CPWizard v2.63 Released

[Marak]

I am having a blast making my (Several) Layouts. 

As I understand it, and please correct me if I'm wrong.
If you have a real trackball, you should get rid of the Dec and Inc settings in mame.



However, this seems to make the MOUSECODE_1_LEFT ect... not show up
in the CPWizard display.

[TheShanMan]

Headkaze, in an upcoming version do you think you could make the export settings remembered between sessions? There are so many options I have to change every time, that I'm always worried that I'll get one wrong accidentally (and I just did).

Also, do you remember that problem I occasionally have where the label links get messed up? It just occurred to me today that rather than checking the links one by one by viewing the properties window, I can just turn on the link lines. It would be helpful if "design mode" could show link lines but not show the lines when creating the output (bezel or live). What do you think?

[Wob]

Hi,

I am running CPWizzard 1.84 and MAME 0.126. My issue is that buttons 5 and 6 on Player 2 side will not show up, I am using the Default MAME layout and have set MAME to user I and K for those buttons, but when for example I load SF2 Buttons 5 and 6 are greyed out, and it also doesn't show the label for group 6.

I made sure to remove I and K from the player 3 controls but still nothing.  I can't work out what I am doing wrong.

Cheers,
Beau

-- Edit --

I also have a question regarding Memory usage, if I set CPWizard to load at startup when I check taskmanager it is using a whopping 97Mb, if I double click on the button on the taskbar to open the main window and then minimise it again it sits between 2 - 3Mb.  Any idea why it's using that much RAM when it first loads and what I can do to fix it?

Thanks Again,
Beau

[headkaze]

Hi,

I am running CPWizzard 1.84 and MAME 0.126. My issue is that buttons 5 and 6 on Player 2 side will not show up, I am using the Default MAME layout and have set MAME to user I and K for those buttons, but when for example I load SF2 Buttons 5 and 6 are greyed out, and it also doesn't show the label for group 6.

I made sure to remove I and K from the player 3 controls but still nothing.  I can't work out what I am doing wrong.

If labels aren't showing there is usually some reason for it. Check over your default.cfg and sf2.cfg files. Delete them and set the keys again in Mame. Restart CPWizard so it will read in the data again.

I also have a question regarding Memory usage, if I set CPWizard to load at startup when I check taskmanager it is using a whopping 97Mb, if I double click on the button on the taskbar to open the main window and then minimise it again it sits between 2 - 3Mb.  Any idea why it's using that much RAM when it first loads and what I can do to fix it?

Yes CPWizard can use a fair amount of Memory on boot up. It has a lot of data to read. I tried to minimize that using the "Dynamic Data Loading" option which might help, but it does mean displaying the menu can be slower because the data is read dynamically. If you really are concerned about memory usage and you only want to display your CP in Mame, consider using the Export Bezel feature which will mean you don't need to run CPWizard at all to view your CP in Mame as it is overlayed using a bezel.

[Dan]

I just installed and configured this fantastic piece of software on my arcade cabinet tonight.  Everything is working except for one thing.  When I pull up the main menu in certain games, the screen goes blank.  I have to alt-tab to the CPWizard processes and kill them with alt-f4.  Then I go back to the game, hit escape, and then close my FE.  Amazingly enough, CPWizard is still in the taskbar after all this!  I can duplicate this issue in standalone mode also.  For example, pacman works fine, but blazlaz gives me a blank screen.  There are errors in my log file.  I'm wondering if you can tell what is going on.

9/6/2008 2:49:31 AM: Starting Mame Interop
9/6/2008 2:49:46 AM: ERROR @ Show (ProgramManager)
9/6/2008 2:49:46 AM: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: key
9/6/2008 2:49:46 AM:    at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentNullException(ExceptionArgument argument)
   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.FindEntry(TKey key)
   at i.a()
   at l.a(s A_0)
   at ae.b(Boolean A_0)
   at ae.m()

Thanks,
Dan

[headkaze]

Thanks Dan it really helps when there is a tangible error like that, I'll look into it when I get some time.

[headkaze]

CPWizard Version 1.87 Released

- Fixed bug introduced from previous release

Dan: That error was an introduced bug from the last update. Let me know if this one is okay.

