Screensaver problem

[Vynce]

The screensaver is not starting for me. It never starts automatically and when I select the Start Screensaver option the screen blanks very briefly then redraws the main menu. I do not have MAME configured or installed. Here are my screensaver settings:

Attract Audio Mode: Pause playlist audio and run MAME with audio

Attract Mode Timer: 4 minutes

New Game Every: 10 minutes

Play Videos Too: Yes

Game to Video Ratio: Just play videos

Videos Path: D:\Games\Emulation\Commercials

Only Favorites: No

Play Exit Sound: No

Also Other Emulators: No

Mute Emulators: No

The videos are the EmuMovies commercial pack in avi format.

I've attached my log file - I selected the Start Screensaver option several times during this run of GameEx.

log.txt

[Vynce]

I'm still having trouble with this problem. Could it be because I don't have Mame setup?

[headkaze]

It should work without Mame installed perhaps it's a bug? Need Tom to check that out.

[enoch]

It may depend on what you have the screen saver set to. For example, mine is set to play Mame games, while continuing the mp3 track I have selected for the fe.

[Vynce]

I've tried all four settings for Attract Audio Mode and it doesn't make any difference. I don't know what else to try. Does anyone have the screensaver working with videos only? It seems like this mode of operation is supported since the Game to Video Ratio has the Just play videos option.

Perhaps the screensaver is detecting some type of input and is exiting as soon as it starts. Is there any way that the reason for exiting the screensaver could be written to the log file? So if the space bar is pressed, it would write something like "Screensaver exited due to keyboard input: space". I have mouse and gamepad input disabled and keyboard set to DirectInput.

[Tom Speirs]

I'm still having trouble with this problem. Could it be because I don't have Mame setup?

Yes, that's exactly why. Sorry for not clearing this up earlier.

[enoch]

Well, people should fully set up things like the main emulators they're going to use first. But I do think some things in the tutorial would help being explained.

[Vynce]

Is there any possibility of this being changed? This is a console-only setup and I'd like to be able to use the screensaver .

I tried setting Disable Mame to No in the Enable/Disable Features section, then I set each of the Show XYZ Games to No in the Advanced Mame Settings. It didn't make any difference. How much would I have to setup the Mame stuff to get the screensaver to work?

Thanks

[enoch]

Oh, my bag (as it used to be that, you know, like a 'bag' in cards, before this 'bad' stuff came alone). Never woulda thought about doing only consoles. Definitely for the request thread.

[Adultery]

Couldn't you install MAME and just not run any ROM sets for it, or run one of the Public Domain ROM sets from the MAME web site just so there's something to run? I think GameEx always starts with a MAME rom and this seems like a quick fix to me. The screen saver would work that way, no? I haven't tried it, I'm merely suggesting.

[bkenobi]

Couldn't you install MAME and just not run any ROM sets for it, or run one of the Public Domain ROM sets from the MAME web site just so there's something to run? I think GameEx always starts with a MAME rom and this seems like a quick fix to me. The screen saver would work that way, no? I haven't tried it, I'm merely suggesting.

I'm sure that would work. But, if you have no intention of playing MAME games, then you shouldn't have to install it. Agreed that it should go in the feature request thread though.