Messages

16

Scripting / Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA

« on: June 26, 2019, 07:42:36 AM »

Yeah,  plugins seem to work like layouts... but they appear to be persistent...so they are always loaded up.  So that loading screen is actually always present ... it just fades in to view when a game is selected and then fades away from view when system returns from an emulator.

I've not done enough hacking/playing around to know much more thus far.

17

Scripting / Re: Show Image For X Seconds?

« on: June 26, 2019, 06:54:05 AM »

Thank you.

18

Scripting / Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA

« on: June 26, 2019, 06:47:07 AM »

One thing I may look in to (since I already have the code that SHOULD work if I implemented it in this plug in... perhaps...) is the option for a different "loading screen" for each "genre" of game.  So,  for example,  if you click on a "fighter",  perhaps a CAPCOM themed loading screen pops up.  If you click on a "maze" game,  perhaps a PAC themed laoding screen comes up, etc...

The code I have pulls info from the ROMLIST.   This idea may work for different platforms too as the platform being used is also stored in the ROMLIST,  no?  At least the emulator is... right?

First...to figure out how to prevent the screen from popping up during the intro animation....

19

Themes / Re: Opacity - A Low-res Vertical Layout

« on: June 25, 2019, 08:54:28 AM »

Great - I found the romlist, made an edit to 1941 and it showed up on the layout. 
I generated a list on http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/ for "Cabinet: cocktail/upright".  The resulting list was much bigger than the 800 roms I actually have.  I'm sure I can use a Vlookup in excel to whittle the list down to something more accurate.

Thanks for the direction.

Yeah,  there are plenty of tools to work on the list.  Also of note... you can cause different games to load in different emulators by simply adjusting the "MAME" field to whatever name emulator you have setup in attract-mode.

For example.,  my "Laser Disc Games" list has games that run off Daphne and games that run off GroovyMAME in the same list.

Some folks don't realize this is easily done.

20

Scripting / Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA

« on: June 25, 2019, 08:08:21 AM »

Here is a quick video of the NOW LOADING plugin "in action"...




https://youtu.be/gNOSOwKBcAE

21

Scripting / Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA

« on: June 25, 2019, 07:40:34 AM »

That's a pretty neat plugin! Just wondering, how can I make the image full screen? (1920x1080)

Update: Oops! I figured it out fairly easily enough 


But what would be really nice is if you could change the image, based on which system or game is being loaded

Yeah,  the images are currently 640x480 ... though they can be swapped out for larger images or you can just scale the smaller sized images.  Just change the images to whatever you wish and then inside the plugin there are size settings.  I "may" adjust the code to allow for size entry from within the front end settings... not sure yet. 

To be 100% honest,  this already does EXACTLY what I was looking for it to do (but with 10 different skins)... so I am not sure if I will investigate in to how to add different images for different systems.  It certainly SHOULD be possible...

Right now I need to figure out how to NOT interrupt the intro animation... again... no big deal for me as I don't run an intro animation,  but I am sure some folks do and this pretty much kills it by sticking the LOADING screen dead center while it plays...

22

Scripting / Re: "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA

« on: June 24, 2019, 10:30:13 PM »

Oh... I should probably mention it's currently only configured for horizontal... I could do vertical if people like it.

23

Scripting / "Now Loading" Plug-in BETA

« on: June 24, 2019, 06:13:53 PM »

Hi...

For a while I was asking about how to easily create a "now loading" type of screen after game selection.  Evidently there wasn't a very simple solution out there... at least I couldn't find one.

I happened across some code (yes,  I am a hack!) that I found did exactly what i wanted. 

Me, being who I am,  couldn't leave well enough alone.  I've put together this ALPHA-stage plugin... I've literally done minutes of testing on it... but it seems to work MOSTLY.

I am having problems with the screen popping up during the Animated Attract intro.  I don't care frankly... I don't use the animated intro... but I would really love some help preventing it from doing that so I don't ruin a lot of people's days...

Aside from that... it seems to be working well... for me.

Opinions??  Help with preventing it from screwing up intros would be great! 

AGAIN... THE ACTUAL CODE WAS PILFERED... will update this post when i find the author.

24

General / Re: Blanking...

« on: June 23, 2019, 11:11:21 PM »

THIS is working for me! (though it breaks the intro ...but I didn't use the intro!)

Code: [Select]

local screen_now_loading   = fe.add_image("Loading.png", (fe.layout.width - 640)/2, (fe.layout.height - 480)/2, 0, 0);

fe.add_transition_callback( "launch_transition" );

function launch_transition( ttype, var, ttime ) {
   switch ( ttype )
   {
   case Transition.StartLayout:
      screen_now_loading.alpha = 0;
      break;
   case Transition.FromGame:
      if ( ttime < 255 )
      {
         foreach (o in fe.obj)
            o.alpha = ttime;
               screen_now_loading.alpha = 0;
         return true;
      }
      else
      {
         foreach (o in fe.obj)
            o.alpha = 255;
         screen_now_loading.alpha = 0;
      }
      break;
   case Transition.EndLayout:
      if ( ttime < 255 )
      {
         foreach (o in fe.obj)
            o.alpha = 255 - ttime;
         screen_now_loading.alpha = 0;
         return true;
      }
      break;
   case Transition.ToGame:
      if ( ttime < 255 )
      {
         foreach (o in fe.obj)
            o.alpha = 255 - ttime;
         screen_now_loading.alpha = ttime;
         return true;
      }
      screen_now_loading.alpha = 255;
      break;
   }
   return false;
}
Top line... Loading.png... create one.  Same line ... indicate size of the image you create... width / height.

