laggerific

I recently received a set of U360 controllers, which I am using in my Mame/etc cabinet through GameEx. I'm still working on wrapping my head around the various nuances presented by this device, and in reading around how to tune the mappings for various games/emulators someone brought up the potential limitations on number of flashes possible on the PCB, due to cell life limits. I love leaving my cabinet running in demo mode in the background, but it left me concerned...if it reprograms the stick everytime a demo program comes up, it could limit the lifespan of the controllers programming ability. Perhaps I'm being paranoid, and perhaps it has the ability to reprogram millions of times before failure...but I am curious, will it reprogram for a specific rom even when loading it through demo mode.

I was researching how to maintain controller configurations when I upgrade versions, as it seems that I always need to redo my 4-player controls for my 4-player cab (I prefer to setup 2 player games to use the middle 2 controllers, so player one in position 2...while for 4-player I prefer to setup consistent with the arcade). This is a pain, for certain. I discovered a reference to something called CFG Magician in a link to these forums, but it was a few years old. Is that still a relevant tool, or is there something the community here would recommend? Also, it seems that all the 2/4 player games get reset to 2-player games on their dipswitches, as well. So, it seems that with an upgrade, which I typically do by extracting over an existing folder, it starts ignoring the cfgs and nvram files that were already there. Thank you.

That's cool...I think I'll have the general emulator controls under controls and then game specific under instructions. This is a fun project, as I have so many control schemes depending on the game, I get confused, let alone people who haven't spent hours configuring the setup.

Man, my search foo is terrible...I'm sure I searched here, but perhaps I came here after failing to find info through google. Thanks!

Is there a guide for setting up control panel or Instructions screens for use in GameEx? Similar to how mame shows controls for the games, I'd like to do something like that with my other emulators. I see high level information in the instructions on this topic, but nothing more in-depth. Is it as straightforward as creating images with the games name and putting them in the "Controls Path" or "Instructions Path"? Can it default to a generic one for the emulator, if a specific one isn't there? Thank you.

Is there a way to bypass the Street Fighter IV launcher, so I can go right into the game from GameEx? Thank you!

I have the various emulators that I want included in the screensaver configured to show up. I can certainly limit which emulators show up to help troubleshoot this, but I find that it seems to repeat the MAME games far more than any of the consoles. I'm trying to think if it really has repeated the console games, but I can't think of any repeats that I recall. I was hoping to find out whether there was a setting to have it keep a list of all games it's played and only play those that aren't on the list. That said, I'd be willing to request the feature, if it isn't already built in, because I would love to see something new every time I look at the screen.

It's a mix of mame and consoles.

I do have it playing from my favorites, but that has hundreds of games. And I notice mainly because my cabinet sits next to my TV, so within a 2 hour time frame I've seen the same game play more than 2 sometimes 3 or more times.

Just wondering if there is a way to limit repeats while running in demo/screensaver mode? Sometimes it feels like it's just cycling through 30 different games, but I'd really like it to repeat none of them, at least for a given startup...is that possible?

I know I tried that, but I guess I wasn't sure what I was looking for when it was working...apparently, I had to scroll down a bit. Thank you!

I am trying to configure gameex to use goodmerged romsets. But, when I select on a game in the list, it is grayed out and doesn't do anything. I was under the impression that when I go to the game info page that I should see a list of the files in the 7zip archive. I believe I must be doing something wrong... Here is the config for genesis: [Emulator_6] Enabled=True System=Sega Genesis Category=Console Emulator=Fusion Version=3.63 Rating= DownloadUrl=http://www.gamesdbase.com/setupwizard/emulators/download/Fusion.7z RequiredFiles= Website=http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-index.php?page=Kega Info=Fusion(formerly known as Kega II and Kega Fusion) is a Sega SG1000, SC3000, Master System, Game Gear, Genesis/Megadrive, SegaCD/MegaCD and 32X emulator TitleText=Sega Genesis StartPageName=[Console] Sega Genesis (Fusion) StartPageLogo=Sega Genesis Command=Fusion.exe -gen -fullscreen "[ROMPATH]\[ROMFILE]" RomFilter= Database=[Console] Sega Genesis ConfigFile=[Mapping Off] Exit (Process Close) MapFile= RomPath=D:\nes.snes.gen\goodgen-roms SnapPath=D:\nes.snes.gen\Sega_Genesis\Snap TitlePath=D:\nes.snes.gen\Sega_Genesis\Title BoxPath=D:\nes.snes.gen\Sega_Genesis\Box CartPath=D:\nes.snes.gen\Sega_Genesis\Cart ManualPath=C:\emumovies\Sega Genesis\Manuals ControlPanelPath=C:\emumovies\Sega Genesis\Controls WorkingPath=C:\Emulators\Fusion MapKeys=True WaitBeforeKeys= SendKeys= ReplaceDash=False ReplaceUnder=True Capitals=True RemoveBrackets=True ShowDesktop=True Debug=False AlsoLaunch= OLDatZip= LaunchBefore= LaunchAfter= ExcludedFiles= CustomBackground= PlayMusic=False DontShowInfo= PlaySelectionMusic=False SelectionMusicFolder= PCGame=False GamesIn7Zips=True PlayInScreenSaver=True ShowMostPlayed=True RandomMostPlayed=True CDCheck=False CDCheckFile= RomsInFolders=True lastgame= TVAdPath= MergeSets=True VideoSnapPath=D:\nes.snes.gen\Sega_Genesis\Video_MP4

