Zombeaver

Jason Carr said Believe it or not, @WhiteGoblin figured it out: https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/troubleshooting/big-box-doesnt-see-controllers-connected-to-steam-link#p9215 Apparently it's simply DirectInput vs. XInput. Seems silly that the Steam Link would only support XInput for games, but that seems to be the issue. I'll look to see how difficult it would be to get XInput added. I'm confused. Is this not what I already asked two months ago? That's why I asked if it was using Xinput... Dinput basically never works with the Link. It doesn't work in Retroarch, 4DO etc. Xinput does. Zombeaver said The only thing I can assume is that Launchbox isn't actually using Xinput? Everything that I've tested with In Home Streaming that actually uses Xinput (or even hacked/patched Xinput support ala ePSXe) has worked flawlessly.

cejpe said ...shouldn't alt-tabbing out and back in solve that issue by giving it back to BB? No. The Link (or just Steam's In-Home-Streaming to be more specific) hooks into a specific application when one is launched in Big Picture. It doesn't end/change until that application is closed. If other things pop up as part of the launch process it often causes problems - log windows, launchers, etc. cejpe said Another thing, when I first launch BB from my Steam Link, I am able to control BB, but only for a split second. I've noticed this as well. Not sure what to make of it to be honest. cejpe said If you're using Xpadder and have your game pad buttons mapped to keyboard controls such as up, down, left, right, etc. Then I don't understand why it wouldn't control BigBox ESPECIALLY when you're using VH. Perhaps there is an issue with controller detection within BigBox when VH is used, or when used with the Steam Link in general. I'm not using Xpadder through the Link because I'm not using VirtualHere through the Link either. I use Xpadder on the host when I'm actually playing on it, not when I'm using the Link. Xpadder does work on the Link if you use VH as does BB navigation, but until they fix the sound problems caused with a wireless 360 controller + VH, that's not an option for me. If you're using a wired controller, you should just use VH and you should be fine. Again, if you have VH setup correctly, your experience should be indistinguishable from just straight up plugging a controller into the host and using BB; so as long as you can plug a controller into the host and navigate BB, you should still be able to do it through the Link as long as you're using VH. If that's not the case, you've got something setup incorrectly. Steam Link -> VH disabled -> using wired or wireless 360 controller: Launchbox navigation via controller and/or keyboard works Big Box navigation via controller does not work but keyboard does work Xpadder does not work Steam Link -> VH enabled -> using wired 360 controller: Launchbox navigation via controller and/or keyboard works Big Box navigation via controller and/or keyboard works Xpadder works Steam Link -> VH enabled -> using wireless 360 controller: Launchbox navigation via controller and/or keyboard works Big Box navigation via controller and/or keyboard works Xpadder works Frequent sound popping/audio problems

@Jason Hmmm. Interesting. I'm inclined to think it is indeed a focus issue then - I'm just not sure what would be causing it. Emulators that use log windows do the same thing until they're disabled so I really thought the splash screen was having the same effect. Tonight I'm going to try watching task manager while BB launches to see if I spot anything weird. I wonder if there's a way something like this could be implemented? Maybe with a 10 second delay or something. It should allow you to force focus on a window that you specify. My limited knowledge of AHK is just via fiddling with things in LB though - I've never used it standalone.

cejpe said Interesting. I haven't actually tried using LB with a controller. Have you experimented with Joy2Key or anything similar to get it working? I use Xpadder which is similar, but it only works if you have VH enabled. Without VH the inputs just go to a specific window so they're never seen by something external like Xpadder or Joy2Key. Jason Carr said @cejpe, LaunchBox works with a controller all by itself. It's not the best thing in the world, but it does work decently well. I'm assuming he means by way of the Link, not just in general. Controller inputs to Launchbox do work through the Link by default so long as you've got your controller configuration setup properly in the Big Picture configuration (setup to function like a 360 controller; this is what the Captain Keeb's configuration does). It doesn't require anything weird like VH or Xpadder/Joy2Key to work. This is part of the reason I thought it was the splash screen that was causing the problem - because the inputs work in LB but not BB. @Jason there's nothing about the way xinput is handled in LB that's different from BB?

Yep, it's not working for me either. That's very disappointing :( I did a bunch of experimenting and I've run out of ideas. There's still either something interfering with focus on launch, or their's something weird about Big Box's xinput implementation. The controller does work in LB, but that's not new for me. If it's not working in LB for anyone, it's likely an issue with your controller configuration in Big Picture. I recommend Captain Keeb's bindings for that.

