LB11

good idea, I forgot those were in a separate forum! thanks

First, I dont mean to take anything away from your solution couslev as its brilliant in its own right. Had I read this post before making this I probably would have just done what you did and look for gameoverlayui.exe. But anyway, I finished my steam game loader. It should work with any steam game or regular pc game including ones that have their own launcher. The principal is similar to couslev's solution except it attempts to use the proper running process instead of steams gameoverlayui.exe. It also is able to click through launchers and stuff like that. Heres the download: http://www.mediafire...8v7dgjm7hvz4cvp Basic instructions are included in the zip file or go to http://wp.me/p10EGr-S. but basically you set it up as if the program was an an emulator and then your game links were roms. That way when you get a new game all you have to do is drop the shortcut steam makes into your rom folder and your good to go. Just use: ugl.exe "[rompath]\[romfile]" command line. It will accept lnk, url and exe files. If your using games with a launcher, it will automatically click the start buttons for you with minimal configuration. Use the included mouse position tool to get the info needed and then just enter it in the ini file. I also included a tool that will close the Steam Offline popup if you are like me and use steam in offline mode on your htpc. Just put in your startup folder and it will wait 60 seconds for the window to appear and close it if it does. Otherwise it will just close itself after the times up. I mostly use gamebrowser for my PC games and Gameex for roms, so it has a few other features which gameex has built in already. But everything is configurable from the ini file. Anyways, if you use it, let me know how it works out for you.

Ok, I finished my steam game loader. Its should work with any steam game or regular pc game including ones that have their own launcher. The principal is similar to couslev's solution but it attempts to use the proper running process instead of steams gameoverlayui.exe as well as being able to click through launchers and stuff like that. Heres the download: http://www.mediafire.com/?8v7dgjm7hvz4cvp Basic instructions are included in the zip file or go to http://wp.me/p10EGr-S. but basically you set it up as if the program was an an emulator and then your game links were roms. That way when you get a new game all you have to do is drop the shortcut steam makes into your rom folder and your good to go. Just use: ugl.exe "[rompath]\[romfile]" command line. It will accept lnk, url and exe files. If your using games with a launcher, it will automatically click the start buttons for you with minimal configuration. Use the included mouse position tool to get the info needed and then just enter it in the ini file. I also included a tool that will close the Steam Offline popup if you are like me and use steam in offline mode on your htpc. Just put in your startup folder and it will wait 60 seconds for the window to appear and close it if it does. Otherwise it will just close itself after the times up. I mostly use gamebrowser for my PC games and Gameex for roms, so it has a few other features which gameex has built in already. But everything is configurable from the ini file. Anyways, if you use it, let me know how it works out for you.

The SPDIF interface is only capable of playing 2 channel sound in PCM format which is what most games output. Movies and a select few games output in Dolby Digital or DTS which is encoded in surround sound and passable through the SPDIF connection. The only way to get surround sound in your games is to buy a motherboard or sound card that supports Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect encoding. Basically what that will do is take the PCM multichannel sound that your game is outputting and encode it on the fly to a Dolby digital or DTS stream which can be passed over SPDIF and decoded at your receiver. If you dont want to buy any new equipment you have the option of passing the 2 channels and having the receiver upconvert it with Dolby Pro Logic or whatever technology it supports (better than nothing). Or use the miniplugs if your receiver supports it. If you use the mini plugs you have the disadvantage of lots of cables and all decoding (meaning movies) will have to be done at the PC instead of the receiver. Your sound quality will also now be dependent on the computer instead of the receiver.

Ben's right, the TV out should be able to clone the other monitor with no problem. If not, you could always just enable it while you are playing mame (disable second monitor) and switch it back when done, but I don't think you will have to.

Hi Tom, I just downloaded the latest version of gameex and the very first thing I saw was the "change view" button on the start page. I noticed if you keep clicking it the screen keeps getting wider and wider. Dont know if its been reported yet, but something to check out.

Is it alot of games or only one or two here and there? If there is alot then you probably dont have the roms named correctly.

I cant wait! Good job!

I thought it was added with the current releases... oh well. Like they said just share what you finish! I know I never got around to that one. It was just too large and not many people seemed to care when I started a similar thread. Hopefully some more people will request games and get it all put together. In my opinion, the best naming convention is exactly what the game installs by default. if Call of Duty 4 had a C.O.D. 4 labled Icon, then that is what I would put in the "rom name" section of the database. Then Call of Duty 4 in the "Game name" section. But that is my personal opinion and I think thats how I did it with the few games I manually added.

