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Author Topic: PowerMAME plug-in??  (Read 26278 times)

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squirrellydw

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PowerMAME plug-in??
« on: January 07, 2007, 09:57:11 pm »
Any more news on the plug-in you were talking about?
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MikeQ

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2007, 11:29:17 pm »
Aaron and I talked about it briefly.  I don't think I'm going forward with it. 

#1) It would be a bunch of work on Aaron's side.

#2) If I can't find the time to keep up with it, I don't want to pollute mame with a bunch of external interface stuff that is only used by my application.  What I need would be pretty specific to my application.  It could be extended to support the community but that would require cooperation by everyone doing software.  No one seems to want to do that.  Everyone runs off in all directions doing there own thing and we end up with 50 different solutions to the same problem and none of them really satisfy everyone needs.   I wanted PowerMAME to be a collaborative effort to get people focused but that never evolved. 

I'm going to do what everyone else does and do my own thing.  I'm not going to share it with the community though because then I start having play vendor and work on things that don't fit my cabinet or I have to make things generic to try to make everyone happy.  If I don't do that, then people won't use it so what is the difference.  I may as well not share.  Plus, I have to stay on top of things and keep multiple build configurations that I don't personally use.  That is a testing nightmare because I end up having to let the end user test.  They find problems and I have to try to fix them.  It is too much like work. 

Dealing with hardware is another difficult thing to deal with too.  There can be a lot of incompatibilities that only show up in strange circumstances.  It makes finding problems very difficult.  I don't know if you were around when the USB 2.0 problem was found with the LEDWiz but that took for ever to solve.  I couldn't reproduce the problem except on 1 machine and couldn't narrow the problem down to a single item.  If I had been doing PowerMAME for myself and not the community, I would have ignored the problem and never looked any deeper since it didn't happen on my cabinet computer.  However, I had "customers" that were complaining about the problem and I had to dedicate many weeks to fixing it.  It took a lot of time and effort to find the problem.  RandyT didn't believe there even was a problem for a long time and that made it even harder to debug.  Finally I found a workaround and that workaround today is in place for anyone using the LEDWiz.   I don't think anyone (except Randy) appreciates what it took to resolve that problem.   I enjoy working on drivers and hardware.  It is what I do for a living.  However, in the context of PowerMAME, it is just too much to work all day on this stuff and then come home a deal with the customer support aspect of it as a hobby.

I haven't worked on cabinet for a year (just played it) and I'd like to get back to it.  PowerMAME or any software endeavor is just going to keep me from doing the things I want to do when it pertains to my cabinet.  If I can't give it 100%, then I don't want to do it.  I can't give it 100% either.  It takes too much time away from the family and it turns my hobby into something I don't enjoy.

I've been stressing over this decision.  I'd like to support the community but it really would be a full time job for one person to do it right.  I just can't dedicate that much time to it.  This is why I tried to get a team going early on.  People tell me to just do things at my speed and ignore the communities demands.  I don't work that way #1, and #2, if I don't listen to the community, then they won't use it.  What is the point of developing something that isn't quite what everyone wants?  I can develop exactly what I want with a lot less effort.

squirrellydw

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2007, 09:50:34 am »
Thanks Mike.  Even though you may not develop PowerMAME for us anymore, it still lives on in many ways.  You brought some great ideas to the community.  I understand you not wanting to dedicate the time for everyone else, becomes more like a job than a hobby.  I appreciate everything you did to find that bug, I wasn't able to help since my cocktail table still isn't done but I was watching.  Maybe you can help the MaLA guys out, they are working on trying to make the buttons flash and speak the controls like PM did based on a suggestion I asked.  Otherwise, sit back, relax and enjoy life, you deserve it.
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southpaw13

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2007, 08:42:13 pm »
My two cents.  And Mike I am not made at you at all. 

Here I send a lot of money on two LEDWIZ controllers, lights, buttons, and re-wiring my control panels.  The LEDWIZ was rushed to market with only the hope that software would support it.  So here I sit with Mame 105 and can't go any furthur.  Maybe I can buy ADDITIONAL chips to run Mala or have hope that AtomicFE or GameEX will fit the bill. 

