Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Front End Support => MaLa Frontend => Topic started by: Qwintin on September 17, 2013, 09:31:39 am

Title: how to see the current music played
Post by: Qwintin on September 17, 2013, 09:31:39 am

Hi there,

i was just wondering if there was a way, an easy way i mean, to know the current music played in mala (other than going into the configuration of the jukebox to see the title, because that's not very cabinet friendly).

Thanks in advance

Title: Re: how to see the current music played
Post by: drventure on September 17, 2013, 10:34:34 am

Unfortunately, I don't believe there's any API in mala that will notify a plugin of the currently playing song.

There's a ScreenSaverSwitch callback, which is called as the screensaver switches to a new file, but that's not necessarily background music notifications.

HOWEVER, it looks like if you read the MALA.INI file, there is a LASTSONG=entry with a number, add 1 to that number, and then look in the MALA.PLS file, for FILE##, and that should tell you the currently playing (or lasted played if mala isn't running) song.

The downside to that approach is you have to poll the INI file constantly to detect when it changes.

Title: Re: how to see the current music played
Post by: Qwintin on September 18, 2013, 02:34:53 am

ok so it seems there is no easy way to do it  ;D

i was thinking more about a pop-up window that opens on a key pressed, like the tab does for the current selected game.  Anyway, this could be a nice enhancement, i think


thanks

Title: Re: how to see the current music played
Post by: drventure on September 18, 2013, 07:34:57 am

Well, if all you want is info on the track, you can place a custom text box on your layout somewhere and show various info about the Background music track that's currently playing.

Check out the Mala Layout Editor, specifically the TEXT objects, and look for the BKMusic options that are available. You can show info like the Title, Artist, Album, etc in a custom text field.