C-Beats

To my knowledge we don't have a DB API, nor is there really a need for one since all the DB information is local as well anyway

@Hifihedgehog Yeah I didn't look at any numbers I was just using the 110k that was mentioned. Even a million units compared to the number of potential machines we hit from Windows + Android is pretty small. Like I said, I'd love to be able to get LB on the Steam Deck, but Linux was NOT made to be dev friendly for anything with a GUI. GTK is pretty garbage compared to the SDK's on other operating systems, and WPF doesn't always play real nice with WINE and other compatibility layers. Not saying it will NEVER happen, just that porting to something that can run in SteamOS is NOT a small task and our time is pretty limited seeing how we only have 2 devs on staff.

Unfortunately China has a LOT of government sanctioned middle men in their network stack that can have a pretty huge impact on anything net related. We don't have a CDN and so don't have a server we can place in China to get around that. Unfortunately you may want to look into a VPN (if possible, I'm not sure what rules are regarding those where you live).

It isn't an application you'd have installed, It's the name of a service you would see in the service tab of Task Manager and is simple "nahimic" (without quotes)

Every time I've heard some one report something like this they have extra files in their data folder that don't belong. Most typically these are backup files put there by Skraper and breaks your install. I'd look in your \\LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\ folder and make sure you only have one file per platform in there and nothing that says "backup" in the file name.

Have to rebuild your logo image cache. Can do it in the "Image Cache" options inside of Big Box Options menu

Yeah. I understand where you're coming from. I have a deck pre-ordered as well I plan to fulfill and enjoy, and would love to be able to run Linux/Steam on it. I also don't really care for a lot of the decisions M$ tends to make with their OS. I would love to have more alternatives, and if the deck opens that possibility up I'm down for it. That being said, I think people are jumping a bit too hardcore onto a hype train at this point and are coming to conclusions that aren't completely founded in reality. I love enjoying the occasional pipe dream, imagining all the things that could be, but you need to do so responsibility because at some point you have to return to the real world. Just trying to make that return transition as painless as possible.

If that doesn't work you can simply delete the BigBoxSettings.xml file (or move it to desktop if you want to keep it) with Big Box closed, then reopen it and it will restore default settings for you.

Close Big Box and make sure it isn't in Task Manager at all then do the following: 1) Navigate to \\LaunchBox\Data\BigBoxSettings.xml and open the file 2) In the file you should see a line that says "<RequireHoldToBackToSystem>false</RequireHoldToBackToSystem>" (without quotes), replace that with "<RequireHoldToBackToSystem>true</RequireHoldToBackToSystem>" (without quotes) 3) Save and close the file 4) Open Big Box, escape functionality should be restored

Just do as it says. When at the root of whatever the top most view is (you'll know you're there because your back button no longer does anything) just press and hold the back button until the system menu appears.

Yes, You can install Windows on Steam Deck. Yes, You can run LaunchBox/Big Box on Windows ON Steam Deck. No, Windows is not actually supported on Steam Deck. No, the drivers on Steam Deck currently do not make Windows as solid to use as SteamOS. MAYBE, that will change in the future, but no one knows at this point.

Numbers are a hard thing for people to keep in perspective. 110k preorders SOUNDS like a lot but you need to keep some other statistics in mind when comparing that number. First off, that is number of pre-orders, NOT number of units successfully sold, produced, and shipped, so the number of affected users that would utilize a new product SOLELY for a Steam Deck is FAR less than 110k at this point. Another thing to note is how popular Linux is compared to the other operating systems we've shipped to. When talking about desktop OS user count, Windows boasts 1.5 BILLION users, which sounds MASSIVE, but then you look at mobile tech and Android operating systems reports 2.5 BILLION users. 110 THOUSAND starts to sound pretty abysmal... The fact of the matter is that Linux has last been reported to be a 3% market share of desktop operating systems. That number has been PRETTY consistent and while I think Valve is helping to bring light to Linux with it's SteamOS it isn't the FIRST time they've tried, and frankly fell flat. Linux has many short comings and is a pain to develop on for anything graphical (which is why most apps you see for it actually render using web tech and not native graphics tech like OpenGL or Vulkan). To write something that natively ran on Linux would require a complete rewrite of our application, an application that has been in development for almost a decade. To start completely over for a 3% market share and a machine that at MOST at this point has only a potential 110k units sold is a pretty hard sell. If we DID get a Linux build up and running it most certainly wouldn't be solely with the intent of releasing to the deck, Linux desktop user base is FAR larger than the number of users the deck will sell in it's lifetime, and we'd need to hit quite a few of those users for the work to be profitable.

