cammelspit

@Nielk1 Doesn't that look eerily similar to what it logged when we did that little shortcut test? I smell a related issue because I can't tell the difference, tho you prolly can.

@percybuttkins That was probably it. I think the default was what? Surface? DDraw? Whatever, glad you got it sorted.

@Nielk1 I actually exclusively use the Vulkan renderer for RA and the overlay works perfectly for me, maybe there is a difference between the desktop UI and BPM overlays? The second I got my SC, I thought someone should make a transparent Fullscreen app for using the SC on things where the overlay is completely borked. UWP stuff comes to mind as the only real problem child we have left since M$ has seen fit to block pretty much everything but their own Xinput driver. On a side note, I got a request from another friend trying to have Netflix added to his steam library and to have it not only open properly but show he is in a non-steam game Netflix. I got it working my using a BAT file and using Proxy to launch it but I think the moment Proxy closes steam thinks Netflix closed because it only lasts a few seconds before the 'playing Netflix' tag disappears. I promised him I would talk to you about it and see if there was anything you could do to help with that. I think this kinda goes hand in hand with UWP stuff too so it may be worth some investigation. I just figured you would be exactly the right person to ask about it. Being able to use the overlay with it would be absolutely amazing. Maybe another feature for Proxy?

@percybuttkins Ok, so as of yet, I haven't actually use the regular VBA or VBA-M with proxy yet. I prefer VBA-M over the RA core so I will try and test it out and see what I can find. If I recall, the regular VBA didn't like the overlay at all and with VBA-M I needed to use the DirextX renderer to get the overlay to work. The SC, at the time I last tested it, had issues with very old OpenGL implementations, specifically games that used very old versions of the API. I have seen that in the last six months or so, the VAST majority of those games that didn't work before, do work now. When you say the Dolphin profile, do you mean the SC config? If you are using the Proxy rename function on a per game basis, then you will need to make a new config for each game because that is how steam keeps track. I use templates and I added it to my guide if you hadn't read the most recent version. This way, it only takes about 5-10 seconds to apply a basic, workable config to a new game and you can further refine this on a per-game basis. I like having RB set to be a turbo fire Z trigger for playing Goldeneye 64, for example. IF this was added the same way for, say, Zelda then it would essentially break the 'just like the GameCube collector's disc' config I use for that game. Alternatively, you can instead of using the platform and game name commands with Proxy, you could just replace that with -name "Dolphin" and it will behave as it Dolphin itself had been added. But then it gets complicated with action sets for multiple game configs and such. Kinda like what I was doing here. And to think this is what I would consider rudimentary compared to what I was using right before Proxy came and changed my life. If what you mean is Dolphin itself then that is completely a different thing and implies you have not had a previous install of Dolphin with any controls mapped to Xinput devices. I also have made a guide in the steam community specifically referencing Dolphin. In a nutshell, once a game is started and you have confirmed the overlay is working, as in Xinput is being sent to Dolphin, you should just alt-enter to leave fullscreen and open the controller configuration dialog. As long as the overlay has been open once, Dolphin should see the SC and any of your binds just like it would with a 360 controller and you can configure to your heart's content from there. Since the GameCube also had dual stage triggers but did not have stick clicks at all, I would recommend binding the stick clicks for Xinput in Dolphin to the digital click of the GameCube triggers, from there, you bind LSC and RSC to the "full pull" action of the SC and you now magically have full Gamecube dual stage trigger working like it does on a real GameCube Controller. Like I said, if this is your issue there then I have an extensive guide explicitly regarding this exact scenario and how to bind it. @Nielk1 IF you were to open Notepad via Steam, since the overlay obviously can't work with it, the default behavior is to simply keep using the desktop config. If you have this set to a Xinput config then it WILL still send the Xinput controls. This is one of 3-4 different workarounds for some problematic emulators like CEMU, for example. If you go into BPM and select controller options for that shortcut, you have a checkbox that says "allow desktop config" or some such. If you uncheck this, it will use the shortcuts custom config regardless of whether or not the overlay is working. You will just have to quit the game/app to change the control config since the overlay isn't working. In the event of a game that works with the overlay but does not have GamePad support, you can just use it with the KB/M config instead so that's not an issue typically.

@DOS76 @Maddoc1007 Ah, I see. That might be a good idea for me then, thank you! I was looking into using a hard symlink to do this but frankly, I am probably not savvy enough. Thanks for the info, I guess there is still a lot more about LB/BB to uncover and learn.

Hi! I just ponied up the $50 for a lifetime premium subscription today and I must say, so far, I love it! I do have a couple questions though and I hope some of you amazing smart people can help a BB newb out. So, I am aware that LB/BB download media automatically. The problem I have it there seems to be no way to force a sync of specifically the platform images. Do I need to download and install these manually or an I just being an idiot again? Currently, all I have is a blank black background and no console icons like I see in all the promo videos and I kinda would like exactly that. Another question I have is this. I have my LB/BB on my OS SSD. I did this because of more than 30K games, and I still have a lot of importing to do, it was just too darn slow to navigate around off of my 4TB HGST NAS drive. I run into another, different problem because of this. I don't really have the space for all the media and so I only get the box fronts for now since that is not too big. Can I split the image directory to another location or drive? If not, can I move JUST the media to another location or drive? Otherwise, man, this thing is slick. Good job, well worth the couple bucks for the greatly enhanced experience. Thanks in advance!

@percybuttkins you aren't calling the RetroArch Core. RA is prolly starting and then shutting down immediately because you don't have it pass that through. I did this exact thing before and the section of the guide that explains it isn't done yet. in the per system section of RA in LB, you need to copy paste the whole command line as you have it into each system. LB does not add the per system commands to the main default ones, it will use the per system command lines INSTEAD of the default ones if present. You have -steam -name "%gamename% (%platformname%)" -fallbackname "%platformname%" -proxy "C:\emus\RetroArch\retroarch.exe" in the default field and the -L "cores\whatever.dll" in the per system line. What you need to do is just clean the default field entirely and under the associated platform tab, make it INCLUDE the cores command. Like this... -steam -name "%gamename% (%platformname%)" -fallbackname "%platformname%" -proxy "C:\RetroArch\retroarch.exe" -L "cores\mupen64plus_libretro.dll" You can just copy paste everything before the -L because the only difference here should be the core line so that RA can know what core to load for a specific platform. You almost had it buddy, this is just one little thing I hadn't covered yet in my guide. One of the "under construction" spots. I will try and find some time today to finish at least this part of the guide for more clarity.

@Nielk1 You beautiful person you! I am thoroughly impressed by this already and I have only tested about 5 games so far! Of course, I haven't tested enough to be able to fill you in if there are any problems I can find but I will let you know after I have done some more extensive testing. Already, though, I have found this version is SUBSTANTIALLY faster in the launch itself. It also seems to not be quite as likely for steam to miss hooking the emulator and having the overlay fail to apply. The rename sticking problem, so far, hasn't happened and I am using the end shortcut link in the BPM overlay to test it before it caused sticky names every time and for the moment it hasn't happened yet. Rock on dood!

@Nielk1 All of that sounds all perfect! I also agree with avoiding too much logic when launching. As it stands I can launch the same game ten times in a row and the time from double clicking the game to the title screen can range from instant to 30 seconds or more. IF ten seconds is the hard coded limit on this then keeping that process streamlined is absolutely a priority. An after the fact clean up seems just completely reasonable all around. Also, never fear, this guy is gonna be testing like a mad fiend when the next release happens. You will know even the slightest of problems, I assure you.

@Nielk1 DeSmuME doesn't hang, crash or show any signs of anything wrong while playing. It seems that I can make anything have this behavior if I close out via the BPM close shortcut option, which force quits the emulator. My assumption is the app is not properly announcing it has stopped at all and so proxy just sits there. Having the entry not rename is meaningless because I have hidden my proxy shortcuts in steam and so I will never even see them. The only issue is that, since the name is different, the ID# for that shortcut is also different. The new version can actually search for the shortcuts and not rely exclusively on the ID#, correct? I think you may have said it before but I can't recall at this moment. If this is the case, even if the rename back to it's original name fails, the game will still boot and the user would be none the wiser, which is fine for now.

@Nielk1 I think @percybuttkins is probably gonna have to wait. By what we discussed this morning, pretty much all of his problems would be rendered 100% moot by the new version. I tried to help but it is rather hard to do when I can't just sit next to him and say, "Go here, do this, now type that". @Nielk1 Is there any kind of more advanced troubleshooting you would like me to do for the sticking names? It does not happen every time except for DeSmuME and happens only about 20% of the time with ePSXe. I am your guinea pig oh wise one... Your wish is my command! I also LOVE the updates my friend, it keeps me from cracking out with anticipation, like that Dave Chapelle character.

@percybuttkins Hi! To answer your question no, there is no way to filter just for my own configs, sorry. I also have all but stopped uploading them because of how completely broken the config management system is for steam controller configs. Though Valve has explicitly stated that this is precisely the issue they are tackling next, they said this HERE. I am actually about 20% done with a guide on the steam controller community guides section but I stopped before writing anything specific to 0.0.2.0 because @Nielk1 is working on some major improvements and updates that will make the majority that work obsolete a week after I write it. I would say you have two choices... You can wait until 0.0.3.0 is finished and I will write up a fancy community guide with pictures in excruciating detail. You CAN use it now, I do. but the setup is a bit cumbersome right now. Trust me I know. I always do my best to help others with issues or questions regarding the steam controller and if you are 100% motivated to get something working right now and are not squeamish then you can feel free to friend me on steam and if I have the time, I will do what I can to help you through the process of setting it up and getting it going. To answer your other questions regarding configs. The steam controller locks a config into the name of the shortcut being used. For example, One config will be used for a shortcut named "Dolphin" and another will be used for a shortcut named "RetroArch" etc.. My original intent for asking for something like this was exactly what you want, I wanted it to say Dolphin when I launched a game in Dolphin, not LaunchBox. this makes a config MUCH less complicated. If you use Proxies renaming functions to rename it using the ROM name if WILL have a separate config for each and every game because the shortcut will then have a different name. IMHO this is not a problem and is, in fact, preferred. This is because I just make a basic GameCube template I load for GameCube games each time I play something I don't have a config for. This also works for all other systems too. For Wii and some GameCube games, you would require having a per-game config because of the massive difference between Mario Galaxy and Kirby's Epic Yarn, or example. I was using 40 action set deep touch menus for managing this before and this is actually a lot easier IMO. I hope this was helpful to you in some way. Let me know if you need a hand and I will try to help if I can. Take care

@Nielk1 Ah, I had no idea. See, this is the kind of thing that bothers me so much about this whole process, I can't help really in any direct way. I didn't even know about the [ ] thing. Though, if I did know what the heck I was doing I prolly would have made this myself a year ago when the SC first hit. GameLaunchProxy.exe [-steam] [-steambigpicture] [-name "%gamename% (%platformname%)"] [-fallbackname "%platformname%"] [-rom "path/to/rom"] -proxy <command to proxy> would be written by the user/frontend as GameLaunchProxy.exe -steam -steambigpicture -name "%gamename% (%platformname%)" -fallbackname "%platformname%" -rom "path/to/rom" -proxy <command to proxy> If I am now understanding correctly? Now I feel a little silly...

