LaunchBoxPCSX2, an in-between launcher for LaunchBox and PCSX2

[XoRRoX]

Hi all,

I recently started experimenting with LaunchBox and PCSX2.

I developed a small program to cater from some things I wanted. When I mentioned it on Reddit, there seemed to be interest for it so I thought to share it.

Here is the Readme:

-= App Name =-

LaunchBoxPCSX2

-= Features =-

This Launcher is meant to be used in conjunction with LaunchBox and PCSX2, the PlayStation 2 Emulator. It has two main functions:

1. Enable Game-Specific Configuration in PCSX2:
   > Hold down Shift or Joystick Button 7 (L2 on my PS2 Joystick) while launching a game in LaunchBox to create a Game-Specific Configuration for that game.
     Any option you change will be configured specifically for this game only.

     The next time you want to launch this game, there's no need to hold Shift or joystick button - LaunchBoxPCSX2 will detect the Game-Specific Configuration and use it automatically.

   > Hold down Control or Joystick Button 8 (R2 on my PS2 Joystick) while launching a game to DELETE the Game Specific Configuration.
     The next times the game is launched, the Generic Configuration will be used.

2. Enable Save & Loading Game States and Exiting PCSX2 with a Joystick/Gamepad:
   > Save State by pressing button 9 (Select on my PS2 Joystick) + 7 (L2 on my PS2 Joystick) - Effectively presses the F1 key.

   > Load State by pressing button 9 (Select on my PS2 Joystick) + 8 (R2 on my PS2 Joystick) - Effectively presses the F3 key.

   > Exit PCSX2 by pressing button 9 (Select on my PS2 Joystick) + 0 (Triangle on my PS2 Joystick) - Without Confirmation.

-= Installation =-

- Place this launcher in the same folder as PCSX2.exe;
- Open LaunchBox and specify LaunchBoxPCSX2.exe as your "emulator", instead of PCSX2.exe. If preferred, you can specify additional commandline parameters you want to pass to PCSX2 in LaunchBox too (ie --nogui --fullscreen).

-= Notes =-

. The configuration of all Joystick Buttons, several notification messages (non-essential) and sound feedback is configurable in the LaunchBoxPCSX2.ini file.

. You can use the separately included JoystickTest.exe to find out your joystick's button numbers.

. To any y/n in dialogues you can also respond with your joystick - Joystick button 3 for Yes, Joystick button 1 for No.

. If you want to configure the Generic Configuration, you can start any game which doesn't have a Game-Specific Configuration or start PSCX2 manually and configure the options.
Be mindful though that those options will not trickle through to your Game-Specific Configurations.

. Game-Specific Configuration is based on the name of the game's image filename. This means that if you first create a Game-Specific Configuration and then rename your image file, LaunchBoxPCSX2 will not detect it anymore. The easiest way to solve this is to go into the {PCSX2 installation folder}\Game Configs folder and rename the corresponding folder to match the name of your image file.

. You can start LaunchBoxPCSX2.exe from Windows Explorer to show it's version number.

Have fun,
XoRRoX

-= Changelog =-
- v0.01b First Release

- v0.02b (not released)
/ Fix: made file extension of game file recognition not case-sensitive (it used to detect only lowercase extensions)

- v0.03b
+Added: The Joystick Buttons are now configurable in an ini-file
+Added: Display of various notification messages (non-essential) can now be toggled in an ini-file
+Added: Feedback sounds can now be toggled in an ini-file
/ Fix: Not all PCSX windows were closed when --nogui was being specified as a command line option in LaunchBox.

- v0.03c
+Added: Debug logging to see what command-line parameters are passed. Documents\LaunchBoxPCSX2_Log.txt. To activate, in the ini-file, under [Other] specify debug=true or debug=1

- v0.03d
+Added: Some additional command-line debug logging.
/ Fix: On pressing Esc, PCSX2 would only close the game but not completely exit.

- v0.05
/ Change: Changed the method with which the game-file parameter is detected because someone ("timekills") wants to use it with RocketLauncher which passes it as the first parameter, not the last as LaunchBox does. The game-file can now be specified in any position and LaunchBoxPCSX2 will detect it automatically.

- v0.05b
/ Fix: (again) Not all PCSX2 windows closing when --nogui was specified. Tested with latest PCSX2 developer build 1.5.0-dev-2479-g39b405648-windows-x86.
/ Fix: LaunchBoxPCSX2 not closing sometimes.
+Added: a configuration option in the Ini to use the Joystick functions or not.

 

 

LaunchBoxPCSX2_v0.05b.zip

Edited August 13, 2018 by XoRRoX
Updated version.

[Jason Carr]

Thanks @XoRRoX, this looks really cool. I pinned the post. Hopefully I can play around with it over the weekend. :)

[CliveBarker]

Thank you very much for the effort you put in this I will be using it!

[Zombeaver]

This is a really great idea! I'll have to check this out as it should cut down setup time quite a bit. I've just been setting up each game with PCSX2's master config files until I'm happy with them and then copy them into the specific game's folder and then add a launch command to the game to direct it to those configs via -c "config folder location".

[XoRRoX]

Zombeaver said This is a really great idea! I'll have to check this out as it should cut down setup time quite a bit. I've just been setting up each game with PCSX2's master config files until I'm happy with them and then copy them into the specific game's folder and then add a launch command to the game to direct it to those configs via -c "config folder location".