Just my frustration....

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2007, 09:23:16 pm »
Mala does support it natively now, see the link below.  Maybe Mike can help out the Mala guys a little more with the speech part of it?  I know Atomic supports it some what, not as easy to configure and I am not sure about GameEX.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=61779.0
« Last Edit: January 08, 2007, 09:27:03 pm by squirrellydw »
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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2007, 10:09:56 pm »
So it looks like Mala would be the logical solution.  Maybe the PowerMame forum should be closed and open up an LEDWIZ forum so everyone knows whats available.  I did not know that Mala was that far along.  Good to know....

Thanks.....

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2007, 10:42:15 pm »
Mike, would sharing your code with Mala, Atomic FE, and Mamewah be so bad?  I appreciate all you did for us, and I still use powermame to this day even with my dual monitors.  I know a lot of the community is sooo happy Randy came out with the led wiz that they can't appreciate my frustration with a lack of software, but whatever. That thing cost me $60.  I am really impressed that you stepped up out of the blue to contribute what you have and I know many others feel the same way.  Thanks again, and I hope that you will be willing to share it with the active developers of the community.

MikeQ

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2007, 11:11:10 pm »

RandyT has all my code and I believe he has given it to some of the FE people.  I'm sure that anyone who is willing to write LEDWiz code can get it from RandyT.

I'm sorry that people feel like they didn't get their moneys worth from the LEDWiz but that respectfully that isn't my problem or fault.  I developed PowerMAME for my own purpose because of the lack of software.  I made nothing off the work I did for the community nor did I expect to.  It just became too big of task for me to keep up with releases and customer support.   I work during the day and want to spend my free time with my family.  PowerMAME was really starting to eat into that and was always this nagging annoyance that I needed to attend to.  Usually not for anything that I needed either.

It is an interesting commentary though that people are upset that there free software isn't going to be available to run their $60.00 hardware.

If I could make a living selling software products to the MAME community, I'd quit my job tomorrow.  You guys are a lot more fun to work with than corporate America.   :) It's unfortunate that there is a mentality that you don't pay for peoples hard work when it is software but you do when it is hardware.

Just my 2 cents.

Mccoy, you and the guys on this thread have been some of the great "customers" and feel bad I can't support you guys. 

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2007, 05:18:29 am »
I'm very certain that no one is upset with you.  I think the frustration is more with Randy and even to that degree it's not that severe.  I mean, at least we have an awesome product.  I hope you don't think I'm criticizing you.  That's not my intention. 

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2007, 05:19:48 am »
Sorry, I just caught the last sentence of your reply.   :cheers:

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2007, 08:42:31 am »
My two cents.  And Mike I am not made at you at all. 

Here I send a lot of money on two LEDWIZ controllers, lights, buttons, and re-wiring my control panels.  The LEDWIZ was rushed to market with only the hope that software would support it.  So here I sit with Mame 105 and can't go any furthur.  Maybe I can buy ADDITIONAL chips to run Mala or have hope that AtomicFE or GameEX will fit the bill. 

Just my frustration....

AtomicFE supports up to 16 LEDWiz controllers.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2007, 08:47:53 am by Havok »

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2007, 08:47:03 am »
Mike, would sharing your code with Mala, Atomic FE, and Mamewah be so bad?  I appreciate all you did for us, and I still use powermame to this day even with my dual monitors.  I know a lot of the community is sooo happy Randy came out with the led wiz that they can't appreciate my frustration with a lack of software, but whatever. That thing cost me $60.  I am really impressed that you stepped up out of the blue to contribute what you have and I know many others feel the same way.  Thanks again, and I hope that you will be willing to share it with the active developers of the community.

MaLa and AFE both support the LEDWiz. You can also use Johnny5 with most any FE to light your LEDs. But none of these solutions work the same way as PowerMame - PM is a modified version of the core mame code and it interrogates the i/o ports directly to determine which buttons are active for each game (Mike - please correct me if I'm wrong here). All the other solutions use auxiliary data files (primarily controls.int) to determine which games use which buttons. Looking at it another way, PM maps each LED to a specific keycode (Keycode_A, KeyCode_Shift, etc.) where as the others map the LEDs one level higher - at the control mapping (Player1Button1, Player1Button2, etc.). PM does not require any custom config files for individual games with custom control mapping.