@Nielk1Ok, so as far as how I do the renaming scheme currently, I set it up like this "N64 [%cleanromname%]". The reason I use the [ ] instead of () is because, as it currently sits, () usually encompasses the region, revision or other data like (Japan), (Rev A) and so on. Having two sets of () looked a little silly when there were others inside it. With this new naming scheme, I would GREATLY prefer to use () and have it remove the (USA) or (Ver 1.1) entirely, which LB already does. My preferred method of naming would likely be "platformname (gamename)" or maybe "gamename (platformname)", really, whatever ends op looking the cleanest to me personally in the end. It seems to me that you are intending to use the [ ] to block off each individual command going out so this would make using [ ] in any way problematic. I both understand and agree with using [ ] for proxy commands. In fact, this blocking off of the commands looks really nice and makes it much easier to understand, explain, use and most importantly, troubleshoot if someone has a flare up of fat finger syndrome and makes some typos. This will make constructing the syntax in the front end much easier to read from an end user standpoint so I say go for it. For the Platform list, if I would use, say, the %platformname% it would just reflect what LaunchBox is using? This seems reasonable, You can always change what LB says or you can use it manually from the command line like it works currently. Plus, when you do get the manual lists up and running, the platform names can be modified directly through the proxy, which is perfectly fine. Mass loading shortcuts like that would make the whole thing infinitely more useful than ICE. Even if a user never really used the typical proxy functions and only wanted an ICE alternative with more control, this would fit the bill. Personally, I wouldn't care for the steam library clutter but I could see that being yet another common use case for this app. Obviously, this can be expanded in the future but a very nice touch I think. All in all, this is great progress and I am looking forward to this with the anticipation of a child on Christmas day. Thanks for the update! Please, take your time, I would not want you getting burned out or anything. As always, keep up the good work, you are a godsend!

@Nielk1 Can't contain my excitement for this. It looks like you have been rather busy. I can't wait to see how all the new systems fit together in practice. Now, I know development is firmly under way, this is just a tease. Looking forward to it my friend!

@lordmonkusAlright, I had a feeling that was the case. I usually go through my whole collection with clrmamepro every six months or so. The new dats I use usually consist of a few dozen to a few hundred renames and a few dozen new roms. It might not be super convenient but reimporting is one of the least annoying parts of the whole rom update week. Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Hello, all you smart people! I have a question that seems rather dumb but I am going to ask it anyway! I am cleaning my 4TB emulation drive by updating, rescanning and repacking all of my rom sets. My question involves the fact that LB has an option to bulk download media and metadata. What about the rom directories themselves? If I want to clean out all my good sets and replace them with no-inro sets, can I rescan the directory and have LB just update to the new files and remove no longer existing dupes in an automated way? What if I add only one to three missing roms in my set, do I have to reimport all of them? I would hate to have to re-import all of my systems, that would also have the downside of making a lot of orphaned artwork. I know this can be cleaned but with 40GB of media in the LB folder, this process can take days. (Didn't actually let it finish because my lord that's a lot of media to clean) Also, doing it game by game for individual additions would be, tedious and I find now that I have a few new roms in each folder.

@Nielk1 No need my friend. I am still using your app literally every day and it has greatly enhanced my overall experience with LB, emulators, steam controller etc., so I am grateful for what you have already done here. I am nothing if I am not patient so never think I am wanting to try and push for speed or anything. I also did a little looking into DeSmuME and if you recall when I reported that the renaming doesn't work with that emulator, it seems to be a related issue. I tested some more and it seems that about half the time it doesn't rename, it will also not close. I can't believe I didn't notice this sooner. I had just switched to using the DeSmuME core in RetroArch because it performs approximately equally, with fewer features, and I am not too into DS games. I only really play less than a dozen games overall and so it was never a big deal to me. NES, N64, Genesis/SegaCD/32X and a tiny handful of PS1 games are my primary uses of emulation so I hadn't gotten into some of the most obscure emulators. Take your time and take care!

