PC Games issues

[Invincer]

Is there any special tricks to try and get PC games to run through GameEx? This seems way harder than back when I ran the cab on it with the emulators. All I want is a frontend on my main computer for PC games. I am running Windows 7 64 bit. I have tried numerous settings, and perused the forums for info but the same problems keep surfacing. When I launch a game lnk, either Gameex minimized to the taskbar while the audio from the game trailer continues to play through GameEx as the game plays; or both the game and gameex are reduced to the taskbar but again the game trailer audio continues to play from the taskbar in gameex. Then when closing the game, gameex stays on the taskbar and I have to manually resize it. . I have tried with numerous shortcuts but gameex behaves following one of these two issues on them all. Any ideas or thoughts on how to get this working correctly? Thanks.

[Tom Speirs]

This issue occurs with games that have a loader and the loader is run, which then launches the pc game and sometimes other processes that I wont discuss here. The loader that is launched then exits and GameEx thinks youve stopped playing the game, and returns to focus. Its discussed along with possible solutions in the FAQ.

[Invincer]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the response. It is doing these things with all the PC game links though. They can't all be using loaders. Even old games like Diablo (on this case both the game and gameex get minimized). If using emulator configuration files as explained on the FAQ, PC games would have to each have an emulator category assigned since the processes would all be different too. I definitely don't want that...

[Tom Speirs]

If gameex is still visible in the taskbar that's deffinitly whats happening, unless there is a bug I am not aware of.

[mariozeferino]

Hi people, some of my pc games minimize inside gameex and outside gameex, i think its a win7 problem, i solve it by closing all windows: internet explorer, MSN, everything! (didnt happend in win XP)

[Invincer]

I tried what Mario suggested, and made sure all other windows are closed. It seemed to help somewhat. In running Diablo the game did come up on the screen to play instead of the black screen with the game reduced to the taskbar the first time I tried it, but on the second try the black screen returned. Will have to try a few more time when I get home. Unfortunately, Gameex is still sitting in the taskbar with at least some focus as I can still hear the preview video in Gameex playing while playing in Diablo. Then when exiting Diablo, gameex stays on the taskbar and has to be clicked to regain focus.

Based on what Tom was saying, I checked processes in case of a launcher being the issue. Unfortunately, the process for Diablo is simply Diablo.exe... and the way it starts is with a link straight to Diablo.exe. That can't be a launcher causing this since the process is the same as the launch exe. I do have to run Diablo in compatibility mode to get it to run correctly on Win7 64bit... had to run as Windows 95, as admin, disabling visual themes, desktop composition, and display scaling. Could that have anything to do with it? I am using Diablo as the example as it is one I know couldn't be using a launch exe to cause the issue based on a different process... Any ideas?

[bkenobi]

I think Diablo DID have a loader.

[Invincer]

There was a loader in the folder (dloader.exe), but I was launching the game from a shortcut that went straight to diablo.exe; which is also the name of the process when the game is running.

[bkenobi]

Is it possible that the game is changing resolutions?

[Tom Speirs]

Is it possible that the game is changing resolutions?

It shouldnt matter really. As long as GameEx can detect the process, it should wait for it. Maybe somethine is not working right. Ill have a look later.

[Invincer]

Can't check now, at work; but I am reasonably sure an older game like Diablo and many others from that era do change to a much smaller resolution. As Tom said though, I wasn't thinking this would make a difference in this situation. I have 3 monitors setup normally, but I switch to just the one in a "gaming" profile I have saved on the ATI software. Multiple monitors cause strange stuff on many games, but only one is active when Gameex is used. I will probably set it up to autoload the profile when gameex starts if I can get gameex working for all the PC games. Thanks.

[bkenobi]

Is it possible that the drivers you are using do something to steal focus? I'm thinking that perhaps the driver or profiler pops up a message in the system tray to indicate that it's done something. That kind of thing WILL steal focus and minimize things for apparently no reason. That's been a problem in the past with the FFDShow codec for instance.

[Invincer]

No, the profiler is set up before I get into Gameex. Besides, all it does is put the resolution to a preset favorite. No pop ups, launchers, or anything else happens with them.

