SageMC and GameEX not playing well together

[evilpenguin]

I don't know if anyone else on this forum uses GameEX (http://www.tomspeirs.com/gameex/) for all your emulation needs (if you don't you really should, it works/looks great with SageMC) but i've run into a little problem. I use SageMC and I'm launching GameEX through the "Other Programs" interface with a shortcut pointing to GameEX.exe. SageTV pops up its screensaver and GameEX loads to fullscreen and works fine to start with but when you launch a game, quit the game, and go back into GameEX the screen looks all crazy. I guess it doesn't like the fact that sage is running fullscreen behind it. Is there anyway to have Sage minimize on GameEX launch then maximize on GameEX quitting... without girder?

[mlbdude]

Disable go to screensaver on Sleep in Sage. Somewhere in Detailed Settings.

[evilpenguin]

1) Will sage wake up again to fullscreen after GameEX quits?
2) I only need sage to minimize when I launch gameEX, normally i'd like it to sleep to sage screensaver. Is it possible to get it to do both, or is it just one or the other?

[mlbdude]

The problem sounds like GameEX does not like the fact that there is a DirectX application running behind it. Kind of like running two games at once. The only way around that I know of is to Sleep sage to a trayicon.

#1 No, you will have to use your remote to bring it back. On my remote the Power button works as toggle.

#2 I don't think so.

[evilpenguin]

cool, thanks for the info buddy.

[evilpenguin]

The creater of GamEX gave me a great idea how to handle a smoothish transition between sageTV and GameEX. Just create a batch file akin to this and launch that from within sage.

-----------------------
C:
CD "\Program files\GameEx"
GameEX.exe
D:
CD "\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV"
SageTV.exe
-------------------------

It's not the prettiest solution to the problem but it lets these two great pieces of HTPC software work together.

[gman4nj]

I know this is an old topic and I hate to dredge it up, but I've just started working with Gameex and having problems when launching gameex and playing games.

My question is this.

Is it possible to put sage into the service tray when I launch gamees and then when I quit to put it into full screen?

Any help is appreciated

[evilpenguin]

The only solution I could come up with is to completely quit Sage when I launched GameEX. To do this and have Sage keep recording you'll need to be running it as a service or doing it on a completely separate client machine.

[gman4nj]

The only solution I could come up with is to completely quit Sage when I launched GameEX. To do this and have Sage keep recording you'll need to be running it as a service or doing it on a completely separate client machine.


That was kind of my question. Is it possible upon gameex launch to have sage go directly into service mode (so we don't lose recording).

I'm sure it's possible, I just can't figure it out :(

[evilpenguin]

Check out Nielm's dynamic menus. You can launch a program and quit SageTV at the same time.

[gman4nj]

Check out Nielm's dynamic menus. You can launch a program and quit SageTV at the same time.

I don't have a quit option avail, do you?

[evilpenguin]

Well, nm, I thought one was there.

[gman4nj]

I'm sure one wouldn't be to hard to create.

[jcwtheu]

It took me a few hours of searching but I think I've got seamless switching between Sage and GameEx. First the sage to GameEx. This part is pretty straightforward with dynamic menus. As long as Sage is running as a service you can sleep the sage client when you launch Gameex via an external command using the dynamic menus plugin. Getting back to Sage was tricky for me until I stumbled across this link:
http://www.ericphelps.com/batch/samples/sendkeys.txt

I could get Sage running but it never got focus on exit. So I made a generic vbscript file that uses the AppActivate command, then made a batch file that pointed to the .vbs file. Voila - Seamless switching between Sage and GameEx. I don't know whether I'll run in to the same DirectX issues others have - The list of games I'm using is pretty basic. But this works really well. I wish it was easier. I'm happy to take questions if any of this is hard to follow.