i know i know... yet another zinc thred!

[geodeath]

Hello all!

With the great level of support by the community here, i was able to finish my custom mame (And others) cab in no time, except for one bitch emu.

which is Zinc.

Using the latest emulation support from the 101 reasons to use gameex thread (which adds zinc support among others) i noticed it looks for zinc_loader.exe which is included in a zip file in another thread by nologic.

However that specific zip file uses xpadder as the input method and i dont want it, since i already have an xarcade joystick (the dual one) which will not work with xpadder.

How can i customize that version of zinc so it uses the xarcade instead of xpadder? I tried running it and it complaints that it cant find xpadder.

Although i could donwload it and install it, i know that it isnt compatible with the xarcade, since the xarcade is seen as a keyboard.

Apart from this emu, all other emus are working fine, i only need to add xarcade configurations to be complete (at which point i will create a journal and share it with all of you of course)

thanks in advance for any input.

I tried configuring it myself, given so many years of expertise in computers, programming and emu stuff, but its really a headache.

[Nologic]

Heh I'm really getting to hate that emu.

I'll put together a stripped down version for you...but you'll have to use Zinc's default keyboard bindings as I don't know how to program the Xarcade.

[Brian Hoffman]

Id use autohotkey to remap the xarcade controls to zincs defaults.

Just a suggestion

[Nologic]

Okay this should be stripped of every thing thats not required.

[geodeath]

you sir, must be joking!

Is it me, or does anybody else think that the Zinc devs should award you a Zinc Support Medal? lol

I have to try it out.

You didnt really have to make it, directions should be fine. Not complaining (could i?) but that was too good, too fast.

Thanks for the replies, i will check it out and let you know.

Oh, and please, let me know how you configure the emulator, so i dont bug the whole forum for a topic so much discussed.

I mean, where can i configure keys? If i cant do this with the plugin included, how can i use another one?

This emu is like an alien compared to others

[geodeath]

Id use autohotkey to remap the xarcade controls to zincs defaults.

Just a suggestion

Not just a suggestion. The only really good solution i think.

A program like that was what i had in mind when i found out that the controls are (probably) hard coded. thanks!

[Nologic]

Well all I did was delete some lines of code & a few dozen files...no real effort there.

As for configuring stuff...well the PDF I did up prior should cover everything I know of...just skip the whole altering bindings & Xpadder bit as it doesn't apply.

I don't think you can alter the keyboard bindings...but I'm not certain...I also don't know of any other keyboard plugin...there just wasn't a lot of development done for this emu...and the dev is currently working on Mame and doesn't appear to be likely to return to Zinc anytime soon.

[geodeath]

I was finally able to use zinc through gameex with that latest pack you made.

I also used autohotkey as a means to remap the xarcade buttons to the zinc layout.

However, before i start going deep to find a way to auto-shutdown autohotkey after the zinc game exits

is there a simple way to do this? (i found a way to auto start it, through gameex setup wizard - also launch)

Since the xarcade controls are going to be messed up for other emulators if the autohotkey layout if still present..

[DJ Infinity]

You people are good. I have given up all hope of getting Zinc to run in Game Ex so my buttons will lite. I can use it outside of game ex fine. I dunno maybe I am just to dumb to get it to work

[Brian Hoffman]

I was finally able to use zinc through gameex with that latest pack you made.

I also used autohotkey as a means to remap the xarcade buttons to the zinc layout.

However, before i start going deep to find a way to auto-shutdown autohotkey after the zinc game exits

is there a simple way to do this? (i found a way to auto start it, through gameex setup wizard - also launch)

Since the xarcade controls are going to be messed up for other emulators if the autohotkey layout if still present..

You can download PSKILL.exe from the PSTOOLS suite.

Convert the AHK (autohotkey) script to an EXE and launch that EXE in the launch before dont wait field.

then use PSKILL.EXE MYAHKSCRIPT.EXE in the launch after feild. Then once the emu is exited it kill the script.

[geodeath]

Why dont you just do what i did then?

Grab the file above, unzip it into your emulators folder, and configure your zinc emulator through the emulation pack you can find at the "101 reasons..." thread.

Then the only thing you will want to do is to map your keys. Do that with autohotkey which is great.

And also, i found a way to close autoclosekey, using just xp stuff:

Put into Launch After field in the Zinc emulator settings this:

taskkill /IM AutoHotKeys.exe

and you are done!

thanks everyone, i managed to do it!

Brian: I didnt really saw your post before writting mine! cheers though!

[Brian Hoffman]

Heh Its cool.

Good job

[shaunopp]

I was finally able to use zinc through gameex with that latest pack you made.

I also used autohotkey as a means to remap the xarcade buttons to the zinc layout.

However, before i start going deep to find a way to auto-shutdown autohotkey after the zinc game exits

is there a simple way to do this? (i found a way to auto start it, through gameex setup wizard - also launch)

Since the xarcade controls are going to be messed up for other emulators if the autohotkey layout if still present..

How about just changing the bindings in the Controls folder? There's only 71 games, a find/replace in a good text editing program will change them in less time than it takes to mess with autohotkey. Am I missing something here? That's how I setup my ZiNc games, maybe the xarcade is different. If pushing a button on your xarcade triggers 'x' then it's easy enough to change button one in ZiNc to be 'x' with the files in the Controls folder.

