Marquee Magician - Attention Programmers

[Morpheus]

Hi Guys,

I wrote a program to display images on a secondary monitor for Gameex. I have recieved a couple of requests to add support, for different FEs'. I don't have the desire to figure out how all of the different FEs' work, but if anyone else wants to write software for other FEs', I would be happy to provide the necessary information needed to work with my Setup program.  The Setup program outputs all of the needed information to an .ini file, so the program that runs in the FE can be written in any language. If you are interested, PM me, and I will go into detail.

If you want to check out the setup program, you can read about it here:
http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=6911

[Ginsu Victim]

Attention Minwah!

[Space Fractal]

I think you could laosl write a dll, so authoers of others FE'S can been used (like my own?)

Im have not checked how it work, but all images on GameEX need to been registred before you can see it, so hence I cant check what it really do.

[Morpheus]

You will need to download IrfanView, and put a copy of i_view32.exe into the Marquee Magician Folder.
After Irfanview has been installed, run the Marquee Magician Setup 1.0.exe. (The setup program can be used on a system with only one monitor, however to be able to display the grahpics in GameEx, you will need two monitors.) You will see this Menu: (main menu.jpg)

This shows all of the commands that can be used. Also note that you can right-click to get a menu with the same options.


The setup program is used to create a pattern of images (Templates) that will be used in GameEx. Here are the steps that might be used to create a template:
I have opened two windows using {Ctrl} O. The one underneath is a single (static) image, the one on top is a folder of images to be displayed based on the rom name. When using a folder of images, you will be asked to select a backup image in case an image matching the rom name can not be found. (Image1.jpg)


{Ctrl} {Up} is used to equally space any images touching the top of the screen. In this case, I have two images so I get two images of equal width. If I had three images at the top, I would get three images of equal width, and so on. {Ctrl}{Down}, {Ctrl}{Left}, and {Ctrl}{Right} will perform the same function on their respective edges of the screen. (Image2.jpg)


I used {Ctrl}{Left} to make the image on the left full height, since there is only one image touching the left side of the screen. I could have just manually resized the image as well. This might be a good time to note, that if you try to drag an image off of the screen, it will snap back onto the screen. This is handy to get an image to touch the edge of the screen, just drag it off, and it will snap back to the edge. (Image3.jpg)


Here, I have resized the folder window, and dragged it to the upper right corner. Then I used {Ctrl} O again to open a new window. This time I chose to open a statistics (stats) window, and I manually dragged the stats window to the top, and against the picture on the left. While using the setup program, the stats window doesn't do much, but when in GameEx, it will show real time information about your system. The stats window will be opened the minimum size that it needs to be, to display the items that you have chosen. You can make it bigger if you need to fill space, but if you try to make it smaller, it will be re-sized to it's minimum size. I should also mention that Irfanview has a minimum size as well, and will be re-sized to the minimum if you try to make it too small. (Image4.jpg)


To get it to look like this, I clicked on the folder window, and used {Ctrl} C to copy the folder window size, then I clicked on the stats window, and used {Ctrl} V to paste the size to the stats window. Then I copied the folder window again {Ctrl} C, and then clicked on the stats window, and used {Ctrl} W to fill the space in between the two windows, by making them equal in width. {Ctrl} H does the same thing only it makes the Height equal. (Image5.jpg)


All I did here was to open another window, and re-sized it manually to fill the remaining screen area. (Image6.jpg)


Next, use {Ctrl} S to save the Template. In our case we want to assign the template to an emulator as well. (Image7.jpg)


Sorry, that's all the attachments allowed! I will make new post, with a few more pics, and the .exe

[Morpheus]

If you have any existing templates, you can choose to overwrite an existing one, or type in a new name. (Image8.jpg)


All emulators that you have enabled in GameEx will be listed. Click on an emulator, and then "OK". After the template is saved, you can {Ctrl} Q (Quit), create a new template from scratch, using the methods outlined above, or {Ctrl} L to load an existing template. If you like the layout of a template, you can re-use it for multiple emulators, you just have to choose new images for each emulator. (Image9.jpg)(Image10.jpg)

[Space Fractal]

I can support it by let it monitor the window title where it scroll.

In MultiFE I in the next version I would use this format:

MultiFE :: #System Emulator# :: #Game Name# :: Space Fractal

Then your application can check if the window title have been changed.

A simular system do Mamewah also use, but since im sure it dosent use 100% same format, you can simply let user define how the mask should been defined, something like above for MultiFE. I'm pretty sure a Plugin for Mala could do the same trick?

[Morpheus]

That's a pretty good Idea...

For GameEx, I check the .ini file for emulators that are setup on the system, so that would need to be addressed as well.

[Invincer]

Did anyone ever do any playing around with this? It works great in GameEx, and I would love to be able to use it in HyperSpin!

What would be really great is if in addition to the 2nd monitor use, it could use touchscreen abilities so you could select a tab and view CP, cab, flyer, whatever on the 2nd monitor WHILE inside a MAME game on the primary monitor!

[ienjoy]

Hi sorry to drag up old thread. But I have a couple of questions:
Does this create a desktop environment to limit the the frontend and emulator to one area and the marquee to another or does it specially send data to different monitors?
Can I use 2 monitors for Marquees? This is related to my other question as if what it does is just create the desktop then windows could be setup to use 2 monitors for the top half for example.

Sorry if I'm not clear, I'm just trying to wrap my head arround this so I can put two monitors side by side in my marquee space to show the marquee.

[Dazz]

Is this application a standalone app or does it require GameEx or a supported frontend?  

I just got a 7" LCD that I am working on incorporating into my cabinet. I've been playing around with Marquee Magician for a little while, but I can't seem to get it to launch when I launch MAME.  It looks like all of the setup is specifically for GameEx.  Can this not be used as a standalone application?

I'm trying to talk Bill into getting this setup to work within HyperSpin.  

I just found where there is a way to get this running via HyperSpin.  However, I don't like having to use an AHK to get it to work.  Hopefully I can talk Bill into adding proper implementation for this in the new version of HS.