SentaiBrad

Actually I don't have a camera... that is the only problem. >< I am sure I could find one or borrow one... And no, im honestly not that closed minded. If someone has a method or an idea, I am all for hearing it. It is just that I've worked so hard for little pay off. It gets to be a lot sometimes. My girlfriend has to watch me go through that too, and I am sure she hates it. It then makes me not want to do anything around the house. X_X Anyways, about the program. All great ideas and addendums to my thoughts BD. All I agree with. We also keep saying "make it a choice", but at a certain point there needs to be a design decision. We cant have LB cluttered up with 40 options. We may like that approach, and maybe there can be a fork of LB for the extreme power users in the future, but for a mass audience we need to try and make it as intuitive as possible. I think the side bar would be the best choice. Clicking a system, then it replacing the systems with options to refine the search is perfect and a back button to take you back. There would also need to be options for the entire library in one go. So keeping it similar to the way it is now, but adding the powerful sorting as well. We'll figure it out.

Just skimmed through. I was going to go about creating Pixel representations of consoles and controls because I knew that this was a direction Jason wanted to go, but It doesn't look like I need to do that anymore. As far as which look, I prefer the Left Sidebar view, but I have a big screen. For those with a smaller display maybe there can be a choice on the initial start up but detecting that would be difficult but either way, make it a choice honestly. Saying that, I realize that could be a nightmare so I personally would go for the Left bar styled look. As for showing the content you want. Why make it so overly complicated? Sorting by developers I find strongly useless. Platform, Genre, Rating, maybe Year or Metacritic Rating (for those that want it) would be fine. Someone would like the developer sorting too, but I think it needs to make sense. The way I saw that was you Click a filter, like Snes, then you hit another Filter like Electronic Arts, etc etc. That's what I took away from the layered look. If you went a left bar route you could choose the master sorting method. I.e. Genre or Platform. Then from there a choice indented from your master choice pops up. From there you can pick year or anything else you can come up with. Similar to how you can refine searches in Amazon or NewEgg. This is all of course predicated on the fact that TheGamesDB has every game in your library, which they do not for me. Not even close. So powerful sorting is fine and all, but Wikipedia searching is a must. That said, and I'll put this in the Beta Post too, but I changed over to the new version, and even though I imported all my images, they are all gone. Whats more is that TheGamesDB has some games, but no images. So I also think that if an image is missing it can populate the game system with it saying something along the lines of "No Image Available" especially since even with Wikipedia searching, finding images is still going to be a pain. Edit: Also, sorry I haven't been saying much recently. My images bug pissed me off, but there has been some stuff I've been thinking about for LB, and bugs I've been needing to talk about. I've just been really trying to focus on my YouTube and my other stuff... I need my YouTube to finally take off and im sure Jason can agree, trying to make your own way and not work for someone else, like a YouTube channel or creating your own program, is very hard. Sometimes I get really depressed and reclusive for a while.

So I have a new image bug. I installed the new release, I started the program then exited out. From there, I copied over the Images and XML file. Well when clicking on games, the background still changes art but the games front box art doesn't show up. After editing a game then simply hitting OK on it however the image shows back up. I didn't have any problems with just changing out the Beta exe's but this time I chose a new location for the new release.

Vinicius256 said SentaiBrad said We can probably learn from OpenEmu, but at its heart two very different programs. LaunchBox is looking to be the Box from which you Launch everything on your PC, tied to Open Source or at least Free Information databases like TheGamesDB and Wikipedia. When you said everything I kinda imagined LaunchBox being able to support movies XD But I see what you mean =P Actually, XBMC is the same exact styled program for Video and Music. It has a completely different GUI, and they even have a games portion similar to what LaunchBox does, but we do it better because LB is a dedicated program for that function. I love XBMC though, all my anime, movies and TV shows are categorized, images are downloaded, info is downloaded, ratings are downloaded etc. It's a very awesome and beautiful way to show all that info. It can do music too, but I still just prefer Pandora and WinAmp for all of that. Also Jason, I personally don't care about game ratings, but I know some people do. Could we look in to a Metacritic API? Some people could find that info useful.

bd00 said Sorry for the long post, believe it or not I tried to keep it brief. I tried to at first too..... I stopped trying. Instead a lot of the conversation has moved over to Steam. It's just easier for us to talk when he needs something answered quick or to test a new interim build.

