Zinc Problems

[Noddy]

I've been trying to get Zinc running via the gameex advanced mame options and finally got it working except I'm now missing some games that were previously listed. What I've done:

I started with Delusional's tutorial but didnt get it working. I use mameui32 .137 so I got a complete set of zinc roms and put them in the mame rom folder, overwriting the existing roms (something I'm thinking i may be one post away from regretting )

I got zinc to work fine with the zenith fe then used zincefe2.exe from aldo's FE and got zinc sorted, after figuring out the black screen but sound working problem it now seems to be working via gameex.

Only problem is after updating the games list I'm now missing some of the games that were listed before like Tekken 1 and 2. I'm assuming mame isn't detecting them because I now have the wrong rom in my folder for .137 but if the roms need to be there for zinc to find them what should I have done or is it maybe another problem?

[bkenobi]

You are correct! There are a couple ways around this. You can put the Zinc roms back into their own folder and replace the MAME 0.137 roms. This may be a problem if you don't have a backup of the MAME roms. If it were me, I'd do this since an update to your MAME set will overwrite your Zinc roms rendering Zinc broken. The other choice is to simply put the Zinc roms in the do not filter list. This will make them show up even if they are not valid for MAME (which they probably won't be).

[Noddy]

Thanks bkenobi, when you say put the zinc roms back in their own folder do you mean within the mame rom folder? The settings says the roms have to be in the mame rom folder to be detected, so if there are the .137 roms plus a folder with the zinc roms I didn't think zinc would detect the right ones?

I did at least think to keep a seperate copy of the zinc roms in case I wanted to update the mame rom set. For future reference if i update gameex will it keep my changes to the advanced mame settings (like do not filter) or will I have to re-enter the roms each time.

[bkenobi]

By default, GameEx uses the MAME roms for the Zinc games. I believe you can override the location of the roms by putting the path in the config file for Zinc.

I do recall there being some issues with using the built in Zinc stuff which is why I opted to write my own loader. I later switched to using the mameemumap.ini file to include zinc files as this is a better overall solution. That is the method I would recommend, but you might be able to get it working like I said above.

[Tempest]

If you have can/have set up Zinc as an emulator, then as BK said, It would probably be easiest to set them up using the Mame Emu Maps tool in StartMenu>GameEX>Configuration. It is fairly simple to set them up using that program.

Of course, that's just my opinion.

[Noddy]

Sorry I thought I had the black screen problem sorted but turns out I don't .

If gameex is full screen I get the black screen with sound.

If gameex is windowed, zinc displays fine and is full screen.

I've set zinc to full screen using the zincfe2.exe and it always plays full screen when using it seperately or when gameex is windowed.

What am I missing to get zinc to display with gameex full screen?

[Noddy]

Just to add a little more info, the renderer.cfg has fullscreen set to 1 and I've disabled the hide desktop option and still getting the black screen if gameex is fullscreen. If it's the gameex hide os that's causing problems is there anyway around it? couldnt see anything in the settings section.

[Noddy]

I'll update this just in case it's useful to someone else. I did find a way to get the zinc games showing, setting it up as a seperate emulator didnt change anything. It is the hide OS that's causing the problem, I couldn't see a setting to disable it (seems to be seperate to hide desktop?) so I've just taken it out of the gameex file. The games are now playing and so far nothing seems to be crashing. I'm assuming there's still something I'm missing in how it's set up if other people have had zinc running ok but i've spent way too much time on games I probably wont play and at least they're working now

[fRequEnCy]

I've been trying to get Zinc running via the gameex advanced mame options and finally got it working except I'm now missing some games that were previously listed. What I've done:

So wait! You added ZiNc to your setup using Advanced Mame Options? Not Zinc setup?

[Noddy]

The Zinc set up options within the advanced mame settings tab (use zinc/path/exe/zinc options) and then also tried it as a seperate emulator, both ways I get a black screen with sound when gameex is full screen (loads fine if gameex is windowed) If it loads when gameex is windowed it couldn't be the renderer path right?

