[Xepo]

Ah, alright, so it could have happened with 2.0.9 as well. Thanks for the clarification.

[tential]

Since the 2.0.10 update, advanced launcher has deleted all my entries... I was about 50% done with re-adding my stuff and it deleted it again.. it just reverts back to as if I just installed it (aka only empty Default folder).

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1432031

---

Ok I think I was using GameFAQs. 10 hours from now, when XBMC is done running that Batch Download Artwork thing then I guess I'll do that haha. I had no clue what it was when I clicked it. Oh well.
Still not even too clear what the difference is between using this vs what XBMC normally does haha. Guess I'll figure out soon.

And so , because you didn't know what you are doing, your are decided to do it on all your game collection instead of on just few games.

Haha it was a misclick and boom it started. It completed pretty quickly actually. It went for my whole Movie/TV collection actually though. I'd only added 2 games. I only have 2 games on my laptop =D. This is all a test right now.

My Desktop is going to be here soon so then I'll set it all up the way I want. Advanced Launcher just makes XBMC that much better. Now I can just leave the XBMC interface up on my new Desktop all the time and people can get to whatever they need. I don't want anyone webbrowsing on it (somehow people always seem to visit places and get viruses), so Games, TV, Movies, Streams!

Thanks a lot for this Add On and the support you provide!

[codeseven]

I hope someone can help me, or at least share with me how they've managed to get PCSX2 working within Advanced Launcher. Apologies if anyone feels like i'm asking a question that I could figure out myself, but i've searched for a solution quite a bit and genuinely need a bit of help with this.

Ok... I have played this evening with the last version of PCSX2 (0.9.7), XBMC and advanced launcher to try to make them work together. This is what I have obtained and concluded using all of them on my Windows 7 system:

• We need to use the last version 0.9.7 of PCSX2 if we want a good support of the command line. No lower version !!!
  
• PCSX2 is not able to hide the mouse cursor when started into fullscreen.
  
• The working directory need to be the directory where is located the PCSX2 executable file if we want it to found configuration files, ini files, bios files, etc...
  
• When exiting PCSX2 using the ESC key the PCSX2 process still active!!!! That's could explain why after exiting PCSX2, XBMC still minimized and sometime freezes.

So, my conclusion is that we cannot use XBMC/Advanced launcher to start directly PCSX2. We need to use and intermediate script to try to solve all of these problems.
I have wrote this following small script using Autoit :

Code:

#include <Misc.au3>

HotKeySet("{ESC}", "Terminate")

If $CmdLine[0] == 1 Then
    _MouseTrap(@DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight, @DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight)
    ProcessClose ( "XBMC.exe" )
    Run    ( '"C:\Program Files (x86)\PCSX2 0.9.7\pcsx2-r3878.exe" --nogui "' & $CmdLine[1] & '"', "C:\Program Files (x86)\PCSX2 0.9.7\" )
    While 1
       Sleep(100)
    WEnd
EndIf

Func Terminate()
    ProcessClose ( "pcsx2-r3878.exe" )
    Run ( '"C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\XBMC.exe"' )
    Exit 0
EndFunc

Then I have compiled it into an executable file using Autoit, named the executable file as pcsx2-launcher.exe and saved it into the directory of PCSX2.
Here is the part of my launchers.xml XML file corresponding to the PCSX2/Playstation 2 :

Code:

<launcher>
                <name>Playstation 2 (pcsx2)</name>
                <application>C:\Program Files (x86)\PCSX2 0.9.7\pcsx2-launcher.exe</application>
                <args>"%rom%"</args>
                <rompath>E:\playstation2\roms\</rompath>
                <thumbpath>E:\playstation2\covers\</thumbpath>
                <fanartpath>E:\playstation2\fanarts\</fanartpath>
                <extrafanartpath>E:\playstation2\fanarts\</extrafanartpath>
                <romext>iso</romext>
                <platform>Playstation 2</platform>
                <thumb></thumb>
                <fanart></fanart>
                <genre></genre>
                <release></release>
                <publisher></publisher>
                <launcherplot></launcherplot>
                <wait>true</wait>
                <minimize>true</minimize>
                <lnk>true</lnk>
                <roms>
                        <rom>
                                <name>Suikoden III</name>
                                <filename>E:\playstation2\roms\suikoden III.iso</filename>
                                <platform>Playstation 2</platform>
                                <thumb>E:\playstation2\covers\suikoden III.JPG</thumb>
                                <fanart>E:\playstation2\fanarts\suikoden III.jpg</fanart>
                                <extrafanart>E:\playstation2\fanarts\</extrafanart>
                                <genre>Role-Playing</genre>
                                <release>2002</release>
                                <publisher>Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET)</publisher>
                                <gameplot>The Suikoden series debuted in the early days of the original PlayStation. Six years after the first game and three years since the second‚ Konami brings the series back with Suikoden III for th$
                        </rom>
                </roms>
        </launcher>

And it's working...

