[APP] Marquee Magician 2.1

[Adultery]

OK, new problem. When I launch ZSNES, the MM image comes up, but for whatever reason the emu is running behind a black screen. Any ideas? Running out of things to try.

PS: It's the only emu that does it too for some reason.

[R-DUB]

Have you tried to Disable the GUI?

In the zsnes confg there is an option to disable the GUI.

Edit the config manually with note pad and half way down cfg.

Disable GUI (0 = NO, 1 = Yes)

Then try it in GameEX. If I remember right I had same issue and think this took care of it.

[Adultery]

Oh d'uh. I set it to 1 to make some changes and forgot to set it back. I can be such a moron sometimes!

[Adultery]

Ahh no good. I tried both ways.

[R-DUB]

How about this. Do you have it set to show desktop?

That is, show desktop set as Yes in advance settings.

[Adultery]

Nah I figured it out. For some reason if I run it from a bat file it launches too late or something and covers up the screen. I needed to set it to 16 bit color (which I did), so this is what I finally ended up doing=

AlsoLaunch=F:/MarqueeMagician/LaunchMM.exe "Nintendo SNES"

LaunchBefore=F:/xpadder/Xpadder.exe SNES1 SNES2 /M

LaunchAfter=F:/BatFiles/SNES.bat

@echo off
F:
cd /xpadder/
start "" Xpadder.exe "Default1" "Default2" /M
cd ../MarqueeMagician/
LaunchMM.exe "GameEx"

Works great now, and in 16-bit color. The problem is somewhere in the need to create a 16-bit color profile for it, because none of my other emus force 16-bit.

Thanks for the help!

[Tempest]

Nah I figured it out. For some reason if I run it from a bat file it launches too late or something and covers up the screen. I needed to set it to 16 bit color (which I did), so this is what I finally ended up doing=

AlsoLaunch=F:/MarqueeMagician/LaunchMM.exe "Nintendo SNES"

LaunchBefore=F:/xpadder/Xpadder.exe SNES1 SNES2 /M

LaunchAfter=F:/BatFiles/SNES.bat

@echo off
F:
cd /xpadder/
start "" Xpadder.exe "Default1" "Default2" /M
cd ../MarqueeMagician/
LaunchMM.exe "GameEx"

Works great now, and in 16-bit color. The problem is somewhere in the need to create a 16-bit color profile for it, because none of my other emus force 16-bit.

I'm not positive what you are saying, but while in the template creator program you can use CTRL-R to set the resolution, color depth, and frequency of your main monitor for your emulator. You must enter all 4 values. I think that is what you are looking for.

[Adultery]

It was. For some reason though that particular emulator doesn't seem to work from a .bat file. *shrugs*

It's working great now though. Thanks for the smokin' app Tempest!

[Adultery]

not to be a pain in your ass, but this breaks compatability with your VPinball wrapper. The overlay goes to the 2nd monitor instead now. Any idea what to do to fix this?

[Draco1962]

What happens if you launch without the wrapper?

[Adultery]

I can see the Windows loading and it bothers me.

[Tempest]

not to be a pain in your ass, but this breaks compatability with your VPinball wrapper. The overlay goes to the 2nd monitor instead now. Any idea what to do to fix this?

My suspicion would be that you accidentally viewed an image using the i_view32.exe in the VPinball wrapper folder, which would mess up the settings in the i_view32.ini file in the wrapper folder. Try opening the Vpinball.png file using VPinballLoader\i_view32.exe, set the image exactly as you want to have it appear, and close Iview. Rerun Vpinball, and see if that fixes it.

Alternatively, try re-downloading the wrapper.

[Adultery]

Man, back to SNES woes!

I can tell that the image is switching to 16 bit color like it's supposed to, but for some reason it won't load the image I have it set to. Instead it applies the custom resolution to the picture I use for when GameEx is running. There's usually a blank spot right before the switch so I know it's not doing it. The MM.ini shows the right image is selected and the resolution settings are correct so I just don't know what else to try.

Man this emulator is driving me nuts. I think I'm gonna try deleting the i_view32.ini and recreate the template and see if it makes any difference.

I also have issues when adding custom paths to artwork. I keep getting "Illegal File Header" errors. I use a static snap anyway, just was toying with MAME trying to get the marquee to pop up. I created my own emulator images to fill the extra screen instead, so not an issue for me. Just curious as to why that would happen.

PS: I gotta be driving you nuts now!

PSS: Man, this SNES emu is really making me nutso! It just won't work. If I add MM to the LaunchBefore line it returns to GameEx. If I launch a BAT file from AlsoLaunch, it works but the top screen where the game goes is black (although I can hear it). If I launch a BAT file from LaunchBefore, it falls back to GameEx. Any ideas?

PSSx2: I think I finally figured it out. I use a batch file to launch xpadder in AlsoLaunch and I launch Marquee Magician in the Launch Before field, and I got some of my slashes backwards. Knock on wood I think everything's OK.

