MaLa Beta Testing Closed

[jimmy2x2x]

Had some issues with 'rotate with mala' option, seems like the rotation gets confused if you had manually set the rotation for some games, others worked fine.  I seem to have resolved this by deleting all mame/cfg/*.cfg (except mame.cfg).  Now the rotation seems to give the expected results all the time.

Snapshots display corrupt after a while, whilst navigating through my 3 games lists for mame (nothing else active at the moment) the snapshots seem to become corrupt for certain gamelists, while they remain fine for others.  The corruption looks like a 90% black image with 10% random colour at the bottom.  I am trying to pinpoint when this happens exactly.

EDIT: The top line of snaps and layout backgrounds is a white line, and not the graphic (you can see this white line at the top of the first photo and also at the top of the space ace picture)

2nd EDIT: After returning to MALA from space ace (daphne) the layout background is offset

Before running space ace


After running space ace


ace.bat (batch file that runs space ace)
cd d:\emulation\joytokey
start joytokey mame
cd d:\emulation\daphne
daphne.exe ace vldp -framefile "d:\Emulation\Daphne\Space Ace HD\ace_hd.txt" -blank_searches -min_seek_delay 1000 -seek_frames_per_ms 20 -homedir d:\Emulation\Daphne -useoverlaysb 1 -enable_leds -fastboot -bank 0 00000000 -bank 1 00000001 -sound_buffer 2048 -fullscreen -x 640 -y 480 -opengl
pskill joytokey.exe

This effect also happens when I run Steel Saviour, possibly related to opengl or 640x480 res? maybe a combination of the two

[empardopo]

Continuing the theme of screensaver. Do you lose focus when the screensaver is activated?
Happens to me occasionally.
Greetings.

[loadman]

Had some issues with 'rotate with mala' option, seems like the rotation gets confused if you had manually set the rotation for some games, others worked fine.  I seem to have resolved this by deleting all mame/cfg/*.cfg (except mame.cfg).  Now the rotation seems to give the expected results all the time.
ing to pinpoint when this happens exactly.

Sounds right. You don't want to set rotation settings manually in ini files for individual games. This will overide and global setting in mame.ini that mala changes

EDIT: The top line of snaps and layout backgrounds is a white line, and not the graphic (you can see this white line at the top of the first photo and also at the top of the space ace picture)

Hmmm That Sux.  Not sure what is causing that. I will check

2nd EDIT: After returning to MALA from space ace (daphne) the layout background is offset

Yuk. This sort of problem has been reported for some emu's for many years now. The pattern seems to be some rez switching combination between windows rez setting and emu rez setting. My only suggestion is to try the GUI-GAME START/QUIT 'Reorder layout after game quit' option

[/quote]

[jimmy2x2x]

Yuk. This sort of problem has been reported for some emu's for many years now. The pattern seems to be some rez switching combination between windows rez setting and emu rez setting. My only suggestion is to try the GUI-GAME START/QUIT 'Reorder layout after game quit' option

That solved it, its a little ugly on returning to mala as it draws the offset image, then redraws the correct image - but it seems to solve it!

Thanks


This is a weird one, doesn't seem to be any pattern to it:

Snapshots display corrupt after a while, whilst navigating through my 3 games lists for mame (nothing else active at the moment) the snapshots seem to become corrupt for certain gamelists, while they remain fine for others.  The corruption looks like a 90% black image with 10% random colour at the bottom.

[empardopo]

Is it normal the size of Mala1660.exe? The size of previous version of the mala was smaller.


Greetings!

[Tazmania67]

Hi there,
I have build my own cocktail cabinet with 4 controls. So i configured mala for horizontal and vertical use.

I think i found 2 errors:

On all versions: Mala starts the wrong game on startup, when splash-screen is enabled.

On last 2 versions (1.65 & 1.66) On vertical use, mala draws a white line above the pictures (marquee, snap & controlpanel)
I have tried adjusting my layout, re-configuring mala, but i can't get rid of them.
On horizontal use all works well.

Thanks for looking into this.

I tested other layouts, they all have the white line in vertical view.
Loadman please fix this.

