FLaRe85's Plugin Manager v0.9.3

**FLaRe85** · February 14th, 2004

After much coding and even more testing (thanks guys

), I think we're finally ready to unveil the next version of Plugin Manager. Only a few months have passed since the initial release, but I have managed to pack boatloads of added functionality into this new version.

You are now dealing with a full-featured front-end application for the most popular PSX and N64 emulators. PM v0.9.3 has the ability to save and load (even automatically based on the game being run) the configurations of your PSX and N64 plugins and emulators. Eventually, the supported emulators will also be configurable within the tool, but for now, I've only added support for ePSXe.

I also decided to make things interesting and added some eye-candy effects. You now have the option of adjusting the windows' transparency (only with ME/2k/XP) and using images as "wallpaper" within the GUI.

I'm also proud to announce that the tool is finally syncing up with the NGEmu plugin database in this release. There are still some bugs dealing with release dates being incorrect in the database. So, you might get some false alarms with some plugins, but otherwise, it works great. Just as an example, I used the release of Pete's 1.75 plugins to test and see if it would update from 1.74. After detecting the update and receiving confirmation, the tool downloaded the plugin and replaced the files in all of my PSX emulators' plugin directories flawlessly.

If you haven't already, download and give the new version a shot. You won't be dissapointed.

You can download the tool from here and, of course, if you don't have the runtime files already, get them here.

Enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

- FLaRe85

ChaosBlade · February 14th, 2004

Great Work FLaRe

RF · February 14th, 2004

Awesome flare, Thanks for adding the launch button

When I try to update the plugins, it gives this error:

RF · February 14th, 2004

Awesome flare, Thanks for adding the launch button

Oh, you still have a capital C on NGEmu.Com on the plugin update window.

When I try to update the plugins, it gives this error:

GSDragoon · February 15th, 2004

Nice work ShadowFlare. I'm getting an error though. "The update list did not download correctly. There might be a problem with your Internet Explorer installation."

Marcis · February 17th, 2004

I get the splash screen which still says Please Stand By... and it stays there for over 30 min and it doesn't move on so anything that could help ?

Thanks

**Betamax** · February 17th, 2004

Well If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say you have a really large store of plugins and the PM is having problems enumerating all of it. Try removing some of the more obscure plugins.

**Razor Blade** · February 17th, 2004

Okay I need plain english here:

What folder do I put it in?
And what other files do I need? TABCTL32.OCX??? Whaa!

Oh and thanks for putting me in readme Flare

**FLaRe85** · February 17th, 2004

Actually, it can gracefully handle pretty large lists of plugins without hanging up for most users. The last time I remember hearing about a frozen splash screen, the user had deleted the PSXPlugins and N64Plugins directories and I it just assumes that those will exist. I'll make sure to add a check for that in the next release.

Beta and I were discussing the update issue earlier and I think we finally have it figured out. The behavior you're seeing seems to be a result of the recent problems NGEmu has been having. After ruling out all possible cases on the client side, I decided to manually check the data the NGEmu server was passing. It isn't reporting an error (which PM knows how to handle), but there was something wrong with it. In fact, the data has been null or empty, in other words. This also recently happened because most of the testers as well as myself could use the update feature about a week ago, but those that just tried recently have been having problems, while we were still successful. So, here's an explination of what's happening. Those of us that have been able to still use the update feature can do so because the old list of updates still exists on our machines. For newer users, the code is still operating properly, because when passed null data, it will not write the temporary update file, but no error occurs. So, PM doesn't realize there is a problem, but when it checks the update file, it is noticing the data is corrupt, which is why it's assuming a problem with the IE API, when in fact the data passed from the NGEmu server is not correct to begin with. I'll also code a check for this in the next release. NGEmu is moving servers as we speak. So, hopefully the issue should eventually fix itself.

Razor Blade: You can place the tool in any directory with any name you like as long as the underlying directory structure remains intact. You'll also want to download the runtime files and either place them in the same directory as the tool or in your SYSTEM32 directory....and there's no need to thank me for putting you in the readme file. You created the splash. I'm thanking you.

**Razor Blade** · February 17th, 2004

Thanks for that Flare.

Exactly what I needed.

Hey if you ever want a new splash I'm up for the challenge. Maybe with your next release.

Marcis · February 19th, 2004

actually after trying it again I realzed it was giving me a runtime error 76 message. It was actually hiden behind the spalshscreen so I couldn't see it before and my sound was off so I couldn't hear the windows error sound.

**FLaRe85** · February 19th, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcis

actually after trying it again I realzed it was giving me a runtime error 76 message. It was actually hiden behind the spalshscreen so I couldn't see it before and my sound was off so I couldn't hear the windows error sound.

