Xananax

Thanks! I'll try anyway

Thanks SentaiBrad, but maybe I was unclear; I am not referring to individual data packages, images and so on, but the metadata blob that LB asks to redownload everytime I add a game, and fails to download every time. The box says: "An updated metadata package is available from the Launchbox Games Database, would you like to download it before searching?" When I'm updating the metadata of a single game, I have the option to say no; but if I'm importing many games, my metadata import will stall for 5mn during which LB is trying to update its definition, every time. I'm looking to update that blob so LB stops complaining and asking.

LB's downloader is not resilient enough for my extremely-very-incredibly-worse-than-dialup-connection. I understand my situation is particular, so I'm not asking to make the downloader better; I assume it's good enough for 99.9% of users. Instead, I'd like to be able to download the metadata package externally and just dump it wherever LB will find it. So I guess my question is: what's the url for the metadata package, and can I download it with any resilient downloader such as Free Download Manager? And once downloaded, where do I put the file?

Thanks for considering the option! If your question is addressed to me personally, I'm most comfy with Javascript or Python, or C#. But I'll use whatever is needed, Lua, Perl, Ruby, or custom, as long as there is at least a list of functions and a debug console. Since you're not making a gaming engine or something addressed to the masses (I mean, as far as the scripting part is concerned), I propose that the choice shouldn't stem from ease of use, but rather ease of implementation. If someone is going to make a script for Launchbox, chances are they already know how to code and will accommodate any choice you make. Plus, I think even if someone with 0 experience wanted to program something for Launchbox, the idea that, say, Lua is easy, but C# is hard is wrong, imho. Newbies can actually learn anything. I mean, that's how I personally learned how to code; I wanted to customize some software, and just went with examples and copy-pasted stuff for a while, and before I noticed, I was making large-scale websites and compiling my own software. Unless you go for Brainfuck or LOLCode, it'll be ok IMHO. For reference: XMBC/Kodi uses Python, but also allows you to write a scraper in XML MediaMonkey uses VBScript MediaPortal uses VisualBasic Winamp uses C Amarok uses Javascript ...So it really doesn't seem like there's any sort of consensus. So I would say, whatever already-made library has the most bindings to what you're using already, and is the easiest to just stick in there with minimal effort, just use that. The only consideration would be avoiding to use a language that needs a specific IDE. I'm often bothered by those languages as I use Linux and they mostly don't have support on there. As long as it can be hacked with a simple text editor, and compiled from the command line (or don't need to be compiled), go for it. TL;DR: implement the scripting language that is easiest to implement and has the most bindings with the actual language you use for Launchbox.

I would suggest making scrapers external scripts, so they can be customized, switched, and so on, at will. The reason for that is that I love Launchbox, and since BigBox is on rails, I've been thinking of ditching Kodi and use Launchbox exclusively to browse and watch my movies and series. I know it's not at all the direction and so I wouldn't request features targeted towards it; Launchbox is great at what it does, it would be a dilution of purpose. It's not really needed anyway; I can already consider movies roms and vlc an emulator, make some use of custom fields for series, and I'm good to go (haven't tried yet, but that's what I'm thinking; maybe that suggestion would help too). What I do miss, though, is the ability to query imdb/thtvdb. Allowing me to write my own script for that would open a wealth of new customization options. I do realize that both decoupling scrapers and embedding a scripting language is probably not easy, and I realize as well that this is probably not a very useful/popular feature, so I don't hope for much. I'm just throwing that out there. Thanks for the great work!

I think creating a batch file with this might work: FOR /F "tokens=1* delims=," %%G IN (C:\mytex~1.csv) DO (type nul>"%%G.txt") Save the above as "something.bat", replace "C:\mytex~1.csv" by your actual file name, place "something.bat" in an empty directory and run it. Something else I read might work is: FOR /F "tokens=1* delims=," %%G IN (C:\mytex~1.csv) DO FSUTIL file createnew %%G.txt 10 If you're running this in interactive mode (a.k.a, directly on the command line, without saving it as a batch file), replace "%%" with a single "%" (so "%%G" becomes "%G"). But...I'm a Linux guy and have never used window's cmd scripting language. Try this in a safe directory first! Sources: stackoverflow, Stackoverflow 2, SS64, and the manual for "for" on SS64. Hope it helps!

