Messages

16

General / Re: UltraStik360 plug-in config

« on: March 02, 2017, 08:08:03 AM »

It looks pretty straightforward.   It will run ultrastikcmd [game name].ugc, before launching the emulator, and then return it to the default "8 way.ugc" after the game is finished.   Some of these settings and file paths are changeable in the UI.

So for your example, you'd need to name the Q-bert profile "qbert.ugc" file and it should pick that up.

I think the idea is that it will just quietly and quickly error out (i.e. leave the default 8 way) if the game name.ugc file doesn't exist.

17

General / Re: AM support mouse or touch monitor input?

« on: March 01, 2017, 09:44:57 PM »

It would work the same for a spinner as it does my trackball, but you might need to assign it to the X axis instead of Y as you see here.    It's a filthy dirty, nasty hack to the code but it actually works very nicely.   Note that you'd need to specify the keys you use for PageUp and PageDown - this basically "presses" PageUp and PageDown when you move the ball really fast.

In fe_input.cpp, my changes in bold.

      case sf::Event::MouseMoved:
         if ( e.mouseMove.x < mc_rect.left )
         {
            m_type = Mouse;
            m_code = MouseLeft;
         }
         else if ( e.mouseMove.y < mc_rect.top )
         {
if (e.mouseMove.y < mc_rect.top - (mc_rect.height/2))
{   
   m_type = Keyboard;
   m_code = sf::Keyboard::PageUp;
}
else
{
            m_type = Mouse;
            m_code = MouseUp;   
}
         }
         else if ( e.mouseMove.x > mc_rect.left + mc_rect.width )
         {
            m_type = Mouse;
            m_code = MouseRight;
         }
         else if ( e.mouseMove.y > mc_rect.top + mc_rect.height )
         {
if (e.mouseMove.y > mc_rect.top + mc_rect.height + (mc_rect.height/2))
{   
   m_type = Keyboard;
   m_code = sf::Keyboard::PageDown;
}
else
{
            m_type = Mouse;
            m_code = MouseDown;
}            
         }
         break;

I hope it inspires someone to do it properly, maybe hook the mouse movements into the actual wheel acceleration (like you get when you hold a key down).

18

Themes / Re: Best Portrait / Vertical / Cocktail Themes?

« on: February 28, 2017, 07:55:40 PM »

I hacked Robospin for vertical use.    Not perfect, some aspect ratio issues, but good enough for me for now.    I do think dedicated vertical layouts are better in general, but on my 3 sided cab I wanted a more uniform look when you switch sides.

19

General / Re: [Possible Bug?] AM can't launch games in Dolphin

« on: February 27, 2017, 08:03:10 AM »

Ah, I didn't know you didn't specify one.   Now I see the "bug" you're referring to.   

Yes according to the code it does use the program name to determine it: 

std::string work_dir = cwork_dir;
if ( work_dir.empty() )
{
        // If no working directory provided, try to divine one from the program name
        //
        size_t pos = prog.find_last_of( "/\\" );
        if ( pos != std::string::npos )
                work_dir = prog.substr( 0, pos );
}

So yes, that will create a mess if you have a relative path that is not the same number of levels down as up.   If you want to use relative paths you'll probably need to explicitly specify the executable name (without the path) and the working dir separately, so it doesn't try to navigate the relative paths twice (one when it changes the working dir, and again with the actual process name).

This could be fixed in the code by removing the path from the executable path, if it was "divined". 

20

General / Re: AM support mouse or touch monitor input?

« on: February 26, 2017, 10:59:06 PM »

Confirmed this also solves the issue.   Definitely the better way to do it. 

21

General / Re: [Possible Bug?] AM can't launch games in Dolphin

« on: February 26, 2017, 10:55:22 PM »

Your working path is already .\Emulators\Dolphin, ergo, you're already in the Emulators\Dolphin directory.  so:

..\dolphin\dolphin.exe

works, or simply:

dolphin.exe

would also work.

..\emulators\dolphin\dolphin.exe will NOT work, because that translates to Emulators\Emulators\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe.  "..\emulators" doesn't exist one level up from Dolphin.

22

Themes / Re: InsaneTheme - Coming Soon!

