Lahma
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Posts posted by Lahma
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5 hours ago, bryantjs6 said:
I am experiencing a recurrence of an issue I had a few years ago and documented in this post. The proxy opens when I try to launch a game, but either Steam immediately crashed and I have to force close LaunchBox because it stops responding, or LaunchBox immediately crashes. I only use LB, not BB.
I've tried deleting the plugin completely and redownloading, but I still get the same behavior. I'm not sure what setting I have that might be causing this.
Does it matter if my Steam installation is on a different drive than LaunchBox?
The only entries in the debug log say: [Warning] [Config] [LoadConfigOrDefaults] - The config file was not found. Loading defaults.
Thank you.
The version of the plugin that was available on the plugin download page was simply broken and wasn't working. I've been very busy lately and simply hadn't gotten around to uploading a new, working build. I've been privately sharing a working build of the plugin with scores of people for quite a while now but just hadn't posted it publicly. However, that is no longer the case now. Just a few minutes ago, I went ahead and uploaded a new, working build of the plugin on the plugin download page (v0.9.7.7). For anyone who has gotten the working build from me privately, the build I uploaded to the plugin download page is no different and there is no reason to download it. For everyone else though, just download the new version and replace all your old files with the new ones, and everything should work perfectly fine. My suggested way of upgrading is to do as follows:
- Extract all the files in the package, overwriting any old/existing files in "LaunchBox\Plugins\SteamLauncher"
- Run LaunchBox and leave it running for 30-60 sec but do not launch any games
- Exit LaunchBox and after it has fully exited, start LaunchBox again
The reason I suggest you do things this way is that it gives SteamLauncher a chance to update its vtables.xml file online in case a Steam update has made any breaking changes with its vtable offsets.. After it updates, LaunchBox has to be restarted for the updated offsets to be used. Anyways, please give the newly posted build a try @bryantjs6 and report back here if you have any issues (you shouldn't.. there are a pile of people using this build without any issues).
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On 11/26/2021 at 10:58 AM, 51mm5 said:
Sorry @51mm5, I literally just saw that I had a msg here. I'm not sure I'm understanding what you're asking. Every game that my plugin launches is a "non-Steam" shortcut/game. Are you asking if my plugin can be used outside of LB?
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Hey Everyone, just wanted to apologize for taking so long to get this update out. I've just been really overwhelmed with other stuff and I'm implementing a lot of really big changes in the next update.. Kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place now since I'm in the middle of implementing these big changes, which makes it really hard to put out a release until I'm finished implementing everything. However, I do have a perfectly working old build which I would be happy to share with anyone who sends me a msg on Steam. There are a lot of people using this build right now without any issues, so if you'd like to use it in the meantime until I'm able to release the update, I would be happy to share it with anyone. My Steam contact info is on the plugin download page. Thanks for bearing with me and having patience!
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Quick update: I've got both LB and BB fixed now. I'm working on cleaning up a few other things before I post the new update but if anyone wants to test a debug build of the update right now, hit me up on Steam. It would actually be helpful to have a few people test it out before I post the update officially just to be sure there isn't any major bugs or anything (since I actually had to change quite a bit of code as well as migrate to a new library for this update).
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Just wanted to update everyone. I'm still pretty sick (haven't been this sick since I was a kid) but I finally figured out the issue with BigBox. The recent LB/BB update changed the version of a DLL it was using which has caused some unforeseen issues the plugin. I can't really explain why this DLL was updated while none of the other related .NET dlls were (they've been using v4.7 for a very long time and now, only this single DLL has been updated to v5.0 which causes issues because the v5.0 dll expects its own dependencies to be the same version but they aren't.) Regardless, I know what I need to do to fix the problem and I'm working on it now. The entire reason I was relying on the DLLs included with LB/BB instead of including them with the plugin was to save space and so I wouldn't have to start including a bunch of dependencies with the plugin itself. I guess in retrospect it really doesn't make that much of a difference anyways... whats a couple of more files in the zip package (and another couple of MB), right? While I'm at it, I think I'm going to go ahead and port my code to use Microsoft's newer version of this particular dependency. Previously I was using 'System.Management' (WMI) whereas Microsoft now recommends using Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure (MMI). Since I'm having to put the work in anyways, I'm going to go ahead and update things to use this new library. I'll try to get the update out in the next few days if I can. Sorry about the long wait... I definitely wasn't planning on being sick for over a week (I missed this entire week of work and it remains to be seen how much I'm going to miss next week). Thanks for your patience.