A runtime 76 error is the equivalent of 'path not found.' Redownload and extract the archive without deleting anything in there and see if it still gives that error.

Marcis · February 20th, 2004

Ok I tried some stuff. First of all I should sya I have the runtime files from NGemu in my directory if that changes anything.

I tried redownloading everything, and even moving the directry but it still gives me the same mistake. And I tried removing the runtimefiles just to see and it gave me an error about the file not being found (tbl32 something which is one of the runtime files) so I assume I need those. After I put them back in the folder it came back to the runtime error 76. I thought I just needed them to download directly from the NGemu server but it appears they're either needed or they've associated themselves with the frontend.

But anyway redownloading everything and even moving the directory didn't help. Does it need to be in a special directory ?

Thanks for your replies btw.

**FLaRe85** · February 20th, 2004

Well, try this...

Create a settings.ini file and paste this into it and save:

[Configuration]
Logging=1

That should enable logging and cause all the other settings to resort to defaults. Then, after it freezes at the splash, open the log file and check what the last entry says. That should shed some light on the situation.

Marcis · February 20th, 2004

I did that and I looked inside the log file and it gave this :

[2004-02-19 22:12:45]: ****** Application started; new log session created ******
[2004-02-19 22:12:45]: Checking configuration...

[2004-02-19 22:12:45]: -- Tool Plugin Backups -- selected in emu selector...
[2004-02-19 22:12:45]: Altering launch options...
[2004-02-19 22:12:45]: Loading initial plugins...

[2004-02-19 22:12:45]: Changing working directory to F:\FLaRe85s Plugin Manager\PSXPlugins

Seeing that I tryied creating the PSXPlugins directory which didn't exist and it went further the next time :

[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: ****** Application started; new log session created ******
[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Checking configuration...

[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: -- Tool Plugin Backups -- selected in emu selector...
[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Altering launch options...
[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Loading initial plugins...

[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Changing working directory to F:\FLaRe85s Plugin Manager\PSXPlugins
[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Searching F:\FLaRe85s Plugin Manager\PSXPlugins\ for PSX plugins...
[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: No plugins were found...

[2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Changing working directory to F:\FLaRe85s Plugin Manager\N64Plugins

So I created the N64Plugins directory and it worked. I think I can take it from here. So thanks for all your help.

**FLaRe85** · February 20th, 2004

No problem, but the directories weren't included in the archive? What software are you using to unzip?

**Betamax** · February 20th, 2004

Flare: Some zip programs do not decompress directories unless they have a file in the directory. It probably would be a idea to include "dummy files" the same way epsxe's zip file does. (Or my infamous mondays.txt file

)

GSDragoon · February 20th, 2004

*loves WinRar*

Well, it sounds like it can be fixed easily.

Marcis · February 20th, 2004

I use winzip actually

February 14th, 2004	#1 (permalink)
FLaRe85 I Need a Weapon Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 4,323	FLaRe85's Plugin Manager v0.9.3 After much coding and even more testing (thanks guys ), I think we're finally ready to unveil the next version of Plugin Manager. Only a few months have passed since the initial release, but I have managed to pack boatloads of added functionality into this new version. You are now dealing with a full-featured front-end application for the most popular PSX and N64 emulators. PM v0.9.3 has the ability to save and load (even automatically based on the game being run) the configurations of your PSX and N64 plugins and emulators. Eventually, the supported emulators will also be configurable within the tool, but for now, I've only added support for ePSXe. I also decided to make things interesting and added some eye-candy effects. You now have the option of adjusting the windows' transparency (only with ME/2k/XP) and using images as "wallpaper" within the GUI. I'm also proud to announce that the tool is finally syncing up with the NGEmu plugin database in this release. There are still some bugs dealing with release dates being incorrect in the database. So, you might get some false alarms with some plugins, but otherwise, it works great. Just as an example, I used the release of Pete's 1.75 plugins to test and see if it would update from 1.74. After detecting the update and receiving confirmation, the tool downloaded the plugin and replaced the files in all of my PSX emulators' plugin directories flawlessly. If you haven't already, download and give the new version a shot. You won't be dissapointed. You can download the tool from here and, of course, if you don't have the runtime files already, get them here. Enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! - FLaRe85 __________________ .: Flaretech.Net :: Flaretech.Biz Web Hosting :: H3 Stats :: My Blog :. .: Mac Pro :: Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400s :: 6 GB 800MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMMs :: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB GDDR3 :. .: Macbook Pro 17" :: 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo :: 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 :: ATI Radeon X1600 :. .: Home Server :: 2.41 GHz AMD Opteron 180 :: 4 GB DDR400 :: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 :.