[fRequEnCy]

The Zinc set up options within the advanced mame settings tab (use zinc/path/exe/zinc options) and then also tried it as a seperate emulator, both ways I get a black screen with sound when gameex is full screen (loads fine if gameex is windowed) If it loads when gameex is windowed it couldn't be the renderer path right?

What is the renderer path? Is it the same as the emulator? Post your Zinc Options for me as well please.

[Noddy]

The pathway is the default --renderer=.\renderer.znc

renderer.znc is definitely the file the zincfe2.exe uses sorry havent used the command lines. not sure what you mean by the zinc options?

This is the info in the zinc and renderer cfg files:

--roms-directory=c:\mameui32\roms

--use-sound=yes

--sound-filter-enable=no

--sound-filter-cutoff=22050

--sound-surround-lite-enable=no

--sound-stereo-exciter=no

--use-slow-geometry=no

FullScreen = 1

ColorDepth = 32

Blending = 0

Dithering = 0

ShowFPS = 0

FrameLimitation = 1

FrameSkipping = 0

FramerateDetection = 1

Filtering = 0

TextureCaching = 2

TextureType = 3

TurnDisplay = 0

The zinc set up options in mame would have to be right or it wouldn't work when gameex is windowed?

[fRequEnCy]

Correct. Must be set correctly if running from windowed mode but something has got to be happening for it to do what's happening.

By Zinc Options I'm referring to what you have in setup in the following location:

Advanced MAME Settings >>> Zinc Options

Which looks like you may have according to the first line of your post. So renderer.znc and renderer.cfg files are both located in the exact same directory as the Zinc emulator?

[Noddy]

Yep, c:/Zinc which along with linking to the zinc.exe (and not either of the fes) are the other advanced mame settings.

[fRequEnCy]

And that's the complete renderer.cfg contents that you posted there? What's odd to me is it doesn't have a few things, mainly resolution.

[Noddy]

Yep, only thing I cut off was the first line ;created by Aldo's zinc front end

Couldn't get my head around the command line and I read that you could take the zincfe2.exe out of Aldo's front end and use that to set zinc up. Once I had it working via the FE it also worked fine when gameex was windowed.

[Noddy]

Well after letting the cab run for longer stints I've noticed that the screensaver is randomly freezing and I have to shut down the pc (I can shut down other windows etc in the background but nothing I do will exit the frozen screensaver). This seems to stop happening when I put hideos back in so I'm back to trying to figure out Zinc yay!.

Frequency if the cfg is missing info can you post what yours would contain maybe I can try add the missing info?

The other thing I want to do is try creating it from scratch using the zinc.exe and not a front end but I can't find any help files anywhere on how to run it. I've never used command line and when I click on the zinc.exe it just flashes the dos box and disappears can anyone suggest anything to either help me run it or at least how do I get the info on what's not happening, like a batchfile or something?

[Tempest]

If you run a zinc game in GameEX and then exit, the runitgameibat would be a good start on a batch file.

Click on my signature, then 'How to ask for help' and read the section on runitgame.bat.

[Noddy]

Thanks Tempest, this was after starting it with gameex full screen ie sound and black screen. games still work fine if gameex is windowed.

@ECHO OFF

C:

CD "C:\Zinc"

ZiNc.exe 10 --roms-directory="C:\MameUI32\roms" --renderer=.\renderer.znc

[Tempest]

You were asking on how to create a bat file, I suggested runitgame.bat as a starting point. If you add the word 'Pause' to the file, and execute the file, the dos window will remain open, and may show you an error to help you understand what the problem is. This is all covered in the 'How to ask for help' topic, Section 4B.

Change the runitgame.bat file to this:

@ECHO OFF

C:
CD "C:\Zinc"
ZiNc.exe 10 --roms-directory="C:\MameUI32\roms" --renderer=.\renderer.znc 						 						

Pause

And see if it shows an error in the Dos window.

