FE for touch screen

[squirrellydw]

anyone have any recommendations for a FE to use with a touch screen?  I am making something similar to magetouch and need to select games from it and easy to navigate.

[youki]

AtomicFE supports Touch Screen.

You have just to make a special layout.  I can help you with that. If you are interrested.

Just says what you would like , and i will do a template for you.

[Goz]

This thread is interesting. I'm surprised we haven't seen more after the group buy in BST for the ELO's.

[Space Fractal]

All FE here seen to been controllers based, because all will run arcade games using theirs controllers.

Since I did have created a nice little Touchscreen GUI (not to been beat Freebox since it very deficent) in MultiJuke. But since I still development this to turn into a FE (MultiFE), I think this would been good idea to get Touchscreen GUI as well to run these games as same way with music.

So it a project I look to get it to work in MultiFE as well = it on todo list.

The downside is this project is delayed abit, since the weater is again too hot to work with.

Nice thread as well anyway.

NB. The Jukebox part can been actually been hided (do that automatic when no music library is found), so you still just launch freebox as your prefer jukebox application.

[Aceldamor]

I'm actually in the planning stages for a dual screen MAME cab (replacing my LuSiD  ), with the top screen showing intro movies/control panels/move sets, etc.

I would be interested in a plug-in for FE's that allows me to touch the screen, to grab whatever I wanted to see at the time.

Example: I fire up MK on my MAME box, because my wife wants to tear off my head , Sub Zero style. The intro movie (attract mode) plays on the top (touch) screen. I touch the screen to stop the intro movie, taking me to a layout with components I can touch to zoom in whatever component I need...say the move list, so she can perform that almighty head rip for SUB Zero....but doesn't know the controls, so she touches the move list again, it zooms out or disappears back to the original layout, then she touches the control panel, where the J5, or whatever current CP layout software is (sorry, still catching up from 3 year break) zooms in to see what buttons do what function on the panel.

It's going to be very Varsity Club like, simply because I LOVE mccoy's cab design, with a few tweaks.....and a TON of work.

[squirrellydw]

Mainly what I want is like 3 rows of 4 boxes, with tabs at the top for categories/favorites.  It would need to have pages to scroll though.  the boxes would show either a snap shot or video of the game.  Touch the box and it launches the game.

[Barry Barcrest]

Mainly what I want is like 3 rows of 4 boxes, with tabs at the top for categories/favorites.  It would need to have pages to scroll though.  the boxes would show either a snap shot or video of the game.  Touch the box and it launches the game.

Basically i think what he wants is what i tried to deliver... I have been up all night working on it with him and it now looks like it's working with the exception of one game that only runs intermittently for some reason. Goz tried it but it wouldn't go fullscreen for him? If anyone wants to try it there is an ALPHA on my site...

[squirrellydw]

still working on it.  I am going to make a skin for it this week on next weekend at the latest.

[Barry Barcrest]

Due some stange issues i have suggested squirrel try atomic... I am completly at a loss and have stayed up all night playing with this.  Oh well i gave it a shot.

[squirrellydw]

hey youki.......any chance you can make something like I requested?  The other one is just not working for me.  Get me started then I might be able to make a skin myself.  If you can make the boxes in blue hex code 0000cc that would be great.  Let me know if you need anything else.

Barry, thanks for trying 

[youki]

hi squirrellydw ,

I will make a layout template for you tonight if i can. or before the end of the week if i find no time.

[Space Fractal]

hmm? which game gave it problems? It can not been fixed using some autohotkey script to get the game started correctly to fullscreen?

Anyway it some sort of that tableview Im doing for my FE for the touchscreen mode....

[Barry Barcrest]

hmm? which game gave it problems? It can not been fixed using some autohotkey script to get the game started correctly to fullscreen?

The problem was very strange. Sometimes the game would launch fine and othertimes it would fail. This was happening with a few different games with no real consistancy. That was the problem Squirrel was having.

Then someone else was saying the FE would not go fullscren for them.

I have not had the fullscreen problem although i was able to replicate the one game not loading. If it didn't load all the time i could see there was a fult but because it was intermittent it was too hard to diagnose.

I think it was the code i launched it with as i had to monitor when the game ended so i could bring the front end back up again. It is problems like this you do not really think about until you come to theuse the thing.

[Space Fractal]

Did you try to run the game using bat file, and make sure it on the path, before launching the exe?

In MultiFE, I thinking it should only search for LNK, BAT and AHK Files, but never launch exe files directly (I have not write that part yet, but might just expand Explorere Library to checking these files as well). MultiFE do not use exclusive fullscreen anymore, but using a fullscreen borderless window instead (but still use OpenGL).

But I do prefer BAT files, and make sure to CD the path correctly.

[squirrellydw]

hi squirrellydw ,

I will make a layout template for you tonight if i can. or before the end of the week if i find no time.

thanks youki, hope you can d what I want

[Barry Barcrest]

Did you try to run the game using bat file, and make sure it on the path, before launching the exe?

