faeran

The good news is that the feedback link url can be changed any time outside of any code changes to LaunchBox, so the test would mostly be that you click the button and it opens a webpage of some kind. Thanks for the feedback.

A new beta round has commenced. LaunchBox 13.25 Beta Thread is now open:

The app itself, since it's inception has been reliant on folders that it needs to be there (for many in-app reasons) to actually be there. Before 13.24 it wouldn't let you edit platforms for that reason. However, we did attempt to loosen that a bit with 13.24 so that when you open the Edit Platform window and that platform is missing a folder path, it still lets you edit things up.

Hey everyone, We are kicking off another beta round with version 13.25 Beta 1. Thank you to everyone who continues to jump in, test, and share feedback with us each release. Your help makes a huge difference as we polish and prepare for the next full update. Testers - Things to focus on: Platform Documents: Try adding, reordering, and opening platform documents from the Edit Platform window, the details pane, and the sidebar context menu. Check that the order stays consistent everywhere and that the correct document opens. Beta Spotlight Window: Make sure the new Beta Spotlight window appears only once per beta round and replaces the Welcome screen during beta testing. It can also be opened anytime from Menu > Help > Beta Spotlight. Test that the feedback button works as expected. Metadata Search Improvements: In the Add and Edit Game windows, type part of a word to test the new partial search feature. It should still prioritize exact matches and limit results to the correct platform. 3D Model Rotation Lock: Right click any 3D Model and test the Free Rotation, Lock Horizontal, and Lock Vertical options. Verify that each works correctly and that your choice is remembered after restarting LaunchBox and Big Box. Screensaver Flash Fix: In Big Box enable screensavers and test all your different view types and confirm that game transitions happen smoothly without flashing between games. Full Changelog: New Premium Feature: Platform Documents let users attach and organize manual or document entries for each platform. Documents appear in the platform details panel and sidebar context menu and follow the order you set New Feature: A new Beta Spotlight window appears during beta rounds to highlight new testing areas and features. It replaces the Welcome screen for beta users, shows once per beta round, and can be accessed anytime under Menu > Help > Beta Spotlight. Includes a quick action button for feedback Improvement: Add and Edit Game metadata searches now support partial word matching. Typing part of a title will show results containing that text while still prioritizing exact matches and filtering by platform Improvement: The 3D Model viewer adds a new rotation lock menu with Free Rotation, Lock Horizontal, and Lock Vertical options. Settings are saved across both LaunchBox and Big Box Fixed: Screensavers no longer flash a game in-between the previous and next game during transitions. Game changes are now seamless, with smooth audio and consistent performance Thank you again to everyone helping with testing and reporting back. While the features above are the main focus, some changes can have unexpected effects elsewhere in the app, so please let us know if you notice anything unusual, however please be open to the possibility that a change you believe happened due to a LaunchBox coding change may end up being user error, or external environmental issues. Your input helps us catch issues early and make each release even better.

Thanks for the request. The issue really lies in how we know a file is RetroAchievement compatible. RetroAchievements releases an official hashing program which is used to scan game files to grab the correct hash, which is then compared to an online database of hashes to find a match. The issue is that the program is not compatible on Android. There are ways around this but each have their issues. That would be one of the main pieces holding a feature like this back. Also note that LaunchBox for Android doesn't have a concept of badges like the Windows versions does, so we'd be more looking at filters and theme specific bindings.

Best to open up a separate troubleshooting thread for this type of stuff, but my best guess is that if you did not check off the import duplicate games option, then during the metadata matching process it would have deemed Project Zero the same game as Fatal Frame and then stopped importing it. You are listing a different kind of work flow that probably also requires you to check off the import duplicate games option, but you should open up your own troubleshooting section where you can provide a detail breakdown of your steps that you are taking so that the community can properly help you.