25

Scripting / Show Image For X Seconds?

« on: June 23, 2019, 06:01:16 PM »

How do I show an image for only x seconds then have it turn off?

26

Themes / Re: Opacity - A Low-res Vertical Layout

« on: June 22, 2019, 03:11:52 PM »

Hi FrizzleFried, How do I populate the Rom details at the bottom of the layout ie buttons, num of players, category.

Your ROMLISTS must include this data.  I use the machine available here:

http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/

Create your custom ROMLIST then change "mame" (the default emulator) to "mame078", "advmame", "fba" or whatever emulator you want to assign that list to...

Sounds harder than it is.  I should make a video of it one day.

27

General / Re: Blanking...

« on: June 22, 2019, 08:51:16 AM »

Makes sense I suppose. Have you tried my fadetogame plugin? If that doesn’t work, perhaps integrate something similar directly within the layout.

I have tried the fadetogame pluin... and unfortunately it doesn't do anything...which is a bit worrisome to be honest as it SHOULD fade before loading the mame executable...

28

General / Re: Blanking...

« on: June 22, 2019, 07:16:49 AM »

Interesting. Whats the specs of your computer? Do you get the same lag if you launch mame from command line?

Ryzen 1200 running at 3.9ghz...

Radeon R7 250...

8GB RAM

Prior to the issue with it not blanking... it took that long to switch resolution,  the difference being it would blank to a black screen at selection rather than sit there looking stupid for 3-4 seconds before going on to whatever it does to switch graphic modes, etc...

Calamity (author of CRT Emudriver) says it has to do with the number of modes available to the card and some (mostly newish) cards take a lot longer to query each mode or whatever....

...while that sort of sucks (I'll have to live with it),  I was hoping to be able to fix the or in some way CHANGE the behavior so that it either blacks out before kicking over to GROOVYMAME or (more preferably) it loads a "NOW LOADING" screen.  I suspect that if the front end actually switched screens to this NOW LOADING screen ... THEN hit Groovymame... it would "freeze" on the "NOW LOADING" screen...which would be acceptable.

29

General / Re: Blanking...

« on: June 21, 2019, 08:15:55 PM »

I see no issues...

Code: [Select]

Attract-Mode v2.5.1 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +SWF +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.18.100 / avformat 58.12.100 / swscale 5.1.100 / avutil 56.14.100 / swresample 3.1.100

Config: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\attract.cfg

*** Initializing display: '2000'
 - Loaded master romlist '2000 & LATER' in 51 ms (248 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (496 comparisons)
 - Loaded layout: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\layouts/Sphere/ (layout.nut)
 - Constructed 1 filters in 0 ms (16 comparisons)
 - Loaded layout: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\layouts/DisplayView/ (layout.nut)

*** Initializing display: 'favorites'
 - Loaded master romlist 'HORIZONTAL - NO CLONES' in 171 ms (3646 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 1 filters in 0 ms (3646 comparisons)
 - Loaded layout: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\layouts/SHUFFLE & SLIDE/ (layout.nut)
 - Working directory: D:\GROOVYMAME\./
*** Running: D:\groovymame\mame64.exe eswat
 - Loaded layout: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\layouts/SHUFFLE & SLIDE/ (layout.nut)
 - Working directory: D:\GROOVYMAME\./
*** Running: D:\groovymame\mame64.exe extdwnhl
 - Loaded layout: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\layouts/SHUFFLE & SLIDE/ (layout.nut)
 - Working directory: D:\GROOVYMAME\./
*** Running: D:\groovymame\mame64.exe fgtlayer
 - Loaded layout: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\layouts/SHUFFLE & SLIDE/ (layout.nut)
 - Working directory: D:\GROOVYMAME\./
*** Running: D:\groovymame\mame64.exe elvactr
 - Loaded layout: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\layouts/SHUFFLE & SLIDE/ (layout.nut)
 - Working directory: D:\GROOVYMAME\./
*** Running: D:\groovymame\mame64.exe suprmrio
 - Loaded layout: D:\ATTRACT-MODE\layouts/SHUFFLE & SLIDE/ (layout.nut)
...you can see the result of the sprmrio ROM load here...

https://youtu.be/fvzxDL16mis

30

General / Re: Blanking...

« on: June 21, 2019, 07:00:34 AM »

I have the fade to game plugin installed.  It seemed to work fine (in that it did fade to black)... UNTIL i installed Super Resolutions va CRT Emudriver.  That said,  I am not 100% sure that was the culprit,  it's just that I happened to notice the behavior right about the time I switched over.