If you're going to set up a system of mirrors, I have a Linode VPS that is not used much. I'd be willing to dedicate some bandwidth on the side to help the project. An easy way to do it would be to use couchDB, for example. I've used it in prod as a CDN/media server and it works really well, and replication is a child's play.

But where would that meta-data be stored? If you set up a server, won't that add to your costs? And as the user base grows, price will grow too, only the payment model of LB is not recurring, but your expenses will be. I'm not sure it is a good idea.

Mine is steamcommunity.com/id/xananax

Currently, LB shows the covers for each game. This is very neat, but when browsing, every system shows different cover sizes, and even within the same system, sometimes images have slightly different proportions, which kind of throws the neatness off. A solution would be to use different covers than those provided by gamedb, or create my own, however, if I was to do that, I would lose the organized meta-data. I want my "box front image" to be a "box front image", not some random image I found on the net, a fanart, or something I cobbled on Gimp. I like the ability to look at the original cover art and to flip the box. If I would remove the cover to replace it with my own, I would have to tag the cover as "fanart", which is a bother. I would still like to have a more standardized way to scroll through my games. I think using banners is a perfect solution; Banners are more or less standardized; when they aren't, it isn't too much work to make them fit (usually it's a matter of cropping them). They are easy to do on your own; If the game is obscure, it's not too much work to take a part of the cover and crop it, or even just write the title in a nice font on a colored background, in the worst case scenario. It is also fairly simple to auto-generate them in a way that doesn't look too bad (feature request for the next version of LB?). It also looks good (I personally like the banners on Steam), and resizes more easily (even at small sizes, banners usually stay legible, which cannot be always said of covers). Thus, though not terribly important, I think it would be useful if the options (or a front-end switch near the search box) allowed to choose between "games covers" or "game banners".

Fantastic, thanks a million

Since I can't attach the xml here (forbidden file extension), I've made it available on github. I'll try the new collection at the soonest and tell you if it still creates the same error.

You mean future custom filters, right? The current custom filters do not have additional options for "added date", only the regular past day/week/month/year.

@bd00 yes, now that I think about it, playlists would be awesome. I am using all sorts of custom filters now (number of stars + platform, etc), but playlists would be very handy for the usage you describe. @jason: I think it makes perfect sense to have those as a premium features as both playlists and custom fields are really not core functionality and should be reserved for the tinkerers. Then again, I am speaking from the standpoint of someone who has already purchased the full version, so I might not be the right audience to decide

I share my library with people, and it's very useful to be able to see what I've added recently (I add 10-20 games per week) in order to know what new stuff I have that they might not. For the moment, I manually put "new" in "status", until I deem I have given the game to enough people who would like it. The "recently added" makes sense, but allows only to filter in regards to the current date. I'd like to be able to filter games added between x date and y date.

No, there would be a "custom fields manager" in which you could add your own fields. These fields would then be found on every game in your DB. Ideally, you could choose between a few types of field, like, checkbox, text, or selection, but just text will suffice for 99% of usages. Playlists, like tags, do not offer the same functionality. I can tag a game "precursor", but how do I tag "Music: Koji Kondo" and "Designer: Tim Williams"?

I have deleted the package; I think I remember what was in it and have recreated it, but I can't be 100% certain it's exactly the same games and same options. However the package is easily 2.5 gigs, and I can't upload it anywhere. Would it be enough if I extracted the xml (here, in case it is)? Failing that, I suppose I could share it through bittorrent sync or something. Additional information regarding the setup: - Emulators are also outside of launchbox (basically, structure is: roms,emulators,launchbox) - My friend already had of the games in the package, but we didn't notice until we tried adding it manually - Upon importing, we deselected "import emulators", though we already had selected "do not export emulators" in the 'output' launchbox

