Jump to content
LaunchBox Community Forums

Cyberbyte_010

Members
  • Posts

    4
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Cyberbyte_010's Achievements

1-Bit Wonder

1-Bit Wonder (1/7)

0

Reputation

  1. Hi. I've set up LaunchBox/BigBox at home for a while now, for family and friends when they bring the kids round. But a local after school/youth club near me has raised a suggestion that sounds like a good idea and wondering how to go bout it or if it's even possible. The suggestion was using a LaunchBox set up as part of the good behaviour reward program that they have set up. Good Behaviour/Good act in the community = Token with allotted time = Time on games = Good Behaviour. Bad Behaviour = Time taken away. Something like this was set up a while back for a Minecraft server in the past. What I'm aiming for, is some kind of programming/plugin/AutoHotKey that sits between selecting the game to play, and actually running the game, and doesn't allow progression unless the person inserts a token or NFC card, then the game runs, but there is a time limit in place, so when the timer runs out, controls are locked out and the game goes to pause that's in LaunchBox or exits the emulator. So is something like this possible to be integrated into LaunchBox via a plugin or script or something, or is this a idea that's good, but not possible? I know this is rather a niche idea, but worth asking.
  2. As u said, we can use the filter and the game controller lists to filter out what kind of controller your looking for and narrow down what games requires that kind of controller. And that works if your going into it, wanting to play a game with 'that' device in mind, i.e. the Balance Board. But that isn't the same as seeing badges, at a glance, while skimming a collection, finding a game u want to play, but finding out after loading the game that u need to dig out the Balance Board or something to do anything with it. And the badges system, while amazing, is made to be very general, and not drilling down to what kind of input device. For example, there's the Wiimote, Motion Plus. Nunchuk, and Balance Board, all in 1 category, Motion. All good in theory, they're all motion devices. But that 1 category corresponds to 1 badge, the motion badge. So the Motion badge, in the Wii's case, is pretty pointless, as the console and every game for it. is geared round motion. It doesn't actually tell u anything. Of course all this can be modified at a user level, and given my OCD, I probably will spend a weekend doing that lol. But I do think plugging the controller info into the games database, separating the Wii devices into their own category and badges, and badge for No. of players, would be a good quality of life update. and in the meantime, we have this amazing little tool to make them ourselves.
  3. This has a lot of promise. Think this would fit in more with the Wii. Remember on the back of Wii games, there was a icon for various user controls. Wiimote icon with a number of how many players for that game, a Nunchuk, Balance Board, Motion Plus and Wii Wheel Icons for those games that need them etc. If say there were Boolean values already built in, into the Wii metadata database (ie, Nunchuck/Balance Board = True/False) alongside the Player Count that's already there, would be so simple to plug the relevant icons in and away u go. That would have to be at the dev level, and not at a user customisation level though... Adding those custom values to every Wii game in a collection, let alone multiple collection, would be a pain....
  4. Voted, and I hope bezels gets the top vote. In saying that, I do have 2 ideas that may be suggested for the future. One idea that can be taken on board for the video tutorials schedule, and one for future development of LaunchBox. First Idea, A Video Tutorial, by the amazing ETA Prime, on how to do a Windows Unbranded Boot and replacement UI shell for LaunchBox/BigBox. This will show ppl how to make BigBox feel like it's own embedded system for an arcade or console experience. This would be helpful to ppl who are trying to do this sort of thing, but can't find any info bout it. I know there's the "Auto Start LaunchBox Or Big Box When Windows Starts - LaunchBox Tutorial" video done a while back, but that only scratches the surface of what can be done to make BigBox feel like it's own thing, instead of a normal program running on Windows. I tried finding info bout this, but it's not very documented on the internet, just bits here and there on forums etc. I had to piece it together myself, from what I know how McDonalds and shops do their POS systems, and Microsoft's dev docs website, and of course the LaunchBox forum. I've set things up for a friend on a computer so the Windows OS boot logo is replaced with the LaunchBox Rubiks cube logo, replace the Blue Screen of Death message with a Black Screen of Death message, disabled the welcome screen UI at first start up, and made 2 accounts, an admin account that has the normal Windows explorer.exe shell, and a BigBox account, that autologs in, and BigBox set as a replacement windows shell. For anyone interested, here's the Microsoft dev page detailing the guide on how to do this. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/enterprise/unbranded-boot Now it is documented on the Microsoft dev page, but a video tutorial is the better method of teaching things in my opinion. Less chance of ppl screwing up. Second Idea, Attempt to make it easier for Network shared builds, i.e. Native Support for Client/Server builds. Now I know there are numerous ways to achieve this and make workarounds, symbolic links, Syncthing, etc. And if u got it working as if by magic, there could be downsides like performance issues, as discussed on the forum post below back in 2018. But the idea of having some kind of central server and having LaunchBox, on a HTPC Games Console, or an Arcade Cabinet for example, direct itself to that central spot for its bits and bobs, or selective what is local and what is on the server, is getting more and more required and needed, every year that passes by. Every generation of game that passes by, the file sizes are getting bigger and bigger. Now, yes, we can compress these files into CHDs, compress into 7-Zip Archives, trimming and debloating the needless crap in disc based roms, get higher capacity HDDs/SSDs, use an amazing plugin on here that saves recently played games in its uncompressed form for quicker loading times, but all these are sticking plasters on a bigger problem. And this isn't even including the big elephant in LaunchBox, the Images folder. The image sizes that are downloaded can be all over the place, from low, to stupidly hi-res, and yes you can use a simple bit of software to trim and resize these images in bulk, but that method is not automatic, and doesn't address the main problem, the size. Not to mention the high costs to ppl on a metered internet connection, having to download images multiple times to make their Games Library builds look pretty, the very reason LaunchBox exists. If, and It's a big IF, bc the LaunchBox Devs work their asses off bringing us updates that makes things better and greater, but if the Devs can make LaunchBox have, say 2 modes of operation, client side and server side, and allow us, using a wizard for example, choose what folders are used on the network instead of local, adding cache support etc, I think that this kind of update, would unlock a massive amount of potential for LaunchBox. Maybe making LaunchBox the 'go to place' to organize someone's Game Library. Much like Plex for Movies, TV Shows etc. It's gonna be a ton of work, but I honestly think it will make it one of the best additions to LaunchBox.
×
×
  • Create New...