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rom116

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Posts posted by rom116

  1. Hey everyone, is there a xml file somewhere that stores the data for additional applications you've setup?  I am making a cabinet for my brother and have a ton of light gun games setup using sinden light guns which I've painstakingly added additional apps and ahk files to get them to work properly.  I'm looking for a way to automatically add those additional application settings but they don't seem to show up in the platform settings xml files.  Can someone point me in the right direction?

  2. 32 minutes ago, faeran said:

    Hi @rom116. Sounds like you have a unique issue that's not related to this thread,

    What the process you are seeing is trying to do is download any new metadata from the LaunchBox GamesDB, which is then saved in a file called Metadata.xml, located in the LaunchBox\Metadata folder.

    It may be possible that the file is somehow locked by another process, stopping LaunchBox from updating the file and therefore making LaunchBox hang.

    Make sure LaunchBox isn't trying to be sync'd by a cloud storage program (like dropbox). These programs will lock files that LaunchBox needs to write to.

    Thanks man.  I am familiar with the file.  My LB is not synced with any cloud storage program.  I've been using and updating LB for several years.  First time this has happened.  The zip downloads but won't extract...If I try to manually extract it tells me there's an unexpected end to the archive and the xml is much smaller than the existing xml...

  3. Hi everyone.  So I have been trying to replicate the MAME core (retroarch) shader for CRT Geom.  It looks fantastic in retroarch but the stand alone MAME is much better.  I've been messing with BGFX and their version of CRT Geom doesn't look the same.  The scanlines seem to be running vertically rather than horizontally and the screen is very, very dark.  I have try Derek Moore's (Youtube tutorial on HLSL) settings but his version of MAME is .174 and I'm on .226 and they ini file doesn't seem to have much of an effect.  Does anyone have a setup on a more recent version of mame with good scanlines working?

  4. I was pretty anti-ipac for a long time.  I had a guy build me a 4 player machine and he used RGB LED buttons and an ipac with an additional ultimate io board to accomodate all the buttons.  I would constantly get booted out of games because of button combinations...So I hated them and always went with encoder boards.

    Eventually I got into building arcade machines and I wanted to get LEDBlinky working with RGB buttons.  I realized the way the other guy setup the buttons (or lack of setting them up) was the issue.  Now I have 2 ulitmate IO boards running on a 4 player cab with trackball and all the buttons not only light up or turn off with different games, but the buttons light up the color of the original arcade machines, or any custom set of colors I want them too.  I would not go back to encoder boards.  The other nice thing about an ipac is since it's basically a keyboard, you don't have to worry about windows messing with the order of your joysticks if you plug in another device...That's the worst thing about windows and arcade machines...lol

  5. Hey everybody.  I need a little help with a script.  I use Big Box on an arcade machine and am using an app called Xinput to Xarcade to turn keypresses into xbox controller buttons (couldn't get the ipac xinput thing figured out and this works really well) and I use a nifty little script to auto launch it at the start of a game and close it upon exiting the game.  Some of my PC games, SFV, MKXL, MK11, do not realize the game has quit and LED Blinky doesn't quit the custom game button color animation...I would like to add a command within the script to stop and restart LEDblinky at the when I press escape and exit the game...Can someone give me a hand.  My script is below

    $Esc::
    {
    Process, Close, XArcadeXInput.exe
    }

    Escape::
    Process, Close, StreetFighterV.exe

    if WinExist("LaunchBox Game Startup")
    {
    WinActivate
    WinWaitClose, LaunchBox Game Startup
    }

    if WinExist("LaunchBox")
    {
    WinActivate
    }

    if WinExist("LaunchBox Big Box")
    {
    WinActivate
    }

    ExitApp
    return

  6. Hi everyone.  I have been looking for a Favorites playlist theme video but I just can't find what I'm looking for...I guess that's because nobody knows what my favorite games are...lol.  I am hoping someone could point me to a piece of software that I could use to create such a video...What are you guys using to create your own?  Thanks in advance.

  7. Hey everyone.  Looking for a little help with LEDBlinky and Street Fighter V for Steam.  Unlike most of the comments I've read, I have no issues getting my buttons to light up and stay lit when launching SFV.  My issue is that when I quit SFV, the buttons are stuck.  I have to launch a game which will keep the SFV button light config and then quit that game for LEDBlinky to "reset" and go back to the FE animation.

    It may have something to do with how I am exiting SFV.  I created a script to execute the taskkill function when I press Esc to exit the game.  I tried process, close, StreetFighterV.exe but that wasn't doing it for me.  I am using an application called XInputToArcade to map my buttons as Xinput controllers (Very good app by the way for those looking for a 1 and done solution to playing PC games on an arcade machine)  I have to kill that app when exiting PC games in order for the buttons to go back to being keystrokes (IPAC) and I created an AHK and converted it to an exe that allows me to both kill that app and the game by pressing esc.

