Startcom MALA plugin - add support for "other emulators"

[csa3d]

Csa3d: I have made the screen flip opposite the way my does. Email sent, let me know how it works.

Ok, tested 5.3.  When exiting a vertical game, I still see two menu flips happen.  The first flip still properly sets the menu.  This 'proper' flip is the equivalent of the bottom of the menu being on the right side of the monitor should it be set horizontally.  The second flip essentially puts the menu bottom on the bottom of the monitor screen should it be set horizontally.  What this means is that now with 5.3, when exiting a vertical game, the menu is sideways, with the bottom of the menu to the left of the cab.

-csa

[DaOld Man]

Alright... back to the grindstone..

Are you still getting errors?

BTW, I cant name my new plugin "Mala Rotate" because I was looking through some old posts and Weishaup already has a plugin by that name.
So hold up on the icons for now.

Edit: is it possible to post pics of your horz and vert screen positions?

[DaOld Man]

I just sent you V5.3.1
This works good on my desktop, with me imagining that the screen is turning counter clockwise from horz to vert.

Here are screen shots of my mala options, plus you can see how the mala screen is turned with the monitor horizontal.

[csa3d]

I just sent you V5.3.1
This works good on my desktop, with me imagining that the screen is turning counter clockwise from horz to vert.

Here are screen shots of my mala options, plus you can see how the mala screen is turned with the monitor horizontal.

Whatever you changed in this version makes the menu rotation work properly, and only rotate 1 visible flip.  Well done!   

I still get occasional IOErrors.  I think I've tracked them down to happening if..
1.)  You have your StartCom settings set prior, and go into Mala's config menu, and change them.  Save the settings and exit.  Choose a few games.  I receive warnings every time a new game starts until I reboot Mala.  The issue seems to subside thereafter.

2.) Flipping back and forth between Mame vertical and Stella horizontal.  I think what's going on is that your MRotate plugin should not let go over MALA control until the rotation is absolutely finished.  For instance, LedBlinky speak and spell doesn't allow your MRotate to be called until he is done talking.  Then for whatever reason, Mala says it's time for Startcom to go.  I'm guessing startcom does what it needs to figure out which way to rotate, then calls the external MRotate.  Control is then passed to allow the emulator to begin launch, but Mala and MRotate are still possibly checking each other back and forth to verify if rotation is finished   It appears Stella has a 50/50 chance of loading in the foreground, and is rather random.  What I can tell you for sure, is that if you start Mala in the Stella emulator, all ready rotated horizontally, you can launch Stella games all day and not loose focus.  It's when you flip from Mame to Stell (with or without monitor rotation) when the focus appears to be lost.

I'd say move onto embedding Mrotate into DLL and see if that helps any.  Otherwise, I suspect you and loadman should have a chat about plugin priorities, or possibly even multithreading or allowing the user to define order of opperation somehow.

-csa

[DaOld Man]

Thanks for the work CSA3d.
On my desktop, everything works great.
But on my cabinet PC, I am seeing the same thing with gens that you are seeing with Stella.
If the monitor is already horizontal when I start a game in gens, then gens starts full screen, if mrotate has to turn the monitor, then gens starts in a window.
Im not using any other plugins.
I also dont know why it works on my desktop PC but not my arcade PC, unless it's because my desktop is a lot more powerful?
Im not sure whats going on, maybe Loadman can shed some light.

[DaOld Man]

Heres a screen shot of configure screen Startcom V5.3.2. I added what CSA3d wanted as an option.

[DaOld Man]

I found a bug in startcom and hopefully have fixed it. I just sent it to you, csa3d.

Seems like I had misplaced a end; statement.

Those end; statements and decimal points will get you every time!

My latest fix works on my arcade PC, but to run gens in vertical mode (not normal, just testing), I must set startcom to load mrotate2 and wait, or else gens starts in a window.

I also figured out why it was working on my desktop PC and not my arcade PC before, but thats moot now.

If this works for csa3d, then I plan to call this project finished and will post it for download on malafe.net.
Then I will move on to the startcom/mrotate2 merged plugin.
I think I will keep startcom as it is for people who would rather use an external program to rotate their monitor. Maybe post both versions on malafe.net.

[csa3d]

I found a bug in startcom and hopefully have fixed it. I just sent it to you, csa3d.

Seems like I had misplaced a end; statement.

