Work in progress : Retroarch - nixxou/BigBoxProfile GitHub Wiki

Just a draft, i will focus about the gun-related things for now.

So, i have two install of retroarch, one is my normal install, and one dedicated to Sinden gun. The Siden gun version of retroarch is called LG-retroarch.exe

On my normal install i have the bezel project setup for all my plateforms ( https://github.com/thebezelproject/BezelProject ) and i'm using my BezelMatcher launchbox plugin ( https://forums.launchbox-app.com/files/file/4447-bezelmaster-use-your-bezel-in-standalone-emulator-and-improve-bezel-game-matching/ ) to improve match accuracy when the naming of my games don't follow the redump name.

I also added extra bezel for nearly all gun games : https://mega.nz/file/0ihkWCIS#XFcCfycYy35ZDJsPgshbO6mfLZIo-gTyHGasnWoGNrs Each files are named the same than the original bezel + .siden80.png

My normal retroarch bigboxprofile look like this :

Module 1 : Edit retroarch.cfg to force it to use my main monitor.

Module 2 : Start DS4Windows for my controller.

Module 3 : A rom selector inside archive, for cardridge based system, i keep all version of the game inside 7z and this give me a menu to choose the game to launch.

Module 4 : An AHK code :

Ok, so here, when i launch a game, it check if i have a sindenbezel, for it, if yes, i know it's a gun game, and it add the argument --gungame to the command line.

Module 5 : Hid Detector. I use it a really really basic way, just to add a command --lightgun1 if my Sinden gun is plugged.

Module 6 : Change Exe. If i have both the argument --gungame and --lightgun1, i change the Exe to RetroarchForward that will open LG-retroarch.exe and foward it all arguments. There is a reason why i don't use change exe directly to LG-retroarch.exe, because if i was doing that, it would launch LG-retroarch with the current bigboxmodule and i want to spawn a new instance of bbprofile for LG-retroarch.exe

Code of the fowarder :

using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Text;

internal class Program
{
	private static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		string lightgunretroarch = @"I:\LaunchBox\Emulators\Lighgun\RetroArch-Win64\LG-retroarch.exe";
		string lightgunretroarchpath = @"I:\LaunchBox\Emulators\Lighgun\RetroArch-Win64";


		Process process = new Process();
		try
		{
			process.StartInfo.FileName = lightgunretroarch;
			process.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = lightgunretroarchpath;
			process.StartInfo.Arguments = ArgsToCommandLine(args);
			process.Start();
			process.WaitForExit();
		}
		catch { }
	}

	public static string ArgsToCommandLine(string[] arguments)
	{
		var sb = new StringBuilder();
		foreach (string argument in arguments)
		{
			bool needsQuoting = argument.Any(c => char.IsWhiteSpace(c) || c == '\"');
			if (!needsQuoting)
			{
				sb.Append(argument);
			}
			else
			{
				sb.Append('\"');
				foreach (char c in argument)
				{
					int backslashes = 0;
					while (backslashes < argument.Length && argument[backslashes] == '\\')
					{
						backslashes++;
					}
					if (c == '\"')
					{
						sb.Append('\\', backslashes * 2 + 1);
						sb.Append(c);
					}
					else if (c == '\0')
					{
						sb.Append('\\', backslashes * 2);
						break;
					}
					else
					{
						sb.Append('\\', backslashes);
						sb.Append(c);
					}
				}
				sb.Append('\"');
			}
			sb.Append(' ');
		}
		return sb.ToString().TrimEnd();
	}
}

Module 7 : The module handling my pause menu, disabled if --lightgun1 is on.

Module 8 : I remove --gungame from the command line to clean since it's just a temporary arguments for internal work.

And now My LG-Retroarch.exe :

Module 1 : Force monitor to main.

Module 2 : Execute this ahk code :

#includegamedata
#includeargs
Bezel := gameData["BezelImagePath"]
BezelSiden = %Bezel%.siden80.png
Dest = I:\LaunchBox\Emulators\Lighgun\RetroArch-Win64\reshade-shaders\Textures\Layer.png
if(FileExist(BezelSiden)){
		FileDelete, %Dest%
		CreateSymbolicLink(Dest, BezelSiden)
}
	
CreateSymbolicLink(Link, Target)
{
	if (FileExist(Link)) {
		ErrorLevel := -1
		return false ; Link already exists
	}
	attributes := FileExist(Target)
	if (!attributes) {
		ErrorLevel := -2
		return false ; Target doesn't exists
	}
	if (SubStr(Link, 2, 1) = ":")
		Link := "\\?\" Link
	loop Files, % Target, DF
		Target := A_LoopFileLongPath
	Target := "\\?\" Target
	isDir := !!InStr(attributes, "D")
	DllCall("Kernel32\CreateSymbolicLink", "Ptr",&Link, "Ptr",&Target, "Int",isDir)
	ErrorLevel := !FileExist(Link)
	return !ErrorLevel
}

So, it auto copy the Sinden Bezel to a Layer.png file. And i have a Reshade shader that will show it.

Module 3 : Fix retroarch gun mouse ordering.

Was thinking things a little too big when i designed this module with priority and stuff, now i just use it to assign the mouse index for Gun 1 and Gun 2.

Module 4 : A pause menu.