MAME Controller configuration can be pretty annoying. If the controller used to configure the controls isn't on and connected when you start MAME again MAME clears your input settings. Need to make sure the same controller is used and is on BEFORE hitting play or this will happen every time. There are ways to potentially prevent this (like setting the file to read-only) but they all have negatives as well.

Would appear that the window that appears when entering that side bar view is failing to display properly. Try changing the side bar filter to "Platforms" then closing LaunchBox and re-opening it. If on re-open it still opens to "Games Missing Media" you can try the following: 1) Close LaunchBox, ensure the process is no longer in task manager 2) Navigate to \\LaunchBox\Settings\Data\Settings.xml 3) Open the file and remove the lines starting with "<SideBarField>" (without quotes) and "<SideBarValueId>" (without quotes) 4) Save the changes, close the file, and re-open LaunchBox

Locking this thread and it's turned into meaningless debate on whether we deserve to charge for our product and work. I'm grateful to those that are willing to pay for our products, without you none of this would be possible. That being said I can understand people wanting to get the most of their limited funds. If you don't feel the product is worth the cost of entry, then please do not make a purchase. It's why all of our products have a free version, to help you come to a conclusion that is right for you. That being said we have no plans on changing our business model any time soon so any discussion regarding doing so is pointless and will just cause a lot of unneeded hostility.

Again, the easiest way to find the duplicate is to navigate to the "All" side bar filter to see all your games at once (may need to turn it on via options) and use List View. You can then sort by Launchbox Games Database ID and see if maybe you have the same id assigned to multiple items and remove the entries you don't want. If you don't see any repeats there you could also sort by file in that same view to do the same and see where your duplicate entries are coming from.

You can't. You manually added the duplicate files, you will need to manually remove them as well. We have no way of knowing automatically which is the one you want to keep and would rather not automatically remove an item you may have intentionally added to your library in the way you did.

Item's can be marked as duplicates for several reasons: 1) You have another game in the same platform by the same name 2) You have another game entry that has the same LaunchBox GamesDatabase ID assigned 3) You have that same file imported elsewhere in your library It'll be far easier for you to find which case those games fall under if you audit your entire library, and not just the single platform. It WILL take FAR more time for the Audit window to populate because it's being used on your entire library though so be aware before you start down this endeavor. List view can also be used relative quickly (typically far faster than audit) to find out which case is the cause for the duplicate flag as well.

Not sure if they leak or not but I do know GIFs take up a pretty massive amount of memory compared to their file size. GIF files themselves save the first frame, then save data on what changes per frame. Because of how WPF works when loading a GIF it has to make a new image from every frame the GIF has (instead of just a differential) so GIFs take WAY more memory than even a standard video file would. Typically within LaunchBox you'd be better served to just play the GIF as a video than as a GIF.

Symlinks like Monkus stated would be the easiest way to do this. You can also just repoint all the media folders manually inside of LaunchBox, but we have no en masse way of doing this so you'd manually have to alter every media folder on every platform to do this.

Thanks for the update @invada. Glad you all got it resolved.

I would check your hardware decoding settings. Everything I've read suggests turning it off when having issues with graphics wash out with the Steam Link. Other then that I cant really say as I don't ever use it.

Did you put the password back into RetroArch after the upgrade? RetroArch in the past has had errors related to them not plugging code in to be executed when RetroArch is ran from command line vs the executable without any command arguments. It could be another similar issue to that. I've not personally had any issues logging into Cheevos since I did my upgrade though so I'm not entirely sure what's going on on your end.

Apologies @Starfox I did see the post but I don't use DOSBox enough to really offer up any help or suggestions. @Jason Carr knows far more about it than I do, maybe he can chime in and either provide a work around or let me know what all is needed to correct if this is a bug.