7.10-beta-1 Released

[Jason Carr]

On 5/3/2017 at 7:39 AM, dovella said:

Is possible download boxart for Region ? 
Example 

Nes = US , EU 
Famicom = Japan 

?

Region priorities should basically handle this already, but there are currently no fine-grained controls to skip images from certain regions (though they can be easily deleted by just removing the folder).

[Jason Carr]

7 minutes ago, EazyCheeze1978 said:

A suggestion for the beta... Whenever controller automation is used to exit an emulator or program (send the Alt+F4 combo), lock out automation (or else only allow it to be sent once every reasonable interval) for a second or two to prevent a duplicate combo from being sent. I believe this actually occurs when exiting from Demul (Dreamcast/Naomi emulator), as when I hit Back+Start on my controller (Xbox 360 Wireless Controller), the emulator exits, LaunchBox restores, and simultaneously (and alarmingly) I see the old-school Windows shut down dialog. I think this is down to Demul exiting and LaunchBox not correctly recognizing that it's truly exited, and repeating Alt+F4 even if I simply tap Back+Start for the shortest possible amount of time. It's weird, but not a huge problem especially since it doesn't shut down Windows right away. But it might alarm new users.

Anyway, just something to think about.

Thanks Cheeze, good to know. I wasn't aware of that.

[Jason Carr]

Sorry for the lack of new betas, guys; I'm slaving away over here but the plugin engine makes it difficult to release new betas mid-development. Speaking of the plugin engine, development is going very well. I'm hoping to have a beta out by end of day tomorrow with plugin support.

For the development-inclined, here's a teaser: http://pluginapi.launchbox-app.com

That's MSDN-style documentation for the future plugin system. It's not complete yet (I have a lot more to add to it), but you can get an idea of how everything will work.

@Grila @Nielk1

[Grila]

3 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Sorry for the lack of new betas, guys; I'm slaving away over here but the plugin engine makes it difficult to release new betas mid-development. Speaking of the plugin engine, development is going very well. I'm hoping to have a beta out by end of day tomorrow with plugin support.

For the development-inclined, here's a teaser: http://api.launchbox-app.com

That's MSDN-style documentation for the future plugin system. It's not complete yet (I have a lot more to add to it), but you can get an idea of how everything will work.

@Grila @Nielk1

Awesome bro, thanks for all your hard work. This will open up endless possibilities. Awesome docs also in a very familiar format

[Jason Carr]

Just now, Grila said:

Awesome bro, thanks for all your hard work. This will open up endless possibilities. Awesome docs also in a very familiar format

Great to hear, @Grila. I can't wait to see what you'll come up with next. FYI, I changed the URL to the plugin API documentation just now.

[dov_EL]

plug in example (bigbox) 

[Nielk1]

My first plugin idea is something to deal with Steam games being installed or not installed, either as some sort of dynamic and automated filter, indicator, and/or in UI display.

[ninja2bceen]

@jason carr

you know I was thinking but it's probably an impossible request. It would be really sweet if somehow you could cross reference a compatibility list and say if it doesn't load or is not playable, hide the game from the wheel. That way the wheel set only displays the playable games. Emulators update frequently but some do not any more. So for the ones that get updated, you would either need to only support the most current version or have the ability to select the versions compatibility. What do you think?

[adu]

2 minutes ago, ninja2bceen said:

 

@jason carr

 

you know I was thinking but it's probably an impossible request. It would be really sweet if somehow you could cross reference a compatibility list and say if it doesn't load or is not playable, hide the game from the wheel. That way the wheel set only displays the playable games. Emulators update frequently but some do not any more. So for the ones that get updated, you would either need to only support the most current version or have the ability to select the versions compatibility. What do you think?

Somtimes the rom is playable, it's just a misconfiguration of the emulator or a PC related problem. So I don't think this "database" would be a good reference enough

[ninja2bceen]

That's not really true. Each emulator has an official compatibility list

[dov_EL]

I think ... .first API for DropBox and Onedrive . Sync your collection 

[Kriven]

I definitely like the idea of cross-checking ROM compatibility against some kind of officially supported list (more so for emulators which strive to work without plugin support).

[Lmagnus87]

21 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Sorry for the lack of new betas, guys; I'm slaving away over here but the plugin engine makes it difficult to release new betas mid-development. Speaking of the plugin engine, development is going very well. I'm hoping to have a beta out by end of day tomorrow with plugin support.

For the development-inclined, here's a teaser: http://pluginapi.launchbox-app.com

That's MSDN-style documentation for the future plugin system. It's not complete yet (I have a lot more to add to it), but you can get an idea of how everything will work.

Excellent News!! Great work!

 

For future releases 8X,9X,10X we can make a poll to decide which is/are the best/popular plugins and then it will be implemented as default feature  for the next big release

Obviously with the authorization of the creator and his help to implement it

 

[Porl Hendy]

What do plugins have to offer? I dont understand exactly how they work or what they are. Cheers

[Nielk1]

Just now, Porl Hendy said:

What do plugins have to offer? I dont understand exactly how they work or what they are. Cheers

A  plugin is a code extension.  Basically, LaunchBox/BigBox will ask plugins if they 'have anything to say' during certain events/actions.  What events those are and what data the plugins are able to access determines what they can do.

[Porl Hendy]

Thanks @Nielk1 so other coders can create plugins to use within launchbox?

[Nielk1]

@Porl Hendy Exactly.  I'll be creating some for sure.  The development situation here is great for this too; Jason is a very active communicator and can implement missing functions plugins might need once those issues arise.

[spektor56]

Would be nice for someone to make a plugin the picks the best emulator / settings for a particular game so people don't have to guess and check.  Workflow could be like:

BigBox -> Launch("Donky Kong 64") -> Plugin(Console.N64, "Donky Kong 64") -> Mupen64("Donky Kong 64") 

BigBox -> Launch("Mario 64") -> Plugin(Console.N64, "Mario 64") -> Project64("Mario 64") 

A central database would have to be maintained somewhere that has the lists maintained by the community and updated accordingly

Edited May 5, 2017 by spektor56

[eXo]

The "best" emulator for several consoles is debatable. A process that chooses a "best" emulator would be an endless debate and seen as launchbox playing favorites.

Not to mention many folks spend alot of time setting specific inputs and video settings in their respective emulators of choice. 

[GreenGriffon]

1 hour ago, spektor56 said:

Would be nice for someone to make a plugin the picks the best emulator / settings for a particular game so people don't have to guess and check.  Workflow could be like:

BigBox -> Launch("Donky Kong 64") -> Plugin(Console.N64, "Donky Kong 64") -> Mupen64("Donky Kong 64") 

BigBox -> Launch("Mario 64") -> Plugin(Console.N64, "Mario 64") -> Project64("Mario 64") 

A central database would have to be maintained somewhere that has the lists maintained by the community and updated accordingly

 

The "best" emulator, or shader, or control scheme (or anything whatsoever) for a given system is a matter of opinion and personal preference.

The community itself can't even agree on what is best for what platform.