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LaunchBox Beta Testing


Jason Carr

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Narrowed this down even further when the games is running both .cue/.bin are in the temp folder when you close if the .bin is there the game launches still if the .cue remains after you close the emulator that is when everything gets broken. If I understood correctly you intended for the temp file to be empty after closing the emulator though right.
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Load times from my server .7z 18, 20 and 21 counts in three tests (faster than the local file) .rar 8 count and two 7 counts .zip 13 count three times A stop watch would be more precise so the count speed may vary but this works for simple testing (my god I've become such a geek). I'm seriously considering switching over the only thing that sucks is the format that converts to the smallest file size is also the one that takes the longest to load so I belive that .rar is the best format due to the fact that it has the best load time and the 2nd smallest file size More testing would need to be done with different files to see if their size would effect the outcome but I'm done playing with it for now.
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I Can't seem to get the new decompressing of archives to work with PSX files when they are being emulated through Retroarch. When I launch the 7zipped image in LaunchBox I get the following errors. Error.PNGRetroarch.PNG These are actually the same errors that I get if I pass a compressed image directly to Retroarch, so I suspect that the extracted file is not being correctly passed on to the emulator.
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I took the PS1 game Alien Ressurection (ePSXe emulator) as my test game. This is in bin, cue format (370 MB). Using 7Zip I made two zipped copies in 7Z (165 MB) and Zip ( 192 MB) formats. I also used the Windows Send To option to create a Zip (193 MB) format. Testing the 7Z format. Game launches ok with a startup time of approx 28 seconds. Second run fails due to the temp folder not being cleared on game exit. Deleting the temp folder allows the game to be run again. Testing the Zip format made with 7Zip. Failed. Testing the Windows created Zip format. Game launches ok with a startup time of approx 10 seconds. Second run fails due to the temp folder not being cleared on game exit. Deleting the temp folder allows the game to be run again. Using the old method of launching from the CUE is instant.
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Just tested another PS1 game. This is in mdf, mds format (607 MB). Testing the 7Z format (351 MB). Game launches ok with a startup time of approx 1 minute. On exit the temp folder is cleared Second run fails with the now empty temp folder still present. Deleting the temp folder itself allows the game to be run again. Testing the Windows created Zip format (408 MB). Same result as above, but with a startup time of approx 35 seconds I don't know why LaunchBox removes the mdf and mds files, but won't do it for a bin, cue format. Out of curiosity, when running these compressed games, does LaunchBox know to use the cue and not the bin?
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@scree Good question at the end there and at least I'm not crazy and others are getting the same issues. @CADScott did you go into manage emulators and enable the compression feature from the emulators edit form there is a new checkbox on the form to enable the feature to work.
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Thanks guys, I think I see what's going on. I'm not expecting there to be more than one file in the zip files so it's launching just the first one that it finds. In the case of bin/cue, it's probably finding the bin first, which I expect is the problem. I'll add some logic for bin/cue and mdf/mds. Any other formats I should look out for?
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DOS76 said Do you need to have 7zip installed? I'm getting an error message.ziperror.JPG
Still getting this error with a Sega Master System ROM. All are in .zip format made using WinRAR. Tried making the archives with .7z and still same result... Is there a setting somewhere I'm missing? Also, I had to delete the games from within LaunchBox, zip the ROM's, and then import them again. Is there another way to do this after simply compressing the ROM's without having to re-import them?
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Hi Jason. I'm testing PS1 games (ePSXe emulator) just using the 7Z format at the moment, and using the new beta 2. Testing a 7Z copy of Tombraider (mdf, mds format). After the 1st launch the temp folder is left empty. The 2nd launch works fine and after exit the mds file is gone but the mdf is left in the temp folder. This doesn't seem to matter as 3rd and later launches all work ok once the mds file is being removed on game exit. Testing a 7Z copy of Tombraider (bin, cue format ripped from my original CD). After the 1st launch the temp folder is left empty. The 2nd and later launches all work fine and after exit the temp folder is left empty. Testing a 7Z copy of Alien Resurrection (bin, cue format). After the 1st launch the bin and cue files remain in the temp folder. This prevents further launching. Now if the temp folder is manually cleared then the game can be launched again. Also if, after each launch and game exit you just delete the cue from the temp folder and leave the bin, then you can launch again. So it looks like the non delete of a cue, mds etc type file may be preventing new launches. Testing a 7Z copy of Metal Gear Solid (bin, cue format). This is a 2 disc game with 2 bins and 2 cues. After the 1st launch the temp folder is left empty. The 2nd and later launches all work fine and after exit the temp folder is left empty. On the subject of games with 2 or more discs, the accepted way of launching the other discs seems to be via Additional Apps. I don't know how this can be done for a compressed game. Launch times are more or less unchanged from beta 1. God only knows what the launch times for compressed PS2 games might be! So at the moment it seems that some games work fine on relaunching while others don't due to stuff left in the temp folder. Might it be better for LaunchBox to delete rather than try to clear the temp folder on game exit?
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Jason Carr said Just put out a new beta that hopefully fixes the above issues with the bin/cue and mdf/mds archives. Thanks again guys, let me know if you run into any additional issues with this new beta.
Would it be possible to have it prioritize .m3u files. This is the common way of launching multigame discs with Retroarch for PS1. This would allow people to compress all discs plus the m3u into one archive...
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fromm said Would it be possible to have it prioritize .m3u files. This is the common way of launching multigame discs with Retroarch for PS1. This would allow people to compress all discs plus the m3u into one archive...
Absolutely, will be in the next beta.
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Thanks for the extensive testing @scree. The trick is that I am purposefully not clearing out that entire folder because so many emulators like to save states into the same folder as the ROMs, so I need to not delete them. I think what's going on is it's not properly identifying the files that were extracted from the archive. Reviewing.
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Jason Carr said
fromm said Would it be possible to have it prioritize .m3u files. This is the common way of launching multigame discs with Retroarch for PS1. This would allow people to compress all discs plus the m3u into one archive...
Absolutely, will be in the next beta.
Perfect. Now the only thing left for me to leave Rocketlauncher completely behind is a progress bar showing the extraction progress (using the Fade In option in Rocketlauncher for this). I am wondering whether I should ask for this feature with a feature request ?
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Jason Carr said New beta is out with support for extracting 7z, rar, and zipped ROM files as well as a new optional popup in Big Box when starting games (prevents kids from starting multiple copies of a game). :)
Dude i love this touch that you added
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Likewise. BB hangs after exiting the emulator (Retroarch) on the "loading game" screen. I'm going to revert to non-beta for the moment. Edit: Oh dear. And now LB hangs every time I select "Options" Edit edit: Rebooted and everything worked well the first couple of times I tried them. Then after loading a game from BB a third time the freeze repeated itself including the LB behavior. I'll uninstall LB and re-load only the stable version.
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Bedwyr said Likewise. BB hangs after exiting the emulator (Retroarch) on the "loading game" screen. I'm going to revert to non-beta for the moment. Edit: Oh dear. And now LB hangs every time I select "Options" Edit edit: Rebooted and everything worked well the first couple of times I tried them. Then after loading a game from BB a third time the freeze repeated itself including the LB behavior. I'll uninstall LB and re-load only the stable version.
You can try an XML backup first to see if that fixes the problem otherwise there should be an updates folder that you can use.. Install the second to last update to a new directory, copy over your images folder, LaunchBox XML and the Premium License XML. Should boot up normally after that.
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