[PLUGIN] Game Info Plugin

[stigzler]

Wicked - thanks again. Need to look into game extender now!
Excited about adding this to my cab!!

DO you think it'd work out OK on a 800x480 display:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HDMI-VGA-2AV-driver-board-7inch-800-480-AT070TN93-EJ070NA-03A-3mm-thickness-lcd-/360690646178?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53fad67ca2

??

I found myself with a gap under my widescreen monitor and felt disappointment. "Hmmmm... what could I put there...?" Yes!! Get in. Looking forward to having this up and running.

[Adultery]

I had the same gap, I just made a custom bezel and took it to the sign shop. You have piqued my interest though... I thought about adding a 3rd USB powered monitor and maybe creating a separate plugin just for screens like this, that display one static full screen image (album art for the jukebox, a custom image for in-game... In my case I'd probably use it for a title screen, I could see someone using it for controls or instruction cards, etc)... Maybe a scrolling message over the top edge (like NOW PLAYING: SUPER MARIO WORLD or something, IDK)... Something interesting may happen if I can scare up the $100 for the one I've been looking at.

Anyhow, yeah... 800x600 is just fine. You shouldn't have any issues with width since the labels scale to the screen width. You have a fixed height on the banner though at 175px (maybe it's 200, I Can't remember off the top of my head). It's really something I'd like to create a customized solution for, but Game Info will look just fine on it I wager.

Either way, let me know how you get on.

[stigzler]

Will do - woodworking today - I'm gonna cut that hole!

175 for the banner sounds just fine - leaves 300px for stuff above that - should be able to make a CP layout graphic with that. Pretty much same as yours with the different system controllers on it mapped to the cab controls.

now.. where's me router?

[Adultery]

Wish I could have ya cut out a space for me... I HATE woodworking. Now programming on the other hand...

[Adultery]

1.1.9 is out now!

• (PLUGIN) Changed Hi-Score in-game announcement to show rules and comments for the specific game instead of the global headline
• (PLUGIN) Fixed a bug where Attract Mode Timer wasn't being picked up from the GameEx.ini properly... Form now fades out ten seconds before the end of the game properly (unless you have short mode enabled in the configuration)
• (PLUGIN) Fixed some window handling for the Hi-Score display that was crashing the plugin returning from the game sometimes
• (THEMES) Added artwork and XML update for the MegaMAME theme to use the features of a custom Hi-Score background

I suppose I should stop dinking with this and go get some sleep... Taking my chillrenz mini golfing tomorrow.

[Adultery]

UPDATED TO 1.2.0

• (PLUGIN) Added customization of the Hi-Score header and the Attract Info labels
• (PLUGIN) Added customization of the Hi-Score logo that sits on top of the leaderboard
• (CONFIGURATION) Added an "always on" option for the control panel viewer (The control panel viewer will launch and end with the game unless you press the key combo to hide/show it)
• (THEMES) Added artwork and XML update for the MegaMAME theme to use the custom Hi-Score Competition logo

Just one last quick one... I forgot to add in the earlier feature request to leave the Control Panel up in the game instead of requiring a key press. Thanks to stigzler for the suggestion!

[stigzler]

Thanks for the CP always on config, adult

[stigzler]

Hi Chap,

I'm having woes with the gameinfo plugin. I'm sure i had this working some time ago, but don't know if the update's scuppered things or if it's my setup.

Basically, when I try to change the settings via plugin manager, I can change values, but when I save and exit + come back in again, all those on the first screen have gone back to defaults (i.e. screen 1). Can't understand this - any ideas?

thanks

steve

[Adultery]

I'll look into this, my apologies.

Can you be more specific about which settings you changed?

[stigzler]

Thanks adultery, but I think horses need to be held. My PC's going absolutely bonkers atm. Getting lots of display errors which I'm thinking all relate to DX11. I've had trouble with DX since installed windows 8 - for some reason can't update it via Webupdate. Now progressively things getting worse - just now couldn't launch megadrive or snes - getting different rendering errors.

I feel the worst is happening! I dunno what nut it feels bbaaaadddd!

urgh

[stigzler]

Ah... actually... it might be your new build fella. I disabled your plugin, and some of the problems disappeared. I was having errors on launching a couple of emulators getting dispay errors - but now no longer there. One error I managed to snap (attached)

There's some wierd interaction goign on somewhere between GameEx, Game Extender and Gameinfo.

I keep getting black screen (no video but audio) on mame games (at various points of trying to get game ext + info working), but when i launch immediately outside of gameex via command line (with same path from GE log) - game has no probs launching. Also, when I did manage to get the screen back, then the controls wouldn't work in MAME when launched from GE (again - fine from command line).

Hmmmmm... it's all very complex. I'm on leave and trying to get this whole b****rd project finished so I can get me life back! lol

Anywhoos - I'm not sure whether it's my PC or settings, or the plugin or interaction with other aspects., Sod it - I'll just go read a book for me kicks

Cheers

[stigzler]

Hi Adultery,

I return with a more sober head! Seem to be some probs with your most recent version - hope I'm OK posting here - let me know if you'd prefer pms.

