What is rocket launcher? Should I be using it?

[angelobodetti]

I use RocketLauncher (setup video below).

I think the benefits are HUGE for a power user. the features i use it for are:

- Fade in and our screens (the loading screens). I have these specific to each console and in many cases even to each game
- Universal pause. So you can pause any game for any platform (even arcade) and it will bring up all of the specific media and manuals for that game
- Bezels. SOme emulators have bezel support on their own, but a lot don't. RocketLauncher brings bezel support for all of them.

People will argue that it is harder to setup but i think its actually easier. Retroarch for example, you tell rocketlauncher where retroarch (using browse) is and what core to use (also using browse). With Launchbox you need to type out that whole command line. For MESS its even better because some of those command lines can get a bit crazy in launchbox - they all go away with RocketLauncher because each module is specifically designed to work with that emulator and those command lines are already coded in so you don't need to know them.

Don't get me wrong, definitely can get frustrating, especially when it comes to platform names and things like that. 

but overall i would say that bigbox brings the beauty to the actual game organization and selection (which is 50%) then RocketLauncher brings the beauty to the launching, playing and exiting (other 50%).

take a look at my video, i launch a few games with fades, bezels and pause.

 

[angelobodetti]

On 6/17/2017 at 5:02 PM, lordmonkus said:

And BigBox doesn't need RocketLauncher to do this.

If you NEED bezels across every system, if you NEED loading screens, if you NEED pause screens then RocketLauncher is what you need. If you don't NEED those things in your setup then RL is a waste of time to learn how to use.

The only person that can answer the OPs question is himself. Only he can decide if it is or isn't worth the extra effort for a few cosmetic features.

I am not telling anyone they should or shouldn't use it. I am only making sure that people understand that there is a lot of extra effort involved if they have never used or even looked at it before. It would be very disingenuous to pretend it is not a lot of extra work and is easy to setup because it is not. 

Yeah, if you have it already setup and ready to go it's a no brainer to stick with it. Just keep in mind that the vast majority of Launchbox users are here because of just how complicated Hyperspin with RocketLauncher (mostly RocketLauncher) can be. There is a reason that right after I finally learned how to get HS / RL working I ditched that shit like a bad habit in an instant because Launchbox was so much simpler without it.

its not much extra effort - you can share settings files. 

I posted earlier that for some emulators rocketlauncher is easier than launchbox because you don't have to know and type out command lines. All of the MESS systems for example, retroarch, etc.. even jaguar cd just works because the RL team built out the module specifically to work with those emulators. where launchbox is setup to work with pretty much all, you still need to add the extra layer of command lines.

[mothergoose729]

9 hours ago, angelobodetti said:

its not much extra effort - you can share settings files. 

I posted earlier that for some emulators rocketlauncher is easier than launchbox because you don't have to know and type out command lines. All of the MESS systems for example, retroarch, etc.. even jaguar cd just works because the RL team built out the module specifically to work with those emulators. where launchbox is setup to work with pretty much all, you still need to add the extra layer of command lines.

Yeah that is the part I don't like about RL. The command line is easier and more powerful than RL menus. It takes no more effort to type "-f" than it does to toggle a drop down to true. For all emulators the command line is the most powerful way to control them, and RL doesn't give me direct access to it. I can't at all understand why. 

The glam things it does well. RL automagically linked up to my media folders in LB. No extra effort required. That was really nice. I haven't dug into it yet, but the AHK scripts are also cool. A unified interface for save states and game closing is a great feature, usually implemented outside RL with add hock scripts. A feature I discovered the other day; RL will hide your mouse cursor for you. No more dragging the mouse off the edge of the screen. That is so nice. 

The RL UI interface is a mess and there are some glaring issues, like the need to create symlinks for all your ROMs because RL can't search for files in sub directories. The fact that modules inevitably depreciate out, leaving you SOL until a new module is release or you make your own is also puzzling, because it seems so unnecessary.  

In a perfect world LB would already have the features RL has, but better implemented. In the mean time I can't decide if the features that RL provides are worth the hassle of using it. I am leaning towards yes, because I am willing to put in the time to configure it and forgive its shortcoming, but am really not pleased about it.

[angelobodetti]

You don't need symlinks. RocketLauncher basically doesn't care where your roms are because LaunchBox tells it. 

