SentaiBrad

shinra358 said If you've already set up your launchbox with games and now want to move the whole thing somewhere else, how can you easily re-allocate everything without doing everything all over again if the games aren't in the launchbox folder? So lets use an example. I did this recently when I needed to consolidate roms. N:\Emulators\ And I moved it to F:\Emulator\ Close LB and open up your XML file with a decent text editor like Notepad++. Ctrl + F and find the replace function. The string of text that needs to be found is "N:\Emulators\" without the quotes, and it would need to be replaced with "F:\Emulator\". If all you are doing is changing Drive letters but the rest of the file structure is staying the same find "N:\" and replace it with "F:\". Make sure you keep the full drive path F:\ so that way a regular N isn't replaced with an F. Oh, and also make sure you use \ and not /. \ Is above enter and below backspace on QWERTY American keyboards.

Jason Carr said Thanks, Hippyshake. I organize my collection that way too (Windows, MS-DOS, etc.), so that's one thing I'd like to see too. Unfortunately, though, we're still somewhat limited by TheGamesDB, as they currently only have PC. I'm hoping that this all will be solved eventually with a new metadata/images system. Can't we do something post scan. Ask the user after its all done if they would like to rename or mass alter something from what was just edited? This could solve the problem. I import GOG games, let them all get found then when its done edit just those games system back to GOG?

Kriven said I have it installed to an external hdd, I don't understand the audio crackling question since the program doesn't have audio... no other audio has been crackling, though. At the time I made this query I only had imported my Steam library to the new install (I didn't update directly, because I am always wary of bugs... so I downloaded to a new directory and started over). That's 47 games. The problem seems to have fixed itself after I imported my NES library :-\ I'll post here again if it returns. LaunchBox can use Audio even if it isn't setup. I had an audio problem when ever I would watch or listen to stuff because of the Controller options for LB, thats why I ask. It also made LaunchBox lag really bad. Try giving LaunchBox more RAM and see if that helps. LaunchBox also relies on a decent HDD, so if its an external drive it could be performing poorly because of the USB interface. LB read's from the disc constantly for images. More images = more it has to read concurrently. Edit: Just read the other thread, yea your PC is technically powerful enough. Several months ago on a way earlier version I also had performance issues related to a corrupted image in the cache as well. I found that out when I tried to move my entire LB install and 3 images for a specific game didn't want to move because they were corrupted. I would also say, try an internal drive if you have one that isn't your OS drive.

Maddoc1007 said also on windows 8 microsoft did away with aero Right, thats why I said we don't run in to these problems. It's nice having people who use a wide range of OSes. xD Maybe one of these days I'll try loading LB on Linux.

Maddoc1007 said If there is a way that Jason could programme into Launchbox to make windows go to classic view when you open Launchbox like some of the emulators do i think that will solve the problems Ah, that explains why we don't get this, were on Windows 8. If I recall, can't you disable just Aero without going to classic shell?

Maddoc1007 said was on the official release picture 1 i posted, picture 2 only happened in the last 2 betas Ok, i'll specifically send him this thread, see if there is anything he can do. He did say that something on the backend changed... I am wondering if its related.

Maddoc1007 said Yes am on the latest beta Does it only happen during the Beta or on the official release 2 versions ago now? I am just asking to help Jason narrow down what could have been done. Other than that, do you happen to get any Error codes or just the odd visual effects? Now that I think about it, they're new visual effects xD. I get an odd one too. You know when you play an old game in fullscreen mode on your nice big monitor? It essentially lowers your resolution down to the games resolution and the game is nice and big on your screen? Imagine that but in a box in the top left corner of the screen. Everything gets big like the resolution changed for it, but its in a box... then LaunchBox closes. xD

Are you guys on the Betas?

Hippyshake said CliveBarker said Does Desura implement DRM to their games? It can be a good implementation, but I think Jason said that every game platform is kinda different and not everyone store your game IDs in your computer, I don't really know anything about this subject. So far we got Steam and that is a huge one, there is a small list of those who can be implemented but I don't know if its possible from a technical perspective, those are: -Desura -Origin client -Uplay -GOG Galaxy (its not even released yet, but since GOG is DRM-free I think it will be no problem in implementing an import feature) Oh, and Jason, you can send me those new resource files to my gmail or hotmail anytime! I'm not sure about Desura's DRM or database, but we can at least import installed games (the way Steam used to work within LaunchBox). I believe the default location is C:/Desura/Common As far as GOG goes, it might be worth talking with the company now about working together, while their client is still in its infancy. There is still a LOT of work to be done on Galaxy, and it's not even recognizing all of their own catalog at the moment (although it looks as if they've almost got that fixed). I can also drop a message on the forum if it would help. We have talked about every service in the past. If Desura has an API they offer up for free then it wouldn't be too hard. I do know that Desura games are handeled a bit more efficiently than Steam, so it might actually be easier. GOG is going to be a lot harder. I personally put all my GOG games in one folder so its just a matter of searching it, but I want to call it GOG and once it searches up it will be PC. The same could be done for Desura games I would assume... we would really only need a specific search for the games if we could launch it similar to how Steam currently does it which is handy. I would want that labeled Desura though, not Steam. Or.... back to our badge system Jason and I have been kicking around. A Gog, Steam and Desura badge could fix that all, and I wouldn't mind all of the games being in a PC category.

