WinCab Jukebox question...

[RacerX]

When you run WinCab jukebox, the mouse cursor is visible.  Is there a setting in the jukebox.ini file to make it invisible that I am missing?  When I run the program on my arcade cab, I just move the cursor to the edge of the screen so you can't see it, but I'm about to build a dedicated jukebox, and I won't have a mouse available to move it off screen on that so I really need to make it disappear somehow.

Last night, I even tried writing a wrapper in VB that makes the cursor invisible, runs JukeWin.exe, then makes the cursor visible again when you exit JukeWin.exe, but the cursor was still visible in WinCab, it was only invisible when mousing over the VB form.  So much for that idea.  

[Chris]

I'm guessing you're using Windows XP?  I do turn off the cursor, but XP doesn't seem to honor it.    This is an issue with the Allegro library that I'm using; I'll see if a more recent version gets around the problem, as I now have XP on my development machine.

Otherwise, if you're doing a dedicated jukebox, you could set the Windows cursor to blank, or perhaps to a single dot that you'll only see when you're looking for it.

If it's not XP, let me know what you're running...

--Chris

[Thenasty]

what about not hooking up a mouse. I don't remember if the pointer is visible when there are no mouse connected.

[Chris]

I'm pretty sure it is....

[RacerX]

I'm guessing you're using Windows XP?  I do turn off the cursor, but XP doesn't seem to honor it.    This is an issue with the Allegro library that I'm using; I'll see if a more recent version gets around the problem, as I now have XP on my development machine.

Otherwise, if you're doing a dedicated jukebox, you could set the Windows cursor to blank, or perhaps to a single dot that you'll only see when you're looking for it.

If it's not XP, let me know what you're running...

--Chris

Yes, sir.  I'm using XP.  Thanks very much for looking into this for me, and, duh, I don't know why I didn't think about just changing my mouse cursor to a period.  Thanks for the idea!

[Howard_Casto]

Last night, I even tried writing a wrapper in VB that makes the cursor invisible, runs JukeWin.exe, then makes the cursor visible again when you exit JukeWin.exe, but the cursor was still visible in WinCab, it was only invisible when mousing over the VB form.  So much for that idea.  

Hehe... learn about the windows interface.  A new cursor is created for every form in windows and control of said cursor can only be done locally (within the form or application).  This is so when you download a badly coded program and it doesn't restore the cursor upon exit, you don't have to restart windows.  

However, most programs draw the cursor from the current theme in windows.  So how you write a wrapper that your talking about is as follows.....  

1.  Make a new cursor scheme with all transparent cursors.  

2.  Write a module in vb to change the current cursor scheme.  

2b.  Write a module in vb to detect the current cursor scheme.

3.  Write a wrapper that records the current scheme, changes the scheme to the "blank" one you made, launches a program, and upon the program's exit, changes it back to the last scheme you recorded.  

However, this is DANGEROUS.  If your code is bad and for some reason the cursor doesn't change back, you'll have to boot into safe mode to get a cursor again and manually change the scheme back.  Also, sometimes safemode doesn't change the cursor, and then you'll have to hunt and peck to naviagte to the properties page.  


Hope that clarifies things,

HAC  

[RacerX]

However, most programs draw the cursor from the current theme in windows.  So how you write a wrapper that your talking about is as follows.....  
<snipped>
HAC  

It appears that WinCab jukebox does not do this.  I just use the default Windows XP cursors.  But when I run WinCab jukebox, the cursor is slightly smaller and black in color.

In fact, Chris had suggested that I make my cursor a single dot, which I tried.  WinCab jukebox still changes the cursor to a small black arrow.

So while the method you suggest would work for most things, unfortunately, it won't work for this.

Thanks, though.

[Chris]

In fact, Chris had suggested that I make my cursor a single dot, which I tried.  WinCab jukebox still changes the cursor to a small black arrow.

If you're seeing the small black arrow, then it's a bug in my code.  I'm in the code right now; I'll see what I can find.

--Chris

[RacerX]

In fact, Chris had suggested that I make my cursor a single dot, which I tried.  WinCab jukebox still changes the cursor to a small black arrow.

If you're seeing the small black arrow, then it's a bug in my code.  I'm in the code right now; I'll see what I can find.

--Chris

Thanks, boss.  I appreciate you looking into this.  

[Chris]

I found a solution to the problem; the fix should be in the next version.

--Chris

[RacerX]

I found a solution to the problem; the fix should be in the next version.

--Chris

You da man!