Hyperspin is different obviously. But RL with LB is perfect. 

If you want to do your own custom command lines, you can. But if you don't want to, you don't need to. 

I find it easier and more powerful than LB standalone. 

Plus it's been around forever so it has a TON of custom media. Look at what @RetroHumanoid is doing fir example. 

Even if LaunchBox added fade support and native bezel support, it would be a while to catch up. 

RocketLauncher scared me till I saw @JaysArcade tutorial and RetroHumanoids videos.  

[SentaiBrad]

Well, there's a reason why some of those features seem put together with duct tape, then break the second a new version is released: it's because it's extremely hard to do. I do applaud them trying to do it, but it creates a ton of extra issues. Despite what the RL people might say, there has never been an out cry for those features in LB. Assuming that someone wants them, but someone doesn't want to use RL or wants to switch, there's never been a ton of support for it from the people, and that's how things primarily change. I could be wrong, but there isn't a ticket with a high vote count either. So at a certain point, whats fought over is a lot of pride and bravado.

[mothergoose729]

1 minute ago, angelobodetti said:

You don't need symlinks. RocketLauncher basically doesn't care where your roms are because LaunchBox tells it. 

If you want to do your own custom command lines, you can. But if you don't want to, you don't need to. 

 

LB seems to tell RL what roms to expect, but not where to find them. I have to add the rom paths manually. 

If you can tell me how to enter custom command line parameters on a per game basis in RL, than my most serious complaints go away. I can't figure out how to do it. I can't find any documentation on such a feature either. 

[Lordmonkus]

The people who tend to really want these features are generally people coming over from HyperSpin. This isn't a bad thing at all and those users can simply use their current RL setup.

But most of us around here started out with Launchbox because of how much easier it is to learn to use and get up and running.

Like I have said previously in this thread, it's all up to the user whether or not the features of RL are worth the extra learning time.

[angelobodetti]

4 minutes ago, mothergoose729 said:

LB seems to tell RL what roms to expect, but not where to find them. I have to add the rom paths manually. 

If you can tell me how to enter custom command line parameters on a per game basis in RL, than my most serious complaints go away. I can't figure out how to do it. I can't find any documentation on such a feature either. 

Yea in the general settings turn off "rom checks". 

I actually add my paths because it's s couple of clicks and I'd rather things be setup correctly. But PlayStation for example, every bin/ISO is in its own folder and if I do games check in RL they are all red because I don't have the paths setup correctly. But they play with fade, pause and bezel without any issue. 

[angelobodetti]

3 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

The people who tend to really want these features are generally people coming over from HyperSpin. This isn't a bad thing at all and those users can simply use their current RL setup.

But most of us around here started out with Launchbox because of how much easier it is to learn to use and get up and running.

Like I have said previously in this thread, it's all up to the user whether or not the features of RL are worth the extra learning time.

Agreed. RocketLauncher scared the crap out of me which is why I used LaunchBox. But once I saw how amazing RocketLauncger can make things look, then I learned it and now I could imagine not using it. 

For myself, the look of fades, bezels and pause are absolutely 100% without question worth the couple of hours it took to learn. 

It just makes the entire look abd feel of my LaunchBox complete. From the second I load big box to the second I exit a game I have custom graphics and images with every inch of the screen filled. Zero black space or blank loading times. 

[angelobodetti]

17 minutes ago, SentaiBrad said:

Well, there's a reason why some of those features seem put together with duct tape, then break the second a new version is released: it's because it's extremely hard to do. I do applaud them trying to do it, but it creates a ton of extra issues. Despite what the RL people might say, there has never been an out cry for those features in LB. Assuming that someone wants them, but someone doesn't want to use RL or wants to switch, there's never been a ton of support for it from the people, and that's how things primarily change. I could be wrong, but there isn't a ticket with a high vote count either. So at a certain point, whats fought over is a lot of pride and bravado.

Who's fighting? Brovado over what? Using a free tool to make things nicer? The original post is asking what is RocketLauncher and if they should they use it. 

Im saying yes if you want fades, bezels and universal pause. If not then no. 

I didn't start using it till 6 months or so ago. Before then I used LaunchBox without those extra features. 

I've also never had anything break after a RocketLauncher upgrade. 

[damageinc86]

There was another thread about this somewhere else in the forums but now it's down to a few very key features IMO, that make RL completely worth the hassle.

