Jump to content
LaunchBox Community Forums

alec100_94

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    227

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Everything posted by alec100_94

  1. alec100_94
    @Cavey Ok, so the issue here is the copying of the .pnach file which already exists. I'll fix the issue when I get around to it, but for now delete the config from your config's folder (ini's by default), and delete the pnach (951555A0.pnach for Disgaea 2) from PCSX2's cheats folder and you should be good to re-download the config.
  2. alec100_94
    @Lordmonkus You know what your probably right, maybe I am just full of BS, I just think there is something a whole lot smoother about the way steam handles things vs the way BigBox does and it's hard to pinpoint what it is exactly that sets them apart. I am not trying to suggest steam as a valid alternative for big collections, just that is the sort of level that we should be aiming for, without compromising what makes LB/BB good. I think the most sensible thing to try and resolve this is for me to go back to BigBox theme development, have another shot at attempting to customise BigBox to my liking's and then highlight what I think still feels wrong in BigBox. Also never realised you could use a mouse in big box thanks for the tip.
  3. alec100_94
    @Lordmonkus Ok first of all I don't think HyperSpin (never even heard of AttractMode) is much better. Now compare it to something like Steam Big picture with it's super smooth interface combined with it's modern look and feel, and better control options (including mouse support). The interface is just way less clunky and it's much easier to navigate around, feeling way more intuitive. Sure it may be a little bit of an unfair comparison, but it is certainly a valid one as Steam is on basically every PC already. I really don't want to get into a big argument over this, As I believe we are all on the same side, which was the main reason I kept my response short, and it is only my opinion.
  4. alec100_94
    @Jason Carr Didn't mean for my comment to come across as salty, so i'll expand on it a little more. I guess the real point I was trying to make was just that LaunchBox (in it's latest incarnation, especially with the LB.Next rewrite) feels like a much more premium and polished product than BigBox does at this point. And I feel BigBox falls a little short in terms of ease of use compared other free alternatives. Though don't get me wrong I still think it is pretty cool. Also I just don't really like XAML, it may be more an issue with me than XAML itself, I feel similar frustration's when working with Xamarin apps at work (though what I am doing there is much simpler). I might try a different editor (like Blend) and see if that makes it a little easier to work with.
  5. alec100_94
    I agree with the above. BigBox doesn't feel like the premium product it should be, and I much prefer LaunchBox's desktop interface. I think steam big picture or Kodi are much nicer 10-foot interfaces, but LB provides much more than just launching games, in the way of other features (namely plugin's). So just circumventing LB completely doesn't feel right. Though I feel a command line interface for LaunchBox would be pretty cool, easy to implement, and partially circumvent this problem, and allow games to be launched through LB from some other frontend. As for my venture into LB theme develop I kind of gave up. I got something that looked pretty decent, but a bunch of relatively minor things still stopped it from feeling really good, and it still very much felt like BigBox, with everything that goes with that. I also found working with the XAML views absolutely horrendous and really unitive for editing (especially if you are aiming for perfection), and this is coming from someone with 8 years of programming experience, and lots of time spent with really finicky stuff like this. BigBox still has a long way to go.
  6. alec100_94
    @Dane The .MDF (Media Descriptor File) file is the important one, the .MDS (Media Descriptor Sidecar) file is essentially a cue-sheet (like with .bin/.cue files). This is a propriety disc image format used by Alcohol 120%, and developed back when it was trendy for every piece of disc burning software to have it's own format. I would personally convert it to the standardised .iso format with something Like UltraIso (My preferred)/MagicIso/PowerIso/IsoBuster/etc. but the .MDF file should still work just fine. You can read more about the file type here. I was also surprised to find Alcohol 120% is still even a thing after all these years, with a latest stable release of February this year. To answer the second part of your question PCSX2 can load the following disc image file types: .iso (standard single track image) .mdf (Alcohol 120% format) .ngr (Nero format) .bin (multi-track disc image) .img (standard mirror image, may contain multi-track data) .gz (G-Zip Compressed Image) .cso (Compressed Iso)
  7. alec100_94
    @Omen @neil9000 this is an issue with my plugin. My plugin pretty much governs the command line for ps2 games, and I don't think I ever fully considered the idea of changing that when there was no config present. It should be easy enough to fix but don't know when I'll get around to doing it. I've taken a bit of a break from the plugin's development as of late.
  8. alec100_94
    More information about ""
    @sachos345 If you go into the Settings.ini file in the plugin's folder and change "CopyLilyPadSettingsFile = false" to "CopyLilyPadSettingsFile = true" then it should copy the input settings you have set in the emulators base config. This was set to false by default as most people use Xinput compatible pads nowadays and LilyPad configures them for you. It is also planned to eventually have a user interface to change these settings.
  9. alec100_94