[jimmy2x2x]

Descenders clipped off the bottom of gamelist fonts



Look at the 'y' in 'Cyvern' for example, there seems to be a lot a space for the descenders

Thanks

[loadman]

Is it normal the size of Mala1660.exe? The size of previous version of the mala was smaller.


Greetings!

Don't worry about that  ;-)

I was too lazy to compress it

[loadman]

Hi there,
I have build my own cocktail cabinet with 4 controls. So i configured mala for horizontal and vertical use.

I think i found 2 errors:

On all versions: Mala starts the wrong game on startup, when splash-screen is enabled.

On last 2 versions (1.65 & 1.66) On vertical use, mala draws a white line above the pictures (marquee, snap & controlpanel)
I have tried adjusting my layout, re-configuring mala, but i can't get rid of them.
On horizontal use all works well.

Thanks for looking into this.

I tested other layouts, they all have the white line in vertical view.
Loadman please fix this.

[joke]       SHOW ME THE MONEY  !!! $$$$$$$$     [/joke]      JUST KIDDING

 

I will look at this.  

So it only happens in vertical mode?

[Tazmania67]

Hi there,
I have build my own cocktail cabinet with 4 controls. So i configured mala for horizontal and vertical use.

I think i found 2 errors:

On all versions: Mala starts the wrong game on startup, when splash-screen is enabled.

On last 2 versions (1.65 & 1.66) On vertical use, mala draws a white line above the pictures (marquee, snap & controlpanel)
I have tried adjusting my layout, re-configuring mala, but i can't get rid of them.
On horizontal use all works well.

Thanks for looking into this.

I tested other layouts, they all have the white line in vertical view.
Loadman please fix this.

[joke]       SHOW ME THE MONEY  !!! $$$$$$$$     [/joke]      JUST KIDDING

 

I will look at this.  

So it only happens in vertical mode?

Yes, it only happens in vertical mode.

I found another error:
Male is unable to find the mame ini file.

[loadman]

Male is unable to find the mame ini file.

Opps. Try renaming mala1660.exe to mala.exe

Yes, it only happens in vertical mode.

Cool, I was able to recreate this here which is a step closer to fixed it

It seems to only happen:

- Only when rotated 270 deg

It's not the actuall MaLa code that is broken it seems to be a bug in a library 'TRotateImage'

I did some tests and it happens on any image rotated 270.  I will see if I can find a better version or fix

[Tazmania67]

Male is unable to find the mame ini file.

Opps. Try renaming mala1660.exe to mala.exe

Yes, it only happens in vertical mode.

Cool, I was able to recreate this here which is a step closer to fixed it

It seems to only happen:

- Only when rotated 270 deg

I have several versions of mala, mala165, mala166, mala105. when i need a specific version i rename the one needed to mala.exe. So that should not be the problem. Try creating a ini file with the mala menu, then click configure. It will still not find the ini file. I use mame 0.139 64bit, it uses mame.ini, not mame64.ini
That's wright i use a 270 degrease vertical mode, I'm glad you were able to recreate the white-line bug.

[loadman]

That's wright i use a 270 degrease vertical mode, I'm glad you were able to recreate the white-line bug.

Yeah I 'hacked' the library code and it looks like it stoped the symptom white line.    

I will have a look tomorrow and see if a fixed version of this library exists ( i have TRotateImage  v1.53) , if not  I will just implement my HACK.

I will post a new MaLa version tomorrow.

NEXT DAY ......

1.661 Available for download See first post in this thread for Link

[loadman]

I've upgraded to Mame 0.139 and MalaFe crashes when i'm trying to refresh the game list:

Here is the log line:
Code:

2010/08/01  20:11:21.35   Error: Exception Message: Access violation at address 77D1A685 in module 'ntdll.dll'. Write of address 004041B9, Object Function: SaveBiosList, Exception Class: EAccessViolation, Object Class: TPopupList

Today I have the same prob with an older Version 1.62g.
After removing the following pathes at the Additional Tab it works for me
Catver.ini
Controls.ini
Nplayers.ini

Hope this helps...

I don't know whitch one is the "bad" part.
I removed all three make the "update" to the new mame and set the three pathes again

I finally found some time to do some tests myself today. It seems to get upset about nplayers.ini.

