Lordmonkus

That is most certainly beyond the scope of this thread and what I am hoping to achieve with this thread. I do want to keep it focused on polishing of current features rather than asking for complete new ones. I do appreciate the input and agree with the other 4 on your wishlist.

That is one way to do it as well.

Not sure if the USB mic would be a problem because when I briefly tried out the voice recognition feature back when it first got implemented it worked just fine for me with a USB mic.

Damnit, I totally forgot about bulk edit rom paths. now I have to edit my original post to have that one. People can feel free to add the same things they would like to see as other peoples as this would help me to add some "weight" to those entries when I compile what everyone is looking for improvements on.

I am now locking this thread due to non constructive ranting because that is essentially all your posts are at this point @syntax_X I am not saying you are not encountering some problems here and there but I can say with great certainty they are not on the level that you are claiming. I have not seen any of the image problems you are complaining about. You are welcome to file bug reports and feature requests using the bitbucket link at the top of the page "Issues/Requests" and @Jason Carr will deal with them when he decides to. Your complaining about them not being handled fast enough for your liking in posts like this is not only unhelpful but quite frankly insulting. This is simply untrue. If they were true I wouldn't have made that thread about getting some extra polish on existing features of Launchbox and even though you do not see this at all myself and other mods are constantly suggesting improvements but the fact is Jason only has so much time and he is the only person programming LB at the moment.

Keep throwing your ideas here. Once we get enough I will do my best to compile it all into a simple and easy to read and dissect list for @Jason Carr to determine which would be just some tweaks or require some major work.

Feel free to share your thoughts on improvements to the audit tool over here in this thread, just keep your improvement suggestions short and simple.

You probably haven't been using it enough to have any backsup xmls generated so that could be why you didn't have a PlatforBackups folder. Glad this solved your problem though because if it didn't I was all out of ideas

Very strange, I have never seen this issue before and the only thing I can suggest is to go into your \Launchbox\Data\Platforms and \Launchbox\Data\Platforms Backups folders and remove any .xml files in there and try re-importing again. You can even try deleting the Platforms.xml file in the \Data folder as well. Still very strange that switching between LB and BB modes your games would be missing.

Add the new emulator into Launchbox like you would for any other emulator, just label it something that makes sense to you. Then you can assign specific games to that specific emulator. As for easily switching between emulators within BigBox mode right now there is no easy way unfortunately to do that right now but it may very well be on the "to-do list".

Yeah, that's what I did for my Wii setup for certain games.

