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Author Topic: SimpleTouch FE  (Read 95375 times)

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Lave Laar

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SimpleTouch FE
« on: July 28, 2008, 05:55:02 pm »
I've released a new version 0.95 of this program.
It's a FE designed to run on a touch screen, but can be used with a mouse as well.
New in this version:

* Added the ability to have up to 10 different configs and choose between them by clicking an image in the FE.
* Added an option to display a page indicator label.
* Added an option to have a page indicator image.
* Added sound-effects to the backward, forward and game start events.
* Added the option to have a mp3-file play in the background while browsing the games.
* Added support for animated gif images. Both for the display images and the control images.
* Added support for dragging and dropping game config-files from one config to one of the other.
* Added code to prevent the user from clicking the images once a game is started.

Download at: http://home.online.no/~llindga/Programs/STFE095.zip
« Last Edit: November 01, 2008, 06:23:41 pm by Lave Laar »

squirrellydw

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2008, 08:56:27 pm »
Does this have TABS at the top for different categories like the last image posted in the other thread?
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Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2008, 04:44:32 am »
You can create your own tabs by replacing the images in the "skins\<SkinName>\ConfigImages". 
The images in the "active" folder are displayed when you select a config and the images in the "inactive" folder when it's deselected.
The included skin has just black and white numbers, but I see no reason why you should not be able to make it look like the the last posted image.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2008, 07:57:31 am »
very nice man im excited to see a few skins released for this. maybe someone can clone a megatouch skin.. good stuff lave laar

Neil

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2008, 08:57:03 am »
any chance you can post some pictures of what it looks like, skin and config?
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2008, 03:28:49 pm »
this is very cool man. I have been playing a bit in photoshop.. I think your proggie will work very well for a skin somewhat like megatouch.. im just doodling around here but I created this so far if anyone wants the psd just msg me..



Neil
« Last Edit: July 29, 2008, 04:37:12 pm by Neilyboy »

Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2008, 05:28:42 pm »
any chance you can post some pictures of what it looks like, skin and config?
I'm NO good at graphics, but this is how the default skin looks with the tabs at the bottom. They can be placed anywhere though.




There were a couple of bugs in the last version, so I've released a new one.
New in this version:

* Fixed a bug in the drag and drop code.
* Moved the font setting to the skin.
* Added the option to select number of images and config-images to the skin mode.
* Added code to make the skin mode easier to use.
* Added an option to hide all labels.
* Changed the default skin to use animated gifs for the controls.

Download: http://home.online.no/~llindga/Programs/STFE096.zip

squirrellydw

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2008, 06:25:38 pm »
this is very cool man. I have been playing a bit in photoshop.. I think your proggie will work very well for a skin somewhat like megatouch.. im just doodling around here but I created this so far if anyone wants the psd just msg me..
Neil
Very nice, how about a CARD, FAVORITE and ALL section?
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squirrellydw

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2008, 09:25:43 pm »
can this also support video previews?
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Space Fractal

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2008, 02:58:00 am »
Nice skin, The main problem is there is a lots of genres, but like how use use them. You might need to change them into a screenshot like type to work better for most FEs here. But I do NOT have tried.

Do this FE have a name? I like to update the wiki to begin to include touchscreen fe's (even they does not support mame).

squirrellydw: I promice you did have some trouble with MultiFE, since I diddent hear from you (I do understand if you use barcrests or this one), but howover I do not want to hijack this thread about mine. so...
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2008, 09:21:34 am »
Space, still trying them all out, right now I am leaning towards this one since barry hasn't had time to work on his.  He is fixing freebox bugs so that is always a good thing.  I think Simple FE might be the winner.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2008, 09:57:51 am »
I understand he want to use his time fixing freebox bugs (his flagship), and this touchscreen FE running PC games is a very good alternative.

I think we should add PC Games only FE to the wiki.

But good work elsewice, both to Lava Laar and the cool skin from Neilyboy, which gould been used as a default skin. Its very "touchy".



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Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2008, 04:36:49 pm »
this is very cool man. I have been playing a bit in photoshop.. I think your proggie will work very well for a skin somewhat like megatouch.. im just doodling around here but I created this so far if anyone wants the psd just msg me..
Neil

Sorry I didn't reply to this before.  That skin looks awesome.  Have you tried to actually use those graphics in the FE ?
The way it's right now it probably won't work as the transparency doesn't work properly for gifs and jpgs.  I do got PNG-support added for the next release and it looks so much better.

@Space Fractal: The name of the frontend is "Simple Touch FE".  Maybe I should change it to "SimpleTouch FE" ?

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #13 on: July 30, 2008, 04:56:04 pm »
Personal  I property prefer SimpleTouch FE.

This is howover not a mame frontend, but it still a frontend for PC games.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2008, 09:58:02 pm »
if you can add support for video previews I think this will be perfect.  I tried it last night and it worked very well
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Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #15 on: July 31, 2008, 11:16:04 am »
How do you see the video preview implemented ?  I'm not sure if it's possible to have 12 videos running at the same time.

I've changed the code a bit so now it's not necessary to have an image for each active/inactive image for each config.  One will simply be able to use those as hot-spots.  So the background can contain all the images for the configs.  If needed one can still create images for the active state, but then it will only be necessary to change a portion of the image.  When deselected if will just clear the image.  The current method with active/inactive images will still work though, if preferred.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #16 on: July 31, 2008, 12:09:30 pm »
Quote
How do you see the video preview implemented ?  I'm not sure if it's possible to have 12 videos running at the same time.

Yes, it is perfectly possible.  In what language do you code?




squirrellydw

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #17 on: July 31, 2008, 01:37:42 pm »
I would just like to be able to have either a snap shot or video if one is available.  So have the option to have both but only one show up.
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Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #18 on: July 31, 2008, 07:41:52 pm »
Yes, it is perfectly possible.  In what language do you code?

I use Delphi.  I looked briefly at using the TMediaPlayer, but had problems with playing more than one video at once.
Any help on this would be appreciated.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #19 on: July 31, 2008, 11:27:00 pm »
Lars,

Awesome work on the front end, it's shaping up very nicely! I've attached some screenshots below of the skin I'm working up for mine (if anyone wants the images and PSDs, just PM me).

A few questions:

1) Can you add a feature allowing the user to associate a program with the poweroff image? When the poweroff image is pressed, this would shutdown the application as normal, but also launch a program. The user could launch a program for instance that would shutdown Windows or put the computer to sleep.

2) The sounds you've added are great. Can you also add the ability to associate a sound with changing configs?

3) There is some image flicker when changing configs. The background image briefly becomes visible where the config image would normally be. This is pretty minor, but would be nice if there wasn't any flicker.

I haven't put together pagenumber images for the separate configs yet, but it looks like you set it up perfectly. I'll post some images when I get this done.

Again, thanks for all your work!
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #20 on: July 31, 2008, 11:46:26 pm »
would also be nice if the power off could be PIN protected.  That way there is no chance someone could power it off, maybe have it set to a 4 digit PIN
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #21 on: August 01, 2008, 01:54:32 am »
would also be nice if the power off could be PIN protected.  That way there is no chance someone could power it off, maybe have it set to a 4 digit PIN
Yeah, I could definitely see the poweroff image getting accidentally pressed all the time.

A simpler solution might be to require that the poweroff image be pressed (held down) for a few seconds before being activated. This would remove the possibility of someone accidentally tapping on it.
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Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #22 on: August 01, 2008, 08:30:31 am »
New version released:

* Added support for PNG-files
* Changed all control-images/hardcoded image names to use PNG-files instead of JPG
* Added support for running a program on poweroff
* Added an option to set a delay for shutting down the FE
* Added an option to hide the poweroff image (It can still be clicked,  but you will have to know the position of the image)
* Added a sound-effect to the change config event.
* Moved the numbers-folder away from the skin
* Fixed the flickering problem

I still have to look some more at the video-previews.

Download : http://home.online.no/~llindga/Programs/STFE097.zip
« Last Edit: August 01, 2008, 08:37:04 am by Lave Laar »

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #23 on: August 01, 2008, 10:01:06 am »
Instead of movie previews since I assume there wouldn't be that many games on a touch screen would it make more sense to have the previews be animated GIFS?

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #24 on: August 01, 2008, 10:32:24 am »
no, I have over 200 touch screen games and at least 50 of these have video previews.  I believe they are avi
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #25 on: August 01, 2008, 02:53:45 pm »
I gonna to thinck this would take to much CPU and harddrive power for 12 simulations play? I cant see it make sence here and many propent cant use that feature without slowdown? But support for multiply screenshots would been nice.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #26 on: August 01, 2008, 02:59:08 pm »
I'm trying to use the new version (.97), but when I move my skin from .96 over (by moving the skin/default folder" I get the following error when starting STFE.EXE:

"Access violation at address 00471127 in module 'STFE.exe'. Read of address 000001F0."

So I tried moving graphic files over individually as a test. I replaced the new background.png file with my background.jpg file, and then get an error when starting that the "background.gif" image can't be located.

It still seems to support JPEGs for the game images, but not for the background. And I don't know what's causing the access violation when the entire skin is moved over.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #27 on: August 01, 2008, 03:01:03 pm »
yeah you might be right but he could add it if it isn't a lot of work and I could test it out.  No biggie
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #28 on: August 01, 2008, 03:26:12 pm »
no, I have over 200 touch screen games and at least 50 of these have video previews.  I believe they are avi

I have over 200 touch screen games as well. There are batch AVI to animated GIF converters. The hardware requirements for 12 even small AVI's playing per page wouldn't be the most friendly.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #29 on: August 01, 2008, 03:46:01 pm »
Just convert jpg to png. There is no loss in quality. Its only the other way the picture quality can been lost a bit. But it could been easy to fix that bug. I gues it only check that file and forget jpg versionen?

I do can't see any problem to add video playback and the test how it going (and then removing the sound on all movie files). But I myself might prefer animatid GIF, even there is some color lost on them. I doubt the high requirement.


[offtypic]
Video playback in MultiFE is not possible, due blitzmax limits and is not portable between Linux and WIndows (but I could mightbeen support animatid gif, since video preview is not required to have any sound).

BTW can anyone start a new thread about touchscreen games (the only one I known is ClickBeat)? There is threads for cabinet frendly games, but not for touchscreen.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #30 on: August 01, 2008, 04:06:45 pm »
So I tried moving graphic files over individually as a test. I replaced the new background.png file with my background.jpg file, and then get an error when starting that the "background.gif" image can't be located.

I had changed the code to look for "background.png" and then "background.gif".  If neither was found then you get the error you got.
I've changed this in the new version so that it will use the first image with the name "background".  E.g "background.gif"  before "background.jpg" etc.
This goes for all other images as well.

In addition there was a bug that caused stfe.exe to use a lot of cpu-power after it launched a program.  This is fixed as well.

New version here : http://home.online.no/~llindga/Programs/STFE098.zip

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #31 on: August 01, 2008, 04:13:57 pm »
- Added an option to hide the poweroff image (It can still be clicked,  but you will have to know the position of the image)

I dosent like that idea. People find that posistion sooner or later. The pincode is that way to go.

