34 replies to this topic

[Toonces]

TSpeirs, on Mar 8 2005, 08:43 PM, said:

This is issue with the ArcadeVGA card, probably the drivers. It may even be running out of memory. I've seen similar things before when I've tested GameEx on my Arcade Cab. There seems to be issues with it when drawing images with transparancy when the bitmap is scaled down when drawn on the screen.
Reducing the size of the bitmap seems to solve this. It could either be the background needs to be resized to be smaller (640 X 288), or unselected.bmp needs to be made smaller.

Perhaps you or Rob could experiment a little.

Hope this sheds a little light.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok, I have rescalled all of the backgrounds to 640X288 and get the same thing. I did notice that when I hit a game in the mame list that I had a video for, the blue backgrounds on all of the unselected lines would change to whatever the video is. I tried a few things like turning down the accelleration a notch but that didn't do anything. I also disabled alpha blending but again no change. The only way for me to update the drivers is to replace the card. Fortunately I have a new one coming in this week for a friends machine so I can at least test it. For now it's back to Default - Default which works with everything :-)

Thanks!

Erik

[TSpeirs]

Toonces, on Mar 9 2005, 04:54 AM, said:

Ok, I have rescalled all of the backgrounds to 640X288 and get the same thing. I did notice that when I hit a game in the mame list that I had a video for, the blue backgrounds on all of the unselected lines would change to whatever the video is. I tried a few things like turning down the accelleration a notch but that didn't do anything. I also disabled alpha blending but again no change. The only way for me to update the drivers is to replace the card. Fortunately I have a new one coming in this week for a friends machine so I can at least test it. For now it's back to Default - Default which works with everything :-)

Thanks!

Erik

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try replacing Unselected.bmp with this version attached:

Attached Files

•  Unselected.bmp   90bytes   13 downloads

[Toonces]

TSpeirs, on Mar 8 2005, 10:13 PM, said:

Try replacing Unselected.bmp with this version attached:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok, I replaced the file. Everything looks great on loading and goes to the main menu without any problems or distorted graphics. However, when I try to go into a sub menu like All MAME Games or Laserdisk Games or anything else, GameEx crashes.

Here is the log file and my GameEx.ini. I am running 3.43 with MAME .94

As a side note, I also tried the new Video Fun Theme and had the same video in the unselected bars problem. When I went into a sub menu with video everything slowed to a crawl but I suspect it was resizing the video that may be causing that? It looks VERY promising though!

Thanks!

Erik

Attached Files

•  gameex_log_ini.zip   15.91K   3 downloads

[TSpeirs]

Toonces, on Mar 9 2005, 05:36 AM, said:

Ok, I replaced the file. Everything looks great on loading and goes to the main menu without any problems or distorted graphics. However, when I try to go into a sub menu like All MAME Games or Laserdisk Games or anything else, GameEx crashes.

Here is the log file and my GameEx.ini. I am running 3.43 with MAME .94

As a side note, I also tried the new Video Fun Theme and had the same video in the unselected bars problem. When I went into a sub menu with video everything slowed to a crawl but I suspect it was resizing the video that may be causing that? It looks VERY promising though!

Thanks!

Erik

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Using that file obviously fixes it. GameEx is trying to draw it at the original size, that's why it crashing it. Now I know it works, I'll fix it in th next release.


Can you turn off the Alpha Blending, and let me know if that fixes the speed problem in the videos. ArcadeVGA 7000 series is not good enough for alpha blending (in GameEx). Although the 9000 is plenty powerfull enough.

[TSpeirs]

TSpeirs, on Mar 9 2005, 05:48 AM, said:

Using that file obviously fixes it. GameEx is trying to draw it at the original size, that's why it crashing it. Now I know it works, I'll fix it in th next release.
Can you turn off the Alpha Blending, and let me know if that fixes the speed problem in the videos. ArcadeVGA 7000 series is not good enough for alpha blending (in GameEx). Although the 9000 is plenty powerfull enough.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Alpha Blend Videos is under 'Display' in config. According to your gameex.ini its turned on. I am sure that's what's causing the crawl, but please confirm.

