Whatscheiser

Awesome that looks promising. I just went ahead and grabbed the appimage, I had a little bit of a time getting it to launch at first though. libvlccore.so.9 packaged under /usr/lib/vlc/lib/ was missing its host dependency on Nobara (libidn.so.12). I had to download and install the libidn package through dnf. After that it starts up without worries. I haven't done much more in the way of messing around with it yet though. ::EDIT:: One other tweak that might be nice for portability/keeping things tidy is if it wrote a Home folder next to itself that contained all of the needed support files and folders. (such as Library, Themes,.cache,.net, *.json ...etc) ...it also took me a minute to realize adding categories and games was as simple as right-clicking on the library entry in the software (lol). I got it right away after I stumbled into it. 👍 ::EDIT2:: Alright I got to messing with it a little bit and my initial impressions are pretty positive. Honestly I think you've improved the metadata entry. The menus you have chosen are really efficient and easy to understand. Mostly. There are a couple of omissions to menus that Lutris has by default for things like setting a working directory. It's still achievable by using the menus you provide in the emulator profile and setting environment variables such as XDG_CONFIG_HOME followed by a path, but it might be nice to have certain common functions like that called out with its own entry box. The other thing I noticed that isn't really a problem so much as I'm just not used to it. When I add a category and then select a folder and the file type I want presented from that folder, it doesn't seem like a permanent association is made there. I get an entry but then I can right-click it and change it to something completely different in a different folder if I want to, and it'll just stay there and continue to function. Which there is nothing wrong with, I'm just so used to categories being forever linked to an assigned folder. It feels a bit like anarchy. lol Finally, the Home folder that I setup for the AppImage... I can't help but notice its making local copies of things from my game folders. .config for example contains a copy of my uzdoom.ini file that I had to set the aforementioned "XDG_CONFIG_HOME" variable for my script to find and read it when I launched that application. .local ends up with a copy of my uzdoom savegames. For smaller titles this isn't an issue, but I do have a bit of concern that larger games having files copied out to other folders may start to eat away at hard drive space for those with larger collections. Anyway, sorry I don't mean for all of this to sound like nitpicks. I actually really like what you have done and I intend to keep using it. I'm just trying to provide some useful feedback. Thanks!

Yeah hardware support for uncommon peripherals could definitely be an Achilles heel that I'm not considering. I'm coming from the viewpoint of just having the standard desktop PC that I want to game on. The Nobara distro that I mentioned is Fedora based, I will call out that my Printer doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with it. I mention that because on any distro I used that was based on Debian, (like Linux Mint or Ubuntu) my printer would tend to "just work". So the flavor of the code base that you choose to build off of might be more of a consideration if odds and ends hardware support is a concern. I think Debian tends to build more towards legacy support where Fedora is more forward focused. I don't have much insight outside of that experience though.

I don't know man. As someone who has been using it daily for the last six months and has given my Windows machine to my wife I have to say, switching has been pretty awesome. I didn't watch the video you posted because every techtuber always gives the same middle of the road "it's up to you" conclusion to everything they cover, so why bother? I've been using Nobara and between Valve's Proton and using GE-WINE and Proton builds through Lutris I haven't ran into anything I absolutely couldn't run (in terms of gaming). I run some pretty old games to. The type of games that running in full fat native Windows would also require mods and tweaking. Running them in Linux under WINE requires pretty much the exact same skill set. For productivity I dumped MS Office for Open Office. Honestly if I was bit younger I'd probably just be using the Google Suite in my web browser and not have missed a beat. I'm even still running my old Paint Shop Pro 7 and GTA Modding Tools, WACUP, all sorts of odds and ends through wine. I wouldn't describe it as remotely difficult. If you're not someone who isn't scared off by the shallowest of learning curves, you'll be fine.

I have the same experience. I actually really like ESDE and the customization is amazing if you're willing to get into just a little bit of scripting/skinning. Library build out is rough though. Especially for custom content. The built in metadata scanner really is pretty shit compared to LaunchBox. That said, it does mostly find what its looking for. ESDE is a competent BigBox replacement, no doubt. But I miss LaunchBox for the actual library build out side. I like using the GUI for that, I like seeing it take shape. It just feels like a more straight forward workflow. It was easy to look at how it works and understand it. ESDE is a bit of a mystery there by comparison until you really dig into it and experiment. Even though I do have a pretty good understanding of it now, building inside of it still feels a bit abstract compared to LaunchBox. Most of the actual library build out takes place in xml files and file folders. Fatigue sets in a bit faster when I'm doing custom libraries because so much of it is just juggling data and refining images outside of the actual software. Then I am launching it here and there just to see how its looking. It doesn't feel like assembly and curation in the same way LaunchBox does. LaunchBox could easily become the Linux go to just by making the curation process more straight forward and accessible than its competition. As usual in the Linux world, there isn't really anything out there that cares as much about UI and user experience as it does it's over all ability to function.