The pincode screen could just show numbers (created like a regular snapshot image file) instead of screenshots and then touch in a sequence.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #32 on: August 01, 2008, 04:22:15 pm »
I dosent like that idea. People find that posistion sooner or later. The pincode is that way to go.
The pincode screen could just show numbers (created like a regular snapshot image file) instead of screenshots and then touch in a sequence.

Well. If you use it in combination with the poweroff delay I don't think it should be a problem.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #33 on: August 01, 2008, 04:35:02 pm »
I also like the pin code idea, but it's up to you.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #34 on: August 01, 2008, 10:11:31 pm »
Lars, let me just say that you kick ass!   :applaud:

I installed .98 and it works great.

Here's a couple more things you might want to consider, although neither of them are terribly important:

1) Allow for both active and inactive images associated with each game. The inactive image is normally shown, but when the user presses the image, the active image is displayed.

2) The ability for the user to cycle through each skin without having to run feconfig.exe. This could be accomplished through a [skinimage] tag and skinimage.jpg file that could be displayed on the screen. Pressing the image would simply cycle to the next skin directory. A delay could be used (similar to poweroff) to avoid accidental presses.

Thanks!
« Last Edit: August 02, 2008, 02:30:10 am by bishmasterb »
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #35 on: August 02, 2008, 03:00:22 am »
Couple more things:

3) If the Windows screen saver is turned on and active, pressing the screen (to return to STFE from the screen saver) gets processed by STFE. STFE should ignore screen clicks that occur when the Windows screen saver is active.

4) It would be cool to have separate SFX and music volume controls in feconfig.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #36 on: August 02, 2008, 06:57:05 pm »
I've released a new version.
New in this version:

* Changed the name to SimpleTouch FE
* Fixed a bug in the loading of the images. It would not clear the image if not found.
* Added support for entering a pincode on poweroff
* Added support for preview of the skins to the config program
* Added separate volume settings for the wav-files and mp3-files
* Added code to prevent STFE to react when the screensaver is active (Test. I couldn't reproduce this problem)
* Moved the sounds for the FX to the folder "<skin>\Sounds"

It would be cool to see some skins released for this program as my graphic skills are, to say the least, below par and then some.
I can create a webpage for the program and host any skins released.

Download: http://home.online.no/~llindga/Programs/STFE099.zip

« Last Edit: August 02, 2008, 06:58:50 pm by Lave Laar »

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #37 on: August 02, 2008, 07:16:24 pm »
I am working on a skin for this but it will be a couple days till it is close in being done.  Also I am no longer interested in the video preview but if you want to add I will test it.
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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #38 on: August 03, 2008, 05:26:53 pm »
Lars,

I've installed .99 but I'm still having the issue of STFE processing screen presses that occur while the screen saver is running. I'm using Win XP Pro SP3 with the built-in "My Pictures Slideshow" screen saver. If one clicks on the screen while the screen saver is running, that click gets passed along to STFE which, if it happens to be on a game image (which is likely), that game launches.

I'll try testing with some of the other built-in screen savers.

Thanks
"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." -Jonathan Swift

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #39 on: August 04, 2008, 09:27:27 am »
Lars,

Keep up the great work man.. I spent most of the weekend working on my jukebox (non touch screen) so I didnt get time to play with skinning but will get back to it as soon as i get the juke finished up (wife says I have a problem with starting a project but not finishing haha)..

Neil

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #40 on: August 05, 2008, 03:41:28 pm »
New version:

* Added transition/animation effects to the images when pageing backward and forward.
* Added a dummy.png file to the skin. For use with the transition effect.
* Added an extra imagefile for the forward, backward and poweroff images to create click animation.
* Changed the code to check for screensaver activity.  It now uses a timer with a user selectable delay.
* Changed the layout for the volume controls. (You will have to set the levels again initially).
* Moved some things around a bit in the config program.
* Created an installer for the program.

Note: The transition effect on the images looks a lot cooler if all your images are the same size.

Download: http://home.online.no/~llindga/


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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #41 on: August 05, 2008, 04:31:08 pm »
Lars,

The link above isn't working for me, is it supposed to be this:

http://home.online.no/~llindga/Programs/SetupSTFE.exe


Also, here's my touchscreen project using your frontend:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83030.0
"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." -Jonathan Swift

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #42 on: August 06, 2008, 07:53:06 am »
I just tested it... I think i found a bug.

BUG: When i page right the imaes just dissappear in their boxes. When i page left (BACK) they slide in from the left. Shouldn't they slide out rather than just dissappear?

BUG: When in skin mode i clicked the "UPDATE" button which i assume is an undo. It put everything back except the power button and the arrows. Not sure if this really is a bug or it was me but thought i would mention it.

The front end is looking really nice man, the Skinning part of the app is awsome. I really like that for it's easy of use dude.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2008, 08:01:05 am by Barry Barcrest »

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #43 on: August 06, 2008, 02:00:51 pm »
BUG: When i page right the imaes just dissappear in their boxes. When i page left (BACK) they slide in from the left. Shouldn't they slide out rather than just dissappear?
This is because the "dummy.png" file in the skin folder is just 10x10 pixels. If you resize this to the same size as the rest of the images, the transition works as you expected.

Quote
BUG: When in skin mode i clicked the "UPDATE" button which i assume is an undo. It put everything back except the power button and the arrows. Not sure if this really is a bug or it was me but thought i would mention it.
The update button is really ment to be used initially to set the size of the skin and number of images/configs to be displayed.  As it reads the position and size for every image/label from the ini-file it will look like an undo button if you have not saved in between.

Otherwise, thanks for the kind words man.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #44 on: August 08, 2008, 05:32:31 pm »
New version:

* Added an extra optional overlay image to the background.
* Added an option to have a background image/overlay image for each config.
* Added an optional config display name label.
* Added a resize option to the skin mode.

Download: http://home.online.no/~llindga/

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #45 on: August 10, 2008, 09:55:02 pm »
Add me to the list of people using this front end for my touch screen project.  Easy to use, effective, kid tested and wife approved.  Love it.

Zeosstud


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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #46 on: August 11, 2008, 11:14:58 am »
Happy to hear that it's working out for you Zeosstud  ;D

The last two versions don't work very well with multiple animated GIFs.  Far to high CPU usage.
I've fixed that problem in the next release.  The next version will also include code which will try to add games/programs to the FE automatically.
I've made some progress on the multiple video previews as well, but that will probably not be in the next version.
Expect a new version by the end of the week.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #47 on: August 12, 2008, 06:16:43 pm »
Very Nice Touchscreen Frontend!!! I have been playing with this that last few days and was wondering if there is/can be a way to have the front/initial screen be just buttons? What I am looking for is when opening the FE it shows a page of buttons that say Arcade Games, Touchscreen Games, Jukebox..... then when hitting the button it will goto the page with the boxes of choices with images. If there is currently a way to do this now please let me know, but I don't see it in the skin tool or the config. Great work!!

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #48 on: August 14, 2008, 10:17:04 am »
New version:

* Fixed a bug when displaying animated gifs.  It would consume far to much CPU.
* Added code for autoinsertion of games to the config program.
* Added support for video-previews.
* Added support for individual skins for each config-page.  With individual number of images for each page if wanted.
* Added optional window-animation.

The video-preview is, as expected, quite CPU-intensive.  Keep the videos small if you want to display 12 at once.

Download: http://home.online.no/~llindga/

@eist1:
With this version you will be able to do what you want.  You must have at least one image at the first screen, but you can set the size to 0 and move it off the screen by setting left and top values to negative.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #49 on: August 14, 2008, 11:41:04 am »
Lave,

I do not see where in the skin tool to choose individual skins for each config page. It looks like all of the settings in the skin tool are global. Let me know if I am missing something. Thanks

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #50 on: August 14, 2008, 12:00:05 pm »
You have to start individually in skinmode for each of the configs.  I've included batch files to do this.  They are located in the program folder.
You may want to copy the skin.ini file from the <skin> folder to each of the "<skin>\PageImages\<Config#>" folder, so you don't have to start from scratch
for each of the config pages. 
The skin.ini in the <skin> folder and the skin.ini in the  "<skin>\PageImages\Config01" folder should be the same.
Also make sure to tick the "Use config background images" if you want to have seperate backgrounds for each config-page.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #51 on: August 14, 2008, 03:17:11 pm »
Lars,

Thanks, I now see where to do this at. The other question I now have is how to disable the Overlay from a screen. I want to Overlay to be gone on the first page (Config 1) but be on the other pages (Config 2-Config 10). Don't see where in teh Skin Tool this can be disabled. In the future you may want to add a dropdown box in the skin tool that has each Config in it so all you need to do is choose the page you want to configure, and also have a checkbox for the Overlay. This is still a great FE. Thanks

Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #52 on: August 14, 2008, 07:11:17 pm »
Regarding the overlay that is how it works right now.  If an overlay image is not found it will use the last one loaded.  I think I will change this to work like the loading of the other images.  If it's not found then it will simply clear the image.  This would mean that the overlay image file has to be copied to each of the "<skin>\PageImages\<Config#>" folders though.
For now you can work around this by merging the overlay into the background images and delete all overlay files.

I will take a look at incorporating a dropdown box for selecting the configpages in the skin mode.

Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #53 on: August 20, 2008, 04:41:27 pm »
New version 1.03:

* Added a dropdown box to the skin mode for selection of which page to skin.
* Changed the code for how the display of background, overlay and control images works.
* Added support for a second image to display when launching a game.
* Fixed a bug where the game labels would be incorrect if no image was assigned to the game.
* Changed the background music to use a folder rather than a single file.
* Added an option to testrun a game from the config program.
* Changed the name of the gamefiles.  Run the included "AddZeroFix.exe" to convert old gamefiles.
* Added option to delete games from the config program.

If a background, overlay or control image is not found in the "<skin>\PageImages\<Config#>" folder it will use the one located in the <skin> folder.
If you don't want to use the overlay for one particular page just copy the "transparent.png" file, located in the <skin> folder, to that folder and rename it to "overlay.png".   If you don't want to use an overlay at all you can delete the "overlay.png" image in the <skin> folder.
This also means that you can have seperate images for the controls for each config as well.

Download:  http://home.online.no/~llindga/

Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #54 on: August 31, 2008, 05:21:40 pm »
Yet another version...

* Fixed a bug in the display of video files.
* Fixed a bug in the auto-insert games function.
* Fixed a bug in the changing of configs in the FE.
* Added an option to take screenshots of the games and resize them to user defined size.
* Added code to copy multiple games between configs.
* Added code to delete multiple games from configs.
* Added code to reset screen resolution back to standard after a game.
* Added an optional poweroff screen with quit, shutdown, reboot, standby and hibernate.