I will investigate  


Later..................

Ah ha!  Found it.

If a clone rom is found but no matching master is in the nplayers.ini it will crash.

Or should I say it used to....  

I will post

1.662 Available for download See first post in this thread for Link

[loadman]

This is a weird one, doesn't seem to be any pattern to it:
Snapshots display corrupt after a while, whilst navigating through my 3 games lists for mame (nothing else active at the moment) the snapshots seem to become corrupt for certain gamelists, while they remain fine for others.  The corruption looks like a 90% black image with 10% random colour at the bottom.

Is the diffrence the type if image file png v jpg etc.?

have you tried hanging the settings in gui/ options /picture and videos. There are different quality settings there. Have you played with that?

[Tazmania67]

Mala 1.6.6.2 solved my white line in 270deg. mode problem.
But it is still unable to find mame.ini (click configure a couple of times in the menu).
It also jumps up one game by an orientation switch. As soon as the menu has been activated, all works normal.

Loadman: thanks for the good and fast work.

[wolfsoft]

Now it seems to work with existing
Catver.ini
Controls.ini
Nplayers.ini


I tried mame 0.132 and the current 0.139 and the refreshing is working without an error

thanks to loadman

I've upgraded to Mame 0.139 and MalaFe crashes when i'm trying to refresh the game list:

Here is the log line:
Code:

2010/08/01  20:11:21.35   Error: Exception Message: Access violation at address 77D1A685 in module 'ntdll.dll'. Write of address 004041B9, Object Function: SaveBiosList, Exception Class: EAccessViolation, Object Class: TPopupList

Today I have the same prob with an older Version 1.62g.
After removing the following pathes at the Additional Tab it works for me
Catver.ini
Controls.ini
Nplayers.ini

[loadman]

MaLa GameList Editor to 1.66 - Updated to match behavior of MaLa allowing older versions of Emu file to load

Link on first post of this thread

[loadman]

MaLa - 1.663 released  

Download link on first post of this thread

[oyama82]

newer mala works like a charm
best fe out there

[Tazmania67]

MALA gives an unexpected error after a few quick orientation switches.

[loadman]

MALA gives an unexpected error after a few quick orientation switches.

Please post log set in Debug Mode

[andrewbean90]

after a while it happened to me on 1.05a too so maybe we need a new code oh and the newer one i have not tried yet

[Tazmania67]

MALA gives an unexpected error after a few quick orientation switches.

Please post log set in Debug Mode

The files are inside my layout's .ZIP

[loadman]

MALA gives an unexpected error after a few quick orientation switches.

Please post log set in Debug Mode

The files are inside my layout's .ZIP

Thanks, and Nice Layout 'PacMan'  ;-)

OK.  I am not 100% sure I have fixed this   but please test 1.664 (link on first post in this thread)  

If it does not work and/or my changes causes other adverse effects please report and at least post the section of the log (in verbose mode)  a couple of seconds before the crash.

[Tazmania67]

MALA gives an unexpected error after a few quick orientation switches.

Please post log set in Debug Mode

The files are inside my layout's .ZIP

Thanks, and Nice Layout 'PacMan'  ;-)

OK.  I am not 100% sure I have fixed this   but please test 1.664 (link on first post in this thread)  

If it does not work and/or my changes causes other adverse effects please report and at least post the section of the log (in verbose mode)  a couple of seconds before the crash.

That did the trick, MALA no longer crashes. nice!

But it still doesn't find my MAME.INI (mame64 0.139)
It also still jumps up by one game, following an orientation switch. When you enter the menu, then exit, all works normal.

[loadman]

That did the trick, MALA no longer crashes. nice!
But it still doesn't find my MAME.INI (mame64 0.139)

I don't quite understand what you mean? Are we talking Config?   Can you guide me through what you are doing step by step and what you expect to happen? Have you tried using the command line 32 bit version??? That is what I support ;-)

It also still jumps up by one game, following an orientation switch. When you enter the menu, then exit, all works normal.

I know about that but I was not worried about it.  Does it really bug you?  