I have done a few changes to the way CPWizard handles the data files and I hope I haven't screwed anything new up in this release. I suggest you go into CPWizard\Data folder and delete MiniInfo.xml after installing this new version. As usual please post any bugs/problems in this thread.

[Dan]

CPWizard Version 1.87 Released

- Fixed bug introduced from previous release

Dan: That error was an introduced bug from the last update. Let me know if this one is okay.

I have done a few changes to the way CPWizard handles the data files and I hope I haven't screwed anything new up in this release. I suggest you go into CPWizard\Data folder and delete MiniInfo.xml after installing this new version. As usual please post any bugs/problems in this thread.

You are amazing!  I never experienced such a quick turn-around.  Thanks so much for fixing this so quickly.  So far everything is working great.  Keep up the great work!

Peace \/
Dan

[hello21]

Great program

[Dan]

Hey headkaze,

Can you give a quick example of setting up an emulator besides mame in CPWizard.  I followed the steps in the online help, but it doesn't seem to work.  Are the profiles supported in resident mode (i.e. run emulator, run game, pause game, CPWizard menu pops up) or just in standalone mode (i.e. run CPWizard from cmdln before running emulator).  I'd like the former, if possible.

Thanks,
Chisel

[headkaze]

Can you give a quick example of setting up an emulator besides mame in CPWizard.  I followed the steps in the online help, but it doesn't seem to work.  Are the profiles supported in resident mode (i.e. run emulator, run game, pause game, CPWizard menu pops up) or just in standalone mode (i.e. run CPWizard from cmdln before running emulator).  I'd like the former, if possible.

What I've tried to do with CPWizard is automate things as much as I can. That is why you can run Mame and CPWizard just works, you don't need to send it any info as it gets it straight from Mame. Other emulators on the other hand are very different. There is no way for CPWizard to know what game your running, so you have to send it the game name. How you do this depends on the front end but the general syntax is as follows:

Code: [Select]

CPWizard.exe -game "[GAME_NAME]"
So just before you run the game from your FE you need to send CPWizard the above command line replacing GAME_NAME with the name of the game your running. You also need to add games to the Data\Labels\[EMU_NAME].ini file where it grabs the label info for the game. The game name and emulator have to match in your Profile settings in CPWizard's options.

Unfortunately I can't make it any easier than that so it does require a bit of work to get it working. Another problem is some emulators just don't like being minimized like Project 64 so some of them won't work with CPWizard.

[Dan]

Thanks for the explanation.  I have a few more quick questions regarding other emulators...  Will this work if I'm already in resident mode?  Will this bring up the CPWizard menu before the emulator launches, or when it is paused?  I saw some database files for other emulators included with CPWizard.  How much support for other emulators does CPWizard have (i.e. controls, info, artwork, etc...).  Lastly, I have a suggestion for the text windows that are displayed during viewing of the dat files.  It would be great to have the ability to customize the navigation of these windows.  For example, I just can't get used to having left/right skip a half screen instead of a full screen.  I always find myself lost trying to find where I left off in the text.  This just a suggestion on making this great program even better!

Thanks!
Chisel

[XyloSesame]

I just installed and configured this fantastic piece of software on my arcade cabinet tonight.  Everything is working except for one thing.  When I pull up the main menu in certain games, the screen goes blank.  I have to alt-tab to the CPWizard processes and kill them with alt-f4.  Then I go back to the game, hit escape, and then close my FE.  Amazingly enough, CPWizard is still in the taskbar after all this!  I can duplicate this issue in standalone mode also.  For example, pacman works fine, but blazlaz gives me a blank screen.  There are errors in my log file.  I'm wondering if you can tell what is going on.

Dan...

Could you try Battle Garegga (battlega) and see if the problem is happening with the new release? I've been spot-checking my install and am still freezing when viewing the CP with at least this one. It seems to work fine from CPWizard preview mode, but in MaLa it freezes...

Thanks-
Jeff

[doctorhifi]

I have one issue and one question.

Issue first:  The first time I pause a game the CPWizard menu comes up like its supposed to but it only occupies a window that is roughly half the screen width and height and is displayed in the left upper corner of the TV screen.  If I unpause, then pause again the image comes up full screen.  Any thoughts?

