[RESOLVED] CPWizard: Modify text displayed in control panel

[8trek]

Is there a way to modify font and position of text displayed in the control panel image?

[nullPointer]

Hi 8trek

I'm taking a shot in the dark here, so feel free to provide a bit more detail if I'm off base. I believe you're referring to the Enable Panel Viewer setting on the Enable/Disable Features ​screen? Does that sound right? I don't believe you can edit the font or position of text displayed using the internal GameEx control panel viewer.

That doesn't mean it's impossible though. Where there's a will there's a way, as they say. GameEx has full integrated support for CPWizard, an application written by our very own headkaze. That application works in similar way to the internal control panel viewer but will allow you to customize the display in numerous ways (among other things), It's a bit more work (certainly not unmanageable), but the results are worth it for a truly integrated custom feel IMHO. You can enable CPWizard display on the MAME Settings screen via the Use CPWizard setting.

There's a bit of a learning curve to CPWizard, but again it's not bad, and I imagine you'd suss it out fairly quickly.

[8trek]

Thanks.... not sure but it sounds like we're talking about the same thing. It's the Control Panel.png image that appears right before the mame game starts which also reads the .ini file which has the text to display on top for each game. I'll take a look at the cpwizard and let you know what i come up with.

[nullPointer]

Yep, we're definitely on the same page. CPWizard makes it possible to do some pretty neat things in terms of a custom viewer for your control panel. It also integrates support for the command.dat project, so you can view move sets in fighting games as an example. Good luck and please post back with your results!

Just out of curiosity, are you working on a cab project 8trek?

[8trek]

Thanks, cpwizard looks promising. I have an existing cabinet that i'm looking to add a second monitor to and currently testing everything on a seperate computer with multiple monitors. One thing I haven't figured out and hoping someone can tell me the proper setting to accomplish this.... i would like the control panel to stay on during game play just like the game extender feature works.... for some reason the cpwizard control panel goes away after the game starts.

[nullPointer]

Here's the tutorial I used when I was getting started with CPWizard (not that I'm any kind of expert ).

How to use cpwizard for dummies

It's got some good pointers on general use as well as instructions for utilizing a second monitor. Here's the forum post that the author of that tutorial used to compile much of the background material (headkaze provides several good tips).

[8trek]

nullPointer,

thanks for the link, i read through it not finding anything related to my last question and then saw this post at the end...

June 3, 2011 at 1:21 PM | #1

Reply | Quote

Hey shateredsoul, I’m having an issue with CPWizard and was hoping you could help. I can get it to display the controls on a second screen, but only for however long I set the “timeout” to. “Sub Screen” has been enabled and set to \\Display2. If I enable “Sub Screen”, it will pause MAME, display the control panel on \\Display2 for whatever the “timeout” is set to, then closes and continues running MAME. “Sub Screen” un-checks itself every time I run MAME.

I appologize in advance if this has been address before, but I’m really scratching my head over this one.

Same issue i'm seeing.... any idea?

[nullPointer]

Sorry guy, I'm afraid the sources I've shared contain just about the sum total of my knowledge regarding CPWizard. The only machine I use that even has two monitors is the one I use at work. For some reason they tend to get all crabby when they hear Donkey Kong reverberating from my workstation.

I'll notify headkaze of this thread, to see if he would mind shedding some light on the topic.

[8trek]

k, thanks.

[nullPointer]

I notified headkaze , but I'm wondering about one aspect of your setup. Are you running in standalone or resident mode?

CPWizard can run in standalone or resident mode. If you send CPWizard command line args while it is running in the Icon Tray it will process them and remain open (resident mode). If you send itcommand line args without CPWizard running in the Icon Tray it will process them then exit (standalone mode). If you run CPWizard in standalone mode it is recommended you Enable theDynamic Data Loading option under Edit > Options > General.

Source

In order to pull off continual display on a secondary monitor, I'm pretty sure you'll want to be running in resident mode. Maybe you're already doing this? Perhaps a bit more information about your current setup will provide direction in terms of providing a solution.

[8trek]

Well, the icon tray is visible and set to run on startup so if i understand the difference i'm running in resident mode.

[8trek]

hello nullpointer, did you get any feedback on this topic yet?

