BeemanDev

It is there, original post says:- eg "Box - Back_Japan.jpg" => equivalent to being at "LB\Images\Atari 2600\Box - Back\Japan\Space Invaders.jpg" I've written code to do it now myself, using symlinks, can reverse process too. Injecting all the metadata in myself as LB importer did some things I didn't want, also Injects Game.xml/Platform.xml, copies Bezels to RetroArch, de-dups, lots of other stuff. Tested loads but yet to unleash on my real data. Temporarily side tracked, rewriting my MameSL importer I wrote a few years ago. Hopefully one day I can release it all, but don't hold your breath. This is revisit 3, over last decade to tame the emu beast.

Presence of file "LB\Games\<Platform>\Platform.xml" => using games in sub folders named "LBGameName [year]" as per current import option (year is optional). Platform.xml may also contain metadata used to override the LB platform metadata on first import. Can be used to add custom platforms Each Game sub-folder optionally contains a Game.xml file used to override metadata when the game is first added. File has <Game> tag with 1+ static fields (Completed, Developer, Favourite, Notes, Platform, Publisher,Rating, DatabaseID, WikipediaURL, Title, Version, Broken, Genre, ReleaseType, MaxPlayers, VideoUrl) (same as Game Tags in current LB\Data\Platforms\<platformName>.xml file). Can be used to add missing/custom games. Each game folder also contains all the media for that game named MediaType_SubFolder (Subfolder optional) eg "Box - Back_Japan.jpg" => equivalent to being at "LB\Images\Atari 2600\Box - Back\Japan\Space Invaders.jpg" --Example file structure @ C:\Emu\LaunchBox\Games\Atari 2600\Space Invaders [1980]\ Box - 3D.png Box - 3D-02.png Box - Back.jpg Box - Back_Hack.jpg Box - Back_Japan.jpg Box - Back-02.jpg Box - Front.jpg Box - Front_Hack.jpg Cart - Front.png Clear Logo.png Fanart - Background.jpg Game.xml Manual.pdf Screenshot - Gameplay.png Space Invaders (Hack).zip Space Invaders (Japan).zip Space Invaders (USA).zip Video.mp4 Video_Theme.mp4 Video_Trailer.mp4 Bezel.png So, why do this? .Games/Meta are self contained so easy to quickly drag & drop game(s) from PC to other PC/android with all data to easily recreate .Variants are auto-grouped together (as current with folders) .No confusion over which rom or media LB is actually linking to. Easier to see what's missing and add new media. .Game.xml file allows easy addition of missing platforms/games or media/meta packs to be shared. Platform.xml can be used to add new platforms. .Leaves existing naming structures intact, just bolts on to top as simpler (imho) alternative file structure. Code-wise should be a lot easier than current, as files are all prenamed so all guesswork is eliminated. Just needs media location function to handle new location alternative. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.

Hi some issues/suggestions regarding BezelProject integration 1) You could create the default bezel for each core by creating eg: ..\RetroArch\config\PCSX-ReARMed\PCSX-ReARMed.cfg to point to input_overlay = ":/overlays/Sony-PlayStation.cfg" input_overlay_opacity = "1.000000" Setting opacity in the core overlay means you don't have to inject it into every game.cfg file (a bit messy and hard to undo without editing every file) as they will inherit it (I tested it and it works). However I often set mine in the core.cfg to 0.4, but with them written into every game.cfg they get overriden, so I had to search/replace and remove them all. 2) I note you download then unzip the bezel project into:- ..\LaunchBox\Metadata\Temp\BezelProject\.. and then delete the zip. However the temp\BezelProject folder is also deleted when exiting LaunchBox, so when you re-run it to get more bezels it re-downloads the large zip from BezelProject again. Is there a way to persist these to avoid that? either keeping zip to be re-unzipped as needed or keeping the folder, maybe it could go in the cache folder. 3) A minor point I notice is that you keep the Bezel Project system names such as GC for GameCube as:- ..\RetroArch\overlays\GameBezels\GC\*.cfg/.png I set these up myself last year but retained the Launchbox system names so:- ..\RetroArch\overlays\GameBezels\Nintendo GameCube\*.cfg/.png I understand maybe this was done for consistency with BezelProject, but I see they also store the core bezel as:- ..\RetroArch\overlays\Nintendo-GameCube.cfg so there isn't really a naming convention as such. So also core default would be:- ..\RetroArch\overlays\Nintendo GameCube.cfg/.png I did actually store it in same folder as rest to keep it tidier:- ..\RetroArch\overlays\GameBezels\Nintendo GameCube\Nintendo GameCube.cfg/.png It makes it a bit easier to track down issues. 4) if anyone wants to upload the bezels to RetroArch on XBOne you need to search and replace 🙂 = ~ and / = \) in the ..\RetroArch\config\system\*.cfg files. eg:- ..\RetroArch\config\PCSX-ReARMed\Time Crisis (USA).cfg input_overlay = ":/overlays/GameBezels/PSX/Time Crisis (USA).cfg" changes to input_overlay = "~\overlays\GameBezels\PSX\Time Crisis (USA).cfg" I also recall when doing it on BigBox Android that I had to use a full path (was last year not rechecked):- input_overlay = "/storage/emulated/0/RetroArch/overlays/GameBezels/PSX/Time Crisis (USA).cfg"

