(Bulk) Add Additional Applications

[JoeViking245]

35 minutes ago, Vojake said:

the plugin does not start. I found normal version and version2.0. Both are unblocked after download and placed in Plugin-folder.

Only have one of them in your plugins folder.  The latest, v2.0 is your best bet.

I assume you can see it when you right-click, but it's 'greyed-out' and you can't select it.

If that's the case, you must select more than one game and then right-click.  Selecting just one game won't work because then it wouldn't be 'bulk'.

If it's still not working, let me know.

[Vojake]

Hey, thank you for your reply. I can't see the plugin under tools. PS3importer an another one where recognized. 

On another pc  I made a clean install with Launchbox version 12.6 and placed only the one plugin-dll in the plugin-directory. 

 

It is also not recognized. 

Any hints? Thank you 🙂

 

[JoeViking245]

3 hours ago, Vojake said:

I can't see the plugin under tools.

You won't find it under Tools.  You need to Select more than one game (or all of them) in your Platform.  Then
Right click on one of the selected games and select "Bulk Run Before/After Main Application".  Similar to what it says under "Using the plugin:".

It'll be at or near the bottom of that menu that comes up.

I just tested with the latest LB v12.6 and it was there (image above).  If it still doesn't appear in the right-click menu, turn on debugging (if it's not already on) under Tools, Options, Debugging.  Exit LaunchBox. (wait a sec for it to 'completely' exit)  Restart LaunchBox. Right click on a game.  If it [still] doesn't show at all in the menu, Exit LaunchBox (again).  Then reply to this message and drag-and-drop the most recent file located in your ../LaunchBox/Logs/ folder onto your reply.  Then I'll see if I can 'see' anything in the log indicating what's going on (or NOT going on, as the case may be ).

[Vojake]

oh my good. I am blind... Thank you very Much.

[mohanned85]

need some help for some reason i dont got the unblock option, can someone help please

[JoeViking245]

If you don't see anything on the "General" tab when you right click the file and select Properties, it should be ok.

 

 

I've no idea when/why/how Windows decides to block it or not.  If you have the dll file in your  ../LaunchBox/Plugins/   folder, then start LaunchBox, you'll be able to use it when you select more than one game and right-click on one of the selected games and select "Bulk Run Before/After Main Application".

[mohanned85]

thanks working

[Knowcontrol]

Thank you VERY  much for this! I'm using it to launch BetterJoy to enable motion control on my 8bitdo controller for the Switch and Wii U.

[floodie]

On 5/6/2021 at 5:08 AM, PiperCalls said:

Sure. With some help over at the Sinden Discord (they're very helpful) here is what I have. It IS working, with 1 exception. For games that require DemulShooter. For those games I have (2) Additional Apps...(1) that launches DemulShooter with the correct parameters for that particular game and (2) this AHK which laounches the (2) instances of Sinden software.

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
#SingleInstance force

;AHK Script to Launch Sinden P1 & P2 prior to game/rom launch

Run, "C:\Sinden Lightgun\Sinden Gun 1P\SindenLightgunWindowsSoftwareV1.04\SindenLightgun\Lightgun.exe" -autostart,, Minimize, pid1
sleep 100
Run, "C:\Sinden Lightgun\Sinden Gun 2P\SindenLightgunWindowsSoftwareV1.04\SindenLightgun\Lightgun.exe" -autostart,, Minimize, pid2

~ESC::
Process, Close, %pid1%
Process, Close, %pid2%
ExitApp

 

 

Hey Piper. Not sure if youll get this but this is exactly what ive been looking for. One question, the first additional app above to launch Demul shooter. I cant see anything here that closes it afterward? So if you jumped from hotd, to vc1, to vc2 would t you start to build up multiple instances? 

[floodie]

On 5/6/2021 at 5:08 AM, PiperCalls said:

Sure. With some help over at the Sinden Discord (they're very helpful) here is what I have. It IS working, with 1 exception. For games that require DemulShooter. For those games I have (2) Additional Apps...(1) that launches DemulShooter with the correct parameters for that particular game and (2) this AHK which laounches the (2) instances of Sinden software.

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
#SingleInstance force

;AHK Script to Launch Sinden P1 & P2 prior to game/rom launch

Run, "C:\Sinden Lightgun\Sinden Gun 1P\SindenLightgunWindowsSoftwareV1.04\SindenLightgun\Lightgun.exe" -autostart,, Minimize, pid1
sleep 100
Run, "C:\Sinden Lightgun\Sinden Gun 2P\SindenLightgunWindowsSoftwareV1.04\SindenLightgun\Lightgun.exe" -autostart,, Minimize, pid2

~ESC::
Process, Close, %pid1%
Process, Close, %pid2%
ExitApp

 

 

Using this script when in Bigbox it puts bigbox out of focus, so if on an arcade machine you are stuck and need to ALT +TAB back to Bigbox.. Tried adding an ALT TAB type line but gave an error. Any idea?