As usual available at: http://home.online.no/~llindga/

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #55 on: September 14, 2008, 03:24:10 am »
Hi y'all, I have a lead on a few of these:
http://www.mintronix.com/p5.htm

Looks like a great alternative for the bulky standard bartop,
running the SimpleTouch FE!
Would they be suitable for most touch-screen games etc.?
I plan to get at least one for a new project.
I'm really hyped about this project, is there any chance of you guys who have
200-plus games/apps/ideas whatever compiling and posting a list of what is available and how I/we could get my grubby paws on them?

Bish's project looks great BTW, maybe this topic of touchscreen stuff deserves a sticky?

Thanks as usual for all the work and guidance, can't wait to get started, just waiting on the call-back on availability of these!  :notworthy:

ARCADIAC! 

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #56 on: September 14, 2008, 12:40:07 pm »
I don't think that cpu is fast enough. I tried it on a 400mhz celeron and it's very slow.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2008, 03:52:19 pm by gonzo90017 »

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #57 on: September 14, 2008, 04:53:20 pm »
Those look great Arcadiac.  At least the PIII versions should work good for a bartop/jukebox system.
How much are they?

I guess a 400 Mhz CPU might be slow if you have image transitions enabled in STFE.  If you disable them an reduce the size of the images it should be OK.
You could also try to reduce the number of images displayed at once.
Nothing much else that should require a lot of CPU-power, as all it ever really does is display the images. 
Have not tried it on a low end computer myself though.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #58 on: September 18, 2008, 11:27:30 pm »
The guy told me that they are the 12" 733mz p3's w/128 mb ram, the center model in the brocure I linked to. 

I realize that a lot of newer proggys won't run on these but many that aren't so graphics intensive should, card games, bejeweled etc.  Seems a hell of a lot simpler and less space restrictve than conventional bartops as these are essentiall all-in-one units less the laptop HD, which were obviously removed for security reasons.

Any more input on suitability and possibly a list of games that should run on it, particularly touch screen suitable and wich version of MAME?

Should I install a lite version of WinXP as the OS?

He has 3 of them, probably gonna get them all, anybody else want one?

I'll have a price for y'all after I haggle the hell out of him!

I'm gonna check these out as soon as I find out if the seller's electricity came back on, mine was out for 5 days due to the hurricane that swept thru KY. w/ 80mph plus winds.  Ours finally came on at 9:30 this evening.  And on that note I gotta say I'm damn grateful, a lot of people got hit a lot harder, lost homes and property.  We just lost elec. so thoughts and prayers go out to those who got hit in any way.

As usual, thanks for input/suggestions etc.
I'm grateful for all of you!  :notworthy:

Love and Respect, Ron AKA ARCADIAC!

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #59 on: September 19, 2008, 01:41:33 am »
733mhz should be enough. For some reason I thought they were 370mhz.  :dizzy:
A stripped down version of XP would be better. That's what I use on my 400mhz pc and it runs great.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #60 on: September 20, 2008, 12:29:51 pm »
Looks as if these will be $75 plus actual shipping, US only please.
I'll only have 1 or 2 for sale so if you want one contact me ASAP.
Keep in mind that you will need to provide your own laptop size HD.
Making the buy tomorrow, will test and be able to ship by mid-week at the latest.
Gonzo has first dibs, but I'll keep a list in case he can't buy for some reason.
More info tomorrow!

ARCADIAC!

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #61 on: September 20, 2008, 03:46:43 pm »
I think that's a very good price for the units.  To bad you only ship to the US though. ;)

On a sidenote, I've uploaded a new skin to the webpage.  Thanks to Andy Grooby for letting me use his graphics.




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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #62 on: September 20, 2008, 03:59:49 pm »
Very nice!

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #63 on: September 20, 2008, 04:32:34 pm »
Tried installing the skin by clicking on the metal.exe and nothing happens.  A dos screen flashes for a second and that is it?

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #64 on: September 20, 2008, 06:53:23 pm »
I also have the same issue as Popcorrin and I was just wondering whether there is anyway of turning the sound off on the frontend as I think it's causing problems with games and apps I'm launching from it.

If you could help that would be great!

I have to say, this frontend is amazing by the way! Once I've rolled out the sound problem I'm having it will be even better! :applaud:

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #65 on: September 20, 2008, 08:03:20 pm »
Sorry to those who have already read this in my other post but I thought it would be best to post here too!


Okay! I have found a solution for Simple Touch making Mamewah's sound crackle when launched from the menu but I don't quite know how to fulfill it!

I removed the Gamestart.wav file from Simple Touch and it came up with an error message saying that it couldn't find the file. However, it still loaded Mamewah and voila! no crackly sound! I tried it with a blank wav file in it's place and it started to crackle again - so basically, I need to turn the sound off in Simple Touch!

Then I found another problem once I got into Mamewah and loaded a game, when I then quit that game, whatever note from the music/sound effect was played when I was quitting would jam until the Mamewah menu had fully loaded. Now I haven't tried my suggested solution out but I'm guessing, as its never done it before, its because Simple Touch is still running in the background and that is sufficiently slowing the system down for this to happen. Now, Simple Touch has a command you can enter on launching a program - I would like one that closes Simple Touch - anyone tell me what this would be? I haven't got a clue! ???

Mamewah then has an option to run an application on shut down, so I would just aim it back to loading up Simple Touch and fingers crossed that should sort all the problems out!

Just now I need someone who can help me achieve those goals, as I haven't got a clue as to how to remove the sounds altogether from Simple Touch and I also don't know what command line I would need to shut down Simple Touch on running Mamewah from it! :banghead:

If anyone can help I'd be eternally grateful!!

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #66 on: September 21, 2008, 06:06:51 am »
When I was referring to 'command line' I was referring to the 'parameter' field in the config - is there any line here that would close Simple Touch on starting a program? Thinking about it, this may solve all the problems I'm having...

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #67 on: September 21, 2008, 05:32:37 pm »
Seems like I accidentally uploaded the skinfile in ascii-mode.  :banghead:
I've uploaded it again, so it should be OK now.
Sorry about that.

@slapham.  I have no idea what the problem with the sound can be.  However, there is an option to run a program on shutdown of STFE.  Maybe you could use that as solution?  If not, I can put in code to avoid the message when no soundfile is found.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #68 on: September 21, 2008, 08:00:28 pm »
Thanks for that... I'll give it ago - however, I think it's my computer and not the sounds causing the crackling... but I guess its a good bit of coding to incorporate anyway!

Mmm, I'll consider my options with the program running on shutdown - it may do the trick but I'll have to assess it's 'user-friendliness'...

Thanks for your help - appreciate it - and loving the program - good work!

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #69 on: September 21, 2008, 08:36:20 pm »
Will this front end allow me to exit a mame game only using touch screen?  This is my number one complaint about my touchscreen so far.  I really don't want to have a keyboard out.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #70 on: September 23, 2008, 06:58:06 am »
The front-end will not make you able to exit mame with the use of the touchscreen.  I though that maybe enabling right-click on hold in the ELO-driver and then set mame to exit on right-click with the mouse would work, but it didn't.  I guess mame has it's own input system.
So you probably have to add a button to achieve this. As it's only one button you could use a keyboard hack for that.

I've added code to skip the soundeffects if the files is not found.  Will be in the next release.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #71 on: September 23, 2008, 08:49:54 am »
Hi Lave Laar,

I tried my RAM upgrade today - computer runs more smoothly but the problem remains unfortunately - it seems the problem lies in Simple Touch and I think I have a suggestion that might fix it (and might also be incredibly handy for people using ageing systems like mine!)

As Space Fractal suggested in my other post about this problem , the problem might be solved with a sample reduction to run in 22khz instead of 44khz. By any chance is this possible? Other than that I'm not sure there can be much else causing the problem - it is only when I run stuff from Simple Touch that the sound goes funny.

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #72 on: September 28, 2008, 03:08:45 pm »
Small update, I have a couple of the touchscreen pcs for sale in the BST thread, have a look.
ARCADIAC!

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #73 on: September 30, 2008, 12:23:48 pm »
awesome job! on a side note where the hell you guys finding 200+ touch screen games? linkssss

Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #74 on: September 30, 2008, 02:05:10 pm »
Thanks. Glad you like it.
As for the games I think some are using the PopCap games and the Gamehouse games.  There seem to be quite a few of them.

Lave Laar

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Re: Simple Touch FE
« Reply #75 on: October 01, 2008, 02:59:48 pm »
New version 1.05

* Added an option to set sample rate for the sound.
* Added an option to disable sound all together.
* Added an option to quit, shutdown etc. by userdefined keypress.
* Added an option to disable the poweroff image.
* Added an optional Mp3 info label to show current playing song.
* Added an optional image to select next Mp3.
* Added an option to kill hung programs (If that should ever happen).

Available here

javeryh

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #76 on: November 14, 2008, 04:38:35 pm »
I can't wait to try this out this weekend - this program looks like exactly what I need.  Quick question - if I am running jukebox software like Freebox or Xlobby can I still have music playing in the background while playing something else like Bejeweled?

Thanks!!!   :cheers:

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #77 on: November 15, 2008, 06:57:56 pm »
That depends on how you start freebox or xlobby.  As STFE functions now it will wait for the launched application/game to finish so that it will know when to  resume background music / reset the resolution etc.  If you start freebox before you start STFE you will not have the problem.  The sounds from the games will probably interfere with the jukebox though, but I guess you're aware of that :P
If you want to be able to launch freebox from the FE and still be able to launch games I could always put in an option to don't wait for the launched program to finish.  Not much work at all.

Kevin Mullins

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #78 on: December 09, 2008, 06:47:47 pm »
First off I gotta say STFE seems to be exactly what I've been looking for.  :cheers:

Does Simple Touch Fe have the option to save and call the screenshots from within it's own directory?

In other words..... After I finished setting up about 100 games and taking screenshots of each one as I went along I noticed that there was no folder in the Simple Touch FE directory for screenshots. So I went looking for them and found each individual game directory had it's screenshot there. Which to me makes it kinda hard to setup so many games on one pc and then move it all over to another without having to go through and take all new screenshots. I pretty much use one computer for hashing out programs and setups and then move or install this stuff onto another.

So I think it would be good to have all the screenshots in one directory under the Simple Touch FE directory that it could pull those from. (hence also be able to copy an entire folder over to another pc)

Or am I just missing something?

Another question I had was if there was an automatic option to "alphabetize" games after they have been setup?

The "Autoinsert games" option does a wonderful job of doing this initially, but then after adding a few more games from other random directories I couldn't figure out an easy way to re-organize them alphabetically.

Not a technician . . . . just a DIY'er.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #79 on: December 09, 2008, 10:49:36 pm »
Just had to throw some screenshots up...... the more I learn about it, the more I like it.
Easy and versatile. Nothing fine tuned yet, just been playing with options and ideas.
If you haven't already checked STFE out, you should. :cheers:

Not a technician . . . . just a DIY'er.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #80 on: December 14, 2008, 10:17:29 am »
Hi Lars...