Vinicius256 said Hey Jason, about the library, you could make it like OpenEmu. Take a look to see what I mean: http://openemu.org/ They have these lists by platform on the left side of the program. They also have a drag and drop function to easily import games to your library. Just an idea though Now I don't speak for Jason, but I THINK he would say that he doesn't want to copy another program. Honestly, I don't want him to either. We talked about OpenEmu a while ago, and I told him LaunchBox could be perceived as the Windows equivalent to OpenEmu since OpenEmu doesn't seem willing to transition to PC or Linux. LaunchBox really isn't in a place to be ported to other systems yet either, but rest assured Jason wants to do that... I'm hoping for Linux personally. That said, LaunchBox will no doubt be compared to OpenEmu. I fully expect that, so does Jason I assume. That's the nature of the internet. OpenEmu from what I can tell has a Core for each system it shows off. Meaning, it its self is an actual Emulator. LaunchBox is not. Two different philosophies. We can probably learn from OpenEmu, but at its heart two very different programs. LaunchBox is looking to be the Box from which you Launch everything on your PC, tied to Open Source or at least Free Information databases like TheGamesDB and Wikipedia. OpenEmu, and this is from not ever speaking to any of their development team, I assume is just interested in being Emulator focused and I am sure they'll expand that as time goes on. The possible new library function has just been literally brought up and I'm sure he has ideas floating around, I would love to see the GUI go the more artistic route with cool console images, I will probably offer my help with that too seeing as how I do video and photoshop as a hobby I am trying to get paid to do. No, Jason doesn't pay me. Nor do I want him to... nor can he. xD Also, don't keep my long posts, BD's long posts or Jason's long posts from letting anyone else comment! I'm finally glad in about 3 pages its more than just us. xD

Both features sound like a good idea but I honestly would rather make sure we have searching for games and importing games down. Most of it is just fine, but DOS importing most likely still need work and Wikipedia searching was being talked about. Batch editing still has some work, unless you've fixed that up for the release, I haven't taken a look yet. I also think it could be a bit more streamlined to adding games. Like last night we were talking and I was completely oblivious to the regular "Add" button. Also, have you made any headway on being able to detect gog .dll's? Huge libraries was barely a thought until I started pushing the size, but if some users can't easily add everything or they don't think they can add everything some might get turned off. I find libraries redundant however if you create them based on System, but if it helps RAM a lot, then that could be a benefit. Being able to export also sounds like a fantastic idea, but only export what the user wants, not everything. I would say create a dialogue when you select export. From there have the user check box what they want. Exe, Games located in the LB folder and / or system files. I can think of this being useful if someone needs to reinstall windows and they can just carry over their LB config files so they don't have to re-import everything. Again, I find this a tad redundant if you have LB located on an external hard drive or thumb drive. That is an if though. I would venture to guess most users don't though... I could be wrong. That said, is there a way for you to get usage stats on the program? If you can, do or could, would it even help?

We talked about the wizard approach. I personally don't mind it, but with one option at a time it sucks. He also told me that the edit menu for multi edit would be a nightmare. My suggestion was to keep using the Wizard but let us select multiple fields at a time. We can expand the wizard here and there so a coding nightmare could be avoided.

Beta 6 should be tonight if Jason has done more than I think. He's been working tirelessly. I'm running a Beta 6 build and the search functions have greatly increased. The scan you do when you import roms was very very strict. Now its still strict, but the rules for searching have been expanded upon greatly. Out of a set of 150 roms he had, all that were in the DB were found on the initial scan. I've found a higher % on initial import too. So this next full release will be huge. On a side note, I've started adding in more DOS games again too. I finished up most of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games and I am filling out more and more slowly.

