[PLUGIN] GameEx Hi-Score Snapper

[Adultery]

GameEx Hi-Score Snapper

- 1.0.9 -

 

 

 

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What is it?

It's a plugin to take official snapshots of your MAME hi-scores for the GameEx Hi-Score Competition. This tool saves some leg work of having to type the same data everytime, and overlays some information and artwork to make it harder to fake. The overlay contains your username, initials used, MAME version, GameEx version, ROM name, and Override Mode (if used). Just take the snap and upload it to the game's competition thread.

 

How do I use it?

The configuration is really simple, just type in your user name and initials. Everything else is automatic. This plugin downloads and uses a centralized gameslist which is updated with the Hi-Score Database. As long as you have an active internet connection, you will always have the latest game list available. Offline users can download the gameslist.txt from here and place it in the GameEx>Plugins>HiScore Snapper directory.

The plugin only enables itself for games that are in the database, so there's no effect on your MAME games at all. Just take a snap of your high score by holding [sHIFT+HOME] (I have a hotkey set up for this in Xpadder and it's working great! You can take many pictures in a row in the case of blinking hi-scores). I also added a camera shutter sound effect that plays when the snap is taken, so you know you got it. The snap is then overlaid with the artwork and information in the picture, and you can come upload it to the thread when you're done.

You can set several options from the Configuration screen, including:

• User Name
  This is the username you use for all your leaderboard entries. The global leaderboard depends on this!
• Initials
  The initials you type into the game for your hi-score
• Snap Directory
  All your snapshots will be saved into this directory. By default, they are saved in the plugin's configuration folder located in GameEx>Plugins>HiScore Snapper
• Image Size
  Specify the height and width of the snap with these values. By default the size is 1024x768
• Image Type
  Choose to save your images as JPEG, PNG, or GIF

The images are saved in the root folder specified, with a subfolder for the game name. The physical file name is generated based on a time stamp of when it was taken.

To view the last game snap you took using the plugin, click on the preview image in the lower right corner to open a viewer window. There is also a status strip at the bottom of the configuration form that will show what version of MAME you currently have set up in GameEx.

There's a small catch though. Here's the rub...

I can't seem to get pictures from D3D without a great deal of extra work (the snaps all come out black). So unfortunately I have decided that the only way I can support D3D snapshots is by having the user compile their own version with DirectInput enabled. The process really isn't that difficult, and helps with adding support for things like Xpadder compatibility to your build.

UPDATE: As of 1.0.3, you no longer need to worry about renderer changes if you compile MAME and enable Direct Input. MAME Mode supports all renderers that MAME supports instead of forcing DirectDraw.

Where can I download it?

Get it from the GameEx Community Download Portal 

[nullPointer]

Looks awesome Adultery! One thing that might be cool is if the configuration app allowed you to enter a user name, which was then overlaid as part of the screen shot (like maybe in the corner or something) when you created the snap. Either way, chalk this one up as another one of your great ideas.

[Adultery]

I might just run with that... Good idea Null!

I'm using a graphic currently, but I might draw an outlined string on there with a user name, time, and date instead of the Hi-Score Competition logo. I still have some work to do, this is just more of a proof of concept. Things always evolve so fast, I can't settle on one thing so early in the development cycle.

[GimmeClassics]

Looking great Adultery !! Thank you for yet another contribution > it's great you are part of our Hi-score Competition

nP's suggestion of possibly adding your username as an overlay to the snapshot would be really amazing ! Adding time and date would also be very cool !

Optional:

* would it perhaps be possible to show the users MAME version when taking a snapshot using the Snapper plugin ?

* would it perhaps be possible to attract the games dip switch settings when taking a snapshot using the Snapper plugin ? Maybe creating an additional snapshot...? Maybe this last thing is not possible at all > I'm just expressing my thoughts

Thanks Adultery !!

[Adultery]

I have a block of code that snags the mame version for mame commander so that's not out of the question at all. Probably not any good way to get dip switch settings though, unfortunately.

Looks like I need to dust off my string drawing abilities. That's gonna take a bit. Haven't had to do that in forever but I do remember how though.

[GimmeClassics]

Thanks man ! Can't wait for the final release. Thank you for taking the effort to create this great looking tool

I've seen your Q*bert snapshot. That's perfect !

A small request: I'd love to see the users initials being added to the snapshot. In my case DEN

Great work Adultery

EDIT: I was wondering if you would play on a 4:3 screen the overlay would perhaps be right on top of the games high score table ?

[Adultery]

I'll figure something out if it comes to be a problem, but I'd like to see some results in that situation first. The way these are placed, it shouldn't be too obtrusive.

[nullPointer]

This is just fantastic Adultery! Great planning, design and execution. Thanks so much for another great plugin and for all that you do for this community!

[hansolo77]

This looks really cool, can't wait to see what come of it.

