Author Topic: Cabrio FE: first beta release for Linux and Windows (Read 11691 times)

cosam · « **on:** November 15, 2009, 06:51:31 pm »

After the implementation of a host of new features, and a bug-squashing stint this weekend, I've decided it's time Cabrio deserved a proper release. The major addition this time is that themes/skins are now supported, allowing the interface to be extensively customised. I've even updated the documentation and included a few basic sample themes in the distribution, such as the "Industrial" theme pictured below.

Download it here: http://www.cabrio-fe.org/download/

Hewskie · « **Reply #1 on:** November 15, 2009, 08:43:56 pm »

hey cosam! First, I love your FE! You said in your original post that although there are many great front ends out there, you were having a hard time finding one that fit your specific needs and I have to say I guess our needs are the same.

your menu system is just what I've been looking for. I was following your previous thread closely and am glad you finally released a windows version. Now, any news on when the gameslist creation will be automated? I would love to use this in my cab, but don't want to sift through and add every game one at a time.

keep up the great work

Hewskie

cosam · « **Reply #2 on:** November 16, 2009, 04:51:42 am »

Hi Hewski,

I'm glad you like it! My main motivation for making this was to get an animated, graphical front end running on Linux. I assume the majority of the potential users are running Windows though, so it made sense to release a Windows build too. Credit is due to Cakemeister, who steamed ahead into a very early Windows port and sent back his changes so they could be worked into the main sources.

As for list generation, I've not really put much effort into that yet, mainly because I've been working with NOP to get the format built into ROMLister. I'll probably build something simple into the FE eventually, but it's never going to parallel the features of tools built for the job.

The next big feature will be getting video snaps working...

youki · « **Reply #3 on:** November 16, 2009, 07:14:14 am »

very very nice!!!

NOP · « **Reply #4 on:** November 16, 2009, 09:32:44 am »

Quote from: cosam on November 16, 2009, 04:51:42 am

As for list generation, I've not really put much effort into that yet, mainly because I've been working with NOP to get the format built into ROMLister.

Yup, I've signed up for the job; it's nearly finished and cosam and I will just need to hammer out a couple final details; expect something this week. I'll announce it here when I'm ready.

Congui · « **Reply #5 on:** November 16, 2009, 06:13:35 pm »

Nice and simple. Me likes. Btw, where did you find the game titles?

cosam · « **Reply #6 on:** November 17, 2009, 04:27:49 am »

Quote from: Congui on November 16, 2009, 06:13:35 pm

Btw, where did you find the game titles?

A few of them came from the Arcade Art site (localarcade.com) before it fell of the web, some are cut out of bitmaps I found on various sites. Most I however made myself by tracing them in Inkscape and exporting as PNG. If the Arcade Art site ever returns, I'll upload them there. I tried the file archive, but it doesn't (yet) accept SVG files. If all else fails, I'll just upload them to my own site.

cosam · « **Reply #7 on:** November 18, 2009, 04:33:58 pm »

Here's a new minor release which adds a couple of features to make better use of the upcoming "Cabrio-capable" ROMLister release.

The main difference for existing configurations is that the <games> are now wrapped in a <game-list>...</game-list> section, which has an optional <name> tag. The names are made available in the menu, allowing you to browse the games in a particular list.

There's also some new code in there to allow the translation of category values. This is useful for making more "friendly" names for things like MAME control strings, translating "joy4way" and "dial" into "Joystick" and "Spinner", for example. You can also use wildcards to group values together under a single name. More about that here

NOP · « **Reply #8 on:** November 18, 2009, 07:32:05 pm »

ROMLister 21 has been released to support cabrio game lists.

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister

have fun!

Ummon · « **Reply #9 on:** November 19, 2009, 05:20:02 pm »

A question I've kept forgetting to ask is whether this supports, or will support, other emus?

cosam · « **Reply #10 on:** November 19, 2009, 05:52:31 pm »

Quote from: Ummon on November 19, 2009, 05:20:02 pm

A question I've kept forgetting to ask is whether this supports, or will support, other emus?

