[PLUGIN] MAME Commander 2

[Krakerman]

Also just FYI I setup MAME as it's own emulator and have disabled MAME in GameEx if that Matters. I do have it setup thou I just have it disabled since I want MAME setup as a seperate emulator due to issues with my Gameroom theme.

[Adultery]

This isn't gonna work that way unfortunately.. It's for the GameEx integration specifically.

I am curious to know what's causing your crash though... You can confirm your exe is in the right spot? I see a bug here for sure that I'll fix though. It's supposed to fix your /DATA/ directories automatically and I missed two fields.

Can anyone else produce these errors? It runs for me like clockwork on two completely different machines.

[Krakerman]

Yeah I went in and made sure that MAME setup is config correctly not my seperate MAME eumulator setup the default GameEx one.

Is it possible to have it work on MAME as a seperate emulator at all? Thou I know doing it that way it doesn't use xml files at all.

[Adultery]

That's kind of outside the scope of this project. Maybe I'll make an emu commander too one day...

[Krakerman]

Wow! That would be kool EMU Commander . Sorry didn't mean to get you off track. However I still had MAME setup even thou I don't use it and it crashes still. Is it possibly because I use a off version of MAME.

[Adultery]

Can you generate an xml with the same version or dummy in vanilla mame and try it?

[Tempest]

I'm not sure if this is related to krakerman's post or not. If you try to configure Mame Commander and Mame Commander can't find the exe (In my case incorrect paths for mame in GX) it shows the error screen and when you exit it gives the standard windows 'Mame Commander has stopped working blah blah blah' window, and windows closes the Plugin Manager instead of exiting cleanly.

I don't know how practical this is, but regarding the Drop Down List for manufacturer/rom name/etc. How about adding Driver? It would be cool if you could then set all games from a driver at once.

Just a thought.

Mame Commander is still not included in the GX download.

[Adultery]

Yeah it was based off the GameEx installed mame feature. Seeing as it uses native support I don't see much reason to change using your mame exe since games aren't gonna launch using mame as an emulator this way... You can override the path once the plugin loads though so I'll add a prompt window to browse to it if it can't find one.

Sure I can add a driver search using the current framework. That's not hard at all. I'll work on these right now.

[Adultery]

Big update!!

2.1.3:

• Added detection for MAME "u" Builds
• Fixed bug where MAME version could not be detected when comparing XML version and MAME version, or the XML creation got stuck in a loop (only affected "u" builds)
• Added new search fields:
  • # of buttons
  • Driver
  • Category
• Added ROM information to the More Info section
• Fixed a bug where plugin manager was crashing when no MAME exe was specified in GameEx
• Added a check to fix "/DATA/" path in GameEx configuration
• Added better support for custom MAME compiles

Download it here.

[nullPointer]

Wow man, this is quite an epic update! Thanks a lot for all your hard work on this Adultery. I've tooled around a bit with the tool, but haven't yet begun to even scratch the surface of what's possible. Awesome!

[Tempest]

Nice one Adultery!

[Adultery]

Updated to 2.1.4:

• Huge stability update!
• XML version is now checked prior to loading into memory, so plugin loads much faster now
• Fixed a bug where PlugInManager.exe was crashing unexpectedly during XML creation
• Fixed a bug where the plugin was unable to update to a new XML after changing it in the Path Setup
• Added something nice to look at while searches and loading are being performed
• Optimized the XML writing to file to increase the speed when updating/creating your XML
• Other minor tweaks/optimizations

[stryker]

I use the latest version of GameEx

The setup:

I use mame 0.151, however using mame commander 2 I've set the neo geo games to run with mame 0.150 as my mame 0.151 seems to have problems running neo geo which I've been unable to resolve.

That part above works like a charm!

The problem:

When the screen saver kicks in the mame games are set to mute as I'd configured in setup wizard, thats all good.... until the screen saver plays a neo geo game, at which point there is sound... very loud sound.

I've no idea where the issue sits... GameEx, game commander 2?

Any ideas?

[Adultery]

This may be an issue due to bypassing the initial GameEx config. You using mc2 or mc lite? I can fix this bug.

[stryker]

MC2, not lite.

Thanks

[Adultery]

Ok cool. Just to make sure can you see if it's still am issue with the plugin disabled? Or do your neo geo games not run when using that mame build?

I'm pretty sure I need to add a block of code to parse the GameEx ini and add that option to the command line if the screen saver is running and that feature is set, but I want to be positive it's something I did.

[Adultery]

I guess it doesn't matter if it's mc2 or mc lite, as that's probably gonna be the same in either case, but I'll fix mc2 first for you so it works. Stay tuned. :-)

[stryker]

Ok many thanks.

The neo geo rom issue in the first place is down to mame.... Its like I said, thats why I used MC2 to force neo geo games to work via an older version of mame.

I've not touched my system so it can be used as a "control" specimen for testing :-)

[Adultery]

Thanks for your help in testing.

[stryker]

Hi,

The change to the code you made, did you make it to routine that launches the game? so it takes heed of the mute option when its launching a game for the screen saver? or to the code that writes the configs?

I ask as I've installed the new beta and at this time the screen saver still plays sound when it launches a game I've configured with MC2.... any other game launched in the screen saver is still muted as expected.

If its the case I need to go through all my neo geo games in MC2 and make a config change... any change to get it to re-write the changes then I can try that.... let me know.

Thanks for your efforts

[Adultery]

Hi,

I made the code look at your GameEx options when launching a game and append the no sound command if the screensaver is running.

Can you post the log in the mame commander folder after the game runs please?

[stryker]

Ok, the log below was created when the screen saver kicked in and choose a mvs game to play.... sound was present

08/12/2013 19:56:08 : MAME Commander 2 (Version: 2.1.5)08/12/2013 19:56:08 : [GameEx] v13.20 initialized OK!08/12/2013 19:56:08 : MAME Commander 2 was initialized OK!08/12/2013 19:57:16 : MAME selected...08/12/2013 19:57:16 : Setting up game info...08/12/2013 19:57:16 : Game Data was set up successfully!08/12/2013 19:57:16 : Plugin Initialized OK!08/12/2013 19:59:17 : Building command line...08/12/2013 19:59:18 : MAME selected...08/12/2013 19:59:18 : Setting up game info...08/12/2013 19:59:18 : Game Data was set up successfully!08/12/2013 19:59:18 : Plugin Initialized OK!08/12/2013 20:00:00 : Disposing MAME Commander 2...08/12/2013 20:00:00 : MAME Commander 2 out! 5K!

[Adultery]

Try the new version I posted. This release has the option for Debug Mode logging under HELP in the tool strip, so please manually select that option and attach the contents of the MameCommander.log when submitting a bug report. Thanks again for testing!

[Adultery]

Updated to version 2.1.5:

• Added icon to show whether game is listed in your GameEx ROM list
  If it shows as not added, you need to check your filter options and/or update your MAME game list within GameEx
• Added setting to default MAME paths under "MAME Options/Path Options"
  This will change your settings to the GameEx.ini values when clicked
• Added check for games that are muted in the screen saver when the global command line has been changed
• Cleaned up the XML routine quite a fair amount
• Added a click to the logo to take you to this thread
• Added Debug Mode logging under "Help" in the toolstrip
• Fixed a bug where MameInfo path was not being read or changed if manipulated in the MAME options
• Polished some routines that needed cleaning up
• Fixed a bug in the Launch Before/Launch After/Also Launch routine
  To use this feature, make sure you enclose the EXE path in quotes. This path also supports GameEx variables in the same way QuickLaunch does
• Added more logging in Debug Mode should issues arise while running the plugin

You can download the new version from the first post, or as always, use the DracLabs Plugin Downloader software. Please make sure if you're reporting a bug that you have the Debug Mode option checked and you post your full log.

Thanks for your support!

[stryker]

Thanks, I'll give it a try after work.