Game launch waiting on video preview

[shaunopp]

Anyone else noticed GameEx waits for the Video Preview to play to completion before launching a game? I see the launching info immediately onscreen and can hear the video preview playing in the background but the game only launches after the video preview has played to completion. Not a show stopper but annoying.

[funkychimp]

Hi shaunopp,

Did you fix your problem as I am in the same position as you with the videos having to play out before the games starts.

Any help would be welcome.

Thanks

funkychimp

[Tom Speirs]

Anyone else noticed GameEx waits for the Video Preview to play to completion before launching a game? I see the launching info immediately onscreen and can hear the video preview playing in the background but the game only launches after the video preview has played to completion. Not a show stopper but annoying.

That deffinitly should not happen. Are you talking about MAME?

[Circo]

That deffinitly should not happen. Are you talking about MAME?

That's never happened to me before is this in the latest version or something? I havent turned on my cab in a couple of weeks but last time I did (middle of june) I updated gameex and did not experience a similar problem.

[Tom Speirs]

That's never happened to me before is this in the latest version or something? I havent turned on my cab in a couple of weeks but last time I did (middle of june) I updated gameex and did not experience a similar problem.

Its not the latest release. I think it must be a codec issue.

[funkychimp]

Its not the latest release. I think it must be a codec issue.

Hi Guys,

I installed the ffdsow-2005119 from the link on the GameEX site. Do I need to install a specific codec?

The video plays fine but as mentioned, the game will not boot until the video has stopped playing and you are left hanging on the Control/button layout screen until it has stopped.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

funkychimp

[Tom Speirs]

Hi Guys,

I installed the ffdsow-2005119 from the link on the GameEX site. Do I need to install a specific codec?

The video plays fine but as mentioned, the game will not boot until the video has stopped playing and you are left hanging on the Control/button layout screen until it has stopped.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

funkychimp

How long are we talking about? It supposed to stay on the control panel screen for 9 seconds unless select is pressed. I just want to make sure its not simply just that.

[shaunopp]

Hi shaunopp,

Did you fix your problem as I am in the same position as you with the videos having to play out before the games starts.

Any help would be welcome.

Thanks

funkychimp

Mine recently stopped doing this. I'm not sure if it was one of the new releases or something else. The only settings I changed were the snap/video display value to 'slower' under tweaks/performance and turning off the cp viewer. Neither of these seemed to help immediately but now it's launching without waiting on the video. Leads me to believe it was one of the recent updates that fixed it for me and not settings.

[funkychimp]

Hi Guys,

Shaunopp, yes I have just turned the control panel screen off and it loads the games straight off.

TSpeirs, I did not know you could skip the control panel screen, I really should read the instructions, I will switch the CP back on and try that.

Thanks guys

funkychimp

[shaunopp]

Hi Guys,

Shaunopp, yes I have just turned the control panel screen off and it loads the games straight off.

TSpeirs, I did not know you could skip the control panel screen, I really should read the instructions, I will switch the CP back on and try that.

Thanks guys

funkychimp

Ok, I just also confirmed that it's the GameEx built-in CP viewer that causes the problem. I reactivated it and GameEx waits for the entire video to play before launching the game. I had planned on using Headkaze's CPViewer eventually although I see there's been some compatibility problems with that also. Bugger!

[funkychimp]

Ok, I just also confirmed that it's the GameEx built-in CP viewer that causes the problem. I reactivated it and GameEx waits for the entire video to play before launching the game. I had planned on using Headkaze's CPViewer eventually although I see there's been some compatibility problems with that also. Bugger!

Hi shaunopp,

Yes I found it was the CP viewer as well, shame as I like to soo the button config before I play.

I will check that plugin out though and try the CP viewer again on the next version.

Thanks

funkychimp

[bkenobi]

I highly recommend CPWizard over the built in CP Viewer. It does require a bit of time invested to build the custom control panel, but then the benefit is apparent immediately!

[shaunopp]

I highly recommend CPWizard over the built in CP Viewer. It does require a bit of time invested to build the custom control panel, but then the benefit is apparent immediately!

Yeah, I ditched the built-in awhile ago and was going to use CPWizard but I keep seeing threads on misc. issues like the memory leak etc. Also, I didn't realize it couldn't be used with the console emu's which is a bummer.

[bkenobi]

It can be, but GameEx currently doesn't send the hook for it. I expect that Tom will have that in a near term future release. CPWizard is very stable and with all the people using it, HK has an excellent base for finding bugs. So far, there haven't been but a couple found and he's resolved them very quickly. I wouldn't avoid using CPWizard for fear of issues...it's simply awesome!

[Tom Speirs]

The issue should be fixed in the next release. Available shortly.

EDIT: OK, it should be fixed in 9.42. Can you try?

[shaunopp]

The issue should be fixed in the next release. Available shortly.

EDIT: OK, it should be fixed in 9.42. Can you try?

Not sure if this was a fix for the built in Control Panel viewer or CPWizard but I tried it again with the built in and get the same result only this time without sound.

[Tom Speirs]

Not sure if this was a fix for the built in Control Panel viewer or CPWizard but I tried it again with the built in and get the same result only this time without sound.

Im not sure if this is actually an issue, when you say its waiting for the video to finish. I can see no reason why it would do that. How long does it wait? Its supposed to stay on the screen for 9 seconds, unless you press select. Im a little confused by this.

Thanks.

Tom.

[shaunopp]

Im not sure if this is actually an issue, when you say its waiting for the video to finish. I can see no reason why it would do that. How long does it wait? Its supposed to stay on the screen for 9 seconds, unless you press select. Im a little confused by this.

Thanks.

Tom.

It definitely takes way longer to launch a game with the internal CP Viewer enabled on my machine. I timed robotron with it on an off and it took five times as long to load with the internal CP viewer on, basically it's instantaneous with it off and about 20 seconds with it on. It's like it's waiting for the preview video to play completely to the end before it launches the game, I can hear the video sound and see my CP image onscreen while I wait. With it off, the game loads instantaneously and doesn't wait on the video. May just be a snafu of my configuration or machine, I'm running Vista on 2.1ghz dual core AMD with a gig of ram.

[headkaze]

Can I suggest something else? With CPWizard you can actually batch export your CP as bezels for every game in Mame (to it's artwork folder). You also need to patch Mame using the bezel patch from the CPWizard website. But once this is done, when you press the pause button in Mame it will show an overlay (which is really a bezel) of your CP ingame. You don't have to run CPWizard in the background to use this feature. It uses no memory and shows instantly while in Mame. If all you want is to be able view controls in Mame then this is the way to go. Another benefit is you can actually use the editor to make it look like your own CP. CPWizard will also take into account any special key mappings you may have so the buttons will show the correct labels.

[bkenobi]

If you do it that way, be aware that it won't automatically update if you adjust your controls. If you change anything in the MAME config, you will have to regenerate the CP image in the artwork directory. If you adjust the default controls, you will have to remake ALL images. I personally am opting for keeping CPWizard running in the background since my config isn't 100% stable ATM.