chankast_launch v1.6 released

[headkaze]

Chankast Launch Homepage

[jcrouse]

A little feedback. When I launch your wrapper from a commandline and am in windowed mode the title bar (and the app) never receive focus, hence the keyboard input doesn't seem to work, although the exit key (Escape) kills the app. If I try, for instance, Alt-R nothing happnes. If I click on the title bar to give ChankEx focus then Alt-R bring up the Run menu. Also, if I set the ini file to fullscreen=true the I get a Windows System error but that could just be my machine.

Nice job so far,
John

[headkaze]

A little feedback. When I launch your wrapper from a commandline and am in windowed mode the title bar (and the app) never receive focus, hence the keyboard input doesn't seem to work, although the exit key (Escape) kills the app. If I try, for instance, Alt-R nothing happnes. If I click on the title bar to give ChankEx focus then Alt-R bring up the Run menu. Also, if I set the ini file to fullscreen=true the I get a Windows System error but that could just be my machine.

Nice job so far,
John

This wrapper is not new, it's been around for quite quite a while But this version adds support for ChankEx and ChankEx is a hack and does some tricks to do the things it does. Are you running this with ChankEx or the original Chankast emulator? A few people have reported problems running the wrapper with ChankEx. I havn't had time to look into them right now, but crashing when going fullscreen is one of them, and I've experienced the problem on my dev machine, although I can't seem to get it to happen with a fresh install of ChankEx + wrapper anymore.

If your using the original Chankast and the window is not getting focus then that could be an introduced problem. I only use BringWindowToTop() just before I send keys to the window. But I notice in older versions I also do a SetForegroundWindow() after that. And sometimes for good measure in other wrappers I've used SetFocus() and SetActiveWindow(). But usually BringWindowToTop() is enough to get the Window on top of zorder and in focus to recieve input.

Get back to me on which version emulator your using, and if it's the original, I'll post another version with some of these other API functions, and it shouldn't be a problem to get it in focus. I'm also not sure why you would want to run this wrapper from commandline, have you tried setting up a shortcut instead?

[jcrouse]

ChankEx 1.4.5

I was just testing from the commandline to get everything configured. I always do that before adding it to a front end so I can be sure of the proper syntax.

John

[rockmes]

ChankEx 1.4.5

I was just testing from the commandline to get everything configured. I always do that before adding it to a front end so I can be sure of the proper syntax.

John

John did you get this working in Mamewah? Could you let me know your setup if possible
Cheers

[jcrouse]

ChankEx 1.4.5

I was just testing from the commandline to get everything configured. I always do that before adding it to a front end so I can be sure of the proper syntax.

John

John did you get this working in Mamewah? Could you let me know your setup if possible
Cheers

Rock,
    Chankast = Yes
    ChankEx = No (full screen and focus issue)
    Drop me an email to the address on my CPViewer website and I'll help ya any way I can.

John

[headkaze]

ChankEx 1.4.5

I was just testing from the commandline to get everything configured. I always do that before adding it to a front end so I can be sure of the proper syntax.

John

John did you get this working in Mamewah? Could you let me know your setup if possible
Cheers

Rock,
    Chankast = Yes
    ChankEx = No (full screen and focus issue)
    Drop me an email to the address on my CPViewer website and I'll help ya any way I can.

John

Thanks John I know your a wrapper writer youself. Your website is great

But I have been contacted by the coders of ChankEx, and the thing is the problem with going full screen is not my code but more the code they use to hack Chankast.

I may contact you anyway, if you have a way to solve it, but I really think it's more of the way the hack works than my code.. considering I just use the usual PostMessage() to select a menu item. To me if selecting a menu item crashes the emulator, then it's the hack messing up not me. But hey, I could be wrong I really should find a way around it, but the ChankEx guys are going to change alot of the way they do things. And quite frankly it sounds like a lot of work keeping up with them.

