Jason Carr

Ha, yeah, "less than a week." Sorry for that. I guess I got carried away with the game details. I should get it into the next official version, though.

Alright guys, been a long time coming, admittedly, but I have a new version for testing. I've fixed a lot of the various issues with the game details popup (many of them involving game controllers). I've also implemented the promised "click the icon to show the game details" feature. Automatically showing the game details on selection or on hover are no longer the defaults, though they are still available to select under the View menu. If you can, please do test all modes, starting with both "Show on Hover" and "Show on Selection" unchecked, then test with the options checked. I did also add a close button to the popup, and fixed the star ratings click issue. I do, of course, have a lot more to do to add more features to the popup, but the goal of this beta version was just to get the concept down, mostly without flaws. Please let me know if you run into any issues, and how you like the default mode. Lastly, I'm not overly happy with the graphics/placement/whatever of the little "i" icon that shows the game details. I experimented with a bunch of things and just haven't yet found anything that I really like. So please do provide feedback on what I have and any suggestions as to the visual representation of the icon that shows the game details. Or, if anyone wants to take a stab at coming up with a graphic, I'd gladly take a look at it and credit you if we end up using it. Thanks again everyone, Jason

Hey miles, in fact, I have a working version in development with this feature. Check out the beta testing thread. Let me know if you want in on the beta testing and I'll add you to the group.

So, after toying around with things for a while and taking in other people's suggestions and such, my current plan is to change things up to just show a little tiny icon in the corner of the games, only when you hover. Then you can click on the icon to show the game details. I'm finding it just too annoying to have it always showing up everywhere. That should allow for more stuff to be added to the box as well, without being too intrusive. Hopefully I'll have a new beta with this implemented, out soon. I need to put out a new version shortly though to address a few minor bugs, so might not get everything (like game images on the details) into the next official version. Thanks guys.

Great idea RZenith. I'll look to see if I can get that added. And welcome to the forums.

Ah, yeah, wasn't letting you edit it after they had been replies. Try it now; it should work.

nmc, I've added you to the trusted members list, so you should have access to the beta downloads now.

Thanks, bd. Sorry, guys; I've been really busy with real work lately. Hoping to get back on stuff this week.

Hey bd; Origin and Uplay games should work fine if you just point LaunchBox to the EXE file. I would like to implement imports for them like Steam though, yeah.

Good to know, thanks Draven.

Armin, sure, makes sense. I tend to implement features by request, and that had not yet been requested. I'll look to add it soon. Thanks, Jason

For all following, Deathbringer122 is now Dexter. Dexter, I actually went and installed iTunes after all to take a look at it, and ended up experimenting with the drop down tab thing (was reminded how it worked). I do like the concept, but it turns out that I don't think it's great for LaunchBox at this point, partially because the LaunchBox box arts tend to be a bit larger than the iTunes cover arts do, and so it feels like you can't get enough on the screen. But also, the drop down animation is very important to implement it well (otherwise it just feels too clunky and confusing), and I can't really do that until we get going with DirectX. So it looks like that approach will at least have to be shelved until the DirectX interface overhaul. Still, that was a great suggestion. I particularly like it because stretching the entire width of the screen allows me plenty of space for pictures and everything else. But, alas, not gonna happen for the next version. So I'm back to the dilemma of space in the popups. I don't want to make them too big, and cover up too much stuff, but also would like the ability to add pictures and such. I'm not necessarily sold that another panel would solve the problem either, but I guess that's the next thing to try. For anyone confused on the iTunes thing, here's a screenshot:

Back to deathbringer, yes, I have some tweaks to make yet with the star ratings. The clicks won't work like that with the final version. The backup system should only keep a maximum of 10 backups; eventually, yes, I would like to add a configurable option there. Just didn't put it in from the start. The Backups folder would be a good idea as well, but I'll have to program that in. LaunchBox saves more often than you would think (like every time a game starts it's tracked), and a backup is made on every save. Your notes are and have been useful, so don't back down.

