Automatically Launch from Optical Disc Drive

[OpenExtreme]

I've played around with the command line settings and can't figure this one out. I've also tried using AutoHotKey to make a macro to do this through the UI, but the UI appears not to respond to keyboard presses like TAB and SPACEBAR or ENTER.

What I'd like to do is put a disc in the drive. Then start Dolphin. When Dolphin starts, I'd like it to notice there's a Wii/GC disc in the drive and start playing that.

In the end, I'll trigger Dolphin to launch in the first place b/c there's a disc in the drive. Makes it very much like a console, yes?

So, any ideas? Or is this an implementable feature?

Thanks in advance. If you need more info, let me know.

BTW, I'm now using 3.0, not 2.0.

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So I upgraded to version 3.0. Now, for some reason, I can use the ALT key to control the menus where as I couldn't before. I can now right a keyboard macro to launch the disc in the disc drive. If anyone comes up with anything better, please let me know. Thanks.

[ExtremeDude2]

Dolphin can only run from backup discs in the optical drive.

[AnyOldName3]

Also dolphin runs faster from an iso than a disk, so dump a copy of the disk.

[Duke Nukem]

Dolphin can only run from backup discs in the optical drive.

Really? I thought depending on if you have one of the special LG drives you could read the real discs and start them from Dolphin.

[DefenderX]

No, Dolphin cannot read real discs.

Afaik, Dolphin can only read backups which are burned to a DVD-R blank disc.

[OpenExtreme]

I know it can read only backups. That's not the issue at the moment. I have a few of those for testing.

The goal is to make it as console like as possible. Drop in the disc, and the system identifies it, launches the correct emulator, and plays the game.

I have support for PSX, PS2, Saturn, and some PC games (more on that later). I want to add support for this great emulator Dolphin, but I want to be able to trigger its launch with a script, which I've figured out how to do. What I haven't figured out yet is how to trigger the script with the insertion of a disc that Windows can't read (even backups).

Any ideas? Thanks for the thoughts thus far.

[Duke Nukem]

I don't know how to pull that of really. First thing to come in mind is AutoPlay but that won't help.

Why not just make ISOs and pretend you have a soft modded Wii with the Homebrew channel and pretend that Dolphin is a USB loader with a external drive or something.
I don't know...

EDIT:

If I were you I'd be more worried about how the games will run seeing that your specs is kinda low stated in your profile.
Don't expect miracles with a Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz CPU and a NVidia GeForce 8600M GT GPU

[LPFaint99]

closet you'll get is a shortcut to dolphin with the target as
"<Path_TO_DOLPHIN>/dolphin.exe" /b /e D:

replace D with the drive letter of your optical drive

gamecube/wii backup discs are not standard iso format and autoplay cannot be set to launch a specific program for these discs

Also dolphin runs faster from an iso than a disk, so dump a copy of the disk.

Starting up from a disc backup is definitely slower, but once in game there is little difference in speed

[AnyOldName3]

Well you have many insects instead of stars, so you're the expert.

[OpenExtreme]

@Gabriel Belmont -- So far, everything I've thrown at it has run full speed from the backup disc. 100% speed. Not bad for an old MacBook Pro.

Additionally, it's not about pretending. I'm working on a project where when one drops in a PC game, any [supported] PC game, it will identify, self-install if necessary, then launch, much like a console. It's all about the drop and play. I saw no reason not to add support for the PSX, PS2, GameCube/Wii, and Saturn. The other three work now, drop and play and everything. Dolphin is too good an emulator NOT to include.

@LPFaint99 -- Thank you for what you've shared. That works better than my way of making Dolphin launch and start the disc in the drive. Here's how this works: when a disc is dropped in, I've set AutoPlay to run my script that checks out the disc to determine what it is (PC game disc, if so which one; Saturn disc; PSX disc; etc.). When the disc type is determined, the system launches the correct program (if a PC game, it launches a script that auto-installs the game, then launches it. If a Saturn game, it launches the emulator and boots the disc, etc.) Again, very console like.

The problem is that Windows doesn't recognize that I've even put a disc in the drive, so my script that checks the disc type is never called. The user could always do it manually, but that defeats the purpose. The question, now, is how to get the system to recognize that I've even inserted a disc at all so it can call the script to determine it's a Wii/GC disc and go from there.

Thank you all for your help thus far. If you're curious, you can read more at http://openextreme.net76.net

The site is currently on a free host. I intend to move to a paid host soon, but finances are a bit of a problem. The short end is that it's open source, so everyone submits a script or few for different PC games, resulting in A LOT of PC games supported.

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For now, I have put LPFaint99's shortcut idea to use with basically a batch file on the desktop. Drop in a game, double click that, and boom, off you go. Maybe some future development in Windows or Dolphin or something will be able to read the disc structure without requiring a special drive to do it. Until then, this is about as close as I guess it's gonna get.