Hifihedgehog

I guess the reason I’ve never bothered to voice an opinion on a feature like this is I fall in the camp of people who think that if I wouldn’t want my shire folk to see or play it, I probably shouldn’t be seeing or playing it myself. Now, if a VidAngel of sorts existed for games, I guess I would be more open to the idea except such a tool would be a coding nightmare to maintain or even to create to begin with. Then again, if such a thing even existed, we wouldn’t need even need a curated list at that point since we could just filter out objectionable content on the fly. That said, if others are interested, I can throw my vote behind it next round for the sake of those who want it.

Hey @Jason Carr! A RetroArch team member just reached out and has stated they have since softened their stance allowing the bundling of RetroArch and Libretro cores in commercial products. The biggest takeaway here is RetroArch could now be bundled in future releases of Launchbox! See here:

Wow, cool! Now that NVIDIA has enabled GPU passthrough in their latest driver, I might try beta testing this in a VM on my main arcade rig.

I share the same sentiments as Dan! This looks to be a huge UI upgrade so thank you! So judging by what @wallmachine showed above, does that mean we are beginning to get 2D grid wall view options akin to what gameOS has in Pegasus frontend (see below)? ?

You can also combine the game file sets with either CUE or GDI into CHDs so you have a single, slimmer file to deal with. I did this both with my Sega CD CUE romsets as well as with my Dreamcast romsets (GDI-based) which also had multiple files. It not only saved space but made file management a breeze. (I wish Wii U were this easy and not a labyrinth of files, but I digress...) I have a batch script I found online that I modified to that can combine most any .cue set into CHDs. I will update this post with the files once I track it down. EDIT: See attached. You should be able to run this within your ROM directory. Compared to the source version below, I had added a prep step to rename the .cue or .gdi to match the subfolder it resides in. This is so the name of the CHD that is subsequently created matches the folder, not the .cue or .gdi since some .cue or .gdi do not necessarily match their content names by default. The resulting CHDs is all you will need afterward. Depending on the game, you can might > 2X compression ratio (or less than half the size of the original files) which is really helpful in saving space if you are doing romset collect-a-thons. Source: Convert bin files, gdi files and cue files to CHD files for use with Launchbox / Retroarch (Saturn, Playstation, Dreamcast) – scunster.co.uk Compress CUEs and GDIs into CHDs.zip

One word of clarification. Moonlight uses XInput already so it works as along as you set up everything as XInput. Yes, if you set up x360ce in combination with White Knight, any DirectInput controller can be used as an XInput one. In fact, you can combine or join multiple controllers into one virtual controller as I explained above including wireless and Bluetooth ones. x360ce, in its latest releases, uses ViGEmBus so you no longer use DLLs but instead run the application and the virtual controllers are seen system wide. White Knight, though, is necessary again to eliminate the duplicate DirectInput button presses so only the XInput buttons presses are seen by other applications. A word of caution: don't use x360ce's HidGuardian implementation because it still has bugs needing to be worked out and doesn't work reliably. So Wii is actually the one console I have not gotten fully figured out yet for my setup and this as far as the Wiimote is concerned. I have a Wiimote but I have not gotten around to those details yet but will eventually. For Wii games that support GameCube controllers, though, I just use my XInput controls that are already set up for GameCube for those Wii games. That currently is the extent of my Dolphin setup.

In my case, I use XInput all around. I have my emulators (RetroArch, Dolphin, Cemu, Xenia) set up to use XInput, so I can switch interchangeably pretty easy since it is XInput no matter what and they are see them as Xbox controllers either way. I also set up x360ce (version 4.17.15.0) to convert DirectInput into XInput to merge/combine/overlap my physical cabinet controls and wireless gamepads. That is to say, I can use either my cabinet's pushbuttons and joysticks or turn on my wireless gamepads and play with them, or even use all at the same time interchangeably! I then hide their actual physical DirectInput from everything else but x360ce using White Knight to prevent ghost duplicate inputs from the DirectInput sources.

I've used GeForce Experience with Moonlight and it is one of the finest options because it was lag free and butter smooth and supports custom resolutions matching your device. You can set that up to stream across the internet through your router as well.

