WINUAE Whdlauncher

[foleyjo]

Hi.

I tried to find a way to get whdload games to launch from Launchbox but all I could find was solutions related to using FS-UAE.

FS-UAE doesn't work as good as Winuae on my mini pc so I decided to create my own launch script.

I have shared it here incase anyone else would like to use it.
It uses whdrun to launch the game and is easy to setup

• Extract the zip file to a location of your choice
• Create an empty folder called Temp with the extracted files
• place the whdload-config.uae file in the location of your uae config files
• open winuae
• Make sure in the winuae paths the config path points to the location of the whdload-config.uae
• Open the whdload-config.uae and adjust it for your setup
  • You need to set a bootable harddrive named DH0 pointing to the WHD folder. This is where whdload is
  • You need to set a non bootable harddrive named DH1 pointing to the Temp folder. This is where your game will be extracted
• If you do not use Winuae for its default location on the c drive you will need to open the whdload.bat file and adjust the location

and thats it setup.

Now in launchbox you just need to set your emulator for whdload games to be the whdload.bat file. If a game needs a different config then just edit the game command-line-parameters in launchbox to be the name of the config file.

The games them self need to be zipfiles. The zipname, game foldername and .slave file all have to have the same name. You could probably try editing the bat file to use a wild card for the game name "#?.slave" if this is a problem. 

What happens when you launch the game is  the file \WHD\S\pre-user-startup is edited so that it has the name of the game you are launching. Then whdrun is launched with the correct parameters for loading the game.
When winuae starts it runs the startup-sequence which calls pre-user-startup to get the name of the game and then calls the user-startup to launch the game.

 

Hope this long post is useful to at least 1 person.

 

whdrun-launcher.zip

[espidie79]

Hi ,

 

I´ve been looking for something about winuae solution. Thank you very much.

For some reason i cant make it work - I´ve followed your instructions, but always  find this screen, on every game

Im using winuae 4.01 

I have to modify the whdload. bat so it can match my winuae path so it looks like this:

 

Tried to change the main rom to 3.1 but winuae doesnt save my modifications. It keep showing 1.3

 

I´m sorry about my english, so i hope i´ve been clear enough

 

Thanks in advance 

 

[foleyjo]

Hi

I had this problem recently when I tried on my laptop rather than my desktop.

No matter what I did it wouldn't load the correct settings on my config file.

It was loading the config file but Rom and controls wouldn't load. Not sure if it's due to using 64bit on laptop and 32bit on desktop.

I managed to force the 3.1 Rom by editing the winuae file manually

Before doing that though try setting winuae to run as administrator.

Place a copy of the config file I provided in the main winuae config folder.

Select your Rom file then save the config file.

Maybe try adding the full path to the config file in the bat file

If that doesn't work try using 32bit version of winuae. I use 32bit on my desktop because I have it setup to boot into Amiga workbench and use that as my main OS. With 32bit you can use winlaunch to launch into pc programmes without leaving winuae so I launch launchbox from there.

[espidie79]

Thank you very much for your answer.

Apparently the problem was in the version of winuae.

Your config file was done with version 4.0.0 and i´m using 4.0.1 version

I saved a new configuration file according to the structure of your file. That way it worked well.

To make my tests, i´ve only exported a few games to launchbox.  

Later i´ll import all the set to see how it works, but I guess there shouldn't be problems.

 

Many thanks for all ?

[foleyjo]

That makes sense actually as I'd downloaded 4.0.1 on my laptop but still haven't updated my desktop.

I've not had any problems so far. I did need a different config file for games like breathless. That was achieved by editing the parameters in launchbox for each game. It's just those that need a bit more power to run.

 

[Colorman3605]

I followed all the instructions and after a bit of effort I managed to make everything work. I have only 3 questions:
- I noticed that if I use files (zip, folders etc ... as indicated in the instructions) with names that are the same but contain spaces, the program does not work. It's correct?
- Are there any options for WHDRun to change the controls, the graphics settings?
- there is a way to prevent the cmd.exe window from appearing or to close it up by itself.