Yeah I have a few computers in my house. I'm half in and half out at the moment with Linux. I'm basically running it as my daily computer and I have yet to run across a game or emulator I can't get working on it. Honestly LaunchBox is the only application I don't want to run through a compatibility layer that I don't have a 1:1 replacement for. I've entertained some of the other frontends for Linux. The one that I really liked that felt nice to use was Pegasus, but nothing really exists that fully takes LaunchBox's place. Especially in terms of customization with options for launching apps and custom platforms. (At least not that I've managed to stumble into yet). Anyway. At this point LaunchBox is the only thing keeping me on Windows. I'd love to not be on Windows. ::EDIT:: Have to revise this a bit. I've started using the AppImage distribution of ES-DE. It's not quite as slick as LaunchBox in terms of structure but you can get pretty into the weeds customizing it and its fast. Especially with a little bit of scripting to utilize relative file paths and then pairing it with some other appimage packaged emulators, portability becomes really attainable. Just plop it on an external drive and go. At that point portability is mainly limited by the emulators themselves when you start getting into more modern platforms that want to look for folders containing DLC and whatnot. But if you're going basic retroarch, maybe some PS2... hell, even WINE. It's pretty good.

General disclaimer... I have no method that serves as a shortcut to make doing all of this a pleasant and quick experience. I'm just stubborn and I want all of my things in one front end so I've started in. Right now I'm using Metallica as sort of my template for how I will import the rest of the library. By template I mean I'm figuring out how I want everything to look, what images/data to pull. Variety in things like art and clear logos, etc. I'm using the combine games functionality to have individual tracks available within the software. Right-Click > Additional Apps > Select track. I have batch files for all of my FLAC files that I've ripped from CD. They point to the location on my NAS where they have been stored and launch the track or album via WACUP. At the same time it also launches Milk Drop 3 in full screen. This is nice inside of BigBox in the living room. It basically turns my TV into a huge visualizer for my audio files. I can close everything that's launched via a hotkey so it makes popping in and out of songs through the BigBox/LaunchBox software pretty seamless. You'll also notice that I have a music category setup to have multiple subs. I eventually want to add concert blu-ray's and music videos under this as well. Something like... Music ---Albums ---Concerts ---Videos Mainly just sharing because I think LaunchBox could be great as a music launcher. I'm aware of MusicBox but... I'm not really looking for LaunchBox to handle everything in app the way MusicBox does. I just want my library there with the ability to delegate what software interacts with it. It would be great if we could get the scrapers available in MusicBox within LaunchBox though. (that would make my life much easier, lol). Doing this as I am now, it will take a while to accomplish but, that's alright. I wouldn't say that spending an evening with a beer and a CD while I read articles and look at artwork associated with my favorite artists is an arduous task. ::EDIT:: Here are some BigBox views. Milk Drop 3 doing its thing.

Hey I'm just happy to know that its not just me! I appreciate you letting me know what the issue was, its no worries, I'll try out the default theme again on the next release. Thanks!

