LaunchBox Beta Testing - 6.8+

[ThePolish]

2 hours ago, Mute64 said:

No error msg unfortunately, i couldn't replicate it either... so im not sure what caused it.. ill try again tomorrow and see if i get any crashes while using VLC.

Two issues still - 

 

I had a crash on VLC again.  WMP still doing the stutter on videos but not on VLC, so I selected VLC in big box I ran through my few arcade videos to then windows to check for stuttering on VLC - no problems. Ran down to DC, flipped through a few videos then backed out  to platform wheel. At this time before another video loaded it crashed with this - no audio started playing or video showed - it happened when it was calling for another video  to display but didn't finish the load - so all I could see was platform wheels on the left - no console photo or text.

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at (VlcPlayer , IntPtr , IntPtr& )
   at Meta.Vlc.Wpf.VlcPlayer.VideoLockCallback(IntPtr opaque, IntPtr& planes)

Hit "close" on the report/close box with the error and it let me flip up and down on the platform wheel for a time or two then crashed to desktop. Again - no video continued to load or text/platform image.

Issue 2:

Opened back up, flipped through wheels real quick - into and out of platforms - all real quick - at some point one of the platform video previews (I use random videos that BB selects as platform videos) got stuck and audio keeps playing in the background. Whenever I switch to another platform/game - a new one will start playing but the old audio keeps looping through the 30 second video in the background. I kept flipping through in and out - right now I have what sounds like 3 videos worth of audio playing in the background (something from n64, something from psx and something from DC) at the same time. The 4th video for whatever I'm currently selecting will start to play and have no issues looping. 

Really strange - it's like VLC just doesn't want to "stop" if you move too fast through videos. To re-create try flipping through videos, let it load a little then back out, flip though go in and out back out - eventually one will start to stick in the background and play. If I wait a second after each time I move it doesn't seem like this happens.

 

@Jason Carr I've recreated issue 2 a few times now. I went to platforms - a random video loaded for a game no issues. I then went through DC a bunch of times - platform video was NOT at this time playing while I loaded each video. I flip through real quick and backed out - this got one of the video's audio from the games list to keep playing in the background when I backed out - I made sure I knew which games audio it was.

Then I kept flipping through a few time though the list stopping at random time and then into PSX after the preview started on the platforms page- at this time went into the system - both the DC video's audio and the PSX platform video's audio was playing while I scrolled through the games list.

At the same time any game I stopped on would also start playing. If its a thing - call for "stop" in vlc isn't being executed when you move in and out too fast.

Edited August 23, 2016 by ThePolish
formatting and improved description of issue 2

[Mute64]

" Opened back up, flipped through wheels real quick - into and out of platforms - all real quick - at some point one of the platform video previews (I use random videos that BB selects as platform videos) got stuck and audio keeps playing in the background. Whenever I switch to another platform/game - a new one will start playing but the old audio keeps looping through the 30 second video in the background. I kept flipping through in and out - right now I have what sounds like 3 videos worth of audio playing in the background (something from n64, something from psx and something from DC) at the same time. The 4th video for whatever I'm currently selecting will start to play and have no issues looping. "  

This also happened to me aswell.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Mute64

[Jason Carr]

Thank you guys. I'll be back to the VLC stuff soon; I'm in the process of hopefully hiring higankanshi (the Meta.Vlc developer) to help us out and get these bugs fixed.

A new beta is out. I took a break from bugfixes today after the 6.8 release and started to tackle some of the issues with importing problematic platforms. Most non-MAME arcade platforms as well as other problematic platforms now have proper file name to game title conversions. I tested with the Sega Model 2 platform and indeed was able to pull proper names and thus metadata for all of the games.

Keep in mind that force using MAME metadata for any platforms other than MAME is no longer recommended. Other arcade platforms will likely be better processed automatically with that box unchecked. Very curious to hear how things are working for you guys for all the various platforms that were previously a problem. Also would like to know what other issues we still need to solve for imports.

[Zombeaver]

11 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Most non-MAME arcade platforms as well as other problematic platforms now have proper file name to game title conversions. I tested with the Sega Model 2 platform and indeed was able to pull proper names and thus metadata for all of the games.

Awesome! Thank you!

6 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Keep in mind that force using MAME metadata for any platforms other than MAME is no longer recommended. Other arcade platforms will likely be better processed automatically with that box unchecked.

