faeran

LaunchBox for Android 1.22 Beta thread has opened:

Hi Everyone, A new beta round has begin for Android for version 1.22. The first beta is out and introduces a powerful new Security system, visual theme update indicators, improved library optimization behavior, and an important scoped storage fix. While the changelog is fairly straightforward, we would really appreciate focused testing, especially around the new Security system. Testers: Things to Focus On Please help us validate the following: Security System: Enable Security under Options > Security, lock multiple features, attempt editing, deleting, importing, emulator management, and platform options. Restart the app and reboot your device to confirm restrictions persist. Test while using LaunchBox as your home launcher as well. Theme Update Indicators: Confirm the green badge appears in Manage Themes and next to individual themes when updates are available. Update a theme and confirm the badge disappears and remains accurate after restart. Scoped Storage Fix: While using LaunchBox as your home launcher, attempt to set or change a Scoped Storage path and confirm it saves and functions correctly. Beta 1 Changelog Added a new Security system that lets you lock down platform and game management features behind a PIN, with extensive configuration options available under Options > Security Added a visual update indicator for themes, showing a green badge on the Manage Themes menu item and next to individual themes when updates are availableUpdated Optimize Library behavior so star ratings across your entire library now refresh automatically when running an Update Library scan Fixed an issue that prevented setting a Scoped Storage path when the app was running as a homescreen launcher Thank you for helping us refine LaunchBox for Android. Your testing and feedback continue to make the app better with every beta.

What you can do instead is drop the bat files into LaunchBox, and then choose the option: None of the Above Since you are not importing ROMs that's the option you'll want to use, then you won't have to choose an emulator.

We've talked extensively internally about upgrading our internal tools and infrastructure, but always delay it due to time investment and the very real risk of breaking what we already have set up and working for the last decade. If we spin up another project, we most definitely will take advantage of a more modern approach, although it will be more to help us, and less about public perception. Not really sure it matters, but we needed to fix a problem with our import wizards locking only to find out we already fixed it internally in a branch that also contained the FB Neo import. It would have taken just as much, if not more time to decouple the two and test them separately than it would to just test what was already there and working, so hence, new feature The next beta cycle will start soon enough as we already have branches in the code review / internal testing phases, so expect a new beta thread in the next week or so. I'll close this one down for now until then. Thanks everyone for the help with beta testing this release.

As we mentioned from the beginning of this cycle, this was a quick hotfix release cycle to address some of the major issues that showed up with 13.25. We'll have some communication shortly about the hotfix release in a number of places. For the most part, Beta 2 is what the hotfix turned into, and we've already started the next release cycle internally. Yes, you will end up having issues if you are 7zipping games like that. Instead, I would look into compression alternatives. Ask someone on the forums for emulator specific compression alternatives that don't require decompression to run, there's most usually a solution. Also note that RetroAchievement scanning will not take place for Platforms that RetroAchievements does not support. Sounds like you've had a string of bad luck, which we apologize for. We were unable to duplicate any of the music issues you are having. We've actually specifically addressed a number of them within this hotfix release. For any other issues you may have, it's best to both ask on the forums if there are any simple solutions you may be missing, or report a bug using the above menu under HELP & SUPPORT > REPORT A BUG Each report should have thing you deem a bug, and you'll want to provide as much information as you possibly can. For any crash related items make sure to include a crash report, along with exact reproduction steps, including plugins, themes, views you use, features you were using, those kinds of things. Include at least your Settings files, or your entire Data folder. The more information, the better we can see if there's something in our code base that we need to address, or if it's something else we can help you with.

Make sure to turn it on under Options > Show Playlist Filters

Make sure you are also setting the Scrape As value to Arcade. Those are the two rules in order to see the fbneo import page at the end of the import wizard. We'll have a write up once this goes live, and we will also look to expand this logic to include the emulators as well in future updates.

We haven't been able to recreate this, and RetroArch code hasn't been touched in a very long time, so my guess is that the issue is fairly internal to your location unfortunately, for whatever reason. If you are referring to LaunchBox, the default is Box Fronts, so it would be strange for it to suddenly change randomly. I don't believe there's any code that allows the change globally like that (it's always possible a plugin could introduce that kind of functionality). This would be best to troubleshoot in another thread. The way FinalBurn Neo import currently works is that you'd have to import a platform that has a name similar enough to FinalBurn Neo, then you'll see it. In the future, I could see a benefit to opening this up to take into consideration the emulator's exe, and core for people that use RetroArch, although that won't happen for this hotfix. Let us know if naming the platform properly works for you. Thanks. Looks like it's the "RotationAmount" property. We will look into this before the hotfix drops. What we would need from anyone experiencing any kind of crash for either LaunchBox or Big Box for us to take a look: Any Crash Reports that LaunchBox or Big Box provides Any Crash Reports found in Event Viewer specific to the crash that also are .NET crashes (there may be multiple per crash) The Settings.xml and BigBoxSettings.xml files would also be super helpful, as long as they are in the exact state that makes you crash Then, click on HELP & SUPPORT in the menu above, and choose REPORT A BUG, and send us a full report of exactly what is happening at the time of the crash, along with all the above. We utilize RA Hasher, the official hashing tool from RetroAchievements, which as far as I know, doesn't allow you to read bits flowing through RAM to gain the hash that it needs. If they ever get support for that, we can look into supporting it. RA Hasher doesn't have support to read the contents of a 7zip file to obtain the hash (hence the need to extract), but it does have support for zip. So, from a user's perspective, the better format to store your small ROM files is either uncompressed entirely, or within a zip, if RetroAchievements is important to you.

