kicker75

Turns out the exit is cleaner this way: CloseProcess: WinClose("RetroArch ahk_class RetroArch") run, d:\gameex\hideos.exe FadeOutStart() Return Before this change, when I pressed the exit button mapped in rocketlauncher, the fade would start, once finished, I would have a last glimpse at the emulator, then the black screen from hideos, then gameex. I wanted to get rid of the emulator showing up when the fade ended before hideos picks up, and turns out re-ordering the exit procedure was all that was needed. I will put everything together up soon, along with screenshots of my config in rocketlauncher, gameex, etc...

Some further observation... my first try to start hideos back, as I knew I would have to, was to add the d:\gameex\hideos.exe line, to after launch in advanced emu settings. Not only did it not fire as soon as the emulator exited, I saw the desktop for a second or two... it prevented gameex from coming back. Hideos just stood there, waiting. I had to alt-f4 it, then gameex came back up.

T h a n k Y o u V e r y M u c h !!! It worked! After some trial and error, took me maybe 15-20 mins, and it's now working beautifully! When I saw your post about ahk scripts, I told myself, oh my, I never made one myself... but then I thought that rocketlauncher is using ahk scripts to launch emulators. So I edited retroarch's ahk script, and I added 5 new lines. If you search for run( in RetroArch.ahk, you will find these lines: HideEmuStart() ; This fully ensures windows are completely hidden even faster than winwait If InStr(core, "mess") { ; if a mess core is used Run, taskkill /IM HideOS.exe Run(executable . " """ . (retroMessID ? retroMessID : "") . fullRomPath . """ " . fullscreen . retroCFGFile . " -L """ . libDll . """ -s """ . srmPath . "\" . romName . ".srm"" -S """ . saveStatePath . "\" . romName . ".state""" . netCommand, emuPath, "Hide") } Else If (retroID = "LibRetro_SGB" || If superGB = "true") { ; For some reason, the order of our command line matters in this particular case. Run, taskkill /IM HideOS.exe Run(executable . " " . fullscreen . retroCFGFile . " -L """ . libDll . """ -s """ . srmPath . "\" . romName . ".srm"" -S """ . saveStatePath . "\" . romName . ".state""" . fullRomPath . netCommand, emuPath, "Hide") } Else If FileExist(mgM3UPath) { Run, taskkill /IM HideOS.exe Run(executable . " " . """" . mgM3UPath . """" . fullscreen . retroCFGFile . " -L """ . libDll . """ -s """ . srmPath . "\" . romName . ".srm"" -S """ . saveStatePath . "\" . romName . ".state""" . netCommand, emuPath, "Hide") } Else { Run, taskkill /IM HideOS.exe Run(executable . " " . fullRomPath . fullscreen . retroCFGFile . " -L """ . libDll . """ -s """ . srmPath . "\" . romName . ".srm"" -S """ . saveStatePath . "\" . romName . ".state""" . netCommand, emuPath, "Hide") }I added the 4 lines in bold italic to each run cases here. And later, at the end of the script: CloseProcess: FadeOutStart() run, d:\gameex\hideos.exe WinClose("RetroArch ahk_class RetroArch") Return I added the bold italic line here. I have gameex set to hide desktop, and that's about it. When I fire a game thru retroarch, right before launching the emu, the script kills hideos, and right when the fade out starts when I quit the emulator, the script fires up hideos.exe again. This makes retroarch works just like it should, just like mame, without any weird glitch. Until a proper solution is found with hideos, this suits me perfectly. The only thing that will likely annoy me is when rocketlauncher will update itself and pull a new retroarch.ahk script, so I will have to do this again. I will try to write a guide in the coming days about how I got gameex to work with rocketlauncher/retroarch, along with how to make it work with the mame's list too. Thanks again for that tip! Now it looks very professional! I really love gameex I might dig back into theming as well!