Question: Can you help me understand the relationship between the controls.xml document and the miniInfo.xml?  When I've noticed game info on the control panel screen that I want to change, for example if a game is 4 player but it is showing up as 2 player, I've been editing the text in the miniInfo.xml file.  When I edited the controls.xml file nothing changed on the control panel display.
I see with your latest release you suggest deleting the miniInfo.xml file after installing the new release:

"I have done a few changes to the way CPWizard handles the data files and I hope I haven't screwed anything new up in this release. I suggest you go into CPWizard\Data folder and delete MiniInfo.xml after installing this new version"

  Sounds like my miniInfo file and all its changes will either be obsolete or erased.  Is there a way for me to keep my
miniInfo.xml file and all my custom changes?
And how is the updated CPWizard user guide coming? 


My cabinet:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=67989.msg691462#msg691462

[TheShanMan]

Headkaze, is there any chance I could get you to change the bezels so that the png's have filenames that match the rom names instead of always being "cp.png"? I'm working on a batch file to extract all png's and do some irfanview processing on them. My plan is to crop out a smaller area of the control panels to end up with a small cp image for display in mala. I can work around the naming "problem", but it would reduce my processing, and therefore make the batch process faster, if I didn't have to worry about renaming the files. I think it makes sense to change that for other reasons too, but this is the "practical" reason that has finally driven me to actually request it.

[headkaze]

Thanks for the explanation.  I have a few more quick questions regarding other emulators...  Will this work if I'm already in resident mode?  Will this bring up the CPWizard menu before the emulator launches, or when it is paused?  I saw some database files for other emulators included with CPWizard.  How much support for other emulators does CPWizard have (i.e. controls, info, artwork, etc...).  Lastly, I have a suggestion for the text windows that are displayed during viewing of the dat files.  It would be great to have the ability to customize the navigation of these windows.  For example, I just can't get used to having left/right skip a half screen instead of a full screen.  I always find myself lost trying to find where I left off in the text.  This just a suggestion on making this great program even better!

It will work in resident or standalone mode just send it the game name via command line -game. If you send it before running the emu with -timeout option it will show then close after a set period. Without -timeout it will be available when you press a key (default "L") which will minimize the emu and show CPWizard's menu. Some emu's don't like being minimized like Project 64 so it wont work with every emu.

Other emu support is limited, but you can create label files for any emulator. I haven't had time to really get this fully working. I'd like to eventually have label files made up for a bunch of emulators. Unfortunately haven't had time.

I'll look at adding customization of the left/right. I thought half a page would be easier to keep track of over a full page, maybe I was wrong thinking that.

Could you try Battle Garegga (battlega) and see if the problem is happening with the new release? I've been spot-checking my install and am still freezing when viewing the CP with at least this one. It seems to work fine from CPWizard preview mode, but in MaLa it freezes...

Does it work outside MaLa? I tried "bgaregga" and didn't have any problems.

Issue first:  The first time I pause a game the CPWizard menu comes up like its supposed to but it only occupies a window that is roughly half the screen width and height and is displayed in the left upper corner of the TV screen.  If I unpause, then pause again the image comes up full screen.  Any thoughts?

I've heard a few people have this problem and never been able to replicate it. Try setting the "Show Delay" in the options and see if that helps. Not sure if anyone has had success using that or not but I've not been able to fully test it. I added a "Verbose Logging" option to help me track down issues like this but it hasn't seemed to help me much. If I can somehow get some solid info on what is going wrong then I might have a chance on fixing it. If your changing resolution in Mame that might be causing it, but I don't understand why it happens one time and then works after that. Bugs like this I would love to fix but just haven't been able to locate what is going wrong.

Question: Can you help me understand the relationship between the controls.xml document and the miniInfo.xml?  When I've noticed game info on the control panel screen that I want to change, for example if a game is 4 player but it is showing up as 2 player, I've been editing the text in the miniInfo.xml file.  When I edited the controls.xml file nothing changed on the control panel display.
I see with your latest release you suggest deleting the miniInfo.xml file after installing the new release:

"I have done a few changes to the way CPWizard handles the data files and I hope I haven't screwed anything new up in this release. I suggest you go into CPWizard\Data folder and delete MiniInfo.xml after installing this new version"

  Sounds like my miniInfo file and all its changes will either be obsolete or erased.  Is there a way for me to keep my
miniInfo.xml file and all my custom changes?
And how is the updated CPWizard user guide coming? 

