AstroBob

Version 13.17 - Released October 21st 2024 Release Summary Full Changelog: https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog Improvements: Optimized the fetching of RetroAchievement hashes to reduce API calls and prevent user timeouts. Disabled automatic ROM import for specific platforms in the Edit Platform window. Non-Steam Windows games now have the ability to scrape Steam media. Simplified plugin names for better clarity. Save Management support added for .MCR save files with RetroArch’s supported Sony PlayStation cores. Fixed: Updating MAME using the Full Set Import wizard now accurately updates the emulator name and folder to match the imported version Resolved some play time sync issues Corrected region sorting errors when combining games The RetroArch plugin no longer creates unnecessary save folders Game saves weren't always being detected on startup correctly Microsoft Xbox ISO files could fail to properly be identified using some import methods like the ROM Import Wizard Resolved an issue that prevented game changes made in the Game Details view from being persisted to the database The "Create Playlist" option in the quick filter now functions correctly when viewing "All" games on the sidebar The BIOS window for RetroArch should no longer take Dolphin and PCSX2 cores into consideration Multiple null reference exceptions that could occur under certain conditions Switching between Text List view to another view in Big Box would sometimes fail to load the correct information in the new view Adjusted download priorities from the Edit Game window for more accurate regional media selection from the LaunchBox Games Database Addressed an issue with the Game Discovery Center where some manually created server-side playlists were not being listed in random order Resolved a rare issue where the import process was not completed correctly Corrected the handling of relative paths for save and save state locations when manually modified in the RetroArch configuration file

Hi @CuzzinChizzy, thanks for the question here. This question was actually brought up in our recent AMA, so I'll defer to the official response we gave there. I'm also attaching the stream where we discussed this in a lot more detail (it's linked at the bottom at the correct timestamp for you) The question was: Are there any plans to allow LaunchBox to store mapping for each of my different controllers for navigation (A on Xbox controller vs. B on switch controller) We recognize the challenges posed by different controller layouts, particularly when transitioning between devices like an Xbox controller (where the “A” button is in one position) and a Switch controller (where the “B” button may occupy a similar position). These inconsistencies can make it difficult to navigate LaunchBox or Big Box fluidly, which can indeed impact the overall user experience. That said, creating a framework to manage multiple controller profiles and remap all of their inputs in a unified way is not something on our short-term plans. The main reason is that there are already external tools that do this very well, such as reWASD and X360CE, that provide robust solutions for controller remapping at a system-wide level. These programs allow users to create consistent controller profiles that are applied not only within LaunchBox or Big Box, but also across all applications and emulators on their system. By setting up these profiles at the controller level, users can ensure that each controller behaves the same way across all programs, making the need for specific in-app navigation mappings less critical. From our perspective, where we do feel we can make an improvement with controller mappings is within the emulators themselves, i.e configuring a controller mapping in LaunchBox, and having that be automatically applied to the emulator's configuration, negating the need for users to have to configure controllers separately via emulators. Hopefully this helps clarify our stance on this, but let me know if you have any further questions on the subject 😊

Hi @Daliant Thank you for your understanding. Hopefully, this helps clarify why we haven’t been able to address this in the past. As mentioned, the fundamental data structure of the Games Database presents some technical challenges that need to be resolved before we can begin exploring potential solutions. While we can’t make any promises about when or how a solution might emerge, we are actively considering our options and how best to move forward. In short, while we recognize the demand, there are still several hurdles to overcome, and we’re being cautious about setting any expectations, but rest assured we realise this is an issue and want to ensure we're being open and transparent with our community about it Thanks again for your understanding

@Arthurcoutinho600 Thank you for your additional questions. Although the topics you mentioned relate to different types of metadata, they all fall under the broader category of additions to the Games Database. Our approach to adding anything to the database remains the same as I outlined in my previous response and in the AMA: nothing is off the table, but we aim to strike a balance between adding useful content for the majority of users without overloading the database. While I can’t provide a specific ETA on specific fields or media types, we’re always considering what could be added to enhance the community’s experience. That said, custom fields for the Games Database specifically are highly unlikely, as they go against its original purpose. The database is intended to serve as a centrally structured resource from which users can pull consistent data. For any needs outside of that scope, we recommend using LaunchBox’s custom fields category, which allows you to add metadata specific to your personal setup. Custom image types for your specific builds could be an option in the future, but this wouldn't be at the games database level. We’re also exploring better ways to aggregate and prioritize which metadata and media types are most requested by the community. We realise that our current feature request process has is far from perfect, particularly when it comes to database additions, and we’re aiming to improve this workflow in the future.

