ZiNc + opengl = blank screen

[mappy24]

Hi,

I've built a new HTPC and i'm trying to get everything set up the way it was before. I'm having trouble with ZiNc, it runs great outside of GameEx, however, I have to use the OpenGL renderer since it runs much better than D3D on my system.

When launching a ZiNc game in GameEx I get a black screen, I can hear the sound playing and if I alt-tab to ZiNc I can play the game. If I run with D3D on ZiNc, it works fine but using D3D is not an option (unless anyone knows how to make it run as good as OpenGL!).

I have Hide Desktop set to NO in the advanced config. How can I get this to work?

Thanks!

[mappy24]

Hi,

I've built a new HTPC and i'm trying to get everything set up the way it was before. I'm having trouble with ZiNc, it runs great outside of GameEx, however, I have to use the OpenGL renderer since it runs much better than D3D on my system.

When launching a ZiNc game in GameEx I get a black screen, I can hear the sound playing and if I alt-tab to ZiNc I can play the game. If I run with D3D on ZiNc, it works fine but using D3D is not an option (unless anyone knows how to make it run as good as OpenGL!).

I have Hide Desktop set to NO in the advanced config. How can I get this to work?

Thanks!

Actually, alt-tab doesn't work, ignore that. If I kill the HideOS.exe process, the emulator appears. I don't have this issue with D3D in zinc, what's up?

[Tempest]

Actually, alt-tab doesn't work, ignore that. If I kill the HideOS.exe process, the emulator appears. I don't have this issue with D3D in zinc, what's up?

I think Shaunopp covered this in another Zinc thread, do a search, and I belive you will find your answer.

[mappy24]

I think Shaunopp covered this in another Zinc thread, do a search, and I belive you will find your answer.

Not sure if this is what you're referring to but I just found this thread:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?sh...entry8308

All I had on the options line was the zinc-config option, I added all the renderer configs and it's working great now.

/me is off to play Mr Driller then tackle the Model 2 config

[Tempest]

Not sure if this is what you're referring to but I just found this thread:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?sh...entry8308

All I had on the options line was the zinc-config option, I added all the renderer configs and it's working great now.

/me is off to play Mr Driller then tackle the Model 2 config

Glad I could help

[Hunk_4TH]

I'm having the same problem except for me after launching a Zinc game it shows a blank screen and then goes back to the game list any ideas?

[Tempest]

I'm having the same problem except for me after launching a Zinc game it shows a blank screen and then goes back to the game list any ideas?

Judging from hanging out here, the first thing they'll say is:

Do you have Zinc running outside of gameex?

What's your command line look like?

Post your Gameex.ini

[mappy24]

This problem continues to plague me.......opengl renderers work great in zinc but give me a black screen when opened through GameEx when full screen (the emulator is hidden by HideOS.exe).

D3D renderers open fine through GameEx but the performance in zinc is horrible and unplayable.

I tried pete's opengl2 plugin that seemed to work through gameex but it's way to fast and the wrong resolution, I coudn't find any way to alter the settings (the renderer.cfg seemed to have no effect).

HELP!!

[Tempest]

This problem continues to plague me.......opengl renderers work great in zinc but give me a black screen when opened through GameEx when full screen (the emulator is hidden by HideOS.exe).

D3D renderers open fine through GameEx but the performance in zinc is horrible and unplayable.

I tried pete's opengl2 plugin that seemed to work through gameex but it's way to fast and the wrong resolution, I coudn't find any way to alter the settings (the renderer.cfg seemed to have no effect).

HELP!!

Use Epsxe to configure your renderers. Even if you are not going to use Epsxe. It has a nice interface to allow you to configure, then you can move the files into the directory that they belong in. It has been said that this is the only way to configure opengl2. I believe that it writes information to the registry.

I have no idea what I'm talking about....I'm just a parrot repeating what I heard.

[mappy24]

OK, i've been at this for flippin' hours now and i'm on the verge of giving up. I just tried setting up zinc as a seperate emulator but wtf is zinc_loader.exe??? it's not in my zinc folder and zinc.exe appears to do nothing when launched from withing gameex.

I've read about something called taskkill.exe. Is it feasible to run taskkill to kill hideos.exe after zinc is launched?

[Brian Hoffman]

OK, i've been at this for flippin' hours now and i'm on the verge of giving up. I just tried setting up zinc as a seperate emulator but wtf is zinc_loader.exe??? it's not in my zinc folder and zinc.exe appears to do nothing when launched from withing gameex.

I've read about something called taskkill.exe. Is it feasible to run taskkill to kill hideos.exe after zinc is launched?

Zinc is a command line program. Goto DOS and navigate to your Zinc folder.

cd c:\myzinc\folder\

Then run

Zinc.exe 5

As Zinc uses a numbering system for its roms. See if it loads... If you do not have a complete romset youll have to use the gamelist switch to make sure you call the correct rom.

If you do not have a render plugin it will fail. If you dont know what that is you probably dont have it. Get it from the zinc homepage.