Interesting, I'll try to remember this. Thanks! I've kindof gotten in the habit of doing that so I'll have to break myself of it.

7 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Very curious to hear how things are working for you guys for all the various platforms that were previously a problem.

Is this specifically in reference to non-MAME arcade games? I just wanted to make sure I was on the same page and that something else hadn't changed (like for say Atari ST, ScummVM, Amiga, etc.).

[Jason Carr]

To be honest, I'm not sure how well platforms like Amiga or Atari ST will work with these new changes. I'm hoping they'll be significantly improved though. I need to do more testing myself to see, I guess. I've barely used Atari ST and Amiga myself, so I don't know the platforms very well. So I need you guys to help test.

[Jason Carr]

Also, I ended up adding a number of non-MAME arcade platforms to the LaunchBox Games Database, as we already had been doing. I'm slowly warming up to renaming Arcade to MAME, largely because Arcade just doesn't make sense. I don't like creating platforms based on emulators, but I think it might be best to just deal with it in this regard to reduce confusion and duplication. Thoughts?

Before I rename it though I really need to implement that "don't change platform when downloading metadata and images" thing.

[Jazzphone]

Just now, Jason Carr said:

Also, I ended up adding a number of non-MAME arcade platforms to the LaunchBox Games Database, as we already had been doing. I'm slowly warming up to renaming Arcade to MAME, largely because Arcade just doesn't make sense. I don't like creating platforms based on emulators, but I think it might be best to just deal with it in this regard to reduce confusion and duplication. Thoughts?

Before I rename it though I really need to implement that "don't change platform when downloading metadata and images" thing.

[ALIE]

3 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Also, I ended up adding a number of non-MAME arcade platforms to the LaunchBox Games Database, as we already had been doing. I'm slowly warming up to renaming Arcade to MAME, largely because Arcade just doesn't make sense. I don't like creating platforms based on emulators, but I think it might be best to just deal with it in this regard to reduce confusion and duplication. Thoughts?

Before I rename it though I really need to implement that "don't change platform when downloading metadata and images" thing.

Awsome i actually made a request for adding a smaller less popular system I don't even remember what it was now something with little to no emulation.  

But the database is so much more, could be Awsome seeing more systems added. 

[Zombeaver]

What do you want me to test for them? Unless something specific was implemented to accommodate importing them, I don't think anything would have changed in that regard because they're...atypical.

For Atari ST via the Steem emulator it has that weird command-line format of multiple disks listed in order which will load them into "drive A" and "drive B".

So for D/Generation, for example, I had to create a Windows shortcut with a target path of:

"X:\Emulation\Atari ST\Steem TOS 1.62\Steem SSE 3.7.0.exe" "X:\Emulation\Atari ST\Roms\D-Generation (1991)(Mindscape)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr Elite].st" "X:\Emulation\Atari ST\Roms\D-Generation (1991)(Mindscape)(Disk 2 of 2)[cr Elite].st"

I haven't been able to successfully replicate this via any combination of command-line parameter fields in LB and have had to just create Windows shortcuts for multi-disk games and use the shortcut as my "rom" in LB.

For Amiga, I don't know what (if) I could test - I know a lot of people use loaders, but I never have. I just use standalone WinUAE and use .uae config files as my "roms". Which works fine but requires some external setup in WinUAE for each game beforehand.

[Jason Carr]

Gotcha @Zombeaver. Sounds like these changes will not help for those platforms then. It's only going to help solve the problem where ROM file names are obscure and thus couldn't previously be imported with proper game titles. I'll have to come up with custom solutions yet for the multi-disc issue and whatever the heck we need for Amiga (I still don't really know). Lol.

[Zombeaver]

Is there any chance of seeing the Steam video downloader implemented for non-Steam games that are also on Steam? I've got quite a few GoG and physical PC games that'd love to see it 

[ThePolish]

@Jason Carr you probably NEED a break from VLC after a two week non stop multiple release per day frenzy. The work is appreciated but honestly, the issues are minor (wmp still works with no crashes and VLC issues are mostly just minor annoyances) 

 

My two cents on mame -  I came from hyperspin and kept my rocket launcher setup. Having arcade set up as default the default  name in LB didn't work, I actually had to rename "arcade" to "MAME"  and do some tweaking to get the two programs  talk. Default "mame" over arcade would work well, but in LB, but keeping it with the "arcade" clear logo is nice as my setup is for entertaining friends, and while everyone knows what an arcade is, few know mame without an explanation. 

