Gameplay previews "cut-off" while playing in Mamewah??? **SOLVED**

[jacenwon]

Alrighty... so i ran into the preview bug with mamewah already, and was able to "search the forums" my way out of that mess. Now i'm stuck with this odd cutting off of the picture when the preview movies play within mamewah. anybody else have this issue?

here's a screenshot of my issue + my mame.ini & mamewah.ini text:



----------------------------

mame.ini

### mame.ini (mamewah v1.62) ###

emulator_title                            M.A.M.E.

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  c:\mame\roms
rom_extension                             zip
dat_file                                 
nms_file                                 
catver_ini_file                           c:\mame\catver.ini
list_generation_method                    rom_folder_vs_listxml

### Execution Settings ###
pre_emulator_app_commandlines             
emulator_commandline                      c:\mame\mame.exe [name]{nodosbox}
post_emulator_app_commandlines           
general_app_commandlines                 

### Artwork Settings ###
artwork_image_paths                       c:\mame\previews;c:\mame\titles
movie_preview_path                        c:\mame\previews
movie_artwork_no                          1
enable_fuzzy_search                       0
history_dat_file                         
history_dat_artwork_no                    2

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver               1
select_random_game                        0
saver_type                                gamelist_slideshow
movie_path                               
movie_fullscreen                          1
quit_delay                                0
saver_commandline                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                               
lcd_display_file_path                     
description_display                       [description]{scroll}

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0

------------------------

mamewah.ini


### mamewah.ini (mamewah v1.62) ###

### (Global) Screen-Saver Settings ###
delay                                     300
slide_duration                            3

### Audio Settings ###
enable_sounds                             1
sound_volume                              100
music_path                               
enable_music                              1
music_volume                              100

### Movie Settings ###
intro_movie_file                         
exit_movie_file                           
keep_movie_preview_aspect                 game_aspect
delay_before_movie_preview                1
music_movie_mix                           mute_movies
movie_volume                              75

### Misc Settings ###
emulator_root_path                       
auto_setup_emulators                      0
theme                                     
wrap_list                                 0
remember_current_game                     1
keep_image_aspect                         1
refresh_images                            0
delay_before_history_dat                  2
safe_mode                                 1
show_cursor                               0
keyboard_led_states                       -,-,-
lcd_com_port                              1
lcd_settings                             
exit_action                               choice
maxlogsize                                100000

### External Application Settings ###
startup_app_commandlines                 
exit_app_commandlines                     
exit_and_run_app_commandlines             

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_group                             
current_emulator                          mame
locked                                    0

--------------------------


the way i have the layout setup, the movie preview should use the ENTIRE black area to the right, but if you look closely, the whole lower portion of the movie isn't viewable. even on the verticle previews the movie plays dead in the center of the designated area, and the lower portion is ALWAYS cuttoff.

i did notice that when i play the movies through windows media player, outside of mamewah of course, the same thing happens - only the upper portion of the movie is visable. HOWEVER, when i use "divx player", the movie plays perfect.

any ideas as to why this is actin' foolish???

all help is greatly appreciated!

jace

[jacenwon]

in hopes to help resolve this issue, here's a small video clip of it in action:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/z6k5r5cH9O4&rel=1[/youtube]

thanks in advance, folks!

jace

[crummy]

Maybe I don't understand the issue... but it seems that the video is filling as far left and right as it can. Filling up and down would stretch the video (which doesn't happen). Right?

Or is actual content being cut off?

[jacenwon]

the video is filling left to right PERFECTLY - as far left to right as i designate when building the layout.

it's the lower content that's being cutoff on every video, no matter how large i allow the artwork area to be.

i originally thought it just may be the video files wanting to run at it's full resolution... so i made the artwork area as large as i could, and it only stretched the video to be larger, and STILL cutoff the lower portion of the video

This also happens with my intro/outro movie, as well as the screensaver when it involves any video. so yeah, the thing just doesn't like video for some stupid reason

[jacenwon]

a fella from another message board had suggested this:

"Could be a video format issue, although you could try changing keep_movie_preview_aspect to 'no' in the mamewah.ini"

this was my response:

i thought it may be the mamewah.ini settings at first, or perhaps just a faulty/corrupt file within mamewah. so i went and ran not only the emumovie preview clips, but random movie clips from an external drive OUTSIDE of mamewah with my 2 main movie players on the mame machine: windows media player & divx player... here's the results:

divx player played the movie files absolutely PERFECT, while windows media player cut the video off like mamewah did.

that being said, it's obvious the movie files don't like windows media player. (which i'm sure happens to be the default movie player within mamewah - terrific) is there anyway to change the default movie player within mamewah to use my divx player??? i'm pretty sure that'll solve my issue... does it sound like it?

