VertiWAH 1.2 Released!

[EndTwist]

The only MAMEWAH-style vertical frontend is out!

Why did I start this? Because Minwah won't (MAMEWAH)!!

Many new features added, see them here: Whats New?

Get it here: VertiWAH 1.2

[SaiNRuB]

Hey man, I appreciate your work for people needing a vertical front end. I like the looks of this release judging from the screenshots on your vertiwah site.

I cant get the vertiwah executable to load, its a black blank screen. I think I have everything configured right but to be sure there was a problem on my end i deleted the original vertiwah directory and unzipped a fresh install and tried the executable with no modifications our gamelists generated and that still results in a black blank screen.

After I exit out i lose my task bar also.

If you need some testing let me know, ill be glad to help out.

[EndTwist]

Well...the hidden taskbar is because my program hides the taskbar before loading so it doesn't get in the way. When its properly exited, it comes back...

About the black screen, thats my fault. In the configuration editor, change the skin name to "blank." I accidentally left it as my "gcab" skin I didn't include. I'll reupload it with the fixed vwah.ini if you want to redownload.

*edit: all fixed!*

[bdsjake]

screenshot looks nice!  will try it this weekend,

thanks,

[bdsjake]

ok, its installed and running, but...having trouble with creating a skin.  First, I've got the skin layout going vertical, but the text is still horizontal, it won't rotate?  Any idea what I'm doing wrong?  I'd like to get that fixed, then I'm sure I will have more questions!

ps, how did you create that great looking skin on your home page?!

thanks for your work on this!

[EndTwist]

Uh..if you can get a screen shot, that'd be great.

But lets see if I can help w/o one:
> If you mean the text is horizontal in the Layout Creator then: it's supposed to be, when you run the skin in VertiWAH, it will be rotated.
> If you mean the text is horizontal in VertiWAH then: try using a different font, some may not rotate (don't know why).

How did I make that skin? Magic
Nah, just good Photoshop skills.

Twist

[bdsjake]

it was the font, default was MS Sans Serif I think.  I changed to Arial and it rotates just fine.

Next question is re the gamelist, I just used the first option in your config utility and it comes up eg as dkong.zip.  How do I get the gamelist to read "Donkey Kong"?

maybe this is related, if I check the button to create gamelist using listinfo, it asks for a second path (the first being the rom path) the second is for gamelist.  Do I type in the path to the list folder created by vertiwah?

sorry for all the basic questions!

thanks,

[EndTwist]

I think the first one is my fault. I changed the list read format, but forgot to change the way the first option creates the list. I'll get that up ASAP.

The second path is the path to a "listinfo" file from mame. This can be created by using dos, navigating to the mame folder and typing:

Code: [Select]

mame -listinfo > c:\listinfo.txt
Then you type "C:\listinfo.txt" in the second box of the config program.

[EndTwist]

Update - I fixed the Configuration app. Now the first option should work properly.

[bdsjake]

making progress!  I was able to get the listinfo file created and vertiwah config to create a gamelist.

Don't know if this means anything, but the first 2-3 times I tried to create the gamelist in the config utility, I would see the games scroll down the window and another small window would pop up and say "Done", I would click that, then it program froze up, I could not click the save button to save the gamelist.  Had to restart it several times, finally it worked, although several seconds passed btw when I clicked the save button to when the window popped up to type in the filename.

Also, in the layout creator, my snap images from mame don't seem to be sized correctly in the "game image" object.  Minor matter right now as I have workable frontend!

one last observation, in the layout creator, I was not able to "grab" the top of the game image, I could grab and resize left, right and bottom, but the squares in the upper left and upper right seem to be hidden by the menu bar.  Also, I couldn't grab any object and just move it around, had to move it by resizing, ie, resize the bottom down as far as I wanted, then move top down--make any sense?  

you've got a good fe started, keep up the good work!

thanks,

[EndTwist]

1. I don't know about that freezing problem, but I'll take a look. Never seemed to happen on the 3 computers I tried...

2. Yeah, that has continously been a problem. I can't get the information from the png (width & height), so I can't size it correctly I'm still looking to figure that out.

