bkenobi

HK - That's WAY beyond what I had in mind...BUT I LOVE IT!!! I had just thought of a simple black box with the game's name in there, but you expanded on it so it looks really cool! Only problem would be coming up with similar graphics for other games on the fly. I suppose though that if nothing was available, it could just be the title...that would definitely be better than nothing anyway. Thanks for taking my initial ramblings and running with it EDIT: I just downloaded the quick set you made and...WOW. Those kick ass!!!!

I ran another program to check the voltages and temperatures and found that they were not even close to what speedfan was reporting. The CPU temps speedfan spit out were around 50C, but with this other program, they were anyhere between 35C and 90C. I don't know which is right, but I'm convinced that speedfan is wrong when it comes to voltages. I'm not sure that my motherboard reports -5v, so speedfan is just spitting out crap. I tried a couple things last night on the software side and for whatever reason, the cab was able to run all night without problems. I don't know if it's crashed yet, but when I left for work this morning it was happily playing some vertical shooter (that's at least 8 hours without a problem). Odd...

COOL, thanks!

I like your idea HK, but I'm wondering if my initial suggestion was missunderstood... This will only work with MAME, but it would not require any coding to implement in MAME or reducing any framerates beyond a standard bezel and it will work for ANY video card! Basically, just create a .lay xml file for MAME that points to an on the fly generated layout. This would just be a black rectangle that's a few pixels high and as wide as the game that contains the name. MAME already knows what to do with it, it's just a matter of constructing a black rectangle of the right size in .png format with the right text on it. Then, when MAME is loaded, the bezel location would need to be supplied (which may be a problem since I don't know if it can be passed like the rom location). I think the overlay that you were talking about would be SWEET, but I was just thinking of something that could be implemented in the scale of minutes to hours rather than days to weeks. Somewhat of an interim step if you will.

One more request. I noticed you coded up the Rom path definition form to reset to the MAME path when it is changed. I was wondering if there's any way to have it NOT do that? On my main machine, I don't have all of my files in a MAME directory, so when I change to a different version of MAME, it resets all the other paths. On my cab, I don't have the roms or other files in the same directory as the emulators either, so it will be a problem there too. I'm assuming that this is a common problem. Maybe a checkbox that could be ticked or a popup question box asking if paths should be reset to the new location. Thanks for considering the request.

I knew there had been requests to make an overlay of MAME, but I guess I didn't understand what you were suggesting at the time. I've been thinking about it a bit more and realized that this is actually pretty easy for someone with the experience to generate simple graphics in code. I thought initially that it would be a bit complicated, but if you have MAME set up to shrink everything to fit it in the display, you don't even have to get the aspect ratio correct for the bezel. It would just be a matter of building the black rectangle for the top or bottom that is the same width as the game and building a .lay file that locates it correctly.

So I was sitting there watching TV with my arcade going along in screen saver mode when it struck me. I had no idea what game was playing. I knew it was a MAME title, but which one...NO CLUE!? I know there has been a request for Tom to generate an overlay that includes the system and game name, but that could prove very difficult due to the way the graphics drivers are likely used. Well, I had a thought for MAME titles. Would it be possible to generate a bezel for MAME games on the fly? If so, it could be as simple as adding a black bar to the bottom with the rom name in white. I have no clue how this would be done, but it seems like it shouldn't technically be out of the question, just potentially difficult to do and possibly slow for the system to generate prior to loading the game. I would build a script to do something like this, but unfortunately with all of my programming experience, I have no clue how to accomplish this (apparently I only know useless codes and scripting languages ). This thread is intended to generate discussion on the feasibility and implementation techniques that might be required prior to making a formal request. That way, if it isn't realistic, the sticky thread won't get clogged with unnecessary discussion.

Hmmm. I checked my main system and it said that the 3.3v was 0.0v. I'm not sure I really believe speedfan afterall for voltages. I'll swap the PSU and see what happens. Btw, I ran GameEx overnight with MAME as the only screen saver and it hung. I wonder if the PSU could be providing the wrong voltages and causing the hard drive to not respond correctly. That would be bad since I don't have a backup of most of my settings. I think it's about time I make one though!

