Launch After:

[hansolo77]

Hey all...

Does anybody use the 'Launch Before:' and 'Launch After:' command lines? I'm having quite a difficult time trying to get it to work correctly, and I think the programming may be bugged. Here's essentially what I'm trying to do:

Atari 800 Emulator. The joystick has 1 fire button. The keyboard has 3 "special function" buttons on; Select, Option, and Start. My gamepad (Saitek P2500) has 10 programmable buttons on it. What I've done is create (what Saitek calls) a profile for the controller. A utility dynamically maps out buttons on the controller to specific keypresses on the keyboard. It can also do advanced programing, like pressing multiple keys at once, press this key then this key, and even a press this key for x seconds then this key for x seconds after waiting x seconds. Very hightech stuff there. Anyway, I got this profile setup to have 1 button be the Select, another the Option, and another for Start. Configuring GameEx, I've got the 'Also Launch' line set to run the utility and apply the profile. Then GameEx launchs the emulator and ROM. When I'm done playing, it should apply the default "cleared" profile and return to GameEx. But that's not what happens.

The ability to apply the profile is done with a .bat file because the command-line interface of the profiler utility doesn't like spaces to the path of the profile. So I have to do it with quotes. There is also a space in the path to the profiler utilty, and I can't use double quotes. Its like "C:\program files\utility\program.exe -apply "c:\program files\utility\profiles\atari800.dat"" Of course thats just an example of the paths. So I get around this by having the bat file run the utility with quotes. It works great, as it applies the profile everytime. The "clearing" profile bat file also works fine. Whenever I exit a game (and gameex), the profiler shows the atari800 dat profile is still loaded. I execute the clear.bat and it clears it out. But for some reason, GameEx won't do it.

I did a test, and changed the location of the files in the configuration of GameEx. I told it to "launch before" and "launch after" rather than use "also launch." That didn't work either. I had it in debug mode, and I saw what it's doing. It's launching the apply profile bat, then the emulator, then PAUSE. Then it launches the clear profile bat, then the emulator loads. So I think the problem is the timing of when the "launch after" actually launches. There should be a way to not execute the line until control of the system has returned to GameEx.

So back to my original question. Does anybody use this that could possibly help me out? Is there another alternative I could use that I'm overlooking? Please help!

-Han

Sorry for rambling on.. it's 5:15 am here now, and I tend to do that when I'm tired... Hope somebody can bear to read this and offer some form of assistance. I'm going to bed now.. nite ya'll.

[emphatic]

Try the "launch after don't wait" and see if that helps. I had the exact same problems when I wanted to use AutoHotKey-scripts with some PC games, so I had to give that up. Now I only use the launch tools when GameEx starts (i have a script that presses Num Lock) and when it ends (presses Num Lock again).

Emph

[lingpanda]

Hey all...

Does anybody use the 'Launch Before:' and 'Launch After:' command lines? I'm having quite a difficult time trying to get it to work correctly, and I think the programming may be bugged. Here's essentially what I'm trying to do:

Atari 800 Emulator. The joystick has 1 fire button. The keyboard has 3 "special function" buttons on; Select, Option, and Start. My gamepad (Saitek P2500) has 10 programmable buttons on it. What I've done is create (what Saitek calls) a profile for the controller. A utility dynamically maps out buttons on the controller to specific keypresses on the keyboard. It can also do advanced programing, like pressing multiple keys at once, press this key then this key, and even a press this key for x seconds then this key for x seconds after waiting x seconds. Very hightech stuff there. Anyway, I got this profile setup to have 1 button be the Select, another the Option, and another for Start. Configuring GameEx, I've got the 'Also Launch' line set to run the utility and apply the profile. Then GameEx launchs the emulator and ROM. When I'm done playing, it should apply the default "cleared" profile and return to GameEx. But that's not what happens.