At the moment it'll run anything you can start with a command line like: <emulator> [<arg1> <arg2> ...] <rom image>

You can configure as many emulators as you like, but just now it always takes the first one. For the next release I want to have it look up which emulator to run depending on the "platform" tag defined for the game.

Ummon · « **Reply #11 on:** November 21, 2009, 05:35:15 pm »

What do you mean by platform tag?

cosam · « **Reply #12 on:** November 21, 2009, 05:55:23 pm »

Quote from: Ummon on November 21, 2009, 05:35:15 pm

What do you mean by platform tag?

Each game in the config file has an optional parameter named "platform". The content is an arbitrary string which says what kind of hardware the game runs on. I want to put put a similar parameter in the configuration of each emulator. Then, when you start a game, it'll look for the emulator(s) with the same platform string.

Ummon · « **Reply #13 on:** November 24, 2009, 12:20:30 am »

Is this why there's only one "MAME" emu option in most FEs?

cosam · « **Reply #14 on:** November 24, 2009, 11:03:37 am »

Quote from: Ummon on November 24, 2009, 12:20:30 am

Is this why there's only one "MAME" emu option in most FEs?

I'm not sure I understand your question.

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #15 on:** November 24, 2009, 12:29:05 pm »

Quote from: cosam on November 24, 2009, 11:03:37 am

Quote from: Ummon on November 24, 2009, 12:20:30 am
Is this why there's only one "MAME" emu option in most FEs?

I'm not sure I understand your question.

Some people use multiple versions of MAME for different games...

cosam · « **Reply #16 on:** November 25, 2009, 06:24:49 pm »

Quote from: HarumaN on November 24, 2009, 12:29:05 pm

Some people use multiple versions of MAME for different games...

Indeed - this is something I've planned on supporting form the start, and the next thing I'll be working on.

In the mean time, here's a quick taster of Cabrio playing some video snaps. There is sound, sync'ed and all, but unfortunately the video capture software didn't want to record it...

Hewskie · « **Reply #17 on:** November 25, 2009, 06:29:38 pm »

wow, this is looking great! I tried fooling around with romlister but I haven't figured it out yet, once I do this is definitely going in my cab.

keep up the good work, it's nice to see you implementing so many requests

nipsmg · « **Reply #18 on:** November 25, 2009, 06:59:49 pm »

Excellent job!

This is getting better and better. I'm impressed, for a new entry into the ring this is looking pretty amazing.

Paul Olson · « **Reply #19 on:** November 25, 2009, 10:40:37 pm »

Thanks for releasing the source for this front end! I am taking programming classes at school, but there is a huge difference between what I am writing for school and something like this. I haven't even had a chance to try a gui app yet, and I am almost finished with my 3rd c++ class. I am really starting to get frustrated with it. Really all I have been doing is writing classes (and basic drivers to prove they work) that are already available in the standard library - which I haven't been able to use yet. I honestly have a hard time reading code I see online - it is just too different from what I am learning.

Hopefully seeing how projects I am interested in are written will help bridge the gap.

BTW. the front end looks nice. I will give it a shot in a couple of weeks when winter break starts.

Paul

cosam · « **Reply #20 on:** November 26, 2009, 05:08:03 am »

Thanks for the positive comments - I'm quite pleased how it's shaping up too ;-)

Quote from: Paul Olson on November 25, 2009, 10:40:37 pm

I am taking programming classes at school, but there is a huge difference between what I am writing for school and something like this. I haven't even had a chance to try a gui app yet, and I am almost finished with my 3rd c++ class. I am really starting to get frustrated with it. Really all I have been doing is writing classes (and basic drivers to prove they work) that are already available in the standard library - which I haven't been able to use yet.

While it's important to have a good grasp on the basics, if you feel the classes are somehow holding you back you can always supplement them with your own research and maybe even a personal project.

