WootLauncher

[eatkinola]

WootLauncher

View File

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WootLauncher provides game load/exit screens, bezels/overlays and a pause menu with built-in PDF viewer for manuals, as well as support for emulator savestates and images of control mappings. I looked into using RL but didn't feel like going through the trouble of setting it up, so I instead ironically went through loads of trouble creating this plugin. It's not meant to do everything RL does (caveat: I've never used RL), but maybe it does enough and you'll find it useful. It's designed to be easy to setup but also quite customizable. It will not support all emulators but should support "enough"; tested with RetroArch, MAME, Dolphin, Demul, and PCSX2 which I think are the more common ones used (anyway what I use). It should work with other emulators, too. In addition to the built-in look-and-feel, WL can be integrated with Bigbox themes for a seamless experience; here it is integrated with FluxCRT:

The PDF bundled with the download describes how to quickly setup and also how to customize ... so I'll not repeat that here. You can also download the PDF guide separately. Please use the support thread if you have any questions or spot bugs. When reporting issues, supply the log file and any relevant screenshots to help troubleshoot. It's worth mentioning this is not compatible with the new built-in game startup screens for LB/BB, and it likely never will be as it uses a different window management strategy. Absolute requirements for using WootLauncher are:

1. LaunchBox / BigBox version >= 9.2
2. Disable built-in LB/BB startup and pause screens (see PDF)
3. Do not try to use both RL and WootLauncher; it will not go well
4. Configure your emulators to run in windowed mode

NOTE: If criteria 1 and 2 are not met, the plugin will simply disable itself.

ADDITIONAL PLUGINS: This DLL (Ao.Bigbox.Dropins.dll) contains additional plugins besides WootLauncher, but they are inactivated by default. You can activate these other plugins by editing the DLL's config file (Ao.Bigbox.Dropins.dll.config). See the Ao.Bigbox Customs download page for additional details about these other plugins.

 

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• Submitter
  eatkinola
• Submitted
  12/22/2018
• Category
  Third-party Apps and Plugins

 

[eatkinola]

REPORTING ISSUES: Please include relevant screenshots and log files in your post. I recommend using hidden content ("spoiler") sections when posting logs and screenshots to prevent the message from appearing crazy long. E.g.:

Screenshots

Spoiler

Log (plain text and/or with attached text file)