Node.js Virtual Gamepads View File GitHub link: https://github.com/hifihedgehog/node-virtual-gamepads Ever have friends over and was shy in the controller department? Have them connect to your local Wi-Fi network and access this handy dandy application! This Node.js application instantly transforms any smartphone, tablet, or other Internet browsing touchscreen device into a full-fledged gamepad controller simply by reaching a local web address. I stumbled on this neat little Node.js application on GitHub. (Credit goes to egemenertugrul and jehervy on GitHub for authoring this marvelous application.) Wanting to kick this killer app up a notch, I immediately went to task integrating some bits from the upstream Linux version into egemenertugrul's Windows branch in my own fork. As a result, I bumped up the maximum number of connected virtual controllers from 4 to 10. Eight-way Super Smash Bros. FTW! Submitter Hifihedgehog Submitted 03/22/2021 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins  

Download link: Ever have friends over and was shy in the controller department? Have them connect to your local Wi-Fi network and access this handy dandy application! This Node.js application instantly transforms any smartphone, tablet, or other Internet browsing touchscreen device into a full-fledged gamepad controller simply by reaching a local web address. I stumbled on this neat little Node.js application on GitHub. (Credit goes to egemenertugrul and jehervy on GitHub for authoring this marvelous application.) Wanting to kick this killer app up a notch, I immediately went to task integrating some bits from the upstream Linux version into egemenertugrul's Windows branch in my own fork. As a result, I bumped up the maximum number of connected virtual controllers from 4 to 10. Eight-way Super Smash Bros. FTW!

Wii? Easily. The Ryzen R1505G is essentially the embedded version of an Athlon 200GE, so all the ground rules for that processor would translate here. The 200GE easily emulates GameCube at 1080p so Wii should likewise be a walk in the park for its R1505G sibling. Wii U, on the other hard, would be a bit more touch-and-go but easier to emulate titles like Super Mario 3D World I believe should work here too. The R1505G would also be a hair off from the Athlon 3000G so this is also a good idea of what you might expect going in:

Deal link: NEW HP T640 Thin Client Ryzen R1505G 4GB 16GF - NO KB/MOUSE, NO OS INSTALLED | eBay Here is a spectacular eBay deal I have been wanting to pass along for the HP T640, or what you might say is an insanely low priced small form factor PC disguised as a thin client in the search results. Offers of $100 are automatically accepted by this eBay seller so do not make the mistake of hitting that Buy It Now! button. Save that $10 by sending a best offer of $100! This T640 (with its star-of-the-show, dual-core, four-threaded Ryzen R1505G APU, which is essentially the embedded version of an Athlon 200GE) is listed at $109.99 plus $14 shipping and handling to the continental US with international shipping also available. This 1.34-liter bantam-sized computer is a shoe-in for beginners and old timers alike who are looking for something both small and cheap on the extreme side of the size and pricing spectrum. No, this isn't a speed demon that is going to be chart topping Cinebench or 3DMark anytime soon but don't let that dissuade you: if you are looking for a mostly capable, ready-to-run mini PC or one with innards small enough to transplant into your latest arcade cabinet, this might just scratch that itch. This Ryzen-based killer deal is a clear step-up from a Raspberry Pi or similar SBC and it isn't slow as molasses like a Apollo Lake or Gemini Lake Pentium-based or (shudder) Cherry Trail Atom-based mini PC. At first glance, it may seem like not much coming with just the power adapter and only the barest of the bare necessities (a 4 GB DDR4 2400 MHz SODIMM and a 16 GB M.2 eMMC flash m.2 module), but here are some very powerful reasons you might consider this listing for your next arcade project: HDR via DisplayPort 1.4 works! HTPC for the cheap, ahoy! Thanks to the processor, the monitor outputs are actually DisplayPort 1.4, not 1.2, even though HP themselves has only "officially" certified them for DisplayPort 1.2. So grab an HDR-enabled DisplayPort 1.4-to-HDMI 2.0 adapter and you are golden. Long story short, I reached out to a ServeTheHome user who had claimed HDR wasn't working but he has since got the right adapter and, by golly, he verified the HDR actually does work like a charm! This bears quite the resemblance to the situation in 2018 with Ryzen 2000 APU's, which worked with HDMI 2.0 despite misleading motherboard certification inferring otherwise. Hardware encoding works with up to three 4K HEVC 10-bit streams at once. Take that, Synology and QNAP! Jellyfin works flawlessly for this purpose. And for the adventurous Linux user, Plex has been shown to do the same via this modified Docker image. Free upgrade to a premium 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 card, the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200. Really, for $100? Ordinarily, the T640 would come by default with just a wireless AC card, the Wireless-AC 9260, but ServeTheHome users were surprised to find out that they were treated to an upgrade of this zippier Wi-Fi 6 card. Did I also mention you can emulate GameCube games at full speed, upgrade the RAM via the two DDR4 SODIMM slots up to 64 GB, and upgrade the internal flash storage with a speedy NVMe or SATA-based M.2 SSD? Yes, double yes, and triple yes: all confirmed in this ServeTheHome forum thread. Here are the full official specifications from HP themselves for your immediate perusal. Besides the full array of USB 2.0, 3.1 Gen 1 and 3.1 Gen 2 ports (including USB-C!) and DisplayPorts, it even has an old-fashioned serial port that might come in handy for some crazy old-school accessory. I imagine you could get quite creative here with this and do some skillful transplanting. As it stands, the T640 is certainly way cheaper and not to mention more expandable and capable than the dinkier and pricier $333 SBC alternative from DFI. And it is certainly cheaper, smaller and with more USB ports than the ever-popular ASRock DeskMini barebones option, which you would additionally have to buy a processor, RAM, and SSD for, which would easily double if not triple the cost. So there you have it! As for myself, I am already in for two, with one for myself and one more for a family member who is leveling up from a sluggish Atom-based cloud storage system to a souped up Openmediavault NAS using this. Happy deal hunting!

