The Dragon King

Mame Hooker 3.6

HowardC — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:59:48 GMT

This version fixes some of the things I didn't fully implement last time as well as adding new functions for all the wacky ideas we've been throwing around over at boyac.

From the readme:

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What's New
==========
3.6
Added global pulse speed for ledwiz as it'll be useful for some exotic hardware setups.
Added Looping command for mamehooker script files.
Added Advanced Flagging support, you can now use not only the current ouput's state, but ANY output's state as a variable.
(See Explaination of Scripting language section for details.)
Added Loop From Script command, which loads an animation in an independant, infinate loop
Added Kill Loop command, to stop it. :)
Fixed the "keepaspect" option in display files for non-png images. It should work great now.
Added better image support... now if your machine can view it in explorer, it's supported!
Added a command to output the display file to an image.
Added "buffer math operation command", for more robust data manipulation.
Added log command, which allows you to write the contents of the debug window to file.
Added generic file operations commands... you can now copy/rename files and delete them.

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On a side note you might be wondering why I haven't been releasing the source. The fact of the matter is mame hooker is in a state of flux right now and I'm constantly adding/deleting huge chunks of code. Once things slow down again I will release source code for the latest version.

That being said, mame hooker is about done. There is a digit generator for display files that I've yet to release and many of the display files themselves will need to be updated, but as far as the exe itself is concerned, I can only see one, maybe two more updates in it's future. It does everything I wanted it to do and barring some code changes to add support for other emulators, I consider it finished.

In leu of working on the display files and digit generator some more, I've decided to take time off from it and work on the mame source code. I've been making some progress
with hooking up outputs and I want to get it submitted before mame is updated anymore.

The Status of my Status

HowardC — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:48:44 GMT

You would think that with the recent release of mamehooker and the ton of display files I did I would be done wiht it for a while. Unfortuantely I'm not. First off, I've added a ton of new features that'll extend mamehooker's usefulness even further so a new version of the app is a given.

Also if you've looked at the screenshots for the display files you'll notice that for the games with digital scoreboards, the digits are often distorted and/or the wrong color or style. The distortion was my fault... I added a "keep aspect" option to display files, but never fully implemented it. Now it works so that much is done. As for the digits these were always meant as a place-holder for better, more realisitc digits that can be generated via an app. This is extremely useful as mame outputs the bit-shifts you'd use to light a real display instead of actual numbers and letters so it is very hard to make digit images unless you know all the possible combinations. The app is almost done and you'll be able to take a source image of a digit and use it to make all your digits.

On top of that if you've been following this thread:

Here

You'll have noticed that I've buried my head into the mame source again and have been making some real progress at getting outputs hooked up. It has also lead to even more mh features out of necessity. Looping of scripts will be implemented and you'll have much more power in terms of data manipulation. Also it looks like we may be able to implement a sort of solution for displaying display files on your portable devices!

The mame source code changes are important to me though. I really think mame's output system has much more potential than driving artwork and leds, but the only way to prove it is to start hooking up some of these more exotic devices. My changes are already outdated as I made them to the 136 source and 137 was just released. I want to try to get them out before u1 is released if at all possible.

This means that mamehooker stuff could be put on hold for a while. I'll probably go ahead and get this latest release out within the next day or so, but everything else is going to have to wait until I can at least get the opwolf/opthunder and revx driver changes submitted.

My Loss of Sleep is your gain!

HowardC — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:00:29 GMT

Couldn't sleep tonight so I decided to do one of those missing display files, Seawolf II

Check it out:

I Think she turned out pretty nice. I managed to get all the instruction card text in there, along with all the lamps and a good bit of the bezel artwork. More Importantly I think it looks pretty tasteful.

Anyway, go download it in the display files section.

Enjoy!

A WIP about a WIP

HowardC — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:15:55 GMT

On the recently added mamehooker display files section you'll see that I've added a wip at the top of the page. Basically as you know, I've taken the artwork files that Mr. Do and other have created and altered them cosmetically and functionality-wise to work as a mamehooker display file. If you go to his site, go to the ingame artwork section and sort the artwork by clicking on the LP (lamp) flag, you'll see every single officially created mame artwork file that has driver controlled animated lights.

