LEDBlinky - LaunchBox not keeping controls lighted

[arzoo]

2 minutes ago, arzoo said:

Just wanted to let you know that I've release an update to LEDBlinky (v6.4) which should resolve the problem with the controller buttons (joystick buttons) not lighting up.

 

On 11/7/2016 at 11:25 AM, johnstewart said:

Within BigBoxSettings.xml, I'm not seeing anything that relates to anything in LEDBLinkyInputMap.xml. This is what seems to be related to the controls there:

    <ControllerSelectButton>-1</ControllerSelectButton>
    <ControllerBackButton>2</ControllerBackButton>
    <ControllerPlayButton>3</ControllerPlayButton>
    <ControllerPageUpButton>5</ControllerPageUpButton>
    <ControllerPageDownButton>6</ControllerPageDownButton>
    <ControllerFlipBoxButton>0</ControllerFlipBoxButton>
    <ControllerPlayMusicButton>0</ControllerPlayMusicButton>
    <ControllerViewImagesButton>4</ControllerViewImagesButton>
    <ControllerExitButton>0</ControllerExitButton>
    <ControllerVolumeUpButton>0</ControllerVolumeUpButton>
    <ControllerVolumeDownButton>0</ControllerVolumeDownButton>

Just wanted to let you know that I've release an update to LEDBlinky (v6.4) which should resolve the problem with the controller buttons (joystick buttons) not lighting up.

[Fursphere]

1 hour ago, arzoo said:

Just wanted to let you know that I've release an update to LEDBlinky (v6.4) which should resolve the problem with the controller buttons (joystick buttons) not lighting up.

Just installed the new version and it doesn't seem to be lighting up the front end controls.  Only the game controls.  (Keyboard controls light up, Joystick controls do not)

EDIT:  I wonder if this has something to do with the joystick IDs being a bit wonky?    I don't they match whatever LaunchBox is set too, since I never configured the joystick IDs in LB - It just worked. 

Edited December 6, 2016 by Fursphere

[arzoo]

7 hours ago, Fursphere said:

Just installed the new version and it doesn't seem to be lighting up the front end controls.  Only the game controls.  (Keyboard controls light up, Joystick controls do not)

EDIT:  I wonder if this has something to do with the joystick IDs being a bit wonky?    I don't they match whatever LaunchBox is set too, since I never configured the joystick IDs in LB - It just worked. 

Can you turn on the Debug Log, run LB/BB and email me back the debug.zip. Thanks.

[Fursphere]

Just sent you the Debug.   LB/BB just updated to the latest beta too, so in case that has any effect on the logs (didn't seem to effect anything)

[xantari]

@johnstewart@arzoo I am having the same problem as posted here: 

The controls don't stay lit. 

How did you fix?

[middric]

Yep I'm still having the same problem too. The LEDBlinky log shows a GAME_START event completion immediately followed by a GAME_END start and complete.

Mitigation seems to be to set a game start delay in the LEDBlinkyConfig application (Game Options tab, "Game Start Delay" in the Game Start fieldset). This doesnt really fix the underlying issue but at least my controls light up correctly.

 

Latest version of LEDBlinky (6.5.0.0).

[Jason Carr]

This probably depends on the emulator guys; what emulator are you testing with? The issue is that some emulators have multiple EXEs and the initial EXE will close out (at least that's my hunch). LaunchBox just waits for the EXE to close down before running the exit command.

[middric]

@Jason Carr that was my assumption too - in my case this is running steam games, for example Street Fighter V and Sonic Mania both do this. I think the ideal is that it would be based on the executable with focus rather than making an assumption about whats running but thats an LEDBlinky problem rather than a LaunchBox one. Maybe I'll make an AHK script to do that.

[arzoo]

8 hours ago, middric said:

@Jason Carr that was my assumption too - in my case this is running steam games, for example Street Fighter V and Sonic Mania both do this. I think the ideal is that it would be based on the executable with focus rather than making an assumption about whats running but thats an LEDBlinky problem rather than a LaunchBox one. Maybe I'll make an AHK script to do that.

LEDBlinky receives the game start/stop commands from LaunchBox, so it knows nothing about what emulator is actually running beyond the data it receives from the front-end. Hyperspin has a similar issue - sending a false game quit command when the emulator loses focus (but is still running). But since HS uses a secondary app (HyperLauncher) to actually run the emulators, I was able to add a work-around in the LEDBlinky code to check memory for the HyperLauncher app and ignore the false game quit commands.

I'm wondering why this issue hasn't come up in the past with LB? Are other users having the same issue with Steam?

Edited January 24, 2018 by arzoo

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, arzoo said:

LEDBlinky receives the game start/stop commands from LaunchBox, so it knows nothing about what emulator is actually running beyond the data it receives from the front-end. Hyperspin has a similar issue - sending a false game quit command when the emulator loses focus (but is still running). But since HS uses a secondary app (HyperLauncher) to actually run the emulators, I was able to add a work-around in the LEDBlinky code to check memory for the HyperLauncher app and ignore the false game quit commands.

I'm wondering why this issue hasn't come up in the past with LB? Are other users having the same issue with Steam?

This has actually come up a couple times before. I would guess that depending on how the Steam game is built, it may or may not work. I'd have to do some further testing though to see if there was anyway to improve making the Exit command wait properly for all Steam games. The main issue there is that Steam games are not at all similar in how they're built; every game is built differently, sometimes with several different EXEs.

[Fursphere]

I created a work around for this.  Basically its a batch file (.bat) that launches along side the game itself, and has a 10-15 second wait time before it fires the appropriate LEDBlinky.exe command.  

LB/BB lunches games - sends command to ledblinky to start lights.   (using the Steam ID game launch method)

lights light up.

now "steam game ID" can't be seen, so the lights go out, because LB/BB "thinks" the game has closed / ended.

My batch file fires a second ledblinky command a few seconds after that, which start the lights back up - which will stay lit until something else sends ledblinky a command.  (which happens when you really close the game and LB/BB comes back into focus and starts sending ledblinky commands again).

You have to modify every steam game's launch setup to get it to to work, but it works.   (is there a way to batch mass edit the things in LB??)

[middric]

For anyone interested you can find my AHK script for working around this issue here: https://github.com/witchert/arcade It monitors the current active window for applications you care about and sets LEDBlinky for you. This should mean you can alt+tab between games and games like Street Fighter V that open and close multiple windows should all be dealt with gracefully. I'm doing similar things for xpadder profiles in cases where xpadder auto profile doesnt recognise windows so I'll probably add that to the above link if anyone is interested.

You can leave the Launchbox LEDBlinky integration turned on so you dont have to configure the games that work fine (MAME etc)

Edited January 26, 2018 by middric

[CoolBreeze]

middric, could your give more information on where should be called this script? Windows is not an emulator in LB, only a platform, so I'm not sure where would be the entry point for your script. Your documentation is fine to configure the script, but I'm having a hard time knowing where to anchor it in LB.

Thanks

 

[Multimike]

Is there anyway to config ledblinky to light up all the buttons all the time so no buttons aren’t lit up some games only two buttons are used and the panel looks weird not lit up. Maybe even if the non control buttons light up dimmer than the actual buttons for the game?? Thanks