BuddaMAME v0.104 released - CPMaker GUI

[Buddabing]

My new BuddaMAME build v0.104 is out.

Get it here.

For new users, my build adds some important functionality to MAME.
1) Artwork display when pause is pressed
2) Integrated creation of said artwork
3) MAME Movie Maker - create AVI movies of demo loops.

There are also a few other, less important modifications, notably the new -ssf and -ssf_file options. These implement the skip_startup_frames, discussed elsewhere.

For this version I have spent a great deal of time creating a new user interface for my CPMaker application. It now will display images and there is also a new spiffy layout application.

To create artwork without display, use the -justprint flag:
cpmaker rom_name [parent name] -justprint

ex. cpmaker pacman puckman -justprint or cpmaker mk -justprint

To display the created artwork, run cpmaker without the -justprint:
cpmaker centiped

To launch the GUI, run CPMaker with no romname:
cpmaker

There are a few known issues with the GUI, but if you find something I may have overlooked, please let me know.

Regards,
Buddabing

[sc1103]

Dont know if its a bug or not, but the GUI crashed when I tried to manage my panels-it died when i moved from phppanel to panel04 I think

The GUI looks very nic overall.  THere are only two features I see as extending usefulness.  First, I would like to have been able to use the keyboard for copy and paste, or have been able to right click and choose copy, cut, paste, etc.  Secondly, when copying and pasting, currently one button is placed directly overtop the source button.  A "choose insertion point" style would probably work better.  I do however appreciate all the work that went into this program.  The lack of a GUI had kept me from using Buddamame and CPMaker compared to standard MAME and Johnny5, particularly after Screaming's GUI for CPMaker never panned out, but now I plan to switch over to Buddamame 

[Buddabing]

Dont know if its a bug or not, but the GUI crashed when I tried to manage my panels-it died when i moved from phppanel to panel04 I think

The GUI looks very nic overall.  THere are only two features I see as extending usefulness.  First, I would like to have been able to use the keyboard for copy and paste, or have been able to right click and choose copy, cut, paste, etc.  Secondly, when copying and pasting, currently one button is placed directly overtop the source button.  A "choose insertion point" style would probably work better.  I do however appreciate all the work that went into this program.  The lack of a GUI had kept me from using Buddamame and CPMaker compared to standard MAME and Johnny5, particularly after Screaming's GUI for CPMaker never panned out, but now I plan to switch over to Buddamame 

Thank you for your input.

For paste, I can implement something like a right-click "paste here" option. Currently, paste just puts whatever is pasted into the middle of the image.

I changed the panel file format from the previous version and some panel files may not have converted, that may be why it crashed. I'll audit that to confirm.

Keyboard input is one of the known issues that I'm working on.

[Buddabing]

I posted a new binary with a couple of bugfixes to the CPMaker GUI.

I also implemented (a bit rough, but it works) resizing of labels by dragging them in the main window.

[Farmboy90]

Hey Buddabing,

Can you share the source?  I was going to add "show image when game is paused" to my personal build because I want to show an image of my CP with the buttons labeled (like a instructions card). 

It sounds like you already do this.  I was under the impression that this kind of existed today through external batch files and what not, and wanted to fix that by just modifying the source code itself.

Currently I display "Game Paused" when pause is pressed, and was going to tweak that to load an image based on the currently loaded rom name.

Is this what your code change does?  If so, can you save me the trouble and just PM me the small source change?

Also, I was going to submit it to the PowerMAME build for others to enjoy, so you might want to do this instead if yours functions like this.

Thanks!

[Buddabing]

Farmboy90,

All my code is open source. Please feel free to steal whatever you want from it.

The code to display the artwork is mostly in artwork.c, with a small bit in the mame_pause function in mame.c, and another small bit in the osd code which corrects the aspect ratio. That code is in windows\winddraw.c.

There are also hooks to call external programs to generate the artwork, as well as to generate artwork based on Johnny 5, CPViewer, or my own label layouts.

If you like I can email you a diff for the artwork display code. Or just download the zip file I posted.

[Farmboy90]

If you like I can email you a diff for the artwork display code.

If this isn't too much trouble this would be great.  I have been meaning to use your program to make all my "instruction" images.  Now I just need to take a pic of my control panel....    This may motivate me to actually get all this done.

Thanks for the hard work. 

[Buddabing]

Actually, now that I've looked at it, it -is- too much trouble.

Just search artwork.c for "Buddabing", I've put comments whereever I made changes. Additionally, most likely you'll need to change your makefile to get the changes to compile.

[Buddabing]

Okay, I've uploaded a new binary.

I've implemented a better paste mechanism. You can right click on any control or label and "Cut" and "Copy" will appear on that popup menu.

Then, you can right click outside of any controls or labels and a "Paste" menu will appear, which will paste the clipboard at the cursor location.

I've also cleaned up the code for the label preview border dragging.

Next up I may implement an installer.

[Necro]

Is there a way to convert over a Johnny5 setup to a cpviewer one?  I'm a bit lost as to how I should be shifting things over.

[Necro]

GAH!

I tried setting this up.  I think my brain just exploded.

For some reason CPviewer insists on changing the resolution of my display (it wont just leave the refresh and resolution alone).  So...it can't display...and I can't find the settings for it.

Ok...taking a break and will try later.

[Buddabing]

Are you referring to CPViewer or CPMaker? They're two different things.

The CPMaker image viewer uses the same display options (and source code) as MAME. So you should be able to use the exact same options from your mame.ini file and put them in your cpmaker.ini. Or, I suppose, I could put in some code to read the mame.ini file.....