As you can see, I've gotten most of them, but before others try to do the ones I haven't and/or bug as to why I didn't do the others, I thought I should post a wip. Anyway go to the mamehooker display files page to check it out.

Also note that the table for downloads on that page is still a little wonky. Don't worry, I'll fix it. Webpage design isn't my thing. ;-)

The mamehooker section still has a few additions, mainly the examples page and I'll do that this week. I'll also go about releasing a new version and adding the final features I want in the app. This app might very well be the very first emu-related application I "finish."

Mame Hooker Display Files are Out!!!

HowardC — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 04:28:49 GMT

Looking to your right in the mame interop section you'll find the all new display files page! Display files are used in mamehooker to display animated artwork on a second monitor, just like mame, but without the game itself. All of these display files are based on Mr. Do's! official artwork files so be sure to thank him for allowing me to use them as a base. You'll see that I've added 15 displays in total, which is practically all of them. The ones I haven't added were left out because the mame driver has bugs, the original artwork file has bugs, or it isn't practical to add them.

The page is a tad rough, but at least you can download them.

Here's a preview of the gorf display file:

I have some more, but they aren't ready for release due to what I said above.

Enjoy!

Mame Hooker 3.5 Is Online!

HowardC — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:19:14 GMT

Ok the release I've been talking about for the last week or so is out.

New Features: (directly from the readme.)
-----------------------------------------

What's New
==========
3.5
Added Png support for the displays. (Sorry no transparency.)
Added the ability to use full paths to images in .dis files.
Added keep-aspect option to display files. (Not fully finished yet)
The "%rom%" flag now works inside display files.
Combine those four and it means you can easily make a default.dis that displays your artwork (marquees, flyers, ect) on a secondary display.

I've included two in the displays folder. One displays the marquee fullscreen, and another displays the marquee, cabient image and flyer image.
Understand though that since I don't know where you keep your artwork you MUST modify these before they will work.

Added Generic HID support, meaning if you have the documentation you can control ANY HID device!
For those of you who like to screw around with stuff, I've included scripts that allow you to control the dream cheeky missile launchers!
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As promised the new display files and other things regarding mamehooker will be released as the week goes on. That section of the site shoudl be fully updated by monday and then I can go on to other apps that need attention.

Of Missile Launchers and HIDs and other things... (Mamehooker wip)

HowardC — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:36:09 GMT

I finished what will be the next and possibly final version of mamehooker that actually adds new features. This is because the latest thing I've added is generic HID support! For you non-programmers out there, HID devices are basically generic serial (usually usb or bluetooth) devices that you can talk to via code. Every single device that mamehooker supports is a HID device so that should let you understand just how popular they are. I haven't subjected you to having to send the raw byte commands because that would be cruel, BUT I thought it'd be nice to add generic support for a bit of "future-proofing".

Translation:

If I stop working on mamehooker and a new device comes out a smart programmer type can add support to mamehooker via scripting.

I tested it on the simplest usb device I own, a dream cheeky missile launcher.

So far tests are good as I had full control over the device. I went ahead and added dream cheeky scripts to the program so their would be an example of how to do it. I chose this device because it's so simple any idiot could understand what's going on and with two axis and a single switchable output, all with limiting switches, it might prove to be the cheapest possible interface pcb to an afterburner cockpit should we ever get the outputs hooked up in mame. :-)

Btw during my time away I wrote a full-fledged, fully skinnable missile launcher controller for this device which allows you to record and playback motions as well as control multiple devices at once or one at a time. It's the best software for the devices I've seen and unfortuantely I haven't released it ANYWHERE. I'll add a misc section to the site and upload it eventually.

Anyway, this and the new display features were all I wanted to add this version, so expect mamehooker 3.5 to be out tomorrow. The new page with examples, the "official" mame output list and the new display files will appear little-by-little over the course of the week.