Kriven said I just updated to 4.7 this afternoon, and it is incredibly slow in comparison to the previous version. Clicking a game or navigating with the arrow key now takes several seconds to highlight the next game. The previous iteration moved to the next selection almost instantaneously. How big is your library, where is it installed, are you using more than the 512mb or RAM and do you have any other issues like audio crackling?

CliveBarker said Yeah, if the data at steamdb.info can't be used because of licensing reasons, we as community will have to fill those entries at TheGamesDB.net, I will do this for my game collection. One positive thing about this, is that you can upload your own screenshots and art and they will be used by other members. Yea, I added several dozen for DOS. It's a bit laborous. If you guys make additions to TGDB, we can pull that data off later. If we create our own DB, we could have users upload from directly in LB instead of a website.

Hippyshake said SentaiBrad said Saddly, I don't think steamdb.info can help... It might, but the problem isn't knowing the name, its picking the correct game from the two places we currently scrape games from. Perhaps a popup offering the user the option when a game with more than one similar title exists? For me, the problem exists with games that are not found in the TheGamesDB database. For example, trying to import the Daedalic adventure game "1954 Alcatraz" into Launchbox returns the choice of an Infogrames title from 1992 simply called "Alcatraz," or "Project Alcatraz" which, if I remember, is a third-person shooter published by 1C. Otherwise, it doesn't exist. Yet, it's found easily on Steamdb.info. It's found there because it's most likely the only canidate where-as the scrapers we currently use have to attempt a catch all. Ultimatly if we can use something like SteamDB as a scraper, that could be a good idea but we need to make sure its something we can use and download through LB with fair use. It's the reason we only have two locations right now and thats because they offer up their data completely free under their license. It's a hard fact we have to deal with. :( Curiously, is it found correctly on Wikipedia? Again, there isn't too much we can do to narrow it down. When it comes down to it we can make exceptions, like the accented e on Pokemon, so that it's searched correctly; But essentially making it go the other direction is a lot harder.

CliveBarker said Of course SentaiBrad, there is a specific issue with Early Access, Beta, and GOTY/Speacial editions of Steam games, all those are not being flagged correctly. Also with newer releases, some of them have this issue. Edit: Yeah, I noticed that in some cases, where a game has a name that is almost the same as another game, sometimes it takes the wrong choices, at the end of the day, I understand that the construction of the new database will need a lot of community participation, don't get me wrong, this is not a complain, I was just curious if steamdb.info can help with this cases. Saddly, I don't think steamdb.info can help... It might, but the problem isn't knowing the name, its picking the correct game from the two places we currently scrape games from.

kaiiboraka said Oh, wow. If only I'd taken the time to perhaps look around and experiment just a little bit more. ^^;; Thanks so much, Brad! No problem.

CliveBarker said Thanks for implementing this Jason! I have a question: Is steamdb.info involved in any step of this new import process? I have found that like a half of my 312 Steam games imported have incorrect info, even Borderlands 2 wasn't found in the databases for some reason. https://steamdb.info/ have the most complete and accurate information about Steam games, the problem is that I can't find any information about the License that they are using. I don't know if they use Creative Commons or something like that. Of course I can contribute to TheGamesDB by uploading the correct information for each game tho, but if you are interested in data accuracy for your upcoming LaunchBox Database, that is the place. This is something that we have to fight with. The ultimate answer is saddly, there is only so far we can take it. Can you give us some examples? Each of you. That will help us to determine if the import has inccorect search terms, or any other reason why it might have chosen something else? One thing I notice, and there isn't much we an do about it, but the more Vague they are, like Virus, more often than not they will be flagged incorrectly. DOS has a bad problem of doing this too. PC has a lot more unknown and variabls to it.

kaiiboraka said Hey there Jason! I've just recently discovered LaunchBox thanks to reddit, and it's quite the amazing little program! Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade to premium soon. At any rate, I have a question for you, or someone, regarding this "play music" option I keep seeing. I've searched these forums, and this website, and Google, and I've yet to find any place in particular that describes what this option is or does, or how to set it up and use it in any way. Is it just a simple matter of copying an .mp3 file into the metadata folders of each game? It's pretty unclear, to be honest... It sounds like a cool feature, but I just don't know how to make it work. On any game you wish to set music to: Right click -> Edit. From there you'll be at the Edit Game menu, in the middle there will be several tabs, click on Other. Here you will find a few other options, one of them is the music function. Hit browse then browse in the new window to where the song is located. Once it is set, every time you click on that entry the song will start playing. If you click another game or alt-tab to another program the song will stop playing.

