[Importing and downloading images going really slow]

I've solved the speed issue by connecting to LB Amsterdam node using ExpressVPN. From ~150kbps to 8MBps right after the switch

[Saving Shader per Content Directory for game launched via Retroarch not working as expected]

After successfully setting up Mega Bezel project and setup Duimon's Mega Bezel pack, I then try to use different shader for different game content folder while using the same core. E.g. loading Game Boy game should apply Duimon GB shader Preset, while loading Game Boy Color game should apply Duimon GBC shader preset. I know RetroArch already support saving different shader preset per Content Directory (in addition to per Core and per Game), but the behaviour is different/not expected when launching it via LaunchBox.

Issues:

When trying to apply Save Shader > Save Content Directory option, game launched via Launchbox using RetroArch emulator will always saved as `Temp.slangp` under `retroarch/config/CORE_NAME/Temp.slangp`. This causes issue where all the game launched by this core will always use the same preset.

When trying to Load Content from RA emulator itself, saving the shader using the same `Save Content Directory` option will save the shader as `CONTENT_FOLDER_NAME.slangp` under `retroarch/config/EMULATOR_NAME/CONTENT_FOLDER_NAME.slangp`. When the game residing at that CONTENT_FOLDER_NAME is launched, RA will then load its `.slangp` file instead of a static `Temp.slangp` file.

 

One approach is of course using Additional App setting option for each game and run a batch file to copy the right .slangp file, but adding it to thousands of game is tedious and time consuming.

[How do I set up OpenBor in Launchbox?]

On 6/22/2020 at 5:26 PM, kurzih said:

Just tried some OpenBOR games. I don't really like making multiple exe to launch games - want to keep things as simple and as automated as possible.
I've done a quick & simple script if anyone's interested, until OpenBOR gets an update that will make this obsolete:

WARNING! This script will empty the default OpenBOR\Paks\ Directory each time it is run (and copy the PAK file you run from launchbox so there will always be just one PAK there). So you need to have all of your PAK files somewhere else to be copied from. Think the "OpenBOR\Paks\ " as a temporary directory from now on.

Make the script (with any text etc editor):
OPENBORSTART.BAT (put it in the same directory where you have the OpenBOR.exe - and make sure you don't have any Paks in the "temporary" Paks Directory - if you do, move them somewhere else to be imported by Launchbox):

##################
@echo off
del E:\Emulators\LaunchBox\Emulators\OpenBOR\Paks\* /Q
copy %1 E:\Emulators\LaunchBox\Emulators\OpenBOR\Paks\
OpenBOR.exe
exit
##################

(change the path to the ones you use to make the script find the files/directories)
 

Things to do in Launchbox:

1. Make the default emulator for OpenBOR point to the "OPENBORSTART.BAT" script and tick "hide console:
(and of course in "Associated Platforms" should have "OpenBOR" and default emulator ticked.)
 

2. Import the PAK-files as usual to launchbox, they will be identified (including their path) in the script with the "%1" mark. 

3. When executing a OpenBOR game from Launchbox the script will first empty the default "temporary" OpenBOR/Paks folder and copy the file you've imported to launchbox and start it automatically, since it is the only one present in the folder.

Hope you might find this useful!

Confirmed that this method still works in Launchbox 13.5 in 2023! Recommend to use this approach to make it automated!

[Fully Visualizing Controller Bindings in RetroArch (Keyboard Encoder, Physical Controller, RetroPad, Core Mapping)]

Who knew Controller Input could be 'this' interesting. Here's a visual guide on demystifying the relationship of Controller Bindings and its related concepts in RetroArch. Drew this myself to help me in the future in case I forgot. This is the setup I used in my current cabinet

Granted it's not complete but hope the gist is there! Drawing more arrows would further complicate stuffs

MAPPING.drawio.svg

[ThirdScreen Plugin for Platform Video Marquees, 3+ Screen Support, and more]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:05 PM, squallsoft said:

woukd it be possible to have elements overlay on top of each other? such as the clear logo ontop of gameplay video?

Yeap I reckon this feature will be awesome! Not all clear logo are designed in 21:9 aspect ratio and mostly just centered. I already imagine overlaying a clear logo ontop of a fanart background

[Arcade Player Control Information on Sub-Display (3.73 AR or 1920x515) Showcase]

tldr: This is for those that has additional sub-display with non-conventional aspect ratio (e.g. 3.73) and NOT 16:9 or 4:3 or 21:9 and wishes to display control information such as moveset for fighting games. Currently seeking for community sites and efforts to gather control information with such aspect ratio to expand the supported games.

You can find my curated widescreen images reordered to display relevant control information on sub-display with aspect ratio 3.73 (1920x515) or similar from my Github repo here . The file structure here follows the same structure that Launchbox used to store such image type.

 

Requirements

You had to first install MultiMonitor plugins for Launchbox. Then configure your second or third display to show Game Controls so that it will read the game control information for the selected game.

 

Motivation

The pictures scraped by Launchbox Games DB already contains multiple images for controls information for Arcade game stored in Arcade - Controls Information. However the aspect ratio is mixed and most of them (4:3) are not suitable to display on a sub-display (e.g. marquee display) with aspect ratio fo 3.73 or similar. Otherwise the text might look too small and the black side borders are too much. In fact many of those images are a generic black template with button actions such as the following pic which looks ugly (no offense 😅) on such an odd-ly wide LCD screen. It will display just as fine on a 16:9 monitor though.

 

As of present Launchbox still doesn't allowing user to select a default image for an image types with multiple images. It always display the first image with the smallest number, e.g. -01 or if multiple images are found. There is no option to modify the order such as random.

 

Monitor Display

The images that I reorderd are best viewed with a screen with aspect ratio of 3.73 (e.g. 1920x515) that is typical in most sub-display to show marquee, such as the NV126B5M-N42. You may easily find them on Taobao https://world.taobao.com/item/680221506574.htm? as well.

Picture of me mounting the NV126B5M-N42 LCD display to my Vewlix/Chewlix player panel. The spot used to be a white LED strip.

Ignore the left and right 'holes' next to the LCD screen 😁, as I'm now custom-ordering a custom-sized metal plate from China to cover it in my next phase of my arcade mod. The plate will be my next 'mod' to house additional controls of this awesome Chewlix/Vewlix cabinet.

The text on the moveset is also visible clearly with the LCD size.

Video Demo

https://youtu.be/en7EAzlzqxE

Method

I browse through the image scraped by Launchbox, and simply copy and rename the control information images that best list a moveset for an arcade game to -00. Since Launchbox always choses image with the smallest index number, it will use it instead of the different -01 image name that might contain 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio not ideal to be displayed on the sub-display.

The image were scraped on my full merged MAME 0.250 set.

 

How to Use

Simply clone my repo on Github https://github.com/garygan89/Widescreen-Arcade-Controls-Information-Images. Then copy and paste all those images with *00.jpg and *00.png into your LaunchBox\Images\Arcade\Arcade - Controls Information folder.

TODO

• Find more high quality images for more arcade games.