Is there a way to just have gameex close when it launches anything? That would be preferable to what it's doing now, and after closing the game I may want to do something else other than launch another game anyways. So it would be fine to launch the game, close gameex by itself (less resources used that way anyway i would guess), and then after closing the game be back at my desktop. Then when I want another game to play, I just start gameex... Maybe this way it can be as simple as starting a lnk shortcut without having to worry about focus or running in the taskbar while the game is playing. Closing gameex upon game launch would actually be preferable come to think of it.

[bkenobi]

If you just want to have a list to select your PC games with, Media Center can do that directly. You don't really need GameEx if that's all you are trying to do. If you want to use GameEx though, it would be better to get this problem worked out. It's probably something going on with Windows 7 and GameEx that needs working out from what I've read here.

[Invincer]

Yep, probably could do the media center easier, but it doesn't have the customizations of how to display everything the way Tom has done Gameex. The game, the boxart, the trailers previews, the manuals, etc. I don't even like Media Center on my home theater PC and use XBMC because of the customizations it allows. I tried Diablo as my test case using a "launch before" bat of running killgameex.bat (which runs "taskkill /f /im gameex.exe). It seemed to work in general, but the gameex error window came up, it certainly did not like being killed that way...

[Invincer]

Actually, if I can get it working correctly, I know I will like this better on my main PC. Maybe Tom could add an option in the advanced config for closing gameex upon launching of the game? That would be great. My cabinet wouldn't use it, and home theater PCs wouldn't want it, but in the case of my main PC which is used for tons of things, I would rather have the option for gameex to close right away after or before the launching of the game. There has to be others out there that are running (or wanting to run) gameex on non-dedicated-only-for-gaming machines out there. That could be a whole untapped market for gameex which NONE of the other frontends out there seem to consider. Using Media center for PC game launching is lackluster, and the built in game explorer in Vista and 7 are complete jokes. The other game launchers I looked up (Games Launcher and Game Select are two I found) were way too blah and even more lackluster than media center... Completely untapped market here Tom!

[Invincer]

Damn! This might work eventually, but right now, even when I disable error reporting in the advanced config, it doesn't matter. About 5 seconds after gameex closes and on the launched game screen, the gameex error window comes up along with the report error window. Is there a way to make sure these don't come up? A way to kill gameex process and have it just stop without the error reporting or pop up windows?? I even selected never ask again, but it still comes up

[Invincer]

Also advanced config is acting weird. I select windowed mode, and do not report errors. After running a game, error reporting window comes up regardless. Now upon checking advanced config, the options were changed back to full screen and error reporting was changed back to ask me about error reporting. Both have changed back on their own as if my choices were overridden once gameex starts...

[Tempest]

Try this:

http://www.beyondlogic.org/consulting/processutil/processutil.htm

[Tom Speirs]

I really think this is an issue unique to your setup. PC Games were working fine for me in win 7. I am just doing some tests now, but I dont think anything has got broken. I need to setup my test environment again. Ill let you know. Maybe the monitor switching software is closing the process and restarting it?

[Invincer]

no, the monitor switching profile isn't run during gameex. I tried manually changing to using only one screen, no profiles involved; still same problems on the same games. Is there a way to make Gameex close itself as soon as it launches a game without waiting to come back open when the game closes Tom?

Thanks for the link Tempest, unfortunately it does absolutely nothing when putting a batch with the command to use the process killer to kill or close gameex. Gameex still comes back the way it should on some games but on many it just stays in the taskbar still. The "taskkill /f /im gameex.exe" works but pisses gameex off to the tune of bringing up the error window even though it is supposedly disabled in the advanced config...

[Tom Speirs]

Thats what GameEx is pretty much supposed to do. Its supposed to hide itself and come back when the process has exited, and the other way is as Ive said. For some reason its not working for you.

Its not uncommon for PC games to do this as Ive said. Especialy if there cracked so Ive heard.

[Tom Speirs]

OK, got my test environment back up a bit, and I can confirm my pc games set up as .lnks are working fine for me. I dont see any problems. GameEx is correctly waiting for the processes to exit.

[Invincer]

Well is there a command to or way to make it close as it launches a game and stay closed till it is reopened? Because working with some but not with others on pc games on my computer makes that my only option at this point

[Tom Speirs]

Potentially via some scripting, but thats not really the problem here. You would still need a way for something to check when the process has ended. For the ones that dont work you could set up as seperate emulators with an advanced config as I suggested initially. You can use an emulator group to group them altogether. Thats the current way of doing things. Although maybe not quick to setup.