P.S. If the majority of you use only LaunchBox (as opposed to BigBox) and it would be helpful to have an update the fixes only LB, let me know. I would be happy to share a temporary update that will at least allow y'all to use LB until I get the update out that fixes both.
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FYI everyone: I'm aware that the plugin is broken and I've already got LB fixed. Now I'm working on getting BB fixed. I am super sick right now.. Got a fever, sinus infection, etc.. I'm trying to get an update out as quick as possible though.
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On 9/1/2021 at 10:00 AM, rfj831@gmail.com said:
Hey everyone. I can't start games from BigBox anymore when Steam Launcher is enabled. I can start games from desktop mode so its not completely broken. I also saw another post talking about reverting back to an older version of LaunchBox so I tried that but then BigBox doesn't work at all. Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thanks
On 9/1/2021 at 10:00 AM, rfj831@gmail.com said:On the latest version I can launch nothing through BigBox at all, rolling back to the previous LB version fixes it however
Hey @rfj831@gmail.com and @JedExodus, sorry for the long delay in responding. I'm looking into the issue with BigBox right now. I have no idea why a minor LB/BB update would break the plugin (and only in BB) but what's new, right? Story of my life... I'll update this post when I know more. Oh, and clearly something has gone wrong if reverting back to the previous version doesn't fix your issue with BB @rfj831@gmail.com... What steps did you take to revert to the previous update?
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On 8/29/2021 at 2:15 AM, 51mm5 said:
Sorry this is probably a really noob question. I've just installed Steam launcher but cannot get any non-steam game to run. For example I'll trying to launch a Cemu game from Launchbox and I get "The file you specified for the emulator application path was not found". If I switch off the Steamlauncher plugin I can run the game fine. The Steam launcher plugin obviously changes the emulators path settings. I tried making Cemu a non-steam game shortcut but it still does not pick up the game. Do I have to do something with the emulator application path settings in Launchbox?
Just to give background I use my Steam controller to play BOTW so I can use the gyro function but I usually need to open steam in BPM and launch Launchbox from within Steam BPM to get the Steam controller to work and have access to the overlays. It would be nice not to have to run BPM and run everything by just using Launchbox and the Steam Launcher plugin so I have access to the steam overlay etc
Hey @51mm5, sorry about the long delay in responding. I've been super busy lately and just haven't had time to check the thread. On the plugin download page, there is info on how to contact me on Steam. I think that would be the easiest and most efficient way to try to figure out what issue you are having. Hit me up and we'll get it sorted out. Being a new user, I suspect the problem is something minor or just a misunderstanding in how things work.
Here is a link to the plugin download page which has my Steam contact info:
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Hey @rfj831@gmail.com, I tested out Retroarch with the Duckstation core and I'm not having any issues with the Retroarch window losing focus. It is really hard for me to say what it could be without doing some further investigating some of which will require some info from you. For one, do you have "Prevent Steam Focus Stealing" enabled in the SteamLauncher options? Also, are you using Startup, Shutdown, and/or Pause screens in LB? I do all of my testing without Startup/Shutdown screens enabled. When you try other cores in Retroarch, you said you don't experience this same issue, right? You can try enabling debug logging, then run a game with the Duckstation core, then close Retroarch, close LB, and then upload the debug.log file to pastebin and send me the link. Honestly, I'm not sure how much help that will be but it is worth a try.
Additionally, if anyone else watching this thread could maybe try out the Duckstation core on Retroarch and let us know if you are or are not having issues with the Retroarch window losing focus, that would be super helpful. Maybe @JedExodus might offer to try it out? Thanks!