Thanks, that trail will lead you to the answer. What you got was the same issue when you were on beta 1. The fix was applied to beta 2

Read the first post, it should explain it to you. Also, there's currently no server issue. Not sure why it crawls from where you are. You won't get the full speed, but it's usually enough to download in a few minutes.

Beta 2 is out with the following: Improved: Optimized music playback in LaunchBox to run off the main thread and reuse the same VLC session, improving overall performance and playback stability Improved: Addressed multiple reported issues related to music playback reliability and session management Fixed: Background music no longer restarts or skips the current track when the screensaver activates Fixed: Platform videos in LaunchBox now stop playing correctly when the platform details pane is closed Fixed: Restored video playback on Platform Hybrid views where videos were previously not playing Fixed: The Play Video Audio with Background Music option can now be toggled independently from the Prioritize Soundtrack Music setting, allowing both options to work as expected Fixed: Resolved an index out of range error that could occur during automatic ROM imports in rare empty list scenarios The first post and in app explains more of how you can help test the changes in this beta. Thanks all.

Not to linger on it, but it was essentially just a flip of a setting that then caused some users not to see that an update was available in some scenarios. That was essentially it. Early adopters of 13.25 would have potentially seen this in their build. In all cases there were ways around not getting the notification, which most people here found, with a few others ways as well that weren't mentioned.

It's actually an issue with 13.25 (can't be a problem with the beta when you haven't even installed it yet :P). There was a short time where 13.25 had that issue but it has been since fixed.

When I mentioned Arcade platform. It's less about lumping everything into an Arcade platform, and more about utilizing "Scrape As: Arcade" and the logic built behind that, which then attempted to answer your first question. As far as Media Packs are concerned, that's just us thinking ahead so we are prepared with some default custom platform names for users.

Well, for your example, RetroArch should already be able to play a Sega Master System game without the need to extract the file, so in that scenario, it may be a bit redundant to use LaunchBox's extraction method there (depending on core used.) Most small ROM based cores can handle playing without extracting 7z and zip, where disc based systems, almost all of them have their own compression format that they support these days that can be read without the need for extraction, which , together, all becomes a lot better for your hard drive in the long run as well. Anyway, in order for this to work, we'd have to basically follow what RetroArch is trying to do. So if a user is using the Content Directory setting for save files and they have made the choice to utilize a region folder like \\Sega Master System\USA\, then RetroArch will place your save files inside of a USA folder, and ignore Sega Master System entirely. We would need to match this to have our feature make any sense.

Well, let's look at it slightly differently. Remember that TeknoParrot is not a platform. The platform is Arcade, which has its own file parsing logic streams that have yet to make their way to our auto-import feature. This is why TeknoParrot, which requires a scrape as value of Arcade, won't work via the auto-import system right now. So, yes, it's currently a limitation by design. I could see it being one of the easier ones to get working though, so it's never out of the question, where once a user has added a TeknoParrot emulator, we can deduce where the xml files should be and allow auto-imports for platforms that match or are close to the name TeknoParrot. As long as people don't drastically mis-spell or decide to name their platform something funky, it should, in theory, work. Although, the names of the xml files would also be super important to find a GamesDB match properly.

Did you manage to get it to download? Nothing on our side indicates that anything is wrong there. Thanks for the report. Both are fixed internally and should be part of beta 2. Thanks for the report. I believe it's worked like this for a very long time (like over half a decade or longer). So, while this won't make the hotfix, it's probably about time we take another look at this to smooth out the edges that may have been introduced since its implementation. I'll see about remembering to go through that entire pipeline early in the next beta cycle to see if there's some easy wins here.

This part is actually working "as intended", in that there was no effort to filter down search results like this in hybrid views. I'll see what it would take, but it would be a new effort, so I'm not sure where in line it will get placed. As far as switching to the TextGamesView, that's by design. The PlatformHybridView is a Platform view with a game list tacked on (not the other way around), which means, that the only true Game view in that theme is the TextGamesView, which Search results requires to utilize.