Hey guys; thanks for all the responses again. I'm toying with the concept of somehow docking the panel, though I haven't come up with anything I like yet. Deathbringer, glad the emulation stuff is working well. Fading it in would be nice of course but isn't an immediate priority. Animations like that will require a DirectX implementation of sorts, which is coming, but is still pretty far off. It does make sense to allow configuring of the hover time though; once we get the solution narrowed down we'll look to add stuff like that. Can you explain more of what you mean by the iTunes browser? I've seen iTunes before but don't have it installed for the moment and don't really want to install it. bd, the buttons are actually a pretty good idea; I can see that working well. Though I like having the ability to arrow key through the items and view the info as you go, so I'm a bit torn on it. I'd like to provide options for all this stuff but the more options I put in the longer everything is going to take, and I don't want it to get too convoluted either. I'll keep experimenting and see what comes out of it. The scraping and the joystick cursor (what you were seeing) haven't changed at all in the beta releases, so if they have issues, those issues existed in the previous version. The image issue you were seeing was most likely caused by connection/performance issues with TheGamesDB; I have seen that happen occasionally. The joystick issue is probably because you have a joystick configured (or something is pretending to be a joystick) that LaunchBox is picking up. You can turn off joystick/gamepad input in the Options dialog.

Here's a new version for testing. This version has options in the View menu for Show on Mouse Hover and Show on Select. It also fixes the click through issue and star ratings can now be clicked. Give it a try and let me know. I'm still torn on whether I like the concept of the details showing up next to the games, or if there should be a panel of sorts. A panel would be more work at this point, but might make for more flexibility. I'm also envisioning the ability to click on the developer, publisher, etc. and automatically filter on them. I think I'm going to focus on this one for a while, make sure we get it right, and might put it out as a 3.0 release.

I do like the images, though we might have some issues with spacing (things getting too big) for various sizes. I'll see what I can come up with.

Thanks Beresford, yeah, all noted. Close button is planned as well as a fix for clicking through. What is your opinion (and bd's) on doing it in a panel instead of an overlay like this?

All good points; I still need to download the description from TheGamesDB. And I haven't worked in the controller support yet, but I have modified it to show on selection. I'll get a new version up soon. Thanks guys.

Alright, attached is version 2.17 beta 1. It's not likely very close to the final 2.17 release, but I wanted to get some input, specifically on the new game details display within the games list. This download is only available for trusted forum members who have been around for a while, as I don't want this in the wild; the last thing I want is for a broken or less-than-ideal version of LaunchBox in widespread use. Please comment below if you'd like to request access. Simply download and copy the exe file into your LaunchBox folder to test (you can leave your proper release LaunchBox.exe file in place). However, it would still be wise to back up your entire LaunchBox folder just in case. First off, I'm still feeling out the new game details display. Please give it a try and let me know your thoughts and suggestions. I plan to significantly improve on it yet with editable star ratings and some sort of buttons for common operations. More importantly, though, do you like the feel of the mouse hover opening up the details? Should we show it only for selected items instead? Is it a problem that it hides the other surrounding games? Would it be a good idea to move them over (if possible)? The other changes are listed in the change log: emulation support for additional applications, automatic backups of the LaunchBox.xml file, and an update to the list of TheGamesDB.net platforms. Please feel free to test and comment on these as well. Thanks to all!

I think it'd be good to get a beta test group going. I've had help from a number of folks with the releases, but haven't come up with a good system for it (nor have I kept a list of people). Therefore, if you'd like to get early access to beta releases, please let me know in this thread and bookmark this forum post. I'll have a new version for testing posted here shortly. Brad's Edit: To update to the beta you can do it within LaunchBox in the options! You can also watch this tutorial to show you how to do it, it's really fast! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVAJHnMvWUw

Well no kidding, good find. Apparently I somehow left Nintendo GameCube off of my list of platform names to convert! That would explain why everything else was working well enough, but not GameCube. I'll definitely get that fixed for the next release. Still don't understand how I managed to miss it, considering I thought I copied and pasted the list from TheGamesDB. Oh well, now we can get it fixed.

I finally have the forum post up and stickied, and I made a main blog post for it and the list of emulator settings as well. Thanks again.

Sincro has graciously developed and contributed a tool to import metadata for MAME ROMs, either from MAME.dat or arcadehits.net. Eventually this functionality will likely be built into LaunchBox, but as for now, this tool should serve the purpose well: Download LaunchBox MAME Import Download MAME.dat Thanks to sincro for this awesome contribution! Feel free to make any suggestions or ask any questions, and either sincro or I will follow up.

Awesome, stickied. I changed the title just to make it grab people's attention better. I'll get a post up yet tonight.

Thanks bd!