MiniInfo.xml used to be GameInfo.xml (from Mame) and Controls.xml, catver.ini etc. all rolled into one file. I've changed it now since the last version of CPWizard and it is just a cut down version of GameInfo.xml with the data I need. All the other files are read separately.

You should edit Controls.xml that should work.

Tempest wrote the user guide so not sure if he plans on doing an update.

Headkaze, is there any chance I could get you to change the bezels so that the png's have filenames that match the rom names instead of always being "cp.png"? I'm working on a batch file to extract all png's and do some irfanview processing on them. My plan is to crop out a smaller area of the control panels to end up with a small cp image for display in mala. I can work around the naming "problem", but it would reduce my processing, and therefore make the batch process faster, if I didn't have to worry about renaming the files. I think it makes sense to change that for other reasons too, but this is the "practical" reason that has finally driven me to actually request it.

Download version 1.88 and I've changed cp.png to [ROM].png. I also added saving of the bezel export options you asked previously.

Phew, I just had to write all that twice because I lost my last post! Don't you hate it when that happens?

[TheShanMan]

Download version 1.88 and I've changed cp.png to [ROM].png. I also added saving of the bezel export options you asked previously.

Sweet! I figured MAYBE it would make it in ONE DAY, but I didn't expect to wake up and see it done.

Phew, I just had to write all that twice because I lost my last post! Don't you hate it when that happens?

Yes, it's happened to me a few times and it sucks big time.

[XyloSesame]

Could you try Battle Garegga (battlega) and see if the problem is happening with the new release? I've been spot-checking my install and am still freezing when viewing the CP with at least this one. It seems to work fine from CPWizard preview mode, but in MaLa it freezes...

Does it work outside MaLa? I tried "bgaregga" and didn't have any problems.

That's the rub... it works fine outside of MaLa. I tested CPWiz from MaLa on a favorites list of about 250 ROMS and this was the only one that froze -- I'm not going to worry about a one-title error, it's just a (frustrating) curiosity now.

[doctorhifi]

Quote from: doctorhifi on September 08, 2008, 04:34:43 PM
Issue first:  The first time I pause a game the CPWizard menu comes up like its supposed to but it only occupies a window that is roughly half the screen width and height and is displayed in the left upper corner of the TV screen.  If I unpause, then pause again the image comes up full screen.  Any thoughts?

I've heard a few people have this problem and never been able to replicate it. Try setting the "Show Delay" in the options and see if that helps. Not sure if anyone has had success using that or not but I've not been able to fully test it. I added a "Verbose Logging" option to help me track down issues like this but it hasn't seemed to help me much. If I can somehow get some solid info on what is going wrong then I might have a chance on fixing it. If your changing resolution in Mame that might be causing it, but I don't understand why it happens one time and then works after that. Bugs like this I would love to fix but just haven't been able to locate what is going wrong.

Follow up:  If the mame.cfg file is set to display res at 1024x768@60 instead of AUTO, CPWizard seems to work everytime and fill the entire screen.
If you set mame to switch res to 800x600 (for light gun game usage) this is where the problem occurs as described above. 
Hope that gives you something to work with.

[TheShanMan]

Headkaze, I'm making somewhat significant changes to my all my layout files (I'm incorporating my actual cp overlay image as the background, and thus some of the cpw objects need to move around a bit). I want to make sure that certain objects are in exactly the same spot across all layout files, which is really hard to do currently. Would it be much trouble to ask you to show the currently selected object's x, y, width, and height in the status bar or something? That would make updating my layout files MUCH MUCH easier.

And on a totally unrelated note, I just set up a PC steering wheel/pedals for 270 degree wheel games. I'm trying to figure out how to enable/disable the pedal images depending on the game's need for the pedals (e.g. spy hunter has no brake, so it should be grayed). Is this possible with a joystick axis, or half axis (the pedals share the y axis, where brake is like moving a joystick down and gas is like moving it up)? I haven't been able to get that working with the joystick codes.

Any thoughts on this? I'd like to get this working if possible.

[TheShanMan]

Thanks for adding the x, y, width, height to the status bar in 1.89. It was very helpful to me!

I noticed that remembering the export settings isn't completely done though: it doesn't remember that I'm exporting bezels (as opposed to images), and when I switch it to bezel it loses the saved resolution and draw background settings.

