Zombeaver

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.

Jason Carr said ...add a second Retroarch emulator (not the files, just the emulator record in LaunchBox), and configure each differently and pick between the two when you're adding games for Sega CD. Yep, this is what I do. I do this for my "Arcade" platform because I have some games setup to run on RA / Final Burn Alpha and some to run on RA / MAME. Basically you just need to create a new LB emulator entry for your alternate core, name it something like "Retroarch - Picodrive", and add in the appropriate platform in the platform tab (presumably Sega CD) along with the launch command but directed to the Picodrive dll rather than the Genesis Plus GX one. Take a look at your existing RA emulator entry in LB as an example. Whatever it has listed for Sega CD in the platform tab, you want to mirror that on the new emulator entry you create, except that where it says something like "libretro_genesis_gx_plus.dll" you're going to be changing that to "libretro_picodrive.dll" (or whatever it is) in the new entry you're creating. Then you just need to right-click and edit any appropriate games, go to the emulation tab, and choose "Retroarch - Picodrive" as your emulator.

cejpe said I'm assuming you would just configure everything on the host PC and just stream Launch Box? Yes, that's correct. Any configuration is done on the host. The Steam Link is just facilitating remote access, similar to something like GoToMyPC except that this is specifically designed for gaming - low latency, high visual quality, and the ability to send controller inputs to the host. I'm using a wireless 360 controller (the USB dongle has to be plugged into the Link) and a Logitech K400 which also uses a USB dongle. If you're wanting to use the Link for emulation, a wireless keyboard/mouse combo is highly recommended. Got have all those F-keys! :) If you do choose to go this route, let me know if you need any help with setup as this has been my ongoing project for more than a month now. One thing you may want to consider, if able, is to just test out normal Steam in-home-streaming between two PCs/laptops - the performance should be mostly identical to using the Link. I tested that pretty extensively prior to purchasing my Link because I wanted to work out any kinks beforehand.

The vast majority of the work is being placed on the host, not the client. Hardware decoding is client-side, but most PCs should be capable of that; and even if you're using a toaster as a client you could always use software encoding on the host (so that hardware decoding isn't necessary on the client) to get around it and the software encoding is quite good too. Network performance can be an issue for maintaining a high bitrate (25mbps+), but I've got a pretty substandard wireless router (it's wireless N, not wireless AC) and it still works great for me. I tend to leave it around 20mbps and it looks/runs great. I'm wired from host to router and wireless from router to Steam Link and the other PC. i7 4770k GTX 780 / 3GB 32GB DDR3 RAM Soudblaster Zx Windows 7 64-bit

Well, like I said I'm not using a server at all. I'm using a host which is my primary PC. With Steam in-home-streaming any PCs on the network that have Steam installed can be the host or client. Any client can stream from any host. You load up the device you want to play on (another PC or a Steam Link), choose the device you want to stream from, and then start the stream. Your inputs with a controller are sent through the network to the host machine. There's little to no discernible latency between input and action on the screen. It's something like <10ms. I can play Contra 3 or any other game that requires fast reactions with zero issue. I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between playing on the host and playing on a remote client. You can add non-steam applications to your steam library (like Launchbox or Big Box, for example) and control them via in-home-streaming.

DOS76 said I have a local instance of LaunchBox/BigBox on all of my computers same thing for the emulators and then I access some of the roms from my server So in other words you're using the server purely to hold the roms and are maintaining multiple separate instances of LB and your emulators on each computer? That sounds like a logistical nightmare to update and maintain across multiple systems to me... Doing it with in-home-streaming means you have 1 host, 1 LB database, and 1 instance of each emulator that are accessible by as many computers (or Steam Links) as you want to add onto your network.

I'm confused as to why you need the server at all if your goal is to use steam's in-home-streaming. I use in-home-streaming to stream Big Box + Retroarch (and a number of other emulators for that matter) from my desktop to a Steam Link in the living room or my laptop or my second PC. A dedicated server is not necessary to do this. If your goal is simply be able to stream and play roms over a network, I would remove a dedicated server from the equation as it's an unnecessary complication to that end. If the setup I described is what you're wanting (host PC streaming to other computers or a Steam Link over a network) I would be happy to assist, I just want to make sure there isn't some really important reason (that I'm not understanding) that you must do this by way of a server.

@Jason Yep, I got email notices. Thanks for looking into these!

If you're willing to go outside of ePSXe, I'm fairly certain that you can enable auto load/save states on game load/exit in the Mednafen core of Retroarch. I know that standalone Mednafen has it so it's likely that the RA core does as well. Mednafen (and Retroarch for that matter) is seriously awesome. It's much more accurate than ePSXe. There were some games (like Jumping Flash 2, for example, which has lots of weird/missing geometry in ePSXe) that I was convinced were never going to be right unless I broke out a real PS1... then I used Mednafen with them and they're perfect.