[Tazmania67]

That did the trick, MALA no longer crashes. nice!
But it still doesn't find my MAME.INI (mame64 0.139)

I don't quite understand what you mean? Are we talking Config?   Can you guide me through what you are doing step by step and what you expect to happen? Have you tried using the command line 32 bit version??? That is what I support ;-)

It also still jumps up by one game, following an orientation switch. When you enter the menu, then exit, all works normal.

I know about that but I was not worried about it.  Does it really bug you?  

Enter the menu with the right mouse button. Behind "Mame Executable" there are two buttons, click on the "Config" button. Then it says: Mame.ini not found, do you wish to create one.
When i click yes and exit, then click on config again it gives me the same message.

Yes, it bugs me, everything works like a charm, except this. it's just too bad.

[nick3092]

It also still jumps up by one game, following an orientation switch. When you enter the menu, then exit, all works normal.

I know about that but I was not worried about it.  Does it really bug you?  

I've noticed when you exit MaLa, and open it up again, it also jumps up by a game instead of defaulting to the game it was on when you quit the last time.  Is that related to this bug?

[Tazmania67]

It also still jumps up by one game, following an orientation switch. When you enter the menu, then exit, all works normal.

I know about that but I was not worried about it.  Does it really bug you?  

I've noticed when you exit MaLa, and open it up again, it also jumps up by a game instead of defaulting to the game it was on when you quit the last time.  Is that related to this bug?

Yes that's the same Bug.

[loadman]

Yes that's the same Bug.

Can't we call it a 'feature'. Auto Next game select on start or Orientation switch  

I might fix it  

Let me make sure we are talking about the same issue:

* If you switch orientation using controller mapping it remember the 'trigger key' if up or down and acts on it after the switch

* If you restart MaLa When does it happen? Do you mean play a game and return to MaLa

[Tazmania67]

Yes that's the same Bug.

Can't we call it a 'feature'. Auto Next game select on start or Orientation switch  

I might fix it  

Let me make sure we are talking about the same issue:

* If you switch orientation using controller mapping it remember the 'trigger key' if up or down and acts on it after the switch

* If you restart MaLa When does it happen? Do you mean play a game and return to MaLa

I use my red button (ctrl) for game info. I use my blue button (alt) for orientation switching. When i push it, male switches from horizontal lay-out to vertical lay-out. Now ir remembers the game it was on in the horizontal lay-out. So when press blue again it switches back to my horizontal lay-out, and goes to the game it has in memory. But by error it goes one game up, Like when i push the joystick up. (except i didn't.).

[Eddie_Brock]

I'd like to share a quick experience, not necessarily a 'bug'.

When using multiple gamelists (MAME, PCgames etc) plus video screensaver, MALA will give an error if one of the gamelists does not have associated videos. (I don't have vids for my pc games). It would be handy to have the option to still use the mame videos for a screen saver, if accidentally left on another gameslist.

I hope this makes sense. Good work so far! 

[monami]

Hello there and thanks for all your work, MaLa rocks!

In Screensaver with Videosnaps (or pictures)
Upon pressing a button is executed the game that just then is represented in screen (if we have).

Do you mean launch the game that is currently showing on screen saver? I think I could make that would easily If the video or snap file would have matched up exactly and it existed in the currently selected emulator / game list. Would you want a special button for this or would the rule be if you interuupted the screensaver with the 'start game' button it would do a quick quick to see if the game displayed existed in your current game list and if so Launch it?

I'd like to second this request. Solution suggested by Loadman would work just fine.

There's something more I'd like to ask. At the moment, the Info window size (Options>GUI>Info Window) gets a % value of the screen height, between 50% and 100%, in steps of 5%. Unfortunately, none of these values correspond to the exact size of the picture loaded using the layout editor. The result is a stretched image in all cases. I'd really like to have a way to load an image that will be displayed at its exact size, just like it works for the Menu window. (Suggestion: Maybe you could specify the default size by the size of the loaded image. Or maybe you could set the default 80% as that size - I believe that right now the dimensions that the Info window is shown in the layout editor falls somewhere between 60% and 65%.)

I've had some problems with 1.663 in Windows98SE, mostly with displaying png images - in both layouts and game snapshots. 1.05 and back work great. I haven't tried 1.664, will report when I do.

Good work guys, thanks again.

