LEDWiz Support in GameEx

[headkaze]

Thanks to swindus (author of Mala) and yours truly, LEDWiz support has been added to GameEx.

USAGE:

LEDWizLighter.exe 1942 2 0

1942: config file name, results in: 1942.cfg

2: Global Pulse Speed (1-7, default 2 if empty)

0: Fast Com Switch (0 or 1, default 0 if empty)

It's quite basic support for now, basically it lights up the controls for each game when you launch it.

Download the attached zip file and use LEDWizGen to generate the cfg files necessary for each game. Copy them into a directory (Eg. C:\Emulators\Mame\LEDWiz)

Then you simply add the following commands to your Advanced MAME Settings:

Run on Launch: C:\LEDWizLighter\LEDWizLighter.exe C:\Emulators\Mame\LEDWiz\[ROM] 2 0
Run on Exit: C:\LEDWizLighter\LEDWizLighter.exe AllLedsOff

EDIT: New Version 1.1 automatically loads and saves your LED settings.

LEDWizLighter.zip

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks to swindus (author of Mala) and yours truly, LEDWiz support has been added to GameEx.

USAGE:

LEDWizLighter.exe 1942 2 0

1942: config file name, results in: 1942.cfg

2: Global Pulse Speed (1-7, default 2 if empty)

0: Fast Com Switch (0 or 1, default 0 if empty)

It's quite basic support for now, basically it lights up the controls for each game when you launch it.

Download the attached zip file and use LEDWizGen to generate the cfg files necessary for each game. Copy them into a directory (Eg. C:\Emulators\Mame\LEDWiz)

Then you simply add the following commands to your Advanced MAME Settings:

Run on Launch: C:\LEDWizLighter\LEDWizLighter.exe C:\Emulators\Mame\LEDWiz\[ROM] 2 0
Run on Exit: C:\LEDWizLighter\LEDWizLighter.exe AllLedsOff

Thanks a lot Headkaze. In the words of Britney "You did it again" lol.

Would it be ok to integrate this into GameEx and the GameEx install so the folks can just use it as a setting rather than have to configure it?

I hope so, let me know.

Cheers.

Tom

[headkaze]

Yeah, no problem Tom. Do what you want with it. Swindus has given permission to use LEDWizLighter in any project (including FE's), and of course same applies for my part which was LEDWizGen.

Really it would be better to totally integrate it into GameEx using just the ocx, so it can do things like random lighting during attract mode, showing buttons while scrolling through the game list etc.

But for now this is fine, since I have never actually seen a single request for LEDWiz support in GameEx yet, maybe we should just leave it like this for now.

BTW This method was an idea I got from adding BetaBrite support in GameEx. So now GameEx supports BetaBrite, BPP-440, PJRC and LEDWiz hardware!

[Tom Speirs]

Yeah, no problem Tom. Do what you want with it. Swindus has given permission to use LEDWizLighter in any project (including FE's), and of course same applies for my part which was LEDWizGen.

Really it would be better to totally integrate it into GameEx using just the ocx, so it can do things like random lighting during attract mode, showing buttons while scrolling through the game list etc.

But for now this is fine, since I have never actually seen a single request for LEDWiz support in GameEx yet, maybe we should just leave it like this for now.

BTW This method was an idea I got from adding BetaBrite support in GameEx. So now GameEx supports BetaBrite, BPP-440, PJRC and LEDWiz hardware!

Wow, I completely missed that post. I am actually quite pleased with myself that GameEx is already extensible enough to do this as it is, but Ill add some better support for this stuff so it does not require much setup. Of course we could just add this to the FAQ, but nobody reads it anyway

Thanks again mate, you are the dogs bollocks!

[jthompson]

Thanks to swindus (author of Mala) and yours truly, LEDWiz support has been added to GameEx.

USAGE:

LEDWizLighter.exe 1942 2 0

1942: config file name, results in: 1942.cfg

2: Global Pulse Speed (1-7, default 2 if empty)

0: Fast Com Switch (0 or 1, default 0 if empty)

It's quite basic support for now, basically it lights up the controls for each game when you launch it.

Download the attached zip file and use LEDWizGen to generate the cfg files necessary for each game. Copy them into a directory (Eg. C:\Emulators\Mame\LEDWiz)

Then you simply add the following commands to your Advanced MAME Settings:

Run on Launch: C:\LEDWizLighter\LEDWizLighter.exe C:\Emulators\Mame\LEDWiz\[ROM] 2 0
Run on Exit: C:\LEDWizLighter\LEDWizLighter.exe AllLedsOff

What a coincedence, I was just thinking about asking if ledwiz support was in the works. Not that I have one, but my next project probably will and I can't think of a better FE to use it with. Thanks Headkaze. And thanks Tom.

Jay T

[emphatic]

Of course we could just add this to the FAQ, but nobody reads it anyway

LOL!

Emph

[headkaze]

Bump in case you missed it. Version 1.1 now saves your LED settings so you only need to set them up once.

[Ricci]

Very true Tom!!

[MtDew12oz]

Haven't been on in awhile and was just going to post a suggestion about LEDWiz Support when I ran across this thread... Talk about timing...

Native GameEx support would be great, but I found another workaround that I need to share...