@Buccaneer @SiriusVI thanks for the honest feedback. We really appreciate the insight here so will never be taken the wrong way 😊 I'll refer back to our AMA where we touched on performance, but to reiterate: we hear you loud and clear regarding performance concerns. While it can sometimes be subjective, if a user feels that LaunchBox is sluggish, that’s absolutely not the experience we want to deliver. As we continue to research what parts of the app might need reworking, rest assured that performance is very much at the top of our list, to ensure areas where we might have been blocked by technical debt can be resolved. That's not to say we can't do anything in the meantime, we will continue to work within the current framework to make improvements where we can. Internally, we’re also focused on finding short-term solutions. This includes how we can better support users who are experiencing performance issues, which can often be context-dependent. Some initial ideas include creating more detailed performance tuning guides, documentation, and FAQs to help users troubleshoot, as well as offering workflow recommendations to get the most out of LaunchBox. We’re also considering new ways to better diagnose performance issues in collaboration with users experiencing them. I realise this doesn’t resolve the issue as of today, but I hope it provides some insight into our short- and long-term strategies to tackle the problem. At the end of the day, we want you to enjoy your collections without the perception of performance getting in the way. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to discuss anything further. 😊

@Arthurcoutinho600 sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Please find my responses below 1. We don’t have immediate plans to officially integrate additional scrapers. However, with the new plugin framework we’ve introduced, it’s possible for someone to create a plugin for this. While it’s technically doable now, the new framework will make it much easier to manage. We’re also considering something similar for storefronts (allowing users to pick their preferred storefront as plugins), so scrapers could follow a similar approach. But for now, there are no concrete plans to officially add more scrapers. 2. We’ve heard this request a lot, and I agree it would be a great addition. We already support a few of those media types (like music and movies), but I assume you’re referring to additional categories like soundtracks or other movie types (e.g., commercials). This is definitely something we’re considering. We also touched on this during our AMA in response to a question about adding encyclopedic features, so please refer to our answer there for more detail. 3. I’d love to hear more about how you envision this feature. If you could elaborate on your idea, I’d really appreciate it. 4. We're continuously considering adding useful metadata to the database. We also touch on this in the 2 questions relating to adding new platforms and ESRB ratings, but the concept still applies to metadata and image types as well. The short answer is that we have to think carefully about what we add and make it useful for the majority of users. We realise that may leave out some use cases that are particularly important to some people, but it's a fine line to balance to stop the database from becoming bloated. I hope this helps clarify your questions! Feel free to reach out if you need further clarification or have more questions. 😊

Hi Folks, Thanks for the feedback. I wanted to provide some insight into this issue. We recognize that the current implementation of the games database is far from perfect. Currently, each LaunchBox instance comes with its own local copy of the database. This design choice was made early on to allow users the flexibility to add and modify metadata offline, particularly for setups like arcade cabinets that might not have internet access. While this has benefits, the downside is that every additional piece of metadata increases the size of the local database. Adding support for multiple languages would essentially double the database size for each language. That said, this is an issue we need to address. We’re proud of our global community and are committed to making LaunchBox as accessible as possible. However, the current games database structure doesn’t scale well, and reworking it is likely necessary to implement long-term solutions. During our recent AMA, we mentioned that we’re approaching a point where a full rewrite may be required to resolve these limitations. The games database is a key part of this initiative, and we’re actively exploring ways to future-proof LaunchBox and make it more accessible to our community. I totally understand this doesn’t solve the immediate issue, but I wanted to be transparent about how we view these challenges and what steps we’re considering to address them. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.

No worries, thanks for confirming. In that case, let's keep this thread focused on LaunchBox losing focus, if you want to open a new one for your specific crashes we'll be happy to follow up there. For this one though, to try and start narrowing things down we need a way to accurately reproduce this. For anyone experiencing this can you please confirm: How many monitors are you running in your setup What version of LaunchBox are you running Can you describe (to as best you can) the steps to reproduce this issue? If it seems to happen after closing a game, what kind of game (i.e Steam, an Emulator, etc) Does it appear to happen for all games, certain types of games (i.e only Steam), or it appears to happen randomly? I realise its hard due to the random nature of this, but if anyone can supply a screen recording of the issue in action, that would greatly help Let us know and we'll do our best to try and reproduce this on our side