Thank you!

[foleyjo]

4 hours ago, Colorman3605 said:

I followed all the instructions and after a bit of effort I managed to make everything work. I have only 3 questions:
- I noticed that if I use files (zip, folders etc ... as indicated in the instructions) with names that are the same but contain spaces, the program does not work. It's correct?
- Are there any options for WHDRun to change the controls, the graphics settings?
- there is a way to prevent the cmd.exe window from appearing or to close it up by itself.

Thank you!

Hi. Glad to see you managed to get it working. In answer to your questions

1 - names have to be identical in zip file and folder. My script uses the zip file name to add all the required game name fields for winuae

2 - only way to change settings at launch is to use different config files and specify which config file is used in launch box for the game

3 - it should close when you close the game. If not then I may have changed a setting in the launchbox launcher config

 

[Colorman3605]

1 hour ago, foleyjo said:

Hi. Glad to see you managed to get it working. In answer to your questions

1 - names have to be identical in zip file and folder. My script uses the zip file name to add all the required game name fields for winuae

2 - only way to change settings at launch is to use different config files and specify which config file is used in launch box for the game

3 - it should close when you close the game. If not then I may have changed a setting in the launchbox launcher config

 

For questions 1 and 3 there is no problem they were just a question of practicality and visual aesthetics. However, the thing that interested me most was the question 2. I'll explain, I use an XBOX 360 controller for windows. In WinUae I usually use the analog pad for directions (the fire buttons work perfectly) but with WHDRun I can only use the directional cross. If I use the analogue pad, WinUAE opens or nothing depending on the direction. I wanted to know what I should do to change the directional keys. In addition, when you open the game, it opens in a simple window that includes only the game while I would like to display in the window the menus above and below it as usually happens when I use normal games on WinUAE. P.S. I do not know all the features of WinUAE, so I might have missed something, but I do not know how to ask for advice.
Thank you!!!

[foleyjo]

What you will need to do is load a game with whdrun then press f12 to bring up the settings and adjust everything to your personal preferences and then overwrite the config file that whdrun uses. The important thing is that you don't change the Amiga hdd locations in the winuae settings.

The settings file I created use a ps4 pad. You should be able to change this in the controller settings but I'm not sure if you have to remap the controls or if there is an auto config for your pad.

For the display it opens in fullscreen+window. In the display settings in winuae just change it to window for the display that you want. 

Don't think of whdrun as doing anything more than extracting the game folder and launching winuae. All settings it uses are in your winuae settings file. As long as your harddrive settings match the settings file I provided the games should launch

[Colorman3605]

I do not know what I did, but now when you open a game, you do not open the game but WinUAE. The amazing thing is that if I open the file whdload-config.uae, the game opens. Now I do all the normal operations for each game, then I take the file whdload-config.uae that I find myself, rename it with the name of the game and open it directly from launchbox with WinUAE. As I said I do not know what I did now is how I wanted the emulator and the games to work.

[foleyjo]

It's good you got the setup you want. When you say it's opening winuae do you mean it's just opening the settings window. If so then there is a setting somewhere that launches directly into winuae or into the menu. 

I can't remember where that option is though

[Colorman3605]

12 hours ago, foleyjo said:

It's good you got the setup you want. When you say it's opening winuae do you mean it's just opening the settings window. If so then there is a setting somewhere that launches directly into winuae or into the menu. 

I can't remember where that option is though

I thank you, but it does not matter. Having the .uae files for every single title I have everything I need. They are the .uae files that I open directly with WinUAE via Launchbox. The titles open automatically. All perfect as I set it through the settings in WinUAE (visualization, game controls, etc ...).

[SegaDoesWhatNintenDont]

Hi,

thanks you for sharing this. I've been looking to do exactly that. So it is a god's send.

Unfortunately I'm also stuck with some problems mentioned above. My kick31 keeps defaulting back to 1.3, until I manually change it in the config using notepad or something.