    @Hackiss @Zombeaver I second a video of how to use it would probably be a good idea, but one thing to bear in mind is that the plugin is still in development and isn't what I would call finished yet. Some big changes are likely to come in the next couple of versions which might make a video on the current version pretty much redundant.
  10. alec100_94
    I have a feeling @ozboss may not be able to upgrade as I'm pretty sure the i7 7700HQ is a laptop CPU. Though PCSX2 isn't really designed for laptops without decent dedicated graphics hardware, but you might have some surprising results by lowering the resolution and other demanding graphical settings as @Zombeaver suggested, I would also imagine software mode would also be fine in the most part, just don't set your expectations too high.
  11. alec100_94
    Ok cool, that makes some sense. What isn't working properly here is the "Game Image Type" option from within BigBox (Options > Images). It essentially does nothing at all if the platform has had it's Image Type changed at all (even if it's changed back to the default "Boxes"), though if it's completely unset (i.e. initially or manually remove the parameter) it overrides the platform setting, this was what was confusing me initially. Everything else seems to be essentially working fine though I didn't really expect changing Image Type on a platform level through BigBox (using the hotkey) to affect the main desktop UI. Also would it be possible to override this setting in the XAML? I'm really still learning the basics with this stuff. It would be great if you could take a look at fleshing this out sometime, I think it could be really cool if done right, though it's not really a huge deal to me. This is essentially a side project to my side project (my main side project being LaunchBox plugin development). I just felt like taking a whack at creating a theme that felt like a modern Games Console, as I much prefer that kind of style as opposed to the "wheel" interface that Hyperspin popularised. I Kind of also just wanted to see what the current theming engine was actually capable of. Truthfully I think what I currently have is pretty nice, and there is still a lot I can do in terms of tuning up the UI, and I've not even touched any of the other views yet.
  12. alec100_94
    @Jason Carr I think I figured out what my issue was, and it kind of makes sense but it's still a bug in my opinion. It seems like the "Game Image Type" setting is ignored in BigBox if said platform has ImageType set in it's own xml file (i.e <ImageType>Boxes</ImageType>"). The images in BigBox can be changed by changing this but this also changes them in LaunchBox. The "Game Image Type" setting in BigBox isn't respected at all for that platform, unless <ImageTypes> is removed from said platforms XML file, which essentially forces flat boxes in LaunchBox's desktop view if you want to use the option in BigBox (Also there is no way of removing this tag from the UI, Setting back to Boxes doesn't work). I worked out what was happening here, when I assigned a button to cycle Image Type's in BigBox and realised it was affecting the Desktop View Too. In my opinion these settings should not be linked at all and BigBox image type settings should at very least always override the platforms image type setting. In an ideal world you would also have platform and view overrides just for BigBox, allowing you to mix and match between platforms and views, without affecting the LaunchBox Desktop view. My other question still stands, I was also wondering if there was a way to centre or adjust the scrolling on the "Recent" Games view so games can be seen on the left and right when scrolling through a large collection (see screenshot to understand what I mean).
  13. alec100_94
    @Jason Carr I have recently started messing about with some BigBox theme stuff, and am experiencing some odd/inconsistent behaviour with the "Recent" Games that show up underneath a platform. I was experimenting with some different settings and set "Game Image Type" to clear logo's and that seems to be working fine for my 3DS Games, but for some reason or another my PS2 Games just refuse to show the clear Logo's, and always show cover art. It's definitely not an image caching issue, as I've tried clearing that multiple times. This also seems to be an issue in other views that are supposed to use the "Game Image Type" parameter. Don't know if this is a bug, or whether there are some special rules that determine what is displayed here. I've put some screenshots below. Also I have another question about the "Recent" Games, which is sort of related. And that is would it be possible to rebind the key layout for it through a plugin or otherwise? I get why it's setup the way it is, but with some themes (such as this one I'm creating), it can feel a little sluggish/unintuitive to have up/down cycle through the "Recent" Games with Right/Left Changing platform. I would much prefer Right/Left to cycle through the games after down has been pressed to select them and pressing up again would go back to the platform select, essentially giving multiple rows (similar to a PS4). It's a really small thing, but I think it has quite big impact on the overall user experience.
  14. alec100_94
    All the games that have configs are listed here. Don't know if @Zombeaver keeps the spreadsheet up to date or not. If a game does not have a config, you can request one here, but I think @Zombeaver has a rather long Todo list. There isn't really anywhere else you can download config's from, and even if there was I wouldn't recommend it as these are set up in a specific way for my plugin. The main (and original) purpose of the plugin is to allow you to easily create one yourself.
  15. alec100_94
    I might try my hand at some theme development, as I pretty much 100% agree, and don't think any BigBox theme really has a nice all round feel to it, and all of them feel far from what one would expect from a modern 10ft interface. Some themes come quite close to being the start of this sort of interface but don't seem quite there. I've played with modifying some a little in the past and was able to knock up something much nicer with just a few minor tweaks here and there. I think it should be possible to make something that combines elements from the PS3/4 interface and some aspects of Kodi, with what is currently available.
