Is there a way to tell Launchbox to use a different .ini file for MAME?

[Wormburner_bogey]

I haven't had any issues since he delivered this unit.  Has worked perfectly, no issues at all, until I started messing with things.  I had just been running it through Bigbox as intended.  But I really wasn't too impressed with the jaggy's.  I understand it's old technology being displayed on new, but I just wanted it to look closer to the original.  Which with some .ini file settings I was able to achieve.  I had originally asked him if he knew why they weren't displaying through LB/BB.  He had no clue lol.  This is only the second one he has built.  The first was for himself.  He is still learning as well.  Said if I figure it out he would like to come over so I can show him how it's done.  Which led me to this forum   Now I really wish I was more involved from the start.

Sooo, I had never looked before to see if BB/LB was opening a separate window for mame, or if it was running "embedded" through the front end software.  Does that make sense, or am I just making this more confusing?  

[Wormburner_bogey]

16 minutes ago, Wormburner_bogey said:

I haven't had any issues since he delivered this unit.  Has worked perfectly, no issues at all, until I started messing with things.  I had just been running it through Bigbox as intended.  But I really wasn't too impressed with the jaggy's.  I understand it's old technology being displayed on new, but I just wanted it to look closer to the original.  Which with some .ini file settings I was able to achieve.  I had originally asked him if he knew why they weren't displaying through LB/BB.  He had no clue lol.  This is only the second one he has built.  The first was for himself.  He is still learning as well.  Said if I figure it out he would like to come over so I can show him how it's done.  Which led me to this forum   Now I really wish I was more involved from the start.

Sooo, I had never looked before to see if BB/LB was opening a separate window for mame, or if it was running "embedded" through the front end software.  Does that make sense, or am I just making this more confusing?  

I think I just figured this out.  I ran the Nintendo Emulator and a separate window from BB is there.  All the other emulators still work fine....

[JoeViking245]

9 minutes ago, Wormburner_bogey said:

Sooo, I had never looked before to see if BB/LB was opening a separate window for mame, or if it was running "embedded" through the front end software.  Does that make sense, or am I just making this more confusing? 

Not confusing. Just over-thinking.  If you're in Windows Explorer looking at and bunch of text files and if you double-click one of them, it opens Notepad.exe and displays the text file.

Using this analogy; change Windows Explorer to BigBox.  Change text files to ROM files.  Change Notepad.exe to mame.exe.  Change 'the text file' to the game.

[Wormburner_bogey]

Gotcha.  Makes total sense.  Now, can you think of any reason/setting as to why it keeps "minimizing" mame?  Mame is still running, but on screen is bigbox.  And the controls are still active, I believe for mame.  BB is displayed, but doesn't respond to any of the controls.  

[JoeViking245]

3 minutes ago, Wormburner_bogey said:

Gotcha.  Makes total sense.  Now, can you think of any reason/setting as to why it keeps "minimizing" mame?  Mame is still running, but on screen is bigbox.  And the controls are still active, I believe for mame.  BB is displayed, but doesn't respond to any of the controls.  

Is it minimized? Or just not 'in focus'?  (Probably the latter.  Proper terminology.  We'll learn ya yet. ) 

In LaunchBox, right click a [Arcade/MAME] game.  Select "Open MAME".  [At/Near the bottom of the MAME emulator window] double-click "General Settings".  Double-click "Video Options".  Select "Window Mode".  Press the left or right arrow key to change it to "Off".  Press Escape.  Double-click "Save Settings".  Press Escape. Press Escape [again] to close MAME.

[Wormburner_bogey]

Oh yes, the terminology I def need to learn.  I opened mame, went to the video settings, and it is in fact off.  But, while in there looking it just kicked me out.  This is what screen looks like when it does that.  2 instances of mame running.  I says "no driver loaded [__empty] - " I can't see the rest.....

[Wormburner_bogey]

[JoeViking245]

42 minutes ago, Wormburner_bogey said:

This is what screen looks like when it does that.  2 instances of mame running.  I says "no driver loaded [__empty] - " I can't see the rest.....

The one you show is a command prompt window that [also] appears when you don't load a ROM.  The other one "No Driver Loaded..." is the main MAME window.

Try turning off Startup screens for your MAME emulator.  Tools - Manage - Emulators - select MAME and Edit it.  Go to the Startup Screens and turn it off.

[Wormburner_bogey]

Okay, i tried that with the same results....😪

[JoeViking245]

To recap where you're at, please answer the following...

When launching from LaunchBox, does the game have focus (like it should)?   And the game is full screen (it covers the entire screen, and you can't see the Windows taskbar)?  And when exiting the game, LB regains focus (like it should)?  AKA, everything works as it should via LaunchBox.

It's just when launching a game from BigBox, the game doesn't have focus?  If you press Alt+Tab, is the game now in focus and full screen?

