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Mamewah - how's this for strange....

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headkaze:
Minwah could be right there. From memory PPJoyKey needs to be in it's own batch file so you can run it before VT. But you need another to launch VT and a third to launch them both.

This is how it works for me anyway.


--- Code: ------ vtennis.bat (the batch file you run from your FE) ---
@ECHO OFF
start ppjoykey.bat
start virtuatennis.bat
EXIT

--- ppjoykey.bat ---
@ECHO OFF
ppjoykey.exe .\vt.ini
EXIT

--- virtuatennis.bat ---
@ECHO OFF
VIRTUA_TENNIS_PC.exe
taskkill.exe /F /IM ppjoykey.exe
EXIT
--- End code ---

mosesmalone:

--- Quote from: headkaze on January 18, 2007, 07:18:51 am ---Minwah could be right there. From memory PPJoyKey needs to be in it's own batch file so you can run it before VT. But you need another to launch VT and a third to launch them both.

This is how it works for me anyway.


--- Code: ------ vtennis.bat (the batch file you run from your FE) ---
@ECHO OFF
start ppjoykey.bat
start virtuatennis.bat
EXIT

--- ppjoykey.bat ---
@ECHO OFF
ppjoykey.exe .\vt.ini
EXIT

--- virtuatennis.bat ---
@ECHO OFF
VIRTUA_TENNIS_PC.exe
taskkill.exe /F /IM ppjoykey.exe
EXIT
--- End code ---

--- End quote ---

This is what I was already running thanks to one of your previous posts.

I think Minwah's right though - that would explain it. What I'm wondering now is why it's not happening to Headkaze since the batch file that he's running from the FE would complete once it ran ppjoykey.bat and virtuatennis.bat.....right?

headkaze:
I have no idea to be honest with you! It seems it should exit back to the FE in GameEx also, but it dosn't. What you could try is changing..


--- Code: ---start virtuatennis.bat
--- End code ---

to


--- Code: ---virtuatennis.bat
--- End code ---

That should stop it from running it in a separate process, and hopefully stop it exiting the batch file until virtuatennis.bat completes.

Zebidee:
Why not solve all of this with a shortcut?  Shortcuts allow you to run an executable with a number of parameters, and allow you to automatically minimise the application.

Why have I bothered with this?  Because I've just had to face a similar problem with using PPjoykey in MameWAH, but with a twist.  I am using it to run flight simulators on my arcade cabinet.  Games like Aces of the Pacific need to run inside a DosBox shell, and Dosbox doesn't seem to like being called from batch files, especially at the same time as apps (I tried the ways mentioned above, no luck).  This meant that I needed a new solution.

The real problem is that PPjoykey doesn't minimise automatically - this means that MameWAH has a problem moving onto the next command (because PPjoykey hasn't finished yet), BAT files will stop executing later commands without brute force, and games run under MameWAH are prone to lose focus because your desktop has an active window.

Solution?
- Create a *shortcut* for PPjoykey
- right-click the shortcut and edit the properties -> shortcut ->target, so as to load the right .ini file.
    The target should look like the command line executable
    eg  "c:\ppjoy\ppjoykey.exe c:\ppjoy\aces.ini"
- while editing the shortcut's properties, make sure that you move down to "run" and
    select to run the program in a *minimised window*
- Wrap this shortcut into a batch file, such as

    PPJOYKEY.BAT
    ------------------------------
    @ECHO OFF
    d:\mame\mamewah\config\flysims\ppjoykey.LNK
    EXIT
    ------------------------------

- Call ppjoykey.bat as a pre-emulator command line in your games' .ini
    file for MameWAH (MameWAH doesn't recognise .lnk as executable,
    so it must be wrapped in a batch file).
- then call your games' executable in the usual place
- Finally, create a new bat file to close ppjoykey, just like "headkaze" has done.  I called mine close.bat
    call close.bat as a post-emulator command line in your games' .ini file for MameWAH.

    CLOSE.BAT
-----------------------------
@ECHO OFF
TASKKILL.EXE /F /IM PPJOYKEY.EXE
EXIT
-----------------------------

Here is the whole lot put together into the flight simulator "emulator" .ini file for MameWAH - just focus on the execution settings:

-----------------------------------------------
### FlySims.ini (mamewah v1.62) ###

emulator_title                            Flight Sims

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  d:\flysims\roms
rom_extension                            txt
dat_file                                     d:\mame\mamewah\config\flysims\aces.dat
nms_file                                 
catver_ini_file                           
list_generation_method           rom_folder_vs_dat_file

### Execution Settings ###
pre_emulator_app_commandlines             d:\mame\mamewah\config\flysims\ppjoykey.bat;c:\program files\winipac\winipac.exe aces.ipc
emulator_commandline                           c:\dosbox\dosbox.exe -conf c:\dosbox\[name].conf{nodosbox}{safelaunch}
post_emulator_app_commandlines            d:\Mame\MameWAH\config\FlySims\close.bat;c:\program files\winipac\winipac.exe mame.ipc
general_app_commandlines                 

### Artwork Settings ###
artwork_image_paths                      d:\flysims\snap
movie_preview_path                       d:\flysims\previews
movie_artwork_no                          1
enable_fuzzy_search                       0

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver           1
select_random_game                       0
saver_type                                     gamelist_slideshow
movie_path                               
movie_fullscreen                              1
quit_delay                                      0
saver_commandline                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                               
lcd_display_file_path                     

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0
---------------------------------------------------

Hope this helps!
BTW - If you use PPjoykey, consider sending the guy that wrote it a postcard - it's a very handy tool that he wrote for nix.

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