Attract-Mode Support Forum
Attract-Mode Support => General => Topic started by: addcparis on July 10, 2020, 04:19:39 PM
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Hi everyone,
I have just finished setting up attract mode, but I can't get it to launch games. Games launch well from Mame UI. My plan is to create multiple mame lists and put different roms in there (Shmup, beat etc...) but for now I'm just putting one list to test and that one doesn't work.
Any help is appreciated, I feel I've set it up right but obviously didn't !
Thank you
Here is the error log
Attract-Mode v2.6.1 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +SWF +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100
Config: D:\Mame\Attract Mode\attract.cfg
*** Initializing display: 'Main List'
- Loaded master romlist 'Main List' in 2 ms (213 entries kept, 0 discarded)
- Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (426 comparisons)
- Loaded layout: D:\Mame\Attract Mode\layouts/Attrac-Man/ (layout.nut)
- Working directory: D:\Mame
*** Running: D:\Mame\Mame64.exe toki
Error executing command: 'D:\Mame\Mame64.exe toki'
And my Attract mode config file
# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.6.1
#
executable D:\Mame\Mame64.exe
args [name]
rompath D:\Mame\Roms\Mainlist
romext .zip;.7z
system Arcade
info_source listxml
exit_hotkey Escape
pause_hotkey Num1+Down
artwork marquee $HOME/Mame/Marquee
artwork snap $HOME/mame/video;$HOME/mame/snap
And my Mame config for the rompath
# CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS
#
homepath .
rompath "roms;D:\Mame\roms\Mainlist"
hashpath hash
samplepath samples
artpath artwork
ctrlrpath ctrlr
inipath .;ini;ini/presets
fontpath .
cheatpath cheat
crosshairpath crosshair
pluginspath plugins
languagepath language
swpath software
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Go to the command prompt and run
D:\Mame\Mame64.exe toki
and post the result.
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Hi and thanks for your help. Here is what I get from the command (sorry it's a screenshot attached, I couldn't find the log file)
The game launches well from Mame64 UI, I have the same problem with all the games
(https://ibb.co/hfKcBCj)
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remove the
roms;
and make it
rompath D:\Mame\roms\Mainlist
then try to run it from the command line (by the way the command line output IS your log..err to a point)
Mame is not finding your roms...yes I know they run from the GUI and all..however (and don't ask I don't know why) but that doesn't matter.
All attract mode does is type:
mame pacman
for you in the command line so you don't have to. If the command line doesn't work..then no matter what you do to attract mode you are out of luck.
It's your ini path trust me. I can not load games from the GUI..but they load just fine in the command line.
ALWAYS TEST FROM THE COMMAND LINE! That is how Attract Mode works.
Let me know if that helps..and report any new errors (if any) but i would bet all you have to do is change your path in the mame.ini like I showed you ans it will work from the command line...and thus from AM.
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This is showing that when you run mame from the command line that it can't find some of the files that are needed for the game.
Are all of your roms (including BIOS files) in the same folder? If not you'll need to add them to the "rompath" in your mame.ini.
What type of mame rom set do you have? merged, non-merged or split?
Are you sure the "D:\Mame\Roms\Mainlist" path is correct for your roms?
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Also, there is no need for the quotes (") in your mame.ini rompath. This could be your issue too.
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I changed the rompath, removed the " " and tried again, I'm still getting the same error, exact same as the one I posted above. I also checked that my rompath was right.
I use groovymame 0.221 with the corresponding romset. I use the merged set. Also I don't know if it helps but I checked in the rom and the files that are listed missing are present in the rom.
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I made a (small) progress after searching online.
In command line, if I start by going to my mame folder
d:\mame
Then type mame64.exe toki
The game launches properly.
I don't know what to do next though, thanks for the help
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I use groovymame 0.221 with the corresponding romset. I use the merged set. Also I don't know if it helps but I checked in the rom and the files that are listed missing are present in the rom.
Run that by me again? Are you saying the the files that mame lists..are missing in the zip file? Yes you NEED those files in the zip file for mame to load them of course.
[/quote]I made a (small) progress after searching online.
In command line, if I start by going to my mame folder
d:\mame
Then type mame64.exe toki
The game launches properly.
I don't know what to do next though, thanks for the help
Sounds like a exe path problem to me. Honestly i have not touched windows in years and don't have the time to load a VM to help sorry...
However going from your toki that works...
In AM go to the setup screen for the emulator config...beside the working path.... type
D:\mame
then save it...then try to load toki and let me know
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I added in working directory D:\Mame
But same error.
When opening last run log in AM the working directory shows like this though
D:\Mame/
Which I find strange
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You are using groovymame?....
could I ask you to use vanilla mame and report back for me?
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Are you sure you don't have more than one mame.ini?
From the command line try these and see what the rompath shows for each.