Hey Angelscry. First of all I just wanted to say thank you for such a great application. It really works wonders! As far as my problem goes, I'm trying to get PCSX2 working correctly via the method you described above. I was having the same issue where when I launch PCSX2 it worked fine, but closing the application was the problem. So I went ahead and created the script you have above, compiled it to EXE, and all the other necessary steps. However when I go to launch a game, what it actually does now is it launches like it should but then the "focus" of my Windows goes to "Show Desktop" as if I have my mouse hovering over the "Show Desktop".

I noticed that post is a bit dated, so is this still the correct method of doing things? Or is there a new way since these applications have seen updates?

I'm running 32bit Windows 7, PCSX2 version pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350, XBMC version 12.1 Frodo, and Advanced Launcher 2.0.10. Here is a snippet of my script:

Code:

#include <Misc.au3>

HotKeySet("{ESC}", "Terminate")

If $CmdLine[0] == 1 Then
    _MouseTrap(@DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight, @DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight)
    ProcessClose ( "XBMC.exe" )
    Run    ( '"C:\Program Files\PCSX2\pcsx2-r3878.exe" --nogui "' & $CmdLine[1] & '"', "C:\Program Files\PCSX2\" )
    While 1
       Sleep(100)
    WEnd
EndIf

Func Terminate()
    ProcessClose ( "pcsx2-r3878.exe" )
    Run ( '"C:\Program Files\XBMC\XBMC.exe"' )
    Exit 0
EndFunc

Thanks so much!

[Angelscry]

You need to update the script according to the version of PCSX2 your are using :

I'm running 32bit Windows 7, PCSX2 version pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350, XBMC version 12.1 Frodo, and Advanced Launcher 2.0.10.

So the script may be something like this :

#include <Misc.au3>

HotKeySet("{ESC}", "Terminate")

If $CmdLine[0] == 1 Then
_MouseTrap(@DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight, @DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight)
ProcessClose ( "XBMC.exe" )
Run ( '"C:\Program Files\PCSX2\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350.exe" --nogui "' & $CmdLine[1] & '"', "C:\Program Files\PCSX2\" )
While 1
Sleep(100)
WEnd
EndIf

Func Terminate()
ProcessClose ( "pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350.exe" )
Run ( '"C:\Program Files\XBMC\XBMC.exe"' )
Exit 0
EndFunc

But because I don't know how (executable filename) and where (folder path) is installed PSCX2 on you system it could not be the exact script : http://www.gwenael.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=43

[codeseven]

Thanks for the quick response. And yes, that was my bad actually, lol. My actual script is on another PC so I wrote that one up quicker than I should have apparently, hah. I have indeed already changed the filenames accordingly. I went and grabbed the original script from my other PC so you know exactly what I'm working with.

Code:

#include <Misc.au3>

HotKeySet("{ESC}", "Terminate")

If $CmdLine[0] == 1 Then
    _MouseTrap(@DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight, @DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight)
    ProcessClose ( "XBMC.exe" )
    Run    ( '"C:\Users\SATELLITE\Documents\GAMES\EMUs\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350\pcsx2-r5350.exe" --nogui "' & $CmdLine[1] & '"', "C:\Users\SATELLITE\Documents\GAMES\EMUs\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350\" )
    While 1
       Sleep(100)
    WEnd
EndIf

Func Terminate()
    ProcessClose ( "pcsx2-r5350.exe" )
    Run ( '"C:\Program Files\XBMC\XBMC.exe"' )
    Exit 0
EndFunc

These are the paths to my various applications:
pcsx2: C:\Users\SATELLITE\Documents\GAMES\EMUs\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350\pcsx2-r5350.exe
XBMC: C:\Program Files\XBMC\XBMC.exe
pcsx2-launcher.exe: C:\Users\SATELLITE\Documents\GAMES\EMUs\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350\pcsx2-launcher.exe

Also the only argument I have in the actual Advanced Launcher itself is "%rom%"

It still launches the game fine (although it still includes the GUI, not sure if that's a problem) and closes down XBMC, then when I exit the game (ESC) it loads XBMC up again just fine. The only thing it seems to be doing is putting the "focus" of my windows on "Show Desktop" (the little button in the bottom right of the taskbar).

[Angelscry]

Thanks for the quick response. And yes, that was my bad actually, lol. My actual script is on another PC so I wrote that one up quicker than I should have apparently, hah. I have indeed already changed the filenames accordingly. I went and grabbed the original script from my other PC so you know exactly what I'm working with.