In MultiFE, I thinking it should only search for LNK, BAT and AHK Files, but never launch exe files directly (I have not write that part yet, but might just expand Explorere Library to checking these files as well). MultiFE do not use exclusive fullscreen anymore, but using a fullscreen borderless window instead (but still use OpenGL).

But I do prefer BAT files, and make sure to CD the path correctly.

Path was fine and i see the app try to launch. Sometimes it does launch and other times it doesn't i have an idea after thinking about it some more today so maybe i will be able to fix it maybe not. The reason i am calling the EXE directly rather than using a bat file is i need to know when that application has ended so i can make sure the FE appears correctly on the screen. Some apps you call change the resolution which will mean your boarderless window will need to set the resolution back or it will not be fullscreen. It is issues like these that you only find out once you start work on a FE. It's a totally different set of challanges compared to coding a jukebox.

[Barry Barcrest]

Ah.... I couldn't get the games to launch from atomic either. Although config wasn't quite as straight forward as i thought i think i had it down and it would not launch the app, i had the same problems as i had launching it from my front end. Squirrel, this may have to be thought out again.

[gonzo90017]

In MultiFE, I thinking it should only search for LNK, BAT and AHK Files

How about adding .au3 to the list (Autoit).

[Space Fractal]

Did you try to run the game using bat file, and make sure it on the path, before launching the exe?

In MultiFE, I thinking it should only search for LNK, BAT and AHK Files, but never launch exe files directly (I have not write that part yet, but might just expand Explorere Library to checking these files as well). MultiFE do not use exclusive fullscreen anymore, but using a fullscreen borderless window instead (but still use OpenGL).

But I do prefer BAT files, and make sure to CD the path correctly.

Path was fine and i see the app try to launch. Sometimes it does launch and other times it doesn't i have an idea after thinking about it some more today so maybe i will be able to fix it maybe not. The reason i am calling the EXE directly rather than using a bat file is i need to know when that application has ended so i can make sure the FE appears correctly on the screen. Some apps you call change the resolution which will mean your boarderless window will need to set the resolution back or it will not be fullscreen. It is issues like these that you only find out once you start work on a FE. It's a totally different set of challanges compared to coding a jukebox.

I can just reposition the window again after endning. Thanks for the warning.

Is there a demo of the game trying, so I can look and avoid these problems in my FE?

I haven't see any FE launching exe files directly. I dosent think any FE here do that? You can still control when the bat file have been finished and then return to your frontend.

[youki]

squirrellydw , could you say me what resolution you need for your layout?*

640x480 ?

[squirrellydw]

my monitor is 1024 x 768 but all the games are different.  So when I launch a game it might change it the resolution so when I am done it has to go back to the default of 1024x768.

understand

[Havok]

Ah.... I couldn't get the games to launch from atomic either. Although config wasn't quite as straight forward as i thought i think i had it down and it would not launch the app, i had the same problems as i had launching it from my front end. Squirrel, this may have to be thought out again.

What games were giving you trouble? I have a multi emulation list that launches all kinds of games with no problems in Atomic. (In addition to genre lists, etc.) I would just like to see if I can get them working since I am more familiar with Atomic than you are. (No offense!)

[youki]

So, without using Atomic scripting i can not do exactly what you want. Unfortunaly i don't have time to make a scripted layout right now.

Without scripting , just with the layout editor , i managed to do this :



You can not click directly on the picture.

You can browse game using arrows left and right.  And you can jump to next or previous page using double Arrows.

In Atomic 0.19 , You not switch to favorite list by touching the screen, you have to press a button. But if you are interrested in that kind of layout, i could easly add this feature in the coming version.

It is not exactly what you want.    

You can also make variant of this layout, by using text list and one snap  or any various combination.  For instance , you could have a text list on the left , with at the top and bottom of the list  , 2 "touch" zone to browse the list.  And on the right  A Snap (or video snap) , and you could touch the snap to run the game.

But as it stand now, You can not select a game by touching the list.

Let me know, if you want try it  and if yes , send me your email in pm!

[squirrellydw]

Not exactly what I want but might have to work.  Barry also said he thinks he got his to work so  I need to test that out also.  Thanks for the skin youki, I will let you know if a day or two.

[Barry Barcrest]

Ok i am desperate for someone else to try this... You need the download from the link bellow then extract the attached update over the top to overwrite the ini and exe.

Useage...
Right click on a box to set it up for an app. A Window pops up where you can specify an image to display for that game and also an attact avi and the path to the exe. click save and exit and then you launch the game by clicking that image.

To exit the app it's the button in the middle on the bottom of the screen.

There are basic options but it's all ALPHA i have not done much work on the rest of the app as i really need to get the launching working reliably first.

[Popcorrin]

I tried to download so I could test it out but the link does not work.

[Goz]

It's working great Barry.