D:\Mame\Mame64.exe -sc | more
d:
cd Mame
Mame64.exe -sc | more
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Are you sure you don't have more than one mame.ini?
From the command line try these and see what the rompath shows for each.
D:\Mame\Mame64.exe -sc | more
d:
cd Mame
Mame64.exe -sc | more
Bingo ! You are right.
The first one shows
ROMPATH Roms
The second one shows my actual rom path (d:\mame\roms....)
When I search for mame.ini there is only one file that shows up though, the one with the correct rompath.
How can I find the second one ?
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Try this on the command line without being inside your mame folder.
D:\Mame\Mame64.exe -rompath D:\Mame\roms\Mainlist toki
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Try this on the command line without being inside your mame folder.
D:\Mame\Mame64.exe -rompath D:\Mame\roms\Mainlist toki
I get "Error opening translation file English"
Then the game launches properly
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Ok, try this then.
D:\Mame\Mame64.exe -inipath D:\Mame toki
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It works, the game loads
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I don't think you have more than one mame.ini but it only seems like your mame.ini is loaded when you're in the mame directory on the command line.
The easiest thing to do is to change your AM mame emulator configuration file to something like this
# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.6.1
#
executable D:\Mame\Mame64.exe -inipath D:\Mame
args [name]
rompath D:\Mame\Roms\Mainlist
romext .zip;.7z
system Arcade
info_source listxml
exit_hotkey Escape
pause_hotkey Num1+Down
artwork marquee $HOME/Mame/Marquee
artwork snap $HOME/mame/video;$HOME/mame/snap
There are other options but this is probably the easiest thing to do. I don't use groovymame, I'm on a different version of the official mame and likely on a different version of windows so testing any further would be difficult.
I will say that on my setup I did have the same issue on the command line with mame if I wasn't in the mame folder. However, I don't define a working directory in AM and my game launch properly without the -inipath switch.
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I should also mention that I use root paths in my emulator configuration files. I don't know if this makes a difference but you can try something like this to see if it works too.
# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.6.1
#
executable \Mame\Mame64.exe
args [name]
rompath \Mame\Roms\Mainlist
romext .zip;.7z
system Arcade
info_source listxml
exit_hotkey Escape
pause_hotkey Num1+Down
artwork marquee $HOME/Mame/Marquee
artwork snap $HOME/mame/video;$HOME/mame/snap
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I tried both, I get the same error.
For info, I've put the AM folder in the Mame folder.
Should I try to put the content of the AM folder in the Mame folder ? I'm wondering if it would get it to start from the d:\mame where I manage to get the command line to work
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I have a half a mind to say delete your mame ini and AM and start fresh....
this is too weird :o
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I have a half a mind to say delete your mame ini and AM and start fresh....
this is too weird :o
That's exactly what I started doing. I deleted everything and I'm starting from scratch.
I'm not even installing AM for now, I'm just trying to get the Mame command line to work from outside the D:\mame folder.
I set the inipath in Mame.ini to where the ini file is, but Mame doesn't look there. Using the -sc command, it pulls an .ini file that doesn't have the rompath and inipath I set, and since I only have one mane.ini file, I can"t figure where he pulls that other .ini file from.
Next attempt is to put my good mame.ini file in the directory where the command line starts from, I'm going totally blind there.
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Ok some progress here, I made a copy of my mame.ini file and put it in c:\users\me, which is the default folder my command line starts from, and the command line works.
I'm going to install AM now and try, while crossing fingers, that this sorts it all out
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No luck, I still get the same error in AM, it's going with the other mame.ini file that doesn't exist.
I don't understand how this works, is there a default folder that AM runs the mame command line from ? That's probably where I should put my mame.ini file but I don't know how to find that location.
Any idea ?
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I'm confused. Didn't you say above that this worked?
D:\Mame\Mame64.exe -inipath D:\Mame toki
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It worked from the command line.
I put the same line (without the rom name) in AM, and I get the error files not found.
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Setting the "inipath" in the mame.ini is pointless for the mame.ini. If the file is never read then neither are its contents including "inipath" and "rompath".
Once you had the command working from the command line you should just need to adjust the AM emulator file to get it to work.
Try just this
# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.6.1
#
executable D:\Mame\Mame64.exe -inipath D:\Mame
args [name]
rompath D:\Mame\Roms\Mainlist
romext .zip;.7z
system Arcade
info_source listxml
artwork marquee $HOME/Mame/Marquee
artwork snap $HOME/mame/video;$HOME/mame/snap
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It WORKS ! Yay
Setting up the inipath in AM was not enough though.
AM needs to be run in Admin mode (Right click, properties, Run as admin), even when logged in to windows with an admin account.
I'm all good now, thanks a lot for the help, I'm really happy you helped me sorting it out.
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Run in root?...err I mean Admin mode... :o
That is bizarre...or is that normal for Windows?