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jacks897

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Posts posted by jacks897

  1. Hi,

    my gameplay images in bigbox appear very dark, when first loading they normal but after a split second they are then dark and hard to see like some kind of overlay is applied to the game play images.

    This is a new installation. This is the same for all games.

    Please see screenshots.

    How can I fix this so the gameplay images are clear?

     

    darkgameplay.png

    dark game play 2.png

  2. 6 hours ago, TinyTsuruta said:

    I like this, but I still want images at 1920x1080. Wondering what the impact would be on setting Run 1's New Dimension to 100% instead of 70%? My images folder is 156 GB! I was expecting around 75-100. 

    If you would like the images to be kept at original dimensions then skip the first run and proceed to run 2 and make sure dimensions are set to 100% you could probably then set  compression to 80% just be sure to keep a backup and make sure you are happy with the results :)

    • Like 1
  3. This is a guide focusing on how to mass optimise/compress LaunchBox images. Some images are several MB and take up a lot of space.

    This will also mean that the interface is more responsive. Before I did this my LaunchBox images took up over 60GB! After this process only 25GB with no noticeable loss of quality.

    STEP 1. BACKUP YOUR LAUNCHBOX IMAGES FOLDER!!!!! - very important as this tool will replace images rather than creating a copy.

    STEP 2. Download Mass Image Compressor from this link - https://sourceforge.net/projects/icompress/

    STEP 3. We will be performing 2 runs with the compressor tool. The first is to reduce the image dimensions of large images to 70%. The second is to compress the other images.

    STEP 4. Set directory to LaunchBox images directory then tick "Compress Images of All Child Directories" - BACKUP YOUR IMAGES FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        RUN 1 Settings 
        ----------------------
        Compression Parameters: 85%
        New Dimension in %: 70%
        Tick Compress if File Size Greater than 1MB

        RUN 2 Settings
        ----------------------
        Compression Parameters: 85%
        New Dimension in %: 100%
        Tick Compress if File Size Greater than 400KB

    This will result in a massive reduction in the size of your images folder and will optimise the images.

     

      

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 2
  4. Hi, my startup video and full screen videos in BigBox result in a black screen the first time they are played each launch. The second time they load ok.

    I'm using VLC as the video plugin, does anyone know what could be causing this?

     

  5. Does anyone know how to get the virtual key code for the Xbox One controller share button?

    I've tried the JoystickTest-1.ahk but it doesn't detect any key. I think because of xinput?

  6. The main selling point of this is wouldn't it be amazing if the next time you load a large windows game etc it loads very quickly because it has been moved automatically by LaunchBox.

    This would give LaunchBox a USP above even Steam or other launchers, because it would manage load times of games and storage based on what you are actually playing. Nothing else does that. Not even Windows. People would buy LaunchBox even for their Steam or Origin libraries just for the software SSHD functionality.

    Moreover, I don't even think this would be hard to achieve. It would need a background application that would manage the safe caching of games and a new field - cache-able to exclude game folders that are not moveable.

    Some games are over 100gb now, if a software application managed the efficient use of expensive SSD based on what is played it would be amazing! (and very niche and fitting to the moment with SSD being expensive and HD's at 12tb) I believe this is relatively easy to develop, it is the database and indexing of what can and can't be moved for Windows that would be the barrier but that could be easily achieved by the community. Also launcher compatibility, would symbolic links work?

    Maybe LaunchBox would keep the original copy where it is and if a game does not load after being moved then LaunchBox would automatically revert back to the original or the user could specify the game did not load and it would revert.

  7. Hi, I have thought of an idea but I am not sure whether it would be possible to implement. The idea is for LaunchBox to automatically move the most played games to fast SSD storage.

    The idea is that every time a game is launched, LaunchBox counts the number of times played. If the number of times played hits a threshold then the game is moved to an SSD storage for faster loading times. Think of it as a software version of an SSHD drive. This way the most played games are on SSD, perhaps after a few weeks of not playing they are automatically moved back to the slower HD.

    What do people think of this? Would it be worth putting in a feature request?

     

  8. Hi, I have 2 controllers connected to my pc, one is a wireless xbox one controller, the other is a wired xbox 360 controller.

    Whenever I play dos games using built in dosbox only my wired xbox 360 controller works but I want the wireless one to be the working default.

    Does anyone know how to change the default controller for dosbox?

  9. Hey, I would like to start BigBox minimized at windows startup. The idea is that it will load quickly but sit in the background minimized. I tried making a shortcut in the startup folder with minimized property but it doesn't start minimized. Does anyone know how to do this? Would be a great feature for speedy BigBox loading!

  10. Cool, thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I already have one of your packages L.A.P.D Future Cop so I will take a look at reverse engineering that, I never could get that game to run on modern systems, great game from my youth. :)

  11. Thanks, that sounds like a much better way of using the hdd's. Is there a way to convert an img hard drive to a vhd?

    i downloaded a copy of a Windows 98 image on Archive.org that was already configured for pcem, that's why I have an img file :)
     

  12. On 3/15/2019 at 10:42 PM, Zombeaver said:

    Personally, I don't use VirtualBox or Vmware. I use PCem for Windows 95 stuff and DOSBox Daum for 3.1 stuff. PCem supports emulated video acceleration up to a Voodoo 2, so it's good for games.

    In PCem (or really any environment) you basically just set your game up in your 95 environment and then add the game to the Windows startup folder, so that it'll launch on boot. Then I make a .bat that tells PCem to start directly into a specific config:

    PCem.exe --config ".\configs\Windows 95.cfg" --fullscreen

    Then I add the .bat to LB and voila. It boots into Windows 95 and then directly into the game.

    For 3.1 stuff, as I said I use DOSBox Daum. You can add a game to the Windows 3.1 WIN.INI file in the Windows folder, by adding it into the run= field:

    image.png.43a297aefd83149fd8472f4a1b4f64a0.pngThis is essentially the same thing as adding something to the startup folder in Windows 95. DOSBox starts, 3.1 boots, and as soon as it boots it goes straight into the game.

    Hey thanks for this, amazing work you do!

    Would that mean having a seperate image for each windows 95 with startup folder game or is there a way of using configs?

    If multiple windows 95 images need to be used, is there a small 95 image or a way of making one?

    Thanks dude!

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