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On 8/15/2021 at 3:52 PM, JedExodus said:
Have just stumbled upon another wee issue. It seems if a game title has a special character like an accent (or a as I would call it a fada) SteamLauncher is unable to load the game up. SteamLauncher loads and times out.
In my case it was Pokémon (don't laugh) Renaming to "Pokemon" and the game launched grand. Was repeatable across different emulators (initially thought it was a Retroarch thing)
Really!? Damn... I already addressed that issue once in the past and it was a total bitch. The reason it was so problematic to fix was because of a bug in Steam's handling of unicode characters. Essentially, Steam would mishandle its interpretation of Windows paths from UTF-16 (which WIndows paths use) to UTF-8 (which Steam uses). As a result, I had to intentionally mangle the path data into an incorrect value so that Steam would then interpret it correctly. Perhaps Steam has finally fixed their bug (after a couple of decades) when they made all of the significant changes to the Steam library and UI. I've moved this issue to the top of my 'to-fix' list along with the issue reported by @rfj831@gmail.com about the Duckstation Retroarch core.
Btw @JedExodus, did you ever get the issue resolved that you reported concerning changing your Retroarch core to Beetle? If not, can you give me some additional details? Does changing the core back to the previous core make it start working again? How about trying a different core? I assume you tried restarting LB and Steam and you double checked your emulator and rom paths? Any additional info you can give me that would make it easier to look into would be appreciated.
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On 8/1/2021 at 10:18 PM, rfj831@gmail.com said:
So first of all, yes, when I disable steam launcher the emulator runs without issue. That's why I guessed steam launcher is causing it. Secondly, I have tried duckstation with Steam launcher enabled in both windowed Fullscreen and Fullscreen mode. It made no difference, either way the emulator would pause itself. It may just be a setting within the core itself but looking through the core settings I couldn't identify anything that could cause the issue.
Hey @rfj831@gmail.com, just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you. I'm going to download that core and try to implement a solution for you just as soon as I get a chance. I'm incredibly busy with work stuff at the moment but I will get to it just as soon as I can.
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On 7/27/2021 at 6:20 AM, C-Beats said:
The functionality uses the exact same function call as when a user double clicks a game or right clicks in LaunchBox and presses play.
Thanks for the confirmation on that @C-Beats. I couldn't imagine any scenario where that would not be the case. Now that we know that, I can't imagine why the tray icon launch game feature wouldn't be working with the plugin as there should literally be no difference. Guess I'll have to check it out and see what is going on...
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4 hours ago, rfj831@gmail.com said:
Looking for some help/advice here. I love steam launcher because I have a GPD Win Max so the plugin makes it easy for me to transition seamlessly between the built in controller and any of the external controllers I like to use when plugged into a monitor. The only part that annoys me is the Duckstation core in Retroarch. Whenever I start a PS1 game up from Big Box the emulator pauses itself shortly after start up. I then have to click on the mouse to get the game to resume and play as normal. I figured out this is because of Steam Launcher taking the focus of Retroarch at startup, causing it to pause itself. I the went into the Retroarch settings and made it so taking focus off Retroarch doesn't pause the program. However the problem is that none of the inputs works until I click the mouse to bring the focus back to Retroarch so it doesn't really solve my problem. This only happens with Duckstation core. Every other Retroarch core I use pauses itself also, but the difference is that it also resumes itself instantly without me need to click the mouse. I understand this a very specific problem, but it is annoying so I'm curious if anyone has encountered a similar problem and knows of a solution. I don't want to switch to another PS1 core either, Duckstation is perfect for all of my PS1 needs. Thanks for any ideas/solutions you guys might have.
Hey there @rfj831@gmail.com, the problem you're experiencing isn't unheard of. No joke, I've probably spent over 40-50 hours working on/tweaking the code for handling window focus. The core of the issue is that I am fighting against LB/BB which is also trying to manage which window is active/focused for both its startup/shutdown windows and the actual game/emulator window. Currently, there is no way to deal with this type of issue in the LB plugin API so I am having to work with/around LB doing its own thing. For the most part, the code as it currently is deals with most situations pretty well but there are certainly edge cases as you've found.