The way I do it for PC games, although I admittedly don't have many on gameex, is to make each game its own emulator and then group them. Then use a .lnk that will open and close xpadder in the launch before and launch after section of the advanced config. You would need a seperate link to open xpadder for each game that uses a different profile but only one close link.

I tried media portal and didn't like it personally....

If you really want to use showtime, try setting it up as an external application. I dont believe there is a way to shange the default media player as of yet though, so you wont be able to select the normal "Play DVD" button and have it run showtime. Make sure FFDSHOW is disabled for mpeg2 playback.

As always, thanks for the hard work! Looks great!

Generally corruption that looks like that is from the videocard memory. The GPU would cause geometry problems usually.

Thats basically what pressing delete does at the moment. He wants it to actually remove the game from the disk.

I cant vouch for xp64 since I tried it when it was new and the audigy drivers would BSOD on boot everytime..... I did recently switch to vista64 and am happy as well. It was a little tricky for me getting all the codecs working since you have 32bit and 64bit WMP and the same for codecs and blah blah blah. I can also vouch for mame being quite a bit faster!

Use the xvid codec and disable ffdshow for xvid only

Im not really sure what it is you are trying to do. You want to have your games on a DVD, then when you put the disc in gameex will loadup automatically and you can play the games? If thats the case you would probably have to install gameex on teh harddisk. Then just put a text file called autorun.inf in the root of the DVD with all your games. In the autorun.inf text file you would probably need OPEN="C:\Program Files\Gameex\Gameex.exe" I dont know if it autorun will load something from the hard disk though. The other option might be to create a batch file or something on the DVD that will launch gameex from the hard disk, then in the autorun.inf it would be: OPEN=Startgameex.bat as an example

Tom, do you have any statistics on how many different people come to this site regularly as opposed to only when they have a problem? I think a big reason that there is not many people using chat is that there is so few of us here regularly or somewhat regularly. Then you have the problem of time zones and whatnot. Maybe we could take a poll of what times people are available and then set a time once or twice a week to meet in the chat we already have. Say every sunday and wednesday at 8:00pm for example. As far as kailera, Ive never used it, so I dont know how easy it is to setup, but like someone mentioned, is there a problem with using it on the emulators? Was it a no no because it was going to be integrated in gameex, or just because we shouldnt be talking about it on this forum?

Well, I got it working with a nonwidescreen theme and a widescreen resolution... go figure.

Im going to try a different theme in a minute. I have no idea what this resolution is... 1024x567 nothing on the computer uses it and I have gameex set to not change resolution. What kills me is that gameex works great if I don't launch it from media center. Maybe toms new update will fix my dx error