PowerMAME, another custom MAME compile but this is designed towards LEDWiz users. Been running dual boards now for a few months with GameEx using PowerMAME in place of standard MAME.exe. Tried to run it within GameEx using it as an AdvancedMAME option within GameEx's configuration but found just calling it instead of mame.exe to be more effective. PowerMAME supports LEDWiz, including multiple boards, without having to call a separate program and it even has a cool feature that uses MS Speech to tell you what buttons are available when you pause the a game, cool novelty when showing off my cabinet but its very annoying. You can program attract sequences which will start when GameEx calls PowerMAME and initially loads your rom and will continue the sequence until a credit button is hit, at which point it will light your buttons or whatever you set it up for, including support for 2, 4, and 8 way joy indicators. Also has a timer which will restart the attract mode if you finish a game and no buttons are pressed for whatever time you configure it with. Setting up for using within GameEx is no different then setting up mame.exe, and I suggest doing all your configurations initially using the UI, PowerMAME32 - http://www.unappliedbraincells.com/

Unfortunately the author has not updated the version since MAME v0.105, and may discontinue any more upgrades do to demands on his time, but if you don't care to be on the bleeding edge of MAME versions and are looking for easy integration of a LEDWiz solution, I recommend checking it out.

Also, this method does not address changing lighting when you first start GameEx or any of your emulators but I found I can still change LEDS using simple batch files and passing commands to my LEDWiz using the LaunchBefore, unfortunately I can't address more then one LEDWiz via scripts, yet.

I did find another small dos app, called SwiftLED (search for it in BYOAC) or let me know and maybe I can send it or something. This is a cool small little DOS app that allows you to use the software that comes with the LEDWiz boards to create a lighting sequence and then run it via a command line. Perfect for setting up a cool animation as a attract seq when GameEx first starts up but you have to make sure to kill it via a script before loading anything else that is going to reach out to the controllers such as PowerMAME or LEDWizLighter.

Haven't checked out LEDWizLighter yet, looking forward to seeing what I can do with it.

[headkaze]

LEDWizLighter is not complete because I didn't realise that controls.ini only has controls for parent ROMs.

But forget LEDWizLighter anyway, there is a better solution coming I can't say too much as Tom will announce it when the new version of GameEx is released.

All I can say is that LEDWiz will be better supported soon and fully integrated into GameEx, including the ability to light up controls while you scroll through the list. Eventually I hope to include some attract mode patterns also.

We will need some testers, so keep your eye on the boards because I will be looking for people soon.

[MtDew12oz]

Checked out your LEDWizLighter app and I have to say I'm a happy GameEx'r today. Thanks!

This have given me a solution to use multiple devices through GameEx and light leds based on emulators and other PC Apps when launched.

As I mentioned before I could address hitting one controller via scripts but that was it. Since I have so many buttons and only the ability to use one board outside of MAME, my work around was to break up the RGB wires from each led/button across 2 devices which gave me limited lighting abilities through GameEx.

MAME games aside, my vision has always been to have all my buttons lit blue, and based GameEx control buttons, emulator, or PC game, available buttons are lit up in a different color. Since you set it up where you can select a controls.ini file and change the cfg folder I was able to create a custom controls.ini for each emulator type, PC game, GameEx controls, and all the other junk I launch from GameEx, generate cfg files for them and viola! Just load them via the LEDWizLighter.

One request, can you make a build of LEDWizGen that looks up the list of available controls using an ini? Or better yet a drop down list of available control defined lists, possibly reading ini's from a folder? This would allow others to easily create cfgs for other emulators too, and make for easier maintenance for cfg generation. I can help with configurations and INI definitions

TOM ? > LedWiz integration within GameEx sounds like a good idea, but is there going to be any plans for other emulator integration? Maybe having and entry within GameEx's Config Emulators to load a LEDWizGen generated cfg file before emu launch. I would think GameEx could easily integrate LEDWizLighter.exe fairly easily.

Let me know what ya'll think and what I can do to contribute. Thanks again!

Sam

[Tom Speirs]

Hi Sam,

HK is the one to answer this for you, what he (mostly him) and I are working on does potentially allow for other emulators, although of course we don't have the luxury of controls.ini.

[emphatic]

MtDew12oz: Could you please post a picture of your buttons lit up in the "Cabinets running GameEx" thread please? I'm really curious of just how cool that looks.

Emph

[headkaze]

Checked out your LEDWizLighter app and I have to say I'm a happy GameEx'r today. Thanks!

This have given me a solution to use multiple devices through GameEx and light leds based on emulators and other PC Apps when launched.

As I mentioned before I could address hitting one controller via scripts but that was it. Since I have so many buttons and only the ability to use one board outside of MAME, my work around was to break up the RGB wires from each led/button across 2 devices which gave me limited lighting abilities through GameEx.

MAME games aside, my vision has always been to have all my buttons lit blue, and based GameEx control buttons, emulator, or PC game, available buttons are lit up in a different color. Since you set it up where you can select a controls.ini file and change the cfg folder I was able to create a custom controls.ini for each emulator type, PC game, GameEx controls, and all the other junk I launch from GameEx, generate cfg files for them and viola! Just load them via the LEDWizLighter.

One request, can you make a build of LEDWizGen that looks up the list of available controls using an ini? Or better yet a drop down list of available control defined lists, possibly reading ini's from a folder? This would allow others to easily create cfgs for other emulators too, and make for easier maintenance for cfg generation. I can help with configurations and INI definitions

TOM ? > LedWiz integration within GameEx sounds like a good idea, but is there going to be any plans for other emulator integration? Maybe having and entry within GameEx's Config Emulators to load a LEDWizGen generated cfg file before emu launch. I would think GameEx could easily integrate LEDWizLighter.exe fairly easily.

Let me know what ya'll think and what I can do to contribute. Thanks again!

Sam

Hey Sam, if you like LEDWizLighter you are gonna love the new plugin I'm working on. It's a good idea to add support for other emulators other than Mame. I need some people to test the plugin in it's current form, and I will consider adding support for multiple emulators.

Check out my new topic about the LED/LCD Plugin for GameEx.