SentaiBrad

As far as I know, Jason and I never discussed changing the name convention, but we are of course open to talking about it, however what we have now works. All my No-Intro sets work, unless the game doesn't exist on the LaunchBox Games Database. Compared to HS, we do things a bit differently. A game doesn't need to match exactly for it to be picked up on the database, but the closer it is the easier time it has finding it. During the import process it is very strict so that it doesn't give you the wrong images and metadata. When you edit a game, you can search that specific game to the database and pick from a drop down list of what it is. Anything inside of brackets or parenthesis is ignored when giving the game it's name within LaunchBox. So Legend of Zelda (U) would just be Legend of Zelda. However, multi-disc games will get parsed and combined and region identification happens as well. The is ignored when sorting games so a game with The at the start will get sorted in to the first letter of the next word. For scrap-ability, The being at the start will help to make it easier, but it's not required. Sometimes the games will still get found or you scan that game afterwards. We don't follow a specific convention except for the name of the game. With a few exceptions currently as the database needs a bit of work (Alternate names), but the name of the game is the name of the game and that's what the file or folder should be called (if you use the option to use the folder name as the game name). Clicking a game then using Ctrl + A to highlight them all then Tools -> Download Images and Metadata will update the highlighted games, but it's just as strict during import. Editing a game, clicking search and choosing the game is the more customizable way to do it. There are games from time to time where I change the rom name just to keep things easy. If you have any more questions then I would like to point you towards our YouTube channel that has tons of videos and tutorials, all of the tutorials created by myself, by clicking the Tutorials button at the top of the forums. Otherwise, if you have any other questions please feel free to ask or search around on the forums, we have tons and tons of threads.

Every day there is an updated that gets pushed out to LaunchBox users about the Metadata.xml, this is what holds the entire databases info. So as you know, games need to get approved to show up, but then also the update needs to get pushed out and then users then need to run a check against the database. LaunchBox will see the outdated file and update it before you try to scan for a games media and metadata. If that update didn't happen then LaunchBox doesn't know the game exists.

No, I understood, and I don't believe there is a setting related to this. The video does help though, it does explain a lot more easily. I will forward this to Jason, the developer for him to take a look at it. This might be new.

Were you messing with any settings recently? I don't know if this will help, but clear the cache in the Big Box Options menu and see if that does the trick. Which view of Big Box are you using, the default?

When you scroll the front box art changes...? Someone correct me if I am wrong, but that's not a feature. Can you give us a bit more info?

@Maddoc1007So are you just wanting to load demul in fullscreen? Because there is a check box under the video options that says "start in fullscreen". With that checked you should be good to go unless you're having more issues with it?

Something might be off, so I'll forward this to Jason. We've had other software edit the XML's before, and I do teach users how to replace the drive letters for broken links, so editing it does work. It works best when you start editing it with LB closed as well. So this might be a bit more labored than usual but, delete the game from LB and re-import it. Close down LaunchBox, input the ID in the DatabaseID field, save the XML and load up LB. I tried two things. I just tested this myself with the same method I just outlined. I edited "AD&D Slayer". First, I removed the number all together so the line looked like this: "<DatabaseID></DatabaseID>", saved the file, loaded up LB and it crashed right away. Went back to the XML, edited the line and added a number in there. I changed it from 3143 to 3130, saved the change and loaded up LB. I put in a random number, so it will probably lead to a random game, but the value was changed within LB. Unless you make backups or are meticulous though, the crash I had is the exact reason I only ever tell someone to edit the paths.

From my perspective your account seems totally fine, but I will let Jason know about this.

That would be a great request as well.

That's odd. If you've removed all of the media associated to the game, closed LB and set the ID manually it should then search after you boot back up. If you could make a bug report with the info you've provided to our BitBucket, we would appreciate it. Click the Issues/Requests button at the top.

o,O;; What was it?

