bd00

ERROR: System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (502) Bad Gateway. at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse() at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetNonFileStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials) at System.Xml.XmlUrlResolver.GetEntity(Uri absoluteUri, String role, Type ofObjectToReturn) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrlDelegate(Object xmlResolver) at System.Threading.CompressedStack.runTryCode(Object userData) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData) at System.Threading.CompressedStack.Run(CompressedStack compressedStack, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrl() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read() at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(String filename) at LaunchBox.TheGamesDb.GetDetails(Int32 id) at LaunchBox.AddEditForm.titleComboBox_SelectionChangeCommitted(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnSelectionChangeCommitted(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnSelectionChangeCommittedInternal(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) Happened while I had the 'Edit Game' window open. I was not doing anything in LB at the time. May of registered a scroll of the mouse wheel by mistake after failing to switch displays correctly. Unable to replicate.

I think what you are saying is exactly what I suggested. * Keep all original images. * Add an additional thumbnail of the front cover, just a simple resize to a standard size, no conversions. * Use the thumbnail for standard view (cached) * Use the originals when viewing full screen (only load on request) Does LB currently cache the back covers for the flip cover option? If so change this. I'm sure I suggested a while back to only cache what the user could see +change, but I think there was a reason why this couldn't be done here. It should be split into platforms really, this will solve the problem for many. Still have the option to view all games for people who prefer it, but if they have a large library they should expect some lag. But it's like that with anything really. Doing it this way, at least allows users, who don't mind having their library split into platforms, avoid the lag.

Also, people with libraries THAT big must have plenty of disk space, at least enough not to worry about an extra small thumbnail front cover.

I don't think you should remove the option for full size images period. I like the option to view the covers full screen, especially the back covers and I know other people would too. I understand this would be a perfect solution for you, but it needs to be an option if you take that path because I don't think people will like the "thumbnails or nothing" approach. Vector is no good for images like these, I still don't understand why you would consider it. Resizing images would not affect the import time much. It's pretty simple, quick and light on resources. You could even have it run simultaneously with the downloads. So why the next images are downloading, LB could also be resizing the last.

SentaiBrad said bd00 said Brad, could you not just have LB create thumbnails on import? Limit the size and only load full size images when viewing the covers. Would that not solve your problem? That could potentially, but I was trying to think of a method that wouldn't require another option. Not to mention I don't think we can scale the images on the fly, that would require them to be vectors and blow the ram usage out of the water. If you limit the size a bit at least you still get them and they can be capped on import. Unless we can come up with a RAM saving method with the slider we have now, but I still think that would require scaling on the fly. But thegamesdb only has one front cover per game, so if it is too large does LB just ignore it, leaving users without a cover? If not, then there is obviously some resizing going on on-the-fly. No need to convert images, just resize them to a standard resolution, like a max of 500x500 if required but leave the original as is for full screen viewing. I don't see why you need to convert images especially to vector, it doesn't make sense.

Brad, could you not just have LB create thumbnails on import? Limit the size and only load full size images when viewing the covers. Would that not solve your problem?

Vinicius256 said So I tested again today, redownloaded the beta, added a few N64 games and 1 PC game, same result, the .zip file contains everything needed, minus the .exe, I use Windows 7, could it be related to the problem? Better wait to some more input from the other testers before we jump to any conclusions though =P Same here, no exe. Everything else seems to work fine though.

Jason Carr said G'night, Vinicius. Can anyone else test for that EXE? Didn't have time last night to do any testing, but plan to do some today.

Conehead said Jason Carr said We will be looking into which emulators to include soon; I'll definitely take a look at the ones you've mentioned. does this mean that you will be using these emulators as a core for LB like in Openemu or just including it the package so that user can use it if he wants or not use it ? Maybe start by allowing LB to download emulators (from official source), unzipping them, storing them in a emu directory and linking the platform to them. Maybe even set some default command-line options (which can be changed by the user). Or create your own repository. This way, users don't have to have what they don't want (like your drop down list of platforms). Will keep your .exe size down too.