Triple posting for the solution. When opening the LaunchBox application, on launch, it changes an entry in "LaunchBox\LBThemes\Default\Views\GameDetailsView.xaml" In my old version of the software that displays the images correctly this entry looks like the following. (13.12) <!-- TOP BORDER IMAGE & ALL FALLBACKS --> <Grid> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition MinHeight="250" MaxHeight="450" Height="{Binding Converter={StaticResource Multiply}, ConverterParameter='0.5', ElementName=UserControl, Path=ActualWidth}" /> <RowDefinition Height="*"/> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid> <Grid.OpacityMask> <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="0,1"> <GradientStop Color="#BB000000" Offset="0.0"/> <GradientStop Color="#BB000000" Offset="0.7"/> <GradientStop Color="#00000000" Offset="1.0"/> </LinearGradientBrush> </Grid.OpacityMask> <Grid RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <Grid.Style> <Style TargetType="Grid"> <Setter Property="RenderTransform"> <Setter.Value> <ScaleTransform ScaleX="1.2" ScaleY="1.2"/> </Setter.Value> </Setter> <Setter Property="Opacity" Value="0"/> <Style.Triggers> <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Loaded"> <BeginStoryboard> <Storyboard> <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" Duration="0:0:1" BeginTime="0:0:0.2" To="1" /> <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Grid.RenderTransform).(ScaleTransform.ScaleX)" BeginTime="0:0:0.2" Duration="0:0:1" To="1.0"> <DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction> <CubicEase EasingMode="EaseOut"/> </DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction> </DoubleAnimation> <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Grid.RenderTransform).(ScaleTransform.ScaleY)" BeginTime="0:0:0.2" Duration="0:0:1" To="1.0"> <DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction> <CubicEase EasingMode="EaseOut"/> </DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction> </DoubleAnimation> </Storyboard> </BeginStoryboard> </EventTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </Grid.Style> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="Background" DataContext="{Binding Game}" ImageType="Backgrounds" Stretch="UniformToFill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <BitmapCache/> </coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> </coverFlow:FlowImage> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="ScreenshotGameplay" DataContext="{Binding Game}" ImageType="Screenshot - Gameplay" Stretch="UniformToFill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <BitmapCache/> </coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> <Style TargetType="coverFlow:FlowImage"> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="False"/> <Style.Triggers> <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding ElementName=Background, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="True"/> </DataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="OriginScreenshot" DataContext="{Binding Game}" ImageType="Origin Screenshot" Stretch="UniformToFill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <BitmapCache/> </coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> <Style TargetType="coverFlow:FlowImage"> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="False"/> <Style.Triggers> <MultiDataTrigger> <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=Background, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=ScreenshotGameplay, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="True"/> </MultiDataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="AmazonScreenshot" DataContext="{Binding Game}" ImageType="Amazon Screenshot" Stretch="UniformToFill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <BitmapCache/> </coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> <Style TargetType="coverFlow:FlowImage"> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="False"/> <Style.Triggers> <MultiDataTrigger> <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=Background, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=ScreenshotGameplay, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=OriginScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="True"/> </MultiDataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="GOGScreenshot" DataContext="{Binding Game}" ImageType="GOG Screenshot" Stretch="UniformToFill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <BitmapCache/> </coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> <Style TargetType="coverFlow:FlowImage"> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="False"/> <Style.Triggers> <MultiDataTrigger> <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=Background, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=ScreenshotGameplay, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=OriginScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=AmazonScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="True"/> </MultiDataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="EpicGamesScreenshot" DataContext="{Binding Game}" ImageType="Epic Games Screenshot" Stretch="UniformToFill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <BitmapCache/> </coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> <Style TargetType="coverFlow:FlowImage"> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="False"/> <Style.Triggers> <MultiDataTrigger> <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=Background, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=ScreenshotGameplay, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=OriginScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=AmazonScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=GOGScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="True"/> </MultiDataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="SteamScreenshot" DataContext="{Binding Game}" ImageType="Steam Screenshot" Stretch="UniformToFill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <BitmapCache/> </coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> <Style TargetType="coverFlow:FlowImage"> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="False"/> <Style.Triggers> <MultiDataTrigger> <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=Background, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=ScreenshotGameplay, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=OriginScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=AmazonScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=GOGScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=EpicGamesScreenshot, Path=HasImage}" Value="False"/> </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="LoadImage" Value="True"/> </MultiDataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage> </Grid> </Grid> However in 13.18 even if I have the the xaml file from 13.12 installed its instantly changed on launch to this... <!-- TOP BORDER IMAGE & ALL FALLBACKS --> <Grid> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition MinHeight="250" MaxHeight="450" Height="{Binding Converter={StaticResource Multiply}, ConverterParameter='0.5', ElementName=UserControl, Path=ActualWidth}" /> <RowDefinition Height="*"/> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid> <Grid.OpacityMask> <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="0,1"> <GradientStop Color="#BB000000" Offset="0.0"/> <GradientStop Color="#BB000000" Offset="0.7"/> <GradientStop Color="#00000000" Offset="1.0"/> </LinearGradientBrush> </Grid.OpacityMask> <Grid RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <Grid.Style> <Style TargetType="Grid"> <Setter Property="RenderTransform"> <Setter.Value> <ScaleTransform ScaleX="1.2" ScaleY="1.2"/> </Setter.Value> </Setter> <Setter Property="Opacity" Value="0"/> <Style.Triggers> <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Loaded"> <BeginStoryboard> <Storyboard> <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" Duration="0:0:1" BeginTime="0:0:0.2" To="1" /> <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Grid.RenderTransform).(ScaleTransform.ScaleX)" BeginTime="0:0:0.2" Duration="0:0:1" To="1.0"> <DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction> <CubicEase EasingMode="EaseOut"/> </DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction> </DoubleAnimation> <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Grid.RenderTransform).(ScaleTransform.ScaleY)" BeginTime="0:0:0.2" Duration="0:0:1" To="1.0"> <DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction> <CubicEase EasingMode="EaseOut"/> </DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction> </DoubleAnimation> </Storyboard> </BeginStoryboard> </EventTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </Grid.Style> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="Background" DataContext="{Binding Game}" ImageType="Steam Screenshot; Epic Games Screenshot; GOG Screenshot; Amazon Screenshot; Origin Screenshot; Screenshot - Gameplay; Backgrounds" Stretch="UniformToFill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.CachingHint="Cache"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> <BitmapCache/> </coverFlow:FlowImage.CacheMode> </coverFlow:FlowImage> </Grid> </Grid> Which to my uneducated eye looks like its probably faster to execute because its shorter, but it seems to have the side effect of borking my background images. To solve the issue in my build for now I just made a new skin folder titled 13.12 and copied the contents of the default skin from that older build into it. I applied it as the active skin and launchbox no longer messes with it when I open the software. My background images display correctly within gameview.

