[RESOLVED] GameEx regains focus during game

[YaZoR]

Hi all,

Having an issue where I will start a game which loads perfectly fine. Then shortly after, with the game still running, GameEx will take focus. It's as if it doesn't think the game is running.

I'm currently experiencing this every time with [Steam] Street Fighter V. Before the main menu in SFV gets to load, GameEx has taken focus.

The log only shows that it thinks the game exited, with the line "Plugin: Game Exit"

16:14:36.5  02/04/2016:  Shutting down display
16:15:21.3  02/04/2016:  Writing Stats
16:15:21.4  02/04/2016:  Plugin: Game Exit
16:15:21.4  02/04/2016:  Plugin: Process Commands
16:15:21.4  02/04/2016:  Refreshing Keyboard
16:15:21.5  02/04/2016:  Initialising Audio
16:15:26.6  02/04/2016:  Relaunching HideOS
16:15:26.7  02/04/2016:  Restoring Window
16:15:27.0  02/04/2016:  Reinitializing Graphics System
16:15:27.0  02/04/2016:  Mouse Input is disabled
16:15:27.7  02/04/2016:  Reloading Game Info Page
16:15:27.7  02/04/2016:  Returning to GameEx

Any ideas, and where would I start to diagnose?

[tthurman]

Hi YaZoR, welcome to the GameEx forums!

Please provide your complete log and gameex.ini so we can see what you've got going on.  If you need help locating these files see the links in my signature.

 

 

[YaZoR]

Attached

log.txt

GameEx.ini

[tthurman]

I don't really have any suggestions, but given this is happening on steam, and the below is in the log it makes me wonder if there isn't a connection.

Quote

Failed Opening Video: c:\emulators\gameex\media\steam\video\310950.flv

I do know of some who have had issues with the XBOX one controller in Windows 10, that was resolved when going back to the 360 controller.  I don't know how or if this translates to Windows 8/8.1.

 

A couple easy things you may want to consider trying.

Run the Setup Wizard, and disable touchscreen support.  Some systems have trouble with this enabled for some reason, and while it may be a long shot, it's a pretty quick and safe thing to try.

Sometimes reinstalling GameEx over itself will resolve odd issues such as this, in some cases.  GameEx updates install over the existing versions, so this isn't anything all that unusual, but as always there is some risk when installing software.  You can always backup your entire GameEx folder to be safe.

Aside from this, you may just want to wait and see if anyone else pops in here and notices something I've overlooked.

[YaZoR]

Video failing to open is unrelated. Did the same when the video existed.

Currently experiencing no issues whatsoever with any controllers. This issue occurs whether XBOX One, X360, or no controllers connected.

Touchscreen support already disabled.

Re-installed GameEx over the top, just to see if it made a difference, but none. =(

 

[YaZoR]

OK, attempting a little sleuthing myself here.

So I can see that there are multiple processes for SFV starting.
In the screenshot provided, there are a total of 6 "StreetFighterV.exe" processes. 1 is within the root of the SFV directory, whilst all others are in \Binaries\Win64.
The parent PID 2740 starts 2292, which starts 3556, which starts 3416, which starts 216 & 2820.
Almost immediately, PIDs 270, 2292 & 3416 end. There is no issue with the game running so I assume this is typical.
One of the PIDs I assume is a splash screen which shows for < 1 sec.
3 of the other PIDs (3556, 216 & 2820) all run until the game is quit gracefully.

I'm assuming GameEx is looking at either the parent PID or one of it's children which has ended, and suspects the game has quit, ergo it takes focus.

Is there any way for me to absolutely confirm this and if so file a bug report?

Thanks in advance.
 

[Draco1962]

Since the issue appears to be isolated to SFV and you are not reporting any issues with other Steam games via GameEx, I would recommend uninstalling and reinstalling SFV to see fi that remedies the issue. I have seen numerous reports on the Steam forums for bugginess with this game outside of any frontends.

[YaZoR]

Re-installing SFV exhibits the same behavior.

[nullPointer]

19 hours ago, YaZoR said:

I'm assuming GameEx is looking at either the parent PID or one of it's children which has ended, and suspects the game has quit, ergo it takes focus.

I think you're probably right on the money with this.  The problem here can be twofold.  Based on what you're describing, I'm going to take a wild guess (and it really is just that since I don't own this game and cannot test) that you'll likely need to identify any additional processes to watch so that you can specify them in the form of a Steam config for the game.  If you take a look in the GameEx\MEDIA\STEAM\CONFIGS directory, you'll find that it houses a config for each of your Steam games. With a config you can exercise some degree of control over how GameEx executes the associated game. I find that most often I use a custom config when I need to specify an alternate watched process (Steam games that get run through DOSBox are an example of this - the watched process (overidewaitprocess) needs to be DOSBox, not whatever it is that Steam launches). This will prevent GameEx from taking back focus before you exit the game. I believe you could also use a custom config to specify Launch Before and Launch After parameters on a per game basis, but have never had a need to do so.

So I mentioned that the problem can be twofold.  Another issue that can occur is that some games require an additional launcher before launching the "full game".  Grand Theft Auto IV comes to mind (with the Rockstar Club Login popup), as well as Batman Arkham Asylum (which just has a standard Launcher with options for "Play this Game", "Options", etc.) .  These type of games require an automated wrapper to negotiate past the launcher and get the actual game running.  Typically these wrappers are compiled AutoHotKey scripts that send Mouse Clicks, Key Presses and the like to bypass these launchers. There are several wrappers that have already been written, and I'm sure there are multitudes out there still waiting to be discovered. This may be one such case.  Any existing wrappers can be found in the C:\GameEx\MEDIA\STEAM\WRAPPERS directory, and further if you're interested in looking at the source code for these, you can find it on level deeper in the \SOURCE\ directory

The trouble with this is that it's hard to write wrappers and/or configs for games that aren't in your Steam library, so trying to have a "full set" of Steam wrappers available from within GameEx is like trying to fight the tide with a teacup.  Having said that any enterprising souls interested in writing their own are more than welcome to do so.  In both cases the resultant file must be named as the numeric Steam identifier for the game (in the case of Street Fighter V it appears to be 310950).  If you ever need to determine what that identifier is, you can always find it in the URL of the Steam store page for the corresponding game. 

[YaZoR]

Thanks nullPointer.

Modifying the GameEx\MEDIA\STEAM\CONFIGS\310950.ini file by adding the overridewaitprocess resolved the issue. No more jumping back to GameEx after launching SFV.

[AppID_310950]
hasbeenlaunched=true
overidewaitprocess=StreetFighterV

 

[tthurman]

Nice, glad you figured it out!

Thanks for reporting back with your solution.