Messages

16

General / Re: New user to AM, leaving Hyperspin behind

« on: July 05, 2017, 04:05:35 PM »

I have not found a way to be able to launch any other programs using the system and rom info as command line parameters. In fact, I cannot find a way to send any command line arguments that include spaces.

Please… I told you how to do it. I am not sure why spaces are being concatenated for you.

And can you provide proof this works? Perhaps it works on linux and these Pi boxes, but on Windows it does not. I have tried every which way and it always does the same thing. Since he is using Rocketlauncher, he is using Windows and is probably going to have the same problem and headache with it. As it is, the exact method you suggest will not pass spaces, so no it does not work. Even worse, it sends the first word of a name, then sends the entire path to the executable again, using the next word, and so on. So, it opens many instances of the same program, sending only one part of the name up until the next space it encounters, then sending the whole path over again with the next piece, not sending it as many, not one continuous parameter or name.

17

General / Re: New user to AM, leaving Hyperspin behind

« on: July 05, 2017, 10:34:34 AM »

Rocketlauncher integrates with AM nicely, as I run everything through that combo. There is also the option of setting up custom executables for every game from the menu. Therefore, you could point AM launcher at any AHK script or executable you like on a per game basis. This is something you cannot do with Hyperspin. However, running any external programs needing command line parameters at the same time is a problem. Like I said any command line for MAME would probably be passable to LedBlinky, because there are no spaces in the emulator or rom (single short names). Anything outside of this with spaces, has presented a huge problem for command line, as it cuts off the name at the first space. I don't want to turn you off of it, because I do find it far to superior to Hyperspin, but there has to be a solution for this to make it as versatile as Hyperspin. Maybe by me complaining about it again in this thread will get someone to look at it and provide the solution. If they can, then I would recommend AM over anything else out there.

18

General / Re: New user to AM, leaving Hyperspin behind

« on: July 05, 2017, 09:15:32 AM »

Good luck, as I went from Hyperspin as well because it is way too time consuming. Making themes and having things looking exactly the way you want with this FE is fairly easy, and gives you way more flexiblity. However this FE seems to lack any functionality as far as being able to call and launch any other programs. I have not found a way to be able to launch any other programs using the system and rom info as command line parameters. In fact, I cannot find a way to send any command line arguments that include spaces. If you are only using it for MAME, then that might not be a problem, but for everything else it leaves it dead in the water. I'm not saying it cannot be done, it just seems that no one here knows how to do it, or doesn't want to bother to share how. I have asked this multiple times with no success, and it is utterly frustrating. Obviously the frontend can do this internally, because it passes this info to emulators when you set them up in the menu. It just doesn't work when trying to do it from within a layout or script.  With Hyperspin it is a snap to use AHK scripts to launch other programs, or EDS, because Hyperspin will play nice and pass system and rom info to other applications.  Rocketlauncher integration is pretty good, as there is a plugin to have it read your romlists for AM, which greatly simplifies things. That means not being tied to the old Hyperspin XML lists and endless tedious rom editing. You can create your own romlists with what you have, and scrape art and info for them like this. However, the pause menu for Rocketlauncher still does not display art assets properly. So, if someone could show how we could call HyperMarquee, Rocketlauncher, or a PDF reader for example and pass system and rom names with spaces with the fe.plugin_command, this thing would definitely be the best FE around, and make Hyperspin officially dead. However, as it is now, it leaves it very flexible an pretty graphics wise, with far more options than Hyperspin, yet completely self contained and one dimensional. This is a deal breaker for me, and I will probably reluctantly go back to Hyperspin if there isn't a resolution for this problem, because not being able to launch other programs or AHK scripts that need system and rom info is very limiting.

19

General / Can Mouse Pointer Be Made Visible?

« on: July 04, 2017, 08:44:16 AM »

I'm doing something where I'd like the mouse pointer to be visible in the FE. How can you enable in .cfg file? I can,t find an option to enable it anywhere.

20

Scripting / Re: .charsize over_rides animation ?

« on: July 02, 2017, 10:39:12 AM »

I use charsize= only to set text size, and have text animated and static of all sizes in my layouts. Drop the font_size, and try this:

Code: [Select]

list.charsize=18
Set your numerical value for whatever you like. You can do this with any object, eg. list.charsize=18, mytext.charsize=20, overview.charsize=10, ect, and have texts of all sizes. I have also discovered that you can use multiple fonts in a layout in the same respect ,as list.font= Arial, mytext.font= Tahoma, ect.

21

Scripting / Re: Display menu layout with number of roms for each emulator display

« on: June 20, 2017, 10:51:00 PM »

Try this.

Code: [Select]

fe.add_text("[ListEntry] / [ListSize]", flx*,fly*,flw*,flh*);That will show the number of the entry on the left, and whole list size on right, or if you just want the rom count only, use [ListSize] only.

22

Scripting / Re: Passing command line arguments within a layout

« on: June 18, 2017, 09:01:32 AM »

I'll ask again if there's anyone who can help me figure this out. All I need to know is how to pass the full string without it cutting it off at the space. Thanks in advance for any help.

23

Scripting / Re: [Players] to image? [Solved]

« on: June 16, 2017, 08:33:26 AM »

I love this , but how did you "scrape" esrb and region info?

I mean , my names include (USA), (Europe) ... but region flag isn´t showing.
And Esrb , I really don´t know where to include this tag.

