5 Questions

[murve33]

Now that I've gotten my major issues with GameEx solved I can focus on all of my less major issues. If I can solve these, I'm sure I'll end up buying a registered version once I have some spare change. Solved; V2 Themes need to be Upgraded to V4

1. Escape Key Issue: When I customize controls (via the tab menu) in MAME or MESS without GameEx, hitting escape simply exits the tab menu. But, in GameEx it exits the game and returns me to the game list. Is there a way to change this? Solved

2. Clones: In MAMEUI clones are grouped and offset with their originals. Is there a way to do this with GameEx?

3. Control Panel: Before a MAME game starts, it shows me a control panel graphic. This isn't necessary for me, because I can just check my controls in the tab menu. How do I deactivate it? Solved

4. Gamelist Resolution: All of the themes I've tried out have enabled me to see about 11-17 games at a time. I'm pretty used to seeing 36 games at a time in MAMEUI/MESSUI. Is there a way to make the gamelist text smaller? I'm currently using the Red and Blue theme.

5. Does hiding the desktop (Is this what HideOS does?) speed up the load-time and quit-time of emulators in any way? I sometimes have to wait 6 seconds before an emulator returns to GameEx, so I'm always on the look out for ways to speed this up (Again, I've been spoiled by the speed of MAMEUI/MESSUI for a few years). Solved (It Doesn't)

Thank you all for your continual help.

[Draco1962]

4. Gamelist Resolution: All of the themes I've tried out have enabled me to see about 11-17 games at a time. I'm pretty used to seeing 36 games at a time in MAMEUI/MESSUI. Is there a way to make the gamelist text smaller? I'm currently using the Red and Blue theme.

5. Does hiding the desktop (Is this what HideOS does?) speed up the load-time and quit-time of emulators in any way? I sometimes have to wait 6 seconds before an emulator returns to GameEx, so I'm always on the look out for ways to speed this up (Again, I've been spoiled by the speed of MAMEUI/MESSUI for a few years).

Thank you all for your continual help.

Answers:

4. You would need to load the theme into the Theme Editor and modify the dimensions of the List object. Depending on the default size of the fonts, you may need to modify to a smaller font via the Edit>Options within Theme Editor. Be sure to save before you exit the Theme Editor to prefer your changes.

5. No. Hide OS merely "blanks out" the desktop so it is not visible. All processes with boot (after initial login if password protected) continue. Likely the delay is GameEx waiting for the application to close before resuming focus. Not much can be done to remedy that and is something that is likely experienced with any frontend.

[rtkiii]

3. I thought you could disable enable but all you can do is disable/enable CPWizrad.

Maybe remove the path for "Controls .ini Location" under "Advanced Mame Settings" in the setup Wizard

EDIT: Tested and it worked once I removed the path. It went straight to the game. Tested with Arknoid.

[nullPointer]

1. Escape Key Issue: When I customize controls (via the tab menu) in MAME or MESS without GameEx, hitting escape simply exits the tab menu. But, in GameEx it exits the game and returns me to the game list. Is there a way to change this?

Check out the following settings on the Input Settings screen in the Setup Wizard (the last one is the most direct answer to your question but the other ones will obviously have an impact as well)

Global Escape Key Combo

Key Combo for global escape of any emulator or application. This is on regardless of whether custom input is enabled as long as the emulator is setup to exit on escape key (e.g map back).

Joystick Exit

Global game pad exit combination.

Enable Escape Key Exit

As well as the keyboard combo you can also set the escape key to act as a global exit.

[murve33]

1 and 3 are solved and 5 is clarified. Thanks for that.

3. I thought you could disable enable but all you can do is disable/enable CPWizrad.

Maybe remove the path for "Controls .ini Location" under "Advanced Mame Settings" in the setup Wizard

EDIT: Tested and it worked once I removed the path. It went straight to the game. Tested with Arknoid.

For some reason your suggestion on its own didn't work but once I changed the following GameEx.ini settings it worked.

CPEnabled=False
CPPATH=""

4. You would need to load the theme into the Theme Editor and modify the dimensions of the List object. Depending on the default size of the fonts, you may need to modify to a smaller font via the Edit>Options within Theme Editor. Be sure to save before you exit the Theme Editor to prefer your changes.

I was able to change the font type and whether it's bold/oblique, but I still am unable to change the font size. It always remains as the default.

[Adultery]

I think you need to manually add that line to the ini, or else it's in the GameEx settings ini.

