Run on secondary monitor option?

[kingb33]

I have a dual monitor setup. What exactly is the run on secondary monitor for? Other than the obvious.....

Is there another reason to have it / use it?

thx

[Tom Speirs]

  kingb33 said:

I have a dual monitor setup. What exactly is the run on secondary monitor for? Other than the obvious.....

Is there another reason to have it / use it?

thx

Some people have a TV as the second monitor.

[Tempest]

  kingb33 said:

I have a dual monitor setup. What exactly is the run on secondary monitor for? Other than the obvious.....

Is there another reason to have it / use it?

thx

I wrote a progam to display graphics on a secondary monitor... somebody needs to try it. Want to be a guinea pig? LOL

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?sh...pic=6476&hl=

[kingb33]

  Tempest said:

I wrote a progam to display graphics on a secondary monitor... somebody needs to try it. Want to be a guinea pig? LOL

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?sh...pic=6476&hl=

Hey Tempest,

So like if i play a MAME game i can have it automatically display the Marquee display on the second monitor automatically? If that what it can do then heck yeah I'l give it a whirl! Is that what it can do?

I was hoping Headkaze was going to add this very cool function to CP WIZARD, but since when you bring up his CP interface it pauses MAME games.

[Tempest]

  kingb33 said:

Hey Tempest,

So like if i play a MAME game i can have it automatically display the Marquee display on the second monitor automatically? If that what it can do then heck yeah I'l give it a whirl! Is that what it can do?

I was hoping Headkaze was going to add this very cool function to CP WIZARD, but since when you bring up his CP interface it pauses MAME games.

It will pretty much do anything you want... Just check out the other thread, (I have a screenshot) and let me know if you need help.

I think I will add a GUI to it, so you can select what you want in any window... shouldn't be too hard...

[kingb33]

  Tempest said:

It will pretty much do anything you want... Just check out the other thread, (I have a screenshot) and let me know if you need help.

I think I will add a GUI to it, so you can select what you want in any window... shouldn't be too hard...

[Tempest]

Ok Kingb33,

I made a special version just for you, so you don't have to wait for me to make a gui. I included two screenshots in the .zip file, so you can see how to set it up in GameEX. If GameEX is in C:\Program Files\GameEx, you won't have to make any changes to the script. If it's not, you will need to adjust the path to your GameEX.ini in the MameScript.ahk, then compile it. If you do not have autohotkey installed, you will need to install it to compile. After AHK is installed, all you have to do is right click on Mamescript.ahk, and select "Compile Script"

If you want to show an image while in Gameex, then setup your gameex config as shown in the "Tweaks Peformance.jpg" if not, don't.

You shouldn't change anything in the Iview_32.ini files, just run them, size them the way you want, then close them down.

If you have any questions, let me know... I'll even adjust the path to GameEx.ini for you if you need me too!

Marqueemaker.zip

[kingb33]

  Tempest said:

Ok Kingb33,

I made a special version just for you, so you don't have to wait for me to make a gui. I included two screenshots in the .zip file, so you can see how to set it up in GameEX. If GameEX is in C:\Program Files\GameEx, you won't have to make any changes to the script. If it's not, you will need to adjust the path to your GameEX.ini in the MameScript.ahk, then compile it. If you do not have autohotkey installed, you will need to install it to compile. After AHK is installed, all you have to do is right click on Mamescript.ahk, and select "Compile Script"

If you want to show an image while in Gameex, then setup your gameex config as shown in the "Tweaks Peformance.jpg" if not, don't.

You shouldn't change anything in the Iview_32.ini files, just run them, size them the way you want, then close them down.

If you have any questions, let me know... I'll even adjust the path to GameEx.ini for you if you need me too!

Marqueemaker.zip

Hey Tempest!

Awesome thx! I'm totally interested in your project.....even since I set up my dual monitor (about a year ago) I've been dying for someone to come up with stuff in the emulation scene to properly utilize the the coolness of having a second monitor. This guy on the 3D ARCADE forum about a year ago came up with this awesome script for VP that will show the back glass on the second monitor when you launch a table. It's pretty awesome. It utilizes MS Power Point Show. So you actually can add effects to it. But I really wanted a solution for MAME games too. To display the Marquee. My 2nd monitor "sits above my primary monitor" hooked into the wall. So you could see why i wanted the marquee. It would be kinda like standing in front on the cab.