[geodeath]

How about just changing the bindings in the Controls folder? There's only 71 games, a find/replace in a good text editing program will change them in less time than it takes to mess with autohotkey. Am I missing something here? That's how I setup my ZiNc games, maybe the xarcade is different. If pushing a button on your xarcade triggers 'x' then it's easy enough to change button one in ZiNc to be 'x' with the files in the Controls folder.

didnt quite thought of that.

Will have a look later, but i already did it anyway.

thanks anyway!

[Nologic]

Well actually you can setup AutoHotKey launching from within the loader, and AutoHotKey termination from the process killer that accompany's the loader...which lends its self to running custom bindings per game....if you can figure out how to get AutoHotKey to read from INI files, and get it to take CLI options.

Source code for the loader is in that archive...so you can tinker with things your self...or if you can provide me with enough info I can probably make the changes myself.

I haven't programmed in AHK other wise I could do everything for you...so you'll have to get your hands dirty if you want to go this route...heh or wait till I get my todo list que down to something more reasonable to where I can take a look at AHK to learn its inner workings.

Anyways good to hear you got things working smoothly as is...now its just a matter of how anal you want to get about things.

DJ Infinity -

Exactly what problems are you running into and whats your setup...I'm sure we can get it up and running.

[geodeath]

i am quite happy the way it works.

I can provide my own AHK file for everybody else using the x-arcade.

I will certainly do it, and autohotkeys is really easy, it gave me no problem at all.

When i get home from work i will post it.

[Nologic]

yeah be sure to share as I'm sure someone will come to find a need for it.

[Tempest]

I got zinc to run today using your Zinc basic, thanks Nologic!

I would be interested in an Ipac version, and would be willing to help if it doesn't take too much thinking... not that I'm not willing, just not sure I'm qualified!

It looks like rotation for zinc is broken for now?

If I remember right, I fixed Dahne by using the rotation feature in Gameex, but it doesn't seem to help with zinc.

I am using onboard intel extreme graphics video, which has a option to rotate the display (Which is handy since I can run Windows without hurting my neck), however that doesn't seem to make a difference either.

Any Ideas?

[Nologic]

Your welcome.

Yeah I'll see about tossing one together...well for your end of things it would be just a matter of making the configs for the I-Pac & providing a graphic or document of some sort showing out your buttons are laid out....well the graphic is a guess as I don't have any experience with control panels.

Rotation I think works but only with D3D & OGL...OGL2 doesn't support it...but you would probably know better than I...as I haven't screwed with it in over a year or so. Now if those renders don't actually support it...I'm totally clueless as to how to fix it.

Maybe someone else will be a bit more in the know about it, and can lend a hand.

[geodeath]

excuse my absence (i said i would post the ahk file yesterday) but if the ipac is in any way similar to the xarcade (that it works like a keyboard, meaning that presses on joysticks and buttons generate keyboard button key presses) you can easily configure it using AutoHotKeys which is a freeware utility, there is also posted above a way to launch it with zinc and end it when you exit the emulation! I will post the file later, i just didnt even bother with the cab yesterday after work.

[DJ Infinity]

excuse my absence (i said i would post the ahk file yesterday) but if the ipac is in any way similar to the xarcade (that it works like a keyboard, meaning that presses on joysticks and buttons generate keyboard button key presses) you can easily configure it using AutoHotKeys which is a freeware utility, there is also posted above a way to launch it with zinc and end it when you exit the emulation! I will post the file later, i just didnt even bother with the cab yesterday after work.

I am a little lost as to why you are using autohotkey? when you use dafreak's zinc GUI the is a section to use winterblast's plugin to map buttons. My point is there has to be a way to call it from the command line. I wish that damn frontend generated a log like Daphne that shows the acutal command line that is sent to the emulator. That would help out a whole lot.

[Nologic]

Winterblast is only for gamepads...X-Arcade uses a keyboard encoder...so the use of AHK is to simply map Zinc's standard bindings to something that can be used by the X-Arcade....which I think is limited to 4 custom key bind layouts.

[DJ Infinity]

Winterblast is only for gamepads...X-Arcade uses a keyboard encoder...so the use of AHK is to simply map Zinc's standard bindings to something that can be used by the X-Arcade....which I think is limited to 4 custom key bind layouts.

Really? Interesting cause I used it to map my single & co2 panels I built using a I-Pac base. I checked use winterblast's plugin and mapped my buttons using my arcade stick.

[Nologic]

Well that was my understanding of it...if it plays well with keyboard encoders hooray.

Have you ever got it to play nice with the CHD games?

[DJ Infinity]

Well that was my understanding of it...if it plays well with keyboard encoders hooray.

Have you ever got it to play nice with the CHD games?

yep I can get all games to run in dafreaks gui. Is there no simplified way to get this running in Game Ex? without a bunch of wrappers and the like and extra applications? I have cfg files for the games. I've heard it been said if you can get it to run outside of game ex then you should be able to get it to run within game ex. Since Game Ex has native built in support for zinc is there a way to get da freaks gui to dump a command line then edit the Game Ex config file with basic options then all should run fine since cfg files are already made?