[APP] CPWizard v2.35

[Lawrence]

I forgot to mention before as well. I also get the same Hitotext error as the fellow above. Deleting the file got rid of the problem as well. That file is a compiled script, trying to write something, isn't it? I suspect that is probably the problem (Vista doesn't like programs writing stuff to the Program Files (x86) directory.

[headkaze]

I forgot to mention before as well. I also get the same Hitotext error as the fellow above. Deleting the file got rid of the problem as well. That file is a compiled script, trying to write something, isn't it? I suspect that is probably the problem (Vista doesn't like programs writing stuff to the Program Files (x86) directory.

Seems there is still not enough error checking in HiToText so it can fail gracefully when it encounters a non-compatible .hi file. If you can make a screenshot of the error I can post it for Fyrcrypts to take a look. The way I'm using HiToText nothing is being written by it so it should not be a permission issue AFAIK.

Actually it might be easier to just post the .hi file and then I can take a look at it myself.

[Lawrence]

The new update fixed the analog control problems. Looks nice now. Thanks a bunch headkaze.

Also, I don't know if you did anything -- but the hi2text problem has also gone away.

Finally, a minor suggestion/feature request -- would be nice to have an option to not display title text in brackets (like GameEx). Personally I find it cleaner to not have that stuff there -- tends to confuse guests as well.

[headkaze]

Thanks for letting me know Lawrence I don't always get to hear feedback when things are working! Sometimes I just assume that when people are quiet they're happy LOL

With the HitToText thing sorting itself out I always try to grab the latest version so perhaps it was a bug that Fyrecrypts fixed.

Anyway I like your suggestion about the brackets and hopefully remember it next time I do a release, should be easy enough to add.

[Time Pilot]

Hi guys. So, I'm finally getting around to setting up CPWizard and it is awesome! I've roughed out the layout for my CP and set one of my admin keys to bring up CPWizard. So far so good.

Now the trouble seems to be that I cannot get the label to display on the button, and the button remains grayed out in both preview and when running with Gameex when running a trackball game. Nearly all of the buttons on my CP are connected to 1 of four Ultrastik 360s. I found a post indicating that this may be an issue, but it wasn't clear.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Invincer]

Hi guys,

I have a custom CP layout created from CPwizard and it looks awesome. At first it came up perfectly before launching MAME (through GameEx), and then the MAME game loaded fine. I started playing around with the options (was trying to see if there was an option to make it display a little longer before launching the MAME game). Somehow in the settings however, I must have mucked something up because now it does not display at all before a game, only if I pause the game in MAME. I tried changing options and even adding command line switches to the GameEx line where the path is put in in the GameEx adv config. Any idea how to get back the CPwizard pre-game-launch display (with about 10 seconds would be good also, which is what I was trying to get it to do to begin with)? Thanks.

[Tom Speirs]

Hi guys,

I have a custom CP layout created from CPwizard and it looks awesome. At first it came up perfectly before launching MAME (through GameEx), and then the MAME game loaded fine. I started playing around with the options (was trying to see if there was an option to make it display a little longer before launching the MAME game). Somehow in the settings however, I must have mucked something up because now it does not display at all before a game, only if I pause the game in MAME. I tried changing options and even adding command line switches to the GameEx line where the path is put in in the GameEx adv config. Any idea how to get back the CPwizard pre-game-launch display (with about 10 seconds would be good also, which is what I was trying to get it to do to begin with)? Thanks.

The thing that turns off the control panel, is when the controls.ini path is changed to something invalid. You cant currently change the timeout. Its hard coded currently at 9 seconds, so not far off.

[Invincer]

Thanks Tom,

Will double check the paths in CPWizard and GameEx when I get home. 9 seconds? Really? Seemed more like 5, must count the load time, or maybe because there are so many things on the control panel it can be dizzying and the 9 seconds seems like half of that... would be nice to increase it to 15 then. Hopefully some day in the future there may be an option to change how long it displays before MAME launches. Thanks.

[Invincer]

Any other reasons might be causing CPWizard to not show the panel before the MAME game is launched? All the path to the wizard and gameex are correct.

[headkaze]

Do you have it turned on in the GameEx Setup Wizard?

[Invincer]

Hi Headkaze, (Happy 4th of July!)

Everything is yes on setup; I played with the options a bit more and after turning off the selection of exit on menu (or something like that); it started coming up. However, now it comes up with an error saying "HiToText has stopped working: A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." I then have to click the close program button and then the control panel comes up. Funny thing is, I said okay fine, I will unselect the option for high scores. ... and then it still gave me this error anyways. I had this once before on my HDTV and don't remember how I got it to stop popping up the error, so I will search the posts and see if anyone else has encountered it. If I did twice on two different machines, it has probably been addressed already. Thanks.

[dezblack]

I've gotten this to work perfectly in Mame, however I tried turning on the example for project64, made sure the paths were all correct, and mapped a key. I think I may be missing something, because when I press the mapped key when using the emulator, nothing happens. Is there a faq or guide somewhere that might help me out that focuses on the profiles section of the program?

