9.8-beta-1 Released

[neil9000]

22 minutes ago, Capa said:

when I load state using lib_mame with retroarch i get palette, tile view, gfx pop ups in retroarch.

I tested it without pause and it's not happening.

That is a issue with using MAME inside of Retroarch. F4 is the default load state key for Retroarch, but with the MAME core loaded that takes the input of F4 instead, which shows the palette screen, just as it would on standalone MAME if you pressed F4 during a game. MAME has its own save and load state buttons.

[Capa]

Thanks for the heads up, i just disabled the short cut and works perfect now.

[tsetsefly]

For the new Pause screen, default theme that shows the controls information image:

assuming the images for MAME are coming from Arcade->Arcade - Controls Information directory.  Wanted to use CPWizard to generate a set of control images for my cabinet layout.  The images in the Arcade - Controls Information folder don't seemed to be named with the rom name which CPWizard creates.

example: I see 1941_ Counter Attack-01.png and not the rom name 1941.png

Where is the association of the "1941" rom with the name "1941_ Counter Attack-01" for the controls image set from that the Pause theme seems to be using ?

thanks

[Jason Carr]

13 minutes ago, tsetsefly said:

For the new Pause screen, default theme that shows the controls information image:

assuming the images for MAME are coming from Arcade->Arcade - Controls Information directory.  Wanted to use CPWizard to generate a set of control images for my cabinet layout.  The images in the Arcade - Controls Information folder don't seemed to be named with the rom name which CPWizard creates.

example: I see 1941_ Counter Attack-01.png and not the rom name 1941.png

Where is the association of the "1941" rom with the name "1941_ Counter Attack-01" for the controls image set from that the Pause theme seems to be using ?

thanks

LaunchBox will pick up images that match the ROM name, so you should be able to just name the file 1941.png or 1941.jpg.

[Fredator]

I'am sorry if it has already been asked but is it possible to add screenshots for save/load states ?

[Jason Carr]

38 minutes ago, Fredator said:

I'am sorry if it has already been asked but is it possible to add screenshots for save/load states ?

Probably not unfortunately. It would have to be implemented differently for every single emulator, and probably wouldn't be possible for most of them.

[Fredator]

1 hour ago, Jason Carr said:

Probably not unfortunately. It would have to be implemented differently for every single emulator, and probably wouldn't be possible for most of them.

And just by taking a screenshot just defore launching the pause menu, keeping the screenshot in a variable and use it if a save state is created ? This way you don't have to mess with emulator behavior

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, Fredator said:

And just by taking a screenshot just defore launching the pause menu, keeping the screenshot in a variable and use it if a save state is created ? This way you don't have to mess with emulator behavior

Yeah, that does seem at least possibly feasible, but I think the first priority would be to support multiple save states. Until we can support multiple save states, there's really not much use for screenshots. I'll put it on the list though.

[Fredator]

1 minute ago, Jason Carr said:

Yeah, that does seem at least possibly feasible, but I think the first priority would be to support multiple save states. Until we can support multiple save states, there's really not much use for screenshots. I'll put it on the list though.

Thanks, It would nicely awesome indeed ! ?

[ALIE]

16 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Yeah, that does seem at least possibly feasible, but I think the first priority would be to support multiple save states. Until we can support multiple save states, there's really not much use for screenshots. I'll put it on the list though.

Multiple Saves states will be awsome. Glad it's up high.  Doesn't Retroach have a automatic screenshot feature when making a save state? 

[tsetsefly]

Pause Theme - Default
Arcade / MAME .181
LB 9.8

Couple things I have noticed in BigBox-

- Using exit on Pause screen menu (most of the time) brings up a fullscreen palette screen overlayed on game.  Exit key will back out of that.  Something needed to prevent that ?

- Within Pause screen menu , hitting the pause screen button while in the Pause screen menu drops back to game but with a 5 second or so looping sound glitch.  Doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally

- Some games the Pause screen does not come up, the games pauses but the Pause screen does not come up.  Seems to happen with vector games  (startrek, tempest, battlezone)

- When assigning the Pause screen button in BigBox, do you have to use the Hold Key combo / Controller Automation.  Seems like you can't just assign a key for the Pause screen without controller automation/hold key assigned for it to work.