I just bought a few more 14TB drives for $200 a pop at B&H. Most of the preexisting 14 TB drives I had are used right now for Plex (that's a whole other ball of wax), but I will be adding one 14TB drive to my desktop and two 14TB drives to my media server/HTPC and building my game collection. I have "only" around 2 TB in games right now but I will be making that a whole lot bigger soon.

No, unfortunately. It was the ISP side in my case. I can confirm that using a VPN shows that also fixes it. It was my ISP's security features that, luckily enough, can be turned off from the client end.

I found the fix! Because of a recent software update to our cable modem, Comcast had inadvertently reenabled their broken "Advanced" Security. My family had already disabled this because this security setting is well-documented to preemptively block safe content. This setting should never have enabled itself because the modem is in bridge mode to our Wi-Fi router so the setting was "technically" greyed out. Technically, that is, but actually, no. In reality, the firmware update had reenabled it even though that should never happen while in bridge mode. So we had to go into the modem settings, turn off bridge mode, toggle the advanced security to off, reenable bridge mode, and finally everything has been merrily working again. Hope this helps!

OK. Here is the scoop: Comcast is throttling LaunchBox's Games Database. I switched to a self-hosted VPN using my VPS (Outline VPN) and my download speeds suddenly skyrocketed. I will be reporting this to Comcast and requesting an immediate fix. As it stands, Comcast customers beware: Comcast may be throttling your LaunchBox Games Database downloads. ?

I have been noticing for the last week now that the LaunchBox Games Database has been going extremely slow. Downloading the platform videos and scrapping game content appears to be locked at a slow 1 Mbps or less. And even worse, sometimes the scrapper downloads will timeout and I will get errors. I know for a fact that it is not my 1 Gigabit Ethernet which is working marvelously for 4K Disney Plus downstream and equally so for my Plex Media Server upstream. I also noticed that accessing the Games Database site, which is presumably the web version serving the same content, is going equally slow. Is there a workaround to this so I am not waiting sometimes 5 minutes or more per game or worse it often just timing out so I don't have to restart a scraping session? The bottom line is the LaunchBox Games Database is going slower than molasses in January... and here we are still only in December. ?

