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Author Topic: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!  (Read 6873 times)

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Howard_Casto

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Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« on: July 30, 2007, 12:46:11 am »
Same bat time, same bat channel, the link in my footer should take you to the homepage with all the info. 

The big news is the new dde interface.  It means applications other than mame can send commands to mamehooker. This can be done with either a direct interface (for developers) or by launching mamehooker again with command-line options, which will be sent to the already running mamehooker.  If you are a emulator or front-end developer and would like to add support for mamehooker, which automatically gives you support for all the various devices mamehooker can control, please contact me. 


More on this release as the week goes on, including where to get display files for the artwork system.

brock.sampson

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2007, 10:00:44 pm »
I'm having problems with display files.  I'm running mame on my primary monitor and then displaying the image files on a secondary monitor.  Secondary monitor is configured to be above the primary.  When I start mamehook and then mame the image is displayed at the size in the dis file 1024x768.  On subsequent loads of the same game only a portion of the image is shown.  I also tried testing without starting mame just testing within mamehook.  I get the same results full size on first load and then only a portion on subsequent loads.

gt2k.dis
[Layout]
x=0
y=-768
width=1024
height=768
image=gt2k.jpg

gt2k.ini
[General]
MameStart=lds gt2k
MameStop=

Any ideas what the problem might be?
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Howard_Casto

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2007, 02:35:46 am »
Yeah, it's an unresolved rendering bug.  I seems to work ok on my display now though.  The cause is mame messing with the video display as the lds command is executed, corrupting the display.  Reducing your screen resolution should help.  Also you can try sticking a wait command before the lds command.


The lds command should be working fine without mame.  My guess is you've made a super-huge dis file and it's having trouble loading in time.

hulkster

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2007, 09:56:09 am »
i may be the only one....but what the heck is mamehooker?!   :dunno  i went to your site and you talk about the release....but dont really describe what it is.  im guessing its some kind of FE developer type thing?  so um....what is it?

brock.sampson

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2007, 06:32:11 pm »
Quoting Howard, quoting the readme.

Overview
========
Arcade games have always had outputs.  Lights, sirens, motors, solenids scoreboards or what have you, cabinets have always had ways to interact with the player.  Until recently, mame had all but ignored this, with flashing keyboard lights as our only source of output.  Thankfully, Aaron Giles built us a whole new output system last summer, that allows mame to relay the states of various outputs to any windows application.  Unfortunately, knowing the state doesn't magically make a device fire, thus the need for this app.  Mame Hooker keeps track of outputs and uses their state to control several output devices including, but not limited to the keyboard leds, ledwiz, the parallel port and force feedback controllers.  More devices will be added as the project progresses.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2007, 07:11:05 pm by brock.sampson »
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brock.sampson

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2007, 07:10:14 pm »
So I made a very simple jpg file 800x600 single color with some text in the middle.  Same results loads fine the first time only partially the second.  Also as I noted in my original post I'm able to recreate this problem without using mame just using the test command within mamehooker.  I also tried adding a wat 1000 before the lds command, same results.  Below are the entire contents of the dis file which doesn't seem to be very large to me.

gt2k.dis
[Layout]
x=0
y=-768
width=800
height=600
image=gt2k.jpg

I set the resolution all the way down to 640x480 on my secondary monitor, made a 640x480 image, and I still get a partial image on second and subsequent loads.  I did find one thing interesting if I make my secondary monitor primary it will display the correct image everytime.  Its only when I try to push the image to the secondary monitor it cuts it off.  Let me know if you want me to try anything else.

Thanks,
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Popcorrin

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2007, 02:19:49 pm »
I was using mamehooker to light some keyboard leds on mamestart and it works great if you only want to light one of them.  I tried to light two of them but it would only light the first one in the script.  I followed the instructions in the readme for multiple commands and I could not get it to work.  Here is what I had.

MameStart=kbd 1 1, kbd 2 1

The directions seemed pretty straight forward so I didn't think I missed anything.

Also, I was wondering if the recent changes in mame would mess mamehooker up at all, Multiple keyboards?

Thanks

Howard_Casto

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2007, 08:06:53 pm »
You've got a syntax error..

It should be:

kbd 1 1,kbd 2 1


Note the lack of a space..... 

I'll put a bit of error handling in the next build to make it a little more user-friendly.

Popcorrin

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2007, 07:59:57 pm »
That did the trick.  Thanks

Howard_Casto

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2007, 03:03:51 am »
Just for the record, mame's input changes never effect mamehooker.  Only output changes do.  :)

New release is in the pipe, sit tight!

