Launcher add-on crippled in Eden?
#1
Hi,

Long time happy user of Dharma, and today updated (clean install) to Eden. Went merrily about setting things up the way I like, but when I go to installing the launcher I was appalled to find no suitable add-on for such a simple thing as launching a program.

The "Advanced Launcher" add-on insists on treating any program as though it is a ROM launcher, demanding lots and lots of irrelevant info. Despite that, it lacks even the most basic option of suspending/minimizing XBMC until the launched program terminates, so I end-up with 50% extra CPU utilization and XBMC skin animations happening in the background of my launched program...

Is there something obvious that I have missed? Please help me get this right.

I'm running Windows 7 x64 on an Asus Revo R3700 with dual-core hyperthreaded (2+2) Atom D525 CPU 18.Ghz and 4GB RAM with XBMC Eden 11.0 release (totally clean install, wiped %AppData%\Roaming and %AppData%\Local of all traces of Dharma.

Thanks very much in advance.
Reply
#2
In advanced launcher you can always hit "escape" when it asks you something you don't need, like a ROM parameter.

Can't really help you with the suspending part, but if you enable Dirty regions (wiki) then the GUI will take up only a fraction of the CPU that it used to.
Reply
#3
(2012-03-27, 03:01)Ned Scott Wrote: In advanced launcher you can always hit "escape" when it asks you something you don't need, like a ROM parameter.

I did that, and in the end I did end up with a "working" shortcut. So far so good.

(2012-03-27, 03:01)Ned Scott Wrote: Can't really help you with the suspending part, but if you enable Dirty regions (wiki) then the GUI will take up only a fraction of the CPU that it used to.

The dirty regions support is not magic, it will only prevent redrawing of unchanged parts of the window. In my case, nothing is ever unchanged, as I have animated wallpapers and other effects going on. CPU usage is always pegged inside the menus... this is normal and works as it is supposed to (and looks awesome BTW). The problem is only that it stays that way animating and such even when its supposed to background itself. I had no problem getting exactly that behaviour from the Dharma launcher plugin.

Hopefully someone who knows will chime in, or perhaps I will find a way to run the old plugin.
Reply
#4
(2012-03-27, 02:25)supercilious Wrote: The "Advanced Launcher" add-on insists on treating any program as though it is a ROM launcher, demanding lots and lots of irrelevant info.
If you do not want to use files (or roms) with your launcher you have to create a stand-alone launcher (not a files launcher) and you will not be asked about ROM information. That's exactly the same than with the old launcher version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8edJlmG6lw

(2012-03-27, 02:25)supercilious Wrote: Despite that, it lacks even the most basic option of suspending/minimizing XBMC until the launched program terminates, so I end-up with 50% extra CPU utilization and XBMC skin animations happening in the background of my launched program...
Then you start an application with Advanced Launcher, XBMC is normally minimized by default. Suspending XBMC has never been a native feature (not even with the old launcher version). If you want to suspend, close or control XBMC when starting an application you will need to use an external script (.bat or AutoIt script). Natively suspending XBMC from Advanced Launcher is not possible without using an external script.
Reply
#5
(2012-03-27, 13:05)Angelscry Wrote: If you do not want to use files (or roms) with your launcher you have to create a stand-alone launcher (not a files launcher) and you will not be asked about ROM information.

I have spent another day or so trying to get the desired behaviour, but it seems to ask about the gaming platform and thumbnail folder and so on regardless of how I answer the standalone/rom question. Nevertheless the resulting shortcut is created and successfully results in executing the named exe.

(2012-03-27, 13:05)Angelscry Wrote: Then you start an application with Advanced Launcher, XBMC is normally minimized by default. Suspending XBMC has never been a native feature (not even with the old launcher version). If you want to suspend, close or control XBMC when starting an application you will need to use an external script (.bat or AutoIt script). Natively suspending XBMC from Advanced Launcher is not possible without using an external script.

Hmm. It seems there is something very wrong with my setup then... XBMC never minimizes itself, it just flashes black briefly launches the exe, and carries on running.
Reply
#6
(2012-03-28, 05:55)supercilious Wrote: I have spent another day or so trying to get the desired behaviour, but it seems to ask about the gaming platform and thumbnail folder and so on regardless of how I answer the standalone/rom question. Nevertheless the resulting shortcut is created and successfully results in executing the named exe.
Platform information is asked for example if you want to create a stand-alone launcher for a game (on possible Windows, Linux or OSX system) then you want after scrap information for this game. If it is not important you can skip or select any entry. Thumbs and fanart path are asked if you want to add an icon/thumb or a fanart image to you launcher. Here again you can bypass it if you do not need.

