111 replies to this topic

[Adultery]

What is this you ask? It's a feature-rich plugin that fully controls your 2nd monitor! Since my cab does indeed have two monitors, I put this together to kind of replace GameExtender with something way more customizable. No offense to Tom, but I just have a huge boner for making everything my own I guess.

I did enjoy and use GameExtender for a long time, but it just didn't do what I needed: You could either pick static images or dynamic images (this plugin solves that problem), there's no way to add Game Info (another basic feature of iMagic), you only got a stretched image over a black background (iMagic allows you to specify the background image), the Menu Screens were limited to mirroring icons (yet another basic feature of iMagic is to display a static image for each menu), and GameExtender sat idle during the Screen Saver stuck on the last icon it was highlighting (iMagic has it's own customizable screens for Attract Mode too!). If GameEx's plugin system allows it, I'll also add a "marquee" to the 2nd monitor the way GameEx does for the primary while MAME games are displayed.

As soon as I finish up the DB scrape to display Game Info in the rotation, I'm moving on to DirectX so I can also add MP4 and AVI functionality (which GameEx currently won't do). Since this is a bit more than I can do, I can't give an estimate on when it will be done, but it will be done!
You can specify a background for the image to display over, and you can set controls to show as every other image (either on a per-game basis or a static image). You can finally make your own custom move lists and display them in game, and display a generic image if one isn't found!!!

Well, enough talk. Here's a video of it in action (this really only scratches the surface of what iMagic is able to do at this point):



I have damn near three weeks into this already and A TON of lines of code (Sorry I've been laying low for the last few weeks, but this is why). Feel free to leave any comments you may have. I'd be interested in hearing from the other 2 monitor users what this plugin needs.

[Draco1962]

All I can say is.. WOW! It looks like you are hitting all of the high points of what I am looking for and will be adding to it! I like that you are going to add the .mp4 and .avi functions. One thing I would love to see in Attract Mode is the use of both monitors for the screensaver. I thought it would be cool to display, as in GameEx's attract mode, the game playing on the main screen while on the other, displaying game info, snaps, 3d Cab, time & date + weather, or whatever over a custom background. I like very much displaying the CP with the button options while the game is playing.

[ehuonder]

I'm starting to look into adding a second monitor to my cabinet, and potentially a third... In looking through older posts, you used to use Marquee Magician, and then moved to GameExtender, and now your rolling your own... I understand the desire to create your own, but can you enlighten those of us who are just starting to think about the multi-monitor cabinet as to any features or lack there of that has moved you on this progression???

[Adultery]

Well...

My main "beef" if you can even call it that with Marquee Magician, is that it's not 100% reliable (it crashed my rig sometimes) and it relies on third party software (irfanview) to make it work. Setting it up isn't a walk in the park (and neither is this: You're really customizing every option you can think of) but it didn't just snap in to GameEx the way a plugin does.
GameExtender is really limited to showing either a static image or a dynamic one. My plugin allows you to point to a dynamic directory and the static image displays when nothing is found in the dynamic directory. My main goal is to show video snaps while the game is playing, but I'll release the plugin before that happens. The other big beef for me was the possibility of burn-in. I mean, I'll be honest. My cab sits unused for days at a time. Displaying the same image for all that time can't be good for the monitor, right? Rotating images is a good thing.
It's awesome when someone says "Hey! That's cool!" and I can say "I'm glad you like it. I did it myself!"
Anyone who knows me around here will tell you, I'm absolutely nuts about making every visual part of my cab my own, so taking full control of the 2nd monitor is a huge deal to me. I love the "wow" factor. And you show me one front end that allows that kind of customization on the 2nd monitor... I'd rather Tom focused on GameEx and let us handle the remedial stuff (I'm happy to help wherever I can!). It's really cool that we have a plugin system to handle this stuff so he can focus on the functionality and we can contribute our own stuff. In the end it's a better product.
Like I always say... This is exactly what I need in *my* situation. If others find it useful too, great! The thing is that this has been quite a big undertaking for me, but it really helped me learn my way around Visual Basic in a way I couldn't have otherwise (as a matter of fact, I now know what I have to do to make Mame Commander 100% more stable/efficient). I want to be a programmer IRL, and things like this are great practice for me.

[deadboy]

Oh my god. This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for for my second Monitor. This is GREAT! HURRYHURRYHURRYHURRYHURRY!

[celly]

Wow, just wow. I need to get myself that second monitor I was talking about. Looks like an awesome plugin.

[ehuonder]

Thanks for your response! I'm excited for the mp4 support. If it's not already in your plans, can you think about adding the following features (if their not already on your list):
1) Multiple images/mp4s on the screen at once.
2) support for a third monitor

Thanks! I look forward to your release.

[AlphaUMi]

Wow! This is great! It's a great project and will be a major improvement for what GameEx is able to do for the user... My compliments Adultery! The way you combine your hobby with the learning process is the best way to learn something.

[Adultery]

Progress is moving along nicely...

I added a nice fade transition between pictures, the Game Info screen now can display customized descriptions on a per-game basis, you can specify a screen on a per-game basis, and I simplified the layout a lot by utilizing ComboBoxes.

