stigzler

Whut, no Nabu? 🤣 https://www.nabu.ca/

0.9.5.0 Release Improvements: Installation database updates now done via plugin rather than update the xml files directly. Option remains to update via xml if plugin not running Auto install/update plugin Minor GUI changes

Guilty as charged. I've changed for the better, your honour, honest...

Thanks. I'm a sucker for qol improvements!

Unibox View File Intro Unibox allows you to add roms to any Launchbox installation you have running on your local network on the fly. It also automatically adds metadata and media. This can be done in real-time, making it useful for installations such as arcade machines or rigs dedicated to running BigBox. No manual adding of roms to folders required, or going into Launchbox to add more games. Picture: Video of it in action: Getting started guide: Presently in Beta, so maybe test on a test installation first. Hope helps! Submitter stigzler Submitted 08/13/2025 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins

ReloadData Plugin View File A tiny plugin that allows you to refresh all games in Launchbox + Bigbox to show any changes made in the xml files outside of LB/BB. This adds System menu items to LB and/or BB which cause the refresh. You can also edit settings.ini in the plugin directory to customise its operation. Github repo: HERE Submitter stigzler Submitted 08/12/2025 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins  

Thanks for the reply, Beats and great to hear. 👍

Hi folks, Developing a super simple plugin to force BB reload of all Platform xmls. Achieve this via: internal class SystemMenuHook : ISystemMenuItemPlugin { public string Caption => "Update Games"; public System.Drawing.Image IconImage => Properties.Resources.GamesUpdate; public bool ShowInLaunchBox => true; public bool ShowInBigBox => true; public bool AllowInBigBoxWhenLocked => true; public void OnSelected() { PluginHelper.DataManager.ForceReload(); } } Using the BB default Theme. If I run the ForceReload() command via the plugin and then enter into the PlatformCategories view, and navigate to a Category which triggers a video playing, I get the following unhandled exception: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. App: Big Box Version: 13.22 Theme: Default Type: System.NullReferenceException Site: Void ReflectPublisherCreator() Source: Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Views.ImageVideoView.<>c__DisplayClass25_0.ReflectPublisherCreator() at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl() --- End of stack trace from previous location --- at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Wait(TimeSpan timeout) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherOperation operation, CancellationToken cancellationToken, TimeSpan timeout) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Invoke(Action callback, DispatcherPriority priority, CancellationToken cancellationToken, TimeSpan timeout) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Threading.Invoke(Action callback, DispatcherPriority priority) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Views.ImageVideoView.PlayVlcVideo(String filePath, Int32 tries) at FactoryRecommenderVerifier.GenerateSetChooserTransmitter(Object, String filePath, Int32 tries, FactoryRecommenderVerifier) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.ViewModels.ImageVideoViewModel.set_VideoPath(Object value) at AutomatedEngineFactory.GenerateSetChooserTransmitter(Object, Object value, AutomatedEngineFactory) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.ViewModels.ImageVideoViewModel.Init(ImageSource source, String video) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.FiltersViewModelBase.TestOrder(ImageSource v) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.ImageLoader.HandleCalcDic(Object i) at DetailedElementFactory.GenerateSetChooserTransmitter(ImageLoaderQueueItem i, DetailedElementFactory) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.ImageLoader.Enqueue(String imagePath, Action`1 onLoadedAction) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.FiltersViewModelBase.LoadDetails(Guid instance) at FactoryPolicyEditor.SortTransformer(Object, Guid instance, FactoryPolicyEditor) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.FiltersViewModelBase.<>c__DisplayClass223_0.PeekSynchronizer() at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) --- End of stack trace from previous location --- at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) Recent Log: 11:09:25 Exception It does not happen in other Views (well as many as I could test in anyway). If I run BB again and go to a PlatformCategories view, I do not get the error until I run the plugin again. Have ensured plugin running in vanilla LB environment (making sure it's not due to any changes I've made to xmls). I'm assuming this is a bug in the View or ViewModel? I would sign it off as trivial, but requiring Users not to use the PlatformCategories view feels very poor. This is part of a wider project to allow users to add games to BigBox remotely from another PC whilst bigbox is running, thus the ability to Update the games lists post-adding from within BB options is kinda crucial (stop users having to restart BigBox each time). Shame it's being stimied by this one bug - is it easily fixable? Happy to do anything I can to help (is the default them on a repo somewhere?). Had a quick look at Themes\Default\BigBoxTheme.sln, but couldn't event find ImageVideoView - so not sure where to start. Hope someone can help! Progress: I noted a reference to `Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Views.ImageVideoView.PlayVlcVideo` in the exception, and changed the default player to VLC. This stopped the bug. However, I also see you're depreciating VLC media player so is this a backlog item (i.e. to refactor the relevant code to use media player rather than VLC??). If so - any scheduling of this for a future release yet, as you also warn us NOT to use VLC media player at risk of freezes and crashes. I know reliance on 3rd party apps can be a pain as can be retiring their implementations!

Can you move this over to my topic as originally requested so as not to take the OP off topic? Also, struggling to understand what you're saying here. A quick vid via OBS is your best option alongside showing your directory structures.

If you post details of the errors or reproduction steps in the linked post, happy to take a look. A video of the error via OBS and YouTube would also be helpful

Thanks for the thanks!

Nope - I did IM him out of courtesy, just didn't hear back from him. Sure he's super-duper busy.