[Popcorrin]

Goz, how long ago did you download it?  The link doesn't work for me.   I don't know how big the file is but if it isn't too big is there any chance you could attach it so I could grab it?

Thanks

[Space Fractal]

Finally I just got PC games to run from MultiFE in both Arcade GUI and Touchscreen GUI using BAT files (later it would support other files as well).

I Release a WIP version for Windows later today, when I got compiled a installation setup. I create a new thread soon.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=82189.0 (please note MultiFE is still a WIP)

[Space Fractal]

Barcrest: Nice done. Do you still have some problem games=

In MultiFE i use runprogram.exe as to run pc games. it a little utility wrote in Pure Basic. By now it only run bat files. but later it run other type of files as well (example LNK and AHK and Au3).

I think you could do the same and let a third party app run the utility (example using a compiled AHK)?

There are allways some games. that dosent like frontends when run directly.

[shredso]

I also get an error when downloading the pissos file.  has anyone figured out a way to exit a MAME game using only touchscreen?

[squirrellydw]

yeah, i think this link is dead, go to freeboxjukebox to download it

[Popcorrin]

I don't think there is a place on freeboxjukebox to download it.  At least I couldn't fine one. 
I was able to download it from the above link though.  Click on the link and then in the address bar you will have to replace the 8 with a 9 where it says PissOS3_8.zip

[Space Fractal]

Barcrest: I think you should add this little PC games FE as a new forum in your freebox jukebox. Some might want to use it, even those with mouse.

[Barry Barcrest]

It already has a section on my website forum titled WII Frontend. I will probably be renaming it to Touch OS.. Space Fractal, how are you detecting the app has closed and then getting focus back to your FE when it has shut down? I have it working but that was one of the issues. You need to know when the app has ended for multiple reasons like setting the resolution back if the app changed it.

[Space Fractal]

Touch OS? Why not. Even it not a fully Operative system, it a suiteable name for your "fe".

If you have other applications open in the process line, it can still have some issues in MultiFE (here It would been possible to run external apps in a future wip versions, where I can create a little focus checker her).

I use FreeProcess commands in BlitzMax, but not sure which Windows commands it really use. It works for both Linux and Windows, why I use them. Howover it limited to running EXE files only. But I use something line this BlitzMax code:

Code: [Select]

ProcessRunning:TProcess=TProcess.Create(command$, 0)
While TLibrary.ProcessRunning.Status()=1
 Local LineN$ = TLibrary.ProcessRunning.pipe.ReadLine().Trim()
 Local lineerro$ = TLibrary.ProcessRunning.err.ReadLine().Trim()
 ; some other code for the jukebox section used (checking queue etc), like
 delay 10
EndWhile
; The application have been ended, when status() is 0.

But it only works for exe files, why I create a little PureBasic application to run shell commands for LNK and BAT files. That why I have a little exe wrapper for these files. Otherwise it create process like normal.

If there is still a focus problem I guess I do need to write a little ahk script and run that as application inside MultiFE. That features is not finished yet to make 100% MultiFE got its focus back. ahk can also been used to tackle these focus problems.

And also normally reosulution should automatic change resoulution back to that desktop one when the process have been killed. So I do nothing to change resoulution other than reposition the window again.

[Barry Barcrest]

The resolution issues will be a problem if you are not monitoring them. I had issues with an app changing the resolution to 1024 x 768 and then not setting it back to 800 x 600. this might be because i set the resolution to 800 x 600 in my frontend and that app set it back to the default resolution but i am not 100% sure. If you app sets the resolution when you run it fullscreen you may have the same issue.

[Space Fractal]

Which app are you talking about? Is a demo for that out, so I can check that? Otherwice it hard to test here.

Then I can check the code for the little runprogram.exe, so it also check resolution and eventuelly change resolution back, just before the runprogram.exe quit. runprogram.exe is used by MultiFE to launch PC games.

Otherwice in MultiFE, it just countinue to run in the new resolution, if a game did not change the resolution back. It now check the desktop resoultion after the game is ended and change the borderless window if needed.....

[Lave Laar]

This is my take on the issue. It's called "Simple Touch FE"
It's a very simple front-end.  Designed to just launch a handfull of programs/games.
It's skinnable and can display between 1 and 12 images per page.



Download : http://home.online.no/~llindga/Programs/STFE09.zip

PS.  The games in the screenshot is not very touchscreen-friendly,  I know.  Just to give an impression to how it looks.
I'm not finished with my computer for my touch-screen yet.

[bishmasterb]

Lave,

I'm looking for a frontend for a touchscreen/bartop project. I'm trying yours out, and have a couple questions:

* Is it possible to place a background image?
* Is the max number of images per page 12?

For future versions:

* Maintain different categories of applications that could be accessed via tab for instance
* Ability to place music
* Indicator of which page you are on "1of3", "2of3", etc. Just the ability to change a graphic at a particular screen location based on page number would be nice.

Thanks for your help.