Thanks.
Tom

[Toonces]

TSpeirs, on Mar 8 2005, 10:48 PM, said:

Using that file obviously fixes it. GameEx is trying to draw it at the original size, that's why it crashing it. Now I know it works, I'll fix it in th next release.
Can you turn off the Alpha Blending, and let me know if that fixes the speed problem in the videos. ArcadeVGA 7000 series is not good enough for alpha blending (in GameEx). Although the 9000 is plenty powerfull enough.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cool! I turned off Alpha Blending and switched back to the Video Fun Theme and it no longer has a speed problem. Just the video in the background of the buttons is all. Kinda psychadelic :-)

Thanks Tom!

Erik

[TSpeirs]

Toonces, on Mar 9 2005, 06:01 AM, said:

Cool! I turned off Alpha Blending and switched back to the Video Fun Theme and it no longer has a speed problem. Just the video in the background of the buttons is all. Kinda psychadelic :-)

Thanks Tom!

Erik

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi,

Can you try the attached version of GameEx.exe with the bitmap I uploaded before.

I think we'll be Golden with this

Tom

Attached Files

•  GameEx.zip   366.7K   3 downloads

[Toonces]

TSpeirs, on Mar 8 2005, 11:13 PM, said:

Hi,

Can you try the attached version of GameEx.exe with the bitmap I uploaded before.

I think we'll be Golden with this

Tom

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Works like a charm! can I use that same unselected.bmp in all of the themes to fix them?

Thanks Again!

Erik

[Toonces]

Toonces, on Mar 8 2005, 11:31 PM, said:

Works like a charm! can I use that same unselected.bmp in all of the themes to fix them?

Thanks Again!

Erik

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just to make sure Rob can keep up with the changes made to his Theme to get it to work with 640 X 288. I resized all of the backgrounds in his 640X288 to be exactly 640X288. That along with your changed unselected.bmp and the new version of gameex.exe fixed it to display properly. The only thing not quite fitting for that skin since I resized it is the snapshot/video box is a little too big and goes outside of the bottom blue line on the left hand side. Looks awesome though!

Thank You to Tom & Rob!

Erik

[TSpeirs]

Toonces, on Mar 9 2005, 06:31 AM, said:

Works like a charm! can I use that same unselected.bmp in all of the themes to fix them?

Thanks Again!

Erik

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep, you sure can.

I just uploaded a new install to the web site, 3.44, with just that one fix.

[David R Hilgendorf]

Wow, you guys have really been hacking away at this. THANKS! I hope to give the new version a try this week sometime, though I plan to run my GameEx at 640x480i. I like the extra real estate and the flickering doesn't bother me as much in the frontend as it does in windows where I have much smaller fonts.

I also have the original AVGA, so I believe it's a 7000 as well. I think it would be cool to be able to get one in a 128MB 9800 flavor (for PC games), but Andy at Ultimarc told me that's not coming anytime soon as it costs him a lot to manufacture each new model and he wants to keep the price down... oh well.

pavlov, I have the same problem as toonces with the menu text and snapshots overlapping the blue border on the left hand side of the frontend. Not sure if that can be adjusted at all as I believe the location and size of the text and image are static (hence this whole subject). I think you can see this in the images and video that toonces put up earlier in this thread.

tspiers, with the recent changes to your fontend and the theme work by pavlov I think I may retire mamewah, or at least suspend it indefinitely.

Three more skin related requests:
1) I would still like to see adjustable images sizes now that we can adjust the font sizes that would go a LONG way toward customization at varying resolutions. We have people on this forum running GameEx at every res from 640x288 to 1024x768 and maybe more.

2) I would like to have TWO or more (scalable/resizable) images available on the various screens. I like to use marquee and snap, but mame also supports flyer, cabinet, instructions, etc. My console emulators tend to support snap, box-art, title-screen, cartridge/CD images.

3) Being able to specify start and end positions (in pixels) for width and height of the various text and image boxes, which would of course make them relocatable/resizable and maybe even solve request #1 at the same time if it scaled the images (not text) appropriately.

Since you already have VIDEO clip support (holy cow) and image as background, I don't imagine these request would pose too much of a problem. Plese let me know if they are already implemented and I just haven't figured out how to do them yet.

