SkyNET Mouse Helper

Hello,

Is there a way to run this with Ampshell while selecting only the Terminator Skynet game without having to manually run the program first?

I have tried to set the DOSBox configuration file to run the program prior to launching the game but it's unable to be run in DOS and having to remember to manually click it every time before executing Ampshell to launch Terminator Skynet is a pain in the ass especially if I were to come back to the game a couple years down the road and forget about it. I have gone through the Ampshell game settings and there doesn't appear to be anywhere to execute additional files prior to launching a game. I could create a batch script but then the program would launch every single time either Ampshell or DOSBox was loaded regardless of what game is being played which would also then stay open after DOSBox was exited until closed manually.

Also, another issue that I experienced while using this is that there is a significant delay between when the mouse wheel is scrolled up or down and when the actual weapons switch on screen. Although not ideal, is that normal?

Other then that the patch you created for this game is excellent.

Cheers.

1 hour ago, avenger said:

Is there a way to run this with Ampshell while selecting only the Terminator Skynet game without having to manually run the program first?

I have tried to set the DOSBox configuration file to run the program prior to launching the game but it's unable to be run in DOS and having to remember to manually click it every time before executing Ampshell to launch Terminator Skynet is a pain in the ass especially if I were to come back to the game a couple years down the road and forget about it. I have gone through the Ampshell game settings and there doesn't appear to be anywhere to execute additional files prior to launching a game. I could create a batch script but then the program would launch every single time either Ampshell or DOSBox was loaded regardless of what game is being played which would also then stay open after DOSBox was exited until closed manually.

Also, another issue that I experienced while using this is that there is a significant delay between when the mouse wheel is scrolled up or down and when the actual weapons switch on screen. Although not ideal, is that normal?

I'm not familiar with AmpShell (beyond seeing that it's a DOSBox frontend), but I did make it so that you can run the helper automatically with the game. When you run the helper, there's a "Create shortcut" button that helps you do that. That creates a desktop shortcut that basically looks like "SkyNETMouseHelper.exe DOSBox.exe Skynet.exe", which launches the helper, which then launches DOSBox, which then launches the game. If AmpShell is really flexible, maybe you can make the game's icon in that launch the helper with those parameters. If not, then you may just have to live with using a desktop shortcut (made by the helper) to launch the game, instead of using AmpShell.

As for switching weapons with the mouse wheel, a little delay is unavoidable. If it's less than second, then it's probably normal. If it's longer than a second, that's probably not normal and maybe you can fix it by changing the DOSBox overlay mode. Also, if you haven't yet applied it, it could help to apply the SkyNET Unofficial Patch 2017, which I also made and uploaded here.

I wish that I could be more help. I haven't worked on the helper or even run the game in a couple of years.

On 11/20/2020 at 11:54 AM, Osprey said:

I'm not familiar with AmpShell (beyond seeing that it's a DOSBox frontend), but I did make it so that you can run the helper automatically with the game. When you run the helper, there's a "Create shortcut" button that helps you do that. That creates a desktop shortcut that basically looks like "SkyNETMouseHelper.exe DOSBox.exe Skynet.exe", which launches the helper, which then launches DOSBox, which then launches the game. If AmpShell is really flexible, maybe you can make the game's icon in that launch the helper with those parameters. If not, then you may just have to live with using a desktop shortcut (made by the helper) to launch the game, instead of using AmpShell.

As for switching weapons with the mouse wheel, a little delay is unavoidable. If it's less than second, then it's probably normal. If it's longer than a second, that's probably not normal and maybe you can fix it by changing the DOSBox overlay mode. Also, if you haven't yet applied it, it could help to apply the SkyNET Unofficial Patch 2017, which I also made and uploaded here.

I wish that I could be more help. I haven't worked on the helper or even run the game in a couple of years.

I've already had the patch installed for a couple years and was running in overlay render. OpenGL which I used to run prior to trying this weapon switch mod just randomly cycles the weapons repeatedly until the game is exited so it's not playable. The "create shortcut" option defeats the entire purpose of using a frontend which is to avoid the process of having to use the DOS interface and manually enter commands every time I want to play a game.

Ampshell doesn't provide an option to run additional programs prior to launching DOSBox. I tried to set command arguments in the game config to run your program after DOSBox launches and before the game is started but it's not supported in DOS so I receive the error "this program can't be run in DOS".

I guess I'll just have to pass on this.

Thanks for your time.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, avenger said:

The "create shortcut" option defeats the entire purpose of using a frontend which is to avoid the process of having to use the DOS interface and manually enter commands every time I want to play a game.

You shouldn't have to enter any DOS commands with the "create shortcut" option if you supply the path to skynet.exe/shock.exe. The shortcut will launch the helper, which will launch DOSBox, which will launch the game. It's supposed to launch the game without any interaction from the user, just like a frontend like AmpShell. Yeah, admittedly, getting it to work with a frontend like AmpShell might be tricky, if not impossible. If you can't figure something out and aren't willing to use a regular desktop shortcut to launch the game, then it's probably not for you. Sorry.

On 11/20/2020 at 2:14 PM, Osprey said:

You shouldn't have to enter any DOS commands with the "create shortcut" option if you supply the path to skynet.exe/shock.exe. The shortcut will launch the helper, which will launch DOSBox, which will launch the game. It's supposed to launch the game without any interaction from the user, just like a frontend like AmpShell. Yeah, admittedly, getting it to work with a frontend like AmpShell might be tricky, if not impossible. If you can't figure something out and aren't willing to use a regular desktop shortcut to launch the game, then it's probably not for you. Sorry.

Another benefit to the frontend is that all my games are displayed in the same place. Using a desktop icon would obviously change that which is inconsistent.

From my experience, your "create shortcut" option did nothing other then launch vanilla DOSBox with no command arguments. No different then clicking the DOSBox.exe with nothing configured. And yes, I added all 3 of the correct file paths prior to the shortcut being created. It still opens a default DOSBox instance with a black screen and "z:" prefix.