Quote

I honestly have a hard time reading code I see online - it is just too different from what I am learning.

Reading code is in itself a great way to learn, although you of course need be to able to follow it! It's often easier to pick up new concepts by reading a tutorial instead of diving straight into the code. With a good tutorial you get a running commentary of what each bit of code does and (probably more importantly) why it does it.

Please don't take Cabrio's code as it is right now too seriously, though. It shouldn't be all that hard to follow, but there are a lot of things which could be done better and/or more elegantly. Bare in mind this is the first bit of graphical programming I've done since coding on the Amiga way back when, not to mention the first time I've used either SDL or OpenGL!

Paul Olson · « **Reply #21 on:** November 26, 2009, 02:38:42 pm »

I definitely need to read, and write a lot of code. I just don't have any extra time during the semester. I am looking forward to learning how to write a gui. I am trying to spend a little time reading the mame source when I get a chance as well. One of these days I will actually be able to write something...I hope.

Ummon · « **Reply #22 on:** November 26, 2009, 03:36:04 pm »

It seems there isn't a general top-down method of portraying code and the reason various syntax does what. People can describe it, but there doesn't seem to be anyone giving formal definitions of a meta nature.

cosam: I meant that most FEs have one dedicated MAME option, which seemed to be related to listxml. I've long wondered why one wouldn't think of adding at least another one, just for shits an giggles testing.

cosam · « **Reply #23 on:** November 26, 2009, 04:22:31 pm »

Quote from: Ummon on November 26, 2009, 03:36:04 pm

I meant that most FEs have one dedicated MAME option, which seemed to be related to listxml. I've long wondered why one wouldn't think of adding at least another one, just for shits an giggles testing.

Sorry, still not getting it. I take it you're talking about options as in command line arguments?

Cakemeister · « **Reply #24 on:** November 26, 2009, 11:00:21 pm »

I believe Ummon is suggesting using the -listxml output of MAME to generate a MAME game list. I have code for that if you are interested, you already use expat for XML parsing.

cosam · « **Reply #25 on:** November 27, 2009, 07:36:46 pm »

Quote from: Cakemeister on November 26, 2009, 11:00:21 pm

I believe Ummon is suggesting using the -listxml output of MAME to generate a MAME game list. I have code for that if you are interested, you already use expat for XML parsing.

If I get back to the whole list generation thing any time soon, I may take you up on that.

Here's a preview of the latest release, 0.8.0. The sources are available for download already and I'll try and churn out a Windows version this weekend. The main new features are:

Video snaps: Seems to work fine with the EmuMovies videos I used for the demo, although some formats are a bit iffy.
Multiple emulators: Selected automatically based on platform, but can also be specified per game.
Platforms: The platform menu can now also do images à la Maximus Arcade. The image is also optionally shown as an icon next to the video/screen shot.
Themes: The "Carousel" theme as used in the video has been added.

Smack · « **Reply #26 on:** November 27, 2009, 08:58:23 pm »

I haven't posting in a number of years, but have continued to lurk...

I am obligated to say awesome job! I'm planning on putting this on my cocktail cab once the arcade art repository comes back up. (I want to grab the graphics used for the game titles.)

Smack

gonzo90017 · « **Reply #27 on:** November 28, 2009, 12:49:38 pm »

Looks awesome!

cosam · « **Reply #28 on:** November 28, 2009, 05:16:31 pm »

The new Windows build is now available: http://www.cabrio-fe.org/download/. There was a bug with audio in 0.8.0 that caused the FE to freeze when testing on Windows, so we're up to version 0.8.1. The Quick-start guide has also been updated, along with some other documentation.

Quote from: Smack on November 27, 2009, 08:58:23 pm

I'm planning on putting this on my cocktail cab once the arcade art repository comes back up. (I want to grab the graphics used for the game titles.)