I've finally had a bit of time to start MAME-ing again (I'm on a Christmas holiday for a few weeks)... I had a question... I remember you saying something about being able to get SimpleTouch to run commands on startup - am I right? Well, I just got myself a steering wheel and the only way I can get it to function within MAME is to use Key2Joy - well, this program has to be up and running for the wheel to function in MAME - so my question is, how would I get SimpleTouch to run Key2Joy minimised in the background on startup... is it possible? If it isn't, then another option would be to get it to run and minimise on loading Mamewah (the frontend I use from your frontend to use MAME joystick games)... then I guess you'd use the parameters field in Config... have you any idea of what syntax I'd need to write into the field to get this to do that... execute Mamewah, load Key2Joy, then minimise it in the background... hope this makes sense...

Hope you're good, glad you're keeping the good work up! :)

Thanks for your help!

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #81 on: December 14, 2008, 12:02:30 pm »
I'm realising the best way around this, is using something like XYNTService...! So don't worry about my previous post - I have now put my problem in a seperate thread!

Thanks!

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #82 on: December 29, 2008, 04:53:20 pm »
First off I gotta say STFE seems to be exactly what I've been looking for.  :cheers:
Does Simple Touch Fe have the option to save and call the screenshots from within it's own directory?

In other words..... After I finished setting up about 100 games and taking screenshots of each one as I went along I noticed that there was no folder in the Simple Touch FE directory for screenshots. So I went looking for them and found each individual game directory had it's screenshot there. Which to me makes it kinda hard to setup so many games on one pc and then move it all over to another without having to go through and take all new screenshots. I pretty much use one computer for hashing out programs and setups and then move or install this stuff onto another.

So I think it would be good to have all the screenshots in one directory under the Simple Touch FE directory that it could pull those from. (hence also be able to copy an entire folder over to another pc)

Or am I just missing something?

Another question I had was if there was an automatic option to "alphabetize" games after they have been setup?

The "Autoinsert games" option does a wonderful job of doing this initially, but then after adding a few more games from other random directories I couldn't figure out an easy way to re-organize them alphabetically.

Sorry to reply so late to this, but I've been very busy lately.
Glad you liked the program.

I could always put in an option to save the screenshots taken from the FE in a single folder, but as the game executables need to be in the correct folder I thought one would simply copy the entire game folder across to the other PC.  None of my games require any installation, but that is maybe different for you?

I've put in an option to sort the games.  Will be in the next release.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #83 on: February 03, 2009, 10:36:46 am »
Thanks. Glad you like it.
As for the games I think some are using the PopCap games and the Gamehouse games.  There seem to be quite a few of them.

I've tried a bunch of PopCap games, but none of them seem to be 100% suitable for a dedicated touch screen kiosk.  Most of them have ALMOST touch screen friendly game play, but require keyboard input at some point.  Others require touch behavior changes before playing.  For example, Peggle works better if you set the drivers to click on release, Zuna on the other hand works better with click on touch.  But, Zuna requires right-clicking as well...  :banghead:

 :soapbox: I understand that the pure touch screen user base is probably a small market, but some of these games could have been made to work equally well on a touch screen with about 2 minutes of effort on the developers part. PopCap has obviously mastered code recycling, so why not recycle a  :censored: virtual keyboard?

Oh well.  Thanks to STFE, at least I have a beautiful front end interface for all my applications that don't behave properly. I should be able to occupy myself skinning STFE until someone develops some decent games to have it launch.  :cheers:

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #84 on: February 03, 2009, 04:25:35 pm »
New version 1.06

* Added an option to not wait for the launched program to finish.
* Added a function to sort the games by their description.
* Added a new function to close the launched program with a mouseclick-pattern.

I'm particularly interrested in feeback on the "close program with mouse-clicks" function.
It has worked for the few programs I've tried it on, but I'm sure there some programs/games that don't work.

Available here

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #85 on: February 04, 2009, 08:33:00 am »
I'm particularly interrested in feeback on the "close program with mouse-clicks" function.
It has worked for the few programs I've tried it on, but I'm sure there some programs/games that don't work.

I've tried it on every app I have running off STFE and it works great!  I will let you know if I find anything that doesn't work, but so far it does EXACTLY what I was hoping! Awesome!

Do you think that if I email some requests to bill gates he would get them implemented for me in a matter of days?  :laugh2:

Thanks for the update, Lave!

 :cheers:

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #86 on: February 19, 2009, 05:59:49 pm »
I've just released a new skin for STFE based on the LCARS control panels seen in Star Trek TNG and DS9.



You can get it here: http://home.online.no/~llindga/

If anyone has any suggestions for improvement, let me know!

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #87 on: February 22, 2009, 04:43:24 pm »
Very nice skin Wes.  I really like it.  :applaud:
If anyone has tried it you may have gotten some error messages.
This was a bug with STFE and not the skin itself. I've fixed the bug and here is the new version.

What's new in version 1.07:

* Fixed an "Access violation" error on loading of some PNG-files.
* Fixed an "Access violation" error that would occur on start up if there was a video on the first page.
* Fixed an "The operation cannot be performed because the pins are not connected" error on loading of some video files.
* Fixed a bug that could cause the info for one of the programs to be cleared.
* Added an option to chose whether to use/create a music.m3u file.
* Added code to loop the MP3 if only one is found. Useful for setting an ambiance sound for the FE.

You can get it here.

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #88 on: April 27, 2009, 02:38:51 pm »
Released a couple of more skins.

Cherry


Leather


Available here.

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #89 on: May 20, 2009, 05:24:05 pm »
New version 1.08 released.

* Changed the game ini-files to use names based on display name rather than the generic Game0001, Game0002 etc.
* Changed the way screenshots are taken. They are now stored in a folder called "snapshots" in the FE folder.
* Added click-animation to the pincode-screen.
* Added transparency to the pincode-screen and the shutdown screen.
* Added optional transition effects when changing configs. (Only useful with a nested skin).
* Added a back button to traverse configs. (Only useful with a nested skin).
* Added option to copy screenshots to the snapshots folder when assigning the screenshot.
* Added option to resize screenshots in the copy-process.
* Added option to rename ini-files to the same as the display name directly from the config program.
* Removed the sort-button as it's no longer needed.

For those upgrading from a previous version:  I've included a small utility "RenameInis" to rename all old configs to the new naming system.
Feedback is welcome. :)

Available here

Visitor Q

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #90 on: July 07, 2009, 08:52:38 am »
Just installed this the other day, works good and is easy to use.

I did have some questions for you guys trying to build your own sorta Megatouch system.

I find the PopCap games to work well but I am wondering if anyone has suggestions as to how to get away from the keyboard? Must PopCap games as for name inputs which use a keyboard.  :P
“Woe be unto him who opens one of the seven gateways to hell, because through that gateway evil will invade the world."

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #91 on: November 22, 2009, 11:56:52 am »
I wanted to publicly thank Lave Laar for making this front end! 

Anyone starting a touch screen project should give this a look.  From the start I had planned to have a jukebox as well as slot machine games.  Although double tapping the icons on the Windows desktop was perfectly functional, having a clean front end made my project much more 'polished'.

The front end has me looking for additional games, which I didn't plan on before as I didn't want to clutter up the desktop with dozens of icons.  This front end makes my jukebox very friendly to use, and I'm glad I found it.

Kevin Mullins

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #92 on: November 22, 2009, 12:20:43 pm »
+1 for Simple Touch FE

I have a similar project in the works and will indeed be using this frontend as it is great in this application for sure. And it's great to be able to "group" software into different categories such as GAMES, JUKEBOX, SLOTS, MEGATOUCH, TOUCHMASTER, etc.
Not a technician . . . . just a DIY'er.

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #93 on: November 22, 2009, 02:55:07 pm »
Thanks guys. Always nice with some positive feedback.  :cheers:
Funny that you should bring this topic back today as I have just released a new version of STFE.

New in this version:

* Fixed a bug in loading of the background image when using a different background-image/skin for config01.
* Fixed a bug with delayed shutdown of the FE.
* Fixed a bug with the uninstaller not removing the shortcuts from the start menu in Windows Vista.
* Added functionality to add games from shortcuts, batch-files and exe-files with drag and drop. 
* Added functionality to add videos & images with drag and drop.

Available here.



daydd

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SimpleTouch FE lock up on first game launch
« Reply #94 on: November 25, 2009, 02:16:04 am »
Hi Laave,

I have just started using your awesome front end. I love it.
However I have an issue. when I first boot up my machine and use this F.E. the first game I pick "hangs". however if I kill the application and then relaunch it, work great every game works great after that.

I'm using the latest version from your site, any idea's what it could be? I have checked the forums, does not seem anyone else seems to have this problem.

any help would be great!

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #95 on: November 25, 2009, 01:43:05 pm »
Thanks.  Glad you like it  :)

Some questions.

1. What operating system are you running?
2. Is the FE launched directly on startup? If so. How?  As the shell or in the startup-folder?
3. This happen no matter what game you start first?
4. After you kill the first application.  Every other game starts OK?

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #96 on: December 02, 2009, 03:06:20 pm »
New version out.

* Changed the code that launches the programs.
* Added an alternative way to launch programs.
* Changed the "unload images when launching game" option.
* Rearranged the options a bit in the config program.

This should fix the "first game hangs" problem in windows XP.
Thanks to Paladin for the help with troubleshooting the issue.  :cheers:

Get it here.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #97 on: December 02, 2009, 04:47:12 pm »
Just installed this the other day, works good and is easy to use.

I did have some questions for you guys trying to build your own sorta Megatouch system.

I find the PopCap games to work well but I am wondering if anyone has suggestions as to how to get away from the keyboard? Must PopCap games as for name inputs which use a keyboard.  :P

I made a virtual keyboard, and it would be nice to figure out a way to get it to launch when needed in those PopCap games. Lave Laar, if you have any interest in somehow integrating a virtual keyboard in STFE, feel free to use mine if you wish.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=97670.0

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #98 on: December 29, 2009, 02:18:45 am »
Hi Lave,

Thanks again, you really came through, I just tried the new version and it works great, no more hangs on the first app launch. Sorry i didn't get back to you I got tied up with the holiday's and was not able to work on my projects but just for reference here are the answers to the questions.

1. What operating system are you running?
Windows XP pro
2. Is the FE launched directly on startup? If so. How?  As the shell or in the startup-folder?
Startup folder
3. This happen no matter what game you start first?
I believe so, games like Chuzzle, pop cap games, ECT...
4. After you kill the first application.  Every other game starts OK?
Yes

Thanks again, love this front end. I do like the idea of intergrating a virtual keyboard, something you can bring up with a mouse or on a touchscreen, that might be tricky.

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #99 on: December 30, 2009, 02:11:32 pm »
Great.  That's good to hear.