3. Maybe I should've mentioned this is the readme, but to move the box, right click on one of the handles. The object will turn grey and you can drag it around. To get out of this mode, just right click the grey area.

[bdsjake]

>>3. Maybe I should've mentioned this is the readme, but to move the box, right click on one of the handles. The object will turn grey and you can drag it around. To get out of this mode, just right click the grey area. <<

ah!  got it working now, thanks!

ps, what font do you use?  the letters look nice in your example, is it a 800x600, or 640x480?

[EndTwist]

Uh..I used a font called "Kenyan Coffee". It doesn't look as nice when its not anti-aliased (thats a photoshop pic). "Nasalization" is nice when it's not anti-aliased (smoothed).

It's 800x600 btw.

[Chris]

Kenyan Coffee is at http://www.fontfinder.ws/15459/Kenyan-Coffee.html .

[Minwah]

I cant get the vertiwah executable to load, its a black blank screen. I think I have everything configured right but to be sure there was a problem on my end i deleted the original vertiwah directory and unzipped a fresh install and tried the executable with no modifications our gamelists generated and that still results in a black blank screen.

After I exit out i lose my task bar also.

I have more or less the same problem.  I run the exe and get a blank screen (resolution seems correct).  When I hit escape it quits but doesn't change res back to the desktop default, and the taskbar has disappeared.

I have the skin set to blank, and I *think* I made a list correctly...

BTW EndTwist, your Layout Creator looks good - sorry I forgot to send you that code didn't I, I think you have it licked now...

[EndTwist]

Minwah- try making a new blank skin. Just make sure you set/change ALL the options in the Layout Editor. If you want me to send you my "GCAB" skin and see if that works, just say so.

It will work properly if the skins & lists are properly configured, its just a matter if doing it right.

And yeah...I think I got the Layout Editor down now

[Minwah]

Minwah- try making a new blank skin. Just make sure you set/change ALL the options in the Layout Editor. If you want me to send you my "GCAB" skin and see if that works, just say so.

It will work properly if the skins & lists are properly configured, its just a matter if doing it right.

And yeah...I think I got the Layout Editor down now

Thanks, making a new layout did the trick  You might want to have a look why the taskbar doesn't return if a bad skin is used...

Looks good so far btw

Edit: I just noticed that I can't get my mame.ini to take effect when running under VertiWAH.  Also, my MAME 'cfg' and 'nvram' folders were generated in the VertiWAH folder.  I think you need to change drive and directory prior to launching the emulator - ie:

ChDrive strEmuDrive
ChDir strEmuPath

You may need to switch back to the VertiWAH app.path afterwards...

[EndTwist]

yeah, I noticed that too...thought it was just me  

But if you toss VertiWAH into the MAME folder, everything should work fine. I'll take a look at that chdrive/chdir thing asap.

Thanks
EndTwist

[bdsjake]

Endtwist, been working wtih Vertiwah again.  Have a old PII400, 98SE, with ArcadeVGA and standard resolution monitor.  Probably basic questions:

I see the key to "add to favorites" is "32", but which keyboard key is 32?  Is favorites implemented yet?  ( was able to successful generate a listinfo.txt file, then create a games.dat list of all roms in the roms folder with your config program--works great!).  To get a favorites.dat, will I need to manually edit the file from notepad?

also, hope you get the "kill dupes" button working!

Finally, this is not really a VW issue and maybe belongs in the monitor section, but perhaps someone willl have a solution.  Running the AVGA in 640x480 or 800x 600 interlaced, the text in the VW layout jumps or flickers (same as text in windows desktop, its "readable" but hard to read -- using the avres utitlity to set up .ini files for each games, the games look very nice at original resolutions).

Anyway, its hard to read the font.  The AVGA can produce 640x288 non-interlaced which looks nice, but then I have to do a new layout w/o as much room on it.  Any solutions for this, or just have to live with it?

thanks,

[bdsjake]

forgot one:  I'm using as artwork the .png files in my snap folder.  Anyway to set up a default file to display for those roms that don't have an associated artwork file?  (maybe the kill dupes option will take care of much of this problem?).

thanks,

[EndTwist]

Endtwist, been working wtih Vertiwah again.  Have a old PII400, 98SE, with ArcadeVGA and standard resolution monitor.  Probably basic questions:

I see the key to "add to favorites" is "32", but which keyboard key is 32?  Is favorites implemented yet?  ( was able to successful generate a listinfo.txt file, then create a games.dat list of all roms in the roms folder with your config program--works great!).  To get a favorites.dat, will I need to manually edit the file from notepad?

also, hope you get the "kill dupes" button working!

