SSF auto-mount/unmount with Xpadder command lines

[bujinkanrn]

Hi all, I'm a noob and have a complicated task I'd like to accomplish.  I want to use launchbox with SSF, bit it's a pain to manually mount/unmount game .cue files.  I'm also using a Dualshock 4 via xpadder with SSF.  From what I've read, it's possible to create batch files to automatically mount a .cue when I select a game from launchbox and automatically unmount it when I close the game.  I also understand that the same process can be used to open, minimize, and close Xpadder as I open and close a game from launchbox.  Is there a single command line I could use to accomplish the mount/unmount and starting/minimizing/stopping of xpadder from a single batch file?  If not, could I create multiple batch files to point to the game's in my Saturn platform section?  My skills at command lines and syntaxes are minimal, so I'm hitting a wall  But, based on what I've read, I shouldn't list SSF as the emulator in launchbox but should create batch file(s) in the same folder as my SSF executable that point to Daemontools and Xpadder.  

Sorry for the loaded question, but could anyone offer suggestions or show me a rough example of the command syntaxes I should use?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Edited August 12, 2016 by bujinkanrn
grammar correction

[Lordmonkus]

You don't need to do anything with Xpadder at all. I got 2 potential solutions to your Saturn needs, pick the one you wish you use.

Option 1:

Create a batch file in your SSF folder and in that batch file put the following code:

@echo off



set game=%1%



set daemon="C:\Program Files (x86)\DAEMON Tools Lite\DTLite.exe"



set emu="H:\Emulation\Emulators\SSF\SSF.exe"







%daemon% -mount 0, %game%



start /wait "" %emu%







%daemon% -unmount 0 

Modify the set emu daemon and set emu lines to match your program locations.

Now in Launchbox add or modify your SSF emulator if you already have it in there as an emulator and have it point to the batch file.

This will now work just like any other emulator, it will mount and unmount your image files automatically.

 

Option 2:

Now this is a new option and it was one I recommend at least trying to see how it works for you.

Use the latest release of Mednafen, it now supports Saturn and it works extremely well. It is on par with SSF for me and I have tested over 60 games with 58 of them working. Other people have run into problems with certain specific games that I don't have like Virtua Fighter. I did a video tutorial showing how to get this emulator running and you can find it in the videos section of the forum. One possible drawback to this emulator right now though is that is much pickier about its image dumps than SSF is. You may need to get proper dumps or do some repair work using CD Mage or converting audio files and generating new cue + bins with ImgBurn.

 

Sorry I cannot help you with the Xpadder stuff, I don't really use it.

[bujinkanrn]

Wow, THANKS for the fast, detailed response.  I'm at work now but will give both options a try on my next off-night.  As for xpadder, I'm thinking I can just open and minimize it before running launchbox.  I'm not really as worried with that part but just thought it would be cool to have everything automated

[Lordmonkus]

You are welcome.

There is probably something you can do with Xpadder but like I said I don't use it for anything so my experience with it is extremely limited outside of messing with it a little bit.

Definitely give the new Mednafen a shot though, this will quickly become the new Saturn emulator of choice. It's already my go to emulator for Saturn and it's just the first release. But like I said I had to do some work on some images to get them compatible.

[bujinkanrn]

I've checked out Mednafen and your video tutorial, and all I can say is WOW!  All but 2 or 3 games seem to run flawlessly.  For an unstable build, the emu already out-performs most others with only a few drawbacks.  This may very well be the definitive Saturn emulator.  Thanks for posting the tutorial vid!

[Lordmonkus]

No problems. Also check out the Retroarch Mednafen Saturn core now that it is out as well. It's not quite as far along because it lacks 3D pad analog controls but other than that it is just as good.

[bujinkanrn]

On 8/11/2016 at 10:33 PM, lordmonkus said:

You don't need to do anything with Xpadder at all. I got 2 potential solutions to your Saturn needs, pick the one you wish you use.

Option 1:

Create a batch file in your SSF folder and in that batch file put the following code:

@echo off















set game=%1%















set daemon="C:\Program Files (x86)\DAEMON Tools Lite\DTLite.exe"















set emu="H:\Emulation\Emulators\SSF\SSF.exe"































%daemon% -mount 0, %game%















start /wait "" %emu%































%daemon% -unmount 0 

Modify the set emu daemon and set emu lines to match your program locations.

Now in Launchbox add or modify your SSF emulator if you already have it in there as an emulator and have it point to the batch file.

This will now work just like any other emulator, it will mount and unmount your image files automatically.

 

Option 2:

Now this is a new option and it was one I recommend at least trying to see how it works for you.