Well, that's basically what happens behind the scenes. In addition I added some Joystick features. Looking forward to your feedback :)

[gradientpixel]

I feel this would definitely optimize the relation between LaunchBox and PCSX2. About a week back or so I finally moved up to getting the PCSX2 emulator and quickly discovered how each game varies some in configuration. I started looking for options of this idea in itself for the emulator and was how I discovered LaunchBox (thinking it was able to do that). Yes, I was a small amount disappointed that this feature is not built into the software, but upon using it, I cannot do away with LaunchBox. I did discover 'PS2Lunch' (located here: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PS2Lunch-a-simple-launcher-for-PCSX2) but you had re-add all games into that outside of already locating the .iso files into the emulator. I didn't have much luck with it and felt it too much work for the worth. Definitely will give this a try!

[tibic]

hi and tks for your lunchps2^^ but need screen shot for help me ++ YESSSSSSSSSSSS I have found

[XoRRoX]

I updated LaunchBoxPCSX2 to version 0.03b. -= Changelog =- +Added: The Joystick Buttons are now configurable in an ini-file (LaunchBoxPCSX2.ini) +Added: Display of various notification messages (non-essential) can now be toggled in an ini-file +Added: Feedback sounds can now be toggled in an ini-file / Fix: Not all PCSX windows were closed when --nogui was being specified as a command line option in LaunchBox. I updated both the text and attachment in the first post (thanks again @Jason Carr ) Looking forward to your feedback

[Alakazander]

Hey man, this app looks sweet but I'm having an issue with it. When I tried to make a Game-Specific Configuration I got this error:

Spoiler

I looked at C:\Users\***\Documents\PCSX2 and found that I had a folder called "inis", but that the new version of PCSX2 had made a new folder called "inis_1.4.0". So I thought I'd just copy and replace the files from "inis_1.4.0" into "inis", but I got the same error message again. Is there something that I am doing wrong?

[XoRRoX]

Alakazander said Hey man, this app looks sweet but I'm having an issue with it. When I tried to make a Game-Specific Configuration I got this error: I looked at C:\Users\***\Documents\PCSX2 and found that I had a folder called "inis", but that the new version of PCSX2 had made a new folder called "inis_1.4.0". So I thought I'd just copy and replace the files from "inis_1.4.0" into "inis", but I got the same error message again. Is there something that I am doing wrong?

I heard today (after the release) that with the new 1.4.0 release you can choose between having certain folders in either the PCSX2 folder or your Documents folder. The latter you seem to have chosen. The current release v0.03b of LaunchBoxPCSX2 doesn't anticipate on that yet and only assumes the old situation where the \inis folder is a subfolder of the PCSX2 program folder. I'll have to investigate the new possibility and make changes to accommodate for that.

[SentaiBrad]

You've always been able to have your files in your documents folder or your PCSX2 folder. However, only savestates, memory cards, BIOS and logs can be in your PCSX2 install. It looks like ini's need to be in the ini 1.4.0 folder for the new 1.4.0 version. You might not have file permission so PCSX2 can't access it, otherwise try removing all installs of PCSX2 (keep your memory cards and save states if you have any) and install PCSX2 fresh. See if it boots after this.

[XoRRoX]

SentaiBrad said You've always been able to have your files in your documents folder or your PCSX2 folder. However, only savestates, memory cards, BIOS and logs can be in your PCSX2 install. It looks like ini's need to be in the ini 1.4.0 folder for the new 1.4.0 version. You might not have file permission so PCSX2 can't access it, otherwise try removing all installs of PCSX2 (keep your memory cards and save states if you have any) and install PCSX2 fresh. See if it boots after this.

Hmm, good to know - thanks for providing these insights :) Alakazander is referring to a LaunchBoxPCSX2 error message and not PCSX2 itself not starting, so no need to do a fresh install of PCSX2 At this moment LaunchBoxPCSX2 is coded to look only check for {PCSX2 Folder}\inis and not in the Documents folder (as Alakazander seems to have configured it) so I have to build that in too. Thanks again for the info though

[SentaiBrad]

Oh I missed that. Yea, ini's in documents and PCSX2 folder. "ini 1.4.0" should only be in the documents folder. It looks like they are switching to this, at least in the PCSX2 settings there is no option to change where ini's are stored.

[lorywindrunner]

Isn't there already a way to do this with command line arguments?

[spacegoathlz]

There is, but you have to add the argument, start the game, cancel out of the game, copy & paste existing inis, then re-launch the game. The idea of the in between is to make it so hitting the shift button does all that for you when you launch a game. I say idea, because I've yet to get it to work properly since PCSX2 went to only letting you save in the documents folder, and changing it to 1.4.0 in the file name.

[LogicalEgo]

Does this also work with bigbox? I tested a little bit in Launchbox and when I tried to exit a game it just minimized the window with 1.4, all other features seem to be working. I love the independent config files, great work so far.

[bmonomad]

just to clarify: this no longer works because the ini folder is in documents, correct? better to go this route below? https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/troubleshooting/how-to-save-different-settings-for-each-game-with-launchbox-pcsx2#p12281

[orac31]

I have just tested this and im using a git release pcsx2-v1.5.0-dev-571-g5de1600-windows-x86 and it works like a dream thanks so much i am doing a build on an alienware alpha i7 and a lot of ps2 games need tweeking to get a good speed this is going to be a life saver need to do a bit more testing tho

[XoRRoX]

Sorry, I was too busy too finish up the next release which takes the possibility of the Documents folder into account but I hope to free some time for it soon. Thanks for checking it out :)

[XoRRoX]

@Jason Car I'm running into quite some trouble when trying to use some of the joystick keys to trigger things in LaunchBoxPCSX2. By default they almost all seem to be configured in LB and effectively unusable for my app. Even ones that are not configured according to the LB dialogs, 9 & 10, make LB jump back to the first title in the list when held down and button 1 ("Click / Enter / Confirm") is pressed to confirm /and thus start LaunchBoxPCSX2). Now, I can understand that you cannot take any tool out there into account. Would it be possible though to have your thoughts on this? For instance to at least let the not configured ones do nothing? Thanks in advance :)