Prevent CPWizard from Minimizing MAME

[gooch]

I realize CPWizard is intended to Pause MAME, take a screen shot, and minimize MAME while CPWizard is displayed. But I have CPWizard loading to a second screen (my marquee screen) when I hit the Show Button and I don't want it to pause or minimize MAME. I am able to turn off the pausing, but I can't figure out how to keep it from minimizing. I know it's not a video card issue because I can Alt Tab to MAME when this happens and sort of force it to display MAME on my main screen while the CPWizard CP display is on my second screen

I'm using CPWizard in minimized resident mode on Windows boot, and use HyperLaunch to trigger a 30 second display when the game loads without issue.

Thanks in advance.

[Fettsvett201]

I also would like to know for the exact same reasons

[gooch]

I figured it out tonight coincidentally.

1) I have an AHK startup script for HyperSpin that I added this line so it's resident in memory.

Run C:\Arcade\Utilities\CPWizard\CPWizard.exe -minimized

2) I add the below to my AHK exit script for HyperSpin

Process, Close, CPWizard.exe

3) Use these CPWizard settings under the MAME tab to keep it from detecting anything in MAME. If it detects or initiates a pause it minimizes.

4) Set the displays the way you want them under the Display tab in CPWizard. Mine is displayed on the second screen and goes directly into the CP display rather than the menu (I don't need the other options). A cool effect is that it covers up HyperSpinHelper (which controls my marquee) and then flawlessly closes itself and rexposes HyperSpinHelper.

5) I set HyperLaunchHQ to these settings so it would send a command to launch and display CPwizard upon launch, display for 30 seconds as long as a quit key like Enter is not hit, and not pause before loading the module.

6) Edit your MAME AHK Profile under C:\Path-To-HL\HyperLaunch\Profiles\AHK\MAME.AHK. This example below uses the Z key as a toggle button between loading CPWizard and the Enter key (the Enter key exits CPWizard). It will display it for 30 seconds unless someone hits the Z key again. I'm just learning AHK so if anyone has a more efficient way to do this be my guest

z::
{
Toggle:=!Toggle
If Toggle
	{
	Run, C:/Path-To-CPW/CPWizard/CPWizard.exe -minimized -timeout 30000
	}
Else
	{
	SendInput {Enter}
	}
Return
}

7) Finally, I found that if CPWizard was displaying when I exited a game it did not automatically change back to marquee display while I scrolled through games, a feature I have with HyperSpinHelper. I first tried the option in HLHQ to exit CPWizard on game exit but it gave me some problems, probably because I'm doing this a little differently than it was intended. I ended up editing C:\Path-To-HL\HyperLaunch\Lib\User Functions.ahk and adding the below to the code so it ran a Minimize command upon HyperLaunch exit. This results in 2 CPWizard.exe processes being loaded in memory upon exiting and loading a new game, one larger and one only a couple of KB, but it never loads more than 2 even after repeatedly launching games.

; Use this function to define any code you may need to stop or clean up in every module on exit
StopGlobalUserFeatures(){
Log("StopGlobalUserFeatures - Starting")
Run, C:/Path-to-CPW/CPWizard/CPWizard.exe -minimized
Log("StopGlobalUserFeatures - Ending")
}

[Fettsvett201]

Awesome. Ill have to try it out when the other monitor comes.

[gooch]

Awesome. Ill have to try it out when the other monitor comes.

I had some problems with the step 6 AHK script spawning too many CPWizard.exe processes if it didn't load right away and house guests got impatient and hit the z key many times. I'm working on a anew step 6 AHK script that identifies the number of CPWizard processes running and takes different actions based on the count. ex - if there is only 1 it loads the Control Panel on the second screen, if there are 2 then it sends the z key (configured as my CPWizard exit key, in lieu of a toggle), and if there are more than 2 then start killing processes. I just have to sit down and work on it.

[Fettsvett201]

WHen you complete it, do you mind posting it? I would love to use it

[gooch]

That's the plan