MFME Button Keyboard and Layout Shortcut Change Philosophy

[dnsmate]

I want to know cabinet creator's general philosophy when it comes to syncing buttons and shortcuts for various game layouts.   (Apologies if I don't have the right nomenclature yet...early days!)

I'm trying to learn how MFME works in detail as I'm adding MFME to an existing Vertical Arcade Cabinet (uses iPac Ultimate for buttons and LED Blinky).  I also have "some" knowledge of AHK and use it on occasion, but no expert by any means.

So I've noticed that in most Front End collections of MFME Fruit Machine Layouts, because layout designers have used a variety of shortcuts that don't all correspond the same short cut say to Reel 1, 2, 3 etc.... players often need to mouse click the layout OR somehow adjust to the different button positions (maybe through how button lamps are lit??).

So if I want to make the same button shortcuts always correspond to particular buttons on my controller, how is it normally achieved?  I can see how in MFME I can change a game's button/lamp shortcuts (I am still trying to learn how that all works and looking for in depth MFME tutorials).

So what is the general philosophy for achieving controller button harmony?  Do cabinet creators leave the original button shortcuts, or do you tend to edit each game's shortcut configuration to hammer them into alignment with your controller?  Or do you use an external configuration tool such as AutoHotKey to catch and change button presses to remapped keys on the fly?

(My collection of fruit machines will be a smaller curated list so updating each game configuration is a manageable approach.)

(For the curious I am building off of Pipmick of COINOPS work on Pub Fruit Machines Official Next 2 Add On Pack as a starting point and adapting it to Retro Arcade 2 Vertical which is my current Front End of choice for my 4K 48" vertical Arcade Cabinet build.  I'm handy at adapting some graphics, etc. but I already have it integrated and working (brilliant "mint" stuff!) - just refining how it works with my Cabinet controller buttons .... and adding MORE buttons, of course.  lol)

[dnsmate]

I guess another question to ask is for a quick answer on what the .gam file contains and if/when it is updated (or if it can be edited to achieve any desired changes).  Thanks!

[johnparker007]

Hiya mate   The keyboard shortcuts for the layout buttons are stored  inside the .fml file... the .gam file is updated when you exit MFME normally (which updates various data depending on machine, along with .ram and potentially other 'save' files).  No keyboard shortcuts are saved in the .gam file.

[Amusements]

There are only a few standard buttons shortcuts from what I have seen, and with some newer games having upteen zillion buttons, it not easy to have a standard button map, especially as each persons cabinet has a different amount of buttons and different layout. Thankfully there are 2 shortcuts allowed per button input, so you can use the same button for 2 non competing inputs.

My original button mapping was based on using a numerical keypad, and with editing over 1000 layouts to utilize the 16 buttons I use, I am now stuck with it. The one thing that really helps now with mapping a new layout, is the "Config" button in configuration. This helps to map your buttons to newly assigned inputs, after you load a pre-saved config file, and  start adding button presses in [Edit/Properties] - (press button to assign button function). When finished click the Config button, and it maps your lamps.

[MPU_FIVE]

@dnsmate This may be of interest to you... reg did a diagram of the most optimal keyboard layout to cover most machines you'd encounter...

 

 

[dnsmate]

Quick related question, but I am not sure where to post "Beginner Layout Monkey Business" questions...

I can't seem to find out how to erase a Button's Shortcut when editing/creating a Layout.  I know how to change it, and to add an alternate key, but not how to erase the one(s) that are there.  Any ideas?

Secondly, how is the button and it's associated shortcut bound to a particular function such as a Reel or Feature button (I get that this question is loaded and most likely belongs in whichever forum helps teach people how to do / update layouts for existing machines.

Thank you,

Signed "Thirst for Knowledge"

[No1Stoney]

11 hours ago, dnsmate said:

Quick related question, but I am not sure where to post "Beginner Layout Monkey Business" questions...

I can't seem to find out how to erase a Button's Shortcut when editing/creating a Layout.  I know how to change it, and to add an alternate key, but not how to erase the one(s) that are there.  Any ideas?
 

