runsamok

Would it be possible to have whatever happens with the black window happen earlier in the cycle, before the DOS game is launched or whatnot? Given that I can control when I get dumped out of fullscreen by changing the length the start screen is displayed & since it has to end sometime, perhaps if that happens before the game goes fullscreen it'll avert the issue? To test this line of thinking, I have run a series of tests, using max display times for the start/stop screens as 2 seconds (in the main Options screen) and then testing the load delay time in an individual game's Edit/Startup tab. So long as the load delay is less than the minimum start screen display time, the game will launch & stay fullscreened, but there's a flash of desktop between when the start screen ends & the emulator kicks in. If I increase the load delay to minimise the flash I end up with either the default situation where I get kicked out, or if I time it just right I can get the fullscreen game to never actually go fullscreen & launch it in a window. But as long as I put up with a gap between the end of the start screen & the start of the game I never get kicked out, but I also never get the end screen.

It does fix the focus problem after exiting emulators like RetroArch or Dolphin though (and the DOS games after I shut off the start screens) , well done. If I turn those two off I never see the DOS games load, instead of it playing a second or two before dumping to the black screen of "no fullscreen or you!" I just get dropped right back to LaunchBox while the game plays behind, in a window. But I've basically resigned myself to the fact that I'll have to disable start screens for the exodos stuff as they really don't seem to like when LaunchBox creates the black screen that triggers the shutdown screen, Shame. as it's about 1/4 of my library total.

Nope. Just LaunchBox. And it only happens with LaunchBox. BigBox drops in & outta games like a champ with the screens enabled. (DOS game issue previously described aside.)

My emulators work fine, the only weird startup/shutdown issue I have with anything other than DOS games is that unless I disable the start/stop screens or close out/minimise all the other windows on my system that LaunchBox doesn't regain focus, as it'll be behind everything else, one app up from the desktop. DOS games kick out of fullscreen at the start & require some manipulation to get them showing fullscreen again, on top of the same issue with the focus of LaunchBox when they're done.

The weird sound issue seems resolved with the latest beta, so that's something. No change with regards to the startup screen stuff, either with my system as normally configured or after I've gone through the process & services list & shut off everything I could identify as being non-system. As far as antivirus goes, I'm running nothing but whatever's bundled in Windows 10 at the default, out-of-box configuration.

110% sure it's off. My LaunchBox is silent running, no autoplaying music or movies (in contrast to my BigBox settings which are ear & eye candy to the max). My drive is a 5TB USB3.0 Seagate Expansion Desktop Drive & has been fine holding my Steam library for years.

More info on the erroneously playing music issue. If I double-click in LaunchBox I get a peep of music until the start screens appear as I've described, but if I right-click to pick a different ROM version or whatnot it'll play continuously, through the entire start screen & even after the game has loaded. And then I have to alt-tab to the LaunchBox Game Startup window, trigger the Game Over screen, then alt-tab to the LaunchBox window, pause the music, then I can go back to the game. I keep my LaunchBox dark & silent, my BigBox flashy & noisy.

Windows 10 Insider, i5-2500K, 16GB RAM & a Radeon 7870, my games & configs are all portable & on an external drive. Drivers & patches all up to date. I'm configuring everything on my current rig while my dedicated emulation PC's parts slowly filter in. That machine will always only be running BigBox, so I'm not too worried about the various focus issues on exit there (knock on wood). Generally don't have anything running except Vivaldi, an Explorer window or two & WhatsApp running. I'll generally shut down the browser if I'm emulating anything newer than the early '90s. Nothing running in the background that's uncommon & I haven't done much of anything tweak or whatever-wise to this machine & all that's really installed is the usual suspects of cloud syncing stuff, Steam, VNC & Citrix for work. I've tried to keep everything as close to default as possible, to help with the upcoming migration to a different computer as pain-free as possible. I've also manually closed out every system tray app I could & no change. I've also tried the slider, which is what lead me to believe it's whatever happens at the end of the startup screen's sequence that kicks me out of full screen, as the longer I push it, the longer the game stays in fullscreen before being dropped out. Turning on Aggressive makes it so I don't get the fullscreen at the beginning at all, just the startup screen until it times out & ends up the same place as without the checkbox, only without the glimmer of hope. In both of these cases when I drop out of fullscreen the LaunchBox Game Startup all-black window is at the bottom of my desktop stack obscuring only my desktop itself, with all my other open windows on top, with the game running in a window up in the upper left of my screen. The Exclusive-Fullscreen-Only option leaves me at a black screen (with my mouse cursor visible or not, depending on the relevant checkbox) & I have to alt-tab to the all-black Launchbox Game Startup window, triggering the shutdown screen & dismissing the black window, leaving the game in a window with my desktop visible; if I alt-tab to the game directly the screen stays black (with my mouse cursor visible or not, again). It almost feels like the LaunchBox Game Startup window is always at the wrong spot in the z-order of the windows. Or at least not where it should be. Which is why it takes focus & kicks DOSBox outta fullscreen & also obscures everything when running exclusive-fullscreen-only.