Finally, this is not really a VW issue and maybe belongs in the monitor section, but perhaps someone willl have a solution.  Running the AVGA in 640x480 or 800x 600 interlaced, the text in the VW layout jumps or flickers (same as text in windows desktop, its "readable" but hard to read -- using the avres utitlity to set up .ini files for each games, the games look very nice at original resolutions).

Anyway, its hard to read the font.  The AVGA can produce 640x288 non-interlaced which looks nice, but then I have to do a new layout w/o as much room on it.  Any solutions for this, or just have to live with it?

thanks,

forgot one:  I'm using as artwork the .png files in my snap folder.  Anyway to set up a default file to display for those roms that don't have an associated artwork file?  (maybe the kill dupes option will take care of much of this problem?).

thanks,

1. Unfortunately, favorites isn't working yet, but it should in the next release. Check the "keycode_list.txt" for the keys.

2. Not sure about that monitor problem? Don't have an arcade monitor to test it on

3. You can display a default image in the layout creator. Just right click the image box and set "default image." I can't remember if it works properly (wow i feel dumb), but test it out.

Also - kill dupes will be in the next release (I was to lazy to add it for this past one) and a way to add custom plug-ins for those who can make/distribute them.

[JohnNevets]

Hello All!

I'm fairly frustrated right now, so please forgive any rudeness.  I just had a great (long) post to this forum blown away because my dial up kicked off while I was writing it and when I reconected to send the post Byoac thought I wasn't a user and killed the post , and wouldn't let me go back, Damm that sucked.  Anyway now that I vented (what a way to start off a first post a new forum) let me get on with it.

I've been hearing a lot of good things about VertiWAH so I  decided to give it a go, nice program, just have a couple of questions.  

The first one is real short, can the FE be rotated 180 degrees by some comand ?  My screen is a rotated clockwise, and although I know I can do it through my AVGA I'd prefer to do it nativley if I can.

Second one is a bit more complicated, I've gotteen VertiWAH set up useing the configurator.  The program runs, I see a huge list of my games, I can see pictures of my games (after a little editing of the config files), and I can even page through all these games.  I just can't run any of them.  When I select one of the games using the stock commands "1" or "Ctrl" the program seems to lock up and the only way to get out is to hit escape. That sends me back into windows minus my toolbar.  If I launch VertiWAH again and escape again (without trying to run anything) I get my toolbar back.  At first I thought this was a paths issue, but everything seemed to check out

[emudat]
EXEPATH=C:\Program Files\MAME\MAME.EXE
ROMPATH=C:\Program Files\MAME\ROMS
ARTPATH=C:\Program Files\MAME\snap
GAMELIST=games.dat
LISTNAME=MAME

With Vertiwah in its own folder C:\Program Files\vertiwah.

And yes mame runs fine on its own, or from within MameWAH for that matter.  So.....any ideas?


Thanks much for the hard work, and great support from what I've seen.

John

[EndTwist]

Thanks for the kind comments

Anyways, at the moment, it isn't set up to rotate 180 degrees, but I will see if I can do that in the next version.

Second one is a bit more complicated, I've gotteen VertiWAH set up useing the configurator.  The program runs, I see a huge list of my games, I can see pictures of my games (after a little editing of the config files), and I can even page through all these games.  I just can't run any of them.  When I select one of the games using the stock commands "1" or "Ctrl" the program seems to lock up and the only way to get out is to hit escape. That sends me back into windows minus my toolbar.  If I launch VertiWAH again and escape again (without trying to run anything) I get my toolbar back.  At first I thought this was a paths issue, but everything seemed to check out

Hm...I havn't heard of this problem but it is probably caused by 1 (or 2) of 2 things:
1. The path to MAME & VertiWAH. Try putting them both in C:\MAME and C:\VertiWAH, respectively.
2. The skin. Try building your own skin, making sure to set ALL the details for all the visible items.