[Retro808]

31 minutes ago, tsetsefly said:

Pause Theme - Default
Arcade / MAME .181
LB 9.8

Couple things I have noticed in BigBox-

- Using exit on Pause screen menu (most of the time) brings up a fullscreen palette screen overlayed on game.  Exit key will back out of that.  Something needed to prevent that ?

- Within Pause screen menu , hitting the pause screen button while in the Pause screen menu drops back to game but with a 5 second or so looping sound glitch.  Doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally

- Some games the Pause screen does not come up, the games pauses but the Pause screen does not come up.  Seems to happen with vector games  (startrek, tempest, battlezone)

- When assigning the Pause screen button in BigBox, do you have to use the Hold Key combo / Controller Automation.  Seems like you can't just assign a key for the Pause screen without controller automation/hold key assigned for it to work.

That version is about 2.5 years old so there could be some minor issues with it and current Launchbox/BigBox features. We have seen older versions having issues with the new features. Try editing your Mame set-up in Launchbox and delete the "-keyboardprovider dinput" in the default command line prompt section. See if that helps.

With new feature development in LB/BB I would recommend updating to a more current mame version and rom set. If that is something you do not wish to do, then you will likely need to find some work arounds to issues you are or may experience.

[Jason Carr]

20 hours ago, tsetsefly said:

Pause Theme - Default
Arcade / MAME .181
LB 9.8

Couple things I have noticed in BigBox-

- Using exit on Pause screen menu (most of the time) brings up a fullscreen palette screen overlayed on game.  Exit key will back out of that.  Something needed to prevent that ?

- Within Pause screen menu , hitting the pause screen button while in the Pause screen menu drops back to game but with a 5 second or so looping sound glitch.  Doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally

- Some games the Pause screen does not come up, the games pauses but the Pause screen does not come up.  Seems to happen with vector games  (startrek, tempest, battlezone)

- When assigning the Pause screen button in BigBox, do you have to use the Hold Key combo / Controller Automation.  Seems like you can't just assign a key for the Pause screen without controller automation/hold key assigned for it to work.

Yes, per @Retro808 I would guess that most of those issues are because of such an old version of MAME. Some of them may be due to unexpected (non-default) keyboard mappings though. You can check the pause screen script tabs in the MAME emulator settings in LaunchBox for the details on what keys it expects.

You also don't have to use controller or keyboard automation. There are separate binding options in LaunchBox and Big Box for a pause key.

[Omen]

@Jason Carr would it be possible to add a custom AHK script area for Pause screens, similar to the exit, save, and load options? Except with an option to name the entry. Some emulators have extra commands that would be nice to access from Pause. For example I would love to have a “Next Bezel” option on pause, that would send the hotkey for Next Bezel in RetroArch. I think having one or two custom script areas would allow for anyone to add to the pause screen without having to make specific feature requests. Or is this already possible with themes? I’m still a noob at theming.

[tsetsefly]

4 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Yes, per @Retro808 I would guess that most of those issues are because of such an old version of MAME. Some of them may be due to unexpected (non-default) keyboard mappings though. You can check the pause screen script tabs in the MAME emulator settings in LaunchBox for the details on what keys it expects.

You also don't have to use controller or keyboard automation. There are separate binding options in LaunchBox and Big Box for a pause key.

upgraded to MAME .209, I didn't see that make any difference in those effects I saw.

- original notes with MAME .181
-- With MAME 0.209 and .209 roms (nothing added to Pause screen tab in MAME emulator, On Pause and On Resume tabs have "; No script is required ...")

1) - Using exit on Pause screen menu (most of the time) brings up a fullscreen palette screen overlayed on game.  mame exit buttonwill back out of that.  
 -- still does this with latest MAME if "-keyboardprovider dinput" is in command line parameters.  It does not do it if I remove "-keyboardprovider dinput" from commend line parameters.  BUT, selecting Exit on the Pause screen menu just returns to game, same effect as selecting Resume.

