Kymaera: Two questions

[BobbyG66]

I just started using Kymaera and have mame games working, great frontend.

1) How do you setup a list or load PC games?

2) When a game loads and exits my monitor is "Turning on and off". How do I fix that?

Thanks
BobbyG66

[PacManFan]

Bobby,

1) I think the easiest way to set up a list of pc games is to create a directory that contains shortcuts to the games, and then use the KymaeraConfig list creator to get a directory listing of the shortcuts. Set up a new Emu called "PC Games" or something, and include the .lnk extension in the rom extensions.

2) That's your monitor switching resolutions. There's not too much you can do about that unless you specify Kymaera and Mame (or other emulators ) to run at the same resolution/bit depth.

Let me know if you need any more help.

-PMF

[BobbyG66]

Thanks PMF,

1) I will try that, it looks like you could then mix PC games and mame, even .vpt pinball tables? Just list all the extensions in the list creator?

2) I will try messing with the settings. The monitor did not do that in 'another' frontend I was using.

Thanks
BobbyG66

[PacManFan]

Mixing multiple emu types is possible, but not that simple. First, you need to set up each emulator to function correctly,

Then for each emu, you need to create a game list with the games. When you set up the game lists, click the "Set games in Dest to current emulator" button. This will tell each game what emulator it needs to launch.

Now you are ready to create a multiple emualtor game list. There are 2 ways to do this, You can use the "add to favorites" function in Kymaera, or you can manually move games from any source list to the destination list in the config program.

Let me know if you need any help.

-PMF

[ErikRuud]

PMF,

I tried seting up a directory full of shortcuts, and building a gamelist of of it.

I could build the list, but when I try to run a game the screen goes black, the Kymaera exits and the game does not run.

I CAN get it to work using an AutoIt3 script as a wrapper, but then I have Issues with directorys with spaces in the names.

[PacManFan]

Check the kymaera.log file to see what it is running and the command line parms.

-PMF

[ErikRuud]

I don't see a Kymaera.log

I only see a game.log that looks like this:

******************
     2563 : Log System initted
     2573 : Current working directory is C:\Emu\Frontends\Kymaera\
     2593 : EMU load 16 gamelist lists\mame3.xml
     2603 : load gamelist lists\mame3.xml 1
     2964 : EMU load 16 gamelist lists\favorites.xml
     3024 : load gamelist lists\favorites.xml 1
     3655 : EMU load 16 gamelist lists\pc_games2.xml
     3695 : load gamelist lists\pc_games2.xml 1
     4155 : load gamelist 9
     4336 : load gamelist 10
     4396 : load gamelist 12
     4556 : load gamelist 13
     4696 : load gamelist 14
    73836 : shutting down
     5237 : setting grpahics mode 800 600 fullscreen
     6659 : created back buffer 800 600
     6659 : exit startup


I'll try downloading that latest version before we get to far into debugging this.

[ErikRuud]

Ok, I installed the latest version and it still does not work.

Here is the log:
******************
      280 : Log System initted
      280 : registering PNG
      280 : registering JPG
      280 : registering GIF
      410 : registering CD
      430 : registering JOYSTICK
      440 : setting app path
      440 : Calling startup
      440 : Current working directory is C:\Emu\Frontends\Kymaera\
      440 : sound start
      440 : Loading kymaera.kfg
      460 : EMU load 16 gamelist lists\mame3.xml
      460 : load gamelist lists\mame3.xml 1
      610 : EMU load 16 gamelist lists\favorite.xml
      610 : load gamelist lists\favorite.xml 1
      650 : EMU load 16 gamelist lists\pc_games.xml
      650 : load gamelist lists\pc_games.xml 1
     1652 : created back buffer 800 600
     1652 : exit startup
     1652 : Initializing fonts
     1652 : Initializing Input
     1652 : Initializing Timer
    10715 : Launching ,\,Run Chicken Hunter.lnk
    30513 : shutting down
    31525 : shutting down


The first image is the error I get, the second is how I configured the Launch Command.

[PacManFan]

try this:

For the "Program to launch", use the rom name, and clear all the rom parameters.

Then inside the game list, make sure each rom name(*.lnk) has the path to the lnk file. I bet that will work.

-PMF

[ErikRuud]

That gives me this:

 1492 : exit startup
 1492 : Initializing fonts
 1492 : Initializing Input
 1492 : Initializing Timer
 8982 : Launching C:\Emu\pcgames\Moorfrosch XS.lnk,C:\Emu\pcgames\,
27930 : shutting down
28781 : shutting down

And cause a "Choose folder to move to" window to open up!

[ErikRuud]

I tried it with the rom name containg the path:

<m_gamename>C:\Emu\pcgames\Moorfrosch XS</m_gamename>

And with the extension added:

<m_gamename>C:\Emu\pcgames\Moorfrosch XS.lnk</m_gamename>

These both gave the "Move to" window followed by a "Copy to" window after I cancelled the "Move to".

I tried it with just the extension added:

<m_gamename>Moorfrosch XS.lnk</m_gamename>

This causes Kymeara to crash and does not launch the game.

[PacManFan]

try getting rid of the long file name or the spaces.
-PMF

[ErikRuud]

Removing the spaces got rid of the "Move to" problem, but now I am back to the "this file does not hav a program associated ...." message.

[BobbyG66]

Removing the spaces got rid of the "Move to" problem, but now I am back to the "this file does not hav a program associated ...." message.

Does the program launch by "double clicking" the shortcut?
If not you have to assign the shortcut to launch the programs exe file.

I tried all last weekend to get PC games to launch in Kymaera and finally gave up...

[ErikRuud]

Yes, the short cut works by double clicking on it.

It also works if I type start c:\emu\pcgames\runchickenhunter.lnk from a dos prompt.

[BobbyG66]

I think it's the way Kymeara is written to execute programs.
PMF could probably explain further.  It seems to me that it written for a mame type software execution. With mame and other emulators such as Visual Pinball they use a main executable and then look for an additional rom or file to open/run.

With PC games they just use an executable or .lnk extension.
Minwah wrote into Mamewah a way to set up a list to just look for .lnk files when creating a list for PC games.
I have had success with that by creating a list that contains games from multiple emulators. I have written some Autoit scripts, still documenting to write up for everyone.

With Kymaera I tried writing all kinds of scripts to launch a PC game and nothing worked.

Good luck
BobbyG66

[ErikRuud]

The script I sent you works as long as there are no spaces in the folder names.

I can launch PC games usinhg that script, and I can launch Visual Pinball using a different script.

I would have a better idea as to why it does not work directly from Kymaera if I could see what the actual command line looked like.  It is not displayed in the log.