bkenobi

Starting a new topic to avoid cluttering up an established one. Since upgrading to 10.0x I've noticed that the screen saver doesn't work anymore. I don't know if it's a custom menu problem or what, but I haven't changed anything related to controls in quite a while. The only thing I know that I've done recently that is even related to the screen saver is adding the screen saver start menu item to GameEx (it's always been off before now). I checked the log yesterday when playing around and noticed that when I launch the screen saver it tries to run and immediately quits. The log (which I don't have ATM) say starting screen saver...user input detected so quitting attract mode. These both have the same time stamp. GameEx doesn't even try to start the screen saver anymore... Here's a log file. I manually attempted to start the screen saver 3 times and each time it stopped within a couple seconds of starting. Not sure what's going on. http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?ac...ost&id=4781 http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?ac...ost&id=4782 http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?ac...ost&id=4783

Oh, well that should be adjustable in the BIOS settings and/or Windows. Not all motherboards give full flexability for that type of stuff (my main cab's mobo sucks for power features). If yours has these settings, you should be good to go.

Exactly! If you know the pID, then you don't care what the window's name is. There can be multiple instances of the same application, but if you know the pID of the one you care about, you can just call that one specifically. Yes, they will absolutely have a different pID each time you call them...that's the whole point Just exchange the window name for the pID like Tempest showed in the post above and you should be golden!

You need to know the process ID in order to guarantee you have the right window open on top. If you just use a window title, AHK won't know which one you want. If you are launching the process from AHK, you can save the pID for later use.

Have you tried setting up the USB hub so that it's always powered? It's possible the hub or the devices aren't waking up at all or in time.

Yup, eSATA would be better than USB spec-wise. Also, I don't think you need to do anything fancy other than use a different connector. BUT, if you have to open the cabinet to hook up the drive anyway, you might as well just use SATA...unless you have eSATA on another system to use for the update. USB is on all systems, so it's definitely available but eSATA is less common.

10.04 didn't want to update to 10.05 automatically for me. It would download the file and install, but on restart of GameEx I get the update screen again. I manually installed GameEx and everything seems fine.

Ok, not related. I'll start a new thread then.

Here's a log file. I manually attempted to start the screen saver 3 times and each time it stopped within a couple seconds of starting. Not sure what's going on. log.txt gameex.ini.txt CustomMenu.ini.txt

I ran a lot of HDD performance tests when I built my file server and compared IDE, SATA, USB, 1394, RAID5, 10mb network, 100mb network, 1000mb network, 54mb network, and probably other configs. I found that IDE and SATA were fairly similar for the packet transfers I was testing. I found that USB and 1394 were close, but surprisingly the USB was faster in general. I found that RAID5 was at least as fast as IDE and SATA. When looking at networked drives, the network was obviously the bottleneck. The different networks performance ranked in the following order (from memory): 54mb, 10mb, 100mb, 1000mb (faster to the right). I think I still have the files and the info about how I performed the testing. If anyone is interested, I can try to dig up the info. Anyway, to answer your question about drive performance, I think you will notice a difference in performance between the USB drive and SATA, but it's much better than being networked over wireless. I'm not sure what options you are serious about, but I would think a local USB drive wouldn't be a bad way to go in a pinch. The advantage to that might be that it's easy to pull and connect to a different system for rom updates (rather than using wireless to download the updates...SLOOOOOOOW!)

I don't mean to derail this topic, but since Tom mentioned the screen saver I thought I would point this out. Since upgrading to 10.0x I've noticed that the screen saver doesn't work anymore. I don't know if it's a custom menu problem or what, but I haven't changed anything related to controls in quite a while. The only thing I know that I've done recently that is even related to the screen saver is adding the screen saver start menu item to GameEx (it's always been off before now). I checked the log yesterday when playing around and noticed that when I launch the screen saver it tries to run and immediately quits. The log (which I don't have ATM) say starting screen saver...user input detected so quitting attract mode. These both have the same time stamp. GameEx doesn't even try to start the screen saver anymore... I'm updating right now, so I'll grab a log and my ini in a bit. Again, this is a different problem but might be related.