If you right click inside the shortcut box, you can then click 'clear'

11 hours ago, dnsmate said:

Secondly, how is the button and it's associated shortcut bound to a particular function such as a Reel or Feature button (I get that this question is loaded and most likely belongs in whichever forum helps teach people how to do / update layouts for existing machines.

The button is controlled from what number you put in the 'button number' box. Unfortunately button numbers are found mostly from trial and error when creating a layout so designers first need to figure out which button number corresponds to each button on a machine.

[dnsmate]

Thank you @No1Stoney that helps me a lot!

[Hotbuddha]

On 27/12/2021 at 09:40, dnsmate said:

I want to know cabinet creator's general philosophy when it comes to syncing buttons and shortcuts for various game layouts.   (Apologies if I don't have the right nomenclature yet...early days!)

I'm trying to learn how MFME works in detail as I'm adding MFME to an existing Vertical Arcade Cabinet (uses iPac Ultimate for buttons and LED Blinky).  I also have "some" knowledge of AHK and use it on occasion, but no expert by any means.

So I've noticed that in most Front End collections of MFME Fruit Machine Layouts, because layout designers have used a variety of shortcuts that don't all correspond the same short cut say to Reel 1, 2, 3 etc.... players often need to mouse click the layout OR somehow adjust to the different button positions (maybe through how button lamps are lit??).

So if I want to make the same button shortcuts always correspond to particular buttons on my controller, how is it normally achieved?  I can see how in MFME I can change a game's button/lamp shortcuts (I am still trying to learn how that all works and looking for in depth MFME tutorials).

So what is the general philosophy for achieving controller button harmony?  Do cabinet creators leave the original button shortcuts, or do you tend to edit each game's shortcut configuration to hammer them into alignment with your controller?  Or do you use an external configuration tool such as AutoHotKey to catch and change button presses to remapped keys on the fly?

(My collection of fruit machines will be a smaller curated list so updating each game configuration is a manageable approach.)

(For the curious I am building off of Pipmick of COINOPS work on Pub Fruit Machines Official Next 2 Add On Pack as a starting point and adapting it to Retro Arcade 2 Vertical which is my current Front End of choice for my 4K 48" vertical Arcade Cabinet build.  I'm handy at adapting some graphics, etc. but I already have it integrated and working (brilliant "mint" stuff!) - just refining how it works with my Cabinet controller buttons .... and adding MORE buttons, of course.  lol)

I'm trying to get this uploaded to the Arcade Punks site for CoinOPS but in the meantime I saw this post and figured I'd put it here too.
----------------------------------------------------

Hi all. I started off with Pipmick's "Pub Fruit Machines Official" MFME setup which was for another CoinOps build and began modifying it for Legends 4 Vertical. What I ended up with was a totally different setup beyond just the differences between the two front ends (such as playlist vs menu). I think this way is much simpler.

I did not include the MFME emulator executables or any fruit machine games (etc) so you would need to download those and put into the correct folders or get the v19 version stuff from Pipmick's build here (CoinOps Next 2 - Pub Fruit Machines - UK Slots - Addon from Pipmick - Arcade Punks).

But what is included is a version of the launcher which does NOT require copies of per game/rom batch files, instead you just paste the directory for each game into the collection subdirectory and you're done, it just shows up ready to play.

Things to note:

- There's an autohotkey script that somebody else wrote and I modified to work with coinops, which both handles escaping out of the games (without having it hit escape twice) and clears nag screens and the like.

- This is for a vertical build but for horizontal, just comment out the call to "rotate_screen.cmd" within launch.cmd in the emulator subdirectory. That just calls a powershell (again someone else made and I modified) which toggles the screen from 0 to 270.

MFME for CoinOPS LEGENDS 4 Vertical.zip

Edited October 26, 2023 by Hotbuddha

[dnsmate]

Interesting, and thank you.  I will have to re-visit this and try it it's been a while since I did my original MFME setup and had written a whole AHK script that was working rather well.  I got side=tracked when I realized how useful having LED Blinky working with the button layouts would be.....