[APP] Marquee Magician 2.1

[gamepimp]

Thanks for trying Adultery. I appreciate ur willingness 2 help me try 2 figure this thing out. The digital marquee will b one of the coolest aspects of my cabinet. Having MM all dialed in is essential for getting the correct images displayed. I've PM'd Tempest and I'm hopeful that he will reply eventually. Can u tell me what version of Windows ur running? And maybe what version of IrfanView u have? I'm thinking that my issues could b related to my OS (Win 7 64-bit), my version of IrfanView (4.3.2.0 I believe), or possibly even my video card (GeForce 9600). I'm certain that my templates and settings in GameEx r good. Thx again 4 the help!

Corey

[Tempest]

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

The first thing that I would like for you to try is to eliminate this from your setup:

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"

That step was from a previous version of MM and is no longer required. I edited the first post to reflect this change.

[Tempest]

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

Thanks for covering for me!

[Adultery]

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful actually.

[gamepimp]

The first thing that I would like for you to try is to eliminate this from your setup:

That step was from a previous version of MM and is no longer required. I edited the first post to reflect this change.

Tempest, ur back! TY for taking the time to help me get MM configured correctly. I really appreciate it. :-)

I've been trying everything I can think of to make it work correctly, but I know there is something easy that I'm not doing right which is keeping it from operating correctly.

I realized after I posted the GameEx info awhile back that u had included ur .ini file along w/ MM. So I took a look at what u had and realized that I had mine setup wrong. Here's what I have right now:

Two templates: "MAME" (linked to "MAME Games" in MM) and "MEGA" (linked to "GameEx" in MM)

The "MAME" template should display a marquee from the folder "C:\Users\Arcade\MAME\marquees" when a game is being played in MAME. If no marquee exists for a game, I have a generic image that will be displayed.

The "MEGA" template displays an image when I'm in GameEx but not running any particular emulator.

Here are my current GameEx settings (from the .ini file):

In Tweaks/Performance

LaunchOnStartNoWait=""C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "GameEx""

LaunchOnExit=""C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "kill""

In Advance MAME settings

ShellBeforeLaunch=""C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "MAME Games" "[ROMFILE]""

ShellOnExit=""C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "GameEx""

So I get the image from the "MEGA" template when GameEx launches. When I launch a game in MAME, I get the generic image displayed and not the appropriate image from the marquee folder. So I don't have any problems displaying static images. I only have issues when trying to display a dynamic image from a folder that has the same name as the game file. I also have an issue where the border around the image is not always a thin white line. Sometimes it almost appears as if there is one image on top of another. And the image underneath has the thick border that u see when creating the templates.

Hope this all makes sense. LMK if u need any addt'l info. Thx in advance!

Corey

[Tempest]

Try dropping the quotes around the whole command. Also I think that the Second parameter should be [ROM]

ShellBeforeLaunch="C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "MAME Games" "[ROM]"

[gamepimp]

I forgot that I had fiddled around with the quotes and the [ROM] parameter to see if it would make a difference. Originally, I couldn't even get MM to load when I didn't have the extra quotes around the whole command. But maybe that's b/c I was having GameEx try to load the Marquee Magician V2.0.exe instead of the Launch MM V2.0.exe. I noticed in ur GameEx.ini file u had the extra quotes (and the Launch MM V2.0.exe) so I added them on. Anyway, this is what I have now and it still doesn't want to pull the correct marquee from the folder. I just get the backup image displayed when the game starts. I also still get the funky border around the image. Any other thoughts? I've attached my .ini file in case that might b helpful. Thx!

LaunchOnStartNoWait="C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "GameEx"

LaunchOnExit="C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "kill"

ShellBeforeLaunch="C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "MAME Games" "[ROM]"

ShellOnExit="C:\Users\Arcade\MM\Launch MM v2.0.exe" "GameEx"

GameEx.txt

[Tempest]

How about zipping up your entire MM folder, and 1 rom along with the marquee image for that rom, and I will take a look.

[gamepimp]

Here ya go. LMK if u need anything else. Thx!

Corey

[Tempest]

Settled in Chat. It came down to not having "Type=.JPG|.PNG|.BMP|.JPEG|.GIF|.IMG" in the ini file. I updated the first post to include an ini file with the download.

[gamepimp]

A million thx 2 Tempest & everyone else who helped me work thru my issues! :-)

[Adultery]

Nice work Tempest!!

[ehuonder]

Irfanview currently supports .mp4 files... Has anyone tried .mp4's with MM?

[Tempest]

In the mm.ini file, add .mp4 to the type so it looks like this and give it a try. Let us know what happens.

Type=.JPG|.PNG|.BMP|.JPEG|.GIF|.IMG|.mp4

[ehuonder]

I've got my second monitor, but I don't have MM setup yet. I'll have to set it up and try it when I get some time.

[gamepimp]

For Tempest...

[dboyrecords]

Took a while but I got it running! I had 2nd monitor on in mameui... oops!

Now, my q is can I make another mm image on the bottom of the main display? I'm setting up a pincab so I'm using a 16:9 monitor set to be 9:16. The mame bezel is awesome but I have black deadspace above and below. I want to see c panel below bezel image.

Can mm help?

[Tempest]

As long as it is just 'Dead Space' on the screen, I would think that it would work. If the 'dead space' is actually part of the Mame window that is blank then there would be focus issues.

[Tempest]

For Tempest...

Sorry GamePimp, somehow I missed your post. The images looks great! Thanks for sharing.

[dboyrecords]

well, maybe it's not dead space so to speak. I seem to have it set up, the marquees work but still black below bezel... I'm trying to work around the lay file stuff.

Thanks

[dboyrecords]

I tried running mame windowed but Gameex seems to override. All I'm doing in MM template creator is opening window 1 and setting to marquee folder, Open window 2 setting to cp folder, un snapping to window and dragging it to the main screen and sizing to the bottom, Is that right?

[Tempest]

That sounds about right.

I can get mame to run in a window by altering the mame.ini, but mame does not appear to remember the size and location of the window when I close Mame. If you can't control the location of the Mame window, I don't think that it is going to work very well.

[dboyrecords]

So, no way to make 3rd mm window sit on top of gamex main screen?

Thanks, I'm a little out of my depth...

Don't make me learn lay files.. !?!?!

[Tempest]

Possibly. I will look into it, but it may be awhile. It would be a nice feature to have.

[Tempest]

Try this in place of the Marquee Magician 2.1.exe that you have now.

Marquee Magician v2.1.exe.7z