[srsobieraj]

1. When starting project64 from xbmc it gives me following:
Graphical error
Direct3D failed to initialize
Error code 88760868
D3DERR_DEVICELOST

Be sure to check "run as fullscreen window" instead of "run fullscreen" in XBMC settings.

Angelscry, maybe a large, obnoxious link to the Wiki & Manual is needed in the first post. This might remove a lot of the rookie posts.

That being said, I have an update and a feature request:

I've finished cataloging my games. Each game has its correct box art for the thumbnail and its title screen as its fanart. Looks fantastic and I've cataloged over 3000 games for the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, 32X and more.

I invited a few friends over and we had a blast playing our old games, but found it difficult to find new games to try because we weren't sure how many players they supported.

I know MobyGames for sure has an entry for "Players" or the like, but it's not set up intuitively. They list "1-4 Players" in a different category than "2-4" players (see here). I would imagine that other databases (GameFAQs, Allgame, etc) have the same attribute to be able to scrape. If implemented in ALA, I would simply want to be able to go to search for the number of players as "4" and have it return results from any game that supported 4 players, as well as display the number of players when browsing games.

Would it be possible to add this feature? It would obviously not apply to non-game applications...so maybe a toggle in the launcher's "advanced options" is necessary "Is a game launcher [y/n?]"

If this were introduced, I could filter for 3-Player Sports Games, or 2-Player Beat-em-up Games, etc. It would be a fantastic addition to ALA.

[htpc guy]

Be sure to check "run as fullscreen window" instead of "run fullscreen" in XBMC settings.

Angelscry, maybe a large, obnoxious link to the Wiki & Manual is needed in the first post. This might remove a lot of the rookie posts.

That being said, I have an update and a feature request:

I've finished cataloging my games. Each game has its correct box art for the thumbnail and its title screen as its fanart. Looks fantastic and I've cataloged over 3000 games for the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, 32X and more.

I invited a few friends over and we had a blast playing our old games, but found it difficult to find new games to try because we weren't sure how many players they supported.

I know MobyGames for sure has an entry for "Players" or the like, but it's not set up intuitively. They list "1-4 Players" in a different category than "2-4" players (see here). I would imagine that other databases (GameFAQs, Allgame, etc) have the same attribute to be able to scrape. If implemented in ALA, I would simply want to be able to go to search for the number of players as "4" and have it return results from any game that supported 4 players, as well as display the number of players when browsing games.

Would it be possible to add this feature? It would obviously not apply to non-game applications...so maybe a toggle in the launcher's "advanced options" is necessary "Is a game launcher [y/n?]"

If this were introduced, I could filter for 3-Player Sports Games, or 2-Player Beat-em-up Games, etc. It would be a fantastic addition to ALA.

I would gladly make some flags for player count that anyone could use for their skin. I'm sure Butchabay wouldn't object to adding the flags to Cirrus Extended.

[skimshady]

What happen sometime with the Google Images search engine is that Google is referencing images that are not anymore on the referenced web pages. And so when Advanced Launcher want to download these images... it can not.

Is it possible to filter out dead references?

Yes, I know this fact. By adding the game system to the google image search you will have better specific result... I will try to see how I can improve this... without limiting the flexibility. Thank you.

Are all picture formats supported? Jpg, gif, png, tiff? Or should the search be limited to just jpg? And will all file sizes be resized to fill the same space so they look the same size in the library? Maybe after scraping normal with one of the "good" scrapers, allgame, gamefaq, mobygames etc, then google can fill in the rest automatically. I feel a smart algorithm here can do fantastic things with the google scraper.

And I think the metadata regarding how many players the game support is a good idea

[Mannebrother]

Be sure to check "run as fullscreen window" instead of "run fullscreen" in XBMC settings.

That did solve the startingproblem, but the problem consists where i still navigate in XBMC even with the emulator started. :/ how do i fix this? i use an xbox360 wireless controller if that has anything to do with it

(like i said before, this use to work superawesome just some weeks ago)

[Angelscry]

Angelscry, maybe a large, obnoxious link to the Wiki & Manual is needed in the first post. This might remove a lot of the rookie posts.

I have made some modifications on the first post. I hope it will be more explicit... but if people did not read the first post it will not solve anything.

I know MobyGames for sure has an entry for "Players" or the like, but it's not set up intuitively. They list "1-4 Players" in a different category than "2-4" players (see here). I would imagine that other databases (GameFAQs, Allgame, etc) have the same attribute to be able to scrape. If implemented in ALA, I would simply want to be able to go to search for the number of players as "4" and have it return results from any game that supported 4 players, as well as display the number of players when browsing games.

Would it be possible to add this feature? It would obviously not apply to non-game applications...so maybe a toggle in the launcher's "advanced options" is necessary "Is a game launcher [y/n?]"

Yes it could be possible to add this feature. I have first to check how each database source manage their number of players to make common classification under Advanced Launcher. I will have to add a new tag, assign a list.item value, modify each data scraper, add editing options (if the information is not on the database), and modify the Advanced Launcher search engine. Then skins have to be modified to display the information. A lot of work in perspective.

If this were introduced, I could filter for 3-Player Sports Games, or 2-Player Beat-em-up Games, etc. It would be a fantastic addition to ALA.

The advanced Launcher not actually support multi-field query... and I'm not sure it will be possible.

[Angelscry]

Is it possible to filter out dead references?

If the Google team is not able to do it... I'm not sure I will be able to simply do it. I can add a function that will test if each images exist before report the thumbnail list, but it will really slow down the image scraping process (I found it actually enough slow to my taste).

Are all picture formats supported? Jpg, gif, png, tiff? Or should the search be limited to just jpg?

Yes, all supported, but all saved with the .jpg extension (even if they are gif of png images). XBMC display them whatever is the extension. BTW fanarts or thumbs are most of the time jpeg images.

And will all file sizes be resized to fill the same space so they look the same size in the library?

No, images are saved as they are. I will not add resize function because sizes of displayed images are managed by the skins (scaled, stretched or anything else). If you image have not displayed with the same size, it is a problem of the skin.

Maybe after scraping normal with one of the "good" scrapers, allgame, gamefaq, mobygames etc, then google can fill in the rest automatically. I feel a smart algorithm here can do fantastic things with the google scraper.

The problem with google images scraper is that it will never give you more accurate results than the other images scrapers. Advantage of the google scraper is that it give you access to a large number of images. For example if you search images for "Legend of Zelda" for "Super Nintendo Entertainment System"... Mobygames or Gamefaqs images scrapers will give you exactly what you search. With google if you search for "Legend of Zelda" for "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" you will have some results... but maybe you could have better results if you search for "Zelda" for "SNES". It depend how people and google have referred the images. An algorithm cannot predict this. That's why I do not recommend to use Google images scraper during Automatic (or Semi-automatic) scan.

[Mannebrother]

what to do if your XBMC is continued to navigate in even if it's not in focus?

[Angelscry]

That did solve the startingproblem, but the problem consists where i still navigate in XBMC even with the emulator started. :/ how do i fix this? i use an xbox360 wireless controller if that has anything to do with it

(like i said before, this use to work superawesome just some weeks ago)

what to do if your XBMC is continued to navigate in even if it's not in focus?

Since version 1.2.0, Advanced Launcher is not controlling anymore the XBMC process when starting an external application. So, by default, XBMC is still running into background. It is to users to decide how they want to control XBMC (freeze/close/still running) and any other parallel applications (controllers, saves, game specific settings, background process, etc..) using external scripts. There is so many system configuration possibilities and Advanced Launcher is not able to control or predict all of them. I know it is less usefull than the previous version of Advanced Launcher, but it is more flexible and less limited.

Now to solve you problem the best way is to use an external .bat file that will freeze XBMC when your application will be started. Read here how I Suspend XBMC using .bat script: http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=722...count=1493.

[Mannebrother]

Since version 1.2.0, Advanced Launcher is not controlling anymore the XBMC process when starting an external application. So, by default, XBMC is still running into background. It is to users to decide how they want to control XBMC (freeze/close/still running) and any other parallel applications (controllers, saves, game specific settings, background process, etc..) using external scripts. There is so many system configuration possibilities and Advanced Launcher is not able to control or predict all of them. I know it is less usefull than the previous version of Advanced Launcher, but it is more flexible and less limited.

Now to solve you problem the best way is to use an external .bat file that will freeze XBMC when your application will be started. Read here how I Suspend XBMC using .bat script: http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=722...count=1493.

Thanx ! gon try dat!

[srsobieraj]

I would gladly make some flags for player count that anyone could use for their skin. I'm sure Butchabay wouldn't object to adding the flags to Cirrus Extended.

That would be awesome. Already using Cirrus Extended and prefer it over the many iterations of Aeon.

Yes it could be possible to add this feature.

Wohoo! I understand that this would be a bunch of work, but it'd be super for filtering even if I can't select a genre at the same time.