Yay, look, I am breaking it! Error Code System.ArgumentException: Parameter is not valid. at System.Drawing.Bitmap..ctor(Int32 width, Int32 height, PixelFormat format) at LaunchBox.GameGui.RefreshImage(Game game, Size size) at LaunchBox.GameGui.RefreshImage() at LaunchBox.GamesControl.Application_Idle(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponent.FDoIdle(Int32 grfidlef) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(Int32 dwComponentID, Int32 reason, Int32 pvLoopData) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context) at System.Windows.Forms.Form.ShowDialog(IWin32Window owner) at LaunchBox.Program.HandleException(Exception ex) at LaunchBox.Program.Application_ThreadException(Object sender, ThreadExceptionEventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.OnThreadException(Exception t) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProcException(Exception e) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG& msg) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(Int32 dwComponentID, Int32 reason, Int32 pvLoopData) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context) at Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices.WindowsFormsApplicationBase.OnRun() at Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices.WindowsFormsApplicationBase.DoApplicationModel() at Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices.WindowsFormsApplicationBase.Run(String[] commandLine) at LaunchBox.Program.SingleInstanceApplication.Run(Form form, StartupNextInstanceEventHandler startupHandler) at LaunchBox.Program.Main(String[] args) So, what I was doing was adding DOS games manually. I went in to the folder: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Pools Of Darkness (1991)(Strategic Simulations Inc). I realized I already added the game and I went to back out of the import. So from the menu that asks you to select the proper exe for the game you're importing I just hit cancel and got this. Edit: Actually, I take that back. It was after you select the exe and the edit screen pops up. I hit the search button and realized I already added the game, so then I hit cancel from that menu.

Yea, that is fantastic. If it is open source, maybe there can be very specific clients that don't get distributed and you can import Data.. I know that would never be a public thing, but for a select few. I doubt it. Either way, at least we can work through some of the issues instead of creating a set of new problems.

Gosh, AUTHOR CODE FAAASSSTEEERRRR. You're not keeping up with me. Good work, really. Just in the bit I've been around its developing quickly, squashing the bugs that probably only happen for me.

I haven't again no. It looks to be like a fluke, but I see an error and I report them.

So, when you import a rom set, regardless of if it finds a game or not, it still applies the System you said it belonged to. When you import Steam games it doesn't specify games it can't find on TheGamesDB, so when I went to my PC filter to delete everything from there, it didn't remove all of the games. So now I have a bunch of PC games it didn't find that I have to manually delete. I think its good that no matter what you always have the System filter to go by, but not in this case. Edit: Also, when you get the :, - and The more situated can you implement an option to rescan the games to see if It can re-find some of the games? Holy crap I have a lot of stuff that doesn't have data or images.

So Jason did express that he wanted to test CDRDAO with as many games as possible. Since that is very specific and I don't want to create a thread for each game, I figured a master thread and just chronicling each game to see if they work through this method should be fine. I honestly don't know where to put this thread, so if it is in the wrong location Jason, sorry. Keep it to just DOSBox installs through CDRDAO please. Try and follow the basic layout below that way if there are errors we can try and relate them to the install process, LaunchBox, CDRDAO or DosBox. Also, remember to un-rar the CDRDAO package to where you have LaunchBox installed, otherwise you will get an error everytime during install. Make sure its the CDRDAO folder and not the individual files. Specify the game name. Publisher / Developer for Bonus points. Specify how you installed the game. I.e. Physical Disc or Disk, An image file for a Disc or Disk, or In a folder on your hard drive. Just so everyone knows, a Disc is general an optical disc and a Disk is a floppy disk. 3 1/2 or 5 3/4. Specify if the install was a success or not. Specify separately if the game launches or not because it may not be related to the install. It could be a DOSBox error instead. Specify any other errors you may get and at what you got them at. Installing I'll start the thread off with Voyeur from Interplay. I am using a Physical Disc. Install wasn't successful. It did not recognize my DVD Drive. The program said it could be an emulated drive but it was not. I got this when trying to copy the contents of the CD to the hard drive. So I tried the option to not copy over the Disc contents, I figured do that afterwards. I then got an error: "And error occurred while trying to launch DOSBox: object reference not set to an instance of an object." I installed DOSBox 0.74 to my LaunchBox folder, the one with the exe in it, and that folder is just named DOSBox.

I can say Jason and I looked in to Wikipedia and how to pull info from them. Jason was shocked. It is going to be a lot easier than we realized. They even have a public API! We just need to figure out how to parse the info and put it in the correct fields, and make sure we're pulling the right console and date info. I haven't tested the DOS install features yet, ive just been working on LaunchBox for a lot of other things. I've been trying to break it and get my library going. I've got a lot of it filled in with pictures now. - and : throw off the name scanning in TGDB because a lot of roms use - instead of : because you can't use : in explorer. Also, Disc 1, Disc 2, that sort of thing throws off the searching capabilities too, I often have to remove the Disc 1 portion then add it back after It's found the game. I already went through and removed the [ ] around the Disc portions so that the program would add them in to the title, they are important after all, but I didn't realize it would throw it off this bad.

