FormulaFox

Could you be a little more specific about exactly what screen you need me to provide?

Yes

Okay, so I've got a weird issue going on here.... I've recently swapped out the SSD in my arcade PC for a larger one so that I did not have to rely on the slow loading off of a hard drive over USB2 to play my games. Due to some issues with cloning the drive I had to move to a fresh Windows installation and reinstall everything. Everything has worked well aside from Steam refusing to properly acknowledge the joysticks(dealing with that over on Steam's help forums), and the issue at hand here... Launchbox absolutely WILL NOT launch any MAME or FBA games. I have them set up to launch through Retroarch, and if I load Retroarch and load the ROMs they all work, but Launchbox outright refuses to launch Retroarch, or even MAME, when I tell it to load a game. The icon never appears at the bottom of the screen, nor in my Task Manager. It simply outright ignores the command. It doesn't matter if I double-click, click once and hit enter, or if I right-click and select Play. I have triple-checked the emulator associations and it all looks fine. What do I need to do here? (I cannot recall the exact MAME or FBA sets I am using, but they work with MAME 2016 and FB Neo Retroarch cores, so I see no reason why they shouldn't load in Launchbox)

Oh, updating Retroarch and the core was the first thing I did after it wouldn't load. I immediately downloaded the standalone version for the first time to see if it would work. I should ahve been more clear, but the standalone version of Mesen won't accept my inputs even without an HD pack being applied - my bad for not being clear on that.

I know this thread is a bit old, but it seems to be the best place to inquire about my own issue... I only recently learned of these HD packs and decided to try them for myself on my arcade unit. I'm trying to apply to Castlevania, Mega Man, and Metroid. I've set things up as instructed in the first post(which is in line with other documentation I've found) - put it in the system folder, made sure all the folder names match up with the ROM names, but... If I use Retroarch, the HD packs won't apply - even though the correct setting is on. If I use the standalone version, the HD packs will work, but it won't let me play - I map my controls in the emulator(and it sees and accepts the input), but it won't respond to any button pushes once finished. No idea what do from here.

I see that now that you point it out - I had misread it as saying it just goes in the Videos folder, as I'd been doing. Like I said in my first post, I am an idiot.

I know that much - I put them in the folder, but none of them will play unless they're named "startup." Anything else won't play when I load. EDIT: Okay, I finally found the information I was looking for - I KNEW it had to be SOMEWHERE on these forums....

I feel like a complete moron for asking this since the answer is probably somewhere so easy to find that I'm an idiot for missing it, but I'd like to set up multiple BigBox startup videos so it will choose one randomly every time it loads(because I can't decide which of the five startup videos I've chosen I like most). I've seen mention of this being possible, but not how to do it. I can get any one startup video working at a time, but that's it. I've tried putting them all with the same filename but with a number added to the end, but that just results in none of them being loaded. Thanks in advance for helping out this poor little idiot who's Google-Fu is too weak for his own good.

That certainly sounds like an additional 4GB of RAM and a GT 1030 should be enough, though the Core 2 Duo 8500 is a much older CPU than the i3-4130T.

Okay, so, I made an arcade cabinet(or rather, modded an Arcade1up to suit my goals). Everything's functioning - got 99.9% of the games working in Launchbox(only ONE of the nonfunctional games is NOT a MAME game ), joysticks and buttons registering properly on both sides, so now it's time for me to plonk down the money for a premium license to get Big Box going! ...Or is it? You see, I've got a small issue specs-wise. Specifically, I'm not sure if I should get Big Box NOW, or get a small upgrade for the PC running it all first. I'm not just running MAME games, I'm also running console games up to PS2 era tht lend themselves well to arcade controls, as well as some Steam games, and the performance of this box is VERY sketchy at this level. All of the games I've got run okay - as long as nothing else is running. Even on performance settings, many PS2 games struggle a bit if Launchbox is active. The Steam games I'm running all run fine at lowest settings, but can stutter while loading. (for reference's sake, the game I usually test with is BlazBlue Chronophantasma Extend - I'm not looking to run Street Fighter V on this thing) I've never been clear about how much more resource-hungry Big Box is over LaunchBox, so I'm looking to find out just how on the edge I am so I can direct my financial resources more intelligently - I see no point in buying the license before my PC is ready to handle it. So, you'll want specs to be able to answer this question I'm sure. The computer is a HP Compaq Elite 8000 SFF(got it on the cheap refurbished through Newegg). 80GB SSD(plus a 1TB USB HD for the ROMs), 4GB DDR3 RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo 8500 3.1GHz CPU, Nvidia GeForce GT610 GPU. I am looking to add another 4GB of RAM and a better GPU in the future - I suspect the RAM plus a GT1030 should alleviate the issues I have. Am I correct about this, or should I be putting my money into just replacing this thing? More immediately, will this handle Big Box okay, or would I need the upgrades first? If I'm good to go with Big Box, I wouldn't mind grabbing it to get the full functionality right away and just wait a bit longer to do the upgrades. Or, if the CPU is just too hopeless for this task, some advice on a cheap PC build that would adequately handle the level of gaming I desire of it would be nice. Thanks in advance for any advice that can be provided!