Have you given any thoughts to the "multiple screens" issue that I reported a while ago? I've run into it with cyberball and super punchout, and I think one other game. I'm sure there are others as well. CPW bezels really cause problems for games which use non-default video settings...

I just edited the super punchout .lay file to stack the 2 screens vertically, and now it works great with the cpw image. If cpw can detect multiple screens, then I think it should be able to handle these cases fairly easily. Although I think more options would need to be added (such as only show screen 0, only show screen 1, show both (I imagine it could use the "vertical orientation" setting to determine whether to stack them or put them side by side).

Thinking more about this, couldn't CPW detect what the video choice is for a given game (reading the game's cfg file or whatever saves that choice)? If so, CPW could probably handle non-default video settings automatically, couldn't it?

[TheShanMan]

Another question: With a digital joystick, how do I alpha enable/disable the joystick image? It basically should disable if none of the 4 keycodes are active. I can't just pick one of the keycodes, because for 2 way games it will either work for 2 way vert or 2 way horiz, but not both. Is there a way to link the joystick object to all 4 keycodes?

[TheShanMan]

While I'm awaiting a reply to my prior 2 posts, I'll add a couple little requests.

Any chance of being able to apply different alpha fade levels to different objects? I'm not able to get an "ideal" alpha fade level for everything because it's very dependent on the contrasts of the objects and the background. I could certainly live without this, but it would be cool if the object properties dlg had an option to override the global alpha fade level.

And I found need for more flexibility in the layout rules. There is no way to properly handle the "Vs." games, like "Vs. Super Mario Bros". The problem is while it has alternating play, each player has their own joystick. So there is currently no way to pick a layout that reflects the need for 2 joysticks instead of 1 here (I have swappable panels). It would be cool if there was a way to match on game name, or in the case of the "Vs." games the "source file" would probably be even more ideal, in order to get all of those games in one shot (vsnes.c). This would also be helpful for super punch out (spnchout) in my case, because it has 4 buttons, and my single joystick panel only has 3 buttons, so I'd like to override this special case to use my 2 joystick panel, but I currently have no way to do that.

Finally, Simpsons Bowling (simpbowl) is treated as a clone with the export feature, which is incorrect. It must be happening because of either the RomOf or Parent values are not empty.

[headkaze]

Last night I did a big update to CPWizard, so I'll go through some of the changes. Unfortunately I haven't touched on the bezel stuff as I don't even know how to deal with dual screen games and bezels.

The good news is I spent alot of time working on improving the resident mode of CPW and hopefully fixed some of those display problems people have been having. So CPW should now work with Mame's switchres option and dual monitor games like Super Punchout.

It was suprisingly difficult to get Mame to maximise when it was in dual screen mode but I did find a solution in the end. TheShanMan can you test that CPW works on your setup now in resident mode?

As for those issues you've been having with some games, I think you will like the extra features I've added to "Layout Overrides" for Mame.

You can now save layouts in the Layout\Mame folder using ROM name, RomOf, CloneOf, Source File or Parent. So just say you want a layout for all your neogeo games, just save neogeo.xml layout to Layout\Mame. If you want one for all those Vs. games, save it as vsnes.c.xml to Layout\Mame. I think that should solve much of your problems with certain games, and of course you can do single layouts for games as well. So if worse comes to worse you can use Custom Text with your labels and have it display whatever you want for a game or a group of games.

Haven't had a chance to look into your other requests, maybe something for the future, but for now I'd like to get feedback on this release. Any bugs or problems please turn on Verbose Logging and then post the CPWizard.log file here.

[TheShanMan]

Last night I did a big update to CPWizard, so I'll go through some of the changes. Unfortunately I haven't touched on the bezel stuff as I don't even know how to deal with dual screen games and bezels.

How about if I spend some time researching this for you then? It's the least I can do given all the effort you put into CPW. Let me know if you're interested in pursuing this, and I'll do whatever I can to come up with a pseudo code algorithm to get you started.

It was suprisingly difficult to get Mame to maximise when it was in dual screen mode but I did find a solution in the end. TheShanMan can you test that CPW works on your setup now in resident mode?

I haven't used resident mode in quite some time now, due to the pausing problems I was having. Using bezels does introduce issues as well, but at least it's been something that works for me. Maybe I'll try switching back at some point, but if there is something in particular that you're asking me to test, I certainly could do that for you.

