Running mame on dual monitors/need help!

[nitussi]

Hi! I'm using an 9800gt with dual dvi outputs and two monitors; one horizontal and the other vertical. I would like to run the front end and horizontal mame games on the main horizontal monitor, which I have no problem doing. But when choosing a Mame vertical game, I would like the display to be forced on the vertical monitor. And when I am finished playing the vertical game, It should go back to my front end that's on the main horizontal. I would luv to get this working in mame and worry about the FE later. I know I would have to use irotate, but what I do not know is how to do it and force the other monitor!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thx!

[Howard_Casto]

Why would you have to use irotate?  You aren't rotating anything according to your description, rather you are just using different monitors for different games. 

Mame has multi-monitor options in it's ini and they are well documented, I suggest to look at them.  All you need to do is send the command lines to set "screen0" to your vertical montior when launching vertical games (this must be done via your fe, there are no vertical-specific settings in mame).  That's as much help as I can give you considering the values you send are hardware specific.

[BadMouth]

For this kind of stuff, I use one of the user interface versions of MAME (MAMEPlus, MAMEUI, etc) to set things up.
If it's in the same folder as regular MAME, the changes will carry over.
Right click on the game, select properties>screen>set which display you'd like it on.
I can't think of a way to do this globally for all vertical games.  Probably have to be done one at a time.

Like Howard  said, irotate wouldn't come into play anywhere.
If MAME displays the game incorrectly on the other screen, change the rotation for that particular game.

[nitussi]

Thanks for the reply. I am still in the cabinet building stage of this project and wanted to get a head start on the software side of it and kinda jumped the gun... so I was messing around and figured out that I didn't need irotate for the vertical monitor when all I had to do was change it 90 degrees in the nvidia settings, and as far as mame sending the game to a particular screen.. I guess the question I really wanted to know was if it was possible to do it in the the mame ini because I already knew about multi-monitor support and artwork, why not specific games?
 
I still wonder if it is somehow possible in mame. That would make life easier.

Badmouth I did not know MAMEUI could do that! So when all fails I will give it a try. thx!

[BadMouth]

Thanks for the reply. I am still in the cabinet building stage of this project and wanted to get a head start on the software side of it and kinda jumped the gun... so I was messing around and figured out that I didn't need irotate for the vertical monitor when all I had to do was change it 90 degrees in the nvidia settings, and as far as mame sending the game to a particular screen.. I guess the question I really wanted to know was if it was possible to do it in the the mame ini because I already knew about multi-monitor support and artwork, why not specific games?
 
I still wonder if it is somehow possible in mame. That would make life easier.

Badmouth I did not know MAMEUI could do that! So when all fails I will give it a try. thx!

YOU DO NOT NEED TO ROTATE THE WINDOWS DESKTOP USING ANY METHOD!!!!!!!!!!!! 
MAME and every other emulator will display it correctly without doing that.
In fact, rotating the desktop will screw things up.

Look at the rotation options in mame.ini
Play around with them and learn what they do.
Disabling rotation alltogether is what you want. 
Not rotated=sideways on a horizontal monitor (which from what I understand, you are going to physically mount vertically)
There may be individual games that had the monitor turned right instead of left, etc, so they will be upside down.
Just hit TAB while in game, select video options and select 180 degrees for the rotation.

I don't know if you'll make it that far, but when you get into some of the oddball emulators that have no rotation options,
the left side of the horizontal screen should be the bottom if mounted vertically.
So I'd recommend going ahead and mounting it that way.

[nitussi]

ok, I am familiar with autorol(left)/autoror(right) in the ini and all the other rotating options because I have built vertical cabs.  But remember I am using two monitors; horizontal/vertical. Unless I am missing something autoro rotates both my monitors and I do not want my horizontal monitor rotating. nvidia drivers rotate only one if I want and not the other.  Also I was only messing around with autoro in mame and not mame/FE (haven't gotten to that yet), but when I escaped back to menu in a vertical game, the menu displayed vertically even tho it was horizontal before the game. The FE may do differently and by pass that, just haven't gotten that far yet. My FE will be hyperspin/hyperpin, so pinball too.

Even if I never be able to get mame to force a specific game on a particular monitor only, at least with the windows option the game displays the right way on both monitors. So I have my choice to what screen I want to look at. I'm gonna keep messing around--"trial and error". But I know this is the best place to be when I need answers.

Also yes I will be using oddball emulators like tg-16/PCE vertical shooters that are generally displayed on the horizontal but I would like it to be on the vertical screen, even if it is stretched. This will be trial and error for me because I have never done a two monitor setup.

