or8ital's HyperSpin Helper Software - 2nd / 3rd Display Controller

[or8ital]

I should receive another video card in the next few days which will allow me to complete the marquee part of this. This is all working, just being lazy on the finishing touches and putting together the install program. I might have something soon for people to test.

[DonCorleon]

Cant wait dude. Looking forward to testing (if im allowed)

[or8ital]

Absolutely!

[or8ital]

see below.

[or8ital]

I've made an alpha version available to test for Gold Members. Go to the ftp site, uploads, or8ital and download the "HyperSpinHelper" folder. Read the README.TXT. Report any bugs or suggestions here. If someone can record a good video of the program that would be great too. A couple notes:

- You are running this at your own risk. I am not responsible for any harm or loss this would cause. (I don't expect it to but who knows??)

- Everything should be documented in the README.TXT file

- The marquee will show but its not setup to show game specific content yet. Want to make sure everything else is working before I begin replicating things.

- I've not tested this on a machine other than the one I programmed it on. It very well could blow up right away. This is the very first alpha version.

- The instructions say to stack and left justify the displays. This is very important, otherwise it wont work. This is what that means:

Good luck!

PS: Also if an artist would like to help with graphics and layout that would be appreciated. I plan to improve the looks of the program the best I can. Just looking to she how it works for folks before I invest time in that.

Also,here is a new video of it. Not that great because I can't zoom back far enough with my phone but gives you a bit of an idea.

[sandman7793]

Mame nothing happens, Nintendo crashed the program. Question: How do I stack and justify left? And does the screen resolution on second display make a difference? My main display is 1360 x 768 and my second display is 1280 x 1024.

[or8ital]

Mame nothing happens, Nintendo crashed the program. Question: How do I stack and justify left? And does the screen resolution on second display make a difference? My main display is 1360 x 768 and my second display is 1280 x 1024.

Thanks for the feedback. Below is how to stack and left justify the displays. That might be why the mame controls are not showing. The resolution should not matter but the placement of the monitors does. (EDIT: there does seem to be a slight bug if the second screen isn't widescreen. The select game image doesn't look right. You can replace the image with a 4:3 image and it would fix it).

Do you get an error on Nintendo or does it just close?

[or8ital]

I might have to do some debugging. It does appear on some resolutions nothing shows for some reason. Others it works fine.

EDIT: Oops not a bug. When I changed the resolution Windows re-arranged the windows. But that probably confirms the problem you had with MAME was the windows not being stacked and left justified.

[sandman7793]

Ok got it!! Never knew u could do that with the screens. Picture shows correctly. It kinda makes my screen glitch when all is happening and changing. Looks good though I like it. Thanks for the alpha version to test

[or8ital]

No problem! Any luck with the other systems or is it still crashing?

[sandman7793]

I didn't even think to try Nintendo again I guess I just assumed it would work. Its force closing and when it does half the emulator is on the other screen.

[sandman7793]

Edit; screen resolution was wrong on emulator but I just tried changing it and it still force closes Hyperspin helper.

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: CLR20r3

Problem Signature 01: hyperspinhelper.exe

Problem Signature 02: 1.0.0.0

Problem Signature 03: 5144a5fa

Problem Signature 04: HyperSpinHelper

Problem Signature 05: 1.0.0.0

Problem Signature 06: 5144a5fa

Problem Signature 07: 1a

Problem Signature 08: 5a

Problem Signature 09: System.NullReferenceException

OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: fd66

Additional Information 2: fd663b386c5ff6490cc52756ce50af40

Additional Information 3: 7070

Additional Information 4: 7070b1927ce750d6afcf056abb15a6f8

not that this tells you anything but that's what pops up when it force closes.

[or8ital]

That's helps. I think it is having trouble finding the default.xml file in the controls folder. Can you double check that it's there? Otherwise you may have added a nintendo.xml file and its blank? (Unlikely).

The program has multiple level defaulting when it can't find things. If there is no controls file for the emulator it defaults to the default.xml file. If the emulator has a file but the game does not have an entry in the file it looks for a game called "default" and displays that info.

[or8ital]

Also can you try Super Nintendo if possible to see what happens?

[sandman7793]

I'm retarded, I didn't put a xml for Nintendo I just used what I thought was yours, but yours was Super Nintendo. Did you say that it should use default if there's no file for that system. My default.xml is in there but if I use a system I haven't created a xml for it will crash the program.

[or8ital]

I must have a bug where it's not finding it for some reason. If you copy default.xml and name it the same as the Nintendo emulator (I think it's Nintendo Entertainment System.xml) then Nintendo should work (hopefully).

[sandman7793]

ok ill check it out when I get home im at the fair right now. ill post results.

thanks for the help

[or8ital]

Its fixed, new version uploaded. It actually had to do with the genre image. It was looking for a lower case d in default and the file has it as an upper case D. oops! Thanks for the help troubleshooting!

[sandman7793]

Cool ill download it

[DonCorleon]

Works as described if setup how explained in the readme file.

2 points to note.

1. Im not sure if its a resolution issue but when it goes back to the game select screen after playing a game it is still partially showing in the background as in the pic below.

2. I have the screens setup as described and have it working.

However,I disconnected the third monitor and had it so that the second screen is above the main. i tried to get the controls to show on screen 2

I disabled the marquee screen in the settings.xml but it does not show. if i change it so the monitor is below it works........ just food for thought as i know people will ask about this....

[or8ital]

For #1, I need to fix that. It is related to different resolution. I will need to either letterbox the image or have 3 images for 16:10, 16:9, and 4:3 monitors. .

For #2, the program always assumes, in windows, that the controls screen is below the main. You can physically put it above the main but it will be weird using the mouse. I suppose I could try to give a setting for the order in the future.

Thanks for the feedback and testing! Any ideas for changes? Besides finishing the marquee?

[or8ital]

#1 above is fixed. You can download the latest copy.

[sandman7793]

Ok heres wher im having issuses

Atari 2600

Nintendo64

SG-1000

Sega CD

Sega 32x

Sony Playstation

Nintendo Gamecube

And Triforce running wiiware games

What happens is either it only shows black screen with one orange line or it just glitches real bad. Playstation is the worst, I have to force quit Hyperspin helper in process to gain control back.

I will need to check some more things like resolutions and stuff. Emulators run fine without second monitor attached (in full screen). EDIt: this is with new download but had same issues with old one.

[or8ital]

I will check them out.

[or8ital]

I know I had a glitching problem with one of the emulators when the resolution of the emulator wasn't setup to match the resolution of the screen I was running it on. You may want to double check that.

Edit: I tried Gamecube and it works for me no problem. I would double check the resolution for that emulator. I'm not sure I have any of these other emulators setup. I will have to see what I have working to try them out.

what hardware are you running on?