That being said, MaLa and AFE are great options - and both are being actively developed and enhanced. My cp uses two LEDWizs to light the 16 RGB buttons and various other LEDs and I've been searching for the best FE to meet my needs. I've decided to go with MaLa and possibly help the LEDWiz plugin devs (loadman and edge) with future enhancements. I'm also working on a MaLa plugin for the GPWiz49. AFE will be out with a new release in a few weeks and I've heard it will have some really cool new features. So there's plenty of good options.  ;D
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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2007, 09:36:20 am »
I am not mad at you or Randy at all.  I bought my two LEDwiz's knowing that PowerMAME may not be around forever but knowing something out there would work for it.

Thanks for the great contribution o the community.
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MikeQ

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2007, 10:21:14 am »
I am not mad at you or Randy at all.  I bought my two LEDwiz's knowing that PowerMAME may not be around forever but knowing something out there would work for it.

Thanks for the great contribution o the community.

Your guys are not who I'm referring to.  I get a lot of direct email through the website.  I think that is something people don't realize.  They see PowerMAME only through the forums.  Most people here are decent in a public forum.  However, a lot of peoples tone changes in private emails.  They are demanding and want the kind of support you get from a commercial product.  Or, they want some obscure modification done to PowerMAME because it was in some other version of MAME that they used prior to switching to PowerMAME.  When I tell them "no" or "later", they get annoyed or constantly nag me about it.  There are a lot of giving people in this community but there are also a lot of takers that want, want, want and think you owe it to them.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2007, 10:25:43 am »
Mike, would sharing your code with Mala, Atomic FE, and Mamewah be so bad?  I appreciate all you did for us, and I still use powermame to this day even with my dual monitors.  I know a lot of the community is sooo happy Randy came out with the led wiz that they can't appreciate my frustration with a lack of software, but whatever. That thing cost me $60.  I am really impressed that you stepped up out of the blue to contribute what you have and I know many others feel the same way.  Thanks again, and I hope that you will be willing to share it with the active developers of the community.

MaLa and AFE both support the LEDWiz. You can also use Johnny5 with most any FE to light your LEDs. But none of these solutions work the same way as PowerMame - PM is a modified version of the core mame code and it interrogates the i/o ports directly to determine which buttons are active for each game (Mike - please correct me if I'm wrong here). All the other solutions use auxiliary data files (primarily controls.int) to determine which games use which buttons. Looking at it another way, PM maps each LED to a specific keycode (Keycode_A, KeyCode_Shift, etc.) where as the others map the LEDs one level higher - at the control mapping (Player1Button1, Player1Button2, etc.). PM does not require any custom config files for individual games with custom control mapping.

That being said, MaLa and AFE are great options - and both are being actively developed and enhanced. My cp uses two LEDWizs to light the 16 RGB buttons and various other LEDs and I've been searching for the best FE to meet my needs. I've decided to go with MaLa and possibly help the LEDWiz plugin devs (loadman and edge) with future enhancements. I'm also working on a MaLa plugin for the GPWiz49. AFE will be out with a new release in a few weeks and I've heard it will have some really cool new features. So there's plenty of good options.  ;D

I can't speak for any of the FE's but yes, PowerMAME does not require any config files per game unless you want some custom lighting scenario that is different from what PowerMAME calculates.  PowerMAME also adds custom menu options for 49ways on the MAME Game Input menu.  It also computes the best DRS mode for the 49ways based on the inputs.  If you wish to override them, you can.  I was planning on supporting the UltraStik too but decided to call it quits before it was done.  It also can do in-game things like custom pause messages and speech of control names all without config files.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #15 on: January 09, 2007, 10:49:34 am »
Just for the record: MaLa does not require any config files per game for the LEDWiz or the UltraStik. You can overwrite the defaults when you want some custom lightning or input.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2007, 10:51:10 am by swindus »

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #16 on: January 09, 2007, 10:53:58 am »
You can overwrite the defaults when you want some custom lightning or input.
That's what I was referring to - if you remap the inputs for a game (via mame), you'll need a custom file.
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southpaw13

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #17 on: January 09, 2007, 01:51:20 pm »
Like I said, I was never mad at Mike, BUT a little upset with Randy for not having software support.  Back to my original question:  Should this forum be closed (to help out Mike) and should an LEDWIZ or just an LED forum be added?

