FE that can switch orientation w/o restarting?

[Jakobud]

I can't find any search results for this. 

I'm building a cocktail that is of this type of style:


I'm wondering, is there any FE out there that can switch between horizontal orientation and vertical orientation from within the menu?

So basically, if I'm in the FE perhaps two of the menus I could choose from in the menu is "Horizontal" games and "Vertical" games.  When I goto the Horizontal games list, the FE rotates accordingly so that if you are sitting on the side of the cocktail (with the two player CP) then you are looking at it oriented correctly.

But then if you go back and choose the "Vertical games" list, the FE rotates so that if you are sitting on the end of the cocktail in the 1P position, you are looking at it oriented correctly.

Anyways, I've been kinda outta the scene for a while now so I really don't know what the best FE is these days and which ones would have this feature.  I assume I'm not the first one to think of this.

[headkaze]

I've written a plugin for GameEx called "Rotate" which will rotate the FE based on the orientation of the game you launch so you wouldn't need to select horiz/vert manually.

[SGT]

I don't use it, but I'm pretty sure Mala can handle this also.

[Stormrider]

MaLa can do it. I have a dual layout with H/V (http://www.alvarezeninternet.com/malalayout/). Of course, all screens (loading, info, quit... even the intro video are rotated according to the actual orientation). Before using a tilt sensor, I switched manually between both game lists/layouts (vertical and horizontal). In your setup, it would be interesting to create a script which watches joysticks input while in the frontend, so that as soon as you touch the joy or buttons on the horizontal side, the layout automatically goes to horizontal mode, and viceversa. Nice idea eh?

[Space Fractal]

hey! that idea StormRider got is a included feature in MultiFE (one of the first thing I did). Just config Player 1 -> 4 in the MultiFE config and tell which orintation it should use, than it would rotate to that side when "touched". So even MultiFE might rotate wrong when a game exit, it would rotate to that side when joystick is used anyway.

I donno most newer fe's today do that job today either automatic or by a button?

[Jakobud]

I've written a plugin for GameEx called "Rotate" which will rotate the FE based on the orientation of the game you launch so you wouldn't need to select horiz/vert manually.

I'm not concerned about the orientation Mame launches the games at.  I'm concerned about having to get up and switch seats everytime you want to pick out a new game.  Like if the FE is displaying game lists in the horizontal orientation but you are wanting to pick a vertical oriented game, you have to switch seats everytime you startup or exit a game.

[headkaze]

I'm not concerned about the orientation Mame launches the games at.  I'm concerned about having to get up and switch seats everytime you want to pick out a new game.  Like if the FE is displaying game lists in the horizontal orientation but you are wanting to pick a vertical oriented game, you have to switch seats everytime you startup or exit a game.

Yes that's how it works, when you select a game it will return to the FE rotated based on the orientation of the game so you won't have to change seats until you pick a game with a different orientation.

[Jakobud]

Hmmm okay I'll have to try that out.  Where can I get that plugin?  Thanks