EmuTron - New Version 2.0.5

[wee beastie]

PacFan,

You wanted me to post my specs because Emutron crashes if I hold right/left on the joystick too long.  I've noticed that this problem is isolated to long lists (ie all mame games--which I never really use anyway).

AMD 1.4Ghz Athalon
ECS K7s5A mobo
ATI All In Wonder 128 Pro
256 megs crappy ram.

The transparency is not terribly important to add as the alpha blending works quite well.  I have noticed that scrolling thru the list slows down quite a bit when you do this.  Any ideas how to speed this up?

Also, I can't seem to get the movie to play when my screen saver should start.  I've kept the default values in the etconfig file for when it should start the screensaver.  Then I more or less cut and paste the PlayMovie line from you docs (obviously changing path to "c:\movies\arcade84.mpg.").  For some reason it doesn't seem to be working.   Well, I shouldn't say that, I probably have it set up wrong.  Do I need a special player?  I can play the movie ok when I'm in windows on the real player.

wee beastie

[PacManFan]

WeeBeastie,
    I'm thinking that problem you're having with the long list might be caused by a bad png artwork file causing a crash. Does it crash on one file specifically? I check to see if the file exists before I try to load it, But after that, I assume it's valid. I'll put in more error checking code in the image load routines.

The last version, I turned off the ScreenSaver event because I was doing some testing on the AVI - MPG movie player with rotation after I changed from the Windows Media Player to straight MCI commands. You'll have to wait a few days before I release the next version with the Screen Saver enabled. I noticed that it was off a few days ago.

As far as speed goes, The alpha blending is slowing things down a bit, I'm writing an alpha blit routine for 25/75 , 50/50 and 75/25 blending that is 4x faster than the current.

Thanks for taking the time to check out EmuTron.

-PacManFan

PacFan,

You wanted me to post my specs because Emutron crashes if I hold right/left on the joystick too long.  I've noticed that this problem is isolated to long lists (ie all mame games--which I never really use anyway).

AMD 1.4Ghz Athalon
ECS K7s5A mobo
ATI All In Wonder 128 Pro
256 megs crappy ram.

The transparency is not terribly important to add as the alpha blending works quite well.  I have noticed that scrolling thru the list slows down quite a bit when you do this.  Any ideas how to speed this up?

Also, I can't seem to get the movie to play when my screen saver should start.  I've kept the default values in the etconfig file for when it should start the screensaver.  Then I more or less cut and paste the PlayMovie line from you docs (obviously changing path to "c:\movies\arcade84.mpg.").  For some reason it doesn't seem to be working.   Well, I shouldn't say that, I probably have it set up wrong.  Do I need a special player?  I can play the movie ok when I'm in windows on the real player.

wee beastie

[PacManFan]

Hey everyone,
 I know tempers have been running a little hot around here. I suppose that's the beauty of America. People are free to voice their opinions and express themselves in whatever way possible they want to. I can only speak for myself when I say that I respect Howard for putting forth his time and effort and supporting a great front end such as Lazurus for the BYOAC. Perhaps I've been a little to harsh with my responses about his efforts to put in his .02$ about EmuTron.
I think the BYOAC, no, the whole world needs more people like HC, They stir things up and cause people to stop and think. Ok. He's got some strong opinions, but he's not afraid to voice the. Sure people might get knocked off their boxes every once and a while, but it keeps things interesting.

    I have very much appreciated (most of) the responses and constructive critizisms that people had to offer.

    I ask everyone to remember that EmuTron is still only an infant FE (2 months old) and that there are bound to be issues to be worked out with testing.


BTW HC,
 I hope there's no hard feelings about the exchanges going on here. And while you were reading this long and boring posting, My satellite laser system has targeted your house ;)

[wee beastie]

OK Pacfan, that sounds great.  Looking forward to the screensaver option in a later release.  After messing with emutron extensively, I think the most needed element is this:  When I launch/quit a game is there any way to prevent it from showing "windows"? Even if it just shows a black screen, that is preferrable to seeing windows in the background

Emutron has worked great, and that's the only major thing that I can think of at the moment.  The other aspects (transparency, movie/screensaver, etc) can be added later.  To tell you the truth, transparency is not needed too much as alpha blend looks and works great.  Of course, this is your project, so feel free to work on whatever want.  I also thank you for posting some scripts how to get zinc working.  I haven't tried it yet, but I'll be sure to when I get the opportunity.  I'll probably try HC's wrappers as well, to see how they work with it (HC I had no idea what wrappers were until you mentioned them, but they look quite usefull!!)