Thanks for taking the time to share all this. You clearly have some experience in this field so we can skip past the 'bugs and regressions are frustrating' bit and jump straight to - we agree. Our QA process has evolved over the last 4 to 5 years and, if anything, is stronger and more capable than it used to be. LaunchBox is a very open ended app and even just looking at a single feature, like game import, we have around 7 different import methods, each with many options, you are easily looking at 150+ different combinations, not to mention the fun that is OS and devices and the gazillion different ways people have their collections set up we really do try our best to hit the likely problem areas. We, admittedly, have been caught by a few larger issues that have really pushed us hard this year. The conflicts of video playback and platform changes (OS, .NET, and hardware). Since you're asking, we can easily share our QA process We test everything manually, in many different configurations (including new builds and existing builds) on many different pieces of hardware, including many computers, controllers, monitor setups, other popular toys (my messy desk speaks for itself), and many third party programs, tools, plugins, and themes that many users love to use in their setup (this always takes longer than the dev cycle by quite a far margin) We do structured/informed regression testing We do not have the pleasure of much automated testing for a variety of good (and some less good) reasons, so manual testing is where we get most value Every feature is released through the beta channel excepting those things we put into immediate hotfix from a recent public release Manual testing + a beta will never give us 100% confidence, nor can it. But it's the same but improved process every cycle we go through, with all the learnings we build. Bugs will definitely slip through and we'll definitely try to learn from those that do. The community, as it always has been, is invaluable to our process and we couldn't do this without you and we appreciate beyond measure this piece of it. Your thoughtful post definitely is a part of this. P.S. help us beta test if you don't already. A new beta will come out within the coming week(s) which you will find the thread here: https://forums.launchbox-app.com/forum/83-beta-testing/

Thanks for the thorough reports here. It does look like there was a change that was unintended that essentially forces the MAME parsing logic when using Arcade as the scrape as value. We'll have to fixed up before the hotfix. A workaround for people that don't want to wait would be to not select Arcade as the scrape as value during an import, then set it after the fact, and run a download metadata and media import.

Sorry, Not drag into a LaunchBox folder, but drag and drop into LaunchBox itself to start the ROM Import wizard. It's just one of the 7-ish different ways you can start an import in LaunchBox. Yes, you can also start a Single ROM import and select the files from there as well.

From what I remember. Teknoparrot doesn't really have anything special, as far as import options. It's possible it might be looking for the game's xml files. Do you have them sitting in the Teknoparrot's UserProfile folder? What happens if you drag and drop your mew game's xml files into LaunchBox?

Interesting. Thanks for the report. I was unable to recreate this with all of my controllers, although I do not have a GP-Wiz and I don't use vJoy. If you have time, are you willing to troubleshoot with me in a PM?

Thanks. This should be fixed up before the hotfix comes out. I forget what Hybrid 2 is. If it's the horizontal one, I'm not sure where that would go other than needing to replace an element to fit another one in there. The good news is that there's always theming.

Beta 3 is out with the following changes: Improvement: D-Input controllers such as DualSense, DualShock, and Nintendo Pro controllers should now have right analog stick support Improvement: You can now launch a game directly from the Game Discovery Center using a keyboard or controller mapping Improvement: When importing ROMs during the Welcome Wizard, LaunchBox now sets the platform s Game Folder to the folder you imported from, instead of using the default location Improvement: The new Auto-Import Media settings are now properly respected during realtime scans Improvement: Unselecting all image types during the Welcome Wizard is now more accurately respected during first-time imports Fixed: A crash has been resolved when multiple media imports happen at the same time Fixed: When videos were set to start after a short delay, their audio would overlap with the game music instead of replacing it as expected Fixed: Custom theme video controls now function correctly with the FFMPEG engine, preventing crashes in affected themes Fixed: The Welcome Wizard s ROM import process now better mirrors the in-app importer by combining games and filtering out unwanted files Fixed: Games in the Image Grid now always display their correct and up-to-date artwork, even in rare cases where images previously failed to appear Fixed: Custom platform names during import are now more reliably scraped with the correct platform values

That's interesting. We run many updates, many times each release cycle, and haven't experienced that one yet. Just ran another one in Big Box after your post here but it seemed to run fine. If anyone else has experienced this exact thing, let us know, however, it's entirely possible it's some oddity happening on your machine, which while it would be nice to know, would be one of those hard ones to track down. I'm assuming that you can see 2 installer windows going on at the same time and you can put them next to each other? Or do you only get that access error message?

your AI analysis is pointing to a theme plugin issue. Not sure how trustworthy that analysis can be tbh, it's all guess from the AI with limited info present in the logs. What you can do in the meantime is switch out the theme to the Default one to rule out the theme itself as the issue. You can do this under LaunchBox\Data\BigBoxSettings.xml and changing <Theme> to Default. If it's still happening on the default theme, best to go into EventViewer and grab the 2 or 3 potential crash reports you see there related to LaunchBox and Big Box and pst them here, along with your hardware setup, and version of LaunchBox you are running.

