Zombeaver

Based on the error, VLC does seem to be the likely culprit. As long as you have the correct codecs installed on your PC, the WMP option should work just fine. I've been using it for a while and haven't had any issues. SentaiBrad said Would have been faster if my computer didn't decide to get stuck in a BSOD Boot loop... Yikes... :( That sucks dude. Tried a system restore?

Honestly, if I were to use an external app, I'd just continue to use Xpadder. It has mouse emulation, custom binding, etc. too. Based on what I've read, Controller Companion doesn't work via Steam Link either so it wouldn't address my underlying issue anyway. If there are bugs with Controller Automation, I think it's in everyone's best interest if they're just fixed. Even in its current state it's already a step up from Xpadder for my needs. I appreciate the suggestion though! EDIT: I went ahead and put in a Bitbucket bug ticket for this.

So I've been experimenting with using Controller Automation. In the past I've always used Xpadder so I haven't really messed with it until now. Xpadder doesn't work via Steam Link unless you're using an optional feature called "VirtualHere", however, and that has its own set of problems. It occurred to me that Controller Automation might allow me to do the same thing I've been doing with Xpadder but actually work via Steam Link without the need to use VirtualHere. I'm very happy to report that it works through it just fine! I have, however, run into a couple of issues that I'm hoping can be resolved. One is that with certain emulators, the "close the active window" function closes both the emulator and Launchbox. This particular issue only affects Launchbox - the function works normally through Big Box. This issue was reported previously here and was supposedly patched, but I'm still encountering it on a couple specific emulators: PCSX2, Sega Model 2, and PPSSPP. The other issue is that with two specific emulators - CCS64 and MAMEUI - the "close the active window" function doesn't seem to do anything at all. I've tried multiple games and multiple controllers and it just won't close the emulator. I appreciate any assistance! Thanks!

@Clavius You shouldn't need to do any of that. Firstly, I believe LB does ignore information contained in parenthesis in the filename for the purposes of scraping. However, as long as you have an image file in your Images -> [specific platform] -> Front folder and it's named identically to your rom name (and this does include parenthetical data... I think) it should automatically associate that image with that rom in LB. More importantly though, when you first do your import, you can specify (edit) what title you want it to actually look for on the final screen of the import wizard - if they're not, in fact, the same game, change the titles to search for (like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1991)" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1993)" for example). That way it should pull the correct metadata from the get go. If they both just say "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (and they probably will since it should be ignoring the parenthesis part of the file name by default) it's going to assume they're the same game when it scrapes and associate the same database entry with both. In the event that you do need to change the covers after the fact, worst case scenario is you could manually change the image file names to reflect the full rom file names and they should associate correctly in LB. My guess in your case though would be that it would have only pulled 1 image, because it thought they were the same game. Because your files may be "game (1)" and "game (2)" but it just searched for "game" and pulled in an image that it named "game.jpg". My assumption as to the reason it disassociated the first (correct) image in your case was because the only differentiating element in your two rom names was text that's in parenthesis, and the image file name that pulled in likely wouldn't contain that part, so if you disassociate the image from "X rom" (no consideration of parenthesis part) it's disassociating it from both. @SentaiBrad please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this!

The only thing I can come up with is it's either some kind of weird revision or dump differentiation or possibly a checksum indicator. I don't think I've ever encountered that specific format. This is a pretty good reference for rom suffixes. The only thing that seems to fit with that list would be a checksum.

Hmm...do you have a specific example? It could indicate a revision; which did happen on occasion for bug fixes. Typically those are listed as "Rev A", "Rev B", etc. though, so it may be something else.

