SteamLauncher

[Razor112]

On 8/24/2022 at 9:20 PM, Lahma said:

@Razor112, thanks for letting me know the vtables db update worked for you. I appreciate the sentiment but regardless, I'll definitely look into the issue with BigBox. It either needs to be fixed or the option removed. I don't want to leave it in a broken state. If I remember correctly, that feature (including the enable/disable menu item in BigBox) was implemented in a fairly bizarre round-about way due to limitations with the plugin system. I think it uses a dynamic type variable that accesses an unexposed BigBox UI element via reflection. I suspect that the recent BigBox overhaul (I think they redesigned a large part of it, didn't they?) changed something related to the class/method/type name I was accessing via reflection which probably caused the hack-ish workaround to stop working. Hopefully it shouldn't be too big of a deal to fix.

Honestly, I would really like to implement a SteamLauncher settings UI in BigBox, but I imagine it would take an enormous amount of effort since it would have to be compatible with game controllers and couldn't be reliant on mouse and keyboard. If anyone knows of a BigBox plugin that has UI that can be controlled solely with a game controller and could point me to it, I would really appreciate it. It would be interesting to at least take a look at which libraries they are using and peek at how they implemented controller support. Most likely I won't be implementing such a feature any time soon but I'm not entirely ruling out the possibility.

I only use your plugin so I can't give you any directions. Maybe one of the moderators can help you to find a plugin that is controlled with a controller in bigbox. You should message them and ask them about it. However, if you can't find a donor plugin to implement I think you should remove steamlauncher menu items from bigbox until you got enough time to implement such feature youself.

[coasternd]

On 8/25/2022 at 12:15 AM, Lahma said:

Very interesting input that I would have never considered. I will certainly see what I can do about it. I wasn't even aware that the UI could be locked in BigBox. You're saying that when the UI is locked, the "View" menu options are hidden?

When in BigBox, if you go into Options > Security there are switches so you can choose which menu options are displayed when the UI is locked. If you attempt to open the Options menu when the UI is locked it prompts the user for a PIN that you setup when you first turn on the security setting. On my setup, I have most things locked including 'Exit Big Box' and 'Switch to 'Desktop Mode.' I think it gives a cleaner user experience and helps keep friends/family/kids from messing with my setup. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by coasternd
typo

[Gabe2006]

Not sure if anyone has had this issue, but every time I close a game, it stays in my Steam library unhidden and doesn't auto-delete itself. I'm guessing it could be the new Steam UI but who knows? Here's an example to show what I'm talking about.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Gabe2006

[bcpenney]

Since updating SteamLauncher to the latest version, I get the following error when running LB. Reverting to the previous version fixes it.

[wiesshund]

Steam Launcher seems to crash latest launchbox version
leaves the steam launcher proxy running, game never opens, and launchbox crashes to desktop

disable steam launcher and all is well

 

Here is the log

2022-10-23 01:00:03 [Info] [VTables] [OnlineUpdate] - Attempting to update 'VTab - Pastebin.com

Edited October 23, 2022 by wiesshund

[wiesshund]

cleared out everything
Reinstalled LaunchBox 12.16
Reinstalled SteamLauncher

Same result, steamlauncher crashed launchbox, game never launches

Launchbox log
2022-10-23 01:33:34 AM All necessary config files and folders now confirmed to e - Pastebin.com

Steam Launcher Log
2022-10-23 01:33:50 [Info] [XmlFile] [SerializeToString] - Successfully serializ - Pastebin.com

 

Nothing ever takes place in steam, so nothing to log from it
Steam Build Oct 21 2022
API v020
Package versions 1666402581

Unsure if it is a launchbox change to steam change that has things broken but
 

 

[wiesshund]

Ok, i have figured out the cause
It is steam, the next official steam update is likely to blow up steam launcher
i disabled the beta program and rolled back steam to release channel, and it is fine again.

problem will be when the beta goes into the release channel

[Lahma]

Wow, I am SO SORRY for missing all of y'all's recent posts. I am DEFINITELY not receiving email about new posts here. I have got to figure out what is going on with that... I am aware of the latest beta Steam update having broken SteamLauncher. It is most likely due to a change in vtables (again). I am looking into the issue right now and I will update the online vtables DB as soon as I have reversed the new vtable layout. Once I do update the DB, all that it should take to make SteamLauncher start working again is a quick restart of LaunchBox. I will post back here when I have updated the DB.

