Keyboard Free Disc Changing

[shinra358]

When adding in multiple discs for a game, can you make a checkbox that says insert as multi-disc? What this will do is depending on the emulated system, a panel will pop up over the game box which would display up to 4 visual generic cds only when the home button on an xinput controller is pressed. Apps in which 'insert as mult-disc' is not checked, will not appear as a disc in said panel. The Home button would either: A. Minimize the game window (if multi-disced only) and allow a display of a panel which holds up to 4 discs for you to choose from with the controller. When a disc is selected, game will re-maximize and you can continue gaming. B. Bring up an overlay (black {or with gradient, transparency, or custom image}) with a message asking if what disc you would want to switch to (which is controllable by the controller). The generic disc images from above would be here instead. Each cd highlighter would display a number of what CD it is. If it isn't highlighted, then no number will appear over said cd. Selecting a cd would resume emulation and emu will start with that disc. Just like you already have now, but with a keyboard/mouse free approach. So a user wouldn't have to get up to change it (like what psp does when playing multi-disc psone classics)

[Jason Carr]

Hi shinra, you've done a great job describing an ideal way to handle multiple discs. Obviously we very much do need a solution for this issue. However, it is a challenge (it's actually very difficult to do, believe it or not), and depending on the emulator it may or may not be possible to have LaunchBox insert discs while the emulator is running. So this would sure be nice, but I'll have to see how feasible it would be. Unfortunately, some emulators just would not cooperate.

[shinra358]

"However, it is a challenge (it's actually very difficult to do, believe it or not), and depending on the emulator it may or may not be possible to have LaunchBox insert discs while the emulator is running." Technically you already have this feature implemented except for it is in the right click menu only. The only systems that use multiple discs are PS1, PS2, a small amount for Dreamcast (if not just one game), and some games on Dolphin. But I hope a solution can be found.

[SentaiBrad]

shinra358 said "However, it is a challenge (it's actually very difficult to do, believe it or not), and depending on the emulator it may or may not be possible to have LaunchBox insert discs while the emulator is running." Technically you already have this feature implemented except for it is in the right click menu only. The only systems that use multiple discs are PS1, PS2, a small amount for Dreamcast (if not just one game), and some games on Dolphin. But I hope a solution can be found.

There are actually a handful of Dreamcast games that have more than 2 discs, some up to 4. They're just CD's not DVD's so 700-800mb per image. I've just recently gotten one and I love it. As for disc switching, most emulators will allow you to save state on the "Disc Swapping" screen, load the next image then reload the save state. If we were to have LB handle all of this, we would need to know the default save state buttons, perform it, send a command prompt (if it can receive those while the program is running?) or a command to kill its self, relaunch with the next disc and automatically load the swap save state. There are a few problems with this however. What if the user changed the default save state buttons? What slot do we choose and what if the slot chosen has a save in it? Sending a command to close the emulator is also an issue. How does LaunchBox know which Disc to swap to? Can we have a script / LB load a save state upon relaunching? So we've talked about adding more UI markers to LB. Like a Favorite Icon, Console Icon, Romhack Icon and a Disc icon on top of the images. Most of that would need to be user input, including LB knowing what Disc is what. So we could use that info to determine which disc to swap to next. We would have to force the users to keep the default Save State buttons. We could let them change what LB would use, but it would most likely need to stay a keyboard command. We could also allow them to select which save state slot to use for Disc Swapping as well. This would however also be a task in its self. LB would need to know each possible popular emulator and the various settings we talked about. Last is, can we even perform any of this with a script calling keyboard shortcuts and LB being pointed in the right direction? Some Emulators maybe, but others most likely not. We would also then need the user to let LB know what emulator its using, or build that process in to the process when you select emulators for LB to use. Suffice to say, there is no real easy way to make this a streamlined function for the end user which is what we want. There is also the question, is this a premium feature? Because swapping discs can be done very easily already, we don't need LB to perform any of this. It is just a nice feature to have, if possible.

[shinra358]

"As for disc switching, most emulators will allow you to save state on the "Disc Swapping" screen, load the next image then reload the save state. If we were to have LB handle all of this, we would need to know the default save state buttons, perform it, send a command prompt (if it can receive those while the program is running?) or a command to kill its self, relaunch with the next disc and automatically load the swap save state." Edit Game > Additional Apps > Add Application > Use Emulator allows you to swaps discs by right clicking on the game with the mouse and choosing the 'app' to run next (in this case, switching discs in emus). We don't need to use save states to switch discs. "Most of that would need to be user input, including LB knowing what Disc is what. So we could use that info to determine which disc to swap to next. We would have to force the users to keep the default Save State buttons. We could let them change what LB would use, but it would most likely need to stay a keyboard command. We could also allow them to select which save state slot to use for Disc Swapping as well. This would however also be a task in its self. LB would need to know each possible popular emulator and the various settings we talked about." The disc swap wouldn't auto detect what disc to choose next. It would display discs 1-4 (or how many ever you set it to for that game) and when it's time to change discs, a button the the gamepad (such as the home button) would minimize the game and display launchbox again. Then with the controller, you can select your next disc without using the mouse (just with the controller). Just like with the current technique where you have to use the mouse to select your next disc on the right click menu (at lease with epsxe for that's the only one I tried so far ~ do other emus have problems doing it this way?). The visual disc display over the game box would just be a faster way to access what we already have in launchbox.