René (QMC2 Author) was kind enough to post 2 test builds of the QMC2 frontend which have full support for the UME build posted the other day. These links were posted in the comments section of the previous article, so I’ve copy+pasted them here.
Installer: http://qmc2.arcadehits.net/Win32/qmc2-win32-0.37-SVN-r3937.exe
Archive: http://qmc2.arcadehits.net/Win32/qmc2-win32-0.37-SVN-r3937.7z (you’ll have to right-click ‘save as’ on this one)
Installer: http://qmc2.arcadehits.net/Win32/qmc2-win32-0.37-SVN-r3927.exe
Archive: http://qmc2.arcadehits.net/Win32/qmc2-win32-0.37-SVN-r3927.7z (you’ll have to right-click ‘save as’ on this one)
QMC2 is the recommended frontend for MAME/MESS/UME, and has an emphasis on ensuring the full functionality of the emulators is easy to use rather than having flashy graphics and the like.
I don’t use a frontend myself, because I still prefer to operate / develop the project from the Commandline, but for those of you who do want a Frontend it’s a good choice, and doesn’t have the stability issues which plague recent MAMEUI/MESSUI builds, although I do just think of “Queens Medical Centre” whenever somebody mentions it because that’s what most people around here are talking about when they say QMC ;-)
Hope to test it by NEXT weekend (not this one)! Which is a bit lame since I pushed for this (not alone). :)
Right now I am doing some monster moves (talking about TB) between the disks of my home server (upgraded two disks of the twelve). Then I’ll need to rebuild parity for them (I use FlexRAID – and I am a beta tester for it too). Then I’ll need to update my MAME + MESS data (pleasuredome). THEN test QMC2.
Good job though! :) In fact I expected first build for UME to be much later (like a month).
Yeah, 0.146 came a bit earlier than I was expecting too.
On the plus side, the ‘u1’ builds are usually the most stable anyway as long as nobody makes major changes right after the release. Despite major releases claiming to be the stable builds a lot of people only test when a major is released, which usually results in a lot of bugs being uncovered and bugfixes going into the u1 build. The regression tests Tafoid does are useful but don’t really account for normal usage.
more important, I would stress that QMC2 is the only frontend to support both software lists and slot options, which have to be otherwise handled from the internal UI.
I’ve meanwhile found & fixed a few things… nothing dramatic, though :).
Will create a new test-build later today!
OK, here’s the updated build:
Installer: http://qmc2.arcadehits.net/Win32/qmc2-win32-0.37-SVN-r3937.exe
Archive: http://qmc2.arcadehits.net/Win32/qmc2-win32-0.37-SVN-r3937.7z
Have fun, René
any chance for an osx build? qmake won’t work on xcode4
thank you!
Yes, I can do an OS X build, but only for i386 / 32-bit… I suppose you require / prefer x86_64, right? Or even ppc/universal?
I would have to ask our Mac OS X package maintainer to build those…
Oh, and regarding qmake and XCode 4 (well, yes, this implies Lion / 64-bit :)… I’ve made a few adoptions to the make rules in 0.36 so that XCode 4 (xcodebuild in particular) is avoided, so it can now basically also be built on Lion when Qt 4.8 is used.
BUT: this does only work with a self-compiled Qt build. Qmake from Nokia’s binary package still produces incompatible XCode output (and won’t let you do the thing w/o it).
ah i see! i’ll try to compile it myself and report back ;)
OK :)! In case you want to build/install all 3 QMC2 variants, a simple script like this one should the job then:
—
job=5
for emu in SDLMAME SDLMESS SDLUME; do
make -j$jobs EMU=$emu
sudo make install EMU=$emu
sudo make distclean EMU=$emu
done
—
Just take care that the PATH variable includes “/bin”! Otherwise add “QMAKE=/bin/qmake” on every call to make…
Also, if you should have an “old” binary Qt installation, either remove it (recommended!) or at least rename “/usr/bin/rcc” to “/usr/bin/rcc.old”. It otherwise interferes with the build (qmake somehow uses it when it’s there, it doesn’t seem to follow the PATH variable).
Brrr, no tag-like characters allowed…
/bin = “qt-installation-dir/bin”
/bin/qmake = “qt-installation-dir/bin/qmake”
:-)
@qmc2: I’m really satisfied that you use the logo I made for UME, however I’d like you to remove the gradient on the background and leave it transparent (I suppose you’re using a png file, so it wouldn’t be a problem). It just doesn’t look right this way :)
right..
ABOUT THE NEW NEOGEO PROTOTYPES
————————————————–
There are 2 new NeoGeo ‘prototypes’ circling around at the moment, and I wanted to get this mentioned and documented before people start hacking them to bits.