Here is the error log. I think you may be right. It may be starting before media center releases the display driver. I was watching a video and launched gameex while the video was playing and it took alot longer for gameex to load after it closed VMC. Gameex worked. So I tried it again with no video and it started up fast and gave the error again. 04:36:42.6 3/28/2008: GameEx: Version 9.17: Starting Log 04:36:42.6 3/28/2008: Operating System Platform: Win32NT 04:36:42.6 3/28/2008: Operating System Name: Windows Vista 04:36:42.6 3/28/2008: Operating System Version: 6.0.6001 04:36:42.6 3/28/2008: Vista Aero NOT running 04:36:42.6 3/28/2008: Initializing Vista volume control 04:36:42.7 3/28/2008: Checking for versions of .net Framework installed 04:36:42.7 3/28/2008: .net Framework 1.1 Installed 04:36:42.7 3/28/2008: .net Framework 2.0 Installed 04:36:42.7 3/28/2008: Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 170, 2046MB 04:36:42.7 3/28/2008: 2Ghz - 2 Cores or CPU's 04:36:42.7 3/28/2008: Running Randomize() 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Loading PlugIns 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Checking for applications to Launch On Startup 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Running Misc startup tasks 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Setting Menu types 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Opening Configuration File 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Getting Configuration Values 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Using Theme: Default - Hybrid Blue - Widescreen 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Checking for alternate Image Directory for Theme: Default - Hybrid Blue - Widescreen 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Launching HideOS.exe 04:36:42.8 3/28/2008: Initialising Video/MNG DLL's 04:36:42.9 3/28/2008: Hiding Taskbar 04:36:42.9 3/28/2008: Is Media Center running? 04:36:42.9 3/28/2008: Media Center is running 04:36:42.9 3/28/2008: Checking/Creating LCD Registry values 04:36:42.9 3/28/2008: Check Media Center Exit/Start Mode 04:36:42.9 3/28/2008: Media Center Mode 2 04:36:42.9 3/28/2008: Closing Media Center 04:36:43.2 3/28/2008: Video previews on. Warning: Only recommended on modern systems 04:36:43.2 3/28/2008: Snap Delay set to: 2 04:36:43.2 3/28/2008: Get other settings 04:36:43.3 3/28/2008: Reading MAME hall of fame 04:36:43.3 3/28/2008: Set: Find emulator artwork on best match basis 04:36:43.3 3/28/2008: Start work for Form 04:36:43.3 3/28/2008: Getting Original Screen Size 04:36:43.3 3/28/2008: Opening Database Connection 04:36:43.4 3/28/2008: Initializing Component 04:36:43.5 3/28/2008: Retrieving resolution setting 04:36:43.5 3/28/2008: Creating Radio Station Genres 04:36:43.8 3/28/2008: Succesfully created station genres 04:36:43.8 3/28/2008: Initialising Windows Media Player Component 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: MAME Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Model 2 Path Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Sega Model 2\ 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Multi Core/Hyper Threading detected. Looking for emulator_multicpu.exe 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Model 2 EXE file is: emulator_multicpu.exe 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Model 2 emulator with command line support detected 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Use Model 2 on. emulator_multicpu.exe will launch Sega Model 2 games 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: ZiNc Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Zinc\ 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: ZiNc EXE file is: zinc.exe 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Use ZiNc on. zinc.exe will launch PSX games 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: MAME EXE file is: MAME.exe 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: ROM Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\roms 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Catver.ini is located at: C:\Program Files (x86)\GameEx\DATA\catver.ini 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: controls.ini is located at: C:\Program Files (x86)\GameEx\data\controls.ini 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: History.dat is located at: C:\Program Files (x86)\GameEx\DATA\history.dat 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: nplayers.ini is located at: C:\Program Files (x86)\GameEx\DATA\nplayers.ini 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: MAMEinfo.dat is located at: C:\Program Files (x86)\GameEx\DATA\mameinfo.dat 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Loading Controls.ini map file 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Snap Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\snap 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: AVI Snap Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\Videos 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Flyer Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\flyers 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Cabinet Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\cabinets 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Title Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\titles 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: PCB Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\pcb 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Artwork Preview Path: Not Found 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Panel Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\cpanel 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Manual Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\manuals 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Icon Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\icons 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Marquee Path is: D:\Emulation\Emulator\Arcade\Mame\marquees 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Loading Custom Emulators 04:36:44.3 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 1: [Console] Nintendo NES (Nestopia) 04:36:44.4 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 2: [Console] Nintendo SNES (ZSNES) 04:36:44.4 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 3: [Console] Nintendo N64 (Project64) 04:36:44.5 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 4: [Console] Sega Genesis (Fusion) 04:36:44.5 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 5: [Console] Sega Dreamcast (nullDC) 