LaunchBox Beta Testing - 6.8+

[billyc999]

whoop, just tried the new Beta importing cpc set, it's done a lot better job of importing with correct names now. just trying to figure whats happened to a game called Spy (France) im thinking it's added it as a second disc somewhere.

is there an easy way i can find out?

also, correct me if im wrong. on import LB hides disks other than disk 1, does it do the same with sides ie (Side A) ,(Side B)

 

**edit** may of spoken to soon , i just noticed a game called Rock (France) listed as Rock star ate my hamster

Edited August 24, 2016 by billyc999

[ThePolish]

2 hours ago, subatomic09 said:

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.

Also maybe as a possibly, have the update dialogue in app show a quick log along with the yes/no that we click to update. 

[billyc999]

think i may of misunderstood the  update, because if i have the tick box for use Launchbox database ticked it does name the files wrong, however i have just realised if i untick it everything imports fine, although not tried in bigbox mode i assume they will be no meta data for any games under cpc

[Jason Carr]

@Zombeaver I won't be doing anything further with the Steam videos because @circo has graciously offered to add the Steam videos to EmuMovies, which will ultimately solve several problems, including the VLC green lines and the videos not playing out of the box with Windows Media Player. He could potentially even remove the ESRB rating delays from the beginnings of the videos.

I think I'll keep the Arcade name for now, based on you guys' feedback. Eventually we can separate it out once we get around to adding a subplatform field or similar. However, we are still keeping separate platforms for Sega Model 2, Capcom Play System III, etc. in the database, which is cause for duplication, but when separate emulators are needed I think it's going to be the best way to handle it.

Per the change log, this thread is typically more detailed than anything else, so reading this thread is the best option if you want to figure out what's changed before updating. I understand we could do better with that stuff, but sadly the more effort I put into change logs, the less time I have to actually develop.

We worked through some of the import issues in the live stream yesterday (which I still need to upload to YouTube, sorry for that). Amiga is still problematic because it's hard to find a consistent set of names. I do have some ideas for that platform, though, so that is on my list.

@billyc999 Incorrect matches like that are typically due to the LaunchBox Games Database needing more metadata for games, so issues like that should go away as more games are added to the database (specifically if Rock is added, for example). "Side" is currently not included in the disc matching algorithm but I'll add that to my list to add.

[Jason Carr]

Alright! Just put out 6.9-beta-2 with an awesome new Attract Mode feature for Big Box. You can turn it on in the new Attract Mode section in the Big Box options. Let's here how it's working for you guys. I'm sure we have some tweaking to do with it yet. Eventually we'll probably also add the option to actually launch games, but for now it just automatically navigates through your collection.

I worked on scrolling the game details notes in the live stream yesterday as well, and worked on it some more today but it wasn't working and was pissing me off so I shelved it for now and chose to do the Attract Mode instead.

The other addition for this beta is a new option to use the %romfile% variable in the emulator configuration in order to be able to place parameters after the ROM file when launching emulators. I haven't really tested this any, so let me know if anyone tries it out.

Finally, higankanshi is already at work for us trying to fix the remaining VLC issues. I think things should be improved for this beta; if you guys can keep testing the VLC engine in Big Box, I'd appreciate it. I'm hoping at least the error messages are gone, but I'm not entirely sure. There are still two issues where sometimes the videos don't play (rarely but relatively easy to reproduce), as well as I've seen a couple times where the audio plays but the video doesn't.

Thanks all.

[ALIE]

Attract Mode is that like a Screensaver thing? 

[ThePolish]

@Jason Carr very nice! I know attract mode is a huge thing many of us have asked for! Thank you! Downloading now! 

[JaysArcade]

Looking forward to trying it out later when I get home from work!

 

[Zombeaver]

Ooooh man I am excite. Definitely gonna be giving these goodies a go! Thanks Jason!

[Jason Carr]

5 minutes ago, ALIE said:

Attract Mode is that like a Screensaver thing? 

Yes, sort of. It will automatically and randomly browse through your collection after a certain period of inactivity.

[ALIE]

3 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Yes, sort of. It will automatically and randomly browse through your collection after a certain period of inactivity.

Nice like I have set up in Kodi.  So it uses images or videos? 

Edited August 25, 2016 by ALIE

[Zombeaver]

A couple of thoughts on Attract Mode so far:

-It seems to only cycle through games within the platform that you're hovered on the start screen in Big Box. I assumed it was going to cycle between random games across all platforms. I'd prefer it that way if possible.

-It's a bit weird seeing it actually scroll through the games list to pick the next game. If there's a way to make it just instantly jump to a different game I think that'd look snazzier.