If you are adding in an emulator that doesn't automatically populate any data for you, also go to the Associated Platforms tab and make sure to add the name of the system here as well and then check the default box. If you keep the names at default, so for example Nintendo Game Boy, you double click an empty spot under the name column, add Nintendo Game Boy, check the box and hit ok. When you import your games it will automatically assign them to that emulator.

You found the CD-i entry for it? I believe it's for PS1 as well. You can technically add in the ID if you manually edit the proper XML file. in ../LaunchBox/Data/Platforms/CD-i.xml (it could be named differently depending on what you named it), back up the XML and open it with Notepad++. Ctrl + F and search for the game. Follow an example from another entry that does has a LaunchBox Games Database ID attached to it and mimic that for this entry, but with the ID you found for it. What does happen when you edit the game and try searching, nothing or does an error come up? Edit: It's also worth noting that if you named the platform something different than the default, and did not use the Scrape As function, it may not scrape properly in most cases. So if you did name it something different, go to Tools -> Manage Platforms, open your CD-i platform and set the scrape as value and try again.

Time to take a break from Xcom 2.

Yea just shy of changing up emulators, I am not sure much more can be done given the keys required.

Then if this hasn't been requested on the BitBucket previously, then someone should probably add it so that it can get tracked. Click Issues/Requests at the top of the page. Don't forget to vote on it as well.

Well first, thank you for not getting mad or taking my post the wrong way, we certainly love discussion above anything else here, that's how we've come to some really awesome features. I was afraid my post was far too negative, but I certainly wanted to have the discussion. Controller Automation per platform or per emulator actually makes a ton of sense. I then wonder if Jason can make it so that you can put in a custom button for Controller Automation. I would not use RetroArch as an example because like I said, they have a controller automation type thing already integrated and you can map your hold button (Like Controller Automation), then utilize pretty much all of their functions that way. But an emulator like say, PCSX2. Set a global hold button, you enable controller automation for that emulator, (otherwise it can use the global controller automation the way it's set up now), you tell CA within LaunchBox that custom button (save state in the scenario) is F1, custom button 2 (save load) is F3, custom button 3 (save slot switch) is F2, then you map them to the buttons you want. You actually don't need to set Esc for controller automation, "Close out of active window" does exactly the same thing, but is actually more powerful as it is using a script to close the active window. Some emulators have a dialogue that pops up to confirm and you can either then use the button combination again on that popup to then have it all close, or some emulators let you disable that message. So that function is already built in and works with pretty much everything right now. So forgetting the menu (though I still do think that would be awesome too), controller automation expansion for custom set keys and controller automation per emulator basis is probably a very good idea! If you'd like to submit these two ideas in to the BitBucket they would make welcome additions. If you do submit them don't forget to vote on them. The BitBucket is the easiest way to track requests and bugs.

Are you trying to install your game from an ISO that you have mounted in software like Daemon Tools, or is your actual disc inside of your PC?

A menu that pops up, sure, in comparison that is not that hard, but if we were to hook in to different games and emulators, then its a lot harder than it should be. So maybe my mind jumped to the most difficult situation. If it's just a menu it can remind the user which buttons they've assigned to controller automation (this could be good functionality extension to the BigBox second screen experience for multi-screen users), since this system is more or less what you're asking about, minus the save state functionality. However, if you want LaunchBox to pass specific commands to an emulator, then the emulator would more than likely need to have focus, then a window that just pops up may not be the solution after all, which then would probably mean hooking in to display a menu and keep functionality intact (I could be over thinking it like usual). It just depends on the route. Controller automation is a lot like Xpadder but also utilizes AutoHotKey like scripts (if not directly AHK scripts) all sans a menu that tells you what's what. Obviously not the same scope as Xpadder as it's all about taking keyboard commands so that you can play games with no support for controllers, or to be able to map some common functions too. With Controller Automation and the very similar function within RetroArch (There is a hold button function that you can then use to do tons of other functions like save stating), I may be lost as to the why. The only difference here is that the request is for a menu, right? I also want to make sure I am understanding you as well. I just re-read your second post after writing that and I do think I understand more. It's like when you press F1 in RetroArch and have access to all those functions, except here all it is are shortcuts to the button combinations. With controller automation and built in emulator functions that can be performed for a controller (in this case RA), I am back to the question of why. Something like this does make me very very curious as hooking in to games and applications has been requested for a very long time to do various other features. Some people even asked if we could have a Steam In-Game like UI for things. That would be the only scenario where I think we could have a user activate the menu, use their controller to go down to any option, select it, and the function gets performed. I don't even think that Steam In-Game UI does that, I think they just have internal calls to other applications, like opening the Steam browser or their music player. What's throwing me off is the menu... what is functionally being done is already being done, but transitioning that in to a menu instead... Sorry if that's not what you expected. X_X I feel bad, it seems like I am just saying no, and I don't want you to think that I am just taking the idea and throwing it out; on the contrary. I am confused as to the why though. If anyone has any examples of something like this I would very much like to see them, this is something that is a curiosity to me now.