In the mean time, I've uploaded most of the SVG files here. Some may need some tweaking if you really blow them up large, but for FE titles they're fine. You can open them with Inkscape and export them as PNG.

Smack · « **Reply #29 on:** November 29, 2009, 05:43:10 pm »

Thanks!

Congui · « **Reply #30 on:** November 29, 2009, 07:02:56 pm »

Great. Thanks a lot

Ummon · « **Reply #31 on:** December 01, 2009, 01:57:46 am »

Lemme try again: FEs have been created with a dedicated MAME emu feature/option. I had the idea that this was due to list XML, and whatever it was before that was the standard in MAME, because this would tell the FE what rom name meant what actual game name, when displaying any kind of list of MAME games.

If you wanted to add another MAME - say the dedicated one was MAME, and the added one was MAMEplusplus! - the second one was added like a PC game, which would list the games by their rom names, cos there was no translation or whatever. Dig?

youki · « **Reply #32 on:** December 01, 2009, 07:00:58 am »

Quote from: Ummon on December 01, 2009, 01:57:46 am

Lemme try again: FEs have been created with a dedicated MAME emu feature/option. I had the idea that this was due to list XML, and whatever it was before that was the standard in MAME, because this would tell the FE what rom name meant what actual game name, when displaying any kind of list of MAME games.

If you wanted to add another MAME - say the dedicated one was MAME, and the added one was MAMEplusplus! - the second one was added like a PC game, which would list the games by their rom names, cos there was no translation or whatever. Dig?

No all FE , that's no the case in Atomic. There is a separate Dictionnary that can be used by each emulators and each emulator can have even their own dictionnary. Atomic has no option dedicated to specificaly to mame.

cosam · « **Reply #33 on:** December 02, 2009, 05:54:44 am »

Quote from: Ummon on December 01, 2009, 01:57:46 am

Lemme try again: FEs have been created with a dedicated MAME emu feature/option. I had the idea that this was due to list XML, and whatever it was before that was the standard in MAME, because this would tell the FE what rom name meant what actual game name, when displaying any kind of list of MAME games.

If you wanted to add another MAME - say the dedicated one was MAME, and the added one was MAMEplusplus! - the second one was added like a PC game, which would list the games by their rom names, cos there was no translation or whatever. Dig?

Aah, I get what you mean now, yes. I can see this happening if list generation is tightly integrated into the FE but, seeing as I don't even have any list generation in Cabrio, it's not really a problem.

Ummon · « **Reply #34 on:** December 03, 2009, 01:50:06 am »

Quote from: youki on December 01, 2009, 07:00:58 am

No all FE , that's no the case in Atomic. There is a separate Dictionnary that can be used by each emulators and each emulator can have even their own dictionnary. Atomic has no option dedicated to specificaly to mame.

Thanks, youki, I knew that but not the why.

Quote from: cosam on December 02, 2009, 05:54:44 am

Aah, I get what you mean now, yes. I can see this happening if list generation is tightly integrated into the FE but, seeing as I don't even have any list generation in Cabrio, it's not really a problem.

Yet?

Cakemeister · « **Reply #35 on:** December 05, 2009, 09:14:58 pm »

Question on compiling:

What Linux distribution are you using, and where did you get your OpenGL library? Was it built into the distribution or did you have to get it from somewhere?

I'm trying to get a OpenGL application to compile on a virtual Ubuntu box, and it can't find the OpenGL library.

cosam · « **Reply #36 on:** December 06, 2009, 06:49:20 am »

Quote from: Cakemeister on December 05, 2009, 09:14:58 pm

What Linux distribution are you using, and where did you get your OpenGL library? Was it built into the distribution or did you have to get it from somewhere?

I'm also using Ubuntu. The OpenGL library came with the video driver.

Quote

I'm trying to get a OpenGL application to compile on a virtual Ubuntu box, and it can't find the OpenGL library.

On a VM you'll probably be limited to a generic OpenGL implementation. I'd try installing Mesa - ought to be a package available for it.


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