[gonzo90017]

What codec are the videos using? You can use media info to find out.

[jacenwon]

i just tried to run the videos using windows media player classic, and they worked fine. but for some reason mamewah keeps running the videos cutoff.

would the codec matter? the videos run fine in all other media players BUT windows media player 11.

i'll check out media info and let you know though, thanks!

[jacenwon]

welp, after many MANY hours of troubleshootin' the sh*t out of my machine, i'm convinced that windows media player does not like 640x480 resolution by way of the arcadevga card.

bummer... no movie previews

[gonzo90017]

Try one of these videos and see if you still have the cut off problem. It's worth a shot. 
gseeker.avi

[Circo]

If you are using the EmuMovies Mame videos try the SQ set.  That should solve your problem.

[jacenwon]

that's the only ones i used for the preview, considering there's no need for a hi-res preview.

i did some more troubleshooting last night, and found out that the video's NOT cutoff when i run a 368x240 resolution. it's tough as hell to navigate on the desktop at the res, but it plays the video fine within mamewah now

thanks for the suggestions folks 

[Minwah]

Sorry I can't be much help, but I can say the following is generally true: The video's must play in Media Player correctly to play back in Mamewah.  Mamewah doesn't 'use' Media Player but it uses DirectX in basically the same way Media Player does it.

Seems to me there is something a bit funny with the video format.  Personally I use Circo's EmuMovies set and from memory have worked great at whatever resolutions I have tried.

Note: you don't need to run your desktop at 368x240 to run Mamewah at that res.  I have a desktop of 640x480 and run Mamewah at 368x240 on my cabinet.

[jacenwon]

thanks for the reply, minwah.

yeah, it's odd that i can't run the movies from circo at 640x480.... that resolution allows me to design a bitchin' layout now, at 368x240, the layouts can't be too graphically advanced

have a good one 

[Minwah]

yeah, it's odd that i can't run the movies from circo at 640x480.... that resolution allows me to design a bitchin' layout

Yeah that's odd...I have just (after 3 years) got round to moving my cabinet to where I live, so I should be playing around with software a bit more soon.  I will keep an eye on the movies to see if anything similar happens...

[jacenwon]

yeah, i'd say it's something that should be looked at... just incase it's fixable, perhaps?

i reformated last night, and only installed the xvid codecs (as emumovies suggests). it seems all the movies run fine up until i install mamewah's "system files" - once i run setup.bat, the video is cutoff from there on out.

how can i uninstall the system files? i wanna mess with somethin'


thanks for the assistance, minwah 

[Circo]

I really need to pay attention to these issues and get a FAQ up one of these days, so little time.....

I test these at home, but then again my billabs monitor handles 1024x768 so it handles pretty much everything I throw at it.

[jacenwon]

well, the movies themselves are fine. awesome quality/clarity... i just think it's a conflict with the resolution vs. the system files within mamewah.

please check your pm's circo... i had a question in regards to your wonderful movie sets

[Minwah]

i just think it's a conflict with the resolution vs. the system files within mamewah.

Sounds pretty odd.  The system files are as follows:

VB6 runtime library (required to run anything made in VB6),
MS Common Dialog (just a control for popping up open/save etc. dialog boxes),
MS Common Controls (some commonly used simple controls),
MS Comm control (used for serial port communications),
PaintX (control for displaying different image formats).

So with the exception of PaintX, these are very common things which many people have installed anyway (although they may not know it).  While PaintX is graphic related, it has nothing to do with movies or codecs, so I am sure that shouldn't be the cause of the problem.

I'm wondering if this problem could be something to do with hardware acceleration...I'll be back...

Edit: OK I assume you are using an ArcadeVGA, so have a look at this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=26313.0

[jacenwon]

i checked out the thread, and tried the hardware acceleration adjustment... no luck. the lower portion stays cutoff.

it's all good, man... i'm just going to run it at 368x240