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NHL 2004 Launcher 1.45 - 01/09/14; Adds new features incl. widescreen
Topic Started: Jun 16 2013, 07:54 AM (79,753 Views)
Vod
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The launcher doesn't override the mipmapping filter, so that option should have an affect.
NHL 2004 Launcher | My Changelog | NHL 2004 Preservation | NHL 2004 Debugger
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mrvander
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How do I give the game focus when using the launcher? Every time I launch, the taskbar comes up flashing the game and any other open windows have focus (such as the install folder where I launched the game from.)

I'm setting this up using Steam for a living room interface, so keyboard-less control is my goal here. I've done this before, I just recently reinstalled and don't ever recall having this problem before. It's entirely possible I've solved this in the past and am going senile.

Edit: I posted here because when I launch the NHL2004.exe directly, I have no focus issues. It's just when using the launcher and who doesn't want to do that?
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trent
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Vod, are these the correct values for Launcher.ini, for instant fights and practically unlimited amount of them?

InstantFights = 1
FightsPerGame = 100

The info doesn't describe what values to use, but I assumed "ON" means value 1.

Edit: Doesn't seem to work for me.
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Vod
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I don't see any problems with your values. 255 is the maximum for FightsPerGame. What happens exactly if you use those values? I'll take a look at the code to see if I can find any problems. In the meanwhile, you can try creating a log and see if there's anything there. (CreateLog = 1)

@mrvander
I haven't heard of this problem before. Does this happen if you enable windowed mode?
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trent
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Launcher.ini values
Code:
 

Width = 1920
Height = 1080
Fov = 6
RefreshRate = 60
Antialiasing = 1
Filtering = 1
VSync = 1
TripleBuffering = 1
InstantFights = 1
FightsPerGame = 100
CreateLog = 1

Log:
Code:
 

Launcher.ini loaded
Retrieving VTable
Window 48047848 created
Direct3D 8 initialized
Direct3D Device created
CreateDevice (0x100014D2) hooked
V-Table retrieved (0x860DEC0)
Direct3D device released
iDirect3D prototype released
BeginScene (0x68A943A0) hooked
EndScene (0x68A94530) hooked
SetTextureStageState (0x68A9C100) hooked
Present (0x68AB62E0) hooked
Reset (0x68AB83E0) hooked
Release (0x68AB5C50) hooked
NHL2004.exe MD5 fingerprint retrieved: 72fb38ac359b97102c192dc3793fb9b4
NHL 2004 projection subroutine (0x5CDB00) hooked
NHL 2004 resolution subroutine (0x406C10) hooked
Antialiasing set to 0x
BackBufferCount set to 2
Retrieved device caps
VSync enabled
Refresh rate set to 60hz
Anisotropic filtering set to 1x
Hardware vertex processing enabled
Direct3D device created
Antialiasing set to 0x
BackBufferCount set to 2
Retrieved device caps
VSync enabled
Refresh rate set to 60hz
Anisotropic filtering set to 1x
Hardware vertex processing enabled
Direct3D device created
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Vod
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Thanks for the report. That is very strange. This is version 1.45?
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trent
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Damn... the version I used was 1.4.0.0.

I feel like an idiot now. I had forgotten to update that in my own vintage game folder. :D

The vintage interface has the 1.45 though.

Sorry for the hassle.

New log looks good. :)

Code:
 

Launcher.ini loaded
Retrieving VTable
Window 4718616 created
Direct3D 8 initialized
Direct3D Device created
CreateDevice (0x10001289) hooked
V-Table retrieved (0x8374D00)
Direct3D device released
iDirect3D prototype released
Release (0x730D5C50) hooked
Reset (0x730D83E0) hooked
NHL2004.exe MD5 fingerprint retrieved: 72fb38ac359b97102c192dc3793fb9b4
NHL 2004 projection subroutine (0x5CDB00) hooked
NHL 2004 resolution subroutine (0x406C10) hooked
Setting fights per game to 100
Enabling instant fights:
Writing NOP 0x4A0E10 - 0x4A0E15
Writing NOP 0x4A0E35 - 0x4A0E3A
Antialiasing set to 0x
BackBufferCount set to 2
Retrieved device caps
VSync enabled
Refresh rate set to 60hz
Anisotropic filtering set to 1x
Hardware vertex processing enabled
Puredevice enabled
Direct3D device created
Antialiasing set to 0x
BackBufferCount set to 2
Retrieved device caps
VSync enabled
Refresh rate set to 60hz
Anisotropic filtering set to 1x
Hardware vertex processing enabled
Puredevice enabled
Direct3D device created
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trent
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Another thing.... would it be possible to disable the use of goaltender's shoot button completely? It's ridiculous how the goalie can shoot the puck instantly... and with that kind of power. If that was completely gone I doubt anyone would miss it.
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Vod
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trent,27 April 2015
5:04 PM
Damn... the version I used was 1.4.0.0.

I feel like an idiot now. I had forgotten to update that in my own vintage game folder. :D

The vintage interface has the 1.45 though.