I've made a new version 1.12.
New in this version:

* Added option to have up to 99 snapshots per page and up to 99 different configs.
* Added function to start a program with mouseclick/hotkey after program launch.
* Added option to create batch-file for resize of skin-images with ImageMagick.
* Added option to save screenshots as PNG.
* Added hints to some of the config options.
* Changed the function to kill program with mouseclick/hotkey.
   It's now possible to place the "kill/start-area" over the whole screen. Not just the upper left corner.
* Changed the kill/start function to be enabled on a per game basis. 
* Fixed the resize code to properly resize to all resolutions.
* Improved the skin mode.

Available here.

The "start program with a mouseclick-pattern" option can be used to start a virtual keyboard after a game/program has been launched.
It defaults to the windows one, but it can be changed to whatever program you want to use.

However, the problem is not to start the keyboard, but to get it to interact with the game itself. 
For instance if you run a Pop-Cap game full-sceen you will not be able to use the keyboard. 
The virtual keyboards available, that I have tested, are not able to overlay/hook into full-screen DirectX or OpenGL games.
Something like what Fraps do to display the framerate in games.

It will work if you run the games in windowed mode.

deano7

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #100 on: January 06, 2010, 01:37:54 am »
Wow, what a great touchscreen front end!  I am building a jukebox and I was wondering if there is a way to create a button wired through an ipac that when pressed will go back to SimpleTouch FE (Alt Tab Over) from the current program and depending on the selection, it will either leave other programs running or close the other programs.  So if someone enters in a ton of music on the jukebox and wants to switch over to bejewelled, they can hit the button to go back and open another program and it will leave the jukebox to run in the background, but if they select karafun, then it will turn off the jukebox before it opens up the other program... 

Thanks again for the front end, it is truly a fantastic piece of software!

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #101 on: January 09, 2010, 04:23:11 pm »
You can do this the following way:

Download and install VistaSwitcher from http://www.ntwind.com/software/vistaswitcher.html

Open up the VistaSwitcher preferences by right-clicking the icon in the system-tray.
On the General-tab: Change the "Main VistaSwitcher hotkey" to what you want.
On the Behavior-tab: Check the "Don't hide VistaSwitcher when ALT is released (Sticky Mode)".
Optional on the Appearance-tab: Select the "No preview" option if you don't want the large preview image.

Alternatively, instead of using the hotkey function to bring up the switcher you can use the
"Start program after launch with a mouse-click pattern" option in STFE and select this autohotkey-program
to start. The only thing the autohotkey-program does is to send an "Alt-Tab" combination when executed.
The script is included in the zip-file.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #102 on: January 09, 2010, 04:42:03 pm »
Lave you rule.  I cannot wait to give this a try.  My jukebox will be the coolest in town!  Thanks so much for the info!!!!

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #103 on: January 10, 2010, 01:39:42 am »
I just went and installed a few programs to test it out.  I am getting some wierd results and I am wondering if some programs just limit what STFE can do with the mouse click areas.  For example, I am using your hotkeys script (great idea by the way) and if I hit F4, which is what I've assigned it to inside STFE, it works as designed.  I see vistaswitcher.  The problem is that I can't get it to work in the mouse click start area ever.  The kill area works, but never the start area. 

Lastly, I am using a few different programs, Nordbeat for jukebox and Silverjuke for karaoke.  For some reason when I kill Nordbeat through the STFE kill area, it closes and then pops right back up.  Some programs the kill area doesn't seem to work at all. 

Lastly, If I try and use Vistaswitcher to select STFE in order to select a game and leave the jukebox running in the background, STFE always stays hidden.  Is there a way to allow it to pop back up again even if another program is running so that I can select another program?

Sorry for the long winded questions, I've spent a lot of time with STFE and tweaking things tonight and I am just amped to get this all working!!!!

Thanks so much Lave, I truly appreciate your help!  I'll post some pics of the working cab when the juke is complete!

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #104 on: January 12, 2010, 02:34:24 pm »
I just went and installed a few programs to test it out.  I am getting some wierd results and I am wondering if some programs just limit what STFE can do with the mouse click areas.  
1. For example, I am using your hotkeys script (great idea by the way) and if I hit F4, which is what I've assigned it to inside STFE, it works as designed.  I see vistaswitcher.  The problem is that I can't get it to work in the mouse click start area ever.  The kill area works, but never the start area.  

2. Lastly, I am using a few different programs, Nordbeat for jukebox and Silverjuke for karaoke.  For some reason when I kill Nordbeat through the STFE kill area, it closes and then pops right back up.  Some programs the kill area doesn't seem to work at all.  

3. Lastly, If I try and use Vistaswitcher to select STFE in order to select a game and leave the jukebox running in the background, STFE always stays hidden.  Is there a way to allow it to pop back up again even if another program is running so that I can select another program?

Sorry for the long winded questions, I've spent a lot of time with STFE and tweaking things tonight and I am just amped to get this all working!!!!

Thanks so much Lave, I truly appreciate your help!  I'll post some pics of the working cab when the juke is complete!

1. The start area works for me.  You do realize it uses the same mouse-click combination as the kill area?

2. I tried Nordbeat. It has a function that will restart the jukebox if it exits unexpectedly.  You have two options. A: Disable the function under Admin->Jukebox Settings->Preferences->Enable JukeGuard to keep jukebox alive at crashes. B: Close the jukebox normally. Enable close jukebox from Kiosk mode under Admin-> Jukebox Settings->User Permissions->Close jukebox and P2P console.
I suggest using option B as the kill function is really only intended for use with programs that has no other way of exiting with a mouse.

3. In FeConfig you can deselect the wait-checkbox for the programs that you don't want STFE to wait for to finish.  This will however deactivate the mouse-functions as the mouse-functions program will close immediately.  I need to add an option to have an area clickable all the time to use for the "Alt-tab" script.
If you wire a button to do the switching you can map the button to an autohotkey-script like this "F8::send, {lalt down}{tab}{lalt up}". Compile it and run it before the FE starts.

Hope this makes sense.  
BTW. What OS are you running?
« Last Edit: January 12, 2010, 02:42:07 pm by Lave Laar »

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #105 on: January 12, 2010, 03:29:21 pm »
Lave, thanks so much.  That does makes sense to me, I am running XP.  I am travellin for work this week, but will give it a go this weekend.  I am excited to build this thing.  By the way, didn't I see a donate button on your site somewhere?  I just went looking for it and I couldn't find it.  I'd love to give you a little something to show you my appreciation.

The tapping function I have set at 2 taps, with a 3 second reset.  So I would just do the same 2 taps in the start area and it should work, correct?  I tried it every way imaginable and monkeyed with the settings.  I am thinking of avoiding the whole kill area with just adding the button to the jukebox that will run the Alt Tab script to use Vistaselect to switch between windows.  Then, I can always go back to STFE to choose another program assuming the "wait" checkbox is deselcted.  I think that is what you are saying about that checkbox is that if that is selected, I can always Alt Tab back to STFE to select something else, right?  So in order to use vistaselect to revisit STFE before a program exits, I need to deselect that checkbox for the jukebox, right?  I think I need to play around with it a little more this weekend.

It is foolproof with the F4 button I set it to then I can close everything with vistaselect.  that is a really cool little program, thanks again for sharing! 

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #106 on: January 13, 2010, 05:20:28 pm »
If you want to make a donation there is a link on the about page in the feconfig-program.  :cheers:

There is one checkbox for the kill-function and one for the start-function for each game/program you want to use it with.  Could it be that you've only checked the kill-function? If you want to use one of the functions for all games you can right-click the checkbox and select/deselect the choice for all games in the current config .

Other than that, you're spot on with your your observations :)
« Last Edit: January 13, 2010, 05:41:16 pm by Lave Laar »

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #107 on: January 13, 2010, 06:26:52 pm »
Thanks Lave!

If the donate link is in the program, that is why I couldn't find it.  I don't have the program on my laptop and I am travelling.  I appreciate the help.  Can you please post the link so that I and anyone else who appreciates your efforts can access it on the thread?  You should put it somewhere on your site too!

Best,
Dean

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #108 on: January 25, 2010, 08:17:11 pm »
Lars,

I spent some time with your great FE this weekend and have a few more questions.

1. When a prgoram that has the "wait" checkbox deselected is chosen,  STFE opens that program, I see it flash on the screen and then STFE pops back up on top of the just opened program.  Is this what is supposed to happen?  I thought the program would open up, but STFE would still be in the background as an opened program.
2. Most of the time when I hit the startup click area and it runs the vistatab alt-tab program, it only stays open for a second or two.  Sometimes is just pops up and flashes on the screen.  If I use the hotkey, however, it stays up until someone clicks.  This seems to be related to question 1 where STFE takes control.
3. What is the "L2" checkbox for?
4. Sometime a popup box pops up (infrequently) that says "mouse functions simple touch FE" and the boxes heading is simple touch FE

Thanks Lars, I appreciate the help.  My jukebox is almost complete, I am going to work on the lighting this weekend and then I'll send some pics!

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #109 on: February 15, 2010, 01:44:41 pm »
Just to refresh myself and to clarify -
Can I upgrade from say version 1.10 to 1.12 without having to re-configure everything?

Or should I take some precautinary measures so as not to lose any config file information?
i.e. Programs groups w/ listings, snapshots, etc
Not a technician . . . . just a DIY'er.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #110 on: February 15, 2010, 03:38:02 pm »
You need to make a backup of STFE.ini.  That's the file that contains the configuration for the FE.
All game-config-inis and snapshots will remain after an uninstall.

If you want to be absolutely sure, make a copy of the whole folder where the FE is installed before you uninstall the old version.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #111 on: February 15, 2010, 08:42:54 pm »
Upgraded without a hitch.... just ran the new version install and everything (programs and such) were still there as I had configured them. Just went in and changed some of the new setting included in this version and I was good to go.

Great software as usual.  :cheers:
 
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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #112 on: February 21, 2010, 08:17:57 pm »
3. What is the "L2" checkbox for?

I was just wondering that myself.

Also noticed that when I start STFE from the shortcut it will start my background music just fine. But if I have it set to run from the startup menu it does not start the background music.

eg.
Click Icon to start = Background Music
Reboot PC with STFE in Startup = No Background Music  

EDIT: My music folder is on a network drive at the moment, don't know if that makes a difference to the background music not coming up. I'll try some music from within the same PC and see what happens.

EDIT 2: When using a local music folder background music works fine after reboot.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2010, 11:46:17 pm by Kevin Mullins »
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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #113 on: February 26, 2010, 07:00:52 pm »
The L2 checkbox was implemented after the problem with the FE hanging on the first game launched.
If checked it will use another method for the launch of the games.  If you don't have a problem with the launching of games, then just ignore it.

If the music is on a network drive, the drive needs to be mapped before the FE is launched.
So on startup on your system this is clearly not the case  :)

You could launch the FE with a batch-file that maps the network drive first to make sure it's available.
Something like this (maps a drive to the letter x and then starts the FE):

@echo off
net use x: \\computername\sharename
c:
cd "c:\program files\simpletouch fe"
stfe.exe

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #114 on: February 27, 2010, 12:05:43 am »
You could launch the FE with a batch-file that maps the network drive first to make sure it's available.
Something like this (maps a drive to the letter x and then starts the FE):

@echo off
net use x: \\computername\sharename
c:
cd "c:\program files\simpletouch fe"
stfe.exe


Cool.... I'll give that a shot.
It wasn't anything critical at this point.
I just had the network drive setup for music as a temp (simply because there's a ton of music on it already) when I noticed the startup issue is all.