Additionally, I am now going to go back and read the recent messages I have missed and I will directly respond to any posts that are still relevant. Again, I am really sorry! A lot of long-time SteamLauncher users are friends with me on Steam so hopefully in the future one of them will shoot me a msg and let me know if I have missed posts here in the support thread. I would really appreciate it! Also, my Steam details are on the plugin download page for anyone who wants to contact me directly. You ARE NOT bothering me and I would be happy to personally talk to any of you for whatever reason so please don't hesistate to add me on Steam if you'd like to.

Note: Thank you to @wiesshund for messaging me on Steam and letting me know about the issue with the latest Steam beta.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Lahma

[Lahma]

On 10/11/2022 at 8:52 AM, Gabe2006 said:

Not sure if anyone has had this issue, but every time I close a game, it stays in my Steam library unhidden and doesn't auto-delete itself. I'm guessing it could be the new Steam UI but who knows? Here's an example to show what I'm talking about.

Hi @Gabe2006! First, I am really sorry for missing your post until now. If I had been aware of your post, I most definitely would have replied to you MUCH sooner. Please accept my apologies. Now, moving on...

In one of the recent SteamLauncher updates, the way in which I add/remove shortcuts in Steam was changed. This was necessary due to a major revision of the IClientShortcuts vtable by Valve. They removed nearly half of the functions that were previously available making it no longer practical to add/remove Steam shortcuts in the same way.

To add shortcuts to Steam, I am making use of an undocumented library feature called "Temporary Shortcuts". According to my testing, the way that temporary shortcuts currently work is this (always subject to change of course):

• There can only be 1 temporary shortcut in a user's library at any time
• If a temporary shortcut already exists in a user's library and another temporary shortcut is added (using the undocumented method AddTemporaryShortcut), the previous temporary shortcut is overwritten
• Temporary shortcuts are not hidden and are visible in a user's library (still, only 1 is present at any given time)
• Restarting Steam flushes temporary shortcuts and therefore after restarting Steam, all temporary shortcuts (or rather, the single existing temporary shortcut) will be deleted
• As far as I can tell, a temporary shortcut behaves the same way as any other non-Steam shortcut with the above exceptions

So yes, currently the last title launched via SteamLauncher will show up in your Steam library unless you have restarted Steam and have not yet launched a game using SteamLauncher. I didn't foresee this really being a problem for most people but if it is inconvenient or undesirable, I can look for a solution. The problem with using non-temporary shortcuts is it requires me to keep track of any non-Steam shortcuts created by SteamLauncher, ensuring that SteamLauncher never leaves behind any stray shortcuts (such as when SteamLauncher/LaunchBox/Steam crashes) and that only a single SteamLauncher shortcuts is present at any given time. For a very long time, this is actually how things worked with SteamLauncher (used normal, non-temporary shortcuts). I was able to keep track of shortcuts created with SteamLauncher by applying a custom tag to created shortcuts and ensuring that only 1 shortcuts existed in a user's library at any one time with that tag. However, after the update that introduced a major overhaul to the Steam library (when dynamic collections were added and 'shortcuts.vdf' was no longer the sole storage repository of all shortcut related data), nothing worked as it did previously and many of the old "tag" related methods no longer worked (the methods still existed to shortcut's tags but they either no longer worked or had super bizarre behavior/bugs).

If I'm remembering correctly, I believe that prior to the major revision of the IClientShortcuts vtable, temporary shortcuts could still be hidden using the undocumented SetShortcutHidden function but after the update, that function no longer actually caused the temporary shortcut to be hidden (even though a temporary shortcut could, and still can be, hidden using the Steam UI). If having the SteamLauncher shortcut visible in your library is an issue for some reason, I can double check that this is still the case and if it is, I can look into possibly reverting to using non-temporary shortcuts again... However, based on the testing I did previously, I think this is going to come with a lot of issues and require a lot of work to implement in a reasonable way.

Can you let me know if indeed having a single shortcut (created by SteamLauncher) in your Steam library is an issue for you? If so, can you give me an explanation as to why this is problematic? Perhaps I entirely misunderstood your post and you're implying that multiple shortcuts created by SteamLauncher are showing in your library simultaneously (should be impossible unless Valve has changed something significant)? I will keep an eye on the support thread for your response.

[Lahma]

On 10/19/2022 at 6:11 PM, bcpenney said:

Since updating SteamLauncher to the latest version, I get the following error when running LB. Reverting to the previous version fixes it.

Yes, currently SteamLauncher is not working the latest Steam beta. I appreciate you posting here in the support thread to let me know about it. I apologize for not seeing your post until just now. I am however working on fixing this right now. I will post back here on the support thread when I have updated the online vtables DB which should fix the issue.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Lahma

[Lahma]

Just wanted to let @Razor112 and @coasternd know that I have not forgotten about their issues with BigBox. I'm sorry that I have not yet gotten around to investigating fixes for the issues noted. Just been really busy with work stuff (and if I'm being honest, I've also been wasting some of my time playing with my new 3D printer 😏). I am going to try to look into the BigBox issues in the next few days though and I will report back here with my findings.