    I don't think LEDBlinky is getting an "End Game" command from windows when I close SFV this way.  Is anyone familiar enough with AHK or batch scripts that could help me put something together so that I manually send the end game command when the SFV.exe closes?

  8. Hey everyone.  I recently built a new arcade machine and I am using IPACs for the first time, i've typically used USB encoders.  I have the IPACS setup as keyboards and I noticed that the option for "Close Active Window" is missing.  So I set the "Exit" command to the ESC key and all was fine.  At first I didn't think it would be an issue as MAME games exit with ESC key and it takes me back to BB.  But when I close MAME launched via retroarch core (some games I prefer retroarch because of the ease of shaders) it kills the game but MAME is stuck trying to close within the retroarch window.  Am I missing something?  Doesn't seem like it should be so hard...lol

     

    I setup the standard AHK emulator script for retroarch, but sometimes MAME still hangs in the background.  I've attached a screenshot

    Screenshot (10).png

  9. 12 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

    Close.  ;)

    But I think I might have been partially wrong when I said the game redirects itself to steam.exe.  

    I think what happens is, if Steam is not running [in the background] (and it may do it anyway if it is), when you launch a 'steam_game.exe', it closes (exits) then opens Steam, then reopens the steam_game.exe.  The following worked for Harry Potter [Years 1-4].

    Start your Steam games (the ones that are 'game_name.exe') like you did before.  As in, just point to the games' exe file.

    image.thumb.png.17635c13caea80d4eccb6bec82c66889.pngStart you x360CE like however you did before.

    Create a new batch file with this text in it.  This said file will have a ".bat" file extension.  (BTW, you can never just change a file extension to .exe and have it work.) Under Additional Apps, click Add Application and point to this new .bat file.  Now 'check'  "Automatically Run Before Main Application" and click OK.

    
    @echo off
    Timeout 20 /nobreak
    :start
    FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq LEGOHarryPotter.exe"') DO IF %%x == LEGOHarryPotter.exe goto start
    goto closed
    :closed
    c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c c:\windows\system32\TASKKILL.exe /F /IM x360ce.exe

    What this batch file is supposed to do is... when you start the game in LB, it (the batch file) will 'put itself in the corner for a timeout' for 20 seconds.  (This should be sufficient time for your game to do whatever the heck is going on in the background.)  It will then check to see if LEGOHarryPotter.exe is running (which at this point it should be). It will keep checking until [when you exit the game] LEGOHarryPotter.exe is no longer running.  When it's not, it will then execute the TASKKILL operation.

    Using this method you will of course need to change "LEGOHarryPotter.exe" (in TWO locations) to whatever the name of your executable is.  And ya, a different batch file for each game you need to use this for.

    This did it man.  Thanks a ton.  This was the last "If this would just work my arcade machine would be perfect" situation I couldn't figure out.  You rock!

    • Game On 1
  10. 1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

    Close.  ;)

    But I think I might have been partially wrong when I said the game redirects itself to steam.exe.  

    I think what happens is, if Steam is not running [in the background] (and it may do it anyway if it is), when you launch a 'steam_game.exe', it closes (exits) then opens Steam, then reopens the steam_game.exe.  The following worked for Harry Potter [Years 1-4].

    Start your Steam games (the ones that are 'game_name.exe') like you did before.  As in, just point to the games' exe file.

    image.thumb.png.17635c13caea80d4eccb6bec82c66889.pngStart you x360CE like however you did before.

    Create a new batch file with this text in it.  This said file will have a ".bat" file extension.  (BTW, you can never just change a file extension to .exe and have it work.) Under Additional Apps, click Add Application and point to this new .bat file.  Now 'check'  "Automatically Run Before Main Application" and click OK.

    
    @echo off
    Timeout 20 /nobreak
    :start
    FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq LEGOHarryPotter.exe"') DO IF %%x == LEGOHarryPotter.exe goto start
    goto closed
    :closed
    c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c c:\windows\system32\TASKKILL.exe /F /IM x360ce.exe

    What this batch file is supposed to do is... when you start the game in LB, it (the batch file) will 'put itself in the corner for a timeout' for 20 seconds.  (This should be sufficient time for your game to do whatever the heck is going on in the background.)  It will then check to see if LEGOHarryPotter.exe is running (which at this point it should be). It will keep checking until [when you exit the game] LEGOHarryPotter.exe is no longer running.  When it's not, it will then execute the TASKKILL operation.

    Using this method you will of course need to change "LEGOHarryPotter.exe" (in TWO locations) to whatever the name of your executable is.  And ya, a different batch file for each game you need to use this for.

    Thanks man.  I'll test this out today and let you know.  Happy Thanksgiving bro.

  11. Ok, so to make sure I'm clear on this.  I would copy the text above into a text file and give it a name with an .exe extension and run it as an additional app? 