If you are setting it up as an emulator you can always wet showdesktop to true. If is is working with mame (same list) I never had any issues...

Anyways let us know how your setting it up, And post your config

[mappy24]

Launching taskkill.exe /IM hideos.exe before launching Zinc seems to have done the job.

I have another issue now - the screen saver keeps coming on during gameplay. Zinc isn't being detected as system activity!

I hate zinc

[Adultery]

You must not be using a dedicated cab... I just disable the screensaver because GameEx's is so much cooler.

[Tempest]

Mappy,

Unless I'm missing something, the real question is "What Changed?"

About halfway up this thread, you were happy as a clam, off to play Mr. Driller, now more problems....

Seriously....What Changed?

Did you move a file?, change a config?,re-name something,????.

I spend about ten minutes screwing something up, and the rest of the day fixing it. At least it keeps me busy.....

One thing I know for sure, "everything effects everything".

I'm not busting your balls, just trying to help, and I'll keep trying to help as best I can - Honest!

[Hunk_4TH]

Judging from hanging out here, the first thing they'll say is:

Do you have Zinc running outside of gameex?

What's your command line look like?

Post your Gameex.ini

Hmm you mean the GameEx log? I don't know about the command line but under zinc exe I have ZiNc.exe. Everything seems to be setup correctly. Under Zinc options I have --renderer=.\renderer.znc. It runs perfectly outside of GameEx any ideas?

[Tempest]

Hmm you mean the GameEx log? I don't know about the command line but under zinc exe I have ZiNc.exe. Everything seems to be setup correctly. Under Zinc options I have --renderer=.\renderer.znc. It runs perfectly outside of GameEx any ideas?

I tried to find the information on how I set up Zinc, but it has been pulled. (it was ********)

Zinc.exe ZiNc_Loader.exe

Zinc options C:\Emulators\zinc\ZiNc.exe --roms-directory=C:\Emulators\zinc\roms -- renderer=C:\Emulators\zinc\Plugins\Renderer_D3D.znc -- controller=C:\Emulators\zinc\Plugins\Controller_KB.znc

******* had created a loader for zinc, and once it was setup, you used that in Gameex.

I have all the files, but not necessarily the knowledge. I Assume that It is not ok for me to upload the Zinc_Loader.exe, any chance that you already have it?

Look in Gameex > Loaders That's where I expected it to be, but come to think of it, when it auto updated I bet it got removed.

Luckily, I had a copy in my zinc folder.

I could not help at all without the loader, Anybody else?

[mappy24]

I tried to find the information on how I set up Zinc, but it has been pulled. (it was ********)

Zinc.exe ZiNc_Loader.exe

Zinc options C:\Emulators\zinc\ZiNc.exe --roms-directory=C:\Emulators\zinc\roms -- renderer=C:\Emulators\zinc\Plugins\Renderer_D3D.znc -- controller=C:\Emulators\zinc\Plugins\Controller_KB.znc

******* had created a loader for zinc, and once it was setup, you used that in Gameex.

I have all the files, but not necessarily the knowledge. I Assume that It is not ok for me to upload the Zinc_Loader.exe, any chance that you already have it?

Look in Gameex > Loaders That's where I expected it to be, but come to think of it, when it auto updated I bet it got removed.

Luckily, I had a copy in my zinc folder.

I could not help at all without the loader, Anybody else?

Thanks for all the advice, but i'm fairly sure i've fixed my blank screen issue by killing the hideos.exe process before launching zinc so i'm happy with my setup now. To answer your previous question "what changed since it was working before?" well, northing. You see, I thought I had fixed it but I discovered today that if I opened GameEx, windowed it, then full screened it again the problem didn't occur. Previously when I was messing around I had windowed GameEx to change things then made it full screen again to test - masking the issue. I thought I had fixed it but then the next time I opened GameEx full screen then tried to play a zinc game it was hidden again, and there went most of my day today

In answer to someone elses question comment about not being in a cabinet, correct, it's a HTPC underneath a 42" plasma telly. I have the power settings set to sleep after 15 minutes so that it will wake from S3 sleep, record something from the TV tuner then return to S3 sleep again 15 minutes later. S3 sleep is extremely cool, killing all but power to the RAM and it wakes up in seconds - ideal for a media center. I also had a screensaver come on after 5 minutes, turn off the TV at 10 and send the PC to sleep after 15 mins. I've since disabled the screensaver and TV power off, leaving only the sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. The problem seems to be that Zinc doesn't register as system activity and when i'm about the 700 meter mark in Mr Driller the system shuts off

Any ideas on this issue? MAME doesn't seem to be affected - I set the screensaver etc. to 1 minute for testing, MAME carried on working but Mr Driller was lights out by 50 meters.