I have tried harder to make it integrate without seeing the desktop flashes by, and I'm almost there. Here is what I did: Since I found out about the taskkill trick, I thought about sending this before the emulator launches, while having show desktop disabled. So I first tried to setup a before launch command in the advanced emulator setup.. but since rocketlauncher is launched before retroarch, and I really want to kill hideos after rocketlauncher is launched, and before retroarch is, it wouldn't work. Then I thought about creating a batch file to launch retroarch. Simple one called rl.bat with the following in: @echo off taskkill /IM "HideOS.exe" retroarch.exe %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 %10 (I counted the number of variables I needed in the log file, by looking at the run command, and counting for the parameters as well, like -s.) I tested it in RocketLauncher, and it works. However, something weird happens in GameEx... when I launch a game, the hideos works, I don't see the desktop, rocketlauncher picks up and fade in, all is good... but then, it fires retroarch, killing hideos... then i see retroarch partially, and then it returns me to gameex. Leaving the emulator running... As I can see, the easiest way to fix it up in an overnight update, would be to add a parameter to hideos, that would run hideos for a certain amount of time, ending the process after the timer limit is hit. This would make it easy to configure. This would allow one to have show desktop enabled, and use, for example, hideos.exe 6000, in also launch, to have hideos run for 6000 milliseconds, or 6 seconds...

Actually, for the time being, I have found a nice work around my issue with the main mame list. I have been able to make it work with rocketlauncher/retroarch just like my other systems. So, I still have a glimpse at the desktop on launch and exit, but I have been able to work around the issue of hideos getting in the way of retroarch when playing the main mame list. In my emulators setup, every systems that is ran thru retroarch, needs to have show desktop disabled in the advanced settings for hideos to not show up when launching the emulator. But for the main mame list, the show desktop settings in display doesn't seems to help. HideOS always shows up regardless when you launch a game. So I added the command taskkill /IM "HideOS.exe" to the run on launch in advance mame settings. And this makes my main mame list works with rocketlauncher/retroarch... I'm sure this issue is very simple to fix actually. I mean, if it's possible to overlay a layer on top of the screen, like the bezels, or hideos... I mean there has to be some sort of layering index... so likely that retroarch is set to be displayed on a lower layer than hideos is. How about adding some options to hideos? Like an option to set the layer it displays it black screen? So when you get an emulator that doesn't display above hideos, you could change the values, and get it to display just right. For some reasons, rocketlauncher have quite a few hiding options, like hide os, hide taskbar, hide emulator, hide frontend, but it doesn't seems to work with gameex. But for the moment, until a proper solution is found, I can deal with the flash to desktop on launch and exit. If anyone needs help to get rocketlauncher/retroarch in gameex, I would be happy to provide what help I can

@tthurman I will do so, thanks for the advice! @draco1962 I'm sorry about that, I edited my post and removed it!

I don't quite agree that RetroArch is more of a frontend than an emulator. It is both. But its frontend part is only a bit better than mame itself. Retroarch is more suited toward tv, console, etc... using the gamepad to move around the UI. But I don't use the frontend part of RetroArch, only the emulator. The reason why I love it, is simple... the controls are auto configured for pretty much every games. Arcade racing games will use the analog stick and analog triggers on the xbox 360 controller automatically, and it comes with an extensive filters and shaders list. Most of my systems are ran thru RetroArch at the moment. Only the Atari 5200, ColecoVision and very few others are ran thru mame (well, mess part of mame)... Running segacd, turbografx-cd, neogeo-cd games with retroarch is a breeze. The reason of this post is to make GameEx play more nicely with RetroArch and RocketLauncher, cause they don't play nicely with each other. I believe that if GameEx devs could talk with these other devs, they could make it integrate much better with GameEx. Its mainly an hideos problem. So here is where I am now: All my systems that runs thru rocketlauncher, needs to have hide desktop disabled. As a result, when I load a game, I will see the desktop flashes by, then rocketlauncher picks up and then its fine... When I exit, the same behavior happens. I see the desktop, before gameex shows up again. And here is where talking with retroarch devs could help. If I use mame as my emulator... mame will display properly over hideos.exe... but if I use retroarch, retroarch shows up below hideos. So I see the bezels, and a black screen instead of the emu (hideos)... if I alt-tab and close hideos, then I see retroarch thru the bezel. So by talking with retroarch devs, they could fix this up and make sure retroarch is displayed on a layer above hideos. Yesterday, I was up for a challenge. Making the main mame list running thru rocketlauncher/retroarch. And I succeeded, partly. Here my problem... HideOS launches for the mame list no matter what. I have disabled hide desktop and taskbar in display, because there is no other settings about it elsewhere, so I thought this was the one used for the main mame list. (the one that's sorted and out of emulated games)... Here is how I did this: I have kept my mame settings using mame.exe and set up the way it should be. I tried to set up rocketlauncher there, but it failed... however, I set up advancemame part using rocketlauncher using retroarch for mame games, and it worked. It launches the games perfectly, I keep my sorted list as it should be... really, the only problem is hideos again... showing above retroarch... but I cannot seem to get rid of hideos.exe. If I rename hideos.exe it works... but the switching from gameex to rocketlauncher is very nasty, as retroarch window shows up briefly... Not sure if I could record a video using fraps or something, but if the devs are interested in making gameex works more nicely with rocketlauncher/retroarch, I could record a video of my issue.. By integration, I meant, that retroarch could be added as an emulator downloadable in the list, to each supported systems. And make hideos.exe play nicely with it. Rocketlauncher is already working perfectly, its really retroarch. But I have used both gameex pause menu and rocketlauncher pause menu, and the one from rocketlauncher is not only better looking (in my opinion), but it loads faster (not on first launch, its about equal, but rl loads much faster on 2nd pause... gameex stays slow each launch)... plus I think its really the best way to setup system/emulators... and it makes settings new frontend much easier than doing all that work again and again for different frontend. @tthurman: I have read both threads, and I already read the first one... it doesn't provide much more info, other than the general misinformation people have about this emu. It starts with people saying its more an emu for mobile/console... its the pinnacle of multi-platform software actually... running on just about anything... and screen size. As I said in my OP, I have been playing with emulators for over 15 years now... not straight... so I'm not new to this. Years ago, I had a nice gameex setup (even made a theme for it that I sent here), and also hyperspin. I was using like 20-25 emulators or so for all my systems. When I got back into it, I started out setting up my emulators how I was familiar with, with nestopia for nes, fusion for genesis, etc... and then I came to discover bizhawk... started setting out more and more systems with this emulator, and I love the fact that these systems had a familiar feel, could use the same shaders and so on... then I noticed in Rocketlauncher, that retroarch came out on nearly every systems, so I decided to give it a try, and I never looked back. I'm running two emulators for 99% of my systems (over 25 now)... retroarch and mame. I'm also using final burn alpha for all the capcom and neogeo arcade games, and model 2 emulator..