[nitussi]

ok, messing around with MAMEUI I do see how to achieve some of my goals without rotation in windows. 

[Howard_Casto]

I'm guessing you aren't very familiar with mame despite your claims because you can set settings individually for each game.  You can even set rotation options seperately for each monitor.  I mean no disrespect what-so-ever, but when people are trying to help you, try what they are telling you to do and give them enough information with your quesiton so that they can actually help.  We aren't psychic so we can't help with a oddball scenario like that unless you let us know about it. 

To be perfectly honest with you, putting both a vertical and horizontal monitor on the same cab is extremely odd.  I've only seen it done on virtual pinball cabinets and those are for playing pinball, not arcade games.  In addition, visual pinball and similar software rotate the playing field for such setups, so while one monitor is vertically oriented, the monitors are both horizontal as far as windows is concerned. 

I think you'll find that most people will either use a rotatable monitor or a very large, high-resolution horizontal monitor to address the issue of playing both vertical and horizontal games on the same cabinet.  As bad mouth said, you simply arn't going to be able to properly configure that setup in anything other than mame... not without major headaches anyway.

I'm glad you got things working for you, I'm just saying, for future reference.....

[nitussi]

um

[nitussi]

I'm guessing you aren't very familiar with mame despite your claims because you can set settings individually for each game.  You can even set rotation options seperately for each monitor.  I mean no disrespect what-so-ever, but when people are trying to help you, try what they are telling you to do and give them enough information with your quesiton so that they can actually help.  We aren't psychic so we can't help with a oddball scenario like that unless you let us know about it. 

To be perfectly honest with you, putting both a vertical and horizontal monitor on the same cab is extremely odd.  I've only seen it done on virtual pinball cabinets and those are for playing pinball, not arcade games.  In addition, visual pinball and similar software rotate the playing field for such setups, so while one monitor is vertically oriented, the monitors are both horizontal as far as windows is concerned. 

I think you'll find that most people will either use a rotatable monitor or a very large, high-resolution horizontal monitor to address the issue of playing both vertical and horizontal games on the same cabinet.  As bad mouth said, you simply arn't going to be able to properly configure that setup in anything other than mame... not without major headaches anyway.

I'm glad you got things working for you, I'm just saying, for future reference.....

Wow! You are correct, I am not a 100% familiar with mame. If I was, I'm pretty sure I would have not asked. As far as my post, BadMouth didn't have a problem understanding what I wanted to do--he pointed me in the right direction. That's the direction I went and I appreciate it. I appreciate your help. Thankyou!

As far as my claims.. This is my third vertical-cab I built. The first one I built was in early 2010.



My 7th v-cab, and I built my 1st ever cab in 1994 with a Japanese playstation in it before the PS even came out in the states. Do I need more claims..



So I am familiar with autoro in mame. Yes I am a noob when it comes to dual monitors, but I am not a noob to the game! Listen, based on your post I can tell you are a knowledgeable person when it comes to this stuff, but just because I didn't know that the GUI versions offered more options doesn't mean I need someone to get on my case for attempting something different and asking a question. The question was asked, it was answered, and now I have options if I run into a hurdle.

This is the dual-cab I'm in the process of building now with 32"(missing 42" horizontally). And I will finish building it ..not how someone else builds theirs! It will be configured and set up correctly, I might not get my answers here--but I will get my answers!

[BadMouth]

But remember I am using two monitors; horizontal/vertical. Unless I am missing something autoro rotates both my monitors and I do not want my horizontal monitor rotating. nvidia drivers rotate only one if I want and not the other.   

Howard is probably busting on you for the above comment because it sounded like you weren't listening at all when both of us were telling you not to rotate the desktop.
(even though I typed it in all caps!)
I wrote a response busting on you for it, but your next post appeared and it sounded like you were getting it, so I didn't hit the post button. 

I get exactly what you are trying to accomplish and it would be easiest to do without rotating the desktop.
MAME UI doesn't do anything extra, it just gives you a user friendly interface to set the options.
All those options are available in the standard MAME build.  You just have to add things to the command line or modify an .ini file.

I'm not familiar enough with Hyperspin to know how to automate the process so you don't have to modify every game individually.
DNA Dan is using Hyperspin with a physically rotating monitor, so he might be able to point you in the right direction as far as having Hyperspin use a different command line for each orientation.  (To force the game to a specific monitor in your case, instead of physically rotating the monitor)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,110471.0.html

I've always liked that Aliens style cabinet and considered building one for the longest time.
Start a thread in the project forum with more pics!

