Big Box Mode Slow Cycle of Games

[Dal]

Hi I bought Big Box late last year and have held off working with it as I've been building myself a man cave :) After powering up the cab I have for the first time in a while I was looking forward to having a go at setting this up. I've managed to add some systems although they all actually use Mame as the Emulator. I am finding that trying to cycle through the games is a complete headache as it seems to get extreme lag... I start at the top of my games list and after waiting several seconds at a blank screen the list eventually shows (fair enough this is a big list to initially load). After waiting several more seconds the game graphic loads (i.e. fan art, box art, in-game video etc). I press down to go to the next game and the video seems to take a few seconds to stop before the next game loads. It's as if the video is hindering the performance (maybe). I pull down to jump down a jump down maybe a couple of pages worth and it randomly had to go through loading in some of the games I've passed over before it eventually catches up. This can take around a minute or two to catch up and the problem worsens (wait time increases) the more I skip by (including page jumping using the buttons to page down). The system was already working under GameEx which is what it had on when I bought it. I've since installed Windows 10 (it had XP) and increased the memory. Windows 10 runs very smoothly and I've not seen any issues with game play other than Big Box Mode acting very slowly. I've since tried to turn off all of the fan art and dumbed down the amount of graphical assets which were loading (can't see an option to stop the videos from playing though) Also Big Box mode crashes when I try to look at Sources screen (I don't know what this screen is, I just found it on the menu and decided to take a look). Sources screen is a blank screen with Sources in white text at the top left. I try to return to main menu then back to the emulator list but I seem to get stuck in a loop of returning back between both sources screen and options menu (i.e. return to menu, return to sources, return to menu, return to sources...) I'm not sure if this is a common problem as searching the boards seems to produce other posts with sluggish response times but none mention the video symptoms I've experienced (from what I've read) so thought I'd post and see what the community thought. Many thanks Dal

[Jason Carr]

Hi @Dal, a couple things. Try switching to the Windows Media Player video playback engine in the general settings. You can also disable animations which may help to increase performance. Also some questions for you: - What are your system specs (CPU, RAM, video card, etc.)? - How many games total are in your collection? If your system was old enough to be running XP, unfortunately it may just be too old to run Big Box smoothly. A decent modern CPU and video card are required in order for it to run smoothly.

[Jason Carr]

I'll take a look at the Sources bug. My guess is that there are no games in your collection that have a populated Source field, so it's choking. Still, it shouldn't crash in that scenario so I'll review. Thanks. :)

[SentaiBrad]

Also you said you haven't powered on the cabinent in a while? Are you updated to the latest beta? Jason recently got rid of some BigBox lag as well.

[Dal]

Thanks Jason & SentaiBrad I'll have a look at the Windows Media Option and double check my version for Big Box Mode + LaunchBox before submitting this post... Here's some information... Windows 10 Pro (Updates on) Processor: AMD Sempron(tm) 145 Processor (2.80 GHz) Installed memory 4.00 GB (3.75 GB usable) System type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor Display adapters: ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics Mame Arcade Rom List: 33,364 NES: 792 SNES: 789 SMS: 279 SMD/SG: 781 LaunchBox Versions: 5.9... I've only accessed Big Box Mode so after launching the standard desktop LaunchBox it's asked me to update. The software is now version: 5.10 I've changed the option for Windows Media Player Engine (took a bit of finding as I didn't realise it was a changeable option, no worries though as I wouldn't have probably messed with it anyway). I had already set all the transitions to 'none' anyway. It's still very 'sticky' in navigation. Is there any way to drop the video playback completely? I'm not looking for a miracle. I do realise that this isn't the best spec. It's just what was originally in the cabinet to start with. I've only upgraded the RAM and installed Windows 10 for improving security/system performance however if I can get Big Box Mode to come down to a level that can cycle the games comfortably then I don't think there's going to be anything wrong with it. Like I say, Mame runs great so this really is just a front end issue which I'm hoping to resolve. I bought into LaunchBox because it is awesome, these problems don't have any reflection on this BTW! Thanks

[Jason Carr]

Hmm, shockingly there actually isn't a setting to turn off videos. I guess I just assumed if you didn't want videos than you wouldn't include them in the LaunchBox folders. Obviously one way to turn them off is to just move them outside of the LaunchBox Videos folders (or delete them). We definitely do need that option, though; I thought we had it but apparently not. Try moving or deleting the videos for now to see what kind of performance you end up with. :)

[SentaiBrad]

The performance problems may not lie in RAM but rather CPU. That said, you can turn off video's all together in Options, there is a Video tab. At the top of LaunchBox, View then go down a bit to find Autoplay for Music and Video.

[SentaiBrad]

Oh yea the options doesn't change BigBox, but you still can disable the auto-playback right?