Use the latest release of Mednafen, it now supports Saturn and it works extremely well. It is on par with SSF for me and I have tested over 60 games with 58 of them working. Other people have run into problems with certain specific games that I don't have like Virtua Fighter. I did a video tutorial showing how to get this emulator running and you can find it in the videos section of the forum. One possible drawback to this emulator right now though is that is much pickier about its image dumps than SSF is. You may need to get proper dumps or do some repair work using CD Mage or converting audio files and generating new cue + bins with ImgBurn.

 

Sorry I cannot help you with the Xpadder stuff, I don't really use it.

I finally was able to sit down and give this a try, but for some reason, I am getting a "Mount switch syntax error" before SSF loads.  My batch file looks like this (sorry I don't know how to get it to show in its own pane):

----------------------------------------------

@echo off

 

set game=%1%

 

set daemon="C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools Lite\DTLite.exe"

 

set emu="G:\Video Games\Gaming Archive\Emulators\Sega Saturn\SSF_012_beta_R4\SSF.exe"

 

 

 

%daemon% -mount 0, %game%

 

start /wait "" %emu%

 

 

 

%daemon% -unmount 0

---------------------------------------

I'm thinking that this has something to do with the version of DTlLite I'm using, or perhaps I made a type-o.  With Mednafen now working with most games, this almost seems like a crapshoot LOL

 

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by bujinkanrn

[DOS76]

I had to use unmount_ all in my additional apps setups if I used 0 it would throw an error every time even though I mounted 0 in the other app to mount it.

[bujinkanrn]

2 hours ago, DOS76 said:

I had to use unmount_ all in my additional apps setups if I used 0 it would throw an error every time even though I mounted 0 in the other app to mount it.

Thanks for the info.  Did you just replace "-unmount 0" in the batch file with "-unmount_all" or did you leave it as 0 and add in the command line under additional apps?

[DOS76]

I never had much luck with the .bat I setup additional apps for every game one to mount the disk before the emulator and another one to unmount the disc when the emulator closed basically it is doing the same thing except I put in much more work then the people using the .bat.

Mednafen Saturn Core is the future of Saturn emulation to use in LB I would suggest that any day no more needing to mount the discs RetroArch's built in controller support and the shaders I pretty much plan to never run SSF ever again.

[Lordmonkus]

The additional apps method was an old and terrible way of doing it.

[DOS76]

I agree wholeheartedly with that @lordmonkusit was a terrible waste of my time now it seems. I had much worse compatibility with the bat then with the apps so i went that route.

[bujinkanrn]

Hey guys, I've been toying around with the suggestions @lordmonkus and @DOS76 made, and I managed to do a work-around for mounting/unmounting with SSF.  I also managed to pre-load XPadder.  My mounting solution has the .cue format pre-associated with DTLite, which is important to note because it reduces the number of commands necessary to mount discs.  Check out the photos for my setup.  If anyone needs the entire command lines, let me know.

[Lordmonkus]

Well I am glad you got it all working the way you wanted to and may come in handy for someone who wants to to do it the same way.

Too bad it's such a load of work to set up all the additional apps if you have more than a couple of games.

Mednafen and soon Retroarch have pretty much rendered this emulator all but obsolete now.

[bujinkanrn]

Yep, Mednafen is my go-to emulator.  I'm only using SSF for 3 games total (out of over 100).  Once those 3 get fixed in Mednafen, it's adios muchachos to SSF, a great emulator but such a pain to configure.

[HellfireEternal]

I am looking to do this same thing... Integrate SSF into lauchbox and get the games to mount to a virtual drive. How do you create a .bat file? I tried pasting the above into a notepad file then renaming the file to SSFmount.bat but it didn't change the file type. 

[Lordmonkus]

Do you have file extensions hidden ? If you do Windows is probably naming the file SSFmount.bat.txt so it's still thinking it's a text file.

[HellfireEternal]

15 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

Do you have file extensions hidden ? If you do Windows is probably naming the file SSFmount.bat.txt so it's still thinking it's a text file.

Could you explain how to do that in windows 10? I'm not too familiar with this OS.

[Lordmonkus]

Click View at the top of your Windows File Manager

Options > Change folder and search options

Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"

[HellfireEternal]

Thanks! I was able to create the batch file however, it's not working exactly right. If there is already an image mounted it launches that image instead of the one I choose from Launchbox. Also the window for DTLite.exe shows up so if there is a way to close the window after it mounts the image that would be great. I assume that as this was written over a year ago the command line has changed for Daemon tools... any ideas on what it should look like instead?

Oh! If there is no image mounted SSF just hangs, showing that the "Drive door is open"

Edited January 21, 2018 by HellfireEternal