[Coco] Re: I need MESS help

[Roger Taylor]

At 11:02 AM 11/10/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>John Collyer writes:
>>Ok, I help myself. I finally got it to work.
>>Here is what I did.
>>I enabled use directdraw and I enabled use direct3d,
>>after I did this it worked. However when I came back
>>to the gui the use direct3d was not set anymore, but I

There are issues with the M.E.S.S. interface app.  That is, not the 
M.E.S.S. video window that shows your computer running, but the app that is 
supposed to manage configuration and software images, etc.  I've dealt with 
similar problems with checkmarks and settings not being remembered.  Some 
would call these bugs.  I call it incomplete work by the interface app 
programmer.


>Of these, #2 is recommented.  MESS's Direct3D stuff is a feature inherited 
>from MAME that is incompatible with MESS's new emulation-time UI.  Frankly 
>I find the Direct3D stuff to be of very questionable value; it doesn't 
>have many speed benefits over DirectDraw and is incompatible with the new UI.

For now, anyway.  The problem I had when trying out the Direct3D mode was 
that the CoCo's video appeared to be textured, or composed of tiny 
circles.  I don't think the Direct3D mode is meant to help 2-D systems.





>>It seems
>>that to use the PS2 mouse I had to get directx working
>>first, which I did. Anyway I going to mess with it for
>>awhile. Thanks anyway.
>
>You should not need DirectX working to use the mouse.  Just be aware that 
>if you have the new UI running, you need to use ScrLk to enable the mouse.
>This will cause the menu bar to go away (because one cannot share the 
>mouse between the emulation and the UI) until you hit ScrLk to disable the 
>mouse.

If I wrote the M.E.S.S. interface app that houses the CoCo's video plane, I 
would look for the PC's mouse cursor to be within the window's client area 
(where the CoCo video fits), and if it's there, then change the cursor a 
little to let the user know the mouse coordinates are being translated into 
the "signals" that the emulated CoCo can read.  Makes sense.  The 
scroll-lock thing in M.E.S.S. is a major pain.  :)