Swappable Control Panels & Interal CP Viewer vs CP Wizard?

[Necromancyr]

Two quick things.

First, does GameEx have a way to manage multiple, swappable control panels and associate game lists with panels?

Second, what's the major diff. between the internal CP viewer and CPWizard?

[hansolo77]

As far as I know, there isn't a way to manage swappable control panels in GameEx. It's pretty much set as it is.

The internal control panel viewer is uncustomizable. It just uses a predefined layout, and correlates the buttons from the controls.dat file in MAME. The other is a fully fledged layout designer. You can design the layout to match your controls exactly. Plus there are some other things in there too, but I've not used it so I don't what else is in there. Since I don't have a cab/control panel, I just photoshopped my own controller image files for the emulators. You could do this for multiple control panels if you needed to, but just have to have them both onscreen at the same time.

[bkenobi]

There is no way to automatically have GameEx display a different set of game lists depending on the controls that you have configured. It is possible that something could be implemented using the multiple user add-on that HK developed. You would have to select what user (configuration) the control panel is in and you would then be shown lists that are appropriate (assuming you did the legwork to make them appropriate).

[Necromancyr]

There is no way to automatically have GameEx display a different set of game lists depending on the controls that you have configured. It is possible that something could be implemented using the multiple user add-on that HK developed. You would have to select what user (configuration) the control panel is in and you would then be shown lists that are appropriate (assuming you did the legwork to make them appropriate).

Thanks all. And damn. I thought I read that swappable control panels was supported...

I'm wondering if I can setup a specific game list for certain games that would pass certain command line parameters to CPWizard making it use another layout....

[bkenobi]

You can certainly make CPWizard work that way. If you want to have a different CP for specific games, you'll need to review it's guide. I know it shouldn't be a problem since HK specifically took that stuff into account.

[Necromancyr]

Issue is figuring out how to do it in GameEx...

[Adultery]

It works natively with GameEx so that's the easy part. It's one setting and it's working. Figuring out how to do it with HK's program is the hard part.

[bkenobi]

As an example, if you have light guns set up, you can have CPWizard show what the controls are with a picture of the gun you use. It is possible to do the same thing with swappable panels, you just have to get it set up. Now, there is nothing that mandates that CP be installed. So, if the user is using a different CP, CPWizard will happily display the wrong settings for the current panel.

[Necromancyr]

Sorry, what I meant was how to setup gameex to pass the proper parameter to CPWizard for different control panels

[bkenobi]

You mean you want GameEx to send CPWizard a parameter to tell it what's connected at the time? Or, you want to have CPWizard display a control scheme based on what SHOULD be connected?

If you want the former...that won't happen. GameEx doesn't know what you have hooked up. If you were to build a script to check for certain HID ID's, it might be possible to change the scheme on the fly, but that would be tricky.

If you want the latter, that's exactly what I was describing. You can set up CPWizard so that it has a different layout for different filters. It's been a while since I set it up, but I know there are lots of options available to make this work the way you want!

[Necromancyr]

If you want the latter, that's exactly what I was describing. You can set up CPWizard so that it has a different layout for different filters. It's been a while since I set it up, but I know there are lots of options available to make this work the way you want!

This is basically what I want...wondering if I'll need to setup multiple instances of MAME, etc.

[bkenobi]

You shouldn't need to go through that much effort. That would be one way to do it, but I think you should be able to find the info on how to set this up on the CPWizard web site. HK has a lot of details on how to set things up, so you should be good. If not, you can either ask HK there (if he has a way to do that) or right here. Review the docs then post specific questions so that help can be given efficiently.

http://headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=cpwizard

[Necromancyr]

Let me reiterate my question more clearly - I think I was confusing at first.

How can I get GameEx to pass different arguments to an emulator based purely on the MAME game list currently being shown (as detailed in this thread: http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=8213&st=0&p=60212&hl=+custom%20+game%20+lists&fromsearch=1entry60212)?

This will let me make a list called 'Classic Panel' and have all the classics in there and, when used with CPWizard, will show the appropriate panel when the game is selected from that list. If the game is selected from the 'general' MAME game list or any other list that doesn't have a panel defined, it will show the default panel layout for that game.

Make sense?

[bkenobi]

These are more or less some ramblings on the topic that might help in some way.

If you create a custom game list, this is simply a MAME32 formatted folders file. GameEx will create a set of lists according to these custom game list files, but it will not allow you to pass any parameters based on it AFAIK. You may be able to use the plugin system, but I don't know that it will improve things. If you want to load different MAME games with different settings, one way to do that is to set them up in different emulators (still MAME though). In doing so, you will have different command lines and paths that MAY make what you are trying to do easier. If you want to combine these back into a single list, you can use the mameemulist.ini (and associated tool used to generate it).

[Necromancyr]

Ok, so I can add a second instance of MAME into GameEx that won't conflict with my normal, integrated 'MAME' setup.

I'm cool with that as an option I guess. It was what I was going to have to do with Maximux Arcade as well and maybe some toggle will get integrated into GameEx later.

Thanks Bkenobi, you were my only hope.

Edited September 2, 2012 by Draco1962
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