Very cool, just the same!

[Jason Carr]

It will jump back out to different platforms eventually @Zombeaver. It will stay in a particular platform for a random number of games and then jump to a different random platform.

I think I prefer the animated way of having it actually scroll the wheel to just having games pop in all the time. However, I do think we need to do a better job of game coverage.

[ThePolish]

First impressions, I love that it's condigurable, time to starting and time between switching. It for me goes into whichever platform you had highlighted when you go inactive and scrolls through that platform's titles. After about 10 games (didn't count, just what it felt like)  it backs out and goes into another system. 

I LOVE that you implemented the pickup and play (I can select whatever game "attracted" me w/o having to go back and find scroll through. 

For a beta release I say it's working pretty darn flawlessly and if you plan on expanding on this I think you're in the right direction. Only add on suggestion from me would under selectable "time on platform" or "games per platform"  to showcase. I will say after snes, it went to dreamcast then dreamcast again then to sega cd.  To me (and this may sound counterintuitive) I'm lead to think it is truly random selection which is GREAT! It's perfect because truly random means it will never "attract" in a noticeable pattern, even with the double platform selection every so often. 

Great work on attract mode! 

Now the bad news - after sega cd (5th system) it spun to arcade and I got the attached error with VLC :-(

It'll get ironed out eventually, but awesome progress, thank you @Jason Carr! 

 

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

Edited August 25, 2016 by ThePolish
copy pasta

[Zombeaver]

4 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

It will jump back out to different platforms eventually @Zombeaver. It will stay in a particular platform for a random number of games and then jump to a different random platform.

I see that now. It eventually switched. Does it have to go back to the main menu to do this like it does currently though? Could it jump to a different platform instantly when it decides to do this?

I think a "How many games before switching platforms?" field with say 1 / 3 / 5 / 10 / random in the options would be nice too.

4 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

I think I prefer the animated way of having it actually scroll the wheel to just having games pop in all the time. However, I do think we need to do a better job of game coverage.

Toggggggllles. Pretty please?

[Rincewind]

I updated LaunchBox had dinner then saw there was another update so did that then shut down the cabinet arrrgghhhh if only I read this thread first I could of taken a look at the New Attract Mode  now I'll have to wait till tomorrow .......evening. Great to know it's been implemented 

[CriticalCid]

The attract mode is an awesome new feature, thank you Jason! But could you add for the “Time In-Between Movements” option something like an “After video” option so that the attract mode will only kick in when the EmuMovies snap or Steam trailer of the current selected game is finished?

I would also really like the “Games per platform” option. But please with an "Random" option for it as well

 

Btw. I’m wondering if you made any progress on the navigation issue of the horizontal wheel?

[Lordmonkus]

The new %romfile% variable in the middle of the command line feature works for Daphne now. It's still not super simple and smooth to get Daphne games but at least you can now make Daphne an emulator and import the .txt files as a rom image. You will need to have custom commands for each game however because of how Daphne works.

Example:

lair vldp -framefile %romfile% -blend -ignore_aspect_ratio -blank_searches -precache -min_seek_delay 1000 -seek_frames_per_ms 20 -homedir H:\Emulation\Roms\Daphne -fastboot -bank 0 11011001 -bank 1 00100111 -nocrc -noissues -noserversend -sound_buffer 2048 -fullscreen -x 1600 -y 1200

That is the command line for Dragon's Lair. The first word in the command "lair" changes on a game by game basis so for Dragon's Lair 2 it would be "lair2" and Space Ace would be "ace"

I think the only way to get easy Daphne setup would be to have it's own setup system like how DosBOX has.

[kmoney]

Simply awesome,that what the attract mode feature is!! That was a surprise that I was not expecting so soon. I agree with you Jason as I like to see the scrolling through the games animation also rather that it just jumping to another game without seeing it scrolling. I think the only added option I would like to see is to be in a paticlular platform like MAME and just let it stay inside that platform only randomize scrolling through the MAME games without backing out into another platform. Reason being is on my arcade cabinet I would let it stay on all day using attract mode and I would only want to see MAME games on my arcade cabinet and plus there is so many games in that platform.

Awesome job again...happy man here!

[Zombeaver]

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with liking the scrolling... I'm just saying everybody has different tastes. Some people love clear logos for individual games. I have no desire to use those whatsoever. I wouldn't force anybody into one or the other. I'd just like to have the option for it to jump. There were times when it would scroll for a good 3 or 4 seconds straight before it stopped on something. It just looks weird to me. It's a really cool feature; might as well let people tailor it to their own tastes.