Launch PC games from a network location!

[Omegaforce696]

Hi everyone,

I’d like to say thank you for this great piece of software and all the new features that come with it.

I’m using it now for about 3 years now and it gets better and better.

Recently I’ve decided to start collecting PC games as well, mainly Windows-based games.
Soon after deciding I came across some issues. The PC game library contains probably over hundred thousands of games and ideally I would like to store these on my NAS server. I also wouldn’t want to install these games every time I wanted to play them. And since streaming a game from a NAS to PC through a SMB share is very slow I had to find another option.

I’ve stumbled upon an idea to create a virtual hard drive (VHD) for each PC game. While it’s mounted I can install any particular PC game and place the VHD on my NAS. Then playing the game from the VHD that sits on the NAS and mounted on my PC works very well and fast, although for the newer games I suggest a bonded network or maybe a direct 10Gbit connection. I’ve tested this with games that are over 20 years old and with newer 2019/2020 games and I think the performance is fine. The newer games may take a little longer to load but there’s no lag to be found while playing.

I’d like to share the batch files I’ve created with you, along with the instructions to test this out for yourself and perhaps perfect this method even more.

Please let me know what you think and if you have any questions, i'll try to answer them.

Good luck and have fun!

Play PC games from a network location.docx Batch Template.zip

[sammaxton]

I have my PC Games setup so that I have compressed files of the games on the server. When playing from Launchbox I have batch files setup up to install the game to my gaming pc. The batch files check to see if the game folder is already on my PC and if it is it just runs the game and if it isn't it will extract it from the network drive and run it. Then I added a batch file as an additional app that allows you to delete the game from the PC when you don't want to play it anymore. I prefer this method for guaranteed smooth gameplay by having the files run locally. 

[Sbaby]

On 1/27/2020 at 11:33 PM, Omegaforce696 said:

Hi everyone,

I’d like to say thank you for this great piece of software and all the new features that come with it.

 

I’m using it now for about 3 years now and it gets better and better.

 

Recently I’ve decided to start collecting PC games as well, mainly Windows-based games.
Soon after deciding I came across some issues. The PC game library contains probably over hundred thousands of games and ideally I would like to store these on my NAS server. I also wouldn’t want to install these games every time I wanted to play them. And since streaming a game from a NAS to PC through a SMB share is very slow I had to find another option.

 

I’ve stumbled upon an idea to create a virtual hard drive (VHD) for each PC game. While it’s mounted I can install any particular PC game and place the VHD on my NAS. Then playing the game from the VHD that sits on the NAS and mounted on my PC works very well and fast, although for the newer games I suggest a bonded network or maybe a direct 10Gbit connection. I’ve tested this with games that are over 20 years old and with newer 2019/2020 games and I think the performance is fine. The newer games may take a little longer to load but there’s no lag to be found while playing.

 

 

 

I’d like to share the batch files I’ve created with you, along with the instructions to test this out for yourself and perhaps perfect this method even more.

 

 

Please let me know what you think and if you have any questions, i'll try to answer them.

Good luck and have fun!

Play PC games from a network location.docx 5.38 MB · 12 downloads Batch Template.zip 1.83 kB · 8 downloads

    

Hi, this thing is very interesting, congratulations !

 

 

 

------

 

On 2/10/2022 at 9:43 AM, sammaxton said:

I have my PC Games setup so that I have compressed files of the games on the server. When playing from Launchbox I have batch files setup up to install the game to my gaming pc. The batch files check to see if the game folder is already on my PC and if it is it just runs the game and if it isn't it will extract it from the network drive and run it. Then I added a batch file as an additional app that allows you to delete the game from the PC when you don't want to play it anymore. I prefer this method for guaranteed smooth gameplay by having the files run locally. 

Your method looks really good too, could you help us poor noobs with a step by step guide?

Edited February 14, 2022 by Sbaby

[sammaxton]

Hey sbaby, at the bottom of the original post there are 2 files you can download that explain the process that this person is using with the VHD setup. I prefer my setup for a few reasons. It is much simpler to do than the VHD setup, there isn't wasted space guessing how big a VHD you need, the game will always run smooth with my setup as long as your computer can handle the game and multiple people can play the same game at the same time without any issues. I would be happy to put together a guide on how I accomplish my process, just give me a few days and I will post it here.