Ok, sorry about that then.

Cool, that way I can reference this and point you towards it or let you know to add something to it. I wont touch the page though.

I'll let you know if I do. I was specifically reimporting ISO files, it found 0, I then quickly went to change filters. Also, I posted the bug here because there is no Bug Reporting sub sections.

I was re-importing Sega CD games because I added some new ones. After that I went to change my Library filter from Sega CD to something else and got this error. First time I've got an error like this. System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt. at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.CallWindowProc(IntPtr wndProc, IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DefWndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseDown(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m) 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)

Don't worry. Life is a priority, my life is just... eh. So I get to fill it with doing stuff like this. I like doing this anyways, I've always wanted a job doing something PC related.

Well damn.... ok. Work sucks I'll make some threads at some point....

You seem to not be on steam. If you fix anything for DOS right now, please just fix the Reference Error when importing Conf files. If you think you're closer to working on LB's own DOS import function than forget it, I'd rather help get that working instead. I am adding more and more games to the list now, so I am trying to expand it as much as I can. I should do some DOS install tests at some point today, just been feeling blah. As far as adding the list of items I put a few posts up. Most aren't new features, instead a lot of things we've talked about are just tweaks. Bulk Editing, Multiple Import Filters and letting the user choose the folder name for each rom. The only new feature I can think of that is really important is DOS importing, Wikipedia searching (that will take a long time though) and removing game entries if the file its pointing to is missing. Or the alternative to that last one would be to let the user delete the file the entry is pointing to from within the program. So when you delete an entry it will ask you if you want to remove the file as well. I was going to make a thread but... I don't even know what I am gonna call it or what is going to be inside it. I might make two, Brad's Personal List of Requested Features and Tweaks and Brads List of Bugs!

Ok, so I have been playing around with LaunchBox, trying to go through all of its features and break things. I am using it now to start sorting my games for my YouTube channel and it works perfectly. That said, there isn't too much left in the way of bugs that I can see. I am just one person, and I could be very wrong. I am sure you have an internal bug list but from my point, I can't find any at this time... well except importing conf files, but were hoping to make an alternative anyways right? The list of features I said above I still think is a strong list that in my opinion should be required. Before a bigger audience gets this there just needs to be some more usability I think. Not that you can't use this program as is, its just that most of those features would go a long way. I do have a few notes from using it, however I am going to make a separate post with the list above so that I don't keep clogging this thread. This should really be only for the beta releases.

So, now that lag is virtually fixed for..... a while... I think there were a few features we talked about and kicked around. There is also the Feature Request forum section, but I'm not sure whats implemented or being worked on, so I can't comment there. Same with bug fixes. I don't know if there are any extra bugs that haven't been fixed yet, so don't let my very short list of features get in the way. --The Reference Error when importing Conf files. --Letting the user pick when importing rom's to choose the Folder Name as the imports naming convention. --Batch importing DOS and ScummVM games like the roms. <- That is going to take a while though because that will probably have a lot of rules and arguments. If not this then that. --Multiple Import Filters for Roms. Being able to set *.iso, *.bin, *.img. --Remove missing game entries if the Rom files or Steam files are missing. Just like removing cached images works. I also need to test out installing DOS games from source media and one by one from folders REALLY before Batch Importing is implemented, at least installing by folder. So tomorrow after I edit South Park The Stick of Truth, that's what I will be doing. That's all I can think of right now but I've been awake for almost 24 hours... so good night. Edit: Actually.... I already have something to add as I am importing Steam games. Would it be possible to setup folders that LaunchBox will scan when you tell it to? Say I install a new Steam game, well I could "reimport" Steam games and point to that folder, but If I set it up in the options to always point to the 4-5 folders I always have setup for steam games I could just hit one button to rescan them all. Same could go for ROM's... except that default extensions would be a bit harder. Edit 2: Apparently I can't stop thinking about this program, even when I am brushing my teeth before bed damn it! So I remember you saying that LB caches images in RAM based on their size. What if we could make them smaller? Not too small, or It would ruin the look of the program. So, im not even sure it would be a good idea, but it could... maybe some sort of pretty looking list with more thumbnail sized icons or maybe like half the size. Hm... now I am really going to bed.