Eventually I do plan to write import and export functions for Johnny and CPViewer files, so you could do an "import Johnny" function followed by a "export CPViewer" function.

There are template files available that you can use to display a Johnny label layout. They are called johnny1.pan, johnny2.pan and johnny3.pan.

[Necro]

Basically, I have a johnny layout, wanted to show that in CPviewer as my layout.  And the CPviewer info is good, I'll add the 'no change' resolution thing to it and see if it works.  BUt now, gotta crash.  Feeling like crap and can't afford to get sick

[Buddabing]

A new self-extracting executable is now available. Future BuddaMAME releases will be like this. If you want to compile your own, just tell the installer to extract everything in an existing MAME v0.104 directory.

I made a couple of bugfixes in this release and added an application icon. You can also double click .PAN files. BuddaMAME will also associate the .PAN,.PSF and .PPF file extensions to the CPMaker GUI.

[Necro]

Hrm, ok...I tried adding in :
switchres,0,
switchbpp,0,
maximize,1,
keepaspect,1,
matchrefresh,1,
syncrefresh,1,

and I'm still getting it doing whatever it wants...(basically, runnign cpmaker frogger is not displaying anything and screwing up my monitor display). :/

I am doing that correct right?  Also, the cpmaker.ini should be in the cpanel directory, correct? (I tried putting it  into the main mame dir and it didnt help but...just to be sure).

[Buddabing]

Okay, create a file cpmaker.ini and add the following to it:

Code: [Select]

switchres 0
switchbpp 0
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
matchrefresh 1
syncrefresh 1

The cpmaker.ini should be in the same directory as your cpmaker.exe.

The comma-delimited options are for the CPMaker panel preference file. Documentation can be found here, but is out of date. I am working on changing things from the previous version, and to add documentation for the GUI.

HTH,
Buddabing

[Necro]

Hrm...ok I think I installed an older version of cpmaker or something.  I just cleaned out my MAME dir and will retry this.  Sorry for the confusion...I really want to get this working.

[Necro]

Ok...I thought I had it but after doing the above and still having it alter my refresh rate anyway...and not understanding the documentation   (can I put anything there in the cpmaker.ini just not with ,'s?  what needs to be defined?  etc...)

[Buddabing]

If you run cpmaker.exe -showusage > usage.txt and then notepad usage.txt, you will be able to see what options CPMaker allows on the command line.

The -showusage code was copied directly from MAME and works in exactly the same way.

I am currently revising my documentation to reflect what comma-delimited options must be present in the cpmaker.ppf file.

The refresh rate and so on is only relevant if you are using the built-in viewer. For running the GUI or generating images without viewing them, you don't need to set those options.

[Buddabing]

I uploaded a bugfix today for the GUI.

[sWampy]

Couple of suggestions.   Can you add a label for game name so the name of the game that is being played can be displayed on the control panel, as well as fields form history.dat.   Not that I forget what game I'm playing often, but to make it obvious to everyone that the control layout is custom for that game.

Also look something wierd is going on with the right and down labels.

[Buddabing]

It looks like the GUI doesn't have the option to add the game name, history, and those type of fields. You currently would have to hand-edit your panel file. I'll fix that asap.

For the labels, the maximum font size is calculated for plain rectangular labels. I'll try to fix this issue. In the meantime, the problem should be less noticable if you decrease the corner radius on those labels.

Please email me your .pan file to buddabing at houston dot rr dot com so I can test my fixes.

[sWampy]

Is there a place I can get a list of other labels like game name I could put in by hand?

[Buddabing]

This line in my panel file:

Code: [Select]

label,gamename,Display Game Name,rect,422,251,400,300,0,,,0xff008000,0xffffffff,Arial,12,2,

results in the attached picture

[Buddabing]

These label keycodes should work as well:

Display Game Name
Display Alternating
Display Control Info P1
Display Mirrored
Display Control Info P2
Display Misc Details

The "Misc details" comes from the controls.dat, not from the history.dat.

[sWampy]

Seems to have a bug with font sizes, always using the last size or some such, and if you load the file back in the gui, the last few chars of the display control info p1/etc get cut off.

label,GameName,Display Game Name,rect,388,6,400,60,0,,,0x00000000,0xffffff00,Arial,24,2,
label,P1Controls,Display Control Info P1,rect,3,2,368,176,0,,,0x00000000,0xffffff00,Arial,14,2,
label,P2Controls,Display Control Info P2,rect,829,1,438,176,0,,,0x00000000,0xffffff00,Arial,14,2,
label,GameName,Display Misc Details,rect,380,73,444,105,0,,,0x00000000,0xffffff00,Arial,14,2,

I think it will be pretty cool though

[sWampy]

Ok, I'm confused, I can't seem to get it to not show the cpanel on launch when I type mame <romname>.  I really want it to jump right to the game and if I press P/pause to have it show the control panel.  Isn't there a magic set of settings for the ini that does this?

[Buddabing]

What game? All games, or just some?

There is no setting to display the control panel at launch. Try making sure the following settings are in your mame.ini:

Code: [Select]

intmakectrl 1
extmakectrl 0

Also, when you are running this, run BuddaMAME from a command line, not a front end. That way we know the problem is in BuddaMAME.

If it still isn't working for you, try running mame with:

Code: [Select]

mame romname -log -cplog -cpverbose -cpdebug

Then email the error.log file to me.

Thanks,
Buddabing