Citron use citron-cmd.exe to pass games?

[xokia]

Has anyone been able to get citron and citron-cmd.exe to launch a game?

I can get citron to work manually from the command line citron-cmd.exe -f -g "path_to_game_file.nsp" boots up the game just fine
If it try to pass that from launchbox, launchbox hangs at the starting game screen. I am running citron 2026.2.1

  

If I call citron.exe everything loads fine but full screen works funky.

From what I can tell Launchbox isn't even passing the command

 

2026-02-10T20:39:20.6054346-08:00 DataManager.SaveInternal started.
2026-02-10T20:39:20.6081732-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Start
2026-02-10T20:39:20.6137377-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before JoystickTimer Enabled Set
2026-02-10T20:39:20.6158028-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Resume Video
2026-02-10T20:39:20.6175496-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Check Already Focused
2026-02-10T20:39:20.6279624-08:00 Saving InputBindings.xml...
2026-02-10T20:39:20.7597265-08:00 Saving GameControllers.xml...
2026-02-10T20:39:20.9021768-08:00 Saving ListCache.xml...
2026-02-10T20:39:21.0814904-08:00 Saving Settings.xml...
2026-02-10T20:39:21.5600957-08:00 Saving BigBoxSettings.xml...
2026-02-10T20:39:23.0140258-08:00 DataManager.SaveInternal completed successfully.
2026-02-10T20:39:23.9525672-08:00 ContentViewModel Context Building
2026-02-10T20:39:24.2762420-08:00 ContentViewModel Context Built
2026-02-10T20:39:24.2816823-08:00 ContentViewModel Context Opening
2026-02-10T20:39:24.3032252-08:00 ContentViewModel Context Opened
2026-02-10T20:39:26.1233156-08:00 Music.Pause Start
2026-02-10T20:39:26.3216387-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Start
2026-02-10T20:39:26.3281637-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Before Pause Video
2026-02-10T20:39:26.3351114-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Completed
2026-02-10T20:39:27.3359668-08:00 Music.StopAndResumeBackground Start
2026-02-10T20:39:28.2192484-08:00 Music.Pause Start
2026-02-10T20:39:28.2253608-08:00 MameHighScores.Prepare: Beginning the preparation process...
2026-02-10T20:39:28.2456820-08:00 Aborting MameHighScores.Prepare: Uploading MAME high scores is disabled in settings.
2026-02-10T20:39:28.2642357-08:00 Begin M3U Check.
2026-02-10T20:39:28.2698693-08:00 RomPath after M3U build: W:\Nintendo Switch\ACE COMBAT 7 SKIES UNKNOWN DELUXE EDITION [0100E3401D660000][v0][US].xci
2026-02-10T20:40:16.9966959-08:00 MainViewModel.Window.Closing event started.

It will just sit on the loading game screen and I get nothing. If I use citron.exe loads perfectly fine except unreliable full screen

[JoeViking245]

8 hours ago, xokia said:

I can get citron to work manually from the command line citron-cmd.exe -f -g "path_to_game_file.nsp"

Check the path to the game you're launching.  You say it works passing game.nsp.  But the log is showing game.xci.  And you definitely want to use citron-cmd.exe here vs. citron.exe.

Can you also share a screenshot of the Associated Platforms section.

Also, make sure the citron-cmd.exe file you point to in LaunchBox is the exact same executable you used when [successfully] testing from the Command Prompt.  (unfortunately (or not), this is a very common mishappen circumstance)

[Rlad]

Do you have Send F11 in your running script? Because i've been trying to get Citra to launch fullscreen but it was only doing it every other time. The F11 was turning fullscreen on when i exited and then off again the next time i exited. 

[JoeViking245]

25 minutes ago, Rlad said:

Do you have Send F11 in your running script? Because i've been trying to get Citra to launch fullscreen but it was only doing it every other time. The F11 was turning fullscreen on when i exited and then off again the next time i exited. 

Different emulator than the subject topic. But for Citra, you can:

Start citra-qt.exe
Under View options, check Fullscreen
Exit Citra

[Rlad]

3 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Different emulator than the subject topic. But for Citra, you can:

Start citra-qt.exe
Under View options, check Fullscreen
Exit Citra

Yeah I'd done that, the running script was messing it up though, I just wondered if 'fullscreen works funky' in OP maybe the same issue. 

[xokia]

16 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Check the path to the game you're launching.  You say it works passing game.nsp.  But the log is showing game.xci.  And you definitely want to use citron-cmd.exe here vs. citron.exe.

Can you also share a screenshot of the Associated Platforms section.

Also, make sure the citron-cmd.exe file you point to in LaunchBox is the exact same executable you used when [successfully] testing from the Command Prompt.  (unfortunately (or not), this is a very common mishappen circumstance)

Path is correct just laziness in posting, I mistyped. Using citron.exe works perfectly its the citron-cmd.exe that doesn't seem to work.

 

5 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Different emulator than the subject topic. But for Citra, you can:

Start citra-qt.exe
Under View options, check Fullscreen
Exit Citra

I'm using Citron and there were a few option in the qt-config I had to set

[Renderer]
fullscreen_mode\default=true
fullscreen_mode=1

[UI]
fullscreen\default=true
fullscreen=true

then also I run the f11 script seems to work perfectly now

Loop
{
   ifwinactive, citron
   sleep, 7000
   {
      sleep,3000
      send {F11}
      sleep, 1000
      ;send {F11}
      break
   }
}

 

Edited 7 hours ago by xokia