Cheers

Ian

[Hunk_4TH]

I tried to find the information on how I set up Zinc, but it has been pulled. (it was ********)

Zinc.exe ZiNc_Loader.exe

Zinc options C:\Emulators\zinc\ZiNc.exe --roms-directory=C:\Emulators\zinc\roms -- renderer=C:\Emulators\zinc\Plugins\Renderer_D3D.znc -- controller=C:\Emulators\zinc\Plugins\Controller_KB.znc

******* had created a loader for zinc, and once it was setup, you used that in Gameex.

I have all the files, but not necessarily the knowledge. I Assume that It is not ok for me to upload the Zinc_Loader.exe, any chance that you already have it?

Look in Gameex > Loaders That's where I expected it to be, but come to think of it, when it auto updated I bet it got removed.

Luckily, I had a copy in my zinc folder.

I could not help at all without the loader, Anybody else?

Hmm doesn't look like I have the loader I do have ZiNcGUI.exe I know that isn't going to help maybe someone else is having a similar problem and can help? I don't think uploading the loader would be allowed

[Brian Hoffman]

Hmm doesn't look like I have the loader I do have ZiNcGUI.exe I know that isn't going to help maybe someone else is having a similar problem and can help? I don't think uploading the loader would be allowed

NoLogics loaders have been pulled (And yes you cannot re-upload it)but if you have been keeping up to date on your gameex version you should have them in a loaders folder.

Are you trying to set this up in gameex as an emulator? There is more than one way to get these working ya know

[Hunk_4TH]

NoLogics loaders have been pulled (And yes you cannot re-upload it)but if you have been keeping up to date on your gameex version you should have them in a loaders folder.

Are you trying to set this up in gameex as an emulator? There is more than one way to get these working ya know

Oh I can understand that, Yea I've been keeping up to date so far. I couldn't find the loaders folder I'm sure I'm looking in the wrong spot as usual I'm trying to set it up in the advance mame configuration the roms show up under Playstation under Mame but they don't seem to work. I was going to check and make sure its set to full screen. I was having the same problem with Turbo Grafix 16 and I had to set it to full screen in the configuration file

*Edit* Looks like it was set to full screen in the config file guess I'll rule that out.

[Tempest]

NoLogics loaders have been pulled (And yes you cannot re-upload it)but if you have been keeping up to date on your gameex version you should have them in a loaders folder.

Are you trying to set this up in gameex as an emulator? There is more than one way to get these working ya know

I don't have it in my C:\Program files\Gameex\loaders folder, and I am at version9.12.

Now that I have my Gameex.ini, and Pluginultrastik.ini set to read only (Thanks Adultery!) I will let Gameex update today, and see what happens.

[Tempest]

Brian,

I updated to Gameex 9.13 today and:

The Zinc_Loader is NOT in the loaders folder. Perhaps you were wise, and write-protected yours?

Edit: I cut most of this original post out, and started a new topic. It's starting to look like I'm going to go off on a rant, and I didn't want to hi-jack this thread.

[fRequEnCy]

Brian,

I updated to Gameex 9.13 today and:

The Zinc_Loader is NOT in the loaders folder. Perhaps you were wise, and write-protected yours?

Edit: I cut most of this original post out, and started a new topic. It's starting to look like I'm going to go off on a rant, and I didn't want to hi-jack this thread.

There is another generic wrapper that i know of. Haven't tried it personally but might be worth giving a try. I looked into it to see how it works and should do the same as the other known one. It can be found here and the one you need is the Generic Command Line Wrapper 7.0 and is preconfigured for Zinc.

[Hunk_4TH]

Thanks! Has anyone tried this yet?

[Tempest]

Hunk_4th,

I've looked over alot of the Zinc threads, and here are my thoughts:

First let me warn you, I'm a long ways from knowing what I'm talking about, but hopefully this will inspire someone else.

Second this is just my opinion, and I could be way off.

1. Bad Idea for you to post in this thread, because he was having the black screen issue which appears to be common.

The standard answer for that is "don't use Open GL"

2. Your problem is different because you don't have zinc running in Gameex at all, no sound,nothing.

You get booted right out of Zinc, and back into Gameex.

3. I would say that maybe you are missing a file or something, but if it is running outside of Gameex, then probably not.

4. I think that there is something wrong with your Zinc Options

Your Zinc Options are: --renderer=.\renderer.znc.

Mine look like this:

C:\Emulators\zinc\ZiNc.exe --roms-directory=C:\Emulators\zinc\roms -- renderer=C:\Emulators\zinc\Plugins\Renderer_D3D.znc -- controller=C:\Emulators\zinc\Plugins\Controller_KB.znc

I think mine may be longer than necessary, but it works, so I'm not messing with it

I'm concerned about yours because:

1. Do you have a renederer.znc? The ones in my zinc file are renderer_D3D.znc, renderer_GL.znc, renderer_GL2.znc

2. You don't have the roms directory specified. It may not be required, what do I know?

From what I've read, it is not necessary to use the loader while running zinc as an addition to Mame, that is more for if you are setting up Zinc as a seperate emulator. Keep in mind that I do have mine set up with the loader, so my comments may not apply to you.

That's the biggest problem, I don't know what applies, because I barely got through zinc myself

Allright all you Gameex Gurus, am I right, or am I wrong?