Games that launch multiple programs...

[hansolo77]

The way GameEx is designed, it launches the game by minimizing itself, the loads the program. GameEx waits until that program exits, then automatically brings itself up again, increasing the "Play Count" by one, and thus assuming the game has exited. I have a problem with this with one of my games. Silkroad Online launches a banner window, that loads a built in self-updater to make sure you have the latest version of the game. Once everything is ready, the "Launch Game" button becomes available. Whenever I load this from GameEx, it brings up the banner fine, but then once I click the Launch button, the "loader" closes and GameEx reopens. In actuality though, it really closes the "loader" and opens 2 more programs.. A cheating/bot detector/blocker and the actual game. The Bot Blocker app needs to be the top most window while it loads, or it crashes the program, assuming you have "hax". When the game itself loads, it crashes with some kinda Korean gibberish error code, basically saying (I belive) that the Bot Blocker app isn't running, and you can't play.

So my question to the great forum community is... What can we do about this? I need to have some option where I can instruct GameEx to reopen after the actual game (SRO_Client.exe) closes, and not the "loader" program. Is this possible? Is there a way to cheat GameEx into thinking it's still running if I use a BAT file maybe? Have GameEx call the BAT file, which loads the game, then once the game closes, it closes the BAT, bringing up GameEx again? What do ya'll think?

I don't have the game, but I imagine this program would also arise in World of Warcraft (WoW), and other such MMORPGs. Speaking of which, when I was playing Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) through GameEx, I had this same problem, and resolved it by just playing the game outside of GameEx, but it's not as cool that way.

[Nologic]

Well I know you prefer batch scripts...but AutoIt would likely be the cleaner method.

; Launch Game Loader
Run ( "loader.exe" )

; Pause Script Till Game Loaded
ProcessWait ( "game.exe" )

; Pause Script Till Game Exit
ProcessWaitClose ( "game.exe" )

Just correct the executable names, compile and drop it in to the same folder as the game, and then launch it to launch your Loader\Game.

[bkenobi]

Yeah, I was going to say AHK, but AI will work just as easily. Whichever language you use!

[hansolo77]

Well I know you prefer batch scripts...but AutoIt would likely be the cleaner method.

; Launch Game Loader
Run ( "loader.exe" )

; Pause Script Till Game Loaded
ProcessWait ( "game.exe" )

; Pause Script Till Game Exit
ProcessWaitClose ( "game.exe" )

Just correct the executable names, compile and drop it in to the same folder as the game, and then launch it to launch your Loader\Game.

I'm not too familiar with AutoIt. I can figure out via your code how it works, but I don't have this compiler thing. If I can get the program names, can you make it for me?

[Nologic]

Well if you install AutoIt then you'll have the help file which will give you tons of solid examples of how to use different commands and functions.

Additionally you'll have a new right click contextual menu item when clicking on Au3 files that will allow you to compile the script into an executable.