You can now save layouts in the Layout\Mame folder using ROM name, RomOf, CloneOf, Source File or Parent. So just say you want a layout for all your neogeo games, just save neogeo.xml layout to Layout\Mame. If you want one for all those Vs. games, save it as vsnes.c.xml to Layout\Mame. I think that should solve much of your problems with certain games, and of course you can do single layouts for games as well. So if worse comes to worse you can use Custom Text with your labels and have it display whatever you want for a game or a group of games.

Just did a quick test with this, and it certainly is a reasonable solution! I'd rather use the mapping system since otherwise it means always having to remember to update the overrides, which just ads extra hassle. But don't take that as a complaint - I can certainly live happily with this if you prefer not to go the route of mapping support for this kind of override.

Haven't had a chance to look into your other requests, maybe something for the future, but for now I'd like to get feedback on this release. Any bugs or problems please turn on Verbose Logging and then post the CPWizard.log file here.

I'll give you a break for now, and then I'll be sure to remind you of the other requests later (you know you can count on that!!!).

Thanks a lot headkaze! Awesome work as always, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate CPW! It just occurred to me that I've never donated , so I definitely need to do that very soon.

[headkaze]

How about if I spend some time researching this for you then? It's the least I can do given all the effort you put into CPW. Let me know if you're interested in pursuing this, and I'll do whatever I can to come up with a pseudo code algorithm to get you started.

I just had a quick look in the Mame source and saw some interesting files in src\emu\layout. But I think it will be quite complex to add the different views for when you pause to overlay the CP. But I have created a work-around. Check out the CPW website there is a new patch called bezel_0127.diff that will return to previous view. So you can set it to "Dual Over-Under" for example and then when you pause it will overlay the CP on one screen, but unpausing will bring you back to the "Dual Over-Under" view.

I haven't used resident mode in quite some time now, due to the pausing problems I was having. Using bezels does introduce issues as well, but at least it's been something that works for me. Maybe I'll try switching back at some point, but if there is something in particular that you're asking me to test, I certainly could do that for you.

There were major changes to the way CPW handles Mame's windows so it might be worth taking a look to see if it changes anything for you. I'm interested in getting feedback on if CPW is working okay for dual screen games. When you are playing a game like Super Punchout on two monitors and press the pause key it should minimize both screens and then show CPW menu with a screenshot of the game on the second monitor. Exiting it should have the game maximize back to normal. There are a few special tricks I needed to do to get Mame to maximize properlly including sending custom messages to Mame's game windows. I only have one PC with dual screen to test here so it would be good to know if it works okay for someone else.

Another thing I would appreciate a test of is setting the switchres to 1 which will change the res for each game. Now CPW detects a video mode change and then has a delay (called "Display Change Delay" in the Display Options) which is triggered, then after the delay it will re-adjust the windows to the new resolution.

Just did a quick test with this, and it certainly is a reasonable solution! I'd rather use the mapping system since otherwise it means always having to remember to update the overrides, which just ads extra hassle. But don't take that as a complaint - I can certainly live happily with this if you prefer not to go the route of mapping support for this kind of override.

I don't see how the mapping system is better than the override system. One just uses the controls and the other uses rom names.

I'll give you a break for now, and then I'll be sure to remind you of the other requests later (you know you can count on that!!!).

Some ideas are good. Like I do notice the problem with alpha looking very different depending on the background. Something like a default alpha override is a good idea. Another thing you suggested was to allow multiple Label Links. You can sort of do that by using blank images, so create a new image and then just use it as a label link.

[TheShanMan]

How about if I spend some time researching this for you then? It's the least I can do given all the effort you put into CPW. Let me know if you're interested in pursuing this, and I'll do whatever I can to come up with a pseudo code algorithm to get you started.

I just had a quick look in the Mame source and saw some interesting files in src\emu\layout. But I think it will be quite complex to add the different views for when you pause to overlay the CP. But I have created a work-around. Check out the CPW website there is a new patch called bezel_0127.diff that will return to previous view. So you can set it to "Dual Over-Under" for example and then when you pause it will overlay the CP on one screen, but unpausing will bring you back to the "Dual Over-Under" view.