04:36:44.6 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 6: [Console] Sony PlayStation (ePSXe) 04:36:44.7 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 7: [Arcade] Raine 04:36:44.8 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 8: [Arcade] VivaNonno 04:36:44.9 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 9: [HandHeld] Nintendo GameBoy Advance (VisualBoyAdvance) 04:36:45.1 3/28/2008: Loading Emulator 10: [PC] Microsoft Windows 04:36:45.5 3/28/2008: Using 2D Animations 04:36:45.5 3/28/2008: Using General Font: Microsoft Sans Serif 04:36:45.5 3/28/2008: Using Title Font: Microsoft Sans Serif 04:36:45.5 3/28/2008: Attempting to load game list 04:36:45.8 3/28/2008: Waiting for Media Center to close 04:36:46.9 3/28/2008: Initialising DirectDraw 04:36:46.9 3/28/2008: Applying GameEx is Loading Image 04:36:46.9 3/28/2008: Creating DirectDraw Device 04:36:46.9 3/28/2008: Using Device: ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series 04:36:47.6 3/28/2008: 1274mb video memory available 04:36:47.6 3/28/2008: Setting Resolution to 1024x567 32 bit color 04:36:47.7 3/28/2008: Cannot Set Resolution to: 1024x567 32 bit color 04:36:47.7 3/28/2008: Error in the application. 04:36:47.7 3/28/2008: Trying current windows resolution 04:36:47.7 3/28/2008: Creating DirectDraw Surfaces 04:36:47.7 3/28/2008: Creating Primary Surface - Full Screen Mode 04:36:47.7 3/28/2008: Creating Back Buffer 04:36:47.7 3/28/2008: Loading graphic Surfaces 04:36:47.7 3/28/2008: Display is running at: 1216x660 32bit color, 60hz 04:36:47.8 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Misc and Dialogs 04:36:47.8 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Volume 04:36:47.8 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Arrows 04:36:47.8 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces GameEXlogo Text 04:36:47.8 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Toolbar 04:36:47.9 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Backgrounds 04:36:50.4 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Toolbar Controls 04:36:50.4 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces GameEx Logo 04:36:50.4 3/28/2008: Creating Surface Unselected 04:36:50.4 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Home & Exit 04:36:50.5 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Snaps 04:36:50.5 3/28/2008: Creating Surfaces Menu and List Bars 04:36:50.5 3/28/2008: Creating Fonts 04:36:50.5 3/28/2008: Creating Game Font 04:36:50.7 3/28/2008: Creating Menu Font 04:36:50.8 3/28/2008: Creating Font Black 04:36:50.9 3/28/2008: Creating Font Black Small 04:36:51.0 3/28/2008: Creating Game Font Faded 04:36:51.1 3/28/2008: Creating Title Font 04:36:52.2 3/28/2008: Fonts Created Succesfully 04:36:52.2 3/28/2008: 1206mb video memory left available 04:36:52.2 3/28/2008: Creating instance of global keyboard hook 04:36:52.2 3/28/2008: Text/Language: English 04:36:52.2 3/28/2008: Applying Language/Text 04:36:52.3 3/28/2008: Initialising Bass Audio Library 04:36:52.4 3/28/2008: MAME CMD options: -nowindow -joy -skip_gameinfo -afs 04:36:52.4 3/28/2008: Loading last used Game List 04:36:52.4 3/28/2008: Loading Start Page 04:36:52.5 3/28/2008: Setting Music Volume 04:36:52.5 3/28/2008: Creating DirectSound Device 04:36:52.5 3/28/2008: Trying: Primary Sound Driver 04:36:52.5 3/28/2008: Loading Sound Files 04:36:52.6 3/28/2008: DirectSound Device Created Successfully 04:36:52.6 3/28/2008: Creating ICONS 04:36:52.6 3/28/2008: Restoring Cached ICONS from File 04:36:52.7 3/28/2008: Initialising DirectInput for Gamepad support 04:36:52.8 3/28/2008: Using Device Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2 04:36:52.8 3/28/2008: Initializing MCE Remote 04:36:52.8 3/28/2008: Initialization OK! Starting GameEx! 04:36:52.8 3/28/2008: Testing Main Loop Once: Processing Frame 04:36:52.9 3/28/2008: --**-- 04:36:52.9 3/28/2008: ERRORS DETECTED: EXITING 04:36:52.9 3/28/2008: Error in the application. 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: at Microsoft.DirectX.DirectDraw.Surface.DrawInternal(tagRECT* destRectangle, Surface sourceSurface, tagRECT* srcRectangle, DrawFlags flags, DrawEffects& bltEffects) 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: at Microsoft.DirectX.DirectDraw.Surface.Draw(Rectangle destRectangle, Surface sourceSurface, Rectangle srcRectangle, DrawFlags flags) 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: at l.ds() 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: at l.au() 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: It was detected you experienced a DirectX error. 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: Please note the following for possible solutions to your problem: 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: 1. Ensure you have the latest version of DirectX installed. 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: 2. Ensure you have the latest Manufacturer provided video card drivers. 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: NOTE: Windows/Microsoft Update does not contain the latest. 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: NOTE: Manufacturer normally means ATI, NVidia, or Intel. Not the brand. 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: www.ati.com www.nvidia.com 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: 3. If you do not have a modern video card try the following. 1. Turn off advanced Graphics. 2. Try a lower resolution. 3. Try turning on and using 16-bit colour 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: 4. Ensure any required video codecs are installed. 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: 5. Try a different theme, or try running the theme at the resolution it was designed for 04:36:53.2 3/28/2008: 04:36:54.7 3/28/2008: Exiting GameEx! 04:36:54.7 3/28/2008: Saving Settings

Are you trying to ask if it would use the same image for all the versions (different countries and etc.) of the same game? Then yes gameex can do this if you turn on the find best match feature.

You dont want to play games while riding? VMC = Vista Media Center.

I recently installed vistax64, and have been using it as a regular PC instead of the HTPC I made it to be. I finally found some time to set it back up as an HTPC, but I am having a problem getting gameex to launch from withing VMC. If I just load it from the desktop it works great. Gameex will load the "gameex" screen the crash showing a DX failure then load VMC up again. Has anyone experienced this? Im going to fool around with it a little more and see if I can figure it out.