This project is coming along nicely with your support of course.  :cheers:
Not a technician . . . . just a DIY'er.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #115 on: March 06, 2010, 01:48:41 pm »
hi great program ive started to use it in my touchscreen gamebox  project.

im trying to get a couple of swp games running but two of the systems need different emulators to run them and the problem is that they cant be run at the same time.  The emulators run in the background so i just one of them before stfe.

To be truely useful to me can i use the command line launching/parameter box to launch and unlaunch the background emus for each game.  They are only small and startup pretty quickly so it wont be a problem starting and stopping them.

thanks


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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #116 on: July 23, 2010, 08:13:37 pm »
Can't get the kill function to work. Does this function work out of the box or do I have to enable it somewhere? The program i'm trying to kill is firefox.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #117 on: July 24, 2010, 09:18:42 pm »
Did you enable it with the checkbox in the STFE configuration for that particular program?
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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #118 on: July 24, 2010, 09:29:28 pm »
I can't find the checkbox?

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #119 on: July 28, 2010, 05:00:05 pm »
Has anyone been succesful in shelling the Frontend?

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #120 on: August 21, 2010, 06:33:11 pm »
OK. Back from the dead.  :)

@gonzo90017:
There is no difference in shelling STFE from other programs.
Look at the wiki or use instant sheller or my own quick sheller.

New version released:

* Fixed a bug that would delete game.inis when delete button was pressed. Regardless of what had focus.
* Fixed a bug in the skinmode that would not load the different skins for the configs.
* Added option to hide desktop icons.
* Added option to run a second program before each game/program.
* Added selectable alignment of the various fonts.
* Added option to customize the Mp3 info

As usual available here.


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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #121 on: August 21, 2010, 06:34:52 pm »
All great fixes/upgrades.  I can't wait to give it a go, Thanks Lars!

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #122 on: August 21, 2010, 07:25:32 pm »
Does this support video snaps?
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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #123 on: August 21, 2010, 08:32:42 pm »
Yes. It does.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #124 on: September 08, 2010, 10:37:30 am »
Just want to say a big thankyou for this software it's brilliant - especially with the new option of opening another program (emu) before launching the selected application.  One problem I have though (with this version and the previous version)... Everything on page 1 works great but any further pages show the games but when you click on them the corresponding game from page 1 loads up instead (same with every config tab).  As an example if I have Bullseye on page 1 as the 3rd item, move to page 2 and select Caveman Capers (3rd item on pae 2) Bullseye will load.  Anyone else have this problem or is it just me?  I've tried on 2 different computers which are both running Windows 7 64bit.

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #125 on: March 10, 2011, 02:03:39 pm »
New version 1.14.

Had a couple of requests for keyboard navigation. Since it was a quick job I decided to add it, despite it's a bit outside the scope of the program.
I've also added preliminary support for swf-files.  Couldn't find a way to mute them though...


What's new:
* Added code to prevent several games to load in succession if more than one image was clicked.
* Added support for optional keyboard navigation.
* Added preliminary support for flash videos (swf).
* Fixed some small bugs that I can't remember

Available here.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #126 on: March 29, 2011, 03:25:32 am »
Nice work, loving the swp integration.  Unfortunately the same problem I had still exists on this version so can't take advantage of the "attract" video files.  I have now tested on Windows XP as well as Windows 7 and both are having the same problem:

The 1st page works perfect, however any further pages don't.  Whatever you click on will load the corresponding item from page 1.  All of the videos are correct, it just seems to call the corresponding program from page 1.  If I don't use attract videos and just use pictures everything works great.

Any help really would be much appreciated as I'd love to get this working, cheers.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #127 on: April 11, 2011, 04:23:54 pm »
In my search for a simple, very lightweight solution to the "Pinball Pre-Front End" problem I landed here.  And this works perfectly with one exception ---

Can it work rotated? If I have to resort to Mrotate, it's back to the drawing board.  Can't seem to get MALA to work for me.  This, now that you added simple keyboard support, is SO SO CLOSE!!!

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #128 on: April 11, 2011, 05:51:59 pm »
Is this the same issue as discussed in this thread?:  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=110828.0

There is no rotation options built into the FE per se, but as it's more or less just images you can just rotate the four images for the selections and get the same effect.  

In the skin options under "Max number of" section. Select four game images and one config.  This will hide the config buttons and you're left with the four selection images on the first page.  Rotate these four in an image program and you should be good to go.
You will also need to check the "Hide game labels" option.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2011, 06:21:16 pm by Lave Laar »

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #129 on: April 15, 2011, 08:14:30 pm »
New version

* Fixed the bug where games with videos would load the game from the first page.
* Added option to quit the FE from one of the game images by setting "-quit" as the executable.

Here

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #130 on: April 15, 2011, 09:52:22 pm »
Thanks for the update.  The link on your website for download points to the previous version and it is not found.


The requested URL /~llindga/Programs/SetupSTFE114.exe was not found on this server.

Edit:  Thanks Dave works great now :D

« Last Edit: April 16, 2011, 08:26:31 am by BobA »

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #131 on: April 23, 2011, 08:46:58 pm »
@gwjrabbit
Did that solve the problem for you?
Feedback is always welcome :-)

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #132 on: April 23, 2013, 09:41:26 pm »
Raising an old topic as I need some help with this one......
I'm not new to STFE, but this has me stumped.

I built a toddler game/educational machine for little ones to play with (like our 2 year old), but have an issue with the screen going black and only the game audio running in the background. And it also seems to basically lock you out since nothing is touchable at that point, I have to manually kill the background program (via keyboard) in order to get STFE back up and then choose a game again.
 
It took me a while to figure out what he was doing to make it do that as I could not duplicate it if you used it as expected. Finally watched him close enough to see, what he's doing is quickly tapping multiple times on an image to lauch a game or movie or whatever it is. And even with everything sped up as best I can, it still seems to maybe try and launch multiple instances of that game and really screws it up.
 
I was curious if there was a way to implement a "delay" of some sorts that would allow only ONE click and then it would have to wait x-number of seconds before another click was recognized? (kind of like the delay for the kill, start, and pre-lauch areas if they work as I'm thinking they do) 
At least just for the images that actually launch games. Navigation and config buttons or power off stuff wouldn't need this.

Just to reiterate... this only happens when launching games or movies and such... never have a problem once something is up and running.
(and of course if you just touch the launch images once like normal then it works perfectly)

I've tried various versions of STFE, various skins, various mouse tweaks in WinXP...just can't figure out an option.
I even tested this "quick tapping" thing out on a slot machine I built with STFE a couple years ago, sure enough it will do it too if you tap quick enough.

Or if there is something else I might be overlooking I'd sure appreciate the advice.
 
Never thought I'd try and make a "toddler proof" machine just to have a toddler out do me. :)
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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #133 on: May 03, 2013, 01:20:12 pm »
Hi Guys. I'm sorry to be such a noob at this, but I am... How do I add PopCapGames to STFE? Each time I attempt to add the .exe to the config settings I get an error about not beaing able to write .ini.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #134 on: May 03, 2013, 01:28:29 pm »
This post won't be terribly helpful, because I am not at home to see my setup, but I have all of the popcap games setup through STFE.  (Fantastic program - Thanks Lave) 

I'll try and check it out tonight and post if there is anything out of the ordinary.  I recall that I just entered the EXE and it worked fine for me.

BTW, Kevin, I do experience the same symptoms you described with the black screen.  I believe that it has to do with the "wait" checkbox and is working by design.  You can either uncheck the "wait" checkbox or have a wiresless keyboard close by, hit escape and then stop the program which obviously then goes back to STFE.  I have a button programmed to "Alt Tab" and you can hit that button also to switch between programs on your touchscreen.  Checkout VistaSwitcher - works really well for touchscreens.

Dean

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #135 on: May 03, 2013, 01:37:39 pm »
This post won't be terribly helpful, because I am not at home to see my setup, but I have all of the popcap games setup through STFE.  (Fantastic program - Thanks Lave) 

I'll try and check it out tonight and post if there is anything out of the ordinary.  I recall that I just entered the EXE and it worked fine for me.

Dean

How do you mean "entered the EXE"? As in drag-and-drop? I tried that and it gave me the same error. I haven't been able to find a "how-to" for the software either.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #136 on: May 03, 2013, 01:43:02 pm »
In the STFE configuration program, you add the name of the game you are adding and the picture you want shown and then in the executable textbox, just add in the path to the game. 

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #137 on: May 03, 2013, 01:44:02 pm »
In the STFE configuration program, you add the name of the game you are adding and the picture you want shown and then in the executable textbox, just add in the path to the game.

I'll give it a shot right now. Thanks.

Edit: Am I supposed to use the installation EXE or the program EXE?
« Last Edit: May 03, 2013, 02:05:47 pm by johnpwilton »

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #138 on: May 03, 2013, 02:18:45 pm »
Edit: Am I supposed to use the installation EXE or the program EXE?

After you install the games ... drag the "program.exe" into STFE.
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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #139 on: May 03, 2013, 03:24:20 pm »
Thanks guys. I think I've got it now.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #140 on: August 12, 2013, 06:00:28 am »
Hi guys
I have been dipping my toe in the water recently with quiz machine emulation, and had older games like Cluedo and Blockbusters working, but only off the main exe file.  I remember I had to use something like ITBox or some other file running in the background.  I have installed SimpleTouch FE, added 2 roms, correct path to the exe, added a pic, when the emu starts up, I click on the pic of say Blockbusters from the menu screen, screen goes black for 1 sec then back to the menu screen, the game doesnt launch.  Do I have to have other files to get the games to launch? Any chance of a step by step 'how to' please?  Will the games work with a mouse?

Thanks in advance folks, love emulation :)

Stevie

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #141 on: August 12, 2013, 06:47:14 am »
And am I right in thinking Cliffs site has all the quiz machine files removed now? I cant see any listed.

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SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #142 on: August 12, 2013, 01:06:24 pm »
I cannot even get access to Cliffs site anymore, anyone know where we can find the files now?