The plot thickens....

HowardC — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:27:21 GMT

I got ahold of Mr Do. The beatmania issue was an oversight on his part. It was one of the first output enabled pieces of art he did and wasn't that familair with the game. He told me that he plans to get better images of the game and re-do those, so I'm gonna hold off releasing the beatmania display files until he is done.

We also discussed one of the games with mislabeled outputs (atari football) and he told me that the outputs were screwed up at the driver and it also effects a few other atari sports games. On top of that he reported the bug and it's went unfixed since 08! It sounds like I might have to put my amature mame dev hat on again and fix some inputs.

I've also found some other driver errors while doing this, I'll list them for documentation purposes.
========================================================================================
afterburner (I not II): outputs aren't hooked up.

operation thunderbolt: gun solenoids still labeled as leds

various games with scoreboards: sometimes the digits are numbered right to left (not a huge issue)

subroc 3d: digit numbering is completely and totally screwed up, no logic to the numbering

turbo: digit0 and digit1 don't do anything. They are probably there for the numeric tach, which doesn't work apparently.
========================================================================================

Anyway, I'm rounding the bases on these display files and all the ones I can release are pretty much ready. Expect a new page with the finished display files to appear soon!

Is BeatMania THAT unpopular? Or is it just artwork files in MAME?

HowardC — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:44:16 GMT

As you all know I'm currently working on display files for mamehooker. I've pretty much finished the actual display files so tonight I was going down the line and "hooking up" each display file by adding scripts to each game's ini file. I started to work on beatmania when I noticed that something was wrong with the original mame artwork file (which is what I use as a base for all displays). Beatmania has both blue AND red lights... I know this because I've played a real machine before. The mame artwork files only have the blue lights. On top of that there are seperate outputs for left and right lights because it is a 2 player game. Again, this isn't how it's hooked up for mame, even though mame properly has all the outputs defined, they just aren't used in the artwork files.

This seems like an error to me, but their might be some reasoning behind it I don't know about, so I've contacted Mr. Do. He's the expert so he should be able to sort it out.

I also found some issues with other artwork files as well, but they are minor and I'm not sure if they are bugs or not.

But the question arises..... the beatmania artwork files haven't been touched since early 2008, so nobody noticed the problem?

So I ask my original question. Is beatmania THAT unpopular? Or is it just artwork files?

Please Comment.

Mamehooker WIP

HowardC — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:20:44 GMT

I posted some info on what will happen next on the site and then nothing....

So I thought I better post everything's status. The reason I haven't worked on the site or released a new version of mamehooker is simply because I've been busy making display files. Display files for mamehooker can display animated artwork on a dual screen setup just like mame's artwork files, but with all the stuff moved to the secondary screen. I implemented this just before I left a few years back but didn't really release any display files because at the time dual display support had just been implemented in mame and I didn't know how the artwork would be handled. As it stands, mame currently supports artwork files with multiple "views" and each monitor can display a different view. You'd think this would make the display feature of mamehooker obsolete, but unfortuantely this is not the case. If the game in question has a video display(s) then every view MUST have the video display shown on it. This means slowdowns on all but the fastest machines as the game gets rendered twice.

But enough technical data. Long story short, Mr. Do and Friends have been making in game artwork for mame for quite some time now and they also tend to make artowrk for games that had external lamps/scoreboards/ect as soon as mame supports them. In total we have around 50 artwork files for mame that support lamps or 7 segment displays. Since the number is so small I've taken it upon myself to convert them all. (Or at least all that make sense to do.) All the artwork is re-arranged to fit well on a 4:3 display as large as possible. I've currently got all of them done but maybe 4 or 5 in terms of the display files. I've have to go back and hook them up vis scripts though and add in credit for the original mame art authors as well. All-in-all I'd say I'll be done by the end of this upcoming week for sure, hopefully sooner. After that I'll release a new version of mamehooker very soon, update the mamehooker section with all the info I intend to add and then I'll consider that peice of software "done" barring any bugs and set it aside to work on the next thing.