MVPwrapper (Mamewah Visual Pinball)

[BobbyG66]

Here is another Visual Pinball wrapper for Mamewah.
"MVPwrapper"

You will need to download the software Autoit3:
http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/downloads.php
This is used to create the .exe file.

Print out the readme for reference. Attached is the readme file and the splash jpg

Let me know if it works for you, or if you have any problems.

Thanks
BobbyG66

[BobbyG66]

Attached are all the files zipped together.
Download file, then change extension to .zip

BobbyG66

[Onji]

awesome! i'll give it a shot!

[jcrouse]

Can the splash be changed if it doesn't match the cabinet and/or layout theme?

Good Job,
John

[BobbyG66]

Can the splash be changed if it doesn't match the cabinet and/or layout theme?

Good Job,
John

Yep, just like yours.
You can create your own splash/wait screen and name it MVP_splash.jpg

Have you tried the wrapper yet?

[jcrouse]

No. I will probably give it a go this weekend. Mine has issues as you may have noticed. It works good with the older tables but has problem with the tables that display the pinmame screen. It's a focus problem and to be honest I don't really feel like putting the effort into working on it.

John

[BobbyG66]

No. I will probably give it a go this weekend. Mine has issues as you may have noticed. It works good with the older tables but has problem with the tables that display the pinmame screen. It's a focus problem and to be honest I don't really feel like putting the effort into working on it.

John

I was having the same issues! The little red LED display would pop up and the table would be hidden in the background. I figured it was my setup or config.

...so I got this working for the tables that ran fine on my PC.

[jcrouse]

Well here are my findings. Your sample script you include has an error, You stated this:

Run('"c:\vpinmame\vpinball.exe" -Play -"' & $CmdLine[1] & '"', '', @SW_MAXIMIZE)

and it needs to be this:

Run('"c:\vpinmame\vpinball.exe" /Play -"' & $CmdLine[1] & '"', '', @SW_MAXIMIZE)

Your hyphen, "-",  in front of play needs to be a slash, "/".

Next, your sample splash is named wrong. Not a big deal but some people may not catch it.

Next, you sample Mamewah INI file needs a "1" for the send_rom_path.

All of this is pretty minor. However, I have the same focus issues that I have with my wrapper. If I launch a simple table like 3 Stooges everything works great. However, if I launch Addams Family which has a dialog box that pops up you don't allow for sending of the "enter" key. You will find as you look into this, there is no standard and everyone designs their tables different. I have seen some that require 3 enter keys to actuall get the table to load.

For you own feedback try the table Addams Family from here:
http://www.vpforums.com/vptables/tables.php?ltr=A

Let me know how you make out. Maybe I did something wrong.

Good Luck,
John

[Howard_Casto]

The error lies in the tabels themselves and the silly way that the pinmame window is called.  (But I won't go there)

The only way to fix said focus issues is to forceably set the focus at several key points via api calls.  Afaik this is not possbile in autoit and this is the reason I made my vp wrapper in the first place. 

[sofakng]

Slightly off-topic here, but I'm a web developer (my company uses Delphi 6) and I started learning the Windows API on my own.  It's pretty amazing what you can do so I'm sure that you can forceably hide windows and set the focus.  (just like you mentioned)

Howard, I'm assuming you program in C since that's what MAME is programmed in?

[Howard_Casto]

Heck no... c requires too much setup..... I code exclusively in vb at this point. 

Of course the way things look with vb7 and vb8 I'll probably be switching back to c or something else when longhorn comes out.

[sofakng]

Yeah, I know what you mean...  that's what I really like Delphi.  It's easy to use like VB, but extremely flexible and powerful like C. 

[BobbyG66]

JCrouse,

Thanks for catching those typos...
Not sure about the "-" and "/" issue, will look into that.

I have not been able to get adams family working either. Did not know about hitting ENTER. Autoit does have commands where you can send keystrokes, so I will try that. I 'hopefully' can send 1, 3 or 10 without affecting tables that do not require them.

I will have to try this out this weekend.

Thanks
BobbyG66

[jcrouse]

The only way to fix said focus issues is to forceably set the focus at several key points via api calls.

I agree and that's my (my program's) short-coming. I don't know much about this area and don't want to invest the time, at the moment, to learn how it works.

Maybe someday,
John

[BobbyG66]

The only way to fix said focus issues is to forceably set the focus at several key points via api calls.

I agree and that's my (my program's) short-coming. I don't know much about this area and don't want to invest the time, at the moment, to learn how it works.

Maybe someday,
John

Howard, what do you mean by "focus"?

[Minwah]

Howard, what do you mean by "focus"?

Easiest example I can think of is when you have multiple programs running - only one of them has focus.  Lets say you have Explorer and Notepad open, click on Exporer (it then has focus), and type something - obviously the text won't appear in Notepad because it doesn't have focus.

Same thing applies to apps which have multiple windows in them - only one window usually has focus.  I'm not too familiar with VPinball but I think that is more or less the case here...so sending keystrokes alone will not work, you need to force focus (to whatever is expecting the Enter or whatever) and then send the keystrokes.

[jcrouse]

Very good example Mini. Now think of this. Here is what you have running:

MameWAH
Some sort of Alt_launch_method ?
VPinball.exe
pinmame.exe
MVPwrapper.exe

AND...all the associated dialog boxes

This is why it gets a little tricky sending all the input to the appropriated application. Also, throw in the mix that some tables have no dialog boxes, some may have one or two and also different input may be required to continue/close th dialog box. All this considered, it's a pretty ugly situation.

John

[)p(]

the easiest way is just force focus to the "Visual Pinball Player" window for a minute or two every 2 seconds or so while you check for the exit key being pressed...its a bit nasty but you wont see any negative impact on the framerate at all and it will work ok with every table out there. The implementation in my fe is a bit more elaborate then that but just doing the above will work

peter

[Howard_Casto]

Actually.... your right, but I forgot to mention that problem tables sometimes need the pinmame window set as the foreground window (again all api stuff)  and then do what you say.  Earlier versions of my wrapper constantly focused as you suggested, but I've found ways around that as time has passed.