DaveS

Thanks Tom, that got me on the right path (no pun intended). The executable path was correct, but I went ahead and copied the CPWizard files to another directory and now it works fine. I was wondering if it was a rights issues of some sort.

Hi All, I recently lost my old system and have upgraded to a newer system running Vista64. I have everything working fine except for using CPWizard inside Gameex. I have the latest version of CPWizard installed with all of the paths set correctly. I have set the advanced MAME options inside Gameex to use CPWizard. I can use the "preview" feature inside CPWizard fine, but when I try to launch a game or view the controls inside Gameex I simply get a black screen followed by a return to the game list. After a few tries, I get booted from Gameex with the following in the log file: Launching CPWizard: "C:\Program Files (x86)\CPWizard\CPWizard.exe" -emu mame -game 10yard -show 17:50:20.2 6/22/2010: 21 Consecutive Exceptions Occured 17:50:20.2 6/22/2010: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. 17:50:20.2 6/22/2010: at af.o(Boolean A_0) at af.ad() 17:50:20.2 6/22/2010: Trying reinitialising the display after sleeping for 4 seconds 17:50:20.2 6/22/2010: Exception count will be dropped to 15 17:50:26.8 6/22/2010: Launching CPWizard: "C:\Program Files (x86)\CPWizard\CPWizard.exe" -emu mame -game 10yard -show 17:50:26.9 6/22/2010: --**-- 17:50:26.9 6/22/2010: 21 Consecutive Exceptions Occured: Exiting 17:50:26.9 6/22/2010: Closing database connection 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: First Exception: 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: File not found. 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: at Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction.Shell(String PathName, AppWinStyle Style, Boolean Wait, Int32 Timeout) 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: at af.bp() 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: at af.ad() 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: Last Exception: 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: at af.o(Boolean A_0) 17:50:27.0 6/22/2010: at af.ad() Any ideas? Thanks, Dave

When you say "turn off the loading screen" do you mean disabling the popup menu that appears when you pause a game in MAME? That would be a great option. One problem I have is when using the U360 plugin, if I load a game like Joust that has no up/down motion enabled, I have to pull out my keyboard to exit the CPWizard menu. The control panel part of CPW is so good I can't live without it, but it would be nice to be able to disable the pause menu. Dave

First of all, thanks for the excellent program and all of the work you have continued to put into it. This is probably obvious, but I can't seem to find how to do it. Is there a way to have CPWizard show the control panel when starting a game, but NOT have it pop up the menu when pausing a game inside MAME? I really just want CPWizard to replace the standard GameEx control panel picture when a game starts and nothing else. Thanks, Dave

I have been using a pair of the U360s for close to a month now I guess. I ordered two of the ball top models with everything standard except I did get the optional "harder" springs. I wanted to evaluate the sticks as they come by default before adding or changing anything. The default springs were too light for my tastes, so I swapped those out after a couple of days. One things about the replacement springs is that they are still very light. If you are used to old school joysticks from the 80's (Wico for example) you will still find the sticks have very little resistance. You can always go to your local hardware store and get a stiffer spring, which is what I did with my J-sticks (same base as the U360) some time ago. I will most likely do the same thing with the U360s at some point. As far as restrictors go, the default throw of the U360 is pretty long if you are into games that require quick directional changes IMO. They are good, but you will notice the long throw. I ended up ordering the circular restrictors but I haven't received them yet. The circular plate will still allow the U360 to behave as it normally would (it is circularly restricted in design anyhow, just with a much longer throw) just with a shorter throw. For analog games, this will result in a little less control (less travel to resolve the entire analog range) but I am willing to live with that. Kepp in mind that the U360 is a fairly short stick. I believe most of the Japanese style sticks are designed to be top mounted or used in metal CPs, so if your panel is thick you might need the longer shafts as well. My CP is 1/2" with bottom mounted U360s and I wouldn't want the sticks any shorter for sure. Dave

I finally got around to getting my control panel modeled with CPWizard (latest version), and I enabled the CPWizard integration via the GameEx MAME options. However, when I launch a game it takes a good 20-30 seconds for the control panel image to be displayed, which seems a bit excessive. Is this normal, or have a fudged something up? I enabled the "Run CPWizard on startup" option in GameEx thinking this would be the fastest option, but there aren't many other settings to look at. Are there options in CPWizard itself that I should be looking at as well? My system isn't a speed demon, bit it should be fast enough I would think (AMD XP2800+, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 6800GT). Thanks in advance, Dave