[RESOLVED] Steam: Dragon's Lair unexpectedly ending when starting through GameEx

[jrcade]

Hello forum,

I am a newbie an just bought a GameEx lifetime pass and I already have an issue with the Steam integration. I have bought two Games in Steam for playing on my cabinet: Nidhogg and Dragon's Lair. In Niddhogg I simply needed to adjust the control setting to match with my IPAC configuration and it works 100% well when starting through GameEx.

With Dragon's Lair I have the issue that shortly after starting to play the game (launching the game via GameEx works well) the screen goes black and says that Steam is ending and I get kicked out of the game pushed back to the GameEx frontend (means GameEx is not existing). Launching Dragon's Lair from the Steam console or through the Steam desktop shortcut does not cause this issue. The game/Steam exits no matter if I use the Arcade (IPAC) controls or if I use the keyboard. But it only occurs when launching this game through GameEx. I can also relaunch the game again from GameEx and try to play it again but some seconds after starting the game I get kicked out. And it happens randomly at different scenes of the game so it does not happen always at the same time?

What can I do to set this up right?

Thanks for your support!

Cheers J.R.c.a.d.e

[Draco1962]

Hi, You will want to start by providing copies of your gameex.ini and your log.txt file (right after the game fails to launch correctly). Click on the GameEx How to ask for help link in my signature for instructions on where to find these files and how to submit for us to review.

[jrcade]

Hi, thanks for picking this up ... find below the two files from the CONFIG folder (GameEx.ini) and the LOG folder (log.txt) ...

GameEx.ini

log.txt

[jrcade]

I did it a second time to record the times when I started the game and when I quit Gamex to collect the log.txt ...

1) Starting GameExa at 21:49 = 9:49PM

2) Starting Dragon's Lair via GameEX => Emulated Games => Steam => Dragon's Lair at 21:50 = 9:50PM

3) Stopped GameEx at 21:52 = 9:52 PM

So the intersting part ist in minute 21:50 ..

21:50:07.6  26.05.2016:  Shutting down display
21:50:52.7  26.05.2016:  Writing Stats
21:50:52.7  26.05.2016:  Plugin: Game Exit
21:50:52.8  26.05.2016:  Plugin: Process Commands
21:50:52.8  26.05.2016:  Refreshing Keyboard
21:50:52.9  26.05.2016:  Initialising Audio
21:50:58.0  26.05.2016:  Relaunching HideOS
21:50:58.2  26.05.2016:  Restoring Window
21:50:58.2  26.05.2016:  Reinitializing Graphics System
21:50:58.9  26.05.2016:  Reloading Game Info Page
21:50:59.0  26.05.2016:  Returning to GameEx

Not much to see I guess 

 

log.txt

[jrcade]

I made a new experience!!!

When I disable automatic login/logout in the GameEX Steam settings and start Dragon's Lair I can play some seconds and the screen goes black but Steam logoff windows does NOT appear anymore. I get redirected back to the GameEx frontend. But with "Alt" + "Tab" I can see that Dragon's Lair is still there in "Paused" mode. I can not switch back to the game with "Alt" + "Tab" to resume playing as I always get then thrown back to the GameEX GUI. But when I am exiting GameEX via Exit normally I can switch now to the paused Dragon's Lair game resume and play it. But after ending the game I am back on windows desktop as I had to exit GameEx.

So somehow the Game gets into Pause mode when started through GameEx and I can access it again, when I exit GameEx. WIth Nidhogg. I do not have this problem ???

 

log.txt

GameEx.ini

Edited May 27, 2016 by jrcade
Forgot to attach the ini and the log ...

[jrcade]

Hi there,

any idea how to debug this. The log file does not show anything obvious. Can I set some kind of debug mode to find out, why the game gets set to pause mode and GameEx returns back to the menu eventhough the game still runs in background ???

Please, any idea is welcome !!!

Cheers J.R.c.a.d.e.

[Draco1962]

The log.txt file is about all there is to work with. Now you could try using Window Focus Logger to see if that provides any further clues.

[jrcade]

Thank You! I downloaded it and will try it tonight. It might give some insight how and why but it is obvious that GameEx loses the connection to the game and/or Steam as well, as it returns back to the frontend. Isn't there any kind of debug mode that can be turned on in GameEx to see why it considers the game to be over and switching back to the GameEx frontend?

Thanks for any new advise/idea!

Cheers J.R.c.a.d.e.

[Draco1962]

There are instructions for using runitgame.bat in the GameEx How to ask for help link in my signature. You can give that a try and report back the results,  but that is all.

 

[jrcade]

Hi Darco, thanks for the new advise. I was busy with the wood work of my cabinet. I hope to finish it by the weekend and then start priming and painting ...

Hence my PC was not running for one week and is currently using up its limited resources for MS security essentials and Windows update scans. I fear I have to run the PC all night before I can start testing the game as Dragon's Lair is currently very slow (also when starting from Steam directly).

In the meatime a new version of GameEx was downloaded and installed ... so it changed quite a bit. I test as soon as I can and tell if it still fails and send the runitgame.bat ... It is located in my version of GameEx in \GameEx\DATA not in \gameex\utilities\ as documented in the link. Probably this changed ;-)  ...