Jason Carr said Ah, sure, that would make sense. Though I think I'd rather use a metadata file per previous discussion. Bd, you'll notice that the new export process does automatically arrange all the games for the zip file, so I'm not really far off from an option to "consolidate game files". At this point I didn't add the metadata files, but that wouldn't be too hard. Just didn't yet see that compelling of a reason to do it at this point. Could also move the images into the game folder, which would make it an isolated set. Think that's worth doing? Yes I agree, just trying to determine what he meant. SentaiBrad said I personally think there is such a thing as over organizing. I'm not saying dump it all in a folder and go, but should it be complicated? I think an images folder and an XML file are fine enough. If you wanted to maybe split it all up by system? Though, I don't keep any of my games in the games folder, I just use LB as is in a folder and its points to everywhere else, so honestly I don't care how the data is stored. I just want to make sure there is no chance of it breaking, which the way it is now is hard to break unless you start deleting files. I agree, organizing can be taken too far to the point where data actually becomes less easily accessible. However, I still would like the images to be stored in a folder with the ROM file along with other things such as game music/manuals etc. all content relating to that game. Then a local scraper added to LaunchBox, that finds all this content in the games folder and adds it to the library. As it stands, images are over here, game manuals are over there, game configs & saves are here, game music is there. In the end I had remove all my game files away from all the other content to make adding games to LB bearable. I originally had everything organized in a logical, tidy and accessible manner, now it is all fractured. I have however fully committed to LaunchBox. I have all my ROM files organized in a ROM folder in the LB directory, emulators in an emulator directory, etc. I have even moved over Xpadder. I am now at the point where everything resides within the LB directory and it is fully portable. I even updated all my scripts so they work in a portable environment. I now sync this folder to other systems around the house, which all update automatically when I make any changes/additions. Joystick profiles, per-game configs, save games, etc. are all shared, so once set up, that is it for all systems and I start a game in on one system and save state it and continue in another room. I have set up the split platform libraries like you can see in the automation script I posted on another thread, which provides a better menu system for the HTPC's and improved performance for the less powerfull systems. The only problem I have is PC games, for obvious reasons. So i have a LB insatance outside of the main directory that is not synced between systems, but specific to that system. LB still links to that instance, but THAT instance is is different on each system. Not a major problem. Also, I have 4 brothers and next time I go home I will be taking the library on a HDD and setting it up on their systems. It is just a case of copying over the files and it is ready to go. It also makes it super easy to back everything up. The only problem is that if I ever had to set up LaunchBox again, all the previous scraped data is redundant. All my manual edits are gone. Everything needs to be scraped from TheGamesDB again and I have to add all my manual edits from scratch. This is why I urge the local scraper and better organization of other content. Also if I ever changed from LB to a different frontend, I would have to reorganize all my data again and everything would need scraping and setting up again. Think of the way XBMC does it. It scrapes the media's folder, looking for all content associated with the video. Images, nfo's, music, trailers, etc. Anything it doesn't find it then proceeds to scrape from the net. Once you have all the data in the directory, it is much faster to set up XBMC a second time. Or even set up a different media center, because your not left feeling like a prisoner - "It is too much work to reorganize everything, plus I will have to download EVERYTHING again."

Does he mean a container native to LaunchBox? That holds metadata, images, rom, etc. When LB opens it will still pass the normal rom file to the emulator.

Yeah sorry, ran out of space on Dropbox so migrating a lot of stuff to other accounts. Unfortunately that means all the stuff I had hosted on Dropbox needs updating, most stuff on LaunchBox forums included. All the images I posted in other threads that were hosted on Dropbox are missing too. I just need to get round to updating all the links, bloody nightmare. I will get to it, at some point. I tried to remove this thread temporarily until I get round to updating links on LB but I couldn't delete it, so I just removed everything. I suppose I could update this one link now, that won't kill me *EDIT* Done.