  16. alec100_94
    I am planning something to that effect in a future version of the plugin. It is not really as simple as that.
  17. alec100_94
    @zodiac321 I would prefer it if all queries, questions, and issues could be posted over in the plugin's thread to keep things more manageable. Though I thought all of the issues like this had been fixed with the latest version (Beta 1 Hotfix 2). The main pieces of information I'm going to need are the locations of your PCSX2 and LaunchBox directories as well as logs (if you don't know how to make logs it's described multiple times in the linked thread).
  18. alec100_94
    @Zombeaver That's essentially the kind of thing I was thinking. I am already aware that it'd be possible with AutoHotkey Scripts or Bat File using LB's Additional Applications feature. But this is ultimately so much easier and cleaner, all it currently requires from the user (in bare-bones form) is some text editing and folder structure, and I plan to make an interface to streamline some of that stuff where the folders will be created automatically and the files can be located with browse dialog's. It also stops LB's Context menu having extra additional application's in it, that the user would never manually start. There wasn't even that much code on my part to make this work (in it's current form). I could probably also expand it in the future to do similar things with XML files or even the registry.
  19. alec100_94
    Hey there, many of you guys probably know me as the guy who made the PCSX2 Configurator plugin, which is still very much in development, but currently has a very usable version available. Tonight I decided to try and play with something a little bit different, that I have been thinking about for a while now, and the results were quite good. Lazy Ini Tweaker is my name for this new project, the basic concept is that it allows the user to make custom ini tweaks to their emulators config file while starting any game from LaunchBox, and then restoring the original settings again when the game closes. In some ways it's conceptually similar to my PCSX2 Configuartor plugin, but much more generic. But that short description isn't really doing it justice so let me quickly go through one of many scenario's that this plugin enables. So I have a 3DS game, let's say Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3, and the emulator is Citra. Now Joker 3 is quite a demanding 3DS game, and may run better at a lower internal resolution than some other games on the platform, but Citra has no built in way of allowing us to do that easily. So that's where my plugin comes in, the user creates a tweak file that looks something like this (I plan to make UI with custom ini editor). [Renderer] resolution_factor = 5 ;Sets Resolution Factor to 5 (2000x1200) [UI] fullscreen\default = false ;Forces Fullscreen fullscreen = true And then the plugin does the rest, by writing those values to the config file when the game starts, and restoring the original config file when the game is closed. The possibilities of what could potentially be done are endless, and this almost acts as a magical workaround for basically all config inconveniences, almost allowing LaunchBox to be on par with something like RocketLauncher in terms of per-game configs. Now this is very early days, I have currently been working on it one night (though have conceptualised the idea for several months). But I am already confident this is something I want to make into a fully fleshed out plugin. so I decided to make a git repository for it with what I currently have. I have also attached the current build (which does actually work), with the example mentioned above, If you are confused (either by what is written here, or the contents of the archive) then DO NOT Download and try this extremely early build. Feel free to vote in the attached poll, so I can get an idea of how much interest there would be in this kind of thing. I also want to stress this does not mean PCSX2 Configurator will be getting any less love, I still have an update schedule for that and that is still my primary focus right now. If anyone wants to talk about this plugin or LaunchBox Plugin Development in general please feel free to hit me up on a PM, or make a post on the forums. Lazy Ini Tweaker Day0 Prototype.zip
  20. alec100_94
    Sounds like a fun little project you are working on there, I have used a handful of external libraries with LaunchBox before, and not had any issues like that but I have not attempted to use any C wrapper libraries. It looks like LaunchBox is trying to load the native code as a .Net library. There are probably multiple ways of working around this, the most obvious is dropping the DLL extension (I think that'd work, though may need some modification). It may also be possible to get LaunchBox to ignore the exception. There is also another option for doing this that you may not have considered, which is simply utilising a version control client and calling it silently from the command line. I use SVN to pull individual folders from a repository hosted on GitHub with my PCSX2 Configurator plugin. You may also want to consider using a pure .Net solution like GitSharp. Though if you always want the latest version and all the files, you may just be best downloading and extracting master as stated above.
  21. alec100_94
    @EmperorFaiz I am sorry to hear you are having issues with the plugin, could you please post any problems in the plugin's thread. Thanks.
  22. alec100_94
    The new version of this plugin is officially now out, please check it out here.
  23. alec100_94
    More information about "PCSX2 Configurator Next"