So this is very specific. I may have solved the problem... Unchecking the Gamepad option in the options menu makes the audio crackling start and stop instantly. It also so far seems to be stable and not locking up on me... So, if anyone uses a PS4 controller on their PC with InputMapper, I checked the use gamepad option and detect all gamepad's and it was detected as a Generic USB Device. When you play any audio does it crackle? Do you get performance issues? I would like to know and it would help us pinpoint things down. Or how about if you use a controller at all? Might help determine if its LB or the program.

Steam is an old piece of software. 12 years old, so no doubt its been upgraded and upgraded with patch and bandaids for so long that things... are a tad jumbled.

So, I am having a unique problem that Jason and I have never come across so far. Pretty much, from the second LaunchBox opens till it closes, anything I am listening to wether it be Music or Video's in any application, I get crackling. This also includes games. It crackles worst when its closing to the point I usually have to take my headphones off because it hurts really bad. On top of this, when ever I leave LaunchBox alt-tabbed for a period of time, usually 5-10 min, coming back to it the program locks up, fades to white and stops responding. If I give it enough time it might come back to, but more times than not I have to forcefully close it, and thus any progress I made working in LB is lost. I have a giant library (over 6k) with several consoles. Has anyone ever come in to this issue? I gave Jason my XML file to see if he could reproduce it, and he can't. It wont have any images but it will have all my data. If anyone wants my XML file to test it out, let me know so I can upload it. I have LaunchBox with all 12GB of its images on an internal HDD that has constant use, so its not going to sleep. It was on my OS internal drive and has been on an external before. I give LB 2GB of ram now (I was hoping that might fix the problem), so those are some of my general settings.

Fluffo said Jason Carr said Indeed there has, Fluffo. I have a Steam API/user ID-based import in development, that should be out in an upcoming beta very shortly. Hopefully within the next couple of days. I am hammering through it this weekend. That is great! Could you reply to this thread when it is released? PS: You and SentaiBrad are incredibly fast when it comes to replies. It's an advantage when you get e-mails about every thread. More importantly however, we care about the product and the users. I use we and our a lot, but I came in after the fact. It's really Jason who created the amazing program and created / fostered a great community. I just help continue to foster it. It says a lot about a person when 2 years ago you (me) had no clue something like this existed to the level it does and all you want to do is help it grow, get better, reach a bigger audience. That's all Jason for me. We also have a good friendship now. If LaunchBox were to for what ever reason cease to exist (god forbid) we would still talk every day and be good friends.

Jason Carr said Indeed there has, Fluffo. I have a Steam API/user ID-based import in development, that should be out in an upcoming beta very shortly. Hopefully within the next couple of days. I am hammering through it this weekend. I'll need to buy you some coffee. Edit: Hell, I need coffee right now. >.>

Jason Carr said The games importers will also skip over any existing games to prevent duplicates, so you can re-run them at any time to add any new games in your folders. This is pretty much what I do for now. I just re-run the importer and know that the differences will get added. We talked about a library system a while ago, It would also be great for deletion. Deleting a game in LB and it asking you if you want to delete the file its based on or if you delete the file LaunchBox will detect that the file is gone and ask if you want the entry to be deleted as well.

littleking said I imported my steam games and all of them were correct except for System Shock 2 which came up as Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess So this is just a general scraping problem. This can, and will / personally happens to me a lot. When you import games specifically for PC (DOS is the worse offender) they will get tagged a lot as something else. There isn't too much we can do in this situation. What game was that supposed to be that got flagged as Battle Chess? Also, importing Steam games is not perfect.

Kriven said If you do follow through with creating your own database, do you think you could treat each Operating System as a unique console? It's a massive problem that all the current databases lump them under the generic "PC" label, particularly when you've got games from Windows 3.1 or 95 that aren't compatible with modern devices. Yes. When we first talked about creating our own Database, or if we should or not and how we would, I was lamenting that I hate that my DOS games or only DOS if I keep them that way and are not imported for that piece of metadata. If we setup the database Wiki-esque, we can easily hook in to API calls and if its a database where we control the formatting importing it will also be a breeze, but my only concern is exporting data from LB to a Wiki style system. I'm not sure something like that is a built in feature.

CadetStimpy said I wonder how large the games are for that Oculus Rift VR thing? It seems as if, to me, Mr. Layperson, they would need to be really large. But, maybe they just do it with 'graphics trickery'. Anyone know how large the games are for that thing? They don't necessarily need to be larger, but the computers to run them need to be beefier. They don't need two sets of textures, but they produce the image twice at slightly altered locations. They should theoretically grow at the same pace games now do, except that they don't generally need to play to the lowest common denominator. Except for the Morpheus, and even then it's not going to go to PC. They also don't need to worry about shipping on discs, I don't think they're going that route.