I'm also having focus issues, but in my case it's mostly noticeable with my MS-DOS games (from exodos 3.11, migrated manually into an existing install) & seems to be caused when I use the startup screens. Current sequence of events with the startup screens enabled is: I double-click a game in LaunchBox. A brief note or two of music plays despite auto-playing of music being off in the View menu, whatever it can squeeze in between the double-click registering & the startup screens launching (this is new behaviour in 9.4 betas, I haven't seen it myself before. Sometimes it doesn't stop when the game launches, causing a cacophony of overlaid music/themes). Startup screen shows for a second or two while the game loads. Game starts, in-game intro screens show up briefly. Behind the scenes, LaunchBox finishes its start sequence & blacks out the screen, taking focus from DOSBox, booting it out of full screen in the process & obscuring the DOSBox window behind the blackout. When I hit Alt-Tab DOSBox appears to be the focused item since it comes up first in the list, but it's obscured. Clicking on the blackness or attempting to interact with it causes the shutdown screen to pop up while DOSBox continues to do its thing. If I use Alt-Tab to get back to DOSBox without interacting with the blackness or other applications & quit the game, LaunchBox does not have focus after the shutdown screen plays. If another app (like the browser I'm writing this post in) is running & was interacted with prior to going into LaunchBox & was not minimized, it becomes the active window & gets focus on the game exiting, rather than LaunchBox which was the previously-focused app. The same lack of LaunchBox focus on exit occurs when startup/shutdown screens are used with other emulators too (MAME, Retroarch+all cores, PCSX2, Cemu, Dolphin), but at least they're not getting kicked out of fullscreen & if I disable the startup/shutdown screens or minimize everything else LaunchBox gets focus on quit. To summarize the startup focus-related issues: LaunchBox + exodos DOSBox games + startup screens = Games losing focus & full screen during startup. LaunchBox + exodos DOSBox games - startup screens = Games maintain focus & full screen during startup. To summarize the the shutdown focus-related issues: LaunchBox + other apps visible + startup screens = LaunchBox loses focus on game exit. LaunchBox + other apps visible - startup screens = LaunchBox gets focus on game exit. LaunchBox - other apps visible + startup screens = LaunchBox gets focus on game exit. LaunchBox - other apps visible - startup screens = LaunchBox gets focus on game exit. I really dig the startup/shutdown screens & think they add a lot to the overall presentation of LB/BB, but their current implementation seems to have some issues, unless I'm missing some setting somewhere (which is possible, I find the settings/configuration to be pretty inscrutable in their current state). Is the issue with the DOSBox games possibly due to the fact they're from the eXoDOS pack & use the included batch files rather than leverage LaunchBox's internal functionality? Given that the games are loading up fine before the issues occur makes me think not, but there's a lot of moving parts interacting.

I've gone through the setup.bat, followed the instructions (except I had to edit my MS-DOS.xml to reflect my paths, a quick find+replace) & everything is going great, except I can't seem to use the Startup Screen options, because as soon as LaunchBox does its thing after the Startup Screen has played kicks me outta fullscreen. I know it's not directly related to the importing, just wondering if anyone else has run into this & if there's a fix. I'd really like to keep the Startup Screens enabled but I'll turn 'em off if I have to, at least for the MS-DOS games.