Gildahl

New release just posted. Current Release: arcadeEIP latest release (v0.4.2.0 beta)

Sorry for the delayed response...All great suggestions. This will be supported in the next release (v0.4.3.0+), and is already working great in test. In addition to the system and game rom logos, there will be support for up to four additional still images (left/right at the top, and left/right in the center). You will be able to set these to any type of image you want, and will be able to specify unlimited levels of fallback for images that are missing and or timed image sequencing. You will also have some limited ability to resize and re-position the images within the constraints of their regions on the screen. All of these settings will be able to be set both globally as a default and/or customized per emulator/system type for total control. It would be simple to optionally left justify the list. But it wouldn't make sense without also left justifying the selected system and selected game windows as well, which I don't think would look so good without a more significantly re-thought/redesigned layout. I'm not opposed to this at all, but can't immediately think of a layout that remains functionally optimized for fast single-screen navigation of all systems and games and still looks good. But I will keep the idea in mind, and would be happy to look at any layout proposals you might have in mind for future consideration. I think this is a great idea and will be including a basic implementation of this in the next release (v0.4.3.0+). Thanks again for these suggestions.

New release just posted. This is a pretty major one. See release note at first link below. Current Release: arcadeEIP latest release (v0.4.1.0 beta) Documentation: GitHub Wiki for arcadeEIP Discussion: Here on the LaunchBox fourns, ArcadeControls.com, or GitHub discussions

As per our PM conversation about this, it sounds like you were able to get this to work. So I believe the answer is yes!

As per our PM on these topics (and for the benefit of any others with this question), the arcade game icons are the "standard" MAME .ico files that you should be able to find around the Internet; and I just searched online for the animated gifs, so they came from a variety of places.

New version has been released with the various changes mentioned above and a couple other new features. https://github.com/gildahl/arcadeEIP/releases/tag/v0.4.0.2-beta

I took a look at your logs and ini file, and it looks like the sequence is what I would have expected, so I guess I'd just say don't bother with the "4" event for now and stick with the "Use MAME..." option since it works. It might be that this will be needed with non-MAME emulators, but some further experimentation may be needed. If you do happen to discover anything further let me know since I'm going to add some of this to the documentation. Oh, and just as an FYI, if you wanted the delay(1000) to come after stopledblinky (I think that was probably your intention), make sure it has a "-" in front of it. The way it works is that all items without the minus will run in order prior to the game launching, and all items with minus signs in front of them will run, in order, after the game exits. So it should look like this: run_apps=ledblinky,delay(5000),-stopledblinky,-delay(1000) Regarding hiding the task bar, I took a look at this too and there does seem to be a bug, possibly related to a focus issue. After thinking about it though, I've decided that overriding the Windows auto-hide task bar setting is probably the wrong approach anyway. So the next update will remove this and replace it with a new hide_taskbar setting in the [Front_End_os] section that will work just like the hide_cursor setting (and be turned off by default). Rather than change the Windows setting, it will hide and restore the taskbar window itself. This should also eliminate the gray bar at the bottom of the screen that the auto-hide always seems to leave behind.

Thanks for all the feedback! I'm going to be out tonight, but will take a look at this at my next opportunity.

I saw in the LEDBlinky readme two events related to pause: Game Pause: LEDBlinky.exe 16 Game Unpause: LEDBlinky.exe 17 These are unrelated to LaunchBox pause, and I'm assuming that these just let you do specialized things with the RGB lighting during pause. Right now you wouldn't be able to call these events in arcadeEIP; however, in the next version (v0.4.0.2) you will be able to do this by creating two new application sections similar to before: [Application_pauseledblinky] app_key=pauseledblinky proper_name=PauseLEDBlinky exe_full_path=C:\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe,nowait param_list=16 [Application_unpauseledblinky] app_key=unpauseledblinky proper_name=UnpauseLEDBlinky exe_full_path=C:\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe,nowait param_list=17 ...and then use a new option called pause_apps in the [System_mame] section to have arcadeEIP call these when you pause and unpause in arcadeEIP using the comma key. Similar to the run_apps line, calls without a "-" sign would get called on pause, and those with a "-" sign would get called upon unpause. pause_apps=pauseledblinky,-unpauseledblinky Naturally, if this already works without needing to go through all this, it won't be necessary for you; but it's still probably a good general feature to have anyway.