Cool

Yeah sure, makes sense.

pogowolf said bd00 said This is what I am doing. I have pretty much automated the process too. I just need to create a script that will pull the games from a specific platform out of the xml of the main instance and copy it into the platform instance [SNIP] I would be very interested in this setup! You can download the script and files here: https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/features/automated-platforms-split-script

I have created a script(s) that will automate the process of splitting your library into platform segments, with navigation between each segment. This will not replace your main LaunchBox instance which contains all your games, but rather extend it, allowing you to split up your collection into platforms. The best thing is, it will not affect your current instance of LaunchBox in any way and when the feature is added to LaunchBox natively, you can simply delete the folder containing the platform instances and it will be as if they were never there. No games, info, images, emulators, etc. will be affected in any way. NOTE: Only Windows OS is supported. Who might like this? People with large libraries who find LaunchBox sluggish. People with a HTPC setup. Anybody else who would like the added benefit of having a main menu where they can choose a platform. How it works: How-To in a nutshell: *Unzip SeperatePlatforms.zip *Copy Libraries folder to current LaunchBox Directory *Open "Add a new platform.bat" Script *Enter platform name (Must use exact name from your LaunchBox library. Read below for more info) *Wait a few seconds *Your Done! *Repeat for each platform. The zip file you will download contains 2 Instances of LaunchBox and a bunch of scripts. One instance of LaunchBox acts as a main menu where you will add each platform in your collection. This instance contains navigation back to your main LaunchBox instance (All Games) and will contain navigation to each of your platforms personal instances, once you add them. Sorry, but I could not automate this part, but I made it as easy as possible. The second instance of LaunchBox acts as a template and will be used when creating your new platform instances. The scripts are mostly batch files, but I had to turn to PowerShell to export the data from the current LaunchBox.xml and import it into the new LaunchBox.xml. First download the zip file from the bottom of this post and unzip it. Then copy the Libraries folder to the same folder your current LaunchBox.exe is located. It is essential that you put this directory in the correct place, otherwise it simply won't work. Now open the Libraries folder you just moved and open _TEMPLATE_ folder. Here you need to customize LaunchBox with your personal settings. These settings will be passed to every platform instance you add. Get this right now so you don't have to set it up individually for all your platforms later. Don't delete the navigation buttons or you will lose the navigation between platforms. Once you have everything set the way you like, exit LaunchBox. Navigate back to the Libraries directory and open the Add a new platform.bat and you will be greeted with a pop up box asking you to enter the name of the platform you wish to set up. Here you MUST enter the platform name EXACTLY like it is set in your current LaunchBox library. So if it is Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in LaunchBox you must enter Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in this box. Word for word, letter for letter, this is very important. Once you have entered the platform click OK. (Note: NEVER click the cancel button, even if you change your mind. All that will do is tell the script you don't have a platform name and it will continue anyway and copy an instance of LaunchBox directly into the folder you are currently in.) That's it your done! The scripts will do all work now. Just wait a few seconds and it will be ready. You will notice a new folder appear in the directory where you launched the script, named whatever platform you added. Open that folder and start LaunchBox. You should have all you games from that platform fully imported, game info, images, emulator and all. Repeat the last step for all your platforms. Once you have all your platform instances created, it is time to set up your main menu. Navigate to the Libraries directory and open the _Launcher_ folder. Open that instance of LaunchBox. You will see a exit button and an all games poster, this will take you to your main instance of LaunchBox where all your games are, but leave that for now. Add a new game. In the title field type the name of your platform and add an image for that platform. Then go down to Application Path and click the browse button. Here, you need to navigate to the _Navigation Scripts_ located in the libraries directory (there is also a Navigation Scripts folder in the _Launcher_ directory, but this is the WRONG one. In the correct _Navigation_Scripts_ folder you will see a handfull of .bat files named like your platforms. Choose the .bat file of the platform you are adding and click OK. Add any other info you wish in the Add Game window then click OK. That's it. Repeat this process for each platform you have. Unfortunately, you cannot just add another instance of LaunchBox to the application path. LaunchBox doesn't like having 2 instances open at the same time. So these scripts are need to kill the current instance and open the next and this allows you to navigate between each platform. Your Finished! Enjoy! What are these scripts doing? First, a copy of the template instance is copied and renamed to $platform. Then the template navigation script is copied and renamed to $platform. Then PowerShell takes over and parses the LaunchBox.xml file, matching any games that match the platform you entered. It takes all the results and creates a new xml file that is merged with the platform instance. It also outputs a series of text files that have the game ID's as their name. Then these txt files are used to match the image folders of that platforms artwork. The image folders are copied into the platform instance directory, then those txt files are deleted. Finished. The navigation scripts simply kill the current instance of LaunchBox and then load the next. Download Link: DOWNLOAD You may wish to add a link from your main (all games) LaunchBox to the main menu. To do this just add a game and point the application path to Libraries/_Launcher_/Navigation Scripts/_back_button.bat Screenshots: Enjoy!