Code:

#include <Misc.au3>

HotKeySet("{ESC}", "Terminate")

If $CmdLine[0] == 1 Then
    _MouseTrap(@DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight, @DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight)
    ProcessClose ( "XBMC.exe" )
    Run    ( '"C:\Users\SATELLITE\Documents\GAMES\EMUs\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350\pcsx2-r5350.exe" --nogui "' & $CmdLine[1] & '"', "C:\Users\SATELLITE\Documents\GAMES\EMUs\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350\" )
    While 1
       Sleep(100)
    WEnd
EndIf

Func Terminate()
    ProcessClose ( "pcsx2-r5350.exe" )
    Run ( '"C:\Program Files\XBMC\XBMC.exe"' )
    Exit 0
EndFunc

These are the paths to my various applications:
pcsx2: C:\Users\SATELLITE\Documents\GAMES\EMUs\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350\pcsx2-r5350.exe
XBMC: C:\Program Files\XBMC\XBMC.exe
pcsx2-launcher.exe: C:\Users\SATELLITE\Documents\GAMES\EMUs\pcsx2_1.0.0_r5350\pcsx2-launcher.exe

Also the only argument I have in the actual Advanced Launcher itself is "%rom%"

It still launches the game fine (although it still includes the GUI, not sure if that's a problem) and closes down XBMC, then when I exit the game (ESC) it loads XBMC up again just fine. The only thing it seems to be doing is putting the "focus" of my windows on "Show Desktop" (the little button in the bottom right of the taskbar).

Ok so... try to put XBMC Video settings to "True Fullscreen" and Advanced Launcher "Toggle XBMC into Windowed Mode" option to OFF.

[codeseven]

Ok so... try to put XBMC Video settings to "True Fullscreen" and Advanced Launcher "Toggle XBMC into Windowed Mode" option to OFF.

Bleh that didn't seem to work either. It does the same thing where it focuses on Show Desktop. I guess I will try running this on another machine and see if I have any luck.

[Angelscry]

Ok so... try to put XBMC Video settings to "True Fullscreen" and Advanced Launcher "Toggle XBMC into Windowed Mode" option to OFF.

Bleh that didn't seem to work either. It does the same thing where it focuses on Show Desktop. I guess I will try running this on another machine and see if I have any luck.

Hummm... what happen if you remove the

Code:

...
_MouseTrap(@DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight, @DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight)
...

line from the script. Does it change something?

[codeseven]

Hummm... what happen if you remove the

Code:

...
_MouseTrap(@DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight, @DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight)
...

line from the script. Does it change something?

I love you

[tential]

Does anyone else find that XBMC running in the background effects their gaming? I been using Advanced Launcher but it seems that the CPU usage of XBMC is still around 25%. This is a problem for my laptop, not sure about my desktop yet, I'll find out when the parts come in. I think there is a way to Suspend XBMC though while you're gaming so it uses 0% CPU but not sure if it still works with latest releases of Advanced Launcher and XBMC.
Edit: Tried some keywords into google and just found that in general XBMC can have high cpu usage for a variety of reasons and that it's being worked on in Gotham. Optimization work is never over! =D. I guess I'll have to do what other people do and try to get it to close XBMC then open it back up when done.

[Angelscry]

Does anyone else find that XBMC running in the background effects their gaming? I been using Advanced Launcher but it seems that the CPU usage of XBMC is still around 25%. This is a problem for my laptop, not sure about my desktop yet, I'll find out when the parts come in. I think there is a way to Suspend XBMC though while you're gaming so it uses 0% CPU but not sure if it still works with latest releases of Advanced Launcher and XBMC.
Edit: Tried some keywords into google and just found that in general XBMC can have high cpu usage for a variety of reasons and that it's being worked on in Gotham. Optimization work is never over! =D. I guess I'll have to do what other people do and try to get it to close XBMC then open it back up when done.

Any running application use CPU resources even if it is minimized or do not have the focus. To avoid this your have two solutions :

• Suspend XBMC > Start your application > Close your application > Restore XBMC : scripts for Windows and Linux
  
• Close XBMC > Start your application > Close your application > Restart XBMC : scripts for Windows and Linux
  

In most of the case, the "suspend" method is enough. It reduce the XBMC CPU usage to its minimum. The advantage versus the "close", is that you did not have to restart XBMC, just restore it (so it is faster). In some case, where your started application and XBMC use the same graphical/audio/system resources and generate compatibility errors, you do not have the choice than use the "close" method.

These methods use system scripts to affect operating system processes (suspend, restore, close and start), so they are not linked to a specific XBMC or Advanced Launcher version, and so are fully compatibles with XBMC and Advanced Launcher.

[dugan26]

Hi,

sorry for asking this again - but cant find my original post - I need to wipe my system clean how do i save the configs for Advance Launcher - ? and move them over properly ?

[Angelscry]

Hi,

sorry for asking this again - but cant find my original post - I need to wipe my system clean how do i save the configs for Advance Launcher - ? and move them over properly ?

Are you going to use the same operating system? Same applications (emulators) and use the same paths?

[dugan26]

Yes same everything

[Angelscry]

Yes same everything

Ok, so you will just have to make a backup of your launchers.xml file and of course all your scraped images (thumbs and fanart). Then when you will resinstall your system and Advanced Launcher just replace the launchers.xml file by the one of your backup. The launchers.xml file contain all the information :

• categories descriptions
  
• categories images paths
  
• path to the applications (emulators) + arguments
  
• launchers descriptions
  
• launchers images paths
  
• items descriptions
  
• items images paths
  

So if the paths are the same... there will be not problem to recover anything.