[DazzleHP]

Hi Adultery i can't seem to get a screenshot at all. Are the hi-score games supposed to to be forced into ddraw automatically? I tried with qbert and 1944, i even held SHIFT +HOME for several seconds and there is nothing in the Snapper folder apart from the xml's and the log, which doesn't indicate any problem:

29/09/2013 20:47:01 : Hi-Score Snapper (Version: 1.0.0)29/09/2013 20:47:01 : 13.18 INITIALIZED OK!: GameEx29/09/2013 20:47:01 : INIT PLUGIN: Initialization completed!

I'll try putting ddraw in command line see what happens.

-EDIT- Nope that didn't work, i tried mapping it using xpadder just incase my home button is broken or something but still no screenshot. I'm using XP maybe that has something to do with it?

[Adultery]

There's the problem. You don't have the hi-score.xml I'm that folder. It needs to be there for the plugin to work. Download it manually and put it in there. You won't need to change the command line at all unless your snaps are coming out black.

[Adultery]

Edit: oh you saying xml's as in the hi-score.xml is in there? If yes please run it again and post your GameEx log.

You did enable the plugin from the plugin manager right?

[DazzleHP]

Sorry i should have explicity said, in the snapper folder, since 1st launch are these 3 files:

HiScore.xml

Settings.xml

Snapper.log

Yup 1st thing i did was enable then configure

EDIT: attached log.

log.txt

[Adultery]

Can you do me a favor and post the contents? I can't download attachments in tapatalk.

[Adultery]

Hmm... Looks fine from here... Did you manually add ddraw to the command line before this log was generated?

Also did you try holding SHIFT and pressing HOME on the keyboard just to be sure?

[DazzleHP]

Sure, I just tried without custom keyboard controls enabled incase it was messing with it - still no joy

[Adultery]

Do you have a keyboard connected? Does it do anything if you hold SHIFT and then press HOME on the keyboard attached?

[Adultery]

I'm gonna add some more logging and have you run it again. Hold on a minute.

[DazzleHP]

Yeh this is my regular PC as well as gaming rig - kb is always attatched. I can confirm Home is working - it selects all text up to the cursor when i shift+home. Also yes i manually added the ddraw switch just incase.

[Adultery]

I added a bunch more logging. Please run this and attach the plugin's log file.

Is anyone else having problems? This is working well for me so far.

I forgot to ask... Are you using vanilla MAME? It just occured to me that I need to add some code for other versions of MAME, since this is only looking for a handle from mame.exe (no biggie, I'll fix this in the next revision).

[DazzleHP]

Here is the new log:

29/09/2013 22:08:00 : Hi-Score Snapper (Version: 1.0.0b)29/09/2013 22:08:00 : 13.18 INITIALIZED OK!: GameEx29/09/2013 22:08:00 : INIT PLUGIN: Initialization completed!29/09/2013 22:08:01 : MAME version: 0.14829/09/2013 22:08:01 : MAME check complete!29/09/2013 22:08:01 : Starting HiScore check!29/09/2013 22:08:07 : HiScore check complete!29/09/2013 22:08:29 : Checking for HiScore...29/09/2013 22:08:29 : HiScore reult=False

Do i need to actually get new highscore for it to work? If so i can try deleting the 1944 files and trying again.

[Adultery]

Can you post the contents of your HiScore.xml? It's not finding that ROM in the database.

[DazzleHP]

hmmm to be clear i didn't download the xml, it was there after 1st launch with plugin enabled.

[DazzleHP]

log after Cyvern:

29/09/2013 22:20:07 : Hi-Score Snapper (Version: 1.0.0b)29/09/2013 22:20:07 : 13.18 INITIALIZED OK!: GameEx29/09/2013 22:20:07 : INIT PLUGIN: Initialization completed!29/09/2013 22:20:08 : MAME version: 0.14829/09/2013 22:20:08 : MAME check complete!29/09/2013 22:20:08 : Starting HiScore check!29/09/2013 22:20:11 : HiScore check complete!29/09/2013 22:20:52 : Checking for HiScore...29/09/2013 22:20:52 : HiScore reult=False

And after Tapper:

29/09/2013 22:22:51 : Hi-Score Snapper (Version: 1.0.0b)29/09/2013 22:22:51 : 13.18 INITIALIZED OK!: GameEx29/09/2013 22:22:51 : INIT PLUGIN: Initialization completed!29/09/2013 22:22:51 : MAME version: 0.14829/09/2013 22:22:51 : MAME check complete!29/09/2013 22:22:51 : Starting HiScore check!29/09/2013 22:23:00 : HiScore check complete!29/09/2013 22:23:34 : Checking for HiScore...29/09/2013 22:23:34 : HiScore reult=False

[Adultery]

Yeah it's supposed to do that.

Download that again and try it, post the log after.