Exiting Difficult Windows Games

[isilkin]

Hi, All

I don't think this question had been asked or ever answered.

I am still learning about the launchbox. I am transitioning from Maximus Arcade. 

I have issues exiting some gog or windows games. A good example would be NFS SHIFT2, or non-steam evil within 2. 

To exit I have an ahk script that looks for certain running processes and if a particular game process is started by pressing a button I can kill it and return to big box.

The problem is that some games hook to your controllers or keyboard so using your key combo no longer works to exit some games.  As soon as you alt tab out of the game you can run your script or even launch box's internal routines to exit the game. But within the game none of the buttons communicate with autohotkey. 

Again this is an issue only in 1% of the games but still.

In contrast, Maximum arcade constantly runs in the background and monitors your key strokes or button presses and then it can reliably exit every game. Is there a similar workaround for the launch box?

[jayjay]

Some games wont respond to autohotkey at all, some games will respond in windowed mode only, using windowed mode along with a script that removes the title bar isnt to bad...  but anyway I can close shift 2 using ahk.

 

Something like:

A::

Process, Close, shift2u.exe

 

Pressing A on keyboard closes the game. 

Just tested it on my pc. Works for me. Some games wont close unless script is set to run as admin. But didnt need to do that for shift2. 

 

 

[isilkin]

Thank you for ur reply. In my version of shift 2 even win key is not bringing the start menu because it is desabled by the game.  In any case you are using the same method as me to close games. I have also noticed about the admin thing.

I wonder if there is a small 3rd party utility that can always register button presses in the background and then send them to ahk or batch. 

For instance, taskkill command will kill anything u just have to be able to call it with a button or controller press.

 

[jayjay]

I dont know about taskkill. Actually i dont really know much else than ahk. Sorry mate doubt i'll be able to help with this problem. Have you tried using alt or ctrl as your exit buttons. Although i doubt that will work either but alt and ctrl arnt disabled by any games. Other than that im out of ideas. 

[Charco]

I would recommend Controller Companion, it's an app on Steam for €2.99. You can create unique profiles for any application and add your own hotkeys to exit, among other functions. I only got it recently and could not recommend it highly enough, it's a breeze to use.