[gamepimp]

There are several options in Windows for a secondary monitor. U can make it an extended desktop. Or u can have the desktop duplicated on each monitor. What configuration should be used for MM? Thx in advance.

Corey

[Adultery]

It shouldn't matter.

As long as Windows knows you have 2 monitors you're golden.

[gamepimp]

Awesome. TY for the info Adultery. I'll give it a shot tonight. :-)

[Adultery]

Cool! Good luck and let us know how you get on. We're here to help.

[gamepimp]

Ok, for some reason I'm just not getting MM to work properly. Here's what I've done so far:

1) Created two templates using the Template Creator program. The first template called "MAME" will display MAME marquees for games if they have them (mapped to the marquee folder for MAME) and will display a static .jpg image if the game doesn't have a marquee. The second template is called "MEGA" and will display a static .jpg image when no emulator is running.

2) Set the Launch On Startup Don't Wait value in Tweaks/Performance page of GameEx with this command line: "C:\Users\Arcade\Marquee Magician\Marquee Magician v2.0.exe"

3) Set the Run On Launch value in Advance MAME Settings section of MAME Settings page with this command line: "C:\Users\Arcade\Marquee Magician\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "MAME Games" "[Rom]"

4) Set the Run On Exit value in Advance MAME Settings section of MAME Settings page with this command line: "C:\Users\Arcade\Marquee Magician\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "GameEx"

Here's my MM.ini file info:

[General]

Version=2.0

UseTabs=0

GuiColor=000000

TextColor=Black

CpuBackColor=Silver

CpuForeColor=Gray

MemBackColor=Silver

MemForeColor=Gray

GameExDir=C:\Users\Arcade\GameEx

Gamelist=C:\Users\Arcade\GameEx\DATA\gamelist.txt

[GameEx]

Template=MEGA

Image1=C:\Users\Arcade\Pictures\Video Games\marquee.jpg

FileFolder1=1

[MAME Games]

Template=MAME

Image1=F:\Games\MAME\Marquee

FileFolder1=2

Backup1=C:\Users\Arcade\Pictures\Video Games\marquee.jpg

Can anyone see what I might be doing wrong? First off, should I put pathways in quotations? ("C:\Users\Arcade\Marquee Magician\Marquee Magician v2.0.exe"). Secondly, should I launch Marquee Magician v2.0.exe on startup or the Launch MM v2.0.exe program? Lastly, should I put the actual name of my templates (i.e. MAME) or should i put the system they refer to in GameEx (i.e. MAME Games) in the Run On Launch and Run On Exit command lines?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Corey

[gamepimp]

Ok. I took a look at Tempest's GameEx.ini file and think I have everything configured correctly. I am now able to see that MM starts when GameEx starts and ends when GameEx ends. The problem is that I'm duplicating my desktop on both monitors, and when I start GameEx I can see the MM template loading on both monitors and then GameEx loads right on top of the MM window on both monitors. So essentially the images on MM are not visible. Why wouldn't MM prevent GameEx from loading right on top of it?

[Adultery]

Ohh shoot. Missed that one! You gotta extend your desktop to the 2nd monitor, not mirror it.

[gamepimp]

Ok. Makes sense now. Thx Adultery. Now if I can only get my templates 2 work right. Can't seem to get the program 2 display the marquees from the folder they're located in. At first I got an error msg from IrfanView that the .png files were unrecognized. Got past that, but now it displays the first marquee in the folder regardless of game. Are there any special settings or configurations in GameEx or IrfanView that have to be made? My static images display just fine. It's only the dynamic images from a selected folder that must match game names that r giving me trouble. And I have vfyd that .png file names match the names of the games themselves.

Corey

[Adultery]

Hmm... can you post your template so I can have a peek?

[gamepimp]

Here u go. I've included the templates for my "MAME" setup (which is just displaying marquees from the folder that contains them) and my "NES" setup (which has a static image of the NES system on the left window, a static image of the NES logo in the center window, and a window on the right that will display a 3-D image of the box for a particular game from the folder that contains them). I've also included screenshots of the MM windows that display on my secondary monitor when playing a MAME game (Astyanax) and a NES game (8 Eyes) thru GameEx. U will notice that the border is not consistent around each box. Every once in awhile the border will be thin and the same thickness around the entire image, but more often than not it's this partially thin, partially thick border. I really appreciate any help u can give me. I know I'm very close to getting this thing figured out. Thx in advance!

Corey

mame.txt

nes1.txt

nes2.txt

nes3.txt

[gamepimp]

Does anyone happen to know a way to get ahold of Tempest directly to discuss some of the issues I'm having? Looks like he hasn't been in this forum since mid December. I'm wondering if the issue might actually be with the newer versions of IrfanView and not MM...

[Adultery]

I was actually hoping that he would swoop in and help you. I unfortunately don't know much about his app other than at first glance everything looks OK to me. You could try and PM him if you like, the board usually sends an email if you get a new message.

PS: It's mid December now right?