I'm running the latest build of NullDC Naomi grabbed from emucr.com, which says that it now supports command line loading of default images. I'm guessing that is similar to how the Dreamcast version works. I'm trying to copy that config style, but can't seem to get it working from command line without the frontend. Does anyone know of any documentation around the nulldc naomi command line functionality? Thanks.

As I am incorporating a number of widescreen games into my cabinet, I'd like the video snaps preview window have the ability to preserve aspect ratio, while maximizing the size of the video within that window. This means black bars for any widescreen or taller than 4:3 video footage. Thank you.

Thank you!

Thanks for the clarification. I would like that aspect ratio be preserved, whether it causes letterboxing, or not. I'll put in an enhancement request. That said, how do I request an enhancement? Thanks all for your time on this query.

Thanks for the responses...let me clarify to ensure I'm understanding. Tom, when you say that it corrects the aspect ratio, are you saying that it alters the aspect ratio of the source .avi to match whatever aspect ratio is configured in the theme for the video box? Or are you saying that the aspect ratio of the source .avi should be preserved? Draco...if what you are saying, that the theme dictates aspect ratio, is correct...how would switching it to supporting widescreen .avi's help, as then 4:3 .avis would be stretched wide? Take dolphin, for instance...since it supports wii and GC games, some of the videos are going to be widescreen and others 4:3, so I can't necessarily make a specific theme for each emulator to adhere to an aspect ratio. Perhaps, I'm misunderstanding, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

I have many widescreen video snaps from various games and emulators, and for some reason they always appear squashed to fill the video preview window. Is there anyway to ensure they keep their aspect ratio and not have it stretch to fill some 4:3 box? Thank you.

Ah, I had a nagging fear in the back of my head that that would be the case. Weird, though, that it can still show that generic artwork on vertical games during the attract mode...so at least it appears to be technically possible? Well, it would be a nice feature if we could get it, but I do prefer the Bezel if I've got to pick between the two...very nice info to have. Thank you!

Thank you...I did that and it showed me the Bezel feature under advanced MAME settings which speak to showing the bezel for vertical games. I think I may be misspeaking, though, when I say bezel. It is what MAME refers to as artwork. I see the following switch in the gameex log for when it is running games in screensaver mode "-artpath artworkgameex". In that folder is one piece of artwork, the generic gameex/MAME art. I really like the Bezel info that is displayed during attract mode, which shows the marquee, icon and info on the game...I don't want to lose that. That said, is there any way to add the game specific artwork that plays with MAME games when in the attract mode for gameex? Sorry for using the wrong lingo on this topic...

Bezels and such are working when I manually select to play a game through GameEX or MAME itself...what I am trying to figure out is how to see them specifically during the GameEX *Screensaver* mode.

I believe that is specific to the vertical games, and then it appears to only be the static and generic MAME/GameEX one.

For some reason I don't see arcade games bezels during the demo mode while I do see them when playing the actual games. Is there any option to set those to display? I see something about vertical game bezel in the gameex setup, but that just shows the same mame/gameex bezel for each vertical game. Should I be able to set it to show the proper bezel artwork during the screensaver mode?

Bummer, but being able to cancel screensaver is good enough for now. Thank you.

Thanks, that's useful to know. Is there anyway, other than allowing sound during screensaver, to get the audio to engage when playing a game this way?