Seeing Desktop on OS X when launching & ending games

[verion]

EDIT: cleaned up post a little

SYSTEM: OSX 10.10 + AM 1.5.2
PROBLEM: when I launch a game AM dissappears for a moment showing desktop

To be exact it shows mission control - OS X specific function, something like "show all windows" (it looks like this - http://isolve.isolve.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1-Preview-on-Mission-Control.jpg)

And it gets worse after that because when exiting mame it doesn't get back to Attract Mode - I have to ALT-TAB back to AM.

----

All this above happend with GENERAL > WINDOW MODE > set to FULL SCREEN
When it is set to WINDOW, everything works like it should.

----

status on all 3 window modes:

WINDOW MODE > WINDOW
- all ok

WINDOW MODE > FILL SCREEN
- shows desktop
- gets back to AM on game exit (but looses focus from time to time, with cursor showing on the top of AM window)

WINDOW MODE > FULL SCREEN
- shows desktop
- doesn't get back to AM on game exit

----

CPU: intel i5
SYSTEM: OS X 10.10.3
SLDMAME: 0.149
ATTRACT MODE: 1.5.2

[raygun]

hey verion, I split this out to its own topic from the rpi one.

Is there a reason you can't just set Attract-mode to "Fill Screen" mode?  That is the preferred mode if it works for you.

[verion]

Frankly - I don't see the difference between FULL SCREEN and FILL SCREEN
Both looks like full screen to me.

Fill screen supposed to be like - maximize window to fill the screen, but with the min/max/close buttons and menubar visible - right?
If so - it does't work that way. Fill screen gives mi full screen window (with all the controls hidden).

Anyway - I just want full screen mode (with only AM visible and everything else hidden), because I don't want AM to look like "just another app".

[raygun]

No "Fill Screen" is meant to fill the entire screen and hide the menubar, min/max/close etc (the entire OS)... It is the default mode for Attract-Mode and ideally would have worked for everyone so we wouldn't need the other ones.

Fullscreen Mode is there only because it hides the unity toolbar on Ubuntu.  But in my view it causes more problems such as not letting the emulator run correctly, etc. so it should only be used if you must.

Thanks for the report on the state of the OS X version.  I don't use it myself but I will take a look and see what I can do to make the transitions to emulators work better... ideas and suggestions always welcome

cheers

[verion]

I'm attaching screenshot of how it looks - between leaving AM and launching MAME

I'm also attaching console log:  AM start > launching MAME > returning to AM > closing AM
I don't understand it at all - but maybe you'll find something there.

My understanding is - that it has to be something with switching current app focus from AM to MAME

---

And when in WINDOW mode - everything looks great. I can upload console log when in WINDOW mode if it helps

[pbergmar]

I have the same issue! Biggest problem is that attractmode loses focus when i quit mame. Is this fixable? Otherwise attractmode can't be used in a keyboard-less cabinet...

[verion]

See my first post.
You can switch to window mode as a workaround - but it's not the solution for cabinet
You can also DISABLE mission control completely to "fix" desktop showing bug - but it is vital feature for me since I'm using AM on my main computer. And it doesn't fix that loosing focus bug - so no solution for key-less setup.

That issue has an open ticket on Github bug tracking list.
But I'm worried that it will be hard to pin-point and fix for Raygun - since he is on Ubuntu machine. And AFAIK he is only one that can fix this.

[pbergmar]

I see. Thanks for your reply. Did window mode fix the "loosing focus bug"? I'll try it later..

[verion]

Yes. It keeps the focus in window mode. I'm using it with arcade stick on TV and there is no need for keyboard and mouse.

[Mofy]

first off, hello AM forum! Love the Front end, great stuff!

 Could osx be creating creating a new space on mame launch? This fits with the movement seen and also the screensaver triggering (only visible when clock is set to to show in screensaver) would also explain the focus loss.^{see edit below...} Still not sure about the menu visibility.

EDIT:
So I was trying to make it worse  to see what was breaking. When AM goes full / fill screen and launches mame, it hides the mouse in the bottom right hand corner. This triggers the hot corner there. For me it was activating the screen lock, and Verion I would bet money that is where your hot corner is for mission control.

Soo the mouse needs to remain a few pixles further left to avoid the hot corners or they need to be set to be active only on modifier.
Or modify the settings and reset them out on exit. Which might work, list here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28999030/receive-information-about-hot-corner-configuration-on-a-mac

[verion]

Whoa!

Great catch!

I've disabled bottom-right hot corner... that was set to "show mission control" and...
- no more showing mission control on game start!
- no more "loosing focus"

Not a permanent solution, because hot corners are great feature, but at least we know how it could be fixed simply moving mouse cursor a few pixels on the left.

----

But the top menu bar is still visible (flashes) for a second before game starts.

[omegaman]

In windows and Linux there's an option to auto hide the menu bar. Does OS X have this option?

[verion]

No, there is no option to hide menubar.

---

And the menubar is not visible in AM or in mame - it is visible when "Ready player" screen is displayed (in Robospin theme) or just after you start the game in other themes. And it is AM menubar - not mame.

[Mofy]

Looks like it (menu bar) has been adressed:
https://github.com/mickelson/attract/blob/master/src/fe_util_osx.hpp

13 days ago, anyone built a mac build?

[omegaman]

verion-

Try this to speed up launching into emulator from am, hopefully making the background less visible. Not sure what you mean by AM menu bar. 

Rem this section (toward bottom) to this:

//splash screen launching game
//local message = fe.add_text("Ready Player...",flx*0.0,fly*0.45,flw,flh*0.15);
//message.alpha = 0;
//message.style = Style.Bold;

and "message" in case transition section:

case Transition.EndLayout:
  red = brightrand();
  green = brightrand();
  blue = brightrand();
  filter.set_rgb (red,green,blue);
  title.set_rgb (red,green,blue);
  //year.set_rgb (red,green,blue);
  //message.set_rgb (red,green,blue);