One thing that would be really helpful for you to try in order to give me a little more info is trying Retroarch with that same core but without using SteamLauncher. When you do this, is the window focus being handled correctly? I've come across a few instances where LB won't focus the game/emulator window after it starts running and if this happens, it is even less likely that it will work correctly with SteamLauncher. The win32 API for handling window focus/active/z-order is a mess and it can do strange things and work in ways that are simply baffling.
If the window focus is working correctly when not using SteamLauncher, I will download the Retroarch core and see if I can fix the issue for you. Just out of curiosity, in Retroarch, are you using windowed mode, windowed fullscreen mode, or fullscreen mode? Also, do you know what video driver you are using?
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2 minutes ago, JedExodus said:
Possibly unrelated but thought I'd mention.
Last night I was messing with my PSX collection. I changed the core over (was playing Um Jammer Lammy and the latency on PCSX-Rearmed was killing me) Changed to Beetle and it wouldn't launch at all. No Retroarch launching, Steamlauncher opened then closed on timeout (the core wasn't set up right however) I went to change back to PCSX and it still wouldn't launch untill I rebooted Steam and Launchbox.
Probably unrelated mind
Hmm... I can think of a possible cause for this.. Let me take a look at the code and I'll get back to you.
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23 minutes ago, fromlostdays said:
In the newest LB there's a feature to minimize LB to the system tray. From there you can right click it and there's exit, reopen options as well as a populated list of your most recent games that you can launch right from that context menu, fyi. No idea how it works.
Ah ok.. I understand now. Unfortunately, if the plugin isn't working when you click the system tray option to launch one of your recently played games, I doubt there is going to be anything I can do about that. My plugin hooked into LB's 'PlayGame' (can't remember exactly what its called off the top of my head) so if that function and its related callbacks aren't being called by LB, there probably isn't anything I can do about it. I can't conceive of any reason why launching a game through the tray icon wouldn't call the same exact function as double clicking a title in LB itself or why doing so wouldn't invoke the plugin API callbacks but it sounds like that is likely the issue. I will check it out to be sure and if it is indeed the case, I will shoot a msg to the devs and see if we can't get it fixed. Thanks for letting me know about the new feature (and the problem with it) @Nokiaman.
@fromlostdays, I will try to reproduce the issue according the instructions you supplied. Thanks for the info.
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10 hours ago, Nokiaman said:
Not sure if you can do something about it, but games launched from the new tray icon option don't work with SteamLauncher.
Tray icon? Obviously I'm not up to date on this new feature. Care to explain how it works? Also... why would you want to launch a game via LB through a tray icon? Surely I must be missing something...
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On 7/18/2021 at 9:05 PM, fromlostdays said:
So I'm running into an interesting case and sorry if this has been addressed before. I have 3 Wii U games in Launchbox, one of them works fine with Steamlauncher enabled and the Overlay works as well. Two of them won't launch with it enabled, no pop ups or anything when attempting to launch. I set the logging to verbose and let me know if you need all of that, but the only thing I can see in that log that indicates a problem is the same thing that pops up if the logging is set to "error":2021-07-18 20:47:40 [Error] [GameLaunchingPlugin] [OnAfterGameLaunched] - An error occurred while creating/launching the Steam shortcut: Object reference not set to an instance of an objectMy first thought was that it must have something to do with the titles of the games in Launchbox because everything else is the same, but I can't figure it out.
AANNNNDD I'm a genius.
This is going to get weird, but I was able to fix it. HOW I was able to fix it is a little hard to explain and WHY this fixes it makes no sense to me but here goes:
-The game that worked I imported a long time ago (I just wanted to test the system etc.)
-The two games that did not work, I imported today
-I should note here that I'm importing .rpx files. I noticed that all three games had the title of the .rpx file amended to the title of the game in launchbox. So the one that works looks like "Star Fox Zero carrot" where carrot was the name of the rpx file. However, it didn't show up in the Launchbox/Edit title of the game like that. Instead the "carrot" part was below the title under "version" in Launchbox. Remember that this game worked.