[Sbaby]

3 hours ago, sammaxton said:

Hey sbaby, at the bottom of the original post there are 2 files you can download that explain the process that this person is using with the VHD setup. I prefer my setup for a few reasons. It is much simpler to do than the VHD setup, there isn't wasted space guessing how big a VHD you need, the game will always run smooth with my setup as long as your computer can handle the game and multiple people can play the same game at the same time without any issues. I would be happy to put together a guide on how I accomplish my process, just give me a few days and I will post it here.

Thanks ! I look forward with pleasure

[sammaxton]

Ok so here is a walkthrough on how I setup PC Games on Launchbox using a network server or NAS.

I have included all the files used for my setup at the bottom of the post except for 7zip which can be downloaded from the provided link.

My setup keeps all my games compressed and stored on a network drive and "installs" them to my gaming computers to play them
and then allows me to "uninstall" the game when I want to.

You need to map network drives to where your compressed game files are or will be stored on your network server or NAS.
For example in my case I have 4 – 4TB external hard drives connected to my network server. So I mapped each drive to my gaming PC as F:, G:, H: and I:.
My compressed files are all on I: so that is the only drive we will be dealing with in this tutorial.

Create a folder where you want your games to be installed to and run.

I like to keep my Launchbox portable so I created a folder inside my Launchbox root folder called Game Installs, but you can use any location or name for this folder.

Next you need to make the self extracting installer builder that will be used to extract and run the games on your PC.

	1. Create a folder to put the builder files in. You can name this anything you want. I made a folder called Installer Builder
 
	2. Download the 7zSD.sfx file that allows for extracting .7z files from outside of the .exe self extracting file.
You must use this version of the 7zSD.sfx file for this to work. You can get the file here: 
ghfw-build-extra/7zSD.sfx at master · github/ghfw-build-extra · GitHub 
Click on the Download button near the bottom of the page. After downloading the file put it in the folder you created in Step 1.

	3. In the folder you created in Step 1 create a new file called: config.txt.
For this file you must use a text editor that allows you to save the file with Unicode (UTF-8).
I use OpenOffice which is free and allows opening and saving in the required format, but you can also use something like Notepad+ for this as well.
Copy and Paste the following into that file and save it:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
Title="GAME NAME"
InstallPath="\Launchbox\Game Installs\GAME NAME"
RunProgram="NAME OF THE .exe THAT RUNS THE GAME"
;!@InstallEnd@!

It is important to copy and paste this rather than type it out yourself because the quotes around the items need to be straight quotes not curly quotes.
I will explain later how to fill this out for each game.

	4. In the same folder create a new file called: create installer.bat. Or anything you want to call it, it doesn't matter as long as it is a .bat file.
Right click on the file and select Edit and copy and paste the following into the file and save it. No special editor is needed for this file, you can just use notepad.

copy /b 7zSD.sfx + config.txt Installer Name.exe

	You should now have a folder with 3 files in it – 7zSD.sfx, config.txt and create installer.bat. 

	5. Congrats, you have completed creating the self extracting installer builder.

Once you have finished everything above this, you will only need to repeat the following process to create and use your installers with Launchbox.
We will use God of War as our example going through this.

	1. Compress your game files with 7Zip. If you do not have 7Zip you can get it here: Download (7-zip.org)
Make sure when you make your compressed file of the game you are selecting everything inside of the games install folder, don't just compress the folder.
So for God of War I would go to where God of War is installed and open the God of War folder.
I would then select all the files and folders and right click on one of them, find 7zip in the context menu and choose Add to God of War.7z.

	2. Rename your newly created .7z file so that it doesn't have any spaces in it, so for this example you would rename God of War.7z to GodofWar.7z and
then copy this file to where ever you are storing your files on the network server or NAS.
You will want to create a folder with the name of the game so in this example I would create a folder called God of War on the network server or NAS where I
am keeping my games and place the .7z file inside of it.

	3. Go to the installer builder folder you created and open the config.txt file. Remember this file must be opened and saved as Unicode (UTF-8).
We are 	going to edit the following:

Title="GAME NAME" - Here you are just going to enter the title of the game. So in our example this line should look like this Title="God of War"

InstallPath="\Launchbox\Game Installs\GAME NAME" – Here is where we tell the installer where to extract the game to on our computer.
Again as I like my Launchbox to be portable I created a Game Installs folder in my Launchbox root.
So in our example this line should look like this InstallPath="\Launchbox\Game Installs\God of War"
This will extract the game files to a folder called God of War within my Launchbox\Game Installs folder.

RunProgram="NAME OF THE .exe THAT RUNS THE GAME" – This line tells the installer what file to run to start the game after it has finished extracting it.
So in our example God of War launches with a file called GoW.exe so this line would look like this RunProgram="GoW.exe"

Which would give you a final file that looks like this:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
Title="God of War"
InstallPath="\Launchbox\Game Installs\God of War"
RunProgram="GoW.exe"
;!@InstallEnd@!

