[REL] Vista Game Explorer Editor

[schis]

You'll have to ask Julius about changing the ratings since he's the expert on that - he has already successfully setup and changed his own ratings - I uploaded screenshots proving this a few pages back.

But those buttons are great. I won't be putting words in them though (ie Add new game would just be the + sign). It wouldn't even necessarily have to be in the WMP style button. Those buttons would be more for the bottom toolbar and would only have symbols in them - I would just setup a tooltip showing what they stand for) or write them into a tutorial).

In XP, I think you can find icons in the Shell32.dll file that have the green tick and red cross (for adding/deleting) and then wouldn't be in the blue icons. On the bottom toolbar, so far we'd need a play button and a preferences button. I'm fairly sure there's a third one for something (and also to keep things symmetrical) but I can't exactly remember it's funtion.

Did you create those in a photo-editing program, or does VS that you do that a lot easier than I thought?

Those were created in photoshop.

Do you want them in the blue WMP style or in the red and blue that you mentioned.

Heh bet your gonna say both ;)

And thanks for the bit about the ratings. I can also add/change ratings but it would appear that the game has to be certified by ms for the ratings to appear in the VGE. I really hope 72001 has found a work around otherwise for the VGE it is a severe limitation but for your app (E-Explorer) on the other hand it shouldnt be a problem.

Oh and as for a suggestion for your app will you be able to limit the display of games based on age rating like ms said you were supposed to be able to do in the VGE, ie parental control, would be a nice addition for parents like me.

Schis

[Ryan R]

Use that blue style for the bottom toolbar buttons

I'll probably be able to take car of all the buttons in the top toolbar - which use something similar to the 'Delete' icon in the attached screenshot below. Those icons weren't in Shell32.dll when I looked - so I went there to find the cross - no tick though. I'll likely find it elsewhere on my other PC.

[schis]

Here you go four buttons: preferences, add game, play game and remove game.

As you can see I have only done two states per button a normal state and mouse over state if you want others just say.

Let me know the format you would like me to send the to you ie: .png, .jpg, .ico etc.

Schis

[Ryan R]

Truely awesome stuff there schis - everyone give him an applause :rolleyes:

I'll take png and ico formats if you can email them to vge.editor at gmail dot com

Thanks :)

[TheQuad]

So guys, any new alphas for us to test? or any other progress being made? Just hoping there is some new news.

[Ryan R]

Only news is that I don't have a working computer - there's a one week wait until my faulty motherboard get's returned to me (hopefully no longer in a faulty condition) - then I will be able to resume programming this. I haven't heard from Julius in quite a while, so I assume he's finished his bit off for the moment.

My New PC specs are:

Intel Q9550

4gb 133MHz Corsair DDR3 RAM

XFX 9800 GX2

XFX nForce n790i Ultra

Antec 900

Compro T750 TV Tuner

Logitech G25 & Z-5500D

MS Wireless KB 8000 & X360 gamepad

[toad_666_90]

Hi guys this program seems great I have installed the lasest vge program the 2.12a one. I only have timeshift installed right now and this is a 2 day copy of vista ultimate I am using. It didn't recognise the game xplorer my game so it look kinda like in this picture.

And in the other one u can clearly see my current problem. I must say I did put the game exe in the start>game place. I tried to start the vge open the games folder etc and then it automatically closes as I go through that error and it still didn't work :( Any help ryan ? PLS :D

And one more thing as to crearly make u understand what u see there the picture of timeshift is not added by vista I added it with the games .exe file :(

[Ryan R]

I'll be really nice and explain it again here:

You don't have any legacy games installed - so you'll need to go back to http://vge.editor.googlepages.com and look under the Support section

Download the Dummy Game (which is a supported legacy game - the executable file to Need for Speed 3.

Look at the video of How To add a Supoprted game properly. When you do this, make sure you store the NFS3.exe file somewhere out of the way, since you can't move/delete it once done or you'll stuff things up.

Once the dummy game is added successfully - you can use VGEE. See the Tutorial on how to use it

Also make sure that your VGE is closed when using VGEE to add/edit games. You'll stuff things up otherwise.

[toad_666_90]

Ok sorry i didn't get it am I supposed to get the nfs3 game ? cause i used the regedit file that came with the dummy pack and then when i clicked on crack it said it couldn't find the nfs3.exe to crack. Do i really have to install such an old and crappy game ? :(

Ps : i also watched the video u told me :D

[toad_666_90]

Got it man thx a lot I managed to add timeshift as my game now of course I am still trying to understand various issues such as adding ratings etc :D but this program is awesome good job and we're waiting for more great updates cheers ;)

[Ryan R]

VGEE doesn't support game ratings, version number, 256x256 icons, and there are no planned updates, unless you call E-Explorer an update.

[Rebdomine]

I have installed Vista X86 again.. using Game Explorer and your wonderful application Ryan :) GJ

[replm8]

Hi All ->

Any new news on E-Explorer? Really looking forward to this application ;-)

Thanks!

[Ryan R]

News is at http://vge.editor.googlepages.com/e-explorer

Other news is that I still don't have my motherboard back from being repaired. :(

[dakkar]

which is the most recent version alpha of the e-explorer?

i'd like to help you with some testing ;)

greetings

dakky

[Brian5]

I recently installed SP1 under vista 32 home premium. I have VGEE 2.14a.