1. The Pause screen:  not because it allows you to pause the game, but because you can edit the save state and load state in RL (autohotkey .ini settings file) to send autohotkey presses to the emulator to save and load the game right from that menu.
2. Fades:  Default, or custom, it's just cool and sometimes it does actually work to cover up the emulator loading/flashing with the right timer settings. 
3. Bezels:  I know a lot of people are using retroarch with overlays, but Bezels are just as good, and very easy to setup, especially if you get a good pack like metalzoic's arcade stuff.
4. Mapping with joy2key:  This is so important for me because I have not found an easier way to map controls for all of my ms-dos games.  Once pointing RL to the joy2key program, you can add a new profile for the game in RL, and whenever that game loads, RL will start that profile right up!  Even with multiple controllers.  That's also how I have a few PC games with 4 players using two xbox360 controllers and two SNES usb controllers.  But for ms-dos, this is a must have.
5. plugin with launchbox: It works just fine with launchbox.  Anytime you add a new game/platform in launchbox, RL will show it next time you start it, so you can easily tweak it right after adding it in launchbox.  In launchbox, there's only one emulator: rocketlauncher. 

So once you go through the initial setup, I find it to really be a great compliment to Launchbox, and it actually has made setup go a little smoother now, since it's just select Rocketlauncher as emulator, add the game/platform, go into rocketlauncher and tweak some settings and done.  It's all nice and uniform, and again.  the biggest plus is the keymapping capabilities for platforms like ms-dos.

 

[Porl Hendy]

13 hours ago, angelobodetti said:

in the general settings turn off "rom checks". 

I cant find this option @angelobodetti

[angelobodetti]

Its right here - in general settings. you do it per platform. I actually almost never use it becuse i dont seem to need to. Again, i set all the paths and do it right just to be safe but for cd systems or systems that have roms in disparate folders, i never have it matching correctly and they all launch without issue.

 

Pinball is another great example as to where RocketLauncher could actually be easier than LaunchBox. I setup Future Pinball today and if i did it in LaunchBox i would need to use a long complicated command line that i would've never known unless someone told me. In RocketLauncher however, i literally just tell it to us the Future Pinball settings and boom, everything works instantly without fuss. or any manual settings

[Porl Hendy]

Thank you i was looking in general settings rather then main settings

[Thatman84]

The other great feature not mentioned in RocketLauncher is that it supports most Frontends, so if you want to swap in the future (when Launchbox gets knocked off top spot ?) it will probably be easier. Then again by that time things will probably have changed!!

For sure it's another layer for the OP to learn but it can handle all your emulators forever (so long as modulas get love)

You will always want to setup your emulators so for that reason I will use RL when setting up my PC. Then when it's done I can do whatever I want with a frontend

 

[angelobodetti]

Great point. 

People who blindly hate RocketLauncher are ridiculous and make no sense. RocketLauncher is a free (unlike bigbox) program that adds features and functionality to your emulation. 

Writing it off because it's "complicated" also makes no sense. EVERYTHING is complicated before you take the time to learn it. 

But ive also pointed out several examples where RocketLauncher is far easier than LaunchBox (pinball, dos, daphne, etc...)

its simple, if you want your setup to be even nicer than it is by issuing things like bezels, fades and pause menus... and if you want it to be more functional by using things like AHK, simple per game joy to key mapping and pause... then use RocketLauncher with big box.

If not, then don't. But arguing with people saying things like "it sucks" and "it's complicated" and "you don't need those extra features" is close minded. 

I've only used RL for the past few months and I love it, I've gotten about 30 inbox messages asking how to do specific things based on my video so I know others think it's nice as well. 

I ask about 40 questions a week here and everything is helpful so I'm always willing to help when I can. If you have any specific RL questions let me know and I'll do my best 

[Lordmonkus]

Ok before this goes any further I am laying down a warning right here and now. @angelobodetti your last post is really coming off as defensive and you are borderline attacking myself and @SentaiBrad. I say borderline because while you are not mentioning either of us by name we are the only 2 people in this thread saying RocketLauncher is complicated and unnecessary to most people.

No one in this thread is "blindly hating RocketLauncher" myself and Brad are only stating that it has a steep learning curve and we have both used it in the past so we aren't just stating our opinions of it based off of nothing. In case you missed it in one of my previous posts in this thread I did use HyperSpin and RocketLauncher for about a month or two and did learn how to use it.