Thanks guys. Fixed internally, should be in beta 2.

Beta thread for 13.26 has been opened:

Hi Everyone, We are kicking off a new beta testing round for an upcoming hotfix release. This is a very short release cycle aimed at addressing major regressions introduced in 13.25, along with a handful of smaller fixes where possible. The goal here is speed and stability so we can get this hotfix out the door as quickly as we can. Because of that, this beta is especially focused on verification. If something was broken for you in 13.25, this is the build we need your help validating. Users on 13.25 and 13.26 beta 1 Having Update Issues If you are not seeing an update notification to update the main fix is by going to Menu > Help > Check for Updates... That will force an update check and then allow you to update. Why? In early versions of 13.25 and in beta 1, the option to "Check for Updates on Startup" was incorrectly being applied, stopping LaunchBox from checking for updates after startup. Version 13.25 was updated with a fix, so anyone that downloaded and installed 13.25 after the fix was put in place won't have this issue. On the beta track, this was solved in Beta 2 and onwards. Things We Need Help Testing Please focus on the areas below. Even a quick confirmation that something now works as expected is extremely helpful. Background music no longer restarts or skips the current track when the screensaver activates (Beta 2) While background music is playing, wait for or manually activate the screensaver and confirm the currently playing song continues smoothly without restarting or skipping to the next track, including setups where only a single music track is configured Platform videos in LaunchBox now stop playing correctly when the platform details pane is closed (Beta 2) With auto-play videos enabled, test using both the WMP and FFmpeg video engines, close the Platform or Game Details Pane, click on a platform with a platform theme video, and confirm the video does not continue playing; switch focus away from and back to LaunchBox to ensure the video does not start unexpectedly, then reopen the details pane and confirm videos play correctly again Restored video playback on Platform Hybrid views where videos were previously not playing (Beta 2) In Big Box, navigate to a Platform Hybrid view that includes videos and confirm platform or game videos now play as expected instead of remaining blank or static Fixed Vertical Legacy Platform Wheels not appearing on load in Big Box If you use an older Big Box theme with vertical platform wheels, open a platform view and confirm the wheel list now appears immediately without needing to scroll Fixed platform and game background images not displaying in Big Box platform views If you previously saw a black background, or no background image where there should have been one, launch Big Box with the affected theme and confirm platform and game backgrounds now appear correctly Fixed the left sidebar not toggling in LaunchBox In LaunchBox, use View > Show or Hide > Side Bar or press CTRL + S and confirm the sidebar now shows and hides correctly Fixed background and game music not looping in LaunchBox and Big Box Load background music in Big Box or game music in either LaunchBox or Big Box and confirm the track now loops continuously instead of stopping at the end Fixed volume controls not affecting audio correctly with both WMP and FFmpeg In Big Box, adjust as many volume related settings as possible and confirm changes actually affect audio levels when using either video engine Fixed background music behavior with screensavers Let Big Box enter the screensaver and confirm background music continues playing and responds properly to your sound and music settings Fixed game music incorrectly continuing into the screensaver Start game music in Big Box, activate or wait for the screensaver, and confirm game music now stops when it should, instead of carrying over Fixed game music priority over video audio inside the screensaver In Big Box, if you have the music priority option enabled, let the screensaver run and confirm game music properly plays when a game with music appears Added a new FinalBurn Neo import step for Arcade platforms Start a Single Platform Import or drag and drop import, create a FinalBurn Neo style platform with Scrape As set to Arcade, and confirm the FBNeo specific import page appears and the correct games are imported Fixed Arcade imports rejecting files not listed in Metadata.xml Try importing non MAME Arcade files such as Hypseus Singe bat files using drag and drop and confirm they now import correctly Fixed RetroAchievements scanning for 7zip game files If you use 7zip compressed games, trigger a RetroAchievements scan and confirm LaunchBox successfully extracts the ROM to a temporary folder and identifies compatibility. Note that scans may take longer for large files, and it is highly recommended never to use 7zip to compress your games. Known Issues We will continue to add to this list as new issues are discovered. Internally, we have already begun working through these. Platform videos may still play under certain conditions when the Game or Platform details pane is closed (solved in beta 2) An Automatic ROM empty list bug caused by the background monitor scan could crash LaunchBox (solved in beta 2) Full Changelog You can view the complete changelog here (it gets updated first): https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog Beta 1: New Feature: Added full FinalBurn Neo arcade ROM import support across both the Single Platform Import wizard and drag and drop imports, making it easier to bring FBNeo based arcade collections into LaunchBox New Feature: Added a new Big Box option that lets video audio play alongside background music, giving you more control over how your setup sounds with proper music priority behavior Improved: Smarter auto play behavior for thumbnails so videos only auto play when a game has music and background music resumes properly when it does not Improved: Improved background rendering safety so image and video backgrounds are handled correctly across views without images being treated like videos Improved: Improved image caching reliability to better handle file system edge cases and ensure cached images are written successfully Improved: Reduced memory usage in Carousel and Media List views by ensuring image resources are properly released to help prevent memory leaks over long sessions Improved: Hardened video volume handling to prevent rare errors when video players are shut down or reloaded Fixed: Background music reliability in Big Box with better playback tracking to prevent music from stopping early or behaving inconsistently at the end of a track Fixed: Cleaned up how music behaves when entering and leaving the screensaver so audio starts and stops as intended Fixed: Resolved an issue where the left sidebar could fail to show or hide correctly Fixed: A problem that could cause the Single Platform and drag and drop import wizards to become unresponsive near the end of the import process should no longer occur Fixed: RetroAchievements scanning for 7zip compressed games by extracting ROMs to a temporary location before scanning, allowing compatibility checks to work correctly for archived files Fixed: Background and game music now loop properly in Big Box and game music loops properly in LaunchBox instead of stopping at the end of a track Fixed: Arcade imports no longer incorrectly reject files that are not listed in Metadata.xml when force metadata is not enabled, improving support for non-MAME Arcade files such as Hypseus Singe Fixed: Game music no longer continues into the screensaver when it should stop Fixed: Game music priority and audio mixing inside the screensaver now behave correctly when the relevant option is enabled Beta 2: Improved: Optimized music playback in LaunchBox to run off the main thread and reuse the same VLC session, improving overall performance and playback stability Improved: Addressed multiple reported issues related to music playback reliability and session management Fixed: Background music no longer restarts or skips the current track when the screensaver activates Fixed: Platform videos in LaunchBox now stop playing correctly when the platform details pane is closed Fixed: Restored video playback on Platform Hybrid views where videos were previously not playing Fixed: The Play Video Audio with Background Music option can now be toggled independently from the Prioritize Soundtrack Music setting, allowing both options to work as expected Fixed: Resolved an index out of range error that could occur during automatic ROM imports in rare empty list scenarios As always, thank you to everyone who takes the time to help us test these builds.