February 14th, 2004	#2 (permalink)
ChaosBlade Protect EVERYONE Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Israel Posts: 1,959	Great Work FLaRe __________________ "..Did you win?" "I lost." "You dumbass! You're still alive, You won!" "I couldn't protect anyone, And i couldn't defeat those who wounded us." *I LOST.*

February 14th, 2004	#4 (permalink)
RF Canadian Spaceman Join Date: May 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 8,594	Awesome flare, Thanks for adding the launch button Oh, you still have a capital C on NGEmu.Com on the plugin update window. When I try to update the plugins, it gives this error: __________________

February 15th, 2004	#5 (permalink)
GSDragoon Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,970	Nice work ShadowFlare. I'm getting an error though. "The update list did not download correctly. There might be a problem with your Internet Explorer installation." __________________ Athlon64 3400+ @10.5x250MHz, 2.625GHz \| DFI NF3 250GB 2x512 Corsair pc3200 \| BFG FX6800 OC 128MB \| X-Fi XtremeGamer

February 17th, 2004	#7 (permalink)
Betamax Resident Movie Critic Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland Posts: 9,480	Well If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say you have a really large store of plugins and the PM is having problems enumerating all of it. Try removing some of the more obscure plugins. __________________ Superior marketing of an inferior product will always win over inferior marketing of a superior product.

February 17th, 2004	#6 (permalink)
Marcis Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 126	I get the splash screen which still says Please Stand By... and it stays there for over 30 min and it doesn't move on so anything that could help ? Thanks

February 17th, 2004	#8 (permalink)
Razor Blade Locked and Loaded Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I AM CANADIAN! Posts: 12,030	Okay I need plain english here: What folder do I put it in? And what other files do I need? TABCTL32.OCX??? Whaa! Oh and thanks for putting me in readme Flare __________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0 GHz ● NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS ● 2GB DDR2 RAM Hitachi 120GB HD ● Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive ● Windows Vista Home Premium ● Dell 2007WFP LCD ● Dell XPS M1330 Laptop ● 1TB Western Digital MyBook External HD ● Logitech Z10 Speakers ● PLAYSTATION 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

February 17th, 2004	#9 (permalink)
FLaRe85 I Need a Weapon Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 4,323	Actually, it can gracefully handle pretty large lists of plugins without hanging up for most users. The last time I remember hearing about a frozen splash screen, the user had deleted the PSXPlugins and N64Plugins directories and I it just assumes that those will exist. I'll make sure to add a check for that in the next release. Beta and I were discussing the update issue earlier and I think we finally have it figured out. The behavior you're seeing seems to be a result of the recent problems NGEmu has been having. After ruling out all possible cases on the client side, I decided to manually check the data the NGEmu server was passing. It isn't reporting an error (which PM knows how to handle), but there was something wrong with it. In fact, the data has been null or empty, in other words. This also recently happened because most of the testers as well as myself could use the update feature about a week ago, but those that just tried recently have been having problems, while we were still successful. So, here's an explination of what's happening. Those of us that have been able to still use the update feature can do so because the old list of updates still exists on our machines. For newer users, the code is still operating properly, because when passed null data, it will not write the temporary update file, but no error occurs. So, PM doesn't realize there is a problem, but when it checks the update file, it is noticing the data is corrupt, which is why it's assuming a problem with the IE API, when in fact the data passed from the NGEmu server is not correct to begin with. I'll also code a check for this in the next release. NGEmu is moving servers as we speak. So, hopefully the issue should eventually fix itself. Razor Blade: You can place the tool in any directory with any name you like as long as the underlying directory structure remains intact. You'll also want to download the runtime files and either place them in the same directory as the tool or in your SYSTEM32 directory....and there's no need to thank me for putting you in the readme file. You created the splash. I'm thanking you. __________________ .: Flaretech.Net :: Flaretech.Biz Web Hosting :: H3 Stats :: My Blog :. .: Mac Pro :: Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400s :: 6 GB 800MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMMs :: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB GDDR3 :. .: Macbook Pro 17" :: 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo :: 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 :: ATI Radeon X1600 :. .: Home Server :: 2.41 GHz AMD Opteron 180 :: 4 GB DDR400 :: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 :.