EDIT: Further investigation seems to imply it's Launchbox dlls that are the issue. Firstly, 3rd party dlls are loaded fine. The refer in .csproj: <ItemGroup> <Reference Include="Caliburn.Micro"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Caliburn.Micro.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Caliburn.Micro.Platform"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Caliburn.Micro.Platform.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="LaunchBox"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\LaunchBox.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="System.Windows.Interactivity"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\System.Windows.Interactivity.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Unbroken"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.dll</HintPath> </Reference> </ItemGroup> Caliburn, System dlls are all loaded fine. Seocndly, I deleted and re-added caliburn (via `Add Project Reference`) from the Core folder without any issues. However, when I tried doing this with LB dlls, I get the above error. It feels like unless you're willing to pay a monthly subscription for the Theme Creator app, theming is broken in launchbox?

Hi. Having difficulty getting started with this. Not wanting to use the monthly subscription (!!) Community Theme Creator. Know Xaml + WPF so would prefer that. Have created a copy of Default, but all the assemblies are missing and as a result, no design view: I moved over to CriticalZoneV2 that I found in my themes folder as this has a 'References" folder. I tried copying over the missing dlls from launchbox/core but this didn't resolve the missing dependencies: Tried importing it manually, only to be greeted with: I hate to say it, but it's all a bit jank, really. How do I get up and running editing themes in Visual Studio. I've seen Jason's videos from 8 years ago, but these are super outdated now and seemingly irrelevant.

Did you get anywhere with this? In the same boat and banging my head against a brick wall here. Not the smoothest of software design, really...

I updated and expanded my C64Dreams sister App. It adds the following features: Makes installation into existing (or indeed vanilla) Launchbox installations a lot easier (fully automated). Automates adding other C64 games to the C64Dreams collection without having to mess about with .bat, .vbs, .ahk files. Also automates adding to the Launchbox database (not having to add it manually). Lets you search the C64Dreams collection for specific games in-app rather than having to launch Launchbox each time. Fixes broken Images for Platforms, Platform Categories and Playlists. Also lets you use your own images and automates the installation to launchbox process. Details here:

Hi Folks. I wrote an app as an add-on to Zombeaver's excellent C64Dreams project. Features: Makes installation into existing (or indeed vanilla) Launchbox installations a lot easier (fully automated). Automates adding other C64 games to the C64Dreams collection without having to mess about with .bat, .vbs, .ahk files. Also automates adding to the Launchbox database (not having to add it manually). Lets you search the C64Dreams collection for specific games in-app rather than having to launch Launchbox each time. Fixes broken Images for Platforms, Platform Categories and Playlists. Also lets you use your own images and automates the installation to launchbox process (GIMP template attached to this post for convenience). The C64Dreams Project: C64DreamsTool Pics: C64DreamsTool video: C64DreamsTool Downloads: Github: https://github.com/stigzler/C64DreamsTool/releases/tag/Release Images XCF: PlatformLogos.xcf

Great response, thanks retrogirl. I suspected from looking at the files that it would be constructing the folder structure right with the right files in etc. Just started expanding my C64Dreams Importer to automate this process. It's the edge cases that'll get me (all the bats and vbs' looked the same, for example - but I bet there are edge cases that require different code somewhere). I know @Zombeaver is super busy so likely doesn't have time,. but if anyone knows these edge cases let me know!

Does anyone know how to add your own C64 games to this collection. I'm guessing you add it to the C64Dreams/Games folder, but given they all seem to follow a cutom format (with a folder for each game and also other bat files etc) - I didn't want to do this via Launchbox Import File process as it asks for an emulator etc. Search on this long topic wielded too many results to be helpful.

Annyywhooos... Just revisited this @Zombeaver + again - fab bit of work. Installing it on my 'final' emu machine. I've had a poke around as I'm trying to dovetail C64D's controls with those I've globally configured across all other retroarch systems. Is there any way to choose a different hotkey? I'd like to change it from Back to [what is essentially] the Guide button (long story short PS4>DS4Windows>Xbox Controller). Route irrelevant: shows in retroarch as button 10 rather than button 7 (Back). Changing it in C64D retroarch doesn't change the hotkey. I notice you have some AHK scripts working alongside other utility apps, so rather than guess what's inside the black box, thought I'd ask first! Unfashionable of me, I know! Also had a quick search on this topic - couldn't find anything - although it may be buried deep in the details somewhere. EDIT: Nemmind - found it - you do this via C64Dreams/Configurator.exe>Config Editor.

Hi all. Just checking whether this is possible through LB natively before I go down a rabbit hole of coding this. I have an old console shell fitted with a PC and a LB installation. I also have a server full of roms. Given file sizes for the later generations and limited space (2TB) on the unit's SSD, I'm looking to have a mixture of local roms (e.g. Soul Calibre and Crazy Taxi for dreamcast) and also importing full sets from my server. So, in this example, the full DC set would be available when the unit's plugged into my home network, but when not networked (or in another home) only Soul Calibre and Crazy Taxi would be available in LB/BB. I've tested this, and unfortunately the network roms are still visible in LB when it is detached from the network. I'm just checking whether there are any settings I'm missing which would make the network roms invisible when unit's not attached to the LAN? Failing that, any thoughts on the best design approach for a plugin? I'm currently developing one that already has the facility to monitor all LB/BB actions and has the ability to augment LB functionality via individual platform setting etc. My first thought would be via leveraging the "hidden" property in the roms - that is have a setting in a plugin that registers the root of your network roms and at an event (e.g. change of selected platform event), see if this network location is available. If not, go through each rom in the local db, making them hidden if they are on the network location. Only drawback is if you were to set a game to be hidden in all scenarios (but could work around that by having a per-game setting in my plugin to make it hidden no matter what). I haven't really looked into the LB/BB views objects in the plugin API - but guess that's also a possible approach (and possibly better given I wouldn't be messing with the db entries and it may be quicker) Would welcome thoughts (+ hopefully a simple box I can tick in LB natively to do this all for me!)

Thanks for this. Having tried no end of other approaches (involving a dummy emulator, launch application before etc) this is by far the easiest way to achieve this.