CPWizard v2.63 Released

[garnerb350]

1) Back up Mame's cfg folder somewhere
2) Delete the cfg folder
3) Make sure mame.ini is in the root of Mame's folder with the correct ctrlr file entry
4) Install & Run CPWizard
5) Set Mame paths correctly in Edit->Options->Mame Paths
6) Go to Edit->Options->Mame and set the "Mame Layout" to be "XArcade"
7) Select View->Preview

If the buttons are still off I don't know what you can do to correct them, because I have it displaying correctly here using the files you sent me. So it would mean your still doing something wrong.

Did that exactly...and still isnt right....I cant figure out what it is that i am doing wrong...

3) Make sure mame.ini is in the root of Mame's folder with the correct ctrlr file entry

I will double check...but why....I thought the mame setup paths in CPWiz would see this? In Mame you have ini and ctrlr folders...
When you asked me for my files, that was where I got them from...

[headkaze]

I will double check...but why....I thought the mame setup paths in CPWiz would see this? In Mame you have ini and ctrlr folders...
When you asked me for my files, that was where I got them from...

Typically mame.ini resides in the Mame's root folder but occationally people have them in the ini folder. I'm not sure why but it makes no differerence to Mame. Anyway I've updated CPWizard so it doesn't matter where it is now. It's still at version 2.20 though as I didn't bother updating it's version number.

[garnerb350]

I did all that i could possiblily think in my head of what to do...placed the ini and ctrlr file where you told me...re-installed...everything...still no results...

I know i'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I can still cut...
but I cant figure it out...

Neo-Geo Games button layout is all wrong and some of the buttons dont show for the regular six button config...( streetfighters) Arrrrrrgh! I give up...

Only thing I can think of left is to just export batch and photoshop the correct button layout....one by one...see you when i am 87...

[headkaze]

Here are the same games using the config files you sent me. It looks to me like your still running an old version of CPWizard. Perhaps your downloading an older cached version or something?

Try the following link to make sure you don't get a cached version:

Download

[garnerb350]

The one that I downloaded , was the one off your site on 5-22-09...Maybe i must've downloaded it during the time you were doing the revision...

Common sense is telling me that is must have happened...but no lie, the one i download says 2.20...

I just downloaded the link you sent on previous post....i'll try it later tonight when i get home....

Ps...FYI....the link you sent me...I had to add ".exe" to the end of the file name...

[headkaze]

That is strange then garnerb350. Another thing to check is if you take a look at the attached screenshot you will see the keycodes circled in red end in PAD and not _PAD. (Eg. KEYCODE_8PAD not KEYCODE_8_PAD). Mame changed these keycodes and I had left some of the old ones in there which is what part of the recent update was supposed to fix. So if your layout doesn't have the keycodes like those in the screenshot then your using the older and incorrect XArcade.xml layout file.

[Tiger-Heli]

Mame's pause key cannot be the same as CPWizard's Show Key. There is a technical reason for it which is not really worth explaining other than to say I've tried to get around it but have not found a way yet.

I need to get on-board with the latest CPW, but the above is only true for current MAME versions.  I use 0.113 and an older-ish 2.18 maybe CPW and have MAME Pause and CPW SHOW set to P and it works fine, so using an older MAME could work also.

[headkaze]

Mame's pause key cannot be the same as CPWizard's Show Key. There is a technical reason for it which is not really worth explaining other than to say I've tried to get around it but have not found a way yet.

I need to get on-board with the latest CPW, but the above is only true for current MAME versions.  I use 0.113 and an older-ish 2.18 maybe CPW and have MAME Pause and CPW SHOW set to P and it works fine, so using an older MAME could work also.

This was only true for the pause feature which was only recently added to CPW and unpauses Mame without the need for the diff patch. You can still use the diff patch method and pause and unpause using the same button.

[garnerb350]

Headkaze...sent ya the files you needed via email... Lets just say this smiley explains it all....

[headkaze]

Headkaze...sent ya the files you needed via email... Lets just say this smiley explains it all....

At least its working. So you have no idea why it suddenly started working? The Mortal Kombats should be displaying okay (as they do for me using your config). So as I said in email try restarting CPW.

