[PLUGIN] Marquee Masher

[headkaze]

On 19/03/2017 at 4:04 AM, Kustom Kid said:

Hey @stigzler, I'm having a bit of an issue. I keep getting an error when trying to use the latest update. I haven't updated for the last 3 or 4 releases. Anyway an error pops up (I'll post a picture of it) when I run game or when I try to mess with the settings in the Setup Wizard. I uninstalled GameEx and reinstalled and I'm still getting the error. I'm not sure if this matters or not, but I did not have to reapply the GameEx registry key when I reinstalled, so that remained unchanged. I'm going to get you logs and stuff tomorrow. Also, we just moved, so I'm only able to work on it for a limited amount of time. Thanks for your help in advance.

Can you click that "Details" button and copy/paste the contents here.

[stigzler]

It's invariably my dodgy coding breaking the internet, @headkaze

[ksbman]

I'm having an issue with Marquee Masher showing the marquee on my second monitor.  It shows the marquee on the second screen during the browse function, but when I start the game, it disappears off the second monitor.  If I do an ALT-TAB after the game starts, it will stay up there.  Is there a setting I am missing to get the marquee to stay on the second screen? 

 

Thanks

[stigzler]

@ksbman

Could you post:

MMLog, settings and Systems out of GameEx>PLUGINS>MarqueeMasher

please?

Also, this happens for which system?

 

[Kustom Kid]

@headkaze I will get that for you as soon as I can. I've not had much "play time" lately. Sorry.

[Adultery]

That's Stigz to you bub!

[Draco1962]

1 minute ago, Adultery said:

That's Stigz to you bub!

Erm, I think it is Headkaze... lol!

 

[Adultery]

Ohh, d'oh!! Didn't look far enough up!

[ksbman]

@Stigler

Thanks for your assistance.  I am using MAME.  Attached are the files you requested.

 

MMLog.log

settings.ini

Systems.xml

[stigzler]

Ok. Few ideas. 

Firstly, you appear to have the secondary additional display enabled. You only need this is uou ahve two additional screens to your main one. 

From the log its hard to see a problem. The marquee is getting drawn on game launch. You mention that you can alt tab and find the marquee. Whatvexactly do you see on game launch? Do you get  black screen over you marqude display or does it go back to the desktop? Is there something overlaying the marquee? This could be gameex game extender, gameex hide desktop or even mame - you can setup mame to display on a second display..

Try the ideas above and come back to me.

[ksbman]

@stigzler

When the secondary additional monitor is enabled, I see the marquee during the Gameex load screen and choosing the game, once I start the game, the marquee monitor goes black and I can ALT-TAB to get it back. 

When I disable the secondary additional monitor, I only get a black screen on the marquee monitor and can't do an ALT-TAB to get it to show up anymore.  The desktop always has either Gameex or the game running in MAME. 

 

Thanks

[Adultery]

 

@stigz:

 

 

Sounds like you have a focus issue. I get around this in my plugins by grabbing the window handle and bringing it to the top and then setting the focus back on the primary game play monitor. I do the opposite for Xpadder, forcing the window to minimize and setting the focus back on GameEx. Hopefully that helps some!

 

[stigzler]

Yeah - my thoughts too Adultery + thanks for the thought - I'll have to take a look at the code - might have left out bring to top etc on MM because on my setup, I have the merry dance of CPWizard and MM complimenting each other on the same display, but was getting contention, so needed MM to take the back seat. Guess I could always add a 'send to top' option. However...

@ksbman - this is likely me being thick, but I'm still not clear on your setup:

a) How many monitors have you got?

a2)  Essentially, are you using both "1st Display" and "2nd Display" on Marquee Masher - i.e. having MM generate images on two displays, not just one?

b ) What gets displayed on each monitor?

c) Have you got "Setup Wizard>Display Settings>Hide Operating System" enabled? I'm wondering what the black display is going over the top of MM. 

 

[Draco1962]

On 3/23/2017 at 10:38 PM, ksbman said:

I'm having an issue with Marquee Masher showing the marquee on my second monitor.  It shows the marquee on the second screen during the browse function, but when I start the game, it disappears off the second monitor.  If I do an ALT-TAB after the game starts, it will stay up there.  Is there a setting I am missing to get the marquee to stay on the second screen? 

 

Thanks

Two monitors per this post.

[stigzler]

@Draco1962 - thanks Draco, I think it's likely just two monitors in total, but not very clear because he talks about using both primary and secondary displays in Marquee masher - this normally applies two monitors in addition to the main screen - although it's ambiguous because he could also use MM on his main screen (unlikely). 

That's handy though - I should include something in the log to specify user setups...

[ksbman]

Sorry guys, I've been away for a few days.

