BigBox and CPWizard Glitches

[JoeViking245]

3 hours ago, OldSchool80s said:

Sure wish there was a way to trigger something prior to running the actual game. (And then I’d have it show the control panel, then wait for any input…) then it continues on to launching the emulator/game.

You could do what was suggested above (find a startup theme you like and adjust the image priorities) and then increase the Startup Load Delay time.  This won't wait until you provide input but it could make it display longer while the game is loading.

Another possibility that may work is, similarly, find a main Theme that one of the displayed images is Box - Front (since Arcade doesn't have 'boxes'), and adjust the image priorities.

 

[damageinc86]

On 10/23/2021 at 2:31 PM, JoeViking245 said:

More than likely not. MAME's ui has had some behind the scenes work done with it (not that this has anything to do with it) , the LUA engine's been updated and CPWizard hasn't since before I started with it 3 years ago. 

However standalone, it works great!  Well, at least for creating Control Panel images.  I created a template that matches the panel on my cab then used it to 'print out' CP images for all my games.  I put those inside Images/Arcade/Arcade - Controls Information/.  Then from there, could add the images to my themes.

So it's not a total loss.  Just doesn't do what it was originally designed to do.

Hey Joe, was curious just how you use cpwizard to create a template of your own panel and have it "gray out" the unused buttons like you showed in your 1941 example?  Any chance you could do like a screen capture tutorial video of you using the program to do that?  

[JoeViking245]

19 hours ago, damageinc86 said:

Hey Joe, was curious just how you use cpwizard to create a template of your own panel and have it "gray out" the unused buttons like you showed in your 1941 example?  Any chance you could do like a screen capture tutorial video of you using the program to do that?  

Dang! That was done almost 5 years ago!  And don't think I've opened the app since then.

I believe it comes with a few templates already.  For the background (green panel), I forget how exactly I made that (Photoshop or something).  You could probably take its default background and use [something like] Gimp to change the color to your liking.

Should be able open the default template and then move the buttons around to match your cab. The greying out is automagical when you generate the images.

 

From some OLD notes I have about generating the images:

Edit
	Options
		MAME Filters
		  check or uncheck Fileters accordingly
		  ***make sure Includes and Excludes fields are empty***

		MAME Paths
		  set the MAME exe path
	"OK"

View
	Preview
	  make sure you can see files listed
	Close

File
	Export - Batch
		Image
		Layout
		1024 x 768
		Draw Background
		Output Folder .....
	"GO!"
'and now we wait...'

 

[damageinc86]

Ok thanks  I guess ill have to actually get in touch the program to see what that looks like.  Do you need a controls.dat or something for cpwizard to look at to populate the roms list with what the controls are? Then you superimpose your button setup to it? And then it always will put whatever the original say, "fire" button is, and put it on what you've designated as your fire button?

[JoeViking245]

39 minutes ago, damageinc86 said:

Ok thanks  I guess ill have to actually get in touch the program to see what that looks like.  Do you need a controls.dat or something for cpwizard to look at to populate the roms list with what the controls are? Then you superimpose your button setup to it? And then it always will put whatever the original say, "fire" button is, and put it on what you've designated as your fire button?

You haven't even open it yet?  😒

In the readme file that comes with it, there's a list of data files needed.  Pretty sure it comes with them, but the readme file has links for where to get them.  Depending on how you plan to use it (e.g. just exporting images vs. using it directly from within MAME) you may not need all that are listed. 

The default layout will have buttons already there.  Add or remove to match your cab.  The default buttons correspond to MAMEs default buttons. e.g. Player-1 Button-1 is Ctrl. P1B2 is Alt. P1B3 is Space.  etc.  If you've changed them on your cab, you can reassign them in the app.  

[damageinc86]

35 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

You haven't even open it yet?  😒

In the readme file that comes with it, there's a list of data files needed.  Pretty sure it comes with them, but the readme file has links for where to get them.  Depending on how you plan to use it (e.g. just exporting images vs. using it directly from within MAME) you may not need all that are listed. 

The default layout will have buttons already there.  Add or remove to match your cab.  The default buttons correspond to MAMEs default buttons. e.g. Player-1 Button-1 is Ctrl. P1B2 is Alt. P1B3 is Space.  etc.  If you've changed them on your cab, you can reassign them in the app.  

Hehe yeah, just been poking around doing searches for info and looking at screenshots of it. Getting the lay of the land, so to speak.  

Will get into it now, looks very promising.  

[damageinc86]

4 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

You haven't even open it yet?  😒

In the readme file that comes with it, there's a list of data files needed.  Pretty sure it comes with them, but the readme file has links for where to get them.  Depending on how you plan to use it (e.g. just exporting images vs. using it directly from within MAME) you may not need all that are listed. 

The default layout will have buttons already there.  Add or remove to match your cab.  The default buttons correspond to MAMEs default buttons. e.g. Player-1 Button-1 is Ctrl. P1B2 is Alt. P1B3 is Space.  etc.  If you've changed them on your cab, you can reassign them in the app.  

ok i just loaded all the defaults, pointed it to my inis,..and ran a little test output of the layout.  didn't change anything, saw all the "keycode_F" "player 2 coin" labels and stuff.  left those alone.  and the layout outputs are all blank for the buttons lol.  So guess i'll have to put a pin in this and investigate the readme and some tutorials more.  But I did get something to come out at least! lol