If that doesn't work, I don't know? I think you have a gremlin in your machine 

[garnerb350]

I'm thinking the same thing...I found chicken wings bones strewn in front of my cab this morning....

[garnerb350]

Did a restart, nothing changed...oh and to clarify...it was just Ultimate MK 3 that had that problem...so far as I can tell everything else is ok...

Is there a way to modify what is listed for whatever particular game?

Like say I wanted different clones of the same game to have something different?

just an idea im thinking about....

 

[jasonbar]

Hi Headkaze-

I just upgraded from 2.16 to 2.20.

I downloaded the new version to the same directory (after making a copy of 2.16 elsewhere).

I'm having trouble getting a preview to work in 2.20, though it still works fine in 2.16.

Please see attached.

1: I open CPW & see my beautiful layout

2: I choose View/Preview & see the list of games

3: I double-click a game & *POOF!* the layout & the preview pop back to some other layout.   


Please help explain what I'm doing wrong.

Thank you very much,
-Jason

[headkaze]

3: I double-click a game & *POOF!* the layout & the preview pop back to some other layout.   

Yes this one gets a few people but it's by design. Go into Options->Mame and place the layout you want to use in "Mame Layout"

[jasonbar]

Thanks, that did the trick!  (of course)   


As you can see, my layout's a bit crowded.

What are the odds of you adding functionality for being able to rotate labels?  Perhaps it's overkill to have a label be infinitely rotateable to any angle, but having a few directions: horizontal, 45 deg up, 45 deg down, vertical up, & vertical down would be handy.


Thank you,
-Jason

[headkaze]

Version 2.21 Released

- Fixed bug in analog to digital mapping system

[TAG]

Headkaze, you already know that I think CPWizard is an incredible program and that you provide invaluable services for this community, so I値l jump right into the problem I知 having (but, for the record, CPWizard is awesome and you're an incredible help to the folks around here!).

The default button assignments on many fighting games need to be changed to make them more consistent with the original arcade controls.  So I致e been making changes for awhile now using MAME痴 ctrlr file.  For most games, CPWizard (version 2.21) has been displaying the changes correctly.  On a lot of fighting games, however, the buttons for Player 2 are messed up, even though the buttons for Player 1 show up just fine.

For example, in Mortal Kombat, here痴 how Player 1 and Player 2 controls look with the default assignments:



To more accurately reflect the original controls, I made the following additions to the ctrlr file for Player 1 (all of which worked fine when testing in MAME):

            <port type="P1_BUTTON1">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_LSHIFT
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P1_BUTTON2">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_LALT OR KEYCODE_Z
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P1_BUTTON3">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_X
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P1_BUTTON4">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_LCONTROL
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P1_BUTTON5">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_SPACE
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P1_BUTTON6">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    NONE
                </newseq>
            </port>

Those changes resulted in the following CPWizard display for Player 1, which is exactly how it should look:



I also made the following additions to the ctrlr file for Player 2 (again, all of which worked fine when testing in MAME):

            <port type="P2_BUTTON1">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_W
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P2_BUTTON2">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_I OR KEYCODE_S
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P2_BUTTON3">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_K
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P2_BUTTON4">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_A
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P2_BUTTON5">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_Q
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P2_BUTTON6">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    NONE
                </newseq>
            </port>

Those changes resulted in the following CPWizard display for Player 2, which is...um...strange.



I致e checked the CPWizard assignments, and everything looks like it should work fine.

Has anyone seen this problem before, or does anyone have any idea what could be wrong, or where I should look for the problem?  If you need any additional information or details, please ask.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[headkaze]

You can zip up your CPW layout file, ctrlr, and any cfg's and I will take a look when I get some time. Not sure if attachments are still not working here but you can e-mail them to me if you like.

[TAG]

You can zip up your CPW layout file, ctrlr, and any cfg's and I will take a look when I get some time. Not sure if attachments are still not working here but you can e-mail them to me if you like.

Thanks, email sent!

[headkaze]

Tried the files you sent and it worked fine for me (see attached image). So here are a few things I would check.

1. Make sure the ctrlr folder is correctly set in Edit->Options->Mame Folders
2. Make sure mame.ini is located in the root of your Mame folder. It should also have "ctrlr main" in it to specify your ctrlr file
3. You may need to delete the cfg\default.cfg. You shouldn't need one if your using a ctrlr file anyway

Give those a try and hopefully it should work. There is not a problem with the files you sent me so it must be some other configuration issue.

