9.8-beta-1 Released

[Jason Carr]

1 minute ago, Arcanthur said:

Hey Jason, could the exit game AutoHotkey scripts be used to run a batch file after the emulator exits?  Otherwise what is the likelihood of having batch editing of "additional apps" being incorporated into the next beta?

Yes, that should be possible to use the AutoHotkey scripts to run a batch file. I won't be putting anything new like that in before the next release.

[CDBlue]

For me the latest beta (16) seems to have broken the escape AHK scripts.  No matter where I put my exit AHK scripts (in running or exit, which is where I assume they need to go now) they don't seem to work for any emulator.

Edited May 16, 2019 by CDBlue

[Jason Carr]

3 minutes ago, CDBlue said:

For me the latest beta (16) seems to have broken the escape AHK scripts.  No matter where I put my exit AHK scripts (in running or exit) they don't seem to work for any emulator.

I just tested Project64, Redream, and Demul and the Escape scripts worked for all of them. What emulators are you testing and what are the scripts?

[CDBlue]

Sorry, I rebooted and most do seem to work. The one I'm having problems right now is bsnes (and blastem still crashes launchbox when I try to go to the pause screens, fyi - I posted that in the other thread).

I'm not the best when it comes to AHK scripts, so I mostly use the recommended ones I find in this forum or on other forums.  I used to use this, which worked until this beta and it worked fine:

Esc::
WinActivate, ahk_exe bsnes.exe
WinWaitActive, ahk_exe bsnes.exe
WinKill
Return

I uses to just leave it blank and it would close the emulator, but games would not save properly until I used the above.  I also mapped the emulator to F4 exit it, but none of the scripts I tried that push the F4 key seem to work for bsnes either.

[Jason Carr]

1 minute ago, CDBlue said:

Sorry, I rebooted and most do seem to work. The one I'm having problems right now is bsnes (and blastem still crashes launchbox when I try to go to the pause screens, fyi - I posted that in the other thread).

I'm not the best when it comes to AHK scripts, so I mostly use the recommended ones I find in this forum or on other forums.  I used to use this, which worked until this beta and it worked fine:

Esc::
WinActivate, ahk_exe bsnes.exe
WinWaitActive, ahk_exe bsnes.exe
WinKill
Return

I uses to just leave it blank and it would close the emulator, but games would not save properly until I used the above.  I also mapped the emulator to F4 exit it, but none of the scripts I tried that push the F4 key seem to work for bsnes either.

That script will only work in the original AutoHotkey script tab, so perhaps that's what's going on. The script in the "Running AutoHotkey Script" tab is what was there previously, and runs while the game is running. The new "Exit AutoHotkey Script" tab only runs when keyboard or controller automation, or the pause menu tell the emulator to exit. The above script is meant to run in the background and run the code when Escape is pressed, so it will only work as intended in the other tab.

[CDBlue]

I guess I'm confused.  Are you saying it should still work in the Running AutoHotkey tab?  I've tried it in that location and it still doesn't work for me

[CDBlue]

Ok, I found a work around.  I mapped F4 in the emulator hotkeys to exit cleanly, I just changed my running script to the following:

ESC::
Send {f4 down}

That seems to do the trick

Edited May 17, 2019 by CDBlue

[TheNewClassics]

Hey Jason, should Swap Disc be showing up on the Pause Screens now for multi-disk games?

EDIT: Nvm, I reread the beta release notes and saw the new spot for Swap Disc AHK in options. 

Edited May 17, 2019 by TheNewClassics

[bbweiners]

Jason,

One odd thing I found is when you use the exit button, it closes the pause screen, shows the game for about 0.5-1.0 seconds, and then exits the emulator and opens the shutdown screen. Is there a way to make the process more seamless?

I noticed this using Retroarch and Dolphin. It behaves the same using shutdown screens or not.

Thanks for doing such a great job!

[wallmachine]

6 hours ago, bbweiners said:

Jason,

One odd thing I found is when you use the exit button, it closes the pause screen, shows the game for about 0.5-1.0 seconds, and then exits the emulator and opens the shutdown screen. Is there a way to make the process more seamless?

I noticed this using Retroarch and Dolphin. It behaves the same using shutdown screens or not.

Thanks for doing such a great job!

I think this is similar to what I ask before its basically the same as messy starts/and the process to exit. Check below.

 

[Jason Carr]

19 hours ago, TheNewClassics said:

Hey Jason, should Swap Disc be showing up on the Pause Screens now for multi-disk games?

EDIT: Nvm, I reread the beta release notes and saw the new spot for Swap Disc AHK in options. 

