30 replies to this topic

[nullPointer]

Wow Draco this is awesome! Just yesterday I finally broke down and got a Steam account. (I couldn't resist a free copy of Portal - which is available until September 20 in case anyone wasn't aware). Naturally my first thought (after thinking, "Sweet! I just got Portal for free"), was, "I need to go back and re-read all those GameEx-Steam integration threads." This database addition couldn't be more timely! Thanks again! I'll be keeping a close eye out for any updates.

[Draco1962]

Obtaining the .urls as noted in the tutorial will be the crucial part. Since I don't have all 800+ games through Steam, I will have to rely on users such as yourself to provide updates so I can add to the db. I have corrected dates and game details for about 70 out of the 800 thus far.

As for Portal - I wangimmesummadat!

Others interested can obtain a copy from here.

[hansolo77]

Great update Draco! I'll have to install Steam now and see how my games looked merged into GameEx with the new database!

[Draco1962]

Well the database itself is still more of a shell so don't get too excited! It is a start. I am in the process of adding descriptions (from Moby Games) and correcting release dates, etc. Also, if nobody objects, I am going to use my judgement as to what the "ROM" name should be for the shortcuts and image files to be referenced. With over 800 titles it will take some time but I think that everyone will benefit from it that uses Steam.

EDIT: In retrospect, instead of trying to come up with a different ROM naming convention as Cousalev was using I have decided, since the DB will display the Name of the program, I will stick with the appID that Steam uses in the URL. It will make things decidedly easier on my part, especially if everyone that has Steam games installed can provide me with the Name and URL in the shortcuts the install creates.

[Draco1962]

Luckily, the I have found a long list of AppIDs for most of the games released through Steam, so that should expedite the "good name" dilemma quite nicely.

[LB11]

First, I dont mean to take anything away from your solution couslev as its brilliant in its own right. Had I read this post before making this I probably would have just done what you did and look for gameoverlayui.exe. But anyway, I finished my steam game loader. It should work with any steam game or regular pc game including ones that have their own launcher. The principal is similar to couslev's solution except it attempts to use the proper running process instead of steams gameoverlayui.exe. It also is able to click through launchers and stuff like that.

Heres the download:
http://www.mediafire...8v7dgjm7hvz4cvp

Basic instructions are included in the zip file or go to http://wp.me/p10EGr-S. but basically you set it up as if the program was an an emulator and then your game links were roms. That way when you get a new game all you have to do is drop the shortcut steam makes into your rom folder and your good to go.

Just use: ugl.exe "[rompath]\[romfile]" command line.

It will accept lnk, url and exe files.

If your using games with a launcher, it will automatically click the start buttons for you with minimal configuration. Use the included mouse position tool to get the info needed and then just enter it in the ini file.
I also included a tool that will close the Steam Offline popup if you are like me and use steam in offline mode on your htpc. Just put in your startup folder and it will wait 60 seconds for the window to appear and close it if it does. Otherwise it will just close itself after the times up.

I mostly use gamebrowser for my PC games and Gameex for roms, so it has a few other features which gameex has built in already. But everything is configurable from the ini file.

Anyways, if you use it, let me know how it works out for you.

[TSpeirs]

Here is the file for the above for when it disappears from mediafire

 UGL 1.0.zip   1.09MB   5 downloads

[T. Goodchild]

For anyone who wants a few header files to get started with, this 7zip has 54 jpeg pics tagged with the rom name from the url.

Attached Files

•  001.JPG   268.45K   14 downloads
•  PC Steam.7z   1.84MB   2 downloads

[Dakota]

I just started using this UGL config today and I got it working fine except for one thing... if I happen to leave the GameEx menu up idle for about 10 or 15 minutes it randomly tries to launch a Steam game on it's own. Is there a way to turn that off?

It actually doesn't launch the game though. I just get a cmd window that looks like it's trying to launch showing a paused state and press any key to continue. Once I press a key it goes away and GameEx comes back up but it happens again if the GameEx menu stays idle.

[TSpeirs]

Sounds like you just need to tell that emulator NOT to run in the screensaver. There should be a setting for that in the setup wizard (probably under advanced).

[Dakota]

Thanks for the help... that fixed the issue. It was throwing me off because it was in an emulator I didn't need. I managed to get the games working in the external applications area. But the emulator causing the problem was still active and pointing to the same location where I had UGL setup.

Working fine now....Thanks!