[john.doe]

Hello Angelscry.
I use the function "pause media before launching a application" Advanced Launcher.
It happens sometimes (when first starting an application in my case) the break does not work.
Is it possible to ensure that Advanced Launcher checks that the media is paused before launch an application ?

Is it also possible to detect whether the current media is already paused, and in this case leave it break ?
For example, if I manually pause before launching a media application, Advanced Launcher will resume the media before the start of it.

I use external scripts for all my applications with the functions "pssuspend XBMC.exe" and "pssuspend -r XBMC.exe".

[Angelscry]

Hello Angelscry.
I use the function "pause media before launching a application" Advanced Launcher.
It happens sometimes (when first starting an application in my case) the break does not work.
Is it possible to ensure that Advanced Launcher checks that the media is paused before launch an application ?

Is it also possible to detect whether the current media is already paused, and in this case leave it break ?
For example, if I manually pause before launching a media application, Advanced Launcher will resume the media before the start of it.

I use external scripts for all my applications with the functions "pssuspend XBMC.exe" and "pssuspend -r XBMC.exe".

To do this, I have to check if there is a way (returned value by XBMC) to detect the state of the played media under XBMC. If this control not exists, it will not be possible.

[Mannebrother]

Since version 1.2.0, Advanced Launcher is not controlling anymore the XBMC process when starting an external application. So, by default, XBMC is still running into background. It is to users to decide how they want to control XBMC (freeze/close/still running) and any other parallel applications (controllers, saves, game specific settings, background process, etc..) using external scripts. There is so many system configuration possibilities and Advanced Launcher is not able to control or predict all of them. I know it is less usefull than the previous version of Advanced Launcher, but it is more flexible and less limited.

Now to solve you problem the best way is to use an external .bat file that will freeze XBMC when your application will be started. Read here how I Suspend XBMC using .bat script: http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=722...count=1493.

tried that and come a bit further

i now get xbmc to suspen and also get project64 to start, but it now gives me this error message.
http://tinypic.com/r/m9ywdv/7

if i press ok there and manually choosing the file im trying to launch in the first place, it works great with xbmc suspended in the background and resuming when i close the emulator again.

it's close now

any ideas?

[Angelscry]

tried that and come a bit further

i now get xbmc to suspen and also get project64 to start, but it now gives me this error message.
http://tinypic.com/r/m9ywdv/7

if i press ok there and manually choosing the file im trying to launch in the first place, it works great with xbmc suspended in the background and resuming when i close the emulator again.

it's close now

any ideas?

Seems that your launcher is not configured correctly. I need that you post here the content of your launchers.xml file to be sure and help you further. There is also a dedicated wiki page for the configuration for Project64 emulator here : http://www.gwenael.org/xbmc/index.php?ti...64#Windows.

Please read, the red bold text of the first post of this thread.

[Mannebrother]

Seems that your launcher is not configured correctly. I need that you post here the content of your launchers.xml file to be sure and help you further. There is also a dedicated wiki page for the configuration for Project64 emulator here : http://www.gwenael.org/xbmc/index.php?ti...64#Windows.

Please read, the red bold text of the first post of this thread.

Aight, so here is the launchers.xml and nintendo 64 part of it

<launcher>
<name>Nintendo 64</name>
<application>C:\HTPCSTUFF\Emulators\emulatorer\n64\n64-launcher.bat</application>
<args>%rom%</args>
<rompath>C:\HTPCSTUFF\Emulators\ThumbFanRom\n64\rom\</rompath>
<thumbpath>C:\HTPCSTUFF\Emulators\ThumbFanRom\n64\thumb\</thumbpath>
<fanartpath>C:\HTPCSTUFF\Emulators\ThumbFanRom\n64\fanart\</fanartpath>
<extrafanartpath>C:\HTPCSTUFF\Emulators\ThumbFanRom\n64\</extrafanartpath>
<romext>z64|zip|n64</romext>
<platform>Nintendo 64</platform>
<thumb></thumb>
<fanart></fanart>
<genre></genre>
<release></release>
<publisher></publisher>
<launcherplot></launcherplot>
<minimize>true</minimize>
<lnk>true</lnk>

after this <roms> follows and all that is added when adding roms. (you know what i mean)

I have followed the wikipage for the emulator.

Here is the content of the n64-launcher.bat:

pssuspend XBMC.exe
cd "C:\HTPCSTUFF\Emulators\emulatorer\n64"
Project64.exe %1
pssuspend -r XBMC.exe

(also, i use this (but modified) .bat for starting zsnews and it works flawlessly )