Plugin development documentation

[PhilA]

Hi,

I am working on a GameEx plugin to intergate my custom built control panls (spiiner, trackball, single or dual joystick etc) with custom Mame game lists.  Is there any plugin documentation in addtion to this?

Category:PlugIn Development - Spesoft/GameEx Wiki

This seems to be a little sparse - for example doesn't indicate a whole list of functions that need to exist for a plugin to work and how to use them.

Also, is there a way for an add-in to integrate back into GameEx, for example to initiate a Mame list update, display custom icons etc.  I'd also like to be able to display a screen if the wrong panel for the game is connected.

 

 

[Tom Speirs]

yeah, the docs are a little limited, sorry. As for your last question, the plugin system is mostly event based. There is not lots of integration for lists etc. i created the add in for that but nobody ever made one yet.

[PhilA]

I got my custom lists and images working as I wanted them - theres some details in my other forum post.

Also working on a plugin at the moment to handle plugging in my custom control panels and providing information back to the user.  Worked out most of it but I am trying to work out if I can trigger a game list update or an exit of the gameex app but stuggling to work it out. 

I guess it should be possible to use GameExEventQueue.Add() to send a command - don't suppose there is a list somewhere of commands that can be sent?

[PhilA]

Right after I typed that I might have just figured it out from the "Random Arcade Sound" example plugin.  Working on it.

[PhilA]

Yep, I worked out what I needed to do in the plugin.  I have one more UI issue to resolve then my set up is complete.  When I navigate down through a list of games and get to the bottom, it wraps/loop back up to the top of the list.  Makes it difficult to select games at the bottom of the list.  And there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to stop the behaviour in gameex.ini.  I'll open a new forum thread.

[PhilA]

Gameex executable has a number of switches that don't seem to be documented e.g. -mame to run Mame only, -artworkdownload to download artwork etc.  Are they documented anywhere?

Was kind of hoping there is one to make Gameex run a list update...?

[Tom Speirs]

Again, lacking on the documentation because that is no fun! I can see you are going to bust my balls!

The only relevant one that cant be seen through the shortcuts i can think of -listupdate

[PhilA]

Hey, I worked around the list update issue.  The idea was that I only have a limited number of game roms in my custom lists so if I add a new game via the pluging I wanted to trigger a list update.  Turns out though, if I add all the roms initially and trigger a list update manually, then if I cut the list down and add back on game, it appears on my custom list right away - no need to do a list update.  Maybe just because Gameex is already aware of from the initial list update.

 

[PhilA]

Is there a way to request enhancements to the plugin subsystem - is that still being worked on?  I wanted to perform an action depending on what custom list a user has opened.  But in this function, Event_MenuChange(MenuNumber As Integer), MenuNumber is always 0 whichever custom list I enter.

 Also, when Event_CommandLine is entered, I don't see a way to tell whether the game is going to be run or it is an attractmode demo.  I have identified what looks like a bug which I can leverage to work it out, but would be nice if it explicitly indicated attractmode.

 

[PhilA]

I spoke too soon about the list update.  Retested and sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Not going to complain about documentation - I agree - dull work!

gameex -listupdate should do it for me, thanks!