@Nielk1 Just wanted to touch base and fill you in on a couple of interesting things I have run across recently while testing some new emulators I haven't tried with 0020 yet. ePSXe is a big bummer here because what happens is Proxy, upon closing out ePSXe, will not close itself. I have to force it to close from the task manager to launch another game. It also fails in renaming the shortcut back to the original name. When you were speaking earlier about renaming priorities, I was thinking you might want to add a check to make sure that the last run name for a shortcut was successfully renamed back. If not, it could do that as a clean up so the user won't have to manually go into steam and rename it back before another game will launch. A check to close a previous erroneous Proxy instance might also be helpful. Not sure if this will even be a problem in the next version because of the major changes you are planning but I thought I might fill you in in any event. Supermodel, the SEGA Model 3 arcade emulator seems to also do similar shenanigans except is also just fails to load a game altogether and gives some OpenGL error, I can't figure out why. I checked the logs and it seems like everything is passing along properly so I have no clue. Model 3 games with Supermodel was added just for kicks as I don't really play those game more often than once in a great while but for testing reasons I chose to try it anyway. I will try and use more than just Dolphin and Retroarch and see if there are any other problem children I can find too. Just figured you might like to know what I had found, Thanks again!

Agreed, from a user experience standpoint, it is much less intrusive to have a one-time setup that takes a minute or two Vs. having a speed decrease you have to deal with every single game you launch a game. Handling updates to the list will also be something that needs to be considered unless rebuilding the whole database each time is preferable. Consideration of how often an update to the local Proxy database is needed as well as if it should be left entirely up to the user when/if they choose to update it or if it should just be done anyways after a period of time. Maybe just a simple message telling the user that their database is older than 30 days, or whatever time frame is prudent, and should consider updating their database.

You are right, I was just thinking about stuff. Ah, on the name thing, that seems reasonable. It also seems like it would be a lot more work on your end. This thing is going to start getting pretty advanced it seems, I like it! For the naming thing, would this building of the list be a one-time thing as in generating this names list from launchbox, or wherever else, when you run Proxy directly for the first time setup? Would it then fallback to the filename if it can't find a suitable real name for the game?

@Nielk1 Wow, that seems like it would be a LOT smoother process. Now, when you say hidden shortcuts, steam can actually have shortcuts, even to games, that are invisible to the user? If this is the case then that could really be of benefit. I say this because one of the biggest complaints myself and others have had with ICE is that even a few hundred games can, and likely will, clutter up your steam library like crazy. As it sits now, Proxy does require at least one shortcut, ideally one for each emulator in the case of renaming failures. If they could be hidden then someone's OCD might not be triggered by seeing some shortcuts they should never actually touch. I also love the idea of using LaunchBox's name for the games instead of the ROM name as a general rule. There are some circumstances where it would be beneficial to still use the rom name, though. Are you thinking of making this the default behavior or will it be selectable with another command line switch in the same way the %cleanromname% is currently? If this is the case then %cleanromname% can be left along and then something like %gamename% could be used instead or in addition to. Personally, the only system I would use that second mode would be for Nintendo Wii. This is because normally, I meticulously have all of my roms built into no intro sets with proper file names but my Wii games are all in WBFS format and are named based on their NintendoID# and not the name of the game itself, for use on a real Wii as well. So, with %cleanromname% I will get "Wii [RM6EEB]" as the game name. I also have yet another crazy idea/question that might be worth some research. So, you say there are a bunch of API calls that Steam normally does not have revealed to developers or users. In those calls, is there anything for changing settings for steam itself? For example, enable/disable overlay or, more useful still, there is a checkbox in the steam settings that allows the user to opt out of using the BPM overlay exclusively when the steam controller is on. The downside here is you lose in-game real-time configs, touch menus, and action set labels but I know a few guys who will use this checkbox in one way or the other depending on the game because they feel that some games get a reduced performance with the BPM overlay. They are also using toaster ovens and not PCs to game on but that is an entirely different conversation. I was just thinking that there is bound to be a few settings that a user would love to be able to set on a per game basis and valve has not seen fit to grace us with any way of doing this per game. Just a thought...

