bitmaps shows that the Space Invaders model wasn't even adequate for
general arcade use. It shows in that for a lot of the systems that
heavily depend on artwork, people just seem to randomly choose layers
for elements until they get something that works. Also, the fact that
MAME will switch to an alternate (Golly! Ghost!) mode depending on the
combination of elements is a trap for people learning to make artwork.
There are cases that the current approach of implying the blending mode
from the layer doesn't work with. Examples include LEDs behind
diffusers (requires additive blending for layout elements), and mutliple
stacked LCD panels (requires RGB multiplication for screens).
For configurability, it's now a lot easier to make multiple views using
groups. For example, if you want to make it possible to hide the
control panel section of your layout, you can put the control panel
elements in a group and create views with and without it.
I will gradually migrate the internal artwork to use the new approach.
I have an XSLT stylesheet that helps with this, but I'm not comfortable
adding it because it isn't a complete solution and it still requires
manul steps.
I wanted to get the re-worked pointer handling done sooner so I could
push them both at the same time, but unfortunately various things have
prevented me from progressing as quickly as I wanted to. Sorry guys,
that stuff's going to have to wait.
* New abbreviated types are in osd and util namespaces, and also in global namespace for things that #include "emu.h"
* Get rid of import of cstdint types to global namespace (C99 does this anyway)
* Remove the cstdint types from everything in emu
* Get rid of U64/S64 macros
* Fix a bug in dps16 caused by incorrect use of macro
* Fix debugcon not checking for "do " prefix case-insensitively
* Fix a lot of messed up tabulation
* More constexpr
* Fix up many __names
Use standard uint64_t, uint32_t, uint16_t or uint8_t instead of UINT64, UINT32, UINT16 or UINT8
also use standard int64_t, int32_t, int16_t or int8_t instead of INT64, INT32, INT16 or INT8
- Completely move mouse hit testing down into the UI input module. This reduces some dependencies.
- Never return a null pointer from ioport_field::name() to prevent potential crashes. All anonymous inputs are classified as INPUT_CLASS_INTERNAL, so several frontend functions now check type_class instead.
- Correct a couple of typos.
Removed unnecessary icons from the toolbar (performed the same actions of entries already in the menu).
Proper handling the export of the list.
Updated the .po files.
Before this change, if you try to save state to a bound which already
does something as a UI button, it will save state there and then
immediately execute the bound action (sometimes it would not happen).
So, if you have state to P, with default button it would pause the game
immediately after saving state (except sometimes it would not).