Can you be more specific about how you have imported the games? I'm not seeing anywhere in this thread on exactly how you imported them and where the games came from. That will matter in the answers we provide to you. If you can let us know exactly where the games came from, how you installed them in Windows, and how you managed to get them into LaunchBox in the exact way. All details will matter, even if they seem insignificant to you.

Steam Trailers were fixed in beta 3 for quite a while, so if something else changed on Steam's end, that would be unfortunate timing. We'll take a look.

This would be a separate issue we have been tracking, than the one the other guy was talking about. That error tends to happen on some computers that go into a hibernated/hybrid sleep mode. LaunchBox uses the GPU for things like the 3D models. When your computer goes to sleep, Windows can shut down and later restart parts of the graphics system. Sometimes when the PC wakes back up, .NET thinks the graphics data is still there when it is not, and that causes LaunchBox to crash with a misleading out of memory error. We tried to implement some hack fixes to get around .NET's shortcomings, but it's hard to run code while a computer is trying to go to sleep, or just as it's waking up. For users that are seeing this, and want to keep LaunchBox open while running that type of sleep, disabling 3D Models will solve it. In Big Box, it's a bit harder since more things use D3DImage that's not easily disabled (like the whole wheel).

We test LaunchBox all the time for RAM spikes like that but have never noticed anything like that. Would be nice to know more of your settings and what exactly you do in an entire session to better understand your scenario, although something like that is long term, outside of the scope of this thread, kind of investigation. If you can, send me a PM and we can take it from there and see if there's any patterns we can find. VLC is actually still used for music and hasn't been completely deprecated in LaunchBox. So, not yet. Sounds like you found yourself with a few separate things going on. The main one that can be easily added is the .mkv extension within that explorer window. I'll add that to the list to add in a future update. The image disappearing wouldn't have to do with a video player, but it's something else we are tracking and has been hard to pin down, but more work will go into it. It has something to do with 0 byte files being created in the cache when they shouldn't be due to some timing issues. Refreshing the cache (F5) for that game solves that issue for users when they see it. I don't think I'm quite understanding, but for the parts that I do understand, I'm thinking you may want to open up a separate thread. Sounds like the emulator requires you to add which floppy disk you want to use from within the command line arguments, and if that's the case, and you have all the floppy disks combined into one game, you wouldn't be able to do this from LaunchBox's command line tools. Instead, you may need to create bat files for each disk. I'm not entirely sure what the default option here is, although if making a choice in the settings, and then having the option revert your choice, is happening, that's definitely a bug somewhere. We'll test and see if that's happening internally. Just know that it's entirely possible that if it doesn't happen internally, there may be something up with your settings file, or maybe your shutdown process where it saves your choices to the file. Could be something not saving the file right, but we'll take a look.