a n00b, impressed, with some general questions

**Smiff** · July 19, 2005

sorry i must be driving you nuts. i hope im helping GameEx aswell!

really need a way to hide the exit button on the top right, or stop it being selectable keyboard/gamepad (mouse would be ok). because its far too easy to hit it and exit by mistake if you slip on the d-pad when navigating the lists.

just the exit menuitem in main menu is sufficient.

thank you Tom

**Tom Speirs** · July 19, 2005

sorry i must be driving you nuts. i hope im helping GameEx aswell!

Both of those statements are true!

But keep them coming! I am actually very appreciative of your feedback. It is mostly very valuable.

**Smiff** · July 26, 2005

any chance of an option to force external apps onto the main menu please? (how about default "ShowOnStartPage=False"?)

i'm using flat start page because i don't want e.g. my DVD player to be under "other games and programs". but as i add more emulators etc, the main menu is going to get ridiculously long if things aren't nested.

just an idea, thanks

**Tom Speirs** · July 26, 2005

any chance of an option to force external apps onto the main menu please? (how about default "ShowOnStartPage=False"?)
i'm using flat start page because i don't want e.g. my DVD player to be under "other games and programs". but as i add more emulators etc, the main menu is going to get ridiculously long if things aren't nested.
just an idea, thanks

Hi, ill be adding functionality to do a customizable Start Menu. This will be possible then.

**Smiff** · July 26, 2005

brilliant, thanks. presumably that'll take care of the ordering aswell (although that's not life and death).

the main new feature i'm hoping for atm in addition/instead of attract mode is "exit gamex after n minutes inactivity" (and trigger the onexit events).

this would take care of power management since apparently it IS too much to ask people to exit gameex when they're done... :/

**Tom Speirs** · July 26, 2005

brilliant, thanks. presumably that'll take care of the ordering aswell (although that's not life and death).
the main new feature i'm hoping for atm in addition/instead of attract mode is "exit gamex after n minutes inactivity" (and trigger the onexit events).
this would take care of power management since apparently it IS too much to ask people to exit gameex when they're done... :/

Whats it worth to you ? Just kidding!

I am thinking this should also apply to anything launched from GameEx, to be completly effective? Only issue is while its possible to detect keyboard input, its not possible to detect joystick input. So while someones playing a game, it could exit on them.

**Smiff** · July 26, 2005

well i figure im exempt after all the time i spend on project64

(not really im not entitled to anything i appreciate all your work.)

if in an app, Escape after x minutes (could set this very high, like hours, or disable it - even in most emus i think people will use keyboard occasionaly), then exit gameex (when in gameex) after y? i.e. have seperate times for each.

i'll have a think about this, good point.

**djrobx** · July 26, 2005

its not possible to detect joystick input.

Why not? You don't need to close the joystick down for other apps to access it. Just leave it open (nonexclusive) and you'll continue to get button presses and axis movements even though your app is not foreground. You could also use this to allow the "attact mode coin in" feature for a joystick button assigned to insert coin.

I set up my KeyMonitor program to watch for L+R+Start to exit, and it works just fine alongside all my emulators.

**Tom Speirs** · July 26, 2005

Why not? You don't need to close the joystick down for other apps to access it. Just leave it open (nonexclusive) and you'll continue to get button presses and axis movements even though your app is not foreground. You could also use this to allow the "attact mode coin in" feature for a joystick button assigned to insert coin.
I set up my KeyMonitor program to watch for L+R+Start to exit, and it works just fine alongside all my emulators.

Thanks for the advice Rob. I'll give it a try. My previous tests did not work, however I am using non-exclusive for full screen now too since the custom controls were implemented (needed for web apps to work).

This could lead to some cool features.

Cheers.

**Smiff** · July 27, 2005

in case anyone is interested/amused by what startup scripts im using to keep GameEx running

startup.bat (this runs on boot from startup folder)

TASKLIST |find "pstrip.exe"
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 GOTO :SKIPPSTRIP

CD "C:\Program Files\PowerStrip\"
START pstrip.exe
CD "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents"

:SKIPPSTRIP

echo .>>GameEx_monitor.log
echo %date% %time% Starting GameEx from startup.bat>>GameEx_monitor.log
START start_gameex.bat

ping -n 2 localhost> NUL

START /low gameex_monitor.bat

:quit

start_gameex.bat (just starts gameex with right switches and priority)

TASKLIST |find "GameEx.exe"
REM ECHO Find GamEx.exe Errorlevel is %ERRORLEVEL% 
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 GOTO :SKIPSTART

REM echo %date% %time% Starting GameEx from start_gameex.bat>>GameEx_monitor.log
CD C:\HTPC\GameEx\
START /NORMAL GameEx.exe -quick

:SKIPSTART

CD "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents"
EXIT

Gameex_monitor.bat (this runs all the time in a loop)

TITLE gameex_monitor

:RECHECK
@echo off
echo %TIME%
echo In a few seconds this will check if it should (re)start GameEx...
REM ping -n 2 localhost> NUL
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 2000 >NUL

COLOR 2

REM TASKLIST |find "standby_system"
REM TASKLIST /FI "WINDOWTITLE eq standby_system"
REM ECHO  Standby Errorlevel is %ERRORLEVEL%
REM IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 1 GOTO :SKIPRESTART