[Dal]

Renaming the Video directory (I didn't want to delete) has sped things up a lot! There may be more to this video issue though as I wanted to see how video plays in normal desktop view of LaunchBox and check on how the paths were entered (I set this up a while ago so couldn't remember). A game information panel popped open at the side and the video began to play (frame rate was fine). I then just decided to rename the folder so I closed LaunchBox and went to browse for the folder within Windows. Problem was, although LaunchBox had closed I could still hear the video playing in the background. It actually caused a crash report to appear. Although I only removed the videos from the Arcade list I've been playing around with Big Box mode and when I go into NES which still shows video the sluggish response time comes back. I can obviously fix this by removing the videos again across all the other emulators lists but I wonder if it isn't some kind of codec issue. When I play a video (i.e. stop on a game and the video starts to play) it continues to try to play even when I move onto the next game. This then takes some time for the system to put on the brakes and halt to playback. If I do this a few times the problem worsens to a point where it just looks likes its struggling. I wonder if I manage to get videos to play properly (and stop immediately) that this solves the whole issue. I'm not sure if there's an underlying issue that isn't ultimately causing a problem. Windows 10 in general runs reasonably quick (i.e. starting windows, browers etc) although this is a dedicated cabinet so I don't have very much installed. Maybe I'll check YouTube and desktop video playback using MS Media player and report back with any issues. Maybe there's incompatible video drivers, missing codecs or some issues with IRQ or some other system/BIOS setting. At this point I'd be guessing without further investigating but I thought I'd at least update the thread with the current state of resolution. Thanks

[Jason Carr]

Ah, okay. So obviously the videos are the culprit. From what I'm hearing I doubt that your system specs wouldn't be able to handle VLC or WMP video playback to that extent, so hopefully there is an issue somewhere that can be figured out.

[Dal]

Video playback on the web is fine (YouTube). This also goes for downloading a MP4 and playing it through Windows Media Player. I can fast forward/rewind, skip, close and move to the next video with no problems. Everything keeps ups. I close Windows Media Player while the movie plays and the program quits instantly without it continuing to play in the background. I'm unsure what else to test. Is there anything I can do in LaunchBox to change the way Videos play or perhaps run more tests to find the issue? Here's a video I've uploaded (not publicly listed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFyoc9Z7_T4 There was actually an error appeared which I'd not seen before. Anyway the video shows me flicking between which isn't too bad but the exiting of the program which leaves the video playing in the background as you should be able to hear. It's early here so the sound may not be great. I'll take another video today and post which will show the symptoms in Big Box Mode I'm having. Is there any log files I can share to help understand this problem? Thanks again

[Dal]

Haha I'm so sorry for this video I'm about to impose on anyone who is unfortunate enough to end up watching :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIdPIahAp0I&feature=youtu.be The error log which I talk about at the end... when you've fallen asleep or started writing to ask me to never post another video :)

System.ObjectDisposedException: Cannot access a disposed object. Object name: 'GameDetailsControl'. at System.Windows.Forms.Control.MarshaledInvoke(Control caller, Delegate method, Object[] args, Boolean synchronous) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.Invoke(Delegate method, Object[] args) at LaunchBox.Controls.GameDetailsControl.<VlcVideoPlayer_EndReached>b__15_0() at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

I hope this has highlighted some issues. In fairness this time running Big Box Mode hasn't been as bad an experience. Perhaps I've done something to alleviate CPU usage or some kind of caching has occurred, my problem is primarily that I don't understand yet how to help myself so forgive anything that sounds like I'm criticising LaunchBox. Anyway thanks so much for baring with me on this one. Cheers Dal PS: I Think I kept calling 'VLC' VCN, there's too many acronyms in the computer land for my brain to function. I can't think and hold a phone at the same time

[Jason Carr]

Thanks @Dal, the video is marked as private, so we can't see it. Probably the best thing to do would be to mark it as Unlisted, so that it only shows up for those people that have the link. :)

[Antropus]

Dal said Mame Arcade Rom List: 33,364

I strongly recommend you to reduce your Mame Rom List. The vast majority of this number comes from fruit machines, non-working devices and games that simply don't work at all. A fully working set should not have more than, maybe 8000 games, and that includes the clones. If you remove the clones, then even if you keep the mature games, board games, quiz games etc, you should not have much more than 4000 working games. That will speed up your list quite a lot! I'm a collector too and I like having everything, but realistically speaking, the majority of the games is unplayable. My advice is: keep all games in the HDD, but filter what you want to import into your library :) Jason added some nice filters on the latest versions that can help to clean up things for you quite nicely, or you can try my little app that is designed specifically for importing filtered Mame lists into Launchbox. -Kris

[Dal]

Jason Carr: Sorry, the vid was supposed to be set to unlisted but YouTube must have choked :) I think you may have just opened Pandora's box though tell me that hehe @Antropus (aka Kris): I'd been so caught up in setting everything up that it hadn't even crossed my mind to filter out the rubbish. I know Mame updates the list now every month so I imagine I'd need to run the filter each time just in case there was a batch of working games coming on. Thanks for pointing this out and also running the numbers for me. This looks very promising as far as getting it down to a manageable amount. Is there a link somewhere for the app (I seem to have missed it if it was any listed in your signature)? It looks awesome! WD!

[Antropus]

Sure thing. It works as a wizard now, so it's pretty straight forward: https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/emulation/lightspeed-ultra-fast-mame-importer-tool