SentaiBrad

geckogirl191 said Title says it all. It's mostly indie and classic titles, all mixed into one big potpourri of game genres. These are the first 40 out of a total of 84 games. 66 of them are purchased from GOG.com (No DRM FTW), 8 are from Steam (eversion, Poker Night 2, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Spore, Spore: Galactic Adventures, Team Fortress 2, Worms Reloaded, Worms: Ultimate Mayhem), 3 are from the Humble Store (The Binding of Isaac + Wrath of the Lamb, The Blackwell Epiphany, Haunt the House: Terrortown), 1 is a paid beta (Cube World), 1 is freeware (Dreaming Mary), one is from *shudder* Origin (The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection), and 1 is... well, Minecraft. I've also included 3 web browser games (Pretend You're Xyzzy (aka CAH online), Profitania, Town of Salem), but whether they count is up to your judgement. Some of those are fantastic games, especially the Blackwell games.

Nevermind. We figured out it might be my specific install of LB. When I tried on a fresh .exe it ran just fine. Still curious if anyone else is getting this problem. This XML specifically has been carried for several versions now. It is not a newly created one.

So Jason and I have been trying to narrow down a specific issue with LB not opening correctly. Running the latest LB 3.2 Beta 2. The issue comes up every other time you try to open LB. It looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/3MXsRk7.png I double click the .exe, opens fine. Close it, open it again right after it closes and it looks like the above image. Can anyone else reproduce this?

Conehead said it would be really helpful if you could add a "Site/Forum-Support" section in the main "Off-topic" or other section . so that people would be able to give suggestion regarding the website. This is actually a good idea because the site might be undergoing some changes.

How I see it.

Conehead said im having a small problem with this> button(most recent topics with unread posts) which is on the top right corner of the screen on this forum . the problem is that when i click it the 1st topic becomes hidden behind the header . here is screenshot that can explain better : you can see in this image that there is a topic is hidden behind the header. i hope jason could look into this. I messaged Jason about this. This is gonna be something he might need to look at. My first suggestion is try an alternate browser? It could be the configuration you have specifically. Edit: Nevermind, I have it too. It needs to be pushed up a few pixels.

bd00 said When you 'Import ROM Files' from a platform that is not in TheGamesDB and you don't un-tick the "Search for and download game information from TheGamesDB.net" box, LB changes the platform of some games leaving them scattered around and mixed-up with other platforms. Luckily I was able to filter out these with the "Added: Today" filter, but others might not be so lucky. I suppose you could just go into the xml and remove the last lot of entries, that would be a quick way to find them, but some people won't like or know how to do that. Not allowing LB to change the platform the user entered would be a better approach. Yea, this has been around for a while. That's why I suggested to most people to name the platforms around what TheGamesDB has. Im not sure if its a bug with the API or on their end... but I am unsure. It shouldn't be right?

bd00 said SentaiBrad said bd00 said Yeah that would work I guess. I would consider keeping everything under one roof though, meaning on the actual LaunchBox site. It's your call I guess. Well no its Jason's call ultimately. This way though there is a centralized place for how to do things. You can create pages for any topic, you can add images and videos where you need them. I think its perfect. You said Wiki and I literally thought... why not just make one. Forums are awesome but they're not exactly the greatest with organization. Yeah I realize that, but if you read my post again I was suggesting the forums only as somewhere to start, somewhere to start gathering the information, so it is there when Jason adds an in-house wiki/faq/troubleshooting/whatever area to the site. However, I am by no means right, I just like everything in a singular place, it was just a suggestion. Many, many people will disagree with me I am sure. If Jason give you the go ahead to create a wiki page, then he obviously has no problem with it, so there is no point in... this. So carry on, don't mind me. Get started on those videos and add a list of what you want other users to add. No no, You said Wiki and I just figured it was easy to make one, get peoples opinions. By no means is it THE solution, its a Solution. It's also not permanent. It can be changed or removed. It was just a simple alternative to have a place that holds the tutorials and data for the site. Again, a solution not the solution. I didn't make it to be the end all to be all. Just to see the thoughts of the users. It can be what ever anyone wants.

bd00 said Yeah that would work I guess. I would consider keeping everything under one roof though, meaning on the actual LaunchBox site. It's your call I guess. Well no its Jason's call ultimately. This way though there is a centralized place for how to do things. You can create pages for any topic, you can add images and videos where you need them. I think its perfect. You said Wiki and I literally thought... why not just make one. Forums are awesome but they're not exactly the greatest with organization.