[Wormburner_bogey]

When launching from LaunchBox, does the game have focus (like it should)?  Yes.  Until it randomly kicks me out and loses focus.

And the game is full screen (it covers the entire screen, and you can't see the Windows taskbar)?  Correct.

And when exiting the game, LB regains focus (like it should)?  AKA, everything works as it should via LaunchBox.  Kind of.  I don't get a chance to exit the game....it does that for me lol.

It's just when launching a game from BigBox, the game doesn't have focus?  If you press Alt+Tab, is the game now in focus and full screen?  BigBox seems to be acting the same as LaunchBox.  Everything starts fine, game is in focus.  Then bam, game goes out of focus.  Can still hear it.  And I believe controls are still active for it (as they no longer respond to LB/BB.

Obviously this seems to be a mame issue.  All the other emulators and games work as they should.  I must have had something buggered in my mame.ini when we changed the settings in LaunchBox to use the mame video settings.  Do you think that is an accurate assessment?  Think I need to take this thing "back to formula".  To quote the Green Goblin from Spiderman.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Wormburner_bogey

[JoeViking245]

13 hours ago, Wormburner_bogey said:

And when exiting the game, LB regains focus (like it should)?  AKA, everything works as it should via LaunchBox.  Kind of.  I don't get a chance to exit the game....it does that for me lol.

Is the game actually loading? At all?  Or when you go to launch it, maybe you see a black screen for a quick moment, then it goes right back to LB.

 

13 hours ago, Wormburner_bogey said:

I must have had something buggered in my mame.ini when we changed the settings in LaunchBox to use the mame video settings.  Do you think that is an accurate assessment?

No.  Changing the command-line parameter in LaunchBox only affects the loading of 'that' game for 'that' session.  

 

13 hours ago, Wormburner_bogey said:

Think I need to take this thing "back to formula". 

I agree with that assessment.  But don't delete you're existing MAME installation. Yet.   According to your screenshot, you're using MAME 0.255 (and presumably your ROM set is [at least it better be!] for 0.255 as well).  Go to MAMEdev's Previous Releases and download the binary for MAME  release 0.255.  Extract that to a new folder (D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME (0.255)\   or wherever).  Then in LaunchBox, add a new emulator and point the Application Path to this new mame.exe. 

The Default Command-line parameters should be something like

-skip_gameinfo -keyboardprovider dinput -rompath %romlocation%

In the Associated Platforms section, add Arcade and set it as default.  "Do you want to change the default emulator for this platform?" Yes.

[Wormburner_bogey]

Is the game actually loading? At all?  Or when you go to launch it, maybe you see a black screen for a quick moment, then it goes right back to LB.

Yes, sir.  It loads like normal through LB/BB and just by launching mame by itself.  I can start playing, and it would just randomly pop up the game over screen and then go out of focus.  The out of focus mame screen would still be the game running.  I could click on it in windows to bring it back into focus.  But then it would just do it again.

And now for the "new" mame/arcade emulator.  I did all of that and everything seems to be back to normal.  Expect for the controls....none of those seem to be mapped anymore......Is there simply a file I need to move from the old mame folder to fix that?

[Wormburner_bogey]

Not sure if it is super important, but I probably should have said that this is a big cabinet style game with plenty of buttons and 4 player option.  

Edited November 7, 2023 by Wormburner_bogey

[Wormburner_bogey]

[Wormburner_bogey]

Oh, forgot to mention yes, the romset is for .255

[JoeViking245]

9 hours ago, Wormburner_bogey said:

everything seems to be back to normal.  Expect for the controls....none of those seem to be mapped anymore......Is there simply a file I need to move from the old mame folder to fix that?

You might get lucky and be able to copy /cfg/default.cfg

 

If that doesn't work, look in the old "mame.ini" file and scroll down to the section "CORE INPUT OPTIONS".  On the line just below that starting with "ctrlr", is there anything after that?

Example:

If yours has something on that line (this one has "XBox360" ), look in the /ctrlr/ subfolder for a file with that name.cfg.  (i.e. "Xbox360.cfg").  Copy (don't move) that file to your new MAME /ctrlr/ folder.  In you new MAME, edit mame.ini and add whatever was on that 'ctrlr' line.  save and close.

If your new MAME doesn't have a mame.ini file, start (the new) mame.exe.  Double click "General Settings".  Double click "Save Settings".  Press Escape 2 time to close MAME.

BTW, nice looking cab!

[Wormburner_bogey]

Alrighty, I tried to copy the default.cfg over.  No go. 

Checked my core input options and that line in blank...here is what it looks like:

[Wormburner_bogey]

And thanks about the cab.  My buddy did a great job!  We love it.

[Wormburner_bogey]

This is what's in my cntrl folder.  I tried changing the line in the mame.ini to xarcade.  But that didn't work.  Was throwing darts on that one 😂