UPDATE:

I found an issue in the code "magic-images.nut"

Code: [Select]

local tags = fe.game_info(Info.Tags, offset).tolower()
Changed to

Code: [Select]

local tags = fe.game_info(Info.Name, offset).tolower()

Code: [Select]

//return file_name for region
function region( offset ) {
   local supported = [ "usa", "japan", "brazil", "asia", "spain", "europe", "world", "unknown" ]
   local tags = fe.game_info(Info.Name, offset).tolower()
   local index = supported.find("unknown")
   foreach( item in supported )
      if ( tags.find(item) != null ) index = supported.find(item)
   return magic_image_settings.region.path + supported[index] + magic_image_settings.region.ext
}

So last thing I need is how to add Esrb ratings , where can I find this info to scrappe , thanks.

It is not an issue, it is done like that because it gets the region and esrb from tags not game info. You have to manually add your tags for that info, because there is no scraper for that. This script does not scrape, AM itself contains the scraper, which until it is updated to include ratings and region, will not scrape that info at the moment.

24

Scripting / Re: [Players] to image? [Solved]

« on: June 15, 2017, 01:49:23 PM »

Do you know of a way to modify the genre function to include multiple matches? I was working on some icons for Action/Adventure, ect., but can't figure out how to use the function to output all matches rather than just first, last, or random. Is this even possible to do with the function, or could it be done some other way? I was going to do it the hard way by making every combination of genres I could come up with, and just create the icons named in the same fashion, then just using the magic tokens to call them. However, the "/" output between the genres screws that up because "/" can't be used in file naming in windows, so I'm back to trying it with the function. Is this possible? Thanks for any help.

25

Scripting / Re: hiscore.dat support

« on: June 14, 2017, 01:15:37 PM »

Have you looked into HiToText? It can apparently do what you want and is shown as doing it on different front ends. I imagine you could pass that info to the front end and have it display. I am going to work on the idea myself and make a popup for it if I'm able to.

26

Scripting / Re: [Players] to image?

« on: June 14, 2017, 01:06:32 PM »

While I was at it, you inspired me to rewrite my icon class as a magic-images.nut and include players!

This will cover system, genre, region, players and esrb icons.

System icons are found based on the display name
Genre icons need the categories filled in, usually by included catver.ini
Region icons require you to tag your games with 'ASIA, BRAZIL, EUROPE, JAPAN, SPAIN, USA, or WORLD'
Players icons need players info filled in and are found based on the first character of [Players] - i.e. 1, 2, 3 or 4
ESRB icons require you to tag your games with 'ESRB-C, ESRB-E, ESRB-T, ESRB-M, ESRB-A, or ESRB-RP'

Here is the code:
https://github.com/liquid8d/attract-extra/tree/master/layouts/sample_magic_images

I've attached a zip as well.

Here's the result:

I discovered a small bug in the genre matching after finding all rpg are not showing rpg  icon and rather showing up as action. The way it is scraping the genre  from Gamesdb is "role-playing" with a hyphen,instead of "role playing", as you have it in the script. So,  if you just add the hyphenated version to the descriptors, it covers all bases and brings up the right icon.

27

Scripting / Can you use [Overview] info in displays menu?

« on: June 13, 2017, 06:59:16 PM »

Is it possible to use the [Overview] for system information on displays menu? I tried creating a .cfg file with the system name, in the same format as rom info, and put it in romlist system folder, but it did not work. Is there a way to do this, because I want to be able to display console information on the system display menu. Also, is it possible to use more than one font in a layout?

28

General / Re: Alphabetical Order with multi-system displays?

« on: June 13, 2017, 06:22:01 PM »

I've found that items that show up at the end of a romlist out of alphabetical order, is caused by having it begin with a lowercase letter. I don't know why it does this, but if you rename the item with a capital and rescan, they will end up back in order. Check and see if the rom starts with a lowercase letter, and if it does, that is the problem. In your case, it is because those systems you listed (naomi), (model2) are in lowercase, and (MAME) is not, changing them to(Naomi) and (Model2) with capitals will fix that.

29

General / Re: Can someone explain the "Utility Menu"

« on: June 13, 2017, 03:42:54 PM »

So, that's what I was trying to find out. From what you say it just runs other scripts, and nothing else. hermine.potter seems to suggest that you can somehow run just run an .exe directly, which is what I was wondering. I guess that in order to run some other program from it then, you would have to write a .nut script that says fe.command() pointed at your program to run it, and then launch that script from the utility menu? 

30

General / Re: Can't see games info and overview in AM

« on: June 13, 2017, 09:38:08 AM »

Your layout has to have [overview] magic token for it to work. Maybe that layout doesn't have it? Anyway, just add this to whatever layout you like to enable it.

Code: [Select]

local ov = fe.add_text( "[Overview]" , flx* 0.5, fly*0.5, flw*0.3, flh*0.5);
ov.alpha=255;
ov.align = Align.Left;
ov.word_wrap = true;
ov. charsize = 12;
Add this somewhere towards the end of your layout, after other art has been drawn, or it may be drawn over and you will not see it. You can adjust coordinates, transparency, text box and size of text also. If you want to get fancy, you can load the scrolling text module from you layout as well

Code: [Select]

fe.load_module("objects/scrollingtext");
local scroller = ScrollingText.add("[Overview]",flx*,fly*,flw*,flh*);Read the scrolling text module in objects folder for more info on usage.