Popcorrin

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #10 on: August 10, 2007, 06:05:53 pm »
Howard, could you provide a little more detail on the statechange function?  Would this allow you to run a script after loading a savestate or something like that?  Or is this used when a state within the game changes?

Howard_Casto

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2007, 08:31:18 pm »
State change refers to an output change, not a savestate change.  It occurs whenver any of the output ports defined in the driver change.  So if 6 leds are defined in gorf, for example, a statechange occurs when any one of them turns off or on.

Popcorrin

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #12 on: November 16, 2007, 01:00:00 am »
Howard,  I run my frontend as shell.  Is there anyway to run mamehooker when running a frontend as shell?

Popcorrin

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #13 on: December 01, 2007, 08:56:56 pm »
Hey Howard, I see you are back on the messageboards recently, I was curious if you knew what I could do regarding mamehooker when running a frontend as shell?

Also this is off topic but I was wondering how DragonKing was coming along?

loadman

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #14 on: December 01, 2007, 10:35:35 pm »
Does Howard love us anymore ?   :dunno

headkaze

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #15 on: December 01, 2007, 10:47:10 pm »
Does Howard love us anymore ?   :dunno

I've been wondering where Howard went. Last time I spoke to him was in the IRC room and he was planning some Halloween tricks to play on some trick or treaters  ;D

loadman

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #16 on: December 01, 2007, 11:47:35 pm »
Does Howard love us anymore ?   :dunno

I've been wondering where Howard went. Last time I spoke to him was in the IRC room and he was planning some Halloween tricks to play on some trick or treaters  ;D

That could not be Howard. That sounds like pure evil   ;)

Howard_Casto

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #17 on: December 03, 2007, 06:41:01 am »
Sorry guys, it's the holidays......

After halloween I went right into full xmas mode.  This year I didn't melt the wiring on the house or anything!
You won't see much of me till Janruary in all honesty.  Aside from shopping and decorating my wii, GhIII and SMG are taking up all of my time. 

As for the question, it's a tricky one, but it's possible.  What you want to do is write a exe that launches the front end and mamehooker and set THAT to the shell.  The easiest way for a non-programmer to do this is to write an autohotkey script or something similar and then compile it into an exe.  Older versions of windows used to allow you to set a batch file as the shell, but I don't think that works anymore. 

Popcorrin

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #18 on: December 03, 2007, 09:39:48 am »
It's about time you responded! :angry:

XP still lets you set a batch file as shell, so I will give that a shot. 
I had set up mamehooker to launch as a service and it seemed to work okay.  I checked the processes and mamehooker was running, but when I fired up mame, for whatever reason mamehooker was non-functional.

Are you still working on Dragon King?

Howard_Casto

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #19 on: December 04, 2007, 02:14:34 am »
Well my guess would be that as a service the window wasn't getting loaded and even though the window is hidden, it does a couple of important things in the background. Also as a service I'm not sure if the path gets set correctly, which would mean it can't find any of your scripts.

We might as well consider dk a dead project.  I do still pick it up from time to time and it's in a reasonably functional state, but I have no desire to finish it.  Sadly for you guys, my obsession for retrogaming is slowly being replaced by an obsession for the wii.  The wii games have a very arcade feel to them and they have quenched my boredom in a way I hadn't thought possible since the days of the nes/snes.  On top of that I'm experimenting with other programming languages and it might be time to just start over from scratch. 

You can probably expect a realease of it sometime around the first of the year, but don't expect a polished, finished version you'd normally expect from me.  More than likely it'll be a dump of the current wip build with as many bugs remvoed as possible. 

loadman

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #20 on: December 04, 2007, 05:50:52 am »
Sadly for you guys, my obsession for retrogaming is slowly being replaced by an obsession for the wii.  The wii games have a very arcade feel to them

Good to see you are still around  ;) 

FYI My boss  (of a small software company)  bought a wii for all to use in the work lunchroom and a bunch of games (Guitar Hero III, Mario and Sonic Olympics etc) but the only one we all play regularly is the basic Golf Game that comes in the sport pack. We are hooked on that one. ;D

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #21 on: December 05, 2007, 01:02:02 am »
way I hadn't thought possible since the days of the nes/snes.  On top of that I'm experimenting with other programming languages and it might be time to just start over from scratch. 

Yeah good to know your still lurking around mate :)

BTW What "other programming languages" are you expermenting with?

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Re: Mame Hooker 2.0 Released!
« Reply #22 on: December 06, 2007, 03:45:29 am »
Nothing terribly exotic.....  the .net flavors of C++ and vb.  I've even been looking into using open-sourced fps engines for a fe.  I think full-on 3d rendering is the way to go and it'd be nice if such a fe could still be ran on a modestly-powered pc.  The only way I know to do that is with a fps engine.