New to Launchbox Questions

[potaties]

Hi! Just got started with Launchbox (and RetroArch) and I really like a lot of the functionality and integration. Just having a few quirks: -How come when I launch a game in Launchbox, new config files get created in Retroarch? I'm having a difficult time keeping my settings intact. For instance, if I have a mame_libretro.cfg file, when I launch that core in Retroarch, I get a mame_libretro.dll.cfg in my configs folder, and I think the two are separate. Trying to change options globally (instead of per-core) becomes difficult, since there are now two separate configs for this single core. Is there a good way to tie the two configs into one with Launchbox? -Are there any shortcuts for keyboard navigation? Being able to type an "s" to bring the list to games that start with "S" would be a huge help in sorting these big lists. I know there's a search bar, but it would be so much more expedient for me personally to do that kind of quick-filter keyboard searching (that's how I'm used to filtering my game libraries already.) -If I upgraded to a premium license, would I be able to copy my current configuration / directory structure and give it to my friends as a license free version of LaunchBox? Specifically, I don't want to give out the license - that's not the goal here. I was just showing off LaunchBox to a friend and he was curious if I could copy my LB/RA/Rom directories and put it on his external drive, which would save him a lot of the effort in sorting metadata/configuration, etc. Would he have the premium version too, if I purchased it? Or is there a way to export to a license-free version? -These are more specific RetroArch questions, but maybe someone can help- if I have a bunch of Multi-Disc games in compressed archives (like .7z) to save space, does .m3u playlist functionality still work, or would I have to extract them? -Lastly, how is the netplay in RetroArch cores? Is it easy to configure? Sorry if this is a handful. I really like LaunchBox and it's making it super convenient with RetroArch to get all of my emulation sorted and configured. The last emulators I used on my PC were things like Zsnes, VBA, and ePSXe, which are all pretty ancient by today's standards. Using the combination makes playing all these old games like a dream. Even stuff like NeoGeo / CPS-2 just work, and are so neatly organized in my LaunchBox library. Thank you for all of your hard work, and any answers to questions you can provide!

[SentaiBrad]

RetroArch Configs: There is your global defaults then you can create custom per-core configs if you want and load them through the command line. I think you have the option "Config per core" or something along those lines checked in your settings. Navigating to the letters in your library by a button press is planned and currently in our BitBucket tracker. You can vote for that ticket there and create other bug or feature requests if you like. Just please try and search to see if your feature request hasn't already been requested. BitBucket sorted by votes: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues?status=new&status=open That specific Ticket: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/361/being-able-to-jump-game-title-letters-in (Tied for the most votes currently so it will get implemented sooner rather than later) So yea, please don't share the license, (Just remove the License.xml file from the install when you share your install) However LaunchBox is fully Portable to a point. If all of your roms are kept in your LaunchBox/Games folder, then they all have what's called a Relative path. Meaning, if you give your friend LaunchBox the only thing they'll need to plug in are the Emulators. They'll need to edit the emulators you added to the proper new paths. So if you also share your RA install and they point it towards the new path it should work. Roms are more difficult if they are not located in with LaunchBox, and of course they exist fine outside of the directory, all my games are not in the LB directory. So say for example you have your PS2 games in 'F:\Emulators\PS2\Games', and your friend will be putting those games on their D:\ Drive, then as long as the rest of the path stays the same (in this example, \Emulators\PS2\Games), then close down LB and all your friend needs to do is edit the LaunchBox.xml file with Notepad++. If you use Ctrl + F to bring up the search option and choose 'Search and Replace', search for 'F:\' and replace it with 'D:\'. This is of course assuming the rest of the paths are correct. When you open LaunchBox again they should all point towards the correct path. .m3u I have't played around with, and I honestly wouldn't suggest compressing disc based games for performance reasons, but you know what you're doing. If RetroArch supports it, then just make the game entry the m3u file and it might work? I am honestly unsure. I know this method works, but with LaunchBox and RetroArch specifically I am unsure. Honestly, it's a simple test. Just make sure the check box for "decompress compressed games" (I forget exactly what it's called), when you edit RetroArch is checked. The games compressed separately should work just fine though. Also note that if you try to play Arcade based games that this option will break those games from playing, so you'll need a second entry in LaunchBox for RetroArch or to uncheck the box. I haven't tried Netplay in RetroArch, but I believe it to be the same as it ever was, slightly confusing. Port Forwarding will be your friend in this instance. Never apologize for asking questions!! We love the questions here and thank you for the kind words. Jason and myself work hard to make sure LaunchBox is as good as it possibly can be! If you need more help in configuring LaunchBox then you should check out our Tutorial series on our YouTube channel. That link is in my signature right below my posts. Please, feel free to ask as many questions as you need.

[potaties]

Wow, thanks for the fast response. -I'm not familiar with BitBucket but I'm glad alphabetical sorting is on your radar. This is really the only nitpick I have with LB at the moment, but not enough to stop using it!! I'll check BB in the future for other features. -I'm glad to know that the license is a separate file. I was worried that if I upgraded, I'd be giving out my personal license to coworkers if I shared my setup! Thank you. -All of my roms are currently set up with relative paths in LaunchBox, I think - I see a "..\Emulation\Roms\etc" path for the files I've imported. So as long as that directory structure stays the same at the root of whatever drive both the roms and LaunchBox reside on, it should work fine, right? Either way, it's nice to be able to change the paths in the xml file, if necessary. -I haven't been able to get .m3u to work with compressed archives, so I'm just decompressing them now (instead of at runtime with LaunchBox's "Extract ROM archives before running" option). This is no biggie at all, I was just trying to be frugal with hard drive space. But some things are just more important -Portforwarding isn't TOO terrible, but I always have the best luck using a VPN like Hamachi for Netplay. I'll have to hash it out with a friend soon. Seriously, big thanks for all of your responses. LaunchBox is incredibly cool, and it's nice to know the support is also incredibly cool

[SentaiBrad]

No problem, I am here to help! Hamachi isn't really a VPN though, it is just more of a bridging connection than anything. It doesn't do anything to hide who you are specifically like VPN's do. The pathing you see is indeed Relative paths, so they'll just need to provide the Emulator pathing. You can edit the pathing in the XML if need be, but the more changes you make to that path the more you'll need to add to replace. So if you just change Drivers or manually change the drive letter then all you'll need to do is edit the new Drive letter in. As for the compression, what are you using m3u files for? PS1? If you are wanting to compress certain games from certain systems then there are alternatives to doing so. CSO's for PSP and PS2, WBFS for Wii (not exactly "compression"), and GCM for GameCube to name the few primary alternatives.

[potaties]

Good point about Hamachi. "VPN" was just easier than "Virtualized Network Bridge Adapter" but VPN a bit of a misnomer for Hamachi, compared to an actual VPN service. Works like a charm for emulator netplay most of the time, though. Zsnes 1.42 and ppsspp with an AdhocProServer both worked perfectly for me and my buddies. And yeah, I was trying to figure out .m3u files for PS1 games (with the Mednafen PSX core in RetroArch). They work perfectly for uncompressed games, but I don't think the .m3u can't associate with .7z files (since it should be looking for cuesheets), and LaunchBox extracts whichever archive it's pointing at, so at most it would decompress one disc at a time. Not even an issue, I can just extract them now and point LaunchBox to the .m3u files. Though I might look into GCM and CSO files later, once I'm done sorting out my PS1 collection.