[Tempest]

Also, Frequency said:

And that's the complete renderer.cfg contents that you posted there? What's odd to me is it doesn't have a few things, mainly resolution.

And I found this in the FAQ:

Q: My Zinc games are not in full screen, or I just get a black screen.

A: Check the Zinc Renderer configuration file and that full screen is on.

Make sure you are using the DirectX renderer.

Frequency knows a lot about emulators, and the FAQ verifies what he was saying.

My renderer.cfg:

XSize = 640 ; window/fullscreen X size

YSize = 480 ; window/fullscreen Y size

FullScreen = 0 ; Fullscreen mode: 0/1

ColorDepth = 32 ; Fullscreen color depth: 16/32

ScanLines = 0 ; Scannlines: 0=none, 1=black, 2=bright

Filtering = 3 ; Texture filtering: 0-3

Blending = 1 ; Enhanced color blend: ogl: 0/1; D3D: 0-2

Dithering = 1 ; Dithering: 0/1

ShowFPS = 1 ; FPS display on startup: 0/1

FrameLimitation = 1 ; Frame limit: 0/1

FrameSkipping = 1 ; Frame skip: 0/1

FramerateDetection = 1 ; Auto framerate detection: 0/1

FramerateManual = 100 ; Manual framerate: 0-1000

TextureType = 3 ; Tetxures: 0=default, 1=4 bit, 2=5bit, 3=8bit

TextureCaching = 2 ; Caching type: 0-2

TurnDisplay = 1 ; Turn the whole display (0-2, 0=default)

[Noddy]

ZiNc 1.1 ©1997-2005 Drunken Muppets (www.emuhype.com)

Opening game: Street Fighter EX 2 PLUS (US 990611) [sfex2p, BIOS cpzn2]

DynaChicken Compiler initialising

Memory Access Caching version

CPU identification: AMD unknown model

Optimizing for: Unknown class

rom files loaded ok

closing window...

Finished execution... have a nice day

Press any key to continue . . .

That's the dos box, the problem is I don't think gameex thinks there is a problem It loads fine, controls work and exits when I hit escape. It just wont get past the hideos when gameex is full screen.

Thanks Tempest for posting your renderer.cfg, I know my problem sounds exactly like what other people have had when the renderer or renderer path was the issue and I did start by reading the old posts and trying their fixes but I can't see how that's the problem here when it displays fine with gameex windowed?

I tried using your renderer.cfg, it brought up the game windowed no problems but again not displaying with gameex fullscreen.

[Noddy]

Well possible fix mk 2. I was having a look at the oshide properties and if I switch it to 98 compatible it works? I'll leave the cabinet running with the screensaver/gameex/jukebox over the next few days and see if it causes any freezing or other problems but so far the only thing it seems to have changed is allowing the zinc games to get past the hideos.exe.

Edit: Bugger that had to be too easy Just had the screensaver freeze the cabinet up again. setting compatability to 95 or 98 allows the zinc games to display (nt or 2000 doesnt) so I've switched it over to 95 and will see what happens. I'll keep running it and also try switching it back to no compatability just to see if I can get the screensaver to freeze again, then at least I'll know its a differnt problem there. But after noticing it freezing up without a hideos.exe in gameex I put it back in and had the cabinet running for hours over the last couple of days and it didnt freeze once with the hideos.exe set normally?

[fRequEnCy]

Will have Tom look at this thread as I don't see what's going on unless we start from scratch. I can offer remote support if interested as well. Just best to start over as too many things have gone on and am sure it's something simple as I don't have this issue.

[Noddy]

Thanks Frequency happy for you to have a look at it if you have time maybe see if Tom suggests anything first otherwise just message me and well work out a time? For the record the hide os option in display settings doesn't work for me either. Whether it's set to hide or not the hideos.exe always hides the desktop, that's what led me to take it out of the gameex folder to start with. I just checked and the setting does work when I have the hideos.exe set to compatible with 95/98.