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #143 on: August 12, 2013, 05:59:41 pm »
I can get access here but dont see any itbox or indie roms.

http://reproserv.no-ip.org/vfolder.ghp

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #144 on: August 17, 2013, 12:19:20 am »
I can get access here but dont see any itbox or indie roms.

http://reproserv.no-ip.org/vfolder.ghp

It's all still there, its just a little hard to find.
Go to Repro Resources, then Layout, and then SWP and you'll find all the files you need.
I'm actually in the process of building my machine now. I'll be sure to start a build thread soon.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #145 on: November 04, 2013, 04:05:26 pm »
Can any one help with  a manual to load a simple touch fe so new to this can't find any instructions.
     Any help would be  gods send

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #146 on: December 01, 2013, 03:46:45 pm »
I wanted to post a workaround to a problem I and a few others may have been having with our kids quickly tapping the screen images to start a game or what and causing the screen to go blank but has the game playing in the background. (basically causing STFE to be running on top of the game, but only with a black screen)

I finally got to doinkin' around with every possible option combination I could and found that if I set an image to be displayed upon clicking the original image everything seemed to work fine, never went to black screen, seems to work every time. (gonna let the kiddos "test" it out some more)

1. Choose the CONFIG grouping you want to change (01, 02, etc) and then on any game select the "Launch" option -
2. Then click inside the blank image box to open an explorer box -
3. Then navigate to whatever image you want to use, wherever you have it saved (I used a simple smiley face) -
4. Click the "Change All" if you want to use the same image for all games/programs in that Config grouping -
5. In the GENERAL SETTINGS I also made sure to have the image delay option set down to 1.
6. SAVE SETTINGS

All this does is pop up the image you have chosen for just a brief bit in the clickable area prior to the game/program launching.
You can of course use different images for every game/program if you want, but I didn't really see the need for all that.
Might even be able to set it to a blank image or whatever you want... I was just tickled to figure this much out as I was constantly having to "fix" this little machine while the 2 year old played on it.

I did notice that if I went ape crazy on clicking I could still get it to mess up, but I was having to go nuts on it, and it was only if I happened to click on it while that image area was blank.
The problem really occurs when the software is in 'transition" from STFE to whatever has been launched. So if the screen gets clicked on while it is in this "blank" state is when it seems to mess up. So this solution isn't perfect, but it seemed to "help".
« Last Edit: December 01, 2013, 04:01:50 pm by Kevin Mullins »
Not a technician . . . . just a DIY'er.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #147 on: December 01, 2013, 05:36:42 pm »
Thanks for this, Kevin, I'll have to give it a go.  I've noticed this happening a bunch to when the kids have some of their friends over.  Very detailed description and fix explanation.  Much appreciated!

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #148 on: December 01, 2013, 06:15:55 pm »
It's definitely not 100% fix, but it's all I could find to make it a little more less likely to happen.

What I did find out is that I use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (http://mpc-hc.org/) on this little machine to play movies from my pc (networked) and it has the option to display a "logo" (image) when it first starts up....and we NEVER have the black blanking screen issue when starting movies no matter how much it gets clicked on.
So I'm gonna watch the timing and such when the logo is displayed and when it's getting clicked on and all that a little closer and see if there is anything that can be done that will have a similar effect. Or see if I'm just imagining things. Lol

It's just the dambdest little software quirk, but it sure causes some headaches when the little ones are messing around with it.  :P 
Not a technician . . . . just a DIY'er.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #149 on: December 01, 2013, 10:34:06 pm »
Hi Lave, you still around?  Is there some minor fix in the program that can make this go away?  Also, I just noticed the skin on your last post above from August 22 - where can I get that skin?  It looks pretty cool!

Dean

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #150 on: January 31, 2014, 10:00:30 pm »
I just picked up a 23" touchscreen for a Jukebox project.
But I do want to add more depth and look forward to trying this front end.
I'll be doing a custom skin for sure.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #151 on: January 31, 2014, 11:20:25 pm »
The Metal Skin is pretty much perfection.
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #152 on: February 01, 2014, 07:25:58 pm »
I do like the metal skin ,but I think I'd revise it to tie in more with what I'm doing.
When/if I do it I will certainty make it available to all.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #153 on: February 12, 2014, 07:03:33 pm »
Got Simple Touch downloaded and installed today, same for the "metal" skin.
I'm yet to configure it as I don' have much tocuh friendly content at this point.

I'm running a much higher resolution than the provided skins.
However I figure I'll just open everything up as a layer on the background ,scale it, and then start tweaking in Photoshop.
I'll save them as needed.

As soon as the skin is done I'll make it available.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #154 on: February 14, 2014, 07:42:47 am »
I downloaded Simple Touch FE and the Metal skin.
I opened up all the graphic elements in Photoshop and sized them to fit a 1920 x 1080 background.
I've started building a skin overtop metal.
I'm hoping it works !
I'll post progress.

It is themed after my Touch Jams skin : Little Black Box
http://www.touchjams.com/default.asp?page=skins_ws#Red 1366 x 768

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #155 on: May 15, 2014, 07:17:32 am »
Hi,

Im a new poster looking for some advice hopefully. Ive recently aquired an all-in-one touchscreen PC running windows 7 (thinking of moving to windows 8). Im  looking to use it for all media use (TV, Movie streaming,installing a jukebox program) but what im stuck on are the megatouch/itbox/swp quiz machine games.

Ive downloaded both the 37 SWP Game Torrent thats going about and all of the touch roms/emulators/files and can play them no problem with the required emulators, but ive learned of a "Front End" program called SimpleTouch FE, which would make it easier for my family to access and play the games, yet every time I try to add agmes I get errors.

I keep hearing about MAME, but ive never had any experience with it and it seems alot more vast than just these touch screen quiz games, and Ive no experience coding, but I was hoping that someone could at least point me in the right direction regarding my dilema, im missing something but just cant see it.

Anyways im looking forward to your reply,

Cheers, Dean
« Last Edit: May 16, 2014, 02:51:03 pm by HaRuMaN »

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #156 on: May 16, 2014, 03:58:39 am »
Hi again, ive finally cracked it, for some reason SimpleTouch wasnt running as admin and wouldnt write to any of the program files, running it as an admin solved everything and ive now got a front end for my touch screen :D, next to find a jukebox software and im sorted

cheers

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #157 on: May 16, 2014, 10:04:13 am »
I was running silverjuke with the eagle bluetouch skin, but I've since switched over to zenpoint digital center.  I think you'll be pretty happy with zenpoint.    Good luck!

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #158 on: May 16, 2014, 05:04:13 pm »
I sort of liked this when I checked them all out a year or so ago. http://dwjukebox.com/
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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #159 on: May 16, 2014, 05:06:39 pm »
I sort of liked this when I checked them all out a year or so ago. http://dwjukebox.com/

I ***love*** DWJukebox - it's very simple and works great in "singles" mode.
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #160 on: May 03, 2015, 11:07:21 am »
Sorry to drag up an old post, I have been using this fine programme for a while and I love it.
I have an old megatouch cabinet that was non working so I decided to try putting in a pc running STFE and have just finally got it working on the original vga monitor in the merit cab.
Problem now is the homescreen shows all the games fine but when I select one the graphics go awol on me again.
I have used quickres and just about to try soft15khz but just wondered if I have missed something glaringly obvious in Simple Touch.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #161 on: May 06, 2015, 12:36:03 pm »
Ok im still having issue with trying to play anything on the old vga monitor in the megatouch cab.
The STFE menu pages all display as normal and show the screenshots as it should but as soon as a game is selected the screen goes all scrambled and nothing is playable.
I obviously need to set resolution for games but cannot see anywhere in simple touch to do this.
I know people have put newer hardware in these cabs and got everything working but I just cant find any info about how they cured this problem.
Any info or advice greatly welcomed, it's driving me mad lol

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #162 on: May 06, 2015, 12:54:51 pm »
Set the resolution lower from within the games you are trying to play. It would be nice to know the maximum resolution of the monitor you are using. What model is it?
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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #163 on: May 06, 2015, 01:11:42 pm »
Hi, Monitor is a tatung type 58 if that helps
I can't see anywhere in STFE to set res in each game, these are the swp games not mame btw.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #164 on: May 06, 2015, 07:09:42 pm »
Does the games run ok when started manually? Without using the FE.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #165 on: May 07, 2015, 07:39:28 am »
Does the games run ok when started manually? Without using the FE.

Not tried that tbh, will give it a go later and see.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #166 on: May 08, 2015, 07:06:29 am »
Same issues with resolution when started manually.
soft15 will not work on win7 when I try it I just get a box up with all options - install ect all greyed out.
Quickres sorts my desktop ok and even STFE menu/game selection page displays fine yet all goes west when I try to play anything.
Maybe xp needs installing and try again.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #167 on: September 01, 2015, 07:58:20 pm »
How exactly can I set up SimpleTouchFE to launch a particular MAME ROM? I can't seem to find a straight tutorial.

Thanks,
-Doug

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #168 on: September 02, 2015, 07:12:42 am »
mine tm8k.ini looks like this....(in the folder config\config01)


[Game]
DisplayName=Touch Master 8000
Program=C:\MAME137\Mame.exe
Parameters=tm8k
Image=C:\SimpleTouch\snapshots\tm8k.gif
Wait=1

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #169 on: January 08, 2016, 04:07:51 am »
Sorry to revive such an old thread...
Since the developer's website seems to be down, is there any way to get any skins for SimpleTouch FE?
So far I wasn't able to find any.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #170 on: January 15, 2016, 07:05:58 am »
To be more specific, I'm looking for the LCARS (Star Trek) skin for SimpleTouch FE.
I could try to reproduce it from the screenshot I was able to find.
But it would save me a lot of work if someone could provide me the thing...


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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #171 on: April 09, 2016, 06:03:55 pm »
Anyone ever modded a skin to have more than 16 snapshots? My config will allow upto 20 and I've allowed 17 in the skin, All the placeholders are there but the 17th image is always missing. If I remove the image from say the 7th slot, then the image in slot 17 will appear. It seems to just not want to display more than 16 images on a single page :-S

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #172 on: May 10, 2016, 12:55:22 pm »
My ISP decided to stop the hosting of web-sites for all their customers.
Have not found a new place to put everything.
It's still available through the Wayback Machine  http://web.archive.org/web/20151030211650/http://home.online.no/~llindga/
So if you need any skins you can download them there.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #173 on: December 12, 2016, 05:34:36 pm »
I have seen videos where this is used for emulators, yet can't find any directions on setting that up.  Any help in adding rom files and getting them to run?

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #174 on: September 11, 2017, 03:44:10 pm »
sorry to drag up an old topic. first let me say I think the software is fantastic and has every feature I want. I understand how it works etc and understand the set up. it got it running ITBOX, jukebox etc.
one problem if anyone can help ( and I know its not supported anymore )
in all the config sets except the first one, it seems to load game 9 ( bottom right ) when I select game 3 ( top right ) when there are 9 games in a screen . tried lots of different skins, and changed the max number of images to 9 ( from 12) and tested it to death but it still does it
Tempted to completely un install or even try and get a copy of 1.14 to see if it does the same.
really frustrating as except for that its perfect. ive tried looking in all the read me files, tried 6 or 7 different skins and combinations of max number of images etc.
cheers for any help
cheers for any tips.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #175 on: September 13, 2017, 01:11:13 pm »
Hi Richard, I spent ages and ages trying to solve a similar problem and never found an answer. I also tried every skin that I could and everything else worked fine but when I would click on certain games (Can't remember if was same tile as yours) a completely different one would load.  I'm sort of glad to see I wasn't the only one with the problem.  If you do get a solution post it here :)

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #176 on: September 14, 2017, 09:00:43 am »
There was a similar problem to this once where a different game would load.
I thought it was fixed, but it could be I never checked for different configs.
I'm kinda busy with real life/work right now, but will take a look at it once I get some free time.