So, not only is your rebuttal not written by you, but it spends as much time actually discussing the specifics of the film as you have; which is to say, none at all. "Warcraft was AMAZING." "Alright, cool. That's good to hear. What was amazing about it?" *spends the next 5 minutes talking about how dumb critics are with nary a syllable to refute any claims made by those critics, and nothing to say about why it's actually good* "So...what was amazing about it again?" "Critics are stupid, that's why it's amazing!" "Oh, okay." Since we're quoting other people here, here are a couple that I think are appropriate: You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant. -Harlan Ellison The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks. -Christopher Hitchens Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -John F Kennedy And here's my very own contribution: If you cannot explicate and demonstrate the basis of your opinion, your opinion means nothing. You're welcome to spout it to your heart's content, but no one is obligated (or likely) to listen to you. -Zombeaver If you can't justify how you've arrived at a conclusion, you haven't actually formed an opinion at all, you've simply regurgitated what you've heard elsewhere. I'm not saying you shouldn't like Warcraft, I'm saying that, if you do, you might want to take a moment to consider why you do before you start telling other people they should see it. I'd honestly love to hear it. I'm one of the most open-minded people you'll ever meet, but being open-minded does not mean you take whatever you're told for granted (that's called being gullible) - it means that you're willing to change your mind if something proves itself to be superior. Being highly opinionated and genuinely considering the validity of an opposing view are not only not mutually exclusive, I would argue they're inextricable. I realize by now you probably think I'm just picking on you or being a troll or something, but I'm not. It's because I value the opinions of the people here that I want to actually hear them. If I legitimately didn't care what you thought, I wouldn't have said anything at all. If you think Warcraft is good, that's great. If you're going to tell me that it's worthy of my time and money, I'd like to hear why (not being ironic, sarcastic, or rhetorical) because, as has been established, it's getting pretty universally shit on by critics. If they're wrong or unfair in their criticisms (you used the word "unfair" mind you), then I'm all ears as to why; but simply saying "critics hate it" doesn't add any intrinsic value to the film. If they're truly wrong, there shouldn't be any issue in refuting them. If there really are virtues to the film that aren't being taken into consideration, I'm legitimately curious to know what they are - because I haven't heard them so far (other than the CG being good).

Antropus said Everyone is entitled to an opinion... That's kindof my whole point. I have no idea what your opinion is on any specific elements of the film (other than the CG). You are entitled to your opinion - don't you think it'd be a good idea to actually elucidate that opinion if you're going to encourage others to see the movie? Antropus said ...and I really don't want to spend any more time discussing why and what. You'd have to spend any in order to spend more. All it basically comes across as is "I have a vested interest in this movie being successful. Hey guys, go help make this movie be even more successful." Alrighty then, let me just jump right on that. The fact that there's clearly an inherent bias based on your involvement honestly wouldn't even bother me if you'd actually said anything particularly substantive about the film itself; and even if it was nothing but praise. Antropus said It's a thread about encouraging people to watch a movie that is just plain fun entertainment, instead of relying on others to make up their own minds. Nobody should be letting reviews definitively form their opinion, but they're useful as a guide, especially if it's coming from someone whose views you know to be typically in sync with your own. Obviously everyone should form their own opinion, but the critiques of others can help inform your own examination of a film (sometimes even serving purely as a means of contrast). Sometimes totally valid points can be raised that you might not have considered. Antropus said You are entitled to your own opinion as well, that you made sure to exhaust over this thread... Yes? Isn't that typically for forums are used for? Antropus said ...that's clearly not for you... Oh, okay. Sorry, I missed that part. Antropus said ...so why bother? I guess because I was under the mistaken impression that I was entitled to my opinion. Antropus said Go outside, breath some fresh air, smell some flowers, snuggle with a puppy :) I have allergies and I'm a cat person. It's a nice thought though.