(2012-03-28, 05:55)supercilious Wrote: Hmm. It seems there is something very wrong with my setup then... XBMC never minimizes itself, it just flashes black briefly launches the exe, and carries on running.
You problem could be due to different reasons :

Does the application you want to start use a launcher? For example do you need to start a launcher-game.exe that will then start a game.exe executable (or something similar). If so, what happen here, is that XBMC/Advanced Launcher minimize and start launcher-game.exe that will start game.exe. Once game.exe is started, launcher-game.exe is closed, and so XBMC/Advanced Launcher restore and maximize. Game.exe still running but XBMC/Advanced Launcher is maximixed. The opnly solution in this case is to use a small script that will check the state of the launcher-game.exe and game.exe and that will restore XBMC/Advanced Launcher only when this 2 executable will be closed. You can create a AutoIt script like this one :

Code:
Run ( '"C:\Program Files (x86)\game\launcher-game.exe"' )
ProcessWaitClose ( "launcher-game.exe" )
ProcessWaitClose ( "game.exe" )
WinSetState("XBMC", "", @SW_MAXIMIZE)

Other thing you can try is to check if the problem do not come from the true fullscreen mode of XBMC. Sometime is happen that this mode is not compatible with some application (graphic ressources comflict). So you can try to activate the Use a fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen option that is present into XBMC system settings, and check is it solve your problem.

Also there is an option into Advanced Launcher, for each launcher what will switch XBMC from fullscreen window or true fullscreen mode. This option is activated by default, but could generate problem in your case. To change this option, higlight the launcher, go into it's context menu ("C" key), go into Advanced Modifications Option menu, then change the Toggle XBMC fullscreen value
Reply
#7
Hi

I'm having the same issue as supercilious in that I've set an application (namely, Steam) to launch via Advanced Launcher, but when I launch it, XBMC just flashes briefly and remains open, whilst the application opens in the background, forcing me to exit XBMC in order to access Steam (I'm on Windows 7/64 using the Neon skin, by the way).

I've tried both of the 'fullscreen window' or 'true fullscreen' modes, and neither make any difference. Weirdly, occasionally it'll work, and Steam will successfully open on top of XBMC, and I'll think I've accidentally fixed it, but then next time I try it goes back to opening in the background. I even tried to use a shortcut instead (I was clutching at straws) in case that somehow circumvented the issue, but the Advanced Launcher doesn't see the shortcut for some reason (even though .lnk visibility is turned on).

I'm a newcomer to XBMC, and have only ever used Eden, so I don't know if it worked differently in Dharma. I want to eventually run XBMC as a shell, once I've got it running the way I want (and perhaps migrate to XBMCbuntu later), and I can open all other apps fine (Skype, PowerDVD, Picasa, Firefox, etc), but this has become the main sticking point and I've almost given up entirely on the idea of using XBMC as a one-stop-shop.

So, do I need to set up one of these .bat files and point the launcher to that, instead of Steam.exe, to make XBMC minimise when Steam opens and maximise when I close it?


P.S. I know there's a way to launch Steam games individually, but I have hundreds of them, so it would take me weeks!
Reply
#8
(2012-04-18, 17:24)cunningmunki Wrote: I'm having the same issue as supercilious in that I've set an application (namely, Steam) to launch via Advanced Launcher, but when I launch it, XBMC just flashes briefly and remains open, whilst the application opens in the background, forcing me to exit XBMC in order to access Steam (I'm on Windows 7/64 using the Neon skin, by the way).
If the started executable file is different than the one running into background, that's normal. If it is the case you need to adapt the autoitscript (in my previous post) to Steam.

(2012-04-18, 17:24)cunningmunki Wrote: I've tried both of the 'fullscreen window' or 'true fullscreen' modes, and neither make any difference. Weirdly, occasionally it'll work, and Steam will successfully open on top of XBMC, and I'll think I've accidentally fixed it, but then next time I try it goes back to opening in the background. I even tried to use a shortcut instead (I was clutching at straws) in case that somehow circumvented the issue, but the Advanced Launcher doesn't see the shortcut for some reason (even though .lnk visibility is turned on).
Advanced Launcher start only executable. If you want to use shortcuts you need to use a files loauncher that will manage .lnk files as roms.

(2012-04-18, 17:24)cunningmunki Wrote: I'm a newcomer to XBMC, and have only ever used Eden, so I don't know if it worked differently in Dharma. I want to eventually run XBMC as a shell, once I've got it running the way I want (and perhaps migrate to XBMCbuntu later), and I can open all other apps fine (Skype, PowerDVD, Picasa, Firefox, etc), but this has become the main sticking point and I've almost given up entirely on the idea of using XBMC as a one-stop-shop.
The problem is not XBMC or Advanced Layuncher, it is the way you start and use the Steam application.

(2012-04-18, 17:24)cunningmunki Wrote: So, do I need to set up one of these .bat files and point the launcher to that, instead of Steam.exe, to make XBMC minimise when Steam opens and maximise when I close it?
You need to use a script (preferably autoit) that start the Steam launcher executable and that will restore XBMC to fullscreen only until the Steam launcher executable and the Steam main application executable will be closed.
Reply
#9
(2012-04-18, 18:45)Angelscry Wrote: If the started executable file is different than the one running into background, that's normal. If it is the case you need to adapt the autoitscript (in my previous post) to Steam.

So how do I find out what the target exe is of the one running in the background? The only .exe file I see is steam.exe, which must be the launcher I'm guessing. This must seem like basic stuff to you, but it's all new to me!

Reply
#10
When steam is running, just do, CTRL+ALT+SUPPR to access to the task manager and try to identify which running process correspond to the Steam application.
Reply
#11
Already checked the task manager, it just says 'steam.exe *32'
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
Launcher add-on crippled in Eden?0