How about this. I just made it... but screw it, it will go a long way right? http://launchbox.wikia.com

bd00 said SentaiBrad said... Wait... did I just get volunteered. xD I can pretty much do what ever is needed actually. I'm already trying to monitor the forums best I can. Videos are literally my forte how ever. Wow you read quick! Lol. Please disregard my last edit! There we go again, posting at the same time! Or, if you want to take the lead on the videos, I will happily maintain the thread to reduce your workload. I'll be happy to do videos. And yea I am trying to keep a handle on the forums. I am subscribed to literally everything, even new threads automatically. It doesn't pop up over all of my games.... like Diablo 3 which I am playing right this second, but hey.

bd00 said Jason Carr said pogowolf said Observations, Thoughts, Comments, and Ideas: Version: Launchbox - 3.3 - Beta 1 General: 1) Need a test script to explain what we should see. If we don't know there should be a list of Platforms when you import your first game, how would we know it's an error? 2) Need pages with screen shots as walkthroughs along with the how to.. movies. I know, personally, I hate "how to" videos because I need to wade though the movie to get to the information I want unstead of being able to skim a page of text/screen shots. ?? Agreed, test scripts would be nice, I'm sure. I try to explain what's necessary for testing but of course sometimes I don't explain enough. And better documentation is planned as well, of course. I have to pick and choose my battles for the moment though, and for the most part actual development has been the priority (and probably will be for a long while). So at this point I'm shying away from much else that takes too much time. Regarding a wiki or faq's or walkthroughs or whatever, have you considered outsourcing in to the community? Not to a single person, but rather create a list of the things you want documenting, and ask users to choose one and create the documentation for it. What I mean is break it down into digestible "bitesize" chunks, list what is needed and users can pick something from the list and create a walkthrough or a how-to for it. You (or a user) can then take all these user created documents and organize them in a logical and uniform manner on your site. Basically a Wiki, but use the forum to advertise what is needed and allow users to start creating the documentation and posting it here. List everything twice, one for written documentation with screenshots and one for a video version. Even if you don't get it up right away on the site, at least a bulk of the documentation will be here ready for when you are and will also be available for users who need it now (via the thread). You could even use this list as a contents page with links to each specific post, this would suffice until the site wiki is created. Example: Documentation needed: Adding a game. (Doc) Adding a game. (Video) [Done!] Importing Steam Games. (Doc) - Thanks pogowolf! Importing Steam Games. (Video) Changing the background image. (Doc) Changing the background image. (Video) [Done!] Importing ROMs. (Doc) - Thanks SentaiBrad! [Done!] Importing ROMs. (Video) - Thanks SentaiBrad! [Outdated] Adding additional apps. (Docs) - Thanks nmc! (Needs Updating!) [Done!] Adding additional apps. (Video) - Thanks Vinicius256! etc. (Doc) etc. (Video) etc. (Doc) etc. (Video) Each completed item can be turned into a link and pointed at the relevant post in the thread. The users can do this however they want, for example, in a post in the thread or create a word document or create a web page, etc. This way anyone can help out regardless of their technical capabilities. All the documentation will be organized and ported later anyway. Although it might be better to keep everything as forum posts period. Maybe keep everything inside spoiler tags except the title of the documentation created, just to keep things tidy. The main post will need to be maintained and updated regularly, but it shouldn't be too much work. Wait... did I just get volunteered. xD I can pretty much do what ever is needed actually. I'm already trying to monitor the forums best I can. Videos are literally my forte how ever.

Jason Carr said Yeah, just to recap, good idea Vinicius, but unfortunately there's most likely no good way to get at the images. The HTTP cache folder is just a cache, so wouldn't necessarily contain all the images. And since Steam most likely does not want me auto-stealing their images... Probably can't be, unfortunately. Yea it would be fantastic to have the entire Steam Library available to scrape for data but that would cause a huge amount of server stress on their part because im sure we're not the only ones, and there are tons of sites that already pull data from profiles through API calls and or public profile data... so I am sure they don't want game data pulled in mass either. It would be pretty awesome because then it is another step that TheGamesDB doesn't need to be relied on.

Vinicius256 said Oh, I was referring to the importer, Doing it manually is pretty easy like you said, and you can find the images even on Google. Well, if there's no way, I can always try to help increase the games database then That would be the most ideal way before the Wikipedia importing works.

Vinicius256 said Or we could find a way to download the images from the Steam website itself, but I don't know how that could possibly be done =P Easily. Download RightToClick and Thumbnail Zoom Plus for Firefox from the AddOn site. They do several things each but you should then be able to right click imagery and "Save full size image". I also have EnhancedSteam but I don't think that would help in image downloading. That's how you do it manually. As far as the importer? There is a Steam API but I have no clue if that allows and help you to download images and game data.

