Help closing Makaron with PSKill and ResChange

[Lancerguy]

I've been working on setting up the Makaron Dreamcast/Naomi emulator for use with GameEx. As it is now, I have set GameEx to launch a batch file, which in turn renames the image to a readable name and then launches the NAOMI.exe. I do it through a batch file because there is no option to load an image into the NAOMI emulator, it is loaded via an INI file, so I "append" the name of the image into the ini file. Also, I have to run a command line resolution changer, because the program crashes if not running at 640x480. So, the batch file basically sets up the INI, launches the reschanger, then laucnhes the NAOMI emulator.

My issue is as follows: When closing the emulator, it doesn't actually close, I believe this has to do with having to hit Alt+F4 multiple times to close the program. Also, I have reschange run AFTER it exits, because GameEx will give an error if it is still in 640x480 when GameEx comes back up. So, I've tried to add pskill naomi.exe to a batch file, along with the reschange, but it doesn't close the emulator. When I try it at the command line, it works fine, closing the naomi.exe with pskill, then changing the res back to 1024x768. Also, GameEx won't re-launch, it insists that I am still "in-game" and has to be closed manually

Is there a way to force close naomi.exe, change the res back BEFORE GameEx opens, and then make GameEx recognize that naomi is exited?

I hope that's explained well enough.

[Brian Hoffman]

  Lancerguy said:

I've been working on setting up the Makaron Dreamcast/Naomi emulator for use with GameEx. As it is now, I have set GameEx to launch a batch file, which in turn renames the image to a readable name and then launches the NAOMI.exe. I do it through a batch file because there is no option to load an image into the NAOMI emulator, it is loaded via an INI file, so I "append" the name of the image into the ini file. Also, I have to run a command line resolution changer, because the program crashes if not running at 640x480. So, the batch file basically sets up the INI, launches the reschanger, then laucnhes the NAOMI emulator.

My issue is as follows: When closing the emulator, it doesn't actually close, I believe this has to do with having to hit Alt+F4 multiple times to close the program. Also, I have reschange run AFTER it exits, because GameEx will give an error if it is still in 640x480 when GameEx comes back up. So, I've tried to add pskill naomi.exe to a batch file, along with the reschange, but it doesn't close the emulator. When I try it at the command line, it works fine, closing the naomi.exe with pskill, then changing the res back to 1024x768. Also, GameEx won't re-launch, it insists that I am still "in-game" and has to be closed manually

Is there a way to force close naomi.exe, change the res back BEFORE GameEx opens, and then make GameEx recognize that naomi is exited?

I hope that's explained well enough.

you would be alot better off using AHK to do an Iniwrite so you can load any game you want.

This is very possable. Perhaps I should grab makaron. You have a link for me?

[Lancerguy]

  Brian Hoffman said:

you would be alot better off using AHK to do an Iniwrite so you can load any game you want.

This is very possable. Perhaps I should grab makaron. You have a link for me?

Makaron is developed by Deunan Knute, and although there is very little documentation other than his livejournal, it works EXTREMELY WELL, once you get it working. The emulation is MUCH MUCH more perfect than any other DC emulator, it emulates sound and graphics almost 100% accurately, much more so than nullDC or chankast. Also, Deunan claims that at this point it actually runs slightly MORE efficient than an original Dreamcast. It also runs Naomi games much more flawlessly than nulldc. I am very impressed with his work.

The only problem is that you have to dig through his livejournal to find the releases, and then dig through the journal to get information.

His website is http://dknute.livejournal.com/ and the latest release is Makaron T11/1 (Test 11, release 1)

Let me know if you need help. I'm going to play around with this today and see what I can get working.

[Lancerguy]

I fixed my issue by making a batch file run BEFORE and one that runs AFTER, but only launching the exe as the emulator from gameex. That fixed my issue with crashing on exit and the resolution issue and the ini modification issue. The BEFORE batch modifies the ini by taking the ROMFILE variable from gameex and appending it, then it launches the reschange to make it 640x480. GameEx launches makaron in a ready to go state. The batch that runs on exit (when i hit escape) changes the res back to 1024x768 and runs pskill makaron.exe (or naomi.exe), that fixes the res and crash on exit issues.

The reason it GameEx was hanging with "Playing..." was because I was launching a batch file as the emu, and escape doesn't properly work in that scenario I guess?

I still had issues even after creating the batch file, because GameEx continued to launch the emu while my 'before' stuff was running. To fix this, I added "call" to the front of the batch file in the 'before' and 'after' spots. ie: call "C:\emu\launchbefore.bat" That way, GameEx waits for the previous batch to finish before launching the next batch file. This also ensures GameEx doesn't re-launch before the 'after' batch finishes.

[Lawrence]

Care to share your batch files and Gameex settings with us? I'd love to get Makaron running in Gameex.

[Visitor Q]

Could you please post how you got Makaron to close correctly in Game Ex?

Thanks.

[Visitor Q]

  On 8/27/2009 at 10:39 AM, Visitor Q said:

Could you please post how you got Makaron to close correctly in Game Ex?

Thanks.

Nevermind.... Figured it out.