[loadman]

I've noticed when you exit MaLa, and open it up again, it also jumps up by a game instead of defaulting to the game it was on when you quit the last time.  Is that related to this bug?

When you say exit mala, do you mean quit to windows and Launch MaLa again OR Launch game from MaLa and return back to MaLa after quitting game?

I use my red button (ctrl) for game info. I use my blue button (alt) for orientation switching. When i push it, male switches from horizontal lay-out to vertical lay-out. Now ir remembers the game it was on in the horizontal lay-out. So when press blue again it switches back to my horizontal lay-out, and goes to the game it has in memory. But by error it goes one game up, Like when i push the joystick up. (except i didn't.).

Can you post your mala.ini file here please

When using multiple gamelists (MAME, PCgames etc) plus video screensaver, MALA will give an error if one of the gamelists does not have associated videos. (I don't have vids for my pc games). It would be handy to have the option to still use the mame videos for a screen saver, if accidentally left on another gameslist.

At the moment the video screensaver has the option of playing videos from a folder regardless of what emulator or gamelist you have selected or you can choose to only play video's relating to the selected gamelist or emu (videos in sepearte folders)

What I think you are asking is:  If there are no video's found for a selected emu then default to the Mame videos. Is that right?

There's something more I'd like to ask. At the moment, the Info window size (Options>GUI>Info Window) gets a % value of the screen height, between 50% and 100%, in steps of 5%. Unfortunately, none of these values correspond to the exact size of the picture loaded using the layout editor.

Which Picture are we talking about? The Snap?

I've had some problems with 1.663 in Windows98SE, mostly with displaying png images - in both layouts and game snapshots. 1.05 and back work great. I haven't tried 1.664, will report when I do.

Can you post some problem png's so I can test?

[Tazmania67]

I use my red button (ctrl) for game info. I use my blue button (alt) for orientation switching. When i push it, male switches from horizontal lay-out to vertical lay-out. Now ir remembers the game it was on in the horizontal lay-out. So when press blue again it switches back to my horizontal lay-out, and goes to the game it has in memory. But by error it goes one game up, Like when i push the joystick up. (except i didn't.).

Can you post your mala.ini file here please

My mala.ini is inside my layout's .ZIP (See earlier message!)

[loadman]

I use my red button (ctrl) for game info. I use my blue button (alt) for orientation switching. When i push it, male switches from horizontal lay-out to vertical lay-out. Now ir remembers the game it was on in the horizontal lay-out. So when press blue again it switches back to my horizontal lay-out, and goes to the game it has in memory. But by error it goes one game up, Like when i push the joystick up. (except i didn't.).

Can you post your mala.ini file here please

I knew that 

My mala.ini is inside my layout's .ZIP (See earlier message!)

[loadman]

I use my red button (ctrl) for game info. I use my blue button (alt) for orientation switching. When i push it, male switches from horizontal lay-out to vertical lay-out. Now ir remembers the game it was on in the horizontal lay-out. So when press blue again it switches back to my horizontal lay-out, and goes to the game it has in memory. But by error it goes one game up, Like when i push the joystick up. (except i didn't.).

OK I am not sure what to do here. I can't recreate the problem with your setup. I am hitting the 'alt' button and it is switching back and forth quite merrily.

The only suggestion I have is to try and find a change of config where there problem does not happen so we can narrow down the area it is occurring.
Ie-
Does it happen when:
You disbale the mouse in MaLa?
Using Another Layout?
On Another PC?

[nick3092]

I've noticed when you exit MaLa, and open it up again, it also jumps up by a game instead of defaulting to the game it was on when you quit the last time.  Is that related to this bug?

When you say exit mala, do you mean quit to windows and Launch MaLa again OR Launch game from MaLa and return back to MaLa after quitting game?

Quit to windows.  So if I have Game 1 and Game 2 in my list and I quit MaLa to windows with Game 2 selected, the next time I launch MaLa Game 1 is selected.  Logically I expect Game 2 to still be selected.  Completely minor, and not a real issue.  I only mentioned it because it sounds like similar to the other issue reported.

[Eddie_Brock]

What I think you are asking is:  If there are no video's found for a selected emu then default to the Mame videos. Is that right?

Correct.