ckp

Just took 6.10 Beta 6. Is there a changelist or notes some place for each update to see what is new/fixed/changed? LB still crashes for me launching games if using VLC for videos.

a better solution if moving to db would be to provide any need for editing things in the LB interface itself and NOT having users messing with the DB directly i sure don't want to install and use MS Access. but if LB goes to db eventually, i'm 99% certain it will not use an Access database as it would most likely use SQLite (there are many super lightweight free tools to use for working with a sqlite db). anyway, sounds like this is probably quite a ways out.

@Jason Carr, for cpu it sounds like you are saying that the strength of a single threaded core is most vital as opposed to gaining any advantage from multi core multi threaded cpu's. is that accurate? so if we see, as an example, launchbox process in task manager consuming 25% cpu on a 4 core single threaded cpu system (like intel i5), that means we are bottlenecked because one single threaded core is fully pegged. i don't think i have seen that much usage on my system but i'll double check that when switching platforms by logging usage with perfmon. i just want to narrow down if i have any bottlenecks anywhere. thanks!

That's a great point. In the 6.10 beta builds I'm surely not complaining either! Could it be better? Maybe. But at its current speed compared to when I used 6.8 and 6.9, it is a world of difference that i truly appreciate!

@SentaiBrad, all good points. I am certain, after Jason has some time to dig deeper into performance tuning, that he will find some ways to make a big difference on most semi modern to modern systems. It will happen.

Actually you can have your OS on slow mechanical drive and see a HUGE performance boost running applications on very fast media. For example, I run vmware virtual machines all the time. If I store a VM on a mechanical drive where the Windows is installed or even on a different mechanical drive, the VM is very slow compared to having the VM stored on an SSD drive. Most of that speed is because all the read/writing is happening on the ssd media even if the OS itself is running on slow media. Yeah @Imgema findings may not have enough detail to be conclusive, but they seem to be inline with what I saw when I moved my image art LB cache to ssd and it didn't seem to make a difference from being on usb 3.

CPU is not a bottle neck at all for LB, at least not on my system. I don't think CPU is an issue for the performance people are seeing. I would love to test starting from a blank new LB install and adding all my stuff back from there, but I just don't have that kind of time myself. That is a lot of work. I think it's already proven that the code itself can make a huge improvement for performance as we've seen in the latest 6.10 beta builds. If you guys had a really nasty slow test system that exhibits the slowness people are hitting, that might also be good for your debugging.

@Imgema, that is a very interesting experiment, but with disappointing results! I was really hoping for someone to go through the process of moving everything to ssd or ramdisk and inform us of the difference observed. I have been very curious about exactly which pieces of this puzzle would benefit by running off of SSD. Now I'm not so much in a hurry to move anything from my usb 3 drive (except i do have a symlink for my image cache folder to my ssd). Ideally I want everything on my usb 3 drive and don't want to move anything off of it, but I also want good usability. If you had LB, all games art/video, and image cache files in your ramdisk and things were still the same speed, then that is quite surprising. Did you really have everything in the ramdisk, including image cache and all art/video? Because my image cache is several gigs, so you must have used a very large ramdisk and have a lot of ram. All that said, I think Jason made a huge improvement in the recent Beta builds, so he is headed in the right direction. I know it must be very difficult to make enough time to squash all the bugs, develop new code, spend time on performance improvements, read the forum posts, market the product, maintain the website, order fulfillment, etc, etc, especially if he's a one-man-team!

hoping you mean the error when using vlc as video player. i can't reproduce the other error (System.NullReferenceException) at will so don't know how often that one happens

just got this LB error popup window with beta3: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at (Object , ElapsedEventArgs ) at LaunchBox.Program.TimerElapsed(Object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e) after a demul game started. using win media player for videos.

ok my mistake above. it's the same as before beta 3. i just have to press back once while waiting for platforms to come up 7 seconds later. i just tried it about 8 times to be sure.

