Advice on first steam installation/use with gameex

[aldub516]

So i have a question pertaining to steam as ive never used it before. I want to install "the pinball arcade" on my pc, and be able to launch it through gamex. I now see that the pinball arcade is a steam game, and i need to download the steam desktop app to be able to use this game/program. My question is, how exactly does steam work? Is it a standalone program that opens and lets you play games such as a front end does? or can i simply launch a downloaded game through an executable. Basically what im saying is, if i want to be able to cleanly launch the pinball arcade from my gameex menu, am i going to have to launch steam through gameex? which will then bring me to the steam page, where i then select the game? It all seems kind of sloppy and complicated. Is there a way to get this steam game running out side of steam? Im going to download it all and see how it works. But generally i believe from what i read that im going to have to launch the steam app and then run the game, unless gameex's built in steam support bypasses that?

[aldub516]

right off the bat, any reason why downloading pinball fx2 and the pinball arcade take over an hour? Im hating this steam gimmick already, but my buddy is very excited to be able to play these pinball emulators on his cabinet

[aldub516]

Ok, so i downloaded the pinball arcade from steam, and ended up with the pinball arcade folder within the steam install folder.. I cut that folder and pasted it to my desktop. When i click pinballarcade.exe it runs fine with no problems. So my question here is, is steam basically just like an itunes for games and app downloading? Should i anticipate any problems running this game outside of steam, or furthermore, after i download pinball fx2 and pinball arcade, can i uninstall and delete steam from my pc and continue to run the games straight from the exe or will they try to communicate with steam at some point and cause a problem. If the folders/exe's i ended up with are the full app, then i guess im fine and i can just point gameex to these? Sorry for all the questions which were self answered by simply trying it myself, i just didnt want to jump into a whole other realm of steam when im just trying to finish my damn cabinet lol

EDIT***

Im sorry if this is the wrong forum.. But im more trying to understand steam in gammex than i am the actuall pinball x process..

Ok heres where i stand. Ive set up both fx2 and pinball arcade, but i now know that both of these connect to steam for updates. Now, i know i can run steam in offline mode, BUTTT, upon start up it gives me a pop up asking to start in offline mode or to connect. This pop up would mess with my shelling and start processes. Is there a way to set steam to default offline, or a way to stop this pop up? I have other questions pertaining to a clean pinball setup with multiple emulators but i will swing over to the pinballx forum for that. Ive tried the steam function within gameex, but that gives me a lot of login screens, and desktop time, as well as taking very long to switch back and forth between apps. Is there a way to edit the app files to not search for steam? they seem to have everything they need in their own folders.. how can i disconnect them from steam association

[DazzleHP]

Hi there aldub,

This is a question that will take quite a write-up so bear with me

Firstly, Steam is a media (mainly games) distribution platform much like iTunes as you mentioned, but it is also much more than that. It has many social aspects such as Friends Lists, Instant Chat (both in-game and out), leaderboards on certain games, and it will handle all multiplayer functions too - ie all the stuff you have to pay for on consoles Amongst many other features there are Steam Groups (click "Official Group" in my sig ), game recommendations and auto updating/patching of your software (including GPU drivers if you opt for it!). That wasn't in any particular order but you get the point

Now, when it comes to GameEx, it is plug'n'play - meaning you don't need to do anything to get it to run in GX. Just enter your (Steam) login details in the correct section of the Setup Wizard:

Setup Wizard> Custom> Online Game Services> Steam

and make sure Enabled is set to Yes, and GX will do all the hard work for you! Including populating your game list, downloading artwork and/or vids and creating an information packed database.

Configured a certain way you will never even see the Steam Client! But you will have all the functionality of Steam too (which is awesome in my personal opinion), but take heed - this all relies on keeping things in their right locations - moving things around is asking for punishment.

Hope that wasn't too bloated an answer for you, but GameEx+Steam is really frikkin awesome

Any more questions, feel free

[aldub516]

that was a perfect answer. Which leads me to a follow up. If gameex works with the plug and play aspect as you said, do i need the actual steam client installed on my computer?That is where i assume all of my notifications and such are coming from. Assuming i never really want or need to update pinball arcade besides add new tables, and dont need any social functions, can i uninstall steam from my pc now, and let gameex run it? Or does gameex need the steam client on the pc. And along with that, what would u suggest to get that "never see the client" look? Right now selecting pinball arcade from the steam menu in gameex is taking a VERY long time to load between apps as well as returning to gameex after exit and giving me quite a few login dialogues as well as showing me the desktop for a pretty long while. The cabinet will never be plugged into a network, unless i realllly need to, so i guess im wondering, can i get this steam and pinball emulators set up, cleanly, using only my control panel for navigation, while never connecting steam to the internet? When i set it to work offline it works fine, but that is not a default and it always asks me if i want to stay offline when i start the pc or load a game.

edit

also, unless i do find a way to get to steam through gameex cleanly, would you suggest just setting the executables as an emulator or external application? When i double click pinballarcade.exe for instance, it still connects to steam and asks me about offline etc, but i atleast avoid having to actually run steam as an outside program bouncing back and forth between itself and gameex.

[Adultery]

1. Steam isn't really meant to be used offline, it needs to verify DRM and save your game on the cloud. That's why it persistently asks. Offline Mode in Steam is just not a good alternative, sorry. But that's DRM driven services for ya...

2. Yes GameEx needs the Steam client to run Steam. It only plugs in to your Steam, it does not replace it (it really is more of a bypass or maybe automation of the GUI. That's up for argument... I still prefer playing through Steam but love the integration with my cabinet too. There are plusses and minuses for both options).

