SCSI vs DT Virtual Drive

[derrikcurran]

Hi everyone,

I started working towards a seamless XBMC/GameEx/HyperSync configuration a few days ago and I've hit a snag with virtual drives.

It doesn't appear that the GameEx [VirtualDrive] parameter works with SCSI drives in Daemon Tools, even with the manufacturer set to "DTSoft." If I create a DT drive, it works perfectly.

However, I can't get SSF (Sega Saturn emulator) to work correctly with a DT drive whereas it works just fine with a SCSI drive.

When I get home from work, I'll use LaunchBefore and LaunchAfter with the appropriate Daemon Tools command line parameters. I suspect it will work but I'll report back either way.

I should note that my ROMs/disc images are accessed directly through a network drive so it could be a timing issue. I haven't had a chance to try it locally through GameEx but I did copy the CUE/BIN to the local HDD and mounted manually to both virtual drive types in turn. It produced the same behavior.

Can anyone else confirm that [VirtualDrive] doesn't support virtual SCSI drives?

[nullPointer]

Hi derrikcurran and welcome to the forums!

The issue you describe has been noted before. Interestingly enough this behavior seems to be limited to systems in which both a DT and a SCSI virtual drive are present. If both are present the [VIRTUALDRIVE] parameter seems to favor the DT drive.

On my main system I have both types of virtual drives installed, and [VIRTUALDRIVE] doesn't work correctly for those emulators requiring the use of a virtual SCSI (ePSXe also has this limitation).

On my test system I only have a virtual SCSI drive installed and [VIRTUALDRIVE] works completely across the board for any emulator (once I changed the manufacturer/vendor to 'DTSoft').

Honestly I've never encountered a situation that actually requires the use of a DT drive, so one option might be to get rid of the DT drive. On the other hand it's not terribly difficult to utilize Launch Before and Launch After parameters for this purpose either (you may want to put the commands in a batch script if you have additional commands that need to be run before or after the emulator).

Thank you for reporting this. Let us know how your setup goes!

[derrikcurran]

Thanks! :-) Glad to be here. It seems like a great community.

I actually did try running the SCSI drive on it's own a few times and still couldn't get it to work. I didn't restart the machine after removing the DT drive, but there was no trace of it in Daemon Tools or Device Manager.

I ended up using Launch Before/After and actually prefer the increased control. It seems a bit quirky, however. If i use the 'start' command to launch my BAT file, which also uses 'start' to mount the image, it works as expected but leaves 2 command prompt windows open (mount/unmount.) If I add 'Exit' to the BATs, GameEx fails to launch the emulator (screen fades to black, image gets mounted, GameEx GUI becomes active again, emulator process isn't runnng.) I'm struggling to determine why.

Other than that, it works quite well! I'm actually using GameEx in place of HyperSpin even after donating $45 to them. (No disrespect to HyperSpin - It's cool software, but GameEx is where it's at!)

[nullPointer]

I have also encountered situations in which the command window stay open after having executed a batch script (despite using the start command which typically prevents this behavior). Here's one workaround that prevents batch command windows from displaying (it does for me at least).

• Create a shortcut pointing at your batch script
  
• Right click the shortcut and select Properties
  
• Open the Shortcut tab and set Run to Minimized
  
• Point your Launch Before/After parameter at the applicable shortcut
  

The above generally works for me to prevent troublesome command windows from displaying. It might be worth a shot.