SteamLauncher

[Lahma]

3 minutes ago, skizzosjt said:

Yes, Retroarch was the emulator that lost focus at startup and needing to ALT+TAB as a result. I'm not sure of exact timeline of my testing I previously detailed because I did recently update Retroarch to newest stable release at time when I downloaded it, which I know is 1.16. nightly/dev version was at 1.17 but I went with stable release - I see 1.17 is now the stable release

I will do some more testing because unfortunately for me, my memory is a little hazy on if I tested anything since this Retroarch upgrade. To be thorough on my end, I'll need to test some more on my up to date version of Retroarch. I can come back with some more feedback after I get that completed. I know when I made my first post I was def not on a recent version so I'll do my due diligence here for sure by testing with the recent release version.

That would be great. Just report back here with your results and if you're still having issues, I'll do whatever is necessary to fix the issue.

[skizzosjt]

On 2/19/2024 at 3:45 PM, Lahma said:

That would be great. Just report back here with your results and if you're still having issues, I'll do whatever is necessary to fix the issue.

did some more testing this week.  I'm setup with Retroarch 1.16.0 as my main instance from a recent upgrade. I test with both LaunchBox and Big Box now with the newer Retroarch version. And though there are still issues with the startup screens as I previously describe, it didn't require the ALT+TAB input when a game is launched from Big Box. But it has constantly needed that type of input/user interaction if games are launched from LaunchBox and is so far repeatable with any core or game. So there is a noticeably different behavior between launching games via LaunchBox, or Big Box when using Steam Launcher, at least regarding using Retroarch. For Retroarch, I tested with systems such as NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Master System. Cores would be nestopia, snes9x, both N64 cores paraLLEI and MupenPlus-Next, genesis plus gx

So to summarize all testing so far, here is what I observe

LaunchBox: Startup and Shutdown screens are both funny, they lose focus so you see the desktop/LaunchBox. Startup screens start OK, but lose focus prior to the emulator/game loading. Shutdown screens are delayed in starting, so you see the desktop/LaunchBox and then after X secs the Shutdown screen shows up. Retroarch loses focus at game startup so requires some user input to get it in actually focus. The emulator/game is visible and on top of all other windows from what I can tell, but just not in focus. As in, if I have the option to pause emulation if Retroarch is not in focus enabled, the emulator is in a pause state and you see the pause sign on the on screen display in top right corner.

Big Box: Startup screens are funny in the same way as described for LaunchBox. However, Shutdown Screens, at least with Retroarch, behave as expected. I did not notice it to flash back to the frontend for X seconds before the Shutdown screen appears. Also unlike LaunchBox, Retroarch did not lose focus at game startup so no additional user input required prior to actually playing the game.

Let me know if there are any additional specific things I can check to help pass along more info.

[AbbieDoobie]

On 10/25/2022 at 11:12 PM, 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.

I am having this problem currently, and I'm not sure when and/or what version it started with. I searched the thread and this was the most recent post I found regarding this issue.

Everytime I launch something in Launchbox, it gets added to Steam permanently. I didn't notice it at first, but I recently found 6 of the exact same game in my library. I launched the same game again, and a 7th entry was added. Verified this with a Retroarch launch and a Ryujinx launch on a few different titles.

I use Steam Launcher so I can simplify input management and just use steam input across the board.

[HTPCei]

I'm getting the same problem as AbbieDoobie above, multipe new shortcuts being created in Steam. I think they used to be temporary, but they do seem persistent now, until removed manually.

[HTPCei]

Today, the temporary shortcuts are still persistent, but mine now have new icon images, matching the emulator there running on, which is nice.
Also, guessing it might be an indication that Steam has made some changes somewhere that affect the plugin.

[Lahma]

@AbbieDoobie and @HTPCei, thanks for the report. I suspect an update to Steam has once again broken something in the undocumented API calls the plugin uses. I am super busy with a work-related project right now but since I have tomorrow off for Labor Day, I may have some time to troubleshoot what is going on and take a crack at fixing it. It is weird that you're seeing legitimate icons associated with the temporary (should be temporary anyways) shortcuts being created... They must have made some major changes because previously, if you didn't specifically call the API which associated a PNG with the specific shortcut, it would not display an icon (even if the shortcut was pointing to an EXE with a valid, associated icon). I will report back here once I get a chance to look at it (hopefully with an accompanying update).

[HTPCei]

1 hour ago, Lahma said:

@AbbieDoobie and @HTPCei, thanks for the report. I suspect an update to Steam has once again broken something in the undocumented API calls the plugin uses. I am super busy with a work-related project right now but since I have tomorrow off for Labor Day, I may have some time to troubleshoot what is going on and take a crack at fixing it. It is weird that you're seeing legitimate icons associated with the temporary (should be temporary anyways) shortcuts being created... They must have made some major changes because previously, if you didn't specifically call the API which associated a PNG with the specific shortcut, it would not display an icon (even if the shortcut was pointing to an EXE with a valid, associated icon). I will report back here once I get a chance to look at it (hopefully with an accompanying update).

Hi, thanks for geting back to us. I should also say, my Launchbox is crashing whenever I exit a Game, when Steamlauncher is enabled, doesn't crash with it disabled.

Yeah the icons look quite good, although they are now blank for some entries, so maybe stil a work in progress?..
 

[AbbieDoobie]

I'm seeing exactly what @HTPCei is, where Launchbox crashes/closes when I exit a game using steamlauncher. Icon stuff too.

[Darkcloud]

On 9/7/2024 at 3:28 AM, AbbieDoobie said:

I'm seeing exactly what @HTPCei is, where Launchbox crashes/closes when I exit a game using steamlauncher. Icon stuff too.

Yeah I have the same, Launchbox crashes and shortcuts persist in Steam.

[The_Keeper86]

I haven't used SL in forever! But decided to give it another shot and it crashes LB here as well when loading a game.

[Florian]

Hi! I just wanted to report that the LaunchBox application crashes when exiting a game when using SteamLauncher.

[wiesshund]

On 11/5/2024 at 1:20 PM, Florian said:

Hi! I just wanted to report that the LaunchBox application crashes when exiting a game when using SteamLauncher.

Hi confirming i am seeing the same

[MissWhimsicalUnicorn]

Crashes Launchbox when loading a game here as well

[Lahma]

Hey guys, I've seen all of y'all's messages and know that I'm going to look at it as soon as I can, but life has gotten in the way of a quick response. I'm working 60+ hour weeks, I've got a new girlfriend in my life, and the holidays have been brutal... I promise to get to it just as soon as I can though.