Jason Carr Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 Alright, here's beta 5. I'm hoping this will be the last beta before I finally release 2.17. I've made a bunch of changes, but most notably I've added the game notes (overview) to the details, changed the search to download the notes from TheGamesDB.net, added a feature under the tools menu to download the notes for all games, and I've added the ROM import file filter that bd00 requested. Please do give it a good test as this will be close to the final release. Nmc, that's a good point about the windows viewer for the images; I've added a todo item to fix it, but it probably won't make it into this release. I also played around with the icons on the sides instead, but I didn't really like the feel of it, especially since it feels like they should be on the right, which pushes the game details over. I could put them on the left, but being right-handed it just didn't feel right. I reduced the issue by only showing the icons if the cursor is more than half-way up on the box art, which I think helps. I also added an option to turn off the icons on hover. I do have to say, it is really nice being able to read all of the game overviews in the game details. I have a few minor things to fix before I release it; we'll see if anyone discovers them. I'll give everyone a few days to test, and plan on a weekend release. Thanks again to everyone in this thread for all your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Oh wow, i missed it again I will skip to the beta 5 release, downloading now. Thanks James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Firstly, this is a great update Jason, excellent work. I like the "charms bar" you have added and although it does obstruct the view slightly, it is only visible when hovered over, so it don't think it is a big issue, if anything it draws your attention to it, it feels "active" which is what you want right? You don't want it to blend in since it is only there when the user wants to use it, you need it to take focus. I really like it. I agree, the opening the image in an external application is not ideal, something to be worked on, but it is a great start and the flip box cover works great too. I don't have any game music (yet), that is something I will be looking into at a later date, so I cannot comment on that feature. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the file filter option, this makes my life so much easier. One thing though, is there a way to add multiple extensions? I tried a some of the common methods, but they do not seem to work. This is not a major issue, I can just scan the same directory a couple of times for each extension, no big deal, far better than the options I had previously, but it might be worth considering in the future. That's all for now, only played with it for 5 mins, going to spend some more time with it right now. Thanks again Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmc Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Just scratched the surface, it is looking really nice. I have a few more idea´s but let´s wait for this release to come out. Let´s see if i can find the minor issues, i´m going to built a new game list, like a dear friend of mine always says... " leeeeeetttt´sss ggooooo frag on ". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmc Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 - Hummm...!!!! I think i found one, is it normal when you download the game info to overwrite the game details that already there? Edit: ( not to spam the forum ) - I´m not at home atm, but for what i recall ( and i´m going to try it first ) it´s the notes positioning in the game details pane, some are at the bottom and others on the right, again im not 100% sure, going to see if my mind isn´t trickin me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 Ha, nmc, one issue was that the games details weren't being updated after the batch notes download from TheGamesDB. I've resolved that here and I believe I've wrapped up all of the other loose ends as well. Here's one final beta before we release; I'll probably release sometime Saturday morning (PST). Nmc, I'm not aware of any issues with the notes placement; let me know if you can reproduce any with the latest release. And as always, guys, thanks for testing and let me know if you run into any glitches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 Oh, bd, yes, the file filter only supports one wildcard. I thought about allowing multiples, but I think I'd rather just keep it as simple as possible (I already don't like the fact that most users will have no idea how to even use that field). So, yeah, I figured you could just run the import more than once. Also, I forgot to mention that I did add a new in-app picture viewer, in place of using the Windows default. It's extremely simple, but it does allow you to close it with the controller. For a future release I'd like to turn it into a manual slideshow of sorts, so that you could arrow through all of the images for a game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 That's fine, it is a minor inconvenience and nothing more, I certainly won't be complaining. I just downloaded beta6, will have a quick look now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 The image viewer is great, simple but effective. I am still having the issue of the game info not downloading. It works fine for some games, but not for the majority. I will try adding the games again. *Update* Still not getting the game description's. If I update the games manually it works fine. Also, just noticed the edit button in the game info panel, nice addition, very handy. *Update 2* Reading back over, I think I may be mistaken. Is this by design? Do the game descriptions not download when scraping, but only when downloading manually (via the menu item)? Other than that, I can't find any more issues. I don't have a problem with the positioning of the info as nmc described. Excellent work Jason I have a few idea's too, but like nmc said, they can wait till after this next release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmc Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 The games description´s are in the right place in the pane as they always where, i have must dreamed that they where misplaced...!!!!!! All my games description´s are downloading properly bd00, the only one´s that don´t work are those i have set all the info manually without connecting to gamesdb, but that´s normal. Maybe it´s your Av or firewall that blocks or stops the process, i know that some are really tricky. Going to " pew pew pew " to battlefield for a bit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 bd, not sure what might be going on with the game descriptions. The descriptions won't download if there's anything currently in the field, whether or not it's attached to TheGamesDB. I didn't want to overwrite anyone's notes. So that could be it. Other than that, I don't really know what it could be. We absolutely do need to determine if it's a real issue though. Can you give me an example of a game you have that's connected to TheGamesDB and doesn't have any notes that isn't downloading notes? Also check TheGamesDB to make sure notes are available for that game. The overview *should* download when you perform a search from TheGamesDB. However, if you open up an existing game to edit, and save it, it won't automatically download it. You'd have to disconnect from TheGamesDB, search for the game again, and reconnect it. Which is a pain, and is why I created the batch update tool. Do feel free to keep sending me ideas guys, input is always appreciated, whether we can get them into the next release or not. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 I don't get any game descriptions at all, for any games, for any platform. Only when I use the batch update, or scrape a single game manually, do they download. Maybe it is AV or firewall or something, will look into that tomorrow. It does seem odd that all other info is scraped fine though. On another note, I will share some of those ideas, I'll keep it short. I'll start small. 1. A favorite button on the charms bar or game info panel, to quickly mark a game as a favorite. I imagine a star and when a game is a favorite, it is highlighted in yellow. 2. A random button/hot-key/menu-item. Pressing it selects a game at random from your library. I think this would be a nice quirky addition for those times when you don't know what to play or you want to try something new but don't know where to start, etc. 3. Another batch updater to scrape any missing info or images from games in your library. So if any games have been updated on thegamesdb, it can be easily reflected in your library. This is probably a big one. 4. An option to ignore prefixes such as "The" or "A" etc. when sorting your library. 5. Some sort of organization for games with multiple disc's. Maybe merging into a single image, with a pop-up dialogue asking which disc you want. I imagine this is a tricky one. 6. Trailer button on charms bar or game info panel, when pressed will play the trailer, preferably keeping it in app like the image display you just added. 7. Finally, this is a big one. A local scraper that scans the ROMs directory for images and nfo or xml files, etc. before referencing thegamesdb. Maybe with an export feature too, or possibly changing how/where LaunchBox saves image files. That's it for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted June 21, 2014 Author Share Posted June 21, 2014 Alright, 3.0 is released! I changed it to 3.0 because it seemed like a major release and I was tired of double-digit 2.0 releases. Thanks to all of you for all your help with this. I still don't get why bd is having issues with the game descriptions, but that's not really a deal breaker I guess. If it's still an issue, we'll get it fixed in the next release. Bd, can you walk me through the exact steps you're taking? I love your ideas, too, bd. All are great. Some notes on them: #1 - That's a great idea; I'm thinking I'll put another icon on the game details next to Edit, probably for the next release. #2 - That sounds like great fun; adding it to my list for when I feel like adding something fun. #3 - Yeah, that'd take a little bit, but I can definitely see the need for it. Added to the list. #4 - That would be a nice option. I have (sort of) already addressed this, though, but it does take a bit more work. There's a "sort title" field on each game that can be used to customize the sort, but you have to manually fill it out for each game. #5 - This has also sort of been addressed by allowing emulation for additional applications (so you can right-click and select which disc you want to run). However, I recognize that's not the cleanest solution. So it'll be pretty far off, but I do have it on my list for proper support. #6 - Yes, trailers (videos) are coming eventually. #7 - Yeah, that's a big one indeed. I'd have to do some serious research before deciding on an approach for that. I'll add this to my list of "when everything else is done" items. Thanks a ton for all the great ideas, bd. Everyone's ideas have been a tremendous help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 First off, great work on 3.0 and I am happy to brainstorm anytime, thank you for making our suggestions a reality. Now, I looked into AV & Firewall conflicts and I cannot find any, everything seems fine on that front. I am stumped as to what is causing the issue. I must be a problem on my end since it works fine for everyone else. This is what I do, step by step: Fresh boot of beta6. (delete all files except lb.exe before each new test) Go to import ROMs from menu Choose folder path Enter Platform name (I use exact same names as thegamesdb) Set Emulator Import That's it. No descriptions in notes. Everything else is fine and as expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted June 21, 2014 Author Share Posted June 21, 2014 Lol...aha! So apparently the imports don't set the descriptions. That makes sense. I (and everyone else) were testing it with Add/Edit. That should be easy to fix for the next version. Thanks for helping finally figure this one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 lol, well that explains it. I thought I was going crazy. Well, yes, scrapping a single game from add/edit works fine. As does your batch update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 Believe it or not, I should have a new beta up for testing sometime today. I put in some significant time yesterday on a number of things. In the mean time, I noticed a situation where the box art wasn't updating after changing it in the edit dialog. Is anyone else able to replicate this? I'm curious if this is something anyone else is seeing. Thanks, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 I can't seem to replicate it, but another idea came to mind when attempting to do so. Currently when there is no front box art for a game the default LaunchBox image is shown even if there is back box art downloaded. Maybe in situations where no front art is available but back art is, you could have the rear art shown instead. Or possibly even better, clear logo first, in place of the LaunchBox icon. Wow, you are keeping busy. Looking forward to the next beta release Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Good idea, bd. Thanks for trying to replicate that. I'll have the new version up shortly, after I finish my deving tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Alright guys, here's version 3.1 beta 1. And the changelog: - New Feature: The full size picture viewer now allows you to arrow key through all of a game's pictures, and includes a full screen mode - New Feature: New option to "Always go fullscreen when viewing images" in the Options menu Images tab - New Feature: Favorite icon/button (heart) added to the game details - New Feature: Additional applications can now be automatically run before or after the main application (to configure controllers, mount drives, etc.). Simply check the boxes in the Additional Application dialog (from Add/Edit). Wait for Exit will wait for the application to exit before launching the main application (30-second timeout). - Improvement: The mouse cursor is now properly hidden when using a controller - Fixed: The ROM and Steam imports were not downloading the game description (overview) from TheGamesDB - Fixed: The wait cursor would sometimes stay after editing a game - Fixed: Cancelling the auto-update sometimes caused a crash Test whatever you can. I'm also interested in hearing feedback on the pictures viewer (both fullscreen and windowed modes) and the autorun for additional applications (I use it to configure Xpadder for some games). This will hopefully be the only beta for this release (unless someone finds an issue). I want to get the next release out quick, as it fixes an annoying wait cursor bug (the wait cursor doesn't go away after using the game details Edit icon and then pressing OK on the edit window). As always, thanks for all your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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