3. You will see the desktop every time you play unless you set Steam to logon with Windows and stop having GameEx log in and out for you each time you play a Steam game. There are some AutoIT scripts to automate the clicking for some gamed but you probably won't be able to escape dialog forms altogether, especially with Pinball Arcade which IIRC asks you if you want to launch the game or the configuration.

I'll leave the rest of your inquiries for Dazz since he's already helping ya.

[DazzleHP]

I'll leave the rest of your inquiries for Dazz since he's already helping ya.

Thanks

What Adultery said is true, but there is a way to make Steam work in Offline Mode without it asking for a connection, however it takes a bit of work and you will need to do this with an active connection before you finally "go offline".

To avoid repeating myself, please read carefully this post. The client itself may be slightly different since, but the method remains

[Adultery]

I didn't realize there was a silent switch, but I still feel it's an awful lot of work to get it going offline.

But hey, that's my opinion and I keep my cab online all the time... Especially since my roms are on a server.

[aldub516]

hmm. Being online just isnt really an option, atleast not permanently. I will try the suggestion of setting auto log in and not having gameex log me in and out. I assume i can just set the steam option to disabled in gameex, and go about setting auto login through steam itself? Set it to start with windows and just save my password i guess?

its for my friend, so im sure he doesnt care about a click or seeing a desktop. Its the horrible perfectionist in me that wastes days on small details.

[DazzleHP]

I didn't realize there was a silent switch, but I still feel it's an awful lot of work to get it going offline.

But hey, that's my opinion and I keep my cab online all the time... Especially since my roms are on a server.

I agree, but the option really is there if you want it enough Believe me - i have tried

[DazzleHP]

hmm. Being online just isnt really an option, atleast not permanently. I will try the suggestion of setting auto log in and not having gameex log me in and out. I assume i can just set the steam option to disabled in gameex, and go about setting auto login through steam itself? Set it to start with windows and just save my password i guess?

its for my friend, so im sure he doesnt care about a click or seeing a desktop. Its the horrible perfectionist in me that wastes days on small details.

Heh i understand i really do, and i think i speak for most people here in that we all wish things were straight forward. But the reality is (especially in this game) they are not and so we find the best solutions/workarounds we can. Emulation by nature is an imprecise art, therefor any software that bases itself around it is even more so. It's just how it goes i'm afraid.

We do have a knack of making things work though, in spite of the hurdles - occasionally winded, but never defeated

[aldub516]

^ very true words man. Just putting together this one build ive learned about everything from scripting to ahk just to make things work properly lol. Ive come to see a proper arcade start up system has about a million working parts

[Adultery]

You ain't kidding. I decided to go with a fresh start not too long ago and I didn't realize how far I went to make all my games run. I doubt I'll ever get back to where I was!

[DazzleHP]

You ain't kidding. I decided to go with a fresh start not too long ago and I didn't realize how far I went to make all my games run. I doubt I'll ever get back to where I was!

And those are words from someone who has one of the best cabs on this site

[aldub516]

so im making headway, but im kind of getting myself lost in different configurations. For instance. When i add the steam function to gameex, selecting steam takes a very very long time to switch over to steam/pinball arcade, and also when it returns to gameex. Its also giving me problems with the steam app starting in the backround, its just not working cleanly. Alternatively i realized i can add these apps to pinball x which some what worked. Pinballfx2 shows all of the games in pinballx, even the ones i didnt buy. And when i select any game, even the ones i own, it just takes me the pinballfx2 main game screen. I guess what im asking is that now that ive accepted certain pop ups and issues with being online i want to know the best way to interface these steam apps with gameex/pinballx. I can enable steam in gameex, or i can set steam to run as an external app, or i can set the actual pinballarcade.exe and pinballfx2.exe as external apps which still interface with steam, I can also set those as emulators instead of external apps, and finally i can do any of those options in pinballx. So ideally, which program (gameex or pinballx) should i be focusing on, and what is the proper or ideal method for launching these games.. For instance in the pinballfx2 setup in pinballx, it asks me the working path and the exe which is steam.exe, not pinballfx2, while the "Program to monitor" is pinballfx2. Im literally losing my mind juggling these programs, trying different configurations, remembering what im changing. Im just running in circles here as i dont know what programs are made best to interface with eachother. I literally just need pinball arcade and pinballfx2 running. Please advice me which programs i should be using together and how i should be launching them (external apps,emulators, main exes, or steam exe)

im sad and insane..

***EDIT**

So it seems that launching steam through gameex isnt actually that bad now, but when i exit the steam app (pinballfx2 or pinball arcade) it takes about a 30 seconds- a minute to go back to gameex. Staring at a blue screen for those 30 seconds with my desktop showing kind of kills the flow. Is there a command i can add that might kill a process faster? Or is there a way to figure out what the hang up is betweeen exiting the steam app and returing to gameex? If i can cut this delay out, id be content with my steam setup for now.

[Draco1962]

You might want to take the issues with PinballX to the general forum. Sorry, but we gotta keep 'em separated!

[aldub516]

well i posted up my pinballx issues in the pinballx forum, but this problem/question more relates to gameex, as i am launching everything through gameex. I guess the pinballx forum would know more about what works with what, but i assumed this was more gameex based, as im trying to learn how gameex handles different things. Currently, i set up the pinball arcade as an external app, and i got it working both on and offline fine. Pinballfx2 seems to be a little more difficult. I will try to direct these questions over at the pinballx side, im just hoping someone can still suggest how to either cut out the time between switching apps with the steam function, or how to get pinballfx2 to run from external apps in gameex. Thanks for all the help so far though