2) - Within Pause screen menu , hitting the pause screen button while in the Pause screen menu drops back to game but with a 5 second or so looping sound glitch.  Doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally
  -- still saw this happen once bouncing in and out of pause mode on number of games, can't reproduce, probably not an issue,  not a weak machine (i7 920, GTX760)

3) - Some games the Pause screen does not come up, the game pauses but the Pause screen does not come up.  Seems to happen with vector graphics games  (startrek, tempest, battlezone, Black Widow)
  -- stil seeing same issue in the vector based games, such as those listed.  Using pause screen button, the games pauses but pause screen with menu does not show up like all the other mame games.

4) - When assigning the Pause screen button in BigBox, do you have to use the Hold Key combo / Controller Automation.  Seems like you can't just assign a key for the Pause screen without controller automation/hold key assigned for it to work.
  -- I still see this , from this image below, the first config works with button combo (button 10 + 11) for pause screen, but the second config does not work to pause the game with button 11.  just referring to BigBox, I understand there is a different key/setting for launchbox

 

[Retro808]

Was this a clean install of Mame 209 or did you transfer over any settings from your prior version? Any chance in Mame you set the UI Cancel to button or buttons other than the default of "Escape"?

Reason I ask is I used to use Buttons 4 and 2 as my exit hook in Mame for my arcade stick. With the latest versions of Mame if I keep that in Mame's config when I try to exit from the Pause menu I get that palette screen as you do. If I put Mame's UI Cancel back to default key of  "Esc" it works fine. 

57 minutes ago, tsetsefly said:

4) - When assigning the Pause screen button in BigBox, do you have to use the Hold Key combo / Controller Automation.  Seems like you can't just assign a key for the Pause screen without controller automation/hold key assigned for it to work.
  -- I still see this , from this image below, the first config works with button combo (button 10 + 11) for pause screen, but the second config does not work to pause the game with button 11.  just referring to BigBox, I understand there is a different key/setting for launchbox

Controller Automation does require a "Hold" button. 

[neil9000]

1 hour ago, tsetsefly said:

upgraded to MAME .209, I didn't see that make any difference in those effects I saw.

- original notes with MAME .181
-- With MAME 0.209 and .209 roms (nothing added to Pause screen tab in MAME emulator, On Pause and On Resume tabs have "; No script is required ...")

1) - Using exit on Pause screen menu (most of the time) brings up a fullscreen palette screen overlayed on game.  mame exit buttonwill back out of that.  
 -- still does this with latest MAME if "-keyboardprovider dinput" is in command line parameters.  It does not do it if I remove "-keyboardprovider dinput" from commend line parameters.  BUT, selecting Exit on the Pause screen menu just returns to game, same effect as selecting Resume.

2) - Within Pause screen menu , hitting the pause screen button while in the Pause screen menu drops back to game but with a 5 second or so looping sound glitch.  Doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally
  -- still saw this happen once bouncing in and out of pause mode on number of games, can't reproduce, probably not an issue,  not a weak machine (i7 920, GTX760)

3) - Some games the Pause screen does not come up, the game pauses but the Pause screen does not come up.  Seems to happen with vector graphics games  (startrek, tempest, battlezone, Black Widow)
  -- stil seeing same issue in the vector based games, such as those listed.  Using pause screen button, the games pauses but pause screen with menu does not show up like all the other mame games.

4) - When assigning the Pause screen button in BigBox, do you have to use the Hold Key combo / Controller Automation.  Seems like you can't just assign a key for the Pause screen without controller automation/hold key assigned for it to work.
  -- I still see this , from this image below, the first config works with button combo (button 10 + 11) for pause screen, but the second config does not work to pause the game with button 11.  just referring to BigBox, I understand there is a different key/setting for launchbox

 

nice to see that when i came in just now and clicked those images you left, that you didnt leave them.

 

[Tomkun]

On 5/23/2019 at 10:08 PM, JoeViking245 said:

LB/BB will pass the rom name as %1%.   It won't pass the emu's game specific system though.