-The same exact situation was happening to the other two, but for some reason when I clicked/edited the games and removed the title of the .rpx from the "version" info in launchbox... joy.
-Again, to be clear, the older game still works with that version info in there, but for whatever reason now, if you import rpx, you may have to delete the version info for steamlauncher to launch the game. ?
Hey @fromlostdays, I am really sorry that I am only just now getting back to you. Despite reading your msg the day you posted it, it has been a very crazy week for me, and I just haven't had a chance to respond. I'm not really sure what to make of your issue as my plugin never even reads the game's 'Version' field so it doesn't know what is in this field or that it even exists. I have an extensive Wii U library and while most of my imported Wii U games have the string 'code' in the version field, some games have different strings in that field such as 'USA v1.20', '[APKE01] [USA] [Loadiine]', and '[ARME41] [USA] [Loadiine]'. All of those games work fine. I even tried modifying some of my games to have different content in the version field and experienced no issues (which is completely expected since the plugin literally has no knowledge that this field even exists.)
The only conclusion I can come to is that you were possibly experiencing a different issue that that you inadvertently and unknowingly fixed and erroneously attributed the fix to changing the data in the version field. If that is not the case, then I do not have any viable explanation as I have never had anyone else report a similar problem or experienced it myself... and again, I wouldn't even know how to explain it if it did actually happen since the plugin never reads or has any concept of what LB game version field is. If you can provide a concrete explanation on how to reproduce the issue then I would be happy to look into it further but otherwise, I'm kind of at a loss. Sounds like you at least got things working now though so hopefully you're not having any other issues. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
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1 hour ago, JedExodus said:
@Jason Carr This man has my vote. His plugin for many setups completely unifies controller setup no matter what device I choose. Would urge you to consider the reques,it will make my dog happy
Good news! @C-Beats saw my previous post and sent me a PM. He said that they would be open to me posting a new issue on the BitBucket page with my desired plugin API changes. Obviously he isn't promising anything but I think it is worth the time/effort to give it a shot. As soon as a I get enough time, I'm going to write up a detailed proposal and submit it. Hopefully the LB devs and I can collaborate to get the needed functionality added to the API. I'm looking forward to seeing how the changes could optimize/streamline the plugin. Hopefully everything works out!
I love the pic of your dog @JedExodus! He reminds me of a dog my grandma used to have named Fuzz.
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@mrdead and @Corgana, I sincerely appreciate the kind words. You all are too kind
While I doubt I will be getting a job offer from Jason any time soon (I believe he just hired 1 or 2 talented devs in the last couple of years), I would certainly love to contribute to LB in a more official capacity. I'm sure Jason and the current devs have many plans for LB already and a very long list of to-do's as it is though, so I won't be holding my breath
One thing I would love to see however (and perhaps is a bit more realistic) is further development of the plugin API which would allow MUCH easier integration with LB and eliminate the need for a TON of workarounds and ugly hacks that I am currently using to get around the fact that the LB plugin API does not support a lot of functionality that I really need it to. I've actually spoken with Jason about this in the past and he did actually implement some additionally functionality into the plugin API. However, either due to a miscommunication on my part, a misunderstanding on his part, or possibly just a lack of time amidst many other plans (at the time, I believe Jason was still the lone developer of LB), the new plugin API functionality fell short of what I actually needed it to do. I believe the amount of code and time that it would take to integrate these few features into the plugin API would be relatively minor so perhaps there is some hope that it may be implemented at some point in the future... (?)
When I have some extra time on my hands, perhaps I will write up another detailed proposal for the desired plugin API functionality and propose the changes to the dev team in a new thread. Perhaps with enough upvotes from the user base of SteamLauncher, we might be able to get the proposed changes implemented. Not really sure since it is entirely out of my hands but I think it is more likely the desired features will be implemented into the API if the developer know those features are going to be useful to a significant portion of their users. It would make me VERY happy to be able to remove all of the hacks/workarounds code currently in the plugin and it would significantly clean up the code base and make it much easier to read and comprehend. Hopefully at some point this will become a reality.