Thanks for your answer. I have found out my problem. There is a hide desktop in display settings, and there is another in each emulator config. The one from display settings however seems to be doing nothing when set to hide os. When disabling the one in emulator config, then the emulator shows up behind my bezel. The only problem is that I see the desktop flashes in between loading the emu and exiting back to gameex. There is a setting in Rocketlauncher to make the screen black when loading and exiting, before fading happens, but it doesn't seems to work either. On the brighter side, I'm almost done setting my 25 or so systems. Any plans to support the retroarch emulator right in gameex? And what about Rocketlauncher? RL isn't tied to Hyperspin, it works with multiple frontend, gameex included.

Hello everyone, I had done all of this years ago, but had an hard drive crash, and recently got the sting to set it up again. I have all my emulators and stuff set up at the moment in Hyperspin/RocketLauncher. Yesterday, I gave GameEx a try (I had bought it years ago, as well as Hyperspin), and wanted to set it up. Instead of set up a myriad of emulators, I wanted to use my already set up rocketlauncher. I did a little search in these forums, because there was no rocketlauncher and/or retroarch support right in gameex. And I found out it was actually really easy to set up this way, and in fact easier than the traditional gameex way. On my first attempt, it worked beautifully. I had gameex setup with mame for the mame romset, and I had an atari 2600 romset (started out with an easy one), working with rocketlauncher. However, I was intrigued to know why it worked without any additional configuration in RocketLauncher. So I went over there, and added a gameex frontend profile, and changed a few things. Then my games would no longer launch. It was saying it was missing an xml file somewhere in rocketlauncher directory. I reverted my settings in Rocketlauncher, and now it launches again. However, I played with GameEx settings in the meantime, and for some reasons, now when I launch a game thru rocketlauncher, it starts fine, but hideos is blocking the emulator output. So I see the rocketlauncher bezel, but I don't see the emulator in the middle... I see the black screen from hideos. If I alt-tab to hideos, and press alt-f4, and switch back to the emulator, then everything is fine. Except I see the windows taskbar. Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong? PS: BTW, nice progress on GameEx! I have read about GameEx evolution. Is it a new application? If I bought GameEx, will I get the evolution upgrade or is it a new purchase?

METSU-HADOKEN!!! Damn this game is ...... cant find the word. Go get it and try it for yourself, specially if you liked or was a street fighter 2 fan. This game is just friggin awesome. 15/10 CAPCOM, way to go. Hope it gets more filter with some game updates!

