Show a Warning screen? possible?

[helpman]

Hi there!

Here I am with my weird questions

I'm plugging some external usb ports to my cabinet, and so I was thinking on enabling gamecube and nintendo 64 emulators...

The controllers are really weird to map in a 6button-per-player cabinet, so I decided to just map buttons to gamepads.

Would it be possible to show a warning screen (a flash file or something like that) BEFORE launching the emulator (with xpadder plugin) or a bat file to load xpadder pluging then the emulator?

I though about a screen like "warning! this emulator requires at least 1 controller plugged in. plug your controller now then press [a button on the arcade panel] to continue", so the user can plug the controller, press the button on the arcade cabinet and start the emulator.

I can make an exe flash file with that, I just need to know how to add it to gameex the way I want

[nullPointer]

No need to make an external application to accomplish this! (Unless you really want to ) Have a look at the Help Text setting found on the Emulator Setup screen in the Setup Wizard. If you're just looking to add a textual message, that should do nicely. If you're wanting to do something a bit more graphical you could create an image and use the Controls Path setting found on the Advanced Emulator Setup screen. (If you were already using an image for the Controls Path you could simply modify your existing one). These two settings can also be used in conjunction with one another if you wish.

[helpman]

hmmm I have not set controls for emulators, just for arcade using own mame settings... to use the controls path should I just put a jpg file with the emulator name or what? ... I must check those options thanks!

(should it load xpadder profiles AFTER showing that controls picture right? as I guess xpadder won't load a profile if the controller is not still attached)

[Adultery]

Well there are gonna be issues here, specifically with the'press a key to continue' portion. Xpadder profiles aren't loaded until the game runs so you should be fine there.

[helpman]

ok, so far... mixed results...

The press-a-button is not a problem, I mapped a button not in use while on gameex interface so it presses "y", which is recognised by the flash EXE file to close itself.

Bad thing: the EXE runs in a window, so it looks HORRIBLE. now trying to set it on my old macromedia 8 so it runs on full screen...

other methods:

Set text as instrucions on the emulator setup. nice, but it won't wait for a button to be pushed, so maybe you don't have enough time to plug the controller.

Set the picture as a control.jpg file. Set the controls parth pointing directly to this jpg. when I launch a game, there's a quick black screen and the game runs without waiting at all

darn darn darn...

BTW, the xpadder beta works awesome

[helpman]

finally, I think the easiest way is with a flash projector

I just needed to add a fscomand on the first frame to make it go fullscreen...

Although you can't see it in this screenshot ;D the button on the bottom right glows in and out. when the picture appears, the sound for the galaga bonus stage plays once.

The button I need to press is one without any other use for gameex on the middle of the cabinet's control panel, mapped with xpadder to the key "y", which is the same key that closes the flash file with another fscommand...

in spanish: "warning! this system is played BETTER with an external controller. connect it now and press the middle button to continue"

on systems impossible to map with the arcade panel (N64 or GC) the text shows a different warning "warning! this system NEEDS an external controller to be played. connect it now and press the middle button to conitnue"

I'll re-design those warnings, as I'm not too happy with them, but for "version 0.1" they're not too bad

edited: quick poorly made video to show it

[DazzleHP]

Well it looks like you've started to solve your own problem For a quick draft it looks pretty cool man! And no doubt in households that have many users and controllers this would be very handy! Would eliminate "i started it and nothing works! cry cry cry" I hope you can develop this in to a plugin/external app of some sort as i'm sure the community would really appreciate it. Good job!

[helpman]

Here I am again

I tried to make it usable by anybody, but my actionscript skills are lost in the past now...

I made a flash file where you can select color gradient (ega-like options, 16 colors), and choose which controller show using movie clips.

My intention was to make the flash movie read variables on a txt file to choose color, controller, key to close and text for "warning" and the text below, but I was unable to make it load the txt file or parse external variables from command line , so I just added the options I needed inside for myself and created a different EXE for each system... so it's not working for everybody, and I use it in spanish ... it requires you to press Y to close it. mapped with xpadder on gameex interface didn't work, so I had to enable XPADDER autoprofiles for each of my exe files so it would load a profile with the needed button mapped to "Y".

If anybody thinks he can use it, please let me know. I can translate the texts on screen to english, the background color... for my own setup, the games that can be used with arcade buttons BUT are better played with their own controls (like NES, SNES, SMS or Genesis) shows a green background. Games that require an external controller to be played (N64, Gamecube or Playstation) have red background.

[Adultery]

Would you like me to turn your images into a plugin that takes focus and waits for a key press before kicking it back to GameEx? No promises but I can likely do that.

[helpman]

Well, is working for me as I have it now lol but maybe others can find it useful... All the controller pictures were chosen after searching for "console name controller png" on google. I just cleaned and resized them, added a gradient background, the glowing button, text and audio file.

Weird thing, I left the psx pad connected then nothing on mame seemed to work. It changes the joystick assigned number for my arcade so I had to unplug the other game controllers... Weird

[X1pheR]

Would be great if you could share with adultery and hopefully could be made a plugin.

Is it also possible to show the splash screen on command within gameex by pressing a key? I would like to dislay a controller layout per system. I know I can already by using the controls image but that would display it every time you select a Rom. I want it to be on demand for only when you forgot the controls.

[RIP-Felix]

I like this idea. +1

Would be nice if allowed you to choose a custom background image for each system controller to be plugged in, per emulator basis. Also if the contunue button were mappable as well, again per emulator basis. This way you can have a picture of the controller and map the start button to any x-input device.

I sometimes have the issue of forgetting to plug my controller in until after starting the game. Of course the controller ins't recognized until you exit back to GE then restart the emu.