[RESOLVED]PROBLEM LOADING PC GAMES IN RETROBAT

Hi everyone! First I want to say thank you to everyone involved with this, RetroBat is by far the best front-end I have ever used and I do not see that changing anytime soon. For my particular issue I have been trying to troubleshoot this for two weeks and am not having any success. I have been working with fellow members of various groups that are much more experienced with RetroBat than myself and we are all stumped.

So here is my issue in a nutshell, I have six PC games that all work as expected when ran from my PC. Once I add the .exe folder to where I want it to reside (root of C drive or within the RetroBat folder under "PC-Games") I make a shortcut and place it in \roms\windows\. I launch RetroBat, the shortcut is visible in the correct system, it launches as normal and is playable. Once I exit the game via hotkey + start I am taken back to the main menu as expected but once I try to relaunch the game I am given the directsoundcreate8 failed error.

This PC is an HP slim desktop with WIN11 if that matters. I have verified my directx is up to date along with all sound and video drivers but still get this error. I have sent these games out to others in the community and they are not having the same issue. I have placed these same games on my main PC/ gamecab and all of them work as they should through RetroBat.

I could understand if these did not work at all but they work fine when launched from the shortcut or direct from the exe on this PC, I only get the error when trying to launch via RetroBat and its only after I have initially placed the folder and created the shortcut that it will work once, after that I get the error. I have tried fresh installs and gotten loaner installs from other members of the community with the same results. This PC is a side project so just trying to getting everything working properly. I did read something about rolling back the driver on my sound card so that may be an option but I wanted to check with you guys before removing drivers and whatnot in hopes that there is a setting within RetroBat that needs to be tweaked such as the audio options within RetroArch. Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions because this is driving me crazy!. It works initially, then doesn't after the first time playing so something is happening between the initial install, play/exit/restart that is causing this and I am at a loss.

EDIT: Also, I have tried some others with the same directories and they work fine, I can exit and relaunch without any issues but these ones specifically do not work correctly on this build but do on another.

EDIT2: I have tried creating numerous batch files and still getting the error although I may be doing it wrong, suggested on https://retrobat.forumgaming.fr/t824-problem-launching-some-windows-games. I have tried "start GAME.exe" with all other files in the folder and it is still not working. This may be on the correct path though as the op had the direct3d error and mine is directsoundcreate8. I will chase this path until all efforts are exhausted.

EDIT3: Another member of the scene used my folders, dropped to the roms/win folder, created a bat file with
@echo off
CD "folder name"\
"name".exe
and it worked, he uploaded a vid of what he did and i mirrored the steps. it was finally working upon exit and restart a couple of times. went back in to rb and was given the same error again! i do not understand this for the life of me, never had these kinds of issues but with everything ive done so far it makes no sense! At this point i am ready to nuke the pc and start over from scratch. as i mentioned this is a side project so there is no pressure to have it done right away but id rather exhaust all options before factory resetting the pc, worst case is that it was a good learning experience

"Hi"

https://retrobat.forumgaming.fr/t51-read-befor-posting-retrobat-forum-rules

Lorenzolamas wrote:"Hi"

https://retrobat.forumgaming.fr/t51-read-befor-posting-retrobat-forum-rules

Sorry about that, hopefully I have edited it enough to not violate any of the forum rules. Hopefully someone has an idea of what the heck is going on with this.

In case it was missed from my initial post, here are some things I have tried to do to get these working properly, and could really use some insight from people that have been on the scene longer than myself, thanks in advance for any suggestions.

EDIT: Also, I have tried some others with the same directories and they work fine, I can exit and relaunch without any issues but these ones specifically do not work correctly on this build but do on another.

EDIT2: I have tried creating numerous batch files and still getting the error although I may be doing it wrong, suggested on https://retrobat.forumgaming.fr/t824-problem-launching-some-windows-games. I have tried "start GAME.exe" with all other files in the folder and it is still not working. This may be on the correct path though as the op had the direct3d error and mine is directsoundcreate8. I will chase this path until all efforts are exhausted.

EDIT3: Another member of the scene used my folders, dropped to the roms/win folder, created a bat file with
@echo off
CD "folder name"\
"name".exe
and it worked, he uploaded a vid of what he did and i mirrored the steps. it was finally working upon exit and restart a couple of times. went back in to rb and was given the same error again! i do not understand this for the life of me, never had these kinds of issues but with everything ive done so far it makes no sense! At this point i am ready to nuke the pc and start over from scratch. as i mentioned this is a side project so there is no pressure to have it done right away but id rather exhaust all options before factory resetting the pc, worst case is that it was a good learning experience

Hi,

Do you have all your computers audio drivers installed ? Is it the audio chip from the motherboard or do you have a separate audio card ?

tartifless wrote:Hi,

Do you have all your computers audio drivers installed ? Is it the audio chip from the motherboard or do you have a separate audio card ?