[TAG]

Tried the files you sent and it worked fine for me (see attached image). So here are a few things I would check.

1. Make sure the ctrlr folder is correctly set in Edit->Options->Mame Folders
2. Make sure mame.ini is located in the root of your Mame folder. It should also have "ctrlr main" in it to specify your ctrlr file
3. You may need to delete the cfg\default.cfg. You shouldn't need one if your using a ctrlr file anyway

Give those a try and hopefully it should work. There is not a problem with the files you sent me so it must be some other configuration issue.

Thanks for taking a look.  I checked all those things, and there were no problems there.  I'll just use the work-around that I mentioned in my email.  Thanks again for the assist, and for the program!

[jasonbar]

Howdy-

Now that I've gotten all my oddball games squared away, I'm revisiting CPWizard (downloaded & installed 2.21 today) to get my control panel to pop up when launching a game from MaLa.


I've appended my extra games to mame.xml & controls.ini & history.dat so that MaLa displays them & their associated information properly.

I'm having trouble getting these extra games to show up in CPWizard.  When I look at View/Preview in CPW, the extra games don't show up in the preview list, & when I tried generating an export batch of files, they didn't appear also.

What file feeds the list of games that CPWizard displays?


Thanks,
-Jason

[headkaze]

CPWizard generates the file ListInfo.xml which contains all the data from Mame and from that it combines a bunch of different files into one xml called MiniInfo.xml. So the file you need to edit is MiniInfo.xml. Just be aware though that CPWizard will auto-generate a new MiniInfo.xml when it detects a new version of Mame or data file.

[jasonbar]

Thank you very much for the info, Headkaze.

I definitely don't want to have my MiniInfo.xml file get overwritten automatically, so it would be swell to feed CPW what it needs to properly to generate (and regenerate in the future) MiniInfo.xml with my extra games.

Can you please give a little more detail on what files are read?  I've got mame.xml, control.ini, & history.dat all updated with the extra games, but CPW didn't include the extra games in LilstInfo.xml or MiniInfo.xml.


Thank you very much,
-Jason

[jasonbar]

One more CPWizard quickie question, please.

I was transferring CPWizard to my cab & had trouble running it, so I tried to install a fresh copy.

Turns out I don't have .net 2.0 on my cab & with no internet connection (I keep my cab Windows install very minimal), the CPWizard installation program barfs when it tries to download dotnetfx.exe at the beginning of installation.


Headkaze, I found your link to the .net 2.0 download @ microsoft.com & am getting ready to install that onto my cab & then CPWizard.


But, my question is: what sort of resources does .net 2.0 require?

I found that it takes 280MB of hard drive space: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en#Requirements .  No problem there (unless it wants to go out to the internet during installation...).

And, more importanly, will installation of .net 2.0 use up some system resources & hinder my modest cab's PC & its running of MAME & MaLa in any way?  I'm running Win XP Pro SP2 on a P4 1.5GHz.  I've been through the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework) & almost all of it is over my head, so I wanted to get a BYOAC opinion before plunging in.


Thank you very much,
-Jason

[headkaze]

There are quite a number of apps and utils written in .NET so I would recommend you install at least .NET 2.0 runtimes. People who write native code tend to fear monger with "dependancies" like their some big bloated boogy man who's going to slow your PC. The truth is installing .NET will have 0% effect on your system performance.

CPWizard does use a bit of RAM though but that's because it stores MAME info in memory. I did address that issue with the "Dynamic Data Loading" feature with a speed compomise. Just try it out, it really shouldn't be a problem, and I probably wouldn't bother with the dynamic option if you have at least 512MB of RAM.

If you don't want MiniInfo.xml being overwritten I guess you could set it to be read only (right click on it->properties and tick read only)

[jasonbar]

Thanks for your help.  I installed .net 2.0 & CPW 2.21 on my cab.

Still configuring & fussing & making my layout.  So far so good.

Oh, and I have exactly 512MB of RAM on my cab PC, so I'm running a bit on the weak side.  I should look into more RAM one of these days--I'm sure it would be dirt cheap to up it to 1GB.