February 17th, 2004	#10 (permalink)
Razor Blade Locked and Loaded Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I AM CANADIAN! Posts: 12,030	Thanks for that Flare. Exactly what I needed. Hey if you ever want a new splash I'm up for the challenge. Maybe with your next release. __________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0 GHz ● NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS ● 2GB DDR2 RAM Hitachi 120GB HD ● Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive ● Windows Vista Home Premium ● Dell 2007WFP LCD ● Dell XPS M1330 Laptop ● 1TB Western Digital MyBook External HD ● Logitech Z10 Speakers ● PLAYSTATION 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

February 19th, 2004	#11 (permalink)
Marcis Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 126	actually after trying it again I realzed it was giving me a runtime error 76 message. It was actually hiden behind the spalshscreen so I couldn't see it before and my sound was off so I couldn't hear the windows error sound.

February 20th, 2004	#13 (permalink)
Marcis Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 126	Ok I tried some stuff. First of all I should sya I have the runtime files from NGemu in my directory if that changes anything. I tried redownloading everything, and even moving the directry but it still gives me the same mistake. And I tried removing the runtimefiles just to see and it gave me an error about the file not being found (tbl32 something which is one of the runtime files) so I assume I need those. After I put them back in the folder it came back to the runtime error 76. I thought I just needed them to download directly from the NGemu server but it appears they're either needed or they've associated themselves with the frontend. But anyway redownloading everything and even moving the directory didn't help. Does it need to be in a special directory ? Thanks for your replies btw.

February 20th, 2004	#14 (permalink)
FLaRe85 I Need a Weapon Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 4,323	Well, try this... Create a settings.ini file and paste this into it and save: [Configuration] Logging=1 That should enable logging and cause all the other settings to resort to defaults. Then, after it freezes at the splash, open the log file and check what the last entry says. That should shed some light on the situation. __________________ .: Flaretech.Net :: Flaretech.Biz Web Hosting :: H3 Stats :: My Blog :. .: Mac Pro :: Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400s :: 6 GB 800MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMMs :: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB GDDR3 :. .: Macbook Pro 17" :: 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo :: 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 :: ATI Radeon X1600 :. .: Home Server :: 2.41 GHz AMD Opteron 180 :: 4 GB DDR400 :: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 :.

February 20th, 2004	#15 (permalink)
Marcis Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 126	I did that and I looked inside the log file and it gave this : [2004-02-19 22:12:45]: **** Application started; new log session created ** [2004-02-19 22:12:45]: Checking configuration... [2004-02-19 22:12:45]: -- Tool Plugin Backups -- selected in emu selector... [2004-02-19 22:12:45]: Altering launch options... [2004-02-19 22:12:45]: Loading initial plugins... [2004-02-19 22:12:45]: Changing working directory to F:\FLaRe85s Plugin Manager\PSXPlugins Seeing that I tryied creating the PSXPlugins directory which didn't exist and it went further the next time : [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: ** Application started; new log session created ** [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Checking configuration... [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: -- Tool Plugin Backups -- selected in emu selector... [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Altering launch options... [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Loading initial plugins... [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Changing working directory to F:\FLaRe85s Plugin Manager\PSXPlugins [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Searching F:\FLaRe85s Plugin Manager\PSXPlugins\ for PSX plugins... [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: No plugins were found... [2004-02-19 22:13:44]: Changing working directory to F:\FLaRe85s Plugin Manager\N64Plugins** So I created the N64Plugins directory and it worked. I think I can take it from here. So thanks for all your help.

February 20th, 2004	#16 (permalink)
FLaRe85 I Need a Weapon Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 4,323	No problem, but the directories weren't included in the archive? What software are you using to unzip? __________________ .: Flaretech.Net :: Flaretech.Biz Web Hosting :: H3 Stats :: My Blog :. .: Mac Pro :: Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400s :: 6 GB 800MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMMs :: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB GDDR3 :. .: Macbook Pro 17" :: 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo :: 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 :: ATI Radeon X1600 :. .: Home Server :: 2.41 GHz AMD Opteron 180 :: 4 GB DDR400 :: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 :.

February 20th, 2004	#17 (permalink)
Betamax Resident Movie Critic Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland Posts: 9,480	Flare: Some zip programs do not decompress directories unless they have a file in the directory. It probably would be a idea to include "dummy files" the same way epsxe's zip file does. (Or my infamous mondays.txt file ) __________________ Superior marketing of an inferior product will always win over inferior marketing of a superior product.

February 20th, 2004	#18 (permalink)
GSDragoon Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,970	loves WinRar Well, it sounds like it can be fixed easily. __________________ Athlon64 3400+ @10.5x250MHz, 2.625GHz \| DFI NF3 250GB 2x512 Corsair pc3200 \| BFG FX6800 OC 128MB \| X-Fi XtremeGamer

February 20th, 2004	#19 (permalink)
Marcis Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 126	I use winzip actually

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