Antropus said I do take in account the box office success though, because that's what I do for a living and if the movie does well, then I will probably be able to work on a sequel That's all well and good but again that has nothing to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of the film itself. It has nothing to do with whether or not it's enjoyable to watch. Telling people that something is worthy (or not) of their attention because of how well or poorly it does at the box office makes literally zero sense - it has nothing to do with anything. People eat up overblown blockbuster junk like it's candy and ignore deep intelligent films all the time... neither is an indication of whether or not a film is good (there are awesome blockbusters and terrible "smart" films, mind you). I'm glad you'll have more work to do but, not to be a jerk, why would anyone else care about that? You're not talking to people who worked on it, or will be working on sequels, your talking to people who might potentially watch it, just as a movie. Your topic isn't titled "I worked on this movie and had a blast" it's "Ignore the Critics, Watch Warcraft!" and then you proceed to tell us how well it's doing in sales as if that's some kind of metric for whether or not it's worthy of our attention. It just doesn't make any sense. No mention of the story, acting, score, pacing... the things that actually matter for a viewer? Nothing in your post is relevant to the aspects of the film that a normal viewer would actually care about. Instead it's "Critics hate this film. Other people like it. A lot of people have seen it. I like it. I also worked on it. The CG's good. I worked on the CG." You don't think that's a little disingenuous? Antropus said I went with low hopes and I really enjoyed it. Why? What changed your mind exactly? Antropus said 60% to 70% easy. Based on what exactly? This means literally nothing without any sort of context. We have no indication of what you did or didn't like about it. This is what I'm talking about as far as scores. "60% to 70%" doesn't mean anything in and of itself. You obviously don't think it's a perfect film, but apparently also think it's "above average" ...but on the basis of what specifically, we have no idea. Antropus said No way a 2.7 out of 10 like RT's "professional" critics are saying. Really unfair score. Again...why? On what basis? What makes it so much better than the critics are saying? What criticisms are critics levying against it that are unwarranted or unfair? We don't know because you don't tell us. See what I'm saying? Antropus said Di you watch it? Planning to? I'm not really planning to, to be honest - I just don't have any interest in the lore or universe. I'm sure I'll see it eventually but it's not something I'm in any particular hurry to watch, because I don't find the subject matter particularly compelling. If they were to make Diablo or Starcraft adaptations, I'd be down for those though haha.

I remember coming up with something mostly satisfactory based on some settings posted over on shmups forum. I've found that site to be a pretty good resource for this because they're extremely picky about this sort of thing haha. I haven't done any tweaking in a while - I'll probably mess around with it some tonight.

kerszr said Going to try this xpadder out. Can i get a link? I want to make sure that Im getting on the right website. The freeware version i just downloaded said there was viruses on it. And since it's freeware... well... its not illegal and we can totes link it :) Newer versions actually aren't freeware (it's $9.95), but there are earlier versions that still are. I believe 5.3 is the last freeware version which I think is what I'm using - I know it's an older version anyway; and it works for me on W7 64 bit. It looks like it's on a few sites. Here's one from Major Geeks.

DOS76 said Since SSF works without a bios is this even an issue? That's a bit of an oversimplification. SSF itself allows you to attempt to run games without a bios, yes, and in some cases that works, but not always. Some games will not play correctly (or at all) without an actual bios, I can say that with 100% certainty because I ran into them first hand. By bypassing the bios you're introducing the potential for compatibility issues. They mention that in the setting guide as well, which I would recommend any SSF user read. DOS76 said When they translate games do they switch the region also? Not typically, no.

DOS76 said 3 versions would work. If there is a better solution I don't know it I use this trick to handle a few emulators in LB (Demul needs different settings to run arcade and Dreamcast and I use it for DS to for differently rotated games). I do this for for Demul as well, though I do it because certain games run better with certain settings like software vs hardware rendering and some games have controls that are awkward with a normal control scheme like Bangai-O and Outtrigger so I just have multiple copies of Demul and set them up as separate emulators in LB. I haven't had the need to do this with SSF though. As I said, there is a multi-region bios out there that can be used with SSF. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with using separate entries, I just haven't had the need for it personally. The other problem is that the way that I currently use SSF in LB is such that multiple entries wouldn't actually do anything - because you're not "using an emulator" with that method.

niglurion said Use the Automation input option and enable the gamepad in Launcbox. That works too. I like Xpadder because it let's you assign basically any input or combination of inputs to a button or combination of buttons on a controller - not just some predesignated functions. I use it for alt+tab as well, for example. The automation function is certainly faster/easier to setup though.

jf1963 said It is a 5400 rpm drive and i took all the defaults when installing. immunet 3 (AV) was running in the background. ill try uninstalling, stopping immunet, then reinstall launchbox. thanks If it really is the AV, you shouldn't need to uninstall/reinstall LB - just try turning it off temporarily. If that works, you'll want to add LB to your AV's exception/white list. If it doesn't, it's likely the result of your hardware - it should still boot up though, even if it's slow. Keep in mind that on low end hardware something may show "not responding" and not actually be crashing - it might just take a while. If the AV is off and it still does this, just let it sit there a few minutes and see if it eventually finishes.

There is a region-free bios out there. Obviously it can't be linked here, but it exists.