ONCE AGAIN - THANKS FOR THE GREAT FRONTEND AND SUPPORT!
-Dave

[David R Hilgendorf]

I wanted to add that this thread has over 30 posts and almost 600 views, making "Skinning" one of the most popular subjects in your forums

[TSpeirs]

David R Hilgendorf, on Mar 10 2005, 04:10 AM, said:

I wanted to add that this thread has over 30 posts and almost 600 views, making "Skinning" one of the most popular subjects in your forums

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, noted

It's not so much a lot of work to do initially, but would need an awfull lot of fine tuning, and probably quadruple support requests or more. it would deffinitly be only for the advanced. Also think about it this way, it would make it very easy to make GameEx not look right, or work at all.

Skinning in the way suggested and the way MAMEWah does it, is still very much a while off I am afraid, if it ever happens at all. Just being upfront about it.

If you used or ever see MCE you may have a better idea of my vision, intentions, and scope of GameEx possibly.

Tom

[David R Hilgendorf]

TSpeirs, on Mar 9 2005, 09:50 PM, said:

If you used or ever see MCE you may have a better idea of my vision, intentions, and scope of GameEx possibly.

Tom

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I run a self-built MCE. My wife calls it "Dave-O". I do not play emulators on it, that is why I have a (self)modded Xbox and an MAME arcade cabinet, rather it is exclusive to my Home Theater needs.

Though I am not a programmer, I have worked in IT for many years and as you can see I understand quite a bit about how this stuff works and I am relatively handy with hardware and software configurations and troubleshooting.

I do realize that your project has already gone way above and beyond what you originally envisioned. At this point I don't see requests for MCE related features and bug-fixes, which indicates that you have probably accomplished most of what you have set out to do. Rather you are getting a lot of MAME-cab related posts, which I know was not your intention, but you humored us by putting in things like AVGA support and a very user-friendly interface, of course we are looking for further enhancements . The only other viable solutions are mamewah and arcadeOS in my case (old system) and I have used both extensively.

If you are interested in possibly trying to add some of these more "advanced" features (I would settle for the 3 I listed above), I for certain, and probably Toonces as well, would be willing to be a QA/beta-tester (non-public) for some of these Arcade Cab specific enhancements. Instead of flooding you with technical questions we could provide you with useful feedback about what works and what doesn't. Some of it may eventually make it into your "supported" release if it turns out to be user friendly in the end.

Something to think about.

Out of curiosity, what is the average donation you get to this project? I am a bit strapped right now thanks to my first born, but I would like to do something in exchange for all your support.
-Dave

[TSpeirs]

David R Hilgendorf, on Mar 10 2005, 05:36 AM, said:

Yes, I run a self-built MCE. My wife calls it "Dave-O".  I do not play emulators on it, that is why I have a (self)modded Xbox and an MAME arcade cabinet, rather it is exclusive to my Home Theater needs.

Though I am not a programmer, I have worked in IT for many years and as you can see I understand quite a bit about how this stuff works and I am relatively handy with hardware and software configurations and troubleshooting.

I do realize that your project has already gone way above and beyond what you originally envisioned.  At this point I don't see requests for MCE related features and bug-fixes, which indicates that you have probably accomplished most of what you have set out to do. Rather you are getting a lot of MAME-cab related posts, which I know was not your intention, but you humored us by putting in things like AVGA support and a very user-friendly interface, of course we are looking for further enhancements .  The only other viable solutions are mamewah and arcadeOS in my case (old system) and I have used both extensively.

If you are interested in possibly trying to add some of these more "advanced" features (I would settle for the 3 I listed above), I for certain, and probably Toonces as well, would be willing to be a QA/beta-tester (non-public) for some of these Arcade Cab specific enhancements. Instead of flooding you with technical questions we could provide you with useful feedback about what works and what doesn't.  Some of it may eventually make it into your "supported" release if it turns out to be user friendly in the end.

Something to think about.

Out of curiosity, what is the average donation you get to this project?  I am a bit strapped right now thanks to my first born, but I would like to do something in exchange for all your support.
-Dave

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Dave,

I'll deffintly consider that. Your right, rarely get any MCE specific requests.

Donate whatever you can or feel comfortable with, but don't feel obligated. Your child is much more important than this will ever be.

I have not had many donations and they dont, and I dont expect them to pay the bills. They range from $10 to $30. 85% on the lower side of that.

Thanks,
Tom