[Excelsis]

Hey, I was wondering if there would be a way to set up XBMC so that instead of just launching Steam in big picture mode, it would launch big picture mode AND THEN a game via Advanced Launcher with a single shortcut.
The goal being to have the big picture mode overlay instead of the regular one.

[teeedubb]

I'll show my ignorance on setting this up for xbmcbuntu. In your post you say to run this code:

Code:

echo "xsetroot -solid black &" >> $HOME/.config/openbox/autostart.sh && echo "/usr/bin/xbmc &" >> $HOME/.config/openbox/autostart.sh && chmod +x $HOME/.config/openbox/autostart.sh

I'm running it in the terminal, but it does nothing. So I'm sure I'm not doing something right. Where do I put this code? I don't think it was very clear on that.

Also - stupid question: Do you need an emulator to play the games? How do you load your ROMs into STEAM? I'm not a huge gamer guy- just think it would be cool to view ROM collection like the video library in XBMC and launch from XBMC -play with controller - close, go back to xbmc.

Check that the autostart.sh file is being created:

Code:

nano ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh

via a terminal (command line) to edit it. It should contain:

Code:

xsetroot -solid black &
/usr/bin/xbmc &

If all looks good make it executable:

Code:

chmod +x ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh

restart and xbmc should restart. You dont need a emulator to play the games on steam, theyre standalone gmes. You need emulators to play roms, you can add them to steam but you need a seperate launcher for each rom + no fanart. better to use rom collection browser or advanced launcher, or try one of garbears retroplayer builds.

Hey, I was wondering if there would be a way to set up XBMC so that instead of just launching Steam in big picture mode, it would launch big picture mode AND THEN a game via Advanced Launcher with a single shortcut.
The goal being to have the big picture mode overlay instead of the regular one.

Try:

Code:

steam steam://run/APPID

with bigpicture mode already running. Replace APPID with the number of the game you want to run (eg: 200900 for cave story+, 550 for l4d2). May or may not work, youll need to experiment with steams command line switches

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki...cation_IDs

[Excelsis]

Hey, I was wondering if there would be a way to set up XBMC so that instead of just launching Steam in big picture mode, it would launch big picture mode AND THEN a game via Advanced Launcher with a single shortcut.
The goal being to have the big picture mode overlay instead of the regular one.

Try:

Code:

steam steam://run/APPID

with bigpicture mode already running. Replace APPID with the number of the game you want to run (eg: 200900 for cave story+, 550 for l4d2). May or may not work, youll need to experiment with steams command line switches

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki...cation_IDs

Alright, this seems to work fine.
I was thinking of going one step further and have the shortcut turn on big picture mode, launch the game and then when I close the game turn off big picture mode and return to XBMC.
I'm pretty sure this would be possible with AutoIT or AHK, by having either see whether say, "borderlands.exe" is still running and once it closes out, close BPM but my scripting ability is pretty limited.
A little push in the right direction would be awesome.

Thanks by the way.


Edit: Found a different and much easier way of doing it.
Added XBMC to Steam and, running in BPM, launch XBMC. This gives access to the overlay inside XBMC and to all launched games.
Added bonus: controller friendly web browser inside XBMC via the overlay!

[bakito]

hello everyone! I've got a very recent problem, steam launcher don't work anymore...it launches steam BP ok but then it close just after...
Anyone have the same problem?
thanks for your help
cheers

Edit: nevermind it was a steam problem...

[teeedubb]

hello everyone! I've got a very recent problem, steam launcher don't work anymore...it launches steam BP ok but then it close just after...
Anyone have the same problem?
thanks for your help
cheers

Working ok here with win7 + frodo + latest steam beta update, also on linux + gotham. What OS are you using? You can also try to launch the script in the first post from the command line to get some feedback about whats going on.

[ComeGetIt]

Great work there teeedubb, much appreciated!

Installed it no worries and it worked great to boot up Steam and close down XBMC, but when I go to close down Steam it does that then throw an error about line 15 saying it can't find XBMC. I changed it to point to where my XBMC is located (the folder is named as XBMC 12 instead of just XBMC) but no matter what I try, it keeps saying it can't open it. Is the space in the file name stuffing it up or something?