Swap Disc will show up only when you put an AutoHotkey script into the field on the emulator (or the game).

7 hours ago, bbweiners said:

Jason,

One odd thing I found is when you use the exit button, it closes the pause screen, shows the game for about 0.5-1.0 seconds, and then exits the emulator and opens the shutdown screen. Is there a way to make the process more seamless?

I noticed this using Retroarch and Dolphin. It behaves the same using shutdown screens or not.

Thanks for doing such a great job!

Yes, this is because the exit game scripts often require sending a keypress to the active window, which requires the window to be active and visible. Other solutions would require much more involved scripts that are different for each and every emulator, so that is not something that is planned. Generally, if you want a clean exit, you might as well just use the controller automation exit instead of the pause screens anyways.

[lcolls]

and what script is for swap disk for this ones we arent programmers

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, lcolls said:

and what script is for swap disk for this ones we arent programmers

I haven't written any. All the scripts take time to write, and I'd like to get this release out before we hit the 2-month mark. I may come back and write some scripts for disc swapping eventually, but in the mean time, perhaps we should put a thread together for the community to write and compile AutoHotkey scripts for the emulators and functions I haven't covered with the defaults.

[wallmachine]

When does the 'Minimum Startup Screen Display Time' start? I'm using Game Loader ALL RH as my Emulator and I've set the start to all different times however it seems to end at the same time every time. Also I'm using Game Loader ALL RH to display scan lines however the scan lines will load over the top of the startup. Also when I use BigBox the game window goes into not responding.

 

Edited May 18, 2019 by wallmachine

[ZeSystem]

Loading screen for Steam games disappear too fast as soon as Steam's loading window closes to load the real game.

[bbweiners]

21 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Swap Disc will show up only when you put an AutoHotkey script into the field on the emulator (or the game).

Yes, this is because the exit game scripts often require sending a keypress to the active window, which requires the window to be active and visible. Other solutions would require much more involved scripts that are different for each and every emulator, so that is not something that is planned. Generally, if you want a clean exit, you might as well just use the controller automation exit instead of the pause screens anyways.

Yeah, that makes sense. Is there a way to have a black screen load when the pause screen closes for 0.1-1.0 seconds?

The black screen wouldn't be active, so the emulator would take the key strokes from the ahk script. I've done this before in ahk.

Obviously the black screen would be something people could choose to enable and adjust how long it's active.

This seems like an easy way to cover up the exit messiness as well as the load state messiness.

Thanks!

[Mike Stewart]

On ‎5‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 10:46 PM, Jason Carr said:

Beta 16 is out now with the following:

• New exit game AutoHotkey scripts
• New swap disc AutoHotkey scripts
• Redream default pause screen settings with AutoHotkey scripts
• Demul default pause screen settings with AutoHotkey scripts
• PCSX2 default pause screen settings with AutoHotkey scripts
• ScummVM pause screen fixes and settings/scripts

At this point, I'm going to call this beta feature-complete. The only thing left that still needs to be done is to see if I can resolve some pause screen issues with a few troublesome emulators. Hopefully I can figure that stuff out without too much trouble and we can put out the official release early next week.

Hi Jason. Thanks very much for all the features you've packed into version 9.8 - the Pause screen in particular is fantastic and one I've been looking forward to for a long time. After 9.8 is officially released, likely next week, would it be possible to add into an early beta for version 9.9 the suggestion I posted earlier in this thread, to add an option to save PDF browsing location for next time? As another forum user noted, this wouldn't be specific to the Pause screen option. I know the major focus of the next few releases will be finishing up the small number of remaining big ticket items from the last poll, but if this could be put in at some point that would be great - thanks for considering anyway.

[Juzzotec]

@Jason Carr did you fix something around button automation in the last few beta's.

Exiting Taito games that use exe are now exiting game with the button combo perfectly, I don't have to rely on R3 setup as escape.

Beta 16 is working great, good job buddy ??

[Hazuki]

Hi all. Haven't tried the new beta, but just wanted to ask. Is the disc swap accessible from the pause screen? And if yes, can I select a disc that is in 7zip and have launchbox unpack before exiting the pause screen?

[PanteraZombie]

8 hours ago, Juzzotec said:

@Jason Carr did you fix something around button automation in the last few beta's.

Exiting Taito games that use exe are now exiting game with the button combo perfectly, I don't have to rely on R3 setup as escape.

Beta 16 is working great, good job buddy ??

That's good to hear... I've also noticed that button automation is now closing FS-UAE for Commodore Amiga/CD32 when I used to have to manually exit. However, button automation is not closing a version of MAME I have set up for MESS...