Twin Cabinet Setup

[Fursphere]

I've been working on a project off and on for a long while now.   I've got a Daytona Twin cabinet that I've built for playing racing games.   I've got it working with twin games for the most part, but the front end has always been lacking to me.  (LaunchBox/BigBox currently).   (If you're curious, you can see the beast here - https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,167512.40.html  I haven't updated the thread in a long time though)

While in the front end, it very much feels like two separate machines, not a true "twin linked" cabinet.   LB/BB does not support linking up attract mode, even with plugins (devs don't expose the right api functions - and the direction that project is going is to become the worlds best metadata editor - actually being used as a frontend is taking a back seat to priorities).  

So my question (use case if you will) is this:  (natively or with plugins?)

- Can HS2 be setup so while in attract mode, it can sync up two HS2 installs (master/slave).  So they 'spin' together in sync (master remote selecting a game on slave)

- Can HS2 launch games together (master remote starting a game on slave) (bonus - slave remote starting a game on master?)

- Retain the ability to be two independent cabinets / installs - so players can choose independent single-player games (less of a priority, but would still be nice)

I'm not a developer (but I can kinda fake it at times).   I've looked at MANY other front-ends, and this seems to be a feature that's just not considered (understandable, given the assumed small user base - not sure how many folks out there have twin cabinet setups).   I could see this being used for twin racer setups as well as twin light-gun cabinet setups (time crisis comes to mind).

Anyway, thanks for reading!    

[gigapig]

Passed your post over to the Devs.

[Fursphere]

thank you!

[fr0stbyt3]

I have been summoned. 

So - This is an incredibly interesting use case. We CAN do this but it would take a few changes. We already have the API protocols for this. As long as the machines in question are on the same physical network - launching games together and syncing up attract mode is possible. The issue would be perfect sound sync across both systems. Load times, pc resources, and network latency could all cause it to be off just a little.

This would also take some work to make sure the installs were exactly the same. But again, doable.

That being said - we're in a major push for stability and getting ready to bring on more users in the coming months. Keep me up to date on your progress. Once we wrap up with this push, I'll see what I can do to help you along with a plugin. I'll likely open source it so that users can learn from it and possibly help you with it if i'm not always available. 

[Fursphere]

Awesome.   I will get HS2 installed on the daytona and get some basic games setup (teknoparrot or something easy), then start fooling around with the plugins (with chatgpt's help - because I'm a noob when it comes to coding).  

And I totally get the concern about sound.   Having two machines in attract mode and being 1ms or 2ms out of sync screaming "Daaaaaaaaaayttoooooooooonaaaaaaaa!" would be hilariously painful.  Maybe there is a way to mute the secondary machine in attract mode to prevent that unfortunate scenario from happening.    

[fr0stbyt3]

I was thinking of mute as an option or you would so something fancy where the main machine controlled speakers on both sides and only when a game launch was triggered it would get independent sound. 

I could probably get you set up with enough code to where you could chatgpt your way through any changes you would need. 

[Fursphere]

That would be amazing.   

On my two stand up arcades, I've got them setup (with AHK, Parsec, and a USB sharing app) so with a single button press on a Stream Deck - Cabinet 2 "joins" Cabinet 1 as players 3 and 4, with the displays mirrored.   So four playing games can be played across the two cabinets.  Since the ipac ultimate i/o boards are a single USB device, this gets LEDBlinky (on cabinet 1) in control of the LEDs on cabinet two for a full four player LED button experience.   Only thing lacking is the LCD marquee on cabinet 2 isn't controlled by cabinet 1, so I just have it display a static image using ifranview.   Basically the two cabinets between one stretched cabinet.  

The sound delay was something I experienced with early attempts, thankfully parsec handles that pretty well locally. 

Steering wheels (I have all Fanatec gear) and twin linked games are completely different ballgame.  I got HS installed on the primary cabinet, working on the secondary cabinet.   I have some feedback about the install wizard..  I'll post that in an appropriate place.