Sorry for the hassle.

New log looks good. :)

No problem. I notice you have anisotropic filtering disabled. Are you forcing it in your video card control panel? Most systems can get away with maxing that since it doesn't have a big performance impact.

Quote:
 
Another thing.... would it be possible to disable the use of goaltender's shoot button completely? It's ridiculous how the goalie can shoot the puck instantly... and with that kind of power. If that was completely gone I doubt anyone would miss it.


That should be possible in 1.5 if someone wants to tackle it.
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trent
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Vod,28 April 2015
3:43 AM
No problem. I notice you have anisotropic filtering disabled. Are you forcing it in your video card control panel? Most systems can get away with maxing that since it doesn't have a big performance impact.

I have no idea. I haven't touched my video card settings... just installed the latest drivers. :blink:

I'll give it a shot with full anisotropic filter. Thanks.
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Vod
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trent,28 April 2015
2:28 AM
Vod,28 April 2015
3:43 AM
No problem. I notice you have anisotropic filtering disabled. Are you forcing it in your video card control panel? Most systems can get away with maxing that since it doesn't have a big performance impact.

I have no idea. I haven't touched my video card settings... just installed the latest drivers. :blink:

I'll give it a shot with full anisotropic filter. Thanks.

It'll prevent the ice from looking blurry in the distance when displayed at an oblique angle.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...iltering_en.png
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trent
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I maxed it and I like what I'm seeing. Has zero effect on FPS.
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mrvander
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Vod,28 April 2015
12:46 AM
@mrvander
I haven't heard of this problem before. Does this happen if you enable windowed mode?

No go on the windowed mode. Still losing focus. I'll include the ini and log. All I'm doing is opening the Explorer window where I installed the game and launching Launcher.exe. When I do the same directly to the NHL2004.exe, there are no focus issues. I get focus issues when starting launcher from a desktop shortcut as well (loses focus even though there are no other windows, the taskbar overlays and the NHL program blinks.)

When I return focus to the game, Launcher does exactly what it's supposed to do when a game starts - this is just an annoying extra step I know wasn't there before I rebuilt my system and reinstalled. Just need some help finding what might the culprit be. I only have a hunch and that is that the game loads and draws to the screen faster and launcher isn't done doing what it needs to after it calls the NHL exe, hence the focus issue.

Windows 7 Pro x64

Ini values:

Code:
 
Width = 1228
Height = 706
RefreshRate = 60
Antialiasing = 16
Filtering = 16
VSync = 1
TripleBuffering = 1
Fov = 12
DynastyStartYear = 2014
QuickLaunch = 1
Windowed = 1
CreateLog = 1


Here's a Log:
Code:
 
Launcher.ini loaded
Retrieving VTable
Window 525084 created
Direct3D 8 initialized
Direct3D Device created
CreateDevice (0x10001289) hooked
V-Table retrieved (0x973960)
Direct3D device released
iDirect3D prototype released
Release (0x700E5C50) hooked
Reset (0x700E83E0) hooked
NHL2004.exe MD5 fingerprint retrieved: 72fb38ac359b97102c192dc3793fb9b4
NHL 2004 projection subroutine (0x5CDB00) hooked
NHL 2004 resolution subroutine (0x406C10) hooked
Dynasty starting year set to 2014
Antialiasing level not supported (16x)
Antialiasing set to 8x
BackBufferCount set to 2
Retrieved device caps
VSync enabled
Refresh rate set to 60hz
Anisotropic filtering set to 16x
Hardware vertex processing enabled
Puredevice enabled
Direct3D device created
Antialiasing level not supported (16x)
Antialiasing set to 8x
BackBufferCount set to 2
Retrieved device caps
VSync enabled
Refresh rate set to 60hz
Anisotropic filtering set to 16x
Hardware vertex processing enabled
Puredevice enabled
Direct3D device created
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Vod
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I have no idea. I would be surprised if it's caused by launcher.exe because all it does it launch the game and inject launcher.dll into the running process. The focusing is done automatically by windows.
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mrvander
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The only reason I feel it is launcher.exe is that there are no issues when I don't use it. Of course, that's not a viable solution for me, your launcher is integral as far as I'm concerned.

I don't think this is a universal problem, but perhaps it may be something we can increasingly see with faster hardware. I just went from an old socket 939 PC to modern components - faster everything: RAM, mobo, SSD, CPU, GPU.

Running sysinternals Process Monitor, I can clearly see Launcher.exe doesn't actually terminate until 0.4 seconds after nhl2004.exe has been launched. However, that doesn't mean that's not normal - there are thousands upon thousands of threads in the log and I'm not going to parse those. League Loader and Master Tool don't start until 4.1 seconds after Launcher has closed. I wondered if those were the culprits but they have similar characteristics when launcher is not used.

So, simple A-B testing points to launcher, but in the end, I may just have to create my own script (or simple batch file) as a launcher for launcher but automatically returns focus to the game. Maybe playing with thread priority? Dunno, I'll play around.

As I said, not a game breaker, just annoying.
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