[headkaze]

I've gotten this to work perfectly in Mame, however I tried turning on the example for project64, made sure the paths were all correct, and mapped a key. I think I may be missing something, because when I press the mapped key when using the emulator, nothing happens. Is there a faq or guide somewhere that might help me out that focuses on the profiles section of the program?

Actually that area of CPWizard has been neglected alot. Some emulators such as Project 64 don't like to be minimized. It does this wierd thing where it's window splits into two. I don't know why I have a Project 64 example because I'm guessing most emulators behave normally when you minimize and maximize them. But I haven't played around with it for a while sorry. I did want to improve this feature but I was hoping that other people could help get profiles made up for all the emulators that do work and then figure out how to get the rest working. Then there is also the fact that there are no official databases for emulators that show the controls for each game although I did start creating one based on data I had gotten from allgame.com.

CPWizard an of course show a layout based on data sent from the command line, so there is always that method to show the controls if the emu has issues being minimized.

[dezblack]

personally, I was just going to make a single static image of one of the console controllers along side my CP controls. It would have matching overlays on each to show which button was mapped to what. I was just really liking the idea of pressing a mapped button to make the image actually appear as a quick visual referance.

[headkaze]

CPWizard v2.3 Released

- Multi-Layouts

- Sub Screen Display

- Auto Show

- Advanced Layouts

This is quite a big update done over the weekend adding some features I've been promising for a while now. Thought it was about time to put them in.

The first new feature is Multi-Layout support which means you can have layouts with multiple screens. Just name your layout with a " (n)" (including leading space) at the end of the filename and you can use the joystick to rotate through them by moving left and right. Eg. "My CP (0).xml", "My CP (1).xml", "My Cp (2).xml" etc. This is for people who have complex panels that require lots of labels. You can split your panel up into sections or show multiple controls such as gamepads on seperate screens.

The second new feature is Sub Screen which can display layouts on a secondary monitor. This can be used in conjunction with Multi-Layout's which will rotate through the screens while MAME is running (and other Emulators but haven't tested it yet). You can display any layout including the new Advanced Layouts (more on that below).

Auto Show allows CPW to show itself when MAME has been detected. You no longer need to send CPW command line args for it to show before MAME. Now it will detect MAME has launched, minimize it and show the CP for a set period. After the set timeout it will hide CPW and maximize MAME. If you press a button while it's showing you can exit back to the menu or set it to close (check out the Data tab in Options for configuring this as well as in Display options).

Finally Advanced Layouts allow for more complex layouts that include information such as Hall of Fame stars, status bars, display info (like the built in GameInfo). You can also display images such as snaps, titles, cpanel's, marquee's etc by using special built in image types (Eg. IMAGE_CABINET, IMAGE_CPANEL, IMAGE_FLYER, IMAGE_ICON, IMAGE_MARQUEE, IMAGE_PCB, IMAGE_PREVIEW, IMAGE_SELECT, IMAGE_SNAP, IMAGE_TITLE). You can move and size them as standard Image objects but when displayed will replace the images for the current game. These can be used in conjunction with the Sub Screen and Multi-Layout features to have whatever info you want displaying on a secondard monitor.

One thing that didn't quite make it into this release is a feature I plan for the future and that is for people with secondary monitors that want the full CPW menu available at all times. The Sub Screen feature will eventually be expanded to support the full menu system using custom defined controls. This would probably be most practical to control the menu using the shift feature of the IPAC so you can hold a key and use the joystick to browse the menus on the secondard screen while MAME is running.

If you have any problems please post your full CPWizard.log (and perhaps temporarily put the log in Verbose mode to get any additional info).

[dezblack]

Thanks headkaze! I cant wait to take her for a spin

[Tempest]

Sounds exciting HK. I have been wanting to update my cab for quite awhile. I should have time to do it soon, I look forward to playing with this.

[bkenobi]

Nice! I probably won't upgrade til it's through beta, but this sounds really cool. It will be nice to simplify the launch command for MAME since not all emulators are set up to use CPW correctly anyway on my setup.

[headkaze]

Nice! I probably won't upgrade til it's through beta, but this sounds really cool. It will be nice to simplify the launch command for MAME since not all emulators are set up to use CPW correctly anyway on my setup.

I remembered why I don't release beta's much anymore because noone bothers to downloading until it's out of beta meaning I don't have anyone testing the program! So I'm gonna take it out of beta and just deal with issues as they come along. I did test it quite a bit myself so I think it should be okay. Any problems just post a log

[bkenobi]

Oh hey! A new full version. I'll try it out right away.

[headkaze]

Oh hey! A new full version. I'll try it out right away.

Thats more like it!

[Tempest]

I was going to beta test, but now that it's released, I'll wait till the next beta.

[bkenobi]

I thought you might say "I was going to beta test, but now that it's released, I'll wait till the next beta".

[Tempest]

I thought you might say "I was going to beta test, but now that it's released, I'll wait till the next beta".

You are starting to slip BK. Please re-read my previous post.

[bkenobi]

Good one! No one will ever know the truth.