[RESOLVED] GameEX is exiting after launching a Steam title

[OmniV5]

It seems this issue has been a problem before, but now its returned. If I launch a steam title from GameEX is will exit back to the title. There is a 2 second delay before it exits back. I thought this may have been a MFA issue with steam, but I re-authenticated and it is still a problem. I also just installed an updated version on GameEX 19.26. It just happened today it was working fine last week so this could be a windows 11 issue as there has been more updates push out to both applications.

GameEx.ini GameEx.ini custominput.ini

[Draco1962]

Please attach you log.txt file from right after when the error being reported occurs - latest GameEx version. Thank you.

[OmniV5]

oklog.txt

[Draco1962]

What game were you attempting to launch via Steam when this log file was created?

[OmniV5]

Any Steam title in my library, this will happen no matter what game I launch.  I uninstalled Steam completely and reinstalled it strangely I could not login to my account and I was in offline mode and could not go back online. I have to reinstall all my arcade and fighting games again. It looks like there was another Windows 11 update as well. 

[mistermorcus]

I am having this issue myself. I would need to go back and regenerate the log file, but ultimately it just showed shutting down display when the game was started.  I just wanted to provide my work around to this problem if it would help. 

I setup a shortcut to launch steam in big picture mode and am launching that in GameEx now instead of my game. Not as cool as launching the game itself but that does work for me. I used to leave steam open all the time, but found that this only works if you keep steam closed and then have the shortcut open it. Exiting steam takes you back to GameEx.

[Draco1962]

On 8/13/2025 at 4:30 PM, mistermorcus said:

I am having this issue myself. I would need to go back and regenerate the log file, but ultimately it just showed shutting down display when the game was started.  I just wanted to provide my work around to this problem if it would help. 

I setup a shortcut to launch steam in big picture mode and am launching that in GameEx now instead of my game. Not as cool as launching the game itself but that does work for me. I used to leave steam open all the time, but found that this only works if you keep steam closed and then have the shortcut open it. Exiting steam takes you back to GameEx.

Thanks for sharing your workaround. It would be good to find out if more are experiencing issues with built-in Steam support from GameEx. It is possible that Windows 11 and Steam api changes are causing a break in the functionality.

[mistermorcus]

log.txtGameEx.inicustominput.in
 

I recreated the error tonight. My arcade machine is on Windows 10 22H2 (OS Build 19045.6216)

From what I can see in the behavior, the game will either startup right away if steam is open, but it exits to GameEx at around 45 seconds. This time it had to open steam first, so the game was only running for about 10 seconds once the game got started before going back to GameEx. I read about ensuring Steam Overlays are enabled so I already made sure that they are. 

[Draco1962]

7 hours ago, mistermorcus said:

log.txtGameEx.inicustominput.in
 

I recreated the error tonight. My arcade machine is on Windows 10 22H2 (OS Build 19045.6216)

From what I can see in the behavior, the game will either startup right away if steam is open, but it exits to GameEx at around 45 seconds. This time it had to open steam first, so the game was only running for about 10 seconds once the game got started before going back to GameEx. I read about ensuring Steam Overlays are enabled so I already made sure that they are. 

Thanks for attaching copies of your support files. I am going to flag this one to @Tom Speirs attention to triage further. I am not able to test this due to issues with my gaming rig preventing my ability to launch anything at the moment.

[Tom Speirs]

GameEx checks for closure of Steam launch via the steam overlay. is this turned off in steam? is it a certain title causing the issue?

edit: sorry, i see you checked that.

I will test shortly. although running latest of everything here.

[AntiVerified]

I hopped on the forums to see if updating my gameEX would fix the issue, but I see that others are having it also. I can't be specific about when it started happening but we are frequent users of steam launched through gameEX and have been experiencing the issue fairly recently as described by @mistermorcusverbatim. I did a google search and it does seem that steam may have made a recent update to their overlay as their is buzz about it on youtube about a month ago.

[Tom Speirs]

Hi,

Please try the latest, just released. i have fixed or at least improved.

Thank you.

[mistermorcus]

Sorry, it took a bit to test this, I just saw that you had posted about it. I tested it the other day with the latest version that was out at the time, and when I enabled Steam on startup, it never could finish scanning the database on startup. I let it go a couple hours just to be sure it wasn't going to get through it.

I attached my log file for your review.

log.txt

[Draco1962]

Please upgrade your install to v19.51 and attach updated gameex.ini and log.txt files. Thanks!

[Tom Speirs]

 it does do some downloads. im guessing that is taking some time. it also does some scanning for files. Looking at it, it could be heavy. ensure you turn off the validate/verify. if you have a lot of content it could take forever. as far as i know verify is off by default. i never tested with it on.

[Tom Speirs]

I just did a quick test. I cant duplicate it with the current version. Again turn off the verify and this will need more work to troubleshoot.

[Tom Speirs]

i don't expect anyone to jump these days but i tested with a few more games with the latest release and have no issues here,

[mistermorcus]

gamexe log and ini.7z
I updated to 19.52 this morning. Same behavior as before. I do have validate turned off. I'm going to let it run for a while, but might be good if some of the other guys having issues could test on their system.

If I turn off Steam in the settings, everything else boots up just fine. I am not too worried about this issue if it is only affecting me because I already had some work arounds for it.

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks for hanging in there. i added some logging where it loads steam, for testing. please replace the gameex binary attached and post the log. thank you. Its probably not only affecting you but your the only one who spoke up

GameEx.zip

[mistermorcus]

I wish that there was some different behavior. I compared today's log with the updated dll to the one I provided here the other day and they look the same to me. 
log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

maybe i uploaded the wrong file or somethimg. I will try again. It should at lest.t say loading steam.

[Tom Speirs]

here it is. thanks

GameEx.zip

[mistermorcus]

Updated tonight and tested. Got a slightly different log, full log attached.

Last few lines here for convenience:

22:03:43.62  10/30/2025:  Warning: Emulator_8: Video Snap Path Does not exist
22:03:43.62  10/30/2025:  Validating: Emulator_8: Database: [Console] NEC TurboGrafx-16
22:03:43.62  10/30/2025:  Validating  Gamebase
22:03:43.62  10/30/2025:  Load steam
22:03:43.62  10/30/2025:  Is enabled

log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

Thank you. That helps narrow it down. ill get back to you shortly. Appreciate you taking the time.

[Tom Speirs]

Here is another one with more logging.

Thanks again.

GameEx.zip