Yeah sure. When he does I will just delete the folder with the extra instances.

pogowolf said True, some EMU's do leave little 'poopies' all over the place, isn't FB smart enough though not to try to import an image or an XML file as a game? though, you do make a good point, I will reset with filters tonight and see what happens. Do we know what FB is coding in? If I had a guess we're talking C# in visual studio. No, I had a major problem with this a while back. Jason added the option to only include a certain file type. It is limited to just 1 option at the min, so you may need to run the import a few times for each platform, if all your roms are not the same file type.

Lol. Like I said, I am making it all automated so anyone can set it up easily, within a few mins. It has navigation to get between instances too and it links to your main instance (All games) if you want to see everything together.

SentaiBrad said speaking of platforms.. I did notice that the first time I assigned a game a platform I needed to manually enter it (IE the list was blank) then all of a sudden there was a full list of platforms. =/ though, since LaunchBox uses the GamesDB so much for it's meta data, one nice thing would have the system just pop up, grab the list of platforms and place it the drop down.. if it doesn't already do that. Hmm. this seems to be what has happened to me, maybe it was not a copy Brad. pogowolf said Honestly, to solve your specific lag solution, I would use multiple LB instances. It is a portable program so its easily acheivable. I would create instances for Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Steam, then DOS etc etc. Split it up how it makes sense for you, but that would be a quick solution right now. This is what I am doing. I have pretty much automated the process too. I just need to create a script that will pull the games from a specific platform out of the xml of the main instance and copy it into the platform instance, then use the list of games copied to copy the image folders, therefore no repeated set-up. I also have a main menu instance that displays the platforms, which when opened, closes the main menu instance and opens the desired platform instance. I Have added back buttons to the platform instances to return to the main menu. I have almost got it all set up, and like I said it is all automated, with the only user input being choosing a platform. I will gladly share so anyone who wants do this can have it set up automatically in 10mins. The good thing is, everything is pulled from your main instance, so if you want to add games, add them to your main instance and run the script again to deploy to the platform instances. This way, when Jason adds a feature that makes this redundant, you have your full library ready and you can simply delete the folder containing the platform instances, without worrying about loosing anything or having to import your collection again. I will post some pictures when I get it all working so you can see what I mean.

SentaiBrad said bd00 said Hmm, I seem to be mistaken. Just created a new instance of LB and the platform list in edit game has gone. There was a list in the other instance that I did not create. I remember seeing Ouya and I definitely did not put that there. That's... odd. This was your existing LB config? Carried from beta or was it fresh with the new version? Yeah sorry, it was my bad. The instance was a copy of one I had been messing around with (not beta though). Still don't know how Ouya got on there though

Hmm, I seem to be mistaken. Just created a new instance of LB and the platform list in edit game has gone. There was a list in the other instance that I did not create. I remember seeing Ouya and I definitely did not put that there.

When editing a game individually, you have a drop-down menu with a selection of platforms. Can this be carried over to the import roms wizard?

When I open LB with full screen set, the windows taskbar is still visible. This only happened on 1 manchine, so I investigated further and discovered it happens when the taskbar is set to the sides (left and right).