Thank you for making me notice that icon, I dont use the multimedia part yet of gameex, in the process of setting it all up together first.. I will revise that icon I'll try to come up with something to match the dark drives. Mark32, I just tried the theme at 800x600 and it seems to scale well too. Even at 1920 it still looks good, that's the resolution I'm running it at. I'm in the process of converting it to 1920x1200, but I cant make the font smaller than they are in the current theme.... so its pointless to continue until I can have nice small fonts... to make use of all the screen estate.

Hi, I'm currently trying to make the theme 1920x1200 and it seems there is a problem with the font system in GameEx. I had noticed something wrong before, but it didnt really bugged me out that much. The settings for game fonts in the setup do nothing, the smaller and bigger settings does nothing for me. But thing is, when I created the new theme at 1920x1200 using my 1024 theme, the font were off the charts, so I reduced them. Then I thought, no need for large fonts at that resolution, anyone who will run this will have HD so nice small fonts would be best. So I reduced the fonts to 12 and title to 18. (Actually, I dont see no title, I have a title item in my theme editor and where is the title? The game title seems to be the select line 1 item, also I have a date and time item on the page in the theme editor and yet it doesnt show either in gameex). So my question is, how do I make the size of the font smaller, make the settings in the setup program (for font size) works, and make the date/time appear? I saved a blank template at 1920x1200 over every background and gameex starts, so I had to really replace all image so it could start... now only if I can get the font to work. Thanks in advance!

Hello, I just tried to upload the theme in the theme section. It didnt worked. I asked for a code, got it. I now enter it with my email address, click submit, and it just stays there on the same page and do nothing. I tried to log in, but its not the same login as the forum. What am I doing wrong here?

Hi Brian, It's been a pleasure to do it. And I will upload it correctly shortly too, I just didnt really knew where to put it. I saw a thread for that matter, but prefered to post a new one so I could have maybe more people read it. But doing it the correct way will sure make it more available. I'm still pretty new to GameEx, was looking for a FE maybe a tad more than a month ago now and downloaded a few, I wont give names but you have a general idea I tried GameEx first but didnt really knew how to set it up, and it seemed more than I needed, so I tried the competition, and even nearly fully setup another only to come up to a conclusion I couldnt get an emulator to run, so I checked again what was available, and saw a pretty nice video of GameEx, so I decided to give it a spin, and registered it maybe 30 mins later It's the most awesome piece of software I've seen. I wish all the best to you and everyone who's implied in the GameEx project. And I'm happy to have contributed something to it, as it is my first ever theme or piece of art I've created I just love GameEx that much I would glady port the theme over to higher res, but I tried, but not sure how to do it, maybe you could help me a bit? What I did was create a new theme based on my current one. Then I took the background image and made it to 1920x1200 (not by zooming but by cloning, so you couldnt tell that it came from a 1024 theme, I guess that's how I should have done it really.) but when I tried to fire up GameEx, it wouldnt start. Something wrong with the image. Maybe because apart from bak and startbak I didnt scaled any other image. And aside from quickly re-arranging the object on the main page in the theme editor, I didnt do anything else, just wanted to see how it would look, and what I needed to do, but couldnt see it. So what would be the main steps in taking my theme and port it to higher res? I dont have to start from scratch, do I?

Well well well, here is my final version for now. Everything has been redone. I still have to figure out which name if there is for some items in the more games and programs menu, like gameex website, and most icons there. But I made a nice gameex replacements logo for it. I worked pretty much all day on the theme, so bare with me for the missing screenshots, I might add them later, but trust me, if you downloaded one of my previous release, by all means, download this one. I haven't created anything in this theme. Only redone other's work. From the base theme, to the icons, logos, etc... I only take credits for putting it up together and trying to make it look as best as I can at the moment. (Why I said final version for now earlier... ) So here is the link to it, just so everything is clear, this is a 1024x768 4:3 theme, I sent some 1920x1200 screenshots earlier of it as seen on my computer, that's because I run GameEx on both my 24" widescreen lcd and my old tv at 1024x768. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G5CUZW2F If some people would be interested in seeing an higher res version, I would probably be up to do it, as I would use it myself too. The 1024 one looks pretty damn good at 1920 even if it's stretched, but I could use some more real estate space to display more stuff on each pages. If you have any thoughts let me know.

We're getting near completion, or almost All the main logos are in the main menu are done, except for multimedia and more games and programs. I still have to figure out something for those. But everything else is done, all the different mame logo are done too, vertical, horizontal etc.. I hope this theme will be picked up in the gameex installation Hope you still enjoy it as much as I do! Here is the link http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8QPZNOJZ Lazy for the new screens, just get it, you wont be disappointed

It is already 4:3 and 1024x768 Only the screenshots are in 1920x1200, that's the resolution I run this thing on. I kept it 1024 because of the occasional tv output.