[nullPointer]

I haven't heard from him, but I expect he would post an update here rather than contact me directly. He's a very busy guy that headkaze, and this may have gotten lost in his shuffle.

I'll add some additional points I've been considering regarding this issue. To my knowledge this behavior shouldn't happen while displaying on a second monitor. It may be a bug, or it may be an issue with your configuration (which would in turn be an issue with the provided tutorials I suspect). In my own setup I definitely rely on the timeout as I've only got the one monitor.

So here's a couple of things I'd like you to try.

• Startup CPWizard in resident mode
  
• Run the following command from the command line
  

CPWizard.exe -emu mame -game 1942 -show

Does the display still timeout on you when running on the second monitor?

When the display times out on the second monitor, what exactly happens? What's the order of events? Does it happen when you run MAME all by itself with CPWizard in resident mode? Does it only happen when you're running through GameEx?

[8trek]

I just ran CPWizard.exe -emu mame -game 1942 -show and it did NOT timeout. Does this give you an idea as to what my problem could be then?

[nullPointer]

Nope. But it's good news right?

How about the other stuff? Does the timeout issue only occur when running MAME through GameEx, or does it still occur when running MAME outside of GameEx? The reason I ask is that I'm wondering whether this is an issue with how GameEx internally invokes CPWizard, rather than with CPWizard itself.

[Adultery]

Are you using GameExtender? HK may not have his app set to TopMost and GE may be popping up over top.

[8trek]

Game Extender is disabled. I'm guessing then there is something wrong with my option settings within cpwizard. I don't understand the sub layout and stuff.

Here's what happens when i launch a game from within gameex or within mame. First the second monitor shows the cpwizard control, then it goes away, then the game starts on other monitor, then blanks, then the cpwizard control reappears then goes away, then the game comes back.

[Adultery]

So I may have missed this being asked already, but can you post your GameEx log after you try and run a MAME game?

[8trek]

After trying different settings within cpwizard i'm now getting an exception error after launching 1942....

See the end of this message for details on invoking

just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************

System.ArgumentException: '0' is not a valid value for 'Interval'. 'Interval' must be greater than 0.

at System.Timers.Timer.set_Interval(Double value)

at ae.b(String A_0)

at w.j.Invoke(String A_0)

************** Loaded Assemblies **************

mscorlib

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5456 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll

----------------------------------------

CPWizard

Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0

CodeBase: file:///C:/CPWizard/CPWizard.exe

----------------------------------------

System.Drawing

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5462 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll

----------------------------------------

System

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5456 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Windows.Forms

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5460 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Management

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Management/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Management.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Xml

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll

----------------------------------------

Microsoft.DirectX.DirectInput

Assembly Version: 1.0.2902.0

Win32 Version: 5.04.00.2904

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC/Microsoft.DirectX.DirectInput/1.0.2902.0__31bf3856ad364e35/Microsoft.DirectX.DirectInput.dll

----------------------------------------

Microsoft.DirectX

Assembly Version: 1.0.2902.0

Win32 Version: 5.04.00.2904

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC/Microsoft.DirectX/1.0.2902.0__31bf3856ad364e35/Microsoft.DirectX.dll

----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************

To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this

application or computer (machine.config) must have the

jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.

The application must also be compiled with debugging

enabled.

For example:

<configuration>

<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />

</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception

will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer

rather than be handled by this dialog box.

[Adultery]

Change that timer value to something other than 0 and post that log please.

[8trek]

I have figured out has something to do with changing the delays as i put everything back to default and the error has gone away.

[Adultery]

It's because '0' isn't a valid delay.

[8trek]

See attached. Thanks.

log.txt

[Adultery]

OK!

Open a command prompt and put this in there:

/c O: O:\ARCADE\MAME\0.133u3\mame.exe 1942 -rompath O:\ARCADE\MAME\0.133u3\roms -nowindow -joy -skip_gameinfo

Does the game run?

[8trek]

I ran this command in a dos window...

O:\ARCADE\MAME\0.133u3\mame.exe 1942 -rompath O:\ARCADE\MAME\0.133u3\roms -nowindow -joy -skip_gameinfo

I got similar results as with running gameex.... here's what happened.

1. Game started, then disappeared.

2. 2nd monitor showed cpwizard control panel, then disappeared.

3. game came back