Vinicius256 said I did some more research, and apparently Steam saves the grid images, game icons and lots of other data on the httpcache folder, so that doesn't help anyway, because that folder is a complete mess from what I've seen. Well its probably sorted by Steam Game ID's, which would be in the filing most likely. So if there could be a system to match them up... maybe.

Vinicius256 said So, I was thinking lately, Steam has a TON of games, and lots of them are indie titles that probably don't have a GamesDB.net page, or if they have, they don't have a boxart, mainly because these games were always digital. My idea is to add an option to LaunchBox, that allows you to use the default game images that Steam uses on grid view and Big Picture when importing Steam games, instead of downloading the images from GamesDB.net. The problem is, I don't know if that's possible, as I don't recall Steam actually saving those images on the PC. Any thoughts on this? *EDIT*: BTW, if it is indeed possible, it could become a great way of separating Steam and PC as different platforms (I actually do that on my LaunchBox setup, so I know what I installed from CD's and what is digital.) There is a distinction already if you filter by Imported roms etc, or just by platform. As far as using the images, there is no API for importing games. What it is doing right now is scanning your folders for specific files. That is why sometimes the names are off or it finds games that you've removed before. So if it finds that file regardless of if the game is installed etc it adds the game. So I am unsure where the images are even cached? If it is in the file that LB scans then it has to decipher that image from the file. This would be cool for games that are not in TheGamesDB, but I am unsure how feasible it is. I know there is API for using Steam to sign in to other platforms but not for detecting installed games.

I like the darken option a lot actually. I'm not sure about the blur honestly. Maybe we can test a few settings but I don't think it should be another setting. Unless Jason were to create a new UI section, especially when themeing becomes an option, I can see it being worked in to that but otherwise...

bd00 said SentaiBrad said Were you downloading game data by any chance? Not intentionally. But I may of scrolled the mouse wheel while the window was still active by mistake, so the drop down menu was activated, so a connection may have been there (to bring up the list of possible matches). But I don't think I was actually downloading anything. But I was focused on a different display thinking I had the active window, I only glanced at LB once the error popped up and caught my attention. Cause there was a bug where you would download Game data, click on download pictures, let them download then hit Cancel. It would then spit back and error message.

bd00 said 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. Were you downloading game data by any chance?

bd00 said 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. I agree with the Console separation but even I like to look at entire Genre's or the entire library at once. So it should still be defaulted to this obviously. I am unsure if it does cache the back cover, but it just was a blanket statement, I am unsure.

bd00 said 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. That is true. We could also choose to resize just the front covers permanently and keep the back covers full sized? Though that's a poor solution to the problem. Oh, and I was not considering Vector images. In my mind if you are sizing and resizing constantly that is what you would go to, but by no means did I mean that is what we should use. We could try a solution of caching two sizes and displaying the smaller one. Resize the images on import, at least the front covers by 40%-75% then show those on the library view then retain the full sizes for full screen view. Edit: Unless there is a way to make the system use less resources when you make the images smaller as is. I would say only cache what the user can see if its possible to make it a variable the program can detect then add 2-3 rows. That way when its resized to smaller you can still try and cache the same amount. More images, but a lot smaller. I assume that as of right now the caching that does take place is for the entire front and back cover.

bd00 said 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. Let me try to explain further my thinking then. If we offer Icons, then there needs to be an option because not everyone is going to like Icons, they want their full image. This is fine but pointless, so take out the option. My original thought was to yes, resize the image when the Scrapper nabs the image from TheGamesDB. If we convert the images over to a smaller version, then what you would want is two version of the image, I already have close to 10GB of images with my library. If there were duplicates albeit smaller with a large library, that could get even bigger. So my next thought was to size them on the fly as to help with file size, but that would most likely require something like vectors which then also doesn't solve the size problem. My mind works oddly and I sometimes don't express everything. That said, if we only had the small version of the front and back covers but then kept fan art for Full screen game viewing then this could be achieved with the setup we currently have. Limit the most front facing images then use the fan art on full screen because I doubt a full screen image that has been resized to be smaller would look that good. There would also be the issue of how we do that since there is no standard and my thought is to reduce the image size by 50%-75% on import. It might make imports take longer too but in the long run should be a better option. We could also still show the front and back covers in their reduced form but make sure that the program doesn't expand them past their resolution.

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.

Also, anyone who needs to post an Error Message or they get a pop-up full of text, you don't need to post images if you don't want to. Click on the message box and press Ctrl + C. It should copy all of the relevant text from that window and you can paste it in to a reply message. You can still post images if you want, but if you don't want to, don't know how to or can't be bothered to, there's the alternative.