Launch Decorator plugin for AttractMode front end

by Matteo Cedroni

DESCRIPTION:

Launch decorator plugin is for the AttractMode front end. It automatically runs script before and/or after game execution.

Install Files

1. Download latest stable version here
2. Copy plugin files to plugins/LaunchDecorator.

Usage

You can enable the LaunchDecorator plugin by running Attract Mode and pressing the tab key to enter the configure menu. Navigate to Plug-ins -> LaunchDecorator -> Enabled. Enable the plugin.

• ScriptRoot, path to script hierarchy root;
• ScriptExtensions, comma separated script extensions. E.g. .bat,.exe,.au3

Behavior

LaunchDecorator follows convention over configuration approach

📦ScriptRoot
 ┣ 📂emulator name
 ┃ ┗ 📜before.{script extension}
 ┃ ┗ 📜after.{script extension}
 ┃ ┗ 📜...
 ┃ ┗ 📜before.{game name}.{script extension}
 ┃ ┗ 📜after.{game name}.{script extension}
 ┃ ┗ 📜...
 ┃ 
 ┣ 📂another emulator name
 ┣ 📂...

Where

• {script extension} can be any of the configured extensions. The first script found with any of this extensions will be executed
• {emulator name} must match Emulator column in rom list
• {game name} must match Name column in rom list

All ScriptRoot child elements are optional and script extensions can be mixed

Whenever a game is launched, LaunchDecorator tries to find a suitable script with the follow priority order:

1. game specific script {emulator name}/before.{game name}.{script extension}. E.g. mame/before.1943.bat
2. emulator specific script {emulator name}/before.{script extension}. E.g. mame/before.bat

Same behavior after game execution, with after token instead of before

Notes

LaunchDecorator can launch only files that are directly executable by OS command line shell. Depending of OS, you may need some action to make command line able to directly execute some scripts

Release notes

Version 1.0.2 (20th february 2023)

• Changed launch function for Linux OS (Thank you to user djc0ntra for pointing this out)

Version 1.0.1 (5th march 2021)

• Changed launch function to prevent freezing AM (Thank you to user hermine.potter for pointing this out)

Version 1.0.0 (28th february 2021)

• First version