Both of the ‘prototypes’ are from last years 2011 releases by ‘NCI’
First there is Bang Bang Busters, the original game was by Visco in 1994, it was updated with view for a release in 2000 which never happened, finally the rights were bought for it in 2011 by NCI, and it saw a release. The actual ROM content is probably unchanged since the update in 2000, but still it’s likely to be considered a 2011 release by MAME standards.
Second there is Treasure of the Caribbean. The original prototype for this was from 1994, by Face. NCI also aquired the rights to this one in 2011, but appear to have rewritten the majority (if not the entirety) of the game code, because presumably it was too incomplete / buggy. THIS GAME DOES NOT HAVE A FULLY-FUNCTIONAL MVS mode (you start with 3 credits, service mode crashes it, and you can still pause the game during gameplay as you’d expect on an AES game) It is really designed for AES systems only.
As stated these are unlikely to be added to any official MAME / MESS build in the near future because they are considered to be 2011 releases.
NeoGeo is however open-ended in MAME / MESS because it makes use of softlists, so you could potentially put the correct entries
http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/files2012/softlistng.txt
into the (hash/neogeo.xml) softlist, and launch as-is using the softlist syntax “mame neogeo gamename” or “mess aes gamename” using any existing version of MAME / MESS / UME without recompiling, but you’ll get *no* support for that here, or elsewhere.
I only mention it in the hope that it leads to less hacked builds (downloading hacked builds from random Chinese websites always comes with the risk of some nice malware) and to ensure the unmodified roms are properly documented somewhere because having seen what people have done to other sets things get messy otherwise.
@qmc2
everything compiled perfectly but when i start one of the frontends i get:
“Abort trap: 6”
and goes back to the prompt.
@alexgizh: the logo is just preliminary, I’m actually waiting for a more suitable one that better fits to the rest. But yeah, I’ll remove the background gradient (not on the splash screen though).
@lord_muad_dib: hmm, any more information? Only “Abort trap: 6”? Does it crash before or after you’ve been asked to supply QMC2 with the MAME/MESS/UME binary?
It works fine here (and elsewhere)…
i tried running it with gdb, and it seems complaining about sdl, i have the standard sdl framework and it worked with the stable qmc2. so i don’t know.
i’ll just wait :)
When the official release works, then something’s wrong with your build (environment)… yeah, it#s probably best to wait for a new package from our Mac OS X maintainer.
I’ll be offline now… will check back tomorrow!
qmc2 – Is there a possibility to add various categories to drivers list?
Like:
Acrade -> inside mame drivers
Computers -> inside mess computer drivers
Consoles -> inside mess console drivers
Handhelds -> inside mess handheld drivers
Calculators -> inside mess calculator drivers
…
Because right now when you have everything on top it’s a little confusing to find something.
Or maybe some filters with categories?
Or some options like “show mame drivers”, “show mess drivers”?
I guess you would need an external ini to do the job. all of them are identical from the point of view of UME/MAME/MESS, so the xml output that QMC2 uses to build his lists does not differentiate between them.
Doesn’t QMC2 support “folders”?
NLS: No, it doesn’t. Categories are planned for fovorites, and “folders” support is also planned for a future release.
Regarding Mac OS X: our package maintainer has the same issues. I’ll look into it tomorrow…
But there’s support for catver.ini!
Cool, can’t wait for next releases :)
catver.ini is not bad.
BTW who maintains this file nowadays? (missed the project for a few months)
More infos + link: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/qmc2/index.php?title=The_%27ultimate%27_guide_to_QMC2#Views
For FAQ I suggest to use the QMC2 thread on the MESS board: http://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=68709&page=267
More infos + link:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/qmc2/index.php?title=The_%27ultimate%27_guide_to_QMC2#Views
For FAQ I suggest to use the QMC2 thread in the MESS forum:
http://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=68709&page=267
So after quite some time where I liked custom MAME32 builds, I will go back to the roots, pure MAME in the form of UME (which should be MAME anyway) and QMC2.
Now to find an HTPC friendly front-end too…
Keep up the good work guys.
Glad to hear it.
I know a lot of people still like MAMEUI, and the various other clones with graphic filters hacked in (which mostly haven’t quite worked right since various video updates etc. anyway) or netplay (which for the most popular one isn’t even a good solution) but the ordinary builds without the UI stuff have always been the most reliable.
I also know having to use a separate frontend / launcher is very linuxy and probably why a fair number of people don’t like that approach as much but the UI builds just aren’t very good, especially these days where half the UI features have had to be hacked out just to keep them running.
Maybe one day MAME will get a proper Window based UI of it’s own to act as a front-end and optional replacement for the internal menus (heaven knows the internal UI is cumbersome for many MESS operations) but MAMEUI didn’t fit the bill, it, like the NEWUI thing MESSdev attempted for the internal menu was too much of a Windows-specific kludge, and caused problems on other platforms when the key thing about the projects is meant to be portability and ensuring the emulator works the same across all platforms. Historically Linux hasn’t been blessed with many of the standalone emus for computers/consoles leaving a working MESS as the only solution.
