Messages

1

General / How to turn off random image selection?

« on: June 16, 2016, 08:07:04 PM »

I just upgraded Attract Mode, and suddently I am getting a random selection of artwork.

It seems like everytime I select a game, the artwork is picked randomly from my various configured artwork folders.

I would like AM to use the first directory, unless there's no artwork there, THEN and ONLY THEN use the second directory, etc.

I believe this is how the old AM behaved. Is there a way to revert back to the old behaviour?

2

Announcements / Re: Version 2.1.0 Released

« on: June 13, 2016, 11:22:41 AM »

Awesome! Thanks.

3

General / Re: Finalburn Alpha romlist with correct names?

« on: May 04, 2016, 08:52:26 PM »

Nevermind I found my old notes:
fba.exe -listinfo >fba_list.xml
attract.exe -i fba_list.xml finalburn

where finalburn is a configured emulator in attract mode

4

General / Finalburn Alpha romlist with correct names?

« on: May 04, 2016, 06:38:39 AM »

Has anybody found out an easy way to generate a romlist for FBA with correct names and other metadata?

5

Emulators / Re: SCUMMVM : How to setup & change Game ID to proper Full Title / correct Game Name

« on: January 06, 2016, 09:35:20 AM »

So what should my
args                 -f -p [rompath][name] [name]
line be now?

6

General / Re: Catver, controlsm and nplayers -- what to do after setup

« on: December 29, 2015, 02:55:43 PM »

I am intrigued, where can I find this "controls.ini" and what does it do?

7

Emulators / Various emulator settings

« on: December 23, 2015, 11:17:30 AM »

I am going to list some findings I made when setting up the cabinet. I am planning to update this as I learn more.

Fusion:
Use
-fullscreen "[romfilename]"
command line argument to ensure escape exits the emulator instead of switching between fullscreen and windowed.

Download the "fusion shader pack" http://www.emucr.com/2013/04/kega-fusion-plugins-20130427.html extract to plugins, start emulator, right click, video->render plugin->double snake to apply a 2x prescale and reduce blurring.

Finalburn Alpha:
select blitter -> enhanced, blitter options -> enable prescale to reduce blurring

Retroarch:
command line arguments example for higan (bsnes):
-f -L P:\emulators\retroarch\cores\bsnes_balanced_libretro.dll "[romfilename]"

load a game, press F1->quick menu->shader options->load shader preset->retro/sharp-bilinear.cg, then select shader 0 filter->nearest, shader0 scale ->2x or 4x to minimize blurring

Visualboyadvance-M-WX:
use these lines in vbam.ini before [GB] to enable prescale and keep aspect.
[Display]
Bilinear=1
Filter=simple4x
FilterPlugin=
IFB=none
KeepOnTop=0
MaxThreads=1
RenderMethod=opengl
Scale=3
Stretch=1

FS-UAE:
for KG whdload packs, use executable
FS-UAE\Windows\fs-uae-launcher.exe
and the standard argument "[romfilename]"
to load whdload packs. Just unzip all the whdload packs to get the .lha files.
Use rom extension .lha and fs-uae-launcher.exe will automatically setup and boot the whd load game. Put whdload.key in the fs-uae directory to get rid of the nag screens. whdload.key is expensive, but worth it.

8

Emulators / Re: kega fushion Q:

« on: December 23, 2015, 10:58:51 AM »

I found a way to reproduce the zoom problem using the emulator WinVice.

If I set my fullscreen resolution in WinVice to 640*480, start it, and use the exit key to force-quit it, the attract mode menu is zoomed in.

If I instead set the fullscreen resolution in WinVice to my native 1280*1024 everything works perfect.

9

General / Re: [SOLVED] Autohotkey to trigger exit key in AM?

« on: December 23, 2015, 10:53:43 AM »

Ok Nestopia allows to remap that insane "Escape for menu" behaviour. So I mapped escape to clean exit, and used Tab to show the menu in Nestopia.

Then I saw that snes9x default exit key is Alt-F4 anyways. So with that change my script should now exit all emulators cleanly apart from Mame.

10

General / Re: [SOLVED] Autohotkey to trigger exit key in AM?

« on: December 23, 2015, 10:33:25 AM »

Ok I ran into a bunch more problems configuring all my exit keys. I realized that I want to quit each emulator "cleanly" so it has time to save its config, delete temp files etc.

For example, Retroarch (sic!) extracts zip files for roms, but only deletes the last extracted file on a clean exit. So if I use the exit key, which kills retroarch, it leaves all those files behind.