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #177 on: September 18, 2017, 09:39:26 am »
All games launch correctly with my simple skin (maybe because 16 games per page)

my simple skin:


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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #178 on: July 18, 2019, 10:44:55 am »
Hi, did anyone ever find a solution to this problem?

I've found that the issue of the wrong game loading only occurs when you change from configuration to configuration and then load a game where its attract artwork is a video. I tried all video formats thinking it could be a SWF issue only, but it affects all video formats. GIF and other image formats load the correct game, but GIFs have a horrendous colour limitation.

Lave Laar - if you're listening, could you kindly open up the source code so we may fix this issue as it renders the software unusable with video formats?

Thank you

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #179 on: July 22, 2019, 10:48:04 am »
Hi,

I'm not going to make the source code available, as it's in no state to be released.
However, I think I found the bug, and have made a new version 1.16.

I don't have a website anymore, but have uploaded it to one-drive.
Should be available here:  https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ag-miztRAHvMbFYSMjsgQemHZJM?e=ptIyfb

Let me know if this fixes the issue.

Drnick

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #180 on: July 22, 2019, 03:34:13 pm »
Hi,

I'm not going to make the source code available, as it's in no state to be released.
However, I think I found the bug, and have made a new version 1.16.

I don't have a website anymore, but have uploaded it to one-drive.
Should be available here:  https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ag-miztRAHvMbFYSMjsgQemHZJM?e=ptIyfb

Let me know if this fixes the issue.

I'll pull the old girl out of mothballs and have a play at the weekend.  :applaud: :applaud: :applaud:

adamgp

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #181 on: September 13, 2019, 04:32:14 pm »
Hi,

I'm not going to make the source code available, as it's in no state to be released.
However, I think I found the bug, and have made a new version 1.16.

I don't have a website anymore, but have uploaded it to one-drive.
Should be available here:  https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ag-miztRAHvMbFYSMjsgQemHZJM?e=ptIyfb

Let me know if this fixes the issue.

Hi Lave

Thanks for the response and sorry for the delay - I really didn't expect such a prompt reply and should have followed this topic.

Your fix has worked thank you! I've only tried SWFs file formats however. But thank you so much. What was the issue out of interest as I've asked so many people if they had the same problem and few seem to encounter it like myself? Is it related to the shutdown sequence only sometimes invoking after switching configs?

If you don't mind me asking are you open to further minor fixes/tweaks? Is so please see attached - when loading SWF attracts a large black border renders around the animation, this doesn't affect other video formats - but other formats on mass cause a CPU issue. Is it possible to reduce/remove this border? The green ticks show correct image attracts and the red arrows identify the video attracts with the border issue.

The only other very helpful thing would be a txt log of each game loaded with a timestamp - I could then analyse this on boot with a bat file to derive a "Players choice" config ini list that self adjusts!

Thanks again, Adam

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #182 on: January 16, 2020, 06:34:35 am »
Hi, Is anyone able to help me get some old SWP games to run? I have downloaded a load of them but the error message i'm getting is sockets failed. I think maybe i need to run an emulator or something to get it to work?

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #183 on: January 21, 2020, 04:14:46 pm »
You need to emulate a credit board to make things work. Can't point you in the right direction to the files directly here though.  Also another thing is make sure you have ffdshow installed as most games require it. Make sure to test outside of Simpletouch before attempting to add them.

Aladdin Wii Genius

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #184 on: April 20, 2020, 03:46:34 am »
Hi there. Nice to see so many people using my configs for simpletouch FE. If you need any help on setting up my AIOFE feel free to join touchscreen machines on Facebook and I can helo, answer ALL your questions.
As they say you don't talk to the monkey, you talk the organ grinder. Cheers the one and only Aladdin.

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #185 on: November 03, 2020, 05:26:55 pm »
I've had some time to fix some of the problems, and have released a new version.

* Fixed a bug that could cause an "Access vialoation" error when selecting certain configs with a large number of configs.
* Fixed a bug that could prevent a program from beeing launched if no picture was assigned.
* Removed the border around flash videos.
* Updated the function used on "Run on poweroff".  The old one didn't work on windows 7 and up.
* Added an optional attract mode.
* Added an option to log the launching of games.

Still don't have a webpage, but I put it on OneDrive.
Should be available here:  https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ais-EaM-BiA3b2fLbFTZ_ztxYag

betty02

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #186 on: January 09, 2021, 04:54:49 am »
I've had some time to fix some of the problems, and have released a new version.

* Fixed a bug that could cause an "Access vialoation" error when selecting certain configs with a large number of configs.
* Fixed a bug that could prevent a program from beeing launched if no picture was assigned.
* Removed the border around flash videos.
* Updated the function used on "Run on poweroff".  The old one didn't work on windows 7 and up.
* Added an optional attract mode.
* Added an option to log the launching of games.

Still don't have a webpage, but I put it on OneDrive.
Should be available here:  https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ais-EaM-BiA3b2fLbFTZ_ztxYag


This is perfect thanks, I don't suppose you are able to host the actual emulators are you? All the popular sites have dead links etc. I need well I think I need inbox, inbox save and inde? Just creating a pub quiz machine as a lockdown 3.0 project but can't for the life of me figure out where to get these emulators!

Happy to be DM'd! Life saver :)

Easybeatuk

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #187 on: January 11, 2021, 08:10:47 pm »
Hopefully Lave Laar is still around.

With the end of Flash player using SWF files is no longer possible as flash player is uninstalled from Windows 10 via an update and apparently can't be re-installed. Is there a work around to this as AVI files are a lot slower loading.

hellraizer

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #188 on: March 24, 2021, 07:03:55 am »
Hello all,

Hoping to find some help as i am really struggling setting up the simpletouch fe program. I am running windows 10 on a touchscreen pc, when i try to run the program it comes up with class not registered and then unable to do anything with the config set.

Thank you in advance

Easybeatuk

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #189 on: March 24, 2021, 05:34:54 pm »
It's a problem with Adobe/Microsoft removing Flash player from Windows, I dropped down to STFE version 1.12 and it worked again however that still did not fix the problem with flash/swf files.

I then lucked out, I followed a guide on swfmax.com to give their player the ability to play flash files and installed a version of adobe flash player that not only worked with swf player but Simpletouch as well.

I can't link but the version you are looking for is flashplayer32_0r0_371_winax.

Hope this helps

adamgp

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #190 on: May 21, 2021, 10:48:32 am »
I've had some time to fix some of the problems, and have released a new version.

* Fixed a bug that could cause an "Access vialoation" error when selecting certain configs with a large number of configs.
* Fixed a bug that could prevent a program from beeing launched if no picture was assigned.
* Removed the border around flash videos.
* Updated the function used on "Run on poweroff".  The old one didn't work on windows 7 and up.
* Added an optional attract mode.
* Added an option to log the launching of games.

Still don't have a webpage, but I put it on OneDrive.
Should be available here:  https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ais-EaM-BiA3b2fLbFTZ_ztxYag

Just noticed this, thanks for updating!

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #191 on: September 01, 2021, 05:19:30 pm »
New version 1.18 released.

New in this version:
* Fixed a bug that would cause "Access violation" when using a launch image together with swf-files.
* Fixed a bug that would not clear the image/movie in the config program when right-clicking the image/movie.
* Fixed a bug in the auto-insert code that would add the program path to the image-setting.  Even if no picture was found.
* Fixed a bug when using a multi-config-ini skin that would not properly load the correct config-skin.
* Fixed a bug where drag and drop would not add programs to the currently selected config.
* Fixed a bug where quotes or double quotes could be deleted if they where at the start and end of the parameters box.
* Added an option to set screen resolution before launching a game and then reset to old resolution upon exit.
* Added an option to use a default launch image with the skin.
* Added an option to use a custom cursor with the skin.
* Added an option to exit back to FE from attract mode after x number of movie/picture changes.
* Added an option to automatically start the FE on Windows startup.
* Added an option to change drive letter inside all ini-files.
* Added code to support all direct show codecs for video-display.
* Added keyboard shortcuts for copying/pasting size/position properties in skin mode. See readme.txt for details.
* Updated to the latest version of bass.dll as there were problems with the reading of some tags.
* Changed the layout of the FeConfig program slightly.
* Changed the launch code to hide the window when starting a console game e.g. Mame.

Also created a simple new web-page.
Available at https://lavelaar.com/stfe

TheElectricMonk

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #192 on: September 19, 2021, 06:00:20 pm »
Thank you for this amazing piece of software! I tried it for the first time today and it does pretty much everything I need it to do.

Two questions:
1. Is it possible for a "normal user" (i.e. without having to bother you about tinkering with the code) to limit the options of the Poweroff menu?
I don't need Quit, Reboot, Standby or Hibernate, just Shutdown. Can I set these options somewhere?

2. Is it possible to exit the Poweroff menu? I haven't found a way yet, and it's a bit of a pain not to be able to go back to the main menu in case someone unwittingly touches the Poweroff menu button.

At the moment, my workaround is as follows:

Skin menu:
- "Hide poweroff image" unchecked

Poweroff menu:
- "Disable poweroff image" unchecked
- "Enable poweroff screen" unchecked
- "Use poweroff delay" 5 seconds
- Run on poweroff: c:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe, Parameters /f /s /t 0

This will ensure the machine shuts down ONLY if I keep the shutdown menu button pressed for really long.
Also, I set the Poweroff keys to something different than my "quit game" key, so any of the Poweroff functions won't get triggered accidentally.

As I said, this works nicely for the time being, just wondering if I had maybe overlooked another way.

Again, thank you!

Lave Laar

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #193 on: September 23, 2021, 05:17:30 am »
I have not put much effort into the poweroff menu, so there are not many options.
But agree that the option to exit the menu should be available.

You could rename/delete the images you don't need in the "ShutdownImages" folder of the skin.
However that would only hide the options and you would still be able to click the placeholders.

Another option is to activate the pin-code option.  This will make the shutdown menu unavailable if you don't know the pin.
And it will revert to STFE if you enter the wrong pin.

I will see if I can address these in a future version.

TheElectricMonk

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #194 on: September 24, 2021, 12:13:27 am »
Thanks for the reply!

I was just interested, since I've mainly been using MaLa as a frontend in my other non-touch cabs, and I guess I've gotten used to being able to opt out of the exit menu  :)

Now that I've had time to tinker with STFE a bit, I actually found that the delayed exit button strategy is my favorite option, since there is no way you can exit by accident. So no need to change anything on my behalf, and thank you again for your great work!

mviars

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Re: SimpleTouch FE
« Reply #195 on: January 09, 2022, 08:39:05 pm »
IS there anyway to get around the "class not registered" pop up error when i start Simpletouch FE?