After I did that I got  the following message:

So my folder structure is: WinUAE\Temp\whdrun-launcher\WHD (and then the C, Devs, Libs, S folders).

Can anyone imagine what might cause this?

[Colorman3605]

How is the folder containing the game files renamed?
Does the folder have the same name as the file.slave?
Does the .zip file containing this folder (which contains the files ...) have the same name as the folder?

In your case, the 3dpool.slave file (along with the 3dpool.info file) must be in the 3dpool folder.
The folder must then be compressed in the 3dpool.zip file.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Colorman3605

[Colorman3605]

For the kickstart I modified the file WHDLoad-Config.uae with notepad ++ to the kickstart line.

 

[Colorman3605]

To be precise, the first time you launch a game through launchbox, I launch the * .zip file. If you start and then the files are corrections prepared, I go into the folder of configurations of WinUAE I take the file WHDLoad-Config.uae, I make a copy and rename it with the name of the game. So in the configuration of the game in launchbox, I replace the * zip file with the newly renamed uae file. From now on it will be the uae to start the game (which however must not be moved compared to the first launch). In this way I will be able to configure WinUAE ( modifying the options of WinUAE and saving them in the file "title".uae) only for that title according to my needs.
I hope I'm clear.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Colorman3605

[foleyjo]

Pretty much what colorman3605 said for the game. The folder must contain the info and slave files and be zipped up with the same name.

I think you have the folder path wrong though probably due to my bad explanation.

Temp should be a separate folder in the whdrun-launcher folder.

Then in winuae DH1 points to this temp folder.

Whdrun should extract the game to the temp folder before winuae opens then the slave is found on DH1 by whdload.

The kickstart 1.3 issue is due to the older config file being used in my attachment.

 

 

[foleyjo]

Here's a video to show it in action launching bigbox from winuae

https://youtu.be/v3ix_R1mbh8

[foleyjo]

I changed my approach  to this one.

I wanted my games extracted so I could use them in workbench or launchbox and wanted to remove whdrun from the equation.

So what you need to do is extract all your games into a folder named WHDLoad, You can have them in sub folders if you wish.

Also in the WHDLoad folder extract the attached file

You may need to edit the .bat file to point to your winuae folder and config location

In winuae create a configuration for your whdload games called whdload-default and save in your winuae configurations folder.

You need to setup 1 harddrive using the whdload folder and labeled whdload.

use the .bat file to launch your .slave files in launch box

 

WHDLoad.7z

[Tantrumus]

I know this is old and a new direction was taken.

I have been struggling for several weeks now trying to get one Amiga game running in Launchbox that is in hfd format.

I am experimenting with only 1943.zip, 1943.info, 1943.slave are all the same name in the folder structure in Zip file.

I am getting an issue that seems like the bat file can not properly copy the data...

WHDRun 1.0 Beta 4
Status log as of 2023-10-26 18:18:18
2023-10-26 18:18:12  Checking files and paths
2023-10-26 18:18:12  Configuring WHDLoad slave
2023-10-26 18:18:12  Extracting and merging game data
2023-10-26 18:18:12  Unzipping original game files
2023-10-26 18:18:12  Error while unzipping: No such file or directory
2023-10-26 18:18:12  WHDRun is done, but there were errors
 

This is the current BAT file I am running:

I have tested the paths I have placed in this bat.   However I do not know how to test the constructed paths the batch file creates as they do not appear in the log file to see what is wrong.   I am so close I think to making this finally work....

echo off
set gamepath=%2
IF "%gamepath%"=="" (
  set gamepath=%1
  set gamefile=%~nx1
  set config="whdload-config.uae"
) else (
  set gamepath=%2
  set gamefile=%~nx2
  set config=%1
)   
set startupfile=".\WHD\S\pre-user-startup"
echo SET game %gamefile:.zip=%> %startupfile%
echo echo $game>> %startupfile%
whdrun.exe %gamepath% Temp "C:\Launchbox\Emulators\WinUAE\winuae64.exe" %config% .\WHD\S\user-startup