I found that most emulators exit cleanly on "escape." Kega Fusion required the -fullscreen argument to force it to quit on escape instead of switching to windowed mode. Snes9x and Nestopia show a menu on escape. I could not change that behaviour. What were the authors smoking? I am considering switching all those over to retroarch to get some more sane behavior, if only retroarch wouldn't be such a usability trainwreck.

So I now chose an autohotkey script that sends "escape" to the emulator first, waits 2 seconds, and if we are not back in Attract Mode, it sends the exit key to force kill the emulator. I then chose a neutral exit key, I settled on "divide" on the numpad.

Here is my new script content.

Contents of "ArcadeCabinetHotkeys.ahk":

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.

; #Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.

SendMode Event ; For compatibility with Attract Mode

SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
#SingleInstance force


#If ( not WinActive("Attract-Mode") )
Joy7::
If GetKeyState("Joy8")
{
   SetKeyDelay, -1, 110 ; Need to press exit key longer than 100 ms, because Attract Mode only checks it every 100 ms
   Send {Escape} ; Most Emulators quit with escape key so try this first
   Sleep, 2000 ; wait a second
   If ( not WinActive("Attract-Mode") ) ; are we back in Attract Mode yet?
   {
       Send {NumpadDiv} ; No: use Attract Mode exit key NumpadDiv
   }     
}
Return
#If

11

General / Re: [SOLVED] Autohotkey to trigger exit key in AM?

« on: December 22, 2015, 05:07:15 PM »

Is there any documentation on how the key binding menu in MAME works? How do I erase a key binding. How do I go back to default?

EDIT: I found out by testing all kinds of keys in Mame to bind. Delete toggles between "none" and default key. Pressing Enter then a key binds that key. Pressing Enter and another key binds with OR. Pressing enter, then one key and quickly a second key binds AND. Pressing one key, then another key twice quickly binds NOT. Not very intuitive, and not all of this is documented anywhere. Mame does not have a documentation.

Those are useful, but I still prefer to use AM exit key functionality because I can program other combinations with AHK.

12

General / Re: [SOLVED] Autohotkey to trigger exit key in AM?

« on: December 22, 2015, 05:01:24 PM »

Yes, but not this way. I want it to only trigger if Joy 7 is held then Joy 8 is pressed. It should not trigger if Joy 8 is pressed first and then Joy 7.

AFAIK mame only allows AND (pressed simultaneously), OR combinations. So it would trigger any time both those buttons are pressed. Also the key binding in mame is a royal pain (but that is another topic).

Also, I don't want to configure every emulator's exit key in the emulators themselves.

13

General / Re: Autohotkey to trigger exit key in AM?

« on: December 22, 2015, 11:19:25 AM »

Nevermind I just got it to work. Here is the working script. After looking at AM source I saw that it checks for the exit key every 100 ms or so. I figured maybe AHK was sending the key press for much too short.

So I disabled the line Sendmode Input at the top. This forces it into Sendmode Event, which allows for selectable key duration. I then used SetKeyDelay to set the duration to 110 ms, and now it works!

Contents of "CabScript.ahk":

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.

SendMode Event ; ensure compatibility with Attract Mode exit key

SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
#SingleInstance force

#If ( not WinActive("Attract-Mode") )
Joy7::
If GetKeyState("Joy8")
{
   SetKeyDelay, -1, 110
   Send {Escape} ;set exit key in Attract Mode to escape for this to work
}
#If
Return

I can now quit all emulators using the joystick combo "hold button 7 then press button 8." It will not trigger any other way. I put in an if statement so it will not do anything if attract mode is showing its menu.

Note that some emulators such as mame will NOT respond to AHK macros at all. Doing the exit this way ensures that it works even with mame.

14

General / Re: Autohotkey to trigger exit key in AM?

« on: December 22, 2015, 10:44:00 AM »

I think I understand it now. It is like you said.

AM looks for the exit hotkey using the GetAsyncKeyState method. This bypasses the event handling usually associated with keyboard input and allows AM to always react in case the user presses the exit key, even though it is in the background. Autohotkey, AFAIK, cannot "simulate" such an event that would be registered by GetAsyncKeyState. When autohotkey sends events, it uses other methods.

15

General / Re: Autohotkey to trigger exit key in AM?

« on: December 22, 2015, 09:29:20 AM »

My script is this:

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.

SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.

SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
#SingleInstance force

;#InstallKeybdHook

#If ( not WinActive("Attract-Mode") )
Joy7::
If GetKeyState("Joy8")
{
SetKeyDelay, 10, 10
;   Send !{F4}
   Send {Escape}
;ControlSend,,1,Attract-Mode
}
Return
#If

I tried various things, such as ControlSend, sending !{F4} whenever Attract Mode is NOT active (to prevent the user from killing AM), etc. Nothing worked.