	4. Next edit and save the create installer.bat file you made like this:

copy /b 7zSD.sfx + config.txt GodofWar.exe

	Make sure there are no spaces in the name of the .exe file you enter here and it must also exactly match the name of the .7z file you created of your game previously.

	5.Double-Click your create installer.bat file. After a few moments you will see it created a new file called GodofWar.exe.
Copy this file to the game folder where your GodofWar.7z file is on your network server or NAS.

Now we are ready to setup the Launchbox side of things.

So for my setup I created a folder in my Launchbox root called Batch Files. Then within the Batch Files folder I created 3 folders – Game Launchers, Games and Uninstallers.
Then within the Game Launchers folder I created 2 folders called Games and Uninstallers. This is where the batch files that Launchbox will use to run the games will be located.
You can also do this with just the Games and Uninstallers folders created within the Batch Files folder, but I created the additional folders to store the shortcuts I made for each
of the game and uninstallers batch files. So let me explain this so hopefully you will understand why I did it the way I did. You can just run the batch files directly in Launchbox,
but then there will be command prompt windows that open up as it is processing each step. To make the installation cleaner looking while it runs I use shortcuts so they can be run minimized
and thus not showing on the screen and all you will see is the file extracting progress box. You can skip the creating shortcuts part, but it looks messy.

We need to create a .bat file that runs the installer or runs the game depending on if it has already been extracted or not.
So for our example we are going to create God of War.bat. Now edit the file and add the following and save it:

@echo off 
IF EXIST "\Launchbox\Game Installs\NAME OF GAME FOLDER" (
    Start \Launchbox\"Game Installs"\"NAME OF GAME FOLDER"\NAME OF .exe THAT RUNS THE GAME
) ELSE (
    Start I:\"PC Games"\"NAME OF GAME FOLDER ON SERVER"\NAME OF INSTALLER .exe
)

So let me explain what the batch file is doing. First it is checking to see in the God of War folder already exist on my gaming computer where I have Launchbox.
If it finds the God of War folder it will then just launch the game by running the GoW.exe file. If it does not find the God of War folder on my gaming rig where
I have Launchbox then it will go to the network server or NAS and run the GodofWar.exe file which will extract the game to your computer and run it.
So basically it checks to see if you have already extracted the game or not and the either just runs the game or extracts it from the server and runs the game.

In the If Exist line change NAME OF GAME FOLDER to the name of the game folder where it will be installed onto your computer. 
This must match what you entered for the InstallPath in the config.txt file.

IF EXIST "\Launchbox\Game Installs\God of War" (

In the first Start line you are entering the same folder as above with the addition of the file that runs the game.
You will notice that in the path God of War is in quotes. You must put quotes around anything in the path that has spaces in its name for this to work properly.
If there are no spaces in the name then the quotes are not required. The first line we edited does not have this requirement.

Start \Launchbox\"Game Installs"\"God of War"\GoW.exe

And last the second Start line, you are entering the path for where the installer file you created is located on the server.
This line also has the quote requirements like the previous start line.

Start I:\"PC Games"\"God of War"\GodofWar.exe

So for our example the edited file would look like this:

@echo off 
IF EXIST "\Launchbox\Game Installs\God of War" (
    Start \Launchbox\"Game Installs"\"God of War"\GoW.exe
) ELSE (
    Start I:\"PC Games"\"God of War"\GodofWar.exe
)

Of course you will need to change the paths to match your setup.

So once edited this file will be saved in the Batch Files\Games folder you created. You can be done at this point and just point to this file from within Launchbox,
but like I said previously it looks messy, so this is where I create a shortcut to the batch file. Right-Click on the God of War.bat file and select Create Shortcut.
Then Right-Click on the shortcut and go to Properties. Delete everything out of the Starts In: box so it is empty (This makes the shortcut portable) and also change the Run: box to
Minimized (This makes it so you don't see the command prompt windows). Now you can copy the shortcut where ever you would like or leave it right here.
I move the file to the Batch Files\Game Launchers\Games folder just to make things better organized.

Now to create the Uninstaller Batch File.

