LaunchUM - Start all the apps!

[eszyman]

  LaunchUM Ultimate - Application Manager

I have about 15 different applications that need to be started before playing IL2 - Korea (also great for Great Battles).
Since I manage two separate sim rigs when I fly with my dad, I created an application to automatically launch all the required applications by simply hitting a START button, so we can quickly scramble into the virtual air.
I have also added some neat features that make this much better than a dumb batch file:

• Auto-focus master app (this would be il2-series.exe) toggle to refocus the game window should it lose focus.
• Program Arguments that will allow for startup options (for instance, the steam app id). 
• Error Keywords that try to look for window titles like "Error" to force kill the application.
• A Watchdog toggle that will restart the app if it is closed (think JoystickGremlin.exe)
• The ability to toggle Allow Multiple? so multiple instances of applications can be launched (steam apps require this feature due to steam.exe),
• A start Delay feature if you need a delay before the next apps loads sequentially, because maybe your VR app takes some time to start.
• You can also adjust the start order using up and down arrows.

Since this application will try to automatically focus a mater app, it can be tricky if you want to actually switch out of the master app.
In this case there is an adjustable delay slider (Alt-Tab Grace) keyed to "alt-tab" so that the switch back feature is delayed by the set amount of seconds.
In the case this causes trouble, which at times it has for me, simply uncheck the toggle box.
The auto-focus feature is also hard coded to be disabled after alt-tab is used to select LaunchUM itself and for five seconds after, allowing the user time to press the STOP button.

Also, when you are done playing be sure to alt-tab to LaunchUM itself and press the STOP button, otherwise, you will have a hard time stopping all of the apps that use the watchdog feature.  Then you can exit each app normally (sorry no KillUM yet).

The app was written in rust (v1.97.1) with the help of AI and I am sharing the source code here for anyone who should be concerned with an application like this. 
If you do want to compile it yourself here's how

1. Download the source code into a known place, for example C:\LaunchUM
2. Install the rust language from their webage (https://rust-lang.org/tools/install/) ,
3. From the command prompt go to source directory (ie: cd \launchum)
4. Type "cargo build -release" and the app will compile an executable into the ".\target\release" directory.

Please expect some imperfect operations especially with the automatic refocus task.  This is tricky to make widows do without funny things happening.  The main reason for wanting this feature is if something like Joystick Gremlin crashes and it prompts you out of the game, LaunchUM should detect the crash, and relaunch Gremlin, and then refocus the game.  All of this to say, that can keep you from crashing in VR in some cases.

Configuration is also saved as a readable json file if you want to alter it by hand for some reason.

Google drive link to source:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19LaIMpBXSSJSV75qgc0SXVr7uZoEF5Sc?usp=sharing

Google drive link to the app itself (from the \target\release folder):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dnHbKMQ8QvzIFDUHk6pRzpyt0pMnLYZT/view?usp=sharing

Edited August 6 by eszyman

[eszyman]

To launch a steam game, select steam.exe as the progam and in the Arguments section, insert your apps steam id like this: 
steam://launch/APPID  (add /vr to launch il2 in VR mode for the Battle of Series)

For reference:
Korea = 247970  (so for Arguments you would put in steam://launch/247970)  

Battle of Stalingrad = 307960
Normandy = 2118560
Bodenplatte = 1198460
Kuban = 629700
Odessa = 4271990

Screenshot:

in

 

Edited August 7 by eszyman

[TheTonester]

I just use a *bat file for this…works perfect without the need for another app