Okay, so... Since I needed to re-import several of my collections due to a mistake anyway, and it's been a while since any new advice was posted(no, I am NOT upset or criticizing - I understand that even under the current worldwide situation we all have personal lives to worry about), I decided to go nuclear and uninstall and reinstall Launchbox. Aaaaaand it worked. For the previous tips about removing the settings files to have not worked, but a complete reinstall to have the done the trick, something must have REALLY gotten borked during the initial installation, and I have nowhere near enough knowledge to speculate on how. So now I just need to worry about what route to take when it comes to hardware upgrades. I'm still uncertain if this PC is worth utilizing long-term and no one gave any advice in reply to my previous request.

Hardware IDs P1(I think): HID\VID_046D&PID_C52B&REV_2401&MI_01&Col02 HID\VID_046D&PID_C52B&MI_01&Col02 HID\VID_046D&UP:000C_U:0001 HID_DEVICE_SYSTEM_CONSUMER HID_DEVICE_UP:000C_U:0001 HID_DEVICE P2(I think): HID\VID_04F3&PID_01A4&REV_0917&MI_01&Col03 HID\VID_04F3&PID_01A4&MI_01&Col03 HID\VID_04F3&UP:000C_U:0001 HID_DEVICE_SYSTEM_CONSUMER HID_DEVICE_UP:000C_U:0001 HID_DEVICE I already tested the inputs as you recommend while troubleshooting(mentioned it in response to one of Retro808's posts - the one where I mention discovering my single miswired button on P2). That said, I checked it again anyway(because it never hurts to be sure!), and got the same results. No issues, no buttons from one side triggering on the other.

Got you three logs to look at - one just from booting it up after turning logging on, one from booting it up in a session during which I tried to map the controls(and left one button remapped on controller P2), then a third for starting it up after making those efforts. Debug 2020-03-24 09-49-01 PM.log Debug 2020-03-24 09-46-08 PM.log Debug 2020-03-24 09-44-42 PM.log

Windows IS recognizing them properly. Steam kept putting ITSELF in a mode to read generic controllers instead of XBox controllers despite me changing the settings.

Sadly that has made no difference on this matter - though it did appear that LB booted up slightly faster, so it did SOMETHING.

DS4Win used to be on this system prior to my choice to utilize it for this arcade box. I removed it when I decided to repurpose the unit. Seems the only option left to try is a complete reinstall of Launchbox.

Problem persists as before. Not gonna be fun when I finally grab Big Box if I can't even get this sorted on basic Launchbox.

I did attempt rebooting with only P1 plugged in - that was the one time I got Launchbox to recognize it. But since the Windows update(it was just a Defender update, not an overall system update) it's not worked. Based on timing it appears I edited in my new information while you were writing your reply, so I'll mention it again: I have solved the Steam side of the issue. For some reason Steam wasn't saving the setting when I told it to read the controllers as XBox controller inputs(which is what these encoders need to be properly read by Steam), so it was unable to properly read them. Don't know how I got it to save the setting, but once I did all was fine. Don't know if that will help figure this out, but it's more information that we had beforehand.

You would think if it was something flaky with the encoder I'd be having issues with the emulators. According to Windows, the only issue was with P2 controller - one of the buttons wasn't registering(never got far enough along in Launchbox mapping to have pushed it). A quick look under the panel reveals I had put the one of the leads for the button on the NC pin instead of the NO pin. Fixed that and it worked. Windows sees no issues with P1 controller. Checked everything in Launchbox again and it's still behaving as previously outlined. Windows (and Launchbox)does list both as "generic USB controller." Would them having the exact same name contribute to the issue in some way? I don't see how, but I've seen weirder issues with computers. EDIT: I have solved the Steam side of the issue - it wasn't saving a setting on how it's supposed to read the controller inputs(it needs to be set to XBox controller input to read these encoders properly). Not sure how I got it TO finally save the setting, but once it did everything worked fine. So we've just got this Launchbox issue to sort.

Yes, P1 almost never gets recognized by Launchbox(I had it recognize it ONCE while trying to troubleshoot - then Windows auto-rebooted for an update and it hasn't worked since). Individual emulators have no issue(so far). I've been launching the Steam games separately - decided testing Steam separately to make sure it's a different issue than with Launchbox would be wise. It seems to be it's own issue in recognizing things as I seem to be able to get it to PARTIALLY recognize the input I want semi-consistently. I'll be posting some inquiries for help over on Steam's forums later on. (unlike with Launchbox, the problems persist into the games launched on Steam, as well)

Okay, I tested this three times each way to ensure the following was consistent... If "Use All Attached Controllers" is selected, it will not register any arcade button input from either controller. If it is not, it will only recognize the P2 input regardless of which controller is connected. If both controllers are connected, it now refuses to register any inputs from them regardless of what the option is set to.

Yes. And at this exact moment it is not registering input from the P1 buttons even with the P2 controller disconnected.

Trying to configure the Launchbox controls so I don't have to use keyboard/mouse for everything. It doesn't register the P1 controls at all unless I unplug the P2 controls from their USB port. Sometimes not even then,.

Okay, I don't know what I did, but now Steam and Launchbox are both registering input from the P2 side of the control panel, but not the P1 side.

Okay, folks, got a genuine troubleshooting issue here... My Windows 10 PC can see my arcade buttons, and register them as a pair of generic USB controllers. Steam can see them, Launchbox can see them, everything can see them... But nothing will register button pushes when I try to map the controls. The basic mapping produces no results, either. I've double-checked the wiring, it's all correct. What do I need to look into to fix this? For reference sake, this is the button set I am using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TCCCFR7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 EDIT: I can verify that the buttons are definitely working. I've been able to get a couple of the emulators to recognize them during independent setup, but Launchbox and Steam still don't register inputs from them.