Thank you for the comment, its always appreciated to know that we're improving and not the opposite Here is a little update for something that was bugging me.... the low res gameexlogo image... it became way too pixelated when zoomed out at the end of the animation. So here is a brand new one.

Yes I have the roms, and they are in both winuaeloader and winuae directory. And they are named as they should, well gamebase and demobase works... and winuaeloader sees the game... I dunno what happens afterward...

Hi there everyone, I tried to blend in the reflective icons in the black theme, but it wasnt looking as good as in colors, so I finished and polished up the theme even more, and I'm pretty amazed at what I've come up with, considering I'm not a wizard at photoshop. (If you can send me the action or filter for the reflection, I could probably work something out) Celly: SegaCD must have slipped out of my attention, as I have sega cd roms too I dont have wonderswan tho, but I created a theme for it + the nice high quality logo for it. I got a few other things on my mind I will improve and change over time, but I feel that there is enough change for me to call it v2 (or more likely v1 really, but still.. ) Again, there is all the psd I had to create and saved them all inside the theme directory. The theme psd I'm working on is blackier than ever + ref (for reflections), I included all the reflective icons inside my theme, but have yet to figure a way to blend them as good as they are naturally. If someone wanna have a crack at it, feel free, I left all in for this purpose. I think I created some nice emulator and random logo, you tell me what you think. Plus the little logo in the general emulator theme. Well here is the newest and greatest version so far (If you like black theme, this one is a bit blackier than the one before, and lot more polished) First the screenshots (In full 1920x1200 glory, it is still a 1024x768 theme, I have still to figure a way to port the theme to higher res) Random Theme Emulators theme Logoff Here is the theme http://www.megaupload.com/?d=88IJ8IYN Please again, tell me what you think, and anything you'd like improved or added. There are some logos in the main menus that I would like to change the favorites, media, search and mostly played.. If someone can think of something nice that would go well with the rest, else I'll just fiddle and try some stuff Hope you like it as much as I do.

Hey Krakerman, I'm in the process of setting up old dos games too at the moment, and was figuring out a way to make them work in gameex, so I did a little search here, and downloaded d-fend reloaded latest version, configured 2-3 dos games within the program, everything worked well, but it didnt once in gameex, just like you, everything looks as it would start but closed and returned to gameex. So after fiddling a bit, I noticed that you could start d-fend with the commandline by supplying the game name in d-fend... but starting it like this didnt worked as well in gameex.. (dfend "Black Thorne"). So after reading a bit more this long thread, I noticed brian's post that included his config files.. his config pretty much seemed like mine, except for one difference, he specified an advanced config file for it, named dosbox (dosbox.ini that you need to put in the directory of gameex/CONFIG/EMULATORS). So I grabbed his config files, didnt used the import one since it was pretty much like mine already, but copied the dosbox.ini in gameex's CONFIG/EMULATORS folder, and dos games works from gameex now. So you probably skipped that part, to copy the dosbox.ini file and specify it in the emulator config. Try it, it should work.

Hi headkaze, Yes, everything is set up correctly in winuaeloader, actually I see 2213 or 2229 roms in my whdload set in run roms, but everyone of them will do the same error I mentionned earlier.. only demobase and gamebase works so far. If I extract a game from the whdload set and mount the disk image in winuae, the game will work. But its a bit of a pain in the... Thanks for the help

Hi Amos, Thanks for the comments, always feel nice to know you havent done all this work for nothing, well I like it, but if others like it too, even all the better I will start work on the reflection effect right away, and will send in the updated theme when I'm done! I love the effect too, thanks for the file! Be back later with the update.

Hi there, Trying to get amiga games and demos to work, I understood that whdload demos wont work yet, and its okay, I've got demobase and gamebase setup and everything works fine, but whdload doesnt. I get the cli and it says object not found on every game i try to run with either winuaeloader or gameex. I tried searching the forums here and googling, but doesnt find much about it, only 1 google result but it doesnt help me. Anyone seen this? Thanks in advance. PS: My whdload set have all the games in one directory one zip per disk or game, is that okay?

Here is my theme in 7z format, it is 33M because I've included a sweet intro movie, and also I left all the psd I saved in place, so if you wanna make your own color, you will have a much easier time than I did Here is the link, tell me what you think. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZFD0ZZVV