CPwizard and Move List

[rtkiii]

I did not want to have to make a separate thread but my other one was hijacked completely so I am opening this thread.

FACT:  I KNOW CPWizard can enable a list inside of the ROM that allows you to see the move list for various games.  I saw this on their site...I have seen screenshots and I have heard you go in and hit "Pause" key and then "Tab" and it will show up.

FACT:  the best I have been able to do is when the controls screen loads before the mame rom loads comes up I can hit "Esc" and then I see the CPWizard menu.  Which would not be a problem at all except I cannot seem to get the game to load after that.

PLEASE does anyone have anything that will explain how to enable this. What options need checked in CPWizard under Data(I have everything checked now) and any other additional options I need checked.
I have the command.ini file in several locations just hoping one location will work and I am thinking c:\cpwizard\ - but I cannot find anywhere that says this

PLEASE...SOMETHING.  To me this should be very simple but due to the lack of instructions that I can find(I did find some guys "Noob" instructions but it did not cover this...at least what I could find.  I think Documentation could've made CPWizard a very strong App...but documentation seems to be lacking.  I feel anything I try to do in this app is a burden and I don't think it has to be this way.

Thanks,
Rich

[rtkiii]

I think I figured this out...when pressing "L" I have about a 10 second delay....MF!  All that hassle and it was a delay.  Everything was setup right...just a delay.  Thought I was golden but I come to find the labels for the buttons are...off?  SK = High Kick?  Why is it just not HK?  I know people took time to make these but to me it just makes a heck of a lot more sense to label a button by it's initials.   This might be good for getting screen shots but I do not know how often I will use control.dat due to the mis-labling.  Unless I get lucky and only MK is like this.  We'll see.

[Howard_Casto]

Nope they are all stupid like that.  Or at least any game that isn't a Capcom fighter. 

You've got to understand, command.dat is a relic of the past.  There used to be a custom variant of mame that supported the dat internally.  The way they got icons to show up was to hack the mame font, using extra spaces for the button icons.  Because these were hard-coded into the mame variant, there was no way to change their value.  So authors of the DAT entries got a little creative sometimes.  This is also why the dat has dashes instead of line breaks, there are fixed line widths, ect....

It really needs upgraded, but I can't even get controls.dat back off the ground, so maybe I'm not the best person to complain.   

[headkaze]

when pressing "L" I have about a 10 second delay

Are you using the Dynamic Data Load option? That means all the data required by CPWizard to display your CP is read for each game when you show it. Since these days most PC's have plenty or RAM this option for most people should be turned off. That way all the data is loaded when CPWizard first launches and so it's quicker to display the CP. Considering Mame's xml output is currently at 133 MB it makes sense.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah I really wish they'd go back to a text-based file at this point. 

All the nodes and what-not have to increase the bulk of the file dramatically. 

I'd much rather see something like:

Code: [Select]

gamestart|pacman
cloneof|puckman
name|Pacman
year|1981
rom0|blah blah blah
gameend
Or better yet, a comma delimited text file as 90% of your programming languages have functions to load those automatically and they'll also import automatically into your favorite database program. 


 I'd guestimate that would shave at least 50mb off of the thing.  The current data formats are already a beast and it's only going to get worse as time goes on.  I know xml is easier to parse (it really isn't, you need a library to parse it, but I'll digress) but even with a good parser, xml isn't meant to have 27,000+ entries. 

[rtkiii]

when pressing "L" I have about a 10 second delay

Are you using the Dynamic Data Load option? That means all the data required by CPWizard to display your CP is read for each game when you show it. Since these days most PC's have plenty or RAM this option for most people should be turned off. That way all the data is loaded when CPWizard first launches and so it's quicker to display the CP. Considering Mame's xml output is currently at 133 MB it makes sense.

I dunno...I will take a look when I get home.  Thanks!

[rtkiii]

Yeah I really wish they'd go back to a text-based file at this point. 

All the nodes and what-not have to increase the bulk of the file dramatically. 

I'd much rather see something like:

Code: [Select]

gamestart|pacman
cloneof|puckman
name|Pacman
year|1981
rom0|blah blah blah
gameend
Or better yet, a comma delimited text file as 90% of your programming languages have functions to load those automatically and they'll also import automatically into your favorite database program. 


 I'd guestimate that would shave at least 50mb off of the thing.  The current data formats are already a beast and it's only going to get worse as time goes on.  I know xml is easier to parse (it really isn't, you need a library to parse it, but I'll digress) but even with a good parser, xml isn't meant to have 27,000+ entries.

The SK buttons are just images right?  Any chance I could substitute my own HK graphic in on the SK via an edit to the command.dat or am I think to primitive?  Remember I am no programmer.  Honestly though as cool has the move list is to have I am not sure how often I will use it because of the switching screens...then looking up...then playing...then forgetting  - then pausing.  I feel a good hardcopy that sits out would be better.  Just for the shear fact of people waiting to play can look through it...seems easier...or what I am used to as a kid.  I LIKE the control.dat if I had a separate LCD  ion my cab then I would just create .ONGs and display them on the other screen while the game plays...but I do not.

[rtkiii]

Here is a spreadsheet I made last week from info I found on the internet for MK1-3.  I thought I could easily do this for a few of the series but I ran into Samraui Shodown and those Wikis are just messier...then I heard about CPWizard,  So I started researching that.  Anyway this was my original idea which I think I will keep this since it is done...but I will more and likely work with .PNGs or images going forward...if I can do some screen caps from CPWizard

[Howard_Casto]

I'm not sure of cpwizard supports it, but the way I had the old johnny5 program setup, you could make a folder in the images folder named after the rom, and put custom images in there.  You can certainly just make new images, but then they are going to be wrong for the other games. 

[BadMouth]

Didn't you say you were using GameEx?
....and didn't Headkaze state command.dat works with GameEx?

[rtkiii]

Didn't you say you were using GameEx?
....and didn't Headkaze state command.dat works with GameEx?

Yeah but I was not aware of the delay.  This has been solved...i figured it out yesterday.

[rtkiii]

started working on hard copies of the moves.  Page size.  I am trying to get a game on a page or two depending.  check it out if interested.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,131358.0.html