Question about Mala:  Does it matter which chipset you are using on your motherboard because there was an initial problem with ATI vs NVIDIA that Mike worked around to get the USB ports to work properly.

Thanks

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #18 on: January 09, 2007, 02:08:13 pm »

Question about Mala:  Does it matter which chipset you are using on your motherboard because there was an initial problem with ATI vs NVIDIA that Mike worked around to get the USB ports to work properly.

Thanks
You may want to ask loadman or edge - they coded the LEDWiz plugin for MaLa. I'm pretty sure they worked with Randy.
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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #19 on: January 09, 2007, 02:53:13 pm »
Like I said, I was never mad at Mike, BUT a little upset with Randy for not having software support.  Back to my original question:  Should this forum be closed (to help out Mike) and should an LEDWIZ or just an LED forum be added?

Question about Mala:  Does it matter which chipset you are using on your motherboard because there was an initial problem with ATI vs NVIDIA that Mike worked around to get the USB ports to work properly.

Thanks

I PM'd Saint and told him he could do whatever he wishes with the forum and to remove me as moderator.  It doesn't bother me if it still exists.    Letting my website expired stopped most of the unwanted email.

Anyone doing LEDWiz software interfaces would have to get the info from Randy and he is probably giving them my code.  The code has the workaround for Nvidia chipsets.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #20 on: January 09, 2007, 11:54:08 pm »
Mike, seriously... thanks for your work on this stuff. Sorry if I was a pain in the butt when you were developing this stuff last year. I hope I was never one of the offenders you spoke of. I have enjoyed PM32 (A LOT) and finally got into Atomic. PM32 is still the only solution for full the killer attract modes and event lighting. I did buy the LED and GPWiz's because of PM. I am still glad I did, the auto DRS alone made it worth it. But having a family (and sick hobbies) I do understand you stepping out of the development side. I do hope you stick around the forums though. Cheers Bro. Thanks!!!
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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #21 on: January 10, 2007, 09:24:58 am »
Mike, seriously... thanks for your work on this stuff. Sorry if I was a pain in the butt when you were developing this stuff last year. I hope I was never one of the offenders you spoke of. I have enjoyed PM32 (A LOT) and finally got into Atomic. PM32 is still the only solution for full the killer attract modes and event lighting. I did buy the LED and GPWiz's because of PM. I am still glad I did, the auto DRS alone made it worth it. But having a family (and sick hobbies) I do understand you stepping out of the development side. I do hope you stick around the forums though. Cheers Bro. Thanks!!!

Yes MYX, you are the one I was talking about!!!!  :)

Just kidding man.  No it's funny some of the real jerks are people I've never seen on the forums.  I guess the read them but don't post?   

I'll be around on the forums.  I'm going to build a new cabinet from scratch so I'll be posting pics and stuff.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #22 on: January 21, 2007, 11:11:56 am »
I PM'd Saint and told him he could do whatever he wishes with the forum and to remove me as moderator.  It doesn't bother me if it still exists.    Letting my website expired stopped most of the unwanted email.

Anyone doing LEDWiz software interfaces would have to get the info from Randy and he is probably giving them my code.  The code has the workaround for Nvidia chipsets.

When I e-mailed Randy asking for the protocol info for the LEDWiz so I could write my own dll, he wrote back stating

Quote
I appreciate the offer, but there are only a couple of folks who have the protocol info, and I'd like to keep it that way.  There are now 3 ways available to talk to the unit, the OCX, MikeQ's DLL and now Youki's DLL.  That should offer enough options for those looking to program for it.