I'll give the new version go early this afternoon and report back!

Thanks!

[kingb33]

3 Things:

--1)

Your .ini files have:

OpenDir=C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\marquees\

OpenIndex=1

[MRUD]

Dir1=

Dir2=C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\marquees\

Dir3=C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\cpanel\

I'm assuming it just change it like this? To point where my marquees are?

OpenDir=K:\BACKUP\EMULOADER\marquees\

OpenIndex=1

[MRUD]

Dir1=

Dir2=K:\BACKUP\EMULOADER\marquees\

Dir3=K:\BACKUP\EMULOADER\marquees\

Do i need to make any other path changes? My GameEX install directory is the default. So the script should be fine?

--2)

Also, by default, my GameEx setup / install in advanced config under advanced has this in "Advanced Mame Settings"

-device_video_output fullscreen -quiet -dir_rom "K:\BACKUP\EMULOADER\roms"

in your screen shot you have it "blank"

Do i take this out?

--3)

For some odd reason now when I launch GameEX my main monitor shows the GameEx logo that's in the Marqueemaker/My images folder and I can hear GameEx in the background.....?

Thx!

[kingb33]

edit: sry dbl posted

[Tempest]

  kingb33 said:

3 Things:

--1)

Your .ini files have:

OpenDir=C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\marquees\

OpenIndex=1

[MRUD]

Dir1=

Dir2=C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\marquees\

Dir3=C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\cpanel\

I'm assuming it just change it like this? To point where my marquees are?

OpenDir=K:\BACKUP\EMULOADER\marquees\

OpenIndex=1

[MRUD]

Dir1=

Dir2=K:\BACKUP\EMULOADER\marquees\

Dir3=K:\BACKUP\EMULOADER\marquees\

Do i need to make any other path changes? My GameEX install directory is the default. So the script should be fine?

You shouldn't have to change anything in the iview_32.cfg files. My script is very basic, and assumes that your marquees are in your Mame\marquee directory. If your Marquees are in a different folder, then I will have to change the script. I will read the path out of the Gameex.ini, to make sure they are right.

  Quote

--2)

Also, by default, my GameEx setup / install in advanced config under advanced has this in "Advanced Mame Settings"

-device_video_output fullscreen -quiet -dir_rom "K:\BACKUP\EMULOADER\roms"

in your screen shot you have it "blank"

Do i take this out?

Are you using Advanced Mame?, if so, that will need to be addressed too. I will also check that in the Gameex.ini, and make adjustment as necessary.

  Quote

--3)

For some odd reason now when I launch GameEX my main monitor shows the GameEx logo that's in the Marqueemaker/My images folder and I can hear GameEx in the background.....?

You must have downloaded and installed I_view_32 in each folder, Top, Bottom, and Fullscreen, right? (I'm thinking yes)

Run the Iview.exe in the MarqueeMaker\Fullscreen folder, and drag the Iview window to your secondary monitor, and then maximize it. The next time it is run, it should stay there. I added this just to have something to display while in Gameex. You also need to run the Iview_32.exe on the MarqueeMaker\Top Folder, and the Iview_32.exe in the MarqueeMaker\Bottom folder at the same time, drag them to your secondary monitor, and then size them the way you want them to look. They also should appear in the same posistion when run again. if not, then make sure the INI's are not write protected.

I appreciate your patience, and will plug away as long as you need me too. It works well with my setup, but I obviously did not anticipate all the things that could go wrong (Story of my life!)

I will work on it, and update this when I'm done.

[kingb33]

  Tempest said:

You shouldn't have to change anything in the iview_32.cfg files. My script is very basic, and assumes that your marquees are in your Mame\marquee directory. If your Marquees are in a different folder, then I will have to change the script. I will read the path out of the Gameex.ini, to make sure they are right.

Are you using Advanced Mame?, if so, that will need to be addressed too. I will also check that in the Gameex.ini, and make adjustment as necessary.