I don't know anything about video cards any more. My newest card is an ATI X1300pro which is ~2 years old now. The last 2 systems I've built just have on board NVidia cards in them. The aren't fancy, but they work fine and can even support a bit of gaming. I haven't fired up a PC game since Doom3 and Far Cry which is over a year back. My guess though is that as the technology becomes more main stream, the manufacturers will have to fix these types of nagging problems or face massive ridicule. Look at Vista for an example of a company that didn't act quick enough when the demand increased. You might have more luck with a newer video card than you will getting that fancy switch. You might even save some money and get a better video card at the same time!

The Advanced config tool only goes up to ~50 (you say 62, so that sounds about right). If you want to add more with a tool, try using the Setup Wizard. It can go up to 255. Just a personal commentary... The Advanced Config Tool is intended to capture almost all capabilities of GameEx that need setting up. There are a few really complex items that require text editing, but those are becoming fewer as the versions come along. The Setup Wizard is intended as a setup tool for new users. This tool does not have all the features of the Advanced tool intentionally to avoid confusing people during the learning phase. The ironic part is that the emulator setup is easier in the Setup Wizard because there are only 62 available in the Config app. Anyway, that's all I got

Sounds like it could be a lot worse. A couple years ago when HDMI was new, the switches weren't available that readily, so people were selling them for $400+ many places on the web. I'm glad to see that the prices are down quite a bit at this point. The product you are looking for is a bit of a nitch item, so it's going to cost way too much just because they can... If you can wait or get a different video card or just live with it, that's the cheapest route. Glad you figured out something anyway!

No worries. Roms are available pretty readily if you know where to look. The information was the important part. Thanks for that!

So you are using an AHK script to launch a batch file? Have you considered just using an AHK script to do the whole thing? I don't know what you are running, so that may not be possible.

I usually use Process, Exist, <string in process or window title I'm looking for>. Then the ErrorLevel value contains the correct pID I'm interested in (or an error value if it doesn't exist). Then I can use WinActive or any other command to look for that pID. Better yet, if you are launching the process in the script, just keep track of the pID at time of launch!

You should be able to use the code: run notepadas long as c:\windows is in your path. If it's not for some reason, then you will need to add a path to the command one way or another (either setting the script path or adding the path before the exe). If that doesn't work, try: run c:\windows\notepad.exe

There are more options on the run command that you aren't using. http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/Run.htm The 3rd parameter is used to set the state of the window: Max|Min|Hide

Sounds like a similar problem with ATX keyboards. If you unplug the keyboard and then plug it back in, the stupid thing won't work (or at least early ATX systems wouldn't recognize it any more). I had a non powered keyboard/mouse switch back in the day (P1 era). I bought a new computer and tried hooking up the switch to it only to find that it wouldn't work right. That's around the time that KVM switches became popular. My suspicion is that you will want a better quality switch that keeps the source thinking it's still connected (like gryhnd said). These are typically much more expensive, so perhaps they sell an inline device that you can use for that one connection?

Correct. If you can watch processes to see when they close with a batch file, then you don't need to use AHK. The primary reason I chose to move to AHK in the first place is because it's easy to watch for a program's state. Also, it's easy to convert the code into an EXE that can be run anywhere without installing anything.

I find batch files limiting (probably because I don't know how to use them fully). I recommend a more powerful language like AHK. http://www.autohotkey.com

I really appreciate the info, but you simply can't post links to roms on this site. That's a major no no!

You could do that. In effect, you would be writing a wrapper for each game which is one way that definitely works. The other option is to write a single script that contains the remappings for all games. Then, for any that are not consistent, you can have the script check for what app is running prior to assigning the remapping. There's an example in the link above where they remap a key only if Notepad is active. Depending on how many games and how different they are you may have an easier time with one method or the other. I personally like keeping things split out in different scripts for different games. However, if you have almost everything consistent with just a couple outliers, then you might combine things. Both ways work, so you have some freedom to pick what works best for you.

GameEx can do some types of mapping for you, but I would recommend using an AHK script to do this. I assume you are using a keyboard encoder based on what you said. If that's not correct and you are using a gamepad encoder, you would probably want to use XPadder. Assuming it's a keyboard encoder, check out this thread: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Remap.htm Basically, you create the script you want to use, then launch it with your application. The script can have application specific remappings, so you don't have to make things super complicated with different emulator groups if you don't want. Don't be afraid to ask any questions if you run into difficulties!