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A Mame machine in an antique buffet - USB probs solved (I think!)
saurian333:
Yeah, I don't think the light modules would be too difficult to take apart if you really wanted to. I can look at mine more closely if you want to know about the construction; there may be some screws or something on bottom. I guess I was thinking you could just stick the modules down in the bottom of your cab, unless you really did want them behind the monitor. The software is fairly configurable. I haven't tested it with MAME yet (I think it only grabs from Direct3D or OpenGL output, FYI), but it should work OK. It basically grabs colors from different areas of the screen and lights the right combination of LEDs for that color. I've used it on a couple of movies as well as Red Alert 3 and Far Cry 2, and it works quite nicely.
The nice thing (that I haven't actually played with) is that you can create your own profiles for it, setting brightness levels and such. I'm not sure exactly to what extent you can configure things, but it may be enough that you don't have to take them apart. The wallwasher unit has 3 separate light modules in it, and the L/R ones each have one. Again, if you really want them to actually be behind your monitor, you might have some disassembly ahead of you. Personally, I think it would be kind of cool to have the ambient light emanating from below!
I'll test with MameUI one of these days and see what I can get going. Glad to be able to suggest something useful to you. :) I think the lighting effects to go with games is a great idea; it's unfortunate that it hasn't caught on terribly well and doesn't have the greatest support as a result (the main issue is with drivers under Win7 64-bit).
Also glad to hear your cab got some play time! TMNT is definitely among the great 4-player games, one of my personal favorites. Even 2-player on the NES version was fun.
drventure:
Hey Saurian
Definitely, that's a heck of a buy compared to the ARFX.
About the software, from what I saw online, there's some sort of software driver that, if the current running app doesn't output ambx commands, can "interpret" the average color of the screen and drive the ambx modules that way? Is that right? Does it work pretty good or have you played with it?
Since this is a mame cab, I'm pretty sure there won't be anything runnning on it that'll actually generate ambx commands, so i'd have to use something that can "detect" the average color on screen and drive the lights accordingly.
Yeah, what I'm envisioning is the wallwasher lights behind the screen, with the other 2 modules down below, lighting things up from below.
Heck, if I decase it, I'm thinking I +might+ be able to wire in additional LEDs to the lines that are driving the existing ones. That'd be very cool!
saurian333:
--- Quote from: drventure on January 03, 2010, 09:41:28 pm ---About the software, from what I saw online, there's some sort of software driver that, if the current running app doesn't output ambx commands, can "interpret" the average color of the screen and drive the ambx modules that way? Is that right? Does it work pretty good or have you played with it?
Since this is a mame cab, I'm pretty sure there won't be anything runnning on it that'll actually generate ambx commands, so i'd have to use something that can "detect" the average color on screen and drive the lights accordingly.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, that's essentially how it works. I haven't yet tried any games that aren't on this list, though (I've only had it for a month or so, and don't get a whole bunch of free time for gaming lately). Like I said, I think it only works for Direct3D or OpenGL; MAME can handle that, right? I know the Linux version (SDLMame, e.g.) will do OpenGL, but haven't played with the Windows one in a long time. Anyway, if the amBX software doesn't pick up the app and let you configure it, there is a fan-developed app called Aurora Synesthesia that works with anything displayed on the screen, so you should be safe. I have played with that program only a little, but it was picking up even the colors of web pages in Firefox and such. I've found that the official software provides a somewhat better experience in most cases, but AS has lots of cool options (including reaction to sound; it's pretty awesome with both sound and video reactions enabled).
--- Quote from: drventure on January 03, 2010, 09:41:28 pm ---Yeah, what I'm envisioning is the wallwasher lights behind the screen, with the other 2 modules down below, lighting things up from below.
Heck, if I decase it, I'm thinking I +might+ be able to wire in additional LEDs to the lines that are driving the existing ones. That'd be very cool!
--- End quote ---
That would be interesting; not sure how simple it would be, though. Each of the 5 modules has what I assume to be a "cluster" of LEDs that allows you to get the full range of 16 million colors. I'd imagine you'd have to wire your new LEDs in parallel (and matching colors) with the existing ones. I think you'd pretty much just accomplish expanding the area of a particular module, which normally reacts to something in a certain position on the screen. For example, in a flight combat game of some kind, you might have a blue sky on most of your screen, causing all the modules to light up blue. If a plane explodes on the left side of the screen, only the leftmost module and maybe the left wallwasher would light orange/red/whatever. If you expanded on that with more LEDs, you'd just have a larger area of orange.
Now, I don't know exactly how it works, but I've seen setups with expansion modules that have up to 4 of the little towers (which would be just one additional pair). Then the amBX software could be configured for the two new locations and take them into account. But I'm really thinking the lights included in the basic set are plenty for your cabinet.
Obviously what you do is totally your decision, and I'm certainly not opposed to experimenting. ;) I just wouldn't want you to go soldering away putting new LEDs in and then deciding it was a waste of time. But if you did try it and got a really cool effect out of it, that would be...well, really cool!
In any case, I'm excited that you're looking into it. Your buffet cabinet is one of very few designs out there that would lend well to something like this, and I think it will be a sweet addition.
saurian333:
OK Doc, just tried out amBX with MameUI. Friggin' SWEET! MameUI specifically gives the option for Direct3D, which is how the amBX software detects it, and it works great! Not perfect for vertically oriented games, I'm afraid; the satellites don't pick things up that far from the edge of the screen, but the wallwashers still work.
Pretty cool; I'm glad you turned me on to this idea! I might work amBX into my next cabinet now! (SO many ideas for my next build already...argh!!)
drventure:
That sounds very cool! Thanks for checking it out. Definitely on my short list of bits to buy now!
Yeah, I'll likely stay away from adding led's esp if you can add two more modules directly. Probably not worth the trouble or risk.
As long as I can just add wire to the LEDs in the wall washer to relocate them behind my monitor, that should be good enough, sounds like.
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