I set my Servostiks up via Rocketlauncher a few years ago, makes such a difference. As a fairly recent LB convert, I am progressing through migrating stuff over. After about 20 mins, reading up on Blinky, I stumbled across this and wanted to say thanks. First thing I checked is the LB Metadata for games I know will vary:- Pac-Man = 4-Way Joystick (Joystick) 1941 = 8-Way Joystick (Joystick) Robotron = Double 8-Way Joysticks (Joystick) Bubble Bobble = Horizontal Joystick (Joystick) Defender = Vertical Joystick (Joystick) Atari 2600: Acid Drop = Atati Joystick (Joystick) For it to handle these variants it would need multiple comma seperated entries for the 4-way/8-way names in the config? Also it might be easier to config if the game controllerSupport entry just needed to contain a 4-way/8-way name? (so Robotron would match to "8-Way Joystick") Cheers

I notice rom Beat _Em & Eat _Em.zip will NOT match art Beat _Em & Eat _Em (USA).jpg Which bought me here. I anticipated that contents of parentheses would be stripped + subsequent trailing spaces trimmed first, from both comparators? Strangely if there are no special characters in name such as Bee-Ball.zip it will match Bee-Ball (USA).jpg Is this a bug in the matching code for names with both special characters AND parantheses? PS: I don't like the subfolders for countries it creates or the -01 suffixes, as it makes it less compatible with other front ends, so removed them all. I could just remove the country suffixes, but would then lose info.

Wow, very impressive. I too went down the emulation rabbit hole 7 years ago, trying to tame the beast. I wrote code for about a year to automatically configure Hyperspin/Rocketlauncher, match up artwork, audit everything, rename, write config files. Though it worked, and was very fast, after much optimisation, it was too awkward to use for a public release and abandoned once I'd used it to auto set up about 140 emulators. One day I'll revisit but in C# (preferred language) not powershell, which I (mistakenly) thought would be fun to learn at the time, which it was but just ends up messy and hard to maintain + no front end. Out of curiosity (and probably ignorance) can you not just use (memory/register) snapshots to avoid truedrive on c64? As well as dropping straight into the game? (been contemplating this for Spectrum games where Kempston needs turning on + key presses to get into game) What was the need for batch files for every game? sounds convoluted. I managed to tame the few Spectrum games by saving .opt files from Retroarch to save specific emulator settings per game, mainly to map gamepad to specific keys. I forsee in the quest for the holy grail of one front end to rule them all, it will end up having to be web based version of a (skinable) Big Box/Attract Mode front end. Then using filters or say loading a 'C64 Dreams 'playlist to self-curate from your favourite curators. I know there are web sites like thegamesdb that index games but afaik they don't have a nice web based UI or a way to launch games.

FYI, I ended up doing a totally clean install of Launchbox, then porting media from previous 'upgraded' install back into it + merging in old settings to new install using beyond compare, and so far it hasn't given this crash again. Bit of a pain, but so far so good.

Siunce upgrading to v12.4 from v11, whever I try to scan for new media or new roms I get crashes which say they have been reported to LaunchBox. I found a report from Nov 5th on this, but no fix as of yet? pad block corrupted App: LaunchBox Version: 12.4 Type: Org.BouncyCastle.Crypto.InvalidCipherTextException Site: Int32 PadCount(Byte[]) Source: BouncyCastle.Crypto at Org.BouncyCastle.Crypto.Paddings.Pkcs7Padding.PadCount(Byte[] input) at Org.BouncyCastle.Crypto.Paddings.PaddedBufferedBlockCipher.DoFinal(Byte[] out

I too have encountered this problem. I cloned my Launchbox to a second pc and set one to get art from LaunchBox and the other to get videos from emuMovies intending to merge them later. The Launchbox download is very slow but the EmuMovies one just stalls after a bit and never moves on. I see you say it's a problem with EmuMovies but you should at least add a 30 second timeout to your API call then move onto the next file, maybe pushing that one to the end of the queue and marking it as failed. I notice if I try to do one platform at a time it is a lot more successful, so it would seem better if LaunchBox similarly did one platform completely before moving onto the next, though I understand the caching queue would need to handle this.

EmuStation2LaunchBox.bat View File EmuStation2LaunchBox moves emulation station roms/images (from a pi image saved to drive) into LaunchBox folders. Then by using a pre-filled platforms.xml file, you can import the lot into LaunchBox with one command. I've set up most of the front ends over the years and usually automate it. There are loads of pi images available, just grab one, use a tool to extract to your hard drive and run this. Submitter BeemanDev Submitted 09/14/2021 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins