Feature Request: Apply Profiles when a selected application launches, and when closed, apply the previous profile

[Leontierchen]

I want to suggest that feature, because some of my friends and i are using it to switch between the desk monitors and the living room TV before launching Steam in big picture mode. I would like to set it up, that if i launch steam big picture the TV profile gets applied and when i close steam big picture it reverts to my desk monitors. That would be a cool addition. Or is there already an option to apply profiles by code? Like for example a batch file

[exytral]

Hi, would a flow like this work for you?

1. Run external script (from shell:startup) to monitor Big Picture Mode state
2. If state change detected, pass CLI arguments to DPM.exe to apply profile (correlating to whether BPM is ON/OFF)

Or did you have something else in mind? Unfortunately in v1.3.0, there is no way to apply a profile through CLI. However, I am working on a version that adds CLI support for applying profiles (as well as optionally running scripts when applying profiles). For now, could you test this script for monitoring BPM? You can do that by opening Windows PowerShell ISE, pasting in the script, saving, and then running it to monitor BPM state. The lines to actually pass CLI args are commented out for now.

BigPictureMode.ps1

$logFile = "${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Steam\logs\webhelper.txt"
$appPath = "C:\Program Files\Display Profile Manager\DisplayProfileManager.exe"
$global:BPM = $false # Big Picture Mode

Write-Host "Monitoring Big Picture Mode state..." -ForegroundColor Cyan

# Processes each new line as Steam writes it
Get-Content $logFile -Tail 0 -Wait -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ForEach-Object {
    $line = $_

    # BOOT: Detect BPM window creation
    if ($line -match "SP BPM" -and $line -match "CreatingPopup" -and -not $global:BPM) {
        Write-Host "[$(Get-Date)] Big Picture Mode: ON" -ForegroundColor Green
        #Start-Process $appPath -ArgumentList "--boot"
        $global:BPM = $true
    }

    # SHUTDOWN: Detect Desktop window creation
    elseif ($line -match "SP Desktop" -and $line -match "CreatingPopup" -and $global:BPM) {
        Write-Host "[$(Get-Date)] Big Picture Mode: OFF" -ForegroundColor Red
        #Start-Process $appPath -ArgumentList "--shutdown"
        $global:BPM = $false
    }
}

[Leontierchen]

Reading the code it would be exactly what I was looking for. I can check if on my system the code also works and report back to you. But would that be a code I would have to run individually each time before I decide to game on the couch or will this run in background, constantly monitoring the log file and built in the app with a toggle setting or something like that?

I thought that the bpm is its own exe and you could simply add a 'check for application running' section and list all registered .exe files, selecting one or more as a trigger in the profile editor and a 'revert to previous profile when closed' toggle.
That way it's more flexible and not fixed to one specific use case and maybe also attractive for streamers that have tiny chat monitors that only activate when they launch obs studio or whatnot and are off when not needed.

[exytral]

You can run the script once (and at startup if you place its shortcut in shell:startup). Every time logFile updates, the script wakes up, checks the new line to see if Steam swaps its interface, updates the BPM state, and sends an optional command. If logFile doesn't change, the script basically remains dormant. I'm not sure what you mean by a toggle setting, but since the script can distinguish between BPM and Desktop, it can send different commands (ie, apply a different profile) for each interface.

BPM is still steam.exe (and there's no API to get Steam's interface state to my knowledge, so we have to read the logFile). And I'm not the original dev lol. Applying a profile if a specific process open is a good idea. For now however, I defer automation like that to external scripts.

Say you want 'Profile 1, Monitors A+B' to be triggered by steam.exe OR explorer.exe && chrome.exe and 'Profile 2, Monitors B + C' by obs64.exe. How should Display Profile Manager handle conflicts in the case that Steam and OBS are both open? In this case, you might want to assign a 'Profile 3, Monitor A+B+C'. What about conflicts that are far less obvious and intuitive, like if I want Spotify to change audio output while 'Profile 2' is active, unless MS Teams is also open? What if you want to go by active windows, instead? How should the app interpret your intent? There are just too many cases, in which the user can create conflicts like this, to add native support for now—if there's a conflict issue, then it's Display Profile Manager's "fault". That's why I think the end user/external scripts should handle that task—to take responsibility. But that's just my take.

[Leontierchen]

Yeah I see the trouble with that. Then maybe have a separate hierarchy for the profiles. Profile will be P for now. Example:
1 = p3 = App A
2 = p1 = App b or c and d
3 = p2 = App d
4 = Default profile (always at last)

Then if I open b and I have d open, p1 and 2 no longer conflict as p1 is higher and dismisses p2. And if I now open A, then 3 gets active.
The hierarchy could be realized by assigning them a number in the overview list from top to bottom. With drag and drop you could arrange them in that list to change the hierarchy.

And by toggle I meant a small checkbox that enables and disabled the use of the BPM detection script for one profile.

[exytral]

@Leontierchen Good evening. Unfortunately, I've decided against adding a native process watcher (though you can still script one anyway), but you should finally be able to test out seamless Big Picture with this release. Do let me know if it works well for you or if you experience any issues.