So I'm not sure if he will be giving out your source to FE developers. Perhaps you should make your code public somewhere also. I wouldn't mind having the ledwiz.dll source if I ever need to make any changes to it.

FYI I am using your ledwiz.dll (1.1) in a plugin for GameEx which works really great. On the other hand the official ocx would not work for me (using C#). Incidently I have some of the features from PowerMame included in my plugin, so I guess PowerMame will live on in some ways. Thanks!

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #23 on: January 21, 2007, 10:14:37 pm »
PLEASE---make whatever anyone needs available and CLOSE this forum!  Create a NEW forum called LED!!!!

Thanks,
Southpaw

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #24 on: January 22, 2007, 12:25:50 am »
I agree as much as this would end PM.  If it is no longer being developed it should be closed and I think an LED forum would be great.  Then maybe each FE could have there own thread??
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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #25 on: January 23, 2007, 03:01:48 pm »
mike - thanks for all you have done.  keeping powermame (or the plugin equivalent) in synch with the numerous mame releases would definitely be a full time job.  its unfortunate some people did not understand you were doing this as a help to the community, not as a job.

if at all possible, sharing your ledwiz code would help keep the dream alive. ;)  it would make it easier for the front end developers to add native ledwiz support (without the need for an ocx installer).


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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #26 on: January 23, 2007, 04:10:50 pm »
Hey edge, I can already tell you that Mike's dll is much better than the official ocx. I believe it has the nvidia chip bug work-around, is written in C++ instead of VB6 which means no dependence on VB6 runtimes, is probably faster and more efficient etc. Even if the source isn't released I would be using his dll before I used the ocx.

You can download the dll (latest version is 1.1) from here.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #27 on: January 23, 2007, 04:17:10 pm »
headkaze,
I believe that the ocx also has the nvidia chip bug fix.
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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #28 on: January 23, 2007, 04:31:24 pm »
Any chance someone would post some sample code using Mike's dll in Delphi? It's the plug and play callback stuff I'm not sure about.

It would be greatly appreciated!  :cheers:
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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #29 on: January 23, 2007, 04:40:13 pm »
Hey edge, I can already tell you that Mike's dll is much better than the official ocx. I believe it has the nvidia chip bug work-around, is written in C++ instead of VB6 which means no dependence on VB6 runtimes, is probably faster and more efficient etc. Even if the source isn't released I would be using his dll before I used the ocx.

You can download the dll (latest version is 1.1) from here.

Thanks, headkaze.  Will look into this.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #30 on: January 23, 2007, 05:27:57 pm »
Any chance someone would post some sample code using Mike's dll in Delphi? It's the plug and play callback stuff I'm not sure about.

It would be greatly appreciated!  :cheers:

Callback functions are just normal functions defined slightly differently. Not sure how you do it in Delphi, but just do a search on Google for it. Either way, I don't even use the callback as I have found no use for it. How often will someone be unplugging their LEDWiz while it's in operation? Even though it's a cool feature I actually couldn't get the numdevices to change correctly when a LEDWiz was unplugged and since I don't actually own a LEDWiz it was too hard to find out why it wasn't working. Mike didn't answer my e-mails about it, so I just didn't bother about it (probably got lost among all the junk in Mike's inbox). BTW I'm pretty sure you can just send a null instead of the callback function and it will still work.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #31 on: January 24, 2007, 09:03:52 pm »
Any chance someone would post some sample code using Mike's dll in Delphi? It's the plug and play callback stuff I'm not sure about.

It would be greatly appreciated!  :cheers:

Callback functions are just normal functions defined slightly differently. Not sure how you do it in Delphi, but just do a search on Google for it. Either way, I don't even use the callback as I have found no use for it. How often will someone be unplugging their LEDWiz while it's in operation? Even though it's a cool feature I actually couldn't get the numdevices to change correctly when a LEDWiz was unplugged and since I don't actually own a LEDWiz it was too hard to find out why it wasn't working. Mike didn't answer my e-mails about it, so I just didn't bother about it (probably got lost among all the junk in Mike's inbox). BTW I'm pretty sure you can just send a null instead of the callback function and it will still work.