You must have downloaded and installed I_view_32 in each folder, Top, Bottom, and Fullscreen, right? (I'm thinking yes)

Run the Iview.exe in the MarqueeMaker\Fullscreen folder, and drag the Iview window to your secondary monitor, and then maximize it. The next time it is run, it should stay there. I added this just to have something to display while in Gameex. You also need to run the Iview_32.exe on the MarqueeMaker\Top Folder, and the Iview_32.exe in the MarqueeMaker\Bottom folder at the same time, drag them to your secondary monitor, and then size them the way you want them to look. They also should appear in the same posistion when run again. if not, then make sure the INI's are not write protected.

I appreciate your patience, and will plug away as long as you need me too. It works well with my setup, but I obviously did not anticipate all the things that could go wrong (Story of my life!)

I will work on it, and update this when I'm done.

Hey Tempest!

No, I'm not using AdvanceMAME, so don't worry about that. Let me give it a go again based on your feedback and I'll report back.

Thanks!

[kingb33]

Hey Tempest,

Hey I got this to work! You know it was? "Use AdvanceMAME" need to be set to "yes" by default it is set to "no" I believe. At least my install is.

Couple of things.

1)

If I want to show the Marquee and "something else" like say controls or the games flyer instead of that Mame logo how would I do that?

Or what if I want to show "just" the bottom window? do i just delete the "top" folder?

What type of file formats will it recognize? I'm wondering if I made a custom marquee in FLASH would it recognize the .swf file? That would be sweet....!

2)

This is the bad thing i ran into.....

When i launch GameEx now it minimizes itself to the taskbar since i installed this. It's seems to be random, but it happened 5 out of like the 7 times I was doing all this.

So what happens is the iview32 GameEx logo will go fullscreen on my second monitor and then gameex will launch but it will sitting be on the taskbar....and u can hear GameEX playing in the background. I then have to click on it in the taskbar to launch it to go full screen.

Other than that, this is awesome Tempest! I'm surprised people aren't all over this! Maybe because they don't have a second monitor. It REALLY adds to the MAME experience! THANKS!!!!

[Tempest]

  kingb33 said:

Hey Tempest,

Hey I got this to work! You know it was? "Use AdvanceMAME" need to be set to "yes" by default it is set to "no" I believe. At least my install is.

Yep, I should heve made the red box in the screenshot bigger to include it. Sorry

  Quote

1)

If I want to show the Marquee and "something else" like say controls or the games flyer instead of that Mame logo how would I do that?

ATM, you can replace the MameLogo.png in the My Images folder, to do one image. I would have to modify your script to do more than one image from a file, I am working on a more user friendly version that will alow you to make choices such as this. It shouldn't take too long...

  Quote

Or what if I want to show "just" the bottom window? do i just delete the "top" folder?

I will address this as well...

  Quote

What type of file formats will it recognize? I'm wondering if I made a custom marquee in FLASH would it recognize the .swf file? That would be sweet....!

Run Iview_32. Goto Properties>File Extensions It lists all the extensions it can handle. Yes, it will do .swf. You do not have to check the boxes to use them however, the boxes are for if you want to make Iview the default viewer for those types. You may want to try it, it loads much faster than WMP.

  Quote

2)

This is the bad thing i ran into.....

When i launch GameEx now it minimizes itself to the taskbar since i installed this. It's seems to be random, but it happened 5 out of like the 7 times I was doing all this.

So what happens is the iview32 GameEx logo will go fullscreen on my second monitor and then gameex will launch but it will sitting be on the taskbar....and u can hear GameEX playing in the background. I then have to click on it in the taskbar to launch it to go full screen.

Hmmm ... Does it work ok with Mame?

  Quote

Other than that, this is awesome Tempest! I'm surprised people aren't all over this! Maybe because they don't have a second monitor. It REALLY adds to the MAME experience! THANKS!!!!

Yeah it suprised me too....

It will be alot better when I get done re-writing it, So maybe it will catch on...

Your Welcome!

[kingb33]

Hi Tempest!

I don't know what you mean by this response about Mame. Work with mame?

I QUOTED:

2)

This is the bad thing i ran into.....