Nice job with the script there, that is a very cool idea! To clarify, the LaunchBox Games DB doesn't contain any series information (even for arcade). The series info you see for arcade is coming from MAME, as MAME has a built-in function that generates a giant text file filled with a ton of info about all the games they support and we generate that file from MAME and use it to populate all metadata fields. The reason we don't populate the LaunchBox games DB with series information is that it is incredibly subjective (some people prefer the main series, others want each individual sub-series, and some want them both). So right now we leave it up to the user to define. That said, we could certainly do a better job of offering some ways for users to grab this info, and arguably it is a bit confusing that we fill it in for arcade (albeit via MAME) but not others. But great job on the script there, I haven't had a chance to test it myself but seems like it could fill a good use-case 🙌

Hi @schizophrenia Thank you for the great suggestion! Streaming your current gameplay in LaunchBox outside of Netplay-supported emulators is definitely a cool idea. However, at this time, we don’t have any plans to implement a feature like that. I can see how having a unified system within LaunchBox, seamlessly integrated, would be useful. However, the scope of such a project is quite large compared to other initiatives we’re focused on right now. Whenever there are existing systems out there that already do this (i.e Parsec, Steam Remote Play) we would want to ensure we're offering something that those systems don't do already. Additionally, the complexity of creating the infrastructure required for the streaming of gameplay is currently outside of our area of expertise. While it’s not off the table for the future, it’s not something we’re actively considering at the moment and if we were to attempt this, we'd more likely look to integrate with existing solutions. We’d also love to hear more ideas from others on how you envision such a system working—specifically, what features you think should be included that other solutions don’t offer, and how this would impact your workflow. It could be a cool idea for a community built plugin in the future. Thanks so much for the feedback though, we really appreciate it.

@Sbaby sorry to hear you're having these issues. I'd be happy to try and help get you sorted but I just want to ensure we're talking about the same issue here. The original poster's issue appears to be related to LaunchBox losing focus after closing a game, which results in them having to force quit LaunchBox. This issue you describe appears to relate to LaunchBox randomly freezing and needing to be force quit, rather than losing focus on the app (which results in needing to force quit). Apologies if I've misunderstood there, if you're having the same issue as the original poster then no worries, but if it's different let me know and we can break this out into a separate thread and try and get you sorted.

Hi @duerra sorry to hear you're still experiencing this, I realise this thread has been open for a while so I hope it's okay to take a step back and reconfirm some info here in case things have changed 1) What is the specific LaunchBox version you are running? 2) Can you reconfirm specifically what the issue is and the steps to reproduce it? The reason I ask is that it seemed to start out with an issue where after one of your monitors would disconnect, LaunchBox would lose focus and couldn't be brought back, but seems to have since turned into an issue where after closing a game, you're unable to regain focus on the app and need to force quit it. I realise it's tricky to consistently reproduce it, but when it does happen are you able to grab a screen recording so we can see the issue in action? Feel free to DM me a recording if you don't want to share it here. Keep me posted and we'll try to get you an answer as to why this is happening

Hey @retroernie, thanks for sharing your concerns. Like you, I also prefer having searchable documentation and everything in one central place. The main reason we haven’t done this in the past is due to the rapidly changing nature of emulation. While LaunchBox itself isn’t overly complex, the real power—and complexity—comes from the vast number of workflows that can be configured (emulation, media, metadata, plugins, etc.). Historically, we’ve leaned on YouTube to cover these workflows in-depth, which is why our videos tend to focus on specific themes or topics, showcasing a variety of features within LaunchBox. However, as you pointed out, these videos can quickly become outdated because of frequent updates to both emulators and LaunchBox itself. While forums and places like Reddit do provide useful information, I agree that it’s far from perfect and requires users to know exactly where and how to search to get the best results. That said, official documentation is something we’ve discussed internally. If we were to pursue this, it would require a significant rewrite of most of our content to ensure we’re presenting the most up-to-date workflows. Although we don’t have immediate plans for this right now, we are actively reassessing whether it’s a project we can undertake. We’re a small team, and most of our resources are focused on development, but I completely agree that an app that facilitates a level of complexity would benefit greatly from a centralized reference. I appreciate this doesn't resolve any of your immediate concerns, but I hope this helps clarify our thinking here, and we really appreciate your feedback.