I tried the repair link and now when I start the prog. I have the following problems.

1. It appears that this is the first time you have used VGEE... use the wizard

2. It appears that there are no games in the list box for you to chose from... add some new ones

3. vgee will now close so that you can rectify the problem.

There are games currently in the games explorer folder, but

I can no longer drag and drop anything into the games explorer. there are no error messages it just won't do it. I have tried shortcuts and .EXE files

HELP!!! How do I fix this? Thx.

[Ryan R]

The VGEE website explains down the bottom that upgrading to SP1 will cause Vista to undo all VGEE edits, and advises to use the export feature of VGEE prior to installing SP1, especially if you have a lot of games.

In regards to dragging shortcuts into the VGE, try creating a new Windows User Account and see if that helps. I've created extra Windows accounts to test various aspects of VGEE in the past, and have found that some accounts will not add games into the VGEE no matter what I do, so I've just had to delete them and create a new one, moving any files accross.

[72001]

Hey everyone, I have been extremely busy with my job and I just wanted to chime in and say that I have not forgotten or abandoned this project. I have just been very very busy. I will be getting back to working on this very shortly. Ryan does have the code though that performs a install and edit of the games using the older VB code, so in short I could take my time on the Class and there wouldn't need to be much change at the end of everything. I will be able to answer questions if there are any, just post them up I will get to them (or PM me).

Sorry for the delays I just need to make sure I transition to this new job smoothly.

[TheQuad]

keep up the good work, guys! we all really appreciate the work you are doing to help us get vge organized.

[replm8]

Yes, here here. Thanks for all of the hard work.

Would it be possible to also add some sort of timer that would keep track of how many minutes/hours were spent playing a certain game contained within e-explorer (kind of a la Xfire), as well as the VGE's "Last Played" info? I have no idea how hard this would be too add, or if anyone else would be interested in this also (or whether you guys feel as though it would add any value).

Just an idea...

[vraev]

Hi,

Have anyone of you noticed this??

I have all these games and only for specific ones...vista doesn't download anything..notice Assassins, silent hunter 4, mass effect etc. Vista doesnt download box art however just adds them to the game explorer. However, LOK defiance immediately added and downloaded the art. Has anyone faced this? can this be fixed??

thanks,

V

[Ryan R]

The games that don't show up in VGEE appear to be ones that have the Games for Windows label. You will need to delete those from the VGE, ten add them using VGEE as if they weren't supported. Otherwise you'd have to wait for E-Explorer to edit them as they use the WMI interface.

We might be able to track game usage in later versions of EE, but then that would require EE to be running throughout the time. I was also thinking of adding a link that starts a Random Game in the explorer - for those days where you stare at all your games for 5 mins not knowing which one to start. Or is it just me who does that sometimes? :)

It won't happen for a while now that I have Grid - that's for sure. I've swapped both the Motherboard and RAM in my PC, but it still freezes. Since I'm not using all of my 4GB of DDR3 ram atm, I'm going to wipe the OS off the HDD again and try yet another fresh install, to see if that helps. I'll also try swapping the GFX card.

Sorry for taking so long with this project

[Rich246]

I love this program and have had no problems up until now.... I installed SP1 when it came out blah blah... I didn't launch VGEE until yesterday, and I got an error I forget which, but I think it was once somebody else mentioned, so I went to your site to see if you updated VGEE, and I saw that I was supposed to back up all my games and repair before installing SP1...

So I did it after the fact, and now I cannot add any games at all... even games that were in there, not my vgi files nothing... I did the drag exe into VGEE, and make shortcut... nothing happens, I even installed a game that added something to VGEE, and it didn't add it properly..

So my VGEE tells me that I have no games installed and it will close so I can add games...

When I try to import a game *by double clicking on the .vgi I exported* I get this error:

http://pastebin.com/f63968bef <<< that link will take you too it

Thanks,

Rich

EDIT!!!: I got something to add to the VGE, and VGEE sees it, but when ever I import one of my vgi files it it just adds the same game back again, all the vgi files were in my VGE yesterday.... I can add games manually but I had almost 40 games in there thats gonna be a pain in the ass :p

Edited June 16, 2008 by Rich246

[Ryan R]

Try and create a new Windows account and make use of the VGE in that one. If it works, you'll just have to move over all your docs, desktop files, etc to the new one and delete the old profile. It's a pain, but it's the only fix I know of. Sometimes you can create 3 new accounts in a row and the VGE doesn't work with even the supported legacy games - but the 4th one does - it's weird.

Also use the VGEE link to reset the VGE to default - as it might repair any corrupt registry keys, etc.

[Rich246]

Try and create a new Windows account and make use of the VGE in that one. If it works, you'll just have to move over all your docs, desktop files, etc to the new one and delete the old profile. It's a pain, but it's the only fix I know of. Sometimes you can create 3 new accounts in a row and the VGE doesn't work with even the supported legacy games - but the 4th one does - it's weird.

Also use the VGEE link to reset the VGE to default - as it might repair any corrupt registry keys, etc.

I'd rather not trial and error it...I truly respect your response, but I can't be bothered to do that again changing Logons that is...

How do I reset VGE to default?... do you mean the repair VGE... if so I did that already... there has to be a fix or a way to make it work....

Rich