And BTW I've e-mailed you before but you've ignored me

EDIT: Opps I just realised you weren't even talking to me hehe Okay nevermind!

[headkaze]

K, Updated chankex should be a little more friendly to your needs now.
Chankast EX Version 1.4.7
  - Now a joystick wrapper
  - Speed controls extended to k/b and 2nd joypad
  - Optional turbo off key
  - Rewritten windows sizing code
  - More GamesEx friendly.
  - No cd-errors option extended to aspi plugin.
  - Ikarura Fix now zero impact.
  - Saves settings on exit.
  - Start fullscreen for better sound sync.
  - Fps Limiting has less impact on overall speed.

-trix

Trixstar has been kind enough to release a new version of ChankEx that should play better with the wrapper. If people can test this new version and let me know if it works okay.

[Aurich]

I just installed 1.4.7 last night, I'll try to test the wrapper when I get a moment. Thanks.

[jcrouse]

I am now a little stumped as to the interaction between Chankast_Launch and the latest ChankEx. The latest is now some sort of plug-in system and actually has an ini file for some settings. In the ini file there is an option for full screen. I use MameWAH as my front end and now only need to exit with a single keypress since MameWAH allows me to mount the image. For exiting I can program my iPac with the standard Windows Alt-F4 to kill the executable. The only thing to be gained by using the wrapper now is the game specific settings, which would be nice. All that being said I can no longer get the wrapper to mount the image if I don't do it with my FE. ALso, the fullscreen option in the default ini file works great but now the one in the wrapper puts a small border around the application.

John

[headkaze]

Hey jcrouse, I know what you mean! I was playing with this new release of ChankEx yesterday and found the same issues. It seems the author has tried to write support for FE's into his plugin rather than supporting my wrapper. This would be okay except game specific stuff, the auto-mounting and joystick exit feature are not in his plugin. I also noticed the border around the screen when my wrapper puts it into the fullscreen mode.

Seems he hasn't tried to get this to work with the wrapper at all!

I've gone back to the original Chankast now, I havn't seen any major gains from using ChankEx. I didn't notice a big change in Soul Calibur using the fixes. The only thing that would have been good would be the Ikurga fix for level two.

[jcrouse]

HK,
     They now have their own forum. I have made a few suggestions and the author seems quite willing to accomidate the users needs. Share you knowledge there and see if he can incorporate some of your improvements. On a side note, I sure an anxious to see what NullDC bring to the table when it besomes available.

Good Luck,
John

[Hubble]

Hey, headkaze - thanks so much for an excellent wrapper.  I actually had it working perfectly in my cab with chankast_alpha_25, Daemon Tools, and Mala as my frontend.

Came back to it after a few days, not having changed anything (that I can think of, anyways) and there's a small problem.  I was wondering if you had any thoughts on it . . .

If I manually mount an image through DTools, then launch Chankast and hit "start", everything works fine.

If I try to use your wrapper from a command line, or from my frontend, it mounts the image fine and even launches Chankast successfully.  But Chankast ignores the "fullscreen=true" flag in your ini file, ignores the "800x600" resolution setting as well, and does not start the emulator automatically.

Again, I can go to "FILE -> START" and the game will launch fine.  Also, when I quit out, the image is automatically unmounted.  So your wrapper is interacting with DTools just fine.

Am I missing something obvious here?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

[Hubble]

Small update: I copied my chankast directory over to another machine with an identical copy of DTools on it, and it works perfectly.  From the command line, I can run chankast_launch, and games mount and then run automatically in fullscreen.

DTools seems to be configured identically on both machines, and the chankast files are exactly the same.  I cleaned out any mention of Chankast from the registry of the problem machine, and deleted and reinstalled Chankast, Chankast Launch, and DTools.  Still the same problem.

The machine where it works is fast enough to test, but not to adequately run games.  If anyone has any thoughts, I'd be very appreciative, as I was hoping to have my DC emulator functional for a party I'm having this weekend.  I feel like I'm missing something obvious . . .