As Joe mentioned, the issues are most likely to do with the Xemu emulator and its graphical settings, since LaunchBox does not have any control over that. As a Xemu user myself, a first point of call may be to try increasing Xemu's internal resolution. Depending on your monitor resolution, playing games at their native resolution can appear blocker on newer displays, so increasing that could be a good start. Be aware that Xbox emulation is still a bit rocky, so you'd need to have a PC that can handle it, but I personally run Xemu at 2x resolution which looks miles better over the native. If that doesn't help though, the Xemu Discord may be a good place to ask, as they will have experience with graphical settings. Their compatibility lists a few issues with this game specifically, but they will be able to clarify if what you're seeing is expected: 🔗 https://xemu.app/titles/504c0006/#Kingdom-Under-Fire-Heroes Hope you manage to get it sorted, keep us posted with how you get on

Hi @werter82 sorry to hear you're having issues with this, may I confirm a few things to try and narrow this down: - What is the directory where your WiiU games are located? - Where is the Cemu application located, and in LaunchBox, when configuring the Cemu emulator instance, what is the path to the application? - For your Wii U emulator entry in LaunchBox, what command line parameters are you using? (if any) - That error you're getting, is that coming from LaunchBox, or from Cemu? Let us know and we'll do our best to get you sorted

Hey @Eyebrows Cat AstrBob from the LB community team here. This specific issue you described was a bug that was addressed in LaunchBox 13.16, of which you can see the full release notes here. Fixed: Issue where launching a game in LaunchBox by pressing enter on the keyboard could inadvertently open two instances of the game under specific conditions I’m hoping this is the same issue you were referring to, and that updating your LaunchBox version is what fixed this, though if that is not the case please let me know. I appreciate it’s frustrating when things don’t work as expected. As we’re a community-driven platform, the community does their best to try and help people on the forum where they can. Thanks for your patience, and feel free to keep us posted if the issue persists!

@radio5 thanks for confirming the version, though can I confirm are getting the same error as the original poster (i.e Access to the path LaunchBox/Plugins/MAME/denied)? Or is yours referring to a different plugin? Also, where is your LaunchBox directory hosted? Is it on a cloud storage location like Google Drive or Dropbox, or somewhere else?

@radio5 sorry to hear you're still experiencing this, may I confirm what version of LaunchBox you are using? This should have been addressed as of 13.16. If you are already on the latest version on it's still happening let us know and we'll see if we can narrow this down. Cheers,

Hey everyone, As we wrap up September, we’ve got plenty of exciting updates and community highlights to share! 🎉 From new features to fantastic community contributions, September has been a busy and rewarding month for the LaunchBox team. Let’s dive into everything that went down! 🚀 TEAM UPDATES: Save Management Hits Early Access 💾 The biggest news of September is the arrival of save management features in LaunchBox 13.16. This feature allows you to organize your save games and save states effortlessly. Starting with RetroArch support, the feature will continue to expand to more emulators in future updates. Stay tuned as we continue to improve and evolve this feature! Check out the FAQ and live stream from our very own @AstroBob to learn more about this exciting new feature set. Big Box Updates 🎮 September brought exciting updates to Big Box! Explore curated online lists in the Game Discovery Center for fresh, seasonal game recommendations, and for free users, dive into Big Box with a 30-minute trial mode. Test out its immersive interface and features to see how it can transform your gaming experience! Check out the 13.16 release video below for more details: Celebration Event Prize Winners Announced 🎉🎁 We wrapped up our 11th Birthday Celebration by announcing the lucky winners of our prize giveaways! Prizes were sent out to participants worldwide, from gaming devices like the ROG Ally X to Steam keys and LaunchBox licenses. A huge thank you to everyone who joined in and made this event a success! AMA Responses Now Available! 💬 We officially posted the responses from our recent AMA with the LaunchBox team! 🎉 Dive into the answers to your burning questions about everything from new features to future plans. If you missed the live stream or want to catch up on all the insightful discussions, head over to the forum post to read the full responses. COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS: While our team has been hard at work, our community has been buzzing with activity. We’re actively exploring new ways to showcase these amazing contributions, and although it’s challenging to showcase absolutely everything, we wanted to highlight a few cool things that stood out this month. We’re actively thinking of ways to expand this and feature more of your fantastic work, so stay tuned for more highlights in the future! The Ultimate Arcade Build from DanielSpies Arcades 😱 This jaw-dropping custom build from DanielSpies Arcades has us all wanting to quit our day jobs and game full-time! 😍 Housing three major consoles and a custom PC powered by Big Box, it’s every retro gaming enthusiast’s dream setup. Truly a masterpiece of design and functionality—check it out for some serious inspiration! Video Marquees 🎞️ Speaking of arcade builds, if you want to add that extra bit of flair with video marquees for your favourite games, this awesome community submission from @stuartc49 has got you covered! 🔗 Check out the video marquees here Big Box Themes Looking to give your Big Box setup a stunning, modern overhaul? The ImMERSE theme from @IADhunter is the perfect choice! With its clean, minimalist design and smooth animations. Or if you prefer a sleek and simple design, Simple Elf from @kim_sama98 has got you covered. And finally, the updated Playtime theme from @DazStelfox79 puts the game Discovery Center front & centre, with this beautiful interface for discovering your next gaming gem. 💎 Platform Folder Icons 📁 Check out this interesting submission for adding a touch of visual flair beyond your LaunchBox setup! This custom pack from @retrospace lets you enhance your Windows file explorer with custom folder graphics, perfect for collectors who love to keep their game libraries organized with style. It’s a great way to add a unique touch to your collection! THIS MONTH: With October now upon us, it’s officially spooky season! 🎃👻 To celebrate, we’ve added a special Halloween-themed playlist to your Game Discovery Center in Big Box. Whether you’re in the mood for eerie adventures or chilling horror classics, this playlist has got you covered with a curated selection of games to get you into the Halloween spirit. Keep an eye out for more spooky updates throughout the month! 🎮 🕸️ What kind of content would you like to see showcased here? Let us know in the comments below! Happy gaming! Andy