It's under the Options > Sound page. Looks for Idle Master Volume

Thanks for the report. We'll look into it and if we find anything amuck there, we'll have it fixed for the next beta.

Not yet, but it's coming.

This is actually built into the program and I'll try and explain why. All of those folders that you see there, the application expects that they are reachable, as they play important roles throughout the application. As an example, let's say you are using Box - Front images in LaunchBox, but you changed that folder to an external drive and then that drive was unplugged, you would then find yourself in a situation where you could open the application, it would make it to the main screen and then it would crash when it couldn't access that folder. There would be no way out of that crash other than to edit the xml files. In saying that, we are looking into easing this off a bit for a future update, which should include Game folders being able to not be there, while still upholding some restrictions that would stop users from being able to fall onto themselves, but in a more graceful way.

Beta thread for 13.24 hotfix release has been opened:

Hi all, Thought I'd open a new thread for this hotfix release. This one will be short-lived as we want to get this hotfix out as soon as we can, but we will be able to hopefully track better beta specific feedback here. Beta 1 came out a week a bit ago that addressed: Fixed: Big Box no longer crashes on launch for systems with unstable hardware video decoding, especially on some RTX 30 series cards and certain integrated GPUs Fixed: Custom theme video controls now function correctly with the FFMPEG engine, preventing crashes in affected themes Beta 2 has now been put out with the following: Improvement: The Storefront Manager now opens instantly, with login checks handled in the background instead of delaying the window Improvement: Startup Videos and Theme Manager previews now properly follow your selected video engine setting Improvement: You can now launch a game directly from the Game Discovery Center using a keyboard or controller mapping Improvement: All HTTP calls have been upgraded to HTTPS for improved security and reliability Fixed: FFMPEG no longer leaves videos running in the background after launching a game under certain situations Fixed: Music playback is now smoother and less prone to stuttering Fixed: Music compatibility has been improved across more audio file types Fixed: When videos were set to start after a short delay, their audio would overlap with the game music instead of replacing it as expected Fixed: Transitions will no longer trigger unexpectedly when returning from a game Fixed: Badge changes from media packs now apply correctly without needing to restart LaunchBox or Big Box Beta 3: Improvement: D-Input controllers such as DualSense, DualShock, and Nintendo Pro controllers should now have right analog stick support Improvement: You can now launch a game directly from the Game Discovery Center using a keyboard or controller mapping Improvement: When importing ROMs during the Welcome Wizard, LaunchBox now sets the platform s Game Folder to the folder you imported from, instead of using the default location Improvement: The new Auto-Import Media settings are now properly respected during realtime scans Improvement: Unselecting all image types during the Welcome Wizard is now more accurately respected during first-time imports Fixed: A crash has been resolved when multiple media imports happen at the same time Fixed: When videos were set to start after a short delay, their audio would overlap with the game music instead of replacing it as expected Fixed: Custom theme video controls now function correctly with the FFMPEG engine, preventing crashes in affected themes Fixed: The Welcome Wizard s ROM import process now better mirrors the in-app importer by combining games and filtering out unwanted files Fixed: Games in the Image Grid now always display their correct and up-to-date artwork, even in rare cases where images previously failed to appear Fixed: Custom platform names during import are now more reliably scraped with the correct platform values Things to help test with: If you were affected with the inability to access specific websites using the http protocol and you were finding certain third party services were unable to connect through LaunchBox, it would be nice if you could re-test and see if beta 2 fixes that for you. Users that run Big Box with Background music, Platform specific music, Game music, and Videos, this is the time to test all the different areas in Big Box and see if things are back to how they were before the last update. If you were experiencing issues entering into the Theme Manager window, we could use confirmation that you are no longer experiencing that.

You can see if this tutorial is still of any value:

Did you update to 13.24 beta 1, that would most likely fix that for you since it contains a specific fix for people on 30 series GPUs.