« on: February 26, 2017, 08:04:55 PM »

That looks really great.   I especially like the curved darker-shaded channel you have for the wheel images. 

23

General / Re: New Issue with DOS window

« on: February 26, 2017, 05:01:00 PM »

Thanks!

I thought I saw that option somewhere but couldn't find it again when I later determined that the console window was causing me issues. 

24

General / Re: [Possible Bug?] AM can't launch games in Dolphin

« on: February 26, 2017, 04:57:29 PM »

Working directory is "..\Emulators\Dolphin".    "..\Emulators\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe" from there would be "..\Emulators\Emulators\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe" which is not what you want.     

In your test command prompt, change your working directory (cd "..\Emulators\Dolphin") to reproduce your command line accurately.

25

General / Re: How to change listbox scrolling acceleration?

« on: February 26, 2017, 08:05:29 AM »

I would also like to add a way to cycle through letters using two buttons. Is anyone willing to help?

There are key settings in the Controls menu for "Next letter" and "Previous letter" that do this.

26

General / Re: New Issue with DOS window

« on: February 26, 2017, 08:02:47 AM »

I had this problem too.  Full screen mode helps mostly but sometimes the console window will pop back up over the UI.   It also breaks the trackball/mouse support (the mouse cursor will appear wherever the console window is and AM won't get the movement events properly).

There's a utility you can google for called Hidden Start (hstart.exe).   If you launch attract.exe through it (hstart.exe /NOCONSOLE attract.exe) the console window goes away fully and it works properly.
 

27

General / Re: AM support mouse or touch monitor input?

« on: February 26, 2017, 12:51:57 AM »

Well, I figured out what most of this problem is - the console window is appearing behind AM.    But, for whatever reason, the mouse pointer appears whenever the mouse is over that hidden console window, and is also prevents the events from flowing correctly to the UI.   It behaves as if the console menu is on top of the UI, which means it doesn't see the mouse movements until the cursor leaves the bounding rect of the console window.

I changed it to start AM with a utility called Hidden Start (hstart.exe) to suppress the console window and now it works better.   I also added a hack to mine that switches to page keys if I move the ball really fast (mouse moved more than sensitivity * 2), and that improves the usability some more too.   

28

General / Re: AM support mouse or touch monitor input?

« on: February 25, 2017, 02:54:26 PM »

I tried doing this, but the result is extremely slow/erratic   The mouse pointer also appears on the screen and jumps around.    At first it would only move up, but after exiting and restarting it moves up and down... barely.

Would be really great to be able to "flick" my trackball to rapidly scroll through the list, since the number of games in MAME is huge. 

29

General / Re: 3 sided cocktail

« on: February 25, 2017, 02:21:02 PM »

Thanks!  Your reply gave me enough confidence to try it out.   I figured worst case I could hack the source code to do what I wanted, but was very happy to find the built in plugin structure supports my needs perfectly out of the box.

I took the KonamiCode plugin as a base.   Instead of looking for a string of secret codes, I look for inputs for controls being touched on a certain side of the cab.   If I'm currently in a horizontal layout and see a key on the vertical side of the cab, I send a display set command and it switches to a display that contains my vertical games.     Then if I'm inside the vertical game list, but see controls touched on the horizontal side, I switch it to the display containing my horizontal arcade games.   I then just define both sets of controls for navigation inside the normal control config.

It works great.  The display config even lets me take the vertical display out of the rotation, so I can still use the standard functions to iterate through my other emulators on the horizontal side.

I've attached my plugin if anyone else wants to try this on their 3 sided cab.   I find it a lot more intuitive than using a "rotate toggle" key or some such.   This way you only see games you can play from wherever you're sitting.   End result is just like what Mala did, except a little better.  In Mala you would be "locked" in the horizontal layout if you're looking at other emulators.   With this it will always switch to my vertical game list when vertical controls are touched.

What an awesome front end this is! 
 

30

General / 3 sided cocktail

« on: February 02, 2017, 11:16:42 PM »

My cab will be a 3 sided cocktail similar to the attached pic.

Can Attract Mode rotate to the correct orientation on the fly and filter the game list appropriately?   So far Mala is the only front end I can find that seems to support this configuration.