1 hour ago, angelobodetti said:

Writing it off because it's "complicated" also makes no sense. EVERYTHING is complicated before you take the time to learn it.

Again, no one is "writing it off" only making sure that people wondering about is aware of the learning curve. Yes, EVERYTHING is complicated at first but RocketLauncher is much more complicated than normal with all the tabs and sub tabs and I would agree that the software probably needs to be as complicated as it is because of the nature of it and how much it can do.

1 hour ago, angelobodetti said:

saying things like "it sucks" and "it's complicated" and "you don't need those extra features" is close minded

No one said it sucks.

It is complicated, that is just a simple fact.

You don't don't need those features is a subjective and personal decision like I have said since the beginning of this thread. It has nothing to do with closed mindedness at all. I don't NEED them and if someone else does that is fine, it's up to them but I won't sit here and tell people oh "use RocketLauncher, it's dead simple to learn how to use". That would be a false statement and doing the user a major disservice.

@angelobodetti The fact that you do help people with RocketLauncher is very cool and if you want to make a thread dedicated to people requiring help with it and Launchbox I would be more than happy to sticky it so that people who want help with it will have a central place to look for troubleshooting advice. Simply make the thread and send me a message linking it to me and I will make it a sticky.

 

[DOS76]

Yeah basically the OP asked about RL and both pro and con opinions have been stressed to death here and its starting to turn ugly. The OP should have more than enough information to base his decision on with what is here without anything else really being said about it.

Edited June 24, 2017 by DOS76

[angelobodetti]

 

10 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

Ok before this goes any further I am laying down a warning right here and now. @angelobodetti your last post is really coming off as defensive and you are borderline attacking myself and @SentaiBrad. I say borderline because while you are not mentioning either of us by name we are the only 2 people in this thread saying RocketLauncher is complicated and unnecessary to most people.

No one in this thread is "blindly hating RocketLauncher" myself and Brad are only stating that it has a steep learning curve and we have both used it in the past so we aren't just stating our opinions of it based off of nothing. In case you missed it in one of my previous posts in this thread I did use HyperSpin and RocketLauncher for about a month or two and did learn how to use it.

Again, no one is "writing it off" only making sure that people wondering about is aware of the learning curve. Yes, EVERYTHING is complicated at first but RocketLauncher is much more complicated than normal with all the tabs and sub tabs and I would agree that the software probably needs to be as complicated as it is because of the nature of it and how much it can do.

No one said it sucks.

It is complicated, that is just a simple fact.

You don't don't need those features is a subjective and personal decision like I have said since the beginning of this thread. It has nothing to do with closed mindedness at all. I don't NEED them and if someone else does that is fine, it's up to them but I won't sit here and tell people oh "use RocketLauncher, it's dead simple to learn how to use". That would be a false statement and doing the user a major disservice.

@angelobodetti The fact that you do help people with RocketLauncher is very cool and if you want to make a thread dedicated to people requiring help with it and Launchbox I would be more than happy to sticky it so that people who want help with it will have a central place to look for troubleshooting advice. Simply make the thread and send me a message linking it to me and I will make it a sticky.

 

a warning? i'm not talking about anyone specifically at all - i see posts here and everywhere else saying rocketlauncher is compicated and they have never actually taken the time to try. i am simply pointing out that anything is terrible if you don't know how to use it and then i pointed out some features. 

we all agree on the fact that if you don't want the extra features then you don't need to learn how to use it. 

no idea in the world why my post would warrant a warning. i said it is ridiculous to blindly hat erocketlauncher - even if you dislike it i don't know how you could disagree with my statement about blindly hating it let alone be offended and warn me.

[Lordmonkus]

It's not some official warning specifically at you. It's a general warning for the thread and anyone reading it, keep it on topic about the pros and cons.

No hyperbolic statements like this one from you "i see posts here and everywhere else saying rocketlauncher is compicated and they have never actually taken the time to try". Like I have said, I have tried and I have taken the time and it is a fact that it is complicated and I am a person who can figure a lot of complicated stuff out. I did figure out RocketLauncher and it is complicated, that is just a simple fact.

And again, no one is "blindly hating" Rocket Launcher, in fact no one in this thread even said "DON'T USE ROCKET LAUNCHER".