[Lahma]

Online VTables DB Updated - 2022/10/27 10:45pm

I have updated the online vtables DB, fixing the vtable offsets for the Steam beta client. As long as LaunchBox has internet access and online updates are enabled in the SteamLauncher settings, a quick restart of LaunchBox should be all that is required to fix the issue. I do not know when these changes will be pushed out to the non-beta Steam client but whenever they are, I will have to make a quick modification to the online DB for the non-beta Steam client to continue working. In the coming days/weeks, if any of you notice that the non-beta Steam client stops working with SteamLauncher, please post a message here in the support thread (or better yet, msg me on Steam) so I will know that I need to update the online DB (literally will take me 2 sec). Thanks for y'all's patience and please let me know if you have any more issues.

[Lahma]

Just curious... Has anyone tried the new BPM overlay in the Steam beta (launch parameter '-gamepadui')? I tried it very briefly and in my experience it is completely broken with non-Steam shortcuts. The game simply receives no input from the controller or keyboard. Instead, it appears that input is still being directed to the overlay despite it being hidden/closed. Just thought I would see what y'all's experience with it was. Will be interesting to see how quickly they try to transition over to it in the non-beta build. Owning a Steam Deck myself, I have had quite a bit of experience with it already and though I mostly like the new overlay (for some parts, it is a huge upgrade), the one part that I do not think is improved, and is in fact a big downgrade, is the new controller bindings UI. Seems way less intuitive and way more confusing. I personally really like the layout and most of the functionality of the current UI and, in general, I think the way the inputs are overlayed onto an actual image of the controller itself is very intuitive and easy to understand. Would love to hear y'all's opinion on the matter.

[Gabe2006]

On 10/26/2022 at 12:12 AM, Lahma said:

Hi @Gabe2006! First, I am really sorry for missing your post until now. If I had been aware of your post, I most definitely would have replied to you MUCH sooner. Please accept my apologies. Now, moving on...

In one of the recent SteamLauncher updates, the way in which I add/remove shortcuts in Steam was changed. This was necessary due to a major revision of the IClientShortcuts vtable by Valve. They removed nearly half of the functions that were previously available making it no longer practical to add/remove Steam shortcuts in the same way.

To add shortcuts to Steam, I am making use of an undocumented library feature called "Temporary Shortcuts". According to my testing, the way that temporary shortcuts currently work is this (always subject to change of course):

• There can only be 1 temporary shortcut in a user's library at any time
• If a temporary shortcut already exists in a user's library and another temporary shortcut is added (using the undocumented method AddTemporaryShortcut), the previous temporary shortcut is overwritten
• Temporary shortcuts are not hidden and are visible in a user's library (still, only 1 is present at any given time)
• Restarting Steam flushes temporary shortcuts and therefore after restarting Steam, all temporary shortcuts (or rather, the single existing temporary shortcut) will be deleted
• As far as I can tell, a temporary shortcut behaves the same way as any other non-Steam shortcut with the above exceptions

So yes, currently the last title launched via SteamLauncher will show up in your Steam library unless you have restarted Steam and have not yet launched a game using SteamLauncher. I didn't foresee this really being a problem for most people but if it is inconvenient or undesirable, I can look for a solution. The problem with using non-temporary shortcuts is it requires me to keep track of any non-Steam shortcuts created by SteamLauncher, ensuring that SteamLauncher never leaves behind any stray shortcuts (such as when SteamLauncher/LaunchBox/Steam crashes) and that only a single SteamLauncher shortcuts is present at any given time. For a very long time, this is actually how things worked with SteamLauncher (used normal, non-temporary shortcuts). I was able to keep track of shortcuts created with SteamLauncher by applying a custom tag to created shortcuts and ensuring that only 1 shortcuts existed in a user's library at any one time with that tag. However, after the update that introduced a major overhaul to the Steam library (when dynamic collections were added and 'shortcuts.vdf' was no longer the sole storage repository of all shortcut related data), nothing worked as it did previously and many of the old "tag" related methods no longer worked (the methods still existed to shortcut's tags but they either no longer worked or had super bizarre behavior/bugs).