I name these files Uninstall Game Name.bat so for God of War I would create a file called Uninstall God of War.bat. Once created Right-Click and choose Edit.
Copy and Paste the following into the file:

rmdir "\Launchbox\Game Installs\NAME OF GAME FOLDER" /s /q

This batch file simply removes the directory of the indicated game acting as an uninstaller. Of course the path depends on your setup and then you just enter the install folder
that you used for the game. Again this folder must match what you entered in the config.txt file. So for our example this file would look like this:

rmdir "\Launchbox\Game Installs\God of War" /s /q

This file I put in the Batch Files\Uninstallers folder. Then like the previous batch file Right-Click and create a shortcut. Then Right-Click the shortcut and go to Properties
and delete everything out of the Starts In: box so it is empty (This makes the shortcut portable) 
and also change the Run: box to Minimized (This makes it so you don't see the command prompt windows). Now you can copy the shortcut where ever you would like or leave it right here.
I move the file to the Batch Files\Game Launchers\Uninstallers folder.

Now we can go into Launchbox and add our game.

I go to Tools/Import/Manually Add Game. I then add my game name and do a search of the database.
Sometimes it finds em sometimes it doesn't. When it finds it you can usually do an image search and at least get a Front Cover picture, otherwise you will need to provide them yourself.
Next you go to the Launching section and either select the game.bat file or the shortcut file depending on how you decided to do this. 
I highly recommend going the shortcut route for a nicer presentation.
Then under Additional Apps click add application. For the name I put Uninstall Game Name so for God of War it would be called Uninstall God of War.
Then browse to the Uninstall God of War.bat file or the shortcut file depending on what route you took and click OK to save the app.

Now we are ready to launch our game within Launchbox. Just double click on the game and if you did everything right after a few moments you should see a file extraction progress box.
Once that completes the game will launch. After you have done this the first time, following double clicks will just run the game unless you ran the Uninstaller since the last time playing.
To get to the uninstaller, right click on the game in Launchbox and under Additional Apps you will see Uninstall Game of War or whatever game you are working with.

I know this probably sounds like a lot, but once you have gone through the process once it is fairly simple to add more games in just 6 simple steps.

1. Create .7z file of game and copy to network server or NAS

2. Edit config.txt and create installer.bat and run create installer.bat to get game.exe file and copy to network server or NAS

3. Create and edit game .bat file and then create shortcut

4. Create and edit game uninstall .bat file and then create shortcut

5. Add game to Launchbox

6. Run the game and have fun!
 

PC Games Launchbox Tutorial.txt

config.txt create Installer.bat God of War.bat Delete God of War.bat

7zSD.sfx

Edited February 11, 2022 by sammaxton

[sammaxton]

4 hours ago, Sbaby said:

Thanks ! I look forward with pleasure

There, lol, I found the time a little sooner! If you have any questions just ask, but I think everything is explained fairly well.

Edited February 11, 2022 by sammaxton

[sammaxton]

After I wrote out my tutorial I got thinking that it would be better to make an automated tool to do this, rather than manually editing each file. So I am creating a batch file that you will only need to fill in a few bits of information and the tool will create all the files and move them to the proper folders, then all you will have to do is add the game to launchbox and point it to the needed files. I am about 85% complete with the automated batch file now and should have it finished tonight or tomorrow. Once it is ready I will upload it here making the whole process a piece of cake.

[Sbaby]

30 minutes ago, sammaxton said:

After I wrote out my tutorial I got thinking that it would be better to make an automated tool to do this, rather than manually editing each file. So I am creating a batch file that you will only need to fill in a few bits of information and the tool will create all the files and move them to the proper folders, then all you will have to do is add the game to launchbox and point it to the needed files. I am about 85% complete with the automated batch file now and should have it finished tonight or tomorrow. Once it is ready I will upload it here making the whole process a piece of cake.

wow this is great, but can it also be done with a cloud? for example by directly downloading the compressed file from google drive or terabox?

[sammaxton]

6 hours ago, Sbaby said:

wow this is great, but can it also be done with a cloud? for example by directly downloading the compressed file from google drive or terabox?

It should work as long as you can map a network drive to the strorage.

[sammaxton]

I decided it would be better to start a new thread for the tool rather than update here.

I have created a new post and uploaded the tool here: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by sammaxton

[Sbaby]

thanks for everything

[LegzRwheelz]

On 2/12/2022 at 5:47 PM, sammaxton said:

I decided it would be better to start a new thread for the tool rather than update here.

I have created a new post and uploaded the tool here: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I initially commented asking if you can share this but found your comment the above the comment above mine, so thanks for sharing! I was wondering a few things about running LB in a network setting and was wondering if you wouldn't mind having a chat with me in PM, thanks! 

[Knowcontrol]

Similar concept - you can install games on a iSCSI virtual drive.