Since I don't actually use LEDBlinky, I can't test the effect of using 15, but I think if you just put a 15 in the param_list of the original ledblinky application definition, you could try it. param_list=15 "[rom_file]" "[asset_name]" You should also make sure the asset_name that arcadeEIP is using matches whatever LEDBlinky is expecting--or experiment with removing it (and also make sure you are always using the nowait tag in all application sections) If you think timing might be an issue, the run_apps line does support inline insertion of delay commands. For example, this would insert a 5 second delay between two hypothetical applications (app1 and app2). Also, use the arcadeEIP.log file to see the sequence of each call, which also provides timing information in the left margin. run_apps=app1,delay(5000),app2 In either case, it doesn't sound like you necessarily need to do this since the "Use MAME..." option works, but if you do manage to get it to work let me know. As far as pause goes, I actually went ahead and added the feature since it was pretty simple. So that will be available in the next release if you ever wanted to try it.

I also just noticed that LEDBlinky has pause and unpause events. Do you use pause? arcadeEIP doesn't currently support application calls on pause/unpause but if you think it would be nice to have it should be pretty easy for me to add.

From the docs, it looks like LEDBlinky has a FE Quit Event by sending it a parameter of "2" (LEDBlinky.exe 2). You should be able to setup arcadeEIP to call this when it quits by setting up a separate application section with that parameter and calling it from the [Front_End_os] section. So for example, I'm thinking you'd set up another section like this: [Application_quitledblinky] app_key=quitledblinky proper_name=QuitLEDBlinky exe_full_path=C:\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe,nowait param_list=2 And then in your [Front_End_os] section, create this line (this setting defines what to run just before returning to the operating system). [Front_End_os] run_apps=quitledblinky Give that a shot. ...Also, its possible that you don't need to use the "Use MAME to trigger the Game Start/Stop Events" switch if you send a Game Stop event ("4") when exiting each game. You should be able to do that by setting up a third [Application] section: [Application_stopledblinky] app_key=stopledblinky proper_name=StopLEDBlinky exe_full_path=C:\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe,nowait param_list=4 And then change the run_apps= line in your [System_mame] section like this (the minus sign tells arcadeEIP to run the application after the game exits). [System_mame] run_apps=ledblinky,-stopledblinky You probably don't need this since you already have it working without it, but I'd be curious if it works, and would also be useful with other emulators. ...and also thanks for the video! Nice machine...and neat to see it work.

Cool. Note that when you test, if it doesn't work, review the arcadeEIP.log file as it should show you the actual command line that it tried to use, which might help in any debugging efforts. It is also possible that you might have to add the "nowait" tag after the exe (i.e. exe_full_path=C:\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe,nowait) if LEDBlinky remains resident.

Since I don't use LEDBlinky I had no plans to integrate it. However, I just downloaded it and read the readme file to see what it might entail, and I suspect you might be able to get it to work right now in its "stand-alone mode". According to the readme, "...any FE that supports the ability to launch an external application and pass parameters (e.g. Rom name) can use LEDBlinky." Then they provide this as the command line: LEDBlinky.exe <rom> <emulator> Since arcadeEIP supports running applications with parameters, you should be able to integrate it by setting up an application section for it towards the bottom of the arcadeEIP.ini file, then reference its key in the appropriate [System] section. For example, I'm thinking something like this might work: [Application_ledblinky] app_key=ledblinky proper_name=LEDBlinky exe_full_path=C:\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe,nowait param_list="[rom_file]" "[asset_name]" And then to apply it to MAME, you would add a line like this to your [System_mame] section. [System_mame] run_apps=ledblinky If you happen to be able to get this to work, let me know since it would be nice to add this example to the documentation.

