[PLUGIN] QuickLaunch

[stigzler]

Ta. Yeah - looks like it's in the GE ini. Still a mystery though, as emu 1 has S capitalised, emu 2 not. Anyways, case insensative matching solved it, so not gonna sweat over this one.

emu_1lastfolderwrite=24/02/2015 21:26:03
emu_1lastromfilter=*.*
emu_1_dbcachemodified=16/12/2014 17:13:58
emu_1_lastnumgames=18
emu_1_dbcachelastname=[Console] Sony PlayStation
emu_1_dbcacheinicreated51=True
emu_1_enabled=True
emu_1_startpagename=PCSX Games
emu_1_titletext=PCSX
emu_1_startpagelogo=Sony Playstation
emu_1_workingpath=C:\Users\Steve\Scripts\Projects\Emvoy\CodePlex\EmVoy\emvoy
emu_1_rompath=I:\EmuTests\roms\Playstation\MIxedSet
emu_1_command=emvoy.bat -d

I:\EmuTests\roms\Playstation\MIxedSet

-f

[ROMFILE]

-p 2 -g

[ROM]

emu_1_snappath=I:\EmuTests\assets\Sony_Playstation\Snap
emu_1_baksnappath=
emu_1_videosnappath=I:\EmuTests\assets\Sony_Playstation\Video_MP4_HI_QUAL
emu_1_titlepath=I:\EmuTests\assets\Sony_Playstation\Title
emu_1_boxpath=I:\EmuTests\assets\Sony_Playstation\Box
emu_1_manualpath=I:\EmuTests\assets\Sony_Playstation\Manual
emu_1_database=[Console] Sony PlayStation
emu_1_usedbname=True
emu_2lastfolderwrite=24/02/2015 21:26:03
emu_2lastromfilter=*.*
emu_2_dbcachemodified=16/12/2014 17:13:58
emu_2_lastnumgames=18
emu_2_dbcachelastname=[Console] Sony Playstation
emu_2_dbcacheinicreated51=True
emu_2_enabled=True
emu_2_system=Sony Playstation
emu_2_category=Console
emu_2_emulator=pSX
emu_2_version=1.13

As for the second thing - it's no biggie. Just leaving game/sys bios out for now.

[MisterB]

Hi Adultery,

I have been running into multiple issues using the plugin for PinballX. I am using the latest PBX (1.97), and the latest version of your plugin from the first post (1.0.3).

First off, I seem to be having the issue where using the Plugin Manager erases the command arguments. When I launch a batch file, I get a message indicating I have no args. Sure enough, if I look at the XML, they have been removed. So I have also tried editing the XML directly.

When I modify the XML and try to launch a table , I get a "Could not start process" error. I get this when running batch files. I also also tried running a python script, with similar results (I pass the path to the Python interpreter as a process, and the name of the file as an argument).

I have uploaded a zip of the DLL, XML, and a simple batch file to Dropbox to illustrate this. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ari7x81x9dl8s0e/QLError.zip?dl=0

Any help you can provide is much appreciated!

[stigzler]

Feel like I'm pestering you on this plugin, Adultery! However, I'm hitting it hard at the moment!

Having an issue with [Developer], [Catagory] and [Year] passing nulls. Game name and others being passed OK. Now, I'm not sure if this is the database. From having a look at the db3 file, there's lots of entries for test game, Wipeout 3, some with, some without the aforementioned tags. Can't figure how to know which db entry GE is using.

so, might not be the plugin... :/

[Adultery]

Well I just pass what GameEx gives me. The info you mention will sometimes pass nulls since I don't do any database reads.

In short, if GameEx doesn't send anything I don't see anything.

As with any database variables, you'll have to plan for null values in code.

[Adultery]

@MisterB: The PinballX version is in need of an update, I haven't kept up on it and there are quite a few changes since last I put it out. I'll take a look and see if I can bring it up to date... There are key issues that have been addressed in GameEx that never made it into the PBX branch.

[stigzler]

Apologies. Further investigation reveals that it is indeed which db version GameEx is choosing. These tags work with other games.