Ok, on <=6.9 before beta 3, anytime I went into BB and went from the platforms wheel to the settings area (back button on my xbox360 or using keyboard) and then selecting Options, if I go back to the platform wheel (2 back button taps away), without even making a single setting change, the back press leading to the platform wheel would hang there for several seconds (not 1 or 2) before the platforms wheel would show up again. I could press Back a bunch of times, but it would not go back until waiting it out (kind of like the LB hangup exiting from Manage Platforms, although that is much better in the beta 2+ now in LB). The only difference I see for this in my BB in beta 3 is that now it seems that after I wait for the "hangup" (about 7-8 seconds) going back to the platforms wheel, it will now require me to press Back yet one more time and then it goes right back. In 6.9 I just waited it out and 2 back presses got me back. Now in beta 3 i go 2 back presses, wait for the hangup period, and then press a 3rd back. So now it's actually slightly worse for me, haha. I hope I explained this clear enough. Let me know if it's still not clear.

The crash issue I'm now having in beta3 is with LB (not BB). It's the same exact issue I had before with LB until you fixed it the last release. But now it's broken again. It always worked with vlc inside my BB for all versions.

the beta 3 didn't fix my stuck navigation from Options and back to the platform list unfortunately. i still have to wait several seconds before it makes the switch in BB.

ok all is well now that i switched videos back to win media player like before this was fixed the last time.

the same exact thing used to happen to me in 6.8 when using VLC until you fixed that issue in 6.9. did you leave that bug fix out of this beta somehow? Fault bucket 120556312958, type 4 Event Name: APPCRASH Response: Not available Cab Id: 0 Problem signature: P1: LaunchBox.exe P2: 6.10.0.3 P3: 57e2ff93 P4: libvlccore.dll P5: 2.2.2.0 P6: 00000000 P7: c0000005 P8: 0000000000079c17 P9: P10: Attached files: \\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER6BD2.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml \\?\C:\Users\cpaulino\AppData\Local\Temp\WER779B.tmp.appcompat.txt These files may be available here: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_LaunchBox.exe_bc1a426669fba3c1888de5be66dacfe17ea613b_9ef2770c_15bde066 Analysis symbol: Rechecking for solution: 0 Report Id: ac97baee-3a57-41f0-8ba6-91faed3a1843 Report Status: 1 Hashed bucket: c8c59b16628aab92e0b965e993ae1669 Faulting application name: LaunchBox.exe, version: 6.10.0.3, time stamp: 0x57e2ff93 Faulting module name: libvlccore.dll, version: 2.2.2.0, time stamp: 0x00000000 Exception code: 0xc0000005 Fault offset: 0x0000000000079c17 Faulting process id: 0x2008 Faulting application start time: 0x01d2145cd232ec7a Faulting application path: R:\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe Faulting module path: R:\LaunchBox\VLC\x64\libvlccore.dll Report Id: ac97baee-3a57-41f0-8ba6-91faed3a1843 Faulting package full name: Faulting package-relative application ID: .NET runtime: Application: LaunchBox.exe Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: exception code c0000005, exception address 000000006E3F9C17

ahhhhhhh, i just upgraded. launched a dreamcast game (from compress file format) and after Demul opened up , LB crashed!! ugh.

ahh, my kids actually have weekend soccer tournaments every now and then out by you.

gotcha!

Inside each Platform in its Folders tab is the media type "GAME" and a path of "Games\<name of platform> What is that for??? All of my games are in other folders outside of LaunchBox. It seems that this has no meaning? I was hoping I would see the real root path of where my game files are so I could easily change it if I want to move certain platform game files to other drives or folders.

Add Cemu to the table?

@Jason Carr, if you are anywhere near the Emeryville or Sacramento/Roseville (California) area at any time, please allow me to buy you lunch! Serious.

The Launchbox.exe process now exits almost instantly after closing the app window now! It used to take MANY seconds to exit. Another win! Ok the Bigbox navigation from Options area and back to platforms list still hangs for several seconds. Ok, can't win 'em all!

Added bonus: opening Manage Platforms and then clicking the Close button no longer give LB a fit of freezing up and hanging for several seconds. Now there is no fit and only takes maybe 1 or 2 seconds!! Gotta try Bigbox options and back to platform list now...

Helloooooooooooooooooooo performance GOODNESS!! 6.9 release switch any platform = 9.43 seconds 6.10 beta 2 switch any platform = 2.75 seconds!!!!!! scrolling the games seems totally fine as well. This version is a KEEPER!!! Woohoo!!!!! Don't stop there though...keep optimizing