Don't worry about it. You're also welcome, if you need more help feel free to ask.

Please don't post specific links to websites from where you can get roms or bios, we sadly can't let users do that. Otherwise, if it's a No-Intro set, with a recent date, you're good to go. It shouldn't matter what site or torrent you grab it from necessarily. There won't be a no-intro set for every system, sometimes I'll grab TOSEC sets as well, but that will require more curation and sometimes some of the roms may not even work for some systems because they're more about preserving it at all costs. I don't think I've ever grabbed a Full Set in a very long time. There will be multiple versions of games, but only regional differences. You wont have 4 "bad rips", 3 hacked rips, 2 trainer rips, 5 good rips, 2 alternates, none of that BS.

No, there is no way to automatically do it in LaunchBox. So I assume you're downloading Full Sets, to make it a lot more simple download only No-Intro sets, it will reduce your clutter. Past that, I use the Windows Search function to delete sports titles by searching specific keywords. On some sets, if there are certain regions with names (like Germany and France), there's no way I'm probably gonna play those, so I just delete those lock stock and barrel. Otherwise, it's kind of a guessing game. I keep Japanese and European exclusive games, and everything else NTSC. I then also have all my Japanese translated roms that will generally replace the original Japanese rom. It doesn't take too long to go through a list when you know what to look for, and putting that folders view to details also helps so they're all in a row. Otherwise, there is also a rom delete function within LaunchBox. Once enabled, and you press delete on a rom, it will also ask you if you want to delete the rom file as well. I've just accepted the fact that I probably do have duplicates (though not as many since I started using No-Intro packs over a year ago), and if I do miss something after my first or second comb over, that I will just remove it from within LaunchBox. It's a lot easier than being obsessive about it, because I used to be that way and it is not really fun. I'm sure others have different methods, and I do think there is software out there than can help in this exact situation, but from what I have seen of software that will filter out roms like this is it was very very confusing to deal with, and in the long run it was simpler to just use the Windows Search, a quick pass through, then deal with it later if I come across anything.

Sweet.

So in my Sega Model 3, I only have 27 roms, and I don't think I removed 5 entries from within LB. All I did, was remove some earlier parent roms from within LB (I never removed any of the actual rom files) and kept the later child roms. If they turn out to not work, then I'll swap them later. Model 3 has a benefit of not having a ton of games, and what is there is still handled by the MAME Importer within LB if you want it to. The only "duplicate" I currently have is Daytona USA 2 Rev A and Daytona USA 2 Power Edition, but they're still different games technically...? Always go for the latest revisions of games (So Rev B stuff) as it usually fixes bugs, or go for the language you are most comfortable with because some child roms only change the language of the game (LB Also handles that as well). When it comes to a proper MAME set, I just let LaunchBox deal with it completely.

Yea, I didn't think to only remove the offending platforms, but it's also hard to say how much is there and how much is messed up now.