We have the best forum users ever

Here is the compiled and tidied up list of "Small Improvements". I have the most requested ones at the top and marked with an *, the ones with more than one * are ones that got several requests. Each * represents the number of people + the original request. So for example if something is marked with ***** that means 5 people plus the original request which = 6 requests. I have tried to group up some requests that while not exactly the same as another but were in the same sort of improvement such as the "Additional Apps Improvements" I also then attempted to organize the requests with only one person making the request in order of what I felt were more beneficial to the most people. Update July 17 2017: As @Jason Carr implements features from the list I will indicate they have been added in. While they may not be in the current stable builds they will have at least been added in during a live stream or a beta release. Update Febuary 25 2018: Cleaned up the list removing items that have been implemented. Added things to this main list that have been posted since the last maintenance. Moved planned and in progress items to their own section in this list. Planned: Improved playlists. Categories to sort playlists into and even sub-categories. added -add game to playlist from edit game details window A checkbox in the edit emulator box to hide the mouse cursor. List View in Launchbox improvements - Choose which columns are shown / hidden (implemented as of 8.2 beta release 2) - Edit meta data within "list view" mode When importing MAME roms, an option to combine parents and clones would be nice. Currently they can only be combined if the names match. It would be nice to automatically combine stuff like Pac Man and Puck Man, preferably with some kind of region preference option. added Add a user defined timed control lockout during the loading game screen in Bigbox to help avoid multiple selection of games. The option to have a different generic noimage.png per platform that replaces the Launchbox logo image if you have no artwork for that game. The Clean up images tool to be a clean up media tool and include video/music/manuals that no longer have an associated game. Implemented End of Planned list ***** Fully editable controller and keyboard functionality in BigBox. -In bigbox, map the 'mark as favorite' to a key or joypad button rather than go into the details page and selecting it from there. -Analog stick deadzone *** Ability to hide platform. ** Animated Gif support for things like clear logos, marquees and banners ** Additional Apps Improvements -Bulk edit additional apps. -Add the ability to apply an additional app directly to a whole Platform -Fix consolidated roms stacking their additional apps into the primary rom. -Additional apps being sorted in ascending order in BigBox. Example: If you have a Disc 02 and Disc 03, in LB, it will be in ascending order in the game's right-click menu. However, in BigBox, it lists them in descending order (e.g.: Disc 03 will come before Disc 02) -When launching an additional app before or after the main application, the ability to set a timer delay to allow the first program to load up properly before launching the main application. ** No repeating games in platforms with short list of games (set custom number). -Right now short game lists will simply keep looping, would like an option to not loop and just have it go from start to end. ** Marking a game as complete in Big Box and navigating through game lists alphabetically in Launchbox. ** Option to only play videos once instead of looping. Gameplay and startup videos. ** When editing the path locations for images for a particular platform - the ability to tick a box to apply the same directory path to all, rather than manually editing every single one. * AutoHotKey per platform and per game. * Clean up / rearrange tools menu. Certain things should be more logically organized such as the Import Roms, it should be at the top of the tools menu instead of 2/3rds down. Also a Simple and Advanced mode would be really nice to have to reduce confusion for beginners. * Drag and Drop order of platforms listed in the left had column. -Hide/Unhide any platform. -Show only hidden games. -Drag and drop images into the Edit Platforms window. * Controller Automation button combo for the keyboard keys to close out emulators. This would be extremely useful for arcade sticks that use a keyboard encoder such as the X-Arcade Tankstick. * While in the "Edit Game" window, to have a way of going to the Next game and the Previous game (i.e. have an "Apply" button to save changes without having to exit out of it, and two arrows left and right). Playlists and platforms in multiple categories. Implemented Add categories to the fields column drop down in the auto populate playlists. Bigbox "Performance Mode" setting for lower power computers. Most performance friendly settings (medium image quality, low quality does not improve performance). Startup BigBox on a specific Platform or Playlist. Remove game from within BigBox mode. The option to allow the selected title in the basic vertical rom list (BigBox) stay centered (instead of scrolling all the way down or up). Search Improvements -Allow Bigbox search keyboard to have unrestricted movement (cursor wraparound). -In LB, let the Search filter box work with regular expression type of searches. i often want this word in the name but not that word. so that might be like: soccer -fifa (this would include games with soccer in the name but not if fifa is in the name). and be able to use: and, or, etc -Make Launchbox search reset to the top of the page on each new search. Improved Audit tool. -A favourites field -Give the audit system a media selection menu before auditing. -Stop the audit system from consolidating images into the wrong column (background images, clear logos and box - back currently count as box front. -Add all image folders to audit (currently box -back and a few others are missing/consolidated.) -(if the above issue with audit are due to view priority settings then I suggest separating the two as its confusing to have image priorities control which column(s) an image will be in the audit window. Force Image Cache. -"Shutdown When Done" option in BigBox. -Force Image Cache within LaunchBox, instead of just BigBox. Attract Mode Improvemnts -Shuffle platforms at the start. -Attract mode adjust scroll speed and a check in the code to make sure that the same title is not landed on twice in a row. Bigbox setting (or enhancement to existing lock setting) that doesn't let you get out of the platform and game wheels other than to unlock. So not even be able to change the platform view. Right click game 'open video folder' option in LB. Add @Grila's platform clear logo fading in and out code to the default theme. Checkbox during the import wizard to not import any game that can't be attached to database id, and/or not import a game with no media. Have an option in the BigBox menu to turn off platform device images. This would really help for the default theme in the fullscreen platform wheel view because the device images do not look good in that view. Ability to have a option to prioritize different music over video sound per platform. Change Launchbox scraper to allow European titles to have Le, La, Die at the start or end of a rom name. Different view for platform categories and platforms. "Smart" platform change. What I mean by this is if I currently have games in a certain platform, if I decide to change them to a different platform then their images and video do not necessarily move over to the appropriate directories for the newly assigned platform. The ability to delete game images from the edit window with a single click (a "Remove Image" button) or key press. This would save a good bit of time versus right-clicking and then clicking "Remove Image." Theme specific Game Art for a theme. like BigForce Theme By Grila such a awesome theme but its so heavily reliant on that specific game cover style and replacing all covers for using one theme isnt fun. Download and scrape metadata and media from Steam like we can with videos. Keep all games selected after bulk editing. Implemented Allow remove from playlist when not viewing that particular playlist. Add to playlist pops out a submenu, why can't there be a Remove from playlist that does the same? Separate image priorities in LaunchBox and Big Box. In LB, I'd prefer not having fanart in the background, while I might want it there in BB. Big Box option to use random game videos for playlists when no playlist video exists. The platform version of this option doesn't seem to work for playlists. Parental filter. Alternate name in metadata (useful for searching for games) example: Firepower 2000 / SWIV, Contra / Probotector. Option when sorting games alphabetically to include "the" or "a". Game titles starting with the "the" and "a" would be in T or A. Multiple PDFs for manuals. BigBox hotkey to show video fullscreen like there is for images. Weblinks under the game details page. -These could be added under the "edit game" option and open out in a little box (in BigBox) like the Additional Apps do. The user could manually add links to Wikipedia, Wiki pages or online guides etc. Screensaver mode to go along with sleep mode Restart BigBox button BigBox Filter the genre or just showing favourites or all, by pressing a "switch filter“ button. So I would have a all games view and only my favourites... with this i would have the chance to collect all games but during gaming session with friends I would only open the best of list. Remember image importing for Steam games.