    And if that is correct, can I point it to the existing .bat file?  Or do I change the extension of the .bat file to an .exe file?  Sorry for the noobish questions.  I thought I was pretty cool when I created the .bat...lol

    Bat file text below

    c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c c:\windows\system32\TASKKILL.exe /F /IM x360ce.exe
     

    Edit- I think I am figuring it out.  Create an auto hot key script that runs with each windows game?  Correct?  Then to create the .exe file to kill x360ce, can I just create the same text file I used for the .bat and give it an .exe extension?

  12. Ok I'm back...lol

    Still struggling to get X360CE to auto close after exiting Killer Instinct.  I am trying to use a simple .bat script that works in all other scenarios using it as an additional app that closes x360ce after the game exits.  Works great.

    When I use it as an additional app with Killer Instinct, (Steam game launched with game .exe not through Steam) it closes X360CE right after it launches...I've tried setting up steam bootstrap (or whatever it's called) as a "game" in the Windows platform and setting up the .bat to run after the game exits but it does nothing, X360CE remains open...Is there another possible way to accomplish what I am failing at? lol...

  13. 3 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

    @rom116  From just my brief reading up on x360ce, once you've set up the individual game you don't even need x360ce.exe anymore.

    From what I can tell, you copy the x360ce files into the same folder as the game_name.exe.  Run x360ce, tell it to create the missing (dll) files, set/select either 32 or 64-bit depending on the game, select/setup your controller(s) and Save.  Exit.  Then at this point x360ce.exe can be deleted.  Then (I assume) whenever you run that game, it reads dll(s) and acts accordingly.  I would think when the game exits, it flushes the dll's.

    That may or may not make sense and chances are I've totally missed something (wouldn't be the 1st, and won't be the last. lol).  But based on the info you've provided, somewhere/somehow x360ce.exe does load when you start the game and it stays active until you force it closed.  Sounds kinda like a design issue.

    I tested my LEGO® The Incredibles Steam game (without x360ce) and found that even when launching from the exe file (vs Steam link), it 1st loads the Steam Client Boot Strapper, Then Steam, and then finally "LEGO The Incredibles.exe".  So to get that batch file to run 'after game exit' doesn't seem feasible given the circumstances.

    I'd say check the x360ce forums for setting up the games with a Front End (or even 'running a game that doesn't use x360ce right after a game that did') and see what others have done.  I'm inclined to say it's a common thing they've come across many times and already have the perfect solution.  But if your research comes back with "just run the batch file!", then I guess it's on to plan B. (though I don't know what that is yet ;))

    Yeah it appears the newest version doesn't require you to place the .exe in the game folder.  You just run it from a single location.  I didn't even have to create a .dll file the first time I ran mine...Maybe I should try an older version because what you are describing sure would be better...lol

    • Like 1
  14. 6 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

    What does your batch file look like?

     

    It's possible that that the Steam game you're launching, even though using the exe, may do a sort of sub-launch.  So KI.exe (or whatever it is) when started, then launches "steam.exe -play-ki" and closes ki.exe.  At this point, LaunchBox see's ki.exe is no longer running, so then executes the "Automatically Run After Main Application" routine.  Just an example and just a guess.

    Hey man.  Thanks for attempting to help me.  Here is my batch file- I have this working as intended with PS3 games which also require x360ce for my arcade joystick and buttons to work.

    c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c c:\windows\system32\TASKKILL.exe /F /IM x360ce.exe
    
  15. 20 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

    @rom116 We do not stress a lot of forum rules here but we do ask that members not post the same question in multiple threads. This is a small forum compared to most so answer sometimes are not as fast as some are used to. So please do not post this same question in anymore threads.

    This is probably a good spot for your question. One of names you see responding in the thread with answers is very knowledgeable when it comes to AHK. So give it some time for an answer.

    You could probably create a launcher to both run the game exe and x360ce and then once it sees the game .exe is closed also close x360ce. I do something similar for a few games. I am not near my pc so I cannot share what the launcher looks like. How to make it was provided from help on our forum.

    My bad.  I won't post anywhere else.  I only posted here because it seemed like the best place for it after I had already posted my own.  Somewhat new to batch files and never actually used AHK.  I appreciate that you cutting me some slack lol.  I am interested in creating a launcher.  Never heard of that but intrigued to learn more.  Thanks again.

  16. Need some help guys.  I tried creating a new post but this seems like it's pretty active and the right people would read it.  I have an arcade cabinet and I run the steam version of  Killer Instinct through Big Box.  I don't use the steam link to run it, i use the actual .exe file.  I use a program called x360ce to emulate and xbox 360 controller using my arcade joysticks and buttons.

    I have set x360ce to run as an additional app prior to launching Killer Instinct.  Works great.  But I am having a hard time closing x360ce after I close Killer Instinct and the x360ce UI is on top of the big box UI.  Also, this leaves my joysticks emulated and retroarch sees them as 2 additional controllers which take priority over my joysticks and player 1 is no longer player 1.

    I've tried to create a .bat file to kill x360ce after I exit but it's not working.  If I select run after game it closes x360ce right after the game opens.  If I choose run before game and click wait until exit it does nothing...

    Can I create a ahk to close x360ce after I exit killer instinct?  

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