Spoiler

==============================================================================
# WOOTLAUNCHER STARTUP =======================================================
# WootLauncher Version = 1.0.0.0 by eatkinola
# LaunchBox/BB Version = 9.2.0.0 LaunchBox
==============================================================================
# GENERAL SETTINGS ===========================================================
# EnableFades .................. True
# EnableBezel .................. True
# EnablePause .................. True
# RequireCfgs .................. False
# BgImageAuto4Game ............. False
# BgImageAuto4Plat ............. False
# BgImageAutoOpacity ........... 0.3
# BgImageAutoBlurRadius ........ 10
# BgImageAutoScanlineOpacity ... 0.3
# LsBackgroundImage ............ True
# LsBackgroundVideo ............ False
# LsBackgroundMetadata ......... True
# LsBackgroundDuration ......... 00:00:05
# EsBackgroundImage ............ True
# EsBackgroundVideo ............ False
# EsBackgroundMetadata ......... True
# EsBackgroundDuration ......... 00:00:05
# PmLaunchJoyBinding ........... Up+(PageUp, PageDn)
# PmLaunchKeyBinding ........... A+(Alt)
# PmStyleColorFgNormal ......... #90FFFFFF
# PmStyleColorFgActive ......... #90FFFFFF
# PmStyleColorFgSubtle ......... #10FFFFFF
# PmStyleColorBgNormal ......... #90000000
# PmStyleColorBgActive ......... #3000FF60
# PmStyleColorBgSubtle ......... #90000000
# PmStyleFontFamily ............ ./#Orbitron
==============================================================================
# EMULATOR CONFIGS ===========================================================
# Cemu::Nintendo Wii U ............ CEMU
# Demul::Sammy Atomiswave ......... DEMUL
# Demul::Sega Naomi ............... DEMUL->DEMUL+SEGA_NAOMI
# Demul-DC::Sega Dreamcast ........ DEMUL-DC
# Dolphin::Nintendo GameCube ...... DOLPHIN
# Dolphin::Nintendo Wii ........... DOLPHIN
# ePSXe::Sony Playstation ......... no configurations found
# MAME ............................ MAME
# PCSX2::Sony Playstation 2 ....... PCSX2
# PPSSPP::Sony PSP ................ no configurations found
# Retroarch ....................... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Arcade Classics ...... RETROARCH->RETROARCH@MAME
# Retroarch::Atari 2600 ........... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Atari 5200 ........... RETROARCH->RETROARCH@ATARI800
# Retroarch::Atari 7800 ........... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Microsoft MS-DOS ..... RETROARCH->RETROARCH@SCUMMVM
# Retroarch::NEC TurboGrafx-16 .... RETROARCH->RETROARCH@MEDNAFEN_SUPERGRAFX
# Retroarch::NEC TurboGrafx-CD .... RETROARCH->RETROARCH@MEDNAFEN_SUPERGRAFX
# Retroarch::Nintendo 64 .......... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Nintendo GameCube .... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Nintendo GB .......... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Nintendo GBA ......... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Nintendo GBC ......... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Nintendo NES ......... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Nintendo SNES ........ RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Sega Dreamcast ....... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Sega Genesis ......... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Sega Master System ... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Sony Playstation ..... RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Sony PSP ............. RETROARCH->RETROARCH@PPSSPP
==============================================================================
2018-12-22 12:16:58 game = River City Ransom (Id=1304)
2018-12-22 12:16:58 displaying game loading screen
2018-12-22 12:16:58 configuration = RETROARCH
2018-12-22 12:16:58 overlay/bezel = no overlay configured
2018-12-22 12:16:58 controllermap = E:\meta\LaunchBox\Plugins\Ao.Bigbox.Dropins\WootLauncher\Images\Controls\RETROARCH+NINTENDO_NES.png
2018-12-22 12:16:58 finding emulator process retroarch, wait up to 10 seconds
2018-12-22 12:17:01 wrapping emulator process 9104 in adornable window
2018-12-22 12:17:15 exiting game 1304, process 9104

WL 2018-12-22 12-16-57.txt

The better the info you provide, the better my troubleshooting will be.

Edited December 22, 2018 by eatkinola
instructions for reporting issues

[JaysArcade]

Well, I was hoping if I waited long enough, someone else would pipe up. Since no one else has, I guess I'll go first.

I got WL to load my games with the fade in screen. I don't seem to see any pause menus however when I pause. I recently installed a freh copy of LB seeing as how so much has changed over the last year or so. I figured I would start fresh. I am running an older version of MAME 0.183 since I have my light guns locked in solid with that version - but I did try the 0.198b version as noted in the documentation with no change. Next I tried Retroarch 1.7.5 with the nestopia core. I get the same thing, the fade in screen works but i get no pause menus at all. I have attempted to set both MAME and RetroArch to run in windowed mode. Using the P key pauses games in either system so far but i see no pause menu.

I'm kind of lost here and not sure what to try next. Maybe its just something simple I'm overlooking?