[jrcade]

Ok, I tested on the weekend again. The new GameEx version did not solve the issue (as I did not expect it to do so ;-) ) and the "runitgame.bat" located in \gameex\DATA\ looks and works inconspicuously. Find below the content:

>
chcp 65001
c:
CD "c:\program files (x86)\steam"

steam.exe -applaunch 227380

<

I can doubleclick the batch file from windows explorer and play with out any problems.

I am convinced that logging the focus will not help as the game is not simply pushed to background due to losing its focus but it receives an "Esc" sequence as it is in the menu screen when accessing it (like someone has pressed the Escape key before pushing it to background.

There must be something done actively by GameEx to pass the "Escape" sequence to the game ... It looks like GameEx considers the Game to be over sends some kind of kill signal and then changes the view back to the front end ...

There must be something wrong in the behaviour how GameEx monitors the Steam game and how it interprets that it is over to change back to the front end.

( This is why I had like to try GameEx with Steam before buying :-( ... )

This needs to be debugged by someone who know what GameEx does here ...

It is possible to return Steam games for 2 weeks when played less than 2 hours ... I am thinking about opening a support request. As the issue is obvious and should be quickly identified testing directly with the game allows to check out and debug the root cause at the source and aftwerwards the game can be returned to Steam without paying. I of course also offer to debug on my system as good as I can when I get some kind of debug code.

 

Edited June 27, 2016 by jrcade
Rephrased as I learned that Tom is not generally taking support requests :-)

[jrcade]

Ok, received a hint from Tom that my issue might be related to "wrappers". I will seek in the appropriate directories what is there for the Steam game 227380. Tom said I might need an individual wrapper ... so I have to learn how this works ...

... Investigating ... but greatful for any support and advise "how to" ...

[Draco1962]

If it requires a wrapper, then you will want to read through this forum thread for Steam Wrappers. Appears that most are created using AHK to create scripts for the games that require it. Not sure you will find much in the way of documentation to help you step by step to create one. I would start in that thread and ask questions and hopefully someone with experience in the matter will be able to assist.

[jrcade]

Hi Draco,

thanks for your hint. I posted my problem into the "Steam Wrappers" thread but there hasn't been an update to this thread since november 2013. I hope it is still viewed ...

[jrcade]

Tom gave me a very promising advise on the Steam wrappers thread that I should check if Steam overlay is turned on => see this post

Overlay was generally turned on in Steam and it was turned on in the individual game settings for my other game "Nidhogg" but it was NOT set for "Dragon's Lair". After activating I became euphoric when testing because the interval when the game exits has become longer ... BUT it still exits .

The game consists of a lot of video clips being played one after anotherwith some joystick and or button interaction. It seems to me that GameEx exits during the loading phases for the next video clip. As the switchback to GameEx frontend is much quicker now, I can simply reenter the game when selecting "Play This Game" from the GameEx GUI. GameEx tries start Steam again though but Draogon's Lair is not restarted it just jumps back to the "paused" screen of the existing game and I can continue playing.

This can be considered a workaround but the repeats every 1-3 minutes and kills the whole game atmosphere.

Is there anything I can additionally do in the config file to emphasize that GameEx either recognizes better what the game does or just simply waits until the game is really over.

I am happy for any new ideas :-)

Cheers J. RCADE

[Draco1962]

I think that either a wrapper or config as Tom suggested in the Steam Wrapper thread may be the best alternative.  I would offer to assist but I do not have any experience with either.

Hopefully one of the other members will be able to assist. With summer afoot,  a response may take a bit

[jrcade]

Thanks Draco for your attention,

I was writing this while you responded hence I edited my post. I hope that the config will already do as wrappers seems to be much more sophisticated and I am not such a big techie to dig so deep into it. I found something that I will check tomorrow ...

I will try this one tomorrow and take a closer look to the config file for Dragon's Lair. The behaviour mentioned in the corresponding thread looks equal to my issue that GameEx does not recognize when my game is really exiting ...

[jrcade]

SSSSOOOOOOLLLLLLLLVVVVVVEEEEEEDDDDD   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This post brought the solution!!!!

Besides the fact that "Steam Overlay" should be activated in the general settings of Steam as well as in the game's settings, it seems to be necessary to edit the game's config ini file => \GameEx\MEDIA\STEAM\CONFIGS\<Steam-App-ID>.ini

Dragon's Lair has the Steam-App-ID = 227380, hence the config ini file is: 227380.ini

Originally it looked like

[AppID_227380]
hasbeenlaunched=true

Following the solution of the posting mentioned above I changed it to:

[AppID_227380]
hasbeenlaunched=true
overidewaitprocess=DragonsLair

Where the value of   overidewaitprocess  is the name of the Steam Dragon's Lair executable with out the .exe file extension. I learned that there are different locations where Steam stores game executables. In my case the exe file is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dragon's Lair\DragonsLair.exe.

After changing the config file it works like a charm!

Thanks to the forum and thanks to YaZoR to document the solution!!!

Cheers J.RCADE

[Draco1962]

Glad you got it sorted! Thanks for sharing the solution!