I am sharing my library with a friend. Lately I've added some games, and wanted to give them to him, so I selected them, then used the tool>export>to Launchbox Zip package, and it seemed to work fine. On the second PC, we did tools>import>from Launchbox Zip package, and everything seemed to be dandy. However, upon launching a game (or even clicking "edit"), we got a message that said something along the lines of "this game doesn't exist in the database anymore" (sorry, it was some days back, didn't record it at the time), and then all games were gone. Database was totally empty, upon re-opening LB, we were greeted with the first run modal box. No problem as we could restore the DB from the auto-backups, but we tried importing several times and the error reproduced every time. Basically, the import feature is broken, as far as I am concerned. Note that my games by default are outside of LB, so all paths look like "..\..\ROMS\SNES\xxx.smc", if that has anything to do with it (on that front, it is a bit annoying that imported games sit by default in ".\games", but then again I suppose handling my edge case would be too complex for very little benefit)

I would like to second this and say what is needed is simply custom fields. For example, I'd like to have a field "historical relevance" in which I could choose between "grandfather" (games like Colossal Cave or Rogue), "breakthrough" (Doom, Ultima), "Game Changer" (Final Fantasy) , "Iconic" (Mario, Zelda...) I'd like to have a field to store "Working Condition", in which I would fill in "not tested", "works but needs tweaks", "doesn't work"... I'd like to have a field "Controller Type", which would allow me to know if the game works with my Xbox controller or not A field called "Time Pace" to know which game are turn-based and allow me to play when I want to sleep and don't want something too trigger-heavy A field called "point of view" in which I'd store "3rd person", "1st person" "Graphics type: 3D, 2D, isometric", "Self-produced, indie, published" ....And so on All these fields are not useful for everyone and adding them by default would bloat the soft to no end anyway; However, if there was a "custom field" option, I could order and sort my library with all the minutiae of the freak I am.

I would argue this type of software cannot be "commonly" found for free. Before settling on Launchbox, I tried everything google threw at me, and their mothers and their dogs. I have decided on Launchbox after a thorough search. I even installed Windows on a box so it could be used as a gaming machine (I am a Linux guy), solely because the software looked good, behaved well, and did everything I needed it to do (plus some). I think there is something comparable on Mac, but I can't remember the name right now. Every other solution I've tried lacked a feature I deemed essential. But even if it was commonly found for free, it doesn't make it right; Free software is generally difficult to depend upon: 1) Made by 14 years old who don't need money to live, and will be abandoned when they do 2) Released by big companies as a gateway to other paid software, and will not be maintained with the same amount of dedication 3) A labour or love by some guy/gal, and will be abandoned when real life creeps up 3) Managed by a big community where every member works on their spare time, and development is so slow that features take years over years to be implemented 4) Released as open-source by companies who depend (or hope to depend) on code contributions to better their product. This one is maintainable and dependable upon, but these companies typically sell services, or customizations (or both) There are exceptions to these cases of course, but in the end, if a software is to continue being developped, people need to be paid. I'd argue that as the Internet generation is entering a mature age, they are understanding that free is not a good model, and are willing to pay to support software or product they like (kickstarter, flattr, patreon...). Coincidentally, this generation is the same as the one that remembers the Snes/DOS years fondly and is likely to use something like Launchbox. Coincidentally, this generation is at the height of their purchasing power right now. I am not in any way representative, but I am the only example I have, and I have absolutely no use for any feature that is not in the free version. I purchased LB just because it deserves it, and because the dev seemed invested in his product. I'd wager a bunch of people who have paid have paid for the same reasons. I know I totally contradict my first post (community too small to support LB development), but I'm just presenting another point of view. I have no idea if it is hard to get people to pay for it or not. I just hope it's not.

I just fear the business model won't be enough to keep Launchbox afloat. 10$/lifetime is a great model, I love it, but isn't the community a bit too small in size to provide with enough revenue? I just ask that in case it isn't, you reach out to the community before things get too hard on you. I, for one, would gladly pay more if it allows me to keep the development of this great app running, or pay a second time, or whatever. I've seen too many great projects being abandoned because people weren't paying enough, and I really like launchbox.