[murve33]

What exactly do I need to add to the ini? And by .ini do you mean the theme's .ini?

Here are the contents of the Theme's .ini, including my changes. I notice that FontSize=1, which seems odd.

[General]
Version=2
Width=1024
Height=768
XRESOLUTION=1024
YRESOLUTION=768
AniBak=False
AlphaBlendVideos=False
Font=Quartz MS
TitleFont=Trebuchet MS
DialogTextWhite=True
OutlineFonts=True
ArcadeMode=False
DisplayBackgroundImage=True
AnimatedSelector=True
ShowButtons=True
ShowDateTime=True
DisplayTitleText=False
CustomEmulatorLayouts=False
CustomControlPanel=False
DisplayEmulatorMenus=True
RotatePlus90=False
TextColor=-1
OutlineColor=-16020826
TitleFontSize=30
FontSize=1
AntiAliasFonts=False
AlphaChannel=False
EnablePopUpDescriptions=False
StaticStartPageList=False
DontZoomStartPageLogos=False
ForeGroundTopMost=False
ShowListNumbers=True
CustomModuleLayouts=False
MainFontSize=11
FontStyle=1
TitleFontStyle=1
LowerCaseTitleFont=True
ShowSelectionText=True
RightJustifyTitleText=False

[TaskBar]
MCEButtonOver=24,0,80,46
MCEButtonDown=24,0,80,46
BackButtonOver=118,0,49,46
BackButtonDown=118,0,49,46
HelpButtonOver=176,0,47,46
HelpButtonDown=176,0,47,46
MediaControl=848,0,148,46
MediaControlStop=848,0,148,46
TopBarLeft=24,0,206,46
TopBarMiddle=0,0,1024,46
Window=996,0,28,46

[buttons]
ArrowDown=926,698,29,32
ArrowDownPressed=926,698,29,32
ArrowUp=960,698,29,32
ArrowUpPressed=960,698,29,32
HomeNoFocus=928,42,41,37
HomeFocus=928,42,41,37
ExitNoFocus=974,42,41,37
ExitFocus=974,42,41,37
ExitSelect=974,42,41,37

[Layout]
Title=813,99,103,51
Date=23,100,44,19
Time=23,125,44,19
List=77,200,427,475
SelectLine1=175,49,111,19
SelectLine2=75,72,111,19
ImageInfo=16,160,300,224
ListNum=76,669,77,19
Menu=606,200,334,166
Image=667,467,225,219
Description=7,460,670,262
Scroller=480,714,375,32
Weather=866,62,140,58
[Weather]
WeatherConditionIcon=False
Enabled=False

[Adultery]

Change that and see if it makes a difference.

I'm away from home so I cannot post an example.

[murve33]

No luck. Tried changing the 1 to a 10, and then a 0 on the off chance it was a binary variable.

[Adultery]

Try changing the font size under display settings in the GameEx settings wizard.

[murve33]

Doesn't make a difference. I tried normal, biggest, and smallest.

[Draco1962]

You may want to provide us with a copy of your gameex.ini and log.txt files so we can take a closer look.

Please refer to this link for additional information.

[murve33]

[Draco1962]

I think the issue is that you are using a Version 2 theme. I was able to create a new theme by using the existing Red & Blue theme as the source, named the new theme Red & Blue V4. Next I went into the Edit>Options>Font tab and changed the fonts size to a smaller font. I was then able to save it and load GameEx with a reduction in font size. If you follow these steps, you should see a change on your side.

I tried it with the theme as is and the change for the main fonts will not save. It is generally recommended to use the V4 themes or upconvert V2 themes to V4.

[murve33]

Thank you so much for figuring that out! I now have it working font-wise; just gotta fix the rest of the theme now
I can figure that out myself though.

So I suppose that there's no Clone Offset support? If not, I definitely recommend it as a future update.

[u-man]

no there is no "offset" support for clones. you can have clones showed or not, but not with offset like mameui. who needs them anyway . GameEx has the nice feature "show no clones, unless better", which means i only see a clone if it is better or better working than the original.

[murve33]

who needs them anyway

Ha, I agree with you for the most part. The only clones that I actively play are Pac-Man clones (Abscam, the one with Jellyfishes, Joyman) and the Mr. Do! clone Yankee Do!, due to their different game play. Having them offset from their originals makes them more likely to be noticed by my friends and family who may not know they exist.

I guess it's not offsetting that I would like, but rather grouping with the original. MAMEUI groups them together and also has the option "No offset for clones missing parent in view".

I'll survive though.