What I would like to do in this thread is to get your list of small things / improvements that can be made to Launchbox / BigBox. New features are all good and sexy but adding new features without some refinment after the users get their hands on them and figure out the limitations and flaws is not a good thing. I am not talking about new features you would like to see added at all, I am only talking about features already existing in Launchbox right now and how you would like to see them improved upon. I know some of you probably have a list a mile long so please try and keep it short or at least in order of importance to you. My list right now would be as follows: 1: Improved playlists. The ability to have categories to sort playlists into and even sub-categories would go a long way in improving the functionality of playlists immensely. 2: Bulk edit rom paths. 3: Import shortcut files for PC games without the need to choose an emulator when importing. This would make importing PC games so much faster and more intuitive than it currently is. 4: Save / remember import settings. It is a pain when importing and you have to check or uncheck the same boxes every time for the things you want or don't want like the images. 5: Fully editable controller and keyboard functionality in BigBox. 6: Drag and Drop order of platforms listed in the left had column. 7: Edit meta data within "list view" mode or in the the audit tool. 8: Bulk edit additional apps.

This will depend greatly on the emulator but generally speaking this is not something easily done without a lot of extra legwork.

Every now and again this question comes up and there is no short and simple answer other than it all depends on a system by system basis so I will start with the questions you have asked specifically and from there feel free to ask for any specific case scenario you may have. A combination. Whether or not it's the best for your use we cannot say but it certainly is a very good choice and many of us use it. Retroarch still uses the software lists when using the Mame core for non arcade emulation such as consoles but I honestly found it easier to just use either a stand alone version of Mess or Mame for those cases. No, you will still need to choose yourself which is best for your use. Yes, 2 prime examples right now would be PPSSPP and Dolphin. While there are Retroarch cores for these 2 systems their stand alone counterparts are much much better to use. This will depend on the rom set you are using and how old or new it is and which core you are using. If you are using a new and up to date rom set and the Mame core with no year in its name then they are both pretty much equal with extremely minor differences. The differences are so minor that it really comes down to personal preference and there is no clear cut right or wrong answer. With older Mame cores (ones with years in their names) you should be using the stand alone that works best with your rom set if your rom set is an older one. The older Mame cores have some issues that make them not worth using. The latest versions of Mame have some great CRT shaders and are very comparable to Retroarchs but Retroacrh does offer much more variety when you get beyond the CRT stuff. Retroarch will auto scale to you display and yes the stand alone Mame does as well. It does work with it simply due to the fact that Launchbox does not read or even look for the software lists. All Launchbox cares about is the roms you imported into it and the emulator being used for those roms, the software itself such as Mame will take care of it from there. Launchbox is simply telling your Mame "hey load this rom" and if your Mame is setup correctly it will load or not load it depending on how you have it set up. Basically if your game is loading through the emulator it will through LB as well unless you have some other setting in LB that is incorrect like an incorrect platform name or check box which is easily (usually) to track down and fix.

I wouldn't go so far as to say they are poorly written because we simply have no idea how well or poorly they written because we don't have access to the code to know. But as you said, they are after a different set of objectives and they are for a different segment of the market / user base than hobbyist emulators.

I may have to try out the Wonderswan emulator and test how it works with G-Sync, I just haven't ever bothered with the system before since nothing about it interests me.

Yeah Mess is very hit and miss with 5200 emulation, biggest issue is certain games didn't have 2 button functionality. Kat5200 is a decent enough emulator but I didn't like the way it handled resolution changes on a 2 monitor setup. I was using Altirra which as an emulator is quite good but required a bit more work than normal to get it setup. I have a small guide for it here on the forums and you search for Atari 5200. The Atari800 core isn't available yet using the downloader that I can see but there is a thread over on the Retroarch forums with a download link. But like I said there is some setup because it is mainly an Atari800 computer so you have to deal with setting up some bios paths for it and generating a .atari800.cfg file. Once setup though I really like it for the game H.E.R.O. The controls are so responsive with a digital d-pad and the shaders look great. I have never bothered with this emulator so it seems like a perfect case scenario where V-Sync off and a G-Sync display would shine

Actually there is a new Atari800 core which supports the 5200 and is quite nice, though it does require some extra setup outside of the normal Retroarch.

Glad you got it sorted.

Try another core maybe ?

Are you trying to load the same game through LB as you are loading from outside ? I'm asking because while gambatte doesn't require bios files it does support them as an option and that generally adds compatibility. I'm just thinking maybe the game you are trying is one of those games that may need bios. I am just guessing here at this point since you say other cores are working just fine for you.

Hmm, strange since it does load for you just fine outside of Launchbox and it works just fine for me through LB using the command line: -L "cores\gambatte_libretro.dll"

Yeah a black screen is soemtimes a shader incompatibility for one reason or another.