Those end; statements and decimal points will get you every time!

My latest fix works on my arcade PC, but to run gens in vertical mode (not normal, just testing), I must set startcom to load mrotate2 and wait, or else gens starts in a window.

I also figured out why it was working on my desktop PC and not my arcade PC before, but thats moot now.

If this works for csa3d, then I plan to call this project finished and will post it for download on malafe.net.
Then I will move on to the startcom/mrotate2 merged plugin.
I think I will keep startcom as it is for people who would rather use an external program to rotate their monitor. Maybe post both versions on malafe.net.

Awesome!  I'll give it a go tonight and report back.  If this works properly, I don't really see a need to merge the plugin personally.  I would only advocate it if it fixes the loss of focus issue, otherwise it's code for code's sake.

-csa

[DaOld Man]

Thanks csa3d!

I made a button on the options screen to give credit to the beta testers.
Did I leave anyone out?
If I did I apologize, please PM me and I will fix it.

[csa3d]

So I tested this last night a bit.  I'm pretty confident that this version of StartCom is golden!  I'm able to get Stella to to retain focus every time I've tried it thus far.

Now, I'm still having issues with my setup, which affect StartCom.. but I'm not sure they are StartCom's fault.  My plugins include LedBlinky w/ speak turned on, StartCom+Mrotate, MonOri to set the initial startup screen rotation position based on last shutdown, ipac2 pre-emulator commands for the iPac encoder, and finally LedBlinky setting my u360's for digital restriction.

If I launch a game and begin button mashing (which my friends do for no reason), it's possible to get StartCom to IOError.  I haven't tracked down why but know the following:
After launching a game, it continutes to record keypresses.  If I mash on the start button, Mala launches a bunch of versions of the game from what I can tell, because there are a ton of ultramap.exe's running in the background

I'll see if I can't narrow this down to Mala, UltraMap, or Ledblinky.  The button mashing is my only source of error at the moment.
-csa

[DaOld Man]

Thanks for the testing Csa3d!

I think I would try removing the plugins one at a time to see if you can find which one is causing you the trouble.
Ive found that if you rename it mala wont see it and you can easily get it back later. Example: rename startcom.mplugin to startcom.mpluginx.

About the monori plugin:
Loadman wrote that for me, I requested it for people who manually move their screens, either physically or with a switch.
That way mala knows what position the monitor is on startup, even if the screen got turned while mala was off.
But I really dont think you need this plugin with an automatic setup like you have. Mala remembers the last position it was in, and if you cant easily move the monitor between mala sessions, then monori may not be necessary.
I'm not using monori. But Im thinking of making it an option on the new startcom/mrotate version.
I think I would take monori out of the picture first (by renaming it), just to see what happens.

Edit: Another thing I just though of, make sure mrotate2 doesnt have a keyboard key assigned to stop rotation. I put this function in there to give you a way to stop rotation if something goes wrong, but Ive found mala takes the focus away from it, BUT with all the other plugins you have running, mrotate may be getting the focus back during the button mashes.
It could be screwing with mala.

[Haterot]

DaOld Man if i call mrotate.exe 0 and my monitor is already horizontal will it spin it. I think no (because i have tried this a few times) but I want confirmation.
I am writing some autohotkey code for Hyperspin. I am trying to devise a way l the <display rotate="??" data for the rom out so i can send it to mrotate.

[DaOld Man]

You are correct, if you call mrotate2 0 and the horizontal limit switch is already made, then mrotate2 just ends.

The same applies to mrotate2 90, if the vertical limit switch is made.

Good luck with your hyperspin project, and please post your results on here so others may benefit.

[csa3d]

About the monori plugin:
Loadman wrote that for me, I requested it for people who manually move their screens, either physically or with a switch.
That way mala knows what position the monitor is on startup, even if the screen got turned while mala was off.
But I really dont think you need this plugin with an automatic setup like you have. Mala remembers the last position it was in, and if you cant easily move the monitor between mala sessions, then monori may not be necessary.
I'm not using monori. But Im thinking of making it an option on the new startcom/mrotate version.
I think I would take monori out of the picture first (by renaming it), just to see what happens.

I remembered why I'm using MonOri.  I have a bat file that runs upon Mala Exit, which rotates the screen back to horizontal.  This allows me to exit in vertical mode and expect the monitor to rotate back to 'normal' so I can admin the machine.

-csa