Tom Speirs

Lovely

Ill take whatever is on offer! Always! I am sure others would be overjoyed too with anything you do or can provide.

I think this must be unrelated to GameEx but something else on your system perhaps?. I dont think I even check for the escape key with MAME in GameEx. Other than checking the API for a couple of keys asynchronously GameEx is really not doing much when running MAME or Daphne, its certainly not capturing input. I also really cant think what I could have changed in GameEx that would affect this. Only thing i can think of is disabling the Joystick as a longshot. Can you control Windows Media player with the remote? That would be a good troubleshooting exercise.

Great! Supporting PNG's will happen soon. I am deffinitly looking at doing that shortly. The reason it currently uses Bimaps, is just because by default natively thats all DirectDraw can use as surfaces. Its easy to convert them, and I already do this for the logos, game snaps and artwork. Sizing and positioning comes under the category of 'GameEx having full skinning support' which is not a high priority for me personally at the moment at least for now. I also would like to implement full skinning support with high quality with a skinning app provided, that is also user friendly and to make sure users cant easily mess up the presentation. Unfortunatly that's a lot of work. If the videos are animated backgrounds make sure you have turned off Alpha Blending for Videos. Its under Display options in the configuration app, I am extremely eager to see these. Let me know if that works. If not we could perhaps look at re-encoding them to MPEG or an AVI Codec that requires less utilisation to decode.

The settings that could mess this up, are under Input in the config app. Make sure DirectInput is off, and make sure Enable SlikStik is off. Does that help? Tom

Antony, this looks perfect as is. It worked straight away on my HTPC setup, and I tested it a fair bit too. Still perfect. Actually I think I am going to keep as my default for the moment Could I ask your permission to include this theme with the GameEx install? You can have credit wherever you want it, just no $$ I am afraid !! Let me know. Thanks, Tom

To all: Are there any 'web based (ie not Visual Source Safe etc, but using CVS or similar)' tools out there on the web, that allow shared source code development with security. By security I mean only making source code available to certain developers and not everyone? That could be a possibility.

Thanks for explaining that, much appreciated. My main reason for asking was to see if I could start on a Linux version using SDL.net without making GameEx open source (see other post regarding open source) which is under LGPL. So I think its OK. Thanks again.

I thought a little communication would help on this, and this is my position. 1. I like open source software, I think it is a good thing. No more explanation needed. 2. I will do my best to not make GameEx become a dead project. If I have a big lifestyle change or get tired with the project I will do my best to let it continue in the hands of others. No worries there, unless I drop dead in 5 minutes! 3. A Big however, I get a lot of fun out of GameEx. It is my creation. I would like to take GameEx as far as I can take it on my own. If I get really stuck, or want it to become something bigger I will allow that to happen by making it open source. I think it would be selfish of others to almost expect me to release the source just because more people could benefit, when it is solely my creation, and when I do so much already at a cost and provide everything for free for people who arn't developers, and just want a good software solution. 4. Its not like things dont happen with GameEx. Most sensible feature requests get implemented, and pretty damn quickly IMHO. In other words its not like making it open source would speed up development a great deal when you include setup time and management required, again IMHO. I hope that clears it up. Thanks for listening.

I'm kinda unsure of the GPL stuff. Perhaps someone can tell me if this is correct. If I use a compiled library or executable without building it directly into my executable, so I dont recompile the lib or exe, and just use the existing dll or exe, I dont have to release my source code, right? If I compile the GPLD source into my project even if unchanged, if it becomes part of my executable I have to release the source code? Yes? If I change and recompile the library or exe but keep it as a file seperate from my project as a dll or exe. I still have to release the source code for my entire project? Yes? Thanks, it seems we have a few developers here so perhaps someone can help.

Are we talking about Alpha blending one direct draw surface onto another or Loading a PNG, then loading that image into a surface and using the Alpha colour as the colourkey? I did not think the former was possible with DirectDraw like rotation is not?

I do like this idea, although I was thinking more along lthe ine of having a customizable Help item at the top or bottom of the Gameslist (bottom normally, but top if an emulators list of games) for each section (Start Page, MAME, HTPC, More programs, and each emulator). I dont like the idea of asigning this to a button, as theres no point IMHO having help if the user cant see its available, and its not easily accesible. I like the idea of supporting all image types, and displaying the help using the same routines as it does for displaying gamework art, and pictures. There will be settings in the config app to choose what image to use. There will be settings in the config to specify a path for the image, and enable it or not. Perhaps people can come up with some images for me for the regular sections such as the start page, MAME, HTPC. Then this could be included with the install for the benifit of all. Thanks, Tom.