As I said, personally I use the commandline, although for the more advanced MESS cases in MESS/UME it isn’t always easy to understand what you need to type even for me, you don’t really get much help on the commandline for such cases yet (it’s a lot better than it was a couple of years ago mind you) For most users QMC2 therefore makes a lot of sense.
What is the proper “policy” to have a single folder for MAME and MESS? (for UME) I mean “roms” will have all roms for MAME AND MESS for example?
I have the general sets all in one folder, with the softlist stuff sub-foldered, basically matching the structure of the emulator use
I did this before having UME mind you, so that I could always just point either MAME or MESS at the same place and have them work.
Some news about the Mac OS X builds… I guess we found the root cause of the crash (a QtDBus bug, not checking for null pointer on the D-Bus connection), which is supposed to be fixed by this simple patch:
https://codereview.qt-project.org/#patch,all_unified,15631,2
The change should be in Qt 4.8.2 (will be released soon), but it could also be applied manually on 4.8.1. Note that it only occurs on systems where D-Bus is not installed, which appears to be the case on a freshly installed (or upgraded) Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4.
A test by our Mac OS X maintainer is pending, though.
i tried this one:
http://goldensdomain.com/qmc2/QMC2-r3944-MacOS.dmg
sdl ume it loads up fine, roms do load but i get few errors on the log when the frontend tries to pick up further infos(slot, devices, etc) claiming it can’t find the mess executable(and i’m using ume, maybe there are some internal naming issues on paths)
Goldenegg (or David Ely) is our OSX maintainer, and that’s his download area.
He’s currently preparing a new build with the fix for QtDBus mentioned above, which really solved the issue…
@lord_muad_dib: there may be some log-messages I probably haven’t adjusted to UME yet… if you don’t find out yourself what’s wrong, please post (a link to) the log-file. In your case it’s located at “~/Library/Application Support/qmc2/qmc2-sdlume.log”.
OK, here’s the new “official” version for Mac OS X:
http://goldensdomain.com/qmc2/QMC2-r3950-MacOS.dmg
@qmc2
with this version all goes worse
now it instantly crashes as soon as i click on any info tab.
at least in the older build even if the tab was empty it just gave an error that qmc2 couldn’t find the emu executable, but that was it.
i’ll try to post some kind of trace, if it’s needed
@lord_muad_dib:
Yes, please post the log I was asking for above. Best would be to contact us at our mailing-list though… I’m not around here very often, and David Ely will also see your message so he can answer directly… I have no Lion system to test with.
All I can say is that it’s working nicely for him and others, so I’m surprised it crashes at your end!
The mailing-list requires subscription: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/qmc2-devel
Hi, sorry to ask such a daft question, but when “our Mac OS X maintainer” is mentioned, who’s that and where can one find the builds that he or she makes? Can’t seem to find any links anywhere :)
Thanks!
@Daniel Smedegard Buus: sorry for the late answer… as I said, I’m not around here very often.
Out Mac OS X maintainer is David Ely, see here for contact information:
http://qmc2.arcadehits.net/wordpress/about/#Dave
And here are his latest SVN builds:
http://goldensdomain.com/qmc2/SVN%20Builds/
(this link IS mentioned on the download page)
Nothing runs on my QMC2… :(
It stays in “initializing” for a while, writes this in log window (one random game as an example):
18:40:01.825: starting emulator #2, command = ..\..\mame64.exe -yiq_cc 3.597545 -rompath “\\QUASAR-ULTIMA\e$\Emulation\EMULATORS\MAME\roms” -hashpath “\\QUASAR-ULTIMA\e$\Emulation\EMULATORS\MAME\hash” -samplepath “\\QUASAR-ULTIMA\e$\Emulation\EMULATORS\MAME\samples” lvgirl94
18:40:01.864: emulator #2 started, PID = 461081760, running emulators = 1
18:40:01.866: retrieving game information for ‘Las Vegas Girl (Girl ’94)’
18:40:28.142: emulator #2 finished, exit code = 3 (fatal error), exit status = normal, remaining emulators = 0
…and then exits with no error.
Is it an issue that I use UNC paths? I make sure to use relative paths everywere.
Happens with any game. Icon is green.
I haven’t touched defaults.
(could there be MAME.ini conflicting settings? do you read that file?)
@NLS
I suggest to visit the Emuversal Bulletin Board:
http://tinyurl.com/87krabr
René is not always present on Haze´s blog.
Oh, deja-vu :)…
@NLS, I’ve answered your forum post, please see there:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qmc2/forums/forum/658600/topic/5336378