First, I assume you mean these are missing from the main Mame game list in arcadeEIP, and not just from the Auto-Switch list, right? Assuming so, the way it works is that arcadeEIP first scans the rom folder specified in the search_path= line in the [ System_mame] section of arcadeEIP.ini. So as long as, say, mrdo.zip is found in that folder, it should show-up in the list. However, there are two ways that the list can get filtered after that. One is if you are "integrating" with LaunchBox. That means if at least one of your asset paths points at a LaunchBox image folder (for example, logo_folder=D:\LaunchBox\Images\Arcade\Clear Logo). In this case, arcadeEIP will use the same game list as that platform (in this case "Arcade"), so if Mr. Do wasn't in your Arcade platform's list, it won't be in arcadeEIP either. However, if you are not using a LaunchBox path, then the list will be filtered by the .meta file in the ..\Assets\MAME\Meta\Names folder (which you can view in a text editor). One other thing to try is to go to a command prompt in your arcadeEIP folder and type >eip.exe mame mrdo And let me know what it does. Of course, there could be a bug or other config issue too. I just checked my system which I have setup both way and see Mr. Do in both so we should be able to figure this out. If none of the above ideas help solve the problem, try sending me your arcadeEIP.ini and latest arcadeEIP.log file. There is an email address at the bottom of the readme.txt file you can send them to, and I'll have a look. Dave

[UPDATE: 5/24/2023 - Just released 0.4.0.1 beta hotfix. Previous version was missing some icons in the ..\Resources\Icons folder needed for marking favorites and star ratings with the "m" and "s" keys.] Just a note to anyone who might be following this project, I just recently moved the source and binary releases for arcadeEIP to GitHub, and a new release (v.0.4.0.0-beta) has been posted. This includes the update mentioned above to support commas in paths among other things. https://github.com/gildahl/arcadeEIP/releases/

Hi. Sorry for the delay in responding! Didn't see your post till just now, though it does look like you got things sorted out. Anyway, just to clarify how this works, by default, the autoswitch list should populate automatically after you've played a game for a bit (i.e. using controller input). You must also have the line, autoswitch=1, set in the [System] section of arcadeEIP.ini for systems you want to use feature. Also be aware that by default, the maximum number of games that will be automatically added to the Auto-Switch list is 20, but you can change that by editing the "auto=20" line in the [Auto_Switch] section of arcadeEIP.ini. If you never want games to be auto-added, just set autoswich=0 (or remove the setting). If you do that, the auto-switching feature will still work, but you'll just need to manually manage the list. To manually add/delete games to/from the Auto-Switch list, navigate to the Auto-Switch list and press the Left-Shift key. This will place the list in edit mode. Then use your arrow keys to go to another list, say your MAME list. Navigate to the game or games you'd like to add to the list then press the Spacebar. That should add it to the list. To manually delete a game from the list, just go back to the Auto-Switch list, choose the game, and press Spacebar, and it should be gone. When youi're done, exit the edit mode by pressing Left-Shift again. Be aware, however, that games manually deleted from the list will no longer be re-added by the auto-add feature since it is presumed you never want them on the list (if you ever wanted to undo that behavior, just remove the game's vector .txt file from the ..\Lists\autoswitch\suppress folder). If you have any other questions, let me know.

Thanks for letting me know. Definitely a case I hadn't considered.

Just tested, and it does look like commas in the path are currently a problem because the configuration allows one to specify a comma separated list of options following the path. I will include a fix for this in the next release.

Yup, still in development. I never tried a path with a comma, but will tonight and I'll let you know how it works.

Yes. I might be able to add a feature so that if you press a physical button (say, a control panel or Stream Deck button) that was programmed with a hot-string, that you could use this to jump directly to a particular list. If that's something you have a strong interest in, I can put it on a future feature list.

Ok, so I think you are wanting a way to jump directly to different sections of the menu. Currently, there is no support to, say, press a hotkey to jump immediately to a different section -- but it might be a viable thing to add if you could describe your use case more specifically. With that said, there is a way to customize the default section. You can do that by setting the default_list value to the sys_key of a system or list_key of a list in the [Picker_Preferences] section. For example if you set, [Picker_Preferences] default_list=mame ...then the starting list will be the MAME list.

Sorry, I had missed this post. What exactly do you mean by "can you bind a view specific platform"?

Sorry about that. I just duplicated your issue and it looks like it was because the last update I posted was not a final build (argh!). I just posted a revised zip file above and over on the BYOAC forums labeled arcadeEIP v.0.3.3.2a beta.zip. Just replace the eip.exe and marquee.exe with the updated ones from the new zip. Let me know if that fixes the problem.

You may also want to look here. Maybe not specifically what you're looking for, but perhaps an alternative.