When i launch GameEx now it minimizes itself to the taskbar since i installed this. It's seems to be random, but it happened 5 out of like the 7 times I was doing all this.

So what happens is the iview32 GameEx logo will go fullscreen on my second monitor and then gameex will launch but it will sitting be on the taskbar....and u can hear GameEX playing in the background. I then have to click on it in the taskbar to launch it to go full screen.

YOUR REPONSE:

Hmmm ... Does it work ok with Mame?

[Tempest]

When you run a game in Mame, does the game end up in the background too? or is it working properly?

[kingb33]

  Tempest said:

When you run a game in Mame, does the game end up in the background too? or is it working properly?

1)

oh no, the games run fine.....its only when you first launch GameEx itself. It will just throw itself on the taskbar until you click on it to go fullscreen. After that everything is all good.

this only started after using iview32...

2)

Is there a good resource site to get high quality marquees? Now that I can really use the marquees for something id like to get some better quality ones. Is there a way to make iview32 to display the images at a higher quality? I noticed some of my high quality marquees look rather poor thru iview32. I saw the option to make it do that and I already have it checked by default. Is there maybe another way too?

[Tempest]

Some of those marquee images are pretty small. Use a different program to open them without magnification, and you will see what I mean. I have Iview set up to resample them when resized, which is the best it can do. Anytime you blow something of that poor of a quaility up that big, it's an issue. The files that I have from the CPWizard are 1.5 megs each, compared to a few hundred K for the Marquees. I don't know of a better set of images....

Maybe a lower resolution on your monitor? Let me know if that helps.

[kingb33]

Hi Tempest,

Is there a way to to this for Visual Pinball too? So the backglass displays on the second monitor? The solution i'm using currently requires a lot of work and requires me to add things to the script of each table. Your solution would be much much easier.

Again thx for doing this, as I said, I've been waiting for along time for someone to finally pull this off! How is that GUI coming along?

[Tempest]

That would be interesting, I'll have to look at it when I'm done with the GUI. Are the Backglass images named the same as the rom?

The Gui's coming, I don't have anything else to do today, so I will spend the whole day on it. I have it reading all of the information it needs from GameEx.ini, but I am stuck on the GUI itself, it's only my second one, and the first one was pretty basic.

It should be pretty cool though, you will be able to point and click, and everything SHOULD be set up for you, no messing around with files.

[bkenobi]

Damn it Tempest! You know that half the fun of emulation is hacking around inside unintelligible, undocumented, cryptic files to try to get something basic working. This GUI is just one more step to kill off the fun!

[fRequEnCy]

  Tempest said:

That would be interesting, I'll have to look at it when I'm done with the GUI. Are the Backglass images named the same as the rom?

The Gui's coming, I don't have anything else to do today, so I will spend the whole day on it. I have it reading all of the information it needs from GameEx.ini, but I am stuck on the GUI itself, it's only my second one, and the first one was pretty basic.

It should be pretty cool though, you will be able to point and click, and everything SHOULD be set up for you, no messing around with files.

I'm soooo proud!

Look at him go! LOL.

If you need help then let me know! Again I'm an AutoIt scripter but it's not too hard to translate between the two languages. I'm pretty impressed with how much interest you've taken on in learning to do some of this stuff. Keep it up Tempest!

[fRequEnCy]

  bkenobi said:

Damn it Tempest! You know that half the fun of emulation is hacking around inside unintelligible, undocumented, cryptic files to try to get something basic working. This GUI is just one more step to kill off the fun!

LOL. I hear that! But that's for guys like us! But you forget about all those other people who don't know much about emulation and need it as simple is it can get.

[Tempest]

BK - If you just want to have fun, just redo all those 5 & 6 button cfgs by hand!

BK and Frequency - I hear you guys! I thought when I posted my script, at was all pretty straight-forward, just make a couple of path changes, and off you'd go. Oh well, I'm still having fun, just in a different way...

[bkenobi]

I thought the fact that hacking the files without a GUI made us 73313 or something. That way we could claim we were cooler than the other kids on the playground. Bah, I guess we can help though if that's really how you want to go with this...