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LaunchBox Beta Testing - 6.8+


Jason Carr

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32 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

That's the point; it's not new features right now. Still working on tweaking the box art views for stability and performance. We currently have some issues with it that I'm trying to address from this thread: 

 

Ok, no worries, Jason... I think those fixes for Windows 7 users are probably not visible to a lot of us guys that only use Launchbox and have been seeing a lot of very visible changes in BigBox spanning over quite a few updates, so I think that is probably where some of the misunderstanding lies.

Edited by Drybonz
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@shinra358 Gotcha. Yes, so that should be possible currently using custom themes, and most (but not quite all) features should be available for the marquee view. In other words, the SelectedGame and all of its details are available in the marquee view so you should be able to display any details from the selected game in the marquee view using custom themes. The same goes for selected platforms. :)

@Drybonz Yeah, I get you. The improvements have not only been for Windows 7 users, but people with extremely large collections and/or slower hardware are more likely to see bigger improvements. The next major update I currently plan for LaunchBox is some sort of nested filters solution. However, I don't quite have a timeline for it yet.

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I for one am all for performance and stability before any new feature. It sets the foundation for the good stuff to come, so I really appreciate all the effort on that front, Jason, as at the end, it's all about a smooth experience once this is all enclosured in an arcade cabinet, with kids banging on those buttons, like the two monkeys I have at home :)
Thanks for all the hard work, good sir!

-Kris

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Thanks Kris. :)

Just put out beta 4, which I'm hoping will solve the issues people are reporting in the freezing thread. This beta also fixes an issue where images were not refreshing properly after Editing games or with Refresh Selected Images.

The current immediate goal is to get things as stable as possible, so I will continue working on bugs until we'll ready for the official 6.12 release. :)

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Might have found a bug in the latest beta (6.12-beta-3) on Windows 10. Games that start with 'The' are sorted properly like they have been for the last few versions (not using custom sort orders), but the game title displayed isn't right. For example, I've added Legend of Zelda, The, and even though I've edited the metadata so it should show The Legend of Zelda, it's shown as Legend of Zelda, The. Not using the Launchbox Games Database, if that makes a difference.

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3 minutes ago, cafcmike said:

Might have found a bug in the latest beta (6.12-beta-3) on Windows 10. Games that start with 'The' are sorted properly like they have been for the last few versions (not using custom sort orders), but the game title displayed isn't right. For example, I've added Legend of Zelda, The, and even though I've edited the metadata so it should show The Legend of Zelda, it's shown as Legend of Zelda, The. Not using the Launchbox Games Database, if that makes a difference.

Ok, appears 6.12-beta-4 has fixed this issue, so nevermind!

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4 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

This beta also fixes an issue where images were not refreshing properly after Editing games or with Refresh Selected Images.

Awesome, thank you! I ran into that last night. Restarting LB fixed it in that case.

I have to agree with @Antropus - I'm always going to value performance and stability improvements over new features. New toys are always nice but it doesn't amount to much if the play pen is busted (I'm not saying LB/BB are busted by any means, but you get what I'm saying). The fundamentals have to be in place before worrying about anything flashy. I've been very happy with all the performance improvements lately. It was never truly bad/broken for me, but it's still noticeably snappier in more recent days. So, thanks again!

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I guess I should clarify... I'm not looking for  new toys in Launchbox.  Features like voice recognition and social media, etc have no value to me.  Most of the stuff I have ever asked for is organization and ease-of-use type stuff.  I've watched and lost interest as Big Box has been rebuilt, voice recognition added, and that is all great.  I'm glad that people who want those things have them.  I bought Launchbox because I wanted to use Launchbox and that is what I look for when I'm following the change logs.  I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong by asking for some attention to LB. 

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1 minute ago, Drybonz said:

I agree... Structural improvements are the most important thing. 

 

 

Voice recognition. 

You can't really pick on that Voice recognition, I as well, have no use for it but he stated in his feature video for it that he was working it long before launchbox and good on him for finally putting it to use. Now back to your statement about you following the changelog for Launchbox vs BigBox. I am the otherside of the coin I support the BigBox side of the changelog as I use a 10ft approach and only use the launchbox app for scraping. Jason has the double edge knife problem of supporting both you and I in his development. If optimization is the course required currently, I think we should let the few features slide on either side and both support/follow the performance side for the time being as that seems to be the appoarch he is taking. Features are nice but it running well on all systems is key in both modes, that is really key in the end.

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Thanks guys. Never any hard feelings. Requests of all kinds are always appreciated. In all honesty, Big Box is what sells the product; it's been that way ever since we came out with the first version of it. And for that reason it will continue to be a priority, but of course LaunchBox is also a very important part of the product, and we will continue to add new features that make sense. I'm doing my best to juggle things here. We've been focusing on performance for LaunchBox for quite a while here, so that is largely the reason for the lack of new LaunchBox features for the past month or two.

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If someone is lost about changes being made to the software on each update, don't forget about the change log inside of LaunchBox. It's under Help -> Change log. It doesn't always work out that a new feature or performance improvement for one side of the software benefits the other side, but it can happen. So some features that were made for BigBox also run in LaunchBox, and improvements to the software can benefits both in a lot of ways that users may not see right away. Jason is just one man, and it is split 4-5 different ways (if not more), so he and I appreciate the patience and support.

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6 minutes ago, SentaiBrad said:

So some features that were made for BigBox also run in LaunchBox, and improvements to the software can benefits both in a lot of ways that users may not see right away. Jason is just one man, and it is split 4-5 different ways (if not more), so he and I appreciate the patience and support.

Agreed and that was basically the point I was trying to make. It's hard to be in the middle as an army of one (Jason) and trying to make everything make sense or support both side at the same time. I was just trying to show the point from the other prospective of it. Hopefully, it was in an appropriate as possbile way to support development and support patience. :)

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Performance in LB was absolutely the right place to spend some time IMHO. I'm glad Jason did this. It's so much better and pleasant to work with.

I think a lot of users may use the product similar to how I do. 

I use Bigbox to wow friends and kids when they come over. They play in Bigbox mode. And I run it (BB) sometimes just myself, well, simply because it's really cool.

I use regular LB for my own usage most of the time. And I use it for all the setup and testing of course.

So having it perform well in regular mode is very important, even if you use BB mode most of the time.

The only thing I'd really like to see added to regular LB mode sooner rather than later is a loading status (during unzip process).

I bought a license for BOTH modes :D

Kudos again for a great product! 

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