Not sure what email your refering to.  It probably did get lost.  I switched email accounts lately.  Not sure where you sent it.  Was it requesting the code for the ledwiz.dll?  If so, by request of RandyT, I can't give it out.  I guess I could legally but respect Randy's wishes.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #32 on: January 25, 2007, 05:54:03 am »
Not sure what email your refering to.  It probably did get lost.  I switched email accounts lately.  Not sure where you sent it.  Was it requesting the code for the ledwiz.dll?  If so, by request of RandyT, I can't give it out.  I guess I could legally but respect Randy's wishes.

That's fair enough, if Randy wants to keep it to himself that's his prerogative. It dosn't help developers much though. I guess that was the last thing you could do for the community, but if Randy dosn't want to share it thats okay. This forum can be closed now. Thanks for all your hard work, it's appreciated.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2007, 06:10:00 am by headkaze »

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #33 on: January 27, 2007, 03:39:21 am »
headkaze,
I believe that the ocx also has the nvidia chip bug fix.

It does. 

This is what the option is for the MaLa Led-Wiz Plug-in

(see attached pic)

If you enable 'Fast-com' it may be incompatable with some USB chip sets but it is supposed to be faster  :dunno

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #34 on: January 27, 2007, 06:12:44 am »
I still think Mike's dll is better even if the ocx has the nvidia chip bug fix. Looking at the example source you can tell Mike is a professional coder, whilst Randy is not (coding in VB6 for something like this is a bad choice IMHO).

There is no fastcom mode for the dll, so I assume it's all automated for that.

The dll dosn't have all the extra commands of the ocx, but you don't need them anyway, since it just keeps state info and calls the two SBA and PBA functions anyway AFAIK.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #35 on: January 27, 2007, 10:04:20 am »
There's a good chance my chip set is going to be nvidia so I hope everything works ok.
I b**ch. People listen!!

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #36 on: February 15, 2007, 02:53:42 pm »
For the record, J5 doesn't require any external files to light buttons either.  The last beta I made has a "smart guess" mode the fills in labels based on internal mame info.  These labels aren't accurate, but which buttons get lighted are.  It's basically the exact same function powermame does, only it's external so you aren't teathered to the last version of power mame.  So yes, even games that don't have a controls.ini entry are going to light up. 

In not sure where you guys got the idea that any of these apps are dependant upon controls.ini for the lighting.  Controls.ini is for the labels.  Generally speaking it isn't required for lighting.

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #37 on: February 16, 2007, 10:52:32 am »
For the record, J5 doesn't require any external files to light buttons either.  The last beta I made has a "smart guess" mode the fills in labels based on internal mame info.  These labels aren't accurate, but which buttons get lighted are.  It's basically the exact same function powermame does, only it's external so you aren't teathered to the last version of power mame.  So yes, even games that don't have a controls.ini entry are going to light up. 

In not sure where you guys got the idea that any of these apps are dependant upon controls.ini for the lighting.  Controls.ini is for the labels.  Generally speaking it isn't required for lighting.

I didn't realise you didn't need controls.ini just for lighting up the buttons. But there is some good reasons for using it anyway since it's faster to parse and the "speak button actions" feature of my plugin require the labels anyway. Though that does leave a bunch of games that arn't in controls.ini that could be lit up using ListInfo.xml. I guess you just use "<input buttons=xx" instead?

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Re: PowerMAME plug-in??
« Reply #38 on: February 17, 2007, 09:52:22 am »
lol I wish it were that simple.

I don't settle for "accurate enough" so lights are binded to physical keyboard keys in j5.  So after I get the listxml info I have to read all the cfg files (rom, parent, driver, default, ctrlr) parse those, take into account the "device" settings and any old commands like -mouse and -joystick to determine if analog keys are binded and THEN I can light the buttons. 

All so if you remap button 1 in mortal kombat it'll still light the right button. 

As of around .100 you can use the rom name flag with -listxml to print out only the xml for that game.  That is when I added support for best guessing, because as you said, you can't parse the full listxml very quickly.  When mame does some of the work for you though, it's pretty fast.