I do think this sounds cool and is great to ensure that the user doesn't end up in the wrong video mode. Not quite what I was hoping for, but looking at the .cfg files it appears all that's saved there is the name of the view, which obviously isn't that helpful with regard to bezel generation logic. I have another idea which I might do some research on, so if anything comes of that, I'll be sure to let you know.

Just did a quick test with this, and it certainly is a reasonable solution! I'd rather use the mapping system since otherwise it means always having to remember to update the overrides, which just ads extra hassle. But don't take that as a complaint - I can certainly live happily with this if you prefer not to go the route of mapping support for this kind of override.

I don't see how the mapping system is better than the override system. One just uses the controls and the other uses rom names.

I've got so many layouts to manage as it is (since I have swappable panels), that adding more to that is something I dread from the standpoint of maintaining them. But like I said, I can live with it so I'm not complaining.

I'll give you a break for now, and then I'll be sure to remind you of the other requests later (you know you can count on that!!!).

Some ideas are good. Like I do notice the problem with alpha looking very different depending on the background. Something like a default alpha override is a good idea. Another thing you suggested was to allow multiple Label Links. You can sort of do that by using blank images, so create a new image and then just use it as a label link.

Either I'm misunderstanding your multiple links comment or you misunderstood my question. I have one joystick object that I'd like to link to all the labels for up/down/left/right. That way if the joystick is unused (single joystick game) it will fade, but it won't fade even for 2 way games. If I can only pick one label, do I pick left? Or up? Either way, it rules out one of the 2 way categories.

I will give resident mode a try, though I may not have an opportunity to do so for a few days.

[TheShanMan]

- Remember the KEYCODE_0_PAD vs. KEYCODE_0PAD issue? I've converted mine over to the newer format (kind of forced to by CPW anyway). Well it seems to work great if the definitions are coming from a .cfg file, but for an unaltered keymap where it comes from the built in definitions (i.e. not a game cfg and not the default.cfg), it doesn't seem to work. Specifically, player 4 uses a lot of "PAD" keys but they're all appearing dimmed in games with unaltered keymaps, but games that do have an altered keymap they work fine (in one game I swapped P1 and P3, P2 and P4). Hope that makes sense. If you're confused just say so.

EDIT: for now I went into the default key mappings for player 4 and set them to... the default key mappings to get them to appear in default.cfg (i.e. I didn't change the mappings, just re-entered them). That solved the problem with the "PAD" keys. Still needs to be fixed though.

Remember this one? Still broken, and it bit me again tonight. For some reason I lost all my key mappings and had to re-enter them, so my player 4 controls were broken in my layout. Took me a while to figure out what was going on, because I had forgotten about this CPW bug. Got it corrected by forcing the key mappings to show up in default.cfg as mentioned above, but it would be nice to have this fixed for the next time mame loses my key mappings.

EDIT: An unrelated question: I don't know if this applies to any other games, but for some Vs. games like Vs. Super Mario Bros (well, that's the only one I'm aware of but I only play 2 of them), it's 2 players alternating, but the 2 players don't share the same set of controls. Each player has his own set of controls. Is there any way to get the player 2 controls in a layout to show up properly with labels and all or would this need to be handled with an override and basically duplicating the player 1 controls?

[Jm1010]

Hi! Seems like I have to pushseveral keys to use this tool.... first  "p" then walk down to control panel, then esc. then press P again etc. Is there a simpler way to see a control panel dispaly and then get back to the game?t    let say with 2 keys (one to pause and show it and one to return to the game)?

[headkaze]

Hi! Seems like I have to pushseveral keys to use this tool.... first  "p" then walk down to control panel, then esc. then press P again etc. Is there a simpler way to see a control panel dispaly and then get back to the game?t    let say with 2 keys (one to pause and show it and one to return to the game)?

Take a look in Edit-Options->Data there are some options in there that should do what you want, namely "Show CP Only" if you only want to view the CP, and under Input options you have "Back Key will Exit Menu". If you set "Enable Exit Key" and set it to KEYCODE_P then pressing p will exit.

[Jm1010]

Thanks HeadKaze. You really build an amazing application. I appreciate the hints!

[headkaze]

Version 1.91 Released

- Placed input codes into their own files (in Data\InputCodes). Fixed broken Dynamic Data Loading

Either I'm misunderstanding your multiple links comment or you misunderstood my question. I have one joystick object that I'd like to link to all the labels for up/down/left/right. That way if the joystick is unused (single joystick game) it will fade, but it won't fade even for 2 way games. If I can only pick one label, do I pick left? Or up? Either way, it rules out one of the 2 way categories.