@cejpe Hmmm... there are a lot of variables so I'll have to mess around with it. I'm assuming you've done the requisite disable/enable of the Steam overlay, control mapping in Big Picture, etc.? Are you using Captain Keeb's (or equivalent) bindings in Big Picture? Are you on the latest firmware beta for the Link? Are you launching Big Box directly via non-steam app or via Launchbox -> Big Box? Even before this update I could get a 360 controller to work with Big Box so long as I was using it with VH. I don't think they've addressed the sound issue that VH + wireless 360 was creating though so I haven't been using it. If you're able to get a controller to work normally when directly connected to the host, there's no reason it should act any differently when used with VH - the host should view either scenario as the same thing. The fact that it thinks it's a steam controller indicates that something is setup wrong. Are you just saying that because it shows a picture of a steam controller in the Big Picture mapping? Because it always shows that, regardless of what type of controller you connect.

@Jason Thank you thank you thank you! I will report back as soon as I get home to test this tonight! I just hope my hunch was correct and that this actually solves the issue... Fingers crossed!

@bundangdon There isn't a "list" - you just have to opt in to the beta in the options in Launchbox. Tools -> Options -> General -> Updates and check "Update to Beta Release". Tada! :P

Jason Carr said - Improvement: Up and down navigation now still works when Recent or Favorite boxes are highlighted in the main Big Box view (was confusing before) Jason Carr said - Fixed: Big Box now shows up properly in the task bar Yay! These are two things I'd been looking for. The Emumovies changes sound like a nice improvement too! I'll check out the beta tonight. Thank you for this!

@Tatts4Life It's not in English, no, and I can't read it either - but most modern browsers have a translation function. If you use Chrome it should prompt you to translate immediately. It doesn't matter if you can actually read it or not though... it has screenshots which is all you're really looking at there. You'll see "Demul" and then an image and then the same shot in "NullDC". NullDC is riddled with graphics problems (typically anything involving transparencies) that affect almost every game. It runs better on low-end PCs, yes. It's still garbage. I'm a huge DC fan and those games deserve better than what NullDC provides. You'll be hard pressed not to find something wrong in pretty much every game. About the only exception to that that I can think of, and literally the only games I use NullDC for, are Crazy Taxi 1 and 2. Those actually look and run pretty well in NullDC (and are the only the games I haven't managed to figure out good settings for in Demul). On average though, I'd say NullDC is barely above broken. Development for it is dead (and has been for some time) as they've all moved on to Reicast which is currently Android only. Demul is still in active development. Reicast is actually quite good (the games I've tried look and run great on my S6) so in the event they ever do a proper Windows port I'll definitely be giving it a go. I haven't used Makaron but have been meaning to try it out. Demul has most of the bases covered pretty well though.

I feel obligated to say that NullDC is an atrocious, wildy inaccurate emulator. Do yourself a favor and look into Demul. @DOS76 is NullDC seriously the primary DC emulator that you use? You'll be hard pressed to find many games that don't have graphical problems. Even major games like Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia have huge problems in NullDC. Take a look at this. My only complaint with Demul is their sound emulation needs some work. Graphically, it's superior to NullDC in nearly every way.

I don't really see anything unusual about your video properties, unless 48khz as opposed to 44khz is a problem (which seems unlikely). My understanding is that LB/BB basically just hooks into whatever codecs you have installed in Windows, so if the video plays normally in Windows Media Player or whatever, it should work in BB. There's definitely no issue with mp4 format, I can say that for certain. Perhaps you could take a look at the properties of a similar Emumovies file? I only do their free 240p videos so I couldn't do a direct comparison to yours. The paid version has 480p videos though and I've not seen any reports of crashes from them here. I've downloaded a lot of MAME snaps (in mp4 format) from this channel which are 360p and they've all worked great. EDIT: I just downloaded one to test and noticed that it's at 44khz. Perhaps you could try recording at 44 and see if that makes a difference? If it does, this probably needs a bug report. EDIT 2: I just checked a 240p video from EM and it's at 48khz so that's probably not the issue.

But it does work when you directly plug the controller into the PC? There shouldn't be any difference... Do you have "enable all controllers" or whatever it's called turned on in Big Box? It's in the options somewhere. I've had that turned on since the beginning, so maybe that has something to do with it. It's not enabled by default. There are a couple cool things about VirtualHere - it allows Xpadder to be used through the Link (not previously possible), it enables you to use the Link with emulators that are Dinput-only like 4DO (ordinarily you're restricted to ones with Xinput support), and it can resolve focus conflict issues for input detection (like Big Box). Evidently it can be a bit CPU taxing for the Link though, especially if you're doing it with a wireless controller, which can cause sound problems. Slouken passed my test feedback on to the VH engineers. Hopefully they'll be able to do something about the CPU load.