Oooohh, I may have figured out big problem! This may not be *the* problem, but it's definitely not a good thing... Looking at Speedfan, I just noticed that my -5V is only supplying +1.7V... Check my math, but that's not the same as desired

Hmmm, it only took an hour to crash Orthos I don't understand how to interpret the log though: Type: Blend - stress CPU and RAM Min: 8 Max: 4096 InPlace: No Mem: 767 Time: 15 CPU: 2163MHz FSB: 166MHz [166MHz x 13.0 est.] 10/15/2007 6:36 AM Launching 1 thread... 1:Using CPU #0 1:Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer. 1:Press Stop to end this test. 1:Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using 1024K FFT length. 1:Test 2, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922943 using 1024K FFT length. 1:Test 3, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19374367 using 1024K FFT length. 1:Self-test 1024K passed! 1:Test 1, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M172031 using 8K FFT length. 1:Test 2, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M163839 using 8K FFT length. 1:Test 3, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M159745 using 8K FFT length. 1:Self-test 8K passed! 1:Test 1, 560000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M212991 using 10K FFT length. 1:Test 2, 560000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M210415 using 10K FFT length. 1:Test 3, 560000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M208897 using 10K FFT length. 1:Self-test 10K passed! 1:Test 1, 4500 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M17432577 using 896K FFT length. Oh, and just to point it out, I have 1Gb of ram installed (2x512Mb).

Damn, HK got me...too much Linux of late

I noticed that a while back, but couldn't figure out why it was being created. Thanks!

Yeah, I had thought of that, but haven't tried it yet. I think the log does record what the last game run was, so I just have to boot up without booting GameEx (so it doesn't overwrite the last log)...which may be a challenge since the machine is shelled. I'll probably just write a script to copy the last log file to a backup folder so I can view it on the next boot without have the chance of losing it. I'll know in the next couple hours if it crashed during stress testing (still at work), so I can give that a try too if it hasn't.

I can't remember what I put in it, but I think it's a pair of 512mb KVR. I'll have to check, but that might be it... I ran memtest for over 24 hours and the video card stress test for overnight and had 0 problems with either. Memtest is dos or linux based. The video card test is windows based. So, it seems stable with both. I launched Orthos Prime (CPU and Ram tests) this morning for a 24 hour test. If it's still running at the end, that will be over a day and a half with no errors under harsh test environments on memory, cpu, and video cards. The PSU could be an issue, but perhaps not. I wonder if it's possible there could be a problem with MAME itself that could cause a hang? It only hangs in MAME afterall (well, I've only really seen it in MAME when it's in screen saver mode of GameEx). Perhaps some bad roms causing it? It's a good set from PD, so I would bet against it, but...

Did I just snake one from Brian?

Must be retail or retail support!

Yup! Thanks

First off, does it work outside of GameEx? If it doesn't work on its own, it will never work in GameEx. Second, try to use the 'Run Last Game' link in Start -> Programs -> GameEx. It might give an error that you won't see in GameEx.

I know about PSU problems being hard to detect! I had one that seemed fine, but I started getting a random system beep once in a while (once or twice a week when I was at the machine). I never found the problem until a drive started to die. I was in bios and noticed one of the voltages randomly drop out of spec and turn red just as it beeped. I swapped PSU's but it was too late for the drive...lost ALL of my important documents and 99% of my photos! I'm running one of the stress tests now to see if I can get a hang up. If not, I'll try the PSU swap and the other two tests suggested. Thanks! I hate these unpredictable problems. They are so hard to diagnose. That's why a lot of mechanics tell you to just wait till something fails. It may be a more expensive fix part-wise, but in terms of labor, it's much cheaper.

So that version will have joystick buttons up to 32 as well?

Shouldn't that be: project64.exe [rompath]/[romfile]

Try this link!

I'll give these a try and see what it says. Thanks!

Full version of XP Pro with some services disabled. I don't think they should be the problem, but I could go back to default settings on them. No emulators running in screen saver and it only locks in MAME screen saver mode. Haven't checked ad/spy ware as I don't really go online with this machine. It's running Avast anti virus which catches a lot of that stuff anyway. Haven't tried a new PSU recently, but I have a different one I could try. I don't think it's the video card (unless it's drivers for some reason) since I have another one that works fine. This one was running for a long time as my main video card in my primary PC, so I don't think it should be an issue. I guess I could do a quick swap of the two cards since they are identical though. Anyone know of a software package that I could run that would stress test the cpu, video card, etc? I don't have a long term use for it, so I was hoping for a freeware/shareware/trial ware package. Thanks for the help!

This is something that has been noticed for a while now. It has been pointed out to Tom, but as of yet has not been dealt with. In the meantime, I can suggest a fix that will eliminate this problem. If you set up GameEx to use custom inputs, you can assign the keys to something other than letters (such as ; ' , . / [ ] \ etc). Depending on what you use to control your system, you can either adjust the keyboard emulator settings (for IPAC, etc) or use XPadder to adjust what keys are sent (for GP-Wiz, gamepads, etc). I use a gamepad emulator, so I set up a GameEx profile in XPadder to send the keys I want and duplicated it for both player's controls and I use a custom input set that doesn't use a letters. That way, I can have everyone able to control the front end AND it doesn't send letter keys!