[stigzler]

Hmm... I think the latest GameEx update may have effected this plugin. Updated, and ran tonight - some tags not getting populated:

[game], [database], [snap], [title]

These were working prior to update... Other are still working though:

# Parsing command line for switches and values:
-----------------------------------------------------
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-gm] , ["[game]"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-dbs] , ["[database]"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-em] , ["PCSX-R"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-im] , ["Gran Turismo"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-ct] , ["Racing"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-dv] , ["Polyphony Digital Inc."]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-yr] , ["1998"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-sp] , ["I:\EmuTests\assets\Sony_Playstation\Snap"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-si] , ["[snap]"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-tp] , ["I:\EmuTests\assets\Sony_Playstation\Title"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-ti] , ["[title]"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-tm] , ["0"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-fe] , ["gameex"]

Shame that, was just getting excited as got everything up and running together and getting into final testing/polishing on me fingy....

Is it fixable, Mr A? Might this happen every update?

[Adultery]

Well probably what happened is the latest version wasn't in the extraction. Grab it again from the 1st post and I'll let Tom know.

[stigzler]

Doh! Oh yeah... that fixed it thanks.

[MisterB]

Thanks for the feedback on the PinballX version. Compared to the volume of change in the GameEx space, I figured that it had been neglected a bit. If you can merge the updates, I would greatly appreciate it! I have found that the LaunchBefore/After commands in PinballX are causing focus issues when loading tables, and it doesn't have access to all of the additional variables that QuickLaunch does. Your solution is far superior. If you need a beta tester for any updates, please let me know!

[Adultery]

I'll likely need to tap you for that. I probably won't get to it until the weekend though. Thanks!!

[stigzler]

On the crashes when passing game bio's:

This is definitely possible. There may be a char I need to strip from the bio that I missed but chances are you're just passing one that's simply too long. I would have to look into it.

I'm thinking it's that some bio's contain quotes:

Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-gm] , ["Ken Griffey Jr Presents Major League Baseball"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-dbs] , ["[Console] Nintendo SNES"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-em] , ["Snes9x"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-im] , ["Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball (USA) (Rev 1)"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-ct] , ["Snes9x"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-dv] , ["Software Creations"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-yr] , ["1994"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-sp] , ["I:\EmuTests\assets\Nintendo SNES\Snaps"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-si] , ["Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball (USA) (Rev 1).png"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-tp] , ["I:\EmuTests\assets\Nintendo SNES\Titles"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-ti] , ["Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball (USA) (Rev 1).png"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-tm] , ["0"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-fe] , ["GameEx"]
Switch/Value pair detected. Setting for: [-gb] , ["Ken Griffey Jr Presents Major League Baseball is a baseball simulation featuring Ken Griffey Jr. of the "Nintendo]

...the latter appearing to mess up the passed command line. Is there anyway to replace these before passing?

[Adultery]

Yeah that shouldn't be an issue. Hold on a few.

[Adultery]

Try this one:

[stigzler]

Nicely done. That did it

[Adultery]

Now the question is do I strip them out or convert them to html?

Probably best to convert them instead.

[stigzler]

Any chance of an option? Might be good to be able to choose just a normal text replace ('?) or straight strip, given that it's passing parameters to unknown receivers?

Besides, batch aint gonna like html

[Adultery]

Probably just stick to stripping them. In the instance of this particular plugin they do more harm than good considering it's for cmdline.

[MisterB]

Adultery, I should have some time to play with my pinball cabinet later today. if you've made any progress on the PBX plugin, just let me know - I'll take it for a test drive.

[stigzler]

Thanks for this great plugin, A. On an aside, what do "Wait for process" and "Launch Process on a Thread" do?

[Adultery]

@MisterB: I'm still working on this. There was/is a lot more to do than I realized.

@stigz: Wait for process waits for the process to complete whatever it's doing before continuing on.

Launch on a thread builds the process and launches it at the same time and doesn't wait for it to do anything or finish.

[stigzler]

Cool ta - so a bit like "launch before" and "launch alongside"?

[Adultery]

More or less.

The difference being that those don't launch on their own thread, which is like a 'background process' kinda.

[stigzler]

Hmm... so much to learn. Errmm... does it (own thread) make stuff faster?

[Adultery]

It depends on what you're doing.

If you're downloading/uploading something or running something that will take a while, threading is good.

If you're running a batch file or something simple, you probably won't notice a difference.

It's obviously more complex than that though.

http://visualbasic.about.com/od/usingvbnet/a/threadingintro.htm