[DJ_Izumi]

One small issue I've noticed with an uncommon scenario: When in Steam BPM, and the application is letting you restart steam to install an update, Steam Launcher will read this as a 'Steam Exit', and launch XBMC. Then the Steam update will begin, it'll take focus from XBMC and it'll finish. But since Steam Launcher thinks it's finished it's job, when you exit steam properly now, it just goes to the Windows desktop while XBMC sits out of focus/minimized.

[teeedubb]

Great work there teeedubb, much appreciated!

Installed it no worries and it worked great to boot up Steam and close down XBMC, but when I go to close down Steam it does that then throw an error about line 15 saying it can't find XBMC. I changed it to point to where my XBMC is located (the folder is named as XBMC 12 instead of just XBMC) but no matter what I try, it keeps saying it can't open it. Is the space in the file name stuffing it up or something?

Can you post the entire line that you have edited? Make sure the location is in quotes, eg set XBMCLaunchCmd="C:\program files (x86)\XBMC 12\XBMC.exe"

One small issue I've noticed with an uncommon scenario: When in Steam BPM, and the application is letting you restart steam to install an update, Steam Launcher will read this as a 'Steam Exit', and launch XBMC. Then the Steam update will begin, it'll take focus from XBMC and it'll finish. But since Steam Launcher thinks it's finished it's job, when you exit steam properly now, it just goes to the Windows desktop while XBMC sits out of focus/minimized.

Yeah I've noticed this too, seems like I only started getting the 'restart to install update' popups after enabling the steam bpm beta, are you using the beta by any chance? Ill add some checks for this scenario.

[DJ_Izumi]

Yeah I've noticed this too, seems like I only started getting the 'restart to install update' popups after enabling the steam bpm beta, are you using the beta by any chance? Ill add some checks for this scenario.

Yes I do have the beta activated. Though I'm unsure if this is caused by the beta, or just that being in the beta leads to more updates so it's something just more likely to happen in beta. In the beta, eagerly waiting In Home Streaming to kick in.

[ComeGetIt]

Can you post the entire line that you have edited? Make sure the location is in quotes, eg set XBMCLaunchCmd="C:\program files (x86)\XBMC 12\XBMC.exe"

The line is just set XBMCLaunchCmd=%PRGMFiles%\XBMC 12\XBMC.exe without the quotes. The only thing I did to it was change that part from being \XBMC\XBMC.exe to \XBMC 12\XBMC.exe

But figured it out, for some reason it wasn't detecting that it was meant to be pointing to the (x86) folder so putting in the full path name worked. I hadn't wanted to screw around with it but it's not all working fine!

Cheers :-)

[teeedubb]

Glad you got it working - for some reason the PGRMFiles variable doesn't like being quoted. I've made some major progress with a new version where you will be able to set custom locations via xbmc's GUI, with settings and custom scripts that are persistent through adson updates. I've got the Linux side working and almost have the windows side playing nice, hopefully there will be a test version before Xmas

[teeedubb]

Test version with lots of changes for the brave

Code:

0.8.4
Steam/XBMC paths now changed via addon settings gui.
Scripts are now launched from the addon_data directory, if the script does not exist it will be copied over from the addon install directory. Custom scripts will now not be deleted on addon update.
Removed unnecessary scripts plus changes to remaining scripts.
Plus other changes.

Big thanks to malte, I used code and ideas from Rom Collection Browser. Cheers!

[teeedubb]

Code:

0.8.6
Added 2 advanced settings:
1. Delete scripts and update on next run will delete the scripts out of the addon_data dir and copy them from the addon install dir the next time the addon is run. This is handy if you want to go back to the default scripts or if the bundled scripts have been updated. Only the script file will be deleted and the setting is turned off (to default) when run once.
2. Linux only: Make steam-launch.sh executable on next run - This changed the executable bit on the file 'steam-launch.sh' which is necessary for this addon to run, Linux users need to do this on the first run. This setting defaults to off after being run once.
Addon now only copies/deletes OS specific scripts.
Small changes

[snyderman32x33]

Im running 0.8.6 without any issues right now on windows 8.1 pro, steam bpm beta, and xbmc 12.3

Thanks so much for your hard work!

[teeedubb]

Thanks so much for your hard work!

New version in first post, v0.9.0, working very well now

Code:

0.9.0
Re-added and made changes to launchhidden.vbs, it's needed to prevent 'unable to launch application' error messages from xbmc restarting too fast.
Changes to default.py

I've also created my own repository for easier updates.