[jmike]

Well no matter what, thank you all for providing some answers for questions I had.


    

[nitussi]

I understand.
I just had to point out that I'm no noobie just because I looks as if I joined the forums yesterday. Actually I joined years ago but lost email and password.

But I did point out that I kinda figured it out only to be told 15 hours later that I am not listening. Lol

Like most who do this hobby, I'm a tinkerer and to me advice given just gives you more options and does not mean that you still will not try everything.  I'm pretty sure that I gonna run into an emulator that will not rotate the game. I will worry about that when I get to it.

Anyways, mame does everything I want it to do. Games and artwork go to the right monitor. Thx guys for that!

As far as Hyperspin, it is only going to run on one monitor. The emulator does the switching ..if not, I still may have to work with scripts and irotate.

When I get some time to work on the cab (between work and other stuff), I'll start a new thread in the cab forums!

[BadMouth]

As far as Hyperspin, it is only going to run on one monitor. The emulator does the switching ..if not, I still may have to work with scripts and irotate.

If you have Hyperspin tell mame which monitor to send the game to based on whether it is vertical or horizontal,
it would save you the hassle of setting up every game individually.

I'm pretty sure that I gonna run into an emulator that will not rotate the game. I will worry about that when I get to it.

The arcade emulators that don't rotate run the vertical games fullscreen & sideways, which is exactly what you want.
Just make sure that your vertical monitor is physically rotated counter-clockwise (windows task bar will be along the right side if desktop not rotated).
All the vertical NAOMI & Taito Type X games are set up that way.  No point in complicating things and having to use a script to flip it.
If you want to run a console emulator on your vertical screen, that's a whole nutha issue.

[dgame]

Hi! I'm using an 9800gt with dual dvi outputs and two monitors; one horizontal and the other vertical. I would like to run the front end and horizontal mame games on the main horizontal monitor, which I have no problem doing. But when choosing a Mame vertical game, I would like the display to be forced on the vertical monitor. And when I am finished playing the vertical game, It should go back to my front end that's on the main horizontal. I would luv to get this working in mame and worry about the FE later. I know I would have to use irotate, but what I do not know is how to do it and force the other monitor!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thx!

Copy your mame.ini to vertical.ini and modify it to default to the vertical screen.
Settings in vertical.ini only affect vertical games.
Set Screennumber, View, Rotation, etc.
Then it should behave like you want.

[BadMouth]

Copy your mame.ini to vertical.ini and modify it to default to the vertical screen.
Settings in vertical.ini only affect vertical games.
Set Screennumber, View, Rotation, etc.
Then it should behave like you want.

Friggin' awesome.  I did not know that.
Definitely the way to go.

[nitussi]

The arcade emulators that don't rotate run the vertical games fullscreen & sideways, which is exactly what you want.
Just make sure that your vertical monitor is physically rotated counter-clockwise (windows task bar will be along the right side if desktop not rotated).
All the vertical NAOMI & Taito Type X games are set up that way.  No point in complicating things and having to use a script to flip it.
If you want to run a console emulator on your vertical screen, that's a whole nutha issue.

Yeah I gonna want alot of my console shmups to run on a the vertical screen(obvious the games is larger), and thats not an issue if just rotating with nvidia. So I guess I was looking ahead not knowing that I may run into issues with other emulators. And I will have the problem of what game to what screen--so better not to touch windows. That's something I will deal with when I get there.. but, thanks to you guys I have a heads up.

Btw, I seen your rotating build(nice) and what are you using for Type X? Arcade Loader?

Copy your mame.ini to vertical.ini and modify it to default to the vertical screen.
Settings in vertical.ini only affect vertical games.
Set Screennumber, View, Rotation, etc.
Then it should behave like you want.

Friggin' awesome.  I did not know that.
Definitely the way to go.

Thx dgame! Everyone benefits when asking a question.

[BadMouth]

what are you using for Type X? Arcade Loader?

Nah, they are pc games to begin with so they don't need ArcadePCLoader to work. 
It's basically just a front end.   It probably does make them easier to configure,
but mine were set up before ArcadePCLoader came out.

On my setup, they are being launched by the game.exe in each folder.

[Thenasty]

I have dual dual arcade monitor on my cab. 1 Hori n the otehr vertical.

I just use the power switch to switch monitors.

check below for link/sample/thread.