Spoiler

==============================================================================
# WOOTLAUNCHER STARTUP =======================================================
# WootLauncher Version = 1.0.0.0 by eatkinola
# LaunchBox/BB Version = 9.2.0.0 LaunchBox
==============================================================================
# GENERAL SETTINGS ===========================================================
# EnableFades .................. True
# EnableBezel .................. True
# EnablePause .................. True
# RequireCfgs .................. False
# BgImageAuto4Game ............. False
# BgImageAuto4Plat ............. False
# BgImageAutoOpacity ........... 0.3
# BgImageAutoBlurRadius ........ 10
# BgImageAutoScanlineOpacity ... 0.3
# LsBackgroundImage ............ True
# LsBackgroundVideo ............ False
# LsBackgroundMetadata ......... True
# LsBackgroundDuration ......... 00:00:05
# EsBackgroundImage ............ True
# EsBackgroundVideo ............ False
# EsBackgroundMetadata ......... True
# EsBackgroundDuration ......... 00:00:05
# PmLaunchJoyBinding ........... Up+(PageUp, PageDn)
# PmLaunchKeyBinding ........... A+(Alt)
# PmStyleColorFgNormal ......... #90FFFFFF
# PmStyleColorFgActive ......... #90FFFFFF
# PmStyleColorFgSubtle ......... #10FFFFFF
# PmStyleColorBgNormal ......... #90000000
# PmStyleColorBgActive ......... #3000FF60
# PmStyleColorBgSubtle ......... #90000000
# PmStyleFontFamily ............ ./#Orbitron
==============================================================================
# EMULATOR CONFIGS ===========================================================
# MAME::Arcade ............................... MAME
# Retroarch .................................. RETROARCH
# Retroarch::Nintendo Entertainment System ... RETROARCH
==============================================================================
2018-12-25 20:53:42 game = 1942 (Id=202)
2018-12-25 20:53:42 displaying game loading screen
2018-12-25 20:53:42 configuration = MAME
2018-12-25 20:53:42 overlay/bezel = no overlay configured
2018-12-25 20:53:42 controllermap = no controller mapping
2018-12-25 20:53:42 finding emulator process mame64, wait up to 10 seconds
2018-12-25 20:53:45 forcing emulator process 19160 to run in fullscreen mode
2018-12-25 20:53:45 wrapping emulator process 19160 in adornable window
2018-12-25 20:53:55 exiting game 202, process 19160
==============================================================================
2018-12-25 20:54:09 game = 10-Yard Fight (Id=317)
2018-12-25 20:54:09 displaying game loading screen
2018-12-25 20:54:09 configuration = RETROARCH
2018-12-25 20:54:09 overlay/bezel = no overlay configured
2018-12-25 20:54:09 controllermap = F:\LaunchBox\Plugins\Ao.Bigbox.Dropins\WootLauncher\Images\Controls\RETROARCH+NINTENDO_NES.png
2018-12-25 20:54:09 finding emulator process retroarch, wait up to 10 seconds
2018-12-25 20:54:12 forcing emulator process 9172 to run in fullscreen mode
2018-12-25 20:54:12 wrapping emulator process 9172 in adornable window
2018-12-25 20:54:22 exiting game 317, process 9172

 

 

[eatkinola]

On 12/25/2018 at 10:57 PM, JaysArcade said:

I'm kind of lost here and not sure what to try next. Maybe its just something simple I'm overlooking?

Sorry for the late reply @JaysArcade -- not sure how I missed your post. Thanks for the log file; looks good. To activate the pause menu, you can use either a keyboard or gamepad. By default, use "Alt+A" on the keyboard or "PageUp^PageDn+Up" on the gamepad, i.e., hold down gamepad buttons mapped to PageUp and PageDn (as per BigBox) then press button mapped to Up.

I pulled this from the bundled PDF manual:

Also, I recommend enabling a hotkey modifier when using RetroArch. It's probably not necessary, but I tested the bundled config files using SHIFT as the hotkey. I did this to better work with certain cores such as scummvm which rely a lot on keyboard input. From the WL manual:

RetroArch: tested with version 1.7.4
 Use general setting: input_enable_hotkey = "shift" (to work with bundled configuration files)

Let me know if the above gets it working for you. I suspect you just need to use these keyboard or gamepad button combos to pull up the pause menu. These button combos are configurable.

[JaysArcade]

Hey thanks. I swear I read the instructions several times but that just ecaped me somehow. Its working now. Now I just need to configure it all to work on my cabinet without touching the keyboard.

On 12/29/2018 at 8:16 AM, eatkinola said:

Sorry for the late reply @JaysArcade -- not sure how I missed your post.

No worries. I've been messing with various frontends and emulators for over ten years now (wow, thats almost hard to imagine). I have lots of patience with this stuff. Thanks for the woot. Pretty cool stuff. Now I might be able to abandon RL.

[JaysArcade]

Question: Is there any way to run RetroArch with Wootlauncher without having the file menu at the top? If I disable the menu via editing RetroArch's retroarch.cfg (ui_menubar_enable = "false"), it has the same effect as running in fullscreen. Basically breaks the pause screen functionality.

Edit: I see I can cover it with a bezel. Not ideal but I guess its an option.

 

Also, is there something to getting the exit fades to work? I have yet to see one when exiting from MAME or RA unless I exit via the pause menu.

 

I hope I'm not asking something that is already answered in the user guide. If so, I'm just not seeing it.

