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Launchbox to boot Retroarch via Steam


annluan

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Hello! 

Is there a command suffix or some way for Launchbox to somehow boot Retroarch as if it were being launched via Steam? 

Currently I'm facing 2 issues because of this. Firstly, steam input is overlapping my Dualsense config and making it work only when RA is launched throught it (I'm trying to fix this regardless of LB, but anyway..). Also, when RA is launched autonomously the Steam Overlay doesn't work, nor its features such as taking screenshots. 

Thank you all! And please excuse me if this was posted on the wrong subforum. 

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You would need to add Retroarch as a "Non Steam game" into your Steam library. Then in LaunchBox, use this newly created Non Steam Game Steam URL shortcut link as the launching path. To get that easily I normally go in Steam, right click on the "game" and create a shortcut. View that shortcut's properties to see the launching URL. That's what you would put into LaunchBox's Launching, Application Path field. Make sure you have emulation turned OFF under Emulation or it will not work since it would be trying to launch it through a separate emulator rather than treating it like a standard application executable. If you use startup/shutdown screens, I suggest turning that off with the custom settings for the Retroarch "game" unless you want that. I just tried it out, and it seems to work the way I think you want it to! It allows the Steam overlay to appear in Retroarch.

 

Funny thing is I have done weird setups like this before lol. Gotta do what ya gotta do to get it working!

Edited by skizzosjt
typo
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10 minutes ago, skizzosjt said:

You would need to add Retroarch as a "Non Steam game" into your Steam library. Then in LaunchBox, use this newly created Non Steam Game Steam URL shortcut link as the launching path. To get that easily I normally go in Steam, right click on the "game" and create a shortcut. View that shortcut's properties to see the launching URL. That's what you would put into LaunchBox's Launching, Application Path field. Make sure you have emulation turned OFF under Emulation or it will not work since it would be trying to launch it through a separate emulator rather than treating it like a standard application executable. If you use startup/shutdown screens, I suggest turning that off with the custom settings for the Retroarch "game" unless you want that. I just tried it out, and it seems to work the way I think you want it to! It allows the Steam overlay to appear in Retroarch.

 

Funny thing is I have done weird setups like this before lol. Gotta do what ya gotta do to get it working!

Interesting solution! 

This is a Steam/RA issue, not a LB one. Albeit, I thought Launchbox being handy as it is would be able to circumvent it. 

I'll try it asap!!! Thank you for the suggestion, @skizzosjt!

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yea let us know if it works for you @annluan!

 

The Steam overlay def worked for me! But I don't use any special controller mappings through Steam (so cant confirm that worked for me), which sounds like what you're after here I think, having Steam Input mapping stuff for you. So I'll keep my fingers crossed those features should also work since the overlay worked.

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I just farted around with this out of curiosity. The Steam remapping system worked for me. I used an Xbox One wireless controller for the testing using Snes9x core playing Contra III. The plan does work if you want it to open Retroarch as if you were just opening the executable. So you would still have to manually navigate around to launch a game, not sure if that is what some users would want out of this. But if you want to launch a specific game at the same time you need to use the command line specifics. For example what I used

 

"D:\Arcade\Emulators\Retroarch\retroarch.exe" -L "D:\Arcade\Emulators\Retroarch\cores\snes9x_libretro.dll" "D:\Arcade\ROMS\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\Contra III - The Alien Wars (USA).zip" -f

 

This is what was entered into the "non steam game" "target" field.

 

Then as I previously mentioned, make a shortcut for this non steam game, and use that steam url as the launching path in LB/BB

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