[KanjiEater]

This is great. I also like that you have a Bulk Remove plugin (though that's separate from this one). Would it be possible to offer a similar experience to that plugin? Where you could select a platform to copy a program to an entire platform?

I also am curious how people deal with adding new ROMs? Do you always have to do this? Or can you set it up so a platform always runs with a pre/post application running too?

[JoeViking245]

22 minutes ago, KanjiEater said:

This is great. I also like that you have a Bulk Remove plugin (though that's separate from this one).

Thanks! Glad you like it.  The Bulk Remove was kind of an afterthought to "what if they use this and later find they don't need them anymore."  

 

26 minutes ago, KanjiEater said:

offer a similar experience to that plugin? Where you could select a platform to copy a program to an entire platform?

No.  This works on a game-by-game basis.  If you need every game in multiple platforms to have the same run-before and run-after command, I suppose you could select All platforms in the left pane (the top of the list where you select individual platforms).  Then select all the games and add the before/after apps to them.  Then in the few platforms don't need it, select them and use the bulk-remove plugin. 

 

34 minutes ago, KanjiEater said:

can you set it up so a platform always runs with a pre/post application running too?

Platforms don't run applications.  Emulators don't have the option for a run-before and run-after command.  Only individual games do.  In fact, that's largely the reason why this was created.  Call it a sorta work-around to give a platform/emulator a run-before and run-after option.

Personally, I don't use it (beyond the initial testing) because I don't have any fancy controllers, light guns or the sort in my setup (which as I've seen, is the typical need for it).  Over a period of time, I heard, several times over, people expressing concerns like "I have 250+ games in this platform and I have to add the same thing to each of them one-by-one-by-one?"  This was my solution.

[KanjiEater]

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

Thanks! Glad you like it.  The Bulk Remove was kind of an afterthought to "what if they use this and later find they don't need them anymore."  

 

No.  This works on a game-by-game basis.  If you need every game in multiple platforms to have the same run-before and run-after command, I suppose you could select All platforms in the left pane (the top of the list where you select individual platforms).  Then select all the games and add the before/after apps to them.  Then in the few platforms don't need it, select them and use the bulk-remove plugin. 

 

Platforms don't run applications.  Emulators don't have the option for a run-before and run-after command.  Only individual games do.  In fact, that's largely the reason why this was created.  Call it a sorta work-around to give a platform/emulator a run-before and run-after option.

Personally, I don't use it (beyond the initial testing) because I don't have any fancy controllers, light guns or the sort in my setup (which as I've seen, is the typical need for it).  Over a period of time, I heard, several times over, people expressing concerns like "I have 250+ games in this platform and I have to add the same thing to each of them one-by-one-by-one?"  This was my solution.

Thanks for the response - that all makes sense and matches my understanding. In my case I want to switch graphics cards before and after when using retroarch for my CRT. Unfortunately it's not all platforms for me so I will just have to group by individual system, then readd the programs for each system, as I can't reuse the application configurations with the plugin. 

So it sounds like I will need to add the configuration for pre/post programs for roms as they are added? It's unfortunate, but at least this add-on allows me to do it in bulk.

[Drybonz]

On 7/1/2022 at 5:43 PM, JoeViking245 said:

Platforms don't run applications.  Emulators don't have the option for a run-before and run-after command.  Only individual games do.  In fact, that's largely the reason why this was created.  Call it a sorta work-around to give a platform/emulator a run-before and run-after option.

This plugin has been incredibly useful to me.  Thank you.  I agree that it would be useful "per platform"... instead of running it before the emulator, is it possible to have the app run before all games in the platform?... meaning you add it to all games, but then it auto adds them to any game added to that platform.  The difference would be that you wouldn't have to keep manually adding the app each time you added an individual game to the platform.  This would be a big time saver as well.  Thanks for considering.

[JoeViking245]

@Drybonz You are most welcome.  Glad it's been a useful tool for you.

 

1 hour ago, Drybonz said:

... is it possible to have [..] it auto adds them to any game added to that platform.

The API doesn't provide a trigger for when a new game is added, so it wouldn't be feasible.

 

A workaround, however, would be to create a batch file (or AutoHotkey or PowerShell script) and add it as a new Emulator.

The 'new emulator' would basically:

1. Execute what you have in the Run Before Main Application.
2. Launch the actual emulator with the same Command-Line Parameters you have in LB.
   • Wait until the 'actual emulator' exits.
3. Execute what you have in the Run After Main Application.

Then all you need to do is make this emulator the default for your Platform.  You'll probably need to use the Bulk Remove Additional Apps plugin for your existing games first.   Now any game, existing or newly added will have a pre-configured run-before/after-emulator.