Hi thank you for the reply. Yes all drivers are up to date and the card is on the mobo. I know the post is long but I have gotten these games to work after I initially install and most recently once I made the .bat file. With the .bat file it was actually working as normal but once I exited RetroBat and went back in the error was popping up again when I tried to start the same game that was just working.

cynder9792 wrote:

tartifless wrote:Hi,

Do you have all your computers audio drivers installed ? Is it the audio chip from the motherboard or do you have a separate audio card ?

Hi thank you for the reply. Yes all drivers are up to date and the card is on the mobo. I know the post is long but I have gotten these games to work after I initially install and most recently once I made the .bat file. With the .bat file it was actually working as normal but once I exited RetroBat and went back in the error was popping up again when I tried to start the same game that was just working.

A quick search on google gives me some answers, it seems plugging a headphone jack in the jack output of your computer might solve the issue, even if you configure the sound to come out of your speakers...

tartifless wrote:

cynder9792 wrote:

tartifless wrote:Hi,

Do you have all your computers audio drivers installed ? Is it the audio chip from the motherboard or do you have a separate audio card ?

Hi thank you for the reply. Yes all drivers are up to date and the card is on the mobo. I know the post is long but I have gotten these games to work after I initially install and most recently once I made the .bat file. With the .bat file it was actually working as normal but once I exited RetroBat and went back in the error was popping up again when I tried to start the same game that was just working.

A quick search on google gives me some answers, it seems plugging a headphone jack in the jack output of your computer might solve the issue, even if you configure the sound to come out of your speakers...

Thanks again for replying, I did not see anything regarding that but maybe it will work, will give it a try here in a bit and let you know. I just find it so odd that these work initially but then error when relaunched. The current sound is going through an HDMI to the monitor speakers. This did cross my mind since the error is audio related but again with them working and then not I figured it was something getting tweaked in the frontend, but will try it and report back.

cynder9792 wrote:

tartifless wrote:

cynder9792 wrote:

tartifless wrote:Hi,

Do you have all your computers audio drivers installed ? Is it the audio chip from the motherboard or do you have a separate audio card ?

Hi thank you for the reply. Yes all drivers are up to date and the card is on the mobo. I know the post is long but I have gotten these games to work after I initially install and most recently once I made the .bat file. With the .bat file it was actually working as normal but once I exited RetroBat and went back in the error was popping up again when I tried to start the same game that was just working.

A quick search on google gives me some answers, it seems plugging a headphone jack in the jack output of your computer might solve the issue, even if you configure the sound to come out of your speakers...

Thanks again for replying, I did not see anything regarding that but maybe it will work, will give it a try here in a bit and let you know. I just find it so odd that these work initially but then error when relaunched. The current sound is going through an HDMI to the monitor speakers. This did cross my mind since the error is audio related but again with them working and then not I figured it was something getting tweaked in the frontend, but will try it and report back.

So I have no idea why I wasn't able to find that possible solution but I plugged an old pair of headphones (non-working) into the speaker jack on the back of this PC, reinstalled all games to their default directories, and placed the shortcuts in the roms/windows folder. All games work properly after exiting and restarting. Since I am still trouble shooting and trying to wrap my head around what the root issue is I unplugged the jack and tried to start a game which resulted in the error. I exited RB, plugged in the jack, started a game resulting with the working results. Still testing further I shutdown the PC and removed the jack. Restarted and all games now work without the jack, tested multiple times exiting and restarting. The only thing I can think of is the error was being caused by me moving the installed folders/files from the programs/86x C drive folder to the RB folder and creating shortcuts from there as I did on another PC. I would not mark this as solved quite yet but as of now it does not appear I will need to factory reset the PC at this point. After I do some further testing to ensure this is 100% working I will mark the post as solved.

Huge thanks to tartifless for the suggestion!!!

Well, this is more an issue for the game developers or Microsoft in the end...

tartifless wrote:Well, this is more an issue for the game developers or Microsoft in the end...

So after further testing it is hit or miss if the PC games work with the audio jack unplugged but with it plugged in they work 100% from what I can tell. The issue i have now though is that there is no audio from any other systems regardless of the jack being in or out. I did refer to the FAQ in regards to "audio on the menu but not in game". I cycled through all audio options in RA and still cannot get any sound from any games aside from these certain PC games. I plan to get a pair of PC speakers and try again after work later today as the headphones I was using to test do not work. Basically posting an update in hopes that there may be something I am missing like restarting RB after changing the audio (which I did try). I may still need to nuke this PC and start over after all...

Just a small update, I tried a pair of plug and play PC speakers into this PC and all games have audio (which the probably did through the non-working headphones anyway) and the original issue is sort of solved I guess. Why it is not working as normal is beyond me as I also tried to set everything up on my office PC using the same RB build and PC games files and everything works as it should without anything plugged into the jack or messing with any settings, just installed and dropped the shortcuts where they needed to be. In either case huge thank you to tartifless for finding the workaround, hopefully this will help others that run into this issue.