Jason Carr

Per 4x3, I just posted a solution here:

Per, 4x3, Unified Redux does work fine, sans for some stretching of the backgrounds and videos. It won't be ideal since none of the videos or backgrounds are designed for 4x3, but it should work. Here's an example screenshot: All you have to do to achieve this is to modify the LaunchBox\Themes\Unified Redux\ThemeSettings.xml file in a text editor. Simply remove the following line and then save the file: Force16X9AspectRatio>true</Force16X9AspectRatio> I believe this should also work for the other variants of Unified as well, including the original Unified theme.

The API changes do not yet allow for dynamically adding a bunch of menu items, so currently you'd have to create your own interface for this in a popup window of sorts. I may come back this request here relatively soon, but it will probably still be a while as I have quite a few large things to tackle on the shortlist. Unfortunately there's no proper way to cancel the game being launched, as of yet. You might be able to get away with some trickery (like temporarily removing the startup path), but that's probably not a good idea. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by having LaunchBox run the command instead of hooking into an internal Steam function; I don't see how those would be tied together. Can you explain? The overrideCommandLine parameter is used by LaunchBox if a game-specific command line is provided, which will override the emulator's command line parameters. This might be possible for you to hook into. It doesn't add additional parameters; it completely overrides the existing ones, but you could process the existing parameters, tweak them, and then send them back. Yeah, the version number stays the same in order to ensure effortless compatibility with previous plugins. That's the best way to do it in .NET; I just have to be careful to only add new interfaces and methods, and not change existing ones.

There currently isn't a way to exclude playlists from the All Playlists lists, unfortunately. I have been considering some options there though, so hopefully I can add that in soon. Most likely I'll add an option in Big Box to hide auto-generated playlists from the All Playlists view.

It uses whatever folders are specified for the platforms. These folders are changeable in Manage Platforms.

It is a bit tempting to play with, considering that a lot of the techs are already supported on Xbox. That said, it would be a significant effort to port LaunchBox or Big Box to UWP, and I'd have to put more research towards what all that entails. Generally, though, the main trouble with porting LaunchBox to other platforms is just that the number of people who would be interested usually doesn't make it worth the effort, and most people would rather see new features than new platforms. When it came to Linux, for example, the vast majority of people would prefer me to work on new features instead of porting it.

If it's not a settings issue, all I can figure is some kind of strange driver issue or incompatibility with VLC. You can switch to Windows Media Player while in Big Box, but the startup screens will continue to use VLC either way.

Oic. I didn't understand that it was only in VLC. You should be able to reset the VLC options. Try closing LaunchBox and Big Box and then deleting the LaunchBox\VLC folder. It will be recreated on restart. If that doesn't work, if you have VLC installed on your computer elsewhere, try uninstalling it and reinstalling it and specify to reset all the settings.

Not currently. Sorry my response is so late lol; I missed this thread somehow. I'm pretty sure it was like this in OG LaunchBox as well. We'll probably put an item on the next poll for list view quality of life improvements. Thanks Hap. Those indeed would be useful, though some of them may be a challenge based on what metadata is required from MAME and what logic is required to do the filtering. There is currently an issue where if you maximize LaunchBox and then close it, it won't remember the non-maximized position on the next launch. That said, it should always be coming up in the same spot that it closed down, maximized or not. If that's not working properly, I could use details on exactly what's happening. Per the image sizing in the game details not enlarging and reducing on a scale, that could be done in a custom theme, but I don't think that's likely to be a request that's common enough for us to tackle unfortunately. If it comes up again I'll take note though.

Nothing in the sound engine was changed for the past few releases, and we haven't received any other reports of it being an issue, so honestly I very much doubt that you're seeing an issue with LaunchBox or Big Box. Most likely this is some kind of driver issue, or maybe you have the wrong sound output device selected as your default device in the Windows sound options.

I think that's probably a fairly rare situation in the grand scheme of things, but yes, an exception should probably be made in that case, ideally maintaining the original aspect ratio. It's important to note that screenshots shouldn't really be refused if they don't obey these guidelines, unless there are other screenshots that exist that do. Any screenshots are better than no screenshots.

I could be wrong, but from the feedback I've received I don't think this has anything to do with LaunchBox. Noted. Probably can't make this a priority any time soon but we'll see if it comes up again.

I will take a look.

Can you give me a screenshot of what you mean? The background image will blow up to fill the screen while keeping the aspect ratio, so it might be by design. It tends to look bad when you stretch a 16:9 to 4:3.

Thanks for this; I'll get it fixed.

To be completely honest, I probably can't add that in any time soon, though I have wanted to change the code to stop creating folders so loosely (instead only create folders when something new goes in one instead of creating empty folders). It's not a high priority, but hopefully I can get to that eventually. The theme videos folder should always be inside the platform's video folder. There isn't an option for it because it's just always in the subfolder of that folder. Let me know if that's not working as expected.

I plan on looking at it, but it depends on how hairy it is to fix. I don't consider it a big issue, but I would like to get it fixed.

The first 9.3 beta is out:

Hey all, the first 9.3 beta is out with the following: - Improvement: Daphne emulators should now have "Hide Console Window" checked by default for better compatibility with the startup screens - Fixed: Rare and random null reference error when returning to LaunchBox from games - Fixed: Error when using the list view in LaunchBox and attempting to hide the sidebar - Fixed: Rare but potential null reference error auto-generating child playlists My intention with 9.3 is to fix some various bugs and then put out an official release relatively quickly. We won't see any new features for 9.3. I haven't seen any major emergency issues though with 9.2, so with the holidays it may be a bit before release.

Unfortunately not currently.

Merry Christmas. If 320x200 is indeed the correct screen resolution for the game, then a 320x200 screenshot would be favorable over a 320x240 screenshot. Ideally we would avoid screenshots with blurring or post processing due to upgraded resolutions. I can imagine it's not always easy to figure out though, especially when you're looking at 320x240 vs. 320x200. Honestly, it's probably not that big of a deal either way in that particular case.

LaunchBox does have a pin lock system, which might work well enough if you use arcade controls and don't allow access to a keyboard. Otherwise though, locking down all of Windows can be very difficult. Typically with an arcade board though you can just prevent certain keys from being pressed, like Alt+Tab, Start, etc.

Good to know; I hadn't discovered this. Yes, though if Steam isn't signed in the startup screen will just exit to the desktop, basically. You can batch edit all Steam games just by selecting them all and right-click Edit. Then you can disable the startup screens for all the games at once. Currently there isn't a way to define a default setting for Steam, unfortunately. Since every game is different, it wouldn't likely work out all that well anyways. PC games are a major challenge with startup screens just because every single game behaves differently.

Yup, you can just download it from there. That should be everything you need. Thanks again.

Yes, this is already available. Check out the LaunchBox\StartupThemes folder. I've heard this from one other person, but I haven't been able to replicate it as of yet. I think it must be a particular system configuration or something. For now, you might just have to turn off startup screens until we can get it figured out. I can't predict all of people's hacks that are in place, so I can't make every situation just magically work perfectly. Startup screens are a complicated mess of a feature, pretty much no matter what we do. I've done my best to make them work generically while not requiring a bunch of tinkering (and we've honestly made great strides in this area compared to previously available solutions), but there's no promises that everything will work perfectly in every situation. That said, I do have literally every emulator on my systems working perfectly with the startup screens, so they do work well with most configurations, and that was my goal. Merry Christmas everybody.