Thanks for the read-only tip too.  Sounds like a plan.   


Thanks,
-Jason

[jasonbar]

Howdy Headkaze-

I've got CPWizard pretty much up & running but have a handful of issues.  Sorry if this is a big hunk o' questions all at once.   

1 - Mouse cursor shows when CPW is displayed.  No combination of "Enable", "Hide Mouse Cursor", & "Move Mouse Offscreen" in the "Hide Desktop Options" section of the "General" tab works.  Note that I have a custom animated Space Invader mouse, but the mouse is cursor is still
 
2 - Can CPW be set so that any key will exit it?  (both for showing CPW when launching game from MaLa & for showing CPW from within MAME).  I'd like the user to be able to hit any key to exit.  Is there a code for "any key", or must I enter every button sequentially in the "Exit Key" box in the "Input" tab?
 
3 - I have MaLa set to show CPW shows when launching a game.  While CPW is showing the controls, the mouse is still active & moving the mouse will scroll MaLa the game list "behind the scenes".  I hear the sound corresponding to scrolling the MaLa menu, & then when game launches, it's not the same game I selected, because the MaLa menu has scrolled while I was looking @ CPWizard!

4 - If playing a MAME game w/ a bezel, after showing CPWizard & hiding CPWizard, there are no more graphics inside the bezel (bezel still shows, though).  I'm using 115 with the hiscore patch & compiled to be optimized for my PC's processor.



Thanks--fancy program--I hope you can help me with these issues.


Thanks,
-Jason

[headkaze]

CPWizard v2.3 Released

- Multi-Layouts
- Sub Screen Display
- Auto Show
- Advanced Layouts

This is quite a big update done over the weekend adding some features I've been promising for a while now. Thought it was about time to put them in.

The first new feature is Multi-Layout support which means you can have layouts with multiple screens. Just name your layout with a " (n)" (including leading space) at the end of the filename and you can use the joystick to rotate through them by moving left and right. Eg. "My CP (0).xml", "My CP (1).xml", "My Cp (2).xml" etc. This is for people who have complex panels that require lots of labels. You can split your panel up into sections or show multiple controls such as gamepads on seperate screens.

The second new feature is Sub Screen which can display layouts on a secondary monitor. This can be used in conjunction with Multi-Layout's which will rotate through the screens while MAME is running (and other Emulators but haven't tested it yet). You can display any layout including the new Advanced Layouts (more on that below).

Auto Show allows CPW to show itself when MAME has been detected. You no longer need to send CPW command line args for it to show before MAME. Now it will detect MAME has launched, minimize it and show the CP for a set period. After the set timeout it will hide CPW and maximize MAME. If you press a button while it's showing you can exit back to the menu or set it to close (check out the Data tab in Options for configuring this as well as in Display options).

Finally Advanced Layouts allow for more complex layouts that include information such as Hall of Fame stars, status bars, display info (like the built in GameInfo). You can also display images such as snaps, titles, cpanel's, marquee's etc by using special built in image types (Eg. IMAGE_CABINET, IMAGE_CPANEL, IMAGE_FLYER, IMAGE_ICON, IMAGE_MARQUEE, IMAGE_PCB, IMAGE_PREVIEW, IMAGE_SELECT, IMAGE_SNAP, IMAGE_TITLE). You can move and size them as standard Image objects but when displayed will replace the images for the current game. These can be used in conjunction with the Sub Screen and Multi-Layout features to have whatever info you want displaying on a secondard monitor.

One thing that didn't quite make it into this release is a feature I plan for the future and that is for people with secondary monitors that want the full CPW menu available at all times. The Sub Screen feature will eventually be expanded to support the full menu system using custom defined controls. This would probably be most practical to control the menu using the shift feature of the IPAC so you can hold a key and use the joystick to browse the menus on the secondard screen while MAME is running.

If you have any problems please post your full CPWizard.log (and perhaps temporarily put the log in Verbose mode to get any additional info).

[arzoo]

Very nice! 

[headkaze]

Very nice! 

I don't know where you find beta testers arzoo! I'm taking it out of beta because people don't seem to want to download beta's which means I don't have anyone reporting problems. Anyway I did do quite a bit of testing myself so it should be okay.