I would recommend looking into Xpadder to create some shortcut commands - for example, I typically use a 360 controller and I have it setup so that when I hit back + left bumper on the controller, it sends an "ESC" input - I have Retroarch setup to quit on "ESC" and in the case of other emulators that don't have that functionality I have the emulator entry in LB setup with an auto-hotkey script to close on "ESC". I've never used it with a SNES controller, but I think it can be used with one.

Antropus said The proof is the mere 27% score on RT, while 83% of all viewers are reporting to have liked it. Also, the USA box office is no longer the measure of a movie's success. The proof is that the movie made a little over 20 million in the US, while it made almost 200 million in China alone, in only 4 days, putting the movie at 287 million as we speak, assuring a sequel! I went with low hopes and I really enjoyed it. 60% to 70% easy. No way a 2.7 out of 10 like RT's "professional" critics are saying Firstly, scores like this are retarded. Period. And that goes for video games as well. How much more enjoyable is a 7.2 movie than a 7 movie exactly? Is it enjoyable or not? Is it worth watching or not? Those are the only measurements that mean anything. People look to this stuff because it's an easily digestible, quickly reference-able thing that you can point to and be like "See it's good!" or "See it's shit!" or "No, your opinion is wrong - it's actually amazing; just look at the metacritic score." It's retarded. The most specific it needs to be if you want get a little more adventurous than "It's good" or "It's bad" would be: Avoid Like The Plague < Watch/Buy It At a Discount < Watch/Buy It ASAP Saying X movie is "2% worse than Shawshank Redemption" is utterly pointless, nonsensical gibberish. Secondly, I have no idea why in the shit anyone would/should care how well or poorly a film does in sales (whether domestically or worldwide) in terms of measuring whether or not something is a good and enjoyable film. Is anyone actually going to a movie, really enjoying it, hearing that it was a commercial disappointment, and suddenly hating the film? If I really enjoy a film, it's good to hear when it's commercially successful, but that has absolutely zero impact on what I actually think of it as a film. The best thing anyone can do if they want something resembling a guide for whether or not they should see/play something is find a critic whose opinions you consistently agree with and then trust them to steer you in the right direction most of the time. I'm a big fan of Jeremy Jahns for example. Simply adopting an approach of "what's the aggregate opinion based on a whole bunch of weighted data" is just asking for disaster, in my opinion. I Hate Everything made a video on this topic less than a week ago and makes some really good points. I actually think they're even more pointless than he makes them out to be though, for the reasons I mentioned above. Sorry if any of this comes across as belligerent or overly aggressive - this is just a topic that a feel pretty strongly about and my frustration is in no way directed at you personally. I feel like people just quickly look at some numbers, pay no attention to any of the specific points raised in a review, and proceed to jump to hyperbolic conclusions... it drives me crazy! All these scores are designed to do is give you a quick prepper before you read a review as to the general outlook that the reviewer had; positive or negative. People don't use them like that though - they use them instead of a review and in a completely nonsensical comparative way to say "See?! Apples really are better than oranges!" with zero context or consideration for any specific criticism or praise raised. "See?! This game is worse than Call of Duty because it has a metacritic score that's 4 points lower!" ...despite the fact that the games were made 4 years apart, are a different genre, were reviewed by different people, and the points raised in their reviews have varying amounts of relevance depending on the individual tastes of the player. It's just complete nonsense.

If it's like PSX, it depends on how the music was implemented - which is on a per-game basis. Any instances that use actual CD audio need a .cue to indicate when/where each specific track should be played - without them it has no idea when/where the music tracks should be played and there's no music as result. Not all of the games function like this though. I believe Saturn specifically used something called Redbook audio which is a little different, but as far as I know the impact is the same. It still needs something indicating what to play and when (which is what the .cue sheet is designed to do).

SentaiBrad said I was thinking, a check box on the Edit Emulator page to show it in the Launch As menu. This way it reduces clutter? Yes, something like that could work, but it would still need to be platform-specific. I wouldn't want to just right-click on say Metal Gear Solid and have Demul and Dosbox show up in the list. There would need to be some kind of way to specify "This is one of the emulators that I want to be a launch option for platform X". At first I thought of something like an additional checkbox column next to the "default emulator" column now, that just has "Launch with menu" but I have the feeling that would make things overly convoluted.