If I'm remembering correctly, I believe that prior to the major revision of the IClientShortcuts vtable, temporary shortcuts could still be hidden using the undocumented SetShortcutHidden function but after the update, that function no longer actually caused the temporary shortcut to be hidden (even though a temporary shortcut could, and still can be, hidden using the Steam UI). If having the SteamLauncher shortcut visible in your library is an issue for some reason, I can double check that this is still the case and if it is, I can look into possibly reverting to using non-temporary shortcuts again... However, based on the testing I did previously, I think this is going to come with a lot of issues and require a lot of work to implement in a reasonable way.

Can you let me know if indeed having a single shortcut (created by SteamLauncher) in your Steam library is an issue for you? If so, can you give me an explanation as to why this is problematic? Perhaps I entirely misunderstood your post and you're implying that multiple shortcuts created by SteamLauncher are showing in your library simultaneously (should be impossible unless Valve has changed something significant)? I will keep an eye on the support thread for your response.

Okay, now the problem isn't really a problem to me at all. I just imported Steam games into my LaunchBox app, so everything's fine.

[Razor112]

On 10/26/2022 at 9:32 AM, Lahma said:

Just wanted to let @Razor112 and @coasternd know that I have not forgotten about their issues with BigBox. I'm sorry that I have not yet gotten around to investigating fixes for the issues noted. Just been really busy with work stuff (and if I'm being honest, I've also been wasting some of my time playing with my new 3D printer 😏). I am going to try to look into the BigBox issues in the next few days though and I will report back here with my findings.

Sorry for the late reply Lahma. For me, The fix for the big box bug is not that important because of  the selective use feature. If i need a game or a platform to not start through steam i just blacklist those and i don't even have to turn off steamlauncher I tried new steam client beta update with new steam deck ui. Steamlauncher doesn't work but steam deck ui is just beautiful compared to old big picture mode. Even though i don't own a steam deck i actually dedicated one of my laptops to holoiso (unofficial steam os 3 that can be installed to any pc). New deck ui feels natural and responsive also the laptop i'm using holoiso is underpowered but i just drop the resolution to 800x600 and with system wide fsr clears the picture good enough. I think valve really nailed the new steam deck tbh. I agree with you on new controller bindings config screen but i think postives outweights the negative imho.

[wiesshund]

Reported to Lahma in steam
Latest Steam public update has broken things again

[51mm5]

Yes, Launchbox crashes to desktop for me when Steamlauncher is enabled.

[Lahma]

15 hours ago, wiesshund said:

Reported to Lahma in steam
Latest Steam public update has broken things again

9 hours ago, 51mm5 said:

Yes, Launchbox crashes to desktop for me when Steamlauncher is enabled.

Thanks for the report @wiesshund and @51mm5. The non-beta finally adopted the vtables changes that the beta implemented a couple of weeks ago. I've already updated the online vtables db so a restart of LaunchBox is all that should be required to fix the issue. Let me know if the issue isn't fixed for you or you come across any other issues. Again, thanks for the speedy report. The sooner I know about the issue, the sooner I can fix it.

[I3lackshirts]

I am currently having an issue where I can run the game and the overlay starts. I have an SNES controller that does not respond to inputs. When I try to open the controller configuration screen from the over lay it crashes steam. Is this due to how I have retroarch or the settings set up?

[Lahma]

23 hours ago, I3lackshirts said:

I am currently having an issue where I can run the game and the overlay starts. I have an SNES controller that does not respond to inputs. When I try to open the controller configuration screen from the over lay it crashes steam. Is this due to how I have retroarch or the settings set up?

Hi @I3lackshirts, I do not believe I have heard of this type of issue before. However, SteamLauncher has zero control over the Steam overlay or controller bindings. SteamLauncher is simply a proxy for creating and launching a non-Steam shortcut in a way that is transparent to the user. Unfortunately, there is likely nothing I can do to help troubleshoot and/or prevent any crashes within Steam. If you want my best guess though.. the issue is almost certainly something to do with Retroarch. While I certainly respect all of the time and hard work put into Retroarch, it is often a bug-ridden mess on any given release (nightly or stable). It can be extremely frustrating to use, especially if you try to keep it up to date and don't just stay on a single old version that works for what you need it for. My advice would be to try changing the controller api/driver within Retroarch to see if works around the issue you are having.

As an aside, you can always confirm whether SteamLauncher plays any role in the problem you're having by simply creating your own non-Steam shortcut within Steam and seeing if it behaves the same way as when you're using SteamLauncher as an intermediary. The last shortcut that SteamLauncher creates will be visible in your list of games in your Steam library, so you can always look at its properties to see what exe and arguments it is using (if you need to for whatever reason).

If there is anything else I can do to help out, let me know, but like I said, the issue you're having is almost certainly unrelated to SteamLauncher itself.