MameHooker wip 2019

[Howard_Casto]

The long dormant mamehooker 5.2 will hopefully be released soon.  Aside from some better ultimarc support the main additions this time are dials and text box support for display files, which will allow you to build an instrument panel on a second screen for racers and flight sims.  I'm currently testing the new features for bugs and tweaking a few things, and you know how slow I am about releases these days, but here is what I'm adding according to the "what's new":


Added Buffer position flag, which allows you to set a value to a single character in a buffer (%b1p1% = buffer 1, first character)
Loading a display file no longer steals focus, making them more compatible with some games and emulators.
Display file cleanup is now more robust.
Added monitor short-cuts for display file positions... if you define the position variables of a display file to %2, for example, it will automatically be resized to monitor 2.
Added Dial elements to display files.  For use with racing games and such.
Added text boxes to display files.  Useful for text that needs to be centered. 
Added Support for newer Ultimarc devices such as the Ultimate I/O, the Servo Stick and the NanoLED. 
To preserve my sanity, mamehooker now checks to see if a ledwiz has been detected by the dll before sending a command... so no more beeps!
Again, purely for my benefit, the test prompt and function selection prompt now appear directly below the main window.

I'm preparing a couple of example instrument panels, so I'll post pics when they are done. 

[baritonomarchetto]

Nice to see further developments of such a brilliant piece of code, Howard. Keep it up

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks man.  I'll get this out of the way and then troubleshooter 2 is next..... HUGE updates to it. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok, as promised here is a simple example of the new dial functions.  Note that all the tick marks and numbers are rendered... they aren't images.  Everything is customizable, so even gauges for flight sims should be possible if you get a bit creative with the background image.  As I post this I realize that it isn't very exciting as-is.  I'll try to post a video later so you can see them in action. 

I've also took the time to make bar-style meters.  Technically you could do these via a series of images, but this makes it possible to just make a "full on" and "full off" image and let mamehooker deal with the calculations.... no need to make 100 images for a 100 position meter.  It's the same deal with the dials... you technically could do them with images, but it's an ungodly amount of work, not to mention a real pain to package up and distribute to others. 

[Howard_Casto]

Found a nasty bug.... this is why I test extensively.  It might take a while to fix. 

[baritonomarchetto]

No one here is in a hurry, take your time, and a little bit more

[Howard_Casto]

I got it sorted actually.  It was a one character typo on two new pages of code.  Programming can really suck sometimes. 

I want to add a few more features to the new text box function and then it should be ready. 

[Sky25es]

Wow! Great news. Thanks 

[Ginsonic]

Great, Thanks! 

[stf999]

I've just seen this topic !! Great news !! 

[Howard_Casto]

Still working....

I'm trying to make an instrument generic enough so that it'll work for any racing game yet still look nice.  Then I'll make something that'll make use of the bar meters.


Btw.... Would "nicknames" for display elements be helpful?  Like instead of doing a "sds 1 100" you could instead give image1 the nickname of "speedo" in the display file and set it with "sds speedo 100" ?  I can add it, but it might slow down responsiveness as mamehooker would have to search for the right element each time. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok I think this is the final(-ish) version of the standard speedo.  You've got a speedo, tacho, gear led, generic info lcd under the speedo and another large font info lcd as well as an over-rev lamp.  The over rev lamp is kind of unconvincing, but it's serviceable, so I'll leave it be.  I actually got a legato capture card for a song a couple of weeks ago so this will be a good test.  Expect some kind of video on my youtube account tonight.  I'll do a more high-tech instrument panel next to make use of the meters. 

[Fursphere]

Sorry to bump a super old thread...  but did mamehooker 5.2 ever get released?

I'm just starting to play with mamehooker myself, and noticed that 5.1 doesn't see to support the Ultimarc Ultimate I/O boards.

thanks,