    Version Beta 2

    9,398 downloads

    PCSX2 Configurator Next for LaunchBox PCSX2 Configuartor Next is a plugin for LaunchBox that allows users to easily configure PCSX2 on a per-game basis. The plugin also allows for pre-optimised configs to be downloaded from right within LaunchBox for a whole host of popular PS2 games, from Zombeaver's excellent PS2 Configuration Project. Installation The plugin is easy to install and simply needs to be downloaded and extracted. The archive contains a folder called "PCSX2 Configurator Next", this should be placed in the root of the "Plugins" in the user's LaunchBox directory. Any previous versions of the plugin should be removed before attempting to install this version. General Usage The plugin is relatively straight forward to use, but has been changed significantly from previous versions. You will first need to have PCSX2 (1.5.0 development build) setup as an emulator in LaunchBox. Then right click on a PS2 Game and choose "PCSX2 Configurator" from near the bottom of the context menu. This will present a menu of options: "Create Config" - Creates a new config for the game in question based on the users current PCSX2 settings, If a config already exists this will overwrite that config with a new one. "Download Config" - This will download one of Zombeaver's Config and set it up to be ready to play for the selected game, this will be greyed out if now config is available, and will change to "Update Config" if a new update is available for the downloaded config. "Remove Config" - This will remove the current config for the selected game, and will be greyed out if there is no current config. "Configure With PCSX2" - This will open PCSX2 with the config for the selected game loaded, allowing you to customise your config for the selected game (Downloaded Config's can also be tweaked). Once a game has a created config this can also be done using LaunchBox's built in "Configure" from the games context menu. Both these options will be greyed out if there is no config for the selected game. There is also a "settings.ini" file created in the plugins folder ("%LaunchBoxDir%/Plugins/PCSX2 Configurator Next"), this can be tweaked manually but most settings don't need to be touched in most cases. Some people may wish to change the "GameConfigsDir" which is where the created configs are stored, this deafults to the users PCSX2 "inis" directory. There is currently no inteface to modify these settings, but that is planned in a future version. Version Info and The Next in The Name This version of the plugin is the successor to the original PCSX2 Configurator plugin, with a completely re-worked codebase from that version, and full compatibility with LaunchBox.Next (which is now the current version of LaunchBox). The main reason "Next" was added to the name is to initially seperate it from that (now discontinued) verison of the plugin. This release is currently in Beta and the "Next" from the name will probably be dropped eventually for a stable release with more features. Credit and Support I have personally put a lot of time and effort into all versions of this plugin, with it essentially being my free-time pet project for the last year and a half. Though I know the plugin would not be what it is today without Zombeaver who really helped me to bring this plugin to the next level, by allow me to integrate his PS2 configurations into it as well as creating artwork and helping me test the plugin. I would also like to say a big thank you to spectral, neil9000, and kmoney for helping me out with testing, and of course Jason Carr for making LaunchBox and implementing some of my requested changes into the plugin engine. I intend to keep working on this plugin, and fix any reported bugs as well as update the plugin with new features. So if you have any problem or feature request's hop over to the plugins thread on the forums and let me know. The project is also open sourced under the MIT license and can be found on my github. UPDATE (JUNE 2020): This Plugin is now in maintenance mode, and is nearing end of life. I am currently working on a standalone version that will serve the same purpose, which will also be made to work with LaunchBox. The progress of that can be found here
  24. alec100_94
    Sorry to dig this back up, but how on earth do you do a similar thing with a .ttf font (with hard coded directory, or otherwise)? I have tried basically everything I can think of and looked around online but cannot get it to work at all, unless I embed the font (which I don't really want to do). The WPF aspect of developing this plugin has really been the least enjoyable part for me, I'm finding it horrendous to work with and really not seeing the appeal of it at all, and almost wishing I'd used Windows Forms instead.
  25. alec100_94
    A quick look in the xaml tip and tricks thread, basically says it is standard practice (for LaunchBox) just to hardcode it, which is guess it fine, kind of wish I'd seen that before posting the thread. I just wasn't sure as it seemed kind of dumb and this is my first WPF project and i wanted to make sure I was doing it right.
×
×
  • Create New...