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ActiveX component of Mame
nipsmg:
You could also use SetParent to make it a child of your FE. It should then react correctly to any minimize/maximize actions on the parent. It does make VERY little sense tho.
Your best bet would probably be to launch it from your app using the windows API and grab the hinstance and go from there. The windows version does use directX to draw the video functions, but the other ports do not. And I'd STRONGLY ADVISE AGAINST programming ANYTHING in Java for Windows that you expect to run fast and react in a timely manner to user input. Especially w/ Sun selling out to MS lately, and not requiring MS to include a JVM in windows, it's kind of pointless to write java UIs in windows, unfortunately.
Take a look at C#, it's like a mix between C & Java & vb, it's pretty powerful and has a relatively low learning curve if you know java and/or C++.
If you want to play around and try it, go ahead, but it doesn't make much sense to me. You'd be cranking the processor (depending on the game you'd be displaying in the FE.. Anything like CPS2 or the higher Neo Geo carts would make your FE Crawl...) where you could just display a video of the attract mode.
--NipsMG
Lilwolf:
JFront http://home.cinci.rr.com/drakewoodring/jfront.htm is a java based front end which is open source.
it has most of the options in most of the other frontends around these days.
I have almost completely rewritten the code twice since whats up there (one which is uses gl4java a opengl wrapper for java, and a new one with a bunch of new features... hopefully to be out soon).
Anyway... Forget about the speed issue above (I have had others say that mine is faster then most of the other high end / skinnable frontends out there).
forget about C#. It doesn't have a real market in real terms. Its Java without the crossplatform aspect... Which is why people use java.
but remember... Java is a programming LANGUAGE.... not an web APPLET microlanguage...
So yes... MS's Java VM sucks... but don't expect people to use it... But you wont want people to run it in the browser anyway...
Launching apps... there are some issues... Give me a PM if you would like any advice... Or take a look at my source... I have an object which wraps most of the problems and hide it from the rest of the application.
As for controlling the window... I considered making a mame version which was a ActiveX component. I still think it would be cool. But no time... If you find someone who is a windows expert, get them to do it and I will use it in a second!
PedroSilva:
Thank you all ...
Plenty of material to go on ... ;D
nipsmg:
I probably should have rephrased:
Don't plan on speed using standard java UI components.
I'm not saying you can't write good/fast code in ANY language.. But almost every prorgam I've seen that uses standard java UI components in windows is SLOW :(
And C# is a perfectly viable programming language if you're planning on developing a WINDOWS application. Granted I wouldn't use it as i'm now in Mandrake 10, but C# is good for people trying to write decently fast windows code and has a low learning curve, as well as the ability to easily use DirectX and windows managed functions to handle things that are normally done through somewhat complicated API Calls.
Didn't mean to directly insult java developers, however-- probably should have worded that differently.
--NipsMG