TASKLIST |find "PSSDNSVC.EXE"
REM ECHO Find PSSDNSVC.EXE Errorlevel is %ERRORLEVEL%
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 GOTO :SKIPRESTART

TASKLIST |find "GameEx.exe"
REM ECHO Find GameEx.exe Errorlevel is %ERRORLEVEL% 
IF %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 GOTO :SKIPRESTART

COLOR E
echo %date% %time% Restarting GameEx from gameex_monitor.bat>>GameEx_monitor.log
REM CD "C:\HTPC\GameEx\"
echo ******************************STARTING GAMEEX******************************
START start_gameex.bat
GOTO :RECHECK

:SKIPRESTART
echo GameEx is still running OR System is shutting down - repeating!
echo .
GOTO :RECHECK

standby_system.bat (just starts PSTools with switches - GameEx calls this itself when it exits)

TITLE standby_system
REM ping -n 2 localhost> NUL

CD "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents"
echo x seconds till standby
echo %date% %time% PSshutdown Standingby System>>GameEx_monitor.log

psshutdown -d -c -t 10 -m "If you do NOT want the computer to turn off press ENTER or click Cancel NOW! Otherwise Standby is automatic."

all these files are in My Documents.. obviously paths need to be set right if you use them. its hammy like i said but seems to work so far. i just fiddled with the priorities cos i noticed ping was using a few percent of cpu time (i don't know any easier way). anyone has any ideas (generally) please let me know, or if you want to use it please do

edit: i'll redo this with sleep .

**Smiff** · July 29, 2005

just a very small note:

when you run GameEx with -listupdate, when it exits it triggers OnExit.. probably shouldn't.

**Tom Speirs** · July 29, 2005

just a very small note:
when you run GameEx with -listupdate, when it exits it triggers OnExit.. probably shouldn't.

Why shouldnt it?

**Smiff** · July 29, 2005

depends how you use OnExit, i have to watch that the machine doesn't standby when its finished updating. i just thought since listupdate is a special mode that isnt used for playing games it shouldnt use the normal automation. but it shouldnt be a big deal since hopefully when i have this set up i wont update that often.

**Tom Speirs** · July 29, 2005

depends how you use OnExit, i have to watch that the machine doesn't standby when its finished updating. i just thought since listupdate is a special mode that isnt used for playing games it shouldnt use the normal automation. but it shouldnt be a big deal since hopefully when i have this set up i wont update that often.

What exactly do you mean by OnExit?

**Smiff** · July 29, 2005

sorry i mean these two lines:

LaunchOnExit=

LaunchOnExitNoWait=

**Smiff** · July 29, 2005

idea (possibly not great one):

option to set system master (or wave?) volume on app/emu launch and reset it on exit, for emulators that don't have their own volume control (i'm looking at Zinc right now) - ?

maybe an option for GameEx to set this when its started would be good also, in case GameEx crashes.

**Smiff** · July 30, 2005

this must have already been mentioned, but in case:

it's not possible to have multiple rom paths for emulators (other than MAME?)

when i try:

RomPath=C:\Games\ROMs\Genesis\World;C:\Games\ROMs\Genesis\32X

14:47:23.3  30/07/2005:  Error: Emulator_10: ROMPath Does Not Exist
14:47:26.0  30/07/2005:  ERRORS DETECTED: EXITING

please allow this Tom!

RomPath=C:\Games\ROMs\Genesis\World

is fine.

**Tom Speirs** · July 30, 2005

maybe an option for GameEx to set this when its started would be good also, in case GameEx crashes.

Like if that's going to happen?

Just kidding.

Seriously not keen on your idea. Sorry.I may look at the multiple rom paths though.

**Smiff** · July 30, 2005

i don't find GameEx unstable at all currently 4.69 (many thanks), was just thinking ahead. i'll report any crashing..

**Tom Speirs** · July 30, 2005

i don't find GameEx unstable at all currently 4.69 (many thanks), was just thinking ahead. i'll report any crashing..

Also, why cant you just change the volume in GameEx? Thats what the support is there for. Is it not working on your system?

**Smiff** · July 30, 2005

i didn't notice that, i thought it was for the jukebox/radio.. hmm.

**Tom Speirs** · July 30, 2005

i didn't notice that, i thought it was for the jukebox/radio.. hmm.

Nice feature for a front end too, I think.

**Smiff** · July 31, 2005

yeah its nice. you adjust the master slider with that control.

but, it doesn't do what i mean - and i know this isnt really your problem but youre the GameEx guy whos holding all this together so im gonna be cheeky and ask

i now have one emu much louder than the others, so i'm thinking of either turning them all up to 100% volume (probably easiest) or finding some other way to quiten down e.g. Zinc.

anyone know a command you can send windows (in a batch file) to set the master volume slider? then i could maybe do something with

LaunchBefore=

LaunchAfter=

i guess the other way would be to have an adjustment for GameEx's sound effects relative to the master volume (let them go louder than they are now?)

this is not very important though so no worries.

**Tom Speirs** · July 31, 2005

anyone know a command you can send windows (in a batch file) to set the master volume slider? then i could maybe do something with
LaunchBefore=
LaunchAfter=

Yes, here's something I wrote a while ago, and just modified for you.

setvol.zip

**Smiff** · July 31, 2005

sweeet. Tom you rock

8-bit master slider control!

a n00b, impressed, with some general questions

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