There's also a new feature to check for plugin updates, but I'm probably not going to include it until I get the plugin where I want it to be.

I've been running this plugin in GameEx and it hasn't crashed once so far! I am now adding the options for Attract Mode and Menu Mode. Then I'll put this baby out.

Here's some updated images to amp up your appetite:

 iMagic1.png   26.22K   30 downloads

 iMagic2.png   29.31K   34 downloads

 iMagic3.png   30.08K   30 downloads

 iMagic4.png   14.89K   25 downloads

I'll be posting an updated You-Tube video soon.

[Krakerman]

Very nice! Looking forward to this as well!

[Adultery]

OK, here's an updated YouTube video:

Current features include:

• Display static or dynamic images for any game.
  
  • It's up to you how you want to set it up. You can either enter the static image and leave it or enter the dynamic path and a static image to show if one isn't located.
• Display static or dynamic controller images for any game.
  
  • Same as above: Static and leave it, or dynamic with a system static image. Can be enabled or disabled during setup on a per-emulator basis,
• Global or default background images.
  
  • Set an image to fill the "black space" on your screen, the image will appear over top of that.
• Display Game Info while in-game.
  
  • Thanks to GameEx's plugin system, no extra setup is needed for this.
• Set default images for any emulator that doesn't currently have a setup created for it.
  
  • No need to screw around with setting up every single emulator before starting it up... "Default Mode" is called if the user doesn't have an emu set up yet.
• Set specific images for "Attract Mode".
  
  • Currently there are six images in the rotation.
• Specify options for specific games such as screen, timer, and customized Game Info (descriptions).
  
  • Database slides can be disabled/enabled by the user, or you can make your own descriptions for your games. Especially handy for games that don't currently have a database.
• Custom backgrounds for the database on a per-game basis.
  
  • Emulators use the global Database image by default, but you can make a new background for a specific game if you like.

Coming in the beta release (which will be soon by the way):

• "Game Mode" for Attract Mode, so you can view the game images in the screen saver.
  
  • Useful for onlookers, and also helpful if you have emulators in there too since you can view the snaps and know what game it is, even if your emulator doesn't support overlays.
• "GameEx Menu Screens" for lots of menus, like RSS Reader, App Launcher, Theme Picker, Watch DVD, etc.

Feel free to shoot me your comments.

[Draco1962]

Oh my! I WANT!

[ehuonder]

I'm very interested in trying this out! Looks like it's coming along quickly.

[Krakerman]

I Want I Want I Want hahahaha great job!!

[Adultery]

Well son of a bitch. I finally got the text outlined, drawn to the screen as a graphic, and centered nicely. Even wrote a sub to word wrap.

Menus are done too. Now I have lots of design work to do to show it off and a how-to to write up. Tomorrow its time to put it out... I've finessed it enough for now.

Attached Files

•  2012-01-17 12.40.33.jpg   1.48MB   23 downloads

[Tempest]

Looking Good!

[Adultery]

Thanks Tempest!

So you guys getting bored of this yet?

I figured out how to do alpha channel and transparency overlays in VB.NET using BitBlt today (it really wasn't as hard as I figured it would be), so here's a small sample of things to come. I added overlays for all the menu items, default images, and the attract mode images. When I get to coding up "Attract Mode - Game Mode", then I'll use this technique to make a bezel for the 2nd monitor kind of like the one Tom uses for the current system. Except I'll also add game info and some other cool stuff... As promised.



I also have some plans for Jukebox functionality, including album/artist info and cover art on the bezel while you listen to music. I was also thinking of using GetAsyncKeyState to make a "previous" and a "back" button for image rotation (could be useful if you wanted to see the instructions again).

I'm pleased with how the database features turned out, and I made a few game-specific controller screens just to test (works great by the way). I guess you might say I'm on the home stretch: One step closer to mp4 capability!

Thanks for the kind words everyone, and I'd just like to say for the record I'm not gonna be known as the "GameExtender Killler"! LOL!

[ehuonder]

Keep it coming Adultery! I've been browsing Newegg trying to decide if I want a 22" monitor in place of my marquee or a 7" monitor lower, in between the play screen and the control panel!

[Adultery]

Attract Mode bezel:

This will fill out better when I can snag a few variables and show game pictures too. I used the default image for testing.
 2012-01-23 09.21.50.jpg   1.32MB   22 downloads
It's on to the jukebox overlay now.

Edit: well that was easy to get going!
 2012-01-23 11.38.13.jpg   1.5MB   22 downloads

You can use your own overlays for either of these two bezels easily. Just put the following files in the GameEx/PLUGINS/iMagic folder:

Game_Overlay.png
Jukebox_Overlay.png

Otherwise iMagic has preinstalled defaults (shown in these images).

It's getting way closer every day! I guess anything is possible if you want to try and code it!

I also added in a switch to disable iMagic for certain emulators. Say you wanted to turn it off for zsnes:

CommandLine=zsnes.exe [IMAGIC=OFF]

This hides the 2nd monitor image until the game exits. There's some emulators that don't play nice with iMagic, which I'm looking into.

I'm running out of shit to do here! LOL!

[Krakerman]

Looking forward to the big release day!!