[Fyrecrypts]

Very nice! 

I don't know where you find beta testers arzoo! I'm taking it out of beta because people don't seem to want to download beta's which means I don't have anyone reporting problems. Anyway I did do quite a bit of testing myself so it should be okay.

No kidding, I think I have to take GHOST out of alpha just to get some more info on it. Well, when I have the time to start developing again. Great update!

[garwil]

Headkaze,

My PC's been offline for a while but I'm back up and running again! Where can I download the beta?

The new features sound awesome, am I sensing a little bit of preliminary support for a possibly-in-the-works controls.dat for consoles? 

I really wanna get my version of controls.dat ready for release soon, and then hopefully move on to the afore-mentioned project!

[arzoo]

I don't know where you find beta testers arzoo! I'm taking it out of beta because people don't seem to want to download beta's which means I don't have anyone reporting problems. Anyway I did do quite a bit of testing myself so it should be okay.

I think users fall into three categories - set and forget, constant tweakers, and new users. It's the tweaker guys who end up being the best beta testers. But I think most users fall into the first group and unless there's a new feature they really want they don't upgrade.

[headkaze]

The new features sound awesome, am I sensing a little bit of preliminary support for a possibly-in-the-works controls.dat for consoles? 

CPWizard has supported this for a while now via label files. They are just simple ini files with label=value. You can set up an entry in the ini file and place whatever labels you like. The main problem is that some emulators don't like being minimized but you can always show CPW before launching the game. I really don't have the time to go through all the different emulators and test which ones work and don't work. If someone wants to spend the time creating emu profiles and label files I'm happy to add them to the official CPW dist.

I think users fall into three categories - set and forget, constant tweakers, and new users. It's the tweaker guys who end up being the best beta testers. But I think most users fall into the first group and unless there's a new feature they really want they don't upgrade.

I was probably been a little too impatient, but it's funny because more often than not no reply means "no bugs found". If there's a problem there's more chance of someone posting than if it's running fine lol. I think I should make a video and post it on YouTube or something because the Sub Screen feature looks pretty sweet running on a secondary monitor.

[headkaze]

Added a video to the first post showing some of the new features.

[Kong Jnr.]

Awesome update headkaze, though I'm having some trouble with the sub display. Am I right in thinking it's possible to have a layout stay up on the sub display while MAME is running it's game, i.e playing Galaga on the main screen and having the Marquee and controls stay up on the sub screen?

[headkaze]

Awesome update headkaze, though I'm having some trouble with the sub display. Am I right in thinking it's possible to have a layout stay up on the sub display while MAME is running it's game, i.e playing Galaga on the main screen and having the Marquee and controls stay up on the sub screen?

Yes, that is what Sub Screen is. Do you have a secondary display set up as an "extended desktop"? Then it should be a matter of setting it in the display settings (usually \\.\DISPLAY2). You don't explain what trouble your having. Are you getting any errors in CPWizard.log?

[Kong Jnr.]

Sorry, posted before morning coffee so was vague.  

I'm not getting any errors in the CPWizard.log, though my problem is that I can't get the Sub Screen to display at all. I've got the two monitors set up as extended desktop and have no trouble getting the primary layout to show up on the second display if I set Options>Display>Screen>\\.\DISPLAY2.

I've got subscreen enabled in Options>Display>Sub Screen and have set it to \\.\DISPLAY2 however the second display doesn't respond (desktop image is still visible). If I set the Sub Screen to be \\.\DISPLAY1 it still doesn't show up.

I've selected a basic artwork layout for the sub screen in Options>Mame and have also tried using the built in Mame layout for it.

Are there any lines in the MAME.ini that need changing?

I'm running MAME 0.134u3 with the hiscore diff on Windows 7. I'm also running MAME and CPWizard 2.3 in XP compatibility mode.

[headkaze]

You shouldn't need to run CPW in XP compatibility mode as it's a .NET app. I am a little confused about why the sub screen is not showing. Are you using a different resolution for your secondary monitor? If you run a MAME game from command line while CPW is minimized to the icon tray does the sub screen window appear then? Are you doing any tests via Remote Desktop because Sub Screen will turn itself off if it doesn't detect a secondary monitor.