No I misunderstood you, you can't do this at the moment. I did start changing Label Links to be on the label side thinking it would solve this, but then I realised there is no unique name for images, so it didn't work. I wasted a few hours doing that then decided to change it back. I think it would overcomplicate the program to implement it.

Remember this one? Still broken, and it bit me again tonight. For some reason I lost all my key mappings and had to re-enter them, so my player 4 controls were broken in my layout. Took me a while to figure out what was going on, because I had forgotten about this CPW bug. Got it corrected by forcing the key mappings to show up in default.cfg as mentioned above, but it would be nice to have this fixed for the next time mame loses my key mappings.

I've hopefully fixed the problem with the input codes, and now I've put all of the codes into text files in Data\InputCodes so if any more need changing let me know and I'll change them.

EDIT: An unrelated question: I don't know if this applies to any other games, but for some Vs. games like Vs. Super Mario Bros (well, that's the only one I'm aware of but I only play 2 of them), it's 2 players alternating, but the 2 players don't share the same set of controls. Each player has his own set of controls. Is there any way to get the player 2 controls in a layout to show up properly with labels and all or would this need to be handled with an override and basically duplicating the player 1 controls?

Another user asked me to hide the second player controls for alternating games, and I did mention that there were some games that used both controls for alternating games. I don't think there is a way to know if the alternating games use both controls in the data from ListInfo.xml or Controls.dat. So for these games you will probably have to create custom layouts. Or perhaps I should have left it to show both controls for alternating games?

[TheShanMan]

Thanks hk! Sounds like a job controls.xml should be handling!

[TheShanMan]

I made an "Atari volcano LED button" image for use in my CPW layouts because that's what I have on my control panel. Thought I'd share it in case anyone wants to use it. I tried to give it a feel similar to CPW's T1LEDRed.png image. I didn't make it very dark like my volcano buttons because it didn't work well on my dark layout background. One is with a white outline (which is like T1LEDRed) though it's hard to see the outline below, and one is without (I'm using the one without).

I can make modifications to it pretty easily, so if you think it doesn't look quite right, feel free to suggest a modification. I'm no artist, but I think it turned out pretty well!

I'm posting T1LEDRed.png too just for comparison.

Headkaze, if you want to include the image with CPW's install, you have my full permission to do so. If not, that's ok too.

[headkaze]

Thanks TheShanMan I'll add it to the next release and put a credit in the readme.txt

 

[Marak]

Here are some more you can use if you want to.

These are the Sanwa  JLW Joysticks with the colored bubble tops.

[headkaze]

Thanks Marak I will be including them in the next release

TheShanMan: I think I figured out why Mame was no unpausing using CPWizard. I know it's a bit late now that your using the bezels but I bet it will work now. First thing I just realised is the bezel patch has been broken the last few releases I missed out the part which will actually unpause Mame. Also I realised you need the "Send Pause Key" option set under Edit->Options->Mame as well. So there are two reasons there which probably explain why it wasn't working for you.

I've uploaded a new bezel_0127.zip if you interested.

[TheShanMan]

I will try it! There are definitely advantages and disadvantages with bezels and with live CPW overlays, so I'm looking forward to trying it live again.

[TheShanMan]

Well I gave it a try tonight and it works great!!! I think I may switch back to the "live" cpw for now and see if I want to stick with it, after being used to bezels for a while. 2 minor visual problems I noticed though: I see the mouse cursor when the cp is up even though I have the option to hide it checked. And sometimes I see the minimized mame window on top of the cp. Since I don't have explorer.exe running there is no taskbar to minimize to, so you get a small rectangle at the bottom when minimized. Sometimes it is on top of the cp, and sometimes it's not.

[headkaze]

TheShanMan: That's great news! I'm really happy it's finally working for you. There are problems with Windows being on top especially with no taskbar as you've discovered they minimize into a small Window. I spent *alot* of time working on dealing with Mame when it has two windows open and had to some some special stuff to get that working. At the same time I figured out ways of dealing with Mame minimizing and maximizing better, so in the end it's a much more solid program. I will probably have to do another big debugging session like that to deal with all these other issues with windows minimizing without the taskbar present and such.