Thanks again for your most valuable feedback Cupid. I agree with you on everything you just said. I think my real Goal if this went ahead or you could call it a mission statement if it ever comes to anything, is to be able to allow someone to create a MAME box with the easy to use and functional features of GameEx (MAME only) from a 1 CD install (not worried about using the OS for anything else) that will run on an Arcade Monitor without special hardware, for free.

Hi, Do you mean supporting the Alpha Colour/Channel in PNGS, or actually alpha blending, meaning opacity? Alpha Blending is just not possible in GameEx as it uses DirectDraw and not Direct3D. Using an Alpha Colour from a PNG is possible, I think it does already do this for logos but translates the Alpha Channel to black. Could please clarify exactly what you are asking for? Thanks.

Sure is Next version.

I've been looking into the possibility of making a Linux Version of GameEx. I would use Mono, SDL and SDL.net. The way, I see it, it would to 'start' with, miss the following features, as these rely too much on Windows API or Windows Libs. Volume Control (Windows API) Jukebox (Bass.dll and Windows Media Player) Radio (Bass.dll) DVD & Videos (Windows Media Player, FFDSHOW) TV (Not implemented yet anyway). Configuation Utlity (.net Windows Forms - Would mean Manual INI edit) I see the following possible benefits: Using AdvanceMAME and AdvanceCAB I think it would be possible to support arcade monitor resolutions without an ArcadeVGA card. Means you could build a console/MAME box for free, without needing a windows license. It would use the same source code with Compiler directives, making GameEx cross platform in a cool way I think. To everyone, what are your thoughts on this, and how important do you see this to the future of GameEx? Any developers willing to help? Tom.

Hi, I know of MaLa. Its a nice front-end. Unfortunatly I dont understand German. It could be that the LCD portion of the project might be supported with LCD-Smartie which is what GameEx uses for LCD/VFD display? Other than that, I dont really want to get GameEx into the low level IO end of things. At least at the moment. You may also be abel to do something via a cmd line app to it with the Launch before and Launch after settings in GameEx. Thanks, Tom.

Hi, I am glad your happy now. I am a little concerned that it wont run at 800X600 on a 128mb card though. I obviously do all my development and testing on win2k and XP, but initially I tried hard to get it working on 98 and 98SE. I would be really interested to know if you can get it running at 800X600 at 16bit colour and also give 1024 x 768 a try. It think this might be due to an old issue where GameEx would not run at the same resolution that the desktop was running at. Could that be it do you think? 640 X 480 is a little crappy unless your running in ArcadeMode. Thanks, Tom.

I think it might be to do with the version of MAME your running (mamepp.exe). You could try trhe latest official build at http://www.mame.net.

Very nice looking theme antony. I am afraid the answer to all your questions is currntly no. There is not theme editor etc. Although it looks like youve configured GameEx perfectly for just an N64 front end. If you email me the files I will gladly host it for you so others can benefit from your great work. My contact info is on this page: http://tomspeirs.com

First thing, I'd like to know what OS your using as GameEx is detecting it as unknown. It may be a Beta or release candidate? I think the problem is either down to your OS, or that your video card does not have enough memory. Does it share memory? If so try increasing it. Let me know. Thanks. Tom.

http://tomspeirs.com/gameEx/news.htm For future reference: If I dont make a big deal out of a new release theres likely no enhancments and only minor bug fixes. Not worth wasting time talking about them IMO. Just grab it if a bug is fixed for you. Thanks Tom

I am not at all sure. Could you run all versions of a duplicate and post the log? Have you ruled out corruption etc. You say the duplicates are different each time? You cant tie it down to certain files, and then analyze the file names etc?

That's strange. How do these duplicate relates to the folders your videos are in and GameEx allows you to navigate? What paths do you have setup in the list? Latest version of .net?

There is bugs in FFDSHOW AC3 with the current build available on SourceForge, When I run it I get severly distorted and very quite sound. You just need to get a newer version of FFDSHOW. Look at the daily builds on the web site. You could also try disabling AC3 in FFDSHOW. As I said its buggy with old versions. i have no idea what your trying to do with a CXDA reader! I think barking up wrong tree there.