Jason Carr

Beta 2 is out now with the following: - Fixed: Scan for Added/Removed ROMs error with platforms list's All node selected - Fixed: LaunchBox sidebar counts were updating incorrectly with an active search - Fixed: LaunchBox sidebar counts were sometimes not showing up immediately for All, None, and Exists nodes - Fixed: Big Box was using the LaunchBox startup theme setting instead of the Big Box startup theme setting I've also been running between all kinds of other reported issues trying to fix everything I can, but everything else that I've attempted to tackle so far has either been a one-off issue, or some kind of driver bug, or something of that nature. At this point, I'm planning on letting this beta simmer over the weekend, and assuming all goes well, we'll put out the 9.3 bugfix release early next week.

Thank you @Lahma; I do understand what you're looking for now. That approach would definitely mess with the startup screens I think, even if we did get everything in place, especially since Steam closes out the process immediately. I did get Steam games working with the startup screens, but it's messy and doesn't always work well. So unfortunately, I don't think we're likely to find an ideal solution.

Ugh, I'm sorry to hear. It does sound like some kind of odd driver bug or glitch with Windows 10 1809. I know there are lots of people (including myself) running 1809 without any issues, so at this point I'm confident that it's some kind of a one-off issue. The first thing I would do is try updating all drivers. Make sure Windows Update is 100% up to date, and make sure you have the latest video drivers available. It's possible that somehow you're running a driver somewhere that isn't fully compatible with 1809.

Quick update per VLC 3.x. I've been working with original developer of the Meta.Vlc library, and he's helped us get VLC upgraded to 3.x. There are a number of issues though, including some serious audio stuttering during video transitions, which is basically a deal breaker if we can't get it fixed, but we ought to be able to figure it out in one way or another. The upgrade could also cause difficult to track down stability issues, so I'm shelving it for now, at least until the next release. I hope to revisit it soon. As for right now, I'm headed back to my list of fixes. I hope to put out 9.3 relatively soon, probably early next week.

Unfortunately I'll need specific examples of media not downloading. I've been through this quite a few times over with various situations and I've never actually found something that wasn't working, at least not without an explanation. Errors can certainly happen with the downloads due to the nature of the Internet, but they should be reported in the results.

I don't believe I've ever heard about any issues with the adjusting the sound volume in LaunchBox. Are you just having trouble moving the dial, or is the dial moving while the sound volume is not changing? Try using the mouse wheel while hovered over the dial.

Most likely this just happened because LaunchBox still had a process running in the background and needed to catch up. There is a period of time after a game is selected before the details load up. If this processing takes any significant time, for any reason, then you will see a delay. Are you referring to platform clear logos? LaunchBox still uses an internal list of platform clear logos. I don't think we're downloading them from anywhere at this point. I have this fixed for the next beta.

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: