Jump to content
LaunchBox Community Forums

Surprise! New home theater alpha coming out soon...


Jason Carr

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 181
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Alright, I'm excited to announce that the beta is out, including of course the new Big Box Alpha. It's certainly still a little rough around the edges, but the main functionality is there. I'd say the biggest issue with it right now would be occasional performance issues. There's nothing on the screen that tells you when it's working, so it feels awkward at times. Hopefully that isn't too major of an issue though. Excited to hear everyone's feedback! Tweak it, break it, make it yours. :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, I downloaded the (alpha? beta?) and messed around with it a bit. I didn't launch any games, but I mainly just wanted to get myself acquainted with the system. Right now there's some disparity between inputting a navigation command and the highlighter moving to the next item, but I think that's something which will eventually be ironed out. In general I think it's looking really cool. My one gripe with it at the moment (and assuming better navigable features will be included in the future) is the way it handles artwork which is wider than it is tall. I think either an alternate view will have to be generated for displaying the information below N64 box art instead of to its side, or I think this might be an opportunity to add the "Posters" image functionality I had mentioned in another thread, so that in BBM users can customize the display image so they better fit the space alotted in BBM. For example: This is what Banjo-Kazooie would look like in "Box Front Mode" (which is the display BBM uses now): banjokazooiebbm.png But it could look like this if the user has a defined "Poster" among the game's images: banjokazooiebbmwithposter.png Edit: Well, something weird happened although I can't say if it's related to BBM or not. In BBM I decided to test out the game launching and all that, so I went to Adventures of Dino Riki (my go-to test game) and flipped the box art, just to test that feature. When I went back to Library View and linked Dino Riki to an additional app, the image automatically switched from "Steam Banner" to displaying the back of the NES box. I can't get it to revert back, even though I have my library set to prefer Steam Banners. Edit 2: I fixed it by flipping the box image again, ha. Maybe have box images automatically return to default when you close BBM?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am loving the new BigBox view only 2 things when i try to launch a game Launchbox gives me this:- Description: Stopped working Problem signature: Problem Event Name: CLR20r3 Problem Signature 01: bigbox.exe Problem Signature 02: 1.0.0.0 Problem Signature 03: 555d8f0e Problem Signature 04: mscorlib Problem Signature 05: 2.0.0.0 Problem Signature 06: 53a11de1 Problem Signature 07: 20ce Problem Signature 08: 100 Problem Signature 09: N3CTRYE2KN3C34SGL4ZQYRBFTE4M13NB OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3 Locale ID: 6153 and then i have to close program and secondly no platform artwork for Capcom, ScummVM and Nintendo Gameboy Colour, all other parts seem so far to be working well. Apart from these minor teething problems i am really loving it Kudos Jason really really nice Well Done.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jason Carr said Alright, I'm excited to announce that the beta is out, including of course the new Big Box Alpha. It's certainly still a little rough around the edges, but the main functionality is there. I'd say the biggest issue with it right now would be occasional performance issues. There's nothing on the screen that tells you when it's working, so it feels awkward at times. Hopefully that isn't too major of an issue though. Excited to hear everyone's feedback! Tweak it, break it, make it yours. :)
Super awesome man! I will try it out right now!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great work Jason Smile I found a few issues. I'll start with the biggest in my opinion and that is that I can't actually start a game in BBM Laugh Actually that's not accurate. I can run Steam and PC games fine, just nothing that uses an emulator. That was the biggie. Next up, BBM displays platforms that were deleted. As an example, I had a TODO platform which I used when messing with some Steam games not long ago. I deleted it and it is not visible in LB, but it is right there in BBM. If I try to access it I just get a black screen because there is no data to display. I guess BBM uses LB's settings for fanart? In my instance of LB for PC games I currently have the fanart set to a single default image. In BBM this results in no fanart whatsoever in the games list. You might want to allow for different settings for both LB and BBM. NOTE: Fanart displays fine in my other instance of LB. Also, while I am on the subject of artwork, you should have some default images where no artwork is found. You should probably add Platform images for Steam, Origin, GoG, Uplay, etc. for people who split them up like I do. (I suppose this falls on me slightly) Gameboy Color is missing its banner. The 'open folder' option does nothing for Steam games, you might want to remove it. The 'open emulator' option fails when a script is set as an emulator. There is probably very little you can do about this, but it is probably worth remembering for future troubleshooting. Maybe you could add an option to set an emulator path in the platforms manager for when this is the case. Using scripts is common with some arcade emulators. It is very common for me since I point LB to scripts and not emulators. Confused Overall, I was pleasently suprised how slick it actually is. I had very little lag with one exception, flipping the box art. This took a second or two, which felt like a minute or two, you know. But other than that, really fluid. Oh, slight jerks when scrolling the list fast but not as bad as I was expecting. That's all I found so far. No wait, one more little thing, the mouse cursor does not disappear when using the controller. Minor I know, but it irritates the heck out of me when games, videos, media centers, etc. do that That's all. Excellent work, brilliant alpha. Smile
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kriven said Okay, I downloaded the (alpha? beta?) and messed around with it a bit. I didn't launch any games, but I mainly just wanted to get myself acquainted with the system. Right now there's some disparity between inputting a navigation command and the highlighter moving to the next item, but I think that's something which will eventually be ironed out. In general I think it's looking really cool. My one gripe with it at the moment (and assuming better navigable features will be included in the future) is the way it handles artwork which is wider than it is tall. I think either an alternate view will have to be generated for displaying the information below N64 box art instead of to its side, or I think this might be an opportunity to add the "Posters" image functionality I had mentioned in another thread, so that in BBM users can customize the display image so they better fit the space alotted in BBM. For example: This is what Banjo-Kazooie would look like in "Box Front Mode" (which is the display BBM uses now): banjokazooiebbm.png But it could look like this if the user has a defined "Poster" among the game's images: banjokazooiebbmwithposter.png Edit: Well, something weird happened although I can't say if it's related to BBM or not. In BBM I decided to test out the game launching and all that, so I went to Adventures of Dino Riki (my go-to test game) and flipped the box art, just to test that feature. When I went back to Library View and linked Dino Riki to an additional app, the image automatically switched from "Steam Banner" to displaying the back of the NES box. I can't get it to revert back, even though I have my library set to prefer Steam Banners. Edit 2: I fixed it by flipping the box image again, ha. Maybe have box images automatically return to default when you close BBM?
good observations man Edit: My Steam banners are not showing in Big Box mode, maybe they are too wide or something.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good finds guys. I'll be focusing on fixing the issues first here tonight and then I'll throw out a new beta before the night is out. This feedback is all really helpful; so I'm hoping you guys can keep beating this up until we get all the issues ironed out. :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It turns out my lovely Comcast internet was out for most of the evening, so I didn't make near as much progress as I wanted to. However, I did fix a couple of key issues. I fixed the Platform dialog error on adding new platforms, and no longer show platforms with no games in Big Box Mode. Per the glaring "games not starting" issue, believe it or not, I can't seem to reproduce it. Everything is working fine for me. I added better error tracking to Big Box Mode so we can see what the real error is. For everyone who is getting errors running games, please give the new beta a try and either click the Report Error button or paste the error text here. Thanks guys! We'll keep making progress. :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I receive this error whenever I attempt to close out to Desktop Mode in the latest beta: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The system cannot find the file specified at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo) at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo) at BigBox.DesktopModeMenuAction.OnEnter() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks) at System.Delegate.DynamicInvokeImpl(Object[] args) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler) I did not have this error in the previous beta. Edit: Also, is there a way to shift BBM into a Windowed mode? I know it goes against the concept of the mode, but it would be very useful for troubleshooting some of my game configurations (like my joytokey profiles) without exiting everything.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

First chance I've had to test in a while. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Big Box mode, but I love it. A couple of things I've noticed (strictly about Big Box): 1."Most Played Game" seems a bit arbitrary, as it's chosen games I've never played, and ignored the ones I do. Restarting the program does show the same games as being "Most Played," so I know it's not random; I'm just not sure why it's choosing what it's choosing. 2. Clicking on the right-most game in "Recently Played" will advance the row of games by one (could this be a mouse-over scroll instead?), but clicking on the left-most game will not bring off-screen games back (nor will continuing to click on the right-most game wrap around again). 3. Clicking on a game in "Recently played" will bring up the correct menu, but I can't actually get the game to launch from there. The other shortcuts work, however. Clicking on "Open DOSBox" and then declining the AVG permissions window gave me this error:
Spoiler
System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: Access is denied at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo) at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo) at BigBox.OpenEmulatorMenuAction.OnEnter() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture) at Caliburn.Micro.ActionMessage.b__d(ActionExecutionContext context) at Caliburn.Micro.ActionMessage.Invoke(Object eventArgs) at System.Windows.Interactivity.TriggerBase.InvokeActions(Object parameter) at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target) at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args) at System.Windows.Controls.Control.OnMouseDoubleClick(MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.Controls.Control.HandleDoubleClick(Object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target) at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised) at System.Windows.UIElement.ReRaiseEventAs(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args, RoutedEvent newEvent) at System.Windows.UIElement.OnMouseDownThunk(Object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target) at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEvent(RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean trusted) at System.Windows.Input.InputManager.ProcessStagingArea() at System.Windows.Input.InputManager.ProcessInput(InputEventArgs input) at System.Windows.Input.InputProviderSite.ReportInput(InputReport inputReport) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndMouseInputProvider.ReportInput(IntPtr hwnd, InputMode mode, Int32 timestamp, RawMouseActions actions, Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 wheel) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndMouseInputProvider.FilterMessage(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.InputFilterMessage(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)
Big Box.exe continued to run fine, however. :) 4. Trying to switch back to LB after that error produced this error:
Spoiler
System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The system cannot find the file specified at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo) at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo) at BigBox.DesktopModeMenuAction.OnEnter() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture) at Caliburn.Micro.ActionMessage.b__d(ActionExecutionContext context) at Caliburn.Micro.ActionMessage.Invoke(Object eventArgs) at System.Windows.Interactivity.TriggerBase.InvokeActions(Object parameter) at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target) at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args) at System.Windows.Controls.Control.OnMouseDoubleClick(MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.Controls.Control.HandleDoubleClick(Object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target) at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised) at System.Windows.UIElement.ReRaiseEventAs(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args, RoutedEvent newEvent) at System.Windows.UIElement.OnMouseDownThunk(Object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target) at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEvent(RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean trusted) at System.Windows.Input.InputManager.ProcessStagingArea() at System.Windows.Input.InputManager.ProcessInput(InputEventArgs input) at System.Windows.Input.InputProviderSite.ReportInput(InputReport inputReport) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndMouseInputProvider.ReportInput(IntPtr hwnd, InputMode mode, Int32 timestamp, RawMouseActions actions, Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 wheel) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndMouseInputProvider.FilterMessage(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.InputFilterMessage(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)
Switching to LB from BB without the DOSBox error worked fine. 5. There is no 5. 6. I actually have 666 PC games. That's uncomfortable. It's looking great, Jason! I'm amazed at far you've come in just a couple of days.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Kriven and scree: That's so strange. I only receive that error if I've tried to Open DOSBox and declined the permissions window. If I accept, then DOSBox opens as it should, without error. If I try to play a game from within BB mode, it simply won't run (no error). The only other time I get that error is if I try to switch back to LB after getting the DOSBox error. If I try to switch back without getting the DOSBox error then LB opens fine. So odd.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...