I'm back!

[papaschtroumpf]

Well I've been away from the Arcade world lately, both due to Real World (TM) issues and a little piece of software called "Unreal Tournament 2004" (no, it doesn't run under MAME   )
I'm back from the dead and need to do some catching up. I see that there is a new release of MameWah, so I'll start with that.
My other question (and the main reason for this post) is to ask what the state of the controls.dat and associated viewer project is?
Edit: is ther ea new version of Mamewah setup to go with the new version of mamewah?
Thanks

[Minwah]

Welcome back

There is a new version of MAMEWAH Setup so you can update your CFG's without a headache...

I don't think HC has done much to his viewer (Johnny5), I know he is busy with other stuff.  Head over to fe.donkeyfly.com to see where controls.dat is at...MAMEWAH can now launch the controls.dat viewer, I was hoping that might generate some more interest...

[arcadecab]

Minwah,

Speaking of the Johnny5 and controls.dat, I saw that option within MAMEwah and was just looking into it yesterday.  I downloaded the Johnny5 file with the .exe from Howard's site.  I know I havent read all the docs, etc. yet so I hope I dont get flamed, but just wondering what exactly do I do from here--with the Johnny5 file and with the options setup in MAMEwah. Do I need to download additional files besides the Johnny5 file? An example of how to set it up would be really nice.  Just a quick tutorial I guess to get an idea of what the controls.dat will actually do--have no idea what it will look like or its functionality at this point.  Perhaps Stuzza could get another of the Roberta tutorial files to show the controls.dat option so that people get an idea of what is it or does and stir some more interest.  
Thanks though for some direction on this as I am really interested in what exactly it will do and what I need for it to work.

[Minwah]

Speaking of the Johnny5 and controls.dat, I saw that option within MAMEwah and was just looking into it yesterday.  I downloaded the Johnny5 file with the .exe from Howard's site.  I know I havent read all the docs, etc. yet so I hope I dont get flamed, but just wondering what exactly do I do from here--with the Johnny5 file and with the options setup in MAMEwah. Do I need to download additional files besides the Johnny5 file? An example of how to set it up would be really nice.  Just a quick tutorial I guess to get an idea of what the controls.dat will actually do--have no idea what it will look like or its functionality at this point.  Perhaps Stuzza could get another of the Roberta tutorial files to show the controls.dat option so that people get an idea of what is it or does and stir some more interest.  
Thanks though for some direction on this as I am really interested in what exactly it will do and what I need for it to work.

OK, well I'm not at home so I can't give terribly in-depth instructions...

Unzip the Johnny5 stuff into a folder - Howard has included a readme which I know explains all, the only thing you might want to do is grab the latest controls.ini file from fe.donkeyfly.com.  When you've followed HC's instructions, give it a try from a commandline, eg 'johnny5 sf2' - give a few games a shot to get an idea what it can do.

Once that is done you can try it in MAMEWAH.  All you need do is enter the 'Controls.dat Viewer Filename' (in Emulator Settings > Execution Settings).  I think the option to set whether Johnny5 is automatically launched prior to the game is in there too - make sure this is turned on and try launching a game...you can also launch Johnny5 with a shortcut key (go into Control Options > Customise Controls to remap the key, it is 'C' by default).

You should get the idea now...by making your own control panel layout for the viewer you can get some pretty cool results

Remember folks, go to fe.donkeyfly.com and help out with the project - this stuff will be much more powerful once controls.dat is more complete....

[arcadecab]

Minwah,

Just tried it really quick.  Everything works fine as far as when I launch the viewer, but just a plain white screen appears when I launch the viewer.  I do not have my own picture of my control panel for the layouts folder, but thought I would just try the default one if possible.  I tried in the options menu of johnny5 to select layout and pick one of the defaults as my "background layout", but I get a runtime '70' error.  
Also, it asks for the ctrlr folder in the options viewer section.  I am assuming it is the ctrlr folder within my MAME folder.  I do not use the slikstik or other options currently in that folder, so is there anything else needed there or do I put ctrlr in that section instead of the ragingdragon name that is defaulted there.  
Sorry for the trouble, but thanks for the info.  I am really anxious to see what this thing looks like--sounds like an awesome addition to MAMEwah when I get it to work.

[Minwah]

Minwah,

Just tried it really quick.  Everything works fine as far as when I launch the viewer, but just a plain white screen appears when I launch the viewer.  I do not have my own picture of my control panel for the layouts folder, but thought I would just try the default one if possible.  I tried in the options menu of johnny5 to select layout and pick one of the defaults as my "background layout", but I get a runtime '70' error.  
Also, it asks for the ctrlr folder in the options viewer section.  I am assuming it is the ctrlr folder within my MAME folder.  I do not use the slikstik or other options currently in that folder, so is there anything else needed there or do I put ctrlr in that section instead of the ragingdragon name that is defaulted there.  
Sorry for the trouble, but thanks for the info.  I am really anxious to see what this thing looks like--sounds like an awesome addition to MAMEwah when I get it to work.

I know there is a bug that you can't use a layout named anything other than 'default.lof', so rename or copy the original, and then rename yours to default.lof.  Also, I'm not sure if PNG's etc. are supported - use a JPG or BMP.

The whole point of the viewer is that you use ctrlr files (that's how it knows which buttons etc. are which).  I'm not sure but I think you will need to make a ctrlr setup even if you use the defaults (ie you will have to replace 'ragingdragon' with 'yourctrlrfoldername'.  BTW learning how to use these files is GREAT, makes things so much more flexible....

[Howard_Casto]

pngs are not supported....

I would give more time troubleshooting this app, but considering it's still alpha (yes it's not even beta yet)  I know that people are going to have a horrible time getting it working regardless and thus I don't even bother.  

At the end of this month I'll get back to it.  

For now I'm trying to keep sleeping dragon's where they lie until the next HUGE release of dk.