A couple things: 1) Are you opted into the latest beta firmware on the Link? The VH integration is only in the beta firmware. I believe the opt in option is in the system menu on the Link. 2) If you're opted into the latest firmware, have you actually enabled VH on the Link? I believe it's also in the system menu. It'll say something along the lines of "Experimental VirtualHere support" that you have to enable. 3) When you turn on VirtualHere on your PC, and you start your stream on the Link with VH enabled, you should get a prompt on the PC that says something like "Steam VirtualHere trial" or some such - hit okay. Now you should be able to expand the section that says "USB Hub" in VirtualHere on the PC. You should see "360 controller" listed there. You have to double-click that. You should then hear the PC make the "dun-dun" sound indicating a USB device has been connected and it'll now have something in parenthesis next to the "360 controller" in VirtualHere like "connected". Navigating Big Box should work normally at that point. The way the Link normally handles inputs is to send them to a specific window that's initially launched for any given "non-steam" application. This is why you can run into focus conflicts that interfere with your input detection. VirtualHere, on the other hand, makes your computer think that the device you have connected to your Link is actually plugged directly into your PC, so it should be functionally identical. So if you're able to navigate Big Box by directly plugging your controller into your PC (which should be the case) it should work when connected to the Link and using VirtualHere.

It will still show "Desktop Configuration" no matter what you're using. Once you actually go into that menu though, it should look like this once you've chosen the right preset: As long as it looks like that, you've got it setup correctly. Regarding the desktop encoder, it will keep the same encoder while you're in Big Box itself, though it will likely change to something else once you launch an emulator. Big Box browsing might be choppy as result. You can enable the performance overlay in Big Box to see what encoder it's using, what your framerate is, what your bitrate is, what your latency is, etc. As far as the controls - have you tried the VirtualHere option? Are you using a wired or wireless 360 controller? If it's wired, you should have no problem using VirtualHere. If it's wireless, you may have audio issues as that's what I tracked it down to tonight. It's something worth trying though.

The batch thing didn't work for me at all. It still launches Big Box properly, but it's still not controllable via the controller for me. Not only that, but it's causing me to have no video via RA only audio. Switching the shortcut back to the normal exe fixed that. As far as the controller configuration, you'll want to go into Big Picture and go to settings -> controller / configurations -> desktop configuration -> browse (X button) -> community -> "The Captain Keeb's Bindings (should be near the top). This basically configures it to act as a 360 controller at all times. EDIT: Another thing that occurred to me that may be leading to confusion here - if you launch BB on the Link by minimizing to desktop and launching BB there (which would likely be functionally identical to launching BB from Launchbox) the controller *does* work to control BB through the Link. The problem there is that it's going to throw the stream into the awful desktop encoder which has a detrimental impact on performance.

cejpe said P.S. So as I was typing all of this up, I decided to test what would happen if I launched a batch file from Steam that contained only the following: BigBox.exe It works perfectly. Sigh.. All the work and then it just works with a single argument. Oh well can't complain, I can use it with my controller without issue! Wait...what? Am I missing something? Why would that be different from simply adding BigBox.exe as a non-steam app? Because that doesn't work for me (for controlling it I mean). And how are you launching a batch from steam? You can only add .exe's to your non-steam-apps. EDIT: I just figured out how to add them - I just replaced the target line in my existing shortcut to BigBox in Steam from the .exe to the .bat I created. I will have to test this...

cejpe said In the link you provided, someone said that forcing 16:9 aspect ratio & --fullscreen and --nogui solved the issue of the 'B' button exiting out of PCSX2 while streaming it They're separate issues. --fullscreen and --nogui are necessary for it to launch properly through Launchbox. The B button issue is caused by the console window in PCSX2 stealing focus - disabling it will fix that specific issue. I don't think the aspect ratio is necessary for anything to function, but I do have a resolution specified + 16:9 checked to maintain the proper (4:3) aspect ratio on a 16:9 display. Some PS2 games actually support 16:9 ratio though, like FFXII. PCSX2 is a bit of an odd duck - you pretty much have to create individual configs on a game by game basis to use it properly. There isn't a one-size-fits-all setup for PCSX2.

cejpe said I'll have to change the input settings on my controller If you're talking about in RA, it does need to be set to Xinput, yes. In Steam's "Big Picture", you may or may not have to mess with any controller settings. I have mine set to "Captain Keeb's" preset which works fine. cejpe said ...and force 16:9. You lost me here. Force to 16:9 in what, and for what reason? cejpe said Is your connection wireless? I'm wired from host to router and wireless from router to Link. I haven't tried 100% wireless, myself, but I've heard some pretty mixed things about it. There are a lot of factors though, so your mileage may vary. Wired from host to router and wireless from router to Link work great for me, and I'm just using a cheapo wireless N router. cejpe said Have you setup the Steam Link to run anything other than emulators? Emulators have been my primary focus with the Link, but I have tested it with other things and haven't had any problems. I was playing around in Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor on it and it looked and played great. So long as whatever you're attempting to play has Xinput support, you should be golden. If it doesn't, you may have to look into using VirtualHere.