Hopefully, that should solve the problem. *And hopefully I can finish my new version soon too  

[bdsjake]

Endtwist, almost got in a catch 22. I put vertiwah in my startup folder so it starts right away, and enable shut down on esc.  Then (of course) I needed to get back into windows to fiddle with screen resolution.  I ended up rebooting into safe mode so Vetiwah wouldn't start up autmatically.  Is there another keyboard command to simply exit to widows?

also, I had trouble with it shut down windows but one problem at a time.

thanks,

[PaulT]

I have started using your FE for my cocktail cab, Many thanks.
Although I have one problem. I can run all games in mame from the command
prompt ok. turned in the same rotation as the FE.
but when running games through Vertiwah they are still horizontal.
What am I doing wrong or I have I missed something.

Cheers
Ted

[EndTwist]

Endtwist, almost got in a catch 22. I put vertiwah in my startup folder so it starts right away, and enable shut down on esc.  Then (of course) I needed to get back into windows to fiddle with screen resolution.  I ended up rebooting into safe mode so Vetiwah wouldn't start up autmatically.  Is there another keyboard command to simply exit to widows?

also, I had trouble with it shut down windows but one problem at a time.

thanks,

Yeah, there is a "quit to windows" key you can set in the ini. It should work (check the keycode list for which key it is.).

I have started using your FE for my cocktail cab, Many thanks.
Although I have one problem. I can run all games in mame from the command
prompt ok. turned in the same rotation as the FE.
but when running games through Vertiwah they are still horizontal.
What am I doing wrong or I have I missed something.

Cheers
Ted

Ah, not a problem with my fe, just the way you've configured it. In your mame emudat config file (in the emudat folder), you need to set the EXEPATH to:

Code: [Select]

EXEPATH=C:\MAME\MAME.EXE -rolor ROR, whichever it is. C:\MAME\MAME.EXE is the path to your mame exe.

[bdsjake]

Yeah, there is a "quit to windows" key you can set in the ini. It should work (check the keycode list for which key it is.).

ah, I see you've provided a file conviently entitled "keycode list" that I didn't see before!

doh!  

[PaulT]

Ah, not a problem with my fe, just the way you've configured it. In your mame emudat config file (in the emudat folder), you need to set the EXEPATH to:

Code: [Select]

EXEPATH=C:\MAME\MAME.EXE -rolor ROR, whichever it is. C:\MAME\MAME.EXE is the path to your mame exe.

Many thanks, keeep up the good work

Ted

[bdsjake]

Attached is screenshot of a simple VW skin running 640x288 on an ArcadeVGA and standard resolution vertical 19" monitor (the funny looking lines are an artifact of the camera).

Also, still can't use Q to quittowin, I really want that to work so I can then enable shutdownonesc (my plan is to change the quittowin key to P, so I can use the standard IPAC default of P1+Down = P).  Any suggestions?

oh, one more Q:  this may be an ipac or mame setting, but when  I use the joystick to move up or down, it doesn't repeat if I hold it down, it just moves down one game, and have to move joystick.  I think there is a setting to change this, but can't remember what it is???

thanks,

[edit:  resized pic]

[EndTwist]

Hi, nice to see its finally in use on a cab

Anyways, if you use the keycode_list.txt and look at the key settings for MAME, it maybe a different key than Q (try R). Below, I've copied the keycode list in for you, so you can have a look. The scrolling thing I believe has to do with the IPAC, because on all the PCs I've tried it on, it repeats. I'll try it on my cab PC using an IPAC, but I'm pretty sure it has to do with an IPAC setting/config.

edit: also, if the QuitToWin key still doesn't work, try re-downloading VertiWAH.