 

a) How many monitors have you got? I have two total monitors

a2)  Essentially, are you using both "1st Display" and "2nd Display" on Marquee Masher - i.e. having MM generate images on two displays, not just one?  I just need MM on the secondary monitor.

b ) What gets displayed on each monitor?  When I start GameEx is on the main screen, the second monitor is blank.  When I start the game, the second monitor stays blank the entire time until I exit GameEx.

c) Have you got "Setup Wizard>Display Settings>Hide Operating System" enabled? I'm wondering what the black display is going over the top of MM. I have "Hide Operating System Enabled."  When I disable it and test, the desktop shows until the game starts, then it goes blank.  When I exit the game, the desktop re-appears on the second screen.

[stigzler]

This is still sounding like "hideos.exe" which is part of the gameex process. I've had fun and games with that before.

Secondly, tell me if you have  enabled checked or unchecked as per below. If Checked, uncheck it and try again. 

Basically some other app is pushing a black screen over the top of MM - wondering what this is

Also - what is the file "D:\mame\marquees\default.jpg" - not black is it? Does it exist?

I'm trying to chase this one down because I'm interested in what's overlaying MM. 

Following your providing the above, I may just cut my losses and code in a 'bring to front' although this can be a nightmare in terms of apps struggling for contention of the 'front'

 

[ksbman]

The 2nd monitor is unchecked.  If I enabled it I can do the ALT-TAB to get the marquee to show, but disabled it per your earlier instructions.  When disabled, I can't get the marquee to show up with the ALT-TAB.

The default.jpg is just a standard mame marquee, it has several colors and I have attached it here.

 

Thanks

[ksbman]

OK, I just found an issue where it was configured for the main monitor.  So I now get the marquee before and after playing a game, but when I play a game it goes black.  So getting closer........

[ksbman]

Another finding.  While playing through GameEx, I can hit the F10 button a couple time, the game freezes (Playing or demo) and the marquee will show up on the second monitor for about 10 seconds and the screen will go black again and the game begins to move again.

[ksbman]

OK, I have it narrowed down and I believe fixed.  I decided to regenerate the mame.ini file from the command line and it appears to have resolved the issue.  I'm not sure what in the old ini file was setting it off, but if I get time to play with that, I will let you know.

 

Thanks for everyone's assistance.

[stigzler]

Glad you got it sorted. Totally baffling...

I wonder if two displays were enabled in your mame.ini - that might have caused it.

[stigzler]

Updates:

1.2.3
Now setup for two separate secondary displays at once.
Remembers windows state on close
Fixed GameINfo bug (nulls threw a regex))

1.3.0
This version requires a Version 1.2.3 Install. It's suggested that you make this a fresh install (delete any 1.2 installaitons - folder + DLL)
Fixed GameEx back bug (Thanks KustomKid!)
Squashed annoying notify icon bug. Lingering notify begone...
Made it a single .dll installation. Automatically detects whether existing settings/xml exists and doesn't overwrite.
Cleaned up GameEx menu browsing and matching supplemental displays changes. Should now only change display on system changes or game changes. Imperfect but functional. 

1.3.1
Sorted BringToTop on marquee change (runs silent)

1.4.0
Added Strip tags from Gamename and Filename before matching to images

1.4.1
Added Icons to identify properties
Added Daphne to Systems List

1.4.2
Added help link

1.4.21
Bugshoot around system numbers
 

[DrEvil]

I am very excited I got this up and running very easily.  I have tried to implement other marquee solutions including Launchbox, Hypermarquee, mamehooker, and CPwizbiz, all to no avail but Marquee Masher was easy.  

 

Thank you for a superb program!!  This alone has made me re-commit to GameEx

 

Now, how and where do I store marquee images corresponding to Systems, custom mame lists, etc.  I have a global default and a mame default, plus all of the prioritized marquee images for Mame games.  Can defaults for other other systems be automated or are they assigned manually in the configuration application?

 

Once again, I cannot thank you enough

[stigzler]

Thanks for the thanks!

Yeah - I'd watch that CPWizBiz - it's a buggy piece of crap written by some shyster!

Not quite sure what you're asking, but I'll have a go:

7 hours ago, DrEvil said:

how and where do I store marquee images corresponding to Systems, custom mame lists

It doesn't matter where you store them, you choose the location via the "Primary Folder 1" etc..

Your image filename must match the game name or game filename.

7 hours ago, DrEvil said:

Can defaults for other other systems be automated or are they assigned manually in the configuration application?

You have to select the file you want to be your System Default image. It would be difficult to automate as everyone structures their game assets differently. In example below:

Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 are user chosen. I'm assuming you get the way this works: in the absence of a matching game image, the system default is used. In the absence of a system default, the Global default is used (in the left hand panel)