Thanks to @arzoo's tremendous help, I got it working! After adding the mame.xml and mame cfg file and folder, I did one simple swap from JOYCODE_4 to JOYCODE_1 for player 1 and then made the controls for player 2 identical except for JOYCODE_2 and the LEDS came up perfectly! So it would seem that the JOYCODE_4 quick code mappings were a good starting point. They mostly followed the expected button numbering for a player 1 and 2 Xbox controller. For anyone wanting to replicate an Xinput controller experience on their cabinet, this is a great starting point. The debug log also proved helpful since I noticed the mappings expect JOYCODE_1 and JOYCODE_2 and the start/select button numbering matched what I expected for the Xbox controller setup. All in all, all's well that ends well. Amending what I sent along: Player 1 1-3 Button X = JOYCODE_1_BUTTON1 4-6 Button A = JOYCODE_1_BUTTON3 7-9 Button B = JOYCODE_1_BUTTON2 10-12 Button Y = JOYCODE_1_BUTTON4 13-15 Button LB= JOYCODE_1_BUTTON5 16-18 Button RB = JOYCODE_1_BUTTON6 19-21 Button LT = JOYCODE_1_BUTTON9 22-24 Button RT= JOYCODE_1_BUTTON10 25-27 Button Select / Coin = JOYCODE_1_SELECT 28-30 Button Start = JOYCODE_1_START 31-33 Button Guide / Home / Pause = JOYCODE_1_BUTTON11 Player 2 34-36 Button X = JOYCODE_2_BUTTON1 37-39 Button A = JOYCODE_2_BUTTON3 40-42 Button B = JOYCODE_2_BUTTON2 43-45 Button Y = JOYCODE_2_BUTTON4 46-48 Button LB = JOYCODE_2_BUTTON5 49-51 Button RB = JOYCODE_2_BUTTON6 52-54 Button LT = JOYCODE_2_BUTTON9 55-57 Button RT = JOYCODE_2_BUTTON10 58-60 Button Select / Coin = JOYCODE_2_ SELECT 61-63 Button Start = JOYCODE_2_ START

Given the uniqueness of my configuration, I am running into some unique roadblocks in getting the buttons and LEDs to tie together, so I am responding to your kind offer for help. As I had touched on, my setup is using two virtualized Xinput controllers that are meshed together my bartop cabinet's control interface. Hardware-wise, there are two Ultimarc Ultrastik 360 joysticks, one Xin-Mo Co XM-10 dual game controller interface and one PacLED64 controller. On the software front, I am using XOutput along with ViGEm and HidGuardian to resolve the four detected physical controllers into two virtual XBox 360 controllers (each controller is composed of one of Ultrastik 360 and one of the two controller on the Xin-Mo) and hide (with HidGuardian) the physical controllers from the rest of the system. I currently have the following completed in LEDBlinky. The first player 1 virtualized Xbox 360 controller was detected as JOYCODE_4 (using Quick Code) but the second is not detected by LEDBlinky. I can provide more button documentation as required. LED Ports | Physical Button | Detected button by LEDBlinky Player 1 1-3 Button X = JOYCODE_4_BUTTON1 4-6 Button A = JOYCODE_4_BUTTON3 7-9 Button B = JOYCODE_4_BUTTON2 10-12 Button Y = JOYCODE_4_BUTTON4 13-15 Button LB= JOYCODE_4_BUTTON5 16-18 Button RB = JOYCODE_4_BUTTON6 19-21 Button LT = JOYCODE_4_BUTTON9 22-24 Button RT= JOYCODE_4_BUTTON10 25-27 Button Select / Coin = JOYCODE_4_BUTTON7 28-30 Button Start = JOYCODE_4_BUTTON8 31-33 Button Guide / Home / Pause = none Player 2 (not detected) 34-36 Button X 37-39 Button A 40-42 Button B 43-45 Button Y 46-48 Button LB 49-51 Button RB 52-54 Button LT 55-57 Button RT 58-60 Button Select / Coin 61-63 Button Start Top: Front: Left side: Right side: Perspective:

Will do! EDIT: So what I am grappling at is even initial setup and this is after having gone through the video tutorials online and reading the manual. I will email you because I am bit at loss at how to do it.

Will do!

Digging into this now, I set up my controllers in Big Box but how do I set up the light to button mappings? I have a new RGB setup (PACLED64) and LEDBlinky needs to know which RGB LED trio goes with which controller and button. How do I set up the buttons in BigBox to know which XInput button goes with which LEDs? I have two virtual XInput controllers created via XOutput since I am having to combine two standalone analog joystick (Ultimarc Ultrastik 360) with a button encoder (Xin-Mo Co XM-10) to get two functional controllers across my repertoire of games. Maybe @arzoo can point me in the right direction? (I have full paid licenses to both LEDBlinky and Launchbox.)