Code: [Select]

KEYCODE LIST
------------

Basic Keys:
 ------ ----
| A    | 65 |
| B    | 66 |
| C    | 67 |
| D    | 68 |
| E    | 69 |
| F    | 70 |
| G    | 71 |
| H    | 72 |
| I    | 73 |
| J    | 74 |
| K    | 75 |
| L    | 76 |
| M    | 77 |
| N    | 78 |
| O    | 79 |
| P    | 80 |
| Q    | 81 |
| R    | 82 |
| S    | 83 |
| T    | 84 |
| U    | 85 |
| V    | 86 |
| W    | 87 |
| X    | 88 |
| Y    | 89 |
| Z    | 90 |
| 0    | 48 |
| 1    | 49 |
| 2    | 50 |
| 3    | 51 |
| 4    | 52 |
| 5    | 53 |
| 6    | 54 |
| 7    | 55 |
| 8    | 56 |
| 9    | 57 |
| Up   | 38 |
| Down | 40 |
| Left | 37 |
| Right| 39 |
| Ctrl | 17 |
| Alt  | 18 |
| Shift| 16 |
| Tab  | ?? |
| Enter| 13 |
| Space| 32 |
| Ins  | 45 |
| Home | 36 |
| Del  | 46 |
| End  | 35 |
| Pg.Up| 33 |
| Pg.Dn| 34 |
 ------ ----

Others:
 ------ -----
| `    | 192 |
| -    | 189 |
| +    | 187 |
| [    | 219 |
| ]    | 221 |
| \    | 220 |
| :    | 186 |
| '    | 222 |
| <    | 188 |
| >    | 190 |
| /    | 191 |
| S.Lck| 145 |
| Pause|  19 |
 ------ -----


[bdsjake]

from Ultimarc, a partial answer to the key repeat:

"What about key-repeat (Typematic)?
In USB mode key repeat is supported as on a normal keyboard and is handled by the PC. In PS/2 mode key repeat is not generally desirable for gaming because sending unnecessary strings of key-presses to the PC can cause unwanted clutter on the PS/2 interface and steal CPU cycles. It is useful though to have key repeat outside of gaming, for example for scrolling up and down game lists in a front end. The I-PAC solves this problem by implementing a selective repeat on up/down only, for scrolling through lists."

...I guess I can switch to usb, but I still don't know why the up/down won't repeat, oh well.

I will keep working on the quit to win issue, thanks.

[bdsjake]

Hi Endtwist, hope you don't get tired of these questions!

I tried redownloaded vertiwah, no luck.  Now, neither quit to win or shut down on esc will work.

With shutdownonesc=1, when I hit esc from within vertiwah, I see for a split second the desktop trying to come to the front, but then its back to vertiwah skin and computer is locked up, ctrlatldel doesn't even work!

any ideas?

ps, is a Cel400, Win98SE machine

thanks,

[EndTwist]

Nah, I never get tired

Hmm...the fact is, I don't think I ever really tested the ShutdownOnEsc option (bad judgement on my part). I'll have a look at those and see if I can fix 'em for the next release (soon if I can get off ---my bottom--- and do it).

[maxstang]

Thanks to Endtwist for a vertical FE.  A few questions from a progaming challenged individual.  I got it up and running and designed a skin with my game list etc, but I can't get the screen shots to appear.  I've tried everything I can think of including changing the resolutions etc.  I can't even get a "default" image to show up  in the "game image" area.  When the window pops up it won't let me select any image to load up.  Where is the file path for the snaps configured? I don't see it anywhere in the lists. I'm sure I've just got some setting wrong. Any ideas?

[EndTwist]

You need to edit your emudat config file (in the emudat folder). In the config file, change the "artwork" path.

[maxstang]

Thanks for the response!  I tried that already.  Saw it in a previous post.  Here's my config file:

[emudat]
EXEPATH=D:\MAME\MAME.EXE -rol
ROMPATH=D:\MAME\ROMS
ARTPATH=D:\MAME\snap
GAMELIST=games.dat
LISTNAME=MAME

I have my vertiwah  in the Mame folder so it uses the same "snap" files as mame. I have snaps in the folder. Thanks for the help.  Also is there a way to make the text of the game list not appear clipped?  All the letters that extend below the the text line like g, j etc. get clipped off.  Thanks again for a great front end.

[EndTwist]

The text getting clipped, I believe, has to do with the font size in your layout.