Honestly not sure if that feedback helps but it's what came to mind. 

[FistyDollars]

31 minutes ago, ThePolish said:

@Jason Carr you probably NEED a break from VLC after a two week non stop multiple release per day frenzy. The work is appreciated but honestly, the issues are minor (wmp still works with no crashes and VLC issues are mostly just minor annoyances) 

 

My two cents on mame -  I came from hyperspin and kept my rocket launcher setup. Having arcade set up as default the default  name in LB didn't work, I actually had to rename "arcade" to "MAME"  and do some tweaking to get the two programs  talk. Default "mame" over arcade would work well, but in LB, but keeping it with the "arcade" clear logo is nice as my setup is for entertaining friends, and while everyone knows what an arcade is, few know mame without an explanation. 

Honestly not sure if that feedback helps but it's what came to mind. 

What if, and bear in mind I have no idea if this is practical or not but hear me out, we had the platform still be named "Arcade" BUT we had a field in the database for what emulator supported it i.e. MAME/Model 2/Taito Type X/Daphne?

Because I'd much rather keep all my arcade games under one category (and considering the massive hardware differences between arcade cabinets, we'd have hundreds of mini-platforms if we were just distinguishing them based on what hardware they used.)

Just my two cents, but I can't see a better way of handling this issue.

[subatomic09]

Maybe a dumb question - in the sense that it has an obvious answer I've just overlooked - but where can I read a list of fixes & new features found in 6.8 before downloading it? I'm the type who likes to know what's in an update before I update. Thanks as always for your tireless efforts and amazing level of communication with your customer base.

[CriticalCid]

I just imported my Amiga WHDload set with the newest beta and unfortunately it didn’t work. The importer doesn't find any games in the LBDB and keeps the file names as game titles.

I also took a look at the new(?) Files.xml and noticed that you are apparently using an old database for WHDload because many of the games are listed with their older versions, here’s the most current one:

Commodore Amiga.xml

 

EDIT: I also have to mention that the usage of the older database isn’t related to the problem itself because absolutely no WHDload game was imported correctly, including the ones which are matching exactly to the filename in the Files.xml. All the artwork you can see in the screenshot seems to come only from EmuMovies.

[Mute64]

4 hours ago, ThePolish said:

@Jason Carr you probably NEED a break from VLC after a two week non stop multiple release per day frenzy. The work is appreciated but honestly, the issues are minor (wmp still works with no crashes and VLC issues are mostly just minor annoyances) 

 

My two cents on mame -  I came from hyperspin and kept my rocket launcher setup. Having arcade set up as default the default  name in LB didn't work, I actually had to rename "arcade" to "MAME"  and do some tweaking to get the two programs  talk. Default "mame" over arcade would work well, but in LB, but keeping it with the "arcade" clear logo is nice as my setup is for entertaining friends, and while everyone knows what an arcade is, few know mame without an explanation. 

Honestly not sure if that feedback helps but it's what came to mind. 

Pretty much exactly what i had todo with my mame collection aswell.. and also ditto on having a break from VLC

[audunv]

Hi.

I have tried to import Amiga games again after the latest beta release, and I have the same problem as CriticalSid, see screenshot.

Game names are not matched against the last updated xml file for Amiga.

 

 

[kev25b]

Why not just have an option to export from gamebase like the exodos collection. It would solve all these amiga and c64 problems.

[imdavid555]

12 hours ago, subatomic09 said:

Maybe a dumb question - in the sense that it has an obvious answer I've just overlooked - but where can I read a list of fixes & new features found in 6.8 before downloading it? I'm the type who likes to know what's in an update before I update. Thanks as always for your tireless efforts and amazing level of communication with your customer base.

Besides reading the posts by Jason Carr in this thread, I don't think there is.

There is a "Changelog" after you update within Launchbox in the options area.

[subatomic09]

1 hour ago, imdavid555 said:

Besides reading the posts by Jason Carr in this thread, I don't think there is.

There is a "Changelog" after you update within Launchbox in the options area.

Thanks for the reply, @imdavid555. In the future, I think it would be cool to have a list of some of the big updates and improvements in a new release right on the Download page, kind of like how the Play Store does it when you update an Android app.