 

On a side note, I have save states running well with MAME. you have to change the General Inputs > User Interface >Save state and Load state keys to f6 and f7 respectively and change the mame config in WootLauncher to the following. You will also need to select the toggle cheat key and delete it, as it is f6 by default. I've never had a reason to use that function so disabling it wasn't a big deal to me.

PROCESS   = mame64
EX_GLJOLT = true
HK_PAUSE  = p
HK_RESUME = p
HK_QUIT   = esc
HK_SAVE   = f6
HK_LOAD   = f7
HK_SAVE_0 = f6,0
HK_SAVE_1 = f6,1
HK_SAVE_2 = f6,2
HK_SAVE_3 = f6,3
HK_LOAD_0 = f7,0
HK_LOAD_1 = f7,1
HK_LOAD_2 = f7,2
HK_LOAD_3 = f7,3

Works great but YMMV with disabling the toggle cheat function.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2018 by JaysArcade

[eatkinola]

11 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

Question: Is there any way to run RetroArch with Wootlauncher without having the file menu at the top? If I disable the menu via editing RetroArch's retroarch.cfg (ui_menubar_enable = "false"), it has the same effect as running in fullscreen. Basically breaks the pause screen functionality.

Edit: I see I can cover it with a bezel. Not ideal but I guess its an option.

WL basically forces an emulator's window into a fullscreen window, and to work the emulator must not be running in exclusive fullscreen mode. To prevent exclusive fullscreen mode in RA, you can either set video_fullscreen to false or video_windowed_fullscreen to true. I use the following configuration settings:

video_fullscreen = "true"            # can optionally just leave this false if you want
video_windowed_fullscreen = "true"   # if using fullscreen, RA will render to a window

Using this config, I don't need to worry about setting ui_menubar_enable to false (because video_fullscreen automatically hides it) but you could do so if you want it won't change anything. Thanks for pointing out this issue -- I'll update the WL guide to mention video_windowed_fullscreen.

11 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

Also, is there something to getting the exit fades to work? I have yet to see one when exiting from MAME or RA unless I exit via the pause menu.

WL currently supports exit fades only when quitting the game from the pause menu. I might try to tackle this in the future.

11 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

On a side note, I have save states running well with MAME.

That's terrific. I hadn't tried MAME savestates but glad to hear it's working well. I'll bundle your config file with the next release.

[JaysArcade]

2 hours ago, eatkinola said:

WL basically forces an emulator's window into a fullscreen window, and to work the emulator must not be running in exclusive fullscreen mode. To prevent exclusive fullscreen mode in RA, you can either set video_fullscreen to false or video_windowed_fullscreen to true. I use the following configuration settings:

video_fullscreen = "true"            # can optionally just leave this false if you want
video_windowed_fullscreen = "true"   # if using fullscreen, RA will render to a window

Using this config, I don't need to worry about setting ui_menubar_enable to false (because video_fullscreen automatically hides it) but you could do so if you want it won't change anything. Thanks for pointing out this issue -- I'll update the WL guide to mention video_windowed_fullscreen.

When I have them both set to true, I can pause my game but I see no pause menu. If I have video fullscreen false and video windowed fullscreen set to true, then the Pause menu comes up for me but I have the file menu at the top. When they are both set to true, If I alt-tab to the active RA session, I can sometimes see the pause menu flash briefly like it is hidden behind the RA window but not getting focus. On a couple of occasions I was able to get the menu to come up after doing the alt tab trick but the pause menu was unresponsive. H'mmm, maybe I should have helped you beta test. I'm loving what I see so far though. The pause menu, when I get it to work is so much nicer (in my opinion) than Rocket Launcher's pause menu.

[eatkinola]

5 minutes ago, JaysArcade said:

When I have them both set to true, I can pause my game but I see no pause menu. If I have video fullscreen false and video windowed fullscreen set to true, then the Pause menu comes up for me but I have the file menu at the top.

That differs from how it behaves for me (Windows 7 but shouldn't matter). What about doing this?

video_fullscreen = "false" 
video_windowed_fullscreen = "true"
ui_menubar_enable = "false"

 

8 minutes ago, JaysArcade said:

H'mmm, maybe I should have helped you beta test. I'm loving what I see so far though.