The ability to apply the profile is done with a .bat file because the command-line interface of the profiler utility doesn't like spaces to the path of the profile. So I have to do it with quotes. There is also a space in the path to the profiler utilty, and I can't use double quotes. Its like "C:\program files\utility\program.exe -apply "c:\program files\utility\profiles\atari800.dat"" Of course thats just an example of the paths. So I get around this by having the bat file run the utility with quotes. It works great, as it applies the profile everytime. The "clearing" profile bat file also works fine. Whenever I exit a game (and gameex), the profiler shows the atari800 dat profile is still loaded. I execute the clear.bat and it clears it out. But for some reason, GameEx won't do it.

I did a test, and changed the location of the files in the configuration of GameEx. I told it to "launch before" and "launch after" rather than use "also launch." That didn't work either. I had it in debug mode, and I saw what it's doing. It's launching the apply profile bat, then the emulator, then PAUSE. Then it launches the clear profile bat, then the emulator loads. So I think the problem is the timing of when the "launch after" actually launches. There should be a way to not execute the line until control of the system has returned to GameEx.

So back to my original question. Does anybody use this that could possibly help me out? Is there another alternative I could use that I'm overlooking? Please help!

-Han

Sorry for rambling on.. it's 5:15 am here now, and I tend to do that when I'm tired... Hope somebody can bear to read this and offer some form of assistance. I'm going to bed now.. nite ya'll.

I use the "also launch" and "launch after fields for my emus that require diff button configs for my ipac. The also launch field requires a path but the launch after needs only the file name. Do not use a path! I repeat! Do not use a path. File should be in the gameex root folder.

[hansolo77]

I use the "also launch" and "launch after fields for my emus that require diff button configs for my ipac. The also launch field requires a path but the launch after needs only the file name. Do not use a path! I repeat! Do not use a path. File should be in the gameex root folder.

I can't do that. The software is installed on a different drive in it's own program folder. Unless I can put the bat file in the gameex root folder....

As for Emphatic's suggestion, where is that line located?!

[emphatic]

I always use the Advanced Configuration App when I make changes to my ini, and it's right after the "regular" launch fields in there.

Emph

[lingpanda]

I can't do that. The software is installed on a different drive in it's own program folder. Unless I can put the bat file in the gameex root folder....

As for Emphatic's suggestion, where is that line located?!

Thats fine. Just put the bat in the root folder. Thats exactly what I have done.

[hansolo77]

I was able to get it working finally. I put the bat file in the WORKING PATH. When I put it in the GameEx path, the wizard kept telling me that the file didn't exist. Oh well, whatever. It works now and that's all I care about.

[Will]

here's what I do. In the launch before line:

cmd /c "\path\command.exe argumentsAndSuch"

This tells gameex to spawn a new window just for this command and the /c tells it to use the stuff in the string following. Works fine for me. I use it to manage my ipac control profiles before and after each emu runs.

[lingpanda]

here's what I do. In the launch before line:

cmd /c "\path\command.exe argumentsAndSuch"

This tells gameex to spawn a new window just for this command and the /c tells it to use the stuff in the string following. Works fine for me. I use it to manage my ipac control profiles before and after each emu runs.

FAQ Material...

[hansolo77]

FAQ Material...

I second this... I've been "with the company" for almost a year (if I remember right) and I'm still learning new stuff with this software. To have an explanation of how to use this feature would be really helpful.

[Will]

Well at first I just added the command line like you would think you need to with just the exe and arguments, but I had the same problem as hansolo--it would act like it was doing something but wouldn't, and I couldn't ever find a real reason why it wasn't working. From a command prompt, when you use cmd /c "string", it is like saying start another thread for this and return immediately. This way GameEx doesn't care when it finishes or if it has an error, it just knows that it told someone else to do it. All I know is this worked for me. Something about the format that GameEx uses to call the command at the dos prompt (could be bad formatting, or something more complex) causes it to not actually run. When you use cmd to have it run in a separate thread, things work fine.