SentaiBrad said I forgot about the additional apps feature! I always forget about it, I don't use it enough. That is totally a good solution in this case though. Maybe not the ideal solution, we can certainly imrpove it, but it works. Yeah, functionally I'm able to achieve the result I want via the additional app method, but having to 1) enter an app title of "ePSXe" 2) directing it to the ePSXe.exe path 3) adding -nogui -loadbin "[rom path]" command line parameters for every single game can, as you can probably imagine, become pretty time consuming. Being able to add multiple emulators to a usable-per-platform list would be ideal. Most people would probably just pick something that works and go with that but I like to keep my options open. This functionality would make experimentation to find the best emulator option for a particular game faster as well. DOS76 said It would work for certain games sure yeah having to set up your whole library maunually to do so not such a great solution. Yep, one-off scenarios are no big deal but when you're talking about doing this for literally hundreds or even thousands of games it becomes a pretty big undertaking.

Regarding the topic at hand, I'd really like to see this implemented as I currently have all my PSX stuff setup with Retroarch/Mednafen as the normal emulator and then add ePSXe as an additional app afterwards (so that I have the option if I so choose). Having quick access to use one of several possibilities would be really nice as that would eliminate a lot of manual work. I'd probably use this for arcade games as well for the ones that have crossover between MAME and FBA. I will always prefer less complications to more - the fewer layers required to achieve the desired functionality the better as far as I'm concerned. I think this is functionality that could/should be implemented into LB. RL is all well and good for those that want to go that route, but it's in no way a solution for those of us that don't.

I looked at my CCS64 emulator entry in LB this morning and there are no special command line parameters necessary. I do have the "hide console window" box checked but I don't think that's actually necessary; it doesn't hurt anything though. One thing to keep in mind is that, not unlike other platforms, there are bad rips floating around for some games. If you have trouble with one, try another - d64s in particular will often have about 4 or 5 different rips listed on the same site, simply because there were so many different ripping groups, and because some rips have optional trainers (cheats) built in. For the game Times of Lore, for example, you might see "Times of Lore (Ikari)", "Times of Lore (NBI)", "Times of Lore (Ikari)+Trainer" or some such. If one doesn't work, try something else. CCS64 is compatible with prg, p00, t64, tap, d64, g41, g64 and crt formats but, again, nothing that's zipped. SentaiBrad said Hey everyone, thanks for the input, but I selected Hoxs64 because it's being actively developed and recommended for use. It's also Cycle accurate. There's nothing wrong with Hoxs64 per se, but it doesn't work via Steam Link (or at least didn't when I last tried) so it's a no-go for me. I'm not sure how actively developed CCS64 is at this point, but the last update was less than a year ago, which isn't too unusual even for "actively developed" emulators. Apparently it's had some issues with W10, but a recompiled version using Visual Studio 2015 was released February of this year and it's supposed to fix the compatibility issues. Also, as a pretty diehard C64 fan with a working real C64, I can tell you the whole "cycle accurate" thing is basically a nice-sounding bullet-point that means almost nothing in reality, at least when it comes to the C64. I'm not saying that it's literally useless, just that it's a term that gets tossed around a lot and, in the case of the C64, isn't going to be particularly noticeable to nearly anyone. There may be some fringe case example where it's actually necessary for compatibility but I've never encountered such a case personally. CCS64, Vice, and Hoxs64 are all fine - it's primarily a matter of personal preference based on features, UI, and ease of use; the only one that I can't recommend is Frodo because it has (or at least had, it's been a few years since I last used it) some noticeable compatibility and accuracy issues.

@Farsside just run the import wizard. If you drag and drop them onto the UI it will prompt you to run the wizard immediately. Farsside said ...Lunchbox... Hahaha Also, welcome to the community! EDIT: Sorry, had to do it!

"crt" is cartridge format. I actually don't have much experience with those - that's not to say that they would necessarily be problematic, but I've never used them. All of mine are in d64 format, which is a floppy disk format, and they've always worked great in any emulator I've used. I don't know about Hoxs, but I know that CCS64 does not support zipped roms. You may want to try extracting a few and seeing if they work. C64 roms are tiny so it really doesn't make any difference as far as HDD space is concerned.