Glad you like it. Yeah, no one caught this in beta testing. I'm pretty sure we can figure it out though.

[JaysArcade]

When I have the ui_menubar_enable set to false it seems to do the same thing as having both video fullscreen and video windowed fullscreen set to true. I can pause but get no pause menu. The alt tab thing lets me see the menu sometimes but it is unresponsive or is hidden by RetroArch.

I'm on windows 10 BTW. But yeah, you'd think it wouldn't matter.

[Zaazu]

Hi, just wanted to say that this plugin is really good, I've been looking for a rlauncher alternative and this is simple and effective. Thanks.

[Zaazu]

Hey,

Hope you don't mind me posting this here. I got a black DS4 controller image, cleaned it up and made a template for people to use if they wanted, here's a sample:

 

 

Just download and open up the file in GIMP then show/hide any buttons you want to highlight.

 

Thanks again for this useful launcher.

 

 

 

DS4ControllerV2.xcf

Edited January 17, 2019 by Zaazu
Small change to controller

[eatkinola]

20 hours ago, Zaazu said:

Hope you don't mind me posting this here. I got a black DS4 controller image, cleaned it up and made a template for people to use if they wanted, here's a sample:

Yep that's great -- thanks for posting it. I use gimp for a lot of stuff too. If you don't mind, perhaps I can bundle it with WL the next time I update?

[Zaazu]

2 hours ago, eatkinola said:

Yep that's great -- thanks for posting it. I use gimp for a lot of stuff too. If you don't mind, perhaps I can bundle it with WL the next time I update?

Feel free

I made a slight change to the image so make sure you have v2

Edited January 17, 2019 by Zaazu

[Zaazu]

I've also done the same for an Xbox One controller, feel free to also bundle this with your next release.

Resolution is a bit smaller than the DS4 but it was all I could find online.

 

 

XBOController.xcf

[Zaazu]

Is there any chance you could make it so it would work with LB/BB's game startups?

Maybe have the option to disable this version if the default one is active? I like the customization of the default game launcher, but the pause menu and bezels from this plugin.

Thanks

 

Edit: Can't get this to work on another computer I have. No fades, no pause, no bezels. This is with the default game launcher disabled ofcourse.
Log: https://pastebin.com/jBfZUEyb

 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Zaazu

[eatkinola]

9 hours ago, Zaazu said:

Is there any chance you could make it so it would work with LB/BB's game startups?

LB's built-in startup screens require emulators to run fullscreen (if I recall correctly), but WL requires they be run in windowed mode. Because of this difference, they are not compatible and you must choose one or the other.

[eatkinola]

9 hours ago, Zaazu said:

Can't get this to work on another computer I have. No fades, no pause, no bezels. This is with the default game launcher disabled of course.
Log: https://pastebin.com/jBfZUEyb

Thanks for the log file -- that's all there is to the log file? It seems to initialize WL but not invoke it when a game is started. Would you please double check you have disabled the LB startup screens? Did you try it for emulators for which it worked on your other computer? Does it work from BigBox?

Edited February 5, 2019 by eatkinola
another question

[Zaazu]

Thanks for getting back to me.

29 minutes ago, eatkinola said:

LB's built-in startup screens require emulators to run fullscreen (if I recall correctly), but WL requires they be run in windowed mode. Because of this difference, they are not compatible and you must choose one or the other.

I've tested the built in startup screen with Dolphin which runs in windowed, that works just fine?

 

20 minutes ago, eatkinola said:

Thanks for the log file -- that's all there is to the log file? It seems to initialize WL but not invoke it when a game is started. Would you please double check you have disabled the LB startup screens? Did you try it for emulators for which it worked on your other computer? Does it work from BigBox?

Yep that's all I have for the log file, can confirm that the startup screens are disabled for both LB and BB, I've tried it with Dolphin and Retroarch, nothing happens and finally, it doesn't work in BigBox either.

[eatkinola]

10 hours ago, Zaazu said:

I've tested the built in startup screen with Dolphin which runs in windowed, that works just fine?

Okay, in that case I might add some support for these situations, though with the caveat it will not likely work across the board.

10 hours ago, Zaazu said:

Yep that's all I have for the log file

Okay, I'll need to add some more logging then. I'm working on an update and will try to get something to you for testing probably this weekend.