Ooooh, good choice! This is still on my list to play, heard such great things about it. Vanillaware are masters when it comes to art style 🙌

Hey Folks! Let’s talk about something that often goes underappreciated in games: art styles! A good art style can completely transform a game and keep it looking fresh decades later. On the other hand, a bad art style can make a game age like… well, let’s just say Bubsy 3D, I’m looking at you... 🫥 With so many talented art creators in our community—be it themes, fan art, box art, and more—I know y’all have a keen eye for art styles. So, I pose a question to everyone: What is your favourite game art style? 🎨 Anything goes here! It could be from a specific game, an entire series, or even a whole console generation (any early polygon graphics fans in the house? 🙌). For me, it’s got to be the Mario Strikers series ⚽️ This art style blew my socks off when I first saw it. The intense, dynamic visuals perfectly captured the game’s energy and excitement, showcasing Mario and friends in a whole new light! I mean… just look at Luigi here! You’re telling me he couldn’t take on a haunted mansion with a bionic arm like that?! So, what are some of your favourite game art styles? Share them with us below. Game on, Andy

Hi Folks, I just wanted to let everyone know that this issue has been addressed in our latest beta release. You can find details on it below: Thanks for bearing with us while we got that fixed, please let us know If anyone is still having this issue on the beta

Hi Folks, For those still experiencing issues with save badges not appearing correctly, there is a new beta out where we've attempted to make this process more reliable. It would be great if you could give it a try and let us know if that resolves the issues you've been seeing.

@strigoimare thanks for the update there and sorry to hear you're still experiencing this issue. We're at a bit of a loss here as we haven't seen other reports of this specific issue since the release of 13.16. That said, the main difference I'm seeing between your build and other cases is that your hosting the build on a Google Drive location. While I'm sure it's worked well for you in the past, hosting LaunchBox builds on cloud storage directories can have all sorts of issues when it comes to the syncing service applying incorrect locks on specific files. It would be great to run a few tests to rule out if this might be causing access problems to the Dolphin plugin. If your build is small enough could you try: - Copying your LaunchBox folder to a directory that isn't on Google Drive - Deleting the Dolphin plugin directory - Open LaunchBox and test to see if you get the same access issues I realise that may not be possible if the build is large, in which case you don't need to copy the games, images, movies & manuals directories. It would be great to see if that works as it will help us narrow this down further. Let us know how you get on

Hi @Sbaby Thanks for the detailed insight into your use cases here, this is very much appreciated and provides a lot more context for our team. Many thanks for also updating the BitBucket ticket so we can refer to this. While I can't guarantee that this will be addressed, what's incredibly useful is the use cases you're describing. For example, the need to create an additional app to password protect a game, whereas that use-case would likely go away if we were to have the ability to password protect or implement a better way of hiding games (perhaps based on age rating or other criteria). I really appreciate you taking the time to write this up, and while I understand it's frustrating as this is an important feature for you, we want to make sure we're solving it in a way that not only addresses a sub-set of use-cases, but a bigger problem at large. But again, really appreciate the lengths and detail you've put into this, it's logged on our end and we'll make sure to refer to this if it becomes a priority in the future.