Jason Carr

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!

Yup, awesome. Rowspan should be fine. Let's put it in Emulation. Thanks! I'll look into your test results in the other thread later tonight.

Okay, sure. I've noted it but unfortunately building in the auto-detection isn't a high priority for the moment.

Hmm, I'm curious to know what search criteria are causing an issue. I actually don't think I've seen that issue yet. Do you guys have an example? Are you able to replicate it? It's most likely an issue with TheGamesDB, yes, but I'd like to give them any information I can to help them get it fixed. I tried adding the platform to the end of the title search, but I seem to be getting worse results that way, unfortunately. I did do some testing with Cars 2 for Wii; if I do a ROM import with a ROM called Cars 2 and specify Nintendo Wii as the platform, it is finding the proper Cars 2 for Wii for me without a problem. It is possible that we have another localization issue or something that is causing differing results. Are either of you able to replicate the issue with an example? Kyber, what did you put in for platform when importing your ROMs?

Yup, I have a game details panel planned for the near future.

Sorry for the delay, bd; responded in the other post.

Thanks bd! That looks great. The only thing I would suggest, just to make it a tad bit easier to understand, is to copy the system column down to the next item when it's repeated (I couldn't figure out why there were entries without a system at first). But other than that it's perfect! Go ahead and make the post; I'll sticky it and put up a blog post. Thanks again.

Indeed.

Thanks kyber, good points.

Yes, I have that request on my list. For what it's worth, the filters already act as a search, but I realize the benefit of having a search box in the top menu bar, so I do plan to add this.

Yeah, I only just recently introduced ScummVM and wanted to get it out and working as quickly as possible. Obviously, I have some work to do to add further configuration. As far as the auto-detection, however, I was rather frustrated when building the integration with ScummVM because it appeared to me that there was no way to use the auto-detection outside of the native interface (not through the command line at least). If you happen to know how, do let me know. Otherwise, we might be stuck there; I couldn't find any information on auto-detection without using their GUI. I'll take a look at the aspect correction for the next release.

Hey kyberesh, thanks for joining us. I have a platform filter in place that tries to search TheGamesDB for only the platform that you've specified in the ROM import dialog (I do a search on common names and try to map them up to the proper platform on TheGamesDB). What were you putting into the Platform field for your imports? I can add them to my list; maybe you thought of something I didn't for your platform names? It sounds like what's happening is it's unable to determine the proper platform to use on TheGamesDB from the platform(s) that you've entered.

Sure, no problem. Hopefully I can get the post up today.

Thanks bd. It looks like everything that I would want on the list is covered.

That'd be great, bd, absolutely. I think the grid you have is perfect except we can remove anything that's not emulation (like BATCH and Windows Media Player). And then of course we just need to restructure the Command Line to put the file names on the end, and there's no need for the %file because LaunchBox automatically puts it at the end. I don't have an immediate need for the file extension, but we might as well keep it as I can see it being useful. Thank you! Feel free to make a new forum post with it; I can then make it sticky and put up a blog post about it.

Hey again teasea, bd00 made an awesome post here with a list of emulators and settings: https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/troubleshooting/problem-setting-an-emulator WinUAE is in the list. It looks like it should work if you put this in the command line parameters: -s use_gui=no -s gfx_fullscreen_amiga=true -0 I haven't tried it, but give it a shot and let us know if it works. If not, I'll dive in and see if I can figure it out.

Glad to hear it.

Hi Death, yes it uses the Windows Media Player functionality that's built in to Windows. It doesn't really use WMP, but it does use the underlying technology. In an effort to make it efficient and portable and such, I just used it internally in the app instead of firing off a separate music player. I hear you on the FLAC files and foobar2000; I use both as well for my music collection. Lately I've had the desire to be able to attach the entire game soundtracks to my games (most notably games I download from GOG.com that come with soundtracks). So sooner or later I'll want to somehow implement that, and I'll probably use an external player to do it (revamp what I have). Though of course unfortunately I have a lot of other more pressing things to do first. Thanks for the note; it's good to see you around on the forums. We're starting to get a small group of regulars going.

Thanks sincro. That's a great tool. Ultimately I'd like to integrate all of that into the main LaunchBox search somehow, but I need to plan out how it all should work with multiple search providers and the like, and it may be a while. This tool will serve the purpose just fine until then, for sure. I should probably create a sticky thread for this, and maybe a blog post too. Actually, would you mind posting a new thread about it and with the download? I can make it sticky after you post it. Or I can post it if you'd prefer; I just want to make sure that you get credit where it's due. Thanks again.