EDIT: I (half way) take that back.  It doesn't appear to pass the roms' name (as %1%) to an AHK script that's used under Additional Apps.  It will however pass it along if you create/Add an emulator that points to and AHK script.

I could get it working by creating an emulator from my AHK script, but then I have to get the AHK script to launch the correct emulator itself which renders all the LaunchBox emulator setup useless.

I *almost* got it working by creating an emulator, and setting that as an additional app. That *will* pass on the system name, but *not* the rom name.
Would it be too much to ask for an acknowledgement from Jason that he's even read these requests? It's frustrating when you feel that your requests are falling on deaf ears.

The really frustrating part is that all these variables exist, because they are all sent along just fine to LEDBlinky.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Tomkun

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, Tomkun said:

I could get it working by creating an emulator from my AHK script, but then I have to get the AHK script to launch the correct emulator itself which renders all the LaunchBox emulator setup useless.

I *almost* got it working by creating an emulator, and setting that as an additional app. That *will* pass on the system name, but *not* the rom name.
Would it be too much to ask for an acknowledgement from Jason that he's even read these requests? It's frustrating when you feel that your requests are falling on deaf ears.

The really frustrating part is that all these variables exist, because they are all sent along just fine to LEDBlinky.

I've added the request to my list, but it's all about priorities. It's difficult to prioritize one person's request over features from the poll that have a whole bunch of votes. Something this custom may be best implemented via a plugin.

[Jason Carr]

4 hours ago, tsetsefly said:

upgraded to MAME .209, I didn't see that make any difference in those effects I saw.

- original notes with MAME .181
-- With MAME 0.209 and .209 roms (nothing added to Pause screen tab in MAME emulator, On Pause and On Resume tabs have "; No script is required ...")

1) - Using exit on Pause screen menu (most of the time) brings up a fullscreen palette screen overlayed on game.  mame exit buttonwill back out of that.  
 -- still does this with latest MAME if "-keyboardprovider dinput" is in command line parameters.  It does not do it if I remove "-keyboardprovider dinput" from commend line parameters.  BUT, selecting Exit on the Pause screen menu just returns to game, same effect as selecting Resume.

2) - Within Pause screen menu , hitting the pause screen button while in the Pause screen menu drops back to game but with a 5 second or so looping sound glitch.  Doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally
  -- still saw this happen once bouncing in and out of pause mode on number of games, can't reproduce, probably not an issue,  not a weak machine (i7 920, GTX760)

3) - Some games the Pause screen does not come up, the game pauses but the Pause screen does not come up.  Seems to happen with vector graphics games  (startrek, tempest, battlezone, Black Widow)
  -- stil seeing same issue in the vector based games, such as those listed.  Using pause screen button, the games pauses but pause screen with menu does not show up like all the other mame games.

4) - When assigning the Pause screen button in BigBox, do you have to use the Hold Key combo / Controller Automation.  Seems like you can't just assign a key for the Pause screen without controller automation/hold key assigned for it to work.
  -- I still see this , from this image below, the first config works with button combo (button 10 + 11) for pause screen, but the second config does not work to pause the game with button 11.  just referring to BigBox, I understand there is a different key/setting for launchbox

 

#1 is most likely because you're not using default keyboard binding settings, as I previously stated. You can change the key that the scripts send for MAME.

#2 I've seen before, and it was always because I had another app running that background that was somehow conflicting. For me, instances of Remote Desktop were causing it for some crazy reason. We're just using Windows APIs, but sadly they can be finicky with some apps running in background I've noted. Do make sure you don't have forceful activation checked in your MAME emulator settings as well, as that should be unnecessary for MAME and could be causing it.

#3 I've never been able to replicate this, and I just tried with those games and it seems to be working fine. So my guess would be that there's some kind of MAME configuration setting that is different that is causing it. If we can figure out what that is, I can look into it. Maybe try backing up your MAME settings and resetting them to the defaults to see if that fixes it?

#4 Yes, both keyboard and controller automation do require the hold key. There are separate settings in both LaunchBox and Big Box for a single key press to trigger the pause screens (under Game Pause).