As far as RA+Launchbox integration, here would be your best bet. There are a lot of RA users here. I love RA, personally. As far as shaders, we were just discussing that the other day here. I've got links in that post to a couple of other sites that have info on CRT shaders, specifically. Filthypants (blog) and Shmups (forums) have some really good info on them. CRT-Easymode is my preferred shader. CRT-Royale can be a bit of a mixed bag, in my opinion. It can look really amazing or really crappy depending on what you're using it on. There are plenty of CRT shaders to experiment with in RA though, just try them out! Another thing to consider is how good they will look over streaming - unless you've got a really high bitrate going (25mbps+) Royale can make the image turn to mush because of the additional complexity it's adding to the image. Easymode looks quite good over streaming, even at less extreme bitrates. Here's something you can use to test - load up F-Zero and start moving forward and pay attention to the road, especially the part between the solid gray area and the shaded section that's further in the distance. If you're getting compression artifacting, it will be very obvious there. By the same token, once you tweak things and it looks good in that case, it should look good pretty much anywhere else :)

cejpe said ...I can't control Big Box mode with my controller for some reason, have you experienced this issue? Yep, it's a known issue. My suspicion is that it's a focus issue being caused by the Big Box logo. Check this out. Currently your options are to use a keyboard for input (this is what I'm doing), use LB for the time being, or try using VirtualHere. VH causes some problems with audio for me though. Jason has the feature request to allow removal of the logo marked as critical now, so hopefully that will be fixed soon. cejpe said A second issue is with playing PS2 games, it will launch PCSX2 and load the game, and I'm able to control it, but my controller will also move the mouse around. I can see the cursor move across the screen depending on my input. There was another time where I loaded it and just hitting 'B' on my controller cause it to exit the game. I think this is an issue with the emulator losing focus and causing the controller input to make it exit. Yep, I gotcha covered. Check out my post on the Steam Link forums here. You have to disable PCSX2's console window.

I'm with @DOS76, I think it looks like crap. But hey, you can get it with graphics for...an extra $400?! Not to mention: "The Polycade uses a 28" Insignia LED TV" :( If I was going to setup an actual dedicated arcade machine, this definitely wouldn't be it. I'm having a hard time figuring out who this is for... I feel like a real enthusiast wouldn't use this thing and anyone who isn't an enthusiast wouldn't drop the amount of money they're asking... And yet...it far exceeded it's funding goals... I'm just kindof scratching my head here.

DOS76 said If you had an HTPC though you wouldn't need a link right you would just be able to stream from your main PC to all of your other PC's. Yes, that's correct. If you have an actual HTPC, the Link is unnecessary - you would just use normal Steam in-home-streaming on the HTPC. The purpose of the Link is simply to have that same functionality by way of a small box that costs $50.

AladdinSane said Is there the ability (or does another source exist?) to use another source for metadata? I have a lot of Japanese games that are not being matched and are not in GameDB. Does something better exist? You can enable Wikipedia searching for metadata when you do your import (it's one of the checkboxes in the wizard). Mobygames is quite good but unfortunately it's not integrated into Launchbox for the reasons Jason mentioned here and unless something has changed since then, there's not likely a way around that. You can use it as a last resort though, to manually update your entries if need be. AladdinSane said Can Launchbox work as middleware and/or have some ability to rename roms to match the EmuMovies naming standard? I don't think there's a way to do this in Launchbox; probably intentionally to prevent people from accidentally screwing up their library. AladdinSane said I look at something like Plex which has a somewhat loose naming standard and allows you to manually match something then "line it up" with the metadata providers in the background. You can do this in Launchbox. When you right-click and edit a game, go up to the name field and change it to whatever you want and hit the "download metadata" button to the right. It should provide you with a list of close matches among the different metadata scrapers. AladdinSane said Also, similar to Plex, when you manually modify a field in the database it shows a lock icon that prevents it from being overwritten from any metadata refresh. Something like this would be great in Launchbox so if I make a change to a Notes field, category or similar that it will not be erased in the future. I think this is a great idea. If there isn't already a feature request for this on the bitbucket page I would recommend creating one for it.

I don't think there's a way to do this. You can set Launchbox -> images -> platforms -> banner but I don't think there's a way to do a platform video currently. That's a cool idea though. You could add a feature request for it on the bitbucket page.