@Nielk1 For one, thank you for taking my feedback to heart. I am truly honored to be included, even in a minimal way, in the overall process here. So, correct me if I am wrong here but... you are thinking to not use the ID# at all for the steam proxy shortcuts. Instead, you are considering to use the name of the shortcut on its own instead. After it renames the shortcut it would search for a shortcut exactly as it is supposed to be and it not found, it will search for a shortcut to the emulator itself, failing that too it would search for a shortcut to proxy itself. I have two concerns, you can dissuade them if I am not understanding correctly. Firstly, do you think this would be a slower operation than it is currently? Secondly, we do still probably want to have a fallback mode, having created a shortcut to the emulator itself without the rom names, if all of the renaming functions fail. If it fails entirely 100%, then it could do the long way of shutting down steam, making a shortcut to the emulator through Proxy and open steam back up. Then, on subsequent launches, it would be able to say "cammelspit is playing Dolphin/RetroArch/Whatever" and simply ignore the ROM name option until it is fixed. In the case of this kind of catastrophic failure, it might be a good idea to have a popup happen that warns the user that the fallback method is being used and will take a few minutes to set up a new shortcut for you. The process of making your own steam shortcut is, frankly, cumbersome. Just because I can make one in a few seconds does not mean a new user could and is the most likely point of failure for the average user. Remember, these are people who are not motivated like I am or know how the program works like you do. This has to be as easy as it can be so that the typical user can handle it. I am talking about the people who would say 'I just want it to work, the first time, exactly as I expect it to'. Since you have stated you could add the shortcuts in the same way ICE does, it would be more than beneficial to have this feature. In the case of creating a fallback as stated above and for initial setup. Origin launching ALONE would be worth the price of admission for a large section of steam controller users. Origin and it's own overlay, do not play well with the steam overlay, which is more or less required for the steam controller to work properly. Right now, if a person wants to launch an Origin game, they either have to hack the Origin requirement out of the game or greatly change all of their launch settings in Origin itself. The problem there is when a user decides to use Origin itself while playing with KB/M or another controller, they have to change all those settings back and forth, which is a pain in the butt. I don't use origin myself as a rule since I have boycotted EA but this has been the Achilles heel for steam controller users as well as Battle.net. As far as a second program and the pre-game launch options go, I do like the idea. I would not want it to come up for myself, personally. A 'never show this again' tick box would be a good idea and then maybe you can hold a button on the KB while launching to have it come back anyway. This is just me thinking out loud here so if I am being silly, let me know.

Yes, interested very much so. If you do manage a large reduction in that "fiddly ID matching" would that give a boost to the speed at which the app goes through all the motions? I ask mostly out of curiosity but also because it seems to be super fast on the launch sometimes and at other times it can take more than twenty seconds to actually launch the emulator and the rom. Me, I don't care because it works and it does precisely what I want it to and I love you for that but it has been a curiosity of mine. From a user interface standpoint, are there any plans to drastically change things or how shortcuts are made in the near future? A question I ask because I have several friends that would like to start using this in a similar way to what I have setup and have been requesting instructions on its use. I would like to maybe put together a simple, quick, step by step setup guide on the steam controller community guides section. I have been apprehensive about actually doing so because of your earlier comments regarding it changing so much. It just seems to me that if I don't write something then the likelihood they are going to be able to do it themselves is rather low. I mean, I think I am smart and I messed it up a bunch of times. I, of course, would update this guide as necessary but if there are some big changes forthcoming I may as well wait until that happens first. Again, keep it up! You are amazing!

@Drybonz I will look harder, there is just a LOT to wade through. Thanks a bunch for the tip @Drybonz I deleted those two same exact files and BAM, all is well. I wouldn't have put the time into bushwacking through this thread if I hadn't known it was there. You are my savior!