Oh, and PacFan, you were right.  The crash was a bad screenshot.   Note, the bad screen shot was actually 5 down the llist from what was selected.  The crash was occuring because of the screen shot loading in the preview box, not the main screen shot rectangle.  Way to go on troubleshooting that PacFan!  Keep up the good work.

wee beastie

[PacManFan]

Hey Wee Beastie,

I glad to hear you like EmuTron,
Windows is show when you launch a game because of the way that I launch programs through EmuTron in the Game_launch event. I'm running a batch file. There are a few other ways to launch programs that I'm considering putting in to hide Windows as per your and Howards' suggestions.

-PacManFan

OK Pacfan, that sounds great.  Looking forward to the screensaver option in a later release.  After messing with emutron extensively, I think the most needed element is this:  When I launch/quit a game is there any way to prevent it from showing "windows"? Even if it just shows a black screen, that is preferrable to seeing windows in the background

[wee beastie]

PacManFan,

In the meantime, I believe I can hide windows by adding this to my "Startup File" in windows.

iexplore -k file.jpg

This should launch Internet Explorer in a kiosk/fullscreen mode, under Emutron.  Thus, when emutron quits, it should display a fullscreen pic that I decide, instead of showing windows.  I'll try that out when I get the chance.  It's a bit of a cludge, but if it works, it's fine with me.  

wee beastie

[wee beastie]

I'm trying to get Emutron to launch a jukebox program when I press a particular button.  I set up the config file properly, and when I press the designated button, it launches the jukebox program, but it's hidden behind Emutron.

Any idea how to fix this?

Also, I've found a particularly good mpg/avi freeware screensaver that allows me to randomize video images and mute them.  However, it doesn't work when the frontend is running.  Is there anything I can do to allow this to work?

Thanks PacManFan,


wee beastie

[PacManFan]

Hey Wee Beastie,

I'm trying to get Emutron to launch a jukebox program when I press a particular button.  I set up the config file properly, and when I press the designated button, it launches the jukebox program, but it's hidden behind Emutron.

Any idea how to fix this?

After you launch another program with EmuTron, If the program has a UI, You must exit EmuTron with the ExitProgram() statement after the Launch( ... ) command to show the program.
-BTW You can set up a Jukebox from within EmuTron.
Use the PlayMP3( ..) command, and after the mp3 is done playing, you can have EmuTron call an event to launch another mp3.

Also, I've found a particularly good mpg/avi freeware screensaver that allows me to randomize video images and mute them.  However, it doesn't work when the frontend is running.  Is there anything I can do to allow this to work?
Thanks PacManFan,
wee beastie

EmuTron runs in full screen exclusive mode, it doesn't allow other programs to take over the video until it exits.

What you can do is use the PlayMovie function from within EmuTron. EmuTron has 3 new automatic events:

Screensaver_start
Screensaver_display
Screensaver_end

Screensaver_start is called after the program no-input time elapses.
Then Screensaver_display is called as a display function instead of the normal display.
After a key is pressed, Screensaver_end is called so you can reload any bitmaps, etc...

Make sure you download the latest release of EmuTron 2.07. There has been several major revisions, And I'm about to release version 2.08 (With better movie / screen saver support)

I'll make a posting for the next release.


-PacManFan

[wee beastie]

I think the problem is that EmuTron takes control of the video.  See, when I launch my jukebox program, the batch file that launched it also contains the lines to restart emutron.  Problem is, the batch file loads the jukebox, then continues running and launches Emutron back over the jukebox.  I've tried just about everything to try and get this to work with the batch file.  

Tried using CHOICE and PAUSE commands.  Unfortunately, the dos window minimizes in the process, and it's impossible to make a "seamless" transition between the two programs without having to pull out the mouse.

While this is a minor setback, I don't want it to sound like a gripe, as EmuTron has been incredible so far!!!!!

Thanks for your patience and work on a great frontend

wee beastie