Had all emus working ok with game extender running. However, when activate gameinfo plugin, get errors when trying to launch games. Two screenies attached giving details + screenie of setting. 2 is my small monitor.

Cheers

[stigzler]

OK. Rolled back to your previous version - 1.1.8 + now emus launch. However, info display at bottom of secondary is misaligned. Sorry Adultery, think I'm being a pain, but thought I'd keep you posted, as sooo wanting this plugin to work!

[EDIT: Found out that the problems likely lie with GameEx itself, as per this post:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/13370-unfathomable-mame-issues/

so sorry if this messed you about in any way]

P.S. Any way to change the font - I see:

<font>
<color>FFFFFF</color>
<path>MegaMAME/font_01.ttf</path>

in the xml - but weirdly - no "font_01" in the mage mame folder

[Adultery]

Hi!

Just to let you know I haven't forgotten about you. Next week is finals for school so I have been busy getting in late work and studying. I Wil get to this soon though.

The font entry in the xml is going to be added in a future release, but it isn't used yet.

[stigzler]

Oh cheers chap - good luck with the finals!

tbh, adultery - I don't think yer plugin's at fault - more GameEx/PC issues. Stumped on this one.

[Adultery]

UPDATED TO 1.2.2

Taking a study break and working on this some more. I added a new GameExtender style view for attract mode for those who don't want to use the screen saver. This now displays either a marquee, title screen, or snapshot in the background. I also set the attract info screen to only show a marquee (or your GI theme's default marquee of one is available):







You can give it a custom background in your theme if you like. More on that later.

As was the case before, GameExtender is turned off prior to running attract and enabled when you return to GameEx. You can customize this and just keep the bouncing logo screensaver in the plugin settings if you wish to.

I also fixed the bug in the emulator screen setting, and cleaned up some problems stopping the hi-score viewer from closing correctly. I also fixed a bug where the dialog window crashed the plugin when selecting the "Last MAME Game" option in GameEx.

Gonna think about finally finishing that FAQ reader next. That should be pretty handy.

[Draco1962]

Always good to see improvements and new functionality on an already fine plugin! Thanks, Adultery!

[nullPointer]

Great update Adultery! This one is of great benefit for us 'single-screeners' out there. Super-cool. Well done!

[GimmeClassics]

I really like this update! Thanks Adultery

[stigzler]

Crackin.

[Adultery]

I'm gonna put out a beta soon. I added an option to replace GameExtender in game as well. The plugin will now check and see if you set the option to hide GameExtender in the emulator and force close it if you didn't. Obviously setting the option to hide it is more graceful, so it's encouraged but not necessary.

I dropped the marquee from attract mode's extender view since the attract info viewer shows it, so now it shows a title or snap.

I added a configuration option to stretch the image unless it's an upright, so the view is clean. I also added a configuration option to use a black background even if the theme specifies a background image for the extender viewer. Both extender attract and game mode can be disabled in the configuration.

I also added a new icon for the attract info screen if the game is available for the high score competition, so it goes in order: hiscore, favorite, played, not played.

This may end up being a replacement to GameExtender when all is said and done if I can think of a good way to show a relevant picture in the GameEx menu.

I also fixed a bug in the high score display and it shows and closes more gracefully now when the game is launched.

There were some other tweaks that I made, but I don't remember what exactly. I'll put this out as a beta until I finish tinkering with it for those of you who want to stay on the bleeding edge of development.

Thanks again for your support! I love this community.

[stigzler]

Good thing going on with this plugin

[Adultery]

Artist pictures on the second monitor while the jukebox plays? Yes please!

This will be a Last.FM patched feature only, displaying artist art or album art if one isn't found. I also tweaked attract to not show the Attract Info viewer, but to show the title screen/snap of the game that's playing instead of the artist/album picture when the jukebox plays during attract (obviously the metadata banner stays. This only works without other emulators since the jukebox stops entirely for other emulators).

I switched to hiding and restoring the GameExtender window instead of closing GameExtender and reopening it when it needs to be done, which is now being tested thoroughly. That should be a lot cleaner.

Almost ready for a full release. Stay tuned.

[Tempest]

Nice job Adultery!

[Adultery]

Updated to 1.2.3!

• (PLUGIN) Plugin now features a Co-Op mode for other plugins, detects and avoids possible conflicts
• (PLUGIN) Added new In-Game GameExtender style image viewer
• • Displays Title or Snap during game similar to the way GameExtender does, but can be customized like the Attract Mode Viewer
• (PLUGIN) Added new jukebox GameExtender style image viewer
  • Displays an artist image or the album art (Last.FM patch users only!)
• (PLUGIN) Added a GameExtender Manager to cleanly hide and show GameExtender when need be
• (PLUGIN) Cleaned up and optimized a big chunk of code
• (CONFIGURATION) Added option to disable Hi-Score Viewer
• (CONFIGURATION) Added option to disable Plugin Co-Op Mode

Snag it right here!