Well I've confirmed at least that the issue is with the Default theme. If I apply Default Plus or Old Default the images are correct. Once I switch back to the current Default the images go wacky again. I have an older version of the software that I'm running in the living room. Just for shits a gigs I grabbed the Default theme out of that build (13.12) and swapped it into 13.18. It didn't resolve anything though. I'm guessing there is an xml file somewhere that didn't get a correct value assigned when the software updated. I guess I need to track it down. ...I guess? Doesn't really makes sense given that the other themes don't have an issue. Its so weird.

I've done some looking around and haven't seen where anyone else seems to be bringing this up so... When I moved to 13.18 LaunchBox stopped using my Fanart Background images for the Game Details view. Instead its using Screen Shot Gameplay images. All of my images are still there and they have retained their names and folder structure just as they were before the update, but for some reason they've swapped. I'm using the Default theme for LaunchBox. BigBox doesn't seem to be having the issue. ::Edit:: Image for clarity.

Hello, I'm currently working on updating my media art for my Sega CD collection and I am noticing that the long jewel case model seems to distort any images I'm creating for the Sega CD. I'm basing the resolutions off of what I'm finding from original scans at SegaRetro.org ...It's only very slightly noticeable sometimes on front and back covers, but the spines are super squished. It became a little extra apparent recently when cleaning up the cover art for NHL '94. That spine contains a round NHL Official Product seal and, yeah its not round when viewed on that spine. It's become quite an oval. I've not had this issue with the DVD cover or box models. Just the long jewel cases. Resolution size for my spine is 208x2360 Which again, lines up pretty well with scanned artwork that I have from the original packaging. So I don't think I am producing an image that ratio wise would be something completely unexpected for the model to deal with. I'm wondering if there is a certain resolution size I need to be shooting for, or could it be possible to get that model to conform to the size of the image it is displaying? Which I believe is how the 3D boxes are setup. Thanks.

Just to chime in on this... because I'm glad I put two and two together before I relaunched the application and gave auto-import a chance to do its thing. I was editing one of my platforms and had need to change the file name of an .lnk file. I had LaunchBox open at the time so it prompted me with something like "A change was made in one of your game folders. Would you like LaunchBox to autoupdate ROM changes for you?" Which I'll admit did pique my interest so I clicked "Yes"... and then remembered the new feature and the "opt in" nature of it for existing installs. I checked, and sure enough the Auto-Import feature was enabled through that dialogue. To me there isn't enough there indicating what a user is opting in to. It asked if I wanted it to monitor existing folders and update changes I make, which actually would be pretty cool. What it doesn't say is that it may also add things I didn't intend or create more game folders for systems I don't actually have. The prompt given to a user that isn't following all of the updates doesn't really paint the entire picture of what they are agreeing to. Anyway, I didn't have any issues with it. Just wanted to point out how I could see it being an issue for folks who do not want the feature. I get pretty deep into the weeds customizing my libraries. The last thing I want is automation making changes I didn't intend to make.