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@JedExodus Thanks man. You've been around since I can remember and I always appreciate your support.
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17 minutes ago, Aetavicus said:
Can confirm that it is working again. I did restart Launchbox multiple times on the day when I tested this issue. Perhaps there is some delay before the updater can pull the updated files from Steam?
@Aetavicus: Restarting on the day when you tested the issue wouldn't have caused the updater to download anything new because I hadn't yet updated the online DB. It wasn't until your post that I was aware that the Steam update had broken compatibility with the plugin. Once I saw your post, I looked into what the problem was and discovered that Steam had altered the IClientEngine vtable offsets again. Although it is not really important to understand that means, basically the plugin wasn't able to locate the correct address for a function within "steamclient.dll" that it needs to call in order to operate correctly. Once I figured out what the issue was, I was then able to update the online db with the new, correct offset values. Only after I updated those values would the auto updater be able to retrieve those new values and therefore fix the issue. Hopefully that clarifies things a bit.
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Thanks again for the report @Aetavicus . The latest Steam update did indeed change some of the vtable offset AGAIN. However, since I implemented the online updater functionality in the previous SteamLauncher update (allows the plugin to retrieve the vtable offsets from an online db that I am able to modify when needed), all that should be required in order to fix the issue is to restart LaunchBox (assuming you have the online updater enabled). When LaunchBox runs the next time, the plugin will check if the online db has been updated. It will detect the update and download those new vtable offsets which should immediately fix the problem.
Ideally, I would like to be able to update the online DB the same day that a Steam update introduces some breaking changes but in this instance, I have just been so busy that I did not even notice your post concerning the problem until today. Sorry about that. I will try to address the problem quicker next time. Please let me know if the updated online db did indeed fix your problem. I suspect that most users won't even notice since the online update is silent (unless you're looking at the debug logs).
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On 6/8/2021 at 5:00 AM, Aetavicus said:
This plugin does not seem to work anymore with the latest Steam update.
Steam client application
Built: Jun 7 2021, at 12:30:20
Steam API: v020
Steam package versions: 1623096420The plugin loads up and freezes and I have to close it and Launchbox from the task manager.
I have attached the logs in this post.
Thanks for the report @Aetavicus. I'm looking into it.
SteamLauncher
in Third-Party Applications and Plugins (Released)
Posted · Edited by Lahma
I've gone into very in-depth explanations of why imported games for other launchers don't "just work" a countless numbers of times in this thread and in private conversations with people who've messaged me. I really don't have the time, energy, or willpower to go over it all yet again.. The long and short of it is that any games that LaunchBox imports and launches using custom URL handlers (i.e. com.epicgames.launcher://XXXXXXXX) are impossible for my plugin to intercept and proxy through Steam. It isn't a "feature" that I can add and it isn't something I can "fix". The way you can easily assess this is by trying to manually add a non-Steam shortcut to Steam and launch your game using one of these URLs (instead of pointing to the game exe). If formatted correctly (start "" "com.epicgames.launcher://XXXXXXXX"), you'll be able to get Steam to launch the game but no matter how hard you try, you won't ever get a working Steam overlay because it is literally impossible for Steam to know what executable it is supposed to inject its overlay into. Steam has no way of correlating between some custom URL handler that is has no understanding of and an actual game executable.. And since at the end of the day, my plugin relies on normal non-Steam shortcuts (that are added in a very roundabout way with lots of workarounds and tricks since Steam doesn't expose these features in their public API and because LaunchBox has no built in means for plugins to intercept and modify a game's parameters mid-launch) and has absolutely no influence over the way Steam injects its overlay into external processes, there is nothing I can do to change the way this functions.
You as a user however, can fix the way your games are stored in LB and make the vast majority of your games work just fine with SteamLauncher... You just need to change the game's properties such that instead of launching the game via an abstract URL it is instead pointing to the game's EXE on your machine. It takes maybe 15-20 sec to change.. Give it a shot.